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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/16629-8.txt b/16629-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8f35d17 --- /dev/null +++ b/16629-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11768 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Furnace of Gold, by Philip Verrill Mighels + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Furnace of Gold + +Author: Philip Verrill Mighels + +Illustrator: J. N. Marchand + +Release Date: August 31, 2005 [EBook #16629] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FURNACE OF GOLD *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +The Furnace of Gold + +By + +PHILIP VERRILL MIGHELS + + + + +Author of + +THE PILLARS OF EDEN, BRUVVER JIM'S BABY, ETC + + + + + +Illustrations by + +J. N. MARCHAND + + + + + + +GROSSET & DUNLAP + +Publishers :: New York + + + + +Copyright, 1909, by + +P. V. Mighels + + +Copyright, 1910, by + +Desmond FitzGerald, Inc. + + + +_All Rights Reserved_ + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + + I. PRINCE OR BANDIT + II. INTO THE MOUNTAINS + III. A RESCUE + IV. CONGENIAL COMPANY + V. VAN'S PARTNERS + VI. THE BATTLE + VII. AN EXCHANGE OF QUESTIONS + VIII. A NIGHT'S EXPENSES + IX. PROGRESS AND SALT + X. THE LAUGHING WATER CLAIM + XI. ALGY STIRS UP TROUBLE + XII. BOSTWICK LOSES GROUND + XIII. A COMBINATION OF FORCES + XIV. MOVING A SHACK + XV. HATCHING A PLOT + XVI. INVOLVING BETH + XVII. UNEXPECTED COMPLICATIONS + XVIII. WHEREIN MATTERS THICKEN + XIX. VAN AND BETH AND BOSTWICK + XX. QUEENIE + XXI. IN THE SHADOW OF THE ROPE + XXII. TWO MEETINGS AFTER DARK + XXIII. BETH'S DESPERATION + XXIV. A BLIZZARD OF DUST + XXV. A TIMELY DELIVERANCE + XXVI. THE NIGHT IN THE DESERT + XXVII. TALL STORIES + XXVIII. WORK AND SONG + XXIX. SUSPICIOUS ANSWERS + XXX. BETH'S ONE EXPEDIENT + XXXI. McCOPPET BUSIES HIS MIND + XXXII. THE HARDSHIPS OF THE TRAIL + XXXIII. THE CLOUDS OF TROUBLE GATHER + XXXIV. THE TAKING OF THE CLAIM + XXXV. THE MEETINGS OF TWO STRONG MEN + XXXVI. VAN RUNS AMUCK + XXXVII. THE PRIMITIVE LAW + XXXVIII. BETH MAKES DEMANDS + XXXIX. ALGY'S COOKING AND BETH'S DESPAIR + XL. GLEN AND REVELATIONS + XLI. SUVY PROVES HIS LOVE + XLII. THE FURNACE OF GOLD + XLIII. PREPARING THE NET FOR A DRAW + XLIV. THE ENGINES OF CLIMAX + XLV. THE LAST CIGARS + XLVI. WASTED TIME + XLVII. A TRIBUTE TO THE DESERT + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +He Proceeded to Pan from a Dozen Different + Places in the Cove . . . . Frontispiece [missing from book] + +His Hold Was Giving Way + +The Angry Miner Lurching in Closer to Shoot [missing from book] + +"Don't You Want to Give This Man a Chance?" + +Beth Felt Her Heart Begin New Gymnastics [missing from book] + +No Corpse Snatched from Its Grave Could Have + Been More Helplessly Inert + +"Yesh, He's Broke the Law" + +Till the Mechanism Burst, He would Chase His + Man Across the Desert [missing from book] + + + + +THE FURNACE OF GOLD + + +CHAPTER I + +PRINCE OR BANDIT + +Now Nevada, though robed in gray and white--the gray of sagebrush and the +white of snowy summits--had never yet been accounted a nun when once +again the early summer aroused the passions of her being and the wild +peach burst into bloom. + +It was out in Nauwish valley, at the desert-edge, where gold has been +stored in the hungry-looking rock to lure man away from fairer pastures. +There were mountains everywhere--huge, rugged mountains, erected in the +igneous fury of world-making, long since calmed. Above them all the sky +was almost incredibly blue--an intense ultramarine of extraordinary +clearness and profundity. + +At the southwest limit of the valley was the one human habitation +established thereabout in many miles, a roadside station where a spring +of water issued from the earth. Towards this, on the narrow, side-hill +road, limped a dusty red automobile. + +It contained three passengers, two women and a man. Of the women, one +was a little German maid, rather pretty and demure, whose duty it was to +enact the chaperone. The other, Beth Kent, straight from New York City, +well--the wild peach was in bloom! + +She was amazingly beautiful and winning. It seemed as if she and not the +pink mountain blossoms must be responsible for all that haunting +redolence in this landscape of passionless gray. Her brown eyes burned +with glorious luminosity. Her color pulsed with health and the joyance +of existence. Her red lips quivered with unuttered ecstacies that surged +in the depths of her nature. Even the bright brown strands of her hair, +escaping the prison of her cap, were catching the sunlight and flinging +it off in the most engaging animation. She loved this new, unpeopled +land--the mountains, the sky, the vastness of it all! + +For a two-fold reason she had come from New York to Nevada. In the first +place her young half-brother, Glenville Kent--all the kin she had +remaining in the world--had been for a month at Goldite camp, where she +was heading, and all that he wrote had inflamed her unusual love of +adventure till she knew she must see it for herself. Moreover, he was +none too well. She had come to visit and surprise him. + +In the second place, her fiancé, Searle Bostwick, he who was now at the +wheel, had also been marooned, as it were, in this sagebrush land, by the +golden allurements of fortune. Beth had simply made up her mind to come, +and for two days past had been waiting, with her maid, at the pretty +little town of Freemont, on the railroad, for Searle to appear in his +modern ship of the desert and treat her to the one day's drive into +Goldite, whither he also was bound. + +The man now intent on the big machine and the sandy road was a noticeable +figure, despite the dust upon his raiment. He was a tall, well-modeled +man of thirty-five, with an air of distinction upon him, materially +heightened by his deep-set, piercing gray eyes, his firm, bluish jaw, and +the sprinkling of frost in his hair. + +He wore no moustache. His upper lip, somewhat over long, bore that same +bluish tint that a thick growth of beard, even when diligently shaved, +imparted to his face. He was, indeed, a handsome being, in a somewhat +stern, determined style. + +He was irritated now by the prospect of labor at the station. Even +should he find some willing male being whose assistance with the tire +might be invoked, the task would still involve himself rather +strenuously; and above all things he loathed rough usage of his hands. +For three more miles he cursed the mechanism, then he halted the car at +the station. + +A shack that served as lodging-house, saloon, and dining-room, a shack +for a stable, and a shack for a shed, together with a rough corral, +comprised the entire group of buildings at the place. Six or eight fine +cottonwoods and a number of twisted apple trees made the little place +decidedly inviting. Behind these, rising almost sheer from the level +yard, the mountains heaved upward grayly, their vast bulk broken, some +hundred yards away, by a yawning rock canyon, steep and forbidding. + +The station proprietor, who emerged from the door at sound of the halting +machine, was a small, lank individual, as brown as an Indian and as +wrinkled as a crocodile. The driver in the car addressed him shortly. + +"I wonder if you can help me put on a tire?" + +The lank little host regarded him quietly, then looked at the women and +drew his hand across his mouth. + +"Wal, I dunno," he answered. "I've set a tire and I've set a hen, but I +wouldn't like to tell ye what was hatched." + +The girl in the tonneau laughed in frank delight--a musical outburst that +flattered the station host tremendously. The man at the wheel was +already alighting. + +"You'll do," he said. "My name is Bostwick. I'm on my way to Goldite, +in a hurry. It won't take us long, but it wants two men on the job." + +He had a way of thrusting his disagreeable tasks upon his fellow beings +before they were prepared either to accept or refuse a proposition. He +succeeded here so promptly that the girl in the car made no effort to +restrain her amusement. She was radiantly smiling as she leaned above +the wheel where the two men were presently at work. + +In the midst of the toil a sound of whistling came upon the air. The +girl in the auto looked up, alertly. It was the Toreador's song from +Carmen that she heard, riotously rendered. A moment later the whistler +appeared--and an exclamation all but escaped the girl's red, parted lips. + +Mounted on a calico pony of strikingly irregular design, a horseman had +halted at the bend of a trail that led to the rear of the station. He +saw the girl and his whistling ceased. + +From his looks he might have been a bandit or a prince. He was a roughly +dressed, fearless-looking man of the hills, youthful, tall, and as +carelessly graceful in the saddle as a fish in its natural clement. + +The girl's brown eyes and his blue eyes met. She did not analyze the +perfect symmetry or balance of his features; she only knew his hair and +long moustache were tawny, that his face was bronzed, that his eyes were +bold, frank depths of good humor and fire. He was splendid to look +at--that she instantly conceded. And she looked at him steadily till a +warm flush rose to the pink of her ears, when her glance fell, abashed, +to the pistol that hung on his saddle, and so, by way of the hoofs of his +pinto steed, to the wheel, straight down where she was leaning. + +The station-keeper glanced up briefly. + +"Hullo, Van," was all he said. + +The horseman made no reply. He was still engaged in looking at the girl +when Bostwick half rose, with a tool in hand, and scowled at him silently. + +It was only a short exchange of glances that passed between the pair, +nevertheless something akin to a challenge played in the momentary +conflict, as if these men, hurled across the width of a continent to +meet, had been molded by Fate for some antagonistic clash, the essence of +which they felt thus soon with an utter strangeness between them. + +Bostwick bent promptly to his labors with the tire. The girl in the +tonneau stepped past her maid and opened the door on the further side of +the car. Bostwick stood up at once. + +"I wouldn't get out, Beth--I wouldn't get out," he said, a little +impatiently. "We'll be ready to go in five minutes." + +Nevertheless she alighted. + +"Don't hurry on my account," she answered. "The day is getting warm." + +The eyes of both Bostwick and the horseman followed her graceful figure +as she passed the front of the car and proceeded towards the orchard. +Above the medium height and superbly modeled, she appeared more beautiful +now than before. She had not descended for a change of position, or even +to inspect the place. As a matter of fact she was hoping to secure a +profile view of the bold-looking horseman on the pony. Her opportunity +soon arrived. He spoke to the station proprietor. + +"Want to see you for a moment, Dave," and he rode a little off to a tree. + +Dave ceased helping on the tire with marked alacrity and went to the +horseman at once. The two engaged in an earnest conversation, somewhat +of which obviously concerned the auto and its passengers, since the lank +little host made several ill-concealed gestures in the car's direction +and once turned to look at the girl. + +She had halted by the orchard fence from which, as a post of vantage, she +was apparently looking over all the place. Her brown eyes, however, +swung repeatedly around to the calico pony and its rider. + +Yes, she agreed, the horseman was equal to the scene. He fitted it all, +mountains, sky, the sense of wildness and freedom in the air. What was +he, then? Undoubtedly a native--perhaps part Indian--perhaps---- + +There was something sinister, she was certain, in the glance he cast +towards the car. He was armed. Could it be that he and the station man +were road-agents, plotting some act of violence? They were certainly +talking about the machine, or its owner, with exceptional earnestness of +purpose. + +Bostwick had finished with the tire. + +"Come along, Beth, come along!" he called abruptly. + +No sooner had she turned to walk to the car than the horseman rode up in +her path. Her heart sank suddenly with misgivings. She halted as the +unknown visitor addressed himself to Bostwick. + +"May I speak to you a moment privately?" + +Bostwick bristled with suspicions at once. + +"I have nothing of a private nature to discuss with you," he answered. +"If you have anything to say to me, please say it and be prompt." + +The horseman changed color, but lost no whit of the native courtesy that +seemed a part of his being. + +"It isn't particularly private," he answered quietly. "I only wished to +say I wouldn't rush off to Goldite this morning. I'd advise you to stay +here and rest." + +Bostwick, already irritated by delay, and impervious to any thought of a +possible service in the horseman's attitude, grew more impatient and far +more irritating. + +"I haven't desired your advice," he answered sharply. "Be good enough to +keep it to yourself." He advanced to the station owner, held out a bill, +and added: "Here you are, my man, for your trouble." + +"Heck!" said the lank little host. "I don't want your money." + +Across the horseman's handsome visage passed a look that, to the girl, +boded anything but peace. Bostwick's manner was an almost intolerable +affront, in a land where affronts are resented. However, the stranger +answered quietly, despite the fact that Bostwick nettled him to an +extraordinary degree. + +"I agree that the sooner _you_ vamoose, the prompter the improvement in +the landscape. But you're not going off to Goldite with these ladies in +the car." + +Matters might still have culminated differently had Bostwick even asked a +civil "Why?" for Van was a generous and easy-going being. + +Beth, in the road, felt her heart beat violently, with vague excitement +and alarm. Bostwick glared, in sudden apprehension as to what the +horseman had in mind. + +"Is this a hold-up?" he demanded. "What do you mean?" + +The rider dismounted, in a quick, active manner, and opened the door of +the tonneau. + +"You wouldn't have thanked me for advice," he replied; "you would hardly +thank me more for information." He added to the maid in the car: + +"Please alight, your friend is impatient to be starting." He nodded +towards the owner of the auto. + +The maid came down, demurely, casting but a glance at the tall, +commanding figure by the wheel. He promptly lifted out a suitcase and +three decidedly feminine-looking bags. + +Bostwick by now was furious. + +"It's an outrage!" he cried, "a dastardly outrage! You can see I am +wholly unarmed! Do you mean to restrain these ladies here by force?" + +The horseman slipped his arm through the reins of his pony's bridle, +surveying Bostwick calmly. + +"Do you mean to desert them if I do? I have not yet ordered you to +leave." + +"Ordered me to leave!" echoed the car owner fiercely. "I can neither be +ordered to leave nor to stay! But I shall go--do you hear?--I shall +go--and the ladies with me! If you mean to rob us, do so at once and +have it over! My time is precious, if yours is not!" + +Van smiled. "I might be tempted to rob a gentleman," he said, "but to +deprive your passengers of your company would be a charity. Pray waste +no more of your precious time if that is your only concern." + +Beth had regained a shadow of her former composure. Her courage had +never been absent. She was less alarmed than before and decidedly +curious as to what this encounter might signify. She dared address the +horseman. + +"But--but surely--you seem---- You must have some excellent reason +for--for acting so peculiarly." + +He could not repress the brightness in his eyes as he met her +half-appealing gaze. + +"Reason, advice, and information would apparently be alike unwelcome to +your chauffeur," he answered, doffing his hat. "He is eager to hasten on +his way, therefore by all means let us bid him begone." + +Bostwick grew rapidly wilder at each intimation of his social standing--a +friend of the maid, and Beth's chauffeur! His impatience to proceed with +all possible haste to Goldite was consuming. He had not intended that +anything under the sun should delay him another single hour--not even +Beth, should occasion arise to detain her. Even now he was far more +concerned about himself and the business of his mission than he was for +the women in his charge. He was much afraid, however, of the horseman's +visible gun. He was not at all a person of courage, and the man before +him presented such an unknown quantity that he found himself more or less +helpless. At most he could merely attempt a bluff. + +"You'll pay for this!" he cried somewhat shrilly, his face a black mask +of anger. "I'll give you just half a minute to release these ladies and +permit them to go with me in peace! If you refuse----" + +The horseman interrupted. + +"I said before you had not been ordered on your way, but now I've changed +my mind. Don't talk any more--get into your car and hike!" + +The gleam in his eye achieved two results: It cowed the last vestige of +bravado in Bostwick's composition and ignited all the hatred of his +nature. He hesitated for a moment, his lips parting sidewise as if for a +speech of defiance which his moral courage refused to indorse. Then, not +daring to refuse the horseman's command, he climbed aboard the car, the +motor of which had never ceased its purring. + +"You'll pay for this!" he repeated. + +The girl, now pale again and tremendously disturbed, was regarding +Bostwick with a new, cold light in her eyes--a light that verged upon +contempt. She had never seen this lack of courageous spirit in the man +before. + +"But, Searle! You're not going--you're not really going, like this?" + +It was the horseman who replied. + +"You see, his time is precious. Also in his present state of mind he is +certainly unfit company for--well, for Dave, here, a man who loves the +pure white dove of peace." The station owner grinned. Van turned once +more to the car owner, adding, placidly: "There, there, driver----" + +Bostwick broke in vehemently. + +"I refuse to abandon these ladies! Your conduct is not only that of a +coward, it is----" + +Van looked him over in mock astonishment. + +"Say, Searle," he said, "don't you savvy you've lost your vote in this +convention? I told you to do these ladies the kindness to sweeten the +atmosphere with your absence. Now you hit the trail--and hit it quick!" + +Bostwick looked helplessly at the girl. + +"I am entirely unarmed," he said as before, though she knew there was a +pistol in the car. "This ruffian----" + +The horseman cut him short. + +"So long, Searle. I trust you'll meet congenial company on the road, but +I advise you even now to return the way you came." + +Bostwick glared at him vindictively, but impotently. His jaw was set and +hard. A cold fire glittered in his eyes. How selfishly eager he was to +be started on his way not even the girl could have known. Moreover, some +sort of plan for the horseman's speedy punishment had taken possession of +his mind. + +"Have courage, Beth," he said to the girl. "Have courage." + +He speeded up his motor, dropped in his clutch, and the car slowly +started on its way. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +INTO THE MOUNTAINS + +Beth stood perfectly still beside the road, watching the auto round the +hill where it presently disappeared from view. The station owner +picked up a sliver of wood and began to whittle industriously. The +horseman remained with his bridle reins in hand, amusedly looking at +his captive. The maid sat down upon the suitcase, dropped her skirt in +a modest little manner, and cast her gaze upon the ground. + +Beth was the first to speak. + +"Well, Elsa, I hope you are comfortable." + +"Yes, Miss, thank you," said the maid. + +Thereupon Miss Kent turned to the horseman and laughed. Someway she +could not feel alarmed, in the presence of this man of the hills, in +whose eyes merry devils were dancing. + +"Isn't this absurd?" she said. + +"Searle must have been born absurd," replied the horseman, once more +removing his hat. He waved it towards the station host imperiously. +"Dave, present me to the lady." And as Dave floundered, hopelessly +puzzled, he added: "Give me a knock-down, man, don't you savvy?" + +Dave dropped his sliver, snatched off his hat, and rid himself of a +quid of something strong--all in one convulsion of activity. + +"'Scuse me," he apologized, approaching nearer. "Miss--Miss--Miss +Laffin' Water, this is Van. His whole name's----" + +"That's enough," Van interrupted. "I'm gratified to meet you, +Señorita, I'm sure." + +He extended his hand. Beth knew not what to do, wherefore she gave him +her own. + +"How do you do, Mr. Van?" she answered tremulously, and she drew her +fingers back again at once. "If you don't mind," she added, "we really +must continue on to Goldite as soon as possible." A fleeting look of +doubt and alarm had swept all the mirth from her eyes. After all, even +with this "introduction" what were these men's intentions? It was a +grave affair to be halted thus--to be practically abducted--to be left +with no protection, in the hands of roadside strangers, one, at least, +of whom was certainly inclined to be lawless and outrageously bold. + +The horseman regarded her seriously, as if with a certain divination of +her worry. Someway, from the look in his eyes her confidence returned, +she knew not why. + +"Do you ride?" he asked her, "--you and your maid?" + +"Why, yes--that is----" she addressed the maid on the suitcase. "Elsa, +can you ride--on a horse?" + +Elsa said: "Yes, Miss, if it is part of my duty." + +Beth's composure increased. After all, it was a glorious day, the +horseman was handsome, and she had wished for a little adventure--but +not too much! + +"What does it mean?" she asked of Van more boldly. "We were perfectly +comfortable, riding in the car. If you really intend to permit us to +go, why couldn't we have gone on as we were?" + +Dave started to answer. + +"You see, Miss----" + +Van cut in abruptly. + +"Never mind, Dave; this isn't your pie." To Beth he added: "If you've +brought any particularly appropriate garments for riding, suppose you +retire for preparations. Dave will tote the bags inside the house." + +"You bet I will!" said Dave, who, as Elsa rose, took suitcase and all +in one load. + +Beth hesitated. The horseman had started already for the stable at the +rear. How superbly straight was his figure! What a confident, +impudent grace beset him as he moved! How could it be possible for +such a man to be other than a gentleman--no matter where he was found? +Some strange little thrill of excitement and love of adventure stirred +in the girl's full veins. Resistance was useless. Come what might, +she was helpless in the hands of this man--and he seemed a person to be +trusted. + +"Come, Elsa," she said, bravely deciding to face whatsoever might +arise. "You may wear the second of my skirts." + +Fifteen minutes later, therefore, she and her maid emerged from the +shack attired in brown cloth, and kahki, respectively, her own skirt +long and graceful, while Elsa's was shorter and divided. Aside or +cross-saddle Beth was equally at home upon a horse--or always had been, +in the parks. + +Van and Dave now returned, leading two extra ponies from the stable. +One was a bay, accoutered with a man's deep Mexican saddle, whereon was +secured a coiled lasso; the other was a wiry little roan mare, with a +somewhat decrepit but otherwise sound side-saddle tightly cinched upon +her back. + +"Our stable chamberlain has slipped a cog on the outfits for ladies +recently," said Van apologetically, "but I reckon these will have to +do." + +Beth looked the two mounts over uncritically. They seemed to be +equally matched, as to general characteristics, since neither appeared +either strong or plump. She said: + +"Shall we ride very far?" + +"No, just a pleasant little jog," replied the horseman. "They call it +forty miles to Goldite by the ridge, but it isn't an inch over thirty." + +Thirty miles!--over the mountains!--with an unknown man and her maid! +Beth suppressed a gasp of despair and astonishment, not to mention +trepidation, by making an effort that verged upon the heroic. + +"But we--we can never arrive in Goldite tonight!" she said. "We can't +expect to, can we?" + +"It takes more than that to kill these bronchos," Van cheerfully +assured her. "I can only guarantee that the horses will make it--by +sunset." + +Beth flushed. He evidently entertained a very poor notion of her +horsemanship. Her pride was aroused. She would show him something--at +least that no horse could make this journey without her! + +"Thank you," she said, and advancing to the roan she addressed herself +to Dave. "Will you please help me up. Mr. Van may assist my maid." + +Dave grinned and performed his offices as best he could, which was +strongly, if not with grace. Van shook a threatening fist, behind his +captive's back. He had meant to take this honor to himself. + +Fairly tossing the greatly delighted little Elsa to the seat on the +bay, he mounted his own sturdy animal and immediately started for the +canyon below, leaving Beth and her maid to trail behind. + +The girl's heart all but failed her. Whither were they going?--and +towards what Fate? What could be the outcome of a journey like this, +undertaken so blindly, with no chance for resistance? The horseman had +stubbornly refused a reply to her question; he was calmly riding off +before them now with the utmost indifference to her comfort. There was +nothing to do but to follow, and resign herself to--the Lord alone knew +what. The little roan mare, indeed, required no urging; she was +tugging at the bit to be off. With one last look of helplessness at +the station and Dave--who someway bore the hint of a fatherly air upon +him--she charged her nerves with all possible resolution and rode on +after her leader. + +Elsa permitted her broncho to trudge at the tail of the column. She +dared to cast one shy, disconcerting little glance at Dave--and he +suddenly felt he would burst into flame and consume himself utterly to +ashes. + +The great canyon yawned prodigiously where its rock gates stood open to +grant the party admission to the sanctum of the hills. Sheer granite +walls, austere and frowning, rose in sculptured immensity on either +side, but the trail under foot was scored between some scattered +wild-peach shrubs, interspersed with occasional bright-green clumps of +manzanita. The air was redolent of warmth and fragrance that might +with fitness have advertised the presence in the hills of some +glorified goddess of love--some lofty, invisible goddess, guarded by +her mountain snows, yet still too languorous and voluptuous to pass +without at least trailing on the summery air the breath that exhaled +from her being. It was all a delight, despite vague alarms, and the +promise ahead was inviting. + +Van continued straight onward, with never so much as a turn of his +head, to the horses in the rear. He seemed to have quite forgotten the +two half-frightened women in his wake. Beth had ample opportunity for +observing again the look of strength and grace upon him. However, she +found her attention very much divided between tumultuous joyance in the +mountain grandeur, bathed in the marvelously life-exciting air, and +concern for the outcome of the day. If a faint suggestion of pique at +the manner in which the horseman ignored her presence crept +subconsciously into all her meditations, she did not confess it to +herself. + +Elsa's horrid little habit of accepting anything and everything with +the most irresponsible complacency rendered the situation aggravating. +It was so utterly impossible to discuss with such a being even such of +the morning's developments as the relationship of mistress and maid +might otherwise have permitted. + +A mile beyond the mouth of the canyon the slight ascent was ended, the +chasm widened, rough slopes succeeded the granite walls, and a charming +little valley, emerald green and dotted with groups of quaking aspen +trees, stretched far towards the wooded mountain barriers, looming +hugely ahead. It was like a dainty lake of grass, abundantly supplied +with little islands. + +The sheer enchantment of it, bathed as it was in sun-gold, and +sheltered by prodigious, snow-capped summits, so intensely white +against the intensity of azure, aroused some mad new ecstacy in all +Beth's being. She could almost have done something wild--she knew not +what; and all the alarm subsided from her thoughts. As if in answer to +her tumult of joy, Van spurred his pinto to a gallop. Instantly +responding to her lift of the reins, Beth's roan went romping easily +forward. The bay at the rear, with Elsa, followed rhythmically, +pounding out a measure on the turf. + +A comparatively short session of this more rapid locomotion sufficed +for the transit of the cove--that is, of the wide-open portion. The +trail then dived out of sight in a copse where pine trees were +neighbors of the aspens. Van disappeared, though hardly more than +fifty feet ahead. Through low-hanging boughs, that she needs must push +aside, Beth followed blindly, now decidedly piqued by the wholly +ungallant indifference to her fate of the horseman leading the way. + +She caught but a glimpse of him, now and again, in the density of the +growth. How strange it was to be following thus, meekly, helplessly, +perforce with some sort of confidence, in the charge of this unknown +mountain man, to--whatsoever he might elect! The utterly absurd part +of it all was that it was pleasant! + +At length they emerged from the shady halls of trees, to find +themselves confronted by the wall of mountains. Already Van was riding +up the slope, where larger pines, tall thickets of green chincopin, and +ledges of rock compelled the trail to many devious windings. Once more +the horseman was whistling his Toreador refrain. He did not look back +at his charges. That he was watching them both, from the tail of his +eye, was a fact that Beth felt--and resented. + +The steepness of the trail increased. At times the meager pathway +disappeared entirely. It lay upon rocks that gave no sign of the hoofs +that had previously rung metallic clinks upon the granite. How the man +in the lead discerned it here was a matter Beth could not comprehend. +Some half-confessed meed of admiration, already astir in her nature for +the horseman and his way, increased as he breasted the ascent. How +thoroughly at home--how much a part of it all he appeared, as he rode +upon his pony! + +Two hours of steady climbing, with her mare oblique beneath her weight, +and Beth felt an awe in her being. It was wonderful; it was almost +terrible, the fathomless silence, the altitudes, this heretofore +unexperienced intimacy with the mountains' very nakedness! It was +strange altogether, and impressive, the vast unfolding of the world +below, the frequency with which the pathway skirted some dark +precipice--and the apparent unconcern of the man ahead, now so +absolutely master. And still that soul-inviting exhilaration of the +air aroused those ecstacies within her spirit that she had not known +were there. + +They were nearing the summit of the pass. It was still a thousand feet +below the snow. To the left a mighty chasm trenched the adamant, its +bottom lowered away to depths of mysterious blue. Its side, above +which the three stout ponies picked their way, was a jagged set of +terraces, over the brink of which the descents were perpendicular. + +Rising as if to bar the way, the crowning terrace apparently ended the +trail against all further advance. Here Van finally halted, +dismounted, and waited for the advent of his charges. + +Beth rode up uncertainly, her brown eyes closely scrutinizing his face. +It appeared as if they had come to the end of everything--the place for +leaping off into downward space. + +"Let me see if the cinches are tight," said the horseman quietly, and +he looked to the girth of her saddle. + +It was found to be in a satisfactory condition. The girth on the bay +he tightened, carelessly pushing Elsa's foot and the stirrup aside for +the purpose. + +His own horse now showed unmistakable signs of weariness. He had +traveled some twenty odd miles to arrive at Dave's before undertaking +this present bit of hardship. Since then Van had pushed him to the +limit of his strength and speed, in the effort to reach Goldite with +the smallest possible delay. + +If a sober expression of sympathy came for a second in the horseman's +steady eyes, as he glanced where his pony was standing, it quickly gave +way to something more inscrutable as he looked up at Beth, in advancing +once more to the fore. + +"Both of you give them the reins," he instructed quietly. "Just drop +them down. Let the bronchos pick the trail." He paused, then added, +as if on second thought, "Shut your eyes if you find you're getting +dizzy--don't look down." + +Beth turned slightly pale, in anticipation of some ordeal, undoubtedly +imminent, but the light in her eyes was one of splendid courage. She +might feel they were all at the gate of something awful, but her nature +rose to meet it. She said nothing; she simply obeyed directions and +looked with new emotions on the somewhat drooping mare to whom her own +safety was entrusted. + +Van was once more in his saddle. He started, and the ponies behind +resumed their faithful plodding at his heels. + +A few rods ahead they encountered a change, and Beth could scarcely +repress a gasp of surprise and apprehension. The trail was laid upon +the merest granite shelf, above that terrible chasm. She was +terrified, frankly. The man and pony in the lead were cut with +startling sharpness against the gray of the rock--the calico coloring, +the muscular intensity, the bending of the man to every motion--as they +balanced with terrifying slenderness above the pit of death. + +For a moment the girl thought nothing of herself and of how she too +must pass that awful brink, for all her concern was focused on the man. +Then she realized what she must do--was doing--as her roan mare +followed on. She was almost upon it herself! + +Her hand flew down to the reins to halt the pony, involuntarily. A +wild thought of turning and fleeing away from this shelf of destruction +launched itself upon her mind. It was folly--a thing impossible. +There was nothing to do but go on. Shutting her eyes and holding her +breath she felt the mare beneath her tremulously moving forward, +smelling out the places of security whereon to rest her weight. + +Elsa, sublimely unresponsive, alike to the grandeur or the danger of +the place, rode as placidly here as in the valley. + +They passed the first of the shelf-like brinks, traversed a safer +contour of the wall, and were presently isolated upon the second bridge +of granite, which was also the last, much longer than the first, but +perhaps not so narrow or winding. + +Van had perspired in nervous tension, as the two women rode above the +chasm. Men had gone down here to oblivion. He was easier now, more +careless of himself and horse, less alert for a looseness in the +granite mass, as he turned in his saddle to look backward. + +Suddenly, with a horrible sensation in his vitals, he felt his pony +crumpling beneath him, even as he heard Beth sound a cry. + +A second later he was going, helplessly, with the air-rush in his ears +and the pony's quiver shivering up his spine. All bottomless space +seemed to open where they dropped. He kicked loose the stirrups, even +as the pony struck upon the first narrow terrace, ten feet down, and +felt the helpless animal turned hoofs and belly upward by the blow. + +He had thrust himself free--apart from the horse--but could not cling +to the rotten ledge for more than half a second. Then down once more +he was falling, as before, only a heart-beat later than the pinto. + +Out of the lip of the next shelf below the pony's weight tore a jagged +fragment. The animal's neck was broken, and he and the stone-mass +plunged on downward together. + +Van half way fell through a stubborn bush--that clung with the +mysterious persistency of life to a handful of soil in a crevice--and +his strong hands closed upon its branches. + +He was halted with a jolt. The pony hurtled loosely, grotesquely down +the abyss, bounding from impacts with the terraces, and was presently +lost to mortal sight in the dust and debris he carried below for a +shroud. Sounds of his striking--dull, leaden sounds, tremendous in the +all-pervading silence--came clearly up to the top. Then Van found his +feet could be rested on the shelf, and he let himself relax to ease his +arms. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A RESCUE + +Beth had uttered that one cry only, as man and horse careened above the +pit. She now sat dumbly staring where the two had disappeared. +Nothing could she see of Van or his pony. A chill of horror attacked +her, there in the blaze of the sun. It was not, even then, so much of +herself and Elsa she was thinking--two helpless women, lost in this +place of terrible silence; she was smitten by the fate of their guide. + +Van, for his part, looked about as best he might, observing his +situation comprehensively. He was safe for the moment. The ledge +whereon he was bearing a portion of his weight was narrow and crumbling +with old disintegration. The shrub to which he clung was as tough as +wire cable, and had once been stoutly rooted in the crevice. Now, +however, its hold had been weakened by the heavy strain upon it, and +yet he must continue to trust a part of his weight to its branches. +There was nothing, positively nothing, by which he could hope to climb +to the trail up above. + +He deliberately rested and fostered his breath, not a trifle of which +had been jolted in violence from his body. Presently he raised his +voice and called out, as cheerfully as possible: + +"Ship ahoy! Hullo--Miss Laughing Water!" + +For a moment there was no response. Beth was to utterly overcome to +speak. She hardly dared believe it was his call she heard, issuing up +from the tomb. She feared that her hope, her frantic imagination, her +wish to have it so, had conjured up a voice that had no genuine +existence. Her lips moved, but made no audible sound. She trembled +violently. Van called again, with more of his natural power. + +"Hullo! Hullo! Miss Beth--are you up there on the trail?" + +"Oh, yes! Oh! what shall I do?" cried Beth in a sudden outburst of +relief and pent-up emotions. "Tell me what to do!" + +Van knew she was rather near at hand. The bridge and trail were +certainly no more than twenty-five feet above his head. He could make +her hear with little effort. + +"Brace up and keep your nerve," he instructed. "We're O.K. up to date. +Just ride ahead till you come to the flat. Let Elsa hold your mare. +Can you hear me plainly?" + +"Oh! yes--yes--then what next?" replied the worried girl. + +Van resumed calmly: "You'll find a rawhide rope on Elsa's saddle. Come +back with that, on foot. Then I'll tell you what to do. Don't try to +hurry; take your time, and don't worry." After a moment, as he got no +reply, he added: "Have you started?" + +Beth had not budged her mare, for terror of what she must do. She was +fortifying all her resolution. She answered with genuine bravery: + +"Yes--I--I'll do what you say." + +She took up the reins. Her pale face was set, but she did not close +her eyes to cross the dizzying brink. The mare went forward--and +Elsa's bay resumed his patient tagging, up to and past the fateful +place where a part of the shelf-edge, having been dislodged, had let +Van's pony fall. + +For ten age-long minutes Van waited on his ledge, feeling the +treacherous, rotted stuff break silently away beneath his feet. The +shrub, too, was showing an earthy bit of root as it slowly but +certainly relinquished its hold on the substance which the crevice had +divided. The man could almost have calculated how many seconds the +shelf and the shrub could sustain their living burden. + +Then Beth returned. She had left her maid with the horses; she held +the lasso in her hand. To creep on foot along the granite bridge was +taxing the utmost of her courage. She could not ascertain precisely +where it was that the horseman was waiting below. She was guided only +by the broken ledge, where pony and all had disappeared. Therefore, +she called to him weakly. + +"Mr. Van--Mr. Van--where are you?" + +Van's heart turned over in his breast. + +"Just below that split boulder in the trail," he answered cheerily. +"Go to that." + +A silence succeeded, then he heard, in tremulous accents: + +"I'm here--but how am I going to tie the rope?" + +Van answered distinctly, for much depended on precision. + +"Uncoil it first. On one end there's an eye that runs the loop. Open +the loop to a pretty good size and slip it over the smaller portion of +the boulder. Then push it well down in the crevice, and pull it tight." + +He knew that the rope was far too short to loop the larger rock and +reach his hands. He waited while he thought she might be working--as +indeed she was--and presently added: "Got that done?" + +"Yes," she called. "Yes--but are you sure----" + +His hold was giving way. He answered crisply: + +"Now drop me the end. Don't wait!" + +[Illustration: His hold was giving way.] + +Beth had forgotten all danger to herself. She had ceased to tremble. +She paid out the rope with commendable promptness. + +"Does it reach?" she cried. "Can you get it?" + +He could not. Though sufficiently long it was ten feet away, on his +right. His seconds were growing fearfully precious. + +"Just shift it over, more towards Elsa," he called, still calmly. +"Move it about ten feet." + +It began to approach him jerkily. It halted, then once more it moved. +The shrub in his grasp gave out an inch, and was coming from its +anchorage. Then his fist was closed on the rope. + +"All right!" he called. "Let go--and stand aside!" + +"But--oh, if the rock shouldn't hold!" cried the girl. "Are you sure +it won't pull over?" + +He was not at all certain of the boulder. This explained his +directions, "stand aside!" If it came--it must not involve the girl. +There was nothing for him but to trust to its weight against his own. +He was strong. He began to come up, bracing a foot against the +crumbling wall, winding the rope around one of his legs--or his leg +around the rope, and resting whensoever he could. + +Beth stood there, nearly as tense as the rope. Her brown eyes were +fixed on the bedded boulder; her face was more gray than its bulk. + +At the edge, where the lasso impinged upon the granite, small particles +were breaking and falling ominously. Scarcely daring to breathe, as +she felt how the man was toiling up from the maw of the chasm, Beth +could not bear to look where he must come--if come he ever should. + +It seemed an eternity of waiting. At last, when new misgivings had +seized upon her heart, she heard his labored breathing. Even then she +did not turn. She feared to watch his efforts; she feared to break the +spell. A minute later she heard his even voice. + +"It's a wonderful view--from down below." + +The glad, eager light in her eyes, which his eyes met from the brink, +put strength in both his arms. He came up to safety in an outburst of +vigor that was nothing short of magnificent. + +"Oh!" said the girl, and she leaned against the wall in a sudden need +for support. + +"I really had no intention of--deserting like that," panted Van, with a +smile that was just a trifle forced. "But it's so much easier to--drop +into a habit than it--ever is to get out." + +She made no reply, but remained where she was, weakly leaning against +the wall and slowly regaining the strength she had lost at the moment +of beholding him safe. She was not the fainting kind, but she was +human--womanly human. + +Van began immediately to release and re-coil the rope. + +"Too bad to throw away a pony like that," he resumed regretfully. "I +always intended, if he died a Christian death, to have his hide tanned +for a rug." + +He was saying anything, no matter what, to dissipate the reactionary +collapse into which he feared the girl was falling. + +"Now then," he added, when the rope was well in hand, "we've wasted all +the time we can spare on a second-rate vaudeville performance. Come +along." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +CONGENIAL COMPANY + +He started ahead as he had before, with that show of utter unconcern +towards the girl that was absolutely new to her experience. Her eyes +were wide with appeal as she watched him striding up the trail. For +herself she wanted nothing; but her womanly nature craved some trifling +sign, some word of assurance that the man was uninjured--really safe +again and whole--after that terrible plunge. But this from the +horseman was impossible. He had not even thanked her for the rescue. + +"You horrid, handsome wretch!" she murmured vexedly, stimulated to +renewed activity by her resentment; then she followed along the narrow +way. + +They came to the flat, beyond the wall, where Elsa sat keeping the +horses. The maid looked the horseman over quite calmly, inquiring: + +"What for dit you did it--go down there?" + +"Just for ducks," said Van. He halted for Beth's approach, put her up +on the roan, and once more strode off in the trail ahead with a +promptness that was certainly amazing. + +There was no understanding such a person. Beth gave it up. The whole +affair was inexplicable--his attitude towards Searle at the station, +his abduction of herself and the maid, and this trailing of the pair of +them across these terrible places, for no apparent reason in the world. + +Her mare followed on in the tracks of the muscular figure, over whom, +for a moment, she had almost wished to yearn. His escape from death +had been so slender--and he would not even rest! + +The flat was, in reality, the hog's back or ridge of a lofty spur of +the mountains. Except for the vast bluish canyons and gorges far +below, the view was somewhat restricted here, since towering summits, +in a conclave of peaks, arose to right and left. + +After a time, as they swung around on the trend of the ridge, they came +abreast a mighty gap in the mountains to the left, and there, far down, +lay a valley as flattened by perspective as the unruffled surface of a +lake. + +Here Van presently halted, peering down and searching the vast gray +floor with the keenest attention. He went on further, and halted +again, Beth meanwhile watching his face with increasing curiosity. + +At the third of his stops she gazed no more on the panorama of +immensity, but rather gazed at him. + +"What is it you expect to see?" she inquired at last. "Goldite isn't +down there, is it?" + +"I'm rather expecting--if I haven't miscalculated on the time---- +There he is now," he answered, still staring afar off down upon the +valley. He raised his arm and extended a finger to point towards the +north-most limit of the level stretch of land. "Do you see that small, +dark object in the road? That's a road, that slender yellow streak +that you can follow." + +Beth obeyed directions and thereby discerned, with remarkable +clearness, the moving object, far away below. She did not in the least +suspect its nature. + +"Why, yes--what is it?" she asked with languid interest, having +expected something more significant. "Is it some small animal?" + +"Yes," responded Van. "It's Searle." + +Beth was instantly all attention. + +"Not Mr. Bostwick, in his car?" + +Van continued to study the gray of the world-wide map. + +"I rather wonder----" he mused, and there he halted, presently adding, +"He's climbing a hill. You might not think so, looking down from here, +but it's steep and sandy, for a car." + +She was watching eagerly. + +"And he's no further along towards Goldite than this?" + +"He's had some tough old going," answered Van. "He's in luck to----" +then to himself, as he continued to scan the scene for something he did +not apparently find. "By Jupe! I'd have sworn Matt Barger----" He +broke off abruptly, adding in a spirit of fairness, "Searle is getting +right up to the ridge all right. Good boy! He must have a powerful +motor under the--There! By George! I knew it! I knew it! Got him! +right there in the gravel!" + +The girl looked suddenly upon him, wholly unable to comprehend the +sharp exclamations he was making. + +"What has got him? What do you mean?" she demanded in vague alarm. "I +don't see what you----" + +"That's Matt every time--I thought so," he resumed, as he stepped a +little closer to the girl. "Don't you see them?--those lively little +specks, swarming all around the machine?" + +Beth bent her gaze on the drama, far below--a play in which she knew +but one of the characters, and nothing of the meaning of the scene. + +"I see--yes--something like a lot of tiny ants--or something. What are +they?--not robbers?--not men?" + +"Part men, part hyenas," he told her quietly. "It's a lot of State +convicts, escaped from their prison, two days free--and desperate." + +She was suddenly very pale. Her eyes were blazing. + +"Convicts! Out of prison?" + +"A good long way out," he told her watching, "and clever enough to hike +for the mines, with the camps all full of strangers. They learn to be +good mixers, when they're trying to escape." + +Beth gazed at him searchingly. + +"You--knew they were out--and waiting on the road?" + +"Everyone knew they were out--and I certainly thought big Matt would do +precisely what you see he has done." + +"Matt?" she echoed. + +"The leader," he explained, "a clever brute as ever worried a sheriff." + +She was not in the least interested in the personality of the convict +thus described. Her mind had flown to another aspect of the case--the +case involving herself. + +"And this was why you wouldn't let us go in the auto?" she said. "You +expected this?" + +He looked at her quickly. + +"Searle wouldn't take my advice, you know." His eyes were once more +merry. "What could I do?" + +"But Mr. Bostwick wouldn't have gone if you had told him!" she said. +"Oh, I'm surprised you'd do it--let him go and be captured like that!" +She was looking down upon the silent drama intently as she added: "I +don't see why you ever did it!" + +He was still amused. + +"Oh, I thought perhaps Searle deserved it." + +She blazed a little. + +"You told him you hoped he'd meet congenial company on the road. You +didn't mean----" + +"Guilty as charged in the indictment. I guess I did." + +"Oh! I wouldn't have thought----" she started, then she shivered in +horror, reflecting swiftly on the fate that might have befallen herself +and Elsa had they too been captured with Searle. It was all explained +at last--the horseman's earnest talk with Dave, his quiet but grim +refusal to permit herself and Elsa to remain with the car, and the +hazardous ride he had since dared compel them to take at such peril to +his life! And now, his persistent advance on foot, when perhaps he was +painfully injured! He had done then such a service as she could never +in her life forget. His treatment of Searle had perhaps, even as he +said, been deserved. Nevertheless, Searle was much to her, very much, +indeed--or had been--up to this morning--and she was worried. + +"What do you think they will do?" she added in a spirit of contrition +that came at once upon her. "They must be terrible men!" + +"They won't do much but take his money and clothes, and maybe beg for a +ride," said Van reassuringly. "They'll see he isn't fit to kill." + +Beth glanced at him briefly, inquiringly. What a baffling light it was +that played in the depths of his eyes! What manner of being was he, +after all? She could not tell. And yet she felt she could trust +him--she certainly knew not why. Despite his ways of raillery she felt +he was serious, true as steel, and big in heart and nature. + +"I mustn't forget to thank you," she murmured. "I mean for sparing +us--all that. I do thank you, most sincerely, for----" + +"Never mind that," he interrupted. "We're going to be late to lunch." + +He turned once more to the trail and started off, in his active manner, +together with a thorough indifference as to what became of Bostwick. + +Beth, with a feeling that something ought yet to be done for Searle, +down in the valley with the convicts, cast one helpless glance at the +scene of the hold-up, then perforce urged her pony forward. + +Van halted no more. He led the way doggedly onward, over the rises, +through great silent forests, past crystal springs, and down dark, +somber ravines. At a quarter of one he emerged from a gorge upon the +level acre of a tiny cove, still high in the mountains fastnesses. +Here he let out a whoop like an Indian, its echo filling all the place. + +An answering call came clearly from somewhere near at hand. Beth felt +a sudden alarm to know there were human beings near. What sort they +were was a matter entirely of conjecture. Then presently she +discovered a number of small, rude buildings, and a fair-sized cabin, +planted next the hill. The door of the latter was open. A tall man +appeared in the frame. + +"This," said Van, who had waited for the girl to ride once more to his +side, "is the Monte Cristo mine--the worst false alarm that ever +disfigured the map." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +VAN'S PARTNERS + +The Monte Cristo mining property comprised a tunnel in the hill, a +glory hole, a little toy quartz-mill--five stamps strong--the +bunk-house, kitchen, blacksmith-shop, stable, corral, and four human +beings. These latter were a Chinese cook named Algy, a Piute Indian +half-breed called Cayuse, and two rare souls--Napoleon G. Blink and +"Gettysburg"--miners, and boastful old worthies, long partnered and +beloved by Van. + +Just at present the tunnel was empty, the glory-hole was deserted, and +the quartz-mill was silent. The mine had proved a failure. Van had +expended many thousands of dollars and ten months of time to +demonstrate the facts; and now, in possession of much new experience, +an indomitable spirit, two tired partners, and a brand-new claim, he +was facing his fate, as heretofore, with a wonderful boyish cheer. + +Not all this knowledge was vouchsafed to Beth when she and her maid +were presently put in possession of the place. With the utmost gravity +Van introduced her by old Dave's appellation, Miss Laughing Water. The +maid he merely called Elsa. His explanation as to whence they hailed, +whither they were bound, why he had taken them in charge, and how he +had lost the pinto pony, was notable chiefly for its brevity. He and +his charges were hungry and somewhat pressed for time, he announced, +and he therefore urged Algy to haste. + +Dinner had been promptly served at twelve. Algy was therefore in +despair--for Algy was proud of his art. He still had good red beans, +most excellent coffee, corn-fed bacon, the best of bread and butter, a +hunger-inspiring stew of lamb, white potatoes, fine apple sauce, and +superlative gingerbread on hand in great abundance, however, but in +spite of it all he spluttered. + +"What's mallah you, Van?" he demanded several times. "Wha' for no tell +me blingee ladies? How you s'plose I gettee dinner? Sominagot, you +come like this, that velly superstich." + +He would readily have laid down his very life for Van, but he laid a +good dinner instead. During its preparation Beth and her maid sat down +on a bench beside the bunk-house, in the presence of Cayuse, Napoleon, +and Gettysburg, while Van led the horses to the stable for refreshment, +and Algy talked to himself in pigeon English. + +It was an odd situation for the girl from New. York, but she found +herself amused. Both Napoleon and Gettysburg had been cast for amusing +roles, which they did not always fill. Neither, as might be supposed +from his name, had ever even smelled the faintest suggestion of things +military. Napoleon had once been a sailor, or, to be more accurate, a +river boatman. He was fat, short, red-headed, red-necked, red-nosed, +and red-eyed. His hands were freckled, his arms were hairy. He turned +his head to one side like a bird--and promptly fell in love with demure +little Elsa. + +Gettysburg was as thin as Napoleon was fat. He had a straggling gray +beard, a very bald pate, high cheek bones, and a glass eye. This eye +he turned towards the maid, perhaps because it was steady. He also had +a nervous way of drawing one hand down his face till he lowered his jaw +prodigiously, after which, like the handle of a knocker, it would fall +back to place with quite a thump. He did this twice as he stared at +Beth, and then he remarked: + +"Quite a hike yit, down to Goldite." + +"I suppose it is," said Beth in her interesting way. "How far is it, +really, from here?" + +"'Bout twenty miles of straight ahead, and two miles of straight up, +and three of straight down--if a feller could go straight," said +Gettysburg gravely, "but he can't." + +Beth looked very much concerned. She had hoped they were almost there, +and no more hills to climb or descend. She felt convinced they had +ridden over twenty miles already, and the horseman had assured her it +was thirty at the most, from the station so far behind the mountains. + +"But--Mr. Van can't walk so far as that," she said. "I'm sure I don't +see what----" + +She was interrupted by the reappearance of Van himself. + +"Isn't there a horse on the place?" he asked his partners collectively. +"What have you done with the sorrel?" + +Gettysburg arose. "Loaned him to A. C., yistiddy," said he. "But the +outlaw's on the job." + +"Not Vesuvius?" Van replied incredulously. "You don't mean to say he's +turned up again unslaughtered?" + +"Cayuse here roped him, up to Cedar flat," imparted Gettysburg. +"Cornered him there in natural corral and fetched him home fer fun." + +Napoleon added: "But Cayuse ain't been on board, you bet. He likes +something more old-fashioned than Suvy. Split my bowsprit, I wouldn't +tow no horse into port which I was afraid to board. When I was bustin' +bronchos I liked 'em to be bad." + +"Yes," agreed Gettysburg, "so bad they couldn't stand up." + +A bright glitter came for a moment in Van's blue eyes. + +"If Suvy's the only equine paradox on the place, he and I have got to +argue things out this afternoon," he said, "but I'll have my dinner +first." + +Beth was listening intently, puzzled to know precisely what the talk +implied. She was vaguely suspicious that Van, for the purpose of +escorting her on, would find himself obliged to wage some manner of war +with a horse of which the Indian was afraid. + +Further discussion of the topic was interrupted now by the cook, who +appeared to announce his dinner served. Beth and her maid were, +therefore, directed by Van to a table set for two, while he, with +Napoleon and Gettysburg for company, repaired to a place in the kitchen. + +Beth was hungry. She ate with all the relish of a mountaineer. Algy, +moreover, was a kitchen magician in the art of transforming culinary +commonplaces into viands of toothsome delight. Elsa became +speechlessly busy. Despite her wishes in the matter, Beth could hear +the men talking beyond. + +"So them convicts has hiked over this way already," said the voice of +Gettysburg distinctly. "We heard from A. C. about the prison break, +but he wasn't on to which ones they was." + +"One is Matt Barger," Van informed them. "He's the only one I know." + +"Matt Barger! Not _your_ Matt Barger?" demanded Gettysburg sharply. + +Van nodded. "Mine when I had him." + +Gettysburg arose excitedly. + +"He ain't come hunting fer you as quick as this?" he inquired uneasily. +"That ain't what's fetched him over to the desert?" + +"Haven't asked him," answered Van. "He promised to look me up if ever +he got out alive." + +"Look you up!" Gettysburg was obviously over-wrought by the mere +intelligence that Barger was at liberty. "You know what he'll do! You +know him, boy! You know he'll keep his word. You can't go foolin' +around alone. You've got to be----" + +"Pass the beans," Van interrupted. He added more quietly: "Sit down, +Gett, and shut the front door of your face." + +Napoleon was eating, to "keep Van company." He pushed away his plate. + +"Just our luck if these here derelicts was to foul us, skipper and +crew," he observed ruefully. "Just our luck." + +Gettysburg sat down, adding: "Why can't you wait, Van, wait till the +whole kit and boodle of us can move to the bran'-new claim?" + +Van finished half a cup of coffee. + +"I told you I should continue on without delay. The horses will +probably come to-night for all of you to follow me to-morrow." + +"Then why don't you wait and go with us?" repeated Gettysburg. "We'll +git there by noon, and you ain't got nuthin' to ride." + +The horseman answered: "Suvy's the prettiest gaited thing you ever +saw--when he gaits." + +"Holy toads!" said the older man apprehensively, "you ain't +sure-a-goin' to tackle the outlaw today?" + +"I've always felt we'd come to it soon or late," was Van's reply. "And +I've got to have a horse this afternoon. We can't kill each other but +once." + +"Supposen he stoves in your pilot-house," said Napoleon. "What shall +we do about the claim, and all this cargo, and everything?" + +"The claim? Work it, man, work it," Van responded. "What's a mining +claim for but to furnish good hard work for a couple of old ring-tailed +galoots who've shirked it all their lives?" + +"Work it, yep, but what on?" asked Gettysburg. "We're as broke as a +hatched-out egg." + +"Haven't you worked on shinbones and heavenly hopes before?" inquired +the busy leader of the partnership. "And that reminds me, Algy, what +about you?" he added to the Chinese cook. "We can't afford a +tippe-bob-royal chef of your dimensions after this. I guess you'll +have to poison somebody else." + +"What's mallah you, Van?" Algy demanded aggressively. "You makee me +velly sick. You get velly lich I cook your glub. You go bloke, I cook +alle same. Sominagot, I b'long go with you all time. You no got good +luck I never want the money, you savvy? You go hell--go anywhere--I go +same place--that's all. You talkee big fool, that velly superstich." +He looked at Van fiercely to disguise a great alarm, a fear that he +might, after all, be dismissed in the break-up impending. + +Van shrugged his shoulders. + +"Sentenced for life. All right, Algy, if your cooking kills us off, at +least, as the brave young husband remarked, it will all be in the +family." + +Algy still looked as fierce as one of his heathen idols. + +"You t'ink velly smart," he said, still concealing his feelings. +"Lats!" and with that he went out to chop some wood. + +"Batten me into the pantry!" said Napoleon. "I'll bet old Algy'd board +the outlaw himself, fer you, Van, squall and all." + +"That horse ain't human," Gettysburg exploded anew. "Van, you can't +ride no such Fourth-of-July procession!" + +"Shut up!" murmured Van, with a gesture towards the room where Beth and +her maid were dining. He added aloud: "The chances are we'll find he's +a cheap Sunday-school picnic. Napoleon, you and Cayuse go out and +prepare his mind for work." + +"Aye, aye," said Napoleon rising to go, "but I wish we had some +soothin' syrup, skipper." + +He and the Indian were heard to depart, by Beth, sitting back in her +chair. She was greatly alarmed by all she had heard of vengeful +convicts and the vicious horse, and could eat no more for nervous dread. + +"That horse has killed his man, and you know it," said Gettysburg in a +whisper that the girl distinctly overhead. "Boy, boy, let the Injun +ride him first." + +"There, there, ease off," Van answered quietly. "You keep the women +entertained about the mill while Suvy and I are debating." + +He gulped down a last drink of coffee, silenced the miner's further +remonstrances, and departed by way of the kitchen door. + +Beth arose hurriedly and hastened forth, intent upon immediate +prevention, if possible, of any further ordeals undertaken in behalf of +herself. She was thoroughly frightened. A prescience of something +ominous impending seemed to grip her very heart. She glanced about, +helplessly, unfamiliar with the place. Van was nowhere in sight. She +started to run around the cabin when Gettysburg appeared in her path. + +"Well, well," said he nervously, "now who'd a-thought you'd finished +eatin'?" + +"Oh please," she said, "please go tell Mr. Van I'd rather he wouldn't +attempt to ride _any_ horse again to-day. Will you please go tell him +that?" + +"You bet your patent leathers!" said Gettysburg. "You just go over and +globe-trot the quartz-mill while I'm gone, and we'll fix things right +in a shake." + +He strode off in haste. Beth watched him go. She made no move towards +the quartz-mill, which Gettysburg had indicated, over on the slope. + +She soon grew restive, awaiting his return. Elsa came out and sat +down. The old miner failed to reappear. + +At length, unable to endure any longer her feeling of alarm and +suspense, Beth resolutely followed where Gettysburg had gone, and soon +came in sight of the stable and high corral. Then her heart struck a +blow of excitement in her breast, and her knees began to weaken beneath +her. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE BATTLE + +Too late to interfere in the struggle about to be enacted, the girl +stood rigidly beside a great red pine tree, fixing her gaze upon Van, +on whose heels, as he walked, jingled a glinting pair of spurs. + +From the small corral he was leading forth as handsome an animal as +Beth had ever seen, already saddled, bridled--and blindfolded. The +horse was a chestnut, magnificently sculptured and muscled. He was of +medium size, and as trim and hard as a nail. His coat fairly glistened +in the sun. + +Despite his beauty there was something about him that betokened menace. +It was not altogether that the men all stood away--all save Van--nor +yet that the need for a blindfold argued danger in his composition. +There was something acutely disquieting in the backward folding of his +ears, the quiver of his sinews, the reluctant manner of his stepping. + +Beth did not and could not know that an "outlaw" is a horse so utterly +abandoned to ways of broncho crime and equine deviltry that no man is +able to break him--that having conquered man after man, perhaps even +with fatal results to his riders, he has become absolutely depraved and +impossible of submission. She only knew that her heart was beating +rapidly, painfully, that her breath came in gasps, that her whole +nervous system was involved in some manner of anguish. She saw the +Chinese cook run past to witness the game, but all her faculties were +focused on the man and horse--both sinister, tense, and grim. + +Van had not turned in Beth's direction. He was wholly unaware of her +presence. He halted when the horse was well out towards the center of +the open, and the outlaw braced awkwardly, as if to receive an attack. + +With the bridle reins held in his hand at the pommel of the saddle, Van +stood for a moment by the chestnut's side, then, with incredible +celerity of movement, suddenly placed his foot in the stirrup and was +up and well seated before the blinded pony could have moved. + +Nothing happened. No one made a sound. No one, apparently, save Beth, +had expected anything to happen. She felt a rush of relief--that came +prematurely. + +Van now leaned forward, as the horse remained stiffly braced, and +slipping the blindfold from the pony's eyes, sat back in the saddle +alertly. + +Even then the chestnut did not move. He had gone through this ordeal +many times before. He had often been mounted--but not for long at a +time. He had even been exhausted by a stubborn "broncho buster"--some +hardy human burr who could ride a crazy comet--but always he had won in +the end. In a word he had earned his sobriquet, which in broncho-land +is never lightly bestowed. + +Van was not in the least deceived. However, he was eager for the +conflict to begin. He had no time to waste. He snatched off his hat, +let out a wild, shrill yell, dug with his spurs and struck the animal a +resounding slap on the flank, that, like a fulminate, suddenly +detonated the pent-up explosives in the beast. + +He "lit into" bucking of astounding violence with the quickness of +dynamite. + +It was terrific. For a moment Beth saw nothing but a mad grotesquerie +of horse and man, almost ludicrously unnatural, and crazed with +eccentric motion. + +The horse shot up in the air like a loose, distorted piece of statuary, +blown from its pedestal by some gigantic disturbance. He appeared to +buckle in his mid-air leap like a bended thing of metal, then dropped +to the earth, stiff-legged as an iron image, to bound up again with mad +and furious gyrations that seemed to the girl to twist both horse and +rider into one live mass of incongruity, + +He struck like a ruin, falling from the sky, went up again with +demon-like activity, once more descended--once more hurtled wildly +aloft--and repeated this maneuver with a swiftness utterly bewildering. + +Had some diabolical wind, together with a huge, volcanic force, taken +insane possession of the animal, to fire him skyward, whirl him about, +thrash him down viciously and fling him up again, time after time, he +could not have churned with greater violence. + +He never came down in the same place twice, but he always came down +stiff-legged. The jolt was sickening. All about, in a narrow, +earth-cut circle he bucked, beginning to grunt and warm to his work and +hence to increase the deviltry and malice of his actions. + +Van had yelled but that once. He saw nothing, knew nothing, save a +dizzy world, abruptly gone crazy about him. + +To Beth it seemed as if the horror would never have an end. One +glimpse she had of Van's white face, but nothing could it tell of his +strength or the lack thereof. She felt she must look and look till he +was killed. There could be no other issue, she was sure. And for +herself there could be no escape from the awful fascination of the +merciless brute, inflicting this torture on the man. + +It did end, however, rather unexpectedly--that particular phase of the +conflict. The horse grew weary of the effort, made in vain, to +dislodge the stubborn torment on his back. He changed the program with +the deadliest of all a broncho's tricks. + +Pausing for the briefest part of a second, while Van must certainly +have been reeling with hideous motion and jolt, the chestnut quickly +reared on high, to drop himself clean over backwards. It was thus that +once he had crushed the life from a rider. + +"Oh!" screamed Both, and she sank beside the tree. + +The men all yelled. They were furious and afraid. + +With hoofs wildly flaying the air, while he loomed tall and unreal in +such an attitude, the broncho hung for a moment in mid-poise, then +dropped over sheer--as if to be shattered into fragments. + +But a mass of the bronze-like group was detached, and fell to one side, +on its thigh. It was Van. He had seen what was coming in time. + +Instantly up, as the brute rolled quickly to arise, he leaped in the +saddle, the horn of which had snapped, and he and the chestnut came +erect together, as if miraculously the equestrian group had been +restored. + +"Yi! Yi!" he yelled, like the madman he was--mad with the heat of the +fight--and he dug in his spurs with vicious might. + +Back to it wildly, with fury increased, the broncho leaped responsively. + +Here, there, all the field over, the demon thrashed, catapulting +incredibly. He tried new tricks, invented new volcanics of motion, +developed new whirlwinds of violence. + +Once more, then, as he had on the first occasion, the beast reared up +and fell backward to the earth. Once more Van dropped away from his +bulk and caught him before he could rise. This time, however, he did +not immediately mount--and the men went running to his side. + +"Fer God's sake, boy, let me kill the brute!" cried Gettysburg taking +up a club. + +"I'll shoot him! I'll shoot him! I'll shoot him!" said Napoleon +wildly, but without any weapon in his hands. + +Beth beheld and heard it all. She was once more standing rigidly by +her tree, unable to move or speak. She wished to run to Van as the men +had run, but not to slay the broncho--only to beg the horseman not to +mount again. + +She saw him push the men away and stand like the broncho's guard. His +face was streaked with blood--his blood--jolted alike from his mouth +and nose by the shocks to which he had been subjected. + +"Let the horse alone!" he commanded roughly. "Good stuff in this +broncho--somewhere. Get me a bottle of water, right away--a big +one--get it full." + +His partners started at once to raise objections. The Indian stood by +stolidly looking on. + +"You can't go no further. Van, you can't----" started Gettysburg. + +"Sominagot! Una ma, hong oy! Una ca see fut!" said the Chinese-cook, +swearing vehemently in the language likeliest to count, and he ran at +once towards the kitchen. + +Van was replacing the blindfold on the broncho's eyes. The animal was +panting, sweating, quivering in every muscle. His ears went backward +and forward rapidly. The blindfold shut out a wild, unreasoning +challenge and defiance that burned like a torch in his eyes. + +Algy came running with a big bottle, filled and corked. + +"Fer God's sake, leave me kill him!" Gettysburg was repeating +automatically. "Van, if you ain't got no respect fer yourself, ain't +you got none left fer us old doggone cusses?" + +"Give me the bottle, Algy," Van replied. "You're the only game sport +on the ranch." + +Still he did not discover Beth. His attentions were engrossed by the +horse. He was dizzy, dazed, but a dogged master still of his forces. +Up he mounted to the saddle again, the bottle held firmly in his grasp. + +"Slip off the blinder," he said to his friends, and Algy it was who +obeyed. + +"Damn you, now you buck!" cried Van wildly, and his heels ignited the +volcano. + +For five solid minutes the broncho redoubled his scheme of demoniac +fury. Then he poised, let out a shrill scream of challenge, and +abruptly raised to repeat the backward fall. + +Up, up he went, an ungainly sight, and then--the heavens split in twain. + +He was only well lifted from the earth when, with a thunderous, +terrible blow, Van crashed the bottle downward, fairly between his +ears, and burst it on his skull. + +The weapon was shattered with a frightening thud. Red pieces of glass +and streaming water poured in a cataract down across the broncho's eyes +as if very doom itself had suddenly cracked. A cataclysm could not +have been more horrible. An indescribable fright and awe overwhelmed +the brutish mind as with a cloud of lead. + +Down swiftly he dropped to his proper position, perhaps with a fear +that his crown was gaping open from impact with the sky. He was +stunned by the blow upon his brain, and weakened in every fiber. He +started to run, in terror of the thing, and the being still solid in +the saddle. Wildly he went around the cove, in the panic of utter +defeat. + +The men began to cheer, their voices choked and hoarse. Van rode now +as fate might ride the very devil. He spurred the horse to furious, +exhausting speed, guiding him wildly around the mountain theater. +Again and again they circled the grassy arena, till foam and lather +whitened the broncho's flank, chest, and mouth, and his nostril burned +red as living flame. + +When at last the animal, weary and undone, would have sobered down to a +trot or walk, Van forced him anew to crazy speed. At least five miles +he drove him thus, till the broncho's sides, like the rider's face, +were red with blood mingled with sweat. + +Beth, at the climax, had gone down suddenly, leaning against the tree. +She had not fainted, but was far too weak to stand. Her eyes only +moved. She watched the two, that seemed welded into one, go racing +madly against fatigue. + +At last she beheld the look of the conquered--the utter surrender of +the broken and subdued--gleam dully from the wilted pony's eyes. She +pitied the animal she had feared and hated but a few brief moments +before. She began to think that the man was perhaps the brute, after +all, to ride the exhausted creature thus without a sign of mercy. + +She rose to her feet as the two came at last to a halt, master and +servant, conquered and conqueror, man and quivering beast. + +Then Van got down, and her heart, that had pitied the horse, welled +with deeper feeling for the rider. She had never in her life seen a +face so drawn, so utterly haggard beneath a mask of red as that +presented by the horseman. + +Van nearly fell, but would not fall, and instead stood trembling, his +arm by natural inclination now circling the neck of the pony. + +"Well, Suvy," he said not ungently, "we gave each other hell. +Hereafter we're going to be friends." + +Beth heard him. She also saw the chestnut turn and regard the man with +a look of appeal and dumb questioning in his eyes that choked her--with +joy and compassion together. She someway knew that this man and horse +would be comrades while they lived. + +Half an hour afterward as she, Van, and Elsa rode forward as before, +she saw the man in affection pat the broncho on the neck. And the +horse pricked his ears in a newfound gladness in service and friendship +that his nature could not yet comprehend. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +AN EXCHANGE OF QUESTIONS + +Youth is elastic, and Van was young. An hour of quiet riding restored +him astoundingly. He bore no signs of fatigue that Beth could detect +upon his face. Once more, as he had in the morning, he was riding ahead +in the trail, apparently all but oblivious of the two anxious women in +his charge. + +They had wound far downward through a canyon, and now at length were +emerging on a sagebrush slope that lowered to the valley. Van halted for +Beth to ride to his side, and onward they continued together. + +"I suppose you have friends to whom you are going in Goldite," he said, +"--or at least there's someone you know." + +"Yes," she answered, "my brother." + +Van looked at her in his quizzical way, observing: + +"I don't believe I know him." + +Her glance was almost one of laughter. + +"Why, how can you tell? You don't even know his name." She paused, then +added quietly: "It's Glenmore Kent." She felt he had a right to know not +only her brother's name, but also her own, if only for what he had done. +"You might, of course, know him after all," she concluded. "He has quite +a number of acquaintances." + +"Kent," said Van. To himself it was "Beth Kent" he was saying. "No, +guess not. No such luck, but I hope you'll find him in the camp." + +"Do you think I may not?" She was just a trifle startled by the +possibility. + +He was grave for once. + +"Men come and go in a mining town, where everyone's unduly excited. If +he isn't on deck, then have you no one else? Have you any alternative +plan?" + +"Why, no," she confessed, her alarm increasing, "not unless Mr. Bostwick +has arrived and arranged our accommodations." + +"I wouldn't count on Searle," drawled Van significantly. "He may have to +walk." + +"Not across the awful desert?" + +"If he goes around he'll be longer." + +"Why--but----" she gasped, "there is nothing to eat--no water--there +isn't anything on the desert, is there?--anywhere?" + +He was looking intently into the deep brown depths of her eyes as he +answered: + +"There's so little to eat that the chipmunks have to fetch in their +lunches." + +Beth continued to gaze upon him. If she noted the lights of laughter +lying soberly subdued in his eyes, she also discerned something more, +that affected her oddly. Despite the horseman's treatment of her +escort--a treatment she confessed he had partially deserved--and despite +the lightness of his speeches, she felt certain of the depth of his +nature, convinced of the genuine earnestness of his purposes--the honesty +and worth of his friendship. + +She knew she was tremendously indebted for all he had done and was doing, +but aside from all that, in her heart of hearts she admired bravery, +courage, and a dash of boldness more than anything else in the world. +She was not yet certain, however, whether the man at her side was brave +or merely reckless, courageous, or indifferent to danger, bold or merely +audacious. She knew nothing about him whatsoever, nothing except he must +be tired, lame, and bruised from exertions undertaken in her behalf. It +had been a long, long day. She felt as if they had known each other +always--and had always been friends. + +Her mind went back to the morning as if to an era of the past. The +thought of the convicts who had captured Bostwick aroused new +apprehensions in her breast, though not for the man with the car. +Someway Searle seemed strangely far away and dimmed in her regard. She +was thinking of what she had overheard, back there at the Monte Cristo +mine. + +"This has been a trying day," she said, apparently ignoring Van's last +observation. "You have taken a great deal of trouble for--for us--and we +appreciate it fully." + +Van said gravely: "Taking trouble is the only fun I have." + +"You laugh at everything," she answered, "but isn't it really a serious +thing--a menace to everyone--having those convicts out of prison?" + +"It isn't going to be a knitting-bee, rounding them up," Van admitted. +"And meantime they're going to be exacting of everyone they meet." + +She looked at him half seriously, but altogether brightly. + +"And what if they chance to meet you?" + +"Oh, we'd exchange courtesies, I reckon." + +She had no intention of confessing how much she had overheard, but she +was tremendously interested--almost fearful for the man's safety, she +hardly dared ask herself why. She approached her subject artfully. + +"Do you know them, then?" + +"Well, yes, the leader--slightly," he answered. "I sent him up for +murder, stealing cattle, and robbing sluices. He was too annoying to +have around." + +"Oh! Then won't he feel ugly, resentful?" she inquired earnestly. +"Won't he try to hunt you up--and pay you back?" + +Van regarded her calmly. + +"He told me to expect my pay--if ever he escaped--and he's doubtless got +his check-book along." + +"His check-book?" + +"Colt--forty-four," Van drawled by way of explanation. + +She turned a trifle pale. + +"He'd shoot you on sight?" + +"If he sighted me first." + +Her breath came hard. She realized that the quiet-seeming horseman at +her side would kill a fellow-being--this convict, at least--as readily as +he might destroy a snake. + +"How long ago did you put him in jail?" she inquired. + +"Four years ago this summer." + +"Have you always lived here--out West?" + +"I've lived every day I've been here," he answered evasively. "Do I look +like a native?" + +She laughed. "Oh, I don't know. We came here straight from New York, a +week ago, Elsa and I. Mr. Bostwick joined us two days later. I really +know nothing of the country at all." + +"New York," he said, and relapsed into silent meditation. How far away +seemed old New Amsterdam! How long seemed the brief six years since he +had started forth with his youthful health, his strength, determination, +boyish dreams, and small inheritance to build up a fortune in the West! +What a mixture of sunshine and failure it had been! What glittering +hopes had lured him hither and yon in the mountains, where each great +gateway of adventure had charged its heavy toll! + +He had lost practically all of his money; he had gained his all of +manhood. He had suffered privation and hardship; he had known the vast +comfort of friends--true friends, as certain as the very heart in his +breast to serve him to the end. + +Like a panoramic dream he beheld a swift procession of mine-and-cattle +scenes troop past for swift review. He lived again whole months of +nights spent out alone beneath the sky, with the snow and the wind hurled +down upon him from a merciless firmament of bleakness. Once more he +stumbled blindly forward in the desert--he and Gettysburg--perishing for +water, giving up their liquid souls to the horribly naked and insatiate +sun. Again he toiled in the shaft of a mine till his back felt like a +crackly thing of glass with each aching fissure going deeper. + +Once more the gold goddess beckoned with her smile, and fortune was +there, almost in reach--the fortune that he and his partners had sought +so doggedly, so patiently--the fortune for which they had starved and +delved and suffered--only to see it vanish in the air as the sunshine +will vanish from a peak. + +Old hopes, like ghosts, went skulking by, vain charlatans, ashamed. But +friendships stood about in every scene--bright presences that cast a +roseate glow on all the tribulations of his life. And it seemed as if a +failure here was half a failure only, after all. It had not robbed him +either of his youth, his strength, or a certain boyish credulity and +trust in all his kind. He still believed he should win his golden goal, +and he loved the land that had tried him. + +His last, his biggest venture, the Monte Cristo mine was, however, +gone--everything sold to meet the company debts. Nevertheless, he had +once more purchased a claim, with all but his very last dollar in the +world, and he and his partners would soon be on the ground, assaulting +the stubborn adamant with powder, pick, and drill, in the fever of the +miner's ceaseless dream. + +To-day, as he rode beside the girl, he wondered at it all--why he had +labored so persistently. The faint, far-off shadow of a sweetheart, long +since left behind, failed to supply him a motive. She had grown +impatient, listened to a suitor more tangible than Van's absent self, and +so, blamelessly, had faded from his scheme of hopes, leaving no more than +a fragrance in his thoughts, with certainly no bitterness or anger. + +"Old New York," he repeated, at the end of his reverie, and meeting once +more the steady brown eyes of the girl with whom the fates had thrown +him, he fetched up promptly with the present. + +"How long has your brother been out here in Goldite?" + +"About a month," she answered. "He's been in the West for nearly a year, +and wrote Mr. Bostwick to come." + +"Mr. Bostwick is doubtless a very particular friend of your family." + +"Why, yes, he's my---- That is, he _was_--he always has been a very +particular friend--for several years," she faltered suddenly turning red. +"We haven't any family, Glen and I--and he's my half brother only--but +we're just like chums---and that was why I wanted to come. I expect to +surprise him. He doesn't know I'm here." + +Van was silent and she presently added: + +"I hope you and Glen will be friends. I know how much he'll wish to +thank you." + +He looked at her gravely. + +"I hope he won't. It's up to me to thank him." + +They had come to a road at the level of the valley--a desert valley, +treeless, grassless, gray, and desolate. The sun was rapidly nearing the +rim of the mountains, as if to escape pursuit of a monstrous bank of +clouds. + +Van spurred his chestnut to a gallop, and the horses bearing the women +responded with no further need of urging. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +A NIGHT'S EXPENSES + +From Karrish to Goldite by the road was twenty-seven miles. There were +fifteen mile of bottles by the way--all of them empty. A blind man +with a nose for glass could have smelled out the trail unerringly +across that desert stretch. Karrish was the nearest town for a very +great distance around. + +Over the road innumerable caravans were passing. Everything was +rushing to Goldite. There were horsemen, hurried persons on foot, men +in carriages and autos, twenty-horse freight teams, and men on tiny +burros. Nearly all were shedding bottles as they went. A waterless +land is not necessarily devoid of all manner of moisture. + +A dozen of the slowly laboring freight outfits were passed by Van and +his two companions. What engines of toil they represented! The ten +pairs of sweating, straining animals seemed almost like some giant +caterpillar, harnessed to a burden on wheels. They always dragged +three wagons, two of which were huge gray hulks, incredibly heavy with +giant-powder, canned goods, bottled goods, picks, shovels, bedding, +hay, great mining machinery, and house-hold articles. These wagons +were hitched entrain. The third wagon, termed a "trailer," was small +and loaded merely with provisions for the teamster and the team. The +whole thing, from end to end, beat up a stifling cloud of dust. + +The sun went down while Beth, Van, and Elsa were still five miles from +their goal. They rode as rapidly as possible. The horses, however, +were jaded, and the way was slightly up grade. The twilight was brief. +It descended abruptly from the western bank of clouds, by now as thick +and dark as mud. Afar off shone the first faint light of the gold-camp +to which the three were riding. This glimmering ray was two miles out +from the center of town. Goldite was spread in a circle four miles +wide, and the most of it was isolated tents. + +The darkness shut down like a pall. A vivid, vicious bolt of +lightning--a fiery serpent, overcharged with might--struck down upon +the mountain tops, pouring liquid flame upon the rocks. A sweeping +gust of wind came raging down upon the town, hurling dust and gravel on +the travelers. + +Van rode ahead like a spirit of the storm. He knew the need for haste. +Beth simply let her pony go. She was cramped and far too wearied for +effort. + +They were galloping now past the outskirts of the camp, the many +scattered tents of the men who were living on their claims. All the +world was a land of claims, staked off with tall white posts, like +ghosts in the vanishing light. Ahead, a multitude of lights had +suddenly broken on the travelers' vision, like a nearby constellation +of stars. + +They rode into all of it, blazing lights, eager crowds upon the +streets, noise of atrocious music from the brilliant saloons, and rush +of wind and dust, not a minute too soon. They had barely alighted and +surrendered their horses to a friend of Van's when the rain from the +hilltops swooped upon the camp in a fury that seemed like an elemental +threat to sweep all the place, with its follies, hopes, and woes, its +excitements, lawlessness, and struggles, from the face of the barren +desert world. + +Beth and her maid were lame and numb. Van could only hustle them +inside a grocery-and-hardware store to save them from a drenching. The +store was separated from a gambling-hall saloon by the flimsiest board +partition. Odors of alcohol, confusion of voices, and calls of a +gamester came unimpeded to the women's senses, together with some +mighty bad singing, accompanied lustily by strains and groans pounded +from a ghastly piano. + +"Sit down," said Van, inverting a tub at the feet of the wondering +women. "I'll see if I can rustle up your brother." + +He went out in the rain, dived impartially into the first of the +crowded saloons, was somewhat hilariously greeted by a score of +convivial fellows, found no one who knew of young Glen Kent, and +proceeded on to the next. + +The horseman was well and favorably known in all directions. He was +eagerly cornered wheresoever he appeared by a lot of fellows who were +friends to little purpose, in an actual test. However, he clung to his +mission with commendable tenacity of purpose, and kept upon his way. +Thus he discovered at length, when he visited the bank--an institution +that rarely closed before ten o'clock in the evening--that Kent had +been gone for the past two weeks, no one knew where, but somewhere out +south, with a party. + +There was nothing to do after that but to look for fit apartments for +the gently reared girl and her maid. Hunting a needle in the ocean +would have been a somewhat similar task. Van went at once at the +business, with his customary spirit. He was presently informed there +was nothing resembling a room or a bed to be had in all the place. A +hundred men would walk the streets or sleep in chairs that night. The +one apartment suitable for two lone women to occupy had been secured +the previous day by "Plunger" Trask, an Eastern young man who would bet +that grass was not green. + +Van searched for Trask and found him "cashing in" a lot of assorted +chips, representing his winnings at a faro game at which he had been +"bucking." + +"Hello, there, Van," he said familiarly as the horseman touched him on +the shoulder. "Come and have a drink." + +"My teeth are floating now from drink," said Van, "but I'll take +something else if you say so. I want your apartments for the night." + +"Say, wire me!" answered the plunger. "That's the cutest little bunch +of nerve I ever saw off the Bowery! How much money have you got in +your clothes?" + +"About forty-five dollars," said Van. "Is it good?" + +"Not as a price, but O.K. in a flip," said Trask, with an itch for +schemes of chance. "I'll throw you the dice, my room against your +forty-five--and the devil take your luck if you win!" + +Van agreed. They borrowed a box of dice, threw three times apiece--and +the horseman paid over his money. + +"There you are, old man," said the plunger cheerfully. "Satisfied, I +hope." + +"Not quite," said Van. "I'll owe you forty-five more and throw you +again." + +"Right ho!" responded Trask. "Go as far as you like." + +They shook again. Van lost as before. He borrowed again, +undiscouraged. For the third time they cast the little cubes of +uncertainty and this time Van actually won. The room was his to +dispose of as he pleased. It had cost him ninety dollars for the night. + +In his pocket he had cautiously retained a little money--seven and +one-half dollars, to be accurate. He returned to Beth, informed her of +all he had discovered concerning her brother, took herself and Elsa to +dine in the camp's one presentable restaurant, paid nearly seven +dollars for the meal, and gave what remained to the waiter. + +Then Beth, who had never in her life been so utterly exhausted, +resigned herself to Elsa's care, bade Van good-night, and left him +standing in the rain before the door, gallant, and smiling to the end. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +PROGRESS AND SALT + +Goldite, by the light of day, presented a wonderful spectacle. It was +a mining camp positively crystallizing into being before the very eyes +of all beholders. It was nearly all tents and canvas structures--a +heterogeneous mixture of incompleteness and modernity to which the +telegraph wires had already been strung from the outside world. It had +no fair supply of water, but it did have a newspaper, issued once a +week. + +A dozen new buildings, flimsy, cheap affairs, were growing like +toadstools, day and night. Several brick buildings, and shacks of mud, +were rising side by side. Everywhere the scene was one of crowds, +activity, and hurry. Thousands of men were in the one straight street, +a roughly dressed, excited throng, gold-bitten, eager, and open-handed. +Hundreds of mules and horses, a few bewildered cows, herds of great +wagons, buggies, heaps of household goods, and trunks, with +fortifications of baled hay and grain, were crowded into two great +corrals, where dusty teamsters hastened hotly about, amidst heaps of +dusty harness, sacks of precious ore and the feed troughs for the +beasts. + +Beth had slept profoundly, despite the all-night plague of noises, +penetrating vividly through the shell-like walls of the house. She was +out with Elsa at an early hour, amazingly refreshed and absorbingly +interested in all she heard and saw. The sky was clear, but a chill +wind blew down from the mountains, flapping canvas walls in all +directions. + +The building wherein the women had rested was a wooden lodging house, +set barely back from the one business street of the camp. Next door +was a small, squat domicile constructed of bottles and mud. The +bottles were laid in the "mortar" with their ends protruding. Near by, +at the rear of a prosperous saloon, was a pyramid of empty bottles, +fully ten feet high--enough to build a little church. + +Drawn onward by the novelty of all the scene, Beth crossed the main +street--already teeming with horses, wagons, and men--and proceeded +over towards a barren hill, followed demurely by her maid. The hill +was like a torn-up battlefield, trenched, and piled with earthworks of +defense, for man the impetuous had already flung up great gray dumps of +rock, broken and wrenched from the bulk of the slope, where he quested +for gleaming yellow metal. He had ripped out the adamant--the matrix +of the gold--for as far as Beth could see. Like ant-heaps of +tremendous dimensions stood these monuments of toil--rock-writings, +telling of the heat and desire, the madness of man to be rich. + +The world about was one of rocks and treeless ridges, spewed from some +vast volcanic forge of ages past. It was all a hard, gray, adamantine +world, unlovely and severe--a huge old gold furnace, minus heat or +fire, lying neglected in a universe of mountains that might have been a +workshop in the ancient days when Titans wrought their arts upon the +earth. + +Beth gazed upon it all in wonder not unmingled with awe. What a place +it was for man to live and wage his puny battles! Yet the fever of all +of it, rising in her veins, made her eager already to partake of the +dream, the excitement that made mere gold-slaves of the men who had +come here compelling this forbidding place to yield up some measure of +comfort and become in a manner their home. + +Van, in the meanwhile, having spent the time till midnight on his feet, +and the small hours asleep on a bale of hay, was early abroad, engaged +in various directions. He first proceeded to the largest general store +in the camp and ordered a generous bill of supplies to be sent to his +newest claim. Next he arranged with a friendly teamster for the prompt +return of the two borrowed horses on which Beth and her maid had come +to camp. Then, on his way to an assayer's office, where samples of +rock from the claim in question had been left for the test of fire, he +encountered a homely, little, dried-up woman who was scooting about +from store to store with astonishing celerity of motion. + +"Tottering angels!" said he. "Mrs. Dick!" + +"Hello--just a minute," said the lively little woman, and she dived +inside the newest building and was out almost immediately with a great +sack of plunder that she jerked about with most diverting energy. + +"Here, fetch this down to the house," she demanded imperiously. +"What's the good of my finding you here in Goldite if you don't do +nothing for your country?" + +Van shouldered the sack. + +"What are you doing here anyhow?" said he, "--up before breakfast and +busy as a hen scratching for one chicken." + +"Come on," she answered, starting briskly towards a new white building, +off the main thoroughfare, eastward. "I live here--start my +boarding-house today. I'm going to get rich. Every room's furnished +and every bed wanted as fast as I can make 'em up. Have you had your +breakfast?" + +"Say, you're my Indian," answered Van. "I've got you two customers +already. You've got to take them in and give them your best if you +turn someone else inside out to do it." + +Mrs. Dick paused suddenly. + +"Bronson Van Buren! You're stuck on some woman at last!" + +"At last?" said Van. "Haven't I always been stuck after you?" + +Mrs. Dick resumed her brisk locomotion. + +"Snakes alive!" she concluded explosively. "She's respectable, of +course? But you said two. Now see here, Van, no Mormon games with me!" + +"Her _maid_--it's her maid that's with her," Van explained. "Don't +jump down my throat till I grease it." + +"Her maid!" Mrs. Dick said no more as to that. The way she said it +was enough. They had come to the door of her newly finished house, a +clean, home-like place from which a fragrance of preparing breakfast +flowed like a ravishing nectar. "Where are they now?" she demanded +impatiently. "Wherever they are it ain't fit for a horse! Why don't +you go and fetch 'em?" + +Van put the bag inside the door, then his hands on Mrs. Dick's +shoulders. + +"I'll bet your mother was a little red firecracker and your father a +bottle of seltzer," he said. Then off he went for Beth. + +She was not, of course, at "home" when he arrived at the place he had +found the previous evening. Disturbed for a moment by her absence, he +presently discerned her, off there westward on the hill from which she +was making a survey of the camp. + +Three minutes after he was climbing up the slope and she turned and +looked downward upon him. + +"By heavens!" he said beneath his breath, "--what beauty!" + +The breeze was molding her dress upon her rounded form till she seemed +like the statue of a goddess--a goddess of freedom, loveliness, and +joy, sculptured in the living flesh--a figure vibrant with glowing +health and youth, startlingly set in the desert's gray austerity. With +the sunlight flinging its gold and riches upon her, what a marvel of +color she presented!--such creamy white and changing rose-tints in her +cheeks--such a wonderful brown in her hair and eyes--such crimson of +lips that parted in a smile over even little jewels of teeth! And she +smiled on the horseman, tall, and active, coming to find her on the +hill. + +"Good morning!" she cried. "Oh, isn't it wonderful--so big, and bare, +and _clean_!" + +Van smiled. + +"It's a hungry-looking country to me--looks as if it has eaten all the +trees. If it makes you think of breakfast, or just plain coffee and +rolls, I've found a place I hope you'll like, with a friend I didn't +know was here." + +"You are very kind, I'm sure," she said. "I'm afraid we're a great +deal of trouble." + +"That's what women were made for," he answered her frankly, a bright, +dancing light in his eyes. "They couldn't help it if they would, and I +guess they wouldn't if they could." + +"Oh, indeed?" She shot him a quick glance, half a challenge. "I +_guess_ if you don't mind we won't go to the place you've found, for +breakfast, this morning." + +"You'd better guess again," he answered, and taking her arm, in a +masterful way that bereft her of the power of speech or resistance, he +marched her briskly down the slope and straight towards Mrs. Dick's. + +"Thank your stars you've struck a place like this," he said. "If you +don't I'll have to thank them for you." + +"Perhaps I ought to thank you first," she ventured smilingly. It would +have seemed absurd to resent his boyish ways. + +"You may," he said, "when I get to be one of your stars." + +"Oh, really? Why defer mere thanks _indefinitely_?" + +"It won't be indefinitely, and besides, thanks will keep--and breakfast +won't." + +He entered the house, with Beth and her maid humbly trailing at his +heels. Mrs. Dick came bustling from the kitchen like a busy little +ant. Van introduced his charges briefly. Mrs. Dick shook hands with +them both. + +"Well!" she said, "I like you after all! And it's lucky I do, for if I +didn't I don't know's I should take you or not, even if Van did say I +had to." + +Van took her by the shoulders and shook her boyishly. + +"You'd take a stick of dynamite and a house afire, both in one hand, if +I said so," he announced. "Now don't get hostile." + +"Well--I s'pose I would," agreed Mrs. Dick. She added to Beth: "Ain't +he the dickens and all? Just regular brute strength. Come right +upstairs till I show you where you're put. I've turned off two men to +let you have the best room in the house." + +Beth had to smile. She had never felt so helpless in her life--or so +amused. She followed Mrs. Dick obediently, finding the two-bed room +above to be a bright, new-smelling apartment of acceptable size and +situation. In answer to a score of rapid-fire questions on the part of +Mrs. Dick, she imparted as much as Van already knew concerning herself +and her quest. + +Mrs. Dick became her friend forthwith, then hastened downstairs to the +kitchen. Van and Beth presently took breakfast together, while Elsa, +with a borrowed needle and thread, was busied with some minor repairing +of garments roughly used the day before. Other boarders and lodgers of +the house had already eaten and gone, to resume their swirl in the +maelstrom of the camp. + +For a time the two thus left alone in the dining-room appeased their +appetites in silence. Van watched the face of the girl for a time and +finally spoke. + +"I'll let you know whatever I hear about your brother, if there is any +more to hear. Meantime you'll have to remain here and wait." + +She was silent for a moment, reflecting on, the situation. + +"You took my suitcase away from Mr. Bostwick, you'll remember," she +said, "and left it where we got the horses." + +"It will be here to-day," he answered. "I arranged for that with Dave." + +"Oh. But of course you cannot tell when Mr. Bostwick may appear." + +"His movements couldn't be arranged so conveniently, otherwise he +wouldn't appear at all." + +She glanced at him, startled. + +"Not come at all? But I need him! Besides, he's my---- I expect him +to go and find my brother. And the trunk checks are all in his +pocket--wait!--no they're not, they're in my suitcase after all." + +"You're in luck," he assured her blandly, "for Searle has doubtless +lost all his pockets." + +"Lost his pockets?" she echoed. "Perhaps you mean the convicts took +them--took his clothing--everything he had." + +"Everything except his pleasant manner," Van agreed. "They have plenty +of that of their own." + +She was lost for a moment in reflection. + +"Poor Searle! Poor Mr. Bostwick!" + +Van drank the last of his coffee. + +"Was Searle the only man you knew in all New York?" + +She colored. "Certainly not. Of course not. Why do you ask such a +question?" + +"I was trying to understand the situation, but I give it up." He +looked in her eyes with mock gravity, and she colored. + +She understood precisely what he meant--the situation between herself +and Bostwick, to whom, she feared, she had half confessed herself +engaged. She started three times to make a reply, but halted each +answer for a better. + +"You don't like Mr. Bostwick," she finally observed. + +Van told her gravely: "I like him like the old woman kept tavern." + +She could not entirely repress a smile. + +"And how did she keep it--the tavern?" + +"Like hell," said Van. He rose to go, adding; "You like him about that +way yourself--since yesterday." + +Her eyes had been sparkling, but now they snapped. + +"Why--how can you speak so rudely? You know that isn't true! You know +I like--admire Mr. Bost---- You haven't any right to say a thing like +that--no matter what you may have done for me!" + +She too had risen. She faced him glowingly. + +He suddenly took both her hands and held them in a firm, warm clasp +from which there could be no escape. + +"Beth," he said audaciously, "you are never going to marry that man." + +She was struggling vainly to be free. Her face was crimson. + +"Let me go!" she demanded. "Mr. Van--you let me go! I don't see how +you dare to say a thing like that. I don't know why----" + +"You can't marry Searle," he interrupted, "because you are going to +marry me." + +He raised her hands to his lips and kissed them both. + +"Be back by and by," he added, and off he went, through the kitchen, +leaving Beth by the table speechless, burning and confused, with a +hundred wild emotions in her heart. + +He continued out at the rear of the place, where little Mrs. Dick was +valiantly tugging at two large buckets of water. He relieved her of +the burden. + +"Say, Priscilla," he drawled, "if a smoke-faced Easterner comes around +here while I'm gone, looking for--you know--Miss Kent, remember he +can't have a room in your house if he offers a million and walks on his +hands and prays in thirteen languages." + +Little Mrs. Dick glanced up at him shrewdly. + +"Have you got it as bad as that? Snakes alive! All right, I guess +I'll remember." + +"Be good," said Van, and off he went to the assayer's shop for which he +had started before. + +The assayer glanced up briefly. He was busy at a bucking-board, where, +with energetic application of a very heavy weight, on the end of a +handle, he was grinding up a lot of dusty ore. + +"Greeting, Van," said he. "Come in." + +Van shook his outstretched hand. + +"I thought I'd like to see those results," he said, "--that rock I +fetched you last, remember? You thought you could finish the batch +last week. Gold rock from the 'See Saw' claim that I bought three +weeks ago." + +"Yes, oh yes. Now what did I do with---- Finished 'em up and put 'em +away somewhere," said the assayer, dusting his hands and moving towards +his desk. "Such a lot of stuff's been coming in--here they are, I +reckon." He drew a half dozen small printed forms from a cavity in the +desk, glanced them over briefly and handed the lot to Van. "Nothing +doing. Pretty good rock for building purposes." + +"Nothing doing?" echoed Van incredulously, staring at the assay records +which showed in merciless bluntness that six different samples of +reputed ore had proved to be absolutely worthless. "The samples you +assayed first showed from ten to one hundred and fifty dollars to the +ton, in gold." + +"What's that got to do with this?" inquired the master of acids and +fire. "You don't mean to say----" + +"Do with it, man? It all came out of the same identical prospect," Van +interrupted. "These were later samples than the others, that's all." + +The assayer glanced over his shoulder at the hope-destroying slips. + +"The 'See Saw' claim," he said perfunctorily. "You bought it, Van, who +from?" + +"From Selwyn Briggs." + +"Sorry," said the assayer briefly. "H'm! That Briggs!" + +"You don't mean---- It couldn't have been salted on me!" Van declared. +"I took my own samples, broke down a new face purposely, sacked it all +myself--and sealed the sacks. No one touched those sacks till you +broke the seals in this office. He couldn't have salted me, Frank. +What possible chance----" + +The assayer went to a shelf, took down a small canvas bag, glanced at a +mark that identified it as one in which samples of "See Saw" rock had +arrived for the former assay, and turned it inside out. + +"Once in a while I've heard of a cute one squirting a sharp syringe +full of chloride of gold on worthless rock, through the meshes of the +canvas, even after the samples were sealed," he imparted quietly. +"This sack looks to me like some I've encountered before that were +pretty rich in gold. I'll assay the cloth if you like." + +Van took the sack in his hand, examined it silently, then glanced as +before at his papers. + +"Salted--by that lump of a Briggs!" His lip was curved in a mirthless +smile. "I guess I've got it in the neck all right. These last samples +tell the real story." He slapped the papers across his hand, then tore +them up in tiny bits and threw them on the floor." + +"Sorry, old man," said the assayer, as before. "Hope you didn't pay +him much for the claim." + +"Not much," said Van. "All I had--and some of it borrowed money." + +The assayer puckered up his mouth. + +"Briggs has skipped--gone East." + +"I know. Well--all in a lifetime, I suppose. Pay you, Frank, when I +can." + +"That's all right," his friend assured him. "Forget it if you like." + +Van started off, but returned. + +"Say, Frank," he said, "don't hawk this around. It's bad enough for me +to laugh at myself. I don't want the chorus joining in." + +"I'm your clam," said Frank. "So long, and better luck!" + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE LAUGHING WATER CLAIM + +A man who lives by uncertainties has a singular habit of mind. He is +ever lured forward by hopes and dreams that overlap each other as he +goes. While the scheme in hand is proving hopeless, day by day, he +grasps at another, just ahead, and draws himself onward towards the +gilded goal, forgetful of the trickery of all those other schemes +behind, that were equally bright in their day. + +Van had relinquished all hold on the golden dream once dangled before +him by the Monte Cristo mine, to lay strong hands on the promise +vouchsafed by the "See Saw" claim which he had purchased. As he walked +away from the assayer's shop he felt his hands absolutely empty. For +the very first time in at least four years he had no blinding glitter +before his vision to entice him to feverish endeavor. He was a dreamer +with no dreams, a miner without a mine. + +He felt chagrined, humiliated. After all his time spent here in the +world's most prodigious laboratory of minerals, he had purchased a +salted mine! A sharper man, that sad-faced, half-sick Selwyn Briggs, +had actually trimmed him like this! + +Salted! And he was broke. Well, what was the next thing to do? He +thought of the fine large bill of goods, engaged for himself and +partners to take to the "See Saw" claim. It made him smile. But he +would not rescind the order--for a while. His partners, with his +worldly goods, the Chinese cook and all the household, save Cayuse, +would doubtless arrive by noon. He and they had to eat; they had to +live. Also they had to mine, for they knew nothing else by way of +occupation. They must somehow get hold of some sort of claim, and go +on with their round of hopes and toil. They had never been so utterly +bereft--so outcast by the goddess of fortune--since they had thrown +their lots together. + +He dreaded the thought of meeting various acquaintances here in +camp--the friends to whom he had said he was going that day to the "See +Saw" property, far over the Mahogany range, near the Indian +reservation. He determined to go. Perhaps the shack and the +shaft-house on the claim, with the windlass and tools included by +Briggs in the bill of sale, might fetch a few odd dollars. + +Slowly down the street he went to the hay-yard where his pony was +stabled. He met a water man, halting on his rounds at the front of a +neat canvas dwelling. The man had three large barrels on a wagon, each +full of muddy, brackish water. A long piece of hose was thrust into +one, its other end dangled out behind. + +From the tent emerged a woman with her buckets. The water man placed +the hose-end to his mouth, applied a lusty suction, and the water came +gushing forth. He filled both receptacles, collected the price, and +then drove on to the next. + +Sardonically Van reflected that even the fine little stream of water on +his claim, in a land where water was so terribly scarce, was absolutely +worthless as an asset. It was over a mountain ridge of such tremendous +height that it might as well have been in the forests of Maine. + +Despite the utter hopelessness of his present situation, his spirits +were not depressed. Gettysburg, he reflected, was a genius for bumping +into queer old prospectors--relics of the days of forty-nine, still +eagerly pursuing their _ignis fatuous_ of gold--and from some such +desert wanderer he would doubtless soon pick up a claim. There was +nothing like putting Gettysburg upon the scent. + +Van wrote a note to his partners. + + +"Dear Fellow Mourners: + +"Have just discovered a joke. I was salted on the 'See Saw' property. +Our pipe dream is defunct. Have gone over to lay out remains. If you +find any oldtimers who have just discovered some lost bonanza, take +them into camp. Don't get drunk, get busy. Be back a little after +noon." + + +This he left with the hay-yard man where his partners would stop when +they arrived. Mounted on Suvy, his outlaw of the day before, he rode +from Goldite joyously. After all, what was the odds? He had been no +better off than now at least a hundred times. At the worst he still +had his partners and his horse, a breakfast aboard, and a mountain +ahead to climb. + +Indeed, at the light of friendship in his broncho's eyes, as well as at +the pony's neigh of welcome, back there at the yard, he had felt a +boundless pleasure in his veins. He patted the chestnut's neck, in his +rough, brusque way of companionship, and the horse fairly quivered with +pleasure. + +For nearly two hours the willing animal went zig-zagging up the rocky +slopes. The day was warming; the sun was a naked disk of fire. It was +hard climbing. Van had chosen the shorter, steeper way across the +range. From time to time, where the barren ascent was exceptionally +severe, he swung from the saddle and led the broncho on, to mount +further up as before. + +Thus they came in time to a zone of change, over one of the ridges, a +region where rocks and ugliness gave way to a growth of brush and +stunted trees. These were the outposts, ragged, dwarfed, and warped, +of a finer growth beyond. + +Fifteen miles away, down between the hills, flowed a tortuous stream, +by courtesy called a river. It sometimes rose in a turgid flood, but +more often it sank and delivered up its ghost to such an extent that a +man could have held it in his hat. Nevertheless some greenery +flourished on its banks. + +When Van at last could oversee the vast, unpeopled lands of the Piute +Indian reservation, near the boundary of which his salted claim had +been staked, he had only a mile or so to ride, and all the way down +hill. + +He came to the property by eleven o'clock of the morning. He looked +about reflectively. The rough board cabin and the rougher shaft-house +were scarcely worth knocking down for lumber. There, on the big, +barren dike, were several tunnels and prospects, in addition to the +shaft, all "workings" that Briggs had opened up in his labors on the +ledge. They were mere yawning mockeries of mining, but at least had +served a charlatan's requirements. A few tools lay about, abominably +neglected. + +The location was rather attractive, on the whole. The clear stream of +water had coaxed a few quaking aspens and alders into being, among the +stunted evergreens. Grass lay greenly along the bank, a charming +relief to the eye. The sandy soil was almost level in the narrow cove, +which was snugly surrounded by hills, except at the lower extremity, +where the brook tumbled down a wide ravine. + +Van, on his horse, gazed over towards the Indian reservation idly. How +vain, in all likelihood, were the wonderful tales of gold ledges lying +within its prohibited borders. What a madness was brewing in the camps +all around as the day for the reservation opening rapidly approached! +How they would swarm across its hills and valleys--those gold-seeking +men! What a scramble it would be, and all for--what? + +There were tales in plenty of men who had secretly prospected here on +this forbidden land, and marked down wonderful treasures. Van looked +at his salted possessions. What a chance for an orgie of salting the +reservation claims would afford! + +With his pony finally secured to a tree near at hand, the horseman +walked slowly about. A gold pan lay rusting, half filled with rock and +dirt, by a bench before the cabin. It was well worth cleaning and +taking away, together with some of the picks, drills, and hammers. + +He carried it over to the brook. There he knelt and washed it out, +only to find it far more rusted than it had at first appeared. He +scooped it full of the nearest gravel and scoured it roughly with his +hands. Three times he repeated this process, washing it out in the +creek. + +Ready to rise with it, cleaned at last, he caught up a shallow film of +water, flirted it about with a rotary motion, to sluice out the last +bit of stubborn dross, then paused to stare in unbelief at a few bright +particles down at the edge, washed free of all the gravel. + +Incredulous and not in the least excited, he drew a small glass from +has pocket and held it on the specks. There could be no doubt of their +nature. They were gold. + +Interested, but doubting the importance of his find, Van pawed up half +a pan full of gravel and dipped the receptacle full of water. Then +stirring the sand and stuff with his hand, he panned it carefully. + +The result at the end was such a string of colors as he had never +washed in all his wide experience. To make a superficial prospect of +the claim he proceeded to pan from a dozen different places in the +cove, and in every instance got an exceptional showing of coarse, +yellow gold, with which the gravel abounded. + +He knelt motionless at last, beside the stream, singularly unperturbed, +despite the importance of his find. Briggs had slipped up, absolutely, +on the biggest thing in many miles around, by salting and selling a +quartz claim here to a man with a modest sum of money. + +The cove was a placer claim, rich as mud in gold, and with everything +needed at hand. + +Then and there the name of the property was changed from the "See Saw" +to the "Laughing Water" claim. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +ALGY STIRS UP TROUBLE + +Bostwick arrived in Goldite at three in the afternoon, dressed in +prison clothes. He came on a freight wagon, the deliberate locomotion +of which had provided ample time for his wrath to accumulate and +simmer. His car was forty miles away, empty of gasolene, stripped of +all useful accessories, and abandoned where the convicts had compelled +him to drive them in their flight. + +A blacker face than his appeared, with anger and a stubble of beard +upon it, could not have been readily discovered. His story had easily +outstripped him, and duly amused the camp, so that now, as he rode +along the busy street, in a stream of lesser vehicles, autos, and dusty +horsemen, arriving by two confluent roads, he was angered more and more +by the grins and ribald pleasantries bestowed by the throngs in the +road. + +To complicate matters already sufficiently aggravating, Gettysburg, +Napoleon C. Blink, and Algy, the Chinese cook, from the Monte Cristo +mine, now swung into line from the northwest road, riding on horses and +burros. They were leading three small pack animals, loaded with all +their earthly plunder. + +The freight team halted and a crowd began to congregate. Bostwick was +descending just as the pack-train was passing through the narrow way +left by the crowd. His foot struck one of the loaded burros in the +eye. The animal staggered over against the wall of men, trampling on +somebody's feet. Somebody yelled and cursed vehemently, stepping on +somebody else. A small-sized panic and melee ensued forthwith. More +of the animals took alarm, and Algy was frightened half to death. His +pony, a wall-eyed, half-witted brute, stampeded in the crowd. Then +Algy was presently in trouble. + +There had been no Chinese in Goldite camp, largely on account of race +prejudice engendered and fostered by the working men, who still +maintained the old Californian hatred against the industrious +Celestials. In the mob, unfortunately near the center of confusion, +was a half-drunken miner, rancorous as poison. He was somewhat roughly +jostled by the press escaping Algy's pony. + +"Ye blank, blank chink--I'll fix ye fer that!" he bawled at the top of +his voice, and heaving his fellow white men right and left he laid +vicious hands on the helpless cook and, dragging him down, went at him +in savage brutality. + +"Belay there, you son of a shellfish!" yelled Napoleon, dismounting and +madly attempting to push real men away. "I'll smash in your +pilot-house! I'll---- Leave me git in there to Algy!" + +Gettysburg, too, was on the ground. He, Bostwick, and a hundred men +were madly crowded in together, where two or three were pushing back +the throng and yelling to Algy to fight. + +Algy was fighting. He was also spouting most awful Chinese oaths, +sufficient to warp an ordinary spine and wither a common person's +limbs. He kicked and scratched like a badger. But the miner was an +engine of destruction. He was aggravated to a mood of gory slaughter. +He broke the Chinaman's arm, almost at once, with some viciously +diabolical maneuver and leaped upon him in fury. + +In upon this scene of yelling, cursing, and fighting Van rode +unannounced. He saw the crowd increasing rapidly, as saloons, stores, +hay-yard, bank, and places of lodging poured out a curious army, mostly +men, with a few scattered women among them--all surging eagerly forward. + +Algy, meantime, in a spasm of pain and activity, struggled to his feet +from the dust and attempted to make his escape. Van no more than +beheld him that he leaped from his horse and broke his way into the +ring. + +When he laid his hand on the miner's collar it appeared as if that +individual would be suddenly jerked apart. Algy went down in collapse. + +"Why don't you pick on a man of your color?" + +Van demanded, and he flung the miner headlong to the ground. + +A hundred lusty citizens shouted their applause. + +Little Napoleon broke his way to the center. Gettysburg was just +behind him. Van was about to kneel on the ground and lift his +prostrate cook when someone bawled out a warning. + +He wheeled instantly. The angered miner, up, with a gun in hand, was +lurching in closer to shoot. He got no chance, even to level the +weapon. Van was upon him like a panther. The gun went up and was +fired in the air, and then was hurled down under foot. + +Two things happened then together. The sheriff arrived to arrest the +drunken miner, and a woman pushed her way through the press. + +"Van!" she cried. "Van--oh, Van!" + +He was busy assisting his partners to escort poor Algy away. He noted +the woman as she parted the crowd. He was barely in time to fend her +off from flinging herself in his arms. + +"Oh, Van!" she repeated wildly. "I thought you was goin' to git it +sure!" + +"Don't bother me, Queenie," he answered, annoyed, and adding to +Gettysburg, "Take him to Charlie's," he turned at once to his broncho, +mounted actively, and began to round up the scattered animals brought +into camp by his partners. + +He had barely ridden clear of the crowd when his glance was caught by a +figure off to the left. + +It was Beth. She was standing on a packing case, where the surging +disorder had sent her. She had seen it all, the fight, his arrival, +and the woman who would have clasped him in her arms. + +Her face was flushed. She avoided his gaze and turned to descend to +the walk. Then Bostwick, in his convict suit, stepped actively forward +to meet her. + +Van saw the look of surprise in her face, at beholding the man in this +attire. She recoiled, despite herself, then held forth her hand for +his aid. Bostwick took it, assisted her down, and they hastily made +their escape. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +BOSTWICK LOSES GROUND + +The one retreat for Beth was the house where she was lodging. She went +there at once, briefly explaining to Bostwick on the way how it chanced +she had come the day before. What had happened to himself she already +knew. + +Bostwick was a thoroughly angered man. He had seen the horseman in the +fight and had hoped to see him slain. To find Beth safe and even +cheerful here annoyed him exceedingly. + +"Have you lodged a complaint--done anything to have this fellow +arrested?" he demanded, alluding to Van. "Have you reported what was +done to me?" + +"Why, no," said Beth. "What's the use? He did it all in kindness, +after all." + +"Kindness!" + +"Of a sort--a rough sort, perhaps, but genuine--a kindness to me--and +Elsa," she answered, flushing rosily. "He saved me from----" she +looked at the convict garb upon him, "--from a disagreeable experience, +I'm sure, and secured me the very best accommodations in the town." + +They had almost come to her lodgings. Bostwick halted in the road, his +gun-metal jaw protruding formidably. + +"You haven't already begun to admire this ruffian--glorify this +outlaw?" he growled, "--after what he did to me?" + +"Don't stop to discuss it here," she answered, beholding Mrs. Dick at +the front of the house. "I haven't had time to do anything. You must +manage to change your clothes." + +"I'll have my reckoning with your friend," he assured her angrily. +"Have you engaged a suite for me?" + +They had come to the door of the house. Beth beheld the look of +amazement, suspicion, and repugnance on the face of Mrs. Dick, and her +face burned red once more. + +"Oh, Mrs. Dick," she said, "this is Mr. Bostwick, of whom I spoke." She +had told of Bostwick's capture by the convicts. "Do you think you +could find him a room?" + +"A room? I want a suite--two rooms at least," said Bostwick +aggressively. "Is this a first-class place?" + +"It ain't no regular heaven, and I ain't no regular Mrs. Saint Peter," +answered Mrs. Dick with considerable heat, irritated by Bostwick's +personality and recognizing in him Van's "smoke-faced Easterner." She +added crisply: "So you might as well vamoose the ranch, fer I couldn't +even put you in the shed." + +"But I've got to have accommodations!" insisted Bostwick. "I prefer +them where my fiancée--where Miss Kent is stopping. I'm sure you can +manage it someway--let someone go. The price is no object to me." + +"I don't want you that bad," said Mrs. Dick frankly. "I said no and +I'm too busy to say it again." + +She bustled off with her ant-like celerity, followed by Bostwick's +scowls. + +"You'll have to give up your apartments here," he said to Beth. "I'll +find something better at once." + +"Thank you, I'm very well satisfied," said Beth. "You'll find this +town quite overcrowded." + +"You mean you propose to stay here in spite of my wishes?" + +"Please don't wish anything absurd," she answered. "This is really no +place for fastidious choosing--and I am very comfortable." + +A lanky youth, with a suitcase and three leather bags, came shuffling +around the corner and dropped down his load. + +"Van told me to bring 'em here with his--something I don't remember," +imparted the youth. "That's all," and he grinned and departed. + +Bostwick glowered, less pleased than before. + +"That fellow, I presume. He evidently knows where you are stopping." + +Beth was beginning to feel annoyed and somewhat defiant. She had never +dreamed this man could appear so repellant as now, with his stubble of +beard and this convict garb upon him. She met his glance coldly. + +"He found me the place. I am considerably in his obligation." + +Bostwick's face grew blacker. + +"Obligation? Why don't you admit at once you admire the fellow?--or +something more. By God! I've endured about as much----" + +"Mr. Bostwick!" she interrupted. She added more quietly: "You've been +very much aggravated. I'm sorry. Now please go somewhere and change +your clothing." + +"Aggravated?" he echoed. "You ought to know what he is, by instinct. +You must have seen him in a common street brawl! You must have seen +that woman--that red-light night-hawk throwing herself in his arms. +And to think that you--with Glenmore in town---- Why isn't your +brother here with you?" + +Beth was smarting. The sense of mortification she had felt at the +sight of that woman in the street with Van, coupled with the sheer +audacity of his conduct towards herself that morning, had already +sufficiently shamed her. She refused, however, to discuss such a +question with Bostwick. + +"Glen isn't here," she answered coldly. "I trust you will soon be +enabled to find him--then--we can go." + +"Not here?" repeated Bostwick. "Where is he, then?" + +"Somewhere out in another camp--or mining place--or something. Now +please go and dress. We can talk it over later." + +"This is abominable of Glen," said Bostwick. "Is McCoppet in town?" + +She looked her surprise. "McCoppet?" + +"You don't know him, of course," he hastened to say. "I shall try to +find him at once." He turned to go, beheld her luggage, and added: "Is +there anyone to take up your things?" + +She could not bear to have him enter her apartment in this awful prison +costume. + +"Oh, yes," she answered. "You needn't be bothered with the bags." + +"Very well. I shall soon return." He departed at once, his impatience +suddenly increased by the thought of seeking out McCoppet. + +Beth watched him going. A sickening sense of revulsion invaded all her +nature. And when her thoughts, like lawless rebels, stole guiltily to +Van, she might almost have boxed her own tingling ears in sheer +vexation. + +She entered the house, summoned Elsa from her room, and had the luggage +carried to their quarters. Then she opened her case, removed some +dainty finery, and vaguely wondered if the horseman would like her in +old lavender. + +Van, in the meantime, had been busy at the hay-yard known as Charlie's. +Not only had Algy's arm been broken, by the bully in the fight, but he +had likewise been seriously mauled and beaten. His head had been cut, +he was hurt internally. A doctor, immediately summoned by the +horseman, had set the fractured member. Algy had then been put to bed +in a tent that was pitched in the yard where the horses, mules, cows, +pyramids of merchandise, and teamsters were thicker than flies on +molasses. + +Gettysburg and Napoleon, quietly informed by Van of the latest turn of +their fortune, were wholly unexcited by the news. The attack on Algy, +however, had acted potently upon them. They started to get drunk and +achieved half a load before Van could herd them back to camp. + +Napoleon was not only partially submerged when Van effected his +capture; he was also shaved. Van looked him over critically. + +"Nap," he said, "what does this mean?--you wasting money on your face?" + +Napoleon drunk became a stutterer, who whistled between his discharges +of seltzer. + +"Wheresh that little g-g-g-(whistle) girl?" he answered, "--lit-tle +D-d-d-d-(whistle) Dutch one that looksh like--looksh like--quoth the +r-r-r-r-(whistle) raven--NEVER MORE!" + +Van divined that this description was intended to indicate Elsa. + +"Gone back to China," said he. "That shave of yours is wasted on the +desert air." + +Gettysburg, whose intellect was top heavy, had the singular habit, at a +time like this, of removing his crockery eye and holding it firmly in +his fist, to guard it from possible destruction. He stared uncertainly +at both his companions. + +"China!" said he tragically. "China?" + +"Hold on, now, Gett," admonished Van, steering his tall companion as a +man might steer a ladder, "you don't break out in the woman line again +or there's going to be some concentrated anarchy in camp." + +"No, Van, no--now honest, no woman," said Gettysburg in a confidential +murmur. "I had my woman eye took out the last time I went down to +'Frisco." + +"You're a l-l-l-(whistle) liar!" ejaculated Napoleon. + +"What!" Gettysburg fairly shrieked. + +"Metaphorical speakin'--meta phor-f-f-f-f-f-(whistle) phorical +speakin'," Napoleon hastened to explain. +"Metaphor-f-f-f-(whistle)-phorical means you don't really +m-m-m-m-(whistle) mean what you say--means--quoth the +r-r-r-r-r-(whistle) raven--NEVER MORE!" + +Van said: "If you two old idiots don't do the lion and the lamb act +pretty pronto I'll send you both to the poor house." + +They had entered the hay-yard, among the mules and horses. Gettysburg +promptly reached down, laid hold of Napoleon, and kissed him violently +upon the nose. + +Napoleon wept. "What did I s-s-s-s-(whistle) say?" he sobbed +lugubriously. "Oh, death, where is thy s-s-s-s-(whistle) sting?" + +Evening had come. The two fell asleep in Algy's tent, locked in each +other's arms. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +A COMBINATION OF FORCES + +Bostwick effected a change of dress in the rear of the nearest store. +A rough blue shirt, stout kahki garments and yellow "hiking" boots +converted him into one of the common units of which the camp throng was +comprised. He was then duly barbered, after which he made a strenuous +but futile endeavor to procure accommodations for the night. + +There was no one with leisure to listen to his tirade on the shameful +inadequacy of the attributes of civilization in the camp, and after one +brief attempt to arouse civic indignation against Van for his acts of +deliberate lawlessness, he perceived the ease with which he might +commit an error and render himself ridiculous. He dropped all hope of +publicly humiliating the horseman and deferred his private vengeance +for a time more opportune. + +Wholly at a loss to cope with a situation wherein he found himself so +utterly neglected and unknown, despite the influential position he +occupied both in New York and Washington, he resolved to throw himself +entirely upon the mercies of McCoppet. + +He knew his man only through their correspondence, induced by Beth's +brother, Glenmore Kent. Inquiring at the bank, he was briefly directed +to the largest saloon of the place. When he entered the bar he found +it swarming full of men, miners, promoters, teamsters, capitalists, +gamblers, lawyers, and--the Lord alone knew what. The air was a reek +of smoke and fumes of liquor. A blare of alleged music shocked the +atmosphere. Men drunk and men sober, all were talking mines and gold, +the greatness of the camp, the richness of the latest finds, and the +marvel of their private properties. Everyone had money, everyone had +chunks of ore to show to everyone else. + +At the rear were six tables with layouts for games of chance. Faro, +"klondike," roulette, stud-poker, almost anything possibly to be +desired was there. All were in full blast. Three deep the men were +gathered about the wheel and the "tiger." Gold money in stacks stood +at every dealer's hand. Bostwick had never seen so much metal currency +in all his life. + +He asked for McCoppet at the bar. + +"Opal? Somewhere back--that's him there, talkin' to the guy with the +fur on his jaw," informed the barkeeper, making a gesture with his +thumb. "What's your poison?" + +"Nothing, thank you," answered Bostwick, who started for his man, but +halted for McCoppet to finish his business with his friend. + +The man on whom Bostwick was gazing was a tall, slender, slightly +stooped individual of perhaps forty-five, with a wonderful opal in his +tie, from which he had derived his sobriquet. He was clean-shaved, big +featured, and gifted with a pair of heavy-lidded eyes as lustreless as +old buttons. He had never been seen without a cigar in his mouth, but +the weed was never lighted. + +Bostwick noted the carefulness of the man's attire, but gained no clue +as to his calling. To avoid stupid staring he turned to watch a game +of faro. Its fascinations were rapidly engrossing his attentions and +luring him onward toward a reckless desire to tempt the goddess of +chance, when he presently beheld McCoppet turn away from his man and +saunter down the room. + +A moment later Bostwick touched him on the shoulder. + +"Beg pardon," he said, "Mr. McCoppet?" + +McCoppet nodded. "My name." + +"I'd like to introduce myself--J. Searle Bostwick," said the visitor. +"I expected to arrive, as I wrote you----" + +"Glad to meet you, Bostwick," interrupted the other, putting forth his +hand. "Where are you putting up?" + +"I haven't been able to find accommodations," answered Bostwick warmly. +"It's an outrage the way this town is conducted. I thought perhaps----" + +"I'll fix you all right," cut in McCoppet. "Are you ready for a talk? +Nothing has waited for you to come." + +"I came for an interview--in fact----" + +"Private room back here," McCoppet announced, and he started to lead +the way, pausing for a moment near a faro table to cast a cold glance +at the dealer. + +"Wonderfully interesting game," said Bostwick. "It seems as if a man +might possibly beat it." + +There might have been a shade of contempt in the glance McCoppet cast +upon him. He merely said: "He can't." + +Bostwick laughed. "You seem very positive." + +McCoppet was moving on again. + +"I own the game." + +He owned everything here, and had his designs on two more places like +it, down the street. He almost owned the souls of many men, but gold +and power were the goals on which his eyes were riveted. + +Bostwick glanced at him with newer interest as they passed down the +room, and so to a tight little office the walls of which were specially +deadened against the transmission of sound. + +"Have anything to drink?" inquired the owner, before he took a chair, +"--whiskey, wine?" + +"Thanks, no," said Bostwick, "not just yet." He took the chair to +which McCoppet waved him. "I must say I'm surprised," he admitted, "to +see the numbers of men, the signs of activity, and all the rest of it +in a camp so young. And by the way, it seems young Kent is away." + +"Yes," said the gambler, settling deeply into his chair and sleepily +observing his visitor. "I sent him away last week." + +Bostwick was eager. + +"On something good for the--for our little group?" + +"On a wild goose séance," answered McCoppet. "He's in the way around +here." + +"Oh," said Bostwick, who failed to understand. "I thought----" + +"Yes. I culled your thought from your letters," interrupted his host +drawlingly. "We might as well understand each other first as last. +Bostwick--are you out here to work this camp my way or the kid's?" + +Bostwick was cautious. "How does he wish to work it?" + +"Like raising potatoes." + +"And your plan is----" + +"Look here, do I stack up like a Sunday-school superintendent? I +thought you and I understood each other. I don't run no game the other +man can maybe beat. Didn't you come out here with that understanding?" + +"Certainly, I----" + +"Then never mind the kid. What have you got in your kahki?" + +"Our syndicate to buy the Hen Hawk group----" started Bostwick, but the +gambler cut in sharply. + +"That's sold and cold. You have to move here; things happen. What did +you do about the reservation permit?" + +Bostwick looked about the room furtively, and edged his chair a bit +closer. + +"I secured permission from Government headquarters to explore all or +any portions of the reservation, and take _assistants_ with me," he +imparted in a lowered tone of voice. "I had it mailed to me here by +registered post. It should be at the post-office now." + +"Right," said McCoppet with more of an accent of approval in his +utterance. "Get it out to-day. I've got your corps of assistants +hobbled here in camp. They can get on the ground to-morrow morning." + +Bostwick's eyes were gleaming. + +"There's certainly gold on this reservation?" + +"Now, how can anybody tell you that?" demanded McCoppet, who from his +place here in Goldite had engineered the plan whereby his and +Bostwick's expert prospectors could explore every inch of the +Government's forbidden land in advance of all competitors. "We're +taking a flyer, that's all. If there's anything there--we're on." + +Bostwick reflected for a moment. "There's nothing at present that our +syndicate could do?" + +"There'll be plenty of chances to use ready money," McCoppet assured +him, rising. "You're here on the ground. Keep your shirt on and leave +the shuffling to me." + +Bostwick, too, arose. "How long will young Kent be away?" + +"As long as I can keep him busy out South." + +"What is he doing out South?" + +"Locating a second Goldite," said the gambler. "Keeps him on the +move." He threw away his chewed cigar, placed a new one in his mouth, +and started for the door. "Come on," he added, "I'll identify you over +at the postoffice and show you where you sleep." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +MOVING A SHACK + +Less than a week had passed since Bostwick's arrival in Goldite, but +excitement was rife in the air. Despite the angered protests of half a +thousand mining men, the Easterner, with four of the shrewdest +prospectors in the State, had traversed the entire mineral region of +the reservation in the utmost security and assurance. Five hundred men +had been forced to remain at the border, at the points of official +guns. A few desperate adventurers had crept through the guard, but +nearly all were presently captured and ejected from the place, while +Bostwick--granted special privileges--was assuming this inside track. + +The day for the opening of the lands was less than two weeks off--and +the news leaked out and spread like a wind that the "Laughing Water" +claim had suddenly promised amazing wealth as a placer where Van and +his partners were taking out the gold by the simplest, most primitive +of methods. + +The rush for the region came like a stampede of cattle. An army of men +went swarming over the ridges and overran the country like a plague of +ants. They trooped across the border of the reservation, so close to +the "Laughing Water" claim, they staked out all the visible world, +above, below, and all about Van's property, they tore down each others' +monuments, including a number where Van had located new, protective +claims, and they builded a tent town over night, not a mile from his +first discovery. + +At the claim in the cove the fortunate holders of a private treasury of +gold had lost no time. In the absence of better lumber, for which they +had no money, Van and his partners had torn down the shaft-house, made +it into sluices, and turned in the water from the stream. That was all +the plant required. They had then commenced to shovel the gravel into +the trough-like boxes, and the gold had begun to lodge behind the +riffles. + +The cove became a theatre of curiosity, envy, and covetous longings. +Men came there by motor, on horses, mules, and on foot to take one +delirious look and rush madly about to improve what chances still +remained. The fame of it swept like prairie fire, far and wide. The +new-made town began at once to spread and encroach upon all who were +careless of their holdings. Lawlessness was rampant. + +At the cabin on the "Laughing Water" claim Algy, the Chinese cook, was +still disabled. Gettysburg was chief culinary artist. Napoleon +hustled for grub, the only supplies of which were over at Goldite--and +expensive. All were constantly exhausted with the labors of the day. + +Despite their vigilance they awoke one morning to see a brand-new cabin +standing on the claim, at the top of a hill. A man was on the rough +pine roof, rapidly laying weather paper. Van beheld him, watched him +for a moment, then quietly walked over to the site. + +"Say, friend," he called to the man on the roof, "you've broken into +Eden by mistake. This property is mine and I haven't any building lots +to sell." + +The visiting builder took out a huge revolver and laid it on a block. +He said nothing at all. Van felt his impatience rising. + +"I'm talking to you, Mr. Carpenter," he added. "Come on, now, I don't +want any trouble with neighbors, but this cabin will have to be +removed." + +"Go to hell!" said the builder. He continued to pound in his nails. + +"If I go," said Van calmly, "I'll bring a little back. Are you going +to move or be moved?" + +"Don't talk to me, I'm busy," answered the intruder. "I'm an irritable +man, and everything I own is irritable, understand?" And taking up his +gun he thumped with it briskly on the boards. + +"If you're looking for trouble," Van replied, "you won't need a +double-barreled glass." + +He turned away and the man continued operations. When he came to the +shack Van selected a hammer and a couple of drills from among a lot of +tools in the corner. + +To his partner's questions as to what the visitor intended he replied +that only time could tell. + +"Here, Nap," he added, fetching forth the tools, "I want you to take +this junk and go up there where the neighbor is working. Just sit down +quietly and drill three shallow holes and don't say a word to yonder +busy bee. If he asks you what's doing, play possum--and don't make the +holes too deep." + +Napoleon went off as directed. His blows could presently be heard as +he drilled in a porphyry dike. + +His advent puzzled the man intent on building. + +"Say, you," said he, "what's on your programme?" + +Napoleon drilled and said nothing. + +The carpenter watched him in some uneasiness. + +"Say, you ain't starting a shaft?" + +No answer. + +"Ain't this a placer? Say, you, are you deef?" + +Napoleon pounded on the steel. + +"Go to hell!" said the builder, as he had before, "--a man that can't +answer civil questions!" + +He resumed his labors, pausing now and then to stare at Napoleon, in a +steadily increasing dubiety of mind. + +In something less than twenty minutes he had done very little roofing, +owing to a nervousness he found it hard to banish, while Napoleon had +all but completed his holes. Then Van came leisurely strolling to the +place, comfortably loaded with dynamite, of which a man may carry much. + +With utter indifference to the man on the roof he proceeded to charge +those shallow holes. As a matter of fact he overcharged them. He used +an exceptional amount of the harmless looking stuff, and laid a short +fuse to the cap. When he turned to the builder, who had watched +proceedings with a sickening alarm at his vitals, that industrious +person had taken on a heavy, leaden hue. + +"You see I went where you told me," said Van, "and I've brought some +back as I promised. This shot has got to go before breakfast--and +breakfast is just about ready." + +"For God's sake give a man a chance," implored the man who had +trespassed in the night. "I'll move the shack to-morrow." + +"You won't have to," Van informed him, "but you'd better move your meat +to-day." + +He took out a match, scratched it with quiet deliberation and lighted +the end of the fuse. + +"For God's sake--man!" cried the carpenter, and without even waiting to +climb from the roof he rolled to the edge in a panic, fell off on his +feet, and ran as if all the fiends of Hades were fairly at his heels. + +Van and Napoleon also moved away with becoming alacrity. Three minutes +later the charge went off. It sounded like the crack of doom. It +seemed to split the earth and very firmament. A huge black toadstool +of smoke rose up abruptly. Something like a blot of yellowish color +spattered all over the landscape. It was the shack. + +It had moved. The smoke cloud drifted rapidly away. On the hill was a +great jagged hole, lined with rock, but there was nothing more. The +cabin was hung in lumber shreds on the stunted trees for hundreds of +feet in all directions. With it went hammers, saws and a barrel of +nails whose usefulness was ended. + +Gettysburg, aproned, and fresh from his labors at the stove, came +hastening out of the cabin to where his partners stood, in great +distress of mind. + +"Holy toads, Van!" he said excitedly, "it must have been the shot! +I've dropped an egg--and what in the world shall I do?" + +"Cackle, man, cackle," Van answered him gravely. "That's a mighty rare +occurrence." + +"And two-bits apiece!" almost wailed poor Gettysburg, diving back into +the cabin, "and only them four in the shack!" + +That was also the day that Bostwick came out upon the scene. He came +with his prospectors, all the party somewhat disillusionized as to all +that fabled gold upon the Indian reservation. + +Some word of the wealth of the "Laughing Water" claim had come to +Searle early in the week. He did not visit the cabin or the owners of +the cove. For fifteen minutes, however, he sat upon his horse and +scanned the place in silence. Then out of his newly-acquired knowledge +of the boundaries of the reservation the hounds of his mind jumped up a +half-mad plan. His cold eyes glittered as he looked across to where +Van and his partners were toiling. His lips were compressed in a smile. + +He rode to Goldite hurriedly and sought out his friend McCoppet. When +the two were presently closeted together where their privacy was +assured, a conspiracy, diabolically insidious, was about to have its +birth. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +HATCHING A PLOT + +"You're back pretty pronto," drawled the gambler, by way of an opening +remark. "Found something too big to keep hidden?" + +"That reservation is a false alarm, as Billy and the others will tell +you," answered Bostwick, referring to McCoppet's chosen prospectors. +"The rush will prove a farce." + +"You've decided sudden, ain't you?" asked McCoppet. "There's a good +big deck there to stack." + +"We've wasted time and money till to-day." Bostwick rose from his +chair, put one foot upon it, and leaned towards the gambler as one +assuming a position of equality, if not of something more. "Look here, +McCoppet, you asked me the day I arrived what sort of a game I'd come +to play. I ask you now if you are prepared to play something +big--and--well, let us say, a trifle risky?" + +"Don't insult my calling," answered the gambler. "I call. Lay your +cards on the table." + +Bostwick sat down and leaned across the soiled green baize. + +"You probably know as much as I do about the 'Laughing Water' +claim--its richness--its owners--and where it's located." + +McCoppet nodded, narrowing his eyes. + +"A good dog could smell their luck from here." + +"But do you know where it lies--their claim?" insisted Bostwick +significantly. "That's the point I'm making at present." + +"It's just this side of the reservation, from what I hear," replied the +gambler, "but if there's nothing on the reservation even near the +'Laughing Water' ground----" + +Bostwick interrupted impatiently: "What's the matter with _the +'Laughing Water' being on the reservation_?" + +McCoppet was sharp but he failed to grasp his associate's meaning. + +"But it ain't," he said, "and no one claims it is." + +Bostwick lowered his voice and looked at the gambler peculiarly. + +"No one claims it _yet_!" + +McCoppet threw away his cigar and took out a new one. + +"Well? Come on. I bite. What's the answer?" + +Bostwick leaned back in his chair. + +"Suppose an accredited surveyor were to run out the reservation +line--the line next the 'Laughing Water' claim--and make an error of an +inch at the farthest end. Suppose that inch, projected several miles, +became about a thousand feet--wouldn't the 'Laughing Water' claim be +discovered to be a part of the Indian reservation?" + +McCoppet eyed him narrowly, in silence, for a moment. He had suddenly +conceived a new estimate of the man who had come from New York. + +Bostwick again leaned forward, continuing: + +"No one will be aware of the facts but ourselves--therefore no one will +think of attempting to relocate the 'Laughing Water' ground, lawfully, +at six o'clock on the morning of the rush. But we will be on hand, +with the law at our backs, and quietly take possession of the property, +on which--as it is reservation ground--the present occupants are +trespassing." + +McCoppet heard nothing of what his friend was saying. All the +possibilities outlined had flashed through his mind at Bostwick's first +intimation of the plan. He was busy now with affairs far ahead in the +scheme. + +"Culver, the Government agent and surveyor is a dark one," he mused +aloud, half to himself. "If only Lawrence, his deputy, was in his +shoes---- Your frame-up sounds pretty tight, Bostwick, but Culver may +block us with his damnable squareness." + +"Every man has his price," said Bostwick, "--big and little. Culver, +you say, represents the Government? Where is he now?" + +McCoppet replied with a question: "Bostwick, how much have you got?" + +Bostwick flushed. "Money? Oh, I can raise my share, I hope." + +"You hope?" repeated the gambler. "Ain't your syndicate back of any +game you open, with the money to see it started right?" + +Bostwick was a trifle uneasy. The "syndicate" of which he had spoken +was entirely comprised of Beth and her money, which he hoped presently +to call his own. He had worked his harmless little fiction of big +financial men behind him in the certainty of avoiding detection. + +"Of course, I can call on the money," he said, "but I may need a day or +so to get it. How much shall we require?" + +McCoppet chewed his cigar reflectively. + +"Culver will sure come high--if we get him at all--but--it ought to be +worth fifty thousand to you and me to shift that reservation line a +thousand feet--if reports on the claim are correct." + +It was a large sum. Bostwick scratched the corner of his mouth. + +"That would be twenty-five thousand apiece." + +"No," corrected McCoppet, "twenty thousand for me and thirty for you, +for equal shares. I've got to do the work underground." + +"Perhaps I could handle what's his name, Culver, myself," objected +Bostwick. "The fact that I'm a stranger here----" + +"And what will you do if he refuses?" interrupted the gambler. "Will +you still have an ace in your kahki?" + +Bostwick stared. + +"If he should refuse, and tell the owners----" + +"Right. Can you handle it then?" + +Bostwick answered: "Can you?" + +"It's my business to get back what I've lost--and a little bit more. +You leave it to me. Keep away from Culver, and bring me thirty +thousand in the morning." + +Bostwick was breathing hard. He maintained a show of calm. + +"The morning's a little bit soon for me to turn around. I'll bring it +when I can." + +McCoppet arose. The interview was ended. He added: + +"Have a drink?" + +"I'll wait," said Bostwick, "till we can drink a toast to the 'Laughing +Water' claim." + +McCoppet opened the door, waved Bostwick into the crowded gaming room, +and was about to follow when his roving gaze abruptly lighted on a +figure in the place--a swarthy, half-breed Piute Indian, standing in +front of the wheel and roulette layout. + +Quickly stepping back inside the smaller apartment, the gambler pulled +down his hat. His face was the color of ashes. + +"So long. See you later," he murmured, and he closed the door without +a sound. + +Bostwick, wholly at a loss to understand his sudden dismissal, lingered +for a moment only in the place, then made his way out to the street, +and went to the postoffice, where he found a letter from Glenmore Kent. +Intent upon securing the needed funds from Beth with the smallest +possible delay, he dropped the letter, unread, in his pocket and headed +for the house where Beth was living. He walked, however, no more than +half a block before he altered his mind. Pausing for a moment on the +sidewalk, he turned on his heel and went briskly to his own apartments, +where he performed an unusual feat. + +First he read the letter from Kent. It was dated from the newest camp +in the desert and was filled with glittering generalities concerning +riches about to be discovered. It urged him, in case he had arrived in +Goldite, to hasten southward forthwith--"and bring a bunch of money." +Glenmore's letters always appealed for money--a fact which Bostwick had +remembered. + +The man sat down at his table and wrote a letter to himself. With +young Kent's epistle for his model, he made an amazingly clever forgery +of the enthusiastic writer's chirography, and at the bottom signed the +young man's name. + +This spurious document teemed with figures and assertions concerning a +wonderful gold mine which Glenmore had virtually purchased. He needed +sixty thousand dollars at once, however, to complete his remarkable +bargain. Only two days of his option remained and therefore delay +would be fatal. He expected this letter to find his friend at Goldite +and he felt assured he would not be denied this opportunity of a +lifetime to make a certain fortune. He would, of course, appeal to +Beth--with certainty of her help from the wealth bequeathed her by her +uncle--but naturally she was too far away, + +Glenmore was unaware of the fact that his sister had come to the West. +Bostwick overlooked no details of importance. Armed with this +plausible missive, he went at once to Mrs. Dick's and found that Beth +was at home. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +INVOLVING BETH + +Goldite to the Eastern girl, who had found herself practically +abandoned for nearly a week, had proved to be a mixture of discomforts, +excitements, and disturbing elements. Fascinated by the maelstrom of +the mining-camp life, and unwilling to retreat from the scene until she +should see her roving brother, and gratify at least a curiosity +concerning Van, she nevertheless felt afraid to be there, not only on +account of the roughness and uncertainty of the existence, but also +because, despite herself, she had attracted undesirable attention. +Moreover, the house was full of "gentlemen" lodgers, with three of whom +Elsa was conducting most violent flirtations. + +There were few respectable women in the town. It was still too early +for their advent. Beth had been annoyed past all endurance. There was +no possibility of even mild social diversions; there was no one to +visit. While the street could be described as perfectly safe, it was +nevertheless an uncomfortable place in which to walk. Bostwick's car +had been recovered and brought into camp, but skilled as she was at the +steering wheel, she had hardly desired or dared to take it out. + +Crime was frequent in the streets and houses. Disturbing reports of +marauding expeditions on the part of the convicts, still at large, came +with insistent frequency. Altogether the week had been a trial to her +nerves. It had also been a vexation. No man had a right, she told +herself, to do and say the things that Van had said and done, only to +go off, without so much as a little good-by and give no further sign. +She told herself she had a right to at least some sort of opportunity +to tender her honest congratulations. She had heard of his claim--the +"Laughing Water"--and perhaps she wished to know how it chanced to have +this particular name. If certain disturbing reflections anent that +woman who had run to him wildly, out in the street, came mistily +clouding the estimate she tried to place upon his character, she +confessed he certainly had the right to make an explanation. In a +purely feminine manner she argued that she had the right to some such +explanation--if only because of certain liberties he had taken with her +hands--on which memories still warmly burned. + +Wholly undecided as to what she would do if she could, and impatient +with Bostwick for his sheer neglect in searching out her brother, she +was thoroughly glad to see him to-day when he came so unannounced to +the house. + +"Well if you don't look like a mountaineer!" she said, as she met him +in the dining-room, which was likewise the parlor of the place. "Where +in the world have you been, all this time? You haven't come back +without Glen?" + +He had gone away ostensibly to find her brother. + +"Well, the fact is he wasn't where I went, after all," he said. "I +hastened home, after all that trip, undertaken for nothing, and found a +letter from him here. I've come at once to have an important talk." + +"A letter?" she cried. "Let me see it--let me read it, please. +He's--where? He's well? He's successful?" + +"Sit down," answered Bostwick, taking a chair and placing his hat on +the table. "There's a good deal to say. But first, how have you been +here, all alone?" + +"Oh--very well--I suppose," she answered, restraining the natural +resentment she felt at his patent neglect. "It isn't exactly the place +I'd choose to remain in, alone all the time." + +"Poor little girl, I've been thinking of that," he told her, reaching +across the table to take her hands. "It's worried me, Beth, worried me +greatly--your unprotected position, and all that." + +"Oh, you needn't worry." She withdrew her hands. Someway it seemed a +sacrilege for him to touch them--it was not to be borne--she hardly +knew why, or since when. "I want to know about Glen," she added. +"Never mind me." + +"But I do mind," he assured her. His hand was trembling. "Beth, I--I +can't talk much--I mean romantic talk, and all that, but--well--I've +about concluded we ought to be married at once--for your sake--your +protection--and my peace of mind. I have thought about it ever since I +left you here alone." + +The brightness expressive of the gayety of her nature departed from her +eyes. She looked fixedly at the man's dark face, with its gray, +deep-set, penetrative eyes, its bluish jaw, and knitted brows. It +frightened her, someway, as it never had before. He had magnetized her +always--sometimes more than now, but his influence crept upon her +subtly even here. + +"But I--I think I'd rather not--just yet," she faltered, crimsoning and +dropping her gaze to the table. "You promised not to--to urge me +again--at least till I've spoken to Glen." + +"But I could not have known--forseen these conditions," he told her, +leaning further towards her across the table. "Why shouldn't we be +married now--at once? A six months' engagement is certainly long +enough. Your position here is--well--almost dubious. You must see +that. It isn't right of me--decent--not to make you my wife +immediately. I wish to do so--I wish it very much." + +She arose, as if to wrench herself free from the spell he was casting +upon her. + +"I'm all right--I'm quite all right," she said. "I'd rather not--just +now. There's no one here who cares a penny who or what I am. If my +position here is misunderstood--it can do no harm. I'd rather you +wouldn't say anything further about it--just at present." + +Her agitation did not escape him. If he thought of the horseman who +had carried her off while sending himself to the convicts, his plan for +vengeance only deepened. + +"You must have some reason for refusing." He too arose. + +"No--no particular reason," she answered, artlessly walking around the +table, apparently to pick up a button from the floor, but actually to +avoid his contact. "I just don't wish to--to be married +now--here--that's all. I ask you to keep your promise--not to ask it +while we remain." + +He had feared to lose her a score of times before. He feared it now +more potently than ever. And there was much that he must ask. The +risk of giving her a fright was not to be incurred. + +"Very well," he said resignedly, "but--it's very hard to wait." + +"Won't you sit down?" she asked him, an impulse of gratitude upon her. +"Now do be good and sensible, and tell me all about Glen." + +She returned to the table and resumed her seat. + +Bostwick sat opposite and drew his forged letter from his pocket. He +had placed it in Glenmore's envelope after tearing the young man's +letter into scraps. + +"This letter," said he, "was sent from way down in the desert--from +Starlight, another new camp. It looks to me as if the boy has struck +something very important. I'll read you what he says--or you can read +it for yourself." + +"No, no--read it. I'd rather listen." + +He read it haltingly, as one who puzzles over unfamiliar writing. Its +effect sank in the deeper for the method. Beth was open-eyed with +wonder, admiration, and delight over all that Glen had done and was +about to accomplish. She rose to the bait with sisterly eagerness. + +"Why, he _must_ have the chance--he's _got_ to have the chance!" she +cried excitedly. "What do you think of it yourself?" + +Bostwick fanned the blaze with conservatism. + +"It's quite a sum of money and Glen might overestimate the value of the +mine. I've inquired around and learn that the property is considered +tremendously promising. If we--if he actually secures that claim it +will doubtless mean a for---- I don't like to lose my sense of +judgment, but I do want to help the boy along. Frankly, however, I +don't see how I can let him have so much. I couldn't possibly send him +but thirty thousand dollars at the most." + +Beth's eyes were blazing with excitement. She had never dreamed that +Searle could be so generous--so splendid. An impulse of gratitude and +admiration surged throughout her being. + +"You'd _do_ it?" she said. "You'll do as much as that for Glen?" + +"Why, how can I do less?" he answered. "That claim will doubtless be +worth half a million, maybe more--if all I hear is reliable--and I get +it from disinterested parties. The boy has done a good big thing. +I've got to help him out. It seems too bad to offer him only half of +what he needs, but I'm not a very wealthy man. I can't be utterly +Quixotic. We've all got to help him all we can." + +"Oh, thank you, Searle--thank you for saying 'we,'" she said in a voice +that slightly trembled. "I'm glad of the chance--glad to show dear +Glen that a sister can help a little, too." + +He stared at her with an excellent imitation of surprise in his gaze. + +"You'll--help?" he said in astonishment, masterfully simulated. "Not +with the other thirty thousand?" + +"Why not?" she cried. "Why not, when Glen has the chance of his life? +You don't really think I'd hesitate?" + +"But," said he, leading her onward, "he needs the money now--at once. +You'd have to get it here by wire, and all that sort of trouble." + +"Then we'd better get things started," she said. "You'll help me, +Searle, I'm sure." + +"If you wish it," said Bostwick, "certainly." + +"Dear Glen!" she said. "Dear boy! I'll write him a letter at once." + +Bostwick started, alertly, as she ran in her girlish pleasure to a +stand where she had placed her materials for writing. + +"Good," he commented drily, "I'll mail it with one of my own." + +She dashed off a bright effusion with all her spontaneous enthusiasm. +Bostwick supplied her with the address, and presently took the letter +in his hand. He had much to do at the bank, he informed her, by way of +preparing for the deal. He promised to return when he could. + +On his way down street be deliberately tore the letter to the smallest +of fragments and scattered them widely on the wind. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +UNEXPECTED COMPLICATIONS + +On the following morning news arrived in Goldite that temporarily +dimmed the excitement attendant upon stories of the "Laughing Water" +property and the coming stampede to the Indian reservation. + +Matt Barger and three others of the convicts, still uncaptured, had +pillaged a freight team, of horses, provisions, and arms, murdered a +stage driver, robbed the express of a large consignment of gold, and +escaped as before to the mountains. + +Two separate posses were in pursuit. Rewards aggregating ten thousand +dollars were offered for Barger, dead or alive, with smaller sums for +each of his companions. Their latest depredations had occurred +alarmingly close to the mining camp, from which travel was becoming +hazardous. + +The gold theft was particularly disquieting to the Goldite mining +contingent. Dangers beset their enterprises in many directions at the +very best. To have this menace added, together with worry over every +man's personal safety in traveling about, was fairly intolerable. The +inefficient posses were roundly berated, but no man volunteered to +issue forth and "get" Matt Barger--either alive or as a corpse. + +The man who arrived with the news was one of Van's cronies, Dave, the +little station man whom Beth had met the morning of her coming. He was +here in response to a summons from Van, who thought he saw an +opportunity to assist his friend to better things. Everything Dave +owned he had fetched across the desert, including both the horses that +Beth and Elsa once had ridden. The station itself he had sold. He had +launched forth absolutely on Van's new promises, burning all his +bridges, as it were, behind him. + +Van came down to meet him. He had other concerns in Goldite, some with +Culver, the Government representative, and others a trifle more +personal, and intended to combine them all in one excursion. + +No sooner had he appeared on the street, after duly stabling "Suvy" at +the hay-yard, than a hundred acquaintances, suddenly transformed into +intimate friends, by the change in his fortunes, pounced upon him in a +spirit of generosity, hilarity, and comaraderie that cloyed not only +his senses, but even his movements in the camp. + +He was dragged and carried into four saloons like a helpless, +good-natured bear cub, strong enough to resist by inflicting injuries, +but somewhat amused by the game. Intelligence of his advent went the +rounds. The local editor and the girl he had addressed as "Queenie," +on the day of the fight in the street, were rivals in another joyous +attack as he escaped at last to proceed about his own affairs. + +The editor stood no chance whatsoever. Van had nothing to say, and +said so. Moreover, Queenie was a very persistent, as well as a very +pretty, young person, distressingly careless of deportment. She clung +to Van like a bur. + +"Gee, Van!" she cried with genuine tears in her eyes, "didn't I always +say you was the candy? Didn't I always say I'd give you my head and +breathe through my feet--day or night? Didn't I tell 'em all you was +the only one? You're the only diamonds there is for me--and I didn't +never wait for you to strike it first." + +"No, you didn't even wait for an invitation," answered Van with a +smile. "Everybody's got to hike now. I'm busy, trying to breathe." + +She clung on. Unfortunately, down in an Arizona town, Van had trounced +a ruffian once in Queenie's protection--simply because of her gender +and entirely without reference to her character or her future attitude +towards himself. In her way she personified a sort of adoration and +gratitude, which could neither be slain nor escaped by anything that he +or anyone else could do. Her devotion, however, had palled upon him +early, perhaps more because of its habit of increasing. It had +recently become a pest. + +"Busy?" she echoed. "You said that before. When ain't you going to be +busy?" + +"When I'm dead," he answered, and wrenching loose he dived inside a +hardware store, to purchase a hunting knife for Gettysburg, then went +at once to a barber shop and shut out the torment of friends. + +He escaped at the rear, when his face had been groomed, and made his +way unseen to Mrs. Dick's. + +Beth was not at home. She and Bostwick were together at the office of +the telegraph company, where Searle was assisting her, as she thought +to aid her brother, to such excellent purpose that her thirty thousand +dollars bid fair to repose in the bank at his call before the business +day should reach its end. + +Mrs. Dick seemed to Van the one and only person in the camp unaffected +by the news of his luck. She treated him precisely as she always had +and doubtless always should. Therefore, he had no difficulty in +getting away to Culver at his office. + +The official surveyor was a fat-cheeked, handsome man, with a silky +brown beard, an effeminate voice, and prodigious self-conceit. He was +pacing up and down the inside office, at the rear of the rough board +building, when Van came in and found him. The horseman's business was +one of maps and land-office data made essential to his needs by the new +recording of the "Laughing Water" property as a placer instead of a +quartz claim. He had drawn a crude outline of his holdings and in +taking it forth from his pocket found the knife bought for Gettysburg +in the way. He removed the weapon and placed it on the table near at +hand. + +"There's so much of this desert unsurveyed," he said, "that no man can +tell whether he's just inside or just outside of Purgatory." + +"So you come to me to find out?" Culver demanded somewhat shortly. "Do +you tin-horn miners think that's all this office is for?" + +"Well, in my instance, I had to come to some wiser spirit than myself +to get my bearings," answered Van drawlingly. "You can see that." + +"There are the maps." Culver waved his hand towards a drawer in the +office table, and moved impatiently over to a window, the view from +which commanded a section of the street, including the bank. + +Van was presently engrossed in a search for quarter sections, ranges, +and townships. + +"Look here," said Culver, turning upon him aggressively, "what's this +racket I hear about you taking the inside track with that stunning new +petticoat in town?" + +Van looked up without the least suspicion of the man's real meaning. + +"If you are referring to that reckless young woman called Queenie----" + +"Oh, Queenie--rats!" interrupted Culver irritably. "You know who I +mean. I guess you call her Beth." + +Van's face took on a look of hardness as if it were chiseled in stone. +He had squared around as if at a blow. For a moment he faced the +surveyor in silence. + +"You are making some grave mistake," he said presently in ominous calm. +"Please don't make such an allusion as that again." + +"So, the shot went home," Culver laughed unctuously, turning for a +moment from the window. "I thought it would. You know you couldn't +expect to keep anything like that all to yourself, Van Buren. You're +not the only ladies' man on the beach. And as for this clod of a +Bostwick----" He had turned to look out as before, and grew suddenly +excited. Beth was in view at the bank. "By the gods!" he exclaimed +with a sudden change of tone, "she is the handsomest bit of +confectionery on earth. If I don't win her----" + +His utterance promptly ceased, together with his abominable activities +and primping in the window. Van, who did not know that this creature +had been Beth's particular annoyance, had crossed the room without a +sound and laid his grip on Culver's collar. + +"You cur!" he said quietly, and choking the man he flung him down +against the floor and wall as if he had been the merest puppet. + +Someone had entered the outside door. Neither Culver nor Van heard the +sound. Culver rolled over, scrambled to his feet, and with his face +and neck engorged with rage, came rushing at the horseman like a fury. + +"You blackguard!" he screamed, "I'll tear out your heart for that! +I'll kill you like----" + +"Shut up!" Van commanded quietly, stopping the onrush of his angered +foe by putting his hand against the surveyor's face and sending him +reeling as before. "Don't tell me what you'll do to me--or to anyone +else in this camp! And if ever I hear of you opening your mouth again +as you did here a moment ago, I'll tie a knot so hard in your carcass +you'll have to be buried in a hat box!" + +He glanced towards the doorway. A stranger stood on the threshold. +Bowing, Van passed him and left the place, too angered to think either +of the maps or of his knife. + +Culver, raging like a maniac, bowled headlong into the visitor, in his +effort to overtake the horseman, but found himself baffled and took out +his wrath in foul vituperation that presently drove the stranger from +the place. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +WHEREIN MATTERS THICKEN + +The stranger who had witnessed the trouble at Culver's office had come +there at the instance of McCoppet. It was, therefore, to McCoppet that +he carried the intelligence of what had taken place, so far as he had +seen. + +The gambler was exceedingly pleased. That Culver would now be ready, +as never before, to receive a proposition whereby the owners of the +"Laughing Water" claim could be deprived of their ground, he was well +convinced. + +For reasons best known to himself and skillfully concealed from all +acquaintances, McCoppet had remained practically in hiding since the +moment in which he had beheld that half-breed Piute Indian in the +saloon. He remained out of sight even now, dispatching a messenger to +Culver, in the afternoon, requesting his presence for a conference for +the total undoing of Van Buren. + +Culver, who in ordinary circumstances might have refused this request +with haughty insolence, responded to the summons rather sooner than +McCoppet had expected. He was still red with anger, and meditating +personal violence to Van at the earliest possible meeting. + +McCoppet, with his smokeless cigar in his mouth, and his great opal +sentient with fire, received his visitor in the little private den to +which Bostwick had been taken. + +"How are you, Culver?" he said off-handedly. + +"I wanted to have a little talk. I sent a man up to your shop a while +ago, and he told me you fired Van Buren out of the place on the run." + +"That's nobody's business but mine," said Culver aggressively. "If +that is all you care to talk about----" + +"Don't roil up," interrupted the gambler. "I don't even know what the +fight was about, and I don't care a tinker's whoop either. I got you +here to give you a chance to put Van Buren out of commission and make a +lifetime winning." + +Culver looked at him sharply. + +"It must be something crooked." + +"Nothing's crooked that works out straight," said McCoppet. "What's +life anyhow but a sure-thing game? It's stacked for us all to lose out +in the end. What's the use of being finniky while we live--as long as +even the Almighty's dealing brace?" + +Culver was impatient. "Well?" + +"I won't beat around the chapparal," said McCoppet. "It ain't my way." +Nevertheless, with much finesse and art he contrived to put his +proposition in a manner to rob it of many of its ugly features. +However, he made the business plain. + +"You see," he concluded, "the old reservation line might actually be +wrong--and all you'd have to do would be to put it right. That's what +we want--we want the line put right." + +Culver was more angered than before. He understood the conspiracy +thoroughly. No detail of its cleverness escaped him. + +"If you thought you could trade on my personal unpleasantness with an +owner of the 'Laughing Water' claim," he said hotly, "you have made the +mistake of your life. I wish you good-day." + +He rose to go. McCoppet rose and stopped him. + +"Don't get feverish," said he. "It don't pay. I ain't requesting this +service from you for just your feelings against a man. There's plenty +in this for us all." + +"You mean bribe money, I suppose," said Culver no less aggressively +than before. "Is that what you mean?" + +"Don't call it hard names," begged the gambler. "It's just a +retainer--say twenty thousand dollars." + +Culver burned to the top of his ears. He looked at McCoppet intently +with an expression the gambler could not interpret. + +"Just to change that line a thousand feet," urged the man of gambling +propensities. "I'll make it twenty-five." + +Still Culver made no response. With all his other hateful attributes +of character he was tempered steel on incorruptibility. He was not +even momentarily tempted to avenge himself thus on Van Buren. + +McCoppet thought he had him wavering. He attempted to push him over +the brink. + +"Say," said he persuasively, lowering his voice to a tone of the +confidential, "I can strain a little more out of one of my partners and +make it thirty thousand dollars." He had no intention of employing a +cent of his own. Bostwick was to pay all these expenses. "Thirty +thousand dollars, cash," he repeated, "the minute you finish your +work--and make it look like a Government _correction_ of the line." + +Culver broke forth on him with accumulated wrath. + +"You damnable puppy!" he said in a futile effort to be adequate to the +situation. "You sneak! Of all the accursed +intrigues--insults--robberies that ever were hatched---- By God, sir, +if you offered me a million of money you shouldn't alter that +Government line by a hair! If you speak to me again--I'll knock you +down!" + +He flung the door wide open, went out like a rocket, and bowled a man +half over in his blind haste to be quit the place. + +McCoppet was left there staring where he had gone--staring and afraid +of what the results would probably be to all the game. He had no eyes +to behold a man who had suddenly discerned him from the crowds. A +moment later he started violently as a huge form stood in the door. + +"Trimmer!" he said, "I'm busy!" + +"You're goin' to be busier in about a minute, if I don't see you right +now," said the man addressed as Trimmer, a raw, bull-like lumberman +from the mountains. "Been waitin' to see you some time." + +"Come in," said the gambler instantly regaining his composure. "Come +in and shut the door. How are you, anyway?" He held out his hand to +shake. + +Trimmer closed the door. "Ain't ready to shake, jest yet," he said. +"I come here to see you on business." + +"That's all right, Larry," answered McCoppet. "That's all right. Sit +down." + +"I'm goin' to," announced his visitor. He took a chair, pulled out a +giant cigar, and lighting it up smoked like a pile of burning leaves. +"You seem to be pretty well fixed," he added, taking a huge black +pistol from his pocket and laying it before him on the table. "Looks +like money was easy." + +"I ain't busted," admitted the gambler. "Have a drink?" + +"Not till we finish." The lumberman settled in his chair. "That was +the way you got me before--and you ain't goin' to come it again." + +McCoppet waited for his visitor to open. Trimmer was not in a hurry. +He eyed the man across the table calmly, his small, shifting optics +dully gleaming. + +Presently he said; "Cayuse is here in camp." + +Cayuse was the half-breed Piute Indian whose company McCoppet had +avoided. Partially educated, wholly reverted to his Indian ways and +tribal brethren, Cayuse was a singular mixture of the savage, plus +civilized outlooks and ethical standards that made him a dangerous +man--not only a law unto himself, as many Indians are, but also a +strange interpreter of the law, both civilized and aboriginal. + +McCoppet had surmised what was coming. + +"Yes--I noticed he was here." + +"Know what he come fer?" asked the lumberman. "Onto his game?" + +"You came here to tell me. Deal the cards." + +Trimmer puffed great lungfuls of the reek from his weed and took his +revolver in hand. + +"Opal," said he, enjoying his moment of vantage, "you done me up for a +clean one thousand bucks, a year ago--while I was drunk--and I've been +laying to git you ever since." + +McCoppet was unmoved. + +"Well, here I am." + +"You bet! here you are--and here you're goin' to hang out till we fix +things _right_!" The lumberman banged his gun barrel on the table hard +enough to make a dent. "That's why Cayuse is here, too. Mrs. Cayuse +is dead." + +The gambler nodded coldly, and Trimmer went on. + +"She kicked the bucket havin' a kid which wasn't Cayuse's--too darn +white fer even him--and Cayuse is on the war trail fer that father." + +McCoppet threw away his chewed cigar and replaced it with a fresh one. +He nodded as before. + +"Cayuse is on that I know who the father was," resumed the visitor. "I +told him to come here to Goldite and I'd give up the name." + +He began to consume his cigar once more by inches and watched the +effect of his words. There was no visible effect. McCoppet had never +been calmer in his life--outwardly. Inwardly he had never felt Dearer +to death, and his own kind of fright was upon him. + +"Well," he said, "your aces look good to me. What do you want--how +much?" + +"I ought to hand you over to Cayuse--good riddance to the whole +country," answered Trimmer, with rare perspicacity of judgment. "You +bet you're goin' to pay." + +"If you want your thousand back, why don't you say so?" inquired the +gambler quietly. "I'll make it fifteen hundred. That's pretty good +interest, I reckon." + +"Your reckoner's run down," Trimmer assured him. "I want ten thousand +dollars to steer Cayuse away." + +McCoppet slowly shook his head. "You ain't a hog, Larry, you're a +Rockyfeller. Five thousand, cash on the nail, if you show me you can +steer Cayuse so far off the trail he'll never get on it again." + +Five thousand dollars was a great deal of money to Trimmer. Ten +thousand was far in excess of his real expectations. But he saw that +his power was large. He was brutally frank. + +"Nope, can't do it, Opal, not even fer a friend," and he grinned. +"I've got you in the door and I'm goin' to jamb you hard. Five +thousand ain't enough." + +Things had been going against the gambler for nearly an hour. He had +been acutely alarmed by the presence of Cayuse in the camp. His mind, +like a ferret in a trap, was seeking wildly for a loophole of +advantage. Light came in upon him suddenly, with a thought of Culver, +by whom, subconsciously, he was worried. + +"How do you mean to handle the half-breed?" he inquired by way of +preparing his ground. "You've promised to cough up a name." + +Trimmer scratched his head with the end of his pistol. + +"I guess I could tell him I was off--don't know the father after all." + +"Sounds like a kid's excuse," commented McCoppet. "Like as not he'd +take it out of you." + +The likelihood was so strong that Trimmer visibly paled. + +"I've got to give him somebody's name," he agreed with alacrity. "Has +anyone died around here recent?" + +"Yes," answered McCoppet with ready mendacity. + +"Culver, who used to do surveying." + +"Who?" asked Trimmer. "Don't know him." + +McCoppet leaned across the table. + +"Yes you do. He stopped you once from stealing--from picking up a lot +of timber land. Remember?" + +Trimmer was interested. His vindictive attributes were aroused. + +"Was that the cuss? I never seen him. Do you think Cayuse would know +who he was?--and believe it--the yarn?" + +"Cayuse was once his chain-man." McCoppet was tremendously excited, +though apparently as cold as ice, as he swiftly thought out the +niceties of his own and fate's arrangements. "Cayuse's wife once +worked for Mrs. Culver, cooking and washing." + +"Say, anybody'd swaller that," reflected the lumberman aloud. "But +five thousand dollars ain't enough." + +"I'll make it seven thousand five hundred--that's an even split," +agreed the gambler. He thought he foresaw a means whereby he could +save this amount from the funds that Bostwick would furnish. He rose +from his seat. "A thousand down, right now--the balance when Cayuse is +gone, leaving me safe forever. You to give him the name right now." + +Trimmer stood up, quenched the light on the stub of his cigar, and +chewed up the butt with evident enjoyment. + +"All right," he answered. "Shake." + +Ten minutes later he had found Cayuse, delivered up the name agreed +upon, and was busy spending his money acquiring a load of fiery drink. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +VAN AND BETH AND BOSTWICK + +Van was far too occupied to retain for long the anger that Culver had +aroused in all his being. Moreover, he had come to camp in a mood of +joyousness, youth, and bounding emotions such as nothing could +submerge. The incident with Culver was closed. As for land-office +data, it was far from being indispensable, and Gettysburg's knife was +forgotten. + +He had fetched down a nugget from the "Laughing Water" claim, a bright +lump of virgin gold, rudely fashioned by nature like a heart. This he +took at once to a jeweler's shop, where more fine diamonds were being +sold than in all the rest of the State, and while it was being soldered +to a pin he returned to the hay-yard for Dave. His business was to +purchase the mare on which, one beautiful morning when the wild peach +was in bloom, Beth Kent had ridden by his side. Dave would have given +him the animal out of hand. Van compelled him to receive a market +price. Even ponies here were valuable, and Dave had been poor all his +life. + +"Say, Van," he drawled, when at length the transaction was complete, +"this camp has set me to thinkin'. It's full of these rich galoots, +all havin' an easy time. If ever I git a wad of dough I'm comin' here +and buy five dollars worth of good sardines and eat 'em, every one. +Never have had enough sardines in all my life." + +"I'd buy them for you now and sit you down," said Van, "only why start +a graveyard with a friend?" + +Some woman who had come and gone from Goldite had disposed of a +beautiful side saddle, exposed in the hay-yard to the weather. Van +paid fifty dollars and became its owner. The outfit for Beth was soon +complete. He ordered the best of feed and attention for her +roan--bills to be rendered to himself--and hastening off to the +jeweler's, found his pin ready and reposing in a small blue box. +Avoiding a number of admiring friends, he slipped around a corner, and +once more appeared at Mrs. Dick's. + +Beth was in the dining-room, alone. Her papers were spread upon the +table. She was flushed with the day's excitements, + +Van had entered unannounced. His active tread upon the carpet of the +hall had made no sound. When he halted in the doorway, transfixed by +the beauty of the face he saw reflected in the sideboard mirror +opposite, Beth was unconscious of his presence. + +She was busily gathering up her documents. Her pretty hands were +moving lightly on the table. Her eyes were downcast, focused where she +worked. Only the wondrous addition of their matchless brown, thought +Van, was necessary to complete a picture of the most exquisite +loveliness he had ever beheld. + +He had come there prepared to be sedate--at least not over-bold again, +or too presumptuous. Already, however, a riot of love was in his +veins. He loved as he fought--with all his strength, with a tidal +impetuosity that could scarcely understand resistance or imagine +defeat. To restrain himself from a quick descent upon her position and +a boyish sweeping of her up in his powerful arms was taxing the utmost +of his self-control. Then Beth glanced up at the mirror. + +The light of her eyes seemed to liquify his heart. He felt that mad, +joyous organ spread abruptly, throughout his entire being. + +She rose up suddenly and turned to greet him. + +"Why--Mr. Van!" she stammered, flushing rosily. "I _heard_ you were in +town." + +He came towards her quietly enough, the jeweler's box in his hand. + +"I called before," he answered in his off-hand way. "You must have +been out with poor old Searle." + +"Oh," she said, "poor old Searle? Why poor?" + +"I told you why before," he said boldly, in spite of himself. He was +standing before her by the table, looking fairly into her eyes, with +that dancing boyishness amazingly bright in his own. "You remember, +too--you can't forget." + +The flush in her cheeks increased. Her glance was lowered. + +"You didn't give me time to--rebuke you for that," she answered, +attempting to assume a tone of severity. "You had no right--it wasn't +nice or like you in the least." + +"Yes it was, nice, and like me," he corrected. "I've brought you a +nugget from the claim." He opened the box and shook out the pin on the +table. + +She had started to make a reply concerning his actions when leaving on +that former occasion. The words were pushed aside. + +"Oh, my!" she said in a little exclamation, instead. "A +nugget!--gold!--not from the--not from your claim?" + +His hand slightly trembled. + +"From the 'Laughing Water' claim. Named for the girl I'm going to +marry." + +She gasped, almost audibly. The things he said were so wholly +unexpected--so almost naked in their bluntness. + +"The girl--some girl you--Isn't it beautiful?" she faltered helplessly. +"Of course I don't know--how any girl could have such a singular name." + +"Yes you do," he corrected in his shockingly candid way. "You know +when Dave gave her the name." + +"Do I?" she asked weakly, trying to smile, and feeling some wonderful, +welcome sort of fear of the passion with which he fairly glowed. "You +are--very positive." + +He moved a trifle closer, touching the pin, with a finger, as she held +it in her hand. His voice slightly shook as he asked: + +"Do you like it?" + +"The pin? Of course. A genuine nugget! You were very kind, I'm sure." + +"I thought when you and I ride over to the claim, some day, you ought +to have a horse of your own," he announced in his manner of finality. +"So your horse and outfit are over at Charlie's, at your order." + +She looked up at him swiftly. "My horse--over at Charlie's?" + +"Yes, Charlie's--the hay-yard. I thought you liked a side-saddle best +and I found a good one in the hay." + +"But--I haven't any horse," she protested, failing for a moment to +grasp his meaning. "How could I have a horse in Goldite?" + +"You couldn't help having him--that's all--any more than you can help +having me." + +The light in his eyes was far too magnetic for her own brown glance to +escape. She hardly knew what she was saying, or what she was thinking. +She was simply aflame with happiness in his presence--and she feared he +must read it in her glance. That the horse was his gift she +comprehended all at once--but--what had he said--what was it he had +said, that she must answer? Her heart and her mind had coalesced. +There was love in both and little of reason in either. She knew he was +holding her eyes to his with the sheer force of overwhelming love. + +She tried to escape. + +"You--mean-----" + +He broke all control like a whirlwind. + +"I mean I can't hold it any longer! I love you!--I love you to death!" + +He took her in his arms suddenly, passionately, crushing her almost +fiercely against his heart. He kissed her on the lips--once--twice--a +dozen times in half a minute--feeling the warm, moist softness in the +contact and holding her pliant figure yet more closely. + +She, too, was mad with it all, for a second. Then she began to battle +with his might. + +"Van!--Mr. Van!" she said, pushing his face away with a hand he might +have devoured. "Let me go! Let me go! How dare---- You shan't! You +shan't! Let me go!" + +Her nature, in revolt for a moment against her better judgment, refused +to do the bidding of her muscles. Then she gathered strength out of +the whirlwind itself and pushed him away like a tigress. + +"You shan't!" she repeated. "You ought to be ashamed! How dare you +treat me----" + +He had turned abruptly, looking towards the door. Her utterance was +halted by his movement of listening. She had barely time to take up +her papers, and make an effort at regaining her composure. Bostwick +was coming down the hall. He presently appeared at the door. For a +moment there was silence. + +Van was the first to speak. + +"How are you, Searle?" he said cheerily. "Got over your grouch?" + +Bostwick looked him over with ill-concealed loathing. + +"You thought you were clever, I suppose," he said in a growl-like tone +that certainly fitted his face. "What are you doing here, I'd like to +know?" + +"Tottering angels!" said Van, "didn't that experience do you any good +after all? No wonder the convicts wouldn't have you!" + +Beth was afraid for what Bostwick might have heard. She could not +censure Van for what he had done; she saw he would make no +explanations. At best she could only attempt to put some appearance of +the commonplace upon the horseman's visit. + +"Mr. Van Buren came--to see Mrs. Dick," she faltered, steadying her +voice as best she might. "They're--very old friends." + +"What's that?" demanded Bostwick, coming into the room and pointing at +the bright nugget pin, lying exposed upon the table. "Some present, I +suppose, for Mrs. Dick?" He started to take it in his hand. + +Van interposed. "It's neither for Mrs. Dick nor for you. It's a +present I've made to Miss Kent." + +Bostwick elevated his brows. + +"Indeed?" + +Beth fluttered in with a word of defense. + +"It's just a little souvenir--that's all--a souvenir of--of my escape +from those terrible men." + +"And Searle's return," added Van, who felt the very devil in his veins +at sight of Bostwick helpless and enraged. + +Searle opened his lips as if to fling out something of his wrath. He +held it back and turned to Beth. + +"It will soon be night. We have much to do. I suppose I may see you, +privately--even here?" + +Beth was helpless. And in the circumstances she wished for Van to go. + +"Certainly," she answered, raising her eyes for a second to the +horseman's, "--that is--if----" + +"Certainly," Van answered cordially. "Good-by." He advanced and held +out his hand. + +She gave him her own because there was nothing else to do--and the +tingling of his being made it burn. She did not dare to meet his gaze. + +"So long, Searle," he added smilingly. "Better turn that grouch out to +pasture." + +Then he went. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +QUEENIE + +The shadows of evening met Van, as he stepped from the outside door and +started up the street. Then a figure emerged from the shadows and met +him by the corner. + +It was Queenie. Her eyes were red from weeping. A smile that someway +affected Van most poignantly, he knew not why, came for a moment to her +lips. + +"You didn't expect to see me here," she said. "I had to come to see if +it was so." + +"What is it, Queenie? What do you mean? What do you want?" he +answered. "What's the trouble?" + +"Nothing," she said. "I don't want nothing I can git--I +guess--unless--Oh, _is_ it her, Van? Is it sure all over with me?" + +"Look here," he said, not unkindly, "you've always been mistaken, +Queenie. I told you at the time--that time in Arizona--I'd have done +what I did for an Indian squaw--for any woman in the world. Why +couldn't you let it go at that?" + +"You know why I couldn't," she answered with a certain intensity of +utterance that gave him a species of chill. "After what you done--like +the only real friend I ever had--I belonged to you--and couldn't even +take myself away." + +"But I didn't want anyone to belong to me, Queenie. You know that. I +could barely support my clothes." + +Her eyes burned with a strange luminosity. Her utterance was eager. + +"But you want somebody to belong to you now? Ain't that what's the +matter with you now?" + +He did not answer directly. + +"I didn't think it was in you, Queenie, to follow me around and play +the spy. I've liked you pretty well--but--I couldn't like this." + +She stared at him helplessly, as an animal might have looked. + +"I couldn't help it," she murmured, repressing some terrible emotion of +despair. "I won't never trouble you no more." + +She turned around and went away, walking uncertainly, as if from +physical weakness and the blindness of pain. + +Van felt himself inordinately wrung--felt it a cruelty not to run and +overtake her--give her some measure of comfort. There was nothing he +could do that would not be misunderstood. Moreover, he had no adequate +idea of what was in her mind--or in her homeless heart. He had known +her always as a butterfly; he could not take her tragically now. + +"Poor girl," he said as he watched her vanishing from sight, "if only +she had ever had a show!" + +He looked back at Mrs. Dick's. Bostwick had ousted him after all, +before he could extenuate his madness, before he could ascertain +whether Beth were angry or not--before he could bid her good-by. + +Now that the cool of evening was upon him, along with the chill of +sober reflection, he feared for what he had done. He was as mad, as +crude as Queenie. Yet his fear of Beth's opinion was a sign that he +loved her as a woman should be loved, sacredly, and with a certain awe, +although he made no such analysis, and took no credit to himself for +the half regrets that persistently haunted his reflections. + +It would be a moonlight night, he pondered. He had counted on riding +by the lunar glow to the "Laughing Water" claim. Would Beth, by any +possibility, attempt to see him--come out, perhaps, in the +moonlight--for a word before he should go? + +He could not entertain a thought of departing without again beholding +her. He wanted to know what she would say, and when he might see her +again. After all, what was the hurry to depart? He might as well wait +a little longer. + +He went to the hay-yard. Dave had disappeared. Half an hour of search +failed to bring him to light. On the point of entering a restaurant to +allay his sense of emptiness, Van was suddenly accosted by a wild-eyed +man, bare-headed and sweating, who ran at him, calling as he came. + +"Hey!" he cried. "Van Buren! Come on! Come on! She's dyin' and all +she wants is you!" + +"What's wrong with you, man?" inquired the horseman, halted by the +fellow's words. "What are you talking about?" + +"Queenie!" gasped the fellow, panting for his breath. "Took poison--O, +Lord! Come on! Come on! She don't want nothing but you!" + +Van turned exceedingly pale. + +"Poison? What you want is the doctor!" + +"He's there--long ago!" answered the informant excitedly, and swabbing +perspiration from his face. "She won't touch his dope. It's all over, +I guess--only she wants to see you." + +"Show me the way, then--show me the way. Where is she?" Van shook the +man's shoulder roughly. "Don't stand here trembling. Take me to the +place." + +The man was in a wretched plight, from fear and the physical suffering +induced by what he had seen. He reeled drunkenly as he started down +the street, then off between some rows of canvas structures, heading +for a district hung with red. + +At the edge of this place, at an isolated cabin, comprising two small, +rough rooms, the man seemed threatened with collapse. + +"May be too late," he whispered hoarsely, as he listened and heard no +sounds from the house. "I'm goin' to stay outside--and wait." + +The door was ajar. Without waiting for anything further, Van pushed it +open and entered. + +"There he is--I knew it!" cried Queenie from the room at the rear. It +was a cry that smote Van like a stab. + +Then he came to the room where she was lying. + +"I knew you'd come--I knew it, Van!" said the girl in a sudden outburst +of sobbing, and she tried to rise upon her pillow. Agony, which she +had fought down wildly, seized her in a spasm. She doubled on the bed. + +Van glanced about quickly. The doctor--a young, inexperienced man--was +there, sweating, a look of abject helplessness upon his face. The room +was a poor tawdry place, with gaudy decorations and a litter of +Queenie's finery. In her effort to conquer the pains that possessed +her body, the girl had distorted her face almost past recognition. + +Van came to the bedside directly, placed his hand on her shoulder, and +gave her one of his characteristic little shakings. + +"Queenie, what have you done?" he said. "What's going on?" + +She tried to smile. It was a terrible effort. + +"It's nobody's fault--but what was the use, Van?--what was there in it +for me?" + +"She won't take anything--the antidote--anything! There isn't a +stomach pump in town!" the doctor broke in desperately. "She's got to! +It's getting too late! We'll have to force it down! Maybe she'd take +it for you." He thrust a goblet into Van's nervous hand. It contained +a misty drink. + +"For God's sake take this, Queenie," Van implored. "Take it quick!" + +She shrank away, attempting with amazing force of will to mask her pain. + +"I'd take the stuff--for your sake--when I--wouldn't for God," she +faltered, sitting up, despite her bodily anguish. "You don't ask me +to--do it for you." + +"I do, Queenie--take it for me!" he answered, wrung again as he had +been at her smiles, an hour before, but now with heart-piercing +poignancy. "Take it for me, if you won't for anyone else." + +She received the glass--and deliberately threw it on the floor. The +doctor cried out sharply. Queenie shook her head, all the time +fighting down her agony, which was fast making inroads to her life. +She fell back on her pillow. + +"You didn't--ask me--Van 'cause you love me. Nobody--wants me to live. +That's all right. Do you s'pose you could kiss me good-by?" + +The look on her face was peculiarly childish, as she drove out the +lines of anguish in a superhuman effort made for him. And the yearning +there brought back again that thought he had voiced before, that +night--why couldn't the child have had a chance? + +The doctor was feverishly mixing another potent drink. + +Van bent down and kissed her, indulgently. + +"Force her to take it!" cried the doctor desperately. "Force her to +take it!" + +"Queenie," Van said, "you've got to take this stuff." + +Her hand had found his and clutched it with galvanic strength. + +"Don't--make me," she begged, closing her eyes in a species of ecstacy +that no man may understand. "I'd rather--not--Van--please. Only about +a minute now. Ain't it funny--that love--can burn you--up?" Her grip +had tightened on his hand. + +The doctor ran to the window, which he found already opened. He ran +back in a species of frenzy. + +"Make her take it, make her take it! God!" he said. "Not to do +anything--not to do a thing!" + +Queenie smiled at Van again--terribly. Her fingers felt like iron +rods, pressing into his flesh. As if to complete her renunciation she +dropped his hand abruptly. She mastered some violent convulsion that +left the merest flicker of her life. + +"Good-by, Van--good luck," she whispered faintly. + +"Queenie!" he said. "Queenie!" + +Perhaps she heard. After an ordeal that seemed interminable her face +was calm and still, a faint smile frozen on her marble features. + +Van waited there a long time. Someway it seemed as if this thing could +be undone. The place was terribly still. The doctor sat there as if +in response to a duty. He was dumb. + +When Van went out, the man on the doorstep staggered in. + +The moon was up. It shone obliquely down into all that rock-lined +basin, surrounded by the stern, forbidding hills--the ancient, +burned-out furnace of gold that man was reheating with his passions. +Afar in all directions the lighted tents presented a ghostly unreality, +their canvas walls illumined by the candles glowing within. A jargon +of dance-hall music floated on the air. Outside it all was the desert +silence--the silence of a world long dead. + +Van would gladly have mounted his horse and ridden away--far off, no +matter where. Goldite, bizarre and tragic--a microcosm of the world +that man has fashioned--was a blot of discordant life, he felt, upon an +otherwise peaceful world. As a matter of fact it had only begun its +evening's story. + +He stood in the road, alone, for several minutes, before he felt he +could begin to resume the round of his own existence. When he came at +length to the main street's blaze of light, a deeply packed throng +could be seen in all the thoroughfare, compactly blocked in front of a +large saloon. + +Culver, the Government representative in the land-office needs, had +been found in his office murdered. He had been stabbed. Van's knife, +bought for Gettysburg, had been employed--and found there, red with its +guilt. + +All this Van was presently to discover. He was walking towards the +surging mob when a miner he had frequently seen came running up and +halted in the light of a window. Then the man began to yell. + +"Here he is!" he cried. "Van Buren!" + +The mob appeared to break at the cry. Fifty men charged down the +street in a species of madness and Van was instantly surrounded. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +IN THE SHADOW OF THE ROPE + +Mob madness is beyond explanation. Cattle stampeding are no more +senseless than men in such a state. Goldite, however, was not only +habitually keyed to the highest of tension, but it had recently been +excited to the breaking point by several contributing factors. Lawless +thefts of one another's claims, ore stealing, high pressure over the +coming rush to the Indian reservation, and a certain apprehension +engendered by the deeds of those liberated convicts--all these elements +had aroused an over-revulsion of feeling towards criminality and a +desire to apply some manner of law. And the primal laws are the laws +that spring into being at such a time as this--the laws that cry out +for an eye for an eye and a swiftness of legal execution. + +Into the vortex of Goldite's sudden revulsion Van was swept like a +straw. There was no real chance for a hearing. His friends of the +morning had lost all sense of loyalty. They were almost as crazed as +those whom his recent success had irritated. The story of his row with +Culver had spread throughout the confines of the camp. No link in the +chain of circumstantial evidence seemed wanting to convict him. A +bawling sea of human beings surrounded him with violence and menace. + +To escape the over-wrought citizens, the sheriff, assuming charge of +Van, dragged him on top of a stack of lumber, piled three feet high +before a building. The cry for a rope and a lynching began with a +promptness that few would have expected. In normal times it could +scarcely have been broached. + +Snatching new-made deputies, hit-or-miss from the mob, and summarily +demanding their services, the sheriff exerted his utmost powers to stem +the tide that was rising. Something akin to a trial began then and +there. A big red-faced drummer from Chicago, a man that Van had never +seen, became his voluntary advocate, standing between him and the mob. + +He had power, that man, both of limb and presence. His voice, also, +was mighty. He shoved men about like rubber puppets and shouted his +demands for law and order. + +Van, having flung off half a dozen citizens, who in the excitement had +felt some fanatical necessity for clutching him, faced the human wolves +about him in a spirit of angry resentment. The big man from Chicago +mowed his way to the pile of lumber and clambered up by the sheriff. +The pile raised its occupants only well above the surging pack of faces. + +"Stop your howling! Stop your noise!" roared the drummer from his +elevation. "Don't you want to give this man a chance?" + +[Illustration: "Don't you want to give this man a chance?"] + +He was heard throughout the street. + +"He's got to prove his innocence or hang!" cried someone shrilly. "A +murder foul as that!" + +Another one bawled: "Where was he then? Make him tell where he was at +six o'clock!" + +Culver's watch had been shattered and stopped at precisely six o'clock, +presumably by his fall against a table in his office, when he suddenly +went down, at the hands of his assassin. This fact was in possession +of the crowd. + +A general shout for Van to explain where he was at the vital moment +arose from all the crowd. The drummer turned to Van. + +"There you are," he said. "There's your chance. If you wasn't around +the surveyor's shack, you ought to be able to prove it." + +Van could have proved his alibi at once, by sending around to Queenie's +residence. He was nettled into a stubbornness of mind and righteous +anger by all this senseless accusation. He did not realize his +danger--the blackness of the case against him. That a lynching was +possible he could scarcely have been made to believe. Nevertheless, as +the Queenie matter was one of no secrecy and the facts must soon be +known, he was turning to the drummer to make his reply when his eye was +caught by a face, far out in the mass of human forms. + +It was Beth that he saw, her cheek intensely white in the light +streaming forth from a store. Bostwick was there at her side. Beth +had been caught in the press of the throng as they came from the +telegraph office. + +He realized that at best his story concerning Queenie would be +sufficiently black. With Beth in this theater of accusation the story +of Queenie must wait. + +"It's nobody's business where I was," he said. "This whole affair is +absurd!" + +Half a dozen of the men who were nearest heard his reply. One of them +roared it out lustily. The mob was enraged. The cries for a violent +termination to the scene increased in volume. Men were shouting, +swearing, and surging back and forth tumultuously, wrought to a frenzy +of primal virtue. + +One near Beth called repeatedly for a lynching. He had cut a long new +piece of rope from a coil at a store of supplies and was trying to drag +it through the crowd. + +The girl had heard and seen it all. She realized its full +significance. She had never in her life felt so horribly oppressed +with a sense of terrible things impending. Impetuously she accosted a +man who stood at her side. + +"Oh, tell them he was with me!" she said. + +The man looked her over, and raising himself on his tip toes, shook his +hat wildly at the mob. + +"Say," he shouted at the top of his might, "here's a girl he was with +at six o'clock." + +It seemed as if only the men near at hand either heard or paid +attention. On the farther side, away from Beth, the shouts for mob law +were increasing. She turned to Bostwick hotly. + +"Can't you do anything? Tell them he was there with us--down at Mrs. +Dick's at six o'clock!" + +"He wasn't!" said Searle. "He left there at five forty-five." + +The man who had shouted listened to them both. + +"Five forty-five?" he repeated. "That makes a difference!" + +The drummer had caught the shout from out at the edge. + +"Who's that?" he called. "Who's got that alibi?" + +"All wrong!--No good!" yelled the man who stood by Beth. + +The girl had failed to realize how her statement would sound--in such a +place as Goldite. Van had turned sick when it reached him. He was +emphatically denying the story. The gist of it went through the mass +of maddened beings, only to be so soon impugned by the man who had +started it from Beth. The fury, at what was deemed an attempted +deception, burst out with accumulated force. + +The sheriff had drawn a revolver and was shouting to the mob to keep +away. + +"This man has got to go to jail!" he yelled. "You've got to act +accordin' to the law!" + +He ordered his deputies to clear the crowd and make ready for retreat. +Three of them endeavored to obey. Their efforts served to aggravate +the mob. + +Confusion and chaos of judgment seemed rising like a tide. In the very +air was a feeling that suddenly something would go, something too far +strained to hold, and some terrible deed occur before these people +could ask themselves how it had been accomplished. + +The fellow with the rope was being boosted forward by half a dozen +intoxicated fools. Had the rope been a burning fuse it could scarcely +have ignited more dangerous material than did its strands of manilla, +in those who could lay their hands upon it. + +The drummer was shouting himself raw in the throat--in vain. + +Van was courting disaster by the very defiance of his attitude. It +seemed as if nothing could save him, when two separate things occurred. + +The doctor who had been with Van at Queenie's death arrived in the +press, got wind of the crisis, and vehemently protested the truth. +Simultaneously, the lumberman, Trimmer, drunk, and enjoying what he +deemed a joke, hoarsely confided to some sober men the fact that Cayuse +had done the murder. + +Even then, when two centers of opposition to the madness of the mob had +been created, the menace could not at once be halted. + +The man with the rope had approached so near the lumber-pile that the +sheriff could all but reach him. A furious battle ensued, and waged +around the planks, between the deputies and lynchers. It lasted till +fifty active men of the camp, aroused to a sense of reaction by the +facts that were now becoming known, hurled the struggling fighters +apart and dragged them off, all the while spreading the news they had +heard concerning the half-breed Indian. + +No less excited when at last they knew that Van was innocent, the great +crowd still occupied the street, hailing Trimmer to the lumber-pile and +demanding to know how he came by the facts, and where Cayuse had gone. + +Trimmer was frightened into soberness--at least into soberness +sufficient to protect himself and McCoppet. He said he had seen the +Indian coming from Culver's office, with blood upon his hands. The +Indian had gone straight westward from the town, to elude pursuit in +the mountains. + +The fact that Van had been at Queenie's side at her death became town +property at once. It came in all promptness to Beth. + +With a feeling of sickness pervading all her being, she was glad to +have Bostwick take her home. + +It was late when at last the street was clear, and Van could finally +make his escape from danger and returning friends. Dave by then had +found himself; that is, he made his way, thus tardily, to the +horseman's side--and the two went at length to their dinner. + +At half-past eight, with the moon well up, Dave and Van were ready for +departure. Their horses were saddled. One extra animal was packed +with needed provisions for the crew on the "Laughing Water" claim. Van +had ordered all he could for Queenie's final journey--the camp's best +possible funeral, which he could not remain to attend. There was +nothing to do but to mount and ride away, but--Beth was down at Mrs. +Dick's. + +Resistance was useless. Bidding Dave wait with the horses at the yard. +Van made his way around through the shadows of the houses, and coming +out upon a rocky hill, a little removed from the boarding place, was +startled to see Beth abruptly rise before him. + +The house had oppressed her--and the moon had called. Bostwick, in +alarm concerning possible disaster to the plans he had made with +McCoppet, now that Culver was dead, had gone to seek the gambler out +and ascertain the status of affairs. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +TWO MEETINGS AFTER DARK + +For a moment neither Beth nor Van could speak. The girl, like a +startled moon-sprite, wide-eyed and grave, had taken on a mood of +beauty such as the man had never seen. She seemed to him strangely +fragile, a trifle pale, but wholly exquisite, enchanting. + +No signs were on her face, but she had wept--hot, angry tears, within +the hour. And here was the cause of them all! She had wished he would +come--and feared he would come, as conflicting emotions possessed her. +Now that he stood here, with moonlight on half of his face, her +thoughts were all unmarshaled. + +Van presently spoke. + +"I'm a kid, after all. I couldn't go away without--this." + +"I wish you had! I wish you had!" she answered, at his smile. "I wish +I had never seen you in the world!" + +His heart was sore for jesting, but he would not change his way. + +"If not in the world, where _would_ you have wished to see me, then?" + +"I never wished to see you at all!" she replied. "Your joke has gone +too far. You have utterly mistaken my sense of gratitude." + +"Guess not," he said. "I haven't looked for gratitude--nor wanted it, +either." + +"You had no right!" she continued. "You have said things--done +things--you have taken shameful advantage--you have treated me like--I +suppose like--that other--that other---- You dared!" + +Van's face took on an expression of hardness, to mask the hurt of his +heart. + +"Who says so?" he demanded quietly. "You know better." + +"It's true!" she answered hotly. "You had no right! It was mere brute +strength! You cannot deny what you have been--to that miserable +woman!" Tears of anger sped from her eyes, and she dashed them hotly +away. + +Van stepped a little closer. + +"Beth," he said, suddenly taking her hand, "none of this is true, and +you know it. You're angry with that woman, not with me." + +She snatched her hand away. + +"You shan't!" she said. "Don't you dare to touch me again. I hate +you--hate you for what you have done! You've been a brute probably to +her as well as to me!" + +"To you? When?" he demanded + +"All the time! To-day!--Now!--when you say I'm angry at a--woman who +is dead!--a woman who died for you!" + +It hit him. + +"Poor Queenie," he said, "poor child." + +"Yes--poor Queenie!" Her eyes blazed in the moonlight. "To think that +you dared to treat me like----" + +"Beth!" he interrupted, "I won't permit it. I told you to-day I loved +you. That makes things right. You love me, and that makes them +sacred. I'd do all I've done over again--_all_ of it--Queenie and the +rest! I'm not ashamed, nor sorry for anything I've done. I love +you--I say--I love you. That's what I've never done before--and never +said I did--and that's what makes things right!" + +Beth was confused by what he said--confused in her judgment, her +emotions. Weakly she clung to her argument. + +"You haven't any right--it isn't true when you say I love you. I +don't! I won't! You can't deny that woman died of a broken heart for +you!" + +"I don't deny anything about her," he said. "I tried to be her friend. +God knows she needed friends. She was only a child, a pretty child. +I'm sorry. I've always been sorry. She knew I was only a friend." + +She felt he was honest. She knew he was wrung--suffering, but not in +his conscience. Yet what was she to think? She had heard it all--all +of Queenie's story. + +"You kissed her," she said, and red flamed up in her cheeks. + +"It was all she asked," he answered simply. "She was dying." + +"And you're paying for her funeral." + +"I said I was her friend." + +"Oh, the shamelessness of it!" she exclaimed as before, "--the way it +looks! And to think of what you dared to do to me!" + +"Yes, I kissed you without your asking," he confessed. "I expect to +kiss you a hundred thousand times. I expect to make you my wife--for a +love like ours is rare. Whatever else you think you want to say, +Beth--now--don't say it--unless it's just good-night." + +With a sudden move forward he took her two shoulders in his powerful +hands and gave her a rough little shake. Then his palms went swiftly +to her face, he kissed her on the lips, and let her go. + +"You!--Oh!" she cried, and turning she ran down the slope of the hill +as hard as she could travel. + +He watched her going in the moonlight. Even her shadow was beautiful, +he thought, but all his joy was grave. + +She disappeared within the house, without once turning to see what he +had done. He could not know that from one of the darkened windows she +presently peered forth and watched him depart from the hill. He was +not so assured as he had tried to make her think, and soberness dwelt +within his breast. + +Half an hour later he and old Dave were riding up the mountain in the +moonlight. The night from the eminence was glorious, now that the town +was left behind. Goldite lay far below in the old dead theatre of past +activities, dotting the barren immensity with its softened lights like +the little thing it was. How remote it seemed already, with its vices, +woes, and joys, its comedy and tragedy, its fevers, strifes, and toil, +disturbing nothing of the vast serenity of the planet, ever rolling on +its way. How coldly the moon seemed looking on the scene. And yet it +had cast a shadow of a girl to set a man aflame. + +Meantime Bostwick had been delayed in securing McCoppet's attention. +The town was still excited over all that had happened; the saloons were +full of men. Culver had been an important person, needful to many of +the miners and promoters of mining. His loss was an aggravation, +especially as his deputy, Lawrence, was away. + +The more completely to allay suspicions that might by any possibility +creep around the circle to himself, McCoppet had been the camp's most +active figure in organizing a posse, with the sheriff, to go out and +capture Cayuse. His reasons for desiring the half-breed's end were +naturally strong, nevertheless his active partisanship of law and +justice excited no undesirable talk. He was simply an influential +citizen engaged in a laudable work. + +It was late when at length he and Bostwick could snatch a few minutes +to themselves. The gambler's first question then was something of a +puzzle to Bostwick. + +"Well, have you got that thirty thousand?" + +"Got it? Yes, I've got it," Bostwick answered nervously, "but what is +the good of it now?" + +It was McCoppet's turn to be puzzled. + +"Anything gone wrong with Van Buren, or his claim?" + +"Good heavens! Isn't it sufficient to have things all gone wrong with +Culver? What could be worse than that?" + +The gambler flung his cigar away and hung a fresh one on his lip. + +"Say, don't you worry on Culver. Don't his deputy take his place?" + +"His deputy?" + +"Sure, his deputy--Lawrence--a man we can get hands down." + +Bostwick stared at him hopefully. + +"You don't mean to say this accident--this crime--is fortunate, after +all?" + +"It's a godsend." McCoppet would have dared any blasphemy. + +Bostwick's relief was inordinate. + +"Then what is the next thing to do?" + +"Wait for Lawrence," said the gambler. Then he suddenly arose. "No, +we can't afford the time. He might be a week in coming. You'll have +to go get him, to-morrow." + +"Where is he, then?" + +"Way out South, on a survey. You'd better take that car of yours, with +a couple of men I'll send along, and fetch him back mighty pronto. We +can't let a deal like this look raw. The sooner he runs that +reservation line the better things will appear." + +Bostwick, too, had risen. + +"Will your men know where to find him?" + +"If he's still on the map," said the gambler. "You leave that to me. +Better go see about your car to-night. I'll hustle your men and your +outfit. See you again if anything turns up important. Meantime, is +your money in the bank?" + +"It's in the bank." + +"Right," said McCoppet. "Good-night." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +BETH'S DESPERATION + +The following day in Goldite was one of occurrences, all more or less +intimately connected with the affairs of Van and Beth. + +Bostwick succeeded in making an early start to the southward in his +car. McCoppet had provided not only a couple of men as guides to the +field where Lawrence was working, but also a tent, provisions, and +blankets, should occasion arise for their use. + +Beth was informed by her fiancé that word had arrived from her brother, +to whom Searle said he meant to go. The business of buying Glenmore's +mine, he said, required unexpected dispatch. Perhaps both he and Glen +might return by the end of the week. + +By that morning's train the body of Culver was shipped away--and the +camp began to forget him. The sheriff was after Cayuse. + +Early in the afternoon the body of the girl who had never been known in +Goldite by any name save that of Queenie, was buried on a hillside, +already called into requisition as a final resting place for such as +succumbed in the mining-camp, too far from friends, or too far lost, to +be carried to the world outside the mountains. Half a dozen women +attended the somewhat meager rites. There was one mourner only--the +man who had run to summon Van, and who later had waited by the door. + +At four o'clock the Goldite _News_ appeared upon the streets. It +contained much original matter--or so at least it claimed. The account +of the murder of Culver, the death of Queenie, and the threatened +lynching of Van Buren made a highly sensational story. It was given +the prominent place, for the editor was proud to have made it so full +in a time that he deemed rather short. On a second page was a tale +less tragic. + +It was, according to one of its many sub-headings, "A Humorous Outcrop +concerning two Maids and a Man." It related, with many gay sallies of +"wit," how Van had piloted Mr. J. Searle Bostwick into the hands of the +convicts, recently escaped, packed off his charges, Miss Beth Kent and +her maid, and brought them to Goldite by way of the Monte Cristo mine, +in time to behold the discomfited entrance of the said J. Searle +Bostwick in prisoner's attire. Mr. Bostwick was described as having +been "on his ear" towards Van Buren ever since. + +In the main the account was fairly accurate. Gettysburg, Napoleon, and +old Dave had over-talked, during certain liquifying processes. The +matter was out beyond repair. + +Mrs. Dick was prompt in pouncing on the story, hence Beth was soon +presented with a copy. In the natural annoyance she felt when it was +read, there was one consolation, at least: Searle was away, to be gone +perhaps two or three days. He might not see the article, which would +soon be forgotten in the camp. + +To culminate the day's events, that evening Elsa ran away. She went +with a "gentleman" lodger, taking the slight precaution to be married +by the Justice of the Peace. + +Beth discovered her loss too late to interfere. She felt herself +alone, indeed, with Bostwick away, her brother off in the desert, and +Van--she refused to think of Van. Fortunately, Mrs. Dick was more than +merely a friend. She was a staunch little warrior, protecting the +champion, to anger whom was unhealthy. Despite the landlady's attitude +of friendliness, however, Beth felt wretchedly alone. It was a +terrible place. She was cooped up all day within the lodging house, +since the street full of men was more than she cared to encounter; and +with life all about her, and wonderful days spreading one after another +across the wide-open land, her liberties were fairly in a cage. + +From time to time she thought of the horse, awaiting her order at the +hay-yard. She tried to convince herself she would never accept or ride +the animal. She was certain she resented everything Van had done. She +felt the warmest indignation at herself for breaking into bits of song, +for glowing to the tips of her ears, for letting her heart leap wildly +in her breast whenever she thought of the horseman. + +Two days went by and she chafed under continued restraints. No word +had come from Bostwick, none from Glen--and not a sign from the +"Laughing Water" claim. From the latter she said to herself she wished +no sign. But Searle had no right to leave her thus and neglect her in +every respect. + +The morning of the third long day Mrs. Dick brought her two thin +letters. One had been mailed in Goldite, by a messenger down from the +"Laughing Water" claim. It came from Van. He had written the briefest +of notes: + +"Just to send my love. I want you to wear my nugget." + +Folded into the paper was a spray of the wild peach bloom. + +Beth tried to think her blushes were those of indignation, which +likewise caused the beat of her heart to rise. But her hand fluttered +prettily up to her breast, where the nugget was pinned inside her +waist. Also his letter must have been hard to understand--she read it +seventeen times. + +Then she presently turned to the other. It was addressed in +typewritten characters, but the writing inside she knew--her brother +Glen's. + + +"Dear Old Sis: Say, what in the dickens are you doing out here in the +mines, by all that's holey?--and what's all this story in the Goldite +_News_ about one Bronson Van Buren doing the benevolent brigand stunt +with you and your maid, and shunting Searle off with the Cons? Why +couldn't you let a grubber know you were hiking out here to the desert? +Why all this elaborate surprise--this newspaper wireless to your fond +and lonesome? + +"What's the matter with your writing hand? Is this Van-brigand holding +them both? What's the matter with Searle? I wrote him two or three +aeons ago, when he might have been of assistance. Now I'm doing my +eight hours a day in an effort to sink down to China. I'm on the +blink, in a way, but not for long, for this is the land where +opportunity walks night and day to thump on your door--and I'll grab +her by the draperies yet. + +"But _me_!--working as a common miner!--though I've got a few days off +to go and look at a claim with a friend of mine, so you needn't answer +till you hear again. + +"If Searle is dead, why don't he say so? I only touched him for a few +odd dollars--I only needed a grub-stake--fifty would have done the +trick--and he doesn't come through. And nobody writes. I guess it's +me for the Prodigal, but when I do get next to the fatted calf I'll get +inside and eat my way out by way of his hoofs and horns. Why couldn't +you and Searle and the maid come down and have a look at me--working? +_It's worth it_. Come on. Maybe it's easier than writing. Yours for +the rights of labor, GLEN." + + +Astonished by the contents of this communication, Beth read it again, +in no little bewilderment, to make sure she had made no mistake. No +letter from herself? No word from Searle? No answer to Glen's request +for money? And he had only asked for a "few odd dollars?" There must +be something wrong. He had sent the most urgent requirement for sixty +thousand dollars. And she herself had written, at once. Searle had +assured her he had sent him word by special messenger. Starlight was +less than a long day's ride away. Glen had already had time to see +that account in the paper and write. + +She had no suspicions of Bostwick. She had seen Glen's letter and read +it for herself. And Searle had responded immediately with an offer to +lend her brother thirty thousand dollars. There must be some mistake. +Glen might be keeping his news and plans from herself, as men so often +will. Searle might even have overlooked the importance of keeping Glen +fully posted, intending to go so soon to Starlight. Her own letter +might have miscarried. + +She tried to fashion explanations--but they would not entirely fit. +Searle had been gone three days. He had gone before the Goldite _News_ +was issued. The paper had arrived at Glen's while the man in his car +had failed. + +For a moment she sickened with the reflection that Searle might once +more have fallen captive to the convicts, still at large--and with all +the money! Then she presently assured herself that news so sinister as +this would have been very prompt to return. + +It was all too much to understand--unless Glen were ill--or out of his +reason. His two letters, the one to Searle and this one to herself, +were so utterly conflicting. It was not to be solved from such a +distance. Moreover, Glen wrote that he was off on a trip, and asked +her to wait before replying. It was irritating, all this waiting, +alone here in Goldite, but there seemed to be nothing else to do. + +The long morning passed, and she fretted. In the afternoon the Goldite +_News_ broke its record. It printed an extra--a single sheet, in +glaring type, announcing the capture of the convicts. By a bold and +daring coup, it said, the entire herd of criminals, all half starved +and weakened by privations, had been rounded up and transported back to +prison. Unfortunately, the report was slightly inaccurate. Matt +Barger, the leader in the prison delivery, and the most desperate man +in the lot, had escaped the posse's vigilance. Of this important +factor in the welcome story of the posse's work Goldite was ignorant, +and doomed to be in ignorance a week. + +The news to Beth was a source of great relief. But her troubles in +other directions were fated to increase. That evening three men called +formally--formally, that is to say, in so far as dressing in their best +was concerned and putting on their "company manners." But Beth and +courtship were their objects, a fact that developed, somewhat crudely +with the smallest possible delay. + +One of these persons, Billy Stitts by name, was fairly unobjectionable +as a human being, since he was a quaint, slow-witted, bird-like little +creature, fully sixty years of age and clearly harmless. The others +were as frankly in pursuit of a mate as any two mountain animals. + +Beth was frightened, when the purport of their visit flashed upon her. +She felt a certain sense of helplessness. Mrs. Dick was too busy to be +constantly present; Elsa was gone; the ways of such a place were new +and wholly alarming. She felt when she made her escape from the three +that her safety was by no means assured. Her room was her only +retreat. Except for Mrs. Dick, there was not another woman in the +house. She was wholly surrounded by men--a rough, womanless lot whose +excitements, passions, and emotions were subjected to changes +constantly, as well as to heats, by the life all around them in the +mines. + +That night was her first of real terror. Every noise in the building, +and some in the streets, made her start awake like a hunted doe, with +imaginings of the most awful description. She scarcely slept at all. + +The following day old Billy Stitts called again, very shortly after +breakfast. He proved such an amiable, womanly old chap that he was +almost a comfort to the girl. She sent him to the postoffice, for a +possible letter from Glen. He went with all the pleasure and alacrity +of a faithful dog, apologizing most exuberantly on his return for the +fact that no letter had come. + +She remained in the house all day. The afternoon brought the two rough +suitors of the night before, and two more equally crude. Mrs. Dick, to +Beth's intense uneasiness, regarded the matter as one to be expected, +and quite in accord with reason and proper regulations. A good-looking +girl in camp, with her men-folks all giving her the go-by--and what +could you expect? Moreover, as some of these would-be courtiers were +husky and in line for fortune's smile, with chances as good as any +other man's, she might do worse than let them come, and hear what they +had to say. It was no girl's need to be neglected as Searle and Van +were patently neglecting Beth. + +This was the stage in which Beth at length began to meditate on Spartan +remedies. The situation was not to be endured. No word had come from +Searle. The world might have swallowed him up. She was sick of +him--sick of his ways of neglect. And as for Van---- + +There was no one to whom she could turn--unless it were Glen. If only +she could flee to her brother! She thought about it earnestly. She +tried to plan the way. + +Her horse was at the hay-yard. Starlight was only one day off in the +desert. The convicts were no longer about. If only she could ride +there--even alone! An early start--a little urging of the pony--she +could fancy the journey accomplished with the utmost ease; then +scornful defiance, both of Bostwick and of Van. + +But a woman--riding in this lawless land alone! She was utterly +disheartened, disillusionized at the thought. It would be no less than +madness. And yet, it seemed as if she must presently go. Searle's +silence, coupled to conditions here, was absolutely intolerable. + +With plans decidedly hazy--nothing but a wild, bright dream really +clear--she questioned Billy Stitts concerning the roads. He was +familiar with every route in miles, whether roadway, trail, or "course +by compass," as he termed trackless cruising in the desert. He gave +her directions with the utmost minutae of detail as to every highway to +Starlight. He drew her a plan. She was sure that she could almost +ride to Starlight in the dark. What branches of the road to shun, +which trails to choose, possibly, for gaining time, what places to +water a famishing horse--all these and more she learned with feverish +interest. + +"Now a man would do this," and "a man would do that," said Billy time +after time, till a new, fantastic notion came bounding full-fledged +into Beth's anxious brain and almost made her laugh with delight. She +could _dress as a man_ and ride as a man and be absolutely safe on the +journey! She knew a dozen unusual arts for dying the skin and +concealing the hair and making the hands look rough. Make-up in +private theatricals, at professional hands, she had learned with +exceptional thoroughness. + +She would need a suit of kahki, miners' books, a soft, big hat, and +flannel shirt. They were all to be had at the store. She could order +her horse to be saddled for a man. She could readily dress and escape +unseen from the house. In a word, she could do the trick! + +The plan possessed her utterly. It sent her blood bounding through her +veins. Her face was flushed with excitement. She loved adventure--and +this would be something to do! + +Nevertheless, despite all her plans, she had no real intention of +attempting a scheme so mad. Subconsciously she confessed to herself it +was just the merest idle fancy, not a thing to be actually ventured, or +even entertained. + +That night, when she was more beset, more worried than before, however, +desperation was increasing upon her. The plan she had made no longer +seemed the mere caprice of one in pursuit of pleasure--it appeared to +be the only possible respite from conditions no longer to be borne. + +When the morning came, after a night of mental torture and bodily fear, +her patience had been strained to the point of breaking, and resolve +was steeling her courage. + +The word that should have come from Searle was still delinquent. But +old Billy Stitts brought her a letter from Glen. + + +"Dear Sis: I can only write a line or two. Had a thump on the head, +but it didn't knock off my block. Don't worry. All right in a few +days, sure. Guess you couldn't come, or you'd be here, in response to +my last. But Searle might show up, anyhow. You can write me now. +Hope you're well and happy. Is the brigand still on the job? Can't +really write. With love, GLEN." + + +Her heart stood still as she; read her brother's lines, in a scrawled +hand indicative of weakness. She resolved in that instant to go. + +"Mr. Stitts," she raid in remarkable calm, for all that she felt, "my +brother needs some clothing--everything complete, boots, shirts, and +all. He's just about my size. I wish you'd go and buy them." + +"Lord, I know the best and the cheapest in camp!" said Billy eagerly. +"I'll have 'em here before you can write him your letter--but the stage +don't go back till Friday." + +She had given no thought to the tri-weekly stage. She dismissed it +now, with a wave of gratitude towards Van for the horse--gratitude, or +something, surging warmly in her veins. She almost wished he could +ride at her side, but checked that lawlessness sternly. She would ride +to Glen alone! + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +A BLIZZARD OF DUST + +At daylight Beth was dressed as a man and surveying herself in the +mirror. She had passed a sleepless night. She was fevered, excited, +and nervous. + +Her work had been admirably done. She looked no more rawly new or +youthful than scores of young tenderfeet, daily in the streets of the +camp. The stain on her face had furnished an astonishing disguise, +supported as it was by male attire. Her hair was all up in the crown +of her hat, which was set on the back of her head. It was fastened, +moreover, with pins concealed beneath the leather band. Altogether the +disguise was most successful. Beth had disappeared: a handsome young +man had been conjured in her place. + +Her mare, which Billy had ordered, came promptly to the door. She +heard her arrive--and her heart stroked more madly than before. +Trembling in every limb, and treading as softly as a thief, she made +her way downstairs. + +On the dining-room table was the package of lunch that Mrs. Dick had +agreed to prepare. Beth had told her she meant to take an early +morning ride and might not be back in time for breakfast. With this +bundle in hand she went out at the door, her courage all but failing at +thought of the man with the horse at the threshold. She shrank from +being seen in such an outfit. + +It was too late now to retreat, however, she told herself bravely, and +out she went. + +"Say, git a move, young feller," said the hostler with her pony. "I +ain't got time to play horse-post here all day." + +"Thank you for being so prompt," said Beth, in a voice that was faint, +despite her efforts to be masculine, and she gave him a coin. + +"I'll tie that there bundle on behind," he volunteered, less gruffly, +and Beth was glad of his assistance. + +A moment later she took a gasp of breath and mounted to the seat. +Collapse of all the project had seemed imminent, but an actual feeling +of relief and security ensued when she was settled in the saddle. + +"So long," said the hostler, and Beth responded manfully, "So long." + +She rode out slowly, towards the one main road. A feeling of the +morning's chill assailed her, making her shiver. The noise of her +pony's hoof-beats seemed alarmingly resonant. + +But nothing happened. The streets were deserted, save for a few +half-drunken wanderers, headed for the nearest saloon. On the far-off +peaks of the mountains the rosy light of sunrise faintly appeared. In +the calm of the great barren spaces, even Goldite was beautiful at last. + +A sense of exhilaration pervaded Beth's youthful being. She was glad +of what she had done. It was joyous, it was splendid, this absolute +freedom in all this stern old world! + +The road wound crookedly up a hill, as it left the streets of the town +behind. The scattered tents extended for a mile in this direction, the +squares of silent canvas, like so many dice, cast on the slopes by a +careless fate that had cast man with them in the struggle. + +Beth and her pony finally topped the hill, to be met by a sea of +mountains out beyond. Up and down these mighty billows of the earth +the highway meandered, leading onward and southward through the desert. + +The mare was urged to a gallop, down an easy slope, then once more she +walked as before. All the mountains in the west were rosy now, till +presently the sun was up, a golden coin, struck hot from the very mints +of God, giving one more day with its glory. + +Its very first rays seemed a comfort, suggesting a welcome warmth. +Beth could have called out songs of gladness well nigh uncontainable. +She had all the big world to herself. Even the strangely twisted +clouds in the sky seemed made for her delight. They were rare in this +wonderful dome of blue and therefore things of beauty. + +For an hour or more her way was plain, and to ride was a god-like +privilege. Her ease of mind was thoroughly established. What had been +the necessity for all those qualms of fear? The matter was simple, +after all. + +It was ten o'clock before she ate her breakfast. She had come to the +so-called river, the only one in perhaps a hundred miles. It was quite +a respectable stream at this particular season, but spread very thinly +and widely at the ford. + +By noon she was half way of her distance. The sun was hot; summer +baking of the desert had begun. Her mare was sweating profusely. She +had urged her to the top of her strength. Nevertheless she was still +in excellent condition. To the westward the sky was overcast in a +manner such as Beth had never seen, with a dark, copperous storm-head +that massed itself prodigiously above the range. + +Already she had come to three branchings of the road and chosen her way +in confidence, according to Billy Stiff's directions. When she came to +a fourth, where none had been indicated, she was sure, either in +Billy's instructions, or upon his drawing, she confessed herself +somewhat uncertain. She halted and felt for the map. + +It was not to be found. She had left it behind at Mrs. Dick's. Dimly +she fancied she remembered that Billy had said on the fourth branch, +keep to the right. There could be no doubt that this branch was the +fourth, howsoever out of place it appeared. She rode to the right, +and, having passed a little valley, found herself enfolded in a rolling +barrier of hills where it seemed as if the sun and rocks were of almost +equal heat. + +At mid-afternoon Beth abruptly halted her pony and stared at the world +of desert mountains in confusion not unmixed with alarm. She was out +at the center of a vast level place, almost entirely devoid of +vegetation--and the road had all but disappeared. It branched once +more, and neither fork was at all well defined, despite the fact that +travel to Starlight was supposed to be reasonably heavy. She had made +some mistake. She suddenly remembered something that Billy had said +concerning a table mountain she should have passed no later than +half-past one. It had not been seen along her way. She was tired. +Weariness and the heat had broken down a little of the bright, joyous +spirit of the morning. A heart-sinking came upon her. She must turn +and ride back to--she knew not which of the branches of the road, any +one of which might have been wrongly selected. + +Her mare could not be hurried now; she must last to get her to +Starlight. To add to other trifles of the moment, the bank of cloud, +so long hung motionless above the western summits, moved out across the +path of the sun and blotted out its glory with a density that would +have seemed impossible. + +Scarcely had Beth fairly turned her back to the west when a wind storm +swooped upon the desert. It came as a good stiff breeze, at first, +flecking up but little of the dust. Then a sudden, ominous change +occurred. All the blue of the sky was overwhelmed, under a sudden +expansion of the copperous clouds. An eclipse-like darkness enveloped +the world, till the farthest mountains disappeared and the near-by +ranges seemed to magnify themselves as they blended with the sky. + +With a sound as of an on-rushing cataclysm the actual storm, cyclonic +in all but the rotary motion, came beating down upon the startled earth +like a falling wall of air. + +In less than two minutes the world, the atmosphere, everything had +ceased to be. It was a universe of dust and sand, hurtling--God knew +whither. + +In the suddenness of the storm's descent upon her, Beth became +speechless with dismay. Her mare dropped her head and slowly continued +to walk. Road, hills, desert--all had disappeared. To go onward was +madness; to remain seemed certain death. Despair and horror together +gripped Beth by the heart. There was nothing in the world she could do +but to close her eyes and double low above the saddle, her hat bent +down to shield her face. + +At the end of a few minutes only the frightfulness of the thing could +no longer be endured. Beth had been all but torn from her seat by the +sheer weight and impact of the wind. All the world was roaring +prodigiously. The sand and dust, driving with unimaginable velocity, +smoked past in blinding fury. + +The mare had ceased to move. Beth was aware of her inertia, dimly. +She remembered at last to dismount and stand in the animal's shelter. +At length on the raging and roaring of the air-sea, crashing onward in +its tidal might, came a fearful additional sound. It was rushing +onward towards the girl with a speed incredible--a sound of shrieking, +or whistling, that changed to a swishing as if of pinions, Titanic in +size, where some monstrous winged god was blown against, his will in a +headlong course through the tumult. + +Then the something went by--the whole roof of a house--from twenty +miles away. It scraped in the earth, not ten feet off from where the +pony stood--and she bolted and ran for her life. + +Down went Beth, knocked over by the mare. With a hideous crash the +flying roof was hurled against a nearby pinnacle of rock. The wooden +wings split upon the immovable obstruction, and on they went as before. + +The pony had disappeared, in panic that nothing could have allayed. +The storm-pall swallowed her instantly, Beth could not have seen her +had she halted a rod away. Her eyes had been opened for half a moment +only before she was flung to the earth. She was rolling now, and for +the moment was utterly powerless to rise or to halt her locomotion. + +When she presently grasped at a little gray shrub, came to a halt, and +tried to stand erect, she was buffeted bodily along by the wind with no +strength in her limbs to resist. + +She was blown to the big rock pinnacle on which the roof had been +divided. An eddy twisted her rudely around to the shelter, and she +flung herself down upon the earth. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +A TIMELY DELIVERANCE + +How long she lay there Beth could never have known. It seemed a time +interminable, with the horror of the storm in all the universe. It was +certainly more than an hour before the end began to come. Then clouds +and the blizzard of sand and dust, together with all the mighty +roaring, appeared to be hurled across the firmament by the final gust +of fury and swept from the visible world into outer space. + +Only a brisk half-gale remained in the wake of the huger disturbance. +The sky and atmosphere cleared together. The sun shone forth as +before--but low to the mountain horizon. When even the clean wind too +had gone, trailing behind its lawless brother, the desert calm became +as absolute as Beth had beheld it in the morning. + +She crept from her shelter and looked about the plain. Her eyes were +red and smarting. She was dusted through and through. In all the +broad, gray expanse there was not a sign of anything alive. Her mare +had vanished. Beth was lost in the desert, and night was fast +descending. + +Deliverance from the storm, or perhaps the storm's very rage, had +brought her a species of calm. The fear she had was a dull, persistent +dread--an all-pervading horror of her situation, too large to be acute. +Nevertheless, she determined to seek for the road with all possible +haste and make her way on foot, as far as possible, towards the +Starlight highway and its possible traffic. + +She was stiff from her ride and her cramped position on the earth. She +started off somewhat helplessly, where she felt the road must be. + +She found no road. Her direction may have been wrong. Possibly the +storm of wind had swept away the wagon tracks, for they had all been +faint. It had been but half a road at best for several miles. Her +heart sank utterly. She became confused as to which way she had +traveled. Towards a pass in the hills whence she felt she must have +come she hastened with a new accession of alarm. + +She was presently convinced that she had chosen entirely wrong. A +realizing sense that she was hopelessly mixed assailed her crushingly. +To turn in any direction might be a grave mistake. But to stand here +and wait--do nothing--with the sun going down--this was +preposterous--suicidal! She must go on--somewhere! She must find the +road! She must keep on moving--till the end! Till the end! How +terrible that thought appeared, in such a situation! + +She almost ran, straight onward towards the hills. Out of breath very +soon, she walked with all possible haste and eagerness, all the time +looking for the road she had left, which the storm might have wiped +from the desert. She was certain now that the mountains towards which +she was fleeing were away from the Goldite direction. + +Once more she changed her course. She realized then that such efforts +as these must soon defeat themselves. At least she must stick to one +direction--go on in a line as straight as possible, till she came to +something! Yet if she chose her direction wrong and went miles away +from anything---- + +She had to go on. She had to take the chance. She plodded +southwestward doggedly, for perhaps a mile, then halted at something +like a distant sound, and peered towards the shadows of the sunset. + +There was nothing to be seen. A hope which had risen for a moment in +her breast, at thought of possible deliverance, sank down in collapse, +and left her more faint than before. The sun was at the very rim of +the world. Its edge began to melt its way downward into all the solid +bulk of mountains. It would soon be gone. Darkness would ensue. The +moon would be very late, if indeed it came at all. Wild animals would +issue from their dens of hiding, to prowl in search of food. Perhaps +the sound she heard had been made by an early night-brute of the +desert, already roving for his prey! + +Once more she went on, desperately, almost blindly. To keep on going, +that was the one essential! She had proceeded no more than a few rods, +however, when she heard that sound again--this time more like a shout. + +Her heart pounded heavily and rapidly. She shaded her eyes with her +hand, against the last, slanted sun-rays, and fancied she discerned +something, far off there westward, in the purples flung eastward by the +mountains. Then the last bit of all that molten disk of gold +disappeared in the summits, and with its going she beheld a horseman, +riding at a gallop towards herself. + +The relief she felt was almost overwhelming--till thoughts of such an +encounter came to modify her joy. She was only an unprotected +girl--yet--she had no appearance of a woman! This must be her +safeguard, should this man now approaching prove some rough, lawless +being of the mines. + +She stood perfectly still and waited. A man would have hurried forward +to meet this deliverance, so unexpectedly vouchsafed. But she was too +excited, too uncertain--too much of a girl. Then presently, when the +horseman was still a hundred yards away, her heart abruptly turned over +in her bosom. + +The man on the horse was Van. She knew him--knew that impudent pose, +that careless grace and oneness with his broncho! She did not know he +was chasing that flying roof which had frightened her horse from her +side; that he had bought an old cabin, far from his claim, to move it +to the "Laughing Water" ground--only to see it wrenched from his hold +by the mighty gale and flung across the world. She knew nothing of +this, but she suddenly knew how glad was her whole tingling being, how +bounding was the blood in her veins! And she also knew, abruptly, that +now if ever she must play the man. She had all but forgotten she was +angry with Van. That, and a hundred reasons more, made it absolutely +imperative now that he should not know her for herself! + +She made a somewhat wild attempt at a toilet of her hair--in case the +wind had ripped the tell-tale strands from beneath her hat. Then with +utter faintness in her being, and weakness in her knees, she prepared +to give him reception. + +He had slowed his horse to a walk. He rode up deliberately, +scrutinizing in obvious puzzlement the figure before him in the sand. + +"Hullo," he said, while still a rod away, "what in blazes are you doing +here, man--are you lost?" + +Beth nodded. "I'm afraid I am." Her utterance was decidedly girlish, +and quavering. + +"Lost your voice somewhere, too, I reckon," said Van. "Where are you +going? Where are you from?" + +"Starlight," answered Beth, at a loss for a better reply, and making an +effort to deepen her tones as she talked. "I lost my horse in the +storm." + +Van looked around the valley. + +"Did, hey? Didn't happen to see a stray roof, anywhere, did you? I +lost one." + +"I--haven't seen anything," faltered Both, whose only wish was to have +him say something about her escape from this terrible place. "But +something frightened my pony." + +"I was curious to see how far that roof would hike, that's all," he +told her by way of explanation of his presence here on his horse, and +he turned to look at her again. "Didn't you know this so-called +cut-off to Starlight would take you more time than the road?" + +"No, I--I didn't know it," said Beth, afraid he must presently +penetrate her masquerade if he looked like that upon her. "What do you +advise me to do?" + +He ignored her question, demanding: + +"Say, is your name Kent?--Glenmore Kent?" + +Beth felt her heart begin new gymnastics. This was her cue. + +"Why, yes. But--how did you know--know me?" + +"I've met your sister, in Goldite. You can't get to Starlight +to-night." + +She had passed muster! A herd of wild emotions were upon her. But +first here was her predicament--and what he said was not at all +reassuring. Certain alarms that his coming had banished returned in a +vague array. + +She showed her dread in her eyes. "Perhaps I could get to Goldite." + +"How?" He was half unconsciously patting Suvy, the horse, whose +ecstasy thereat was not to be concealed. + +Beth knew not how. She wished Van would cease that study of her face. +Perhaps she could think more clearly. + +"Why--I suppose I could walk--if I knew the way," she said. "Is it +very far? I admit I'm bewildered. I was lost." + +"It would be a long ride," he told her. "A lost man is hopeless. I +couldn't even show you the way so you could keep it--especially at +night." + +New fears came surging upon her in all their force and numbers. + +"But--what shall I do?" + +Van reflected. + +"My claim is the nearest camp from here, since the wind took down that +shack. And that was abandoned anyway. Can you hike some twenty-odd +miles?" + +Twenty-odd miles!--on foot! For a second she was almost tempted to +disclose herself, and beg him, for something a trifle more sympathetic +than what he seemed to be offering another fellow man. But that could +not be done. And night was descending rapidly. The twilight was +brief--and on the wane. + +"Why--perhaps so," she answered, attempting to smile. "I'll try." + +Something in her smile went straight to his heart--he wondered why. To +feel as he did towards this unknown man, even the brother of the girl +he madly loved--this was certainly absurd. It was not to be explained; +it was simply upon him, that was enough. He dismounted. + +"Here, get on my horse and ride. I want to walk and stretch my legs." + +Beth all but gasped. She!--ride on Suvy!--the horse she had seen so +nearly kill this man!--a horse that might perhaps permit no other +living thing upon his back! Yet she knew not how to refuse--and to +walk very far would be impossible. + +"I'm--afraid I'm a very poor horseman," she admitted guardedly. "If +your pony should happen----" + +Van had thought that Suvy might resent a stranger's liberties. He +turned to the broncho peculiarly. + +"How about it, boy?" he asked the horse gravely. "I want you to stand +for it, savvy?" He looked at the animal inquiringly. How he knew that +Suvy consented was only for him to comprehend. He squared about to +Beth, who was watching with wonder, and something far softer, in her +heart. "Get on," he said. "He was raised as a cradle for babies." + +Beth was pale, but she had to be a man. She stepped to the broncho's +side and mounted to the saddle. Suvy trembled in every sinew of his +being. + +Van gave him a pat on the neck again, turned his back and started +straight northward. The pony followed at his heels like a dog with a +master he loves. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +THE NIGHT IN THE DESERT + +At ten o'clock that night the moon had not yet risen. Its glow was on +the eastern sky, however, and at length it appeared, a broken orb with +its waning side lopped from its bulk. + +Beth was still in the saddle. She was utterly exhausted; she could +scarcely remain in her seat. For more than an hour Van had plodded +onward without even turning to speak. They had talked intermittently, +and he had told her his name. Far off in the dimness of the desert +level--the floor of a second mighty valley--a lone coyote began his +dismal howling. Beth, on the horse, felt a chill go down her spine. +Van seemed not to hear. The howl was repeated from time to time +intermittently, like the wail of a ghost, forever lost to hope. + +When the moon at last shone fairly on the broncho and the girl, Van +cast a glance at her face. He was startled. The young rider looked so +much like Beth--and looked so utterly tired! + +Van halted, and so did the pony. The man looked up at his companion. + +"You're in no fit condition to go on," he said. "What's the use of our +trying to make it? To camp right here is as good as going on all +night, which don't suit my legs worth a cent." + +Beth was wearied almost to collapse. But--to camp out here--all +night!--they two! Aside from the terrors that had crept to her soul at +sound of the distant coyote, this present aspect of the situation was +appalling. Indeed, she began to see that whether they went on or +remained, she must spend the night in this man's company. + +She was almost too tired to care how such a thing would appear. He +thought her a man--it had been inescapable--there was nothing she could +do to prevent the course of events. And come what might she must +presently slip from that saddle, in her weakness, faintness, and +hunger, if the penalty were all but life itself. + +"I'm--sure I can walk--and let you ride," she said. "I'd like to go +on, but I know I can't sit here any longer." + +She tried to dismount by herself--as any man must do. In her stiffness +she practically fell from the saddle, sinking on her side upon the +ground. Only for a second was she prostrate thus at his feet, but her +coat fell back from her kahki vest--and a gleam of the moonlight fell +upon a bright little object, pinned above her heart. + +Van beheld it--and knew what it was--his nugget, washed from the +"Laughing Water" claim! + +The truth seemed to pour upon him like the waters of an all-engulfing +wave--the overwhelming, wonderful truth that was also almost terrible, +in what it might mean to them both. + +There was one thing only the man could do--ignore this fact that he had +discovered and treat her like a man. This he knew instantly. He +turned with a man's indifference to one of his sex and vaulted to +Suvy's back. + +"Come on," he said, "if you're anxious to get under cover." + +He could trust himself to say no more. He rode ahead. + +Beth did her best to follow, and make no complaint. The broncho, +however, was a rapid walker. This she had not realized while Van was +striding on in the lead. She fell behind repeatedly, and Van was +obliged to halt his horse and wait. She began to be lame. It had been +a torture to ride; it was agony to walk. + +Van now became strangely urgent. He had never loved her more. His +love had taken on a sacredness, out here in the night, with Beth so +weary and helpless. More than anything he had ever desired in his life +he wished to keep her sacred--spared from such a complication as their +night out here alone might engender. + +Yet he saw the first little limp when she began to falter. He was +watching backward constantly, his whole nature eager to protect +her--save her from hurt, from this merciless toil across the desert. +He longed to take her in his arms and carry her thus, securely. He was +torn between the wish to hasten her along, for her own greater ease of +mind, and the impulse to halt this hardship. He knew not what to do. + +They had gone much less than a mile when he brought up his pony at her +side. + +"Here, Kent," he said, "you walk like a bride-groom going up the aisle. +You'll have to get up here and ride." He dismounted actively. + +Beth could have dropped in her tracks for weariness. She was tired to +the marrow of her bones. + +"I can't," she answered. "Perhaps--we'd better camp." A hot flush +rushed upward to her very scalp, fortunately, however, unseen. + +Van regarded her sternly. + +"I've changed my mind. I haven't time to camp out here to-night. +You'll have to ride." + +It seemed to Beth that, had it been to save her life, she could +scarcely have climbed to that saddle. To remain on the horse would, +she knew, be far beyond her strength. She continued on her feet only +by the utmost exertion of her will. Someway since Van had found her in +this dreadful place she had lost strength rapidly--perhaps for the +leaning on him. With Van's ultimatum now to confront, she could summon +no nerve or resolution. + +Her face paled. "You'd better go on, if you have to be at your claim," +she said, aware that she could offer no argument, no alternative plan +to his wish for an onward march. "I'm--not used to riding--much. I +can't ride any more tonight." + +He knew she told the truth, knew how gladly she would have continued +riding, knew what a plight of collapse she must be approaching to +submit to a thought of remaining here till morning. He could not go +and leave her here. The thought of it aroused him to something like +anger. He realized the necessity of assuming a rougher demeanor. + +"Damn it, Kent," he said, "you're no less lost than you were before. +You know I can't go off and leave you. And I want to get ahead." + +She only knew she could not ride, come what might. + +"You didn't say so, a little while ago," she ventured, half +imploringly. "I'm sorry I'm so nearly dead. If you must go on----" + +That cut him to the heart. How could he be a brute? + +"I ought to go!" he broke in unguardedly. "I mean I've got to +think--I've got work to do in the morning. Don't you suppose you could +try?" + +The moonlight was full on his face. All the laughter she knew so well +had disappeared from his eyes. In its place she saw such a look of +yearning and worry--such a tenderness of love as no woman ever yet saw +and failed to comprehend. She divined in that second that he knew who +she was--she felt it, through all her sense of intuition and the fiber +of her soul. She understood his insistence on the march, the saving +march, straight onward without a halt. She loved him for it. She had +loved him with wild intensity, confessed at last to herself, ever since +the moment he had appeared in the desert to save her. + +If a certain reckless abandon to this love rocked her splendid +self-control, it was only because she was so utterly exhausted. Her +judgment was sound, unshaken. Nevertheless, despite judgment and +all--to go on was out of the question. God had flung them out here +together, she thought, for better or for worse. That Van would be the +fine chivalrous gentleman she had felt him to be at the very first +moment of their accidental acquaintance, she felt absolutely assured. +She accepted a certain inevitable fatality in the situation---perhaps +the more readily now that she knew he knew, for she seemed so much more +secure. + +His question remained unanswered while she thought of a thousand +things. Could she try to go on? + +She shook her head. "What's the use of my riding--perhaps another +mile? You might go on and send a man to guide me in the morning." + +What an effort it cost her to make such a harsh suggestion not even Van +could know. A terrible fear possessed her that he might really act +upon her word. To have him stay was bad enough, but to have him go +would be terrible. + +"Hell!" he said, keeping up his acting. "You talk like a woman. +Haven't I wasted time enough already without sending someone out here +to-morrow morning? What makes you think you're worth it?" He turned +his back upon her, hung the stirrup of the saddle on the horn, and +began to loosen the cinch. + +Like the woman that she was, she enjoyed his roughness, his impudence, +and candor. It meant so much, in such a time as this. After a moment +she asked him: + +"What do you mean to do?" + +He hauled off the saddle and dropped it to the ground. + +"Make up the berths," he answered. "Here's your bedding." He tossed +the blanket down at her feet. It was warm and moist from Suvy's body. +He then uncoiled his long lasso, secured an end around the pony's neck, +and bade him walk away and roll. + +The broncho obeyed willingly, as if he understood. Van took up the +saddle, carried it off a bit, and dropped it as before. + +Beth still remained there, with the blanket at her feet. + +Van addressed her. "Got any matches?" + +"No," she said. "I'm afraid----" + +"Neither have I," he interrupted. "No fire in the dressing-room. +Good-night. No need to set the alarm clock. I'll wake you bright and +early." Once more he took up his saddle and started off in the +ankle-high brush of the plain. + +Beth watched him with many misgivings at her heart. + +"Where--where are you going?" she called. + +"To bed," he called in response. "Want room to kick around, if I get +restless." + +She understood--but it was hard to bear, to be left so alone as this, +in such a place. He went needlessly far, she was sure. + +Grateful to him, but alarmed, made weaker again by having thus to make +her couch so far from any protection, she continued to stand there, +watching him depart. He stooped at last, and his pony halted near him, +like a faithful being who must needs keep him always in sight. Even +the pony would have been some company for Beth, but when Van stretched +himself down upon the earth, with the saddle for a pillow, she felt +horribly alone. + +There was nothing to do but to make the best of what the fates allowed. +She curled herself down on the chilly sand with the blanket tucked +fairly well around her. But she did not sleep. She was far too tired +and alarmed. + +Half an hour later three coyotes began a fearsome serenade. Beth sat +up abruptly, as terrified as if she had been but a child. She endured +it for nearly five minutes, hearing it come closer all the while. Then +she could bear it no more. She rose to her feet, caught up her +blanket, and almost ran towards the pony. More softly then she +approached the place where Van lay full length upon the ground. She +beheld him in the moonlight, apparently sound asleep. + +As closely as she dared she crept, and once more made her bed upon the +sand. There, in a child-like sense of security, with her fearless +protector near, she listened in a hazy way to the prowling beasts, now +cruising away to the south, and so profoundly slept. + +Van had heard her come. Into his heart snuggled such a warmth and holy +joy as few men are given to feel. He, too, went to sleep, thinking of +his nugget on her breast. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +TALL STORIES + +Daylight had barely broadened into morning when Van was astir from his +bed. The air was chill and wonderfully clean. Above the eastern run +of hills the sun was ready to appear. + +Beth still lay deep in slumber. She had curled up like a child in her +meager covering. Van watched her from his distance. A little shiver +passed through her form, from time to time. Her hat was still in +place, but how girlish, how sweet, how helpless was her face--the +little he could see! How he wished he might permit her to sleep it out +as nature demanded. For her own sake, not for his, he must hasten her +onward to Goldite, by way of the "Laughing Water" claim. + +He walked off eastward where a natural furrow made a deep depression in +the valley. His pony followed, the lasso dragging in the sand. Once +over at the furrow edge, the man took out his pistol and fired it off +in the air. + +Beth was duly aroused. Van saw her leap to her feet, then he +disappeared in the hollow, with his broncho at his heels. + +The girl was, if possible, stiffer than before. But she was much +refreshed. For a moment she feared Van was deserting, till she noted +his saddle, near at hand. Then he presently emerged upon the level of +the plain and returned to the site of their camp. + +"First call for breakfast in the dining-car," he said. "We can make it +by half-past eight." + +"If only we could have a cup of good hot coffee first, before we +start," said Beth, and she smiled at the vainness of the thought. + +"We won't get good coffee at the claim," Van assured her dryly. "But +near-coffee would lure me out of this." + +He was rapidly adjusting the blanket and saddle on his horse. + +"You'll have to ride or we can't make speed," he added. "As a walker +you're sure the limited." + +She appreciated thoroughly the delicacy with which he meant to continue +the fiction of her sex. But he certainly was frank. + +"Thank you," she answered amusedly. "I'd do better, perhaps, if I +weren't so over-burdened with flattery." + +"You'll have to do better, anyhow," he observed, concluding +preparations with Suvy. "There you are. Get on. Father Time with +hobbles on could beat us getting a move." + +He started off, leaving her to mount by herself. She managed the +matter somewhat stiffly, suppressing a groan at the effort, and then +for an hour she was gently pummeled into limberness as the pony +followed Van. + +They came at the end of that time to one of the upper reaches of that +same river she had forded the previous day. To all appearances the +wide shallow bed was a counterpart of the one over which her horse had +waded. But the trail turned sharply down the stream, and followed +along its bank. + +They had halted for the pony to drink. Van also refreshed himself and +Beth dismounted to lie flat down and quench her long, trying thirst. + +"Right across there, high up in the hills, is the 'Laughing Water' +claim," said Van, pointing north-eastward towards the mountains. "Only +three miles away, if we could fly, but six as we have to go around." + +"And why do we have to go around?" Beth inquired. "Aren't we going to +cross the river here?" + +"Looks like a river, I admit," he said, eying the placid stream. +"That's a graveyard there--quicksand all the way across." + +Beth's heart felt a shock at the thought of what could occur to a +traveler here, unacquainted with the treacherous waters. + +"Good gracious!" she said. She added generously: "Couldn't I walk a +little now, and--share the horse?" + +"When you walk it gets on Suvy's nerves to try to keep step," he +answered. "Fall in." + +They went two miles down the river, then, across on a rock-and-gravel +bottom, at a ford directly opposite a jagged rift in the mountains. +This chasm, which was short and steep, they traversed perspiringly. +The sun was getting warm. Beyond them then the way was all a rough, +hard climb, over ridges, down through canyons, around huge dykes of +rock and past innumerable foldings of the range. How Van knew the way +was more than Beth could understand. She was already growing wearied +anew, since the night had afforded her very little rest, and she had +not eaten for nearly a day. + +Van knew she was in no condition for the ride. He was watching her +constantly, rejoicing in her spirit, but aching for her aches. He set +a faster pace for the broncho to follow, to end the climb as soon as +possible. + +At length, below a rounded ridge, where stunted evergreens made a +welcome bit of greenery, he came to a halt. + +"We're almost there," he said. "You'll have to remain at the claim +till somewhere near noon, then I'll show you the way down to Goldite." + +"Till noon?" She looked at him steadily, a light of worry in her eyes +as she thought of arriving so late at Mrs. Dick's, with what +consequences--the Lord alone knew. + +"I can't get away much earlier," he said, and to this, by way of acting +his part, he added: "Do you want to wear me out?" + +She knew what he meant. He would wait till noon to give her time to +rest. She would need all the rest he could make possible. And then he +would only "show her the way to Goldite." He would not ride with her +to town. She might yet escape the compromising plight into which she +had been thrust. His thoughtfulness, it seemed, could have no end. + +"Very well," she murmured. "I'm sorry to have made you all this +trouble." She was not--someways; she was lawlessly, inordinately glad. + +The "trouble" for Van had been the most precious experience in all his +life. + +"It has been one wild spasm of delight," he said in his dryest manner +of sarcasm. "But between us, Kent, I'm glad it's no continuous +performance." + +He went over the ridge, she following. A moment later they were +looking down upon the "Laughing Water" claim from that self-same +eminence from which Searle Bostwick had seen it when he rode one day +from the Indian reservation. + +"This," said Van, "is home." + +"Oh," said the girl, and tears sprang into her eyes. + +And a very home, indeed, it presently seemed, when they came to the +shack, where Gettysburg, Napoleon, old Dave, and even Algy, the Chinese +cook, came forth to give them cordial welcome. + +Beth was introduced to all as Glenmore Kent--and passed inspection. + +"Brother of Miss Beth Kent," said Van, "who honored us once with a +visit to the Monte Cristo fiasco. He's been lost on the desert and +he's too done up to talk, so I want him to be fed and entertained. And +of the two requirements, the feed's more important than the vaudeville +show, unless your stunts can put a man to sleep." + +Algy and Gettysburg got the impromptu breakfast together. The placer +sluices outside were neglected. Nobody wished to shovel sand for gold +when marvelous tales might be exchanged concerning the wind storm that +had raged across the hills the day before. + +Indeed, as Van and Beth sat together at the board, regaling themselves +like the two famished beings they were, their three entertainers +proceeded to liberate some of the tallest stories concerning storms +that mortal ever heard. + +Napoleon and Gettysburg became the hottest of rivals in an effort to +deliver something good. Gettysburg furnished a tale of a breeze in the +unpeopled wilds of Nebraska where two men's farms, fully twenty miles +apart, had undergone an astounding experience whereby a complete +exchange of their houses, barns, and sheds had been effected by a +cyclone, without the slightest important damage to the structures. + +When this was concluded, Napoleon looked pained. "I think you lie, +Gett--metaphorical speakin'!" he hastened to add. "But shiver my +bowsprit if I didn't see a ship, once, ten days overdue, jest snatched +up and blowed into port two days ahead of time, and never touched +nothing all the way, I remember the year 'cause that was the winter ma +had twins and pa had guinea pigs." + +"Wal," drawled Dave, who had all this time maintained a dignified +silence, "I've saw some wind, in my time, but only one that was really +a leetle mite too obstreperous. Yep, that was a pretty good blow--the +only wind I ever seen which blew an iron loggin' chain off the fence, +link by link." + +Napoleon paid Dave a compliment. He said: + +"You old son of a gun!" + +Van thought the storms had raged sufficiently. + +"Is work unpopular, or did the wind blow the water from the creek?" + +"I like to work," admitted Gettysburg, "but it's fun to watch you +epicures eatin'." + +Beth felt embarrassed. + +"Epicures?" echoed Napoleon. "You don't know what an epicure is? +That's a vulgar remark when you don't know no meaning of a word." + +"Epicure? Me not know what an epicure is?" replied old Gettysburg +aggressively. "You bet I do. An epicure's a feller which chaws his +fodder before he swallers it." + +Napoleon subsided. Then he arose and sauntered out to work, Dave and +Gettysburg following. Van hastily drank his cup of coffee, which, as +he had predicted, was not particularly good, and started for the +others. He halted in the door. + +"Make yourself comfortable, if you can here, Kent," he said. "You had +an exhausting experience yesterday. Perhaps you had better lie down." + +Beth merely said: "Thank you." But her smile was more radiant than +sunshine. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +WORK AND SONG + +Having presently finished her breakfast, Beth joined the group outside, +curious to behold the workings of a placer mine in actual operation. + +There was not much to see, but it was picturesque. In their lack of +funds the partners had constructed the simplest known device for +collecting the gold from the sand. They had built a line of sluices, +or troughs of considerable length, propped on stilts, or supports about +knee high, along the old bed of the canyon. The sluices were mere +square flumes, set with a fairly rapid grade. + +Across the bottom of all this flume, at every yard or less of its +length, small wooden cleats had been nailed, to form the "riffles." +Into the hoses the water from the creek was turned, at the top. The +men then shoveled the sand in the running stream and away it went, +sluicing along the water-chute, its particles rattling down the wooden +stairway noisily. The gold was expected to settled behind the riffles, +owing to its weight. + +All the flume-way dripped from leakages. The sun beat down upon the +place unshaded. Water escaped into all the pits the men were digging +as they worked, so that they slopped around in mud above their ankles. +Dave wore rubber boots and was apparently protected. As a matter of +fact the boots promptly filled with water. Napoleon and Gettysburg +made no effort to remain dry shod, but puddled all day with soused +footgear. + +Van rode off to the "reservation town," a mile below the hill, to +bargain for a tent reported there for sale. Sleeping quarters here on +the claim were far too crowded. Until lumber for a cabin could be +purchased they must make what shifts they might. + +It had taken but the briefest time for the miners to go at their work. +Beth stood near, watching the process with the keenest interest. It +seemed to her a back-breaking, strenuous labor. These sturdy old +fellows, grown gray and stooped with toil--grown also expectant of +hardship, ill-luck, and privations--were pathetic figures, despite +their ways of cheer. + +That Van had attached them to himself in a largeness of heart by no +means warranted by their worth was a conviction at which anyone must +promptly arrive. They were lovable old scamps, faithful, honest, and +loyal to the man they loved--but that was all that could be stated. +Perhaps it was enough. As partners with whom to share both life and +fortune they might have seemed impossible to many discerning men. + +Beth sat down on a rock, near Gettysburg. Someway she, too, liked the +three old chaps of whom work had made three trademarks. Old Gettysburg +began to sing. The words of his song, halted by grunts as he shoveled, +were, to say the least, unexpected: + + + The frog he swore he'd have a ride, + (Shovel) + With a rinktum bolly kimo; + Sword and pistols by his side, + (Shovel) + With a rinktum bolly kimo. + For lunch he packed a beetle bug, + (Shovel) + With a rinktum bolly kimo; + Tucked inside his tummy snug, + (Shovel) + With a rinktum bolly kimo. + + Kimo, karo, pito, garo, + Kimo, bolly mitty kimo. + (Shovel) + Shing-shang hammyriddle, allibony, ringtang, + Folderolli bolly mitty kimo. + (Three shovelings and some meditation) + + The frog he rode a slimy eel, + (Shovel) + With a rinktum bolly kimo. + The sun made his complexion peel, + (Shovel) + With a rinktum bolly kimo. + The frog's legs went to join a fry, + (Shovel) + With a rinktum bolly kimo. + The eel became a juicy pie, + (Shovel) + With a rinktum bolly kimo. + + (Chorus) + + +Napoleon looked up at the end of the song and spat upon his hands. + +"Gett," he said placidly, "I think that's a lie--metaphorical speakin'. +Ain't mad, are you?" + +Gettysburg made no response. He merely shoveled. + +One of the sluices, weakened by a leak that had undermined its pinning, +fell from place, at the farther end of the line. Old Dave went down to +repair it. Napoleon took advantage of his absence to come to Beth, +with an air of imparting something confidential. + +"Splice my main brace," said he, with his head on one side, quaintly, +"wasn't that a blasphermous yarn old Dave was givin' us about the wind +blowing that log chain away a link at a time? Old son of a gun!" + +Beth was inquisitive. + +"Why do you call him a son of a gun?" + +Napoleon scratched his head. + +"Well, you see, Dave's mother held up his father with a Colt forty-five +and makes him marry her. Then along comes Dave. I reckon that makes +him a sure enough son of a gun." + +Beth said: "Oh." She turned a little red. + +"Yep, good old cuss, Dave is, though. No good for a seafearing man, +however. He could never learn to swear--he ain't got no ear for music." + +He returned to his shovel. He and Gettysburg worked in silence for +fifteen minutes. Old Dave returned and joined them. Gettysburg tuned +up for another of his songs, the burden of which was the tale of a +hen-pecked man. + +Once more at its end Napoleon looked up and spat on his hands. + +"There ain't nothing that can keep some women down 'cept a +gravestone--and I've seen some gravestones which was tilted." + +Despite the interest and amusement she felt in it all, Beth was +becoming sleepy as she sat there in the sun. She shook off the spell +and arose, approaching closer to the bank and flume where Gettysburg +was toiling. He labored on, silently, for several minutes, then +paused, straightened up by degrees, as if the folds in his back were +stubborn, and looked at their visitor steadily, his glass eye +particularly fixed. One of his hands pulled down his jaw, and then it +closed up with a thump. + +"Guess this kind of a racket is sort of new to you, Mr. Kent," he +ventured. "Ever seen gold washin' before?" + +"No," Beth confessed, "and I don't see where the gold is to come from +now." + +Gettysburg chuckled. "Holy toads! Miners do a heap of work and never +see it neither. Me and Van and Napoleon has went through purg and +back, many's the time, and was lucky to git out with our skeletons, +sayin' nuthin' about the gold." + +"Oh." She could think of nothing else to say. + +"In fact Van was all that got me out onct--Napoleon, too. We wasn't +worth it, prob'ly. That's the joke on Van. Since then us three cusses +has starved, and froze, and clean roasted, chasin' gold." + +"Oh." + +"We was lost in the snow, one winter, with nuthin' to eat but a plug of +tobacker, a can of vasolene, and a porous plaster. We lived on that +menu fer a week--that and snow-soup. But Van got us out all +right--packed Napoleon about five miles on his back. Nap was so thin +there wasn't enough of him to die." His one good eye became dreamily +focused on the past. He smiled. "But someways the desert is worse +than the snow. We got ketched three times without no water. Never did +know, Nap or me, how Van got our two old dried-up carcasses out the +last time, down to Death Valley. He's a funny cuss, old Van." + +Once more Beth merely answered: "Oh." + +"You bet!" resumed Gettysburg. "He never quits. It ain't in him. He +works his hands off and his soul out of its socket, every time." He +laughed heartily. "Lord! we have done an awful lot of fool work fer +nuthin'! We've tackled tunnels and shafts, and several games like +this, and pretty near died a dozen different styles--all uneasy kinds +of dyin'--and we've lived when it was a darn sight uneasier than +croakin', and kept on tryin' out new diggin's, and kept on bein' busted +all the time. 'Nuff to make a lemon laugh, the fun we've had. But +now, by Jupe! we've struck it at last--and it ain't a-goin' to git +away!" + +"Oh, I'm glad--I'm glad!" said Beth, winking back a bit of suspicious +moisture that came unbidden in her eyes as she looked on this +weather-beaten, hardship-beaten old figure, still sturdily ready for +the fates. "I'm sure you all deserve it! I'm sure of that!" + +"Wal, that's a question fer God Almighty," Gettysburg replied. "But +there's the gold, the good yellow gold! And I'm awful glad fer Van!" + +Into the water he dipped his crooked old fingers, and scratching down +behind a riffle he fetched up a small amount of gold, doubly bright +with the water and the sunlight upon it. + +"Gold--and we git it easy," he added, repeating: "I'm awful glad fer +Van. You ought to see him shovel!" He dropped the gold back into the +water carelessly. "It ain't a-goin' to do us old jack-legged cusses +much good, at our age, but I would like to go to San Francisco this +summer once, and shoot the chutes!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +SUSPICIOUS ANSWERS + +Beth and Van rode away from the claim just after lunch; she on a +borrowed horse. The girl had not slept, but she had rested well and +was far more fit for the journey back to town than either she or Van +had expected. + +He went with her part way only--far enough to put her safely on a trail +from which she could not wander. They talked but little as they +rode--perhaps because they had so much to say that could not be +approached. Never for a moment did Van relax his vigilance upon +himself, or treat her otherwise than as a man for whom he had conceived +a natural liking. + +When they came to the place of parting he pulled up his broncho and +faced about in the trail. + +"Well, Kent," he said, "so long. You'll have no trouble now." He held +forth his hand. + +Beth gave him hers--and all her heart. Nevertheless, his clasp was as +brief as he would give to one of his sex. + +"So long," she answered. "Good luck. I am under many obligations." + +"They won't make you very round shouldered," he said. "See you again." + +That was their parting. He rode back at once--and Beth continued on +her way. She turned three times in her saddle to watch him as he went, +but she did not catch him glancing back. + +About sundown she rode into Goldite, went at once to Mrs. Dick's, and +tied her horse to a post. Mrs. Dick she met in the hall. + +"Snakes alive!" exclaimed that lively little person. "If you ain't +back as natural as life!" The garb had not deceived her for a moment. +"Where in the world have you been, in such a rig?" + +Beth's answer was ready. + +"I went to see my brother, and had to spend the night on the desert." + +Mrs. Dick stared at her in wonder. "Talk to me about the Eastern women +being mollycuddles! You don't mean his cabin was blown down by the +storm?" + +Beth was ill-prepared for this, but she met it. + +"I wish you could have seen that roof go by!" + +"Are you hungry?" the hostess demanded. "You look all wore out." + +"I am," Beth admitted. "Has Mr. Bostwick been here in my absence?" + +"He ain't been here in anything--nope." + +Beth's relief was inexpressible. She was safe, with everything behind +her! No one knew, or would ever need to know, the secret in possession +of herself and Van. + +"If anyone comes that you can send, will you kindly have my horse taken +over to the stable?" she said. "I must go upstairs and rest." + +"Here's Billy Stitts a-comin' now," replied the housewife, moving +towards the door. "He's been worried to death about you bein' gone!" + +Beth ran at once for the stairs, and later, from the window, saw the +faithful old Billy leading her pony away. She closed her door, +darkened the light, and soon clambered wearily into bed, where she +dropped off to sleep like a child, lost to the world through the dinner +hour and till something like three in the morning. She awaked then for +a moment, long enough to think of Van, then sighed in absolute comfort +and turned to sleep again. + +It was nine o'clock in the morning when at last she appeared on the +scene. + +"Land snakes!" said Mrs. Dick, who had heard her coming down. "Ain't +you the sleeper! Well, I've kept your breakfast, but I couldn't keep +last night's supper. Your friend, Mr. Bostwick, was here about eight, +but I told him he'd have to wait if it took you a week to come to." + +"You didn't tell him I'd been away, I hope," said Beth, suddenly +alarmed at the thought of Searle's presence in the town. "I'd rather +no one knew but you." + +"Lord! I wouldn't tell him if a rat was dead in his pocket!" Mrs. Dick +expostulated. "I can't abide the man, and you might as well know it, +even if it does hurt your feelings." + +Beth sat down to her breakfast. "You're as good as you can be." + +"Well, the breakfast ain't--'taint fresh," said Mrs. Dick. "But I'll +see you git a decent lunch." + +She bustled off into the kitchen. Beth had barely finished eating when +Bostwick again appeared. + +The man was tanned from his trip in the desert. He seemed alert, +excited, keen over prospects rapidly coming to a head. + +"Well, well, Beth," he said as he came inside the dining-room, "I'm +back, you see, but I've certainly had a time of it! The car broke +down, and Glen had left Starlight when at last I arrived, and I hunted +for him all through the mountains and only found him four days ago, and +we've been going ever since. I couldn't write, but I did feel cut up, +I assure you, about leaving you here alone for so long a time." + +He advanced as if to kiss her, but Beth avoided his caress. She was +calm and possessed. She meant to ascertain just how far the man was +trying to deceive her. + +"Won't you sit down, and tell me all about it," she said. "You saw +Glen four days ago?" She resumed her place in her chair. + +"Three or four days ago--I'm mixed in my dates," he said, as he also +took a seat. "He's looking fine, and sent his love, of course." + +That the man was lying, in every particular, she began to feel +convinced. + +"You left him well? He was feeling strong and well?" + +"Never better," he assured her. "You can see what this wonderful +sunlight does, even to me." + +"Yes, I see. And you left Starlight yesterday?" + +"Yesterday afternoon. I had trouble running back. Otherwise we'd have +been here in the evening." + +She glanced at him quickly. "We? Glen didn't come along? He isn't +here?" + +"Oh, no, no, certainly not," he hastened to say. "I brought in a man +who--who is interested in the purchase we have made." + +That served to arouse her sense of wonderment at what he had really +been doing with her money. He was attempting to deceive her concerning +Glen, and perhaps his entire story was a fabrication. + +"Oh," she said. "Then you have purchased the mine--you and Glen?" + +"Well--a few minor details remain to be concluded," he said +off-handedly. "We are not yet in actual possession of the property. +There will be no further hitches, however--and the claim is certainly +rich." + +For the life of her she could not tell what lay at the bottom of the +business. The strange conflicts and discrepancies between Glen's very +own letters made the riddle utterly obscure. She felt that Searle was +fashioning falsehoods in every direction. That he had not visited Glen +at all was her fixed conviction. A sudden distrust, almost a loathing +for this heavy-browed man, was settling down upon her, inescapably. +Someway, somehow she must know about Glen for herself. Her own +attempted trip to Starlight had discouraged all thought of further +adventure, and no reliance whatsoever could be placed on Searle's +reports. Perhaps the reputed mining property was likewise a myth--or +if such a property existed, Glen might never have heard of it at all. +But Glen's letter--she was always forgetting that letter--the one he +had written to Searle. + +She said: "Where is this mine that Glen has found?" + +He colored slightly. "We have all agreed not to talk too much about it +yet. It's not very far from here--I can tell you that. Precautions +are necessary where a hundred men follow every prospector about, night +and day, if he happens to have found a bit of valuable ore. A thousand +men would be after this property if they knew the way to secure it." + +Perhaps, after all, Glen, had purposely concealed this matter from +herself. Bostwick sounded plausible. Her mind reverted to her +brother's illness, for Glen to her was of far more importance than all +the mines in Nevada. + +"I am glad to hear that Glen is _well_," she said, determined on +another tack. "He hasn't answered my letter." + +Once more Bostwick colored, beneath his tan and the gun-metal tint of +his jaw. + +"I suppose he's been too busy," he answered. "Have you written again?" + +"Not yet," she answered honestly. "I wasn't sure of his whereabouts. +You are sure he's in Starlight now?" + +"Yes--but you needn't write," he hastened to say. "He said he might +come, perhaps to-morrow." He rose from his chair. "I've got to hurry +off, little girl. These negotiations cannot wait. I'll run in when I +can--this afternoon at the latest. I'm glad to see you looking so +well." He approached her with lover-like intent. "My heart has been +empty and forlorn, away from you, Beth. Surely you have a little--a +little something for me, pet? You know how starved----" + +"Oh--Mrs. Dick is coming!" she interrupted desperately. "You must have +a great deal to do." + +Mrs. Dick was making a large and lively noise in the kitchen. + +Bostwick listened for a second, his deep-set eyes keenly fixed on the +girl, like very orbs of suspicion and jealousy. He lowered his voice. + +"Has that ruffian, Van Buren, been here recently?" + +She raised her brows in well-feigned astonishment, + +"I haven't heard of any ruffian being in town." + +Bostwick studied her face for a moment in silence. + +"I'll be around this afternoon," he repeated. "Good-by." + +He departed hurriedly, glancing at his watch as he went. + +Not a block from the house he met old Billy Stitts, who, though quite +unknown to the New York man, knew Bostwick in a way of his own. + +"Morning, Uncle.--Howdy?" he said, blocking Bostwick's path. "Back, I +see. Welcome home. I guess you don't know me as well as I know you. +My name is Stitts--Billy Stitts--and I'm gittin' on fine with your +niece. I'm the one which runs her errands and gits the inside track." + +Bostwick, staring at Billy ominously, and about to sweep him aside as a +bit of old rubbish, too familiar and impudent for tolerance, paused +abruptly in his impulse, at a hint which Billy had supplied. + +"Oh," he said. "How are you? So you are the friend who runs Miss +Kent's errands? You must be the one she asked me to befriend." + +"Did she?" said old Billy, inordinately pleased. "What did I tell you +about the inside track?" + +"I'm glad if you have been of use," Bostwick told him insidiously. +"You didn't say what your services have been. Just a few little +errands, I suppose?" + +"Never you mind," said Billy, with a profoundly impressive wink. +"That's between her and me. That ain't even fer you, Uncle Bostwick," +and he winked again. + +"Of course, of course," agreed Bostwick, half consumed with rage at the +old fellow's abominable manners and familiarity. "I'll keep you in +mind and add some reward of my own on the next occasion." + +He bowed and hastened on his way, boiling with curiosity to know what +it was that Beth had been doing to require this old tattler's services. +He meant to ascertain. His suspicions went at once to Van, at thought +of whom he closed down his jaw like a vise. + +Filled with a turmoil of thoughts that seethed in his brain, like a +brew in a witch's cauldron--some of them dark and some golden bright, +and some of them red with lust for many things--he proceeded down +street to McCoppet's place, to find himself locked out of the private +den, where the gambler was closeted with Lawrence. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +BETH'S ONE EXPEDIENT + +Bostwick had told Beth partial truths. His journey had been hard. His +car had been twice disabled on the desert; Lawrence had been difficult +to find; delays had confronted him at every turn, and not until +midnight of the day before this had he come with his quarry to +Goldite--barely in time to save the situation, with the reservation +opening less than forty-eight hours away. + +He had not seen Glen, nor approached the town of Starlight closer than +fifteen miles. He had not yet expended Beth's money, which only that +morning had been practically placed at McCoppet's disposal. But having +finally landed the Government surveyor in camp, he had achieved the +first desirable end in the game they were playing, and matters were +moving at last with a speed to suit the most exacting. + +During the interim between Searle's departure and return affairs had +been a trifle complicated in another direction--affairs that lay +between the gambler and his friend, the lumberman, big Trimmer. + +Trimmer had been paid one thousand dollars only of the sum agreed upon +when he gave the name of Culver to the half-breed Indian, Cayuse. He +had since spent his money, demanded the balance due, and threatened +McCoppet with exposure, only to be met with a counter threat of prison +for life as the half-breed's accomplice in the crime. McCoppet meant +to pay a portion of the creature's price, but intended to get it from +Bostwick. Indeed, to-day he had the money, but was far too much +engrossed with Lawrence to give the lumberman a thought. + +Trimmer, waxing greedy through the ease with which he had blackmailed +McCoppet, had developed a cunning of his own. Convinced that the +gambler was accustomed to incubating plans in his private office, the +lumberman made shift to excavate a hole beneath the floor of that +particular den of privacy, and, after having spent half a night in +vain, in this place of concealment, was at last being duly rewarded as +he listened to McCoppet and Lawrence. + +With his ear to a knot-hole he gathered in everything essential to a +knowledge of the plot. He became aware that Lawrence "fell" for twenty +thousand dollars; he overheard the details of the "survey" about to be +made; but to save his very life he could not have fathomed the means +that were about to be employed to "jump" the mining property belonging +to Van Buren and his partners. + +Equipped with this latest means of squeezing McCoppet, the creature +emerged from his hole in time to meet the gambler at the bar, during a +moment of Bostwick's temporary absence. + +"Opal," he said significantly, "I need to see you fer a minute. It +won't be no healthier to refuse me now than it was the first time I +come." + +The gambler looked at him coldly. "I haven't got time to talk now, +Larry, but some of your money is at your order any time you want it, in +gold, or poker chips, or gin." + +Trimmer was placated. "All right," he said, and cunningly resolved, +upon the spot, to keep his latest secret on the ice. + +Lawrence had already disappeared to hasten arrangements for getting out +upon his work. + +Bostwick had waited half an hour in the utmost impatience. With a +hundred things to increase his restlessness of mind and body, he had +finally gone to the postoffice and there discovered a letter from +Glenmore Kent. + +It was short, and now no longer fresh. It had been composed just after +the young man's accident, and after relating how he had received a not +inconsiderable injury, requested Searle to come to Starlight at once, +if possible, and not to divulge any needless facts to Beth. + +"I'm broke, and this knock puts me down and out," the letter concluded. +"Come down, like a good old chap, and cheer me up." + +Bostwick destroyed the letter promptly, lest it fall by some accident +into other hands than his own. Not without a slight feeling of guilt, +the man shut out all thought, for the present, of deserting Goldite and +the plot. That Beth would learn nothing from himself as to Glen's +condition was a certainty. He was glad of this wisdom in the boy--this +show of courage whereby he had wished his sister spared. + +But the more he thought upon Beth's attitude towards himself, and the +mystifying confessions old Billy Stitts had made, concerning the +errands he was running for the girl, the more Bostwick fretted and +warmed with exasperation, suspicion, and jealousy. He returned to +McCoppet's. The door to the den was still barred. Impatiently he +started again for Mrs. Dick's. He was not in the least certain as to +what he meant to do or say, but felt obliged to do something. + +Meantime, Beth had written to her brother. Bostwick's evasions and +lies had aroused more than merely a vague alarm in her breast. She had +begun to feel, perhaps partially by intuition, that something was +altogether wrong. Searle's anxiety to assure her she need not write to +Glen--that he was coming to Goldite--had provided the one required +element to excite a new trend in her thought. She knew that Glen would +not come soon to town. She knew she must get him word. She had +thought of one way only to insure herself and Glen against deceit--ask +Van to go in person with her letter, and bring her Glen's reply. + +Had she felt the affair to be in the slightest degree unimportant she +might have hesitated to think of making this request, but the more she +dwelt upon it the more essential it seemed to become. Her brothers +very life might be dependent upon this promptness of action. A very +large sum of money was certainly involved in some sort of business of +which, she felt, both she and Glen were in ignorance. Bostwick had +certainly not seen Glen at all. His deceptions might mean +anything!--the gravest of dangers to them all! + +It had taken her the briefest time only to resolve upon her course--and +then old Billy came upon the scene, as if in answer to a question she +had asked--how to get her request and the letter to Glen across the +hills to Van, at the "Laughing Water" claim? + +Three letters she wrote, and tore to scraps, before one was finally +composed to express all she felt, in the way that she wished it +expressed. Old Billy went off to wait and returned there duly, +enormously pleased by his commission. He knew the way to the "Laughing +Water" claim and could ride the borrowed pony. + +As pleased as a dog with a parcel of meat, entrusted to his keeping by +a confident master, he finally started for the hay-yard, with two +dainty letters in his keeping. One was to Van, with Beth's request; +the other was, of course, to her brother. + +Bostwick met the proud old beau at the corner of the street. + +"Say, Uncle, what did I tell you," said Billy at once. "This time it's +the biggest errand yet." + +Bostwick had wondered if he might not catch Mr. Stitts in some such +service as he boasted now, and his wit was worthy of his nature. + +"Yes," he said readily, "Miss Kent was saying she thought perhaps she +could get you to carry a note to Mr. Van Buren." It was a hazardous +coup but he dared it with the utmost show of pleasure in his smile. +For a second, however, as he watched the old man's face, he feared he +had overshot the mark. + +Old Billy was pleased and disappointed together. However, his wish to +prove his importance greatly outweighed his chagrin that Beth should +have taken even "Uncle" Bostwick into her confidence. + +"That ain't all she give me," he announced, as foolishly as a child. +"I've got her letter to her brother, over to Starlight, too, and +nothin' couldn't stop me from takin' it up to the 'Laughing Water' +claim. You bet I'll see Van Buren gits it right into his hand from me!" + +If Bostwick had contemplated making an attempt to bribe the old beau +into permitting him a glance at the letters, he abandoned the thought +with sagacious alacrity. He must think of something safer. A letter +to Van Buren and one to Glen was more than he had counted on +discovering. It made him decidedly uneasy. + +"I'm sure you'll deliver everything safely," he said, masking his +annoyance with a smile. "Before you go, perhaps, you'd take something +to drink." + +The suggestion in his mind was crude, but at least it was something. + +"Huh!" said old Billy, "Me!--drink and git a jag when she's expectin' +me to hike right out of camp? Guess you don't know me, Uncle, not +worth a mice! Didn't I say nuthin' couldn't stop me? And I'm goin' +right now." + +He clapped his bony old hand over his pocket, where the two precious +letters reposed, and winking prodigiously at Bostwick, departed +forthwith from the scene. + +Bostwick could have run him down, beaten him to the ground and snatched +the letters from him, but he did not dare. Instead, he merely +continued to grin while Billy remained in sight. Then instead of going +on to Beth's, he circled a building and returned down street towards +McCoppet's. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +MCCOPPET BUSIES HIS MIND + +Unfortunately for Bostwick he knew no ruffians in the camp--none of the +Trimmers who would, perhaps, accept a sum of money to waylay a man, +bash him over the head, and filch required letters from his pocket. He +was not precisely willing, moreover, to broach such an undertaking to +the gambler. This, after all, was his private affair, to be shared +with no one he knew. + +The man had arrived at the truth concerning the letters with +commendable skill in deduction. He had himself destroyed Beth's +earlier letter to her brother, for reasons of policy. He had found her +conduct cold, if not suspicious, this morning. How far she had been +excited to distrust himself or the mails he could not estimate. He was +certain, however, she had sent a request to Van Buren to carry a letter +to Glen. + +Her reasons for taking precautions so extraordinary were undoubtedly +significant. He was galled; his anger against Van Buren was consuming. +But first and foremost he must block the harm Beth's letter to her +brother might accomplish. For two days more young Kent and Beth must +remain in ignorance of what was being done through the use of her +money--of the fact that no mine of Glen's discovery was the object of +the scheme he was working, and that none of his own alleged money was +being employed in the game. + +He made up his mind to go to Starlight himself--to be on hand when Van +Buren should arrive. With Glenmore ill, or injured, in his bed, the +case might offer simple handling, Further neglect of Glenmore might, +indeed, be fatal, at a juncture so delicate. From every possible +viewpoint the thing to do was to intercept Van Buren. + +He found McCoppet just returned from launching Lawrence forth upon his +work. Three of the gambler's chosen men had accompanied the +Government's surveyor. They had taken Bostwick's car. Instructions +had been simple enough. Push over the reservation line to cover the +"Laughing Water" claim, by night of the following day. + +Searle was taken to the private den. McCoppet imparted his information +with the utmost brevity. + +"Nothing for us to do but to wait till six o'clock, day after to-morrow +morning," he concluded, "then play our cards--and play 'em quick." + +"You've taken my car?" said Bostwick, whose personal plans were thrown +into utter confusion, for the moment. "I wanted that car for my own +use. I've got to go to Starlight to-morrow." + +"Sit down," said McCoppet, throwing away his unsmoked cigar and taking +another from his pocket. "What's going on at Starlight?" + +Bostwick had no intention of divulging his personal affairs, but there +was something in this that trenched upon "company" concerns. + +"Van Buren's going over there, to see young Kent," he admitted. "I've +got to see him first." + +McCoppet looked up at him sharply. + +"Young Kent ain't next to anything?" he demanded. + +"Not yet." + +"Look here," said the gambler, whose wits were inordinately keen, "is +anything leaking, Bostwick? What about the girl--the young chump's +sister? You're not putting her wise to the layout?" + +"Certainly not!" said Bostwick. "She knows nothing. But it wouldn't +be safe for this mix-up to occur. At any rate, I propose to be there +when Van Buren arrives." + +McCoppet arose, plunged his hands in his pockets, and paced up and down +reflectively. + +"Someways I'm glad Van Buren's going," he said. "I've been trying to +figure how I could play the game to have him away when we come to take +the trick. He's hostile in a fight. I guess it's all right. Don't +need you here. You can copper any possible harm down there at +Starlight, and meantime I'll see if there's any known way of delaying +Van Buren's return." + +"But how am I going to get down there and back?" said Bostwick, intent +upon the need for haste. "I can't get around without a car." + +"Don't get tropical," said McCoppet calmly. "I can get you a car in +fifteen minutes. It ain't as good as yours, but we needed the one that +was surest to keep on its legs. If you ain't got anything more on your +mind, I want to chase around for a lumberman--a friend of mine--before +he gits any drunker." + +Bostwick arose. + +"Arrange for that car to take me to-night, after dinner. I think +that's all." + +He repaired to his room to attend to a dozen small affairs, then went +once more to Beth's. She was not in the least surprised to hear him +say he meant to return to Starlight and to Glen that night, on business +of importance to them all, but she did not believe him in the least. +He remained in the hope of entrapping her into some sort of +self-betrayal as to what she had recently done, but without avail. + +The hour that he spent at Mrs. Dick's was dull for them both--dull and +distasteful to the girl, growing so rapidly to hate and distrust him, +dull and aggravating to Bostwick, with jealousy increasing upon him. +His one consolation lay in the fact that in less than two days Van +Buren would be no better off than a pauper at best with scarcely a +shelter for his head. + +One of the interesting and vital chapters in the whole affair was +meanwhile in McCoppet's hands and receiving his attention. Trimmer had +been captured, far more sober than the gambler could have hoped. The +two were in the den once more, the lumberman smoking an excellent cigar +as if it had been a stick of candy. + +McCoppet came to his subject promptly. + +"Look here, Larry," he said, "you know Van Buren when you see him." + +Trimmer glanced up sharply, ready in an instant to resent what he felt +to partake of the nature of a personal affront. + +"Don't git funny, Opal. If ever I fight Van Buren when I'm sober I'll +eat him alive. I was drunk when he licked me, and you know it!" + +McCoppet leaned back in his chair and half closed his eyes. + +"I didn't know but what you'd like to sober up and lick him." + +Trimmer stared, shifted uneasily in his seat, and demanded: + +"Where? Where is he at?" + +"He's going to Starlight to-morrow--from up by the reservation--from +his claim. If he don't git back for a couple of days--I could make it +worth your while; and you could cash in for that time he licked you +when you wasn't in condition." + +Again Trimmer fidgeted. "I guess he licked me fair enough. I admit +he's all right in a scrap. I ain't holdin' nuthin' agin him. +Goldite's good enough fer me." + +McCoppet knew the creature was afraid to meet his man--that Trimmer's +attack on Van Buren, once before, had been planned with much +deliberation, had amounted to an ambush, in point of fact, resulting in +disaster to the bully. + +"I counted on you to help me, Larry," he said, drumming on the table +with his fingers. "You're the only man of your kind with brains in all +the camp." + +Trimmer had smoked his cigar to within an inch of his mouth. He +extinguished the fire and chewed up the stump voraciously. + +"Say!" he suddenly ejaculated, leaping to his feet and coming around +the table, "I can fix him all right," and he lowered his voice to a +whisper. "Barger would give up a leg to git a show at Van Buren!" + +"Barger?" echoed McCoppet. "Matt? But they got him! Got 'em all." + +"Got nuthin'," the lumberman ejaculated. "What's the good of all +these lyin' papers when I seen Matt myself, readin' the piece about him +goin' back to the pen?" + +McCoppet rose, went to the window, and returned again. + +"Larry, you're all right," he said. "Where's Barger now?" + +Trimmer winked. "That's his business, and mine." + +"All right--that's all right," agreed the gambler. "Wouldn't he take +it as a favor if you passed him some money and the word about Van +Buren's hike to Starlight?" + +Trimmer got out a new cigar, lit up, and began to smoke as before. + +"I was goin' to pass him some of mine," he confessed. "Yours will suit +me just as good." + +"Five hundred ought to help him some," said the gambler. "Come out to +the bar." + + +At dark the lumberman left the camp on foot, heading for the mountains. +Bostwick departed in the borrowed car at eight. The whole town was +ablaze with light, and tumultuous with sound. Glare and disturbance +together, however, only faintly symbolized the excitement and fever in +the camp. A thousand men were making final preparations for the rush +so soon to come--the mad stampede upon the reservation ground, barely +more than a day removed. + +Miners with outfits, gamblers with their paraphernalia, saloon men with +case on case of liquors, assayers, lawyers, teamsters, cooks--even a +half dozen women--comprised the heterogeneous army making ready for the +charge. The streets were filled with horses, men, and mules. The +saloons were jammed to suffocation. Musical discord filled the air. +Only the land, the silent old hills, the ancient, burned-out furnace of +gold, was absolutely calm. Overhead a few clouds blurred the sky. +Beyond them the eternal march of the stars proceeded in the majesty of +space, with billions of years in which to fulfil the cosmic cycle of +existence. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +THE HARDSHIPS OF THE TRAIL + +In the night, far out to the northward, a storm descended like a +cataclysm. Torrential rains were poured upon the hills from a +cloudburst exceptionally savage. Only the scattered outposts, as it +were, of the storm were blown as far as Goldite. A sprinkle of rain +that dried at once was the most those mountains received. + +Van made an early start from the "Laughing Water" claim, to deliver +Beth's letter in Starlight. Her note to himself he read once more as +his pony jogged down the descent. + + +"Dear Mr. Van: I wonder if I dare to ask a favor--from one who has done +so much already? My brother, in Starlight, is ill. He has hurt +himself, I do not know how badly. A letter I sent has never been +received, and I am worried. The effort I made to see him--well--at +least, I'm glad I made the effort. But meantime, what of poor Glen? +Some little fear I have may be groundless. I shall therefore keep it +to myself--but I have it, perhaps because I am a woman. I must know +the truth about my brother--how he is--what has been happening. It is +far more important than I dare confess. I have written him a letter +and sent it to you in the hope you may not find it impossible to carry +it to Glen in person. If I am asking too much, please do not hesitate +to say so. I am sure you will be friendly enough for that--to say 'no' +if need be to another friend--_your_ friend, BETH KENT." + + +She did not regret that desert experience--that was almost enough for +him to know! He had lived in a glow since that wonderful night--and +this letter provided another. He rode like a proud young crusader of +old, with his head in a region of sunshine and gold, his vision +transfixed by a face. Her love had become his holy grail--and for that +he would ride to death itself. + +His way he shortened, or thought to shorten, by dropping down from the +reservation heights to the new-made town a mile below. He came upon +the place abruptly, after dipping once into a canyon, and looked with +amazement on the place. In the past twelve hours it had doubled in +size and increased twenty-fold in its fever. The face of the desert +was literally alive with men and animals. Half of Goldite and +practically all of a dozen lesser camps were there. Confusion, +discomfort, and distraction seemed hopelessly enthroned. The "rush" +was written in men's faces, in their actions, in their baggage, words, +and rising temperature. + +A dozen stalwart stampeders pounced upon Van like wolves. They wanted +to know what he thought of the reservation, where to go, whether or not +there was any more ground like that of the "Laughing Water" claim, what +he had heard from his Indian friends, and what he would take for his +placer. The crowd about him rapidly increased. Men in a time of +excitement such as this flock as madly as sheep whenever one may lead. +Anything is news--any man is of interest who has in his pocket a piece +of rock, or has in his eye a wink. No man is willing to be left +outside. He must know all there is to be known. + +It was utterly useless for Van to protest his ignorance of the +reservation ground. He owned a deposit of placer gold. Success had +crowned his efforts. It was something to get in touch with success, +rub shoulders with a man who had the gold. + +His friends were there in the red-faced mob. They said they were his +friends, and they doubtless knew. Some were, indeed, old acquaintances +whom Van would gladly have assisted towards a needed change of fortune. +He was powerless, not only to aid these men, but also to escape. +Despite his utmost endeavors they held him there an hour, and to make +up the time, he chose the hottest, roughest trail through the range, +when at last he was clear of the town. + +The climb he made on his pony to slice a few miles from his route was +over a mountain and through a gulch that was known as The Devil's +Slide. It was gravel that moved underfoot with never-failing +treachery, gravel made hot by the rays of the sun, and flinging up a +scorching heat while it crawled and blistered underfoot. On midsummer +days men had perished here, driven mad by the dancing of the air and +the dread of the movement where they trod. The last two miles of this +desolate slope Van walked and led his broncho. + +He entered "Solid Canyon" finally, and mounting once more let Suvy pick +the way between great boulders, where gray rattlesnakes abounded in +exceptional numbers. These were the hardships of the ride, all there +were that Van felt worth the counting. He had reckoned without that +far-off storm, which had raged in the darkness of the night. + +He came to the river, the ford between the banks where he and Beth had +found a shallow stream. For a moment he stared at it speechlessly. A +great, swiftly-moving flood was there, tawny, roiled with the mud torn +down and dissolved in the water's violence, and foaming still from a +plunge it had taken above. + +It was ten to twenty feet deep. This Van realized as he sat there on +his sweating horse, measuring up the banks. The depth had encroached +upon the slope whereon he was wont to ascend the further side. There +was one place only where he felt assured a landing might be achieved. + +"Well, Suvy," he said to the animal presently, "it looks more like a +swim than a waltz quadrille, and neither of us built web-footed." + +Without further ado he placed Beth's letter in his hat, then rode his +pony down the bank and into the angry-looking water. Suvy halted a +moment uncertainly, then, like his master, determined to proceed. + +Five feet out he was swimming, headed instinctively up the stream and +buried deep under the surface. Van still remained in the saddle. He +was more than waist under, loosely clinging to his seat and giving the +pony the reins. + +Suvy was powerful, he swam doggedly, but the current was tremendous in +its sheer liquid mass and momentum. Van slipped off and swam by the +broncho's side. Together the two breasted the surge of the tide, and +now made more rapid progress. It required tremendous effort to forge +ahead and not be swept headlong to a choppy stretch of rapids, just +below. + +"Up stream, boy, up stream," said Van, as if to a comrade, for he had +noted the one likely place to land, and Suvy was drifting too far +downward. + +They came in close to the bank, as Van had feared, below the one fair +landing. Despite his utmost efforts, to which the pony willingly +responded, they could not regain what had been lost. The broncho made +a fine but futile attempt to gain a footing and scramble up the almost +perpendicular wall of rock and earth by which he was confronted. Time +after time he circled completely in the surge, to no avail. He may +have become either confused or discouraged, Whichever it was, he +turned about, during a moment when Van released the reins, and swam +sturdily back whence he come. + +Van, in the utmost patience, turned and followed. Suvy awaited his +advent on the shore. + +"Try to keep a little further up, boy, if you can," said the man, and +he mounted and rode as before against the current. + +The broncho was eager to obey directions, eager to do the bidding of +the man he strangely loved. All of the first hard struggle was +repeated--and the current caught them as before. Again, as formerly, +Van slipped off and swam by his pony's side. He could not hold his +shoulder against the animal, and guide him thus up the stream, but was +trailed out lengthwise and flung about in utter helplessness, forming a +drag against which the pony's most desperate efforts could not prevail. + +They came to the bank precisely as they had before, and once again, +perhaps more persistently, Suvy made wild, eager efforts to scramble +out where escape was impossible. Again and again he circled, pawed the +bank, and turned his eyes appealingly to Van, as if for help or +suggestions. + +At last he acknowledged defeat, or lost comprehension of the struggle. +He swam as on the former trial to the bank on the homeward side. + +There was nothing for Van but to follow as before. When he came out, +dripping and panting, by the animal, whose sides were fairly heaving as +he labored for breath, he was still all cheer and encouragement. + +"Suvy," said he, "a failure is a chap who couldn't make a fire in hell. +We've got to cross this river if we have to burn it up." + +He took the broncho's velvety nose in his hands and gave him a rough +little shake. Then he patted him smartly on the neck. + +"For a pocket-size river," he said as he looked at the flood, "this is +certainly the infant prodigy. Well, let's try it again." + +Had the plunge been straight to sudden death that broncho would have +risked it unswervingly at the urging of his master. Suvy was somewhat +exhausted by the trials already made, in vain. But into the turgid +down-sweep he headed with a newly conjured vigor. + +Van now waited merely for the pony to get started on his way, when he +lifted away from the saddle, with the water's aid, and clung snugly up +to the stirrup. He swam with one hand only. To keep himself afloat +and offer no resistance to the broncho was the most that he could do, +and the best. + +The struggle was tremendous. Suvy had headed more obliquely than +before against the current, and having encountered a greater +resistance, with his strength somewhat sapped, was toiling like an +engine. + +Inch by inch, foot by foot, he forged his way against the liquid wall +that split upon him. Van felt a great final quiver of muscular energy +shake the living dynamic by his side, as Suvy poured all his fine young +might into one supreme effort at the end. Then he came to the landing, +got all his feet upon the slope, and up they heaved in triumph! + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +THE CLOUDS OF TROUBLE GATHER + +By the route beyond the river that Van was obliged to choose, the +distance from his claim to Starlight was more than forty miles. His +pony had no shoes, and having never been ridden far, was a trifle soft +for a trip involving difficulties such as this mountain work abundantly +afforded. When they came to Phonolite Pass, the last of the cut-offs +on the trail, Van rode no more than a hundred yards into its shadows +before he feared he must turn. + +Phonolite is broken shale, a thin, sharp rock that gives forth a +pleasant, metallic sound when struck, like shattered crockery. For a +mile this deposit lay along the trail across the width of the pass. +For the bare-footed pony there was cruelty in every step. The barrier +of rock was far more formidable than the river in its flood. + +Van was not to be halted in his object. He had a letter to deliver; he +meant to take it through, though doom itself should yawn across his +path. The hour was late; the sun was rapidly sinking. Van pulled up +his broncho and debated. + +Absolute silence reigned in the world of mountains. But if the place +seemed desolate, it likewise seemed secure. Nevertheless, death lurked +in the trail ahead. Barger was there. He was lying in the rocks, +concealed where the chasm was narrow. He had ridden four hours--on the +mare Beth had lost--to arrive ahead of Van Buren. The muzzle of a long +black revolver that he held in hand rested upon a shattered boulder. +His narrow eyes lay level with a rift in the group of rocks that hid +him completely from view. Van was in sight, and the convict's breath +came quickly as he waited. + +Van dismounted from his pony's back and picked up one of his hoofs. + +"Worn down pretty flat," he told the animal. "Perhaps if I walk we can +make it." He started on foot up the tinkling way, watching the broncho +with solicitude. + +Suvy followed obediently, but the pointed rocks played havoc with his +feet. He lurched, in attempting to right his foot on one that turned, +and the long lassoo, secured to the saddle, flopped out, fell back, and +made him jump. Van halted as before. The convict was barely fifty +yards away. His pistol was leveled, but he waited for a deadlier aim, +a shorter shot. + +"Nope! We'll have to climb the hill," Van decided reluctantly. +"You're a friend of mine, Suvy, and even if you weren't, you'd have to +last to get back." He turned his back on death, unwittingly, to spare +the horse he loved. + +Delayed no less than an hour by this enforced retreat, he patiently led +the broncho back to the opening of the pass, and, still on foot, led +the steep way up over the mountain. + +Barger rose up and cursed himself for not having risked a shot. He +dared not attempt a dash upon his man; he could not know where Van +might again be intercepted; he was helpless, baffled, enraged. Half +starved, keenly alive only in his instinct to accomplish his revenge, +the creature was more like a hunted, retaliating animal than like a +man. He had sworn to even the score with Van Buren; he was not to be +deflected from his course. But to get his man here was no longer +possible. The horse Beth had lost, now in the convict's possession, +was all but famished for water, not to mention food. There was nothing +to choose but retreat towards the river, to the northward, where the +mountains might yet afford an ambush as Van was returning home. + +Far away in the mountains, at the "Laughing Water" claim, while the sun +was setting on a scene of labors, all but concluded for the day, the +group of surveyors, with Lawrence in charge, appeared along the +southern ridge. + +Gettysburg, Napoleon, and Dave were still in the water by the sluices. +They were grimed, soiled with perspiration, wearied by the long, hard +day of toil. Shovel in hand old Gettysburg discovered the men with an +instrument who trekked along the outside edge of the claim. Chain-man, +rod-man, and Lawrence with his shining theodolite, set on its three +slender legs, they were silhouetted sharply against the evening sky. +Their movements and their presence here were beyond the partners' +comprehension. It was Gettysburg who climbed up the slope, and +anchored himself in their path. + +"What you doin'?" he said to the rod-man presently, when that tired +individual approached and continued on his way. + +"What does it look like--playing checkers?" said the man. "Can't the +Government do nuthin'--run no county line ner nuthin' without everybody +sittin' up to notice?" + +No less than fifty men they had met that day had questioned what the +Government was doing. The "county line" suggestion had been the only +hint vouchsafed--and that had sufficed to allay the keenest suspicion. + +"That all?" said Gettysburg, and, watching as he went, he slowly +returned to his partners. His explanation was ample. The surveyors +proceeded on. + +Meantime, in absolute ignorance of all that was happening on his +property, Van continued towards Starlight unmolested. An hour after +sundown he rode to the camp, inquired his way to the rough-board shack, +where Kent was lying ill, and was met at the door by a stranger, whom +Glen had employed as cook and "general nurse." + +Bostwick was there. He remained unseen. His instructions were +imperative--and the "nurse" had no choice but to obey. + +"Of course, Kent's here," he admitted, in response to Van's first +question. "He can't see no one, neither--no matter who it is." + +"I've brought a letter from his sister," Van explained. "He's got to +have it, and have it now. If he wishes to send any answer back, I'm +here to take it." + +The "nurse" looked him over. + +"The orders from the doctor is no visitors!" he said. "And that goes. +If you want to leave the letter, why you kin." + +Van produced the letter. + +"If the man's as ill as that, I have no desire to butt in for an +interview," he said. "Oblige me by ascertaining at your earliest +convenience whether or not I may be of service to Mr. Kent in returning +his reply." + +The man looked bewildered. He received the letter, somewhat dubiously, +and disappeared. Van waited. The reception was not precisely what he +might have expected, but, for the matter of that, neither had the trip +been altogether what he might have chosen. + +It was fully twenty minutes before the nurse reappeared. + +"He was just woke up enough to say thank you and wants to know if +you'll oblige him with the favor of takin' his hand-write back to his +sister in the mornin'?" + +Van looked him over steadily. After all, the man within might be +utterly sick and weak. His request was natural. And the service was +for Beth. + +"Certainly," he said. "I'll be here at seven in the morning." + +Starlight was nearly deserted. Gratified to discover sufficient food +and bedding for himself and his pony, Van made no complaint. + +At six in the morning he was rousing up the blacksmith, fortunately not +yet gone to join the reservation rush. Suvy was shod, and at seven +o'clock he and Van were again at Glenmore's cabin. + +His man was in waiting. In his hand he held an envelope, unsealed. + +"Mr. Kent's asleep, but here's his hand-write to his sister," he said. +"He wants you to read it out before you hike." + +Van received the envelope, glanced at the man inquiringly, and removed +a single sheet of paper. It was not a note from Glen; it appeared to +be the final page of Beth's own letter to her brother. Van knew the +strong, large chirography. His eye ran swiftly over all the lines. + + +"--so I felt I ought to know about things, and let you know of what is +going on. There is more that I cannot tell you. I wrote you much in +my former letter--much, I mean, about the man who will carry this +letter, so unsuspiciously--the man I shall yet repay if it lies within +my power. For the things he has done--and for what he is--for what he +represents--this is the man I hate more than anything or anyone else in +the world. You would understand me if you knew it all--all! Let him +carry some word from you to Your loving sister, BETH." + + +Van had read and comprehended the full significance of the lines before +he realized some error had been made--that this piece of Beth's letter +had been placed by mistake in the envelope for him to take, instead of +the letter Glen had written. + +He did not know and could not know that Bostwick, within, by the sick +man's side, had kept Glen stupid and hazy with drugs, that the one word +"hate" had been "love" on the sheet he held in his hand till altered by +the man from New York, or that something far different from an utterly +despicable treachery towards himself had been planned in Beth's warm, +happy heart. + +The thing, in its enormity, struck him a blow that made him reel, for a +moment, till he could grasp at his self-control. He had made no sign, +and he made none now as he folded the sheet in its creases. + +"I'm afraid you made some mistake," he said. "This is not the note +from Mr. Kent. Perhaps you will bring me the other." + +"What?" said the man, unaware of the fact that Bostwick had purposely +arranged this scheme for putting the altered sheet in Van Buren's hands. + +"What's that?" He glanced at the sheet in genuine surprise. +"Keerect," he said. "I'll go and git you the letter." + +Van mounted his horse. His face had taken on a chiseled appearance, as +if it had been cut in stone. He had ridden here through desert heat +and flood, for this--to fetch such a letter as this, to a man he had +never seen nor cared to see, and whose answer he had promised to return. + +He made no effort to understand it--why she should send him when the +regular mail would have answered every purpose. The vague, dark hints +contained in her letter--hints at things going on--things she could not +tell--held little to arouse his interest. A stabbed man would have +taken more interest in the name of the maker of the weapon, stamped on +the dagger's blade, than did Van in the detail of affairs between +Glenmore Kent and his sister. Beth had done this thing, and he had +fondly believed her love was welded to his own. She had meant it, +then, when she cried in her passion that she hated him for what he had +done. Her anger that night upon the hill by Mrs. Dick's had not been +jealousy of Queenie, but rage against himself. She was doubtless in +love with Bostwick after all--and would share this joke with her lover. + +He shrugged his shoulders. Luck had never been his friend. By what +right had he recently begun to expect her smile? And why had he +continued, for years, to believe in man or in Fate? All the madness of +joy he had felt for days, concerning Beth and the "Laughing Water" +claim, departed as if through a sieve. He cared for nothing, the +claim, the world, or his life. As for Beth--what was the use of +wishing to understand? + +The "nurse" came out at the door again, this time with a note which +Bostwick had written, with a few suggestions from Glen, in an unsealed +cover as before. + +"I told young Kent you didn't take no time to read the other," he said, +holding up the epistle. "If you want to read this----" + +"Thank you," Van interrupted, taking the letter and thrusting it at +once in his pocket. "Thank Mr. Kent for his courtesies, in my behalf." +He turned and rode away. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +THE TAKING OF THE CLAIM + +Before six o'clock that morning, while Van was arousing the blacksmith, +the reservation madness broke its bounds. Twenty-five hundred +gold-blinded men made the rush for coveted grounds. + +The night had been one long revel of drinking, gambling, and +excitement. No one had slept in the reservation town--for no one had +dared. Bawling, singing, and shouting, the jollier element had shamed +the coyotes from the land. Half a thousand camp fires had flared all +night upon the plain. The desert had developed an oasis of flowing +liquors, glaring lights, and turmoil of life, lust, and laughter. Good +nature and bitter antagonism, often hand in hand, had watched the night +hours pale. + +By daylight the "dead line" of the reservation boundary--the old, +accepted line that all had acknowledged--resembled a thin, dark battle +formation, ready for the charge. It was a heterogeneous array, where +every unit, instead of being one of an army mobilized against a common +foe, was the enemy of all the others, lined up beside him. There were +men on foot, men on horses, mules, and burros, men in wagons, +buckboards, and buggies, and men in automobiles. + +At half-past five the pressure of greed became too great to bear. A +few unruly stragglers, far down the line, no longer to be held in +check, bent portions of the long formation inward as they started out +across the land. The human stampede began almost upon the instant. +Keepers on their horses, riding up and down, were swept away like chips +before a flood. Scattering wildly over hill and plain, through +gulches, swales, and canyons, the mad troop entered on the unknown +field, racing as if for their lives. + +Gettysburg, Napoleon, and Dave had watched for an hour the human hedge +below the "Laughing Water" claim. They, too, had been up since +daylight, intent upon seeing the fun. They had eaten their breakfast +at half-past four. At a quarter of six they returned, to their shack +and began at their daily work. + +The cold mountain stream, diverted to the sluices, went purling down +over the riffles. The drip from countless negligible leaks commenced +in its monotony. Into the puddles of mud and water the three old +miners sloshed, with shovels and picks in hand. They were tired before +their work began. Gettysburg, at sixty-five, had been tired for +twenty-five years. Nevertheless, he began his day with song, his +cheery, + + + Rinktum bolly kimo. + + +They were only fairly limbered up when four active men appeared +abruptly on the property, at the corners of the claim, and began the +work of putting up white location posts, after knocking others down. +They were agents employed by McCoppet, in behalf of Bostwick and +himself. + +Napoleon was the first to note their presence. He was calling +attention to the nearest man when a fifth man appeared by the cabin. +He, too, had a new location post, or stake, to be planted at the center +of the claim. He was not only armed as to weapons, but protruding from +his pocket was a wad of "legal" documents, more to be feared than his +gun. + +He came straight towards Gettysburg, walking briskly. + +"Morning," he said. "I've come to notify you men to get off of this +here claim. This ground belongs to me and my partners, by right of +prior location--made right now." + +He thrust his stake a little into the yielding sand and had posted a +notice, made out in due form, before the wet old workers by the sluice +could conclude that the man had lost his wits. + +"What you givin' us, anyway?" said Gettysburg, remaining ankle-deep in +the mud. "Don't you know this here is the 'Laughin' Water' claim, +which was located proper----" + +"This claim on the reservation," interrupted McCoppet's agent. "The +line was run out yesterday, according to Government instructions, and +the line takes in this ground." He continued at his work. + +Napoleon got stirred up then and there. + +"You're a liar!" he cried out recklessly, "--metaphorical speakin'. +Belay there, my hearty. You and your dog-gone pirate craft----" + +McCoppet himself, on horseback, came riding down the slope. + +"That's enough from you!" interrupted the gambler's agent. "You and +your crowd is liable for trespass, or Government prosecution, getting +on the reservation land ahead of date. This ground belongs to me and +my company, understand, with everything on it--and all the gold you've +took out! And all you take away is your personal effects--and you take +'em and git, right now!" + +"Now hold on," said Gettysburg, dazed by what he heard. "I seen that +Government surveyor cuss. He said he was only running out a county +line." + +McCoppet took the case in hand, as he halted by the boxes. + +"Now, boys, don't waste your time in argument," he said. "You've made +a mistake, that's all. Take my advice and hike to the reservation now, +before the gang stakes everything in sight. You can't go up against +the law, and you've done too much illegal work already." + +"Illegal?" cried Napoleon. "You're a liar, Opal. Ain't mad, are you? +I've drunk at your saloon, and you know this claim belongs to Van and +us!" + +"Don't I say you've made a mistake?" repeated the gambler. "I don't +hold any feelings about it. Nobody was on for a sure thing about the +reservation line till Lawrence run it out. We had suspicions, from a +study of the maps, but it took the Government surveyor to make the +matter certain. It's a cinch you're on the reservation land. You can +copper all your rights, and play to win the bet this claim belongs to +me--and everything else that's any good. Now don't stop to talk. Go +to Lawrence for Government facts--and git a-going pronto." + +Gettysburg was pulling down his sleeves. Old age had suddenly claimed +him for its own. The song had dried from his heart, and the light of +his wonderful youth and hope departed from his eye. Dave was too +stunned to think. All three felt the weight of conviction sink them in +the chilling mire. The survey of the day before made doubt impossible. + +Gettysburg looked at the boxes, the pits they had dug, the water +running over the riffles, behind which lay the gold. + +"I wish Van was to home," he said. "He'd know." + +Their helplessness without the absent Van was complete. In the game of +life they were just old boys who would never become mature. + +"Van Buren couldn't do no good," McCoppet assured them. "This ain't a +matter of wrangling or fighting; it's a matter of law. If the law +ain't with us you'll get the property back. Van Buren would tell you +the same. He didn't know the ground was reservation. We give him the +benefit of that. But all the gold you've got on the place you'll have +to leave with me. You never had no rights on the Government preserves, +and I'm here ahead of all the bunch in staking it out at six o'clock, +the legal opening hour." + +Napoleon started to speak again, but glanced at Gettysburg instead. A +bluff was useless, especially with Gettysburg looking so utterly +defeated. From his tall, old partner, Napoleon looked at Dave. + +"Can't we tack somewhere?" he said. "Couldn't we hold the wheel and +wait fer Van?" + +Gettysburg repeated: "I wish Van was to home." + +"Come on, come on," McCoppet urged, beginning to lose his patience. +"If you think you've got any rights, go to Lawrence and see. You're +trespassing here. I don't want to tell you harsh to pack your duds and +hunt another game, but you can't stay here no longer." + +Gettysburg hesitated, then slowly came out of the water. He looked at +the sluices hazily. + +"Just gittin' her to pay," he said. "The only easy minin' I ever done." + +Napoleon, suddenly dispirited--utterly dispirited--had nothing more to +say. Slowly and in broken order the three old cronies wended towards +the cabin. Less than an hour later, with all their meager treasure in +worldly goods roped to the last of Dave's horses, they quitted the +claim, taking Algy, the Chinese cook, along. They were homeless +wanderers with no place in all the world to turn. Without Van they +were utterly lost. They expected him to come that day to the cove. +Therefore, on a desert spot, not far from the new reservation line, +taking possession of a bit of hill so poor that no one had staked it, +they made their camp in the sand and rocks, to await Van's pleasure in +returning. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +THE MEETINGS OF TWO STRONG MEN + +Matt Barger, riding in the night, intent upon nothing save the chance +to deal out his vengeance to Van Buren, had camped beside the river, at +the turn where Van and Beth had skirted the bank to the regular fording +below. The convict's horse, which Beth had lost, was tethered where +the water-way had encouraged a meager growth of grass. Barger himself +had eaten a snake and returned to a narrow defile in the range, where +his ambush could be made. + +To insure himself against all misadventure he rolled a mass of boulders +down the hill, to block the trail. His barrier was crude but +efficient. Neither man nor horse could have scaled it readily, and the +slopes on either side were not only well-nigh perpendicular, they were +also built of crumbling stone that broke beneath the smallest weight. +He labored doggedly, persistently, despite his half-starved condition, +and when he had finished he looked to his gun, proceeded down the trail +some fifty yards or more, climbed the slope, and there in the rocks, +where the walls gave way to a sandy acclivity, concealed himself to +wait. + +The sun at noon found Van a mark for punishment. The day was the +hottest of the season. The earth and rocks irradiated heat that danced +in the air before him. All the world was vibrant, the atmosphere a +shimmer, as if in very mockery of the thoughts that similarly rose and +gyrated in his brain. His horse was suffering for water. The river +was still an hour away, so steep was the climb through the range. + +The trail he would gladly have avoided, had such a course been +practical. He had ridden here with Beth, and therefore the mockery was +all the more intense. His inward heat and the outward heat combined to +make him savage. There was nothing, however, on which to vent his +feelings. Suvy he loved. Perhaps, he reflected, the horse was his one +faithful friend. Certainly the broncho toiled most willingly across +the zone of lifelessness to bear him on his way. + +Up through the narrowing walls of sand and adamant they slowly +ascended. Barger saw them once, far down the trail, then lost them +again as they rounded a spur of the shimmering hillside, coming nearer +where he lay. He was up the slope a considerable distance--farther +than he meant to risk a shot. His breath came hard as he presently +beheld Van Buren fairly entering the trap. + +Van's head had fallen forward on his breast. He looked at nothing. +His face was set and hard. Barger raised his pistol, sighted down the +barrel--and repressed the impulse to fire as the horseman came onward, +unsuspiciously. + +No sooner was Van around the turn, where in less than a minute he would +find his progress blocked, than Barger arose and ran with all his might +down the slope. + +He let out a yell of exultation as he came to the trail. Van turned in +his saddle instantly, beholding the man in the pass. He knew that +sinister form. + +His pony had bounded forward, frightened by the cry. Down went Van's +hand to his own revolver, and the gun came up cocked for action. + +One glance he cast up the trail ahead--and saw through Barger's trick. +The _cul de sac_ was perfect, and the convict had halted to fire. + +It made a singular picture on Van Buren's retina--that gaunt, savage +being, hairy, wild of eye, instinct with hatred and malice, posing +awkwardly, and the sun-lit barrel of polished steel, just before its +yawning muzzle belched lead and a cloud and a roaring detonation. + +The bullet went wide, and Barger fired again, quickly, but more +steadily. That one landed. It got Van just along the arm, burning in +a long, shallow wound that barely brought the blood. + +Van's gun was down, despite Suvy's panic of cavortings. He pulled the +trigger. The hammer leaped two ways, up and back--but the gun made no +report, no buck, no cloud to answer Barger's. The cartridges, +subjected to all that water of the day before, were worthless. + +The third of Barger's shots was fired from a closer range, as the eager +creature closed in upon his enemy. It let the daylight enter Van's +hat, near the top. + +Van had snapped every shell in his weapon, with amazing rapidity--to no +avail. The cylinder had flung around like a wheel, but the sounds were +those of a toy. + +Barger was steadied in his tracks for better marksmanship. He had +heard that succession of metallic snaps; he knew he had Van Buren at +his mercy. Three of his shots remained unfired, and a second, unused +pistol in his belt, with more ammunition. The fellow even smiled as he +was aiming. + +There was one thing to do--and Van did it. He leaped his broncho clean +against the wall, then spurred him straight for Barger. The shot that +split the air again was splattered on the rocks. Before the convict +could make ready to avoid the charge, Suvy was almost upon him. He +partially fell and partially leaped a little from the broncho's path, +but was struck as the pony bounded by. + +He yelled, for his leg was trampled and hurt by the pressure of Suvy's +shoe, nevertheless he scrambled to his feet at once, and fired wildly +at his man. + +He emptied his gun, drew the other, and ran, too eager for his deed of +revenge to halt and take a steady aim. A bullet punctured the +broncho's ear, and the blood flew back upon Van. + +They were past the walls in the briefest time, and Van attacked the +slope. Barger came after, yelling in rage. He tripped, and his hurt +leg dropped him down. + +Already wearied, and famished for drink, Suvy nevertheless rose to the +needs of the moment with a strength incredible. He scaled that sandy, +treacherous slope like an engine built for the purpose. It was love, +pure love for the master on his back, that steeled the mighty sinews in +his body. + +Two shots and two bullets from below proclaimed renewed activities +where Barger was once more on his feet. But the man had lost too much +ground to recover his advantage. He knew that Van Buren, with a horse +like that, could win the high ridge and escape. + +He raged; he cursed himself and his God, for this second failure of his +deed. Then once again he abruptly thought of a chance whereby to +redeem his galling failures. His man on the horse would be more than +an hour in reaching the river by the slopes. A man on foot could beat +him there, and beat him across to the farther side, from which to +attack with surer aim--from the cover of the willows by the ford. The +flood had subsided. This Barger knew. The water was hardly knee high +on a man, and better than all, Van Buren would scarcely dream of such a +plan as within the range of possibilities. + +Laboriously, in a fever of impatience, Barger made shift, after +strenuous work, to climb his barrier of rock. Then up to the summit of +the trail he sped, and down on the farther side. + +Meantime Van, disgusted with himself for riding away from a fight, +could only revile his useless gun and excuse himself a trifle because +of his defenselessness. The skirmish had served to arouse him, +however, and for that he was thankful to the convict who had waited in +the pass. + +Then he wondered how it came at all that Matt should have thus been +lying there in wait. The fellow must have been informed, to prepare so +elaborate a trap. It hardly seemed as if a plot against his life could +explain this trip that Beth had desired him to take. He could scarcely +credit a thing so utterly despicable, so murderous, to her, yet for +what earthly reasons had she sent him on the trip with a letter the +stage could have carried? + +The thing was preposterous! No woman on earth could have sanctioned an +alliance with Barger. But--what of Bostwick--the man who had spent a +portion of his time with the liberated convicts? A revenge like this +would appeal to him, would seem to him singularly appropriate. Beth +could have lent her assistance to the plan without guilty knowledge of +an outcome such as this, and Bostwick--Beth knew that Barger was Van's +enemy. He had told her so himself. Facts were facts. Her letter to +Glen revealed her state of mind--and here was this attack, a planned +attack, proving conclusively that Barger had been prepared beforehand +with knowledge of the trip. + +From having been depressed before, Van was made thoroughly angry. The +whole thing was infamous, dastardly--and Beth could not be acquitted. +Strangely enough, against the convict, Barger, the horseman felt no +wrath. Barger had a grievance, howsoever mistaken, that was adequate. +He was following his bent consistently. He had made his threat in the +open; he must plan out his work according to his wits. He was simply a +hunted beast, who turned upon his hunters. + +It was Bostwick on whom Van concentrated a rising heat--and he promised +the man would find things warm in camp, and the fight only well under +way. + +Even when the summit was achieved, the broncho slacked off nothing of +his pace. Sweat glistened wetly upon him. His bleeding ear was going +backward and forward tremulously, as he listened for any word from Van, +and for anything suspicious before them. Van noted a certain +wistfulness in the pony's demeanor. + +"Take it easy, boy," he urged in a voice of affection that the broncho +understood. "Take it easy." He dismounted to lead the animal down the +slope, since a steep descent is far more trying on a ridden horse than +climbing up the grade. He halted to pat the pony on the neck, and give +his nose a rough caress, then on they went, the shadow they cast the +only shade upon the burning hill. + +It was fully an hour after leaving the pass, where Barger had piled in +the rock, before the horseman and his broncho dropped again in the +trail that led onward to the river. Van was again in the saddle. +Alert for possible surprises, but assured that his man could find no +adequate cover hereabouts, he emerged from behind the last of the turns +all eagerness to give his horse a drink. + +A yell broke suddenly, terribly, on the desert stillness. It came from +Barger, out in the river, on the bar--strangely anchored where he stood. + +Van saw him instantly, saw a human fantastic, struggling, writhing, +twisting with maniacal might, the while the horrible quicksand held him +by the legs, and swallowed him, inch by inch. + +"Fer Christ's sake--help!" the creature shrilled in his plight. He had +flung away revolvers, cartridges, even his coat, reducing his weight +when the stuff only gripped him by the ankles. He was half to his +thighs. He was sinking to his waist, and with all of his furious +efforts, the frightful sand was shuddering, as if in animal +ecstacy--some abominable ecstacy of hunger, voracious from long denial, +as it sucked him further down. + +"Fer Christ's sake, Van Buren--fer Christ's sake, man! I'm a human +being," shrieked the victim of the sand. "_I'm a human being_, man!" + +Van had not hesitated by so much as a moment as to what he meant to do. +He was off his horse in a leap. He paused for a second to looked about +for any accidental means of assistance the place might afford. It +afforded none. The man in the quicksand continued to yell, to struggle +hopelessly, to sink in that shivering pool of life-engulfing stuff. + +Then the horseman thought of his rope, the raw-hide lasso, always +secured upon his saddle. He snatched at the knots to tear it loose. + +"Don't move--don't struggle!" he shouted at the man, and down toward +the edge he came running, the rope-noose running out as he sped. + +He dared not step beyond the bank, and so involve himself. Barger was +well out from the edge. The throw at best was long and difficult. + +"Hold up your hands, above your head!" he called. "Don't thrash +around!" + +The convict obeyed. His haggard, bearded face was turned to Van like a +mask of horror. The eyes were blazing fearfully. The fellow's +attitude, as he held his hands above his head, and continued to sink, +was a terrible pose of supplication--an awful eloquence of prayer. + +Van threw--and the cast fell short. + +Barger groaned. He had ceased to yell. He remained mutely holding up +his hands, while the cold abyss crept upward to his waist--the wet lips +swallowing, swallowing in silence. + +Van jerked in the rope with one impatient gesture. He coiled it +swiftly, but with nicety. Then round and round he swung the gaping +loop--and threw with all his strength. + +For a second the loop hung snake-like in the air, above the convict's +head. Then it fell about him, splashed the curdled sand, and was +pulled up taut, embracing Barger's waist. + +"Hoist it up under your arms!" called Van. "Try to move your legs when +I pull!" + +He wasted no time in attempting to haul the convict out himself. He +led his pony quickly to the edge, took two half hitches of the rope +about the pommel of the saddle, then shouted once more to his man. + +"Ready, Barger. Try to kick your feet." To the horse he said: "Now, +Suvy, a strong, steady pull." And taking the pony's bit in hand he +urged him slowly forward, + +It was wonderful, the comprehension in the broncho's mind. But the +pull was an awful thing. The rope came taut--and began to be strained, +and Suvy was sweating as he labored. Out on the end of it, bitten by +the loop, that slipped ever tighter about him, the human figure was +bent over sharply, between the two contending forces. + +He let out one yell, for the pain about his chest--then made no further +sound. The rawhide rope was like a fiddle-string. It seemed absurd +that an anchor so small, so limber, in the sand, could hold so hard +against the horse. Van urged a greater strain. He knew that the rope +would hold. He did not know how much the man could bear before +something awful might occur. There was nothing else to do. + +It seemed a time interminable. No one made a sound. The queer, +distorted figure out in the stream could have uttered no sound to save +his life. The silence was beginning to be hideous. + +Then an inch of the rope came landward, as the broncho strained upon +it. The anchor had started from its hold. + +"Now! now!" said Van, and with quick, skillful urging he caught at the +slight advantage. + +Like an old, half-buried pile, reluctant to budge from its bed in sand +and ooze, the human form was slowly dragged from the place. No corpse, +rudely snatched from its grave, could have been more helplessly +inert--more stretched out of all living semblance to a man. + +[Illustration: No corpse snatched from its grave could have been more +helplessly inert.] + +Across the firmer sand, and through a lagoon of water, Barger was +hurriedly drawn. The pony was halted when the man was at the bank, and +back to the convict Van went running, to loosen the bite of the noose. + +Barger lay prostrate on the earth, his eyes dully blinking in the sun. +His feet were bare. They had slipped from his boots, which were buried +beyond in the sand. His face had taken on a hue of death. From hair +to his ankles he was shockingly emaciated--a gaunt, wasted figure, +motionless as clay. + +Van fetched a pint of water in his hat. He sprinkled it roughly in the +convict's face, and, propping up his head, helped him to take a drink. + +Barger could not lift a hand, or utter a word. Van recoiled the rope, +secured it on the saddle, then sat down to await the man's recovery. +It was slow. Barger's speech was the first returning function. It was +faint, and weak, and blasphemous. + +"It's hell," he said, "when God Almighty turns agin a man. Ain't the +sheriff's enough--_without a thing like that_?" His thumb made a +gesture towards the river, which he cursed abominably--cursing it for a +trap, a seeming benefit, here in the desert, ready to eat a man alive. + +Van made no reply. He rather felt the man was justified--at least in +some opinions. Towards Barger he felt no anger, but rather a pity +instead. + +After a time the convict moved sufficiently to prop himself up against +the bank. He looked at Van dully. This was the man who had "sent him +up"--and saved him from the sand. There was much that lay between +them, much that must always lie. He had no issues to dodge. There was +nothing cowardly in Barger, despite his ways. + +"I nearly got you, up yonder," he said, and he jerked his thumb towards +the mountains, to indicate the pass where he and Van had met an hour +before. + +Van nodded. "You sure did. Who told you to look for me here?" + +Barger closed his eyes. "Nothing doing." He could not have been +forced to tell. + +Van smiled. "That's all right." There was no resentment in the tone. + +Barger looked at him curiously. + +"What for did you pull me out?" + +"Don't know," Van confessed. "Perhaps I hated to have the quicksand +cheat the pen." + +"Must have had some good reason," agreed the prostrate man. He was +silent for a moment, and then he added: "I s'pose I'm your meat." + +As before, Van nodded: "I reckon you are." + +Barger spat. It was his first vigorous indication of returning +strength. + +"Someways," he said, "I'd rather you'd shoot me here, right now, than +send me back to the pen. But I couldn't stand fer that!" He made his +characteristic gesture towards the river. As Van made no comment the +fellow concluded: "I s'pose you need the reward." + +Van was aware there was ten thousand dollars as a price on the +convict's head, a fact which he someway resented. To-day, more than at +any time within his life, he felt out of sympathy with law--with man's +law, made against man. + +He began to pull off his boots. + +"No," he said, "I don't want any State's reward, much less express +company money. Maybe if it wasn't for those rewards I'd take you into +camp." He inverted his boots and shook out a few grains of sand. + +Barger glanced at him suspiciously. + +"What are you goin' to do with me, then, now you've got me to rights?" + +"Nothing," said Van, "nothing this afternoon." He stood up. "You and +I break even, Barger, understand? Don't take me wrong. I'm not +turning you loose entirely. You belong to me. Whenever I call for the +joker, Matt, I want you to come." + +He would never call, and he knew it. He merely left the matter thus to +establish a species of ownership that Barger must acknowledge. There +is law of the State, and law of God, and law of man to man. The latter +it was that concerned Van Buren now, and upon it he was acting. + +Laboriously, weakly, Barger arose to his feet. He looked at Van +peculiarly, with a strange light dully firing in his eyes. + +"I agree to that," he answered slowly. "I agree to that." + +He put out his hand to shake--to bind his agreement. It was almost +like offering his oath. + +Van took it, and gave it his usual grip. + +"So long, Barger," he said. "I reckon you need these boots." + +He waved his hand loosely at the boots that lay upon the ground, went +at once to his horse, and mounted to his seat. + +"The regular ford of this river's down below," he added to the +speechless convict, standing there gaunt and wondering upon the marge. +"So long." + +Barger said nothing. Van rode away on the trail by the stream, and was +presently gone, around the bend. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +VAN RUNS AMUCK + +Instead of turning northward in the mountain range and riding on to the +"Laughing Water" claim, Van continued straight ahead to Goldite. The +letter to Beth was heavy in his pocket. Until he should rid himself of +its burden he knew he should have no peace--no freedom to act for +himself. + +He had been delayed. The sun was setting when at last he rode his +broncho to the hay-yard in the camp, and saw that he was fed with +proper care. Then he got some boots and walked to Mrs. Dick's. + +Beth, from her window, looking towards the sun, discovered him coming +to the place. She had never in her life felt so wildly joyous at +beholding any being of the earth. She had watched for hours, counting +his steps across the desert's desolation one by one, tracing his course +from Starlight "home" by all the signs along the trail which she and he +had traveled together. + +She ran downstairs like a child. She had momentarily forgotten even +Glen. Nothing counted but this sight of Van--his presence here with +herself. When she suddenly burst from the door into all the golden +glory of the sunset, herself as glorious with color, warmth, and youth +as the great day-orb in the west, Van felt his heart give one +tumultuous heave in his breast, despite the resentment he harbored. + +There had never been a moment when her smile had been so radiant, when +the brown of her eyes had been so softly lighted and glowing, when her +cheeks had so mirrored her beauty. + +How superb she was, he said to himself--how splendid was her acting! +He could almost forgive himself for having played the fool. His +helplessness, his defenselessness had been warranted. But--her smile +could befuddle him no more. He took off his hat, with a certain cold +elegance of grace. His face still wore that chiseled appearance of +stone-like hardness. + +"Oh!" she cried, in her irrepressible happiness of heart. "You're +home! You're safe! I'm glad!" + +It was nothing, her cry that he was safe. She had worried only for the +desert's customary perils, but this he could not know. He thought she +referred to a possible meeting with Barger. He was almost swept from +his balance by her look, for a bright bit of moisture had sprung in her +eyes and her smile took on a tenderness that all but conquered him anew. + +"I delivered your letter in Starlight," he said. "I return your +brother's reply." + +He had taken the letter from his pocket. He held it forth. + +She took it. If memories of Glen started rushingly upon her, they were +halted by something she felt in the air, something in the cold, set +speech of the man she loved as never she had thought to love a creature +of the earth. She made no reply, but stood looking peculiarly upon +him, a question written plainly in her glance. + +"If there is nothing more," he added, "permit me to wish you good-day." +He swept off his hat as he had before, turned promptly on his heel, and +departed the scene forthwith. + +She tried to cry out, to ask him what it meant, but the thing had come +like a blow. It had not been what he had said, so much as the manner +of its saying--not so much what she had heard as what her heart had +felt. A deluge of ice water, suddenly thrown upon her, could scarcely +have chilled or shocked her more than the coldness that had bristled +from his being. + +Wholly at a loss to understand, she leaned in sudden weakness against +the frame of the door, and watched him disappearing. Her smile was +gone. In its place a dumb, white look of pain and bewilderment had +frozen on her face. Had not that something, akin to anger, which her +nature had felt to be emanating from him remained so potently to +oppress her, she could almost have thought the thing a joke--some +freakish mood of playfulness after all the other moods he had shown. +But no such thought was possible. The glitter in his eyes had been +unmistakable. Then, what could it mean? + +She almost cried, as she stood there and saw him vanish. She had +counted so much upon this moment. She had prayed for his coming safely +back from the desert. She had so utterly unbound the fetters from her +love. Confession of it all had been ready in her heart, her eyes, and +on her lips. Reaction smote her a dulling blow. Her whole impulsive +nature crept back upon itself, abashed--like something discarded, flung +at her feet ingloriously. + +"Oh--Van!" she finally cried, in a weak, hurt utterance, and back along +the darkening hall she went, her hand with Glen's crushed letter +pressed hard upon her breast. + +Van, for his part, far more torn than he could have believed possible, +proceeded down the street in such a daze as a drunken man might +experience, emerging from liquor's false delights to life's cold, +merciless facts. The camp was more emptied than he had ever known it +since first it was discovered. Only a handful of the reservation +stragglers had returned. The darkness would pour them in by hundreds. + +Half way down the thoroughfare Van paused to remember what it was his +body wanted. It was food. He started again, and was passing the bank +when someone called from within. + +"Hello, there--Van!" came the cry. "Hello! Come in!" + +Van obeyed mechanically. The cashier, Rickart, it was who had shouted +the summons--a little, gray-eyed, thin-faced man, with a very long +moustache. + +"How are you, Rick?" said the horseman familiarly. "What's going on?" + +"Haven't _you_ heard?--_you_?" interrogated Rickart. "I thought it was +funny you were loafing along so leisurely. Didn't you know to-day was +the day for the rush?" + +"I did," said Van. "What about it?" + +"Not much," his friend replied, "except your claim has been jumped by +McCoppet and one J. Searle Bostwick, who got on to the fact that the +reservation line included all your ground." + +Van looked his incredulity. + +"What's the joke?" he said. "I bite. What's the answer?" + +"Joke?" the cashier echoed. "Joke? They had the line surveyed +through, yesterday, and Lawrence confirmed their tip. Your claim, I +tell you, was on reservation ground, and McCoppet had his crowd on deck +at six o'clock this morning. They staked it out, according to law, as +the first men on the job after the Government threw it open--and there +they are." + +Van leaned against the counter carelessly, and looked at his friend +unmoved. + +"Who told you the story?" he inquired. "Who brought it into camp?" + +"Why a dozen men--all mad to think they never got on," said Rickart, +not without heat. "It's an outrage, Van! You might have fought them +off if you'd been on deck, and made the location yourself! Where have +you been?" + +Van smiled. The neatness of the whole arrangement began to be +presented to his mind. + +"Oh, I was out of the way all right," he said. "My friends took care +of that." + +"I thought there was something in the wind, all along," imparted the +little cashier. "Bostwick and McCoppet have been thicker than thieves +for a week. But the money they needed wasn't Bostwick's. I wired to +New York to get his standing--and he's got about as much as a pin. But +the girl stood in, you bet! She's got enough--and dug up thirty +thousand bucks to handle the crowd's expenses." + +Van straightened up slowly. + +"The girl?" + +"Miss Kent--engaged to Bostwick--you ought to know," replied the man +behind the counter. "She's put up the dough and I guess she's in the +game, for she turned it all over like a man." + +Van laughed, suddenly, almost terribly. + +"Oh, hell, Rick, come out and git a drink!" he said. "Here," as he +noted a bottle in the desk, "give me some of that!" + +Rickart gave him the bottle and a glass. He poured a stiff amber +draught and raised it on high, a wild, fevered look in his eyes. + +"Here's to the gods of law and order!" he said. "Here's to faith, +hope, and charity. Here's to friendship, honor, and loyalty. Here's +to the gallant little minority that love their neighbors as themselves. +Give me perfidy or give me death! Hurray for treason, strategy, and +spoils!" + +He drank the liquid fire at one reckless gulp, and laughing again, in +ghastly humor, lurched suddenly out at the open door and across to the +nearest saloon. + +Rickart, in sudden apprehension for the "boy" he genuinely loved, +called out to him shrilly, but in vain. Then he scurried to the +telephone, rang up the office of the sheriff, and presently had a +deputy on the wire. + +"Say, friend," he called, "if Bostwick or McCoppet should return to +camp to-night, warn them to keep off the street. Van Buren's in, and I +don't want the boy to mix himself in trouble." + +"All right," came the answer, "I'm on." + +In less than an hour the town was "on." Men returning by the scores +and dozens, nineteen out of every twenty exhausted, angered with +disappointment, and clamorous for refreshments, filled the streets, +saloons, and eating houses, all of them talking of the "Laughing Water" +claim, and all of them ready to sympathize with Van--especially at his +expense. + +His night was a mixture of wildness, outflamings of satire on the +virtues, witty defiance of the fates, and recklessness of everything +save reference to women. Not a word escaped his lips whereby his +keenest, most delighted listener could have probed to the heart of his +mood. To the loss of his claim was attributed all his pyrotechnics, +and no one, unless it was Rickart, was aware of the old proverbial +"woman in the case," who had planted the sting that stung. + +Rickart, like a worried animal, following the footsteps of his master, +sought vainly all night to head Van off and quiet him down in bed. At +two in the morning, at McCoppet's gambling hall, where Van perhaps +expected to encounter the jumpers of his claim, the little cashier +succeeded at last in commanding Van's attention. Van had a glass of +stuff in his hand--stuff too strong to be scathed by all the pure food +enactments in the world. + +"Look here, boy," said Rickart, clutching the horseman's wrist in his +hand, "do you know that Gettysburg, and Nap, and Dave are camping on +the desert, waiting for you to come home?" + +Van looked at him steadily. He was far from being dizzied in his +brain. Since the blow received at the hands of Beth had not sufficed +to make him utterly witless, then nothing drinkable could overcome his +reason. + +"_Home_?" he said. "Waiting for me to come _home_." + +Suddenly wrenching his hand from Rickart's grip he hurled the glass of +liquor with all his might against the mirror of the bar. The crash +rose high above the din of human voices. A radiating star was abruptly +created in the firmament of glass, and Van was starting for the door. + +The barkeeper scarcely turned his head. He was serving half a dozen +men, and he said: "Gents, what's your poison?" + +A crowd of half-intoxicated revelers started for Van and attempted to +haul him back. He flung them off like a lot of pestiferous puppies, +and cleared the door. + +He went straight to the hay-yard, saddled his horse, and headed up over +the mountains. He had eaten no dinner; he wanted none. The fresh, +clean air began its work of restoration. + +It was daylight when he reached the camp his partners had made on the +desert. Napoleon and Gettysburg were drunk. Discouraged by his long +delay, homeless, and utterly disheartened, they had readily succumbed +to the conveniently bottled sympathy of friends. + +No sooner had the horseman alighted at the camp than Napoleon flung +himself upon him. He was weeping. + +"What did I sh-sh-sh-sh-(whistle) shay?" he interrogated brokenly, +"home from a foreign--quoth the r-r-r-r-r-(whistle) raven--NEVER MORE!" + +Gettysburg waxed apologetic, as he held his glass eye in his hand. + +"Didn't mean to git in thish condition, Van--didn't go to do it," he +imparted confidentially. "Serpent that lurks in the glash." + +Van resumed his paternal rôle with a meed of ready forgiveness. + +"Let him who hath an untainted breath cast the first bottle," he said. +Even old Dave, thought sober, was disqualified, and Algy was asleep. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +THE PRIMITIVE LAW + +Bostwick and McCoppet had made ample provision against attack at the +claim. Their miners, who set to work at once to enlarge the facilities +for extracting the gold from the ground, were gun-fighters first and +toilers afterward. The place was guarded night and day, visitors being +ordered off with a strictness exceptionally rigid. + +Van and his partners were down and out. They had saved almost nothing +of the gold extracted from the sand, since the bulk of their treasure +had fallen, by "right of law" into the hands of the jumpers. + +Bostwick avoided Van as he would a plague. There was never a day or +night that fear did not possess him, when he thought of a possible +encounter; yet Van had planned no deed of violence and could not have +told what the results would be should he and Bostwick meet. + +In his customary way of vigor, the horseman had begun a semi-legal +inquiry the first day succeeding the rush. He interviewed Lawrence, +the Government representative, since Culver's removal from the scene. +Lawrence was prepared for the visit. He expressed his regrets at the +flight Van's fortunes had taken. Bostwick had come, he said, with +authority from Washington, ordering the new survey. No expectation had +been entertained, he was sure, that the old, "somewhat imaginary" and +"decidedly vague" reservation line would be disturbed, or that any +notable properties would be involved. Naturally, after the line was +run, establishing the inclusion of the "Laughing Water" claim, and much +other ground, in the reservation tract, Mr. Bostwick had been justified +in summary action. It was the law of human kind to reach for all +coveted things. + +Van listened in patience to the exposition of the case. He studied the +maps and data as he might have studied the laws of Confucius written in +their native tongue. The thing looked convincing. It was not at all +incredible or unique. It bore Government sanction, if not its +trademark. And granting that the reservation tract did actually extend +so far as to lap across the "Laughing Water" claim, the right of an +entrant to locate the ground and oust all previous trespassers after +the legal opening was undeniable. + +Much of the natural fighting spirit, welded by nature into Van's being, +had been sickened into inactivity by the blow succeeding blow received +at the hands of Beth Kent. The case against her was complete. + +Her letter to her brother was sufficient in itself. The need for its +delivery in person to her brother he thought undoubtedly a ruse to get +himself out of the way. If she had not planned with the others to warn +the convict, Barger, of his trip, she had certainly loaned her money to +Bostwick for his needs--and her letter contained the threat, "I will +repay!" + +At the end of three days of dulling disgust and helplessness, Van and +his "family" were camping in a tent above the town of Goldite, on a +hill. They were all but penniless: they had no occupation, no hope. +They were down once more at the ladder's bottom rung, depleted in +spirit, less young than formerly, and with no idea of which way to turn. + +Van meant to fight, if the slightest excuse could be discovered. His +partners would back him, with their lives. But he and they, as they +looked their prospects fairly in the face, found themselves utterly +disarmed. Except for the credit, extended by friends of Van, +starvation might have lurked about their tent. All delayed seeking for +outside work while the prospect of putting up a fight to regain their +property held forth a dim glimmer of hope. + +The last of Van's money went to meet a debt--such a debt as he would +not disregard. The account was rendered by a cutter of stone, who had +carved upon a marble post the single legend: + + QUEENIE. + +This post was planted where a small earth mound was raised upon the +hill--and word of the tribute went the rounds of the camp, where +everyone else had forgotten. + +The town's excitement concerning the rush had subsided with greater +alacrity as reports came back, in rapid procession--no gold on the +reservation. The normal excitements of the mining field resumed where +the men had left them off. News that Matt Barger was not only still at +large, but preying on wayside travelers, aroused new demands for the +sheriff's demonstrations of his fitness to survive. The fact was +recalled that Cayuse, the half-breed murderer of Culver, was as yet +unreported from the hills. + +The sheriff, who had ridden day and night, in quest of either of the +"wanted" men, came back to Goldite from a week's excursion, packed full +of hardships, vigilance, and work, to renew his force and make another +attempt. He offered a job to Van. + +"There's ten thousand dollars in Barger," he said. "And I guess you +could use the money. There's nothing but glory in gittin' Cayuse, but +I'll give you your pick of the pair." + +That some half-formed notion of procuring a secret survey of the +reservation line, in his own behalf, had occupied Van's thoughts +somewhat insistently, was quite to be expected. That the work would +prove expensive was a matter of course. Money was the one particular +thing of which he stood in need. Nevertheless, at the sheriff's +suggestion he calmly shook his head. + +"Thanks, old man. Blood-money wouldn't circulate worth a whoop in my +system. But I think I could land Cayuse." He held no grudge against +Culver now. Perhaps he regretted the fuss he had made on the day of +Culver's death. "I'll take ten dollars a day," he added, "and see what +I can do about the Indian." + +"I knew it! I knew you'd do more than all the gang--myself in the +count," the sheriff exclaimed in profound relief. "I'm beat! I own +it! I ain't seen a trace of that black-headed devil since I started. +If you'll fetch him in----" + +"Don't promise more than ten dollars a day," Van interrupted. "If you +do you can get him yourself. I haven't said I'll fetch him in. I +merely said perhaps I could get him." + +"All right," said the sheriff, bewildered. "All right. I don't care +what happens, if you git him." + +Glad, perhaps, to escape the town--to flee from the air that Beth was +breathing, Van rode off that afternoon. + +He did not seek the Indian murderer, nor for traces of his place of +concealment. He went due west, to the nearest Indian camp, on the now +diminished reservation. He called upon a wise and grave Piute, as old +as some of the hills. + +"Captain Sides," he said, when the due formalities of greeting had been +gratified, "I want you to get Cayuse. He stabbed a white man, Culver, +Government man--and you Piutes know all about it. Indians know where +an Indian hides. This man has broken the law. He's got to pay. I +want your men to get him." + +Old Captain Sides was standing before his house. He was tall and +dignified. + +"Yesh--he's broke the law," he agreed. "Mebbe my boys, they's get him." + +[Illustration: "Yesh--he's broke the law."] + +That was all, but a strange thing happened. On the following night +four grim Piutes brought Cayuse from his mountain retreat. They were +all his kinsmen, uncles, brothers, and cousins. He was taken to a +council in the brush, a family council with Captain Sides as Chieftain, +Magistrate, and father of the tribe. And a solemn procedure followed. +Cayuse was formally charged with infraction of the law and asked for +his defense. He had no defense--nothing but justification. He +admitted the killing, and told of why it had been done. He had taken +an eye for an eye. + +"I have broken the white man's law," he said. "The white man first +broke mine. I'm ready to pay. The Indian stands no show to get away. +I broke the law, and I am glad. They want my life. That's all right. +That's the law. But I don't want the white man to hang me. That ain't +good Indian way. My people can satisfy this law. They can shoot me +like a man. No white is going to hang Cayuse, and that's all I've got +to say." + +To an Anglo Saxon mind this attitude is not to be readily comprehended. +To the Indian members of Cayuse's clan it addressed itself as wisdom, +logic, and right. The council agreed to his demands. The case, +historical, but perhaps not unique, has never been widely known. + +As solemnly as doom itself, the council proceeded with its task. Some +manner of balloting was adopted, and immediate members of the Cayuse +totem drew lots as to which must perform the lawful deed. It fell to a +brother of the prisoner--a half-brother only, to be accurate, since the +doomed man's father had been white. + +Together Cayuse and this kinsman departed from the camp, walking forth +through the darkness in the brush. They chatted in all pleasantness, +upon the way. Cayuse could have broken and run. He never for a moment +so much as entertained the thought. + +They came to a place appropriate, and, still in all friendliness, +backed by a sense of justice and of doom, the guiltless brother shot +the half-breed dead--and the chapter, with the Indians, was concluded. + +Van was gone three days from Goldite camp. He returned and reported +all that had been done. He had seen the executed man. An even thirty +dollars he accepted for his time, and with it bought food for his +partners. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII + +BETH MAKES DEMANDS + +Beth Kent, while the camp was writing its feverish annals, had +undergone emotions in the whole varied order of the gamut. She had +felt herself utterly deserted and utterly unhappy. She had hoped +against hope that Van would come, that something might explain away his +behavior, that she herself might have an opportunity of ascertaining +what had occurred. + +One clew only was vouchsafed her puzzling mind: Searle had actually +gone to Glen at last, had been there at the hour of Van's arrival, and +had written Glen's letter to herself. Some encounter between the men +had doubtless transpired, she thought, and Van had been poisoned +against her. What else could it mean, his coldness, his abrupt +departure, after all that had been, and his stubborn silence since? + +The letter from Glen had been wholly unsatisfactory. Bostwick had +written it, he said, at Glen's dictation. It echoed the phrases that +Searle himself had employed so persistently, many of them grossly +mendacious, as Beth was sufficiently aware. Her effort had been +futile, after all. She was not at all certain as to Glen's condition; +she was wholly in the dark in all directions. + +On the day succeeding the reservation rush she received the news at +Mrs. Dick's, not only that Van had lost his claim, and that McCoppet +and Searle were its latest owners, but also that Van had run amuck that +night after leaving herself. + +Some vague, half-terrifying intuition that Searle was engaged in a +lawless, retaliatory enterprise crept athwart her mind and rendered her +intensely uneasy. Her own considerable sum of money might even be +involved in--she could not fathom what. Something that lay behind it +all must doubtless explain Van's extraordinary change. It was +maddening; she felt there must be _something_ she could do--there +_must_ be something! She was not content to wait in utter helplessness +for anything more to happen--anything more that served to wreck human +happiness, if not very life itself! + +She felt, moreover, she had a right to know what it was affecting Van. +He had come unbidden into her life. He had swept her away with his +riotous love. He had taught her new, almost frightening joys of +existence. He had drawn upon her very soul--kissing into being a +nature demanding love for love. He had taken her all for himself, +despite her real resistance. She could not cease to love so quickly as +he. She had rights, acquired in surrender--at least the right to know +what evil thing had wrought its way upon him. + +But fret as she might, and burn as she might, with impatience, +love-created anger and resentment of some infamy, doubtless practiced +on them both, there was nothing in the world she could do. + +She wrote again to Glen and had the letter posted in the mail. She +asked for information. Was he better? Could he come to Goldite soon? +Had he met Mr. Van? Had he understood that confession in her letter? +Had he really purchased a mine, with Searle, or had he, by some strange +mischance, concerned himself with the others in taking the "Laughing +Water" claim? + +She explained that she was wholly in the dark, that worry was her only +companion. She begged him to come, if traveling were possible, and +told of her effort to see him. + +That Bostwick had opened and read her letter to Glen, suppressing that +final page, together with sundry questions and references to himself, +she could never have dreamed. It is ignorance always that baffles, as +we grope our way in the world. And Beth had not yet entirely lost all +trust in Bostwick himself. + +Searle, in the meantime, having gone straight to the "Laughing Water" +claim from Glenmore Kent, had remained three days away from Goldite and +had taken no time to write. When he came at last the girl's suspicions +were thoroughly aroused. That the man was a dangerous trickster, a +liar, and perhaps a scoundrel she was rapidly becoming convinced. + +He arrived at the house in the late afternoon while Mrs. Dick and Beth +were engaged together in the dining-room, sewing at a quilt. The +meeting was therefore a quiet one and Beth escaped any lover-like +demonstrations he might otherwise have made. + +Mrs. Dick, in her frank dislike of Bostwick, finally carried her work +upstairs. + +"Well, well, sweetheart!" Bostwick exclaimed. "You must have heard the +news, of course. I expect your congratulations!" + +He rose and approached her eagerly. She was standing. She moved a +chair and placed herself behind it. + +"I suppose you mean the claim you've--taken," she said. "You're elated +over that?" + +"Good Lord! aren't you?" he answered. "It's the biggest thing I've +ever done! It's worth a million, maybe more--that 'Laughing Water' +claim! And to think that Van Buren, the romantic fool, putting marble +slabs on the graves of the _demi-monde_, and riding about like a big +tin toreador, should have bought a property on reservation ground, and +lost it, gold and all!" + +His relish in the triumph was fairly unctuous. His jaw seemed to +oscillate in oil as he mouthed his contempt of the horseman. + +Beth flamed with resentment. Her love for Van increased despite her +judgment, despite her wish, as she heard him thus assailed. She knew +he had placed a stone on Queenie's grave. She admired the fearless +friendliness of the action--the token whereby he had linked the +unfortunate girl in death to the human family from which she had +severed herself in life. + +Not to be goaded to indiscretion now she sat down as before with her +work. + +"And the money--yours and mine--did it go to assist in this unexpected +enterprise, and not to buy a claim with Glen?" + +"Certainly. No--no--not all of it--certainly not," he stammered, +caught for a moment off his guard. "Some of my funds I used, of +course, in necessary ways. Don't you worry about your thirty thousand. +You'll get it back a hundredfold, from your interest in the claim." + +She glanced up suddenly, startled by what he had said. + +"_My_ interest in the claim?" + +"Certainly, your interest. You didn't suppose I'd freeze you out, my +little woman--my little wife--to be? You are one of the company, of +course. You'll be a director later on--and we'll clean up a fortune in +a year!" + +She was exceedingly pale. What wonder Van had a grievance! He had +doubtless heard it all before he came that night to deliver Glen's +letter from Starlight. He might even have thought she had sent him to +Glen to got him away from his claim. + +A thousand thoughts, that seemed to scorch like fire, went rocketing +through her brain. The thing was too much to be understood at once--it +went too deep--it involved such possibilities. She must try to hold +herself in check--try to be clever with this man. + +"Oh," she said, dropping her eyes to her work, "and Glen is in it too?" + +Bostwick was nervous. He sat down. + +"Well, yes--to some extent--a little slice of mine," he faltered. +"Naturally he has less than I've given to you." + +"But--didn't he discover the opportunity--the chance?" + +"Certainly not!" he declared vehemently. "It's all my +doing--everything! Wholly my idea from the start!" The impulse to +boast, to vaunt his cleverness, was not to be resisted. "I told Van +Buren the game had only begun! He thought himself so clever!" + +She clung to her point. + +"But--of course you told me Glen had found the chance, requiring sixty +thousand dollars." + +"That was a different proposition--nothing to do with this. I've +dropped that game entirely. This is big enough for us all!" + +She looked the picture of unsophisticated innocence, sewing at a gaudy +square of cloth. + +"Did this affair also require the expenditure of sixty thousand +dollars?" + +"No, of course not. Didn't I say so before?" + +"How much did it need--if I may ask?" + +Bostwick colored. He could not escape. He dared not even hint at the +sum he had employed. + +"Oh, just the bare expenses of the survey--nothing much." + +"Then," she said, "if you don't mind returning my thirty thousand +dollars, I think I'll relinquish my share." + +He rose hurriedly. + +"But I--but you--it won't be possible--just yet," he stammered. "This +is perfectly absurd! I want you in--want you to retain your interest. +There are certain development expenses--and--they can't be handled +without considerable money." + +"Why not use your own? I much prefer to withdraw." She said it +calmly, and looked him in the eye. + +He avoided her glance, and paced up and down the room. + +"It can't be done!" he said. "I've pledged my support--our support--to +get the claim on its feet." + +She grew calmer and colder. + +"Wasn't the claim already on its feet. I heard it was paying +well--that quite a lot of gold was seized when--when you and the others +took the place." + +His impatience and uneasiness increased. + +"Oh, it was being worked--in a pickyune, primitive fashion. We're +going at it right!" + +The color came and went in her face. She felt that the man had +employed her money, and could not repay it if he would. She pushed the +point. + +"Of course, you'll remember I gave you the money to assist my brother +Glen. It was not to help secure or develop this other property. I +much prefer not to invest my money this way. I shall have to request +its return." + +Bostwick was white. + +"Look here, Beth, is this some maudlin sentiment over that brigand, Van +Buren? Is that what you mean?" + +She rose once more and confronted him angrily. It was not a mere girl, +but a strong and resolute woman he was facing. + +"Mr. Bostwick," she said, "you haven't yet acquired the right to demand +such a thing as that of me. For reasons of my own, maudlin or +otherwise, I refuse to have my funds employed in the manner you say you +mean to use them. I insist upon the immediate return to me of thirty +thousand dollars." + +If rage at Van Buren consumed his blood, Bostwick's fear was a greater +emotion. Before him he could plainly discern the abject failure of his +plans--the plan to marry this beautiful girl, the plan to go on with +McCoppet and snatch a fortune from the earth. It was not a time for +defiance. He must fence. He must yield as far as possible--till the +claim should make him independent. Of the tirade on his tongue against +Van Buren he dared not utter a word. His own affairs of love would +serve no better. + +He summoned a smile to his ghastly lips and attempted to assume a calm +demeanor. + +"Very well," he said. "If that is the way you feel about your money, I +will pay you back at once." + +"If you please," she said. "To-day." + +"But--the bank isn't open after three," he said in a species of panic. +"You can't be utterly unreasonable." + +"It was open much later when we were wiring New York some time ago," +she reminded him coldly. "I think you'll find it open to-night till +nine." + +"Well--perhaps I can arrange it, then," he said in desperation. "I'll +get down there now and see what I can do." + +He took his hat and, glad to escape a further inquisition, made +remarkable haste from the house. + +Trembling with excitement, quivering on the verge of half-discovered +things, flashes of intuition, fragments of deduction, Beth waited an +hour for developments. + +Searle did not return. She had felt he would not. She was certain her +money was gone. + +At dusk a messenger boy arrived with the briefest note, in Bostwick's +familiar hand. + +"Sudden, urgent call to the claim. No time for business. Back as soon +as possible. With love and faith, yours, SEARLE." + +How she loathed his miserable lie! + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX + +ALGY'S COOKING AND BETH'S DESPAIR + +Van and the new supply of provender arrived together at the tent where +the partners made their temporary home. It was nearly dusk, the mellow +end of a balmy day. Gettysburg, Napoleon, and Dave were all inside the +canvas, filling the small hollow cube of air with a mighty reek from +their pipes, and playing seven-up on a greasy box. The Chinese cook +was away, much to Van's surprise. + +"Gett," he said, throwing off his belt and revolver, "if Nap was to +deal the cards on your tombstone, on the day of Gabriel's trump, I'll +bet you'd break the crust and take a hand. What have you done with +Algy?" + +"He's went to git a job," said Gettysburg. "He called us all a lot of +babies. I doggone near kicked him in the lung." + +Outside, where a wagon had halted with Van's new purchases, the driver +hauled out two respectable boxes and dropped them on the earth. + +"What's that?" demanded Napoleon, leaping to his feet. "If it's +pirates come to board us again----" + +"Don't scare it away," Van interrupted warningly. "It's grub." + +With one accord the three old cronies started for the door of the tent. +Van followed, prepared to get a dinner under way, since his system was +woefully empty. + +To the utter astonishment of all, a visitor was bustling up the hill. +It was Mrs. Dick. + +"Where's Van?" she panted, while still a rod away. "Here, Van!" she +exclaimed, the moment she clapped her eyes upon him, "you're just the +one I want to see, and I'm an awful busy woman, but I've got to make a +deal with you and the sooner it's over the better. So as long as +Charlie Sing is cookin' our victuals already I just run up to fight it +out, and we might as well begin the program tonight, so all you boys +come down to dinner in just about half an hour." + +The men were all at sea, even Napoleon, who had once sailed a +near-briny river. + +"Sit down," said Van, "and give the grounds a chance to settle. We can +almost see daylight through what you said, but who, for instance, is +Charlie Sing?" + +"As if you didn't know!" Mrs. Dick responded warmly. "If you think I'm +goin' to call that Chinaman Algy, or anything white, you're way off +your ca-base! Algy! for a Chinaman! Not but what he's a good enough +cook, and I like him as a friend of yours--and him almost makin' me cry +with his tryin' to nurse you four old helpless galoots, but I draw the +line at fancy names, and don't you forget it!" + +The "four old galoots" looked at one another in bewilderment. Van led +Mrs. Dick gently but firmly to a box of provisions and pushed her down +upon it. + +"Now take a breath," he said, "and listen. Do we understand you to say +that Algy has gone to your boarding-house and taken a job as cook?" + +"He has," said Mrs. Dick, "but I've named him Charlie." + +"That'll turn his stomick," ventured Gettysburg gravely. "He was proud +of 'Algy.'" + +"He certainly must be desperate," added Van. "I don't quite savvy how +it happened." + +"Oh, you don't?" said little Mrs. Dick. "Well, I _do_. He come down +there and says to me, says he, 'We're broke, Van and us,' he says, 'and +I'll go to work and cook for you if you'll board all the family,' or +words to that effect, says he, 'and give Van twenty dollars a month, +salary,' he says, and I says I'll do it, quicker than scat. And that's +all there is to say, and if Charlie wasn't a Chinaman I'd kiss him in +the bargain!" With a quick, impatient gesture she made a daub at her +eye and flecked away a jewel. + +Van hauled at his collar, which was loose enough around his neck. + +"Say, boys," he said, "think of Algy, being kissed in the bargain. I +always thought he got his face at a bargain counter." + +"That's all right, Bronson Van Buren!" answered Mrs. Dick indignantly, +"but I never come that near to kissin' you!" + +Van suddenly swooped down upon her, picked her up bodily, and kissed +her on the cheek. Then he placed her again on the box. + +"Why didn't you say what you wanted, earlier?" he said. "Now, don't +talk back. I want you to harken intently. I'm perfectly willing that +Algy should waste his sweetness on the desert air of your +boarding-house, if it pleases you and him. I'm willing these old +ring-tailed galoots should continue to eat his fascinating poisons, and +I certainly hope he'll draw his monthly wage, but I'm going to be too +busy to board in any one place, and Algy's salary would make a load I +must certainly decline to carry." + +Mrs. Dick looked at the horseman in utter disappointment. + +"You won't come? Maybe you mean my house ain't good enough?" + +Napoleon was somewhat excited by prospects of again beholding Elsa, of +whose absence he was wholly unaware. + +"We won't go, neither!" he declared. "Doggone you, Van, you know we +won't go without the skipper, and you're shovin' us right out of +heaven!" + +Gettysburg added: "I don't want to say nuthin', but my stomach will +sure be the seat of anarchy if it has to git cheated out of goin' down +to Mrs. Dick's." + +Van was about to reply to them all. He had paused to frame his answer +artfully, eager as he was to foster the comfort of his three old +partners, but wholly unwilling to accept from either Mrs. Dick or +Algernon the slightest hint of aid. + +"I admit that a man's reach should be above the other fellow's grasp, +and all that," he started, "but here's the point----" + +He was interrupted suddenly. A man, running breathlessly up the slope +and waving his hat in frantic gestures, began to shout as he came. + +"Mrs. Dick! Mrs. Dick!" he cried at the top of his voice. "Help! +help! You've got to come!" + +Mrs. Dick leaped quickly to her feet to face the oncoming man. It was +old Billy Stitts. He had come from Beth. + +"Come on! Come on!" he cried as he neared the group, towards which he +ceased to run, the better to catch his breath and yell. "There's hell +a-poppin' in the boarding-house! You've got to come!" + +He surged up the last remaining ascent at a lively stride. + +"What's the matter? What in the world are you drivin' at?" demanded +Mrs. Dick. "Hold your tongue long enough to tell me what's the matter." + +"It's the _chink_!" exploded Billy pantingly. "They tried to run him +off the place! He's locked the kitchen and gone to throwin' out hot +water and Chinese language like a fire-engine on a drunk. And now +they're all a-packin' up to quit the house, and you won't have a +doggone boarder left, fer they won't eat Chinese chuck!" + +"What?" said Van drawlingly, "refuse to eat Algy's confections?--a +crowd like that? By all the culinary gods of Worcestershire and +mustard, they'll eat out of Algy's hand." + +He dived inside the tent, caught up his gun, and was strapping it on +before Mrs. Dick could catch her breath to utter a word of her wrath. + +"Well," said Gettysburg dubiously, "I hate trouble on an empty stomach, +but----" + +"You stay in camp till you hear the dinner bell," Van interrupted. +"This game is mine and Mrs. Dick's. You'll get there in time for +dessert." + +He did not wait for Mrs. Dick. He started at a pace that none could +follow. Mrs. Dick began to run at his heels, calling instructions as +she went. + +"Be careful of the crock'ry, Van! The stove's bran'-new! I'd hate to +have you break the chairs! And don't forgit Miss Kent!" + +Old Billy Stitts had remained with the others at the camp. + +"Ain't she the female woman?" he said. "Ain't she just about it?" + +No one answered. The three old cronies were watching Van as he went. + +Van, for his part, heard nothing of what Mrs. Dick was saying, except +the name "Miss Kent." He had not forgotten for a moment that Beth was +at the seat of war, or that he would perhaps be wiser by far never to +behold her again. He was speeding there despite all he felt at what +she had done, for she might be involved in trouble at the house, +and--at least she was a woman. + +He arrived in the midst of a newly concerted plan on the part of +lodgers and strangers combined to smoke Algy out of the kitchen. They +had broken windows, overturned the furniture, and worked up a lively +humor. Algy had exhausted his supply of hot water, but not his supply +of language. It seemed as if the stream of Oriental invective being +poured through the walls of the building might have withered almost +anything extant. But Goldite whisky had failed on his besiegers +earlier and their vitals were proof against attack. + +Van arrived among them abruptly. + +"What's all this pillow-fight about?" he demanded in a voice that all +could hear. "Which one of you fellows is it that's forgotten he's a +man? Who's looking for trouble with my Chinese cook and Mrs. Dick?" + +He boded no good to any man sufficiently hardy to argue the matter to a +finish. The attackers lost heart as they faced about and found him +there ready for action. From a half-open window above the scene Beth +was watching all that was done. + +A spokesman for the lodgers found his voice. + +"Well, we ain't a-goin' to stay in no doggone house with a chink shoved +in fer a cook." + +Van nodded: "Have you ever tried Algy's cooking?" + +"No, we ain't! And we ain't a-goin' to, neither!" + +The others murmured their assent. + +"You're a fine discriminating cluster of bifurcated, viviparous +idiots," said Van in visibly disturbing scorn. "You fellows would have +to be grabbed by the scruff of the neck and kicked into Eden, I reckon, +even if the snake was killed and flung over the fence, and the fruit +offered up on silver platters. The man who hasn't eaten one of Algy's +dinners isn't fit to live. The man who refuses to eat one better begin +right now on his prayers." He took out his gun and waved it loosely +about, adding: "Which one of you remembers 'Now I lay me down to +sleep'?" + +There was no response. The ten or twelve disturbers of the peace were +stirring uneasily in their tracks. + +Van gave them a chance. + +"All who prefer to recite, 'Now I sit me up to eat,' please raise their +hands. Raise 'em up, raise 'em up!" he commanded with the gun. "Put +up both hands, while you're at it." + +Up went all the hands. Mrs. Dick arrived, and stood looking on and +panting in excitement. + +"Thanks for this unanimous vote," Van resumed. "I want to inform you +boarders in particular that if ever I hear of one of you missing a meal +of Algy's cooking, or playing hookey from this lodging-house, as long +as Mrs. Dick desires your inglorious company, I'll hand you forthwith +over to the pound-keeper with instructions not to waste his chloroform, +but to drown the whole litter in a bag." + +"Oh, well!" said the spokesman, "I'd just as soon eat the chink's +cookin', if it's good." + +"Me, too," said a follower, meek as a lamb. A number echoed "Me, too." +One added: "We was just having a little bit of fun." + +"Well," said Van judicially, "Algy's entitled to his share." He raised +his voice: "Hey there, Algy--come out here and play with the boys." + +Mrs. Dick had caught sufficient breath to explode. + +"Fun!" she said. "My windows broken! My house all upset. Snakes +alive, if ever I heard----" + +Algy appeared and interrupted. + +"What's mallah you, Van?" he said. "I got no time fool lound now. +Been play too much. All time play, that velly superstich! Nobody got +time to work." + +"That's all right," Van assured him. "The boys here wish to apologize +for wasting your valuable time. In fact, they insist. Now then, boys, +down on your knees, every Jack in the crowd." + +That gun of his had a horribly loose way of waving about to cover all +the men. They slumped to, rather than knelt on, their knees. + +"Suminagot!" said Algy. "All time too muchee monkey fooling! My +dinner not git leady, Van, you savvy that? What's mallah you?" + +Van ignored the cook, in addressing the men. + +"It's your earnest desire to apologize, boys, I believe," he said. +"All in favor will please say Aye." + +The men said Aye in growlings, rumblings, and pipings. + +Van addressed his cook. "Do you want them to kiss your hand?" + +"_Ah_! Unema! hong oy!" said Algy blasphemously. "You makee me velly +sick! Just wash my hands for finish my dinner. Too much +monkey-doodle!" and off he went to his work, followed at once by Mrs. +Dick. + +"Algy's too modest," Van assured the crowd. "And none of you chaps are +fit to apologize to Mrs. Dick, so you'd better go wash up for dinner. +But don't let me hear so much as a peep about Algy from one of this +bunch, or Eden will turn into Hades." As the men arose to their feet +sheepishly, and began to slink away he added to the spokesman, "You +there with the face for pie, go up to my camp and call the boys to +feed." + +The men disappeared. Van, left alone, was turning away when his glance +was attracted to the window, up above, where Beth was looking down. +His face turned red to the topmost rim of his ears. + +The girl was pale, but resolute. + +"May I see you a moment, please?" she said, "before the men come in?" + +"Certainly." Van went to the front and waited at the foot of the +stairs. + +When Beth came down he was standing in the doorway, looking off at the +shadowy hills. He heard her steps upon the stairs and turned, removing +his hat. + +For a moment Beth faced him silently, her color coming and going in +rapid alternations. She had never seemed more beautiful than now, in +her mood of worry and courage. + +"Thank you for waiting," she said to him faintly, her heart beating +wildly in her bosom, "I felt as if I had the right--felt it only +right--won't you please tell me what I have done?" + +It was not an easy matter for Van to hold his own, to check an impulse +utterly incontinent, utterly weak, that urged him fairly to the edge of +surrender. But his nature was one of intensity, and inasmuch as he had +loved intensely, he distrusted now with equal force. + +"What you have done?" he repeated. "I'm sure I can't tell you of +anything that you do not know yourself. What do you wish me to say?" + +"I don't know! I don't know," she told him honestly. "I thought if I +asked you--asked you like this--you'd tell me what is the matter." + +"There's nothing the matter." + +"But there is!" she said. "Why not be frank? I know that you're in +trouble. Perhaps you blame----" + +"I told you once that taking trouble and having trouble supply all the +fun I have," he interrupted. "The man without trouble became extinct +before he was born." + +"Oh, please don't jest," she begged him earnestly. "You and I were +friends--I'm sure we were friends--but now----" + +"Now, if we are not, do you think the fault is mine?" + +He, too, was white, for the struggle was great in his soul. + +"It isn't mine!" she said. "I want to say that! I had to say that. I +stopped you--just to say that." She blushed to say so much, but she +met his stern gaze fearlessly with courage in her eyes. + +He could not understand her in the least, unless she still had more to +do, and thought to hold his friendship, perhaps for Searle's +protection. He forced himself to probe in that direction. + +"And you'd wish to go on being friends?" + +It was a hard question--hard to ask and hard to answer. She colored +anew, but she did not flinch. Her love was too vast, too strong and +elemental to shrink at a crucial moment. + +"I valued your friendship--very much," she confessed steadily. "Why +shouldn't I wish it to continue?" + +It was aggravating to have her seem so honest, so splendid, so womanly +and fine, when he thought of that line in her letter. He could not +spare himself or her in the agitation of his nature. + +"Your way and mine are different," he said. "My arts in deceit were +neglected, I'm afraid." + +Her eyes blazed more widely than before. Her color went like sunset +tints from the sky, leaving her face an ashen hue of chill. + +"Deceit?" she repeated. "You mean that I--I have deceived you? What +do you mean?" + +He could bear no more of her apparent innocence. It was breaking his +resolution down. + +"Oh, we may as well be candid!" he exclaimed. "What's the use of +beating round the bush? I saw your letter--read your letter--by +mistake." + +"My letter?" + +"Your letter to your brother. Through some mistake I was given the +final page--a fragment merely--instead of your brother's reply to be +brought to you. I was asked to read it--which I did. Is that enough?" + +"My letter to---- The last----" At a sudden memory of that letter's +last page, with her heart's confession upon it, she burned a blinding +crimson. "You read----" she stammered, "--and now----" She could not +look him in the face. She leaned against the stair in sudden weakness. + +"After that," he said, "does my conduct occasion surprise?" + +What he meant, in the light of the letter as she had written it to +Glen, as she thought he must have read it, was beyond her +comprehension. She had fondly believed he loved her. He had told her +so in actions, words, and kisses. What terrible secret, deep hidden in +his breast, could possibly lie behind this thing was more than mind +could fathom. Or did he scorn and loathe her now for having succumbed +to his love? He had read her confession that she loved him more than +anything else in all the world. He knew the last faint word in her +heart--and flung her away like this! + +She cast one frightened, inquiring look at his face. It was set and +hard as stone. The light in his eyes was cold, an accusing glitter. +She felt herself utterly abashed, utterly shamed. Her heart had lain +naked before him, throbbing with its secret. His foot was upon it. +There was nothing to cover its nakedness--nothing to cover her +confusion. + +For a moment she stood there, attempting to shrink within herself. Her +attitude of pain and shame appeared to him as guilt. He felt the whole +thing poignantly--felt sorry to send his shaft so truly home, sorry to +see the effect of the blow. But, what was the use? His was the way of +plain, straightforward dealing. Better one swift wound, even unto +death, than a lingering torture for years. + +He opened his lips as if to speak. But there was nothing more to say. +He turned towards the door. + +Beth could not suppress one little cry. + +"Oh!" It was half a moan, half a shuddering gasp. + +With her last rally of strength she faced the stairway, and weakly +stumbled up the steps. + +A spasm of agony seized Van by the cords of his heart. He went blindly +away, with a vision in his eyes of Beth groping weakly up the stairs--a +doe with a mortal hurt. + + + + +CHAPTER XL + +GLEN AND REVELATIONS + +How she spent that night Beth never could have told. Her mind had +refused to work. Only her heart was sensible of life and emotions, for +there lay her wound, burning fiercely all the long hours through. That +Van had made excuses to his partners and disappeared on "business" was +a matter of which she received no account. + +In the morning the unexpected happened. Her brother Glen arrived in +Goldite, having driven from Starlight with a friend. He appeared at +Mrs. Dick's while Beth was still in her room, indisposed. She had +eaten no dinner. She took no breakfast. But with Glenmore's advent +she was suddenly awakened to a new excitement, almost a new sort of +hope. + +Young Kent was a smooth-faced, boyish chap, slightly stooped, +exceedingly neat, black-haired, and of medium height. He was like Beth +only in a "family" manner. His nose was a trifle large for his face, +but something in his modest, good-natured way, coupled to his earnest +delivery of slang in all his conversation, lent him a certain charm +that no one long resisted. + +He was standing in his characteristic pose, with one hand buried in his +pocket, as he laughingly explained himself to Mrs. Dick, when Beth came +running down the stairs. + +"Glen!" she cried, as she ran along the hall, and casting herself most +fervently upon him, with her arms about his neck, she had a good, +sky-clearing cry, furious and brief, and looked like a rain-wet rose +when she pushed him away and scrutinized him quickly through her tears. + +"I say, Sis, why this misplaced fountain on the job?" he said. "Do I +look as bad as that?" + +"Oh, Glen," she said, "you've been ill! You were hurt! I've worried +so. You're well? You've entirely recovered? Oh, I'm so glad to see +you. Glen! There's so much I've got to say!" + +"Land snakes!" said Mrs. Dick. "If I don't hurry----" and off she went. + +"You're the phonograph for mine," said Glen. "What's the matter with +your eyes? Searle hasn't got you going on the lachrymals already?" + +"No, I--I'm all right," she said excitedly. "I didn't sleep well, +that's all. Do sit down. I've so many things to say, so much to ask, +I don't know where to begin. It was such a surprise, your coming like +this! And you're looking so well. You got my letter, of course?" + +Glen sat down, and Beth sat near, her hand upon his arm. They had been +more like companions than mere half-brother and sister, all their +lives. The bond of affection between them was exceptionally developed. + +"I came up on account of your letter," he said. "Either my perceptive +faculties are on the blink or there's something decaying in Denmark. +It's you for the Goddess of Liberty enlightening the unenlightened +savage. I'm from Missouri and I want you to start the ticker on the +hum." + +"You know what Searle has done?" she said. "How much do you know of +what has happened?" + +"Nothing. I've been retired on half knowledge for a month," said Glen. +"I haven't been treated right. I'm here to register a roar. Nobody +tells me you're in the State till I read that account in the paper. I +dope it out to Searle that I am bumping the bumps, and there is nothing +doing. He shows up at last and hands me a species of coma and leaves +me with twenty-five dollars! That's what I get. What I've been doing +is a longer story. I apologize for not having seen your friend who +brought the letter, but it's up to you to apologize for a bum epistle +to the Prodigal." + +"Wait a minute, Glen--wait a minute, please; don't go so fast," she +said, gripping tighter to his arm. "I must get this all as straight +and plain as possible. You don't mean to say that Searle really +drugged you, or something like that--what for?" + +"I want to know," said Glen. "What's the answer? Perhaps he preferred +I should not behold your Sir Cowboy Gallahad." + +"There is something going on," she said, "something dark and horrible. +How did you happen to show Mr. Van Buren--let him see the last page of +my letter?" + +"I didn't let him see anything," said Glen. "I was dopy, I tell you. +I didn't even see the letter myself. Searle sat on the bed and read it +aloud--and lit his cigar with part of it later." + +"My letter?" she said, rising abruptly, and immediately sitting down +again. "You never saw---- Searle got it--read it! Oh, the +shamelessness! Then--it must have been Searle who made the +mistake--let Mr. Van Buren see it--see what I wrote--see---- What did +he read you--read about Van--Mr. Van Buren--almost the last thing in +the letter?" + +Glen was surprised at her agitation. He glanced at her blankly. + +"Nothing," he said. "He read me nothing--as I remember--about your +friend. Was it something in particular?" + +She arose again abruptly and wrung her hands in a gesture of baffled +impatience. + +"Oh, I don't know what it all means!" she said. "To think of Searle +being there, and intercepting my letter!--daring to read it!--burning +it up!--reading you only a portion! Of course, he didn't read you my +suspicions concerning himself?" + +"Not on your half-tone," Glen assured her. "What's all this business, +anyway? Put me wise, Sis, I'm groping like a blind snail in the +mulligatawny." + +Beth sat down as before and leaned her chin in her palm in an attitude +of concentration. + +"Don't you know what Searle has done--taking the 'Laughing Water' +claim?--Mr. Van Buren's claim?" + +"I don't know anything!" he told her convincingly. "I'm a howling +wilderness of ignorance. I want to know." + +"Let's start at the very beginning," she said. "Just as soon as Searle +brought your letter--the first one, I mean--in which you asked for +sixty thousand dollars to buy a mine----" + +"Whoap! Jamb on the emergency!" Glen interrupted. "I never wrote such +a letter in my life!" + +She looked at him blankly. + +"But--Glen--I saw your letter. I read it myself--at this very table." + +Glen knitted his brows and became more serious. + +"A letter from me?--touching Searle for sixty thou? Somebody's nutty." + +"But Glen--what I saw with my own eyes----" + +"Can't help it. Nothing doing!" he interrupted as before. "If Searle +showed you any such letter as that he wrote it him--hold on, I wrote +him for a grub-stake, fifty dollars at the most, but I haven't even +seen a mine that any man would buy, that the other man would sell, and +Searle sure got my first before I was bug-house from that wollop on the +block." He put his hand to the sore spot on his head and rubbed it +soothingly. + +Beth was pale. She failed to observe his gesture, so absorbed were all +her faculties in the maze of facts in which she was somewhat helplessly +struggling. + +"Could Searle have written such a letter as that?" she said. "What +for?" + +"For money--if he wrote it," said Glen. "Did he touch you for a loan?" + +Beth's eyes were widely blazing. Her lips were white and stiff. + +"Why, Glen, I advanced thirty thousand dollars--I thought to help you +buy a mine. Searle was to put in a like amount--but recently----" + +"Searle! Thirty thousand bucks!" said Glen. "He hasn't got thirty +thousand cents! The man who drove me up last night knows the bank +cashier, Mr. Rickart, like a brother--and Rickart told him Searle is a +four-flusher--hasn't a bean--and looks like a mighty good imitation of +a crook. Searle! You put up thirty--stung, Beth, stung, good and +plenty!" + +Beth's hand was on her cheek, pressing it to whiteness. + +"Oh, I've been afraid that something was wrong--that something +terrible---- Why, Glen, that would be _forgery_--obtaining money under +false pretences! He may have done anything--_anything_ to get the +'Laughing Water' claim! He may have done something--said +something--written something to make Van--Mr. Van Buren think that +I---- Oh, Glen, I don't know what to do!" + +Her brother looked at her keenly. + +"You're in trouble, Sis," he hazarded. "Is 'Van' the candy boy with +you?" + +She blushed suddenly. The contrast from her paleness was striking. + +"He's the one who is in trouble," she answered. "And he may think that +I--he does think something. He has lost his mine--a very valuable +property. Searle and some Mr. McCoppet have taken it away from Mr. Van +Buren and all those poor old men--after all their work, their +waiting--everything! You've got to help me to see what we can do!" + +"McCoppet's a gambler--a short-card, tumble weed," said Glen. "You've +got to put me next. Tell me the whole novelette, beginning at chapter +one." + +"As fast as I can," she answered, and she did. She related everything, +even the manner in which she and Searle had first become engaged--a +business at which she marveled now--and of how and when she had +encountered Van, the results of the meeting, the subsequent events, and +the heart-breaking outcome of the trip that Van had made to carry her +letter to Starlight. + +In her letter, her love had been confessed. She glossed that item over +now as a spot too sensitive for exposure. She merely admitted that +between herself and Van had existed a friendship such as comes but once +in many a woman's life--a friendship recently destroyed, she feared, by +some horrible machinations of Bostwick. + +"You can see," she concluded, "that Mr. Van Buren must think me guilty +of almost anything. He doubtless knows my money, that I thought was +helping you, went to meet the expense of taking away his property. He +probably thinks I sent him to you to get him out of the way, while +Searle and the others were driving his partners off the claim. + +"My money is gone. I asked for its return and I'm sure Searle cannot +repay me. I'm told he couldn't have used so much as thirty thousand +dollars in anything legitimate, so far, on the 'Laughing Water' claim. +If he'd forge a letter from you, and lie like this and deceive me so, +what wouldn't he do to rob these men of their mine?" + +"I scent decay," said Glenmore gravely. "Have you got any plans in +your attic?" + +"Why, I don't know what to do, of course!" she admitted. "But I've got +to do something. I've got to show Mr. Van Buren I'm not a willful +party to these horrible things. I don't believe I'll ever get my money +back. I don't want a share of a stolen mine. I'd be glad to let the +money go, and more--all I've got in the world--if only I could prove to +Van that I haven't deceived him, haven't taken part in anything +wrong--if only I could make these cheats give the 'Laughing Water' +back!" + +"Van _is_ the candy. I'll have to meet him, sure," said Glen with +conviction, looking on her face. "I wish you were wise to more of this +game--the way they worked it--how they doped it out. I'll look around +and find out how the trick was done, and then we'll go to it together. +Guess I'll look for Van right off the bat." + +She glanced at him with startled eyes. + +"No, Glen--please don't. I'd rather you wouldn't--just yet. You don't +understand. I can't let him think I'm--making overtures. He must +think I have a _little_ pride. If his mine has been stolen I want to +give it back--before he ever sees me again. If you knew how much--oh, +how very much, I wish to do that----" + +"I'm on," he interrupted. "It will do me good to put a crimp in +Searle." + + + + +CHAPTER XLI + +SUVY PROVES HIS LOVE + +If a single ray of far-off hope had lingered in Van's meditations +concerning Beth, and the various occurrences involving himself and his +mining property, it vanished when he told her of the letter he had seen +and beheld her apparent look of guilt. + +One thing the interview had done: it had cleared his decks for action. +He had lain half stunned, as it were, till now, while Bostwick held the +"Laughing Water" claim and worked it for its gold. A look that was +grim and a heat that would brook no resistance had come together upon +him. + +That claim was his, by right of purchase, by right of discovery as to +its worth! He had earned it by hardships, privations, suffering! He +meant to have it back! If the law could avail him, well and good! If +not, he'd make a law! + +McCoppet he knew for a thief--a "law-abiding" criminal of the subtlest +type. Bostwick, he was certain, was a crook. Behind these two lay +possibilities of crime in all its forms. That suddenly ordered survey +of the line was decidedly suspicious. Bostwick and his fiancée had +come prepared for some such coup--and money was a worker of miracles +such as no man might obstruct. + +Van became so loaded full of fight that had anyone scratched a match +upon him he might have exploded on the spot. He thought of the +simplest thing to do--hire a private survey of the reservation line, +either to confirm or disprove the work that Lawrence had done, and then +map out his course. The line, however, was long, surveyors were fairly +swamped with work, not a foot could be traveled without some ready cash. + +He went to Rickart of the bank. Rickart listened to his plan of +campaign and shook his head. + +"Don't waste your money, Van," he said. "The Government wouldn't +accept the word of any man you could hire. Lawrence would have to be +discredited. Nobody doubts his ability or his squareness. The +reservation boundary was wholly a matter of guess. You'll find it +includes that ground--and the law will be against you. I'd gladly lend +you the money if I could, but the bank people wouldn't stand behind me. +And every bean I've got of my own I've put in the Siwash lease." + +Van was in no mood for begging. + +"All right, Rick," he said. "But I'll have that line overhauled if I +have to hold up a private surveyor and put him over the course at the +front of a gun." He went out upon the street, more hot than before. + +In two days time he was offered twenty dollars--a sum he smilingly +refused. He was down and out, in debt all over the camp. He could not +even negotiate a loan. From some of his "friends" he would not have +accepted money to preserve his soul. + +Meantime, spurred to the enterprise by little Mrs. Dick, old +Gettysburg, Napoleon, and Dave accepted work underground and began to +count on their savings for the fight. + +At the "Laughing Water" claim, during this period, tremendous elation +existed. Not only had three lines of sluices been installed, with +three shifts of men to shovel night and day, but a streak of gravel of +sensational worth had been encountered in the cove. The clean-up at +sunset every day was netting no less than a thousand dollars in gold +for each twenty-four hours at work. + +This news, when it "leaked," begot another rush, and men by the +hundreds swarmed again upon the hills, in all that neighborhood, +panning the gravel for their lives. Wild-catting started with an +impetus that shook the State itself. And Van could only grit his teeth +and continue, apparently, to smile. + +All this and more came duly to the ears of Glenmore Kent and Beth. The +girl was in despair as the days went by and nothing had been +accomplished. The meager fact that Lawrence had run and corrected the +reservation line, at Searle's behest, was all that Glen had learned. + +But of all the men in Goldite he was doubtless best equipped with +knowledge concerning Bostwick's Eastern standing. He knew that Searle +had never had the slightest Government authority to order the survey +made--and therein lay the crux of all the matter. It was all he had to +go upon, but he felt it was almost enough. + +The wires to New York were tapped again, and Beth was presently a local +bank depositor with a credit of twenty thousand dollars. In a quiet, +effective manner, Glen then went to work to secure a surveyor on his +own account, or rather at Beth's suggestion. + +With the fact of young Kent's advent in the town Van was early made +acquainted. When Beth procured the transfer of her money from New York +to Goldite, Rickart promptly reported the news. It appeared to Van a +confirmation of all his previous suspicions. He could not fight a +woman, and Bostwick and McCoppet remained upon the claim. Searle wrote +nearly every day to Beth, excusing his absence, relating his success, +and declaring the increase of his love. + +On a Wednesday morning Glenmore's man arrived by stage from Starlight, +instruments and all. His name was Pratt. He was a tall, slow-moving, +blue-eyed man, nearly sixty years of age, but able still to carry a +thirty-pound transit over the steepest mountain ever built. Glen met +him by appointment at the transportation office and escorted him at +once to Mrs. Dick's. + +Already informed as to what would be required, the surveyor was +provided with all the data possible concerning the reservation limits. + +Beth was tremendously excited. "I'm glad you've come," she told him +candidly. "Can you start the work to-day?" + +"You will want to keep this quiet," he said. "I need two men we can +trust, and then I'm ready to start." + +"Two?" said Glen. "That's awkward. I thought perhaps you could get +along with little me." + +Beth, in her tumult of emotions, was changing color with bewildering +rapidity. + +"Why--I expected to go along, of course," she said. "I've got a +suit--I've done it before--I mean, I expect to dress as you are, Glen, +and help to run the line." + +Pratt grinned good-naturedly. "Keeps it all in the family. That's one +advantage." + +"All right," said Glen. "Hike upstairs and don your splendors." + +He had hired a car and stocked it with provisions, tents, and bedding. +He hastened off and returned with the chauffeur to the door. + +Beth, in the costume she had worn on the day when Van found her lost in +the desert, made a shy, frightened youth, when at length she appeared, +but her courage was superb. + +At ten o'clock they left the town, and rolled far out to the westward +on their course. + +Van learned of their departure. He was certain that Beth had gone to +the "Laughing Water" claim, perhaps to be married to Bostwick. Three +times he went to the hay-yard that day, intent upon saddling his +broncho, riding to the claim himself, and fighting out his rights by +the methods of primitive man. + +On the third of his visits he met a stranger who offered to purchase +Suvy on the spot at a price of two hundred dollars. + +"Don't offer me a million or I might be tempted," Van told him gravely. +"I'll sell you my soul for a hundred." + +The would-be purchaser was dry. + +"I want a soul I can ride." + +Van looked him over critically. + +"Think you could ride my cayuse?" + +"This broach?" said the man. "Surest thing you know." + +"I need the money," Van admitted. "I'll bet you the pony against your +two hundred you can't." + +"You're on." + +Van called to his friend, the man who ran the yard. + +"Come over here, Charlie, and hold the stakes. Here's a man who wants +to ride my horse." + +Charlie came, heard the plan of the wager, accepted the money, and +watched Van throw on the saddle. + +"I didn't know you wanted to sell," he said. "You know I want that +animal." + +"If he goes he sells himself," said Van. "If he doesn't, you're next, +same terms." + +"Let me have that pair of spurs," said the stranger, denoting a pair +that hung upon a nail. "I guess they'll fit." + +He adjusted the spurs as one accustomed to their use. Van merely +glanced around. Nevertheless, he felt a sinking of the heart. Five +hundred dollars, much as he needed money, would not have purchased his +horse. And inasmuch as luck had been against him, he suddenly feared +he might be on the point of losing Suvy now for a price he would have +scorned. + +"Boy," he said in a murmur to the broncho, "if I thought you'd let any +bleached-out anthropoid like that remain on deck, I wouldn't want you +anyway--savvy that?" + +Suvy's ears were playing back and forth in excessive nervousness and +questioning. He had turned his head to look at Van with evident joy at +the thought of bearing him away to the hills--they two afar off +together. Then came a disappointment. + +"There you are," said Van, and swinging the bridle reins towards the +waiting man, he walked to a feed-trough and leaned against it +carelessly. + +"Thanks," said the stranger. He threw away a cigarette, caught up the +reins, adjusted them over Suvy's neck, rocked the saddle to test its +firmness, and mounted with a certain dexterity that lessened Van's +confidence again. After all, Suvy was thoroughly broken. He had +quietly submitted to be ridden by Beth. His war-like spirit might be +gone--and all would be lost. + +Indeed, it appeared that Suvy was indifferent--that a cow would have +shown a manner no less docile or resigned. He did look at Van with a +certain expression of surprise and hurt, or so, at least, the horseman +hoped. Then the man on his back shook up the reins, gave a prick with +the spurs, and Suvy moved perhaps a yard. + +The rider pricked again, impatiently. Instantly Suvy's old-time +fulminate was jarred into violent response. He went up in the air +prodigiously, a rigid, distorted thing of hardened muscles and +engine-like activities. He came down like a new device for breaking +rocks--and the bucking he had always loved was on, in a fury of +resentment. + +"Good boy!" said Van, who stood up stiffly, craning and bending to +watch the broncho's fight. + +But the man in the saddle was a rider. He sat in the loose security of +men who knew the game. He gave himself over to becoming part of the +broncho's very self. He accepted Suvy's momentum, spine-disturbing +jolts, and sudden gyrations with the calmness and art of a master. + +All this Van beheld, as the pony bucked with warming enthusiasm, and +again his heart descended to the depths. It was not the bucking he had +hoped to see. It was not the best that lay in Suvy's thongs. The +beating he himself had given the animal, on the day when their +friendship was cemented, had doubtless reduced the pony's confidence of +winning such a struggle, while increasing his awe of man. Some miners +passing saw the dust as the conflict waged in the yard. They hastened +in to witness the show. Then from everywhere in town they appeared to +pour upon the scene. The word went around that the thing was a +bet--and more came running to the scene. + +Meantime, Suvy was rocketing madly all over the place. Chasing a +couple of cows that roamed at large, charging at a monster pile of +household furnishings, barely avoiding the feed-trough, set in the +center of the place, scattering men in all directions, and raising a +dust like a concentrated storm, the broncho waxed more and more hot in +the blood, more desperately wild to fling his rider headlong through +the air. But still that rider clung. + +Van had lost all sense save that of worry, love for his horse, and +desire to see him win this vital struggle. A wild passion for Suvy's +response to himself--for a proving love in the broncho's +being--possessed his nature. He leaned far forward, awkwardly, +following Suvy about. + +"I'm ashamed of you, Suvy!" he began to cry. "Suvy! Suvy, where's +your pride? Why don't you do him, boy? Why don't you show them? +Where's your pride? My boy! my boy!--don't you love me any more? +You're a baby, Suvy! You're a baby!" He paused for a moment, +following still and watching narrowly. "Suvy! Suvy! You're gone if +you let him ride you, lad! If you love me, boy, don't break my heart +with shame!" + +Suvy and a hundred men heard his wild, impassioned appeal. The men +responded as if in some pain of the heart they could not escape, thus +to see Van Buren so completely wrapped up in his horse. Then some all +but groaned to behold the bucking cease. + +It seemed as if Suvy had quit. The man in the saddle eased. + +"Boy!" yelled Van, in a shrill, startling cry that made the pony +shiver. He had seen some sign that no one but himself could +understand. "Boy! not that! not that!" + +Already Suvy had started to rise, to drop himself backwards on his +rider. + +He heard and obeyed. He went up no more than to half his height, then +seemed to be struck by a cyclone. Had all the frightful dynamic of an +earthquake abruptly focused in his being, the fearful convulsion of his +muscles could scarcely have been greater. It was all so sudden, so +swift and terrible, that no man beheld how it was done. It was simply +a mad delirium of violence, begun and ended while one tumultuous +shudder shook the crowd. + +Everyone saw something loose and twisting detached from the pony's +back. Everyone witnessed a blur upon the air and knew it was the man. +He was flung with catapultic force against a frightened cow. He struck +with arms and legs extended. He clung like a bur to the bovine's side, +for a moment before he dropped--and everyone roared unfeelingly, in +relief of the tension on the nerves. + +The next they knew Van was there with his horse, shaking the animal's +muzzle. + +"My boy!" he said. "My boy! My luck has changed!" + +Apparently it had. The man who had thought he could ride the horse +limped weakly to a blanket-roll, and sat himself down to gather up the +pieces of his breath and consciousness. He wanted no more. He felt it +was cheap at the price he had paid to escape with a hint of his life. + +Van waited for nothing, not even the money that Charlie of the hay-yard +was holding. He mounted to the saddle that had been the seat of hell, +and in joy unspeakable Suvy walked away, in response to the pressure of +his knees. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII + +THE FURNACE OF GOLD + +All the following day, which was Thursday, two small companies were out +in the hills. One was Beth's, where she, Glen, and Pratt toiled slowly +over miles and miles of baking mountains and desert slopes and rocks, +tracing out the reservation boundary with a long slender ribbon of +steel. + +The other group, equally, if less openly, active, comprised the sheriff +and three of his men. They were trailing out the boundary of one man's +endurance, against fatigue, starvation, and the hatred of his kind. + +Barger had been at his work once more, slaying and robbing for his +needs. He had killed a Piute trailer, put upon his tracks; he had +robbed a stage, three private travelers, and a freight-team loaded with +provisions. He had lived on canned tomatoes and ginger snaps for a +week--and the empty tins sufficiently blazed his orbit. + +He was known to be mounted, armed, and once more reduced to extremities +in the way of procuring food. A trap had been laid, a highway baited +with an apparently defenseless wagon, with two mere desert prospectors +and their outfit for a load--and this he was expected to attack. + +The morning waned and the afternoon was speeding. Old Pratt, with Beth +and Glen, was eager to finish by sunset. The farther he walked the +more the surveyor apparently warmed to his work. Beth became footsore +by noon. But she made no complaint. She plodded doggedly ahead, the +ribbon-like "chain" creeping like a serpent, on and on before her. + +At the forward end Glen was dragging the thing persistently over hills +and dales, and bearing the rod for Pratt with his transit to sight. + +The surveyor himself was at times as much as a mile or more behind, +dumbly waving Glen to right or left, as he peered through his glass and +set the course by the compass and angles of his transit. Anon he +signaled the two to wait, and Beth sat down to watch him come, "set +up," and wave them onward as before. + +She was thus alone, at the end of the chain, for hours at a stretch. +So often as Pratt came up from the rear and established a station for +his instrument, she asked how the line was working out, and what were +the prospects for the end. + +"Can't tell till we get much closer to the claim," said Pratt, with +never varying patience. "We'll know before we die." + +In the heat that poured from sky and rocks it might have been possible +to doubt the surveyor's prediction. But Beth went on. Her exhaustion +increased. The glare of the cloudless sky and greenless earth seemed +to burn all the moisture from her eyes. The terrible silence, the +dread austerity of mountains so rock-ribbed and desolate, oppressed her +with a sense of awe. + +She was toiling as many a man has toiled, through the ancient, +burned-out furnace of gold, so intensely physical all about her; and +also she was toiling no less painfully through the furnace of gold that +love must ever create so long as the dross must be burned from human +ore that the bullion of honor, loyalty, and faith may shine in its +purity and worth. + +She began to feel, in a slight degree, the tortures that Van, old +Gettysburg, Napoleon, and Dave had undergone for many weary years. It +was not their weakness for the gold of earth that had drawn them +relentlessly on in lands like these; it was more their fate, a species +of doom, to which, like the helpless puppets that we are, we must all +at last respond. + +She felt a new weight in the cruelty whereby the owners of the +"Laughing Water" claim had been suddenly bereft of all they possessed +after all their patient years of serving here in this arid waste of +minerals. The older men in Van's partnership she pitied. + +For Van she felt a sense of championing love. His cause was her cause, +come what might--at least until she could no longer keep alive her +hope. Her passion to set herself to rights in his mind was great, but +secondary, after all, to the love in her heart, which would not, could +not die, and which, by dint of its intensity, bore her onward to fight +for his rights. + +Alone so much in the burning land all day, she had long, long hours in +which to think of Van, long hours in which to contemplate the silence +and the vast dispassion of this mountain world. Her own inward burning +offset the heat of air and earth; a sense of the aridness her heart +would know without Van's love once more returned, was counter to the +aridness of all these barren rocks. The fervor of her love it was that +bore her onward, weary, sore, and drooping. + +What would happen at the end of day, if Pratt should confirm the +Lawrence survey, bestowing the claim on Bostwick and McCoppet, she did +not dare to think. Her excitement increased with every chain length +moving her onward towards the cove. She did not know the hills or +ravines, the canyons descended or acclivities so toilsomely climbed, +and, therefore, had not a guide in the world to raise or depress her +hope. There was nothing to do but sustain the weary march and await +the survey's end. + +All day in Goldite, meanwhile, Van had been working towards an end. He +had two hundred dollars, the merest drop in the bucket, as he knew, +with which to fight the Bostwick combination. He was thoroughly aware +that even when the line could be run, establishing some error or fraud +on the part of surveyor Lawrence, the fight would barely be opened. + +McCoppet and Bostwick, with thousands of dollars at command, could +delay him, block his progress, force him into court, and perhaps even +beat him in the end. The enginery of dollars was crushing in its +might. Nevertheless, if a survey showed that the line had been falsely +moved, he felt he could somewhat rely upon himself to make the seat of +war too warm for comfort. + +There was no surveyor nearer than two hundred miles, with Pratt, as Van +expressed it, "camping with the foe." He had shaken his partners +untimely from their beds that morning--(the trio were mining nights, on +the four-to-midnight shift)--and busied them all with the work of the +day, by way of making preparations. + +He spent nearly twenty silver dollars on the wire, telegraphing various +towns to secure a competent man. He sent a friend to the Government +office, where Lawrence was up to his ears in work, and procured all the +data, including metes and bounds, of the reservation tract before its +fateful opening. + +The day was consumed in the petty affairs attendant upon such a +campaign. When his three old partners went away to their work at four +o'clock in the afternoon, a wire had come from far out north that a man +who was competent to run the line was starting for Goldite forthwith. + +The moonless night, at ten o'clock, found Van alone at his tent. From +the top of the hill whereon he had camped a panoramic view of all the +town swung far in both directions. The glare of the lamps, the noise +of life--even the odor of man upon the air--impinged upon his senses +here, as he sat before the door and gazed far down upon it. He thought +that man with his fire, smells, and din made chaos in a spot that was +otherwise sacred to nature. + +He thought of the ceaseless persistence with which the human family +haunts all the corners of the earth, pursues life's mysteries, invades +its very God. He thought of this desert as a place created barren, +lifeless, dead, and severe for some inscrutable purpose--perhaps even +fashioned by the Maker as His place to be alone. But the haunter was +there with his garish town, his canvas-tented circus of a day, and God +had doubtless moved. + +How little the game amounted to, at the end of a man's short span! +What a senseless repetition it seemed--the same old comedies, the same +old tragedies, the same old bits of generosity, and greed, of weakness, +hope, and despair! Except for a warm little heartful of love--ah +_love_! He paused at that and laughed, unmirthfully. That was the +thing that made of it a Hades, or converted the desert into heaven! + +"Dreamers! dreamers--all of us!" he said, and he went within to flatten +down his blankets for the night. + +He had finally blown out his candle and stretched himself upon the +ground, to continue his turmoil of thinking, when abruptly his sharp +ear caught at a sound as of someone slipping on a stone that turned, +just out upon the slope. He sat up alertly. + +Half a minute passed. Then something heavy lurched against the tent, +the flap was lifted, and a man appeared, stooped double as if in pain. + +"Who's there?" demanded Van. "Is that you, Gett?" He caught up his +gun, but it and the hand that held it were invisible. + +"It's me," said a voice--a croaking voice. "Matt Barger." + +He fell on the floor, breathing in some sort of anguish, and Van struck +a match, to light the candle. + +The flame flared blindingly inside the canvas whiteness. A great, +moving shadow of Van was projected behind him on the wall. The light +gleamed brightly from his gun. But it fell on an inert mass where +Barger had fallen to the earth. + +He did not move, and Van, mechanically igniting the candle's wick, +while he eyed the man before him, beheld dry blood, and some that was +fresh, on the haggard face, on the tattered clothing, and even on one +loose hand. + +"Barger!" he said. "What in thunder, man----" + +The outlaw rallied his failing strength and raised himself up on one +hand. He could barely speak, but his lips attempted a smile. + +"I thought I heard you--call fer the joker," he said, "and so--I come." + +Van was up. He saw that the man had been literally shot to pieces. +One of his arms was broken. A portion of his scalp was gone. He was +pierced in the body and leg. He had met the posse, fought his fight, +escaped with wounds that must have stopped any animal on earth, and +then had dragged himself to Van, to repay his final debt. + +"I haven't called--I haven't called for anything," said Van. "You're +wounded, man, you're----" + +Barger rose up weakly to his knees. + +"Need the money, don't you--now?" he interrupted. "You can--use the +reward, I guess." + +"Good God, I don't want that kind of money!" Van exclaimed. "Who got +you, Matt--who got you?" + +"Sheriff," said the convict dispassionately. "Good man, Christler--and +a pretty good shot--but I got away with his lead." + +He slumped again, like a waxen thing on melting props, deprived of all +support. + +Van plunged out to the water bench, with its bucket, near the door. He +brought back a basin of water, knelt on the ground, and bathed the +convict's face. He poured some liquor between the dead-white lips. He +slashed and unbuttoned the clothing and tried to staunch the wounds. +He bound up the arm, put a bandage on the leg and body, continuing from +time to time to dash cold water in the pallid, bearded face. + +Barger had fainted at last. What hideous tortures the fellow had +endured to drag and drive himself across the mountain roughnesses to +win to this tent, Van could but weakly imagine. + +The convict finally opened his eyes and blinked in the light of the +candle. + +"What in hell--was the use of my comin' here," he faltered, "if you +don't take the money--the reward?" + +"I don't want it!" said Van. "I told you that before." + +Barger spoke with difficulty. + +"It's different now; they've--got you in a hole. Van Buren, I'm your +meat! I'm--nuthin' but meat, but you acted--as if I was a man!" + +"We're all in a hole--it's life," said Van, continuing his attentions +to the wounds. "I don't want a cent of blood-money, Matt, if I have to +starve on the desert. Now lie where you are, and maybe go to sleep. +You won't be disturbed here till morning." + +"By mornin'--all hell can't--disturb me," Barger told him painfully, +with something like a ghastly smile upon his lips. "I'm goin'--there +to see." + +He lapsed off again into coma. Van feared the man was dead. But +having lived a stubborn life, Barger relinquished his hold unwillingly, +despite his having ceased at last to care. + +For nearly an hour Van worked above him, on the ground. Then the man +not only aroused as before, but sat up, propped on his arm. + +"God, I had to--wake!" he said. "I was sure--forgettin' to tell you." + +Van thought the fellow's mind was wandering. + +"Lie down, Matt, lie down," he answered. "Try to take it easy." + +"Too late--fer me to take--anything easy," replied the outlaw, speaking +with a stronger voice than heretofore. "Gimme a drink of whisky." + +Van gave him the drink and he tossed it off at a draught. + +"I said to myself I'd be--hanged if I'd tell you, that--day you cheated +the quicksand," Barger imparted jerkily, "but you've got--a--right to +know. McCoppet and that--pal of his give Lawrence twenty +thousand--dollars, cash, to queer you on the--reservation line and run +you off your claim." + +Van scrutinized the sunken face and glittering eyes with the closest +attention. + +"What's that?" he said. "Bought Lawrence to fake out the reservation +line? Who told you, Matt? Who told you that?" + +The convict seemed to gain in strength. He was making a terrible +effort to finish all he had to impart. + +"Trimmer put me--on to all the game. It was him that told me--you was +goin' through, when I--pretty near got you, in the pass." + +Van's eyes took on a deep intensity. + +"Trimmer? Trimmer?" + +"Larry Trimmer--Pine-tree Trimmer," explained the convict impatiently. +"McCoppet--wanted you detained, the day they--jumped your claim. +Lawrence--he run the line out crooked fer--twenty thousand bucks. +Culver was put away by Cayuse, mebbe because--he was square--Larry +wasn't sure---- I guess--that's all, but it ought to--help you some." + +He dropped himself down and languidly closed his eyes. + +"Good heavens, man," said Van, still staring, "are you sure of what +you're saying?" + +There was no response for a time. Then Barger murmured: + +"Excuse me, Van Buren, fer--bein' so damn--long--dyin'." + +"You're not dying, Matt--go to sleep," said. Van. "I'll be here +beside you, all night." + +He sat down, got up and sat down again, stirred to the depths of his +being by the story the man had revealed. Beth's money, then, had gone +for this, to bribe a Government agent! A tumult of mad, revengeful +thoughts went roaring through his mind. A grim look came upon his +face, and fire was flashing from his eyes. He arose and sat down a +dozen times, all the while looking at the worn, broken figure that lay +on the earth at his feet. What an ill-used, gaunt, and exhausted frame +it was, loose and abandoned by the strength that once had filled it +with vigor and might. What a boyish look had come at last upon the +haggard, sunken face! + +The night wind was chill. He had forgotten for himself, but he thought +of it now for Barger. He laid his blankets on the inert limbs and up +around the shoulders. + +Perhaps another hour went by, with Van still sleepless by his charge. +The convict stirred. + +"Van--Buren," he said in a hoarse, rattling whisper, "Van----" + +Van was instantly alert. + +"Hello." + +Barger partially raised his hand. + +"So long,"--and the hand dropped downward. + +"Matt!" answered Van, quickly kneeling on the earth. He caught up the +fingers, felt their faint attempt to close upon his own--and the man on +the ground was dead. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII + +PREPARING THE NET FOR A DRAW + +Beth Kent, as the sun was going from the sky, fell down three times in +utter exhaustion. She and the others had come to within a mile of the +"Laughing Water" claim. Pratt was far away in the rear, on the last of +his stations. Glen, in the lead, was forging ahead on a second supply +of strength. Hidden from the sight of either of the others, Beth was +ready for collapse. + +But onward crept that merciless ribbon of steel that Glen was dragging. +Three times the girl rose and stumbled onward, up the last acclivity. +Her legs were like lead. She stubbed her toes on every rock. She +could almost have cried with the aches of weariness. It seemed as if +that terrible hill unfolded new and steeper slopes for every one she +climbed. + +She went down repeatedly. To have lain there, hungry, but indifferent +to anything but sleep, would have been the most heavenly thing she +could conceive. She was literally falling up the hill, with all her +machinery slumping towards inertia, when finally Pratt, on his distant +hill, sent the signal for Glen to halt. + +"All right, Beth--rest!" he called from the end of the chain, and she +sank at once in her tracks. + +It was almost dusk when Pratt came toiling up the hill. Glen had come +down to Beth's position. He too was thoroughly tired. How the line +had come out was more than he could care. But Beth, with the last of +her flickering strength, arose to hasten Pratt. + +"No use in the three of us being seen," he said, planting his transit +in the sand, but making no effort to adjust it to a level. "That ridge +there overlooks the claim. I'll climb up alone and take a bird's-eye +view." + +"We're as near as that!" cried Beth in startled surprise. "Then what +do you think? Does the line include the claim?" + +"I'll have to look around from the ridge," repeated Pratt with +aggravating caution. "You can wait ten minutes here." + +He started laboriously up the slope--and Beth stood tensely watching. +She thought she saw him top the ridge, but he disappeared from sight. + +The darkness was gathering swiftly in all the desert world. The girl's +excitement and impatience grew with a new flare up of energy. To think +that Searle was so near at hand, with fate a-hover in the air, sent her +pulses bounding madly. + +It seemed as if Pratt would never return from the hill. She could +almost have dashed to the summit herself, to learn the outcome of their +labors. Then at last, from a small ravine, not far away, he appeared +in his leisurely manner. + +Beth ran along the slope to meet him. + +"Well?" she cried. "What did you find?" + +He smiled. "Unless I'm crazy, Lawrence is either a liar or a fool. +That claim is safe outside the line by nearly an eighth of a mile." + +"Oh!" cried the girl. She collapsed on the ground and sobbed in +exhaustion and joy. + +She could go no further. She had kept her strength and courage up for +this, and now, inside the goal, she cared not what might happen. + +They camped upon the spot. The man with the car, which had taken them +out, had been ordered to meet them down at Reservation town--the +mushroom camp which had sprung into being no more than a week before +the rush. All the way down there Pratt continued alone. He and the +chauffeur, long after dark, returned with provisions and blankets. +They had driven the car as far as possible, then climbed the ravine on +foot. + +At nine o'clock Beth was asleep beneath the stars, dreaming of her +meeting with Van. + +At daylight all were up, and in the chill of the rarified mountain air +were walking stiffly to the car. The chauffeur, who had slept in his +machine, promised breakfast by eight at Mrs. Dick's. He tore up the +road and he tore away their breath, but he came into Goldite half an +hour ahead of time, and claimed he had driven "pretty slow." + +Meantime, the night in the mining-camp had brought no untoward +excitement. Van, at his tent, with the covered figure lying on the +earth, had welcomed his partners at midnight with the news that a +"homeless and worn-out pilgrim of the desert" had come desiring rest. +He was sleeping hard; he was not to be disturbed. In the morning he +was scheduled to depart. + +Tired to utter unconcern, the three old worthies made their beds with +Van beside the man at peace. And the whole five slept with a trust and +abandon to nature that balanced the living and the dead. + +Van was out, had eaten his breakfast, and was waiting for the sheriff +when Beth and her party returned. He beheld them, felt his heart lift +upward like a lever in his breast, at sight of Beth in her male attire, +and grimly shut his jaws. + +Christler, the sheriff, arrived a little after eight, bringing in a +wounded deputy. Barger had shot him in the thigh. Van did not wait +for his man to eat, but urged him home to his bachelor shack and sat +him down to a drink of something strong, with a cracker to munch for a +meal. + +Christler was tired. He was somewhat stout; he had been in the saddle +almost constantly for weeks, and now, as a victim of chagrin and +disappointment, he was utterly dejected and done. + +"Good Lord, Van, ain't a man to breathe--hain't he got no rights to +live, whatsoever?" he inquired. "You'd chase me up, or somebody would, +if I was in my grave." + +"You'd break out of your grave," Van told him, "if you knew what's +going on." + +Christler looked dubious, draining at his glass. + +"Well, I dunno. It 'ud have to be something pretty rich." + +"Bill," said Van, "you're going to stand in and work with me as you +haven't worked for a year. It's going to be worth it. Opal McCoppet, +and one Searle Bostwick, of New York, have stolen my claim by +corrupting Lawrence for twenty thousand dollars, running a false +reservation line, and maybe putting Culver out of the way because he +was square in his business." + +Christler paused in the act of biting his cracker. + +"What!" + +"There's going to be something doing, Bill," Van added, leaning forward +on the table. "I'm going to round up all this gang to-day if it kills +you to keep on the trail." + +Christler still sat staring. + +"By the Lord Harry!" he said. "By the Lord--but, Van, I didn't come +home to rest. I've got Barger going, somewhere, shot to a sieve. But +he's some disappeared. If that ain't just my luck! I'm goin' to git +him though, you bet! Lord!--my pride--my profession pride--not to +mention that little old reward! I admit I want that money, Van. I +reckon I've pretty near----" + +"Yes, you've earned it," Van interrupted. "I'm going to see that you +get it. Bill, but first you get busy with me." + +"You'll see that I get----" Christler put the cracker in his mouth. +"Don't talk to a genuine friend like that. I'm tired already." + +"Are you?" said Van. "Let's see. Barger is here--in camp." + +Up shot the sheriff as if from the force of a blast. + +"What!" he shrilled. "Barger! Van, I'll----" + +Van grinned. + +"Don't forget you're tired, Bill. Matt won't get away." + +"Good Lord, boy--tell me where's he at!" cried Christler, dancing on +the floor as he strapped his guns upon him. "Me a-thinkin' I had shot +him up and all this time----" + +"You shot him enough, poor devil," Van interrupted quietly. "He's dead +in my tent on the hill." + +The sheriff paused with one hand held in the air. + +"Dead! Crawled all the way to Goldite!" He started for the door. + +"Hold on," said the horseman, blocking his path. "I told you Matt +can't get away. We're going out to get Lawrence first, and then +McCoppet and his friend." + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV + +THE ENGINES OF CLIMAX + +McCoppet was in town. He had come to camp at midnight of the previous +day, duly followed by his friend Larry Trimmer. The lumberman had +waxed impatient. Fully two thousand dollars of the money he had +"earned" was still unpaid--and hard to get. He had gone to the +"Laughing Water" claim, in vain, and a surly heat was rising in his +veins. + +Bostwick was due, in his car, at nine o'clock, His visit to Goldite was +not entirely one of business. He had grown alarmed at the lack of news +from Beth. His letters had been ignored. He not only feared for the +fate of his affairs of the heart, but perhaps even more for what she +might have done with respect to the money she had asked him to return, +a very small proportion of which he was now prepared to repay. + +Meantime, Beth, her brother, and Pratt had gratified their most crying +needs on Algy's cooking, much to that worthy Celestial's delight. +There were two things Beth intended to perform: report the results of +her labors to Van, and attack Mr. Lawrence in his den. + +Precisely what she meant to say or do to the Government representative +she did not or could not determine. Some vague idea of making him +confess to an infamy practiced at Bostwick's instance was the most she +had in mind. If half the success already achieved could be expected +here, she would have a report worth while to make when Van should be +presently encountered. + +Impetuous, eager to hasten with her work, she insisted upon an +immediate advance. Glenmore readily supported her position. Pratt +developed shyness. His forte was hiking over desert hills, lugging a +transit, running lines or levels; he felt out of place as a fighter, or +even an accuser. Nevertheless, he went, for Beth insisted. + +Already the streets were crowded full of life, as the three proceeded +down the thoroughfare. A mining-camp is a restless thing; its peoples +live in the streets. Freight teams, flowing currents of men, chains of +dusty mules, disordered cargoes on the sidewalks, and a couple of +automobiles were glaringly cut out from their shadows, as the sunlight +poured upon them. Sunlight and motion, false-fronted buildings, tents, +and mountains, and fever--that is the camp on the desert. + +With excitement increasing upon her at every step, Beth glanced at the +crowds in a rapid search for Van. He was not to be seen. In all the +throng, where old men and youths, pale and swarthy, lazy and alert were +circulating like the blood of Goldite's arteries, there was not a face +that she knew. + +They came to the office where Lawrence presided just as a stranger was +departing, Lawrence was alone. He occupied the inner apartment, as +Culver had done, but the door was standing open. + +It was Beth who knocked and entered first as the man called out his +invitation. She had never in her life appeared more beautiful. Color +was flaming in her cheeks as on a rose. Her eyes were exceptionally +bright and brown. The exquisite coral of her lips was delicately +tremulous with all her short, quick breathing. + +Lawrence arose, as she and the others appeared in the door, and removed +his hat. He was a short, florid person, with a beard of fiery red. +His eyes were of the lightest gray; and they were shifting. + +"Good-morning," he said, in undisguised astonishment, beholding Beth. +"You--pardon me--you----" + +"Good-morning," Beth replied faintly. "We called--are you Mr. +Lawrence?" + +"At your service." Lawrence bowed. "I rarely expect--in my line of +work--my business. Miss--Miss----" + +"Miss Kent," said Glenmore, interrupting. "And my name is Kent. I +suppose you're wise to Mr. Pratt." + +Lawrence continued to bow. + +"I'm very happy to--how are you, Pratt? How are you? Won't you have a +chair, Miss Kent?" + +Pratt nodded and murmured a greeting. He was decidedly uneasy. + +Beth always moved by impulse. It hastened her now to the issue. She +sat down and faced their man. + +"Mr. Lawrence," she said, "I believe you ran the reservation line, not +long ago, and gave Mr. Bostwick and a friend of his the 'Laughing +Water' claim." + +Lawrence looked alive. + +"I certainly ran the line," he said. "Instructions came from--from +headquarters, to ascertain the precise limitations of the reservation. +The _results_ gave the 'Laughing Water' claim to its present owners, by +right of prior location, after the opening hour, as the claim was +included in the tract." He had uttered this speech before. It fell +very glibly from his tongue. + +"Yes, we know all that--so far as it's true," said Beth with startling +candor, "but we know it isn't true at all, and you've got to confess +that you made some ridiculous blunder or else that you were bribed." + +She had not intended to plump it out so bluntly, so baldly, but a +certain indignation in her breast had been rapidly increasing, and her +impulse was not to be stayed. + +"Gee!" murmured Glen, "that's going some!" + +Lawrence turned white, whether with anger or fright could not have been +determined. + +"Miss Kent!" he said. "You--you're making a very serious----" + +"Oh, I know!" she interrupted. "I expect you to deny it. But a great +deal of money--my money--has been used, and Mr. Pratt has run the +line--with myself and my brother--yesterday--so we know that you've +either been fooled or you've cheated." + +Lawrence had risen. His face was scarlet. + +"Upon my word!" he said. "Pratt, you and your friend I can order from +the office! The lady----" + +"You can't order anything!--not a thing!" said Beth. "Glen! Mr. +Pratt!--you've got to stay and help! I know the truth--and it's got to +be confessed! Mr. Van Buren----" + +"I can leave myself, since you insist upon remaining," interrupted +Lawrence, taking his hat and striding towards the door, in a panic to +get to McCoppet for much-needed aid. "Such an utterly unheard of +affront as this----" + +"Glen! run and find Mr. Van Buren!" Beth broke in excitedly. "Don't +let him go, Mr. Pratt!" + +Lawrence had reached his outer office and was almost at the door. Beth +was hastening after, with Glen at her heels. All were abruptly halted. + +Van and the sheriff appeared in the door, before which idlers were +passing. Beth was wild with joy. + +"Van," she cried, "Oh, Mr. Van Buren, I'm sure this man has cheated you +out of your claim! We ran the line ourselves--my brother, Mr. Pratt, +and I--yesterday--we finished yesterday! We found the claim is not +inside the reservation! My money was used--I'm sure for bribery! But +they've got to give you back your claim, if it takes every penny I've +got! I was sending Glen to let you know. I asked Mr. Lawrence to +confess! You won't let him go! You mustn't let him go! I am sure +there's something dreadful going on!" + +It was a swift, impassioned speech, clear, ringing, honest in every +word. It thrilled Van wondrously, despite the things that had +been--her letter, and subsequent events. He all but lost track of the +business in hand, in the light of her sudden revelations. He did not +answer readily, and Lawrence broke out in protestation. + +"It's infamous!" he cried. "If anyone here except a woman had +charged--had been guilty of all these outrageous lies----" + +Half a dozen loiterers had halted at the door, attracted by the shrill +high tones of his voice. + +"That's enough of that, Lawrence," Van interrupted quietly. "Every +word of this is true. You accepted twenty thousand dollars to falsify +that line. Your chief was murdered to get him out of the way, because +it was _known_ you could be bribed. I came here to get you, and I'll +get all the crowd, if it kills half the town in the fight." With one +quick movement he seized his man by the collar. "Here, Bill, hustle +him out," he said to Christler. "We've got no time to waste." + +Lawrence, the sheriff, and himself were projected out upon the sidewalk +by one of his quick maneuvers. A crowd of men came running to the +place. Above the rising murmur of their voices, raised in excitement, +came a shrill and strident cry. + +"Van! Van!" was the call from someone in the crowd. + +It was lean old Gettysburg. Dave and Napoleon were pantingly chasing +where he ran. + +"Van!" yelled Gettysburg again. "It's Barger!--Barger!--dead in the +tent--it's Barger--up there--dead!" + +Barger! The name acted as swiftly on the crowd as oil upon a flame. +It seemed as if the wave of news swept like a tide across the street, +down the thoroughfare, and into every shop. + +Two automobiles were halted in the road, their engines purring as they +stood. Their drivers dismounted to join the gathering throng. One of +the men was Bostwick, down from the hills. He had searched for Beth at +Mrs. Dick's, and then had followed here. + +"Barger! Barger's dead in camp and the 'Laughing Water' claim was +stolen--and Culver killed!" One man bawled it to the crowd--and it +sped to Bostwick's ears. + +One being only departed from the scene--Trimmer, the lumberman, swiftly +seeking McCoppet. + +Van, in his heat, had told too much, accusing the prisoner in hand. He +silenced Gettysburg abruptly and started to force aside the crowd. + +"Gentlemen, gentlemen, move aside," he said. "I've got--by Jupe! +there's Bostwick!" + +It was Bostwick fleeing to his car that Van had discovered. Searle had +seen enough in the briefest of glances. He had heard too much. He +realized that only in flight could the temper of the mob be avoided. +He had seen this mob in action once before--and the walls of his +stomach caved. + +Like a youthful Hercules in strength and action, Van went plunging +through the crowd to get his man. But he could not win. Bostwick had +speeded up his motor in a panic for haste and his car leaped away like +a dragon on wings, the muffler cut-out roaring like a gattling. + +Van might perhaps have shot and killed the escaping man who held the +wheel, but he wanted Searle alive. + +A roar from the crowd replied to the car. A score of men ran madly in +pursuit. None of them knew the details of the case, but they knew that +Bostwick was wanted. + +They drifted rearward from the hurtling car like fragments of paper in +its wake. The few down street who danced for a moment before the +modern juggernaut, to stop it in its course, sprang nimbly away as it +rocketed past--and Searle was headed for the desert. + +One wild, sweeping glance Van cast about, for a horse or something to +ride. Suvy was stabled, unsaddled, up the street. Bostwick and his +cloud of dust were dropping away in a swiftly narrowing perspective. +And there stood a powerful, dusty-red car--empty--its motor in motion! + +There was no time to search for its owner. There were half a dozen +different cars with which Van Buren was familiar. He ran to it, +glanced at its levers, wheel, and clutch, recognized the one type he +had coveted, and hurled himself into the seat. + +"Here! You!" yelled the owner, fighting through the crowd, but three +big miners fell upon him and bore him to the earth. They hoped to see +a race. + +They saw it begin with a promptness incredible. + +One--two changes of the snarling gears they heard before the deafening +cut-out belched its explosions. Then down the street, in pursuit of +the first, the second machine was fired. + +The buildings, to Van, were blended in grayish streaks, on either side, +as his gaze was fastened on the vanishing car ahead. He shoved up his +spark, gave her all the gas, froze to the wheel like a man of +steel--and swooped like a ground-skimming comet out upon the world. + +The road for a distance of fully five miles was comparatively level. +It was rutted by the wheels of heavy traffic, but with tires in the +dusty ruts a car ran unimpeded. + +Both, for a time were in the road, flaying up a cloud of smoke like a +cyclone ripping out its path. + +Searle had not only gained a half-mile lead, but his car was apparently +swifter. He knew its every trick and ounce of power. He drove +superbly. He was reckless now, for he had not missed the knowledge +that behind him was a meteor burning up his trail. + +Like a leaping beast--a road-devouring minotaur--the car with Van shot +roaringly through space. He could not tell that Searle, ahead, was +slipping yet further in the lead. He only knew that, come what might, +till the mechanism burst, or the earth should split, he would chase his +man across the desert. The dust in the air from Bostwick's car drove +blindingly upon him. Far, far away, a mere speck on the road, he +beheld a freight-team approaching--a team of twenty animals at least, +that he and Bostwick must encounter. + +A sudden memory of road conditions decided him to move. The ruts where +he was were bad enough--they were worse where the team must be passed. + +He did not reduce his speed to take to the brush. The car beneath him +flung clean off the ground as he swung to climb out of the grooves. It +landed with all four wheels a-spin, but only struck on two. A sudden +swerve, far out of the course, and the monster righted abruptly. +Another sharp turn, and away it went again, crushing the brush and +flinging up the sand in a track of its own that paralleled the road, +but rougher though free from the ruts. + +The brush was small, six inches high, but the wheels bounced over it +madly. The whole car hurtled and bounded in a riot of motion. It +dived, it plunged nose upward, it roared like a fiend--but it shot with +cannon-ball velocity across the desert's floor. + +Five minutes later Bostwick's car was almost fronting the team in the +road, with its score of dusty mules. He dared not take the ruts at +speed, and groaned as he slowed to climb the bank. He lost but little +time, however, since once on the side he was going ahead again like +mad; nevertheless, he cast a glance behind and saw that his gap had +narrowed. Moreover, he would not attempt to return to the ruts as +before, as a second of the teams was coming a mile or so away. + +Like two pitching porpoises, discharging fiery wrath and skimming the +gray of the desert sea, the two devices raced upon the brush. And +nerve began to tell. Van was absolutely reckless; Searle was not. The +former would have crowded on another notch of speed, but Bostwick +feared, and shut off a trifle of his power. Even then he was rocking, +quivering, careening onward like a star escaped from its course; and +the gains Van made were slow. + +The man on the second team paused to see them pass. In smoke and dust +and with war's own din they cleaved the startled air. And the man who +saw the look that had set on Van's hard-chiseled face was aware that +unless his car should fail there was nothing on earth he could not +catch. + +Bostwick had begun to weaken. The pace over sage-brush, rocks, and +basins of sand was racking both the car and the nerves that held the +wheel. How long such a flight could be continued he dared not guess. +Even steel has limitations. To what he was fleeing he could scarcely +have told, since the telegraph would send its word throughout the +desert-land, and overhaul him finally. + +A sickening apprehension assailed him, however, within the minute. One +of his cylinders was missing. His trained ear caught at the change of +the "tune," and he felt his speed decreasing. He glanced back briefly, +where the dusty lump of steel, like a red-hot projectile, thundered in +his wake. + +He beheld a sudden fan-like flare of dust in the cloud Van was making. +He even faintly heard the far report, and a grim joy sprang in his +being. + +Van had blown out a tire. Striking the high places, crowding on the +speed, holding to a straight-away course like a merciless fate, the +horseman heard an air cushion go, felt the lurch and lameness of the +car, and steadied it back upon its road. He did not retreat by so much +as a hair the lever advancing his spark. He did not budge the gas +control, but left it still wide open. If all of his tires should blow +out together he would not halt his pace. He would drive that car to +destruction, or to triumph in the race. + +Searle's rejoicing endured but the briefest span. His motor had begun +again to splutter, in mechanical death. Then, with a sudden memory, +sweat broke out on Bostwick's face. His gasolene was gone! He had +thoroughly intended refilling his tank, having barely had a sufficient +supply to run him from the claim to camp; and this had been neglected. + +His car bumped slowly for a score of yards, then died by the side of +the road. He leaped out madly, to assure himself the tank was really +dry. He cursed, he raved. It seemed absurd for this big, hot creature +to be dead. And meantime, like a whirlwind coming on, Van Buren was +crashing down upon him. + +"By God!" he cried, "I'll fix you for this!" and a wild thought flashed +to his mind--a thought of taking Van Buren's car and fleeing as before. + +He leaped in the tonneau and caught up a heavy revolver, stored beneath +the seat. He glanced at the cylinder. Four of the cartridges only +were unused. He remained inside the "fort" of the car, with the weapon +cocked and lowered out of sight. + +Charging down like a meteor, melting its very course, Van and the red +car came by leaps and plunges. He was shutting off the power +gradually, but still rushing up with frightening speed, when Bostwick +raised his gun and fired. + +The bullet went wide, and Van came on. Bostwick steadied and fired +again. There was no such thing as halting the demon in the car. But +the target's size was rapidly increasing! Nevertheless, the third shot +missed, like the others. Would the madman never halt? + +Bostwick dropped a knee to the floor, steadied the barrel on the +cushion, lined up the sights, and pulled the trigger. + +With the roar of the weapon Van abruptly drooped. The bullet had +pierced his shoulder. And he still came on. His face had suddenly +paled; his lips had hardened in a manner new to his face. He halted +the car, aware that his foe had exhausted his ammunition, since no more +shots were fired. + +His own big gun he drew deliberately. To sustain himself, through the +shock of his wound, was draining the utmost of his nerve. He was +hardly ten feet away from the man who stood there, a captive in his car. + +"Well, Searle," he said, "you're a better shot than I thought--and a +better driver. In fact you drive so almighty well I am going to let +you drive me back to camp." He arose from his seat. He was bleeding. +His left arm was all but useless. "Come down," he added. "Come down +and take my seat. And don't make the slightest error in etiquette, +Searle, or I'll see if a forty-some-odd ball will bounce when it lands +on your skull." + +Bostwick had expected to be shot on the spot. No cornered rat could +have been more abjectly afraid. His nerve had oozed away the more for +the grimness of the man who stood before him--a man with such a wound +as that who was still the master of his forces! + +He was terribly white. His teeth fairly chattered in his head. He had +played a desperate part--and lost. The race and this present +_denouement_ had shattered the man completely. He came down to the +ground and stood there, silently staring at Van. + +Despite his show of strength Van stepped with difficulty to the back of +his car and seated himself within. + +"Up in the seat there, Searle," he repeated, "and drive back at +moderate speed." + +Bostwick's surrender was complete. He climbed to the driver's +position, still silently, and started the car in an automatic way that +knew no thought of resistance. At the rear of his head Van held the +gun, and back towards Goldite they rolled. + +Two miles out the sheriff, in a borrowed car, grimly seated at the +driver's side, came bearing down upon them. The cars were halted long +enough for the sheriff to take his place with Searle, and then they +hastened on. + +Christler had instantly seen that Van was wounded. He as quickly +realized that to rush Van to town and medical attendance was the only +possible plan. + +He merely said, "You're hurt." + +Van tried to smile. "Slightly punctured." He was rapidly losing +strength. + +Christler thought to divert him. He shouted above the purring of the +car. + +"Found Matt all right. I'm goin' to take him back to the State +authorities in that convict suit that's hangin' 'round the store." + +Van was instantly aroused. "No you don't Bill! No you don't! I've +got use for those stripes myself. You'll buy Matt the best suit of +clothes in town, and charge the bill to me." + +If Bostwick heard, or understood, he did not make a sign. He was +driving like a servant on the box, but he could not have stood on his +feet. + +They were nearing the town. A cavalcade of horsemen, drivers of +buggies, and men on foot came excitedly trooping down the road to meet +the short procession. + +Despite his utmost efforts, Van was gone. Weak from the loss of blood +and the shock, he could hold up his frame no longer. + +"Bill," he said, as the sheriff turned around, "I guess I'm--all +in--for a little. Cold storage _him_, till I get back on my feet." + +He waved a loose gesture towards Bostwick, then sank unconscious on the +floor. + + + + +CHAPTER XLV + +THE LAST CIGARS + +Trimmer, the lumberman, not to be stayed, had broken in upon McCoppet +ruthlessly, with perceptions unerring concerning the troubles in the +air, when Lawrence was arrested. The gambler consented to an interview +with instinctive regard for his safety. That something significant was +laid on Trimmer's mind he felt with a subtle sense of divination. + +The lumberman, smoking furiously, came to his point with utmost +directness. + +"Opal," he said, "I'm goin' away, and I want ten thousand dollars. I +want it now. You owe me some you ain't paid up, and now I'm raisin' +the ante." + +"You're raising bunions," McCoppet assured him softly, throwing away +his unsmoked cigar and putting a fresh one in his mouth. "I'll pay you +what I agreed--when I get the ready cash." + +"Think so, do you, Opal?" inquired the lumberman, eying his man in +growing restlessness. "I think different, savvy? I'm onto you and +your game with Lawrence--you payin' him twenty thousand bucks to fake +the reservation. I want ten thousand right away, in the next ten +minutes, or you'd better pack your trunk." + +McCoppet, startled by the accusation, watched the savage manner in +which the lumberman ate up the smoke of his weed. He could think of +one way only in which a man of Trimmer's mentality could have come upon +certain private facts. + +"So," he said presently, "you crawled in under this place, this floor, +and caught it through the cracks." + +"Knot-hole," said Trimmer gesturing, "that one over there. And I tell +you, Opal, I want that money now. Do you hear? I want it now!" He +smashed his heavy fist upon the table, and off flew the ash of his +cigar. + +"What will you do if I refuse?" the gambler asked him coldly. "Wait! +Hold on! Don't forget, my friend, that Culver's murder is up to you, +and I'll give you up in a minute." + +The lumberman rose. Every moment that passed increased the danger to +them both. + +"Look a-here, Opal," he said in a threatening voice of anger, "I ain't +a-goin' to fool with you no longer. Hear me shout? Culver's up to you +as much as me. You stole the 'Laughin' Water' claim. There's hell +a-sizzlin' down the street right now--down to Lawrence's. If you don't +cough up ten thousand bucks pretty pronto----" + +"So, Larry--so, you've split on me already," the gambler interrupted, +rising and narrowing his gaze upon the bloated face. "You've peddled +it maybe, and now you come to me----" + +"I ain't peddled nuthin'!" Trimmer cut in angrily. "I didn't tell no +one but Barger, and he ain't no friend of Van Buren's. But Lawrence is +caught. Pratt run out the line, and now it's me that stands between +you and trouble, and I want the money to stand." + +McCoppet was far less calm than he appeared. How much was already +really known to the town was a matter wholly of conjecture. And +Trimmer's haste to cash in thus and probably vanish excited his gravest +suspicions. He eyed his friend narrowly. + +"Larry, we'll wait and see how much you've maybe leaked." + +"No we won't wait fer nuthin'!--not fer nuthin', understand?" corrected +Trimmer aggressively. "I ain't a-trustin' you, Opal, no more! You +done me up at every turn, and now, by God! you're goin' to come to +terms!" He pulled an ugly, rusty gun, and thumped with its muzzle on +the table. "You'll never leave this room alive if I don't git the +money. Ring fer it, Opal, ring the bell, and order it in with the +drinks!" + +McCoppet would have temporized. It was not so much the money now as +the state of affairs in the street. How much was known?--and what was +being done? These were the questions in his mind. + +"Don't get excited, friend," he said. "If things are out, and you and +I are caught with the aces in our sleeves, we may have to fight back to +back." He was edging around to draw his pistol unobserved, + +But Trimmer was alert. "Stand still, there, Opal, I've got the drop," +he said. "I'm lookin' out fer number one, this morning, understand? +You ring the----" + +A sudden, loud knock at the door broke in upon his speech, and both men +started in alarm. + +"Opal! Opal!" cried a muffled voice in accents of warning just outside +the door, "Christler's on your trail! Come out! Come out and--huh! +Too late! You'll have to get out the window!" + +The roar and excitement of the coming crowd, aroused to a wild +indignation, broke even to the den. An army of citizens, leading the +way for Christler's deputies, was storming McCoppet's saloon. + +He heard, and a little understood. He knew too much to attempt to +explain, to accuse even Trimmer to a mob in heat. Nothing but flight +was possible, and perhaps even that was a risk. + +He started for the window. Trimmer leaped before him. + +"No you don't!" he said. "I told you, Opal----" + +"Take that!" the gambler cut in sharply. His gun leaped out with flame +at its end; and the roar, fire, bullet, and all seemed to bury in the +lumberman's body. A second shot and a third did the same--and Trimmer +went down like a log. + +His gun had fallen from his hand. With all his brute vitality he +crawled to take it up. One of the bullets had pierced his heart, but +yet he would not die. + +McCoppet had snatched up a chair and with it he beat out the window. +Then Trimmer's gun crashed tremendously--and Opal sank against the sill. + +He faced his man. A ghastly pallor spread upon his countenance. He +went down slowly, like a man of melting snow, his cigar still hanging +on his lip. + +He saw the lumberman shiver. But the fellow crowded his cigar stump in +his mouth, with fire and all, and chewed it up as he was dying. + +"Good shot," said McCoppet faintly. His head went forward on his +breast and he crumpled on the floor. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI + +WASTED TIME + +Van was conveyed to Mrs. Dick's. The fever attacked him in his +helplessness and delirium claimed him for its own. He glided from +unconsciousness into a wandering state of mind before the hour of noon. + +His wound was an ugly, fiery affair, made worse by all that he did. +For having returned from his lethargy, he promptly began to fight anew +all his battles with horses, men, and love that had crossed his summer +orbit. + +Gettysburg, Dave, and Napoleon begged for the brunt of the battle. +They got it. For three long days Van lay upon his bed and flung them +all around the room. He hurt them, bruised them, even called them +names, but ever like three faithful dogs, whom beatings will never +discourage--the beatings at least of a master much beloved--they +returned undaunted to the fray, with affection constantly increasing. + +There were three other nurses--two women and Algy, the cook. But Beth +was the one who slept the least, who glided most often to the sick +man's side, who wetted his lips and renewed the ice and gave him a +cooler pillow. And she it was who suffered most when he called upon +her name. + +"Beth! Beth!" he would call in a wildness of joy, and then pass his +hand across his eyes, repeating: "--this is the man I hate more than +anyone else in the world!" + +That she finally knew, that the tell-tale portion of her letter had +been found when Bostwick was searched--all this availed her nothing +now, as she pleaded with Van to understand. He fought his fights, and +ran his race, and returned to that line so many times that she feared +it would kill him in the end. + +At midnight on that final day of struggling he lay quite exhausted and +weak. His mind was still adrift upon its sea of dreams, but he fought +his fights no more. The fever was still in possession, but its method +had been changed. It had pinned him down as a victim at last, for +resistance had given it strength. + +At evening of the seventh day he had slept away the heat. He was +wasted, his face had grown a tawny stubble of beard, but his strength +had pulled him through. + +The sunlight glory, as the great orb dipped into purple hills afar, +streamed goldenly in through the window, on Beth, alone at his side. +It blazoned her beauty, lingering in her hair, laying its roseate tint +upon the pale moss-roses of her cheeks. It richened the wondrous +luster of her eyes, and deepened their deep brown tenderness of love. +She was gold and brown and creamy white, with tremulous coral lips. +Yet on her face a greater beauty burned--the beauty of her +inner-self--the beauty of her womanhood, her nature, shining through. + +This was the vision Van looked upon, when his eyes were open at last. +He opened them languidly, as one at peace and restored to control by +rest. He looked at her long, and presently a faint smile dawned in his +eyes. + +She could not speak, as she knelt at his side, to see him thus return. +She could only place her hand upon her cheek and give herself up to his +gaze--give all she was, and all her love, and a yearning too vast to be +expressed. + +The smile from his eyes went creeping down his face as the dawn-glow +creeps down a mountain. Perhaps in a dream he had come upon the truth, +or perhaps from the light of her soul. For he said with a faint, wan +smile upon his lips: + +"I don't believe it, Beth. You meant to write 'love' in your letter." + +The tears sprang out of her eyes. + +"I did! I did! I did!" she sobbed in joy too great to be contained. +"I've always loved you, _always_!" + +Despite his wound, his weakness--all--she thrust an arm beneath his +neck and pillowed her cheek on his breast. He wanted no further +explanation, and she had no words to spend. + +One of his arms was remarkably efficient. It circled her promptly and +drew her up till he kissed her on the lips. Then he presently said: + +"How much time have we wasted?" + +"Oh, _days_!" she said, warmly blushing. "Ever since that night on the +desert." + +He shook a smiling negative. + +"Wrong. We've wasted all our lives." + +He kissed her again, then sank into slumber with the dusk. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII + +A TRIBUTE TO THE DESERT + +Love is a healer without a rival in the world. Van proved it--Van and +Beth, of course, together, with Gettysburg, Dave, and Napoleon to help, +and Algy to furnish the sauce. All were present, including Glen and +Mrs. Dick, on the summer day of celebration when at last Van came down +to dinner. At sight of the wan, wasted figure, Algy, in his +characteristic way, fought down his heathen emotions. + +"What's mallah you, Van?" he demanded, his face oddly twitching as he +spoke. "Makee evlybody _sick_! That velly superstich! Nobody's got +time cly for you come home--makee my dinner spoil!" + +He bolted for the kitchen, swearing in loving Chinese. + +But with that day passed, Van soon snatched back his own. His strength +returned like a thing that was capable of gladness, lodging where it +belonged. His spirit had never been dimmed. + +Bostwick, who had been detained by the sheriff, faithfully waiting till +Van should "get back on his feet," was almost relieved when his day for +departure finally dawned. He was dressed, at Van's express desire, in +the convict suit which he had worn on the day of his arrival. + +Van was on hand when at last the stage, with Bostwick and Christler for +passengers, was ready to pull up the street. + +"Searle," he said, "for a man of your stripe you are really to be +envied. You're going to about the only place I know where it's even +remotely possible to be good and not be lonesome." + +Searle went. Lawrence, perhaps more fortunate, had managed to escape. +He had fled away to Mexico, taking the bulk of his plunder. + +Gettysburg, Dave, and Napoleon returned once more to the placer and +sluices on the hill. Glenmore Kent was of the party, as superintendent +of the mine. He held a degree from a school of mines, and knew even +more than he had learned. Moreover, he had saved the gold pilfered by +Bostwick and McCoppet. + +Then one sunny morning Van and Beth were married by a Justice of the +Peace. Algy and Mrs. Dick were the lawful witnesses of the rites. The +only nuptial present was the gift of a gold mine in the mountains to +the bride. + +"You see," said Van, "_you_ are my 'Laughing Water' claim--and just +about all I can handle." + +They were alone. She came to his arms and kissed him with all the +divinity and passion of her nature. He presently took her face in his +hands and gave her a rough little shake. + +"Where shall we go to spend our honeymoon?" + +She blushed like a tint of sunset, softly, warmly, and hid her cheek +upon his shoulder. + +"Out in the desert--underneath the sky." + + + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Furnace of Gold, by Philip Verrill Mighels + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FURNACE OF GOLD *** + +***** This file should be named 16629-8.txt or 16629-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/2/16629/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Furnace of Gold + +Author: Philip Verrill Mighels + +Illustrator: J. N. Marchand + +Release Date: August 31, 2005 [EBook #16629] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FURNACE OF GOLD *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + +</pre> + + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +The Furnace of Gold +</H1> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +By +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +PHILIP VERRILL MIGHELS +</H2> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +Author of +<BR><BR> +THE PILLARS OF EDEN, BRUVVER JIM'S BABY, ETC +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +Illustrations by +</H4> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +J. N. MARCHAND +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +GROSSET & DUNLAP +<BR><BR> +Publishers :: New York +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H5 ALIGN="center"> +Copyright, 1909, by +<BR> +P. V. Mighels +<BR><BR> +Copyright, 1910, by +<BR> +Desmond FitzGerald, Inc. +<BR><BR><BR> +<I>All Rights Reserved</I> +</H5> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS +</H3> + +<CENTER> + +<TABLE WIDTH="80%"> +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"><B>CHAPTER</B></TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap01">PRINCE OR BANDIT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap02">INTO THE MOUNTAINS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap03">A RESCUE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap04">CONGENIAL COMPANY</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap05">VAN'S PARTNERS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap06">THE BATTLE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap07">AN EXCHANGE OF QUESTIONS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap08">A NIGHT'S EXPENSES</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap09">PROGRESS AND SALT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">X. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap10">THE LAUGHING WATER CLAIM</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap11">ALGY STIRS UP TROUBLE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap12">BOSTWICK LOSES GROUND</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap13">A COMBINATION OF FORCES</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap14">MOVING A SHACK</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap15">HATCHING A PLOT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap16">INVOLVING BETH</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap17">UNEXPECTED COMPLICATIONS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap18">WHEREIN MATTERS THICKEN</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap19">VAN AND BETH AND BOSTWICK</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap20">QUEENIE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap21">IN THE SHADOW OF THE ROPE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap22">TWO MEETINGS AFTER DARK</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap23">BETH'S DESPERATION</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXIV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap24">A BLIZZARD OF DUST</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap25">A TIMELY DELIVERANCE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXVI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap26">THE NIGHT IN THE DESERT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXVII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap27">TALL STORIES</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXVIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap28">WORK AND SONG</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXIX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap29">SUSPICIOUS ANSWERS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap30">BETH'S ONE EXPEDIENT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXXI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap31">McCOPPET BUSIES HIS MIND</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXXII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap32">THE HARDSHIPS OF THE TRAIL</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXXIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap33">THE CLOUDS OF TROUBLE GATHER</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXXIV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap34">THE TAKING OF THE CLAIM</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXXV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap35">THE MEETINGS OF TWO STRONG MEN</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXXVI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap36">VAN RUNS AMUCK</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXXVII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap37">THE PRIMITIVE LAW</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXXVIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap38">BETH MAKES DEMANDS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXXIX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap39">ALGY'S COOKING AND BETH'S DESPAIR</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XL. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap40">GLEN AND REVELATIONS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XLI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap41">SUVY PROVES HIS LOVE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XLII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap42">THE FURNACE OF GOLD</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XLIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap43">PREPARING THE NET FOR A DRAW</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XLIV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap44">THE ENGINES OF CLIMAX</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XLV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap45">THE LAST CIGARS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XLVI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap46">WASTED TIME</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XLVII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap47">A TRIBUTE TO THE DESERT</A></TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS +</H3> + +<H3> +He Proceeded to Pan from a Dozen Different<BR> + Places in the Cove . . . . Frontispiece [missing from book] +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-030"> +His Hold Was Giving Way +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +The Angry Miner Lurching in Closer to Shoot [missing from book] +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-168"> +"Don't You Want to Give This Man a Chance?" +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +Beth Felt Her Heart Begin New Gymnastics [missing from book] +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-292"> +No Corpse Snatched from Its Grave Could Have<BR> + Been More Helplessly Inert +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-310"> +"Yesh, He's Broke the Law" +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +Till the Mechanism Burst, He would Chase His<BR> + Man Across the Desert [missing from book] +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +THE FURNACE OF GOLD +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER I +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +PRINCE OR BANDIT +</H2> + +<P> +Now Nevada, though robed in gray and white—the gray of sagebrush and the +white of snowy summits—had never yet been accounted a nun when once +again the early summer aroused the passions of her being and the wild +peach burst into bloom. +</P> + +<P> +It was out in Nauwish valley, at the desert-edge, where gold has been +stored in the hungry-looking rock to lure man away from fairer pastures. +There were mountains everywhere—huge, rugged mountains, erected in the +igneous fury of world-making, long since calmed. Above them all the sky +was almost incredibly blue—an intense ultramarine of extraordinary +clearness and profundity. +</P> + +<P> +At the southwest limit of the valley was the one human habitation +established thereabout in many miles, a roadside station where a spring +of water issued from the earth. Towards this, on the narrow, side-hill +road, limped a dusty red automobile. +</P> + +<P> +It contained three passengers, two women and a man. Of the women, one +was a little German maid, rather pretty and demure, whose duty it was to +enact the chaperone. The other, Beth Kent, straight from New York City, +well—the wild peach was in bloom! +</P> + +<P> +She was amazingly beautiful and winning. It seemed as if she and not the +pink mountain blossoms must be responsible for all that haunting +redolence in this landscape of passionless gray. Her brown eyes burned +with glorious luminosity. Her color pulsed with health and the joyance +of existence. Her red lips quivered with unuttered ecstacies that surged +in the depths of her nature. Even the bright brown strands of her hair, +escaping the prison of her cap, were catching the sunlight and flinging +it off in the most engaging animation. She loved this new, unpeopled +land—the mountains, the sky, the vastness of it all! +</P> + +<P> +For a two-fold reason she had come from New York to Nevada. In the first +place her young half-brother, Glenville Kent—all the kin she had +remaining in the world—had been for a month at Goldite camp, where she +was heading, and all that he wrote had inflamed her unusual love of +adventure till she knew she must see it for herself. Moreover, he was +none too well. She had come to visit and surprise him. +</P> + +<P> +In the second place, her fiancé, Searle Bostwick, he who was now at the +wheel, had also been marooned, as it were, in this sagebrush land, by the +golden allurements of fortune. Beth had simply made up her mind to come, +and for two days past had been waiting, with her maid, at the pretty +little town of Freemont, on the railroad, for Searle to appear in his +modern ship of the desert and treat her to the one day's drive into +Goldite, whither he also was bound. +</P> + +<P> +The man now intent on the big machine and the sandy road was a noticeable +figure, despite the dust upon his raiment. He was a tall, well-modeled +man of thirty-five, with an air of distinction upon him, materially +heightened by his deep-set, piercing gray eyes, his firm, bluish jaw, and +the sprinkling of frost in his hair. +</P> + +<P> +He wore no moustache. His upper lip, somewhat over long, bore that same +bluish tint that a thick growth of beard, even when diligently shaved, +imparted to his face. He was, indeed, a handsome being, in a somewhat +stern, determined style. +</P> + +<P> +He was irritated now by the prospect of labor at the station. Even +should he find some willing male being whose assistance with the tire +might be invoked, the task would still involve himself rather +strenuously; and above all things he loathed rough usage of his hands. +For three more miles he cursed the mechanism, then he halted the car at +the station. +</P> + +<P> +A shack that served as lodging-house, saloon, and dining-room, a shack +for a stable, and a shack for a shed, together with a rough corral, +comprised the entire group of buildings at the place. Six or eight fine +cottonwoods and a number of twisted apple trees made the little place +decidedly inviting. Behind these, rising almost sheer from the level +yard, the mountains heaved upward grayly, their vast bulk broken, some +hundred yards away, by a yawning rock canyon, steep and forbidding. +</P> + +<P> +The station proprietor, who emerged from the door at sound of the halting +machine, was a small, lank individual, as brown as an Indian and as +wrinkled as a crocodile. The driver in the car addressed him shortly. +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder if you can help me put on a tire?" +</P> + +<P> +The lank little host regarded him quietly, then looked at the women and +drew his hand across his mouth. +</P> + +<P> +"Wal, I dunno," he answered. "I've set a tire and I've set a hen, but I +wouldn't like to tell ye what was hatched." +</P> + +<P> +The girl in the tonneau laughed in frank delight—a musical outburst that +flattered the station host tremendously. The man at the wheel was +already alighting. +</P> + +<P> +"You'll do," he said. "My name is Bostwick. I'm on my way to Goldite, +in a hurry. It won't take us long, but it wants two men on the job." +</P> + +<P> +He had a way of thrusting his disagreeable tasks upon his fellow beings +before they were prepared either to accept or refuse a proposition. He +succeeded here so promptly that the girl in the car made no effort to +restrain her amusement. She was radiantly smiling as she leaned above +the wheel where the two men were presently at work. +</P> + +<P> +In the midst of the toil a sound of whistling came upon the air. The +girl in the auto looked up, alertly. It was the Toreador's song from +Carmen that she heard, riotously rendered. A moment later the whistler +appeared—and an exclamation all but escaped the girl's red, parted lips. +</P> + +<P> +Mounted on a calico pony of strikingly irregular design, a horseman had +halted at the bend of a trail that led to the rear of the station. He +saw the girl and his whistling ceased. +</P> + +<P> +From his looks he might have been a bandit or a prince. He was a roughly +dressed, fearless-looking man of the hills, youthful, tall, and as +carelessly graceful in the saddle as a fish in its natural clement. +</P> + +<P> +The girl's brown eyes and his blue eyes met. She did not analyze the +perfect symmetry or balance of his features; she only knew his hair and +long moustache were tawny, that his face was bronzed, that his eyes were +bold, frank depths of good humor and fire. He was splendid to look +at—that she instantly conceded. And she looked at him steadily till a +warm flush rose to the pink of her ears, when her glance fell, abashed, +to the pistol that hung on his saddle, and so, by way of the hoofs of his +pinto steed, to the wheel, straight down where she was leaning. +</P> + +<P> +The station-keeper glanced up briefly. +</P> + +<P> +"Hullo, Van," was all he said. +</P> + +<P> +The horseman made no reply. He was still engaged in looking at the girl +when Bostwick half rose, with a tool in hand, and scowled at him silently. +</P> + +<P> +It was only a short exchange of glances that passed between the pair, +nevertheless something akin to a challenge played in the momentary +conflict, as if these men, hurled across the width of a continent to +meet, had been molded by Fate for some antagonistic clash, the essence of +which they felt thus soon with an utter strangeness between them. +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick bent promptly to his labors with the tire. The girl in the +tonneau stepped past her maid and opened the door on the further side of +the car. Bostwick stood up at once. +</P> + +<P> +"I wouldn't get out, Beth—I wouldn't get out," he said, a little +impatiently. "We'll be ready to go in five minutes." +</P> + +<P> +Nevertheless she alighted. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't hurry on my account," she answered. "The day is getting warm." +</P> + +<P> +The eyes of both Bostwick and the horseman followed her graceful figure +as she passed the front of the car and proceeded towards the orchard. +Above the medium height and superbly modeled, she appeared more beautiful +now than before. She had not descended for a change of position, or even +to inspect the place. As a matter of fact she was hoping to secure a +profile view of the bold-looking horseman on the pony. Her opportunity +soon arrived. He spoke to the station proprietor. +</P> + +<P> +"Want to see you for a moment, Dave," and he rode a little off to a tree. +</P> + +<P> +Dave ceased helping on the tire with marked alacrity and went to the +horseman at once. The two engaged in an earnest conversation, somewhat +of which obviously concerned the auto and its passengers, since the lank +little host made several ill-concealed gestures in the car's direction +and once turned to look at the girl. +</P> + +<P> +She had halted by the orchard fence from which, as a post of vantage, she +was apparently looking over all the place. Her brown eyes, however, +swung repeatedly around to the calico pony and its rider. +</P> + +<P> +Yes, she agreed, the horseman was equal to the scene. He fitted it all, +mountains, sky, the sense of wildness and freedom in the air. What was +he, then? Undoubtedly a native—perhaps part Indian—perhaps—— +</P> + +<P> +There was something sinister, she was certain, in the glance he cast +towards the car. He was armed. Could it be that he and the station man +were road-agents, plotting some act of violence? They were certainly +talking about the machine, or its owner, with exceptional earnestness of +purpose. +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick had finished with the tire. +</P> + +<P> +"Come along, Beth, come along!" he called abruptly. +</P> + +<P> +No sooner had she turned to walk to the car than the horseman rode up in +her path. Her heart sank suddenly with misgivings. She halted as the +unknown visitor addressed himself to Bostwick. +</P> + +<P> +"May I speak to you a moment privately?" +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick bristled with suspicions at once. +</P> + +<P> +"I have nothing of a private nature to discuss with you," he answered. +"If you have anything to say to me, please say it and be prompt." +</P> + +<P> +The horseman changed color, but lost no whit of the native courtesy that +seemed a part of his being. +</P> + +<P> +"It isn't particularly private," he answered quietly. "I only wished to +say I wouldn't rush off to Goldite this morning. I'd advise you to stay +here and rest." +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick, already irritated by delay, and impervious to any thought of a +possible service in the horseman's attitude, grew more impatient and far +more irritating. +</P> + +<P> +"I haven't desired your advice," he answered sharply. "Be good enough to +keep it to yourself." He advanced to the station owner, held out a bill, +and added: "Here you are, my man, for your trouble." +</P> + +<P> +"Heck!" said the lank little host. "I don't want your money." +</P> + +<P> +Across the horseman's handsome visage passed a look that, to the girl, +boded anything but peace. Bostwick's manner was an almost intolerable +affront, in a land where affronts are resented. However, the stranger +answered quietly, despite the fact that Bostwick nettled him to an +extraordinary degree. +</P> + +<P> +"I agree that the sooner <I>you</I> vamoose, the prompter the improvement in +the landscape. But you're not going off to Goldite with these ladies in +the car." +</P> + +<P> +Matters might still have culminated differently had Bostwick even asked a +civil "Why?" for Van was a generous and easy-going being. +</P> + +<P> +Beth, in the road, felt her heart beat violently, with vague excitement +and alarm. Bostwick glared, in sudden apprehension as to what the +horseman had in mind. +</P> + +<P> +"Is this a hold-up?" he demanded. "What do you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +The rider dismounted, in a quick, active manner, and opened the door of +the tonneau. +</P> + +<P> +"You wouldn't have thanked me for advice," he replied; "you would hardly +thank me more for information." He added to the maid in the car: +</P> + +<P> +"Please alight, your friend is impatient to be starting." He nodded +towards the owner of the auto. +</P> + +<P> +The maid came down, demurely, casting but a glance at the tall, +commanding figure by the wheel. He promptly lifted out a suitcase and +three decidedly feminine-looking bags. +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick by now was furious. +</P> + +<P> +"It's an outrage!" he cried, "a dastardly outrage! You can see I am +wholly unarmed! Do you mean to restrain these ladies here by force?" +</P> + +<P> +The horseman slipped his arm through the reins of his pony's bridle, +surveying Bostwick calmly. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you mean to desert them if I do? I have not yet ordered you to +leave." +</P> + +<P> +"Ordered me to leave!" echoed the car owner fiercely. "I can neither be +ordered to leave nor to stay! But I shall go—do you hear?—I shall +go—and the ladies with me! If you mean to rob us, do so at once and +have it over! My time is precious, if yours is not!" +</P> + +<P> +Van smiled. "I might be tempted to rob a gentleman," he said, "but to +deprive your passengers of your company would be a charity. Pray waste +no more of your precious time if that is your only concern." +</P> + +<P> +Beth had regained a shadow of her former composure. Her courage had +never been absent. She was less alarmed than before and decidedly +curious as to what this encounter might signify. She dared address the +horseman. +</P> + +<P> +"But—but surely—you seem—— You must have some excellent reason +for—for acting so peculiarly." +</P> + +<P> +He could not repress the brightness in his eyes as he met her +half-appealing gaze. +</P> + +<P> +"Reason, advice, and information would apparently be alike unwelcome to +your chauffeur," he answered, doffing his hat. "He is eager to hasten on +his way, therefore by all means let us bid him begone." +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick grew rapidly wilder at each intimation of his social standing—a +friend of the maid, and Beth's chauffeur! His impatience to proceed with +all possible haste to Goldite was consuming. He had not intended that +anything under the sun should delay him another single hour—not even +Beth, should occasion arise to detain her. Even now he was far more +concerned about himself and the business of his mission than he was for +the women in his charge. He was much afraid, however, of the horseman's +visible gun. He was not at all a person of courage, and the man before +him presented such an unknown quantity that he found himself more or less +helpless. At most he could merely attempt a bluff. +</P> + +<P> +"You'll pay for this!" he cried somewhat shrilly, his face a black mask +of anger. "I'll give you just half a minute to release these ladies and +permit them to go with me in peace! If you refuse——" +</P> + +<P> +The horseman interrupted. +</P> + +<P> +"I said before you had not been ordered on your way, but now I've changed +my mind. Don't talk any more—get into your car and hike!" +</P> + +<P> +The gleam in his eye achieved two results: It cowed the last vestige of +bravado in Bostwick's composition and ignited all the hatred of his +nature. He hesitated for a moment, his lips parting sidewise as if for a +speech of defiance which his moral courage refused to indorse. Then, not +daring to refuse the horseman's command, he climbed aboard the car, the +motor of which had never ceased its purring. +</P> + +<P> +"You'll pay for this!" he repeated. +</P> + +<P> +The girl, now pale again and tremendously disturbed, was regarding +Bostwick with a new, cold light in her eyes—a light that verged upon +contempt. She had never seen this lack of courageous spirit in the man +before. +</P> + +<P> +"But, Searle! You're not going—you're not really going, like this?" +</P> + +<P> +It was the horseman who replied. +</P> + +<P> +"You see, his time is precious. Also in his present state of mind he is +certainly unfit company for—well, for Dave, here, a man who loves the +pure white dove of peace." The station owner grinned. Van turned once +more to the car owner, adding, placidly: "There, there, driver——" +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick broke in vehemently. +</P> + +<P> +"I refuse to abandon these ladies! Your conduct is not only that of a +coward, it is——" +</P> + +<P> +Van looked him over in mock astonishment. +</P> + +<P> +"Say, Searle," he said, "don't you savvy you've lost your vote in this +convention? I told you to do these ladies the kindness to sweeten the +atmosphere with your absence. Now you hit the trail—and hit it quick!" +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick looked helplessly at the girl. +</P> + +<P> +"I am entirely unarmed," he said as before, though she knew there was a +pistol in the car. "This ruffian——" +</P> + +<P> +The horseman cut him short. +</P> + +<P> +"So long, Searle. I trust you'll meet congenial company on the road, but +I advise you even now to return the way you came." +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick glared at him vindictively, but impotently. His jaw was set and +hard. A cold fire glittered in his eyes. How selfishly eager he was to +be started on his way not even the girl could have known. Moreover, some +sort of plan for the horseman's speedy punishment had taken possession of +his mind. +</P> + +<P> +"Have courage, Beth," he said to the girl. "Have courage." +</P> + +<P> +He speeded up his motor, dropped in his clutch, and the car slowly +started on its way. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER II +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +INTO THE MOUNTAINS +</H3> + +<P> +Beth stood perfectly still beside the road, watching the auto round the +hill where it presently disappeared from view. The station owner +picked up a sliver of wood and began to whittle industriously. The +horseman remained with his bridle reins in hand, amusedly looking at +his captive. The maid sat down upon the suitcase, dropped her skirt in +a modest little manner, and cast her gaze upon the ground. +</P> + +<P> +Beth was the first to speak. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Elsa, I hope you are comfortable." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Miss, thank you," said the maid. +</P> + +<P> +Thereupon Miss Kent turned to the horseman and laughed. Someway she +could not feel alarmed, in the presence of this man of the hills, in +whose eyes merry devils were dancing. +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't this absurd?" she said. +</P> + +<P> +"Searle must have been born absurd," replied the horseman, once more +removing his hat. He waved it towards the station host imperiously. +"Dave, present me to the lady." And as Dave floundered, hopelessly +puzzled, he added: "Give me a knock-down, man, don't you savvy?" +</P> + +<P> +Dave dropped his sliver, snatched off his hat, and rid himself of a +quid of something strong—all in one convulsion of activity. +</P> + +<P> +"'Scuse me," he apologized, approaching nearer. "Miss—Miss—Miss +Laffin' Water, this is Van. His whole name's——" +</P> + +<P> +"That's enough," Van interrupted. "I'm gratified to meet you, +Señorita, I'm sure." +</P> + +<P> +He extended his hand. Beth knew not what to do, wherefore she gave him +her own. +</P> + +<P> +"How do you do, Mr. Van?" she answered tremulously, and she drew her +fingers back again at once. "If you don't mind," she added, "we really +must continue on to Goldite as soon as possible." A fleeting look of +doubt and alarm had swept all the mirth from her eyes. After all, even +with this "introduction" what were these men's intentions? It was a +grave affair to be halted thus—to be practically abducted—to be left +with no protection, in the hands of roadside strangers, one, at least, +of whom was certainly inclined to be lawless and outrageously bold. +</P> + +<P> +The horseman regarded her seriously, as if with a certain divination of +her worry. Someway, from the look in his eyes her confidence returned, +she knew not why. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you ride?" he asked her, "—you and your maid?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, yes—that is——" she addressed the maid on the suitcase. "Elsa, +can you ride—on a horse?" +</P> + +<P> +Elsa said: "Yes, Miss, if it is part of my duty." +</P> + +<P> +Beth's composure increased. After all, it was a glorious day, the +horseman was handsome, and she had wished for a little adventure—but +not too much! +</P> + +<P> +"What does it mean?" she asked of Van more boldly. "We were perfectly +comfortable, riding in the car. If you really intend to permit us to +go, why couldn't we have gone on as we were?" +</P> + +<P> +Dave started to answer. +</P> + +<P> +"You see, Miss——" +</P> + +<P> +Van cut in abruptly. +</P> + +<P> +"Never mind, Dave; this isn't your pie." To Beth he added: "If you've +brought any particularly appropriate garments for riding, suppose you +retire for preparations. Dave will tote the bags inside the house." +</P> + +<P> +"You bet I will!" said Dave, who, as Elsa rose, took suitcase and all +in one load. +</P> + +<P> +Beth hesitated. The horseman had started already for the stable at the +rear. How superbly straight was his figure! What a confident, +impudent grace beset him as he moved! How could it be possible for +such a man to be other than a gentleman—no matter where he was found? +Some strange little thrill of excitement and love of adventure stirred +in the girl's full veins. Resistance was useless. Come what might, +she was helpless in the hands of this man—and he seemed a person to be +trusted. +</P> + +<P> +"Come, Elsa," she said, bravely deciding to face whatsoever might +arise. "You may wear the second of my skirts." +</P> + +<P> +Fifteen minutes later, therefore, she and her maid emerged from the +shack attired in brown cloth, and kahki, respectively, her own skirt +long and graceful, while Elsa's was shorter and divided. Aside or +cross-saddle Beth was equally at home upon a horse—or always had been, +in the parks. +</P> + +<P> +Van and Dave now returned, leading two extra ponies from the stable. +One was a bay, accoutered with a man's deep Mexican saddle, whereon was +secured a coiled lasso; the other was a wiry little roan mare, with a +somewhat decrepit but otherwise sound side-saddle tightly cinched upon +her back. +</P> + +<P> +"Our stable chamberlain has slipped a cog on the outfits for ladies +recently," said Van apologetically, "but I reckon these will have to +do." +</P> + +<P> +Beth looked the two mounts over uncritically. They seemed to be +equally matched, as to general characteristics, since neither appeared +either strong or plump. She said: +</P> + +<P> +"Shall we ride very far?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, just a pleasant little jog," replied the horseman. "They call it +forty miles to Goldite by the ridge, but it isn't an inch over thirty." +</P> + +<P> +Thirty miles!—over the mountains!—with an unknown man and her maid! +Beth suppressed a gasp of despair and astonishment, not to mention +trepidation, by making an effort that verged upon the heroic. +</P> + +<P> +"But we—we can never arrive in Goldite tonight!" she said. "We can't +expect to, can we?" +</P> + +<P> +"It takes more than that to kill these bronchos," Van cheerfully +assured her. "I can only guarantee that the horses will make it—by +sunset." +</P> + +<P> +Beth flushed. He evidently entertained a very poor notion of her +horsemanship. Her pride was aroused. She would show him something—at +least that no horse could make this journey without her! +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you," she said, and advancing to the roan she addressed herself +to Dave. "Will you please help me up. Mr. Van may assist my maid." +</P> + +<P> +Dave grinned and performed his offices as best he could, which was +strongly, if not with grace. Van shook a threatening fist, behind his +captive's back. He had meant to take this honor to himself. +</P> + +<P> +Fairly tossing the greatly delighted little Elsa to the seat on the +bay, he mounted his own sturdy animal and immediately started for the +canyon below, leaving Beth and her maid to trail behind. +</P> + +<P> +The girl's heart all but failed her. Whither were they going?—and +towards what Fate? What could be the outcome of a journey like this, +undertaken so blindly, with no chance for resistance? The horseman had +stubbornly refused a reply to her question; he was calmly riding off +before them now with the utmost indifference to her comfort. There was +nothing to do but to follow, and resign herself to—the Lord alone knew +what. The little roan mare, indeed, required no urging; she was +tugging at the bit to be off. With one last look of helplessness at +the station and Dave—who someway bore the hint of a fatherly air upon +him—she charged her nerves with all possible resolution and rode on +after her leader. +</P> + +<P> +Elsa permitted her broncho to trudge at the tail of the column. She +dared to cast one shy, disconcerting little glance at Dave—and he +suddenly felt he would burst into flame and consume himself utterly to +ashes. +</P> + +<P> +The great canyon yawned prodigiously where its rock gates stood open to +grant the party admission to the sanctum of the hills. Sheer granite +walls, austere and frowning, rose in sculptured immensity on either +side, but the trail under foot was scored between some scattered +wild-peach shrubs, interspersed with occasional bright-green clumps of +manzanita. The air was redolent of warmth and fragrance that might +with fitness have advertised the presence in the hills of some +glorified goddess of love—some lofty, invisible goddess, guarded by +her mountain snows, yet still too languorous and voluptuous to pass +without at least trailing on the summery air the breath that exhaled +from her being. It was all a delight, despite vague alarms, and the +promise ahead was inviting. +</P> + +<P> +Van continued straight onward, with never so much as a turn of his +head, to the horses in the rear. He seemed to have quite forgotten the +two half-frightened women in his wake. Beth had ample opportunity for +observing again the look of strength and grace upon him. However, she +found her attention very much divided between tumultuous joyance in the +mountain grandeur, bathed in the marvelously life-exciting air, and +concern for the outcome of the day. If a faint suggestion of pique at +the manner in which the horseman ignored her presence crept +subconsciously into all her meditations, she did not confess it to +herself. +</P> + +<P> +Elsa's horrid little habit of accepting anything and everything with +the most irresponsible complacency rendered the situation aggravating. +It was so utterly impossible to discuss with such a being even such of +the morning's developments as the relationship of mistress and maid +might otherwise have permitted. +</P> + +<P> +A mile beyond the mouth of the canyon the slight ascent was ended, the +chasm widened, rough slopes succeeded the granite walls, and a charming +little valley, emerald green and dotted with groups of quaking aspen +trees, stretched far towards the wooded mountain barriers, looming +hugely ahead. It was like a dainty lake of grass, abundantly supplied +with little islands. +</P> + +<P> +The sheer enchantment of it, bathed as it was in sun-gold, and +sheltered by prodigious, snow-capped summits, so intensely white +against the intensity of azure, aroused some mad new ecstacy in all +Beth's being. She could almost have done something wild—she knew not +what; and all the alarm subsided from her thoughts. As if in answer to +her tumult of joy, Van spurred his pinto to a gallop. Instantly +responding to her lift of the reins, Beth's roan went romping easily +forward. The bay at the rear, with Elsa, followed rhythmically, +pounding out a measure on the turf. +</P> + +<P> +A comparatively short session of this more rapid locomotion sufficed +for the transit of the cove—that is, of the wide-open portion. The +trail then dived out of sight in a copse where pine trees were +neighbors of the aspens. Van disappeared, though hardly more than +fifty feet ahead. Through low-hanging boughs, that she needs must push +aside, Beth followed blindly, now decidedly piqued by the wholly +ungallant indifference to her fate of the horseman leading the way. +</P> + +<P> +She caught but a glimpse of him, now and again, in the density of the +growth. How strange it was to be following thus, meekly, helplessly, +perforce with some sort of confidence, in the charge of this unknown +mountain man, to—whatsoever he might elect! The utterly absurd part +of it all was that it was pleasant! +</P> + +<P> +At length they emerged from the shady halls of trees, to find +themselves confronted by the wall of mountains. Already Van was riding +up the slope, where larger pines, tall thickets of green chincopin, and +ledges of rock compelled the trail to many devious windings. Once more +the horseman was whistling his Toreador refrain. He did not look back +at his charges. That he was watching them both, from the tail of his +eye, was a fact that Beth felt—and resented. +</P> + +<P> +The steepness of the trail increased. At times the meager pathway +disappeared entirely. It lay upon rocks that gave no sign of the hoofs +that had previously rung metallic clinks upon the granite. How the man +in the lead discerned it here was a matter Beth could not comprehend. +Some half-confessed meed of admiration, already astir in her nature for +the horseman and his way, increased as he breasted the ascent. How +thoroughly at home—how much a part of it all he appeared, as he rode +upon his pony! +</P> + +<P> +Two hours of steady climbing, with her mare oblique beneath her weight, +and Beth felt an awe in her being. It was wonderful; it was almost +terrible, the fathomless silence, the altitudes, this heretofore +unexperienced intimacy with the mountains' very nakedness! It was +strange altogether, and impressive, the vast unfolding of the world +below, the frequency with which the pathway skirted some dark +precipice—and the apparent unconcern of the man ahead, now so +absolutely master. And still that soul-inviting exhilaration of the +air aroused those ecstacies within her spirit that she had not known +were there. +</P> + +<P> +They were nearing the summit of the pass. It was still a thousand feet +below the snow. To the left a mighty chasm trenched the adamant, its +bottom lowered away to depths of mysterious blue. Its side, above +which the three stout ponies picked their way, was a jagged set of +terraces, over the brink of which the descents were perpendicular. +</P> + +<P> +Rising as if to bar the way, the crowning terrace apparently ended the +trail against all further advance. Here Van finally halted, +dismounted, and waited for the advent of his charges. +</P> + +<P> +Beth rode up uncertainly, her brown eyes closely scrutinizing his face. +It appeared as if they had come to the end of everything—the place for +leaping off into downward space. +</P> + +<P> +"Let me see if the cinches are tight," said the horseman quietly, and +he looked to the girth of her saddle. +</P> + +<P> +It was found to be in a satisfactory condition. The girth on the bay +he tightened, carelessly pushing Elsa's foot and the stirrup aside for +the purpose. +</P> + +<P> +His own horse now showed unmistakable signs of weariness. He had +traveled some twenty odd miles to arrive at Dave's before undertaking +this present bit of hardship. Since then Van had pushed him to the +limit of his strength and speed, in the effort to reach Goldite with +the smallest possible delay. +</P> + +<P> +If a sober expression of sympathy came for a second in the horseman's +steady eyes, as he glanced where his pony was standing, it quickly gave +way to something more inscrutable as he looked up at Beth, in advancing +once more to the fore. +</P> + +<P> +"Both of you give them the reins," he instructed quietly. "Just drop +them down. Let the bronchos pick the trail." He paused, then added, +as if on second thought, "Shut your eyes if you find you're getting +dizzy—don't look down." +</P> + +<P> +Beth turned slightly pale, in anticipation of some ordeal, undoubtedly +imminent, but the light in her eyes was one of splendid courage. She +might feel they were all at the gate of something awful, but her nature +rose to meet it. She said nothing; she simply obeyed directions and +looked with new emotions on the somewhat drooping mare to whom her own +safety was entrusted. +</P> + +<P> +Van was once more in his saddle. He started, and the ponies behind +resumed their faithful plodding at his heels. +</P> + +<P> +A few rods ahead they encountered a change, and Beth could scarcely +repress a gasp of surprise and apprehension. The trail was laid upon +the merest granite shelf, above that terrible chasm. She was +terrified, frankly. The man and pony in the lead were cut with +startling sharpness against the gray of the rock—the calico coloring, +the muscular intensity, the bending of the man to every motion—as they +balanced with terrifying slenderness above the pit of death. +</P> + +<P> +For a moment the girl thought nothing of herself and of how she too +must pass that awful brink, for all her concern was focused on the man. +Then she realized what she must do—was doing—as her roan mare +followed on. She was almost upon it herself! +</P> + +<P> +Her hand flew down to the reins to halt the pony, involuntarily. A +wild thought of turning and fleeing away from this shelf of destruction +launched itself upon her mind. It was folly—a thing impossible. +There was nothing to do but go on. Shutting her eyes and holding her +breath she felt the mare beneath her tremulously moving forward, +smelling out the places of security whereon to rest her weight. +</P> + +<P> +Elsa, sublimely unresponsive, alike to the grandeur or the danger of +the place, rode as placidly here as in the valley. +</P> + +<P> +They passed the first of the shelf-like brinks, traversed a safer +contour of the wall, and were presently isolated upon the second bridge +of granite, which was also the last, much longer than the first, but +perhaps not so narrow or winding. +</P> + +<P> +Van had perspired in nervous tension, as the two women rode above the +chasm. Men had gone down here to oblivion. He was easier now, more +careless of himself and horse, less alert for a looseness in the +granite mass, as he turned in his saddle to look backward. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly, with a horrible sensation in his vitals, he felt his pony +crumpling beneath him, even as he heard Beth sound a cry. +</P> + +<P> +A second later he was going, helplessly, with the air-rush in his ears +and the pony's quiver shivering up his spine. All bottomless space +seemed to open where they dropped. He kicked loose the stirrups, even +as the pony struck upon the first narrow terrace, ten feet down, and +felt the helpless animal turned hoofs and belly upward by the blow. +</P> + +<P> +He had thrust himself free—apart from the horse—but could not cling +to the rotten ledge for more than half a second. Then down once more +he was falling, as before, only a heart-beat later than the pinto. +</P> + +<P> +Out of the lip of the next shelf below the pony's weight tore a jagged +fragment. The animal's neck was broken, and he and the stone-mass +plunged on downward together. +</P> + +<P> +Van half way fell through a stubborn bush—that clung with the +mysterious persistency of life to a handful of soil in a crevice—and +his strong hands closed upon its branches. +</P> + +<P> +He was halted with a jolt. The pony hurtled loosely, grotesquely down +the abyss, bounding from impacts with the terraces, and was presently +lost to mortal sight in the dust and debris he carried below for a +shroud. Sounds of his striking—dull, leaden sounds, tremendous in the +all-pervading silence—came clearly up to the top. Then Van found his +feet could be rested on the shelf, and he let himself relax to ease his +arms. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER III +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A RESCUE +</H3> + +<P> +Beth had uttered that one cry only, as man and horse careened above the +pit. She now sat dumbly staring where the two had disappeared. +Nothing could she see of Van or his pony. A chill of horror attacked +her, there in the blaze of the sun. It was not, even then, so much of +herself and Elsa she was thinking—two helpless women, lost in this +place of terrible silence; she was smitten by the fate of their guide. +</P> + +<P> +Van, for his part, looked about as best he might, observing his +situation comprehensively. He was safe for the moment. The ledge +whereon he was bearing a portion of his weight was narrow and crumbling +with old disintegration. The shrub to which he clung was as tough as +wire cable, and had once been stoutly rooted in the crevice. Now, +however, its hold had been weakened by the heavy strain upon it, and +yet he must continue to trust a part of his weight to its branches. +There was nothing, positively nothing, by which he could hope to climb +to the trail up above. +</P> + +<P> +He deliberately rested and fostered his breath, not a trifle of which +had been jolted in violence from his body. Presently he raised his +voice and called out, as cheerfully as possible: +</P> + +<P> +"Ship ahoy! Hullo—Miss Laughing Water!" +</P> + +<P> +For a moment there was no response. Beth was to utterly overcome to +speak. She hardly dared believe it was his call she heard, issuing up +from the tomb. She feared that her hope, her frantic imagination, her +wish to have it so, had conjured up a voice that had no genuine +existence. Her lips moved, but made no audible sound. She trembled +violently. Van called again, with more of his natural power. +</P> + +<P> +"Hullo! Hullo! Miss Beth—are you up there on the trail?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes! Oh! what shall I do?" cried Beth in a sudden outburst of +relief and pent-up emotions. "Tell me what to do!" +</P> + +<P> +Van knew she was rather near at hand. The bridge and trail were +certainly no more than twenty-five feet above his head. He could make +her hear with little effort. +</P> + +<P> +"Brace up and keep your nerve," he instructed. "We're O.K. up to date. +Just ride ahead till you come to the flat. Let Elsa hold your mare. +Can you hear me plainly?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! yes—yes—then what next?" replied the worried girl. +</P> + +<P> +Van resumed calmly: "You'll find a rawhide rope on Elsa's saddle. Come +back with that, on foot. Then I'll tell you what to do. Don't try to +hurry; take your time, and don't worry." After a moment, as he got no +reply, he added: "Have you started?" +</P> + +<P> +Beth had not budged her mare, for terror of what she must do. She was +fortifying all her resolution. She answered with genuine bravery: +</P> + +<P> +"Yes—I—I'll do what you say." +</P> + +<P> +She took up the reins. Her pale face was set, but she did not close +her eyes to cross the dizzying brink. The mare went forward—and +Elsa's bay resumed his patient tagging, up to and past the fateful +place where a part of the shelf-edge, having been dislodged, had let +Van's pony fall. +</P> + +<P> +For ten age-long minutes Van waited on his ledge, feeling the +treacherous, rotted stuff break silently away beneath his feet. The +shrub, too, was showing an earthy bit of root as it slowly but +certainly relinquished its hold on the substance which the crevice had +divided. The man could almost have calculated how many seconds the +shelf and the shrub could sustain their living burden. +</P> + +<P> +Then Beth returned. She had left her maid with the horses; she held +the lasso in her hand. To creep on foot along the granite bridge was +taxing the utmost of her courage. She could not ascertain precisely +where it was that the horseman was waiting below. She was guided only +by the broken ledge, where pony and all had disappeared. Therefore, +she called to him weakly. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Van—Mr. Van—where are you?" +</P> + +<P> +Van's heart turned over in his breast. +</P> + +<P> +"Just below that split boulder in the trail," he answered cheerily. +"Go to that." +</P> + +<P> +A silence succeeded, then he heard, in tremulous accents: +</P> + +<P> +"I'm here—but how am I going to tie the rope?" +</P> + +<P> +Van answered distinctly, for much depended on precision. +</P> + +<P> +"Uncoil it first. On one end there's an eye that runs the loop. Open +the loop to a pretty good size and slip it over the smaller portion of +the boulder. Then push it well down in the crevice, and pull it tight." +</P> + +<P> +He knew that the rope was far too short to loop the larger rock and +reach his hands. He waited while he thought she might be working—as +indeed she was—and presently added: "Got that done?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," she called. "Yes—but are you sure——" +</P> + +<P> +His hold was giving way. He answered crisply: +</P> + +<P> +"Now drop me the end. Don't wait!" +</P> + +<A NAME="img-030"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-030.jpg" ALT="His hold was giving way." BORDER="2" WIDTH="412" HEIGHT="567"> +<H4> +[Illustration: His hold was giving way.] +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +Beth had forgotten all danger to herself. She had ceased to tremble. +She paid out the rope with commendable promptness. +</P> + +<P> +"Does it reach?" she cried. "Can you get it?" +</P> + +<P> +He could not. Though sufficiently long it was ten feet away, on his +right. His seconds were growing fearfully precious. +</P> + +<P> +"Just shift it over, more towards Elsa," he called, still calmly. +"Move it about ten feet." +</P> + +<P> +It began to approach him jerkily. It halted, then once more it moved. +The shrub in his grasp gave out an inch, and was coming from its +anchorage. Then his fist was closed on the rope. +</P> + +<P> +"All right!" he called. "Let go—and stand aside!" +</P> + +<P> +"But—oh, if the rock shouldn't hold!" cried the girl. "Are you sure +it won't pull over?" +</P> + +<P> +He was not at all certain of the boulder. This explained his +directions, "stand aside!" If it came—it must not involve the girl. +There was nothing for him but to trust to its weight against his own. +He was strong. He began to come up, bracing a foot against the +crumbling wall, winding the rope around one of his legs—or his leg +around the rope, and resting whensoever he could. +</P> + +<P> +Beth stood there, nearly as tense as the rope. Her brown eyes were +fixed on the bedded boulder; her face was more gray than its bulk. +</P> + +<P> +At the edge, where the lasso impinged upon the granite, small particles +were breaking and falling ominously. Scarcely daring to breathe, as +she felt how the man was toiling up from the maw of the chasm, Beth +could not bear to look where he must come—if come he ever should. +</P> + +<P> +It seemed an eternity of waiting. At last, when new misgivings had +seized upon her heart, she heard his labored breathing. Even then she +did not turn. She feared to watch his efforts; she feared to break the +spell. A minute later she heard his even voice. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a wonderful view—from down below." +</P> + +<P> +The glad, eager light in her eyes, which his eyes met from the brink, +put strength in both his arms. He came up to safety in an outburst of +vigor that was nothing short of magnificent. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" said the girl, and she leaned against the wall in a sudden need +for support. +</P> + +<P> +"I really had no intention of—deserting like that," panted Van, with a +smile that was just a trifle forced. "But it's so much easier to—drop +into a habit than it—ever is to get out." +</P> + +<P> +She made no reply, but remained where she was, weakly leaning against +the wall and slowly regaining the strength she had lost at the moment +of beholding him safe. She was not the fainting kind, but she was +human—womanly human. +</P> + +<P> +Van began immediately to release and re-coil the rope. +</P> + +<P> +"Too bad to throw away a pony like that," he resumed regretfully. "I +always intended, if he died a Christian death, to have his hide tanned +for a rug." +</P> + +<P> +He was saying anything, no matter what, to dissipate the reactionary +collapse into which he feared the girl was falling. +</P> + +<P> +"Now then," he added, when the rope was well in hand, "we've wasted all +the time we can spare on a second-rate vaudeville performance. Come +along." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IV +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CONGENIAL COMPANY +</H3> + +<P> +He started ahead as he had before, with that show of utter unconcern +towards the girl that was absolutely new to her experience. Her eyes +were wide with appeal as she watched him striding up the trail. For +herself she wanted nothing; but her womanly nature craved some trifling +sign, some word of assurance that the man was uninjured—really safe +again and whole—after that terrible plunge. But this from the +horseman was impossible. He had not even thanked her for the rescue. +</P> + +<P> +"You horrid, handsome wretch!" she murmured vexedly, stimulated to +renewed activity by her resentment; then she followed along the narrow +way. +</P> + +<P> +They came to the flat, beyond the wall, where Elsa sat keeping the +horses. The maid looked the horseman over quite calmly, inquiring: +</P> + +<P> +"What for dit you did it—go down there?" +</P> + +<P> +"Just for ducks," said Van. He halted for Beth's approach, put her up +on the roan, and once more strode off in the trail ahead with a +promptness that was certainly amazing. +</P> + +<P> +There was no understanding such a person. Beth gave it up. The whole +affair was inexplicable—his attitude towards Searle at the station, +his abduction of herself and the maid, and this trailing of the pair of +them across these terrible places, for no apparent reason in the world. +</P> + +<P> +Her mare followed on in the tracks of the muscular figure, over whom, +for a moment, she had almost wished to yearn. His escape from death +had been so slender—and he would not even rest! +</P> + +<P> +The flat was, in reality, the hog's back or ridge of a lofty spur of +the mountains. Except for the vast bluish canyons and gorges far +below, the view was somewhat restricted here, since towering summits, +in a conclave of peaks, arose to right and left. +</P> + +<P> +After a time, as they swung around on the trend of the ridge, they came +abreast a mighty gap in the mountains to the left, and there, far down, +lay a valley as flattened by perspective as the unruffled surface of a +lake. +</P> + +<P> +Here Van presently halted, peering down and searching the vast gray +floor with the keenest attention. He went on further, and halted +again, Beth meanwhile watching his face with increasing curiosity. +</P> + +<P> +At the third of his stops she gazed no more on the panorama of +immensity, but rather gazed at him. +</P> + +<P> +"What is it you expect to see?" she inquired at last. "Goldite isn't +down there, is it?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm rather expecting—if I haven't miscalculated on the time—— +There he is now," he answered, still staring afar off down upon the +valley. He raised his arm and extended a finger to point towards the +north-most limit of the level stretch of land. "Do you see that small, +dark object in the road? That's a road, that slender yellow streak +that you can follow." +</P> + +<P> +Beth obeyed directions and thereby discerned, with remarkable +clearness, the moving object, far away below. She did not in the least +suspect its nature. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, yes—what is it?" she asked with languid interest, having +expected something more significant. "Is it some small animal?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," responded Van. "It's Searle." +</P> + +<P> +Beth was instantly all attention. +</P> + +<P> +"Not Mr. Bostwick, in his car?" +</P> + +<P> +Van continued to study the gray of the world-wide map. +</P> + +<P> +"I rather wonder——" he mused, and there he halted, presently adding, +"He's climbing a hill. You might not think so, looking down from here, +but it's steep and sandy, for a car." +</P> + +<P> +She was watching eagerly. +</P> + +<P> +"And he's no further along towards Goldite than this?" +</P> + +<P> +"He's had some tough old going," answered Van. "He's in luck to——" +then to himself, as he continued to scan the scene for something he did +not apparently find. "By Jupe! I'd have sworn Matt Barger——" He +broke off abruptly, adding in a spirit of fairness, "Searle is getting +right up to the ridge all right. Good boy! He must have a powerful +motor under the—There! By George! I knew it! I knew it! Got him! +right there in the gravel!" +</P> + +<P> +The girl looked suddenly upon him, wholly unable to comprehend the +sharp exclamations he was making. +</P> + +<P> +"What has got him? What do you mean?" she demanded in vague alarm. "I +don't see what you——" +</P> + +<P> +"That's Matt every time—I thought so," he resumed, as he stepped a +little closer to the girl. "Don't you see them?—those lively little +specks, swarming all around the machine?" +</P> + +<P> +Beth bent her gaze on the drama, far below—a play in which she knew +but one of the characters, and nothing of the meaning of the scene. +</P> + +<P> +"I see—yes—something like a lot of tiny ants—or something. What are +they?—not robbers?—not men?" +</P> + +<P> +"Part men, part hyenas," he told her quietly. "It's a lot of State +convicts, escaped from their prison, two days free—and desperate." +</P> + +<P> +She was suddenly very pale. Her eyes were blazing. +</P> + +<P> +"Convicts! Out of prison?" +</P> + +<P> +"A good long way out," he told her watching, "and clever enough to hike +for the mines, with the camps all full of strangers. They learn to be +good mixers, when they're trying to escape." +</P> + +<P> +Beth gazed at him searchingly. +</P> + +<P> +"You—knew they were out—and waiting on the road?" +</P> + +<P> +"Everyone knew they were out—and I certainly thought big Matt would do +precisely what you see he has done." +</P> + +<P> +"Matt?" she echoed. +</P> + +<P> +"The leader," he explained, "a clever brute as ever worried a sheriff." +</P> + +<P> +She was not in the least interested in the personality of the convict +thus described. Her mind had flown to another aspect of the case—the +case involving herself. +</P> + +<P> +"And this was why you wouldn't let us go in the auto?" she said. "You +expected this?" +</P> + +<P> +He looked at her quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"Searle wouldn't take my advice, you know." His eyes were once more +merry. "What could I do?" +</P> + +<P> +"But Mr. Bostwick wouldn't have gone if you had told him!" she said. +"Oh, I'm surprised you'd do it—let him go and be captured like that!" +She was looking down upon the silent drama intently as she added: "I +don't see why you ever did it!" +</P> + +<P> +He was still amused. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I thought perhaps Searle deserved it." +</P> + +<P> +She blazed a little. +</P> + +<P> +"You told him you hoped he'd meet congenial company on the road. You +didn't mean——" +</P> + +<P> +"Guilty as charged in the indictment. I guess I did." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! I wouldn't have thought——" she started, then she shivered in +horror, reflecting swiftly on the fate that might have befallen herself +and Elsa had they too been captured with Searle. It was all explained +at last—the horseman's earnest talk with Dave, his quiet but grim +refusal to permit herself and Elsa to remain with the car, and the +hazardous ride he had since dared compel them to take at such peril to +his life! And now, his persistent advance on foot, when perhaps he was +painfully injured! He had done then such a service as she could never +in her life forget. His treatment of Searle had perhaps, even as he +said, been deserved. Nevertheless, Searle was much to her, very much, +indeed—or had been—up to this morning—and she was worried. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you think they will do?" she added in a spirit of contrition +that came at once upon her. "They must be terrible men!" +</P> + +<P> +"They won't do much but take his money and clothes, and maybe beg for a +ride," said Van reassuringly. "They'll see he isn't fit to kill." +</P> + +<P> +Beth glanced at him briefly, inquiringly. What a baffling light it was +that played in the depths of his eyes! What manner of being was he, +after all? She could not tell. And yet she felt she could trust +him—she certainly knew not why. Despite his ways of raillery she felt +he was serious, true as steel, and big in heart and nature. +</P> + +<P> +"I mustn't forget to thank you," she murmured. "I mean for sparing +us—all that. I do thank you, most sincerely, for——" +</P> + +<P> +"Never mind that," he interrupted. "We're going to be late to lunch." +</P> + +<P> +He turned once more to the trail and started off, in his active manner, +together with a thorough indifference as to what became of Bostwick. +</P> + +<P> +Beth, with a feeling that something ought yet to be done for Searle, +down in the valley with the convicts, cast one helpless glance at the +scene of the hold-up, then perforce urged her pony forward. +</P> + +<P> +Van halted no more. He led the way doggedly onward, over the rises, +through great silent forests, past crystal springs, and down dark, +somber ravines. At a quarter of one he emerged from a gorge upon the +level acre of a tiny cove, still high in the mountains fastnesses. +Here he let out a whoop like an Indian, its echo filling all the place. +</P> + +<P> +An answering call came clearly from somewhere near at hand. Beth felt +a sudden alarm to know there were human beings near. What sort they +were was a matter entirely of conjecture. Then presently she +discovered a number of small, rude buildings, and a fair-sized cabin, +planted next the hill. The door of the latter was open. A tall man +appeared in the frame. +</P> + +<P> +"This," said Van, who had waited for the girl to ride once more to his +side, "is the Monte Cristo mine—the worst false alarm that ever +disfigured the map." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER V +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +VAN'S PARTNERS +</H3> + +<P> +The Monte Cristo mining property comprised a tunnel in the hill, a +glory hole, a little toy quartz-mill—five stamps strong—the +bunk-house, kitchen, blacksmith-shop, stable, corral, and four human +beings. These latter were a Chinese cook named Algy, a Piute Indian +half-breed called Cayuse, and two rare souls—Napoleon G. Blink and +"Gettysburg"—miners, and boastful old worthies, long partnered and +beloved by Van. +</P> + +<P> +Just at present the tunnel was empty, the glory-hole was deserted, and +the quartz-mill was silent. The mine had proved a failure. Van had +expended many thousands of dollars and ten months of time to +demonstrate the facts; and now, in possession of much new experience, +an indomitable spirit, two tired partners, and a brand-new claim, he +was facing his fate, as heretofore, with a wonderful boyish cheer. +</P> + +<P> +Not all this knowledge was vouchsafed to Beth when she and her maid +were presently put in possession of the place. With the utmost gravity +Van introduced her by old Dave's appellation, Miss Laughing Water. The +maid he merely called Elsa. His explanation as to whence they hailed, +whither they were bound, why he had taken them in charge, and how he +had lost the pinto pony, was notable chiefly for its brevity. He and +his charges were hungry and somewhat pressed for time, he announced, +and he therefore urged Algy to haste. +</P> + +<P> +Dinner had been promptly served at twelve. Algy was therefore in +despair—for Algy was proud of his art. He still had good red beans, +most excellent coffee, corn-fed bacon, the best of bread and butter, a +hunger-inspiring stew of lamb, white potatoes, fine apple sauce, and +superlative gingerbread on hand in great abundance, however, but in +spite of it all he spluttered. +</P> + +<P> +"What's mallah you, Van?" he demanded several times. "Wha' for no tell +me blingee ladies? How you s'plose I gettee dinner? Sominagot, you +come like this, that velly superstich." +</P> + +<P> +He would readily have laid down his very life for Van, but he laid a +good dinner instead. During its preparation Beth and her maid sat down +on a bench beside the bunk-house, in the presence of Cayuse, Napoleon, +and Gettysburg, while Van led the horses to the stable for refreshment, +and Algy talked to himself in pigeon English. +</P> + +<P> +It was an odd situation for the girl from New. York, but she found +herself amused. Both Napoleon and Gettysburg had been cast for amusing +roles, which they did not always fill. Neither, as might be supposed +from his name, had ever even smelled the faintest suggestion of things +military. Napoleon had once been a sailor, or, to be more accurate, a +river boatman. He was fat, short, red-headed, red-necked, red-nosed, +and red-eyed. His hands were freckled, his arms were hairy. He turned +his head to one side like a bird—and promptly fell in love with demure +little Elsa. +</P> + +<P> +Gettysburg was as thin as Napoleon was fat. He had a straggling gray +beard, a very bald pate, high cheek bones, and a glass eye. This eye +he turned towards the maid, perhaps because it was steady. He also had +a nervous way of drawing one hand down his face till he lowered his jaw +prodigiously, after which, like the handle of a knocker, it would fall +back to place with quite a thump. He did this twice as he stared at +Beth, and then he remarked: +</P> + +<P> +"Quite a hike yit, down to Goldite." +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose it is," said Beth in her interesting way. "How far is it, +really, from here?" +</P> + +<P> +"'Bout twenty miles of straight ahead, and two miles of straight up, +and three of straight down—if a feller could go straight," said +Gettysburg gravely, "but he can't." +</P> + +<P> +Beth looked very much concerned. She had hoped they were almost there, +and no more hills to climb or descend. She felt convinced they had +ridden over twenty miles already, and the horseman had assured her it +was thirty at the most, from the station so far behind the mountains. +</P> + +<P> +"But—Mr. Van can't walk so far as that," she said. "I'm sure I don't +see what——" +</P> + +<P> +She was interrupted by the reappearance of Van himself. +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't there a horse on the place?" he asked his partners collectively. +"What have you done with the sorrel?" +</P> + +<P> +Gettysburg arose. "Loaned him to A. C., yistiddy," said he. "But the +outlaw's on the job." +</P> + +<P> +"Not Vesuvius?" Van replied incredulously. "You don't mean to say he's +turned up again unslaughtered?" +</P> + +<P> +"Cayuse here roped him, up to Cedar flat," imparted Gettysburg. +"Cornered him there in natural corral and fetched him home fer fun." +</P> + +<P> +Napoleon added: "But Cayuse ain't been on board, you bet. He likes +something more old-fashioned than Suvy. Split my bowsprit, I wouldn't +tow no horse into port which I was afraid to board. When I was bustin' +bronchos I liked 'em to be bad." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," agreed Gettysburg, "so bad they couldn't stand up." +</P> + +<P> +A bright glitter came for a moment in Van's blue eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"If Suvy's the only equine paradox on the place, he and I have got to +argue things out this afternoon," he said, "but I'll have my dinner +first." +</P> + +<P> +Beth was listening intently, puzzled to know precisely what the talk +implied. She was vaguely suspicious that Van, for the purpose of +escorting her on, would find himself obliged to wage some manner of war +with a horse of which the Indian was afraid. +</P> + +<P> +Further discussion of the topic was interrupted now by the cook, who +appeared to announce his dinner served. Beth and her maid were, +therefore, directed by Van to a table set for two, while he, with +Napoleon and Gettysburg for company, repaired to a place in the kitchen. +</P> + +<P> +Beth was hungry. She ate with all the relish of a mountaineer. Algy, +moreover, was a kitchen magician in the art of transforming culinary +commonplaces into viands of toothsome delight. Elsa became +speechlessly busy. Despite her wishes in the matter, Beth could hear +the men talking beyond. +</P> + +<P> +"So them convicts has hiked over this way already," said the voice of +Gettysburg distinctly. "We heard from A. C. about the prison break, +but he wasn't on to which ones they was." +</P> + +<P> +"One is Matt Barger," Van informed them. "He's the only one I know." +</P> + +<P> +"Matt Barger! Not <I>your</I> Matt Barger?" demanded Gettysburg sharply. +</P> + +<P> +Van nodded. "Mine when I had him." +</P> + +<P> +Gettysburg arose excitedly. +</P> + +<P> +"He ain't come hunting fer you as quick as this?" he inquired uneasily. +"That ain't what's fetched him over to the desert?" +</P> + +<P> +"Haven't asked him," answered Van. "He promised to look me up if ever +he got out alive." +</P> + +<P> +"Look you up!" Gettysburg was obviously over-wrought by the mere +intelligence that Barger was at liberty. "You know what he'll do! You +know him, boy! You know he'll keep his word. You can't go foolin' +around alone. You've got to be——" +</P> + +<P> +"Pass the beans," Van interrupted. He added more quietly: "Sit down, +Gett, and shut the front door of your face." +</P> + +<P> +Napoleon was eating, to "keep Van company." He pushed away his plate. +</P> + +<P> +"Just our luck if these here derelicts was to foul us, skipper and +crew," he observed ruefully. "Just our luck." +</P> + +<P> +Gettysburg sat down, adding: "Why can't you wait, Van, wait till the +whole kit and boodle of us can move to the bran'-new claim?" +</P> + +<P> +Van finished half a cup of coffee. +</P> + +<P> +"I told you I should continue on without delay. The horses will +probably come to-night for all of you to follow me to-morrow." +</P> + +<P> +"Then why don't you wait and go with us?" repeated Gettysburg. "We'll +git there by noon, and you ain't got nuthin' to ride." +</P> + +<P> +The horseman answered: "Suvy's the prettiest gaited thing you ever +saw—when he gaits." +</P> + +<P> +"Holy toads!" said the older man apprehensively, "you ain't +sure-a-goin' to tackle the outlaw today?" +</P> + +<P> +"I've always felt we'd come to it soon or late," was Van's reply. "And +I've got to have a horse this afternoon. We can't kill each other but +once." +</P> + +<P> +"Supposen he stoves in your pilot-house," said Napoleon. "What shall +we do about the claim, and all this cargo, and everything?" +</P> + +<P> +"The claim? Work it, man, work it," Van responded. "What's a mining +claim for but to furnish good hard work for a couple of old ring-tailed +galoots who've shirked it all their lives?" +</P> + +<P> +"Work it, yep, but what on?" asked Gettysburg. "We're as broke as a +hatched-out egg." +</P> + +<P> +"Haven't you worked on shinbones and heavenly hopes before?" inquired +the busy leader of the partnership. "And that reminds me, Algy, what +about you?" he added to the Chinese cook. "We can't afford a +tippe-bob-royal chef of your dimensions after this. I guess you'll +have to poison somebody else." +</P> + +<P> +"What's mallah you, Van?" Algy demanded aggressively. "You makee me +velly sick. You get velly lich I cook your glub. You go bloke, I cook +alle same. Sominagot, I b'long go with you all time. You no got good +luck I never want the money, you savvy? You go hell—go anywhere—I go +same place—that's all. You talkee big fool, that velly superstich." +He looked at Van fiercely to disguise a great alarm, a fear that he +might, after all, be dismissed in the break-up impending. +</P> + +<P> +Van shrugged his shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +"Sentenced for life. All right, Algy, if your cooking kills us off, at +least, as the brave young husband remarked, it will all be in the +family." +</P> + +<P> +Algy still looked as fierce as one of his heathen idols. +</P> + +<P> +"You t'ink velly smart," he said, still concealing his feelings. +"Lats!" and with that he went out to chop some wood. +</P> + +<P> +"Batten me into the pantry!" said Napoleon. "I'll bet old Algy'd board +the outlaw himself, fer you, Van, squall and all." +</P> + +<P> +"That horse ain't human," Gettysburg exploded anew. "Van, you can't +ride no such Fourth-of-July procession!" +</P> + +<P> +"Shut up!" murmured Van, with a gesture towards the room where Beth and +her maid were dining. He added aloud: "The chances are we'll find he's +a cheap Sunday-school picnic. Napoleon, you and Cayuse go out and +prepare his mind for work." +</P> + +<P> +"Aye, aye," said Napoleon rising to go, "but I wish we had some +soothin' syrup, skipper." +</P> + +<P> +He and the Indian were heard to depart, by Beth, sitting back in her +chair. She was greatly alarmed by all she had heard of vengeful +convicts and the vicious horse, and could eat no more for nervous dread. +</P> + +<P> +"That horse has killed his man, and you know it," said Gettysburg in a +whisper that the girl distinctly overhead. "Boy, boy, let the Injun +ride him first." +</P> + +<P> +"There, there, ease off," Van answered quietly. "You keep the women +entertained about the mill while Suvy and I are debating." +</P> + +<P> +He gulped down a last drink of coffee, silenced the miner's further +remonstrances, and departed by way of the kitchen door. +</P> + +<P> +Beth arose hurriedly and hastened forth, intent upon immediate +prevention, if possible, of any further ordeals undertaken in behalf of +herself. She was thoroughly frightened. A prescience of something +ominous impending seemed to grip her very heart. She glanced about, +helplessly, unfamiliar with the place. Van was nowhere in sight. She +started to run around the cabin when Gettysburg appeared in her path. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, well," said he nervously, "now who'd a-thought you'd finished +eatin'?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh please," she said, "please go tell Mr. Van I'd rather he wouldn't +attempt to ride <I>any</I> horse again to-day. Will you please go tell him +that?" +</P> + +<P> +"You bet your patent leathers!" said Gettysburg. "You just go over and +globe-trot the quartz-mill while I'm gone, and we'll fix things right +in a shake." +</P> + +<P> +He strode off in haste. Beth watched him go. She made no move towards +the quartz-mill, which Gettysburg had indicated, over on the slope. +</P> + +<P> +She soon grew restive, awaiting his return. Elsa came out and sat +down. The old miner failed to reappear. +</P> + +<P> +At length, unable to endure any longer her feeling of alarm and +suspense, Beth resolutely followed where Gettysburg had gone, and soon +came in sight of the stable and high corral. Then her heart struck a +blow of excitement in her breast, and her knees began to weaken beneath +her. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VI +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE BATTLE +</H3> + +<P> +Too late to interfere in the struggle about to be enacted, the girl +stood rigidly beside a great red pine tree, fixing her gaze upon Van, +on whose heels, as he walked, jingled a glinting pair of spurs. +</P> + +<P> +From the small corral he was leading forth as handsome an animal as +Beth had ever seen, already saddled, bridled—and blindfolded. The +horse was a chestnut, magnificently sculptured and muscled. He was of +medium size, and as trim and hard as a nail. His coat fairly glistened +in the sun. +</P> + +<P> +Despite his beauty there was something about him that betokened menace. +It was not altogether that the men all stood away—all save Van—nor +yet that the need for a blindfold argued danger in his composition. +There was something acutely disquieting in the backward folding of his +ears, the quiver of his sinews, the reluctant manner of his stepping. +</P> + +<P> +Beth did not and could not know that an "outlaw" is a horse so utterly +abandoned to ways of broncho crime and equine deviltry that no man is +able to break him—that having conquered man after man, perhaps even +with fatal results to his riders, he has become absolutely depraved and +impossible of submission. She only knew that her heart was beating +rapidly, painfully, that her breath came in gasps, that her whole +nervous system was involved in some manner of anguish. She saw the +Chinese cook run past to witness the game, but all her faculties were +focused on the man and horse—both sinister, tense, and grim. +</P> + +<P> +Van had not turned in Beth's direction. He was wholly unaware of her +presence. He halted when the horse was well out towards the center of +the open, and the outlaw braced awkwardly, as if to receive an attack. +</P> + +<P> +With the bridle reins held in his hand at the pommel of the saddle, Van +stood for a moment by the chestnut's side, then, with incredible +celerity of movement, suddenly placed his foot in the stirrup and was +up and well seated before the blinded pony could have moved. +</P> + +<P> +Nothing happened. No one made a sound. No one, apparently, save Beth, +had expected anything to happen. She felt a rush of relief—that came +prematurely. +</P> + +<P> +Van now leaned forward, as the horse remained stiffly braced, and +slipping the blindfold from the pony's eyes, sat back in the saddle +alertly. +</P> + +<P> +Even then the chestnut did not move. He had gone through this ordeal +many times before. He had often been mounted—but not for long at a +time. He had even been exhausted by a stubborn "broncho buster"—some +hardy human burr who could ride a crazy comet—but always he had won in +the end. In a word he had earned his sobriquet, which in broncho-land +is never lightly bestowed. +</P> + +<P> +Van was not in the least deceived. However, he was eager for the +conflict to begin. He had no time to waste. He snatched off his hat, +let out a wild, shrill yell, dug with his spurs and struck the animal a +resounding slap on the flank, that, like a fulminate, suddenly +detonated the pent-up explosives in the beast. +</P> + +<P> +He "lit into" bucking of astounding violence with the quickness of +dynamite. +</P> + +<P> +It was terrific. For a moment Beth saw nothing but a mad grotesquerie +of horse and man, almost ludicrously unnatural, and crazed with +eccentric motion. +</P> + +<P> +The horse shot up in the air like a loose, distorted piece of statuary, +blown from its pedestal by some gigantic disturbance. He appeared to +buckle in his mid-air leap like a bended thing of metal, then dropped +to the earth, stiff-legged as an iron image, to bound up again with mad +and furious gyrations that seemed to the girl to twist both horse and +rider into one live mass of incongruity, +</P> + +<P> +He struck like a ruin, falling from the sky, went up again with +demon-like activity, once more descended—once more hurtled wildly +aloft—and repeated this maneuver with a swiftness utterly bewildering. +</P> + +<P> +Had some diabolical wind, together with a huge, volcanic force, taken +insane possession of the animal, to fire him skyward, whirl him about, +thrash him down viciously and fling him up again, time after time, he +could not have churned with greater violence. +</P> + +<P> +He never came down in the same place twice, but he always came down +stiff-legged. The jolt was sickening. All about, in a narrow, +earth-cut circle he bucked, beginning to grunt and warm to his work and +hence to increase the deviltry and malice of his actions. +</P> + +<P> +Van had yelled but that once. He saw nothing, knew nothing, save a +dizzy world, abruptly gone crazy about him. +</P> + +<P> +To Beth it seemed as if the horror would never have an end. One +glimpse she had of Van's white face, but nothing could it tell of his +strength or the lack thereof. She felt she must look and look till he +was killed. There could be no other issue, she was sure. And for +herself there could be no escape from the awful fascination of the +merciless brute, inflicting this torture on the man. +</P> + +<P> +It did end, however, rather unexpectedly—that particular phase of the +conflict. The horse grew weary of the effort, made in vain, to +dislodge the stubborn torment on his back. He changed the program with +the deadliest of all a broncho's tricks. +</P> + +<P> +Pausing for the briefest part of a second, while Van must certainly +have been reeling with hideous motion and jolt, the chestnut quickly +reared on high, to drop himself clean over backwards. It was thus that +once he had crushed the life from a rider. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" screamed Both, and she sank beside the tree. +</P> + +<P> +The men all yelled. They were furious and afraid. +</P> + +<P> +With hoofs wildly flaying the air, while he loomed tall and unreal in +such an attitude, the broncho hung for a moment in mid-poise, then +dropped over sheer—as if to be shattered into fragments. +</P> + +<P> +But a mass of the bronze-like group was detached, and fell to one side, +on its thigh. It was Van. He had seen what was coming in time. +</P> + +<P> +Instantly up, as the brute rolled quickly to arise, he leaped in the +saddle, the horn of which had snapped, and he and the chestnut came +erect together, as if miraculously the equestrian group had been +restored. +</P> + +<P> +"Yi! Yi!" he yelled, like the madman he was—mad with the heat of the +fight—and he dug in his spurs with vicious might. +</P> + +<P> +Back to it wildly, with fury increased, the broncho leaped responsively. +</P> + +<P> +Here, there, all the field over, the demon thrashed, catapulting +incredibly. He tried new tricks, invented new volcanics of motion, +developed new whirlwinds of violence. +</P> + +<P> +Once more, then, as he had on the first occasion, the beast reared up +and fell backward to the earth. Once more Van dropped away from his +bulk and caught him before he could rise. This time, however, he did +not immediately mount—and the men went running to his side. +</P> + +<P> +"Fer God's sake, boy, let me kill the brute!" cried Gettysburg taking +up a club. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll shoot him! I'll shoot him! I'll shoot him!" said Napoleon +wildly, but without any weapon in his hands. +</P> + +<P> +Beth beheld and heard it all. She was once more standing rigidly by +her tree, unable to move or speak. She wished to run to Van as the men +had run, but not to slay the broncho—only to beg the horseman not to +mount again. +</P> + +<P> +She saw him push the men away and stand like the broncho's guard. His +face was streaked with blood—his blood—jolted alike from his mouth +and nose by the shocks to which he had been subjected. +</P> + +<P> +"Let the horse alone!" he commanded roughly. "Good stuff in this +broncho—somewhere. Get me a bottle of water, right away—a big +one—get it full." +</P> + +<P> +His partners started at once to raise objections. The Indian stood by +stolidly looking on. +</P> + +<P> +"You can't go no further. Van, you can't——" started Gettysburg. +</P> + +<P> +"Sominagot! Una ma, hong oy! Una ca see fut!" said the Chinese-cook, +swearing vehemently in the language likeliest to count, and he ran at +once towards the kitchen. +</P> + +<P> +Van was replacing the blindfold on the broncho's eyes. The animal was +panting, sweating, quivering in every muscle. His ears went backward +and forward rapidly. The blindfold shut out a wild, unreasoning +challenge and defiance that burned like a torch in his eyes. +</P> + +<P> +Algy came running with a big bottle, filled and corked. +</P> + +<P> +"Fer God's sake, leave me kill him!" Gettysburg was repeating +automatically. "Van, if you ain't got no respect fer yourself, ain't +you got none left fer us old doggone cusses?" +</P> + +<P> +"Give me the bottle, Algy," Van replied. "You're the only game sport +on the ranch." +</P> + +<P> +Still he did not discover Beth. His attentions were engrossed by the +horse. He was dizzy, dazed, but a dogged master still of his forces. +Up he mounted to the saddle again, the bottle held firmly in his grasp. +</P> + +<P> +"Slip off the blinder," he said to his friends, and Algy it was who +obeyed. +</P> + +<P> +"Damn you, now you buck!" cried Van wildly, and his heels ignited the +volcano. +</P> + +<P> +For five solid minutes the broncho redoubled his scheme of demoniac +fury. Then he poised, let out a shrill scream of challenge, and +abruptly raised to repeat the backward fall. +</P> + +<P> +Up, up he went, an ungainly sight, and then—the heavens split in twain. +</P> + +<P> +He was only well lifted from the earth when, with a thunderous, +terrible blow, Van crashed the bottle downward, fairly between his +ears, and burst it on his skull. +</P> + +<P> +The weapon was shattered with a frightening thud. Red pieces of glass +and streaming water poured in a cataract down across the broncho's eyes +as if very doom itself had suddenly cracked. A cataclysm could not +have been more horrible. An indescribable fright and awe overwhelmed +the brutish mind as with a cloud of lead. +</P> + +<P> +Down swiftly he dropped to his proper position, perhaps with a fear +that his crown was gaping open from impact with the sky. He was +stunned by the blow upon his brain, and weakened in every fiber. He +started to run, in terror of the thing, and the being still solid in +the saddle. Wildly he went around the cove, in the panic of utter +defeat. +</P> + +<P> +The men began to cheer, their voices choked and hoarse. Van rode now +as fate might ride the very devil. He spurred the horse to furious, +exhausting speed, guiding him wildly around the mountain theater. +Again and again they circled the grassy arena, till foam and lather +whitened the broncho's flank, chest, and mouth, and his nostril burned +red as living flame. +</P> + +<P> +When at last the animal, weary and undone, would have sobered down to a +trot or walk, Van forced him anew to crazy speed. At least five miles +he drove him thus, till the broncho's sides, like the rider's face, +were red with blood mingled with sweat. +</P> + +<P> +Beth, at the climax, had gone down suddenly, leaning against the tree. +She had not fainted, but was far too weak to stand. Her eyes only +moved. She watched the two, that seemed welded into one, go racing +madly against fatigue. +</P> + +<P> +At last she beheld the look of the conquered—the utter surrender of +the broken and subdued—gleam dully from the wilted pony's eyes. She +pitied the animal she had feared and hated but a few brief moments +before. She began to think that the man was perhaps the brute, after +all, to ride the exhausted creature thus without a sign of mercy. +</P> + +<P> +She rose to her feet as the two came at last to a halt, master and +servant, conquered and conqueror, man and quivering beast. +</P> + +<P> +Then Van got down, and her heart, that had pitied the horse, welled +with deeper feeling for the rider. She had never in her life seen a +face so drawn, so utterly haggard beneath a mask of red as that +presented by the horseman. +</P> + +<P> +Van nearly fell, but would not fall, and instead stood trembling, his +arm by natural inclination now circling the neck of the pony. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Suvy," he said not ungently, "we gave each other hell. +Hereafter we're going to be friends." +</P> + +<P> +Beth heard him. She also saw the chestnut turn and regard the man with +a look of appeal and dumb questioning in his eyes that choked her—with +joy and compassion together. She someway knew that this man and horse +would be comrades while they lived. +</P> + +<P> +Half an hour afterward as she, Van, and Elsa rode forward as before, +she saw the man in affection pat the broncho on the neck. And the +horse pricked his ears in a newfound gladness in service and friendship +that his nature could not yet comprehend. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VII +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +AN EXCHANGE OF QUESTIONS +</H3> + +<P> +Youth is elastic, and Van was young. An hour of quiet riding restored +him astoundingly. He bore no signs of fatigue that Beth could detect +upon his face. Once more, as he had in the morning, he was riding ahead +in the trail, apparently all but oblivious of the two anxious women in +his charge. +</P> + +<P> +They had wound far downward through a canyon, and now at length were +emerging on a sagebrush slope that lowered to the valley. Van halted for +Beth to ride to his side, and onward they continued together. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose you have friends to whom you are going in Goldite," he said, +"—or at least there's someone you know." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," she answered, "my brother." +</P> + +<P> +Van looked at her in his quizzical way, observing: +</P> + +<P> +"I don't believe I know him." +</P> + +<P> +Her glance was almost one of laughter. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, how can you tell? You don't even know his name." She paused, then +added quietly: "It's Glenmore Kent." She felt he had a right to know not +only her brother's name, but also her own, if only for what he had done. +"You might, of course, know him after all," she concluded. "He has quite +a number of acquaintances." +</P> + +<P> +"Kent," said Van. To himself it was "Beth Kent" he was saying. "No, +guess not. No such luck, but I hope you'll find him in the camp." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think I may not?" She was just a trifle startled by the +possibility. +</P> + +<P> +He was grave for once. +</P> + +<P> +"Men come and go in a mining town, where everyone's unduly excited. If +he isn't on deck, then have you no one else? Have you any alternative +plan?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, no," she confessed, her alarm increasing, "not unless Mr. Bostwick +has arrived and arranged our accommodations." +</P> + +<P> +"I wouldn't count on Searle," drawled Van significantly. "He may have to +walk." +</P> + +<P> +"Not across the awful desert?" +</P> + +<P> +"If he goes around he'll be longer." +</P> + +<P> +"Why—but——" she gasped, "there is nothing to eat—no water—there +isn't anything on the desert, is there?—anywhere?" +</P> + +<P> +He was looking intently into the deep brown depths of her eyes as he +answered: +</P> + +<P> +"There's so little to eat that the chipmunks have to fetch in their +lunches." +</P> + +<P> +Beth continued to gaze upon him. If she noted the lights of laughter +lying soberly subdued in his eyes, she also discerned something more, +that affected her oddly. Despite the horseman's treatment of her +escort—a treatment she confessed he had partially deserved—and despite +the lightness of his speeches, she felt certain of the depth of his +nature, convinced of the genuine earnestness of his purposes—the honesty +and worth of his friendship. +</P> + +<P> +She knew she was tremendously indebted for all he had done and was doing, +but aside from all that, in her heart of hearts she admired bravery, +courage, and a dash of boldness more than anything else in the world. +She was not yet certain, however, whether the man at her side was brave +or merely reckless, courageous, or indifferent to danger, bold or merely +audacious. She knew nothing about him whatsoever, nothing except he must +be tired, lame, and bruised from exertions undertaken in her behalf. It +had been a long, long day. She felt as if they had known each other +always—and had always been friends. +</P> + +<P> +Her mind went back to the morning as if to an era of the past. The +thought of the convicts who had captured Bostwick aroused new +apprehensions in her breast, though not for the man with the car. +Someway Searle seemed strangely far away and dimmed in her regard. She +was thinking of what she had overheard, back there at the Monte Cristo +mine. +</P> + +<P> +"This has been a trying day," she said, apparently ignoring Van's last +observation. "You have taken a great deal of trouble for—for us—and we +appreciate it fully." +</P> + +<P> +Van said gravely: "Taking trouble is the only fun I have." +</P> + +<P> +"You laugh at everything," she answered, "but isn't it really a serious +thing—a menace to everyone—having those convicts out of prison?" +</P> + +<P> +"It isn't going to be a knitting-bee, rounding them up," Van admitted. +"And meantime they're going to be exacting of everyone they meet." +</P> + +<P> +She looked at him half seriously, but altogether brightly. +</P> + +<P> +"And what if they chance to meet you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, we'd exchange courtesies, I reckon." +</P> + +<P> +She had no intention of confessing how much she had overheard, but she +was tremendously interested—almost fearful for the man's safety, she +hardly dared ask herself why. She approached her subject artfully. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know them, then?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, yes, the leader—slightly," he answered. "I sent him up for +murder, stealing cattle, and robbing sluices. He was too annoying to +have around." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! Then won't he feel ugly, resentful?" she inquired earnestly. +"Won't he try to hunt you up—and pay you back?" +</P> + +<P> +Van regarded her calmly. +</P> + +<P> +"He told me to expect my pay—if ever he escaped—and he's doubtless got +his check-book along." +</P> + +<P> +"His check-book?" +</P> + +<P> +"Colt—forty-four," Van drawled by way of explanation. +</P> + +<P> +She turned a trifle pale. +</P> + +<P> +"He'd shoot you on sight?" +</P> + +<P> +"If he sighted me first." +</P> + +<P> +Her breath came hard. She realized that the quiet-seeming horseman at +her side would kill a fellow-being—this convict, at least—as readily as +he might destroy a snake. +</P> + +<P> +"How long ago did you put him in jail?" she inquired. +</P> + +<P> +"Four years ago this summer." +</P> + +<P> +"Have you always lived here—out West?" +</P> + +<P> +"I've lived every day I've been here," he answered evasively. "Do I look +like a native?" +</P> + +<P> +She laughed. "Oh, I don't know. We came here straight from New York, a +week ago, Elsa and I. Mr. Bostwick joined us two days later. I really +know nothing of the country at all." +</P> + +<P> +"New York," he said, and relapsed into silent meditation. How far away +seemed old New Amsterdam! How long seemed the brief six years since he +had started forth with his youthful health, his strength, determination, +boyish dreams, and small inheritance to build up a fortune in the West! +What a mixture of sunshine and failure it had been! What glittering +hopes had lured him hither and yon in the mountains, where each great +gateway of adventure had charged its heavy toll! +</P> + +<P> +He had lost practically all of his money; he had gained his all of +manhood. He had suffered privation and hardship; he had known the vast +comfort of friends—true friends, as certain as the very heart in his +breast to serve him to the end. +</P> + +<P> +Like a panoramic dream he beheld a swift procession of mine-and-cattle +scenes troop past for swift review. He lived again whole months of +nights spent out alone beneath the sky, with the snow and the wind hurled +down upon him from a merciless firmament of bleakness. Once more he +stumbled blindly forward in the desert—he and Gettysburg—perishing for +water, giving up their liquid souls to the horribly naked and insatiate +sun. Again he toiled in the shaft of a mine till his back felt like a +crackly thing of glass with each aching fissure going deeper. +</P> + +<P> +Once more the gold goddess beckoned with her smile, and fortune was +there, almost in reach—the fortune that he and his partners had sought +so doggedly, so patiently—the fortune for which they had starved and +delved and suffered—only to see it vanish in the air as the sunshine +will vanish from a peak. +</P> + +<P> +Old hopes, like ghosts, went skulking by, vain charlatans, ashamed. But +friendships stood about in every scene—bright presences that cast a +roseate glow on all the tribulations of his life. And it seemed as if a +failure here was half a failure only, after all. It had not robbed him +either of his youth, his strength, or a certain boyish credulity and +trust in all his kind. He still believed he should win his golden goal, +and he loved the land that had tried him. +</P> + +<P> +His last, his biggest venture, the Monte Cristo mine was, however, +gone—everything sold to meet the company debts. Nevertheless, he had +once more purchased a claim, with all but his very last dollar in the +world, and he and his partners would soon be on the ground, assaulting +the stubborn adamant with powder, pick, and drill, in the fever of the +miner's ceaseless dream. +</P> + +<P> +To-day, as he rode beside the girl, he wondered at it all—why he had +labored so persistently. The faint, far-off shadow of a sweetheart, long +since left behind, failed to supply him a motive. She had grown +impatient, listened to a suitor more tangible than Van's absent self, and +so, blamelessly, had faded from his scheme of hopes, leaving no more than +a fragrance in his thoughts, with certainly no bitterness or anger. +</P> + +<P> +"Old New York," he repeated, at the end of his reverie, and meeting once +more the steady brown eyes of the girl with whom the fates had thrown +him, he fetched up promptly with the present. +</P> + +<P> +"How long has your brother been out here in Goldite?" +</P> + +<P> +"About a month," she answered. "He's been in the West for nearly a year, +and wrote Mr. Bostwick to come." +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Bostwick is doubtless a very particular friend of your family." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, yes, he's my—— That is, he <I>was</I>—he always has been a very +particular friend—for several years," she faltered suddenly turning red. +"We haven't any family, Glen and I—and he's my half brother only—but +we're just like chums—-and that was why I wanted to come. I expect to +surprise him. He doesn't know I'm here." +</P> + +<P> +Van was silent and she presently added: +</P> + +<P> +"I hope you and Glen will be friends. I know how much he'll wish to +thank you." +</P> + +<P> +He looked at her gravely. +</P> + +<P> +"I hope he won't. It's up to me to thank him." +</P> + +<P> +They had come to a road at the level of the valley—a desert valley, +treeless, grassless, gray, and desolate. The sun was rapidly nearing the +rim of the mountains, as if to escape pursuit of a monstrous bank of +clouds. +</P> + +<P> +Van spurred his chestnut to a gallop, and the horses bearing the women +responded with no further need of urging. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VIII +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A NIGHT'S EXPENSES +</H3> + +<P> +From Karrish to Goldite by the road was twenty-seven miles. There were +fifteen mile of bottles by the way—all of them empty. A blind man +with a nose for glass could have smelled out the trail unerringly +across that desert stretch. Karrish was the nearest town for a very +great distance around. +</P> + +<P> +Over the road innumerable caravans were passing. Everything was +rushing to Goldite. There were horsemen, hurried persons on foot, men +in carriages and autos, twenty-horse freight teams, and men on tiny +burros. Nearly all were shedding bottles as they went. A waterless +land is not necessarily devoid of all manner of moisture. +</P> + +<P> +A dozen of the slowly laboring freight outfits were passed by Van and +his two companions. What engines of toil they represented! The ten +pairs of sweating, straining animals seemed almost like some giant +caterpillar, harnessed to a burden on wheels. They always dragged +three wagons, two of which were huge gray hulks, incredibly heavy with +giant-powder, canned goods, bottled goods, picks, shovels, bedding, +hay, great mining machinery, and house-hold articles. These wagons +were hitched entrain. The third wagon, termed a "trailer," was small +and loaded merely with provisions for the teamster and the team. The +whole thing, from end to end, beat up a stifling cloud of dust. +</P> + +<P> +The sun went down while Beth, Van, and Elsa were still five miles from +their goal. They rode as rapidly as possible. The horses, however, +were jaded, and the way was slightly up grade. The twilight was brief. +It descended abruptly from the western bank of clouds, by now as thick +and dark as mud. Afar off shone the first faint light of the gold-camp +to which the three were riding. This glimmering ray was two miles out +from the center of town. Goldite was spread in a circle four miles +wide, and the most of it was isolated tents. +</P> + +<P> +The darkness shut down like a pall. A vivid, vicious bolt of +lightning—a fiery serpent, overcharged with might—struck down upon +the mountain tops, pouring liquid flame upon the rocks. A sweeping +gust of wind came raging down upon the town, hurling dust and gravel on +the travelers. +</P> + +<P> +Van rode ahead like a spirit of the storm. He knew the need for haste. +Beth simply let her pony go. She was cramped and far too wearied for +effort. +</P> + +<P> +They were galloping now past the outskirts of the camp, the many +scattered tents of the men who were living on their claims. All the +world was a land of claims, staked off with tall white posts, like +ghosts in the vanishing light. Ahead, a multitude of lights had +suddenly broken on the travelers' vision, like a nearby constellation +of stars. +</P> + +<P> +They rode into all of it, blazing lights, eager crowds upon the +streets, noise of atrocious music from the brilliant saloons, and rush +of wind and dust, not a minute too soon. They had barely alighted and +surrendered their horses to a friend of Van's when the rain from the +hilltops swooped upon the camp in a fury that seemed like an elemental +threat to sweep all the place, with its follies, hopes, and woes, its +excitements, lawlessness, and struggles, from the face of the barren +desert world. +</P> + +<P> +Beth and her maid were lame and numb. Van could only hustle them +inside a grocery-and-hardware store to save them from a drenching. The +store was separated from a gambling-hall saloon by the flimsiest board +partition. Odors of alcohol, confusion of voices, and calls of a +gamester came unimpeded to the women's senses, together with some +mighty bad singing, accompanied lustily by strains and groans pounded +from a ghastly piano. +</P> + +<P> +"Sit down," said Van, inverting a tub at the feet of the wondering +women. "I'll see if I can rustle up your brother." +</P> + +<P> +He went out in the rain, dived impartially into the first of the +crowded saloons, was somewhat hilariously greeted by a score of +convivial fellows, found no one who knew of young Glen Kent, and +proceeded on to the next. +</P> + +<P> +The horseman was well and favorably known in all directions. He was +eagerly cornered wheresoever he appeared by a lot of fellows who were +friends to little purpose, in an actual test. However, he clung to his +mission with commendable tenacity of purpose, and kept upon his way. +Thus he discovered at length, when he visited the bank—an institution +that rarely closed before ten o'clock in the evening—that Kent had +been gone for the past two weeks, no one knew where, but somewhere out +south, with a party. +</P> + +<P> +There was nothing to do after that but to look for fit apartments for +the gently reared girl and her maid. Hunting a needle in the ocean +would have been a somewhat similar task. Van went at once at the +business, with his customary spirit. He was presently informed there +was nothing resembling a room or a bed to be had in all the place. A +hundred men would walk the streets or sleep in chairs that night. The +one apartment suitable for two lone women to occupy had been secured +the previous day by "Plunger" Trask, an Eastern young man who would bet +that grass was not green. +</P> + +<P> +Van searched for Trask and found him "cashing in" a lot of assorted +chips, representing his winnings at a faro game at which he had been +"bucking." +</P> + +<P> +"Hello, there, Van," he said familiarly as the horseman touched him on +the shoulder. "Come and have a drink." +</P> + +<P> +"My teeth are floating now from drink," said Van, "but I'll take +something else if you say so. I want your apartments for the night." +</P> + +<P> +"Say, wire me!" answered the plunger. "That's the cutest little bunch +of nerve I ever saw off the Bowery! How much money have you got in +your clothes?" +</P> + +<P> +"About forty-five dollars," said Van. "Is it good?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not as a price, but O.K. in a flip," said Trask, with an itch for +schemes of chance. "I'll throw you the dice, my room against your +forty-five—and the devil take your luck if you win!" +</P> + +<P> +Van agreed. They borrowed a box of dice, threw three times apiece—and +the horseman paid over his money. +</P> + +<P> +"There you are, old man," said the plunger cheerfully. "Satisfied, I +hope." +</P> + +<P> +"Not quite," said Van. "I'll owe you forty-five more and throw you +again." +</P> + +<P> +"Right ho!" responded Trask. "Go as far as you like." +</P> + +<P> +They shook again. Van lost as before. He borrowed again, +undiscouraged. For the third time they cast the little cubes of +uncertainty and this time Van actually won. The room was his to +dispose of as he pleased. It had cost him ninety dollars for the night. +</P> + +<P> +In his pocket he had cautiously retained a little money—seven and +one-half dollars, to be accurate. He returned to Beth, informed her of +all he had discovered concerning her brother, took herself and Elsa to +dine in the camp's one presentable restaurant, paid nearly seven +dollars for the meal, and gave what remained to the waiter. +</P> + +<P> +Then Beth, who had never in her life been so utterly exhausted, +resigned herself to Elsa's care, bade Van good-night, and left him +standing in the rain before the door, gallant, and smiling to the end. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IX +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +PROGRESS AND SALT +</H3> + +<P> +Goldite, by the light of day, presented a wonderful spectacle. It was +a mining camp positively crystallizing into being before the very eyes +of all beholders. It was nearly all tents and canvas structures—a +heterogeneous mixture of incompleteness and modernity to which the +telegraph wires had already been strung from the outside world. It had +no fair supply of water, but it did have a newspaper, issued once a +week. +</P> + +<P> +A dozen new buildings, flimsy, cheap affairs, were growing like +toadstools, day and night. Several brick buildings, and shacks of mud, +were rising side by side. Everywhere the scene was one of crowds, +activity, and hurry. Thousands of men were in the one straight street, +a roughly dressed, excited throng, gold-bitten, eager, and open-handed. +Hundreds of mules and horses, a few bewildered cows, herds of great +wagons, buggies, heaps of household goods, and trunks, with +fortifications of baled hay and grain, were crowded into two great +corrals, where dusty teamsters hastened hotly about, amidst heaps of +dusty harness, sacks of precious ore and the feed troughs for the +beasts. +</P> + +<P> +Beth had slept profoundly, despite the all-night plague of noises, +penetrating vividly through the shell-like walls of the house. She was +out with Elsa at an early hour, amazingly refreshed and absorbingly +interested in all she heard and saw. The sky was clear, but a chill +wind blew down from the mountains, flapping canvas walls in all +directions. +</P> + +<P> +The building wherein the women had rested was a wooden lodging house, +set barely back from the one business street of the camp. Next door +was a small, squat domicile constructed of bottles and mud. The +bottles were laid in the "mortar" with their ends protruding. Near by, +at the rear of a prosperous saloon, was a pyramid of empty bottles, +fully ten feet high—enough to build a little church. +</P> + +<P> +Drawn onward by the novelty of all the scene, Beth crossed the main +street—already teeming with horses, wagons, and men—and proceeded +over towards a barren hill, followed demurely by her maid. The hill +was like a torn-up battlefield, trenched, and piled with earthworks of +defense, for man the impetuous had already flung up great gray dumps of +rock, broken and wrenched from the bulk of the slope, where he quested +for gleaming yellow metal. He had ripped out the adamant—the matrix +of the gold—for as far as Beth could see. Like ant-heaps of +tremendous dimensions stood these monuments of toil—rock-writings, +telling of the heat and desire, the madness of man to be rich. +</P> + +<P> +The world about was one of rocks and treeless ridges, spewed from some +vast volcanic forge of ages past. It was all a hard, gray, adamantine +world, unlovely and severe—a huge old gold furnace, minus heat or +fire, lying neglected in a universe of mountains that might have been a +workshop in the ancient days when Titans wrought their arts upon the +earth. +</P> + +<P> +Beth gazed upon it all in wonder not unmingled with awe. What a place +it was for man to live and wage his puny battles! Yet the fever of all +of it, rising in her veins, made her eager already to partake of the +dream, the excitement that made mere gold-slaves of the men who had +come here compelling this forbidding place to yield up some measure of +comfort and become in a manner their home. +</P> + +<P> +Van, in the meanwhile, having spent the time till midnight on his feet, +and the small hours asleep on a bale of hay, was early abroad, engaged +in various directions. He first proceeded to the largest general store +in the camp and ordered a generous bill of supplies to be sent to his +newest claim. Next he arranged with a friendly teamster for the prompt +return of the two borrowed horses on which Beth and her maid had come +to camp. Then, on his way to an assayer's office, where samples of +rock from the claim in question had been left for the test of fire, he +encountered a homely, little, dried-up woman who was scooting about +from store to store with astonishing celerity of motion. +</P> + +<P> +"Tottering angels!" said he. "Mrs. Dick!" +</P> + +<P> +"Hello—just a minute," said the lively little woman, and she dived +inside the newest building and was out almost immediately with a great +sack of plunder that she jerked about with most diverting energy. +</P> + +<P> +"Here, fetch this down to the house," she demanded imperiously. +"What's the good of my finding you here in Goldite if you don't do +nothing for your country?" +</P> + +<P> +Van shouldered the sack. +</P> + +<P> +"What are you doing here anyhow?" said he, "—up before breakfast and +busy as a hen scratching for one chicken." +</P> + +<P> +"Come on," she answered, starting briskly towards a new white building, +off the main thoroughfare, eastward. "I live here—start my +boarding-house today. I'm going to get rich. Every room's furnished +and every bed wanted as fast as I can make 'em up. Have you had your +breakfast?" +</P> + +<P> +"Say, you're my Indian," answered Van. "I've got you two customers +already. You've got to take them in and give them your best if you +turn someone else inside out to do it." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Dick paused suddenly. +</P> + +<P> +"Bronson Van Buren! You're stuck on some woman at last!" +</P> + +<P> +"At last?" said Van. "Haven't I always been stuck after you?" +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Dick resumed her brisk locomotion. +</P> + +<P> +"Snakes alive!" she concluded explosively. "She's respectable, of +course? But you said two. Now see here, Van, no Mormon games with me!" +</P> + +<P> +"Her <I>maid</I>—it's her maid that's with her," Van explained. "Don't +jump down my throat till I grease it." +</P> + +<P> +"Her maid!" Mrs. Dick said no more as to that. The way she said it +was enough. They had come to the door of her newly finished house, a +clean, home-like place from which a fragrance of preparing breakfast +flowed like a ravishing nectar. "Where are they now?" she demanded +impatiently. "Wherever they are it ain't fit for a horse! Why don't +you go and fetch 'em?" +</P> + +<P> +Van put the bag inside the door, then his hands on Mrs. Dick's +shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll bet your mother was a little red firecracker and your father a +bottle of seltzer," he said. Then off he went for Beth. +</P> + +<P> +She was not, of course, at "home" when he arrived at the place he had +found the previous evening. Disturbed for a moment by her absence, he +presently discerned her, off there westward on the hill from which she +was making a survey of the camp. +</P> + +<P> +Three minutes after he was climbing up the slope and she turned and +looked downward upon him. +</P> + +<P> +"By heavens!" he said beneath his breath, "—what beauty!" +</P> + +<P> +The breeze was molding her dress upon her rounded form till she seemed +like the statue of a goddess—a goddess of freedom, loveliness, and +joy, sculptured in the living flesh—a figure vibrant with glowing +health and youth, startlingly set in the desert's gray austerity. With +the sunlight flinging its gold and riches upon her, what a marvel of +color she presented!—such creamy white and changing rose-tints in her +cheeks—such a wonderful brown in her hair and eyes—such crimson of +lips that parted in a smile over even little jewels of teeth! And she +smiled on the horseman, tall, and active, coming to find her on the +hill. +</P> + +<P> +"Good morning!" she cried. "Oh, isn't it wonderful—so big, and bare, +and <I>clean</I>!" +</P> + +<P> +Van smiled. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a hungry-looking country to me—looks as if it has eaten all the +trees. If it makes you think of breakfast, or just plain coffee and +rolls, I've found a place I hope you'll like, with a friend I didn't +know was here." +</P> + +<P> +"You are very kind, I'm sure," she said. "I'm afraid we're a great +deal of trouble." +</P> + +<P> +"That's what women were made for," he answered her frankly, a bright, +dancing light in his eyes. "They couldn't help it if they would, and I +guess they wouldn't if they could." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, indeed?" She shot him a quick glance, half a challenge. "I +<I>guess</I> if you don't mind we won't go to the place you've found, for +breakfast, this morning." +</P> + +<P> +"You'd better guess again," he answered, and taking her arm, in a +masterful way that bereft her of the power of speech or resistance, he +marched her briskly down the slope and straight towards Mrs. Dick's. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank your stars you've struck a place like this," he said. "If you +don't I'll have to thank them for you." +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps I ought to thank you first," she ventured smilingly. It would +have seemed absurd to resent his boyish ways. +</P> + +<P> +"You may," he said, "when I get to be one of your stars." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, really? Why defer mere thanks <I>indefinitely</I>?" +</P> + +<P> +"It won't be indefinitely, and besides, thanks will keep—and breakfast +won't." +</P> + +<P> +He entered the house, with Beth and her maid humbly trailing at his +heels. Mrs. Dick came bustling from the kitchen like a busy little +ant. Van introduced his charges briefly. Mrs. Dick shook hands with +them both. +</P> + +<P> +"Well!" she said, "I like you after all! And it's lucky I do, for if I +didn't I don't know's I should take you or not, even if Van did say I +had to." +</P> + +<P> +Van took her by the shoulders and shook her boyishly. +</P> + +<P> +"You'd take a stick of dynamite and a house afire, both in one hand, if +I said so," he announced. "Now don't get hostile." +</P> + +<P> +"Well—I s'pose I would," agreed Mrs. Dick. She added to Beth: "Ain't +he the dickens and all? Just regular brute strength. Come right +upstairs till I show you where you're put. I've turned off two men to +let you have the best room in the house." +</P> + +<P> +Beth had to smile. She had never felt so helpless in her life—or so +amused. She followed Mrs. Dick obediently, finding the two-bed room +above to be a bright, new-smelling apartment of acceptable size and +situation. In answer to a score of rapid-fire questions on the part of +Mrs. Dick, she imparted as much as Van already knew concerning herself +and her quest. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Dick became her friend forthwith, then hastened downstairs to the +kitchen. Van and Beth presently took breakfast together, while Elsa, +with a borrowed needle and thread, was busied with some minor repairing +of garments roughly used the day before. Other boarders and lodgers of +the house had already eaten and gone, to resume their swirl in the +maelstrom of the camp. +</P> + +<P> +For a time the two thus left alone in the dining-room appeased their +appetites in silence. Van watched the face of the girl for a time and +finally spoke. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll let you know whatever I hear about your brother, if there is any +more to hear. Meantime you'll have to remain here and wait." +</P> + +<P> +She was silent for a moment, reflecting on, the situation. +</P> + +<P> +"You took my suitcase away from Mr. Bostwick, you'll remember," she +said, "and left it where we got the horses." +</P> + +<P> +"It will be here to-day," he answered. "I arranged for that with Dave." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh. But of course you cannot tell when Mr. Bostwick may appear." +</P> + +<P> +"His movements couldn't be arranged so conveniently, otherwise he +wouldn't appear at all." +</P> + +<P> +She glanced at him, startled. +</P> + +<P> +"Not come at all? But I need him! Besides, he's my—— I expect him +to go and find my brother. And the trunk checks are all in his +pocket—wait!—no they're not, they're in my suitcase after all." +</P> + +<P> +"You're in luck," he assured her blandly, "for Searle has doubtless +lost all his pockets." +</P> + +<P> +"Lost his pockets?" she echoed. "Perhaps you mean the convicts took +them—took his clothing—everything he had." +</P> + +<P> +"Everything except his pleasant manner," Van agreed. "They have plenty +of that of their own." +</P> + +<P> +She was lost for a moment in reflection. +</P> + +<P> +"Poor Searle! Poor Mr. Bostwick!" +</P> + +<P> +Van drank the last of his coffee. +</P> + +<P> +"Was Searle the only man you knew in all New York?" +</P> + +<P> +She colored. "Certainly not. Of course not. Why do you ask such a +question?" +</P> + +<P> +"I was trying to understand the situation, but I give it up." He +looked in her eyes with mock gravity, and she colored. +</P> + +<P> +She understood precisely what he meant—the situation between herself +and Bostwick, to whom, she feared, she had half confessed herself +engaged. She started three times to make a reply, but halted each +answer for a better. +</P> + +<P> +"You don't like Mr. Bostwick," she finally observed. +</P> + +<P> +Van told her gravely: "I like him like the old woman kept tavern." +</P> + +<P> +She could not entirely repress a smile. +</P> + +<P> +"And how did she keep it—the tavern?" +</P> + +<P> +"Like hell," said Van. He rose to go, adding; "You like him about that +way yourself—since yesterday." +</P> + +<P> +Her eyes had been sparkling, but now they snapped. +</P> + +<P> +"Why—how can you speak so rudely? You know that isn't true! You know +I like—admire Mr. Bost—— You haven't any right to say a thing like +that—no matter what you may have done for me!" +</P> + +<P> +She too had risen. She faced him glowingly. +</P> + +<P> +He suddenly took both her hands and held them in a firm, warm clasp +from which there could be no escape. +</P> + +<P> +"Beth," he said audaciously, "you are never going to marry that man." +</P> + +<P> +She was struggling vainly to be free. Her face was crimson. +</P> + +<P> +"Let me go!" she demanded. "Mr. Van—you let me go! I don't see how +you dare to say a thing like that. I don't know why——" +</P> + +<P> +"You can't marry Searle," he interrupted, "because you are going to +marry me." +</P> + +<P> +He raised her hands to his lips and kissed them both. +</P> + +<P> +"Be back by and by," he added, and off he went, through the kitchen, +leaving Beth by the table speechless, burning and confused, with a +hundred wild emotions in her heart. +</P> + +<P> +He continued out at the rear of the place, where little Mrs. Dick was +valiantly tugging at two large buckets of water. He relieved her of +the burden. +</P> + +<P> +"Say, Priscilla," he drawled, "if a smoke-faced Easterner comes around +here while I'm gone, looking for—you know—Miss Kent, remember he +can't have a room in your house if he offers a million and walks on his +hands and prays in thirteen languages." +</P> + +<P> +Little Mrs. Dick glanced up at him shrewdly. +</P> + +<P> +"Have you got it as bad as that? Snakes alive! All right, I guess +I'll remember." +</P> + +<P> +"Be good," said Van, and off he went to the assayer's shop for which he +had started before. +</P> + +<P> +The assayer glanced up briefly. He was busy at a bucking-board, where, +with energetic application of a very heavy weight, on the end of a +handle, he was grinding up a lot of dusty ore. +</P> + +<P> +"Greeting, Van," said he. "Come in." +</P> + +<P> +Van shook his outstretched hand. +</P> + +<P> +"I thought I'd like to see those results," he said, "—that rock I +fetched you last, remember? You thought you could finish the batch +last week. Gold rock from the 'See Saw' claim that I bought three +weeks ago." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, oh yes. Now what did I do with—— Finished 'em up and put 'em +away somewhere," said the assayer, dusting his hands and moving towards +his desk. "Such a lot of stuff's been coming in—here they are, I +reckon." He drew a half dozen small printed forms from a cavity in the +desk, glanced them over briefly and handed the lot to Van. "Nothing +doing. Pretty good rock for building purposes." +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing doing?" echoed Van incredulously, staring at the assay records +which showed in merciless bluntness that six different samples of +reputed ore had proved to be absolutely worthless. "The samples you +assayed first showed from ten to one hundred and fifty dollars to the +ton, in gold." +</P> + +<P> +"What's that got to do with this?" inquired the master of acids and +fire. "You don't mean to say——" +</P> + +<P> +"Do with it, man? It all came out of the same identical prospect," Van +interrupted. "These were later samples than the others, that's all." +</P> + +<P> +The assayer glanced over his shoulder at the hope-destroying slips. +</P> + +<P> +"The 'See Saw' claim," he said perfunctorily. "You bought it, Van, who +from?" +</P> + +<P> +"From Selwyn Briggs." +</P> + +<P> +"Sorry," said the assayer briefly. "H'm! That Briggs!" +</P> + +<P> +"You don't mean—— It couldn't have been salted on me!" Van declared. +"I took my own samples, broke down a new face purposely, sacked it all +myself—and sealed the sacks. No one touched those sacks till you +broke the seals in this office. He couldn't have salted me, Frank. +What possible chance——" +</P> + +<P> +The assayer went to a shelf, took down a small canvas bag, glanced at a +mark that identified it as one in which samples of "See Saw" rock had +arrived for the former assay, and turned it inside out. +</P> + +<P> +"Once in a while I've heard of a cute one squirting a sharp syringe +full of chloride of gold on worthless rock, through the meshes of the +canvas, even after the samples were sealed," he imparted quietly. +"This sack looks to me like some I've encountered before that were +pretty rich in gold. I'll assay the cloth if you like." +</P> + +<P> +Van took the sack in his hand, examined it silently, then glanced as +before at his papers. +</P> + +<P> +"Salted—by that lump of a Briggs!" His lip was curved in a mirthless +smile. "I guess I've got it in the neck all right. These last samples +tell the real story." He slapped the papers across his hand, then tore +them up in tiny bits and threw them on the floor." +</P> + +<P> +"Sorry, old man," said the assayer, as before. "Hope you didn't pay +him much for the claim." +</P> + +<P> +"Not much," said Van. "All I had—and some of it borrowed money." +</P> + +<P> +The assayer puckered up his mouth. +</P> + +<P> +"Briggs has skipped—gone East." +</P> + +<P> +"I know. Well—all in a lifetime, I suppose. Pay you, Frank, when I +can." +</P> + +<P> +"That's all right," his friend assured him. "Forget it if you like." +</P> + +<P> +Van started off, but returned. +</P> + +<P> +"Say, Frank," he said, "don't hawk this around. It's bad enough for me +to laugh at myself. I don't want the chorus joining in." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm your clam," said Frank. "So long, and better luck!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER X +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE LAUGHING WATER CLAIM +</H3> + +<P> +A man who lives by uncertainties has a singular habit of mind. He is +ever lured forward by hopes and dreams that overlap each other as he +goes. While the scheme in hand is proving hopeless, day by day, he +grasps at another, just ahead, and draws himself onward towards the +gilded goal, forgetful of the trickery of all those other schemes +behind, that were equally bright in their day. +</P> + +<P> +Van had relinquished all hold on the golden dream once dangled before +him by the Monte Cristo mine, to lay strong hands on the promise +vouchsafed by the "See Saw" claim which he had purchased. As he walked +away from the assayer's shop he felt his hands absolutely empty. For +the very first time in at least four years he had no blinding glitter +before his vision to entice him to feverish endeavor. He was a dreamer +with no dreams, a miner without a mine. +</P> + +<P> +He felt chagrined, humiliated. After all his time spent here in the +world's most prodigious laboratory of minerals, he had purchased a +salted mine! A sharper man, that sad-faced, half-sick Selwyn Briggs, +had actually trimmed him like this! +</P> + +<P> +Salted! And he was broke. Well, what was the next thing to do? He +thought of the fine large bill of goods, engaged for himself and +partners to take to the "See Saw" claim. It made him smile. But he +would not rescind the order—for a while. His partners, with his +worldly goods, the Chinese cook and all the household, save Cayuse, +would doubtless arrive by noon. He and they had to eat; they had to +live. Also they had to mine, for they knew nothing else by way of +occupation. They must somehow get hold of some sort of claim, and go +on with their round of hopes and toil. They had never been so utterly +bereft—so outcast by the goddess of fortune—since they had thrown +their lots together. +</P> + +<P> +He dreaded the thought of meeting various acquaintances here in +camp—the friends to whom he had said he was going that day to the "See +Saw" property, far over the Mahogany range, near the Indian +reservation. He determined to go. Perhaps the shack and the +shaft-house on the claim, with the windlass and tools included by +Briggs in the bill of sale, might fetch a few odd dollars. +</P> + +<P> +Slowly down the street he went to the hay-yard where his pony was +stabled. He met a water man, halting on his rounds at the front of a +neat canvas dwelling. The man had three large barrels on a wagon, each +full of muddy, brackish water. A long piece of hose was thrust into +one, its other end dangled out behind. +</P> + +<P> +From the tent emerged a woman with her buckets. The water man placed +the hose-end to his mouth, applied a lusty suction, and the water came +gushing forth. He filled both receptacles, collected the price, and +then drove on to the next. +</P> + +<P> +Sardonically Van reflected that even the fine little stream of water on +his claim, in a land where water was so terribly scarce, was absolutely +worthless as an asset. It was over a mountain ridge of such tremendous +height that it might as well have been in the forests of Maine. +</P> + +<P> +Despite the utter hopelessness of his present situation, his spirits +were not depressed. Gettysburg, he reflected, was a genius for bumping +into queer old prospectors—relics of the days of forty-nine, still +eagerly pursuing their <I>ignis fatuous</I> of gold—and from some such +desert wanderer he would doubtless soon pick up a claim. There was +nothing like putting Gettysburg upon the scent. +</P> + +<P> +Van wrote a note to his partners. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"Dear Fellow Mourners: +</P> + +<P> +"Have just discovered a joke. I was salted on the 'See Saw' property. +Our pipe dream is defunct. Have gone over to lay out remains. If you +find any oldtimers who have just discovered some lost bonanza, take +them into camp. Don't get drunk, get busy. Be back a little after +noon." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +This he left with the hay-yard man where his partners would stop when +they arrived. Mounted on Suvy, his outlaw of the day before, he rode +from Goldite joyously. After all, what was the odds? He had been no +better off than now at least a hundred times. At the worst he still +had his partners and his horse, a breakfast aboard, and a mountain +ahead to climb. +</P> + +<P> +Indeed, at the light of friendship in his broncho's eyes, as well as at +the pony's neigh of welcome, back there at the yard, he had felt a +boundless pleasure in his veins. He patted the chestnut's neck, in his +rough, brusque way of companionship, and the horse fairly quivered with +pleasure. +</P> + +<P> +For nearly two hours the willing animal went zig-zagging up the rocky +slopes. The day was warming; the sun was a naked disk of fire. It was +hard climbing. Van had chosen the shorter, steeper way across the +range. From time to time, where the barren ascent was exceptionally +severe, he swung from the saddle and led the broncho on, to mount +further up as before. +</P> + +<P> +Thus they came in time to a zone of change, over one of the ridges, a +region where rocks and ugliness gave way to a growth of brush and +stunted trees. These were the outposts, ragged, dwarfed, and warped, +of a finer growth beyond. +</P> + +<P> +Fifteen miles away, down between the hills, flowed a tortuous stream, +by courtesy called a river. It sometimes rose in a turgid flood, but +more often it sank and delivered up its ghost to such an extent that a +man could have held it in his hat. Nevertheless some greenery +flourished on its banks. +</P> + +<P> +When Van at last could oversee the vast, unpeopled lands of the Piute +Indian reservation, near the boundary of which his salted claim had +been staked, he had only a mile or so to ride, and all the way down +hill. +</P> + +<P> +He came to the property by eleven o'clock of the morning. He looked +about reflectively. The rough board cabin and the rougher shaft-house +were scarcely worth knocking down for lumber. There, on the big, +barren dike, were several tunnels and prospects, in addition to the +shaft, all "workings" that Briggs had opened up in his labors on the +ledge. They were mere yawning mockeries of mining, but at least had +served a charlatan's requirements. A few tools lay about, abominably +neglected. +</P> + +<P> +The location was rather attractive, on the whole. The clear stream of +water had coaxed a few quaking aspens and alders into being, among the +stunted evergreens. Grass lay greenly along the bank, a charming +relief to the eye. The sandy soil was almost level in the narrow cove, +which was snugly surrounded by hills, except at the lower extremity, +where the brook tumbled down a wide ravine. +</P> + +<P> +Van, on his horse, gazed over towards the Indian reservation idly. How +vain, in all likelihood, were the wonderful tales of gold ledges lying +within its prohibited borders. What a madness was brewing in the camps +all around as the day for the reservation opening rapidly approached! +How they would swarm across its hills and valleys—those gold-seeking +men! What a scramble it would be, and all for—what? +</P> + +<P> +There were tales in plenty of men who had secretly prospected here on +this forbidden land, and marked down wonderful treasures. Van looked +at his salted possessions. What a chance for an orgie of salting the +reservation claims would afford! +</P> + +<P> +With his pony finally secured to a tree near at hand, the horseman +walked slowly about. A gold pan lay rusting, half filled with rock and +dirt, by a bench before the cabin. It was well worth cleaning and +taking away, together with some of the picks, drills, and hammers. +</P> + +<P> +He carried it over to the brook. There he knelt and washed it out, +only to find it far more rusted than it had at first appeared. He +scooped it full of the nearest gravel and scoured it roughly with his +hands. Three times he repeated this process, washing it out in the +creek. +</P> + +<P> +Ready to rise with it, cleaned at last, he caught up a shallow film of +water, flirted it about with a rotary motion, to sluice out the last +bit of stubborn dross, then paused to stare in unbelief at a few bright +particles down at the edge, washed free of all the gravel. +</P> + +<P> +Incredulous and not in the least excited, he drew a small glass from +has pocket and held it on the specks. There could be no doubt of their +nature. They were gold. +</P> + +<P> +Interested, but doubting the importance of his find, Van pawed up half +a pan full of gravel and dipped the receptacle full of water. Then +stirring the sand and stuff with his hand, he panned it carefully. +</P> + +<P> +The result at the end was such a string of colors as he had never +washed in all his wide experience. To make a superficial prospect of +the claim he proceeded to pan from a dozen different places in the +cove, and in every instance got an exceptional showing of coarse, +yellow gold, with which the gravel abounded. +</P> + +<P> +He knelt motionless at last, beside the stream, singularly unperturbed, +despite the importance of his find. Briggs had slipped up, absolutely, +on the biggest thing in many miles around, by salting and selling a +quartz claim here to a man with a modest sum of money. +</P> + +<P> +The cove was a placer claim, rich as mud in gold, and with everything +needed at hand. +</P> + +<P> +Then and there the name of the property was changed from the "See Saw" +to the "Laughing Water" claim. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XI +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +ALGY STIRS UP TROUBLE +</H3> + +<P> +Bostwick arrived in Goldite at three in the afternoon, dressed in +prison clothes. He came on a freight wagon, the deliberate locomotion +of which had provided ample time for his wrath to accumulate and +simmer. His car was forty miles away, empty of gasolene, stripped of +all useful accessories, and abandoned where the convicts had compelled +him to drive them in their flight. +</P> + +<P> +A blacker face than his appeared, with anger and a stubble of beard +upon it, could not have been readily discovered. His story had easily +outstripped him, and duly amused the camp, so that now, as he rode +along the busy street, in a stream of lesser vehicles, autos, and dusty +horsemen, arriving by two confluent roads, he was angered more and more +by the grins and ribald pleasantries bestowed by the throngs in the +road. +</P> + +<P> +To complicate matters already sufficiently aggravating, Gettysburg, +Napoleon C. Blink, and Algy, the Chinese cook, from the Monte Cristo +mine, now swung into line from the northwest road, riding on horses and +burros. They were leading three small pack animals, loaded with all +their earthly plunder. +</P> + +<P> +The freight team halted and a crowd began to congregate. Bostwick was +descending just as the pack-train was passing through the narrow way +left by the crowd. His foot struck one of the loaded burros in the +eye. The animal staggered over against the wall of men, trampling on +somebody's feet. Somebody yelled and cursed vehemently, stepping on +somebody else. A small-sized panic and melee ensued forthwith. More +of the animals took alarm, and Algy was frightened half to death. His +pony, a wall-eyed, half-witted brute, stampeded in the crowd. Then +Algy was presently in trouble. +</P> + +<P> +There had been no Chinese in Goldite camp, largely on account of race +prejudice engendered and fostered by the working men, who still +maintained the old Californian hatred against the industrious +Celestials. In the mob, unfortunately near the center of confusion, +was a half-drunken miner, rancorous as poison. He was somewhat roughly +jostled by the press escaping Algy's pony. +</P> + +<P> +"Ye blank, blank chink—I'll fix ye fer that!" he bawled at the top of +his voice, and heaving his fellow white men right and left he laid +vicious hands on the helpless cook and, dragging him down, went at him +in savage brutality. +</P> + +<P> +"Belay there, you son of a shellfish!" yelled Napoleon, dismounting and +madly attempting to push real men away. "I'll smash in your +pilot-house! I'll—— Leave me git in there to Algy!" +</P> + +<P> +Gettysburg, too, was on the ground. He, Bostwick, and a hundred men +were madly crowded in together, where two or three were pushing back +the throng and yelling to Algy to fight. +</P> + +<P> +Algy was fighting. He was also spouting most awful Chinese oaths, +sufficient to warp an ordinary spine and wither a common person's +limbs. He kicked and scratched like a badger. But the miner was an +engine of destruction. He was aggravated to a mood of gory slaughter. +He broke the Chinaman's arm, almost at once, with some viciously +diabolical maneuver and leaped upon him in fury. +</P> + +<P> +In upon this scene of yelling, cursing, and fighting Van rode +unannounced. He saw the crowd increasing rapidly, as saloons, stores, +hay-yard, bank, and places of lodging poured out a curious army, mostly +men, with a few scattered women among them—all surging eagerly forward. +</P> + +<P> +Algy, meantime, in a spasm of pain and activity, struggled to his feet +from the dust and attempted to make his escape. Van no more than +beheld him that he leaped from his horse and broke his way into the +ring. +</P> + +<P> +When he laid his hand on the miner's collar it appeared as if that +individual would be suddenly jerked apart. Algy went down in collapse. +</P> + +<P> +"Why don't you pick on a man of your color?" +</P> + +<P> +Van demanded, and he flung the miner headlong to the ground. +</P> + +<P> +A hundred lusty citizens shouted their applause. +</P> + +<P> +Little Napoleon broke his way to the center. Gettysburg was just +behind him. Van was about to kneel on the ground and lift his +prostrate cook when someone bawled out a warning. +</P> + +<P> +He wheeled instantly. The angered miner, up, with a gun in hand, was +lurching in closer to shoot. He got no chance, even to level the +weapon. Van was upon him like a panther. The gun went up and was +fired in the air, and then was hurled down under foot. +</P> + +<P> +Two things happened then together. The sheriff arrived to arrest the +drunken miner, and a woman pushed her way through the press. +</P> + +<P> +"Van!" she cried. "Van—oh, Van!" +</P> + +<P> +He was busy assisting his partners to escort poor Algy away. He noted +the woman as she parted the crowd. He was barely in time to fend her +off from flinging herself in his arms. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Van!" she repeated wildly. "I thought you was goin' to git it +sure!" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't bother me, Queenie," he answered, annoyed, and adding to +Gettysburg, "Take him to Charlie's," he turned at once to his broncho, +mounted actively, and began to round up the scattered animals brought +into camp by his partners. +</P> + +<P> +He had barely ridden clear of the crowd when his glance was caught by a +figure off to the left. +</P> + +<P> +It was Beth. She was standing on a packing case, where the surging +disorder had sent her. She had seen it all, the fight, his arrival, +and the woman who would have clasped him in her arms. +</P> + +<P> +Her face was flushed. She avoided his gaze and turned to descend to +the walk. Then Bostwick, in his convict suit, stepped actively forward +to meet her. +</P> + +<P> +Van saw the look of surprise in her face, at beholding the man in this +attire. She recoiled, despite herself, then held forth her hand for +his aid. Bostwick took it, assisted her down, and they hastily made +their escape. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XII +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +BOSTWICK LOSES GROUND +</H3> + +<P> +The one retreat for Beth was the house where she was lodging. She went +there at once, briefly explaining to Bostwick on the way how it chanced +she had come the day before. What had happened to himself she already +knew. +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick was a thoroughly angered man. He had seen the horseman in the +fight and had hoped to see him slain. To find Beth safe and even +cheerful here annoyed him exceedingly. +</P> + +<P> +"Have you lodged a complaint—done anything to have this fellow +arrested?" he demanded, alluding to Van. "Have you reported what was +done to me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, no," said Beth. "What's the use? He did it all in kindness, +after all." +</P> + +<P> +"Kindness!" +</P> + +<P> +"Of a sort—a rough sort, perhaps, but genuine—a kindness to me—and +Elsa," she answered, flushing rosily. "He saved me from——" she +looked at the convict garb upon him, "—from a disagreeable experience, +I'm sure, and secured me the very best accommodations in the town." +</P> + +<P> +They had almost come to her lodgings. Bostwick halted in the road, his +gun-metal jaw protruding formidably. +</P> + +<P> +"You haven't already begun to admire this ruffian—glorify this +outlaw?" he growled, "—after what he did to me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't stop to discuss it here," she answered, beholding Mrs. Dick at +the front of the house. "I haven't had time to do anything. You must +manage to change your clothes." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll have my reckoning with your friend," he assured her angrily. +"Have you engaged a suite for me?" +</P> + +<P> +They had come to the door of the house. Beth beheld the look of +amazement, suspicion, and repugnance on the face of Mrs. Dick, and her +face burned red once more. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Mrs. Dick," she said, "this is Mr. Bostwick, of whom I spoke." She +had told of Bostwick's capture by the convicts. "Do you think you +could find him a room?" +</P> + +<P> +"A room? I want a suite—two rooms at least," said Bostwick +aggressively. "Is this a first-class place?" +</P> + +<P> +"It ain't no regular heaven, and I ain't no regular Mrs. Saint Peter," +answered Mrs. Dick with considerable heat, irritated by Bostwick's +personality and recognizing in him Van's "smoke-faced Easterner." She +added crisply: "So you might as well vamoose the ranch, fer I couldn't +even put you in the shed." +</P> + +<P> +"But I've got to have accommodations!" insisted Bostwick. "I prefer +them where my fiancée—where Miss Kent is stopping. I'm sure you can +manage it someway—let someone go. The price is no object to me." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't want you that bad," said Mrs. Dick frankly. "I said no and +I'm too busy to say it again." +</P> + +<P> +She bustled off with her ant-like celerity, followed by Bostwick's +scowls. +</P> + +<P> +"You'll have to give up your apartments here," he said to Beth. "I'll +find something better at once." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, I'm very well satisfied," said Beth. "You'll find this +town quite overcrowded." +</P> + +<P> +"You mean you propose to stay here in spite of my wishes?" +</P> + +<P> +"Please don't wish anything absurd," she answered. "This is really no +place for fastidious choosing—and I am very comfortable." +</P> + +<P> +A lanky youth, with a suitcase and three leather bags, came shuffling +around the corner and dropped down his load. +</P> + +<P> +"Van told me to bring 'em here with his—something I don't remember," +imparted the youth. "That's all," and he grinned and departed. +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick glowered, less pleased than before. +</P> + +<P> +"That fellow, I presume. He evidently knows where you are stopping." +</P> + +<P> +Beth was beginning to feel annoyed and somewhat defiant. She had never +dreamed this man could appear so repellant as now, with his stubble of +beard and this convict garb upon him. She met his glance coldly. +</P> + +<P> +"He found me the place. I am considerably in his obligation." +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick's face grew blacker. +</P> + +<P> +"Obligation? Why don't you admit at once you admire the fellow?—or +something more. By God! I've endured about as much——" +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Bostwick!" she interrupted. She added more quietly: "You've been +very much aggravated. I'm sorry. Now please go somewhere and change +your clothing." +</P> + +<P> +"Aggravated?" he echoed. "You ought to know what he is, by instinct. +You must have seen him in a common street brawl! You must have seen +that woman—that red-light night-hawk throwing herself in his arms. +And to think that you—with Glenmore in town—— Why isn't your +brother here with you?" +</P> + +<P> +Beth was smarting. The sense of mortification she had felt at the +sight of that woman in the street with Van, coupled with the sheer +audacity of his conduct towards herself that morning, had already +sufficiently shamed her. She refused, however, to discuss such a +question with Bostwick. +</P> + +<P> +"Glen isn't here," she answered coldly. "I trust you will soon be +enabled to find him—then—we can go." +</P> + +<P> +"Not here?" repeated Bostwick. "Where is he, then?" +</P> + +<P> +"Somewhere out in another camp—or mining place—or something. Now +please go and dress. We can talk it over later." +</P> + +<P> +"This is abominable of Glen," said Bostwick. "Is McCoppet in town?" +</P> + +<P> +She looked her surprise. "McCoppet?" +</P> + +<P> +"You don't know him, of course," he hastened to say. "I shall try to +find him at once." He turned to go, beheld her luggage, and added: "Is +there anyone to take up your things?" +</P> + +<P> +She could not bear to have him enter her apartment in this awful prison +costume. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes," she answered. "You needn't be bothered with the bags." +</P> + +<P> +"Very well. I shall soon return." He departed at once, his impatience +suddenly increased by the thought of seeking out McCoppet. +</P> + +<P> +Beth watched him going. A sickening sense of revulsion invaded all her +nature. And when her thoughts, like lawless rebels, stole guiltily to +Van, she might almost have boxed her own tingling ears in sheer +vexation. +</P> + +<P> +She entered the house, summoned Elsa from her room, and had the luggage +carried to their quarters. Then she opened her case, removed some +dainty finery, and vaguely wondered if the horseman would like her in +old lavender. +</P> + +<P> +Van, in the meantime, had been busy at the hay-yard known as Charlie's. +Not only had Algy's arm been broken, by the bully in the fight, but he +had likewise been seriously mauled and beaten. His head had been cut, +he was hurt internally. A doctor, immediately summoned by the +horseman, had set the fractured member. Algy had then been put to bed +in a tent that was pitched in the yard where the horses, mules, cows, +pyramids of merchandise, and teamsters were thicker than flies on +molasses. +</P> + +<P> +Gettysburg and Napoleon, quietly informed by Van of the latest turn of +their fortune, were wholly unexcited by the news. The attack on Algy, +however, had acted potently upon them. They started to get drunk and +achieved half a load before Van could herd them back to camp. +</P> + +<P> +Napoleon was not only partially submerged when Van effected his +capture; he was also shaved. Van looked him over critically. +</P> + +<P> +"Nap," he said, "what does this mean?—you wasting money on your face?" +</P> + +<P> +Napoleon drunk became a stutterer, who whistled between his discharges +of seltzer. +</P> + +<P> +"Wheresh that little g-g-g-(whistle) girl?" he answered, "—lit-tle +D-d-d-d-(whistle) Dutch one that looksh like—looksh like—quoth the +r-r-r-r-(whistle) raven—NEVER MORE!" +</P> + +<P> +Van divined that this description was intended to indicate Elsa. +</P> + +<P> +"Gone back to China," said he. "That shave of yours is wasted on the +desert air." +</P> + +<P> +Gettysburg, whose intellect was top heavy, had the singular habit, at a +time like this, of removing his crockery eye and holding it firmly in +his fist, to guard it from possible destruction. He stared uncertainly +at both his companions. +</P> + +<P> +"China!" said he tragically. "China?" +</P> + +<P> +"Hold on, now, Gett," admonished Van, steering his tall companion as a +man might steer a ladder, "you don't break out in the woman line again +or there's going to be some concentrated anarchy in camp." +</P> + +<P> +"No, Van, no—now honest, no woman," said Gettysburg in a confidential +murmur. "I had my woman eye took out the last time I went down to +'Frisco." +</P> + +<P> +"You're a l-l-l-(whistle) liar!" ejaculated Napoleon. +</P> + +<P> +"What!" Gettysburg fairly shrieked. +</P> + +<P> +"Metaphorical speakin'—meta phor-f-f-f-f-f-(whistle) phorical +speakin'," Napoleon hastened to explain. +"Metaphor-f-f-f-(whistle)-phorical means you don't really +m-m-m-m-(whistle) mean what you say—means—quoth the +r-r-r-r-r-(whistle) raven—NEVER MORE!" +</P> + +<P> +Van said: "If you two old idiots don't do the lion and the lamb act +pretty pronto I'll send you both to the poor house." +</P> + +<P> +They had entered the hay-yard, among the mules and horses. Gettysburg +promptly reached down, laid hold of Napoleon, and kissed him violently +upon the nose. +</P> + +<P> +Napoleon wept. "What did I s-s-s-s-(whistle) say?" he sobbed +lugubriously. "Oh, death, where is thy s-s-s-s-(whistle) sting?" +</P> + +<P> +Evening had come. The two fell asleep in Algy's tent, locked in each +other's arms. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap13"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIII +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A COMBINATION OF FORCES +</H3> + +<P> +Bostwick effected a change of dress in the rear of the nearest store. +A rough blue shirt, stout kahki garments and yellow "hiking" boots +converted him into one of the common units of which the camp throng was +comprised. He was then duly barbered, after which he made a strenuous +but futile endeavor to procure accommodations for the night. +</P> + +<P> +There was no one with leisure to listen to his tirade on the shameful +inadequacy of the attributes of civilization in the camp, and after one +brief attempt to arouse civic indignation against Van for his acts of +deliberate lawlessness, he perceived the ease with which he might +commit an error and render himself ridiculous. He dropped all hope of +publicly humiliating the horseman and deferred his private vengeance +for a time more opportune. +</P> + +<P> +Wholly at a loss to cope with a situation wherein he found himself so +utterly neglected and unknown, despite the influential position he +occupied both in New York and Washington, he resolved to throw himself +entirely upon the mercies of McCoppet. +</P> + +<P> +He knew his man only through their correspondence, induced by Beth's +brother, Glenmore Kent. Inquiring at the bank, he was briefly directed +to the largest saloon of the place. When he entered the bar he found +it swarming full of men, miners, promoters, teamsters, capitalists, +gamblers, lawyers, and—the Lord alone knew what. The air was a reek +of smoke and fumes of liquor. A blare of alleged music shocked the +atmosphere. Men drunk and men sober, all were talking mines and gold, +the greatness of the camp, the richness of the latest finds, and the +marvel of their private properties. Everyone had money, everyone had +chunks of ore to show to everyone else. +</P> + +<P> +At the rear were six tables with layouts for games of chance. Faro, +"klondike," roulette, stud-poker, almost anything possibly to be +desired was there. All were in full blast. Three deep the men were +gathered about the wheel and the "tiger." Gold money in stacks stood +at every dealer's hand. Bostwick had never seen so much metal currency +in all his life. +</P> + +<P> +He asked for McCoppet at the bar. +</P> + +<P> +"Opal? Somewhere back—that's him there, talkin' to the guy with the +fur on his jaw," informed the barkeeper, making a gesture with his +thumb. "What's your poison?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing, thank you," answered Bostwick, who started for his man, but +halted for McCoppet to finish his business with his friend. +</P> + +<P> +The man on whom Bostwick was gazing was a tall, slender, slightly +stooped individual of perhaps forty-five, with a wonderful opal in his +tie, from which he had derived his sobriquet. He was clean-shaved, big +featured, and gifted with a pair of heavy-lidded eyes as lustreless as +old buttons. He had never been seen without a cigar in his mouth, but +the weed was never lighted. +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick noted the carefulness of the man's attire, but gained no clue +as to his calling. To avoid stupid staring he turned to watch a game +of faro. Its fascinations were rapidly engrossing his attentions and +luring him onward toward a reckless desire to tempt the goddess of +chance, when he presently beheld McCoppet turn away from his man and +saunter down the room. +</P> + +<P> +A moment later Bostwick touched him on the shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"Beg pardon," he said, "Mr. McCoppet?" +</P> + +<P> +McCoppet nodded. "My name." +</P> + +<P> +"I'd like to introduce myself—J. Searle Bostwick," said the visitor. +"I expected to arrive, as I wrote you——" +</P> + +<P> +"Glad to meet you, Bostwick," interrupted the other, putting forth his +hand. "Where are you putting up?" +</P> + +<P> +"I haven't been able to find accommodations," answered Bostwick warmly. +"It's an outrage the way this town is conducted. I thought perhaps——" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll fix you all right," cut in McCoppet. "Are you ready for a talk? +Nothing has waited for you to come." +</P> + +<P> +"I came for an interview—in fact——" +</P> + +<P> +"Private room back here," McCoppet announced, and he started to lead +the way, pausing for a moment near a faro table to cast a cold glance +at the dealer. +</P> + +<P> +"Wonderfully interesting game," said Bostwick. "It seems as if a man +might possibly beat it." +</P> + +<P> +There might have been a shade of contempt in the glance McCoppet cast +upon him. He merely said: "He can't." +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick laughed. "You seem very positive." +</P> + +<P> +McCoppet was moving on again. +</P> + +<P> +"I own the game." +</P> + +<P> +He owned everything here, and had his designs on two more places like +it, down the street. He almost owned the souls of many men, but gold +and power were the goals on which his eyes were riveted. +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick glanced at him with newer interest as they passed down the +room, and so to a tight little office the walls of which were specially +deadened against the transmission of sound. +</P> + +<P> +"Have anything to drink?" inquired the owner, before he took a chair, +"—whiskey, wine?" +</P> + +<P> +"Thanks, no," said Bostwick, "not just yet." He took the chair to +which McCoppet waved him. "I must say I'm surprised," he admitted, "to +see the numbers of men, the signs of activity, and all the rest of it +in a camp so young. And by the way, it seems young Kent is away." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said the gambler, settling deeply into his chair and sleepily +observing his visitor. "I sent him away last week." +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick was eager. +</P> + +<P> +"On something good for the—for our little group?" +</P> + +<P> +"On a wild goose séance," answered McCoppet. "He's in the way around +here." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," said Bostwick, who failed to understand. "I thought——" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. I culled your thought from your letters," interrupted his host +drawlingly. "We might as well understand each other first as last. +Bostwick—are you out here to work this camp my way or the kid's?" +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick was cautious. "How does he wish to work it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Like raising potatoes." +</P> + +<P> +"And your plan is——" +</P> + +<P> +"Look here, do I stack up like a Sunday-school superintendent? I +thought you and I understood each other. I don't run no game the other +man can maybe beat. Didn't you come out here with that understanding?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly, I——" +</P> + +<P> +"Then never mind the kid. What have you got in your kahki?" +</P> + +<P> +"Our syndicate to buy the Hen Hawk group——" started Bostwick, but the +gambler cut in sharply. +</P> + +<P> +"That's sold and cold. You have to move here; things happen. What did +you do about the reservation permit?" +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick looked about the room furtively, and edged his chair a bit +closer. +</P> + +<P> +"I secured permission from Government headquarters to explore all or +any portions of the reservation, and take <I>assistants</I> with me," he +imparted in a lowered tone of voice. "I had it mailed to me here by +registered post. It should be at the post-office now." +</P> + +<P> +"Right," said McCoppet with more of an accent of approval in his +utterance. "Get it out to-day. I've got your corps of assistants +hobbled here in camp. They can get on the ground to-morrow morning." +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick's eyes were gleaming. +</P> + +<P> +"There's certainly gold on this reservation?" +</P> + +<P> +"Now, how can anybody tell you that?" demanded McCoppet, who from his +place here in Goldite had engineered the plan whereby his and +Bostwick's expert prospectors could explore every inch of the +Government's forbidden land in advance of all competitors. "We're +taking a flyer, that's all. If there's anything there—we're on." +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick reflected for a moment. "There's nothing at present that our +syndicate could do?" +</P> + +<P> +"There'll be plenty of chances to use ready money," McCoppet assured +him, rising. "You're here on the ground. Keep your shirt on and leave +the shuffling to me." +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick, too, arose. "How long will young Kent be away?" +</P> + +<P> +"As long as I can keep him busy out South." +</P> + +<P> +"What is he doing out South?" +</P> + +<P> +"Locating a second Goldite," said the gambler. "Keeps him on the +move." He threw away his chewed cigar, placed a new one in his mouth, +and started for the door. "Come on," he added, "I'll identify you over +at the postoffice and show you where you sleep." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap14"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIV +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +MOVING A SHACK +</H3> + +<P> +Less than a week had passed since Bostwick's arrival in Goldite, but +excitement was rife in the air. Despite the angered protests of half a +thousand mining men, the Easterner, with four of the shrewdest +prospectors in the State, had traversed the entire mineral region of +the reservation in the utmost security and assurance. Five hundred men +had been forced to remain at the border, at the points of official +guns. A few desperate adventurers had crept through the guard, but +nearly all were presently captured and ejected from the place, while +Bostwick—granted special privileges—was assuming this inside track. +</P> + +<P> +The day for the opening of the lands was less than two weeks off—and +the news leaked out and spread like a wind that the "Laughing Water" +claim had suddenly promised amazing wealth as a placer where Van and +his partners were taking out the gold by the simplest, most primitive +of methods. +</P> + +<P> +The rush for the region came like a stampede of cattle. An army of men +went swarming over the ridges and overran the country like a plague of +ants. They trooped across the border of the reservation, so close to +the "Laughing Water" claim, they staked out all the visible world, +above, below, and all about Van's property, they tore down each others' +monuments, including a number where Van had located new, protective +claims, and they builded a tent town over night, not a mile from his +first discovery. +</P> + +<P> +At the claim in the cove the fortunate holders of a private treasury of +gold had lost no time. In the absence of better lumber, for which they +had no money, Van and his partners had torn down the shaft-house, made +it into sluices, and turned in the water from the stream. That was all +the plant required. They had then commenced to shovel the gravel into +the trough-like boxes, and the gold had begun to lodge behind the +riffles. +</P> + +<P> +The cove became a theatre of curiosity, envy, and covetous longings. +Men came there by motor, on horses, mules, and on foot to take one +delirious look and rush madly about to improve what chances still +remained. The fame of it swept like prairie fire, far and wide. The +new-made town began at once to spread and encroach upon all who were +careless of their holdings. Lawlessness was rampant. +</P> + +<P> +At the cabin on the "Laughing Water" claim Algy, the Chinese cook, was +still disabled. Gettysburg was chief culinary artist. Napoleon +hustled for grub, the only supplies of which were over at Goldite—and +expensive. All were constantly exhausted with the labors of the day. +</P> + +<P> +Despite their vigilance they awoke one morning to see a brand-new cabin +standing on the claim, at the top of a hill. A man was on the rough +pine roof, rapidly laying weather paper. Van beheld him, watched him +for a moment, then quietly walked over to the site. +</P> + +<P> +"Say, friend," he called to the man on the roof, "you've broken into +Eden by mistake. This property is mine and I haven't any building lots +to sell." +</P> + +<P> +The visiting builder took out a huge revolver and laid it on a block. +He said nothing at all. Van felt his impatience rising. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm talking to you, Mr. Carpenter," he added. "Come on, now, I don't +want any trouble with neighbors, but this cabin will have to be +removed." +</P> + +<P> +"Go to hell!" said the builder. He continued to pound in his nails. +</P> + +<P> +"If I go," said Van calmly, "I'll bring a little back. Are you going +to move or be moved?" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't talk to me, I'm busy," answered the intruder. "I'm an irritable +man, and everything I own is irritable, understand?" And taking up his +gun he thumped with it briskly on the boards. +</P> + +<P> +"If you're looking for trouble," Van replied, "you won't need a +double-barreled glass." +</P> + +<P> +He turned away and the man continued operations. When he came to the +shack Van selected a hammer and a couple of drills from among a lot of +tools in the corner. +</P> + +<P> +To his partner's questions as to what the visitor intended he replied +that only time could tell. +</P> + +<P> +"Here, Nap," he added, fetching forth the tools, "I want you to take +this junk and go up there where the neighbor is working. Just sit down +quietly and drill three shallow holes and don't say a word to yonder +busy bee. If he asks you what's doing, play possum—and don't make the +holes too deep." +</P> + +<P> +Napoleon went off as directed. His blows could presently be heard as +he drilled in a porphyry dike. +</P> + +<P> +His advent puzzled the man intent on building. +</P> + +<P> +"Say, you," said he, "what's on your programme?" +</P> + +<P> +Napoleon drilled and said nothing. +</P> + +<P> +The carpenter watched him in some uneasiness. +</P> + +<P> +"Say, you ain't starting a shaft?" +</P> + +<P> +No answer. +</P> + +<P> +"Ain't this a placer? Say, you, are you deef?" +</P> + +<P> +Napoleon pounded on the steel. +</P> + +<P> +"Go to hell!" said the builder, as he had before, "—a man that can't +answer civil questions!" +</P> + +<P> +He resumed his labors, pausing now and then to stare at Napoleon, in a +steadily increasing dubiety of mind. +</P> + +<P> +In something less than twenty minutes he had done very little roofing, +owing to a nervousness he found it hard to banish, while Napoleon had +all but completed his holes. Then Van came leisurely strolling to the +place, comfortably loaded with dynamite, of which a man may carry much. +</P> + +<P> +With utter indifference to the man on the roof he proceeded to charge +those shallow holes. As a matter of fact he overcharged them. He used +an exceptional amount of the harmless looking stuff, and laid a short +fuse to the cap. When he turned to the builder, who had watched +proceedings with a sickening alarm at his vitals, that industrious +person had taken on a heavy, leaden hue. +</P> + +<P> +"You see I went where you told me," said Van, "and I've brought some +back as I promised. This shot has got to go before breakfast—and +breakfast is just about ready." +</P> + +<P> +"For God's sake give a man a chance," implored the man who had +trespassed in the night. "I'll move the shack to-morrow." +</P> + +<P> +"You won't have to," Van informed him, "but you'd better move your meat +to-day." +</P> + +<P> +He took out a match, scratched it with quiet deliberation and lighted +the end of the fuse. +</P> + +<P> +"For God's sake—man!" cried the carpenter, and without even waiting to +climb from the roof he rolled to the edge in a panic, fell off on his +feet, and ran as if all the fiends of Hades were fairly at his heels. +</P> + +<P> +Van and Napoleon also moved away with becoming alacrity. Three minutes +later the charge went off. It sounded like the crack of doom. It +seemed to split the earth and very firmament. A huge black toadstool +of smoke rose up abruptly. Something like a blot of yellowish color +spattered all over the landscape. It was the shack. +</P> + +<P> +It had moved. The smoke cloud drifted rapidly away. On the hill was a +great jagged hole, lined with rock, but there was nothing more. The +cabin was hung in lumber shreds on the stunted trees for hundreds of +feet in all directions. With it went hammers, saws and a barrel of +nails whose usefulness was ended. +</P> + +<P> +Gettysburg, aproned, and fresh from his labors at the stove, came +hastening out of the cabin to where his partners stood, in great +distress of mind. +</P> + +<P> +"Holy toads, Van!" he said excitedly, "it must have been the shot! +I've dropped an egg—and what in the world shall I do?" +</P> + +<P> +"Cackle, man, cackle," Van answered him gravely. "That's a mighty rare +occurrence." +</P> + +<P> +"And two-bits apiece!" almost wailed poor Gettysburg, diving back into +the cabin, "and only them four in the shack!" +</P> + +<P> +That was also the day that Bostwick came out upon the scene. He came +with his prospectors, all the party somewhat disillusionized as to all +that fabled gold upon the Indian reservation. +</P> + +<P> +Some word of the wealth of the "Laughing Water" claim had come to +Searle early in the week. He did not visit the cabin or the owners of +the cove. For fifteen minutes, however, he sat upon his horse and +scanned the place in silence. Then out of his newly-acquired knowledge +of the boundaries of the reservation the hounds of his mind jumped up a +half-mad plan. His cold eyes glittered as he looked across to where +Van and his partners were toiling. His lips were compressed in a smile. +</P> + +<P> +He rode to Goldite hurriedly and sought out his friend McCoppet. When +the two were presently closeted together where their privacy was +assured, a conspiracy, diabolically insidious, was about to have its +birth. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap15"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XV +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +HATCHING A PLOT +</H3> + +<P> +"You're back pretty pronto," drawled the gambler, by way of an opening +remark. "Found something too big to keep hidden?" +</P> + +<P> +"That reservation is a false alarm, as Billy and the others will tell +you," answered Bostwick, referring to McCoppet's chosen prospectors. +"The rush will prove a farce." +</P> + +<P> +"You've decided sudden, ain't you?" asked McCoppet. "There's a good +big deck there to stack." +</P> + +<P> +"We've wasted time and money till to-day." Bostwick rose from his +chair, put one foot upon it, and leaned towards the gambler as one +assuming a position of equality, if not of something more. "Look here, +McCoppet, you asked me the day I arrived what sort of a game I'd come +to play. I ask you now if you are prepared to play something +big—and—well, let us say, a trifle risky?" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't insult my calling," answered the gambler. "I call. Lay your +cards on the table." +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick sat down and leaned across the soiled green baize. +</P> + +<P> +"You probably know as much as I do about the 'Laughing Water' +claim—its richness—its owners—and where it's located." +</P> + +<P> +McCoppet nodded, narrowing his eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"A good dog could smell their luck from here." +</P> + +<P> +"But do you know where it lies—their claim?" insisted Bostwick +significantly. "That's the point I'm making at present." +</P> + +<P> +"It's just this side of the reservation, from what I hear," replied the +gambler, "but if there's nothing on the reservation even near the +'Laughing Water' ground——" +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick interrupted impatiently: "What's the matter with <I>the +'Laughing Water' being on the reservation</I>?" +</P> + +<P> +McCoppet was sharp but he failed to grasp his associate's meaning. +</P> + +<P> +"But it ain't," he said, "and no one claims it is." +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick lowered his voice and looked at the gambler peculiarly. +</P> + +<P> +"No one claims it <I>yet</I>!" +</P> + +<P> +McCoppet threw away his cigar and took out a new one. +</P> + +<P> +"Well? Come on. I bite. What's the answer?" +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick leaned back in his chair. +</P> + +<P> +"Suppose an accredited surveyor were to run out the reservation +line—the line next the 'Laughing Water' claim—and make an error of an +inch at the farthest end. Suppose that inch, projected several miles, +became about a thousand feet—wouldn't the 'Laughing Water' claim be +discovered to be a part of the Indian reservation?" +</P> + +<P> +McCoppet eyed him narrowly, in silence, for a moment. He had suddenly +conceived a new estimate of the man who had come from New York. +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick again leaned forward, continuing: +</P> + +<P> +"No one will be aware of the facts but ourselves—therefore no one will +think of attempting to relocate the 'Laughing Water' ground, lawfully, +at six o'clock on the morning of the rush. But we will be on hand, +with the law at our backs, and quietly take possession of the property, +on which—as it is reservation ground—the present occupants are +trespassing." +</P> + +<P> +McCoppet heard nothing of what his friend was saying. All the +possibilities outlined had flashed through his mind at Bostwick's first +intimation of the plan. He was busy now with affairs far ahead in the +scheme. +</P> + +<P> +"Culver, the Government agent and surveyor is a dark one," he mused +aloud, half to himself. "If only Lawrence, his deputy, was in his +shoes—— Your frame-up sounds pretty tight, Bostwick, but Culver may +block us with his damnable squareness." +</P> + +<P> +"Every man has his price," said Bostwick, "—big and little. Culver, +you say, represents the Government? Where is he now?" +</P> + +<P> +McCoppet replied with a question: "Bostwick, how much have you got?" +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick flushed. "Money? Oh, I can raise my share, I hope." +</P> + +<P> +"You hope?" repeated the gambler. "Ain't your syndicate back of any +game you open, with the money to see it started right?" +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick was a trifle uneasy. The "syndicate" of which he had spoken +was entirely comprised of Beth and her money, which he hoped presently +to call his own. He had worked his harmless little fiction of big +financial men behind him in the certainty of avoiding detection. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course, I can call on the money," he said, "but I may need a day or +so to get it. How much shall we require?" +</P> + +<P> +McCoppet chewed his cigar reflectively. +</P> + +<P> +"Culver will sure come high—if we get him at all—but—it ought to be +worth fifty thousand to you and me to shift that reservation line a +thousand feet—if reports on the claim are correct." +</P> + +<P> +It was a large sum. Bostwick scratched the corner of his mouth. +</P> + +<P> +"That would be twenty-five thousand apiece." +</P> + +<P> +"No," corrected McCoppet, "twenty thousand for me and thirty for you, +for equal shares. I've got to do the work underground." +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps I could handle what's his name, Culver, myself," objected +Bostwick. "The fact that I'm a stranger here——" +</P> + +<P> +"And what will you do if he refuses?" interrupted the gambler. "Will +you still have an ace in your kahki?" +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick stared. +</P> + +<P> +"If he should refuse, and tell the owners——" +</P> + +<P> +"Right. Can you handle it then?" +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick answered: "Can you?" +</P> + +<P> +"It's my business to get back what I've lost—and a little bit more. +You leave it to me. Keep away from Culver, and bring me thirty +thousand in the morning." +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick was breathing hard. He maintained a show of calm. +</P> + +<P> +"The morning's a little bit soon for me to turn around. I'll bring it +when I can." +</P> + +<P> +McCoppet arose. The interview was ended. He added: +</P> + +<P> +"Have a drink?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll wait," said Bostwick, "till we can drink a toast to the 'Laughing +Water' claim." +</P> + +<P> +McCoppet opened the door, waved Bostwick into the crowded gaming room, +and was about to follow when his roving gaze abruptly lighted on a +figure in the place—a swarthy, half-breed Piute Indian, standing in +front of the wheel and roulette layout. +</P> + +<P> +Quickly stepping back inside the smaller apartment, the gambler pulled +down his hat. His face was the color of ashes. +</P> + +<P> +"So long. See you later," he murmured, and he closed the door without +a sound. +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick, wholly at a loss to understand his sudden dismissal, lingered +for a moment only in the place, then made his way out to the street, +and went to the postoffice, where he found a letter from Glenmore Kent. +Intent upon securing the needed funds from Beth with the smallest +possible delay, he dropped the letter, unread, in his pocket and headed +for the house where Beth was living. He walked, however, no more than +half a block before he altered his mind. Pausing for a moment on the +sidewalk, he turned on his heel and went briskly to his own apartments, +where he performed an unusual feat. +</P> + +<P> +First he read the letter from Kent. It was dated from the newest camp +in the desert and was filled with glittering generalities concerning +riches about to be discovered. It urged him, in case he had arrived in +Goldite, to hasten southward forthwith—"and bring a bunch of money." +Glenmore's letters always appealed for money—a fact which Bostwick had +remembered. +</P> + +<P> +The man sat down at his table and wrote a letter to himself. With +young Kent's epistle for his model, he made an amazingly clever forgery +of the enthusiastic writer's chirography, and at the bottom signed the +young man's name. +</P> + +<P> +This spurious document teemed with figures and assertions concerning a +wonderful gold mine which Glenmore had virtually purchased. He needed +sixty thousand dollars at once, however, to complete his remarkable +bargain. Only two days of his option remained and therefore delay +would be fatal. He expected this letter to find his friend at Goldite +and he felt assured he would not be denied this opportunity of a +lifetime to make a certain fortune. He would, of course, appeal to +Beth—with certainty of her help from the wealth bequeathed her by her +uncle—but naturally she was too far away, +</P> + +<P> +Glenmore was unaware of the fact that his sister had come to the West. +Bostwick overlooked no details of importance. Armed with this +plausible missive, he went at once to Mrs. Dick's and found that Beth +was at home. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap16"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVI +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +INVOLVING BETH +</H3> + +<P> +Goldite to the Eastern girl, who had found herself practically +abandoned for nearly a week, had proved to be a mixture of discomforts, +excitements, and disturbing elements. Fascinated by the maelstrom of +the mining-camp life, and unwilling to retreat from the scene until she +should see her roving brother, and gratify at least a curiosity +concerning Van, she nevertheless felt afraid to be there, not only on +account of the roughness and uncertainty of the existence, but also +because, despite herself, she had attracted undesirable attention. +Moreover, the house was full of "gentlemen" lodgers, with three of whom +Elsa was conducting most violent flirtations. +</P> + +<P> +There were few respectable women in the town. It was still too early +for their advent. Beth had been annoyed past all endurance. There was +no possibility of even mild social diversions; there was no one to +visit. While the street could be described as perfectly safe, it was +nevertheless an uncomfortable place in which to walk. Bostwick's car +had been recovered and brought into camp, but skilled as she was at the +steering wheel, she had hardly desired or dared to take it out. +</P> + +<P> +Crime was frequent in the streets and houses. Disturbing reports of +marauding expeditions on the part of the convicts, still at large, came +with insistent frequency. Altogether the week had been a trial to her +nerves. It had also been a vexation. No man had a right, she told +herself, to do and say the things that Van had said and done, only to +go off, without so much as a little good-by and give no further sign. +She told herself she had a right to at least some sort of opportunity +to tender her honest congratulations. She had heard of his claim—the +"Laughing Water"—and perhaps she wished to know how it chanced to have +this particular name. If certain disturbing reflections anent that +woman who had run to him wildly, out in the street, came mistily +clouding the estimate she tried to place upon his character, she +confessed he certainly had the right to make an explanation. In a +purely feminine manner she argued that she had the right to some such +explanation—if only because of certain liberties he had taken with her +hands—on which memories still warmly burned. +</P> + +<P> +Wholly undecided as to what she would do if she could, and impatient +with Bostwick for his sheer neglect in searching out her brother, she +was thoroughly glad to see him to-day when he came so unannounced to +the house. +</P> + +<P> +"Well if you don't look like a mountaineer!" she said, as she met him +in the dining-room, which was likewise the parlor of the place. "Where +in the world have you been, all this time? You haven't come back +without Glen?" +</P> + +<P> +He had gone away ostensibly to find her brother. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, the fact is he wasn't where I went, after all," he said. "I +hastened home, after all that trip, undertaken for nothing, and found a +letter from him here. I've come at once to have an important talk." +</P> + +<P> +"A letter?" she cried. "Let me see it—let me read it, please. +He's—where? He's well? He's successful?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sit down," answered Bostwick, taking a chair and placing his hat on +the table. "There's a good deal to say. But first, how have you been +here, all alone?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh—very well—I suppose," she answered, restraining the natural +resentment she felt at his patent neglect. "It isn't exactly the place +I'd choose to remain in, alone all the time." +</P> + +<P> +"Poor little girl, I've been thinking of that," he told her, reaching +across the table to take her hands. "It's worried me, Beth, worried me +greatly—your unprotected position, and all that." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, you needn't worry." She withdrew her hands. Someway it seemed a +sacrilege for him to touch them—it was not to be borne—she hardly +knew why, or since when. "I want to know about Glen," she added. +"Never mind me." +</P> + +<P> +"But I do mind," he assured her. His hand was trembling. "Beth, I—I +can't talk much—I mean romantic talk, and all that, but—well—I've +about concluded we ought to be married at once—for your sake—your +protection—and my peace of mind. I have thought about it ever since I +left you here alone." +</P> + +<P> +The brightness expressive of the gayety of her nature departed from her +eyes. She looked fixedly at the man's dark face, with its gray, +deep-set, penetrative eyes, its bluish jaw, and knitted brows. It +frightened her, someway, as it never had before. He had magnetized her +always—sometimes more than now, but his influence crept upon her +subtly even here. +</P> + +<P> +"But I—I think I'd rather not—just yet," she faltered, crimsoning and +dropping her gaze to the table. "You promised not to—to urge me +again—at least till I've spoken to Glen." +</P> + +<P> +"But I could not have known—forseen these conditions," he told her, +leaning further towards her across the table. "Why shouldn't we be +married now—at once? A six months' engagement is certainly long +enough. Your position here is—well—almost dubious. You must see +that. It isn't right of me—decent—not to make you my wife +immediately. I wish to do so—I wish it very much." +</P> + +<P> +She arose, as if to wrench herself free from the spell he was casting +upon her. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm all right—I'm quite all right," she said. "I'd rather not—just +now. There's no one here who cares a penny who or what I am. If my +position here is misunderstood—it can do no harm. I'd rather you +wouldn't say anything further about it—just at present." +</P> + +<P> +Her agitation did not escape him. If he thought of the horseman who +had carried her off while sending himself to the convicts, his plan for +vengeance only deepened. +</P> + +<P> +"You must have some reason for refusing." He too arose. +</P> + +<P> +"No—no particular reason," she answered, artlessly walking around the +table, apparently to pick up a button from the floor, but actually to +avoid his contact. "I just don't wish to—to be married +now—here—that's all. I ask you to keep your promise—not to ask it +while we remain." +</P> + +<P> +He had feared to lose her a score of times before. He feared it now +more potently than ever. And there was much that he must ask. The +risk of giving her a fright was not to be incurred. +</P> + +<P> +"Very well," he said resignedly, "but—it's very hard to wait." +</P> + +<P> +"Won't you sit down?" she asked him, an impulse of gratitude upon her. +"Now do be good and sensible, and tell me all about Glen." +</P> + +<P> +She returned to the table and resumed her seat. +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick sat opposite and drew his forged letter from his pocket. He +had placed it in Glenmore's envelope after tearing the young man's +letter into scraps. +</P> + +<P> +"This letter," said he, "was sent from way down in the desert—from +Starlight, another new camp. It looks to me as if the boy has struck +something very important. I'll read you what he says—or you can read +it for yourself." +</P> + +<P> +"No, no—read it. I'd rather listen." +</P> + +<P> +He read it haltingly, as one who puzzles over unfamiliar writing. Its +effect sank in the deeper for the method. Beth was open-eyed with +wonder, admiration, and delight over all that Glen had done and was +about to accomplish. She rose to the bait with sisterly eagerness. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, he <I>must</I> have the chance—he's <I>got</I> to have the chance!" she +cried excitedly. "What do you think of it yourself?" +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick fanned the blaze with conservatism. +</P> + +<P> +"It's quite a sum of money and Glen might overestimate the value of the +mine. I've inquired around and learn that the property is considered +tremendously promising. If we—if he actually secures that claim it +will doubtless mean a for—— I don't like to lose my sense of +judgment, but I do want to help the boy along. Frankly, however, I +don't see how I can let him have so much. I couldn't possibly send him +but thirty thousand dollars at the most." +</P> + +<P> +Beth's eyes were blazing with excitement. She had never dreamed that +Searle could be so generous—so splendid. An impulse of gratitude and +admiration surged throughout her being. +</P> + +<P> +"You'd <I>do</I> it?" she said. "You'll do as much as that for Glen?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, how can I do less?" he answered. "That claim will doubtless be +worth half a million, maybe more—if all I hear is reliable—and I get +it from disinterested parties. The boy has done a good big thing. +I've got to help him out. It seems too bad to offer him only half of +what he needs, but I'm not a very wealthy man. I can't be utterly +Quixotic. We've all got to help him all we can." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, thank you, Searle—thank you for saying 'we,'" she said in a voice +that slightly trembled. "I'm glad of the chance—glad to show dear +Glen that a sister can help a little, too." +</P> + +<P> +He stared at her with an excellent imitation of surprise in his gaze. +</P> + +<P> +"You'll—help?" he said in astonishment, masterfully simulated. "Not +with the other thirty thousand?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why not?" she cried. "Why not, when Glen has the chance of his life? +You don't really think I'd hesitate?" +</P> + +<P> +"But," said he, leading her onward, "he needs the money now—at once. +You'd have to get it here by wire, and all that sort of trouble." +</P> + +<P> +"Then we'd better get things started," she said. "You'll help me, +Searle, I'm sure." +</P> + +<P> +"If you wish it," said Bostwick, "certainly." +</P> + +<P> +"Dear Glen!" she said. "Dear boy! I'll write him a letter at once." +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick started, alertly, as she ran in her girlish pleasure to a +stand where she had placed her materials for writing. +</P> + +<P> +"Good," he commented drily, "I'll mail it with one of my own." +</P> + +<P> +She dashed off a bright effusion with all her spontaneous enthusiasm. +Bostwick supplied her with the address, and presently took the letter +in his hand. He had much to do at the bank, he informed her, by way of +preparing for the deal. He promised to return when he could. +</P> + +<P> +On his way down street be deliberately tore the letter to the smallest +of fragments and scattered them widely on the wind. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap17"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVII +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +UNEXPECTED COMPLICATIONS +</H3> + +<P> +On the following morning news arrived in Goldite that temporarily +dimmed the excitement attendant upon stories of the "Laughing Water" +property and the coming stampede to the Indian reservation. +</P> + +<P> +Matt Barger and three others of the convicts, still uncaptured, had +pillaged a freight team, of horses, provisions, and arms, murdered a +stage driver, robbed the express of a large consignment of gold, and +escaped as before to the mountains. +</P> + +<P> +Two separate posses were in pursuit. Rewards aggregating ten thousand +dollars were offered for Barger, dead or alive, with smaller sums for +each of his companions. Their latest depredations had occurred +alarmingly close to the mining camp, from which travel was becoming +hazardous. +</P> + +<P> +The gold theft was particularly disquieting to the Goldite mining +contingent. Dangers beset their enterprises in many directions at the +very best. To have this menace added, together with worry over every +man's personal safety in traveling about, was fairly intolerable. The +inefficient posses were roundly berated, but no man volunteered to +issue forth and "get" Matt Barger—either alive or as a corpse. +</P> + +<P> +The man who arrived with the news was one of Van's cronies, Dave, the +little station man whom Beth had met the morning of her coming. He was +here in response to a summons from Van, who thought he saw an +opportunity to assist his friend to better things. Everything Dave +owned he had fetched across the desert, including both the horses that +Beth and Elsa once had ridden. The station itself he had sold. He had +launched forth absolutely on Van's new promises, burning all his +bridges, as it were, behind him. +</P> + +<P> +Van came down to meet him. He had other concerns in Goldite, some with +Culver, the Government representative, and others a trifle more +personal, and intended to combine them all in one excursion. +</P> + +<P> +No sooner had he appeared on the street, after duly stabling "Suvy" at +the hay-yard, than a hundred acquaintances, suddenly transformed into +intimate friends, by the change in his fortunes, pounced upon him in a +spirit of generosity, hilarity, and comaraderie that cloyed not only +his senses, but even his movements in the camp. +</P> + +<P> +He was dragged and carried into four saloons like a helpless, +good-natured bear cub, strong enough to resist by inflicting injuries, +but somewhat amused by the game. Intelligence of his advent went the +rounds. The local editor and the girl he had addressed as "Queenie," +on the day of the fight in the street, were rivals in another joyous +attack as he escaped at last to proceed about his own affairs. +</P> + +<P> +The editor stood no chance whatsoever. Van had nothing to say, and +said so. Moreover, Queenie was a very persistent, as well as a very +pretty, young person, distressingly careless of deportment. She clung +to Van like a bur. +</P> + +<P> +"Gee, Van!" she cried with genuine tears in her eyes, "didn't I always +say you was the candy? Didn't I always say I'd give you my head and +breathe through my feet—day or night? Didn't I tell 'em all you was +the only one? You're the only diamonds there is for me—and I didn't +never wait for you to strike it first." +</P> + +<P> +"No, you didn't even wait for an invitation," answered Van with a +smile. "Everybody's got to hike now. I'm busy, trying to breathe." +</P> + +<P> +She clung on. Unfortunately, down in an Arizona town, Van had trounced +a ruffian once in Queenie's protection—simply because of her gender +and entirely without reference to her character or her future attitude +towards himself. In her way she personified a sort of adoration and +gratitude, which could neither be slain nor escaped by anything that he +or anyone else could do. Her devotion, however, had palled upon him +early, perhaps more because of its habit of increasing. It had +recently become a pest. +</P> + +<P> +"Busy?" she echoed. "You said that before. When ain't you going to be +busy?" +</P> + +<P> +"When I'm dead," he answered, and wrenching loose he dived inside a +hardware store, to purchase a hunting knife for Gettysburg, then went +at once to a barber shop and shut out the torment of friends. +</P> + +<P> +He escaped at the rear, when his face had been groomed, and made his +way unseen to Mrs. Dick's. +</P> + +<P> +Beth was not at home. She and Bostwick were together at the office of +the telegraph company, where Searle was assisting her, as she thought +to aid her brother, to such excellent purpose that her thirty thousand +dollars bid fair to repose in the bank at his call before the business +day should reach its end. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Dick seemed to Van the one and only person in the camp unaffected +by the news of his luck. She treated him precisely as she always had +and doubtless always should. Therefore, he had no difficulty in +getting away to Culver at his office. +</P> + +<P> +The official surveyor was a fat-cheeked, handsome man, with a silky +brown beard, an effeminate voice, and prodigious self-conceit. He was +pacing up and down the inside office, at the rear of the rough board +building, when Van came in and found him. The horseman's business was +one of maps and land-office data made essential to his needs by the new +recording of the "Laughing Water" property as a placer instead of a +quartz claim. He had drawn a crude outline of his holdings and in +taking it forth from his pocket found the knife bought for Gettysburg +in the way. He removed the weapon and placed it on the table near at +hand. +</P> + +<P> +"There's so much of this desert unsurveyed," he said, "that no man can +tell whether he's just inside or just outside of Purgatory." +</P> + +<P> +"So you come to me to find out?" Culver demanded somewhat shortly. "Do +you tin-horn miners think that's all this office is for?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, in my instance, I had to come to some wiser spirit than myself +to get my bearings," answered Van drawlingly. "You can see that." +</P> + +<P> +"There are the maps." Culver waved his hand towards a drawer in the +office table, and moved impatiently over to a window, the view from +which commanded a section of the street, including the bank. +</P> + +<P> +Van was presently engrossed in a search for quarter sections, ranges, +and townships. +</P> + +<P> +"Look here," said Culver, turning upon him aggressively, "what's this +racket I hear about you taking the inside track with that stunning new +petticoat in town?" +</P> + +<P> +Van looked up without the least suspicion of the man's real meaning. +</P> + +<P> +"If you are referring to that reckless young woman called Queenie——" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Queenie—rats!" interrupted Culver irritably. "You know who I +mean. I guess you call her Beth." +</P> + +<P> +Van's face took on a look of hardness as if it were chiseled in stone. +He had squared around as if at a blow. For a moment he faced the +surveyor in silence. +</P> + +<P> +"You are making some grave mistake," he said presently in ominous calm. +"Please don't make such an allusion as that again." +</P> + +<P> +"So, the shot went home," Culver laughed unctuously, turning for a +moment from the window. "I thought it would. You know you couldn't +expect to keep anything like that all to yourself, Van Buren. You're +not the only ladies' man on the beach. And as for this clod of a +Bostwick——" He had turned to look out as before, and grew suddenly +excited. Beth was in view at the bank. "By the gods!" he exclaimed +with a sudden change of tone, "she is the handsomest bit of +confectionery on earth. If I don't win her——" +</P> + +<P> +His utterance promptly ceased, together with his abominable activities +and primping in the window. Van, who did not know that this creature +had been Beth's particular annoyance, had crossed the room without a +sound and laid his grip on Culver's collar. +</P> + +<P> +"You cur!" he said quietly, and choking the man he flung him down +against the floor and wall as if he had been the merest puppet. +</P> + +<P> +Someone had entered the outside door. Neither Culver nor Van heard the +sound. Culver rolled over, scrambled to his feet, and with his face +and neck engorged with rage, came rushing at the horseman like a fury. +</P> + +<P> +"You blackguard!" he screamed, "I'll tear out your heart for that! +I'll kill you like——" +</P> + +<P> +"Shut up!" Van commanded quietly, stopping the onrush of his angered +foe by putting his hand against the surveyor's face and sending him +reeling as before. "Don't tell me what you'll do to me—or to anyone +else in this camp! And if ever I hear of you opening your mouth again +as you did here a moment ago, I'll tie a knot so hard in your carcass +you'll have to be buried in a hat box!" +</P> + +<P> +He glanced towards the doorway. A stranger stood on the threshold. +Bowing, Van passed him and left the place, too angered to think either +of the maps or of his knife. +</P> + +<P> +Culver, raging like a maniac, bowled headlong into the visitor, in his +effort to overtake the horseman, but found himself baffled and took out +his wrath in foul vituperation that presently drove the stranger from +the place. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap18"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVIII +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +WHEREIN MATTERS THICKEN +</H3> + +<P> +The stranger who had witnessed the trouble at Culver's office had come +there at the instance of McCoppet. It was, therefore, to McCoppet that +he carried the intelligence of what had taken place, so far as he had +seen. +</P> + +<P> +The gambler was exceedingly pleased. That Culver would now be ready, +as never before, to receive a proposition whereby the owners of the +"Laughing Water" claim could be deprived of their ground, he was well +convinced. +</P> + +<P> +For reasons best known to himself and skillfully concealed from all +acquaintances, McCoppet had remained practically in hiding since the +moment in which he had beheld that half-breed Piute Indian in the +saloon. He remained out of sight even now, dispatching a messenger to +Culver, in the afternoon, requesting his presence for a conference for +the total undoing of Van Buren. +</P> + +<P> +Culver, who in ordinary circumstances might have refused this request +with haughty insolence, responded to the summons rather sooner than +McCoppet had expected. He was still red with anger, and meditating +personal violence to Van at the earliest possible meeting. +</P> + +<P> +McCoppet, with his smokeless cigar in his mouth, and his great opal +sentient with fire, received his visitor in the little private den to +which Bostwick had been taken. +</P> + +<P> +"How are you, Culver?" he said off-handedly. +</P> + +<P> +"I wanted to have a little talk. I sent a man up to your shop a while +ago, and he told me you fired Van Buren out of the place on the run." +</P> + +<P> +"That's nobody's business but mine," said Culver aggressively. "If +that is all you care to talk about——" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't roil up," interrupted the gambler. "I don't even know what the +fight was about, and I don't care a tinker's whoop either. I got you +here to give you a chance to put Van Buren out of commission and make a +lifetime winning." +</P> + +<P> +Culver looked at him sharply. +</P> + +<P> +"It must be something crooked." +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing's crooked that works out straight," said McCoppet. "What's +life anyhow but a sure-thing game? It's stacked for us all to lose out +in the end. What's the use of being finniky while we live—as long as +even the Almighty's dealing brace?" +</P> + +<P> +Culver was impatient. "Well?" +</P> + +<P> +"I won't beat around the chapparal," said McCoppet. "It ain't my way." +Nevertheless, with much finesse and art he contrived to put his +proposition in a manner to rob it of many of its ugly features. +However, he made the business plain. +</P> + +<P> +"You see," he concluded, "the old reservation line might actually be +wrong—and all you'd have to do would be to put it right. That's what +we want—we want the line put right." +</P> + +<P> +Culver was more angered than before. He understood the conspiracy +thoroughly. No detail of its cleverness escaped him. +</P> + +<P> +"If you thought you could trade on my personal unpleasantness with an +owner of the 'Laughing Water' claim," he said hotly, "you have made the +mistake of your life. I wish you good-day." +</P> + +<P> +He rose to go. McCoppet rose and stopped him. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't get feverish," said he. "It don't pay. I ain't requesting this +service from you for just your feelings against a man. There's plenty +in this for us all." +</P> + +<P> +"You mean bribe money, I suppose," said Culver no less aggressively +than before. "Is that what you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't call it hard names," begged the gambler. "It's just a +retainer—say twenty thousand dollars." +</P> + +<P> +Culver burned to the top of his ears. He looked at McCoppet intently +with an expression the gambler could not interpret. +</P> + +<P> +"Just to change that line a thousand feet," urged the man of gambling +propensities. "I'll make it twenty-five." +</P> + +<P> +Still Culver made no response. With all his other hateful attributes +of character he was tempered steel on incorruptibility. He was not +even momentarily tempted to avenge himself thus on Van Buren. +</P> + +<P> +McCoppet thought he had him wavering. He attempted to push him over +the brink. +</P> + +<P> +"Say," said he persuasively, lowering his voice to a tone of the +confidential, "I can strain a little more out of one of my partners and +make it thirty thousand dollars." He had no intention of employing a +cent of his own. Bostwick was to pay all these expenses. "Thirty +thousand dollars, cash," he repeated, "the minute you finish your +work—and make it look like a Government <I>correction</I> of the line." +</P> + +<P> +Culver broke forth on him with accumulated wrath. +</P> + +<P> +"You damnable puppy!" he said in a futile effort to be adequate to the +situation. "You sneak! Of all the accursed +intrigues—insults—robberies that ever were hatched—— By God, sir, +if you offered me a million of money you shouldn't alter that +Government line by a hair! If you speak to me again—I'll knock you +down!" +</P> + +<P> +He flung the door wide open, went out like a rocket, and bowled a man +half over in his blind haste to be quit the place. +</P> + +<P> +McCoppet was left there staring where he had gone—staring and afraid +of what the results would probably be to all the game. He had no eyes +to behold a man who had suddenly discerned him from the crowds. A +moment later he started violently as a huge form stood in the door. +</P> + +<P> +"Trimmer!" he said, "I'm busy!" +</P> + +<P> +"You're goin' to be busier in about a minute, if I don't see you right +now," said the man addressed as Trimmer, a raw, bull-like lumberman +from the mountains. "Been waitin' to see you some time." +</P> + +<P> +"Come in," said the gambler instantly regaining his composure. "Come +in and shut the door. How are you, anyway?" He held out his hand to +shake. +</P> + +<P> +Trimmer closed the door. "Ain't ready to shake, jest yet," he said. +"I come here to see you on business." +</P> + +<P> +"That's all right, Larry," answered McCoppet. "That's all right. Sit +down." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm goin' to," announced his visitor. He took a chair, pulled out a +giant cigar, and lighting it up smoked like a pile of burning leaves. +"You seem to be pretty well fixed," he added, taking a huge black +pistol from his pocket and laying it before him on the table. "Looks +like money was easy." +</P> + +<P> +"I ain't busted," admitted the gambler. "Have a drink?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not till we finish." The lumberman settled in his chair. "That was +the way you got me before—and you ain't goin' to come it again." +</P> + +<P> +McCoppet waited for his visitor to open. Trimmer was not in a hurry. +He eyed the man across the table calmly, his small, shifting optics +dully gleaming. +</P> + +<P> +Presently he said; "Cayuse is here in camp." +</P> + +<P> +Cayuse was the half-breed Piute Indian whose company McCoppet had +avoided. Partially educated, wholly reverted to his Indian ways and +tribal brethren, Cayuse was a singular mixture of the savage, plus +civilized outlooks and ethical standards that made him a dangerous +man—not only a law unto himself, as many Indians are, but also a +strange interpreter of the law, both civilized and aboriginal. +</P> + +<P> +McCoppet had surmised what was coming. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes—I noticed he was here." +</P> + +<P> +"Know what he come fer?" asked the lumberman. "Onto his game?" +</P> + +<P> +"You came here to tell me. Deal the cards." +</P> + +<P> +Trimmer puffed great lungfuls of the reek from his weed and took his +revolver in hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Opal," said he, enjoying his moment of vantage, "you done me up for a +clean one thousand bucks, a year ago—while I was drunk—and I've been +laying to git you ever since." +</P> + +<P> +McCoppet was unmoved. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, here I am." +</P> + +<P> +"You bet! here you are—and here you're goin' to hang out till we fix +things <I>right</I>!" The lumberman banged his gun barrel on the table hard +enough to make a dent. "That's why Cayuse is here, too. Mrs. Cayuse +is dead." +</P> + +<P> +The gambler nodded coldly, and Trimmer went on. +</P> + +<P> +"She kicked the bucket havin' a kid which wasn't Cayuse's—too darn +white fer even him—and Cayuse is on the war trail fer that father." +</P> + +<P> +McCoppet threw away his chewed cigar and replaced it with a fresh one. +He nodded as before. +</P> + +<P> +"Cayuse is on that I know who the father was," resumed the visitor. "I +told him to come here to Goldite and I'd give up the name." +</P> + +<P> +He began to consume his cigar once more by inches and watched the +effect of his words. There was no visible effect. McCoppet had never +been calmer in his life—outwardly. Inwardly he had never felt Dearer +to death, and his own kind of fright was upon him. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," he said, "your aces look good to me. What do you want—how +much?" +</P> + +<P> +"I ought to hand you over to Cayuse—good riddance to the whole +country," answered Trimmer, with rare perspicacity of judgment. "You +bet you're goin' to pay." +</P> + +<P> +"If you want your thousand back, why don't you say so?" inquired the +gambler quietly. "I'll make it fifteen hundred. That's pretty good +interest, I reckon." +</P> + +<P> +"Your reckoner's run down," Trimmer assured him. "I want ten thousand +dollars to steer Cayuse away." +</P> + +<P> +McCoppet slowly shook his head. "You ain't a hog, Larry, you're a +Rockyfeller. Five thousand, cash on the nail, if you show me you can +steer Cayuse so far off the trail he'll never get on it again." +</P> + +<P> +Five thousand dollars was a great deal of money to Trimmer. Ten +thousand was far in excess of his real expectations. But he saw that +his power was large. He was brutally frank. +</P> + +<P> +"Nope, can't do it, Opal, not even fer a friend," and he grinned. +"I've got you in the door and I'm goin' to jamb you hard. Five +thousand ain't enough." +</P> + +<P> +Things had been going against the gambler for nearly an hour. He had +been acutely alarmed by the presence of Cayuse in the camp. His mind, +like a ferret in a trap, was seeking wildly for a loophole of +advantage. Light came in upon him suddenly, with a thought of Culver, +by whom, subconsciously, he was worried. +</P> + +<P> +"How do you mean to handle the half-breed?" he inquired by way of +preparing his ground. "You've promised to cough up a name." +</P> + +<P> +Trimmer scratched his head with the end of his pistol. +</P> + +<P> +"I guess I could tell him I was off—don't know the father after all." +</P> + +<P> +"Sounds like a kid's excuse," commented McCoppet. "Like as not he'd +take it out of you." +</P> + +<P> +The likelihood was so strong that Trimmer visibly paled. +</P> + +<P> +"I've got to give him somebody's name," he agreed with alacrity. "Has +anyone died around here recent?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," answered McCoppet with ready mendacity. +</P> + +<P> +"Culver, who used to do surveying." +</P> + +<P> +"Who?" asked Trimmer. "Don't know him." +</P> + +<P> +McCoppet leaned across the table. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes you do. He stopped you once from stealing—from picking up a lot +of timber land. Remember?" +</P> + +<P> +Trimmer was interested. His vindictive attributes were aroused. +</P> + +<P> +"Was that the cuss? I never seen him. Do you think Cayuse would know +who he was?—and believe it—the yarn?" +</P> + +<P> +"Cayuse was once his chain-man." McCoppet was tremendously excited, +though apparently as cold as ice, as he swiftly thought out the +niceties of his own and fate's arrangements. "Cayuse's wife once +worked for Mrs. Culver, cooking and washing." +</P> + +<P> +"Say, anybody'd swaller that," reflected the lumberman aloud. "But +five thousand dollars ain't enough." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll make it seven thousand five hundred—that's an even split," +agreed the gambler. He thought he foresaw a means whereby he could +save this amount from the funds that Bostwick would furnish. He rose +from his seat. "A thousand down, right now—the balance when Cayuse is +gone, leaving me safe forever. You to give him the name right now." +</P> + +<P> +Trimmer stood up, quenched the light on the stub of his cigar, and +chewed up the butt with evident enjoyment. +</P> + +<P> +"All right," he answered. "Shake." +</P> + +<P> +Ten minutes later he had found Cayuse, delivered up the name agreed +upon, and was busy spending his money acquiring a load of fiery drink. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap19"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIX +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +VAN AND BETH AND BOSTWICK +</H3> + +<P> +Van was far too occupied to retain for long the anger that Culver had +aroused in all his being. Moreover, he had come to camp in a mood of +joyousness, youth, and bounding emotions such as nothing could +submerge. The incident with Culver was closed. As for land-office +data, it was far from being indispensable, and Gettysburg's knife was +forgotten. +</P> + +<P> +He had fetched down a nugget from the "Laughing Water" claim, a bright +lump of virgin gold, rudely fashioned by nature like a heart. This he +took at once to a jeweler's shop, where more fine diamonds were being +sold than in all the rest of the State, and while it was being soldered +to a pin he returned to the hay-yard for Dave. His business was to +purchase the mare on which, one beautiful morning when the wild peach +was in bloom, Beth Kent had ridden by his side. Dave would have given +him the animal out of hand. Van compelled him to receive a market +price. Even ponies here were valuable, and Dave had been poor all his +life. +</P> + +<P> +"Say, Van," he drawled, when at length the transaction was complete, +"this camp has set me to thinkin'. It's full of these rich galoots, +all havin' an easy time. If ever I git a wad of dough I'm comin' here +and buy five dollars worth of good sardines and eat 'em, every one. +Never have had enough sardines in all my life." +</P> + +<P> +"I'd buy them for you now and sit you down," said Van, "only why start +a graveyard with a friend?" +</P> + +<P> +Some woman who had come and gone from Goldite had disposed of a +beautiful side saddle, exposed in the hay-yard to the weather. Van +paid fifty dollars and became its owner. The outfit for Beth was soon +complete. He ordered the best of feed and attention for her +roan—bills to be rendered to himself—and hastening off to the +jeweler's, found his pin ready and reposing in a small blue box. +Avoiding a number of admiring friends, he slipped around a corner, and +once more appeared at Mrs. Dick's. +</P> + +<P> +Beth was in the dining-room, alone. Her papers were spread upon the +table. She was flushed with the day's excitements, +</P> + +<P> +Van had entered unannounced. His active tread upon the carpet of the +hall had made no sound. When he halted in the doorway, transfixed by +the beauty of the face he saw reflected in the sideboard mirror +opposite, Beth was unconscious of his presence. +</P> + +<P> +She was busily gathering up her documents. Her pretty hands were +moving lightly on the table. Her eyes were downcast, focused where she +worked. Only the wondrous addition of their matchless brown, thought +Van, was necessary to complete a picture of the most exquisite +loveliness he had ever beheld. +</P> + +<P> +He had come there prepared to be sedate—at least not over-bold again, +or too presumptuous. Already, however, a riot of love was in his +veins. He loved as he fought—with all his strength, with a tidal +impetuosity that could scarcely understand resistance or imagine +defeat. To restrain himself from a quick descent upon her position and +a boyish sweeping of her up in his powerful arms was taxing the utmost +of his self-control. Then Beth glanced up at the mirror. +</P> + +<P> +The light of her eyes seemed to liquify his heart. He felt that mad, +joyous organ spread abruptly, throughout his entire being. +</P> + +<P> +She rose up suddenly and turned to greet him. +</P> + +<P> +"Why—Mr. Van!" she stammered, flushing rosily. "I <I>heard</I> you were in +town." +</P> + +<P> +He came towards her quietly enough, the jeweler's box in his hand. +</P> + +<P> +"I called before," he answered in his off-hand way. "You must have +been out with poor old Searle." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," she said, "poor old Searle? Why poor?" +</P> + +<P> +"I told you why before," he said boldly, in spite of himself. He was +standing before her by the table, looking fairly into her eyes, with +that dancing boyishness amazingly bright in his own. "You remember, +too—you can't forget." +</P> + +<P> +The flush in her cheeks increased. Her glance was lowered. +</P> + +<P> +"You didn't give me time to—rebuke you for that," she answered, +attempting to assume a tone of severity. "You had no right—it wasn't +nice or like you in the least." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes it was, nice, and like me," he corrected. "I've brought you a +nugget from the claim." He opened the box and shook out the pin on the +table. +</P> + +<P> +She had started to make a reply concerning his actions when leaving on +that former occasion. The words were pushed aside. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, my!" she said in a little exclamation, instead. "A +nugget!—gold!—not from the—not from your claim?" +</P> + +<P> +His hand slightly trembled. +</P> + +<P> +"From the 'Laughing Water' claim. Named for the girl I'm going to +marry." +</P> + +<P> +She gasped, almost audibly. The things he said were so wholly +unexpected—so almost naked in their bluntness. +</P> + +<P> +"The girl—some girl you—Isn't it beautiful?" she faltered helplessly. +"Of course I don't know—how any girl could have such a singular name." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes you do," he corrected in his shockingly candid way. "You know +when Dave gave her the name." +</P> + +<P> +"Do I?" she asked weakly, trying to smile, and feeling some wonderful, +welcome sort of fear of the passion with which he fairly glowed. "You +are—very positive." +</P> + +<P> +He moved a trifle closer, touching the pin, with a finger, as she held +it in her hand. His voice slightly shook as he asked: +</P> + +<P> +"Do you like it?" +</P> + +<P> +"The pin? Of course. A genuine nugget! You were very kind, I'm sure." +</P> + +<P> +"I thought when you and I ride over to the claim, some day, you ought +to have a horse of your own," he announced in his manner of finality. +"So your horse and outfit are over at Charlie's, at your order." +</P> + +<P> +She looked up at him swiftly. "My horse—over at Charlie's?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Charlie's—the hay-yard. I thought you liked a side-saddle best +and I found a good one in the hay." +</P> + +<P> +"But—I haven't any horse," she protested, failing for a moment to +grasp his meaning. "How could I have a horse in Goldite?" +</P> + +<P> +"You couldn't help having him—that's all—any more than you can help +having me." +</P> + +<P> +The light in his eyes was far too magnetic for her own brown glance to +escape. She hardly knew what she was saying, or what she was thinking. +She was simply aflame with happiness in his presence—and she feared he +must read it in her glance. That the horse was his gift she +comprehended all at once—but—what had he said—what was it he had +said, that she must answer? Her heart and her mind had coalesced. +There was love in both and little of reason in either. She knew he was +holding her eyes to his with the sheer force of overwhelming love. +</P> + +<P> +She tried to escape. +</P> + +<P> +"You—mean——-" +</P> + +<P> +He broke all control like a whirlwind. +</P> + +<P> +"I mean I can't hold it any longer! I love you!—I love you to death!" +</P> + +<P> +He took her in his arms suddenly, passionately, crushing her almost +fiercely against his heart. He kissed her on the lips—once—twice—a +dozen times in half a minute—feeling the warm, moist softness in the +contact and holding her pliant figure yet more closely. +</P> + +<P> +She, too, was mad with it all, for a second. Then she began to battle +with his might. +</P> + +<P> +"Van!—Mr. Van!" she said, pushing his face away with a hand he might +have devoured. "Let me go! Let me go! How dare—— You shan't! You +shan't! Let me go!" +</P> + +<P> +Her nature, in revolt for a moment against her better judgment, refused +to do the bidding of her muscles. Then she gathered strength out of +the whirlwind itself and pushed him away like a tigress. +</P> + +<P> +"You shan't!" she repeated. "You ought to be ashamed! How dare you +treat me——" +</P> + +<P> +He had turned abruptly, looking towards the door. Her utterance was +halted by his movement of listening. She had barely time to take up +her papers, and make an effort at regaining her composure. Bostwick +was coming down the hall. He presently appeared at the door. For a +moment there was silence. +</P> + +<P> +Van was the first to speak. +</P> + +<P> +"How are you, Searle?" he said cheerily. "Got over your grouch?" +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick looked him over with ill-concealed loathing. +</P> + +<P> +"You thought you were clever, I suppose," he said in a growl-like tone +that certainly fitted his face. "What are you doing here, I'd like to +know?" +</P> + +<P> +"Tottering angels!" said Van, "didn't that experience do you any good +after all? No wonder the convicts wouldn't have you!" +</P> + +<P> +Beth was afraid for what Bostwick might have heard. She could not +censure Van for what he had done; she saw he would make no +explanations. At best she could only attempt to put some appearance of +the commonplace upon the horseman's visit. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Van Buren came—to see Mrs. Dick," she faltered, steadying her +voice as best she might. "They're—very old friends." +</P> + +<P> +"What's that?" demanded Bostwick, coming into the room and pointing at +the bright nugget pin, lying exposed upon the table. "Some present, I +suppose, for Mrs. Dick?" He started to take it in his hand. +</P> + +<P> +Van interposed. "It's neither for Mrs. Dick nor for you. It's a +present I've made to Miss Kent." +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick elevated his brows. +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed?" +</P> + +<P> +Beth fluttered in with a word of defense. +</P> + +<P> +"It's just a little souvenir—that's all—a souvenir of—of my escape +from those terrible men." +</P> + +<P> +"And Searle's return," added Van, who felt the very devil in his veins +at sight of Bostwick helpless and enraged. +</P> + +<P> +Searle opened his lips as if to fling out something of his wrath. He +held it back and turned to Beth. +</P> + +<P> +"It will soon be night. We have much to do. I suppose I may see you, +privately—even here?" +</P> + +<P> +Beth was helpless. And in the circumstances she wished for Van to go. +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly," she answered, raising her eyes for a second to the +horseman's, "—that is—if——" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly," Van answered cordially. "Good-by." He advanced and held +out his hand. +</P> + +<P> +She gave him her own because there was nothing else to do—and the +tingling of his being made it burn. She did not dare to meet his gaze. +</P> + +<P> +"So long, Searle," he added smilingly. "Better turn that grouch out to +pasture." +</P> + +<P> +Then he went. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap20"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XX +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +QUEENIE +</H3> + +<P> +The shadows of evening met Van, as he stepped from the outside door and +started up the street. Then a figure emerged from the shadows and met +him by the corner. +</P> + +<P> +It was Queenie. Her eyes were red from weeping. A smile that someway +affected Van most poignantly, he knew not why, came for a moment to her +lips. +</P> + +<P> +"You didn't expect to see me here," she said. "I had to come to see if +it was so." +</P> + +<P> +"What is it, Queenie? What do you mean? What do you want?" he +answered. "What's the trouble?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing," she said. "I don't want nothing I can git—I +guess—unless—Oh, <I>is</I> it her, Van? Is it sure all over with me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Look here," he said, not unkindly, "you've always been mistaken, +Queenie. I told you at the time—that time in Arizona—I'd have done +what I did for an Indian squaw—for any woman in the world. Why +couldn't you let it go at that?" +</P> + +<P> +"You know why I couldn't," she answered with a certain intensity of +utterance that gave him a species of chill. "After what you done—like +the only real friend I ever had—I belonged to you—and couldn't even +take myself away." +</P> + +<P> +"But I didn't want anyone to belong to me, Queenie. You know that. I +could barely support my clothes." +</P> + +<P> +Her eyes burned with a strange luminosity. Her utterance was eager. +</P> + +<P> +"But you want somebody to belong to you now? Ain't that what's the +matter with you now?" +</P> + +<P> +He did not answer directly. +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't think it was in you, Queenie, to follow me around and play +the spy. I've liked you pretty well—but—I couldn't like this." +</P> + +<P> +She stared at him helplessly, as an animal might have looked. +</P> + +<P> +"I couldn't help it," she murmured, repressing some terrible emotion of +despair. "I won't never trouble you no more." +</P> + +<P> +She turned around and went away, walking uncertainly, as if from +physical weakness and the blindness of pain. +</P> + +<P> +Van felt himself inordinately wrung—felt it a cruelty not to run and +overtake her—give her some measure of comfort. There was nothing he +could do that would not be misunderstood. Moreover, he had no adequate +idea of what was in her mind—or in her homeless heart. He had known +her always as a butterfly; he could not take her tragically now. +</P> + +<P> +"Poor girl," he said as he watched her vanishing from sight, "if only +she had ever had a show!" +</P> + +<P> +He looked back at Mrs. Dick's. Bostwick had ousted him after all, +before he could extenuate his madness, before he could ascertain +whether Beth were angry or not—before he could bid her good-by. +</P> + +<P> +Now that the cool of evening was upon him, along with the chill of +sober reflection, he feared for what he had done. He was as mad, as +crude as Queenie. Yet his fear of Beth's opinion was a sign that he +loved her as a woman should be loved, sacredly, and with a certain awe, +although he made no such analysis, and took no credit to himself for +the half regrets that persistently haunted his reflections. +</P> + +<P> +It would be a moonlight night, he pondered. He had counted on riding +by the lunar glow to the "Laughing Water" claim. Would Beth, by any +possibility, attempt to see him—come out, perhaps, in the +moonlight—for a word before he should go? +</P> + +<P> +He could not entertain a thought of departing without again beholding +her. He wanted to know what she would say, and when he might see her +again. After all, what was the hurry to depart? He might as well wait +a little longer. +</P> + +<P> +He went to the hay-yard. Dave had disappeared. Half an hour of search +failed to bring him to light. On the point of entering a restaurant to +allay his sense of emptiness, Van was suddenly accosted by a wild-eyed +man, bare-headed and sweating, who ran at him, calling as he came. +</P> + +<P> +"Hey!" he cried. "Van Buren! Come on! Come on! She's dyin' and all +she wants is you!" +</P> + +<P> +"What's wrong with you, man?" inquired the horseman, halted by the +fellow's words. "What are you talking about?" +</P> + +<P> +"Queenie!" gasped the fellow, panting for his breath. "Took poison—O, +Lord! Come on! Come on! She don't want nothing but you!" +</P> + +<P> +Van turned exceedingly pale. +</P> + +<P> +"Poison? What you want is the doctor!" +</P> + +<P> +"He's there—long ago!" answered the informant excitedly, and swabbing +perspiration from his face. "She won't touch his dope. It's all over, +I guess—only she wants to see you." +</P> + +<P> +"Show me the way, then—show me the way. Where is she?" Van shook the +man's shoulder roughly. "Don't stand here trembling. Take me to the +place." +</P> + +<P> +The man was in a wretched plight, from fear and the physical suffering +induced by what he had seen. He reeled drunkenly as he started down +the street, then off between some rows of canvas structures, heading +for a district hung with red. +</P> + +<P> +At the edge of this place, at an isolated cabin, comprising two small, +rough rooms, the man seemed threatened with collapse. +</P> + +<P> +"May be too late," he whispered hoarsely, as he listened and heard no +sounds from the house. "I'm goin' to stay outside—and wait." +</P> + +<P> +The door was ajar. Without waiting for anything further, Van pushed it +open and entered. +</P> + +<P> +"There he is—I knew it!" cried Queenie from the room at the rear. It +was a cry that smote Van like a stab. +</P> + +<P> +Then he came to the room where she was lying. +</P> + +<P> +"I knew you'd come—I knew it, Van!" said the girl in a sudden outburst +of sobbing, and she tried to rise upon her pillow. Agony, which she +had fought down wildly, seized her in a spasm. She doubled on the bed. +</P> + +<P> +Van glanced about quickly. The doctor—a young, inexperienced man—was +there, sweating, a look of abject helplessness upon his face. The room +was a poor tawdry place, with gaudy decorations and a litter of +Queenie's finery. In her effort to conquer the pains that possessed +her body, the girl had distorted her face almost past recognition. +</P> + +<P> +Van came to the bedside directly, placed his hand on her shoulder, and +gave her one of his characteristic little shakings. +</P> + +<P> +"Queenie, what have you done?" he said. "What's going on?" +</P> + +<P> +She tried to smile. It was a terrible effort. +</P> + +<P> +"It's nobody's fault—but what was the use, Van?—what was there in it +for me?" +</P> + +<P> +"She won't take anything—the antidote—anything! There isn't a +stomach pump in town!" the doctor broke in desperately. "She's got to! +It's getting too late! We'll have to force it down! Maybe she'd take +it for you." He thrust a goblet into Van's nervous hand. It contained +a misty drink. +</P> + +<P> +"For God's sake take this, Queenie," Van implored. "Take it quick!" +</P> + +<P> +She shrank away, attempting with amazing force of will to mask her pain. +</P> + +<P> +"I'd take the stuff—for your sake—when I—wouldn't for God," she +faltered, sitting up, despite her bodily anguish. "You don't ask me +to—do it for you." +</P> + +<P> +"I do, Queenie—take it for me!" he answered, wrung again as he had +been at her smiles, an hour before, but now with heart-piercing +poignancy. "Take it for me, if you won't for anyone else." +</P> + +<P> +She received the glass—and deliberately threw it on the floor. The +doctor cried out sharply. Queenie shook her head, all the time +fighting down her agony, which was fast making inroads to her life. +She fell back on her pillow. +</P> + +<P> +"You didn't—ask me—Van 'cause you love me. Nobody—wants me to live. +That's all right. Do you s'pose you could kiss me good-by?" +</P> + +<P> +The look on her face was peculiarly childish, as she drove out the +lines of anguish in a superhuman effort made for him. And the yearning +there brought back again that thought he had voiced before, that +night—why couldn't the child have had a chance? +</P> + +<P> +The doctor was feverishly mixing another potent drink. +</P> + +<P> +Van bent down and kissed her, indulgently. +</P> + +<P> +"Force her to take it!" cried the doctor desperately. "Force her to +take it!" +</P> + +<P> +"Queenie," Van said, "you've got to take this stuff." +</P> + +<P> +Her hand had found his and clutched it with galvanic strength. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't—make me," she begged, closing her eyes in a species of ecstacy +that no man may understand. "I'd rather—not—Van—please. Only about +a minute now. Ain't it funny—that love—can burn you—up?" Her grip +had tightened on his hand. +</P> + +<P> +The doctor ran to the window, which he found already opened. He ran +back in a species of frenzy. +</P> + +<P> +"Make her take it, make her take it! God!" he said. "Not to do +anything—not to do a thing!" +</P> + +<P> +Queenie smiled at Van again—terribly. Her fingers felt like iron +rods, pressing into his flesh. As if to complete her renunciation she +dropped his hand abruptly. She mastered some violent convulsion that +left the merest flicker of her life. +</P> + +<P> +"Good-by, Van—good luck," she whispered faintly. +</P> + +<P> +"Queenie!" he said. "Queenie!" +</P> + +<P> +Perhaps she heard. After an ordeal that seemed interminable her face +was calm and still, a faint smile frozen on her marble features. +</P> + +<P> +Van waited there a long time. Someway it seemed as if this thing could +be undone. The place was terribly still. The doctor sat there as if +in response to a duty. He was dumb. +</P> + +<P> +When Van went out, the man on the doorstep staggered in. +</P> + +<P> +The moon was up. It shone obliquely down into all that rock-lined +basin, surrounded by the stern, forbidding hills—the ancient, +burned-out furnace of gold that man was reheating with his passions. +Afar in all directions the lighted tents presented a ghostly unreality, +their canvas walls illumined by the candles glowing within. A jargon +of dance-hall music floated on the air. Outside it all was the desert +silence—the silence of a world long dead. +</P> + +<P> +Van would gladly have mounted his horse and ridden away—far off, no +matter where. Goldite, bizarre and tragic—a microcosm of the world +that man has fashioned—was a blot of discordant life, he felt, upon an +otherwise peaceful world. As a matter of fact it had only begun its +evening's story. +</P> + +<P> +He stood in the road, alone, for several minutes, before he felt he +could begin to resume the round of his own existence. When he came at +length to the main street's blaze of light, a deeply packed throng +could be seen in all the thoroughfare, compactly blocked in front of a +large saloon. +</P> + +<P> +Culver, the Government representative in the land-office needs, had +been found in his office murdered. He had been stabbed. Van's knife, +bought for Gettysburg, had been employed—and found there, red with its +guilt. +</P> + +<P> +All this Van was presently to discover. He was walking towards the +surging mob when a miner he had frequently seen came running up and +halted in the light of a window. Then the man began to yell. +</P> + +<P> +"Here he is!" he cried. "Van Buren!" +</P> + +<P> +The mob appeared to break at the cry. Fifty men charged down the +street in a species of madness and Van was instantly surrounded. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap21"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXI +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +IN THE SHADOW OF THE ROPE +</H3> + +<P> +Mob madness is beyond explanation. Cattle stampeding are no more +senseless than men in such a state. Goldite, however, was not only +habitually keyed to the highest of tension, but it had recently been +excited to the breaking point by several contributing factors. Lawless +thefts of one another's claims, ore stealing, high pressure over the +coming rush to the Indian reservation, and a certain apprehension +engendered by the deeds of those liberated convicts—all these elements +had aroused an over-revulsion of feeling towards criminality and a +desire to apply some manner of law. And the primal laws are the laws +that spring into being at such a time as this—the laws that cry out +for an eye for an eye and a swiftness of legal execution. +</P> + +<P> +Into the vortex of Goldite's sudden revulsion Van was swept like a +straw. There was no real chance for a hearing. His friends of the +morning had lost all sense of loyalty. They were almost as crazed as +those whom his recent success had irritated. The story of his row with +Culver had spread throughout the confines of the camp. No link in the +chain of circumstantial evidence seemed wanting to convict him. A +bawling sea of human beings surrounded him with violence and menace. +</P> + +<P> +To escape the over-wrought citizens, the sheriff, assuming charge of +Van, dragged him on top of a stack of lumber, piled three feet high +before a building. The cry for a rope and a lynching began with a +promptness that few would have expected. In normal times it could +scarcely have been broached. +</P> + +<P> +Snatching new-made deputies, hit-or-miss from the mob, and summarily +demanding their services, the sheriff exerted his utmost powers to stem +the tide that was rising. Something akin to a trial began then and +there. A big red-faced drummer from Chicago, a man that Van had never +seen, became his voluntary advocate, standing between him and the mob. +</P> + +<P> +He had power, that man, both of limb and presence. His voice, also, +was mighty. He shoved men about like rubber puppets and shouted his +demands for law and order. +</P> + +<P> +Van, having flung off half a dozen citizens, who in the excitement had +felt some fanatical necessity for clutching him, faced the human wolves +about him in a spirit of angry resentment. The big man from Chicago +mowed his way to the pile of lumber and clambered up by the sheriff. +The pile raised its occupants only well above the surging pack of faces. +</P> + +<P> +"Stop your howling! Stop your noise!" roared the drummer from his +elevation. "Don't you want to give this man a chance?" +</P> + +<A NAME="img-168"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-168.jpg" ALT=""Don't you want to give this man a chance?"" BORDER="2" WIDTH="371" HEIGHT="484"> +<H4> +[Illustration: "Don't you want to give this man a chance?"] +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +He was heard throughout the street. +</P> + +<P> +"He's got to prove his innocence or hang!" cried someone shrilly. "A +murder foul as that!" +</P> + +<P> +Another one bawled: "Where was he then? Make him tell where he was at +six o'clock!" +</P> + +<P> +Culver's watch had been shattered and stopped at precisely six o'clock, +presumably by his fall against a table in his office, when he suddenly +went down, at the hands of his assassin. This fact was in possession +of the crowd. +</P> + +<P> +A general shout for Van to explain where he was at the vital moment +arose from all the crowd. The drummer turned to Van. +</P> + +<P> +"There you are," he said. "There's your chance. If you wasn't around +the surveyor's shack, you ought to be able to prove it." +</P> + +<P> +Van could have proved his alibi at once, by sending around to Queenie's +residence. He was nettled into a stubbornness of mind and righteous +anger by all this senseless accusation. He did not realize his +danger—the blackness of the case against him. That a lynching was +possible he could scarcely have been made to believe. Nevertheless, as +the Queenie matter was one of no secrecy and the facts must soon be +known, he was turning to the drummer to make his reply when his eye was +caught by a face, far out in the mass of human forms. +</P> + +<P> +It was Beth that he saw, her cheek intensely white in the light +streaming forth from a store. Bostwick was there at her side. Beth +had been caught in the press of the throng as they came from the +telegraph office. +</P> + +<P> +He realized that at best his story concerning Queenie would be +sufficiently black. With Beth in this theater of accusation the story +of Queenie must wait. +</P> + +<P> +"It's nobody's business where I was," he said. "This whole affair is +absurd!" +</P> + +<P> +Half a dozen of the men who were nearest heard his reply. One of them +roared it out lustily. The mob was enraged. The cries for a violent +termination to the scene increased in volume. Men were shouting, +swearing, and surging back and forth tumultuously, wrought to a frenzy +of primal virtue. +</P> + +<P> +One near Beth called repeatedly for a lynching. He had cut a long new +piece of rope from a coil at a store of supplies and was trying to drag +it through the crowd. +</P> + +<P> +The girl had heard and seen it all. She realized its full +significance. She had never in her life felt so horribly oppressed +with a sense of terrible things impending. Impetuously she accosted a +man who stood at her side. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, tell them he was with me!" she said. +</P> + +<P> +The man looked her over, and raising himself on his tip toes, shook his +hat wildly at the mob. +</P> + +<P> +"Say," he shouted at the top of his might, "here's a girl he was with +at six o'clock." +</P> + +<P> +It seemed as if only the men near at hand either heard or paid +attention. On the farther side, away from Beth, the shouts for mob law +were increasing. She turned to Bostwick hotly. +</P> + +<P> +"Can't you do anything? Tell them he was there with us—down at Mrs. +Dick's at six o'clock!" +</P> + +<P> +"He wasn't!" said Searle. "He left there at five forty-five." +</P> + +<P> +The man who had shouted listened to them both. +</P> + +<P> +"Five forty-five?" he repeated. "That makes a difference!" +</P> + +<P> +The drummer had caught the shout from out at the edge. +</P> + +<P> +"Who's that?" he called. "Who's got that alibi?" +</P> + +<P> +"All wrong!—No good!" yelled the man who stood by Beth. +</P> + +<P> +The girl had failed to realize how her statement would sound—in such a +place as Goldite. Van had turned sick when it reached him. He was +emphatically denying the story. The gist of it went through the mass +of maddened beings, only to be so soon impugned by the man who had +started it from Beth. The fury, at what was deemed an attempted +deception, burst out with accumulated force. +</P> + +<P> +The sheriff had drawn a revolver and was shouting to the mob to keep +away. +</P> + +<P> +"This man has got to go to jail!" he yelled. "You've got to act +accordin' to the law!" +</P> + +<P> +He ordered his deputies to clear the crowd and make ready for retreat. +Three of them endeavored to obey. Their efforts served to aggravate +the mob. +</P> + +<P> +Confusion and chaos of judgment seemed rising like a tide. In the very +air was a feeling that suddenly something would go, something too far +strained to hold, and some terrible deed occur before these people +could ask themselves how it had been accomplished. +</P> + +<P> +The fellow with the rope was being boosted forward by half a dozen +intoxicated fools. Had the rope been a burning fuse it could scarcely +have ignited more dangerous material than did its strands of manilla, +in those who could lay their hands upon it. +</P> + +<P> +The drummer was shouting himself raw in the throat—in vain. +</P> + +<P> +Van was courting disaster by the very defiance of his attitude. It +seemed as if nothing could save him, when two separate things occurred. +</P> + +<P> +The doctor who had been with Van at Queenie's death arrived in the +press, got wind of the crisis, and vehemently protested the truth. +Simultaneously, the lumberman, Trimmer, drunk, and enjoying what he +deemed a joke, hoarsely confided to some sober men the fact that Cayuse +had done the murder. +</P> + +<P> +Even then, when two centers of opposition to the madness of the mob had +been created, the menace could not at once be halted. +</P> + +<P> +The man with the rope had approached so near the lumber-pile that the +sheriff could all but reach him. A furious battle ensued, and waged +around the planks, between the deputies and lynchers. It lasted till +fifty active men of the camp, aroused to a sense of reaction by the +facts that were now becoming known, hurled the struggling fighters +apart and dragged them off, all the while spreading the news they had +heard concerning the half-breed Indian. +</P> + +<P> +No less excited when at last they knew that Van was innocent, the great +crowd still occupied the street, hailing Trimmer to the lumber-pile and +demanding to know how he came by the facts, and where Cayuse had gone. +</P> + +<P> +Trimmer was frightened into soberness—at least into soberness +sufficient to protect himself and McCoppet. He said he had seen the +Indian coming from Culver's office, with blood upon his hands. The +Indian had gone straight westward from the town, to elude pursuit in +the mountains. +</P> + +<P> +The fact that Van had been at Queenie's side at her death became town +property at once. It came in all promptness to Beth. +</P> + +<P> +With a feeling of sickness pervading all her being, she was glad to +have Bostwick take her home. +</P> + +<P> +It was late when at last the street was clear, and Van could finally +make his escape from danger and returning friends. Dave by then had +found himself; that is, he made his way, thus tardily, to the +horseman's side—and the two went at length to their dinner. +</P> + +<P> +At half-past eight, with the moon well up, Dave and Van were ready for +departure. Their horses were saddled. One extra animal was packed +with needed provisions for the crew on the "Laughing Water" claim. Van +had ordered all he could for Queenie's final journey—the camp's best +possible funeral, which he could not remain to attend. There was +nothing to do but to mount and ride away, but—Beth was down at Mrs. +Dick's. +</P> + +<P> +Resistance was useless. Bidding Dave wait with the horses at the yard. +Van made his way around through the shadows of the houses, and coming +out upon a rocky hill, a little removed from the boarding place, was +startled to see Beth abruptly rise before him. +</P> + +<P> +The house had oppressed her—and the moon had called. Bostwick, in +alarm concerning possible disaster to the plans he had made with +McCoppet, now that Culver was dead, had gone to seek the gambler out +and ascertain the status of affairs. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap22"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXII +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +TWO MEETINGS AFTER DARK +</H3> + +<P> +For a moment neither Beth nor Van could speak. The girl, like a +startled moon-sprite, wide-eyed and grave, had taken on a mood of +beauty such as the man had never seen. She seemed to him strangely +fragile, a trifle pale, but wholly exquisite, enchanting. +</P> + +<P> +No signs were on her face, but she had wept—hot, angry tears, within +the hour. And here was the cause of them all! She had wished he would +come—and feared he would come, as conflicting emotions possessed her. +Now that he stood here, with moonlight on half of his face, her +thoughts were all unmarshaled. +</P> + +<P> +Van presently spoke. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm a kid, after all. I couldn't go away without—this." +</P> + +<P> +"I wish you had! I wish you had!" she answered, at his smile. "I wish +I had never seen you in the world!" +</P> + +<P> +His heart was sore for jesting, but he would not change his way. +</P> + +<P> +"If not in the world, where <I>would</I> you have wished to see me, then?" +</P> + +<P> +"I never wished to see you at all!" she replied. "Your joke has gone +too far. You have utterly mistaken my sense of gratitude." +</P> + +<P> +"Guess not," he said. "I haven't looked for gratitude—nor wanted it, +either." +</P> + +<P> +"You had no right!" she continued. "You have said things—done +things—you have taken shameful advantage—you have treated me like—I +suppose like—that other—that other—— You dared!" +</P> + +<P> +Van's face took on an expression of hardness, to mask the hurt of his +heart. +</P> + +<P> +"Who says so?" he demanded quietly. "You know better." +</P> + +<P> +"It's true!" she answered hotly. "You had no right! It was mere brute +strength! You cannot deny what you have been—to that miserable +woman!" Tears of anger sped from her eyes, and she dashed them hotly +away. +</P> + +<P> +Van stepped a little closer. +</P> + +<P> +"Beth," he said, suddenly taking her hand, "none of this is true, and +you know it. You're angry with that woman, not with me." +</P> + +<P> +She snatched her hand away. +</P> + +<P> +"You shan't!" she said. "Don't you dare to touch me again. I hate +you—hate you for what you have done! You've been a brute probably to +her as well as to me!" +</P> + +<P> +"To you? When?" he demanded +</P> + +<P> +"All the time! To-day!—Now!—when you say I'm angry at a—woman who +is dead!—a woman who died for you!" +</P> + +<P> +It hit him. +</P> + +<P> +"Poor Queenie," he said, "poor child." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes—poor Queenie!" Her eyes blazed in the moonlight. "To think that +you dared to treat me like——" +</P> + +<P> +"Beth!" he interrupted, "I won't permit it. I told you to-day I loved +you. That makes things right. You love me, and that makes them +sacred. I'd do all I've done over again—<I>all</I> of it—Queenie and the +rest! I'm not ashamed, nor sorry for anything I've done. I love +you—I say—I love you. That's what I've never done before—and never +said I did—and that's what makes things right!" +</P> + +<P> +Beth was confused by what he said—confused in her judgment, her +emotions. Weakly she clung to her argument. +</P> + +<P> +"You haven't any right—it isn't true when you say I love you. I +don't! I won't! You can't deny that woman died of a broken heart for +you!" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't deny anything about her," he said. "I tried to be her friend. +God knows she needed friends. She was only a child, a pretty child. +I'm sorry. I've always been sorry. She knew I was only a friend." +</P> + +<P> +She felt he was honest. She knew he was wrung—suffering, but not in +his conscience. Yet what was she to think? She had heard it all—all +of Queenie's story. +</P> + +<P> +"You kissed her," she said, and red flamed up in her cheeks. +</P> + +<P> +"It was all she asked," he answered simply. "She was dying." +</P> + +<P> +"And you're paying for her funeral." +</P> + +<P> +"I said I was her friend." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, the shamelessness of it!" she exclaimed as before, "—the way it +looks! And to think of what you dared to do to me!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I kissed you without your asking," he confessed. "I expect to +kiss you a hundred thousand times. I expect to make you my wife—for a +love like ours is rare. Whatever else you think you want to say, +Beth—now—don't say it—unless it's just good-night." +</P> + +<P> +With a sudden move forward he took her two shoulders in his powerful +hands and gave her a rough little shake. Then his palms went swiftly +to her face, he kissed her on the lips, and let her go. +</P> + +<P> +"You!—Oh!" she cried, and turning she ran down the slope of the hill +as hard as she could travel. +</P> + +<P> +He watched her going in the moonlight. Even her shadow was beautiful, +he thought, but all his joy was grave. +</P> + +<P> +She disappeared within the house, without once turning to see what he +had done. He could not know that from one of the darkened windows she +presently peered forth and watched him depart from the hill. He was +not so assured as he had tried to make her think, and soberness dwelt +within his breast. +</P> + +<P> +Half an hour later he and old Dave were riding up the mountain in the +moonlight. The night from the eminence was glorious, now that the town +was left behind. Goldite lay far below in the old dead theatre of past +activities, dotting the barren immensity with its softened lights like +the little thing it was. How remote it seemed already, with its vices, +woes, and joys, its comedy and tragedy, its fevers, strifes, and toil, +disturbing nothing of the vast serenity of the planet, ever rolling on +its way. How coldly the moon seemed looking on the scene. And yet it +had cast a shadow of a girl to set a man aflame. +</P> + +<P> +Meantime Bostwick had been delayed in securing McCoppet's attention. +The town was still excited over all that had happened; the saloons were +full of men. Culver had been an important person, needful to many of +the miners and promoters of mining. His loss was an aggravation, +especially as his deputy, Lawrence, was away. +</P> + +<P> +The more completely to allay suspicions that might by any possibility +creep around the circle to himself, McCoppet had been the camp's most +active figure in organizing a posse, with the sheriff, to go out and +capture Cayuse. His reasons for desiring the half-breed's end were +naturally strong, nevertheless his active partisanship of law and +justice excited no undesirable talk. He was simply an influential +citizen engaged in a laudable work. +</P> + +<P> +It was late when at length he and Bostwick could snatch a few minutes +to themselves. The gambler's first question then was something of a +puzzle to Bostwick. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, have you got that thirty thousand?" +</P> + +<P> +"Got it? Yes, I've got it," Bostwick answered nervously, "but what is +the good of it now?" +</P> + +<P> +It was McCoppet's turn to be puzzled. +</P> + +<P> +"Anything gone wrong with Van Buren, or his claim?" +</P> + +<P> +"Good heavens! Isn't it sufficient to have things all gone wrong with +Culver? What could be worse than that?" +</P> + +<P> +The gambler flung his cigar away and hung a fresh one on his lip. +</P> + +<P> +"Say, don't you worry on Culver. Don't his deputy take his place?" +</P> + +<P> +"His deputy?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sure, his deputy—Lawrence—a man we can get hands down." +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick stared at him hopefully. +</P> + +<P> +"You don't mean to say this accident—this crime—is fortunate, after +all?" +</P> + +<P> +"It's a godsend." McCoppet would have dared any blasphemy. +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick's relief was inordinate. +</P> + +<P> +"Then what is the next thing to do?" +</P> + +<P> +"Wait for Lawrence," said the gambler. Then he suddenly arose. "No, +we can't afford the time. He might be a week in coming. You'll have +to go get him, to-morrow." +</P> + +<P> +"Where is he, then?" +</P> + +<P> +"Way out South, on a survey. You'd better take that car of yours, with +a couple of men I'll send along, and fetch him back mighty pronto. We +can't let a deal like this look raw. The sooner he runs that +reservation line the better things will appear." +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick, too, had risen. +</P> + +<P> +"Will your men know where to find him?" +</P> + +<P> +"If he's still on the map," said the gambler. "You leave that to me. +Better go see about your car to-night. I'll hustle your men and your +outfit. See you again if anything turns up important. Meantime, is +your money in the bank?" +</P> + +<P> +"It's in the bank." +</P> + +<P> +"Right," said McCoppet. "Good-night." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap23"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXIII +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +BETH'S DESPERATION +</H3> + +<P> +The following day in Goldite was one of occurrences, all more or less +intimately connected with the affairs of Van and Beth. +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick succeeded in making an early start to the southward in his +car. McCoppet had provided not only a couple of men as guides to the +field where Lawrence was working, but also a tent, provisions, and +blankets, should occasion arise for their use. +</P> + +<P> +Beth was informed by her fiancé that word had arrived from her brother, +to whom Searle said he meant to go. The business of buying Glenmore's +mine, he said, required unexpected dispatch. Perhaps both he and Glen +might return by the end of the week. +</P> + +<P> +By that morning's train the body of Culver was shipped away—and the +camp began to forget him. The sheriff was after Cayuse. +</P> + +<P> +Early in the afternoon the body of the girl who had never been known in +Goldite by any name save that of Queenie, was buried on a hillside, +already called into requisition as a final resting place for such as +succumbed in the mining-camp, too far from friends, or too far lost, to +be carried to the world outside the mountains. Half a dozen women +attended the somewhat meager rites. There was one mourner only—the +man who had run to summon Van, and who later had waited by the door. +</P> + +<P> +At four o'clock the Goldite <I>News</I> appeared upon the streets. It +contained much original matter—or so at least it claimed. The account +of the murder of Culver, the death of Queenie, and the threatened +lynching of Van Buren made a highly sensational story. It was given +the prominent place, for the editor was proud to have made it so full +in a time that he deemed rather short. On a second page was a tale +less tragic. +</P> + +<P> +It was, according to one of its many sub-headings, "A Humorous Outcrop +concerning two Maids and a Man." It related, with many gay sallies of +"wit," how Van had piloted Mr. J. Searle Bostwick into the hands of the +convicts, recently escaped, packed off his charges, Miss Beth Kent and +her maid, and brought them to Goldite by way of the Monte Cristo mine, +in time to behold the discomfited entrance of the said J. Searle +Bostwick in prisoner's attire. Mr. Bostwick was described as having +been "on his ear" towards Van Buren ever since. +</P> + +<P> +In the main the account was fairly accurate. Gettysburg, Napoleon, and +old Dave had over-talked, during certain liquifying processes. The +matter was out beyond repair. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Dick was prompt in pouncing on the story, hence Beth was soon +presented with a copy. In the natural annoyance she felt when it was +read, there was one consolation, at least: Searle was away, to be gone +perhaps two or three days. He might not see the article, which would +soon be forgotten in the camp. +</P> + +<P> +To culminate the day's events, that evening Elsa ran away. She went +with a "gentleman" lodger, taking the slight precaution to be married +by the Justice of the Peace. +</P> + +<P> +Beth discovered her loss too late to interfere. She felt herself +alone, indeed, with Bostwick away, her brother off in the desert, and +Van—she refused to think of Van. Fortunately, Mrs. Dick was more than +merely a friend. She was a staunch little warrior, protecting the +champion, to anger whom was unhealthy. Despite the landlady's attitude +of friendliness, however, Beth felt wretchedly alone. It was a +terrible place. She was cooped up all day within the lodging house, +since the street full of men was more than she cared to encounter; and +with life all about her, and wonderful days spreading one after another +across the wide-open land, her liberties were fairly in a cage. +</P> + +<P> +From time to time she thought of the horse, awaiting her order at the +hay-yard. She tried to convince herself she would never accept or ride +the animal. She was certain she resented everything Van had done. She +felt the warmest indignation at herself for breaking into bits of song, +for glowing to the tips of her ears, for letting her heart leap wildly +in her breast whenever she thought of the horseman. +</P> + +<P> +Two days went by and she chafed under continued restraints. No word +had come from Bostwick, none from Glen—and not a sign from the +"Laughing Water" claim. From the latter she said to herself she wished +no sign. But Searle had no right to leave her thus and neglect her in +every respect. +</P> + +<P> +The morning of the third long day Mrs. Dick brought her two thin +letters. One had been mailed in Goldite, by a messenger down from the +"Laughing Water" claim. It came from Van. He had written the briefest +of notes: +</P> + +<P> +"Just to send my love. I want you to wear my nugget." +</P> + +<P> +Folded into the paper was a spray of the wild peach bloom. +</P> + +<P> +Beth tried to think her blushes were those of indignation, which +likewise caused the beat of her heart to rise. But her hand fluttered +prettily up to her breast, where the nugget was pinned inside her +waist. Also his letter must have been hard to understand—she read it +seventeen times. +</P> + +<P> +Then she presently turned to the other. It was addressed in +typewritten characters, but the writing inside she knew—her brother +Glen's. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"Dear Old Sis: Say, what in the dickens are you doing out here in the +mines, by all that's holey?—and what's all this story in the Goldite +<I>News</I> about one Bronson Van Buren doing the benevolent brigand stunt +with you and your maid, and shunting Searle off with the Cons? Why +couldn't you let a grubber know you were hiking out here to the desert? +Why all this elaborate surprise—this newspaper wireless to your fond +and lonesome? +</P> + +<P> +"What's the matter with your writing hand? Is this Van-brigand holding +them both? What's the matter with Searle? I wrote him two or three +aeons ago, when he might have been of assistance. Now I'm doing my +eight hours a day in an effort to sink down to China. I'm on the +blink, in a way, but not for long, for this is the land where +opportunity walks night and day to thump on your door—and I'll grab +her by the draperies yet. +</P> + +<P> +"But <I>me</I>!—working as a common miner!—though I've got a few days off +to go and look at a claim with a friend of mine, so you needn't answer +till you hear again. +</P> + +<P> +"If Searle is dead, why don't he say so? I only touched him for a few +odd dollars—I only needed a grub-stake—fifty would have done the +trick—and he doesn't come through. And nobody writes. I guess it's +me for the Prodigal, but when I do get next to the fatted calf I'll get +inside and eat my way out by way of his hoofs and horns. Why couldn't +you and Searle and the maid come down and have a look at me—working? +<I>It's worth it</I>. Come on. Maybe it's easier than writing. Yours for +the rights of labor, GLEN." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Astonished by the contents of this communication, Beth read it again, +in no little bewilderment, to make sure she had made no mistake. No +letter from herself? No word from Searle? No answer to Glen's request +for money? And he had only asked for a "few odd dollars?" There must +be something wrong. He had sent the most urgent requirement for sixty +thousand dollars. And she herself had written, at once. Searle had +assured her he had sent him word by special messenger. Starlight was +less than a long day's ride away. Glen had already had time to see +that account in the paper and write. +</P> + +<P> +She had no suspicions of Bostwick. She had seen Glen's letter and read +it for herself. And Searle had responded immediately with an offer to +lend her brother thirty thousand dollars. There must be some mistake. +Glen might be keeping his news and plans from herself, as men so often +will. Searle might even have overlooked the importance of keeping Glen +fully posted, intending to go so soon to Starlight. Her own letter +might have miscarried. +</P> + +<P> +She tried to fashion explanations—but they would not entirely fit. +Searle had been gone three days. He had gone before the Goldite <I>News</I> +was issued. The paper had arrived at Glen's while the man in his car +had failed. +</P> + +<P> +For a moment she sickened with the reflection that Searle might once +more have fallen captive to the convicts, still at large—and with all +the money! Then she presently assured herself that news so sinister as +this would have been very prompt to return. +</P> + +<P> +It was all too much to understand—unless Glen were ill—or out of his +reason. His two letters, the one to Searle and this one to herself, +were so utterly conflicting. It was not to be solved from such a +distance. Moreover, Glen wrote that he was off on a trip, and asked +her to wait before replying. It was irritating, all this waiting, +alone here in Goldite, but there seemed to be nothing else to do. +</P> + +<P> +The long morning passed, and she fretted. In the afternoon the Goldite +<I>News</I> broke its record. It printed an extra—a single sheet, in +glaring type, announcing the capture of the convicts. By a bold and +daring coup, it said, the entire herd of criminals, all half starved +and weakened by privations, had been rounded up and transported back to +prison. Unfortunately, the report was slightly inaccurate. Matt +Barger, the leader in the prison delivery, and the most desperate man +in the lot, had escaped the posse's vigilance. Of this important +factor in the welcome story of the posse's work Goldite was ignorant, +and doomed to be in ignorance a week. +</P> + +<P> +The news to Beth was a source of great relief. But her troubles in +other directions were fated to increase. That evening three men called +formally—formally, that is to say, in so far as dressing in their best +was concerned and putting on their "company manners." But Beth and +courtship were their objects, a fact that developed, somewhat crudely +with the smallest possible delay. +</P> + +<P> +One of these persons, Billy Stitts by name, was fairly unobjectionable +as a human being, since he was a quaint, slow-witted, bird-like little +creature, fully sixty years of age and clearly harmless. The others +were as frankly in pursuit of a mate as any two mountain animals. +</P> + +<P> +Beth was frightened, when the purport of their visit flashed upon her. +She felt a certain sense of helplessness. Mrs. Dick was too busy to be +constantly present; Elsa was gone; the ways of such a place were new +and wholly alarming. She felt when she made her escape from the three +that her safety was by no means assured. Her room was her only +retreat. Except for Mrs. Dick, there was not another woman in the +house. She was wholly surrounded by men—a rough, womanless lot whose +excitements, passions, and emotions were subjected to changes +constantly, as well as to heats, by the life all around them in the +mines. +</P> + +<P> +That night was her first of real terror. Every noise in the building, +and some in the streets, made her start awake like a hunted doe, with +imaginings of the most awful description. She scarcely slept at all. +</P> + +<P> +The following day old Billy Stitts called again, very shortly after +breakfast. He proved such an amiable, womanly old chap that he was +almost a comfort to the girl. She sent him to the postoffice, for a +possible letter from Glen. He went with all the pleasure and alacrity +of a faithful dog, apologizing most exuberantly on his return for the +fact that no letter had come. +</P> + +<P> +She remained in the house all day. The afternoon brought the two rough +suitors of the night before, and two more equally crude. Mrs. Dick, to +Beth's intense uneasiness, regarded the matter as one to be expected, +and quite in accord with reason and proper regulations. A good-looking +girl in camp, with her men-folks all giving her the go-by—and what +could you expect? Moreover, as some of these would-be courtiers were +husky and in line for fortune's smile, with chances as good as any +other man's, she might do worse than let them come, and hear what they +had to say. It was no girl's need to be neglected as Searle and Van +were patently neglecting Beth. +</P> + +<P> +This was the stage in which Beth at length began to meditate on Spartan +remedies. The situation was not to be endured. No word had come from +Searle. The world might have swallowed him up. She was sick of +him—sick of his ways of neglect. And as for Van—— +</P> + +<P> +There was no one to whom she could turn—unless it were Glen. If only +she could flee to her brother! She thought about it earnestly. She +tried to plan the way. +</P> + +<P> +Her horse was at the hay-yard. Starlight was only one day off in the +desert. The convicts were no longer about. If only she could ride +there—even alone! An early start—a little urging of the pony—she +could fancy the journey accomplished with the utmost ease; then +scornful defiance, both of Bostwick and of Van. +</P> + +<P> +But a woman—riding in this lawless land alone! She was utterly +disheartened, disillusionized at the thought. It would be no less than +madness. And yet, it seemed as if she must presently go. Searle's +silence, coupled to conditions here, was absolutely intolerable. +</P> + +<P> +With plans decidedly hazy—nothing but a wild, bright dream really +clear—she questioned Billy Stitts concerning the roads. He was +familiar with every route in miles, whether roadway, trail, or "course +by compass," as he termed trackless cruising in the desert. He gave +her directions with the utmost minutae of detail as to every highway to +Starlight. He drew her a plan. She was sure that she could almost +ride to Starlight in the dark. What branches of the road to shun, +which trails to choose, possibly, for gaining time, what places to +water a famishing horse—all these and more she learned with feverish +interest. +</P> + +<P> +"Now a man would do this," and "a man would do that," said Billy time +after time, till a new, fantastic notion came bounding full-fledged +into Beth's anxious brain and almost made her laugh with delight. She +could <I>dress as a man</I> and ride as a man and be absolutely safe on the +journey! She knew a dozen unusual arts for dying the skin and +concealing the hair and making the hands look rough. Make-up in +private theatricals, at professional hands, she had learned with +exceptional thoroughness. +</P> + +<P> +She would need a suit of kahki, miners' books, a soft, big hat, and +flannel shirt. They were all to be had at the store. She could order +her horse to be saddled for a man. She could readily dress and escape +unseen from the house. In a word, she could do the trick! +</P> + +<P> +The plan possessed her utterly. It sent her blood bounding through her +veins. Her face was flushed with excitement. She loved adventure—and +this would be something to do! +</P> + +<P> +Nevertheless, despite all her plans, she had no real intention of +attempting a scheme so mad. Subconsciously she confessed to herself it +was just the merest idle fancy, not a thing to be actually ventured, or +even entertained. +</P> + +<P> +That night, when she was more beset, more worried than before, however, +desperation was increasing upon her. The plan she had made no longer +seemed the mere caprice of one in pursuit of pleasure—it appeared to +be the only possible respite from conditions no longer to be borne. +</P> + +<P> +When the morning came, after a night of mental torture and bodily fear, +her patience had been strained to the point of breaking, and resolve +was steeling her courage. +</P> + +<P> +The word that should have come from Searle was still delinquent. But +old Billy Stitts brought her a letter from Glen. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"Dear Sis: I can only write a line or two. Had a thump on the head, +but it didn't knock off my block. Don't worry. All right in a few +days, sure. Guess you couldn't come, or you'd be here, in response to +my last. But Searle might show up, anyhow. You can write me now. +Hope you're well and happy. Is the brigand still on the job? Can't +really write. With love, GLEN." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Her heart stood still as she; read her brother's lines, in a scrawled +hand indicative of weakness. She resolved in that instant to go. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Stitts," she raid in remarkable calm, for all that she felt, "my +brother needs some clothing—everything complete, boots, shirts, and +all. He's just about my size. I wish you'd go and buy them." +</P> + +<P> +"Lord, I know the best and the cheapest in camp!" said Billy eagerly. +"I'll have 'em here before you can write him your letter—but the stage +don't go back till Friday." +</P> + +<P> +She had given no thought to the tri-weekly stage. She dismissed it +now, with a wave of gratitude towards Van for the horse—gratitude, or +something, surging warmly in her veins. She almost wished he could +ride at her side, but checked that lawlessness sternly. She would ride +to Glen alone! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap24"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXIV +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A BLIZZARD OF DUST +</H3> + +<P> +At daylight Beth was dressed as a man and surveying herself in the +mirror. She had passed a sleepless night. She was fevered, excited, +and nervous. +</P> + +<P> +Her work had been admirably done. She looked no more rawly new or +youthful than scores of young tenderfeet, daily in the streets of the +camp. The stain on her face had furnished an astonishing disguise, +supported as it was by male attire. Her hair was all up in the crown +of her hat, which was set on the back of her head. It was fastened, +moreover, with pins concealed beneath the leather band. Altogether the +disguise was most successful. Beth had disappeared: a handsome young +man had been conjured in her place. +</P> + +<P> +Her mare, which Billy had ordered, came promptly to the door. She +heard her arrive—and her heart stroked more madly than before. +Trembling in every limb, and treading as softly as a thief, she made +her way downstairs. +</P> + +<P> +On the dining-room table was the package of lunch that Mrs. Dick had +agreed to prepare. Beth had told her she meant to take an early +morning ride and might not be back in time for breakfast. With this +bundle in hand she went out at the door, her courage all but failing at +thought of the man with the horse at the threshold. She shrank from +being seen in such an outfit. +</P> + +<P> +It was too late now to retreat, however, she told herself bravely, and +out she went. +</P> + +<P> +"Say, git a move, young feller," said the hostler with her pony. "I +ain't got time to play horse-post here all day." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you for being so prompt," said Beth, in a voice that was faint, +despite her efforts to be masculine, and she gave him a coin. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll tie that there bundle on behind," he volunteered, less gruffly, +and Beth was glad of his assistance. +</P> + +<P> +A moment later she took a gasp of breath and mounted to the seat. +Collapse of all the project had seemed imminent, but an actual feeling +of relief and security ensued when she was settled in the saddle. +</P> + +<P> +"So long," said the hostler, and Beth responded manfully, "So long." +</P> + +<P> +She rode out slowly, towards the one main road. A feeling of the +morning's chill assailed her, making her shiver. The noise of her +pony's hoof-beats seemed alarmingly resonant. +</P> + +<P> +But nothing happened. The streets were deserted, save for a few +half-drunken wanderers, headed for the nearest saloon. On the far-off +peaks of the mountains the rosy light of sunrise faintly appeared. In +the calm of the great barren spaces, even Goldite was beautiful at last. +</P> + +<P> +A sense of exhilaration pervaded Beth's youthful being. She was glad +of what she had done. It was joyous, it was splendid, this absolute +freedom in all this stern old world! +</P> + +<P> +The road wound crookedly up a hill, as it left the streets of the town +behind. The scattered tents extended for a mile in this direction, the +squares of silent canvas, like so many dice, cast on the slopes by a +careless fate that had cast man with them in the struggle. +</P> + +<P> +Beth and her pony finally topped the hill, to be met by a sea of +mountains out beyond. Up and down these mighty billows of the earth +the highway meandered, leading onward and southward through the desert. +</P> + +<P> +The mare was urged to a gallop, down an easy slope, then once more she +walked as before. All the mountains in the west were rosy now, till +presently the sun was up, a golden coin, struck hot from the very mints +of God, giving one more day with its glory. +</P> + +<P> +Its very first rays seemed a comfort, suggesting a welcome warmth. +Beth could have called out songs of gladness well nigh uncontainable. +She had all the big world to herself. Even the strangely twisted +clouds in the sky seemed made for her delight. They were rare in this +wonderful dome of blue and therefore things of beauty. +</P> + +<P> +For an hour or more her way was plain, and to ride was a god-like +privilege. Her ease of mind was thoroughly established. What had been +the necessity for all those qualms of fear? The matter was simple, +after all. +</P> + +<P> +It was ten o'clock before she ate her breakfast. She had come to the +so-called river, the only one in perhaps a hundred miles. It was quite +a respectable stream at this particular season, but spread very thinly +and widely at the ford. +</P> + +<P> +By noon she was half way of her distance. The sun was hot; summer +baking of the desert had begun. Her mare was sweating profusely. She +had urged her to the top of her strength. Nevertheless she was still +in excellent condition. To the westward the sky was overcast in a +manner such as Beth had never seen, with a dark, copperous storm-head +that massed itself prodigiously above the range. +</P> + +<P> +Already she had come to three branchings of the road and chosen her way +in confidence, according to Billy Stiff's directions. When she came to +a fourth, where none had been indicated, she was sure, either in +Billy's instructions, or upon his drawing, she confessed herself +somewhat uncertain. She halted and felt for the map. +</P> + +<P> +It was not to be found. She had left it behind at Mrs. Dick's. Dimly +she fancied she remembered that Billy had said on the fourth branch, +keep to the right. There could be no doubt that this branch was the +fourth, howsoever out of place it appeared. She rode to the right, +and, having passed a little valley, found herself enfolded in a rolling +barrier of hills where it seemed as if the sun and rocks were of almost +equal heat. +</P> + +<P> +At mid-afternoon Beth abruptly halted her pony and stared at the world +of desert mountains in confusion not unmixed with alarm. She was out +at the center of a vast level place, almost entirely devoid of +vegetation—and the road had all but disappeared. It branched once +more, and neither fork was at all well defined, despite the fact that +travel to Starlight was supposed to be reasonably heavy. She had made +some mistake. She suddenly remembered something that Billy had said +concerning a table mountain she should have passed no later than +half-past one. It had not been seen along her way. She was tired. +Weariness and the heat had broken down a little of the bright, joyous +spirit of the morning. A heart-sinking came upon her. She must turn +and ride back to—she knew not which of the branches of the road, any +one of which might have been wrongly selected. +</P> + +<P> +Her mare could not be hurried now; she must last to get her to +Starlight. To add to other trifles of the moment, the bank of cloud, +so long hung motionless above the western summits, moved out across the +path of the sun and blotted out its glory with a density that would +have seemed impossible. +</P> + +<P> +Scarcely had Beth fairly turned her back to the west when a wind storm +swooped upon the desert. It came as a good stiff breeze, at first, +flecking up but little of the dust. Then a sudden, ominous change +occurred. All the blue of the sky was overwhelmed, under a sudden +expansion of the copperous clouds. An eclipse-like darkness enveloped +the world, till the farthest mountains disappeared and the near-by +ranges seemed to magnify themselves as they blended with the sky. +</P> + +<P> +With a sound as of an on-rushing cataclysm the actual storm, cyclonic +in all but the rotary motion, came beating down upon the startled earth +like a falling wall of air. +</P> + +<P> +In less than two minutes the world, the atmosphere, everything had +ceased to be. It was a universe of dust and sand, hurtling—God knew +whither. +</P> + +<P> +In the suddenness of the storm's descent upon her, Beth became +speechless with dismay. Her mare dropped her head and slowly continued +to walk. Road, hills, desert—all had disappeared. To go onward was +madness; to remain seemed certain death. Despair and horror together +gripped Beth by the heart. There was nothing in the world she could do +but to close her eyes and double low above the saddle, her hat bent +down to shield her face. +</P> + +<P> +At the end of a few minutes only the frightfulness of the thing could +no longer be endured. Beth had been all but torn from her seat by the +sheer weight and impact of the wind. All the world was roaring +prodigiously. The sand and dust, driving with unimaginable velocity, +smoked past in blinding fury. +</P> + +<P> +The mare had ceased to move. Beth was aware of her inertia, dimly. +She remembered at last to dismount and stand in the animal's shelter. +At length on the raging and roaring of the air-sea, crashing onward in +its tidal might, came a fearful additional sound. It was rushing +onward towards the girl with a speed incredible—a sound of shrieking, +or whistling, that changed to a swishing as if of pinions, Titanic in +size, where some monstrous winged god was blown against, his will in a +headlong course through the tumult. +</P> + +<P> +Then the something went by—the whole roof of a house—from twenty +miles away. It scraped in the earth, not ten feet off from where the +pony stood—and she bolted and ran for her life. +</P> + +<P> +Down went Beth, knocked over by the mare. With a hideous crash the +flying roof was hurled against a nearby pinnacle of rock. The wooden +wings split upon the immovable obstruction, and on they went as before. +</P> + +<P> +The pony had disappeared, in panic that nothing could have allayed. +The storm-pall swallowed her instantly, Beth could not have seen her +had she halted a rod away. Her eyes had been opened for half a moment +only before she was flung to the earth. She was rolling now, and for +the moment was utterly powerless to rise or to halt her locomotion. +</P> + +<P> +When she presently grasped at a little gray shrub, came to a halt, and +tried to stand erect, she was buffeted bodily along by the wind with no +strength in her limbs to resist. +</P> + +<P> +She was blown to the big rock pinnacle on which the roof had been +divided. An eddy twisted her rudely around to the shelter, and she +flung herself down upon the earth. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap25"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXV +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A TIMELY DELIVERANCE +</H3> + +<P> +How long she lay there Beth could never have known. It seemed a time +interminable, with the horror of the storm in all the universe. It was +certainly more than an hour before the end began to come. Then clouds +and the blizzard of sand and dust, together with all the mighty +roaring, appeared to be hurled across the firmament by the final gust +of fury and swept from the visible world into outer space. +</P> + +<P> +Only a brisk half-gale remained in the wake of the huger disturbance. +The sky and atmosphere cleared together. The sun shone forth as +before—but low to the mountain horizon. When even the clean wind too +had gone, trailing behind its lawless brother, the desert calm became +as absolute as Beth had beheld it in the morning. +</P> + +<P> +She crept from her shelter and looked about the plain. Her eyes were +red and smarting. She was dusted through and through. In all the +broad, gray expanse there was not a sign of anything alive. Her mare +had vanished. Beth was lost in the desert, and night was fast +descending. +</P> + +<P> +Deliverance from the storm, or perhaps the storm's very rage, had +brought her a species of calm. The fear she had was a dull, persistent +dread—an all-pervading horror of her situation, too large to be acute. +Nevertheless, she determined to seek for the road with all possible +haste and make her way on foot, as far as possible, towards the +Starlight highway and its possible traffic. +</P> + +<P> +She was stiff from her ride and her cramped position on the earth. She +started off somewhat helplessly, where she felt the road must be. +</P> + +<P> +She found no road. Her direction may have been wrong. Possibly the +storm of wind had swept away the wagon tracks, for they had all been +faint. It had been but half a road at best for several miles. Her +heart sank utterly. She became confused as to which way she had +traveled. Towards a pass in the hills whence she felt she must have +come she hastened with a new accession of alarm. +</P> + +<P> +She was presently convinced that she had chosen entirely wrong. A +realizing sense that she was hopelessly mixed assailed her crushingly. +To turn in any direction might be a grave mistake. But to stand here +and wait—do nothing—with the sun going down—this was +preposterous—suicidal! She must go on—somewhere! She must find the +road! She must keep on moving—till the end! Till the end! How +terrible that thought appeared, in such a situation! +</P> + +<P> +She almost ran, straight onward towards the hills. Out of breath very +soon, she walked with all possible haste and eagerness, all the time +looking for the road she had left, which the storm might have wiped +from the desert. She was certain now that the mountains towards which +she was fleeing were away from the Goldite direction. +</P> + +<P> +Once more she changed her course. She realized then that such efforts +as these must soon defeat themselves. At least she must stick to one +direction—go on in a line as straight as possible, till she came to +something! Yet if she chose her direction wrong and went miles away +from anything—— +</P> + +<P> +She had to go on. She had to take the chance. She plodded +southwestward doggedly, for perhaps a mile, then halted at something +like a distant sound, and peered towards the shadows of the sunset. +</P> + +<P> +There was nothing to be seen. A hope which had risen for a moment in +her breast, at thought of possible deliverance, sank down in collapse, +and left her more faint than before. The sun was at the very rim of +the world. Its edge began to melt its way downward into all the solid +bulk of mountains. It would soon be gone. Darkness would ensue. The +moon would be very late, if indeed it came at all. Wild animals would +issue from their dens of hiding, to prowl in search of food. Perhaps +the sound she heard had been made by an early night-brute of the +desert, already roving for his prey! +</P> + +<P> +Once more she went on, desperately, almost blindly. To keep on going, +that was the one essential! She had proceeded no more than a few rods, +however, when she heard that sound again—this time more like a shout. +</P> + +<P> +Her heart pounded heavily and rapidly. She shaded her eyes with her +hand, against the last, slanted sun-rays, and fancied she discerned +something, far off there westward, in the purples flung eastward by the +mountains. Then the last bit of all that molten disk of gold +disappeared in the summits, and with its going she beheld a horseman, +riding at a gallop towards herself. +</P> + +<P> +The relief she felt was almost overwhelming—till thoughts of such an +encounter came to modify her joy. She was only an unprotected +girl—yet—she had no appearance of a woman! This must be her +safeguard, should this man now approaching prove some rough, lawless +being of the mines. +</P> + +<P> +She stood perfectly still and waited. A man would have hurried forward +to meet this deliverance, so unexpectedly vouchsafed. But she was too +excited, too uncertain—too much of a girl. Then presently, when the +horseman was still a hundred yards away, her heart abruptly turned over +in her bosom. +</P> + +<P> +The man on the horse was Van. She knew him—knew that impudent pose, +that careless grace and oneness with his broncho! She did not know he +was chasing that flying roof which had frightened her horse from her +side; that he had bought an old cabin, far from his claim, to move it +to the "Laughing Water" ground—only to see it wrenched from his hold +by the mighty gale and flung across the world. She knew nothing of +this, but she suddenly knew how glad was her whole tingling being, how +bounding was the blood in her veins! And she also knew, abruptly, that +now if ever she must play the man. She had all but forgotten she was +angry with Van. That, and a hundred reasons more, made it absolutely +imperative now that he should not know her for herself! +</P> + +<P> +She made a somewhat wild attempt at a toilet of her hair—in case the +wind had ripped the tell-tale strands from beneath her hat. Then with +utter faintness in her being, and weakness in her knees, she prepared +to give him reception. +</P> + +<P> +He had slowed his horse to a walk. He rode up deliberately, +scrutinizing in obvious puzzlement the figure before him in the sand. +</P> + +<P> +"Hullo," he said, while still a rod away, "what in blazes are you doing +here, man—are you lost?" +</P> + +<P> +Beth nodded. "I'm afraid I am." Her utterance was decidedly girlish, +and quavering. +</P> + +<P> +"Lost your voice somewhere, too, I reckon," said Van. "Where are you +going? Where are you from?" +</P> + +<P> +"Starlight," answered Beth, at a loss for a better reply, and making an +effort to deepen her tones as she talked. "I lost my horse in the +storm." +</P> + +<P> +Van looked around the valley. +</P> + +<P> +"Did, hey? Didn't happen to see a stray roof, anywhere, did you? I +lost one." +</P> + +<P> +"I—haven't seen anything," faltered Both, whose only wish was to have +him say something about her escape from this terrible place. "But +something frightened my pony." +</P> + +<P> +"I was curious to see how far that roof would hike, that's all," he +told her by way of explanation of his presence here on his horse, and +he turned to look at her again. "Didn't you know this so-called +cut-off to Starlight would take you more time than the road?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, I—I didn't know it," said Beth, afraid he must presently +penetrate her masquerade if he looked like that upon her. "What do you +advise me to do?" +</P> + +<P> +He ignored her question, demanding: +</P> + +<P> +"Say, is your name Kent?—Glenmore Kent?" +</P> + +<P> +Beth felt her heart begin new gymnastics. This was her cue. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, yes. But—how did you know—know me?" +</P> + +<P> +"I've met your sister, in Goldite. You can't get to Starlight +to-night." +</P> + +<P> +She had passed muster! A herd of wild emotions were upon her. But +first here was her predicament—and what he said was not at all +reassuring. Certain alarms that his coming had banished returned in a +vague array. +</P> + +<P> +She showed her dread in her eyes. "Perhaps I could get to Goldite." +</P> + +<P> +"How?" He was half unconsciously patting Suvy, the horse, whose +ecstasy thereat was not to be concealed. +</P> + +<P> +Beth knew not how. She wished Van would cease that study of her face. +Perhaps she could think more clearly. +</P> + +<P> +"Why—I suppose I could walk—if I knew the way," she said. "Is it +very far? I admit I'm bewildered. I was lost." +</P> + +<P> +"It would be a long ride," he told her. "A lost man is hopeless. I +couldn't even show you the way so you could keep it—especially at +night." +</P> + +<P> +New fears came surging upon her in all their force and numbers. +</P> + +<P> +"But—what shall I do?" +</P> + +<P> +Van reflected. +</P> + +<P> +"My claim is the nearest camp from here, since the wind took down that +shack. And that was abandoned anyway. Can you hike some twenty-odd +miles?" +</P> + +<P> +Twenty-odd miles!—on foot! For a second she was almost tempted to +disclose herself, and beg him, for something a trifle more sympathetic +than what he seemed to be offering another fellow man. But that could +not be done. And night was descending rapidly. The twilight was +brief—and on the wane. +</P> + +<P> +"Why—perhaps so," she answered, attempting to smile. "I'll try." +</P> + +<P> +Something in her smile went straight to his heart—he wondered why. To +feel as he did towards this unknown man, even the brother of the girl +he madly loved—this was certainly absurd. It was not to be explained; +it was simply upon him, that was enough. He dismounted. +</P> + +<P> +"Here, get on my horse and ride. I want to walk and stretch my legs." +</P> + +<P> +Beth all but gasped. She!—ride on Suvy!—the horse she had seen so +nearly kill this man!—a horse that might perhaps permit no other +living thing upon his back! Yet she knew not how to refuse—and to +walk very far would be impossible. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm—afraid I'm a very poor horseman," she admitted guardedly. "If +your pony should happen——" +</P> + +<P> +Van had thought that Suvy might resent a stranger's liberties. He +turned to the broncho peculiarly. +</P> + +<P> +"How about it, boy?" he asked the horse gravely. "I want you to stand +for it, savvy?" He looked at the animal inquiringly. How he knew that +Suvy consented was only for him to comprehend. He squared about to +Beth, who was watching with wonder, and something far softer, in her +heart. "Get on," he said. "He was raised as a cradle for babies." +</P> + +<P> +Beth was pale, but she had to be a man. She stepped to the broncho's +side and mounted to the saddle. Suvy trembled in every sinew of his +being. +</P> + +<P> +Van gave him a pat on the neck again, turned his back and started +straight northward. The pony followed at his heels like a dog with a +master he loves. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap26"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXVI +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE NIGHT IN THE DESERT +</H3> + +<P> +At ten o'clock that night the moon had not yet risen. Its glow was on +the eastern sky, however, and at length it appeared, a broken orb with +its waning side lopped from its bulk. +</P> + +<P> +Beth was still in the saddle. She was utterly exhausted; she could +scarcely remain in her seat. For more than an hour Van had plodded +onward without even turning to speak. They had talked intermittently, +and he had told her his name. Far off in the dimness of the desert +level—the floor of a second mighty valley—a lone coyote began his +dismal howling. Beth, on the horse, felt a chill go down her spine. +Van seemed not to hear. The howl was repeated from time to time +intermittently, like the wail of a ghost, forever lost to hope. +</P> + +<P> +When the moon at last shone fairly on the broncho and the girl, Van +cast a glance at her face. He was startled. The young rider looked so +much like Beth—and looked so utterly tired! +</P> + +<P> +Van halted, and so did the pony. The man looked up at his companion. +</P> + +<P> +"You're in no fit condition to go on," he said. "What's the use of our +trying to make it? To camp right here is as good as going on all +night, which don't suit my legs worth a cent." +</P> + +<P> +Beth was wearied almost to collapse. But—to camp out here—all +night!—they two! Aside from the terrors that had crept to her soul at +sound of the distant coyote, this present aspect of the situation was +appalling. Indeed, she began to see that whether they went on or +remained, she must spend the night in this man's company. +</P> + +<P> +She was almost too tired to care how such a thing would appear. He +thought her a man—it had been inescapable—there was nothing she could +do to prevent the course of events. And come what might she must +presently slip from that saddle, in her weakness, faintness, and +hunger, if the penalty were all but life itself. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm—sure I can walk—and let you ride," she said. "I'd like to go +on, but I know I can't sit here any longer." +</P> + +<P> +She tried to dismount by herself—as any man must do. In her stiffness +she practically fell from the saddle, sinking on her side upon the +ground. Only for a second was she prostrate thus at his feet, but her +coat fell back from her kahki vest—and a gleam of the moonlight fell +upon a bright little object, pinned above her heart. +</P> + +<P> +Van beheld it—and knew what it was—his nugget, washed from the +"Laughing Water" claim! +</P> + +<P> +The truth seemed to pour upon him like the waters of an all-engulfing +wave—the overwhelming, wonderful truth that was also almost terrible, +in what it might mean to them both. +</P> + +<P> +There was one thing only the man could do—ignore this fact that he had +discovered and treat her like a man. This he knew instantly. He +turned with a man's indifference to one of his sex and vaulted to +Suvy's back. +</P> + +<P> +"Come on," he said, "if you're anxious to get under cover." +</P> + +<P> +He could trust himself to say no more. He rode ahead. +</P> + +<P> +Beth did her best to follow, and make no complaint. The broncho, +however, was a rapid walker. This she had not realized while Van was +striding on in the lead. She fell behind repeatedly, and Van was +obliged to halt his horse and wait. She began to be lame. It had been +a torture to ride; it was agony to walk. +</P> + +<P> +Van now became strangely urgent. He had never loved her more. His +love had taken on a sacredness, out here in the night, with Beth so +weary and helpless. More than anything he had ever desired in his life +he wished to keep her sacred—spared from such a complication as their +night out here alone might engender. +</P> + +<P> +Yet he saw the first little limp when she began to falter. He was +watching backward constantly, his whole nature eager to protect +her—save her from hurt, from this merciless toil across the desert. +He longed to take her in his arms and carry her thus, securely. He was +torn between the wish to hasten her along, for her own greater ease of +mind, and the impulse to halt this hardship. He knew not what to do. +</P> + +<P> +They had gone much less than a mile when he brought up his pony at her +side. +</P> + +<P> +"Here, Kent," he said, "you walk like a bride-groom going up the aisle. +You'll have to get up here and ride." He dismounted actively. +</P> + +<P> +Beth could have dropped in her tracks for weariness. She was tired to +the marrow of her bones. +</P> + +<P> +"I can't," she answered. "Perhaps—we'd better camp." A hot flush +rushed upward to her very scalp, fortunately, however, unseen. +</P> + +<P> +Van regarded her sternly. +</P> + +<P> +"I've changed my mind. I haven't time to camp out here to-night. +You'll have to ride." +</P> + +<P> +It seemed to Beth that, had it been to save her life, she could +scarcely have climbed to that saddle. To remain on the horse would, +she knew, be far beyond her strength. She continued on her feet only +by the utmost exertion of her will. Someway since Van had found her in +this dreadful place she had lost strength rapidly—perhaps for the +leaning on him. With Van's ultimatum now to confront, she could summon +no nerve or resolution. +</P> + +<P> +Her face paled. "You'd better go on, if you have to be at your claim," +she said, aware that she could offer no argument, no alternative plan +to his wish for an onward march. "I'm—not used to riding—much. I +can't ride any more tonight." +</P> + +<P> +He knew she told the truth, knew how gladly she would have continued +riding, knew what a plight of collapse she must be approaching to +submit to a thought of remaining here till morning. He could not go +and leave her here. The thought of it aroused him to something like +anger. He realized the necessity of assuming a rougher demeanor. +</P> + +<P> +"Damn it, Kent," he said, "you're no less lost than you were before. +You know I can't go off and leave you. And I want to get ahead." +</P> + +<P> +She only knew she could not ride, come what might. +</P> + +<P> +"You didn't say so, a little while ago," she ventured, half +imploringly. "I'm sorry I'm so nearly dead. If you must go on——" +</P> + +<P> +That cut him to the heart. How could he be a brute? +</P> + +<P> +"I ought to go!" he broke in unguardedly. "I mean I've got to +think—I've got work to do in the morning. Don't you suppose you could +try?" +</P> + +<P> +The moonlight was full on his face. All the laughter she knew so well +had disappeared from his eyes. In its place she saw such a look of +yearning and worry—such a tenderness of love as no woman ever yet saw +and failed to comprehend. She divined in that second that he knew who +she was—she felt it, through all her sense of intuition and the fiber +of her soul. She understood his insistence on the march, the saving +march, straight onward without a halt. She loved him for it. She had +loved him with wild intensity, confessed at last to herself, ever since +the moment he had appeared in the desert to save her. +</P> + +<P> +If a certain reckless abandon to this love rocked her splendid +self-control, it was only because she was so utterly exhausted. Her +judgment was sound, unshaken. Nevertheless, despite judgment and +all—to go on was out of the question. God had flung them out here +together, she thought, for better or for worse. That Van would be the +fine chivalrous gentleman she had felt him to be at the very first +moment of their accidental acquaintance, she felt absolutely assured. +She accepted a certain inevitable fatality in the situation—-perhaps +the more readily now that she knew he knew, for she seemed so much more +secure. +</P> + +<P> +His question remained unanswered while she thought of a thousand +things. Could she try to go on? +</P> + +<P> +She shook her head. "What's the use of my riding—perhaps another +mile? You might go on and send a man to guide me in the morning." +</P> + +<P> +What an effort it cost her to make such a harsh suggestion not even Van +could know. A terrible fear possessed her that he might really act +upon her word. To have him stay was bad enough, but to have him go +would be terrible. +</P> + +<P> +"Hell!" he said, keeping up his acting. "You talk like a woman. +Haven't I wasted time enough already without sending someone out here +to-morrow morning? What makes you think you're worth it?" He turned +his back upon her, hung the stirrup of the saddle on the horn, and +began to loosen the cinch. +</P> + +<P> +Like the woman that she was, she enjoyed his roughness, his impudence, +and candor. It meant so much, in such a time as this. After a moment +she asked him: +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean to do?" +</P> + +<P> +He hauled off the saddle and dropped it to the ground. +</P> + +<P> +"Make up the berths," he answered. "Here's your bedding." He tossed +the blanket down at her feet. It was warm and moist from Suvy's body. +He then uncoiled his long lasso, secured an end around the pony's neck, +and bade him walk away and roll. +</P> + +<P> +The broncho obeyed willingly, as if he understood. Van took up the +saddle, carried it off a bit, and dropped it as before. +</P> + +<P> +Beth still remained there, with the blanket at her feet. +</P> + +<P> +Van addressed her. "Got any matches?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," she said. "I'm afraid——" +</P> + +<P> +"Neither have I," he interrupted. "No fire in the dressing-room. +Good-night. No need to set the alarm clock. I'll wake you bright and +early." Once more he took up his saddle and started off in the +ankle-high brush of the plain. +</P> + +<P> +Beth watched him with many misgivings at her heart. +</P> + +<P> +"Where—where are you going?" she called. +</P> + +<P> +"To bed," he called in response. "Want room to kick around, if I get +restless." +</P> + +<P> +She understood—but it was hard to bear, to be left so alone as this, +in such a place. He went needlessly far, she was sure. +</P> + +<P> +Grateful to him, but alarmed, made weaker again by having thus to make +her couch so far from any protection, she continued to stand there, +watching him depart. He stooped at last, and his pony halted near him, +like a faithful being who must needs keep him always in sight. Even +the pony would have been some company for Beth, but when Van stretched +himself down upon the earth, with the saddle for a pillow, she felt +horribly alone. +</P> + +<P> +There was nothing to do but to make the best of what the fates allowed. +She curled herself down on the chilly sand with the blanket tucked +fairly well around her. But she did not sleep. She was far too tired +and alarmed. +</P> + +<P> +Half an hour later three coyotes began a fearsome serenade. Beth sat +up abruptly, as terrified as if she had been but a child. She endured +it for nearly five minutes, hearing it come closer all the while. Then +she could bear it no more. She rose to her feet, caught up her +blanket, and almost ran towards the pony. More softly then she +approached the place where Van lay full length upon the ground. She +beheld him in the moonlight, apparently sound asleep. +</P> + +<P> +As closely as she dared she crept, and once more made her bed upon the +sand. There, in a child-like sense of security, with her fearless +protector near, she listened in a hazy way to the prowling beasts, now +cruising away to the south, and so profoundly slept. +</P> + +<P> +Van had heard her come. Into his heart snuggled such a warmth and holy +joy as few men are given to feel. He, too, went to sleep, thinking of +his nugget on her breast. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap27"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXVII +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +TALL STORIES +</H3> + +<P> +Daylight had barely broadened into morning when Van was astir from his +bed. The air was chill and wonderfully clean. Above the eastern run +of hills the sun was ready to appear. +</P> + +<P> +Beth still lay deep in slumber. She had curled up like a child in her +meager covering. Van watched her from his distance. A little shiver +passed through her form, from time to time. Her hat was still in +place, but how girlish, how sweet, how helpless was her face—the +little he could see! How he wished he might permit her to sleep it out +as nature demanded. For her own sake, not for his, he must hasten her +onward to Goldite, by way of the "Laughing Water" claim. +</P> + +<P> +He walked off eastward where a natural furrow made a deep depression in +the valley. His pony followed, the lasso dragging in the sand. Once +over at the furrow edge, the man took out his pistol and fired it off +in the air. +</P> + +<P> +Beth was duly aroused. Van saw her leap to her feet, then he +disappeared in the hollow, with his broncho at his heels. +</P> + +<P> +The girl was, if possible, stiffer than before. But she was much +refreshed. For a moment she feared Van was deserting, till she noted +his saddle, near at hand. Then he presently emerged upon the level of +the plain and returned to the site of their camp. +</P> + +<P> +"First call for breakfast in the dining-car," he said. "We can make it +by half-past eight." +</P> + +<P> +"If only we could have a cup of good hot coffee first, before we +start," said Beth, and she smiled at the vainness of the thought. +</P> + +<P> +"We won't get good coffee at the claim," Van assured her dryly. "But +near-coffee would lure me out of this." +</P> + +<P> +He was rapidly adjusting the blanket and saddle on his horse. +</P> + +<P> +"You'll have to ride or we can't make speed," he added. "As a walker +you're sure the limited." +</P> + +<P> +She appreciated thoroughly the delicacy with which he meant to continue +the fiction of her sex. But he certainly was frank. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you," she answered amusedly. "I'd do better, perhaps, if I +weren't so over-burdened with flattery." +</P> + +<P> +"You'll have to do better, anyhow," he observed, concluding +preparations with Suvy. "There you are. Get on. Father Time with +hobbles on could beat us getting a move." +</P> + +<P> +He started off, leaving her to mount by herself. She managed the +matter somewhat stiffly, suppressing a groan at the effort, and then +for an hour she was gently pummeled into limberness as the pony +followed Van. +</P> + +<P> +They came at the end of that time to one of the upper reaches of that +same river she had forded the previous day. To all appearances the +wide shallow bed was a counterpart of the one over which her horse had +waded. But the trail turned sharply down the stream, and followed +along its bank. +</P> + +<P> +They had halted for the pony to drink. Van also refreshed himself and +Beth dismounted to lie flat down and quench her long, trying thirst. +</P> + +<P> +"Right across there, high up in the hills, is the 'Laughing Water' +claim," said Van, pointing north-eastward towards the mountains. "Only +three miles away, if we could fly, but six as we have to go around." +</P> + +<P> +"And why do we have to go around?" Beth inquired. "Aren't we going to +cross the river here?" +</P> + +<P> +"Looks like a river, I admit," he said, eying the placid stream. +"That's a graveyard there—quicksand all the way across." +</P> + +<P> +Beth's heart felt a shock at the thought of what could occur to a +traveler here, unacquainted with the treacherous waters. +</P> + +<P> +"Good gracious!" she said. She added generously: "Couldn't I walk a +little now, and—share the horse?" +</P> + +<P> +"When you walk it gets on Suvy's nerves to try to keep step," he +answered. "Fall in." +</P> + +<P> +They went two miles down the river, then, across on a rock-and-gravel +bottom, at a ford directly opposite a jagged rift in the mountains. +This chasm, which was short and steep, they traversed perspiringly. +The sun was getting warm. Beyond them then the way was all a rough, +hard climb, over ridges, down through canyons, around huge dykes of +rock and past innumerable foldings of the range. How Van knew the way +was more than Beth could understand. She was already growing wearied +anew, since the night had afforded her very little rest, and she had +not eaten for nearly a day. +</P> + +<P> +Van knew she was in no condition for the ride. He was watching her +constantly, rejoicing in her spirit, but aching for her aches. He set +a faster pace for the broncho to follow, to end the climb as soon as +possible. +</P> + +<P> +At length, below a rounded ridge, where stunted evergreens made a +welcome bit of greenery, he came to a halt. +</P> + +<P> +"We're almost there," he said. "You'll have to remain at the claim +till somewhere near noon, then I'll show you the way down to Goldite." +</P> + +<P> +"Till noon?" She looked at him steadily, a light of worry in her eyes +as she thought of arriving so late at Mrs. Dick's, with what +consequences—the Lord alone knew. +</P> + +<P> +"I can't get away much earlier," he said, and to this, by way of acting +his part, he added: "Do you want to wear me out?" +</P> + +<P> +She knew what he meant. He would wait till noon to give her time to +rest. She would need all the rest he could make possible. And then he +would only "show her the way to Goldite." He would not ride with her +to town. She might yet escape the compromising plight into which she +had been thrust. His thoughtfulness, it seemed, could have no end. +</P> + +<P> +"Very well," she murmured. "I'm sorry to have made you all this +trouble." She was not—someways; she was lawlessly, inordinately glad. +</P> + +<P> +The "trouble" for Van had been the most precious experience in all his +life. +</P> + +<P> +"It has been one wild spasm of delight," he said in his dryest manner +of sarcasm. "But between us, Kent, I'm glad it's no continuous +performance." +</P> + +<P> +He went over the ridge, she following. A moment later they were +looking down upon the "Laughing Water" claim from that self-same +eminence from which Searle Bostwick had seen it when he rode one day +from the Indian reservation. +</P> + +<P> +"This," said Van, "is home." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," said the girl, and tears sprang into her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +And a very home, indeed, it presently seemed, when they came to the +shack, where Gettysburg, Napoleon, old Dave, and even Algy, the Chinese +cook, came forth to give them cordial welcome. +</P> + +<P> +Beth was introduced to all as Glenmore Kent—and passed inspection. +</P> + +<P> +"Brother of Miss Beth Kent," said Van, "who honored us once with a +visit to the Monte Cristo fiasco. He's been lost on the desert and +he's too done up to talk, so I want him to be fed and entertained. And +of the two requirements, the feed's more important than the vaudeville +show, unless your stunts can put a man to sleep." +</P> + +<P> +Algy and Gettysburg got the impromptu breakfast together. The placer +sluices outside were neglected. Nobody wished to shovel sand for gold +when marvelous tales might be exchanged concerning the wind storm that +had raged across the hills the day before. +</P> + +<P> +Indeed, as Van and Beth sat together at the board, regaling themselves +like the two famished beings they were, their three entertainers +proceeded to liberate some of the tallest stories concerning storms +that mortal ever heard. +</P> + +<P> +Napoleon and Gettysburg became the hottest of rivals in an effort to +deliver something good. Gettysburg furnished a tale of a breeze in the +unpeopled wilds of Nebraska where two men's farms, fully twenty miles +apart, had undergone an astounding experience whereby a complete +exchange of their houses, barns, and sheds had been effected by a +cyclone, without the slightest important damage to the structures. +</P> + +<P> +When this was concluded, Napoleon looked pained. "I think you lie, +Gett—metaphorical speakin'!" he hastened to add. "But shiver my +bowsprit if I didn't see a ship, once, ten days overdue, jest snatched +up and blowed into port two days ahead of time, and never touched +nothing all the way, I remember the year 'cause that was the winter ma +had twins and pa had guinea pigs." +</P> + +<P> +"Wal," drawled Dave, who had all this time maintained a dignified +silence, "I've saw some wind, in my time, but only one that was really +a leetle mite too obstreperous. Yep, that was a pretty good blow—the +only wind I ever seen which blew an iron loggin' chain off the fence, +link by link." +</P> + +<P> +Napoleon paid Dave a compliment. He said: +</P> + +<P> +"You old son of a gun!" +</P> + +<P> +Van thought the storms had raged sufficiently. +</P> + +<P> +"Is work unpopular, or did the wind blow the water from the creek?" +</P> + +<P> +"I like to work," admitted Gettysburg, "but it's fun to watch you +epicures eatin'." +</P> + +<P> +Beth felt embarrassed. +</P> + +<P> +"Epicures?" echoed Napoleon. "You don't know what an epicure is? +That's a vulgar remark when you don't know no meaning of a word." +</P> + +<P> +"Epicure? Me not know what an epicure is?" replied old Gettysburg +aggressively. "You bet I do. An epicure's a feller which chaws his +fodder before he swallers it." +</P> + +<P> +Napoleon subsided. Then he arose and sauntered out to work, Dave and +Gettysburg following. Van hastily drank his cup of coffee, which, as +he had predicted, was not particularly good, and started for the +others. He halted in the door. +</P> + +<P> +"Make yourself comfortable, if you can here, Kent," he said. "You had +an exhausting experience yesterday. Perhaps you had better lie down." +</P> + +<P> +Beth merely said: "Thank you." But her smile was more radiant than +sunshine. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap28"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXVIII +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +WORK AND SONG +</H3> + +<P> +Having presently finished her breakfast, Beth joined the group outside, +curious to behold the workings of a placer mine in actual operation. +</P> + +<P> +There was not much to see, but it was picturesque. In their lack of +funds the partners had constructed the simplest known device for +collecting the gold from the sand. They had built a line of sluices, +or troughs of considerable length, propped on stilts, or supports about +knee high, along the old bed of the canyon. The sluices were mere +square flumes, set with a fairly rapid grade. +</P> + +<P> +Across the bottom of all this flume, at every yard or less of its +length, small wooden cleats had been nailed, to form the "riffles." +Into the hoses the water from the creek was turned, at the top. The +men then shoveled the sand in the running stream and away it went, +sluicing along the water-chute, its particles rattling down the wooden +stairway noisily. The gold was expected to settled behind the riffles, +owing to its weight. +</P> + +<P> +All the flume-way dripped from leakages. The sun beat down upon the +place unshaded. Water escaped into all the pits the men were digging +as they worked, so that they slopped around in mud above their ankles. +Dave wore rubber boots and was apparently protected. As a matter of +fact the boots promptly filled with water. Napoleon and Gettysburg +made no effort to remain dry shod, but puddled all day with soused +footgear. +</P> + +<P> +Van rode off to the "reservation town," a mile below the hill, to +bargain for a tent reported there for sale. Sleeping quarters here on +the claim were far too crowded. Until lumber for a cabin could be +purchased they must make what shifts they might. +</P> + +<P> +It had taken but the briefest time for the miners to go at their work. +Beth stood near, watching the process with the keenest interest. It +seemed to her a back-breaking, strenuous labor. These sturdy old +fellows, grown gray and stooped with toil—grown also expectant of +hardship, ill-luck, and privations—were pathetic figures, despite +their ways of cheer. +</P> + +<P> +That Van had attached them to himself in a largeness of heart by no +means warranted by their worth was a conviction at which anyone must +promptly arrive. They were lovable old scamps, faithful, honest, and +loyal to the man they loved—but that was all that could be stated. +Perhaps it was enough. As partners with whom to share both life and +fortune they might have seemed impossible to many discerning men. +</P> + +<P> +Beth sat down on a rock, near Gettysburg. Someway she, too, liked the +three old chaps of whom work had made three trademarks. Old Gettysburg +began to sing. The words of his song, halted by grunts as he shoveled, +were, to say the least, unexpected: +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + The frog he swore he'd have a ride,<BR> + (Shovel)<BR> + With a rinktum bolly kimo;<BR> + Sword and pistols by his side,<BR> + (Shovel)<BR> + With a rinktum bolly kimo.<BR> + For lunch he packed a beetle bug,<BR> + (Shovel)<BR> + With a rinktum bolly kimo;<BR> + Tucked inside his tummy snug,<BR> + (Shovel)<BR> + With a rinktum bolly kimo. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Kimo, karo, pito, garo,<BR> + Kimo, bolly mitty kimo.<BR> + (Shovel)<BR> + Shing-shang hammyriddle, allibony, ringtang,<BR> + Folderolli bolly mitty kimo.<BR> + (Three shovelings and some meditation) +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + The frog he rode a slimy eel,<BR> + (Shovel)<BR> + With a rinktum bolly kimo.<BR> + The sun made his complexion peel,<BR> + (Shovel)<BR> + With a rinktum bolly kimo.<BR> + The frog's legs went to join a fry,<BR> + (Shovel)<BR> + With a rinktum bolly kimo.<BR> + The eel became a juicy pie,<BR> + (Shovel)<BR> + With a rinktum bolly kimo. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + (Chorus) +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Napoleon looked up at the end of the song and spat upon his hands. +</P> + +<P> +"Gett," he said placidly, "I think that's a lie—metaphorical speakin'. +Ain't mad, are you?" +</P> + +<P> +Gettysburg made no response. He merely shoveled. +</P> + +<P> +One of the sluices, weakened by a leak that had undermined its pinning, +fell from place, at the farther end of the line. Old Dave went down to +repair it. Napoleon took advantage of his absence to come to Beth, +with an air of imparting something confidential. +</P> + +<P> +"Splice my main brace," said he, with his head on one side, quaintly, +"wasn't that a blasphermous yarn old Dave was givin' us about the wind +blowing that log chain away a link at a time? Old son of a gun!" +</P> + +<P> +Beth was inquisitive. +</P> + +<P> +"Why do you call him a son of a gun?" +</P> + +<P> +Napoleon scratched his head. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you see, Dave's mother held up his father with a Colt forty-five +and makes him marry her. Then along comes Dave. I reckon that makes +him a sure enough son of a gun." +</P> + +<P> +Beth said: "Oh." She turned a little red. +</P> + +<P> +"Yep, good old cuss, Dave is, though. No good for a seafearing man, +however. He could never learn to swear—he ain't got no ear for music." +</P> + +<P> +He returned to his shovel. He and Gettysburg worked in silence for +fifteen minutes. Old Dave returned and joined them. Gettysburg tuned +up for another of his songs, the burden of which was the tale of a +hen-pecked man. +</P> + +<P> +Once more at its end Napoleon looked up and spat on his hands. +</P> + +<P> +"There ain't nothing that can keep some women down 'cept a +gravestone—and I've seen some gravestones which was tilted." +</P> + +<P> +Despite the interest and amusement she felt in it all, Beth was +becoming sleepy as she sat there in the sun. She shook off the spell +and arose, approaching closer to the bank and flume where Gettysburg +was toiling. He labored on, silently, for several minutes, then +paused, straightened up by degrees, as if the folds in his back were +stubborn, and looked at their visitor steadily, his glass eye +particularly fixed. One of his hands pulled down his jaw, and then it +closed up with a thump. +</P> + +<P> +"Guess this kind of a racket is sort of new to you, Mr. Kent," he +ventured. "Ever seen gold washin' before?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," Beth confessed, "and I don't see where the gold is to come from +now." +</P> + +<P> +Gettysburg chuckled. "Holy toads! Miners do a heap of work and never +see it neither. Me and Van and Napoleon has went through purg and +back, many's the time, and was lucky to git out with our skeletons, +sayin' nuthin' about the gold." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh." She could think of nothing else to say. +</P> + +<P> +"In fact Van was all that got me out onct—Napoleon, too. We wasn't +worth it, prob'ly. That's the joke on Van. Since then us three cusses +has starved, and froze, and clean roasted, chasin' gold." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh." +</P> + +<P> +"We was lost in the snow, one winter, with nuthin' to eat but a plug of +tobacker, a can of vasolene, and a porous plaster. We lived on that +menu fer a week—that and snow-soup. But Van got us out all +right—packed Napoleon about five miles on his back. Nap was so thin +there wasn't enough of him to die." His one good eye became dreamily +focused on the past. He smiled. "But someways the desert is worse +than the snow. We got ketched three times without no water. Never did +know, Nap or me, how Van got our two old dried-up carcasses out the +last time, down to Death Valley. He's a funny cuss, old Van." +</P> + +<P> +Once more Beth merely answered: "Oh." +</P> + +<P> +"You bet!" resumed Gettysburg. "He never quits. It ain't in him. He +works his hands off and his soul out of its socket, every time." He +laughed heartily. "Lord! we have done an awful lot of fool work fer +nuthin'! We've tackled tunnels and shafts, and several games like +this, and pretty near died a dozen different styles—all uneasy kinds +of dyin'—and we've lived when it was a darn sight uneasier than +croakin', and kept on tryin' out new diggin's, and kept on bein' busted +all the time. 'Nuff to make a lemon laugh, the fun we've had. But +now, by Jupe! we've struck it at last—and it ain't a-goin' to git +away!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I'm glad—I'm glad!" said Beth, winking back a bit of suspicious +moisture that came unbidden in her eyes as she looked on this +weather-beaten, hardship-beaten old figure, still sturdily ready for +the fates. "I'm sure you all deserve it! I'm sure of that!" +</P> + +<P> +"Wal, that's a question fer God Almighty," Gettysburg replied. "But +there's the gold, the good yellow gold! And I'm awful glad fer Van!" +</P> + +<P> +Into the water he dipped his crooked old fingers, and scratching down +behind a riffle he fetched up a small amount of gold, doubly bright +with the water and the sunlight upon it. +</P> + +<P> +"Gold—and we git it easy," he added, repeating: "I'm awful glad fer +Van. You ought to see him shovel!" He dropped the gold back into the +water carelessly. "It ain't a-goin' to do us old jack-legged cusses +much good, at our age, but I would like to go to San Francisco this +summer once, and shoot the chutes!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap29"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXIX +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +SUSPICIOUS ANSWERS +</H3> + +<P> +Beth and Van rode away from the claim just after lunch; she on a +borrowed horse. The girl had not slept, but she had rested well and +was far more fit for the journey back to town than either she or Van +had expected. +</P> + +<P> +He went with her part way only—far enough to put her safely on a trail +from which she could not wander. They talked but little as they +rode—perhaps because they had so much to say that could not be +approached. Never for a moment did Van relax his vigilance upon +himself, or treat her otherwise than as a man for whom he had conceived +a natural liking. +</P> + +<P> +When they came to the place of parting he pulled up his broncho and +faced about in the trail. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Kent," he said, "so long. You'll have no trouble now." He held +forth his hand. +</P> + +<P> +Beth gave him hers—and all her heart. Nevertheless, his clasp was as +brief as he would give to one of his sex. +</P> + +<P> +"So long," she answered. "Good luck. I am under many obligations." +</P> + +<P> +"They won't make you very round shouldered," he said. "See you again." +</P> + +<P> +That was their parting. He rode back at once—and Beth continued on +her way. She turned three times in her saddle to watch him as he went, +but she did not catch him glancing back. +</P> + +<P> +About sundown she rode into Goldite, went at once to Mrs. Dick's, and +tied her horse to a post. Mrs. Dick she met in the hall. +</P> + +<P> +"Snakes alive!" exclaimed that lively little person. "If you ain't +back as natural as life!" The garb had not deceived her for a moment. +"Where in the world have you been, in such a rig?" +</P> + +<P> +Beth's answer was ready. +</P> + +<P> +"I went to see my brother, and had to spend the night on the desert." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Dick stared at her in wonder. "Talk to me about the Eastern women +being mollycuddles! You don't mean his cabin was blown down by the +storm?" +</P> + +<P> +Beth was ill-prepared for this, but she met it. +</P> + +<P> +"I wish you could have seen that roof go by!" +</P> + +<P> +"Are you hungry?" the hostess demanded. "You look all wore out." +</P> + +<P> +"I am," Beth admitted. "Has Mr. Bostwick been here in my absence?" +</P> + +<P> +"He ain't been here in anything—nope." +</P> + +<P> +Beth's relief was inexpressible. She was safe, with everything behind +her! No one knew, or would ever need to know, the secret in possession +of herself and Van. +</P> + +<P> +"If anyone comes that you can send, will you kindly have my horse taken +over to the stable?" she said. "I must go upstairs and rest." +</P> + +<P> +"Here's Billy Stitts a-comin' now," replied the housewife, moving +towards the door. "He's been worried to death about you bein' gone!" +</P> + +<P> +Beth ran at once for the stairs, and later, from the window, saw the +faithful old Billy leading her pony away. She closed her door, +darkened the light, and soon clambered wearily into bed, where she +dropped off to sleep like a child, lost to the world through the dinner +hour and till something like three in the morning. She awaked then for +a moment, long enough to think of Van, then sighed in absolute comfort +and turned to sleep again. +</P> + +<P> +It was nine o'clock in the morning when at last she appeared on the +scene. +</P> + +<P> +"Land snakes!" said Mrs. Dick, who had heard her coming down. "Ain't +you the sleeper! Well, I've kept your breakfast, but I couldn't keep +last night's supper. Your friend, Mr. Bostwick, was here about eight, +but I told him he'd have to wait if it took you a week to come to." +</P> + +<P> +"You didn't tell him I'd been away, I hope," said Beth, suddenly +alarmed at the thought of Searle's presence in the town. "I'd rather +no one knew but you." +</P> + +<P> +"Lord! I wouldn't tell him if a rat was dead in his pocket!" Mrs. Dick +expostulated. "I can't abide the man, and you might as well know it, +even if it does hurt your feelings." +</P> + +<P> +Beth sat down to her breakfast. "You're as good as you can be." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, the breakfast ain't—'taint fresh," said Mrs. Dick. "But I'll +see you git a decent lunch." +</P> + +<P> +She bustled off into the kitchen. Beth had barely finished eating when +Bostwick again appeared. +</P> + +<P> +The man was tanned from his trip in the desert. He seemed alert, +excited, keen over prospects rapidly coming to a head. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, well, Beth," he said as he came inside the dining-room, "I'm +back, you see, but I've certainly had a time of it! The car broke +down, and Glen had left Starlight when at last I arrived, and I hunted +for him all through the mountains and only found him four days ago, and +we've been going ever since. I couldn't write, but I did feel cut up, +I assure you, about leaving you here alone for so long a time." +</P> + +<P> +He advanced as if to kiss her, but Beth avoided his caress. She was +calm and possessed. She meant to ascertain just how far the man was +trying to deceive her. +</P> + +<P> +"Won't you sit down, and tell me all about it," she said. "You saw +Glen four days ago?" She resumed her place in her chair. +</P> + +<P> +"Three or four days ago—I'm mixed in my dates," he said, as he also +took a seat. "He's looking fine, and sent his love, of course." +</P> + +<P> +That the man was lying, in every particular, she began to feel +convinced. +</P> + +<P> +"You left him well? He was feeling strong and well?" +</P> + +<P> +"Never better," he assured her. "You can see what this wonderful +sunlight does, even to me." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I see. And you left Starlight yesterday?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yesterday afternoon. I had trouble running back. Otherwise we'd have +been here in the evening." +</P> + +<P> +She glanced at him quickly. "We? Glen didn't come along? He isn't +here?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no, no, certainly not," he hastened to say. "I brought in a man +who—who is interested in the purchase we have made." +</P> + +<P> +That served to arouse her sense of wonderment at what he had really +been doing with her money. He was attempting to deceive her concerning +Glen, and perhaps his entire story was a fabrication. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," she said. "Then you have purchased the mine—you and Glen?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well—a few minor details remain to be concluded," he said +off-handedly. "We are not yet in actual possession of the property. +There will be no further hitches, however—and the claim is certainly +rich." +</P> + +<P> +For the life of her she could not tell what lay at the bottom of the +business. The strange conflicts and discrepancies between Glen's very +own letters made the riddle utterly obscure. She felt that Searle was +fashioning falsehoods in every direction. That he had not visited Glen +at all was her fixed conviction. A sudden distrust, almost a loathing +for this heavy-browed man, was settling down upon her, inescapably. +Someway, somehow she must know about Glen for herself. Her own +attempted trip to Starlight had discouraged all thought of further +adventure, and no reliance whatsoever could be placed on Searle's +reports. Perhaps the reputed mining property was likewise a myth—or +if such a property existed, Glen might never have heard of it at all. +But Glen's letter—she was always forgetting that letter—the one he +had written to Searle. +</P> + +<P> +She said: "Where is this mine that Glen has found?" +</P> + +<P> +He colored slightly. "We have all agreed not to talk too much about it +yet. It's not very far from here—I can tell you that. Precautions +are necessary where a hundred men follow every prospector about, night +and day, if he happens to have found a bit of valuable ore. A thousand +men would be after this property if they knew the way to secure it." +</P> + +<P> +Perhaps, after all, Glen, had purposely concealed this matter from +herself. Bostwick sounded plausible. Her mind reverted to her +brother's illness, for Glen to her was of far more importance than all +the mines in Nevada. +</P> + +<P> +"I am glad to hear that Glen is <I>well</I>," she said, determined on +another tack. "He hasn't answered my letter." +</P> + +<P> +Once more Bostwick colored, beneath his tan and the gun-metal tint of +his jaw. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose he's been too busy," he answered. "Have you written again?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not yet," she answered honestly. "I wasn't sure of his whereabouts. +You are sure he's in Starlight now?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes—but you needn't write," he hastened to say. "He said he might +come, perhaps to-morrow." He rose from his chair. "I've got to hurry +off, little girl. These negotiations cannot wait. I'll run in when I +can—this afternoon at the latest. I'm glad to see you looking so +well." He approached her with lover-like intent. "My heart has been +empty and forlorn, away from you, Beth. Surely you have a little—a +little something for me, pet? You know how starved——" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh—Mrs. Dick is coming!" she interrupted desperately. "You must have +a great deal to do." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Dick was making a large and lively noise in the kitchen. +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick listened for a second, his deep-set eyes keenly fixed on the +girl, like very orbs of suspicion and jealousy. He lowered his voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Has that ruffian, Van Buren, been here recently?" +</P> + +<P> +She raised her brows in well-feigned astonishment, +</P> + +<P> +"I haven't heard of any ruffian being in town." +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick studied her face for a moment in silence. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll be around this afternoon," he repeated. "Good-by." +</P> + +<P> +He departed hurriedly, glancing at his watch as he went. +</P> + +<P> +Not a block from the house he met old Billy Stitts, who, though quite +unknown to the New York man, knew Bostwick in a way of his own. +</P> + +<P> +"Morning, Uncle.—Howdy?" he said, blocking Bostwick's path. "Back, I +see. Welcome home. I guess you don't know me as well as I know you. +My name is Stitts—Billy Stitts—and I'm gittin' on fine with your +niece. I'm the one which runs her errands and gits the inside track." +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick, staring at Billy ominously, and about to sweep him aside as a +bit of old rubbish, too familiar and impudent for tolerance, paused +abruptly in his impulse, at a hint which Billy had supplied. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," he said. "How are you? So you are the friend who runs Miss +Kent's errands? You must be the one she asked me to befriend." +</P> + +<P> +"Did she?" said old Billy, inordinately pleased. "What did I tell you +about the inside track?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm glad if you have been of use," Bostwick told him insidiously. +"You didn't say what your services have been. Just a few little +errands, I suppose?" +</P> + +<P> +"Never you mind," said Billy, with a profoundly impressive wink. +"That's between her and me. That ain't even fer you, Uncle Bostwick," +and he winked again. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course, of course," agreed Bostwick, half consumed with rage at the +old fellow's abominable manners and familiarity. "I'll keep you in +mind and add some reward of my own on the next occasion." +</P> + +<P> +He bowed and hastened on his way, boiling with curiosity to know what +it was that Beth had been doing to require this old tattler's services. +He meant to ascertain. His suspicions went at once to Van, at thought +of whom he closed down his jaw like a vise. +</P> + +<P> +Filled with a turmoil of thoughts that seethed in his brain, like a +brew in a witch's cauldron—some of them dark and some golden bright, +and some of them red with lust for many things—he proceeded down +street to McCoppet's place, to find himself locked out of the private +den, where the gambler was closeted with Lawrence. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap30"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXX +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +BETH'S ONE EXPEDIENT +</H3> + +<P> +Bostwick had told Beth partial truths. His journey had been hard. His +car had been twice disabled on the desert; Lawrence had been difficult +to find; delays had confronted him at every turn, and not until +midnight of the day before this had he come with his quarry to +Goldite—barely in time to save the situation, with the reservation +opening less than forty-eight hours away. +</P> + +<P> +He had not seen Glen, nor approached the town of Starlight closer than +fifteen miles. He had not yet expended Beth's money, which only that +morning had been practically placed at McCoppet's disposal. But having +finally landed the Government surveyor in camp, he had achieved the +first desirable end in the game they were playing, and matters were +moving at last with a speed to suit the most exacting. +</P> + +<P> +During the interim between Searle's departure and return affairs had +been a trifle complicated in another direction—affairs that lay +between the gambler and his friend, the lumberman, big Trimmer. +</P> + +<P> +Trimmer had been paid one thousand dollars only of the sum agreed upon +when he gave the name of Culver to the half-breed Indian, Cayuse. He +had since spent his money, demanded the balance due, and threatened +McCoppet with exposure, only to be met with a counter threat of prison +for life as the half-breed's accomplice in the crime. McCoppet meant +to pay a portion of the creature's price, but intended to get it from +Bostwick. Indeed, to-day he had the money, but was far too much +engrossed with Lawrence to give the lumberman a thought. +</P> + +<P> +Trimmer, waxing greedy through the ease with which he had blackmailed +McCoppet, had developed a cunning of his own. Convinced that the +gambler was accustomed to incubating plans in his private office, the +lumberman made shift to excavate a hole beneath the floor of that +particular den of privacy, and, after having spent half a night in +vain, in this place of concealment, was at last being duly rewarded as +he listened to McCoppet and Lawrence. +</P> + +<P> +With his ear to a knot-hole he gathered in everything essential to a +knowledge of the plot. He became aware that Lawrence "fell" for twenty +thousand dollars; he overheard the details of the "survey" about to be +made; but to save his very life he could not have fathomed the means +that were about to be employed to "jump" the mining property belonging +to Van Buren and his partners. +</P> + +<P> +Equipped with this latest means of squeezing McCoppet, the creature +emerged from his hole in time to meet the gambler at the bar, during a +moment of Bostwick's temporary absence. +</P> + +<P> +"Opal," he said significantly, "I need to see you fer a minute. It +won't be no healthier to refuse me now than it was the first time I +come." +</P> + +<P> +The gambler looked at him coldly. "I haven't got time to talk now, +Larry, but some of your money is at your order any time you want it, in +gold, or poker chips, or gin." +</P> + +<P> +Trimmer was placated. "All right," he said, and cunningly resolved, +upon the spot, to keep his latest secret on the ice. +</P> + +<P> +Lawrence had already disappeared to hasten arrangements for getting out +upon his work. +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick had waited half an hour in the utmost impatience. With a +hundred things to increase his restlessness of mind and body, he had +finally gone to the postoffice and there discovered a letter from +Glenmore Kent. +</P> + +<P> +It was short, and now no longer fresh. It had been composed just after +the young man's accident, and after relating how he had received a not +inconsiderable injury, requested Searle to come to Starlight at once, +if possible, and not to divulge any needless facts to Beth. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm broke, and this knock puts me down and out," the letter concluded. +"Come down, like a good old chap, and cheer me up." +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick destroyed the letter promptly, lest it fall by some accident +into other hands than his own. Not without a slight feeling of guilt, +the man shut out all thought, for the present, of deserting Goldite and +the plot. That Beth would learn nothing from himself as to Glen's +condition was a certainty. He was glad of this wisdom in the boy—this +show of courage whereby he had wished his sister spared. +</P> + +<P> +But the more he thought upon Beth's attitude towards himself, and the +mystifying confessions old Billy Stitts had made, concerning the +errands he was running for the girl, the more Bostwick fretted and +warmed with exasperation, suspicion, and jealousy. He returned to +McCoppet's. The door to the den was still barred. Impatiently he +started again for Mrs. Dick's. He was not in the least certain as to +what he meant to do or say, but felt obliged to do something. +</P> + +<P> +Meantime, Beth had written to her brother. Bostwick's evasions and +lies had aroused more than merely a vague alarm in her breast. She had +begun to feel, perhaps partially by intuition, that something was +altogether wrong. Searle's anxiety to assure her she need not write to +Glen—that he was coming to Goldite—had provided the one required +element to excite a new trend in her thought. She knew that Glen would +not come soon to town. She knew she must get him word. She had +thought of one way only to insure herself and Glen against deceit—ask +Van to go in person with her letter, and bring her Glen's reply. +</P> + +<P> +Had she felt the affair to be in the slightest degree unimportant she +might have hesitated to think of making this request, but the more she +dwelt upon it the more essential it seemed to become. Her brothers +very life might be dependent upon this promptness of action. A very +large sum of money was certainly involved in some sort of business of +which, she felt, both she and Glen were in ignorance. Bostwick had +certainly not seen Glen at all. His deceptions might mean +anything!—the gravest of dangers to them all! +</P> + +<P> +It had taken her the briefest time only to resolve upon her course—and +then old Billy came upon the scene, as if in answer to a question she +had asked—how to get her request and the letter to Glen across the +hills to Van, at the "Laughing Water" claim? +</P> + +<P> +Three letters she wrote, and tore to scraps, before one was finally +composed to express all she felt, in the way that she wished it +expressed. Old Billy went off to wait and returned there duly, +enormously pleased by his commission. He knew the way to the "Laughing +Water" claim and could ride the borrowed pony. +</P> + +<P> +As pleased as a dog with a parcel of meat, entrusted to his keeping by +a confident master, he finally started for the hay-yard, with two +dainty letters in his keeping. One was to Van, with Beth's request; +the other was, of course, to her brother. +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick met the proud old beau at the corner of the street. +</P> + +<P> +"Say, Uncle, what did I tell you," said Billy at once. "This time it's +the biggest errand yet." +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick had wondered if he might not catch Mr. Stitts in some such +service as he boasted now, and his wit was worthy of his nature. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," he said readily, "Miss Kent was saying she thought perhaps she +could get you to carry a note to Mr. Van Buren." It was a hazardous +coup but he dared it with the utmost show of pleasure in his smile. +For a second, however, as he watched the old man's face, he feared he +had overshot the mark. +</P> + +<P> +Old Billy was pleased and disappointed together. However, his wish to +prove his importance greatly outweighed his chagrin that Beth should +have taken even "Uncle" Bostwick into her confidence. +</P> + +<P> +"That ain't all she give me," he announced, as foolishly as a child. +"I've got her letter to her brother, over to Starlight, too, and +nothin' couldn't stop me from takin' it up to the 'Laughing Water' +claim. You bet I'll see Van Buren gits it right into his hand from me!" +</P> + +<P> +If Bostwick had contemplated making an attempt to bribe the old beau +into permitting him a glance at the letters, he abandoned the thought +with sagacious alacrity. He must think of something safer. A letter +to Van Buren and one to Glen was more than he had counted on +discovering. It made him decidedly uneasy. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sure you'll deliver everything safely," he said, masking his +annoyance with a smile. "Before you go, perhaps, you'd take something +to drink." +</P> + +<P> +The suggestion in his mind was crude, but at least it was something. +</P> + +<P> +"Huh!" said old Billy, "Me!—drink and git a jag when she's expectin' +me to hike right out of camp? Guess you don't know me, Uncle, not +worth a mice! Didn't I say nuthin' couldn't stop me? And I'm goin' +right now." +</P> + +<P> +He clapped his bony old hand over his pocket, where the two precious +letters reposed, and winking prodigiously at Bostwick, departed +forthwith from the scene. +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick could have run him down, beaten him to the ground and snatched +the letters from him, but he did not dare. Instead, he merely +continued to grin while Billy remained in sight. Then instead of going +on to Beth's, he circled a building and returned down street towards +McCoppet's. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap31"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXXI +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +MCCOPPET BUSIES HIS MIND +</H3> + +<P> +Unfortunately for Bostwick he knew no ruffians in the camp—none of the +Trimmers who would, perhaps, accept a sum of money to waylay a man, +bash him over the head, and filch required letters from his pocket. He +was not precisely willing, moreover, to broach such an undertaking to +the gambler. This, after all, was his private affair, to be shared +with no one he knew. +</P> + +<P> +The man had arrived at the truth concerning the letters with +commendable skill in deduction. He had himself destroyed Beth's +earlier letter to her brother, for reasons of policy. He had found her +conduct cold, if not suspicious, this morning. How far she had been +excited to distrust himself or the mails he could not estimate. He was +certain, however, she had sent a request to Van Buren to carry a letter +to Glen. +</P> + +<P> +Her reasons for taking precautions so extraordinary were undoubtedly +significant. He was galled; his anger against Van Buren was consuming. +But first and foremost he must block the harm Beth's letter to her +brother might accomplish. For two days more young Kent and Beth must +remain in ignorance of what was being done through the use of her +money—of the fact that no mine of Glen's discovery was the object of +the scheme he was working, and that none of his own alleged money was +being employed in the game. +</P> + +<P> +He made up his mind to go to Starlight himself—to be on hand when Van +Buren should arrive. With Glenmore ill, or injured, in his bed, the +case might offer simple handling, Further neglect of Glenmore might, +indeed, be fatal, at a juncture so delicate. From every possible +viewpoint the thing to do was to intercept Van Buren. +</P> + +<P> +He found McCoppet just returned from launching Lawrence forth upon his +work. Three of the gambler's chosen men had accompanied the +Government's surveyor. They had taken Bostwick's car. Instructions +had been simple enough. Push over the reservation line to cover the +"Laughing Water" claim, by night of the following day. +</P> + +<P> +Searle was taken to the private den. McCoppet imparted his information +with the utmost brevity. +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing for us to do but to wait till six o'clock, day after to-morrow +morning," he concluded, "then play our cards—and play 'em quick." +</P> + +<P> +"You've taken my car?" said Bostwick, whose personal plans were thrown +into utter confusion, for the moment. "I wanted that car for my own +use. I've got to go to Starlight to-morrow." +</P> + +<P> +"Sit down," said McCoppet, throwing away his unsmoked cigar and taking +another from his pocket. "What's going on at Starlight?" +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick had no intention of divulging his personal affairs, but there +was something in this that trenched upon "company" concerns. +</P> + +<P> +"Van Buren's going over there, to see young Kent," he admitted. "I've +got to see him first." +</P> + +<P> +McCoppet looked up at him sharply. +</P> + +<P> +"Young Kent ain't next to anything?" he demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"Not yet." +</P> + +<P> +"Look here," said the gambler, whose wits were inordinately keen, "is +anything leaking, Bostwick? What about the girl—the young chump's +sister? You're not putting her wise to the layout?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly not!" said Bostwick. "She knows nothing. But it wouldn't +be safe for this mix-up to occur. At any rate, I propose to be there +when Van Buren arrives." +</P> + +<P> +McCoppet arose, plunged his hands in his pockets, and paced up and down +reflectively. +</P> + +<P> +"Someways I'm glad Van Buren's going," he said. "I've been trying to +figure how I could play the game to have him away when we come to take +the trick. He's hostile in a fight. I guess it's all right. Don't +need you here. You can copper any possible harm down there at +Starlight, and meantime I'll see if there's any known way of delaying +Van Buren's return." +</P> + +<P> +"But how am I going to get down there and back?" said Bostwick, intent +upon the need for haste. "I can't get around without a car." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't get tropical," said McCoppet calmly. "I can get you a car in +fifteen minutes. It ain't as good as yours, but we needed the one that +was surest to keep on its legs. If you ain't got anything more on your +mind, I want to chase around for a lumberman—a friend of mine—before +he gits any drunker." +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick arose. +</P> + +<P> +"Arrange for that car to take me to-night, after dinner. I think +that's all." +</P> + +<P> +He repaired to his room to attend to a dozen small affairs, then went +once more to Beth's. She was not in the least surprised to hear him +say he meant to return to Starlight and to Glen that night, on business +of importance to them all, but she did not believe him in the least. +He remained in the hope of entrapping her into some sort of +self-betrayal as to what she had recently done, but without avail. +</P> + +<P> +The hour that he spent at Mrs. Dick's was dull for them both—dull and +distasteful to the girl, growing so rapidly to hate and distrust him, +dull and aggravating to Bostwick, with jealousy increasing upon him. +His one consolation lay in the fact that in less than two days Van +Buren would be no better off than a pauper at best with scarcely a +shelter for his head. +</P> + +<P> +One of the interesting and vital chapters in the whole affair was +meanwhile in McCoppet's hands and receiving his attention. Trimmer had +been captured, far more sober than the gambler could have hoped. The +two were in the den once more, the lumberman smoking an excellent cigar +as if it had been a stick of candy. +</P> + +<P> +McCoppet came to his subject promptly. +</P> + +<P> +"Look here, Larry," he said, "you know Van Buren when you see him." +</P> + +<P> +Trimmer glanced up sharply, ready in an instant to resent what he felt +to partake of the nature of a personal affront. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't git funny, Opal. If ever I fight Van Buren when I'm sober I'll +eat him alive. I was drunk when he licked me, and you know it!" +</P> + +<P> +McCoppet leaned back in his chair and half closed his eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't know but what you'd like to sober up and lick him." +</P> + +<P> +Trimmer stared, shifted uneasily in his seat, and demanded: +</P> + +<P> +"Where? Where is he at?" +</P> + +<P> +"He's going to Starlight to-morrow—from up by the reservation—from +his claim. If he don't git back for a couple of days—I could make it +worth your while; and you could cash in for that time he licked you +when you wasn't in condition." +</P> + +<P> +Again Trimmer fidgeted. "I guess he licked me fair enough. I admit +he's all right in a scrap. I ain't holdin' nuthin' agin him. +Goldite's good enough fer me." +</P> + +<P> +McCoppet knew the creature was afraid to meet his man—that Trimmer's +attack on Van Buren, once before, had been planned with much +deliberation, had amounted to an ambush, in point of fact, resulting in +disaster to the bully. +</P> + +<P> +"I counted on you to help me, Larry," he said, drumming on the table +with his fingers. "You're the only man of your kind with brains in all +the camp." +</P> + +<P> +Trimmer had smoked his cigar to within an inch of his mouth. He +extinguished the fire and chewed up the stump voraciously. +</P> + +<P> +"Say!" he suddenly ejaculated, leaping to his feet and coming around +the table, "I can fix him all right," and he lowered his voice to a +whisper. "Barger would give up a leg to git a show at Van Buren!" +</P> + +<P> +"Barger?" echoed McCoppet. "Matt? But they got him! Got 'em all." +</P> + +<P> +"Got nuthin'," the lumberman ejaculated. "What's the good of all +these lyin' papers when I seen Matt myself, readin' the piece about him +goin' back to the pen?" +</P> + +<P> +McCoppet rose, went to the window, and returned again. +</P> + +<P> +"Larry, you're all right," he said. "Where's Barger now?" +</P> + +<P> +Trimmer winked. "That's his business, and mine." +</P> + +<P> +"All right—that's all right," agreed the gambler. "Wouldn't he take +it as a favor if you passed him some money and the word about Van +Buren's hike to Starlight?" +</P> + +<P> +Trimmer got out a new cigar, lit up, and began to smoke as before. +</P> + +<P> +"I was goin' to pass him some of mine," he confessed. "Yours will suit +me just as good." +</P> + +<P> +"Five hundred ought to help him some," said the gambler. "Come out to +the bar." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +At dark the lumberman left the camp on foot, heading for the mountains. +Bostwick departed in the borrowed car at eight. The whole town was +ablaze with light, and tumultuous with sound. Glare and disturbance +together, however, only faintly symbolized the excitement and fever in +the camp. A thousand men were making final preparations for the rush +so soon to come—the mad stampede upon the reservation ground, barely +more than a day removed. +</P> + +<P> +Miners with outfits, gamblers with their paraphernalia, saloon men with +case on case of liquors, assayers, lawyers, teamsters, cooks—even a +half dozen women—comprised the heterogeneous army making ready for the +charge. The streets were filled with horses, men, and mules. The +saloons were jammed to suffocation. Musical discord filled the air. +Only the land, the silent old hills, the ancient, burned-out furnace of +gold, was absolutely calm. Overhead a few clouds blurred the sky. +Beyond them the eternal march of the stars proceeded in the majesty of +space, with billions of years in which to fulfil the cosmic cycle of +existence. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap32"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXXII +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE HARDSHIPS OF THE TRAIL +</H3> + +<P> +In the night, far out to the northward, a storm descended like a +cataclysm. Torrential rains were poured upon the hills from a +cloudburst exceptionally savage. Only the scattered outposts, as it +were, of the storm were blown as far as Goldite. A sprinkle of rain +that dried at once was the most those mountains received. +</P> + +<P> +Van made an early start from the "Laughing Water" claim, to deliver +Beth's letter in Starlight. Her note to himself he read once more as +his pony jogged down the descent. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"Dear Mr. Van: I wonder if I dare to ask a favor—from one who has done +so much already? My brother, in Starlight, is ill. He has hurt +himself, I do not know how badly. A letter I sent has never been +received, and I am worried. The effort I made to see him—well—at +least, I'm glad I made the effort. But meantime, what of poor Glen? +Some little fear I have may be groundless. I shall therefore keep it +to myself—but I have it, perhaps because I am a woman. I must know +the truth about my brother—how he is—what has been happening. It is +far more important than I dare confess. I have written him a letter +and sent it to you in the hope you may not find it impossible to carry +it to Glen in person. If I am asking too much, please do not hesitate +to say so. I am sure you will be friendly enough for that—to say 'no' +if need be to another friend—<I>your</I> friend, BETH KENT." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +She did not regret that desert experience—that was almost enough for +him to know! He had lived in a glow since that wonderful night—and +this letter provided another. He rode like a proud young crusader of +old, with his head in a region of sunshine and gold, his vision +transfixed by a face. Her love had become his holy grail—and for that +he would ride to death itself. +</P> + +<P> +His way he shortened, or thought to shorten, by dropping down from the +reservation heights to the new-made town a mile below. He came upon +the place abruptly, after dipping once into a canyon, and looked with +amazement on the place. In the past twelve hours it had doubled in +size and increased twenty-fold in its fever. The face of the desert +was literally alive with men and animals. Half of Goldite and +practically all of a dozen lesser camps were there. Confusion, +discomfort, and distraction seemed hopelessly enthroned. The "rush" +was written in men's faces, in their actions, in their baggage, words, +and rising temperature. +</P> + +<P> +A dozen stalwart stampeders pounced upon Van like wolves. They wanted +to know what he thought of the reservation, where to go, whether or not +there was any more ground like that of the "Laughing Water" claim, what +he had heard from his Indian friends, and what he would take for his +placer. The crowd about him rapidly increased. Men in a time of +excitement such as this flock as madly as sheep whenever one may lead. +Anything is news—any man is of interest who has in his pocket a piece +of rock, or has in his eye a wink. No man is willing to be left +outside. He must know all there is to be known. +</P> + +<P> +It was utterly useless for Van to protest his ignorance of the +reservation ground. He owned a deposit of placer gold. Success had +crowned his efforts. It was something to get in touch with success, +rub shoulders with a man who had the gold. +</P> + +<P> +His friends were there in the red-faced mob. They said they were his +friends, and they doubtless knew. Some were, indeed, old acquaintances +whom Van would gladly have assisted towards a needed change of fortune. +He was powerless, not only to aid these men, but also to escape. +Despite his utmost endeavors they held him there an hour, and to make +up the time, he chose the hottest, roughest trail through the range, +when at last he was clear of the town. +</P> + +<P> +The climb he made on his pony to slice a few miles from his route was +over a mountain and through a gulch that was known as The Devil's +Slide. It was gravel that moved underfoot with never-failing +treachery, gravel made hot by the rays of the sun, and flinging up a +scorching heat while it crawled and blistered underfoot. On midsummer +days men had perished here, driven mad by the dancing of the air and +the dread of the movement where they trod. The last two miles of this +desolate slope Van walked and led his broncho. +</P> + +<P> +He entered "Solid Canyon" finally, and mounting once more let Suvy pick +the way between great boulders, where gray rattlesnakes abounded in +exceptional numbers. These were the hardships of the ride, all there +were that Van felt worth the counting. He had reckoned without that +far-off storm, which had raged in the darkness of the night. +</P> + +<P> +He came to the river, the ford between the banks where he and Beth had +found a shallow stream. For a moment he stared at it speechlessly. A +great, swiftly-moving flood was there, tawny, roiled with the mud torn +down and dissolved in the water's violence, and foaming still from a +plunge it had taken above. +</P> + +<P> +It was ten to twenty feet deep. This Van realized as he sat there on +his sweating horse, measuring up the banks. The depth had encroached +upon the slope whereon he was wont to ascend the further side. There +was one place only where he felt assured a landing might be achieved. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Suvy," he said to the animal presently, "it looks more like a +swim than a waltz quadrille, and neither of us built web-footed." +</P> + +<P> +Without further ado he placed Beth's letter in his hat, then rode his +pony down the bank and into the angry-looking water. Suvy halted a +moment uncertainly, then, like his master, determined to proceed. +</P> + +<P> +Five feet out he was swimming, headed instinctively up the stream and +buried deep under the surface. Van still remained in the saddle. He +was more than waist under, loosely clinging to his seat and giving the +pony the reins. +</P> + +<P> +Suvy was powerful, he swam doggedly, but the current was tremendous in +its sheer liquid mass and momentum. Van slipped off and swam by the +broncho's side. Together the two breasted the surge of the tide, and +now made more rapid progress. It required tremendous effort to forge +ahead and not be swept headlong to a choppy stretch of rapids, just +below. +</P> + +<P> +"Up stream, boy, up stream," said Van, as if to a comrade, for he had +noted the one likely place to land, and Suvy was drifting too far +downward. +</P> + +<P> +They came in close to the bank, as Van had feared, below the one fair +landing. Despite his utmost efforts, to which the pony willingly +responded, they could not regain what had been lost. The broncho made +a fine but futile attempt to gain a footing and scramble up the almost +perpendicular wall of rock and earth by which he was confronted. Time +after time he circled completely in the surge, to no avail. He may +have become either confused or discouraged, Whichever it was, he +turned about, during a moment when Van released the reins, and swam +sturdily back whence he come. +</P> + +<P> +Van, in the utmost patience, turned and followed. Suvy awaited his +advent on the shore. +</P> + +<P> +"Try to keep a little further up, boy, if you can," said the man, and +he mounted and rode as before against the current. +</P> + +<P> +The broncho was eager to obey directions, eager to do the bidding of +the man he strangely loved. All of the first hard struggle was +repeated—and the current caught them as before. Again, as formerly, +Van slipped off and swam by his pony's side. He could not hold his +shoulder against the animal, and guide him thus up the stream, but was +trailed out lengthwise and flung about in utter helplessness, forming a +drag against which the pony's most desperate efforts could not prevail. +</P> + +<P> +They came to the bank precisely as they had before, and once again, +perhaps more persistently, Suvy made wild, eager efforts to scramble +out where escape was impossible. Again and again he circled, pawed the +bank, and turned his eyes appealingly to Van, as if for help or +suggestions. +</P> + +<P> +At last he acknowledged defeat, or lost comprehension of the struggle. +He swam as on the former trial to the bank on the homeward side. +</P> + +<P> +There was nothing for Van but to follow as before. When he came out, +dripping and panting, by the animal, whose sides were fairly heaving as +he labored for breath, he was still all cheer and encouragement. +</P> + +<P> +"Suvy," said he, "a failure is a chap who couldn't make a fire in hell. +We've got to cross this river if we have to burn it up." +</P> + +<P> +He took the broncho's velvety nose in his hands and gave him a rough +little shake. Then he patted him smartly on the neck. +</P> + +<P> +"For a pocket-size river," he said as he looked at the flood, "this is +certainly the infant prodigy. Well, let's try it again." +</P> + +<P> +Had the plunge been straight to sudden death that broncho would have +risked it unswervingly at the urging of his master. Suvy was somewhat +exhausted by the trials already made, in vain. But into the turgid +down-sweep he headed with a newly conjured vigor. +</P> + +<P> +Van now waited merely for the pony to get started on his way, when he +lifted away from the saddle, with the water's aid, and clung snugly up +to the stirrup. He swam with one hand only. To keep himself afloat +and offer no resistance to the broncho was the most that he could do, +and the best. +</P> + +<P> +The struggle was tremendous. Suvy had headed more obliquely than +before against the current, and having encountered a greater +resistance, with his strength somewhat sapped, was toiling like an +engine. +</P> + +<P> +Inch by inch, foot by foot, he forged his way against the liquid wall +that split upon him. Van felt a great final quiver of muscular energy +shake the living dynamic by his side, as Suvy poured all his fine young +might into one supreme effort at the end. Then he came to the landing, +got all his feet upon the slope, and up they heaved in triumph! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap33"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXXIII +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE CLOUDS OF TROUBLE GATHER +</H3> + +<P> +By the route beyond the river that Van was obliged to choose, the +distance from his claim to Starlight was more than forty miles. His +pony had no shoes, and having never been ridden far, was a trifle soft +for a trip involving difficulties such as this mountain work abundantly +afforded. When they came to Phonolite Pass, the last of the cut-offs +on the trail, Van rode no more than a hundred yards into its shadows +before he feared he must turn. +</P> + +<P> +Phonolite is broken shale, a thin, sharp rock that gives forth a +pleasant, metallic sound when struck, like shattered crockery. For a +mile this deposit lay along the trail across the width of the pass. +For the bare-footed pony there was cruelty in every step. The barrier +of rock was far more formidable than the river in its flood. +</P> + +<P> +Van was not to be halted in his object. He had a letter to deliver; he +meant to take it through, though doom itself should yawn across his +path. The hour was late; the sun was rapidly sinking. Van pulled up +his broncho and debated. +</P> + +<P> +Absolute silence reigned in the world of mountains. But if the place +seemed desolate, it likewise seemed secure. Nevertheless, death lurked +in the trail ahead. Barger was there. He was lying in the rocks, +concealed where the chasm was narrow. He had ridden four hours—on the +mare Beth had lost—to arrive ahead of Van Buren. The muzzle of a long +black revolver that he held in hand rested upon a shattered boulder. +His narrow eyes lay level with a rift in the group of rocks that hid +him completely from view. Van was in sight, and the convict's breath +came quickly as he waited. +</P> + +<P> +Van dismounted from his pony's back and picked up one of his hoofs. +</P> + +<P> +"Worn down pretty flat," he told the animal. "Perhaps if I walk we can +make it." He started on foot up the tinkling way, watching the broncho +with solicitude. +</P> + +<P> +Suvy followed obediently, but the pointed rocks played havoc with his +feet. He lurched, in attempting to right his foot on one that turned, +and the long lassoo, secured to the saddle, flopped out, fell back, and +made him jump. Van halted as before. The convict was barely fifty +yards away. His pistol was leveled, but he waited for a deadlier aim, +a shorter shot. +</P> + +<P> +"Nope! We'll have to climb the hill," Van decided reluctantly. +"You're a friend of mine, Suvy, and even if you weren't, you'd have to +last to get back." He turned his back on death, unwittingly, to spare +the horse he loved. +</P> + +<P> +Delayed no less than an hour by this enforced retreat, he patiently led +the broncho back to the opening of the pass, and, still on foot, led +the steep way up over the mountain. +</P> + +<P> +Barger rose up and cursed himself for not having risked a shot. He +dared not attempt a dash upon his man; he could not know where Van +might again be intercepted; he was helpless, baffled, enraged. Half +starved, keenly alive only in his instinct to accomplish his revenge, +the creature was more like a hunted, retaliating animal than like a +man. He had sworn to even the score with Van Buren; he was not to be +deflected from his course. But to get his man here was no longer +possible. The horse Beth had lost, now in the convict's possession, +was all but famished for water, not to mention food. There was nothing +to choose but retreat towards the river, to the northward, where the +mountains might yet afford an ambush as Van was returning home. +</P> + +<P> +Far away in the mountains, at the "Laughing Water" claim, while the sun +was setting on a scene of labors, all but concluded for the day, the +group of surveyors, with Lawrence in charge, appeared along the +southern ridge. +</P> + +<P> +Gettysburg, Napoleon, and Dave were still in the water by the sluices. +They were grimed, soiled with perspiration, wearied by the long, hard +day of toil. Shovel in hand old Gettysburg discovered the men with an +instrument who trekked along the outside edge of the claim. Chain-man, +rod-man, and Lawrence with his shining theodolite, set on its three +slender legs, they were silhouetted sharply against the evening sky. +Their movements and their presence here were beyond the partners' +comprehension. It was Gettysburg who climbed up the slope, and +anchored himself in their path. +</P> + +<P> +"What you doin'?" he said to the rod-man presently, when that tired +individual approached and continued on his way. +</P> + +<P> +"What does it look like—playing checkers?" said the man. "Can't the +Government do nuthin'—run no county line ner nuthin' without everybody +sittin' up to notice?" +</P> + +<P> +No less than fifty men they had met that day had questioned what the +Government was doing. The "county line" suggestion had been the only +hint vouchsafed—and that had sufficed to allay the keenest suspicion. +</P> + +<P> +"That all?" said Gettysburg, and, watching as he went, he slowly +returned to his partners. His explanation was ample. The surveyors +proceeded on. +</P> + +<P> +Meantime, in absolute ignorance of all that was happening on his +property, Van continued towards Starlight unmolested. An hour after +sundown he rode to the camp, inquired his way to the rough-board shack, +where Kent was lying ill, and was met at the door by a stranger, whom +Glen had employed as cook and "general nurse." +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick was there. He remained unseen. His instructions were +imperative—and the "nurse" had no choice but to obey. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course, Kent's here," he admitted, in response to Van's first +question. "He can't see no one, neither—no matter who it is." +</P> + +<P> +"I've brought a letter from his sister," Van explained. "He's got to +have it, and have it now. If he wishes to send any answer back, I'm +here to take it." +</P> + +<P> +The "nurse" looked him over. +</P> + +<P> +"The orders from the doctor is no visitors!" he said. "And that goes. +If you want to leave the letter, why you kin." +</P> + +<P> +Van produced the letter. +</P> + +<P> +"If the man's as ill as that, I have no desire to butt in for an +interview," he said. "Oblige me by ascertaining at your earliest +convenience whether or not I may be of service to Mr. Kent in returning +his reply." +</P> + +<P> +The man looked bewildered. He received the letter, somewhat dubiously, +and disappeared. Van waited. The reception was not precisely what he +might have expected, but, for the matter of that, neither had the trip +been altogether what he might have chosen. +</P> + +<P> +It was fully twenty minutes before the nurse reappeared. +</P> + +<P> +"He was just woke up enough to say thank you and wants to know if +you'll oblige him with the favor of takin' his hand-write back to his +sister in the mornin'?" +</P> + +<P> +Van looked him over steadily. After all, the man within might be +utterly sick and weak. His request was natural. And the service was +for Beth. +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly," he said. "I'll be here at seven in the morning." +</P> + +<P> +Starlight was nearly deserted. Gratified to discover sufficient food +and bedding for himself and his pony, Van made no complaint. +</P> + +<P> +At six in the morning he was rousing up the blacksmith, fortunately not +yet gone to join the reservation rush. Suvy was shod, and at seven +o'clock he and Van were again at Glenmore's cabin. +</P> + +<P> +His man was in waiting. In his hand he held an envelope, unsealed. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Kent's asleep, but here's his hand-write to his sister," he said. +"He wants you to read it out before you hike." +</P> + +<P> +Van received the envelope, glanced at the man inquiringly, and removed +a single sheet of paper. It was not a note from Glen; it appeared to +be the final page of Beth's own letter to her brother. Van knew the +strong, large chirography. His eye ran swiftly over all the lines. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"—so I felt I ought to know about things, and let you know of what is +going on. There is more that I cannot tell you. I wrote you much in +my former letter—much, I mean, about the man who will carry this +letter, so unsuspiciously—the man I shall yet repay if it lies within +my power. For the things he has done—and for what he is—for what he +represents—this is the man I hate more than anything or anyone else in +the world. You would understand me if you knew it all—all! Let him +carry some word from you to Your loving sister, BETH." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Van had read and comprehended the full significance of the lines before +he realized some error had been made—that this piece of Beth's letter +had been placed by mistake in the envelope for him to take, instead of +the letter Glen had written. +</P> + +<P> +He did not know and could not know that Bostwick, within, by the sick +man's side, had kept Glen stupid and hazy with drugs, that the one word +"hate" had been "love" on the sheet he held in his hand till altered by +the man from New York, or that something far different from an utterly +despicable treachery towards himself had been planned in Beth's warm, +happy heart. +</P> + +<P> +The thing, in its enormity, struck him a blow that made him reel, for a +moment, till he could grasp at his self-control. He had made no sign, +and he made none now as he folded the sheet in its creases. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid you made some mistake," he said. "This is not the note +from Mr. Kent. Perhaps you will bring me the other." +</P> + +<P> +"What?" said the man, unaware of the fact that Bostwick had purposely +arranged this scheme for putting the altered sheet in Van Buren's hands. +</P> + +<P> +"What's that?" He glanced at the sheet in genuine surprise. +"Keerect," he said. "I'll go and git you the letter." +</P> + +<P> +Van mounted his horse. His face had taken on a chiseled appearance, as +if it had been cut in stone. He had ridden here through desert heat +and flood, for this—to fetch such a letter as this, to a man he had +never seen nor cared to see, and whose answer he had promised to return. +</P> + +<P> +He made no effort to understand it—why she should send him when the +regular mail would have answered every purpose. The vague, dark hints +contained in her letter—hints at things going on—things she could not +tell—held little to arouse his interest. A stabbed man would have +taken more interest in the name of the maker of the weapon, stamped on +the dagger's blade, than did Van in the detail of affairs between +Glenmore Kent and his sister. Beth had done this thing, and he had +fondly believed her love was welded to his own. She had meant it, +then, when she cried in her passion that she hated him for what he had +done. Her anger that night upon the hill by Mrs. Dick's had not been +jealousy of Queenie, but rage against himself. She was doubtless in +love with Bostwick after all—and would share this joke with her lover. +</P> + +<P> +He shrugged his shoulders. Luck had never been his friend. By what +right had he recently begun to expect her smile? And why had he +continued, for years, to believe in man or in Fate? All the madness of +joy he had felt for days, concerning Beth and the "Laughing Water" +claim, departed as if through a sieve. He cared for nothing, the +claim, the world, or his life. As for Beth—what was the use of +wishing to understand? +</P> + +<P> +The "nurse" came out at the door again, this time with a note which +Bostwick had written, with a few suggestions from Glen, in an unsealed +cover as before. +</P> + +<P> +"I told young Kent you didn't take no time to read the other," he said, +holding up the epistle. "If you want to read this——" +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you," Van interrupted, taking the letter and thrusting it at +once in his pocket. "Thank Mr. Kent for his courtesies, in my behalf." +He turned and rode away. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap34"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXXIV +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE TAKING OF THE CLAIM +</H3> + +<P> +Before six o'clock that morning, while Van was arousing the blacksmith, +the reservation madness broke its bounds. Twenty-five hundred +gold-blinded men made the rush for coveted grounds. +</P> + +<P> +The night had been one long revel of drinking, gambling, and +excitement. No one had slept in the reservation town—for no one had +dared. Bawling, singing, and shouting, the jollier element had shamed +the coyotes from the land. Half a thousand camp fires had flared all +night upon the plain. The desert had developed an oasis of flowing +liquors, glaring lights, and turmoil of life, lust, and laughter. Good +nature and bitter antagonism, often hand in hand, had watched the night +hours pale. +</P> + +<P> +By daylight the "dead line" of the reservation boundary—the old, +accepted line that all had acknowledged—resembled a thin, dark battle +formation, ready for the charge. It was a heterogeneous array, where +every unit, instead of being one of an army mobilized against a common +foe, was the enemy of all the others, lined up beside him. There were +men on foot, men on horses, mules, and burros, men in wagons, +buckboards, and buggies, and men in automobiles. +</P> + +<P> +At half-past five the pressure of greed became too great to bear. A +few unruly stragglers, far down the line, no longer to be held in +check, bent portions of the long formation inward as they started out +across the land. The human stampede began almost upon the instant. +Keepers on their horses, riding up and down, were swept away like chips +before a flood. Scattering wildly over hill and plain, through +gulches, swales, and canyons, the mad troop entered on the unknown +field, racing as if for their lives. +</P> + +<P> +Gettysburg, Napoleon, and Dave had watched for an hour the human hedge +below the "Laughing Water" claim. They, too, had been up since +daylight, intent upon seeing the fun. They had eaten their breakfast +at half-past four. At a quarter of six they returned, to their shack +and began at their daily work. +</P> + +<P> +The cold mountain stream, diverted to the sluices, went purling down +over the riffles. The drip from countless negligible leaks commenced +in its monotony. Into the puddles of mud and water the three old +miners sloshed, with shovels and picks in hand. They were tired before +their work began. Gettysburg, at sixty-five, had been tired for +twenty-five years. Nevertheless, he began his day with song, his +cheery, +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Rinktum bolly kimo. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +They were only fairly limbered up when four active men appeared +abruptly on the property, at the corners of the claim, and began the +work of putting up white location posts, after knocking others down. +They were agents employed by McCoppet, in behalf of Bostwick and +himself. +</P> + +<P> +Napoleon was the first to note their presence. He was calling +attention to the nearest man when a fifth man appeared by the cabin. +He, too, had a new location post, or stake, to be planted at the center +of the claim. He was not only armed as to weapons, but protruding from +his pocket was a wad of "legal" documents, more to be feared than his +gun. +</P> + +<P> +He came straight towards Gettysburg, walking briskly. +</P> + +<P> +"Morning," he said. "I've come to notify you men to get off of this +here claim. This ground belongs to me and my partners, by right of +prior location—made right now." +</P> + +<P> +He thrust his stake a little into the yielding sand and had posted a +notice, made out in due form, before the wet old workers by the sluice +could conclude that the man had lost his wits. +</P> + +<P> +"What you givin' us, anyway?" said Gettysburg, remaining ankle-deep in +the mud. "Don't you know this here is the 'Laughin' Water' claim, +which was located proper——" +</P> + +<P> +"This claim on the reservation," interrupted McCoppet's agent. "The +line was run out yesterday, according to Government instructions, and +the line takes in this ground." He continued at his work. +</P> + +<P> +Napoleon got stirred up then and there. +</P> + +<P> +"You're a liar!" he cried out recklessly, "—metaphorical speakin'. +Belay there, my hearty. You and your dog-gone pirate craft——" +</P> + +<P> +McCoppet himself, on horseback, came riding down the slope. +</P> + +<P> +"That's enough from you!" interrupted the gambler's agent. "You and +your crowd is liable for trespass, or Government prosecution, getting +on the reservation land ahead of date. This ground belongs to me and +my company, understand, with everything on it—and all the gold you've +took out! And all you take away is your personal effects—and you take +'em and git, right now!" +</P> + +<P> +"Now hold on," said Gettysburg, dazed by what he heard. "I seen that +Government surveyor cuss. He said he was only running out a county +line." +</P> + +<P> +McCoppet took the case in hand, as he halted by the boxes. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, boys, don't waste your time in argument," he said. "You've made +a mistake, that's all. Take my advice and hike to the reservation now, +before the gang stakes everything in sight. You can't go up against +the law, and you've done too much illegal work already." +</P> + +<P> +"Illegal?" cried Napoleon. "You're a liar, Opal. Ain't mad, are you? +I've drunk at your saloon, and you know this claim belongs to Van and +us!" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't I say you've made a mistake?" repeated the gambler. "I don't +hold any feelings about it. Nobody was on for a sure thing about the +reservation line till Lawrence run it out. We had suspicions, from a +study of the maps, but it took the Government surveyor to make the +matter certain. It's a cinch you're on the reservation land. You can +copper all your rights, and play to win the bet this claim belongs to +me—and everything else that's any good. Now don't stop to talk. Go +to Lawrence for Government facts—and git a-going pronto." +</P> + +<P> +Gettysburg was pulling down his sleeves. Old age had suddenly claimed +him for its own. The song had dried from his heart, and the light of +his wonderful youth and hope departed from his eye. Dave was too +stunned to think. All three felt the weight of conviction sink them in +the chilling mire. The survey of the day before made doubt impossible. +</P> + +<P> +Gettysburg looked at the boxes, the pits they had dug, the water +running over the riffles, behind which lay the gold. +</P> + +<P> +"I wish Van was to home," he said. "He'd know." +</P> + +<P> +Their helplessness without the absent Van was complete. In the game of +life they were just old boys who would never become mature. +</P> + +<P> +"Van Buren couldn't do no good," McCoppet assured them. "This ain't a +matter of wrangling or fighting; it's a matter of law. If the law +ain't with us you'll get the property back. Van Buren would tell you +the same. He didn't know the ground was reservation. We give him the +benefit of that. But all the gold you've got on the place you'll have +to leave with me. You never had no rights on the Government preserves, +and I'm here ahead of all the bunch in staking it out at six o'clock, +the legal opening hour." +</P> + +<P> +Napoleon started to speak again, but glanced at Gettysburg instead. A +bluff was useless, especially with Gettysburg looking so utterly +defeated. From his tall, old partner, Napoleon looked at Dave. +</P> + +<P> +"Can't we tack somewhere?" he said. "Couldn't we hold the wheel and +wait fer Van?" +</P> + +<P> +Gettysburg repeated: "I wish Van was to home." +</P> + +<P> +"Come on, come on," McCoppet urged, beginning to lose his patience. +"If you think you've got any rights, go to Lawrence and see. You're +trespassing here. I don't want to tell you harsh to pack your duds and +hunt another game, but you can't stay here no longer." +</P> + +<P> +Gettysburg hesitated, then slowly came out of the water. He looked at +the sluices hazily. +</P> + +<P> +"Just gittin' her to pay," he said. "The only easy minin' I ever done." +</P> + +<P> +Napoleon, suddenly dispirited—utterly dispirited—had nothing more to +say. Slowly and in broken order the three old cronies wended towards +the cabin. Less than an hour later, with all their meager treasure in +worldly goods roped to the last of Dave's horses, they quitted the +claim, taking Algy, the Chinese cook, along. They were homeless +wanderers with no place in all the world to turn. Without Van they +were utterly lost. They expected him to come that day to the cove. +Therefore, on a desert spot, not far from the new reservation line, +taking possession of a bit of hill so poor that no one had staked it, +they made their camp in the sand and rocks, to await Van's pleasure in +returning. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap35"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXXV +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE MEETINGS OF TWO STRONG MEN +</H3> + +<P> +Matt Barger, riding in the night, intent upon nothing save the chance +to deal out his vengeance to Van Buren, had camped beside the river, at +the turn where Van and Beth had skirted the bank to the regular fording +below. The convict's horse, which Beth had lost, was tethered where +the water-way had encouraged a meager growth of grass. Barger himself +had eaten a snake and returned to a narrow defile in the range, where +his ambush could be made. +</P> + +<P> +To insure himself against all misadventure he rolled a mass of boulders +down the hill, to block the trail. His barrier was crude but +efficient. Neither man nor horse could have scaled it readily, and the +slopes on either side were not only well-nigh perpendicular, they were +also built of crumbling stone that broke beneath the smallest weight. +He labored doggedly, persistently, despite his half-starved condition, +and when he had finished he looked to his gun, proceeded down the trail +some fifty yards or more, climbed the slope, and there in the rocks, +where the walls gave way to a sandy acclivity, concealed himself to +wait. +</P> + +<P> +The sun at noon found Van a mark for punishment. The day was the +hottest of the season. The earth and rocks irradiated heat that danced +in the air before him. All the world was vibrant, the atmosphere a +shimmer, as if in very mockery of the thoughts that similarly rose and +gyrated in his brain. His horse was suffering for water. The river +was still an hour away, so steep was the climb through the range. +</P> + +<P> +The trail he would gladly have avoided, had such a course been +practical. He had ridden here with Beth, and therefore the mockery was +all the more intense. His inward heat and the outward heat combined to +make him savage. There was nothing, however, on which to vent his +feelings. Suvy he loved. Perhaps, he reflected, the horse was his one +faithful friend. Certainly the broncho toiled most willingly across +the zone of lifelessness to bear him on his way. +</P> + +<P> +Up through the narrowing walls of sand and adamant they slowly +ascended. Barger saw them once, far down the trail, then lost them +again as they rounded a spur of the shimmering hillside, coming nearer +where he lay. He was up the slope a considerable distance—farther +than he meant to risk a shot. His breath came hard as he presently +beheld Van Buren fairly entering the trap. +</P> + +<P> +Van's head had fallen forward on his breast. He looked at nothing. +His face was set and hard. Barger raised his pistol, sighted down the +barrel—and repressed the impulse to fire as the horseman came onward, +unsuspiciously. +</P> + +<P> +No sooner was Van around the turn, where in less than a minute he would +find his progress blocked, than Barger arose and ran with all his might +down the slope. +</P> + +<P> +He let out a yell of exultation as he came to the trail. Van turned in +his saddle instantly, beholding the man in the pass. He knew that +sinister form. +</P> + +<P> +His pony had bounded forward, frightened by the cry. Down went Van's +hand to his own revolver, and the gun came up cocked for action. +</P> + +<P> +One glance he cast up the trail ahead—and saw through Barger's trick. +The <I>cul de sac</I> was perfect, and the convict had halted to fire. +</P> + +<P> +It made a singular picture on Van Buren's retina—that gaunt, savage +being, hairy, wild of eye, instinct with hatred and malice, posing +awkwardly, and the sun-lit barrel of polished steel, just before its +yawning muzzle belched lead and a cloud and a roaring detonation. +</P> + +<P> +The bullet went wide, and Barger fired again, quickly, but more +steadily. That one landed. It got Van just along the arm, burning in +a long, shallow wound that barely brought the blood. +</P> + +<P> +Van's gun was down, despite Suvy's panic of cavortings. He pulled the +trigger. The hammer leaped two ways, up and back—but the gun made no +report, no buck, no cloud to answer Barger's. The cartridges, +subjected to all that water of the day before, were worthless. +</P> + +<P> +The third of Barger's shots was fired from a closer range, as the eager +creature closed in upon his enemy. It let the daylight enter Van's +hat, near the top. +</P> + +<P> +Van had snapped every shell in his weapon, with amazing rapidity—to no +avail. The cylinder had flung around like a wheel, but the sounds were +those of a toy. +</P> + +<P> +Barger was steadied in his tracks for better marksmanship. He had +heard that succession of metallic snaps; he knew he had Van Buren at +his mercy. Three of his shots remained unfired, and a second, unused +pistol in his belt, with more ammunition. The fellow even smiled as he +was aiming. +</P> + +<P> +There was one thing to do—and Van did it. He leaped his broncho clean +against the wall, then spurred him straight for Barger. The shot that +split the air again was splattered on the rocks. Before the convict +could make ready to avoid the charge, Suvy was almost upon him. He +partially fell and partially leaped a little from the broncho's path, +but was struck as the pony bounded by. +</P> + +<P> +He yelled, for his leg was trampled and hurt by the pressure of Suvy's +shoe, nevertheless he scrambled to his feet at once, and fired wildly +at his man. +</P> + +<P> +He emptied his gun, drew the other, and ran, too eager for his deed of +revenge to halt and take a steady aim. A bullet punctured the +broncho's ear, and the blood flew back upon Van. +</P> + +<P> +They were past the walls in the briefest time, and Van attacked the +slope. Barger came after, yelling in rage. He tripped, and his hurt +leg dropped him down. +</P> + +<P> +Already wearied, and famished for drink, Suvy nevertheless rose to the +needs of the moment with a strength incredible. He scaled that sandy, +treacherous slope like an engine built for the purpose. It was love, +pure love for the master on his back, that steeled the mighty sinews in +his body. +</P> + +<P> +Two shots and two bullets from below proclaimed renewed activities +where Barger was once more on his feet. But the man had lost too much +ground to recover his advantage. He knew that Van Buren, with a horse +like that, could win the high ridge and escape. +</P> + +<P> +He raged; he cursed himself and his God, for this second failure of his +deed. Then once again he abruptly thought of a chance whereby to +redeem his galling failures. His man on the horse would be more than +an hour in reaching the river by the slopes. A man on foot could beat +him there, and beat him across to the farther side, from which to +attack with surer aim—from the cover of the willows by the ford. The +flood had subsided. This Barger knew. The water was hardly knee high +on a man, and better than all, Van Buren would scarcely dream of such a +plan as within the range of possibilities. +</P> + +<P> +Laboriously, in a fever of impatience, Barger made shift, after +strenuous work, to climb his barrier of rock. Then up to the summit of +the trail he sped, and down on the farther side. +</P> + +<P> +Meantime Van, disgusted with himself for riding away from a fight, +could only revile his useless gun and excuse himself a trifle because +of his defenselessness. The skirmish had served to arouse him, +however, and for that he was thankful to the convict who had waited in +the pass. +</P> + +<P> +Then he wondered how it came at all that Matt should have thus been +lying there in wait. The fellow must have been informed, to prepare so +elaborate a trap. It hardly seemed as if a plot against his life could +explain this trip that Beth had desired him to take. He could scarcely +credit a thing so utterly despicable, so murderous, to her, yet for +what earthly reasons had she sent him on the trip with a letter the +stage could have carried? +</P> + +<P> +The thing was preposterous! No woman on earth could have sanctioned an +alliance with Barger. But—what of Bostwick—the man who had spent a +portion of his time with the liberated convicts? A revenge like this +would appeal to him, would seem to him singularly appropriate. Beth +could have lent her assistance to the plan without guilty knowledge of +an outcome such as this, and Bostwick—Beth knew that Barger was Van's +enemy. He had told her so himself. Facts were facts. Her letter to +Glen revealed her state of mind—and here was this attack, a planned +attack, proving conclusively that Barger had been prepared beforehand +with knowledge of the trip. +</P> + +<P> +From having been depressed before, Van was made thoroughly angry. The +whole thing was infamous, dastardly—and Beth could not be acquitted. +Strangely enough, against the convict, Barger, the horseman felt no +wrath. Barger had a grievance, howsoever mistaken, that was adequate. +He was following his bent consistently. He had made his threat in the +open; he must plan out his work according to his wits. He was simply a +hunted beast, who turned upon his hunters. +</P> + +<P> +It was Bostwick on whom Van concentrated a rising heat—and he promised +the man would find things warm in camp, and the fight only well under +way. +</P> + +<P> +Even when the summit was achieved, the broncho slacked off nothing of +his pace. Sweat glistened wetly upon him. His bleeding ear was going +backward and forward tremulously, as he listened for any word from Van, +and for anything suspicious before them. Van noted a certain +wistfulness in the pony's demeanor. +</P> + +<P> +"Take it easy, boy," he urged in a voice of affection that the broncho +understood. "Take it easy." He dismounted to lead the animal down the +slope, since a steep descent is far more trying on a ridden horse than +climbing up the grade. He halted to pat the pony on the neck, and give +his nose a rough caress, then on they went, the shadow they cast the +only shade upon the burning hill. +</P> + +<P> +It was fully an hour after leaving the pass, where Barger had piled in +the rock, before the horseman and his broncho dropped again in the +trail that led onward to the river. Van was again in the saddle. +Alert for possible surprises, but assured that his man could find no +adequate cover hereabouts, he emerged from behind the last of the turns +all eagerness to give his horse a drink. +</P> + +<P> +A yell broke suddenly, terribly, on the desert stillness. It came from +Barger, out in the river, on the bar—strangely anchored where he stood. +</P> + +<P> +Van saw him instantly, saw a human fantastic, struggling, writhing, +twisting with maniacal might, the while the horrible quicksand held him +by the legs, and swallowed him, inch by inch. +</P> + +<P> +"Fer Christ's sake—help!" the creature shrilled in his plight. He had +flung away revolvers, cartridges, even his coat, reducing his weight +when the stuff only gripped him by the ankles. He was half to his +thighs. He was sinking to his waist, and with all of his furious +efforts, the frightful sand was shuddering, as if in animal +ecstacy—some abominable ecstacy of hunger, voracious from long denial, +as it sucked him further down. +</P> + +<P> +"Fer Christ's sake, Van Buren—fer Christ's sake, man! I'm a human +being," shrieked the victim of the sand. "<I>I'm a human being</I>, man!" +</P> + +<P> +Van had not hesitated by so much as a moment as to what he meant to do. +He was off his horse in a leap. He paused for a second to looked about +for any accidental means of assistance the place might afford. It +afforded none. The man in the quicksand continued to yell, to struggle +hopelessly, to sink in that shivering pool of life-engulfing stuff. +</P> + +<P> +Then the horseman thought of his rope, the raw-hide lasso, always +secured upon his saddle. He snatched at the knots to tear it loose. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't move—don't struggle!" he shouted at the man, and down toward +the edge he came running, the rope-noose running out as he sped. +</P> + +<P> +He dared not step beyond the bank, and so involve himself. Barger was +well out from the edge. The throw at best was long and difficult. +</P> + +<P> +"Hold up your hands, above your head!" he called. "Don't thrash +around!" +</P> + +<P> +The convict obeyed. His haggard, bearded face was turned to Van like a +mask of horror. The eyes were blazing fearfully. The fellow's +attitude, as he held his hands above his head, and continued to sink, +was a terrible pose of supplication—an awful eloquence of prayer. +</P> + +<P> +Van threw—and the cast fell short. +</P> + +<P> +Barger groaned. He had ceased to yell. He remained mutely holding up +his hands, while the cold abyss crept upward to his waist—the wet lips +swallowing, swallowing in silence. +</P> + +<P> +Van jerked in the rope with one impatient gesture. He coiled it +swiftly, but with nicety. Then round and round he swung the gaping +loop—and threw with all his strength. +</P> + +<P> +For a second the loop hung snake-like in the air, above the convict's +head. Then it fell about him, splashed the curdled sand, and was +pulled up taut, embracing Barger's waist. +</P> + +<P> +"Hoist it up under your arms!" called Van. "Try to move your legs when +I pull!" +</P> + +<P> +He wasted no time in attempting to haul the convict out himself. He +led his pony quickly to the edge, took two half hitches of the rope +about the pommel of the saddle, then shouted once more to his man. +</P> + +<P> +"Ready, Barger. Try to kick your feet." To the horse he said: "Now, +Suvy, a strong, steady pull." And taking the pony's bit in hand he +urged him slowly forward, +</P> + +<P> +It was wonderful, the comprehension in the broncho's mind. But the +pull was an awful thing. The rope came taut—and began to be strained, +and Suvy was sweating as he labored. Out on the end of it, bitten by +the loop, that slipped ever tighter about him, the human figure was +bent over sharply, between the two contending forces. +</P> + +<P> +He let out one yell, for the pain about his chest—then made no further +sound. The rawhide rope was like a fiddle-string. It seemed absurd +that an anchor so small, so limber, in the sand, could hold so hard +against the horse. Van urged a greater strain. He knew that the rope +would hold. He did not know how much the man could bear before +something awful might occur. There was nothing else to do. +</P> + +<P> +It seemed a time interminable. No one made a sound. The queer, +distorted figure out in the stream could have uttered no sound to save +his life. The silence was beginning to be hideous. +</P> + +<P> +Then an inch of the rope came landward, as the broncho strained upon +it. The anchor had started from its hold. +</P> + +<P> +"Now! now!" said Van, and with quick, skillful urging he caught at the +slight advantage. +</P> + +<P> +Like an old, half-buried pile, reluctant to budge from its bed in sand +and ooze, the human form was slowly dragged from the place. No corpse, +rudely snatched from its grave, could have been more helplessly +inert—more stretched out of all living semblance to a man. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-292"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-292.jpg" ALT="No corpse snatched from its grave could have been more helplessly inert." BORDER="2" WIDTH="385" HEIGHT="498"> +<H4> +[Illustration: No corpse snatched from its grave could have been more +helplessly inert.] +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +Across the firmer sand, and through a lagoon of water, Barger was +hurriedly drawn. The pony was halted when the man was at the bank, and +back to the convict Van went running, to loosen the bite of the noose. +</P> + +<P> +Barger lay prostrate on the earth, his eyes dully blinking in the sun. +His feet were bare. They had slipped from his boots, which were buried +beyond in the sand. His face had taken on a hue of death. From hair +to his ankles he was shockingly emaciated—a gaunt, wasted figure, +motionless as clay. +</P> + +<P> +Van fetched a pint of water in his hat. He sprinkled it roughly in the +convict's face, and, propping up his head, helped him to take a drink. +</P> + +<P> +Barger could not lift a hand, or utter a word. Van recoiled the rope, +secured it on the saddle, then sat down to await the man's recovery. +It was slow. Barger's speech was the first returning function. It was +faint, and weak, and blasphemous. +</P> + +<P> +"It's hell," he said, "when God Almighty turns agin a man. Ain't the +sheriff's enough—<I>without a thing like that</I>?" His thumb made a +gesture towards the river, which he cursed abominably—cursing it for a +trap, a seeming benefit, here in the desert, ready to eat a man alive. +</P> + +<P> +Van made no reply. He rather felt the man was justified—at least in +some opinions. Towards Barger he felt no anger, but rather a pity +instead. +</P> + +<P> +After a time the convict moved sufficiently to prop himself up against +the bank. He looked at Van dully. This was the man who had "sent him +up"—and saved him from the sand. There was much that lay between +them, much that must always lie. He had no issues to dodge. There was +nothing cowardly in Barger, despite his ways. +</P> + +<P> +"I nearly got you, up yonder," he said, and he jerked his thumb towards +the mountains, to indicate the pass where he and Van had met an hour +before. +</P> + +<P> +Van nodded. "You sure did. Who told you to look for me here?" +</P> + +<P> +Barger closed his eyes. "Nothing doing." He could not have been +forced to tell. +</P> + +<P> +Van smiled. "That's all right." There was no resentment in the tone. +</P> + +<P> +Barger looked at him curiously. +</P> + +<P> +"What for did you pull me out?" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't know," Van confessed. "Perhaps I hated to have the quicksand +cheat the pen." +</P> + +<P> +"Must have had some good reason," agreed the prostrate man. He was +silent for a moment, and then he added: "I s'pose I'm your meat." +</P> + +<P> +As before, Van nodded: "I reckon you are." +</P> + +<P> +Barger spat. It was his first vigorous indication of returning +strength. +</P> + +<P> +"Someways," he said, "I'd rather you'd shoot me here, right now, than +send me back to the pen. But I couldn't stand fer that!" He made his +characteristic gesture towards the river. As Van made no comment the +fellow concluded: "I s'pose you need the reward." +</P> + +<P> +Van was aware there was ten thousand dollars as a price on the +convict's head, a fact which he someway resented. To-day, more than at +any time within his life, he felt out of sympathy with law—with man's +law, made against man. +</P> + +<P> +He began to pull off his boots. +</P> + +<P> +"No," he said, "I don't want any State's reward, much less express +company money. Maybe if it wasn't for those rewards I'd take you into +camp." He inverted his boots and shook out a few grains of sand. +</P> + +<P> +Barger glanced at him suspiciously. +</P> + +<P> +"What are you goin' to do with me, then, now you've got me to rights?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing," said Van, "nothing this afternoon." He stood up. "You and +I break even, Barger, understand? Don't take me wrong. I'm not +turning you loose entirely. You belong to me. Whenever I call for the +joker, Matt, I want you to come." +</P> + +<P> +He would never call, and he knew it. He merely left the matter thus to +establish a species of ownership that Barger must acknowledge. There +is law of the State, and law of God, and law of man to man. The latter +it was that concerned Van Buren now, and upon it he was acting. +</P> + +<P> +Laboriously, weakly, Barger arose to his feet. He looked at Van +peculiarly, with a strange light dully firing in his eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"I agree to that," he answered slowly. "I agree to that." +</P> + +<P> +He put out his hand to shake—to bind his agreement. It was almost +like offering his oath. +</P> + +<P> +Van took it, and gave it his usual grip. +</P> + +<P> +"So long, Barger," he said. "I reckon you need these boots." +</P> + +<P> +He waved his hand loosely at the boots that lay upon the ground, went +at once to his horse, and mounted to his seat. +</P> + +<P> +"The regular ford of this river's down below," he added to the +speechless convict, standing there gaunt and wondering upon the marge. +"So long." +</P> + +<P> +Barger said nothing. Van rode away on the trail by the stream, and was +presently gone, around the bend. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap36"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXXVI +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +VAN RUNS AMUCK +</H3> + +<P> +Instead of turning northward in the mountain range and riding on to the +"Laughing Water" claim, Van continued straight ahead to Goldite. The +letter to Beth was heavy in his pocket. Until he should rid himself of +its burden he knew he should have no peace—no freedom to act for +himself. +</P> + +<P> +He had been delayed. The sun was setting when at last he rode his +broncho to the hay-yard in the camp, and saw that he was fed with +proper care. Then he got some boots and walked to Mrs. Dick's. +</P> + +<P> +Beth, from her window, looking towards the sun, discovered him coming +to the place. She had never in her life felt so wildly joyous at +beholding any being of the earth. She had watched for hours, counting +his steps across the desert's desolation one by one, tracing his course +from Starlight "home" by all the signs along the trail which she and he +had traveled together. +</P> + +<P> +She ran downstairs like a child. She had momentarily forgotten even +Glen. Nothing counted but this sight of Van—his presence here with +herself. When she suddenly burst from the door into all the golden +glory of the sunset, herself as glorious with color, warmth, and youth +as the great day-orb in the west, Van felt his heart give one +tumultuous heave in his breast, despite the resentment he harbored. +</P> + +<P> +There had never been a moment when her smile had been so radiant, when +the brown of her eyes had been so softly lighted and glowing, when her +cheeks had so mirrored her beauty. +</P> + +<P> +How superb she was, he said to himself—how splendid was her acting! +He could almost forgive himself for having played the fool. His +helplessness, his defenselessness had been warranted. But—her smile +could befuddle him no more. He took off his hat, with a certain cold +elegance of grace. His face still wore that chiseled appearance of +stone-like hardness. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" she cried, in her irrepressible happiness of heart. "You're +home! You're safe! I'm glad!" +</P> + +<P> +It was nothing, her cry that he was safe. She had worried only for the +desert's customary perils, but this he could not know. He thought she +referred to a possible meeting with Barger. He was almost swept from +his balance by her look, for a bright bit of moisture had sprung in her +eyes and her smile took on a tenderness that all but conquered him anew. +</P> + +<P> +"I delivered your letter in Starlight," he said. "I return your +brother's reply." +</P> + +<P> +He had taken the letter from his pocket. He held it forth. +</P> + +<P> +She took it. If memories of Glen started rushingly upon her, they were +halted by something she felt in the air, something in the cold, set +speech of the man she loved as never she had thought to love a creature +of the earth. She made no reply, but stood looking peculiarly upon +him, a question written plainly in her glance. +</P> + +<P> +"If there is nothing more," he added, "permit me to wish you good-day." +He swept off his hat as he had before, turned promptly on his heel, and +departed the scene forthwith. +</P> + +<P> +She tried to cry out, to ask him what it meant, but the thing had come +like a blow. It had not been what he had said, so much as the manner +of its saying—not so much what she had heard as what her heart had +felt. A deluge of ice water, suddenly thrown upon her, could scarcely +have chilled or shocked her more than the coldness that had bristled +from his being. +</P> + +<P> +Wholly at a loss to understand, she leaned in sudden weakness against +the frame of the door, and watched him disappearing. Her smile was +gone. In its place a dumb, white look of pain and bewilderment had +frozen on her face. Had not that something, akin to anger, which her +nature had felt to be emanating from him remained so potently to +oppress her, she could almost have thought the thing a joke—some +freakish mood of playfulness after all the other moods he had shown. +But no such thought was possible. The glitter in his eyes had been +unmistakable. Then, what could it mean? +</P> + +<P> +She almost cried, as she stood there and saw him vanish. She had +counted so much upon this moment. She had prayed for his coming safely +back from the desert. She had so utterly unbound the fetters from her +love. Confession of it all had been ready in her heart, her eyes, and +on her lips. Reaction smote her a dulling blow. Her whole impulsive +nature crept back upon itself, abashed—like something discarded, flung +at her feet ingloriously. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh—Van!" she finally cried, in a weak, hurt utterance, and back along +the darkening hall she went, her hand with Glen's crushed letter +pressed hard upon her breast. +</P> + +<P> +Van, for his part, far more torn than he could have believed possible, +proceeded down the street in such a daze as a drunken man might +experience, emerging from liquor's false delights to life's cold, +merciless facts. The camp was more emptied than he had ever known it +since first it was discovered. Only a handful of the reservation +stragglers had returned. The darkness would pour them in by hundreds. +</P> + +<P> +Half way down the thoroughfare Van paused to remember what it was his +body wanted. It was food. He started again, and was passing the bank +when someone called from within. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello, there—Van!" came the cry. "Hello! Come in!" +</P> + +<P> +Van obeyed mechanically. The cashier, Rickart, it was who had shouted +the summons—a little, gray-eyed, thin-faced man, with a very long +moustache. +</P> + +<P> +"How are you, Rick?" said the horseman familiarly. "What's going on?" +</P> + +<P> +"Haven't <I>you</I> heard?—<I>you</I>?" interrogated Rickart. "I thought it was +funny you were loafing along so leisurely. Didn't you know to-day was +the day for the rush?" +</P> + +<P> +"I did," said Van. "What about it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not much," his friend replied, "except your claim has been jumped by +McCoppet and one J. Searle Bostwick, who got on to the fact that the +reservation line included all your ground." +</P> + +<P> +Van looked his incredulity. +</P> + +<P> +"What's the joke?" he said. "I bite. What's the answer?" +</P> + +<P> +"Joke?" the cashier echoed. "Joke? They had the line surveyed +through, yesterday, and Lawrence confirmed their tip. Your claim, I +tell you, was on reservation ground, and McCoppet had his crowd on deck +at six o'clock this morning. They staked it out, according to law, as +the first men on the job after the Government threw it open—and there +they are." +</P> + +<P> +Van leaned against the counter carelessly, and looked at his friend +unmoved. +</P> + +<P> +"Who told you the story?" he inquired. "Who brought it into camp?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why a dozen men—all mad to think they never got on," said Rickart, +not without heat. "It's an outrage, Van! You might have fought them +off if you'd been on deck, and made the location yourself! Where have +you been?" +</P> + +<P> +Van smiled. The neatness of the whole arrangement began to be +presented to his mind. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I was out of the way all right," he said. "My friends took care +of that." +</P> + +<P> +"I thought there was something in the wind, all along," imparted the +little cashier. "Bostwick and McCoppet have been thicker than thieves +for a week. But the money they needed wasn't Bostwick's. I wired to +New York to get his standing—and he's got about as much as a pin. But +the girl stood in, you bet! She's got enough—and dug up thirty +thousand bucks to handle the crowd's expenses." +</P> + +<P> +Van straightened up slowly. +</P> + +<P> +"The girl?" +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Kent—engaged to Bostwick—you ought to know," replied the man +behind the counter. "She's put up the dough and I guess she's in the +game, for she turned it all over like a man." +</P> + +<P> +Van laughed, suddenly, almost terribly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, hell, Rick, come out and git a drink!" he said. "Here," as he +noted a bottle in the desk, "give me some of that!" +</P> + +<P> +Rickart gave him the bottle and a glass. He poured a stiff amber +draught and raised it on high, a wild, fevered look in his eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Here's to the gods of law and order!" he said. "Here's to faith, +hope, and charity. Here's to friendship, honor, and loyalty. Here's +to the gallant little minority that love their neighbors as themselves. +Give me perfidy or give me death! Hurray for treason, strategy, and +spoils!" +</P> + +<P> +He drank the liquid fire at one reckless gulp, and laughing again, in +ghastly humor, lurched suddenly out at the open door and across to the +nearest saloon. +</P> + +<P> +Rickart, in sudden apprehension for the "boy" he genuinely loved, +called out to him shrilly, but in vain. Then he scurried to the +telephone, rang up the office of the sheriff, and presently had a +deputy on the wire. +</P> + +<P> +"Say, friend," he called, "if Bostwick or McCoppet should return to +camp to-night, warn them to keep off the street. Van Buren's in, and I +don't want the boy to mix himself in trouble." +</P> + +<P> +"All right," came the answer, "I'm on." +</P> + +<P> +In less than an hour the town was "on." Men returning by the scores +and dozens, nineteen out of every twenty exhausted, angered with +disappointment, and clamorous for refreshments, filled the streets, +saloons, and eating houses, all of them talking of the "Laughing Water" +claim, and all of them ready to sympathize with Van—especially at his +expense. +</P> + +<P> +His night was a mixture of wildness, outflamings of satire on the +virtues, witty defiance of the fates, and recklessness of everything +save reference to women. Not a word escaped his lips whereby his +keenest, most delighted listener could have probed to the heart of his +mood. To the loss of his claim was attributed all his pyrotechnics, +and no one, unless it was Rickart, was aware of the old proverbial +"woman in the case," who had planted the sting that stung. +</P> + +<P> +Rickart, like a worried animal, following the footsteps of his master, +sought vainly all night to head Van off and quiet him down in bed. At +two in the morning, at McCoppet's gambling hall, where Van perhaps +expected to encounter the jumpers of his claim, the little cashier +succeeded at last in commanding Van's attention. Van had a glass of +stuff in his hand—stuff too strong to be scathed by all the pure food +enactments in the world. +</P> + +<P> +"Look here, boy," said Rickart, clutching the horseman's wrist in his +hand, "do you know that Gettysburg, and Nap, and Dave are camping on +the desert, waiting for you to come home?" +</P> + +<P> +Van looked at him steadily. He was far from being dizzied in his +brain. Since the blow received at the hands of Beth had not sufficed +to make him utterly witless, then nothing drinkable could overcome his +reason. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Home</I>?" he said. "Waiting for me to come <I>home</I>." +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly wrenching his hand from Rickart's grip he hurled the glass of +liquor with all his might against the mirror of the bar. The crash +rose high above the din of human voices. A radiating star was abruptly +created in the firmament of glass, and Van was starting for the door. +</P> + +<P> +The barkeeper scarcely turned his head. He was serving half a dozen +men, and he said: "Gents, what's your poison?" +</P> + +<P> +A crowd of half-intoxicated revelers started for Van and attempted to +haul him back. He flung them off like a lot of pestiferous puppies, +and cleared the door. +</P> + +<P> +He went straight to the hay-yard, saddled his horse, and headed up over +the mountains. He had eaten no dinner; he wanted none. The fresh, +clean air began its work of restoration. +</P> + +<P> +It was daylight when he reached the camp his partners had made on the +desert. Napoleon and Gettysburg were drunk. Discouraged by his long +delay, homeless, and utterly disheartened, they had readily succumbed +to the conveniently bottled sympathy of friends. +</P> + +<P> +No sooner had the horseman alighted at the camp than Napoleon flung +himself upon him. He was weeping. +</P> + +<P> +"What did I sh-sh-sh-sh-(whistle) shay?" he interrogated brokenly, +"home from a foreign—quoth the r-r-r-r-r-(whistle) raven—NEVER MORE!" +</P> + +<P> +Gettysburg waxed apologetic, as he held his glass eye in his hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Didn't mean to git in thish condition, Van—didn't go to do it," he +imparted confidentially. "Serpent that lurks in the glash." +</P> + +<P> +Van resumed his paternal rôle with a meed of ready forgiveness. +</P> + +<P> +"Let him who hath an untainted breath cast the first bottle," he said. +Even old Dave, thought sober, was disqualified, and Algy was asleep. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap37"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXXVII +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE PRIMITIVE LAW +</H3> + +<P> +Bostwick and McCoppet had made ample provision against attack at the +claim. Their miners, who set to work at once to enlarge the facilities +for extracting the gold from the ground, were gun-fighters first and +toilers afterward. The place was guarded night and day, visitors being +ordered off with a strictness exceptionally rigid. +</P> + +<P> +Van and his partners were down and out. They had saved almost nothing +of the gold extracted from the sand, since the bulk of their treasure +had fallen, by "right of law" into the hands of the jumpers. +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick avoided Van as he would a plague. There was never a day or +night that fear did not possess him, when he thought of a possible +encounter; yet Van had planned no deed of violence and could not have +told what the results would be should he and Bostwick meet. +</P> + +<P> +In his customary way of vigor, the horseman had begun a semi-legal +inquiry the first day succeeding the rush. He interviewed Lawrence, +the Government representative, since Culver's removal from the scene. +Lawrence was prepared for the visit. He expressed his regrets at the +flight Van's fortunes had taken. Bostwick had come, he said, with +authority from Washington, ordering the new survey. No expectation had +been entertained, he was sure, that the old, "somewhat imaginary" and +"decidedly vague" reservation line would be disturbed, or that any +notable properties would be involved. Naturally, after the line was +run, establishing the inclusion of the "Laughing Water" claim, and much +other ground, in the reservation tract, Mr. Bostwick had been justified +in summary action. It was the law of human kind to reach for all +coveted things. +</P> + +<P> +Van listened in patience to the exposition of the case. He studied the +maps and data as he might have studied the laws of Confucius written in +their native tongue. The thing looked convincing. It was not at all +incredible or unique. It bore Government sanction, if not its +trademark. And granting that the reservation tract did actually extend +so far as to lap across the "Laughing Water" claim, the right of an +entrant to locate the ground and oust all previous trespassers after +the legal opening was undeniable. +</P> + +<P> +Much of the natural fighting spirit, welded by nature into Van's being, +had been sickened into inactivity by the blow succeeding blow received +at the hands of Beth Kent. The case against her was complete. +</P> + +<P> +Her letter to her brother was sufficient in itself. The need for its +delivery in person to her brother he thought undoubtedly a ruse to get +himself out of the way. If she had not planned with the others to warn +the convict, Barger, of his trip, she had certainly loaned her money to +Bostwick for his needs—and her letter contained the threat, "I will +repay!" +</P> + +<P> +At the end of three days of dulling disgust and helplessness, Van and +his "family" were camping in a tent above the town of Goldite, on a +hill. They were all but penniless: they had no occupation, no hope. +They were down once more at the ladder's bottom rung, depleted in +spirit, less young than formerly, and with no idea of which way to turn. +</P> + +<P> +Van meant to fight, if the slightest excuse could be discovered. His +partners would back him, with their lives. But he and they, as they +looked their prospects fairly in the face, found themselves utterly +disarmed. Except for the credit, extended by friends of Van, +starvation might have lurked about their tent. All delayed seeking for +outside work while the prospect of putting up a fight to regain their +property held forth a dim glimmer of hope. +</P> + +<P> +The last of Van's money went to meet a debt—such a debt as he would +not disregard. The account was rendered by a cutter of stone, who had +carved upon a marble post the single legend: +</P> + +<P ALIGN="center"> +QUEENIE. +</P> + +<P> +This post was planted where a small earth mound was raised upon the +hill—and word of the tribute went the rounds of the camp, where +everyone else had forgotten. +</P> + +<P> +The town's excitement concerning the rush had subsided with greater +alacrity as reports came back, in rapid procession—no gold on the +reservation. The normal excitements of the mining field resumed where +the men had left them off. News that Matt Barger was not only still at +large, but preying on wayside travelers, aroused new demands for the +sheriff's demonstrations of his fitness to survive. The fact was +recalled that Cayuse, the half-breed murderer of Culver, was as yet +unreported from the hills. +</P> + +<P> +The sheriff, who had ridden day and night, in quest of either of the +"wanted" men, came back to Goldite from a week's excursion, packed full +of hardships, vigilance, and work, to renew his force and make another +attempt. He offered a job to Van. +</P> + +<P> +"There's ten thousand dollars in Barger," he said. "And I guess you +could use the money. There's nothing but glory in gittin' Cayuse, but +I'll give you your pick of the pair." +</P> + +<P> +That some half-formed notion of procuring a secret survey of the +reservation line, in his own behalf, had occupied Van's thoughts +somewhat insistently, was quite to be expected. That the work would +prove expensive was a matter of course. Money was the one particular +thing of which he stood in need. Nevertheless, at the sheriff's +suggestion he calmly shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"Thanks, old man. Blood-money wouldn't circulate worth a whoop in my +system. But I think I could land Cayuse." He held no grudge against +Culver now. Perhaps he regretted the fuss he had made on the day of +Culver's death. "I'll take ten dollars a day," he added, "and see what +I can do about the Indian." +</P> + +<P> +"I knew it! I knew you'd do more than all the gang—myself in the +count," the sheriff exclaimed in profound relief. "I'm beat! I own +it! I ain't seen a trace of that black-headed devil since I started. +If you'll fetch him in——" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't promise more than ten dollars a day," Van interrupted. "If you +do you can get him yourself. I haven't said I'll fetch him in. I +merely said perhaps I could get him." +</P> + +<P> +"All right," said the sheriff, bewildered. "All right. I don't care +what happens, if you git him." +</P> + +<P> +Glad, perhaps, to escape the town—to flee from the air that Beth was +breathing, Van rode off that afternoon. +</P> + +<P> +He did not seek the Indian murderer, nor for traces of his place of +concealment. He went due west, to the nearest Indian camp, on the now +diminished reservation. He called upon a wise and grave Piute, as old +as some of the hills. +</P> + +<P> +"Captain Sides," he said, when the due formalities of greeting had been +gratified, "I want you to get Cayuse. He stabbed a white man, Culver, +Government man—and you Piutes know all about it. Indians know where +an Indian hides. This man has broken the law. He's got to pay. I +want your men to get him." +</P> + +<P> +Old Captain Sides was standing before his house. He was tall and +dignified. +</P> + +<P> +"Yesh—he's broke the law," he agreed. "Mebbe my boys, they's get him." +</P> + +<A NAME="img-310"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-310.jpg" ALT=""Yesh—he's broke the law."" BORDER="2" WIDTH="346" HEIGHT="453"> +<H4> +[Illustration: "Yesh—he's broke the law."] +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +That was all, but a strange thing happened. On the following night +four grim Piutes brought Cayuse from his mountain retreat. They were +all his kinsmen, uncles, brothers, and cousins. He was taken to a +council in the brush, a family council with Captain Sides as Chieftain, +Magistrate, and father of the tribe. And a solemn procedure followed. +Cayuse was formally charged with infraction of the law and asked for +his defense. He had no defense—nothing but justification. He +admitted the killing, and told of why it had been done. He had taken +an eye for an eye. +</P> + +<P> +"I have broken the white man's law," he said. "The white man first +broke mine. I'm ready to pay. The Indian stands no show to get away. +I broke the law, and I am glad. They want my life. That's all right. +That's the law. But I don't want the white man to hang me. That ain't +good Indian way. My people can satisfy this law. They can shoot me +like a man. No white is going to hang Cayuse, and that's all I've got +to say." +</P> + +<P> +To an Anglo Saxon mind this attitude is not to be readily comprehended. +To the Indian members of Cayuse's clan it addressed itself as wisdom, +logic, and right. The council agreed to his demands. The case, +historical, but perhaps not unique, has never been widely known. +</P> + +<P> +As solemnly as doom itself, the council proceeded with its task. Some +manner of balloting was adopted, and immediate members of the Cayuse +totem drew lots as to which must perform the lawful deed. It fell to a +brother of the prisoner—a half-brother only, to be accurate, since the +doomed man's father had been white. +</P> + +<P> +Together Cayuse and this kinsman departed from the camp, walking forth +through the darkness in the brush. They chatted in all pleasantness, +upon the way. Cayuse could have broken and run. He never for a moment +so much as entertained the thought. +</P> + +<P> +They came to a place appropriate, and, still in all friendliness, +backed by a sense of justice and of doom, the guiltless brother shot +the half-breed dead—and the chapter, with the Indians, was concluded. +</P> + +<P> +Van was gone three days from Goldite camp. He returned and reported +all that had been done. He had seen the executed man. An even thirty +dollars he accepted for his time, and with it bought food for his +partners. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap38"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXXVIII +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +BETH MAKES DEMANDS +</H3> + +<P> +Beth Kent, while the camp was writing its feverish annals, had +undergone emotions in the whole varied order of the gamut. She had +felt herself utterly deserted and utterly unhappy. She had hoped +against hope that Van would come, that something might explain away his +behavior, that she herself might have an opportunity of ascertaining +what had occurred. +</P> + +<P> +One clew only was vouchsafed her puzzling mind: Searle had actually +gone to Glen at last, had been there at the hour of Van's arrival, and +had written Glen's letter to herself. Some encounter between the men +had doubtless transpired, she thought, and Van had been poisoned +against her. What else could it mean, his coldness, his abrupt +departure, after all that had been, and his stubborn silence since? +</P> + +<P> +The letter from Glen had been wholly unsatisfactory. Bostwick had +written it, he said, at Glen's dictation. It echoed the phrases that +Searle himself had employed so persistently, many of them grossly +mendacious, as Beth was sufficiently aware. Her effort had been +futile, after all. She was not at all certain as to Glen's condition; +she was wholly in the dark in all directions. +</P> + +<P> +On the day succeeding the reservation rush she received the news at +Mrs. Dick's, not only that Van had lost his claim, and that McCoppet +and Searle were its latest owners, but also that Van had run amuck that +night after leaving herself. +</P> + +<P> +Some vague, half-terrifying intuition that Searle was engaged in a +lawless, retaliatory enterprise crept athwart her mind and rendered her +intensely uneasy. Her own considerable sum of money might even be +involved in—she could not fathom what. Something that lay behind it +all must doubtless explain Van's extraordinary change. It was +maddening; she felt there must be <I>something</I> she could do—there +<I>must</I> be something! She was not content to wait in utter helplessness +for anything more to happen—anything more that served to wreck human +happiness, if not very life itself! +</P> + +<P> +She felt, moreover, she had a right to know what it was affecting Van. +He had come unbidden into her life. He had swept her away with his +riotous love. He had taught her new, almost frightening joys of +existence. He had drawn upon her very soul—kissing into being a +nature demanding love for love. He had taken her all for himself, +despite her real resistance. She could not cease to love so quickly as +he. She had rights, acquired in surrender—at least the right to know +what evil thing had wrought its way upon him. +</P> + +<P> +But fret as she might, and burn as she might, with impatience, +love-created anger and resentment of some infamy, doubtless practiced +on them both, there was nothing in the world she could do. +</P> + +<P> +She wrote again to Glen and had the letter posted in the mail. She +asked for information. Was he better? Could he come to Goldite soon? +Had he met Mr. Van? Had he understood that confession in her letter? +Had he really purchased a mine, with Searle, or had he, by some strange +mischance, concerned himself with the others in taking the "Laughing +Water" claim? +</P> + +<P> +She explained that she was wholly in the dark, that worry was her only +companion. She begged him to come, if traveling were possible, and +told of her effort to see him. +</P> + +<P> +That Bostwick had opened and read her letter to Glen, suppressing that +final page, together with sundry questions and references to himself, +she could never have dreamed. It is ignorance always that baffles, as +we grope our way in the world. And Beth had not yet entirely lost all +trust in Bostwick himself. +</P> + +<P> +Searle, in the meantime, having gone straight to the "Laughing Water" +claim from Glenmore Kent, had remained three days away from Goldite and +had taken no time to write. When he came at last the girl's suspicions +were thoroughly aroused. That the man was a dangerous trickster, a +liar, and perhaps a scoundrel she was rapidly becoming convinced. +</P> + +<P> +He arrived at the house in the late afternoon while Mrs. Dick and Beth +were engaged together in the dining-room, sewing at a quilt. The +meeting was therefore a quiet one and Beth escaped any lover-like +demonstrations he might otherwise have made. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Dick, in her frank dislike of Bostwick, finally carried her work +upstairs. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, well, sweetheart!" Bostwick exclaimed. "You must have heard the +news, of course. I expect your congratulations!" +</P> + +<P> +He rose and approached her eagerly. She was standing. She moved a +chair and placed herself behind it. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose you mean the claim you've—taken," she said. "You're elated +over that?" +</P> + +<P> +"Good Lord! aren't you?" he answered. "It's the biggest thing I've +ever done! It's worth a million, maybe more—that 'Laughing Water' +claim! And to think that Van Buren, the romantic fool, putting marble +slabs on the graves of the <I>demi-monde</I>, and riding about like a big +tin toreador, should have bought a property on reservation ground, and +lost it, gold and all!" +</P> + +<P> +His relish in the triumph was fairly unctuous. His jaw seemed to +oscillate in oil as he mouthed his contempt of the horseman. +</P> + +<P> +Beth flamed with resentment. Her love for Van increased despite her +judgment, despite her wish, as she heard him thus assailed. She knew +he had placed a stone on Queenie's grave. She admired the fearless +friendliness of the action—the token whereby he had linked the +unfortunate girl in death to the human family from which she had +severed herself in life. +</P> + +<P> +Not to be goaded to indiscretion now she sat down as before with her +work. +</P> + +<P> +"And the money—yours and mine—did it go to assist in this unexpected +enterprise, and not to buy a claim with Glen?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly. No—no—not all of it—certainly not," he stammered, +caught for a moment off his guard. "Some of my funds I used, of +course, in necessary ways. Don't you worry about your thirty thousand. +You'll get it back a hundredfold, from your interest in the claim." +</P> + +<P> +She glanced up suddenly, startled by what he had said. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>My</I> interest in the claim?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly, your interest. You didn't suppose I'd freeze you out, my +little woman—my little wife—to be? You are one of the company, of +course. You'll be a director later on—and we'll clean up a fortune in +a year!" +</P> + +<P> +She was exceedingly pale. What wonder Van had a grievance! He had +doubtless heard it all before he came that night to deliver Glen's +letter from Starlight. He might even have thought she had sent him to +Glen to got him away from his claim. +</P> + +<P> +A thousand thoughts, that seemed to scorch like fire, went rocketing +through her brain. The thing was too much to be understood at once—it +went too deep—it involved such possibilities. She must try to hold +herself in check—try to be clever with this man. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," she said, dropping her eyes to her work, "and Glen is in it too?" +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick was nervous. He sat down. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, yes—to some extent—a little slice of mine," he faltered. +"Naturally he has less than I've given to you." +</P> + +<P> +"But—didn't he discover the opportunity—the chance?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly not!" he declared vehemently. "It's all my +doing—everything! Wholly my idea from the start!" The impulse to +boast, to vaunt his cleverness, was not to be resisted. "I told Van +Buren the game had only begun! He thought himself so clever!" +</P> + +<P> +She clung to her point. +</P> + +<P> +"But—of course you told me Glen had found the chance, requiring sixty +thousand dollars." +</P> + +<P> +"That was a different proposition—nothing to do with this. I've +dropped that game entirely. This is big enough for us all!" +</P> + +<P> +She looked the picture of unsophisticated innocence, sewing at a gaudy +square of cloth. +</P> + +<P> +"Did this affair also require the expenditure of sixty thousand +dollars?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, of course not. Didn't I say so before?" +</P> + +<P> +"How much did it need—if I may ask?" +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick colored. He could not escape. He dared not even hint at the +sum he had employed. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, just the bare expenses of the survey—nothing much." +</P> + +<P> +"Then," she said, "if you don't mind returning my thirty thousand +dollars, I think I'll relinquish my share." +</P> + +<P> +He rose hurriedly. +</P> + +<P> +"But I—but you—it won't be possible—just yet," he stammered. "This +is perfectly absurd! I want you in—want you to retain your interest. +There are certain development expenses—and—they can't be handled +without considerable money." +</P> + +<P> +"Why not use your own? I much prefer to withdraw." She said it +calmly, and looked him in the eye. +</P> + +<P> +He avoided her glance, and paced up and down the room. +</P> + +<P> +"It can't be done!" he said. "I've pledged my support—our support—to +get the claim on its feet." +</P> + +<P> +She grew calmer and colder. +</P> + +<P> +"Wasn't the claim already on its feet. I heard it was paying +well—that quite a lot of gold was seized when—when you and the others +took the place." +</P> + +<P> +His impatience and uneasiness increased. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, it was being worked—in a pickyune, primitive fashion. We're +going at it right!" +</P> + +<P> +The color came and went in her face. She felt that the man had +employed her money, and could not repay it if he would. She pushed the +point. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course, you'll remember I gave you the money to assist my brother +Glen. It was not to help secure or develop this other property. I +much prefer not to invest my money this way. I shall have to request +its return." +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick was white. +</P> + +<P> +"Look here, Beth, is this some maudlin sentiment over that brigand, Van +Buren? Is that what you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +She rose once more and confronted him angrily. It was not a mere girl, +but a strong and resolute woman he was facing. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Bostwick," she said, "you haven't yet acquired the right to demand +such a thing as that of me. For reasons of my own, maudlin or +otherwise, I refuse to have my funds employed in the manner you say you +mean to use them. I insist upon the immediate return to me of thirty +thousand dollars." +</P> + +<P> +If rage at Van Buren consumed his blood, Bostwick's fear was a greater +emotion. Before him he could plainly discern the abject failure of his +plans—the plan to marry this beautiful girl, the plan to go on with +McCoppet and snatch a fortune from the earth. It was not a time for +defiance. He must fence. He must yield as far as possible—till the +claim should make him independent. Of the tirade on his tongue against +Van Buren he dared not utter a word. His own affairs of love would +serve no better. +</P> + +<P> +He summoned a smile to his ghastly lips and attempted to assume a calm +demeanor. +</P> + +<P> +"Very well," he said. "If that is the way you feel about your money, I +will pay you back at once." +</P> + +<P> +"If you please," she said. "To-day." +</P> + +<P> +"But—the bank isn't open after three," he said in a species of panic. +"You can't be utterly unreasonable." +</P> + +<P> +"It was open much later when we were wiring New York some time ago," +she reminded him coldly. "I think you'll find it open to-night till +nine." +</P> + +<P> +"Well—perhaps I can arrange it, then," he said in desperation. "I'll +get down there now and see what I can do." +</P> + +<P> +He took his hat and, glad to escape a further inquisition, made +remarkable haste from the house. +</P> + +<P> +Trembling with excitement, quivering on the verge of half-discovered +things, flashes of intuition, fragments of deduction, Beth waited an +hour for developments. +</P> + +<P> +Searle did not return. She had felt he would not. She was certain her +money was gone. +</P> + +<P> +At dusk a messenger boy arrived with the briefest note, in Bostwick's +familiar hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Sudden, urgent call to the claim. No time for business. Back as soon +as possible. With love and faith, yours, SEARLE." +</P> + +<P> +How she loathed his miserable lie! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap39"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXXIX +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +ALGY'S COOKING AND BETH'S DESPAIR +</H3> + +<P> +Van and the new supply of provender arrived together at the tent where +the partners made their temporary home. It was nearly dusk, the mellow +end of a balmy day. Gettysburg, Napoleon, and Dave were all inside the +canvas, filling the small hollow cube of air with a mighty reek from +their pipes, and playing seven-up on a greasy box. The Chinese cook +was away, much to Van's surprise. +</P> + +<P> +"Gett," he said, throwing off his belt and revolver, "if Nap was to +deal the cards on your tombstone, on the day of Gabriel's trump, I'll +bet you'd break the crust and take a hand. What have you done with +Algy?" +</P> + +<P> +"He's went to git a job," said Gettysburg. "He called us all a lot of +babies. I doggone near kicked him in the lung." +</P> + +<P> +Outside, where a wagon had halted with Van's new purchases, the driver +hauled out two respectable boxes and dropped them on the earth. +</P> + +<P> +"What's that?" demanded Napoleon, leaping to his feet. "If it's +pirates come to board us again——" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't scare it away," Van interrupted warningly. "It's grub." +</P> + +<P> +With one accord the three old cronies started for the door of the tent. +Van followed, prepared to get a dinner under way, since his system was +woefully empty. +</P> + +<P> +To the utter astonishment of all, a visitor was bustling up the hill. +It was Mrs. Dick. +</P> + +<P> +"Where's Van?" she panted, while still a rod away. "Here, Van!" she +exclaimed, the moment she clapped her eyes upon him, "you're just the +one I want to see, and I'm an awful busy woman, but I've got to make a +deal with you and the sooner it's over the better. So as long as +Charlie Sing is cookin' our victuals already I just run up to fight it +out, and we might as well begin the program tonight, so all you boys +come down to dinner in just about half an hour." +</P> + +<P> +The men were all at sea, even Napoleon, who had once sailed a +near-briny river. +</P> + +<P> +"Sit down," said Van, "and give the grounds a chance to settle. We can +almost see daylight through what you said, but who, for instance, is +Charlie Sing?" +</P> + +<P> +"As if you didn't know!" Mrs. Dick responded warmly. "If you think I'm +goin' to call that Chinaman Algy, or anything white, you're way off +your ca-base! Algy! for a Chinaman! Not but what he's a good enough +cook, and I like him as a friend of yours—and him almost makin' me cry +with his tryin' to nurse you four old helpless galoots, but I draw the +line at fancy names, and don't you forget it!" +</P> + +<P> +The "four old galoots" looked at one another in bewilderment. Van led +Mrs. Dick gently but firmly to a box of provisions and pushed her down +upon it. +</P> + +<P> +"Now take a breath," he said, "and listen. Do we understand you to say +that Algy has gone to your boarding-house and taken a job as cook?" +</P> + +<P> +"He has," said Mrs. Dick, "but I've named him Charlie." +</P> + +<P> +"That'll turn his stomick," ventured Gettysburg gravely. "He was proud +of 'Algy.'" +</P> + +<P> +"He certainly must be desperate," added Van. "I don't quite savvy how +it happened." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, you don't?" said little Mrs. Dick. "Well, I <I>do</I>. He come down +there and says to me, says he, 'We're broke, Van and us,' he says, 'and +I'll go to work and cook for you if you'll board all the family,' or +words to that effect, says he, 'and give Van twenty dollars a month, +salary,' he says, and I says I'll do it, quicker than scat. And that's +all there is to say, and if Charlie wasn't a Chinaman I'd kiss him in +the bargain!" With a quick, impatient gesture she made a daub at her +eye and flecked away a jewel. +</P> + +<P> +Van hauled at his collar, which was loose enough around his neck. +</P> + +<P> +"Say, boys," he said, "think of Algy, being kissed in the bargain. I +always thought he got his face at a bargain counter." +</P> + +<P> +"That's all right, Bronson Van Buren!" answered Mrs. Dick indignantly, +"but I never come that near to kissin' you!" +</P> + +<P> +Van suddenly swooped down upon her, picked her up bodily, and kissed +her on the cheek. Then he placed her again on the box. +</P> + +<P> +"Why didn't you say what you wanted, earlier?" he said. "Now, don't +talk back. I want you to harken intently. I'm perfectly willing that +Algy should waste his sweetness on the desert air of your +boarding-house, if it pleases you and him. I'm willing these old +ring-tailed galoots should continue to eat his fascinating poisons, and +I certainly hope he'll draw his monthly wage, but I'm going to be too +busy to board in any one place, and Algy's salary would make a load I +must certainly decline to carry." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Dick looked at the horseman in utter disappointment. +</P> + +<P> +"You won't come? Maybe you mean my house ain't good enough?" +</P> + +<P> +Napoleon was somewhat excited by prospects of again beholding Elsa, of +whose absence he was wholly unaware. +</P> + +<P> +"We won't go, neither!" he declared. "Doggone you, Van, you know we +won't go without the skipper, and you're shovin' us right out of +heaven!" +</P> + +<P> +Gettysburg added: "I don't want to say nuthin', but my stomach will +sure be the seat of anarchy if it has to git cheated out of goin' down +to Mrs. Dick's." +</P> + +<P> +Van was about to reply to them all. He had paused to frame his answer +artfully, eager as he was to foster the comfort of his three old +partners, but wholly unwilling to accept from either Mrs. Dick or +Algernon the slightest hint of aid. +</P> + +<P> +"I admit that a man's reach should be above the other fellow's grasp, +and all that," he started, "but here's the point——" +</P> + +<P> +He was interrupted suddenly. A man, running breathlessly up the slope +and waving his hat in frantic gestures, began to shout as he came. +</P> + +<P> +"Mrs. Dick! Mrs. Dick!" he cried at the top of his voice. "Help! +help! You've got to come!" +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Dick leaped quickly to her feet to face the oncoming man. It was +old Billy Stitts. He had come from Beth. +</P> + +<P> +"Come on! Come on!" he cried as he neared the group, towards which he +ceased to run, the better to catch his breath and yell. "There's hell +a-poppin' in the boarding-house! You've got to come!" +</P> + +<P> +He surged up the last remaining ascent at a lively stride. +</P> + +<P> +"What's the matter? What in the world are you drivin' at?" demanded +Mrs. Dick. "Hold your tongue long enough to tell me what's the matter." +</P> + +<P> +"It's the <I>chink</I>!" exploded Billy pantingly. "They tried to run him +off the place! He's locked the kitchen and gone to throwin' out hot +water and Chinese language like a fire-engine on a drunk. And now +they're all a-packin' up to quit the house, and you won't have a +doggone boarder left, fer they won't eat Chinese chuck!" +</P> + +<P> +"What?" said Van drawlingly, "refuse to eat Algy's confections?—a +crowd like that? By all the culinary gods of Worcestershire and +mustard, they'll eat out of Algy's hand." +</P> + +<P> +He dived inside the tent, caught up his gun, and was strapping it on +before Mrs. Dick could catch her breath to utter a word of her wrath. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said Gettysburg dubiously, "I hate trouble on an empty stomach, +but——" +</P> + +<P> +"You stay in camp till you hear the dinner bell," Van interrupted. +"This game is mine and Mrs. Dick's. You'll get there in time for +dessert." +</P> + +<P> +He did not wait for Mrs. Dick. He started at a pace that none could +follow. Mrs. Dick began to run at his heels, calling instructions as +she went. +</P> + +<P> +"Be careful of the crock'ry, Van! The stove's bran'-new! I'd hate to +have you break the chairs! And don't forgit Miss Kent!" +</P> + +<P> +Old Billy Stitts had remained with the others at the camp. +</P> + +<P> +"Ain't she the female woman?" he said. "Ain't she just about it?" +</P> + +<P> +No one answered. The three old cronies were watching Van as he went. +</P> + +<P> +Van, for his part, heard nothing of what Mrs. Dick was saying, except +the name "Miss Kent." He had not forgotten for a moment that Beth was +at the seat of war, or that he would perhaps be wiser by far never to +behold her again. He was speeding there despite all he felt at what +she had done, for she might be involved in trouble at the house, +and—at least she was a woman. +</P> + +<P> +He arrived in the midst of a newly concerted plan on the part of +lodgers and strangers combined to smoke Algy out of the kitchen. They +had broken windows, overturned the furniture, and worked up a lively +humor. Algy had exhausted his supply of hot water, but not his supply +of language. It seemed as if the stream of Oriental invective being +poured through the walls of the building might have withered almost +anything extant. But Goldite whisky had failed on his besiegers +earlier and their vitals were proof against attack. +</P> + +<P> +Van arrived among them abruptly. +</P> + +<P> +"What's all this pillow-fight about?" he demanded in a voice that all +could hear. "Which one of you fellows is it that's forgotten he's a +man? Who's looking for trouble with my Chinese cook and Mrs. Dick?" +</P> + +<P> +He boded no good to any man sufficiently hardy to argue the matter to a +finish. The attackers lost heart as they faced about and found him +there ready for action. From a half-open window above the scene Beth +was watching all that was done. +</P> + +<P> +A spokesman for the lodgers found his voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, we ain't a-goin' to stay in no doggone house with a chink shoved +in fer a cook." +</P> + +<P> +Van nodded: "Have you ever tried Algy's cooking?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, we ain't! And we ain't a-goin' to, neither!" +</P> + +<P> +The others murmured their assent. +</P> + +<P> +"You're a fine discriminating cluster of bifurcated, viviparous +idiots," said Van in visibly disturbing scorn. "You fellows would have +to be grabbed by the scruff of the neck and kicked into Eden, I reckon, +even if the snake was killed and flung over the fence, and the fruit +offered up on silver platters. The man who hasn't eaten one of Algy's +dinners isn't fit to live. The man who refuses to eat one better begin +right now on his prayers." He took out his gun and waved it loosely +about, adding: "Which one of you remembers 'Now I lay me down to +sleep'?" +</P> + +<P> +There was no response. The ten or twelve disturbers of the peace were +stirring uneasily in their tracks. +</P> + +<P> +Van gave them a chance. +</P> + +<P> +"All who prefer to recite, 'Now I sit me up to eat,' please raise their +hands. Raise 'em up, raise 'em up!" he commanded with the gun. "Put +up both hands, while you're at it." +</P> + +<P> +Up went all the hands. Mrs. Dick arrived, and stood looking on and +panting in excitement. +</P> + +<P> +"Thanks for this unanimous vote," Van resumed. "I want to inform you +boarders in particular that if ever I hear of one of you missing a meal +of Algy's cooking, or playing hookey from this lodging-house, as long +as Mrs. Dick desires your inglorious company, I'll hand you forthwith +over to the pound-keeper with instructions not to waste his chloroform, +but to drown the whole litter in a bag." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, well!" said the spokesman, "I'd just as soon eat the chink's +cookin', if it's good." +</P> + +<P> +"Me, too," said a follower, meek as a lamb. A number echoed "Me, too." +One added: "We was just having a little bit of fun." +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said Van judicially, "Algy's entitled to his share." He raised +his voice: "Hey there, Algy—come out here and play with the boys." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Dick had caught sufficient breath to explode. +</P> + +<P> +"Fun!" she said. "My windows broken! My house all upset. Snakes +alive, if ever I heard——" +</P> + +<P> +Algy appeared and interrupted. +</P> + +<P> +"What's mallah you, Van?" he said. "I got no time fool lound now. +Been play too much. All time play, that velly superstich! Nobody got +time to work." +</P> + +<P> +"That's all right," Van assured him. "The boys here wish to apologize +for wasting your valuable time. In fact, they insist. Now then, boys, +down on your knees, every Jack in the crowd." +</P> + +<P> +That gun of his had a horribly loose way of waving about to cover all +the men. They slumped to, rather than knelt on, their knees. +</P> + +<P> +"Suminagot!" said Algy. "All time too muchee monkey fooling! My +dinner not git leady, Van, you savvy that? What's mallah you?" +</P> + +<P> +Van ignored the cook, in addressing the men. +</P> + +<P> +"It's your earnest desire to apologize, boys, I believe," he said. +"All in favor will please say Aye." +</P> + +<P> +The men said Aye in growlings, rumblings, and pipings. +</P> + +<P> +Van addressed his cook. "Do you want them to kiss your hand?" +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Ah</I>! Unema! hong oy!" said Algy blasphemously. "You makee me velly +sick! Just wash my hands for finish my dinner. Too much +monkey-doodle!" and off he went to his work, followed at once by Mrs. +Dick. +</P> + +<P> +"Algy's too modest," Van assured the crowd. "And none of you chaps are +fit to apologize to Mrs. Dick, so you'd better go wash up for dinner. +But don't let me hear so much as a peep about Algy from one of this +bunch, or Eden will turn into Hades." As the men arose to their feet +sheepishly, and began to slink away he added to the spokesman, "You +there with the face for pie, go up to my camp and call the boys to +feed." +</P> + +<P> +The men disappeared. Van, left alone, was turning away when his glance +was attracted to the window, up above, where Beth was looking down. +His face turned red to the topmost rim of his ears. +</P> + +<P> +The girl was pale, but resolute. +</P> + +<P> +"May I see you a moment, please?" she said, "before the men come in?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly." Van went to the front and waited at the foot of the +stairs. +</P> + +<P> +When Beth came down he was standing in the doorway, looking off at the +shadowy hills. He heard her steps upon the stairs and turned, removing +his hat. +</P> + +<P> +For a moment Beth faced him silently, her color coming and going in +rapid alternations. She had never seemed more beautiful than now, in +her mood of worry and courage. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you for waiting," she said to him faintly, her heart beating +wildly in her bosom, "I felt as if I had the right—felt it only +right—won't you please tell me what I have done?" +</P> + +<P> +It was not an easy matter for Van to hold his own, to check an impulse +utterly incontinent, utterly weak, that urged him fairly to the edge of +surrender. But his nature was one of intensity, and inasmuch as he had +loved intensely, he distrusted now with equal force. +</P> + +<P> +"What you have done?" he repeated. "I'm sure I can't tell you of +anything that you do not know yourself. What do you wish me to say?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know! I don't know," she told him honestly. "I thought if I +asked you—asked you like this—you'd tell me what is the matter." +</P> + +<P> +"There's nothing the matter." +</P> + +<P> +"But there is!" she said. "Why not be frank? I know that you're in +trouble. Perhaps you blame——" +</P> + +<P> +"I told you once that taking trouble and having trouble supply all the +fun I have," he interrupted. "The man without trouble became extinct +before he was born." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, please don't jest," she begged him earnestly. "You and I were +friends—I'm sure we were friends—but now——" +</P> + +<P> +"Now, if we are not, do you think the fault is mine?" +</P> + +<P> +He, too, was white, for the struggle was great in his soul. +</P> + +<P> +"It isn't mine!" she said. "I want to say that! I had to say that. I +stopped you—just to say that." She blushed to say so much, but she +met his stern gaze fearlessly with courage in her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +He could not understand her in the least, unless she still had more to +do, and thought to hold his friendship, perhaps for Searle's +protection. He forced himself to probe in that direction. +</P> + +<P> +"And you'd wish to go on being friends?" +</P> + +<P> +It was a hard question—hard to ask and hard to answer. She colored +anew, but she did not flinch. Her love was too vast, too strong and +elemental to shrink at a crucial moment. +</P> + +<P> +"I valued your friendship—very much," she confessed steadily. "Why +shouldn't I wish it to continue?" +</P> + +<P> +It was aggravating to have her seem so honest, so splendid, so womanly +and fine, when he thought of that line in her letter. He could not +spare himself or her in the agitation of his nature. +</P> + +<P> +"Your way and mine are different," he said. "My arts in deceit were +neglected, I'm afraid." +</P> + +<P> +Her eyes blazed more widely than before. Her color went like sunset +tints from the sky, leaving her face an ashen hue of chill. +</P> + +<P> +"Deceit?" she repeated. "You mean that I—I have deceived you? What +do you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +He could bear no more of her apparent innocence. It was breaking his +resolution down. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, we may as well be candid!" he exclaimed. "What's the use of +beating round the bush? I saw your letter—read your letter—by +mistake." +</P> + +<P> +"My letter?" +</P> + +<P> +"Your letter to your brother. Through some mistake I was given the +final page—a fragment merely—instead of your brother's reply to be +brought to you. I was asked to read it—which I did. Is that enough?" +</P> + +<P> +"My letter to—— The last——" At a sudden memory of that letter's +last page, with her heart's confession upon it, she burned a blinding +crimson. "You read——" she stammered, "—and now——" She could not +look him in the face. She leaned against the stair in sudden weakness. +</P> + +<P> +"After that," he said, "does my conduct occasion surprise?" +</P> + +<P> +What he meant, in the light of the letter as she had written it to +Glen, as she thought he must have read it, was beyond her +comprehension. She had fondly believed he loved her. He had told her +so in actions, words, and kisses. What terrible secret, deep hidden in +his breast, could possibly lie behind this thing was more than mind +could fathom. Or did he scorn and loathe her now for having succumbed +to his love? He had read her confession that she loved him more than +anything else in all the world. He knew the last faint word in her +heart—and flung her away like this! +</P> + +<P> +She cast one frightened, inquiring look at his face. It was set and +hard as stone. The light in his eyes was cold, an accusing glitter. +She felt herself utterly abashed, utterly shamed. Her heart had lain +naked before him, throbbing with its secret. His foot was upon it. +There was nothing to cover its nakedness—nothing to cover her +confusion. +</P> + +<P> +For a moment she stood there, attempting to shrink within herself. Her +attitude of pain and shame appeared to him as guilt. He felt the whole +thing poignantly—felt sorry to send his shaft so truly home, sorry to +see the effect of the blow. But, what was the use? His was the way of +plain, straightforward dealing. Better one swift wound, even unto +death, than a lingering torture for years. +</P> + +<P> +He opened his lips as if to speak. But there was nothing more to say. +He turned towards the door. +</P> + +<P> +Beth could not suppress one little cry. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" It was half a moan, half a shuddering gasp. +</P> + +<P> +With her last rally of strength she faced the stairway, and weakly +stumbled up the steps. +</P> + +<P> +A spasm of agony seized Van by the cords of his heart. He went blindly +away, with a vision in his eyes of Beth groping weakly up the stairs—a +doe with a mortal hurt. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap40"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XL +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +GLEN AND REVELATIONS +</H3> + +<P> +How she spent that night Beth never could have told. Her mind had +refused to work. Only her heart was sensible of life and emotions, for +there lay her wound, burning fiercely all the long hours through. That +Van had made excuses to his partners and disappeared on "business" was +a matter of which she received no account. +</P> + +<P> +In the morning the unexpected happened. Her brother Glen arrived in +Goldite, having driven from Starlight with a friend. He appeared at +Mrs. Dick's while Beth was still in her room, indisposed. She had +eaten no dinner. She took no breakfast. But with Glenmore's advent +she was suddenly awakened to a new excitement, almost a new sort of +hope. +</P> + +<P> +Young Kent was a smooth-faced, boyish chap, slightly stooped, +exceedingly neat, black-haired, and of medium height. He was like Beth +only in a "family" manner. His nose was a trifle large for his face, +but something in his modest, good-natured way, coupled to his earnest +delivery of slang in all his conversation, lent him a certain charm +that no one long resisted. +</P> + +<P> +He was standing in his characteristic pose, with one hand buried in his +pocket, as he laughingly explained himself to Mrs. Dick, when Beth came +running down the stairs. +</P> + +<P> +"Glen!" she cried, as she ran along the hall, and casting herself most +fervently upon him, with her arms about his neck, she had a good, +sky-clearing cry, furious and brief, and looked like a rain-wet rose +when she pushed him away and scrutinized him quickly through her tears. +</P> + +<P> +"I say, Sis, why this misplaced fountain on the job?" he said. "Do I +look as bad as that?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Glen," she said, "you've been ill! You were hurt! I've worried +so. You're well? You've entirely recovered? Oh, I'm so glad to see +you. Glen! There's so much I've got to say!" +</P> + +<P> +"Land snakes!" said Mrs. Dick. "If I don't hurry——" and off she went. +</P> + +<P> +"You're the phonograph for mine," said Glen. "What's the matter with +your eyes? Searle hasn't got you going on the lachrymals already?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, I—I'm all right," she said excitedly. "I didn't sleep well, +that's all. Do sit down. I've so many things to say, so much to ask, +I don't know where to begin. It was such a surprise, your coming like +this! And you're looking so well. You got my letter, of course?" +</P> + +<P> +Glen sat down, and Beth sat near, her hand upon his arm. They had been +more like companions than mere half-brother and sister, all their +lives. The bond of affection between them was exceptionally developed. +</P> + +<P> +"I came up on account of your letter," he said. "Either my perceptive +faculties are on the blink or there's something decaying in Denmark. +It's you for the Goddess of Liberty enlightening the unenlightened +savage. I'm from Missouri and I want you to start the ticker on the +hum." +</P> + +<P> +"You know what Searle has done?" she said. "How much do you know of +what has happened?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing. I've been retired on half knowledge for a month," said Glen. +"I haven't been treated right. I'm here to register a roar. Nobody +tells me you're in the State till I read that account in the paper. I +dope it out to Searle that I am bumping the bumps, and there is nothing +doing. He shows up at last and hands me a species of coma and leaves +me with twenty-five dollars! That's what I get. What I've been doing +is a longer story. I apologize for not having seen your friend who +brought the letter, but it's up to you to apologize for a bum epistle +to the Prodigal." +</P> + +<P> +"Wait a minute, Glen—wait a minute, please; don't go so fast," she +said, gripping tighter to his arm. "I must get this all as straight +and plain as possible. You don't mean to say that Searle really +drugged you, or something like that—what for?" +</P> + +<P> +"I want to know," said Glen. "What's the answer? Perhaps he preferred +I should not behold your Sir Cowboy Gallahad." +</P> + +<P> +"There is something going on," she said, "something dark and horrible. +How did you happen to show Mr. Van Buren—let him see the last page of +my letter?" +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't let him see anything," said Glen. "I was dopy, I tell you. +I didn't even see the letter myself. Searle sat on the bed and read it +aloud—and lit his cigar with part of it later." +</P> + +<P> +"My letter?" she said, rising abruptly, and immediately sitting down +again. "You never saw—— Searle got it—read it! Oh, the +shamelessness! Then—it must have been Searle who made the +mistake—let Mr. Van Buren see it—see what I wrote—see—— What did +he read you—read about Van—Mr. Van Buren—almost the last thing in +the letter?" +</P> + +<P> +Glen was surprised at her agitation. He glanced at her blankly. +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing," he said. "He read me nothing—as I remember—about your +friend. Was it something in particular?" +</P> + +<P> +She arose again abruptly and wrung her hands in a gesture of baffled +impatience. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I don't know what it all means!" she said. "To think of Searle +being there, and intercepting my letter!—daring to read it!—burning +it up!—reading you only a portion! Of course, he didn't read you my +suspicions concerning himself?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not on your half-tone," Glen assured her. "What's all this business, +anyway? Put me wise, Sis, I'm groping like a blind snail in the +mulligatawny." +</P> + +<P> +Beth sat down as before and leaned her chin in her palm in an attitude +of concentration. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you know what Searle has done—taking the 'Laughing Water' +claim?—Mr. Van Buren's claim?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know anything!" he told her convincingly. "I'm a howling +wilderness of ignorance. I want to know." +</P> + +<P> +"Let's start at the very beginning," she said. "Just as soon as Searle +brought your letter—the first one, I mean—in which you asked for +sixty thousand dollars to buy a mine——" +</P> + +<P> +"Whoap! Jamb on the emergency!" Glen interrupted. "I never wrote such +a letter in my life!" +</P> + +<P> +She looked at him blankly. +</P> + +<P> +"But—Glen—I saw your letter. I read it myself—at this very table." +</P> + +<P> +Glen knitted his brows and became more serious. +</P> + +<P> +"A letter from me?—touching Searle for sixty thou? Somebody's nutty." +</P> + +<P> +"But Glen—what I saw with my own eyes——" +</P> + +<P> +"Can't help it. Nothing doing!" he interrupted as before. "If Searle +showed you any such letter as that he wrote it him—hold on, I wrote +him for a grub-stake, fifty dollars at the most, but I haven't even +seen a mine that any man would buy, that the other man would sell, and +Searle sure got my first before I was bug-house from that wollop on the +block." He put his hand to the sore spot on his head and rubbed it +soothingly. +</P> + +<P> +Beth was pale. She failed to observe his gesture, so absorbed were all +her faculties in the maze of facts in which she was somewhat helplessly +struggling. +</P> + +<P> +"Could Searle have written such a letter as that?" she said. "What +for?" +</P> + +<P> +"For money—if he wrote it," said Glen. "Did he touch you for a loan?" +</P> + +<P> +Beth's eyes were widely blazing. Her lips were white and stiff. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Glen, I advanced thirty thousand dollars—I thought to help you +buy a mine. Searle was to put in a like amount—but recently——" +</P> + +<P> +"Searle! Thirty thousand bucks!" said Glen. "He hasn't got thirty +thousand cents! The man who drove me up last night knows the bank +cashier, Mr. Rickart, like a brother—and Rickart told him Searle is a +four-flusher—hasn't a bean—and looks like a mighty good imitation of +a crook. Searle! You put up thirty—stung, Beth, stung, good and +plenty!" +</P> + +<P> +Beth's hand was on her cheek, pressing it to whiteness. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I've been afraid that something was wrong—that something +terrible—— Why, Glen, that would be <I>forgery</I>—obtaining money under +false pretences! He may have done anything—<I>anything</I> to get the +'Laughing Water' claim! He may have done something—said +something—written something to make Van—Mr. Van Buren think that +I—— Oh, Glen, I don't know what to do!" +</P> + +<P> +Her brother looked at her keenly. +</P> + +<P> +"You're in trouble, Sis," he hazarded. "Is 'Van' the candy boy with +you?" +</P> + +<P> +She blushed suddenly. The contrast from her paleness was striking. +</P> + +<P> +"He's the one who is in trouble," she answered. "And he may think that +I—he does think something. He has lost his mine—a very valuable +property. Searle and some Mr. McCoppet have taken it away from Mr. Van +Buren and all those poor old men—after all their work, their +waiting—everything! You've got to help me to see what we can do!" +</P> + +<P> +"McCoppet's a gambler—a short-card, tumble weed," said Glen. "You've +got to put me next. Tell me the whole novelette, beginning at chapter +one." +</P> + +<P> +"As fast as I can," she answered, and she did. She related everything, +even the manner in which she and Searle had first become engaged—a +business at which she marveled now—and of how and when she had +encountered Van, the results of the meeting, the subsequent events, and +the heart-breaking outcome of the trip that Van had made to carry her +letter to Starlight. +</P> + +<P> +In her letter, her love had been confessed. She glossed that item over +now as a spot too sensitive for exposure. She merely admitted that +between herself and Van had existed a friendship such as comes but once +in many a woman's life—a friendship recently destroyed, she feared, by +some horrible machinations of Bostwick. +</P> + +<P> +"You can see," she concluded, "that Mr. Van Buren must think me guilty +of almost anything. He doubtless knows my money, that I thought was +helping you, went to meet the expense of taking away his property. He +probably thinks I sent him to you to get him out of the way, while +Searle and the others were driving his partners off the claim. +</P> + +<P> +"My money is gone. I asked for its return and I'm sure Searle cannot +repay me. I'm told he couldn't have used so much as thirty thousand +dollars in anything legitimate, so far, on the 'Laughing Water' claim. +If he'd forge a letter from you, and lie like this and deceive me so, +what wouldn't he do to rob these men of their mine?" +</P> + +<P> +"I scent decay," said Glenmore gravely. "Have you got any plans in +your attic?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, I don't know what to do, of course!" she admitted. "But I've got +to do something. I've got to show Mr. Van Buren I'm not a willful +party to these horrible things. I don't believe I'll ever get my money +back. I don't want a share of a stolen mine. I'd be glad to let the +money go, and more—all I've got in the world—if only I could prove to +Van that I haven't deceived him, haven't taken part in anything +wrong—if only I could make these cheats give the 'Laughing Water' +back!" +</P> + +<P> +"Van <I>is</I> the candy. I'll have to meet him, sure," said Glen with +conviction, looking on her face. "I wish you were wise to more of this +game—the way they worked it—how they doped it out. I'll look around +and find out how the trick was done, and then we'll go to it together. +Guess I'll look for Van right off the bat." +</P> + +<P> +She glanced at him with startled eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"No, Glen—please don't. I'd rather you wouldn't—just yet. You don't +understand. I can't let him think I'm—making overtures. He must +think I have a <I>little</I> pride. If his mine has been stolen I want to +give it back—before he ever sees me again. If you knew how much—oh, +how very much, I wish to do that——" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm on," he interrupted. "It will do me good to put a crimp in +Searle." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap41"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XLI +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +SUVY PROVES HIS LOVE +</H3> + +<P> +If a single ray of far-off hope had lingered in Van's meditations +concerning Beth, and the various occurrences involving himself and his +mining property, it vanished when he told her of the letter he had seen +and beheld her apparent look of guilt. +</P> + +<P> +One thing the interview had done: it had cleared his decks for action. +He had lain half stunned, as it were, till now, while Bostwick held the +"Laughing Water" claim and worked it for its gold. A look that was +grim and a heat that would brook no resistance had come together upon +him. +</P> + +<P> +That claim was his, by right of purchase, by right of discovery as to +its worth! He had earned it by hardships, privations, suffering! He +meant to have it back! If the law could avail him, well and good! If +not, he'd make a law! +</P> + +<P> +McCoppet he knew for a thief—a "law-abiding" criminal of the subtlest +type. Bostwick, he was certain, was a crook. Behind these two lay +possibilities of crime in all its forms. That suddenly ordered survey +of the line was decidedly suspicious. Bostwick and his fiancée had +come prepared for some such coup—and money was a worker of miracles +such as no man might obstruct. +</P> + +<P> +Van became so loaded full of fight that had anyone scratched a match +upon him he might have exploded on the spot. He thought of the +simplest thing to do—hire a private survey of the reservation line, +either to confirm or disprove the work that Lawrence had done, and then +map out his course. The line, however, was long, surveyors were fairly +swamped with work, not a foot could be traveled without some ready cash. +</P> + +<P> +He went to Rickart of the bank. Rickart listened to his plan of +campaign and shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't waste your money, Van," he said. "The Government wouldn't +accept the word of any man you could hire. Lawrence would have to be +discredited. Nobody doubts his ability or his squareness. The +reservation boundary was wholly a matter of guess. You'll find it +includes that ground—and the law will be against you. I'd gladly lend +you the money if I could, but the bank people wouldn't stand behind me. +And every bean I've got of my own I've put in the Siwash lease." +</P> + +<P> +Van was in no mood for begging. +</P> + +<P> +"All right, Rick," he said. "But I'll have that line overhauled if I +have to hold up a private surveyor and put him over the course at the +front of a gun." He went out upon the street, more hot than before. +</P> + +<P> +In two days time he was offered twenty dollars—a sum he smilingly +refused. He was down and out, in debt all over the camp. He could not +even negotiate a loan. From some of his "friends" he would not have +accepted money to preserve his soul. +</P> + +<P> +Meantime, spurred to the enterprise by little Mrs. Dick, old +Gettysburg, Napoleon, and Dave accepted work underground and began to +count on their savings for the fight. +</P> + +<P> +At the "Laughing Water" claim, during this period, tremendous elation +existed. Not only had three lines of sluices been installed, with +three shifts of men to shovel night and day, but a streak of gravel of +sensational worth had been encountered in the cove. The clean-up at +sunset every day was netting no less than a thousand dollars in gold +for each twenty-four hours at work. +</P> + +<P> +This news, when it "leaked," begot another rush, and men by the +hundreds swarmed again upon the hills, in all that neighborhood, +panning the gravel for their lives. Wild-catting started with an +impetus that shook the State itself. And Van could only grit his teeth +and continue, apparently, to smile. +</P> + +<P> +All this and more came duly to the ears of Glenmore Kent and Beth. The +girl was in despair as the days went by and nothing had been +accomplished. The meager fact that Lawrence had run and corrected the +reservation line, at Searle's behest, was all that Glen had learned. +</P> + +<P> +But of all the men in Goldite he was doubtless best equipped with +knowledge concerning Bostwick's Eastern standing. He knew that Searle +had never had the slightest Government authority to order the survey +made—and therein lay the crux of all the matter. It was all he had to +go upon, but he felt it was almost enough. +</P> + +<P> +The wires to New York were tapped again, and Beth was presently a local +bank depositor with a credit of twenty thousand dollars. In a quiet, +effective manner, Glen then went to work to secure a surveyor on his +own account, or rather at Beth's suggestion. +</P> + +<P> +With the fact of young Kent's advent in the town Van was early made +acquainted. When Beth procured the transfer of her money from New York +to Goldite, Rickart promptly reported the news. It appeared to Van a +confirmation of all his previous suspicions. He could not fight a +woman, and Bostwick and McCoppet remained upon the claim. Searle wrote +nearly every day to Beth, excusing his absence, relating his success, +and declaring the increase of his love. +</P> + +<P> +On a Wednesday morning Glenmore's man arrived by stage from Starlight, +instruments and all. His name was Pratt. He was a tall, slow-moving, +blue-eyed man, nearly sixty years of age, but able still to carry a +thirty-pound transit over the steepest mountain ever built. Glen met +him by appointment at the transportation office and escorted him at +once to Mrs. Dick's. +</P> + +<P> +Already informed as to what would be required, the surveyor was +provided with all the data possible concerning the reservation limits. +</P> + +<P> +Beth was tremendously excited. "I'm glad you've come," she told him +candidly. "Can you start the work to-day?" +</P> + +<P> +"You will want to keep this quiet," he said. "I need two men we can +trust, and then I'm ready to start." +</P> + +<P> +"Two?" said Glen. "That's awkward. I thought perhaps you could get +along with little me." +</P> + +<P> +Beth, in her tumult of emotions, was changing color with bewildering +rapidity. +</P> + +<P> +"Why—I expected to go along, of course," she said. "I've got a +suit—I've done it before—I mean, I expect to dress as you are, Glen, +and help to run the line." +</P> + +<P> +Pratt grinned good-naturedly. "Keeps it all in the family. That's one +advantage." +</P> + +<P> +"All right," said Glen. "Hike upstairs and don your splendors." +</P> + +<P> +He had hired a car and stocked it with provisions, tents, and bedding. +He hastened off and returned with the chauffeur to the door. +</P> + +<P> +Beth, in the costume she had worn on the day when Van found her lost in +the desert, made a shy, frightened youth, when at length she appeared, +but her courage was superb. +</P> + +<P> +At ten o'clock they left the town, and rolled far out to the westward +on their course. +</P> + +<P> +Van learned of their departure. He was certain that Beth had gone to +the "Laughing Water" claim, perhaps to be married to Bostwick. Three +times he went to the hay-yard that day, intent upon saddling his +broncho, riding to the claim himself, and fighting out his rights by +the methods of primitive man. +</P> + +<P> +On the third of his visits he met a stranger who offered to purchase +Suvy on the spot at a price of two hundred dollars. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't offer me a million or I might be tempted," Van told him gravely. +"I'll sell you my soul for a hundred." +</P> + +<P> +The would-be purchaser was dry. +</P> + +<P> +"I want a soul I can ride." +</P> + +<P> +Van looked him over critically. +</P> + +<P> +"Think you could ride my cayuse?" +</P> + +<P> +"This broach?" said the man. "Surest thing you know." +</P> + +<P> +"I need the money," Van admitted. "I'll bet you the pony against your +two hundred you can't." +</P> + +<P> +"You're on." +</P> + +<P> +Van called to his friend, the man who ran the yard. +</P> + +<P> +"Come over here, Charlie, and hold the stakes. Here's a man who wants +to ride my horse." +</P> + +<P> +Charlie came, heard the plan of the wager, accepted the money, and +watched Van throw on the saddle. +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't know you wanted to sell," he said. "You know I want that +animal." +</P> + +<P> +"If he goes he sells himself," said Van. "If he doesn't, you're next, +same terms." +</P> + +<P> +"Let me have that pair of spurs," said the stranger, denoting a pair +that hung upon a nail. "I guess they'll fit." +</P> + +<P> +He adjusted the spurs as one accustomed to their use. Van merely +glanced around. Nevertheless, he felt a sinking of the heart. Five +hundred dollars, much as he needed money, would not have purchased his +horse. And inasmuch as luck had been against him, he suddenly feared +he might be on the point of losing Suvy now for a price he would have +scorned. +</P> + +<P> +"Boy," he said in a murmur to the broncho, "if I thought you'd let any +bleached-out anthropoid like that remain on deck, I wouldn't want you +anyway—savvy that?" +</P> + +<P> +Suvy's ears were playing back and forth in excessive nervousness and +questioning. He had turned his head to look at Van with evident joy at +the thought of bearing him away to the hills—they two afar off +together. Then came a disappointment. +</P> + +<P> +"There you are," said Van, and swinging the bridle reins towards the +waiting man, he walked to a feed-trough and leaned against it +carelessly. +</P> + +<P> +"Thanks," said the stranger. He threw away a cigarette, caught up the +reins, adjusted them over Suvy's neck, rocked the saddle to test its +firmness, and mounted with a certain dexterity that lessened Van's +confidence again. After all, Suvy was thoroughly broken. He had +quietly submitted to be ridden by Beth. His war-like spirit might be +gone—and all would be lost. +</P> + +<P> +Indeed, it appeared that Suvy was indifferent—that a cow would have +shown a manner no less docile or resigned. He did look at Van with a +certain expression of surprise and hurt, or so, at least, the horseman +hoped. Then the man on his back shook up the reins, gave a prick with +the spurs, and Suvy moved perhaps a yard. +</P> + +<P> +The rider pricked again, impatiently. Instantly Suvy's old-time +fulminate was jarred into violent response. He went up in the air +prodigiously, a rigid, distorted thing of hardened muscles and +engine-like activities. He came down like a new device for breaking +rocks—and the bucking he had always loved was on, in a fury of +resentment. +</P> + +<P> +"Good boy!" said Van, who stood up stiffly, craning and bending to +watch the broncho's fight. +</P> + +<P> +But the man in the saddle was a rider. He sat in the loose security of +men who knew the game. He gave himself over to becoming part of the +broncho's very self. He accepted Suvy's momentum, spine-disturbing +jolts, and sudden gyrations with the calmness and art of a master. +</P> + +<P> +All this Van beheld, as the pony bucked with warming enthusiasm, and +again his heart descended to the depths. It was not the bucking he had +hoped to see. It was not the best that lay in Suvy's thongs. The +beating he himself had given the animal, on the day when their +friendship was cemented, had doubtless reduced the pony's confidence of +winning such a struggle, while increasing his awe of man. Some miners +passing saw the dust as the conflict waged in the yard. They hastened +in to witness the show. Then from everywhere in town they appeared to +pour upon the scene. The word went around that the thing was a +bet—and more came running to the scene. +</P> + +<P> +Meantime, Suvy was rocketing madly all over the place. Chasing a +couple of cows that roamed at large, charging at a monster pile of +household furnishings, barely avoiding the feed-trough, set in the +center of the place, scattering men in all directions, and raising a +dust like a concentrated storm, the broncho waxed more and more hot in +the blood, more desperately wild to fling his rider headlong through +the air. But still that rider clung. +</P> + +<P> +Van had lost all sense save that of worry, love for his horse, and +desire to see him win this vital struggle. A wild passion for Suvy's +response to himself—for a proving love in the broncho's +being—possessed his nature. He leaned far forward, awkwardly, +following Suvy about. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm ashamed of you, Suvy!" he began to cry. "Suvy! Suvy, where's +your pride? Why don't you do him, boy? Why don't you show them? +Where's your pride? My boy! my boy!—don't you love me any more? +You're a baby, Suvy! You're a baby!" He paused for a moment, +following still and watching narrowly. "Suvy! Suvy! You're gone if +you let him ride you, lad! If you love me, boy, don't break my heart +with shame!" +</P> + +<P> +Suvy and a hundred men heard his wild, impassioned appeal. The men +responded as if in some pain of the heart they could not escape, thus +to see Van Buren so completely wrapped up in his horse. Then some all +but groaned to behold the bucking cease. +</P> + +<P> +It seemed as if Suvy had quit. The man in the saddle eased. +</P> + +<P> +"Boy!" yelled Van, in a shrill, startling cry that made the pony +shiver. He had seen some sign that no one but himself could +understand. "Boy! not that! not that!" +</P> + +<P> +Already Suvy had started to rise, to drop himself backwards on his +rider. +</P> + +<P> +He heard and obeyed. He went up no more than to half his height, then +seemed to be struck by a cyclone. Had all the frightful dynamic of an +earthquake abruptly focused in his being, the fearful convulsion of his +muscles could scarcely have been greater. It was all so sudden, so +swift and terrible, that no man beheld how it was done. It was simply +a mad delirium of violence, begun and ended while one tumultuous +shudder shook the crowd. +</P> + +<P> +Everyone saw something loose and twisting detached from the pony's +back. Everyone witnessed a blur upon the air and knew it was the man. +He was flung with catapultic force against a frightened cow. He struck +with arms and legs extended. He clung like a bur to the bovine's side, +for a moment before he dropped—and everyone roared unfeelingly, in +relief of the tension on the nerves. +</P> + +<P> +The next they knew Van was there with his horse, shaking the animal's +muzzle. +</P> + +<P> +"My boy!" he said. "My boy! My luck has changed!" +</P> + +<P> +Apparently it had. The man who had thought he could ride the horse +limped weakly to a blanket-roll, and sat himself down to gather up the +pieces of his breath and consciousness. He wanted no more. He felt it +was cheap at the price he had paid to escape with a hint of his life. +</P> + +<P> +Van waited for nothing, not even the money that Charlie of the hay-yard +was holding. He mounted to the saddle that had been the seat of hell, +and in joy unspeakable Suvy walked away, in response to the pressure of +his knees. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap42"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XLII +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE FURNACE OF GOLD +</H3> + +<P> +All the following day, which was Thursday, two small companies were out +in the hills. One was Beth's, where she, Glen, and Pratt toiled slowly +over miles and miles of baking mountains and desert slopes and rocks, +tracing out the reservation boundary with a long slender ribbon of +steel. +</P> + +<P> +The other group, equally, if less openly, active, comprised the sheriff +and three of his men. They were trailing out the boundary of one man's +endurance, against fatigue, starvation, and the hatred of his kind. +</P> + +<P> +Barger had been at his work once more, slaying and robbing for his +needs. He had killed a Piute trailer, put upon his tracks; he had +robbed a stage, three private travelers, and a freight-team loaded with +provisions. He had lived on canned tomatoes and ginger snaps for a +week—and the empty tins sufficiently blazed his orbit. +</P> + +<P> +He was known to be mounted, armed, and once more reduced to extremities +in the way of procuring food. A trap had been laid, a highway baited +with an apparently defenseless wagon, with two mere desert prospectors +and their outfit for a load—and this he was expected to attack. +</P> + +<P> +The morning waned and the afternoon was speeding. Old Pratt, with Beth +and Glen, was eager to finish by sunset. The farther he walked the +more the surveyor apparently warmed to his work. Beth became footsore +by noon. But she made no complaint. She plodded doggedly ahead, the +ribbon-like "chain" creeping like a serpent, on and on before her. +</P> + +<P> +At the forward end Glen was dragging the thing persistently over hills +and dales, and bearing the rod for Pratt with his transit to sight. +</P> + +<P> +The surveyor himself was at times as much as a mile or more behind, +dumbly waving Glen to right or left, as he peered through his glass and +set the course by the compass and angles of his transit. Anon he +signaled the two to wait, and Beth sat down to watch him come, "set +up," and wave them onward as before. +</P> + +<P> +She was thus alone, at the end of the chain, for hours at a stretch. +So often as Pratt came up from the rear and established a station for +his instrument, she asked how the line was working out, and what were +the prospects for the end. +</P> + +<P> +"Can't tell till we get much closer to the claim," said Pratt, with +never varying patience. "We'll know before we die." +</P> + +<P> +In the heat that poured from sky and rocks it might have been possible +to doubt the surveyor's prediction. But Beth went on. Her exhaustion +increased. The glare of the cloudless sky and greenless earth seemed +to burn all the moisture from her eyes. The terrible silence, the +dread austerity of mountains so rock-ribbed and desolate, oppressed her +with a sense of awe. +</P> + +<P> +She was toiling as many a man has toiled, through the ancient, +burned-out furnace of gold, so intensely physical all about her; and +also she was toiling no less painfully through the furnace of gold that +love must ever create so long as the dross must be burned from human +ore that the bullion of honor, loyalty, and faith may shine in its +purity and worth. +</P> + +<P> +She began to feel, in a slight degree, the tortures that Van, old +Gettysburg, Napoleon, and Dave had undergone for many weary years. It +was not their weakness for the gold of earth that had drawn them +relentlessly on in lands like these; it was more their fate, a species +of doom, to which, like the helpless puppets that we are, we must all +at last respond. +</P> + +<P> +She felt a new weight in the cruelty whereby the owners of the +"Laughing Water" claim had been suddenly bereft of all they possessed +after all their patient years of serving here in this arid waste of +minerals. The older men in Van's partnership she pitied. +</P> + +<P> +For Van she felt a sense of championing love. His cause was her cause, +come what might—at least until she could no longer keep alive her +hope. Her passion to set herself to rights in his mind was great, but +secondary, after all, to the love in her heart, which would not, could +not die, and which, by dint of its intensity, bore her onward to fight +for his rights. +</P> + +<P> +Alone so much in the burning land all day, she had long, long hours in +which to think of Van, long hours in which to contemplate the silence +and the vast dispassion of this mountain world. Her own inward burning +offset the heat of air and earth; a sense of the aridness her heart +would know without Van's love once more returned, was counter to the +aridness of all these barren rocks. The fervor of her love it was that +bore her onward, weary, sore, and drooping. +</P> + +<P> +What would happen at the end of day, if Pratt should confirm the +Lawrence survey, bestowing the claim on Bostwick and McCoppet, she did +not dare to think. Her excitement increased with every chain length +moving her onward towards the cove. She did not know the hills or +ravines, the canyons descended or acclivities so toilsomely climbed, +and, therefore, had not a guide in the world to raise or depress her +hope. There was nothing to do but sustain the weary march and await +the survey's end. +</P> + +<P> +All day in Goldite, meanwhile, Van had been working towards an end. He +had two hundred dollars, the merest drop in the bucket, as he knew, +with which to fight the Bostwick combination. He was thoroughly aware +that even when the line could be run, establishing some error or fraud +on the part of surveyor Lawrence, the fight would barely be opened. +</P> + +<P> +McCoppet and Bostwick, with thousands of dollars at command, could +delay him, block his progress, force him into court, and perhaps even +beat him in the end. The enginery of dollars was crushing in its +might. Nevertheless, if a survey showed that the line had been falsely +moved, he felt he could somewhat rely upon himself to make the seat of +war too warm for comfort. +</P> + +<P> +There was no surveyor nearer than two hundred miles, with Pratt, as Van +expressed it, "camping with the foe." He had shaken his partners +untimely from their beds that morning—(the trio were mining nights, on +the four-to-midnight shift)—and busied them all with the work of the +day, by way of making preparations. +</P> + +<P> +He spent nearly twenty silver dollars on the wire, telegraphing various +towns to secure a competent man. He sent a friend to the Government +office, where Lawrence was up to his ears in work, and procured all the +data, including metes and bounds, of the reservation tract before its +fateful opening. +</P> + +<P> +The day was consumed in the petty affairs attendant upon such a +campaign. When his three old partners went away to their work at four +o'clock in the afternoon, a wire had come from far out north that a man +who was competent to run the line was starting for Goldite forthwith. +</P> + +<P> +The moonless night, at ten o'clock, found Van alone at his tent. From +the top of the hill whereon he had camped a panoramic view of all the +town swung far in both directions. The glare of the lamps, the noise +of life—even the odor of man upon the air—impinged upon his senses +here, as he sat before the door and gazed far down upon it. He thought +that man with his fire, smells, and din made chaos in a spot that was +otherwise sacred to nature. +</P> + +<P> +He thought of the ceaseless persistence with which the human family +haunts all the corners of the earth, pursues life's mysteries, invades +its very God. He thought of this desert as a place created barren, +lifeless, dead, and severe for some inscrutable purpose—perhaps even +fashioned by the Maker as His place to be alone. But the haunter was +there with his garish town, his canvas-tented circus of a day, and God +had doubtless moved. +</P> + +<P> +How little the game amounted to, at the end of a man's short span! +What a senseless repetition it seemed—the same old comedies, the same +old tragedies, the same old bits of generosity, and greed, of weakness, +hope, and despair! Except for a warm little heartful of love—ah +<I>love</I>! He paused at that and laughed, unmirthfully. That was the +thing that made of it a Hades, or converted the desert into heaven! +</P> + +<P> +"Dreamers! dreamers—all of us!" he said, and he went within to flatten +down his blankets for the night. +</P> + +<P> +He had finally blown out his candle and stretched himself upon the +ground, to continue his turmoil of thinking, when abruptly his sharp +ear caught at a sound as of someone slipping on a stone that turned, +just out upon the slope. He sat up alertly. +</P> + +<P> +Half a minute passed. Then something heavy lurched against the tent, +the flap was lifted, and a man appeared, stooped double as if in pain. +</P> + +<P> +"Who's there?" demanded Van. "Is that you, Gett?" He caught up his +gun, but it and the hand that held it were invisible. +</P> + +<P> +"It's me," said a voice—a croaking voice. "Matt Barger." +</P> + +<P> +He fell on the floor, breathing in some sort of anguish, and Van struck +a match, to light the candle. +</P> + +<P> +The flame flared blindingly inside the canvas whiteness. A great, +moving shadow of Van was projected behind him on the wall. The light +gleamed brightly from his gun. But it fell on an inert mass where +Barger had fallen to the earth. +</P> + +<P> +He did not move, and Van, mechanically igniting the candle's wick, +while he eyed the man before him, beheld dry blood, and some that was +fresh, on the haggard face, on the tattered clothing, and even on one +loose hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Barger!" he said. "What in thunder, man——" +</P> + +<P> +The outlaw rallied his failing strength and raised himself up on one +hand. He could barely speak, but his lips attempted a smile. +</P> + +<P> +"I thought I heard you—call fer the joker," he said, "and so—I come." +</P> + +<P> +Van was up. He saw that the man had been literally shot to pieces. +One of his arms was broken. A portion of his scalp was gone. He was +pierced in the body and leg. He had met the posse, fought his fight, +escaped with wounds that must have stopped any animal on earth, and +then had dragged himself to Van, to repay his final debt. +</P> + +<P> +"I haven't called—I haven't called for anything," said Van. "You're +wounded, man, you're——" +</P> + +<P> +Barger rose up weakly to his knees. +</P> + +<P> +"Need the money, don't you—now?" he interrupted. "You can—use the +reward, I guess." +</P> + +<P> +"Good God, I don't want that kind of money!" Van exclaimed. "Who got +you, Matt—who got you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sheriff," said the convict dispassionately. "Good man, Christler—and +a pretty good shot—but I got away with his lead." +</P> + +<P> +He slumped again, like a waxen thing on melting props, deprived of all +support. +</P> + +<P> +Van plunged out to the water bench, with its bucket, near the door. He +brought back a basin of water, knelt on the ground, and bathed the +convict's face. He poured some liquor between the dead-white lips. He +slashed and unbuttoned the clothing and tried to staunch the wounds. +He bound up the arm, put a bandage on the leg and body, continuing from +time to time to dash cold water in the pallid, bearded face. +</P> + +<P> +Barger had fainted at last. What hideous tortures the fellow had +endured to drag and drive himself across the mountain roughnesses to +win to this tent, Van could but weakly imagine. +</P> + +<P> +The convict finally opened his eyes and blinked in the light of the +candle. +</P> + +<P> +"What in hell—was the use of my comin' here," he faltered, "if you +don't take the money—the reward?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't want it!" said Van. "I told you that before." +</P> + +<P> +Barger spoke with difficulty. +</P> + +<P> +"It's different now; they've—got you in a hole. Van Buren, I'm your +meat! I'm—nuthin' but meat, but you acted—as if I was a man!" +</P> + +<P> +"We're all in a hole—it's life," said Van, continuing his attentions +to the wounds. "I don't want a cent of blood-money, Matt, if I have to +starve on the desert. Now lie where you are, and maybe go to sleep. +You won't be disturbed here till morning." +</P> + +<P> +"By mornin'—all hell can't—disturb me," Barger told him painfully, +with something like a ghastly smile upon his lips. "I'm goin'—there +to see." +</P> + +<P> +He lapsed off again into coma. Van feared the man was dead. But +having lived a stubborn life, Barger relinquished his hold unwillingly, +despite his having ceased at last to care. +</P> + +<P> +For nearly an hour Van worked above him, on the ground. Then the man +not only aroused as before, but sat up, propped on his arm. +</P> + +<P> +"God, I had to—wake!" he said. "I was sure—forgettin' to tell you." +</P> + +<P> +Van thought the fellow's mind was wandering. +</P> + +<P> +"Lie down, Matt, lie down," he answered. "Try to take it easy." +</P> + +<P> +"Too late—fer me to take—anything easy," replied the outlaw, speaking +with a stronger voice than heretofore. "Gimme a drink of whisky." +</P> + +<P> +Van gave him the drink and he tossed it off at a draught. +</P> + +<P> +"I said to myself I'd be—hanged if I'd tell you, that—day you cheated +the quicksand," Barger imparted jerkily, "but you've got—a—right to +know. McCoppet and that—pal of his give Lawrence twenty +thousand—dollars, cash, to queer you on the—reservation line and run +you off your claim." +</P> + +<P> +Van scrutinized the sunken face and glittering eyes with the closest +attention. +</P> + +<P> +"What's that?" he said. "Bought Lawrence to fake out the reservation +line? Who told you, Matt? Who told you that?" +</P> + +<P> +The convict seemed to gain in strength. He was making a terrible +effort to finish all he had to impart. +</P> + +<P> +"Trimmer put me—on to all the game. It was him that told me—you was +goin' through, when I—pretty near got you, in the pass." +</P> + +<P> +Van's eyes took on a deep intensity. +</P> + +<P> +"Trimmer? Trimmer?" +</P> + +<P> +"Larry Trimmer—Pine-tree Trimmer," explained the convict impatiently. +"McCoppet—wanted you detained, the day they—jumped your claim. +Lawrence—he run the line out crooked fer—twenty thousand bucks. +Culver was put away by Cayuse, mebbe because—he was square—Larry +wasn't sure—— I guess—that's all, but it ought to—help you some." +</P> + +<P> +He dropped himself down and languidly closed his eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Good heavens, man," said Van, still staring, "are you sure of what +you're saying?" +</P> + +<P> +There was no response for a time. Then Barger murmured: +</P> + +<P> +"Excuse me, Van Buren, fer—bein' so damn—long—dyin'." +</P> + +<P> +"You're not dying, Matt—go to sleep," said. Van. "I'll be here +beside you, all night." +</P> + +<P> +He sat down, got up and sat down again, stirred to the depths of his +being by the story the man had revealed. Beth's money, then, had gone +for this, to bribe a Government agent! A tumult of mad, revengeful +thoughts went roaring through his mind. A grim look came upon his +face, and fire was flashing from his eyes. He arose and sat down a +dozen times, all the while looking at the worn, broken figure that lay +on the earth at his feet. What an ill-used, gaunt, and exhausted frame +it was, loose and abandoned by the strength that once had filled it +with vigor and might. What a boyish look had come at last upon the +haggard, sunken face! +</P> + +<P> +The night wind was chill. He had forgotten for himself, but he thought +of it now for Barger. He laid his blankets on the inert limbs and up +around the shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +Perhaps another hour went by, with Van still sleepless by his charge. +The convict stirred. +</P> + +<P> +"Van—Buren," he said in a hoarse, rattling whisper, "Van——" +</P> + +<P> +Van was instantly alert. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello." +</P> + +<P> +Barger partially raised his hand. +</P> + +<P> +"So long,"—and the hand dropped downward. +</P> + +<P> +"Matt!" answered Van, quickly kneeling on the earth. He caught up the +fingers, felt their faint attempt to close upon his own—and the man on +the ground was dead. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap43"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XLIII +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +PREPARING THE NET FOR A DRAW +</H3> + +<P> +Beth Kent, as the sun was going from the sky, fell down three times in +utter exhaustion. She and the others had come to within a mile of the +"Laughing Water" claim. Pratt was far away in the rear, on the last of +his stations. Glen, in the lead, was forging ahead on a second supply +of strength. Hidden from the sight of either of the others, Beth was +ready for collapse. +</P> + +<P> +But onward crept that merciless ribbon of steel that Glen was dragging. +Three times the girl rose and stumbled onward, up the last acclivity. +Her legs were like lead. She stubbed her toes on every rock. She +could almost have cried with the aches of weariness. It seemed as if +that terrible hill unfolded new and steeper slopes for every one she +climbed. +</P> + +<P> +She went down repeatedly. To have lain there, hungry, but indifferent +to anything but sleep, would have been the most heavenly thing she +could conceive. She was literally falling up the hill, with all her +machinery slumping towards inertia, when finally Pratt, on his distant +hill, sent the signal for Glen to halt. +</P> + +<P> +"All right, Beth—rest!" he called from the end of the chain, and she +sank at once in her tracks. +</P> + +<P> +It was almost dusk when Pratt came toiling up the hill. Glen had come +down to Beth's position. He too was thoroughly tired. How the line +had come out was more than he could care. But Beth, with the last of +her flickering strength, arose to hasten Pratt. +</P> + +<P> +"No use in the three of us being seen," he said, planting his transit +in the sand, but making no effort to adjust it to a level. "That ridge +there overlooks the claim. I'll climb up alone and take a bird's-eye +view." +</P> + +<P> +"We're as near as that!" cried Beth in startled surprise. "Then what +do you think? Does the line include the claim?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll have to look around from the ridge," repeated Pratt with +aggravating caution. "You can wait ten minutes here." +</P> + +<P> +He started laboriously up the slope—and Beth stood tensely watching. +She thought she saw him top the ridge, but he disappeared from sight. +</P> + +<P> +The darkness was gathering swiftly in all the desert world. The girl's +excitement and impatience grew with a new flare up of energy. To think +that Searle was so near at hand, with fate a-hover in the air, sent her +pulses bounding madly. +</P> + +<P> +It seemed as if Pratt would never return from the hill. She could +almost have dashed to the summit herself, to learn the outcome of their +labors. Then at last, from a small ravine, not far away, he appeared +in his leisurely manner. +</P> + +<P> +Beth ran along the slope to meet him. +</P> + +<P> +"Well?" she cried. "What did you find?" +</P> + +<P> +He smiled. "Unless I'm crazy, Lawrence is either a liar or a fool. +That claim is safe outside the line by nearly an eighth of a mile." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" cried the girl. She collapsed on the ground and sobbed in +exhaustion and joy. +</P> + +<P> +She could go no further. She had kept her strength and courage up for +this, and now, inside the goal, she cared not what might happen. +</P> + +<P> +They camped upon the spot. The man with the car, which had taken them +out, had been ordered to meet them down at Reservation town—the +mushroom camp which had sprung into being no more than a week before +the rush. All the way down there Pratt continued alone. He and the +chauffeur, long after dark, returned with provisions and blankets. +They had driven the car as far as possible, then climbed the ravine on +foot. +</P> + +<P> +At nine o'clock Beth was asleep beneath the stars, dreaming of her +meeting with Van. +</P> + +<P> +At daylight all were up, and in the chill of the rarified mountain air +were walking stiffly to the car. The chauffeur, who had slept in his +machine, promised breakfast by eight at Mrs. Dick's. He tore up the +road and he tore away their breath, but he came into Goldite half an +hour ahead of time, and claimed he had driven "pretty slow." +</P> + +<P> +Meantime, the night in the mining-camp had brought no untoward +excitement. Van, at his tent, with the covered figure lying on the +earth, had welcomed his partners at midnight with the news that a +"homeless and worn-out pilgrim of the desert" had come desiring rest. +He was sleeping hard; he was not to be disturbed. In the morning he +was scheduled to depart. +</P> + +<P> +Tired to utter unconcern, the three old worthies made their beds with +Van beside the man at peace. And the whole five slept with a trust and +abandon to nature that balanced the living and the dead. +</P> + +<P> +Van was out, had eaten his breakfast, and was waiting for the sheriff +when Beth and her party returned. He beheld them, felt his heart lift +upward like a lever in his breast, at sight of Beth in her male attire, +and grimly shut his jaws. +</P> + +<P> +Christler, the sheriff, arrived a little after eight, bringing in a +wounded deputy. Barger had shot him in the thigh. Van did not wait +for his man to eat, but urged him home to his bachelor shack and sat +him down to a drink of something strong, with a cracker to munch for a +meal. +</P> + +<P> +Christler was tired. He was somewhat stout; he had been in the saddle +almost constantly for weeks, and now, as a victim of chagrin and +disappointment, he was utterly dejected and done. +</P> + +<P> +"Good Lord, Van, ain't a man to breathe—hain't he got no rights to +live, whatsoever?" he inquired. "You'd chase me up, or somebody would, +if I was in my grave." +</P> + +<P> +"You'd break out of your grave," Van told him, "if you knew what's +going on." +</P> + +<P> +Christler looked dubious, draining at his glass. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I dunno. It 'ud have to be something pretty rich." +</P> + +<P> +"Bill," said Van, "you're going to stand in and work with me as you +haven't worked for a year. It's going to be worth it. Opal McCoppet, +and one Searle Bostwick, of New York, have stolen my claim by +corrupting Lawrence for twenty thousand dollars, running a false +reservation line, and maybe putting Culver out of the way because he +was square in his business." +</P> + +<P> +Christler paused in the act of biting his cracker. +</P> + +<P> +"What!" +</P> + +<P> +"There's going to be something doing, Bill," Van added, leaning forward +on the table. "I'm going to round up all this gang to-day if it kills +you to keep on the trail." +</P> + +<P> +Christler still sat staring. +</P> + +<P> +"By the Lord Harry!" he said. "By the Lord—but, Van, I didn't come +home to rest. I've got Barger going, somewhere, shot to a sieve. But +he's some disappeared. If that ain't just my luck! I'm goin' to git +him though, you bet! Lord!—my pride—my profession pride—not to +mention that little old reward! I admit I want that money, Van. I +reckon I've pretty near——" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, you've earned it," Van interrupted. "I'm going to see that you +get it. Bill, but first you get busy with me." +</P> + +<P> +"You'll see that I get——" Christler put the cracker in his mouth. +"Don't talk to a genuine friend like that. I'm tired already." +</P> + +<P> +"Are you?" said Van. "Let's see. Barger is here—in camp." +</P> + +<P> +Up shot the sheriff as if from the force of a blast. +</P> + +<P> +"What!" he shrilled. "Barger! Van, I'll——" +</P> + +<P> +Van grinned. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't forget you're tired, Bill. Matt won't get away." +</P> + +<P> +"Good Lord, boy—tell me where's he at!" cried Christler, dancing on +the floor as he strapped his guns upon him. "Me a-thinkin' I had shot +him up and all this time——" +</P> + +<P> +"You shot him enough, poor devil," Van interrupted quietly. "He's dead +in my tent on the hill." +</P> + +<P> +The sheriff paused with one hand held in the air. +</P> + +<P> +"Dead! Crawled all the way to Goldite!" He started for the door. +</P> + +<P> +"Hold on," said the horseman, blocking his path. "I told you Matt +can't get away. We're going out to get Lawrence first, and then +McCoppet and his friend." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap44"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XLIV +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE ENGINES OF CLIMAX +</H3> + +<P> +McCoppet was in town. He had come to camp at midnight of the previous +day, duly followed by his friend Larry Trimmer. The lumberman had +waxed impatient. Fully two thousand dollars of the money he had +"earned" was still unpaid—and hard to get. He had gone to the +"Laughing Water" claim, in vain, and a surly heat was rising in his +veins. +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick was due, in his car, at nine o'clock, His visit to Goldite was +not entirely one of business. He had grown alarmed at the lack of news +from Beth. His letters had been ignored. He not only feared for the +fate of his affairs of the heart, but perhaps even more for what she +might have done with respect to the money she had asked him to return, +a very small proportion of which he was now prepared to repay. +</P> + +<P> +Meantime, Beth, her brother, and Pratt had gratified their most crying +needs on Algy's cooking, much to that worthy Celestial's delight. +There were two things Beth intended to perform: report the results of +her labors to Van, and attack Mr. Lawrence in his den. +</P> + +<P> +Precisely what she meant to say or do to the Government representative +she did not or could not determine. Some vague idea of making him +confess to an infamy practiced at Bostwick's instance was the most she +had in mind. If half the success already achieved could be expected +here, she would have a report worth while to make when Van should be +presently encountered. +</P> + +<P> +Impetuous, eager to hasten with her work, she insisted upon an +immediate advance. Glenmore readily supported her position. Pratt +developed shyness. His forte was hiking over desert hills, lugging a +transit, running lines or levels; he felt out of place as a fighter, or +even an accuser. Nevertheless, he went, for Beth insisted. +</P> + +<P> +Already the streets were crowded full of life, as the three proceeded +down the thoroughfare. A mining-camp is a restless thing; its peoples +live in the streets. Freight teams, flowing currents of men, chains of +dusty mules, disordered cargoes on the sidewalks, and a couple of +automobiles were glaringly cut out from their shadows, as the sunlight +poured upon them. Sunlight and motion, false-fronted buildings, tents, +and mountains, and fever—that is the camp on the desert. +</P> + +<P> +With excitement increasing upon her at every step, Beth glanced at the +crowds in a rapid search for Van. He was not to be seen. In all the +throng, where old men and youths, pale and swarthy, lazy and alert were +circulating like the blood of Goldite's arteries, there was not a face +that she knew. +</P> + +<P> +They came to the office where Lawrence presided just as a stranger was +departing, Lawrence was alone. He occupied the inner apartment, as +Culver had done, but the door was standing open. +</P> + +<P> +It was Beth who knocked and entered first as the man called out his +invitation. She had never in her life appeared more beautiful. Color +was flaming in her cheeks as on a rose. Her eyes were exceptionally +bright and brown. The exquisite coral of her lips was delicately +tremulous with all her short, quick breathing. +</P> + +<P> +Lawrence arose, as she and the others appeared in the door, and removed +his hat. He was a short, florid person, with a beard of fiery red. +His eyes were of the lightest gray; and they were shifting. +</P> + +<P> +"Good-morning," he said, in undisguised astonishment, beholding Beth. +"You—pardon me—you——" +</P> + +<P> +"Good-morning," Beth replied faintly. "We called—are you Mr. +Lawrence?" +</P> + +<P> +"At your service." Lawrence bowed. "I rarely expect—in my line of +work—my business. Miss—Miss——" +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Kent," said Glenmore, interrupting. "And my name is Kent. I +suppose you're wise to Mr. Pratt." +</P> + +<P> +Lawrence continued to bow. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm very happy to—how are you, Pratt? How are you? Won't you have a +chair, Miss Kent?" +</P> + +<P> +Pratt nodded and murmured a greeting. He was decidedly uneasy. +</P> + +<P> +Beth always moved by impulse. It hastened her now to the issue. She +sat down and faced their man. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Lawrence," she said, "I believe you ran the reservation line, not +long ago, and gave Mr. Bostwick and a friend of his the 'Laughing +Water' claim." +</P> + +<P> +Lawrence looked alive. +</P> + +<P> +"I certainly ran the line," he said. "Instructions came from—from +headquarters, to ascertain the precise limitations of the reservation. +The <I>results</I> gave the 'Laughing Water' claim to its present owners, by +right of prior location, after the opening hour, as the claim was +included in the tract." He had uttered this speech before. It fell +very glibly from his tongue. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, we know all that—so far as it's true," said Beth with startling +candor, "but we know it isn't true at all, and you've got to confess +that you made some ridiculous blunder or else that you were bribed." +</P> + +<P> +She had not intended to plump it out so bluntly, so baldly, but a +certain indignation in her breast had been rapidly increasing, and her +impulse was not to be stayed. +</P> + +<P> +"Gee!" murmured Glen, "that's going some!" +</P> + +<P> +Lawrence turned white, whether with anger or fright could not have been +determined. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Kent!" he said. "You—you're making a very serious——" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I know!" she interrupted. "I expect you to deny it. But a great +deal of money—my money—has been used, and Mr. Pratt has run the +line—with myself and my brother—yesterday—so we know that you've +either been fooled or you've cheated." +</P> + +<P> +Lawrence had risen. His face was scarlet. +</P> + +<P> +"Upon my word!" he said. "Pratt, you and your friend I can order from +the office! The lady——" +</P> + +<P> +"You can't order anything!—not a thing!" said Beth. "Glen! Mr. +Pratt!—you've got to stay and help! I know the truth—and it's got to +be confessed! Mr. Van Buren——" +</P> + +<P> +"I can leave myself, since you insist upon remaining," interrupted +Lawrence, taking his hat and striding towards the door, in a panic to +get to McCoppet for much-needed aid. "Such an utterly unheard of +affront as this——" +</P> + +<P> +"Glen! run and find Mr. Van Buren!" Beth broke in excitedly. "Don't +let him go, Mr. Pratt!" +</P> + +<P> +Lawrence had reached his outer office and was almost at the door. Beth +was hastening after, with Glen at her heels. All were abruptly halted. +</P> + +<P> +Van and the sheriff appeared in the door, before which idlers were +passing. Beth was wild with joy. +</P> + +<P> +"Van," she cried, "Oh, Mr. Van Buren, I'm sure this man has cheated you +out of your claim! We ran the line ourselves—my brother, Mr. Pratt, +and I—yesterday—we finished yesterday! We found the claim is not +inside the reservation! My money was used—I'm sure for bribery! But +they've got to give you back your claim, if it takes every penny I've +got! I was sending Glen to let you know. I asked Mr. Lawrence to +confess! You won't let him go! You mustn't let him go! I am sure +there's something dreadful going on!" +</P> + +<P> +It was a swift, impassioned speech, clear, ringing, honest in every +word. It thrilled Van wondrously, despite the things that had +been—her letter, and subsequent events. He all but lost track of the +business in hand, in the light of her sudden revelations. He did not +answer readily, and Lawrence broke out in protestation. +</P> + +<P> +"It's infamous!" he cried. "If anyone here except a woman had +charged—had been guilty of all these outrageous lies——" +</P> + +<P> +Half a dozen loiterers had halted at the door, attracted by the shrill +high tones of his voice. +</P> + +<P> +"That's enough of that, Lawrence," Van interrupted quietly. "Every +word of this is true. You accepted twenty thousand dollars to falsify +that line. Your chief was murdered to get him out of the way, because +it was <I>known</I> you could be bribed. I came here to get you, and I'll +get all the crowd, if it kills half the town in the fight." With one +quick movement he seized his man by the collar. "Here, Bill, hustle +him out," he said to Christler. "We've got no time to waste." +</P> + +<P> +Lawrence, the sheriff, and himself were projected out upon the sidewalk +by one of his quick maneuvers. A crowd of men came running to the +place. Above the rising murmur of their voices, raised in excitement, +came a shrill and strident cry. +</P> + +<P> +"Van! Van!" was the call from someone in the crowd. +</P> + +<P> +It was lean old Gettysburg. Dave and Napoleon were pantingly chasing +where he ran. +</P> + +<P> +"Van!" yelled Gettysburg again. "It's Barger!—Barger!—dead in the +tent—it's Barger—up there—dead!" +</P> + +<P> +Barger! The name acted as swiftly on the crowd as oil upon a flame. +It seemed as if the wave of news swept like a tide across the street, +down the thoroughfare, and into every shop. +</P> + +<P> +Two automobiles were halted in the road, their engines purring as they +stood. Their drivers dismounted to join the gathering throng. One of +the men was Bostwick, down from the hills. He had searched for Beth at +Mrs. Dick's, and then had followed here. +</P> + +<P> +"Barger! Barger's dead in camp and the 'Laughing Water' claim was +stolen—and Culver killed!" One man bawled it to the crowd—and it +sped to Bostwick's ears. +</P> + +<P> +One being only departed from the scene—Trimmer, the lumberman, swiftly +seeking McCoppet. +</P> + +<P> +Van, in his heat, had told too much, accusing the prisoner in hand. He +silenced Gettysburg abruptly and started to force aside the crowd. +</P> + +<P> +"Gentlemen, gentlemen, move aside," he said. "I've got—by Jupe! +there's Bostwick!" +</P> + +<P> +It was Bostwick fleeing to his car that Van had discovered. Searle had +seen enough in the briefest of glances. He had heard too much. He +realized that only in flight could the temper of the mob be avoided. +He had seen this mob in action once before—and the walls of his +stomach caved. +</P> + +<P> +Like a youthful Hercules in strength and action, Van went plunging +through the crowd to get his man. But he could not win. Bostwick had +speeded up his motor in a panic for haste and his car leaped away like +a dragon on wings, the muffler cut-out roaring like a gattling. +</P> + +<P> +Van might perhaps have shot and killed the escaping man who held the +wheel, but he wanted Searle alive. +</P> + +<P> +A roar from the crowd replied to the car. A score of men ran madly in +pursuit. None of them knew the details of the case, but they knew that +Bostwick was wanted. +</P> + +<P> +They drifted rearward from the hurtling car like fragments of paper in +its wake. The few down street who danced for a moment before the +modern juggernaut, to stop it in its course, sprang nimbly away as it +rocketed past—and Searle was headed for the desert. +</P> + +<P> +One wild, sweeping glance Van cast about, for a horse or something to +ride. Suvy was stabled, unsaddled, up the street. Bostwick and his +cloud of dust were dropping away in a swiftly narrowing perspective. +And there stood a powerful, dusty-red car—empty—its motor in motion! +</P> + +<P> +There was no time to search for its owner. There were half a dozen +different cars with which Van Buren was familiar. He ran to it, +glanced at its levers, wheel, and clutch, recognized the one type he +had coveted, and hurled himself into the seat. +</P> + +<P> +"Here! You!" yelled the owner, fighting through the crowd, but three +big miners fell upon him and bore him to the earth. They hoped to see +a race. +</P> + +<P> +They saw it begin with a promptness incredible. +</P> + +<P> +One—two changes of the snarling gears they heard before the deafening +cut-out belched its explosions. Then down the street, in pursuit of +the first, the second machine was fired. +</P> + +<P> +The buildings, to Van, were blended in grayish streaks, on either side, +as his gaze was fastened on the vanishing car ahead. He shoved up his +spark, gave her all the gas, froze to the wheel like a man of +steel—and swooped like a ground-skimming comet out upon the world. +</P> + +<P> +The road for a distance of fully five miles was comparatively level. +It was rutted by the wheels of heavy traffic, but with tires in the +dusty ruts a car ran unimpeded. +</P> + +<P> +Both, for a time were in the road, flaying up a cloud of smoke like a +cyclone ripping out its path. +</P> + +<P> +Searle had not only gained a half-mile lead, but his car was apparently +swifter. He knew its every trick and ounce of power. He drove +superbly. He was reckless now, for he had not missed the knowledge +that behind him was a meteor burning up his trail. +</P> + +<P> +Like a leaping beast—a road-devouring minotaur—the car with Van shot +roaringly through space. He could not tell that Searle, ahead, was +slipping yet further in the lead. He only knew that, come what might, +till the mechanism burst, or the earth should split, he would chase his +man across the desert. The dust in the air from Bostwick's car drove +blindingly upon him. Far, far away, a mere speck on the road, he +beheld a freight-team approaching—a team of twenty animals at least, +that he and Bostwick must encounter. +</P> + +<P> +A sudden memory of road conditions decided him to move. The ruts where +he was were bad enough—they were worse where the team must be passed. +</P> + +<P> +He did not reduce his speed to take to the brush. The car beneath him +flung clean off the ground as he swung to climb out of the grooves. It +landed with all four wheels a-spin, but only struck on two. A sudden +swerve, far out of the course, and the monster righted abruptly. +Another sharp turn, and away it went again, crushing the brush and +flinging up the sand in a track of its own that paralleled the road, +but rougher though free from the ruts. +</P> + +<P> +The brush was small, six inches high, but the wheels bounced over it +madly. The whole car hurtled and bounded in a riot of motion. It +dived, it plunged nose upward, it roared like a fiend—but it shot with +cannon-ball velocity across the desert's floor. +</P> + +<P> +Five minutes later Bostwick's car was almost fronting the team in the +road, with its score of dusty mules. He dared not take the ruts at +speed, and groaned as he slowed to climb the bank. He lost but little +time, however, since once on the side he was going ahead again like +mad; nevertheless, he cast a glance behind and saw that his gap had +narrowed. Moreover, he would not attempt to return to the ruts as +before, as a second of the teams was coming a mile or so away. +</P> + +<P> +Like two pitching porpoises, discharging fiery wrath and skimming the +gray of the desert sea, the two devices raced upon the brush. And +nerve began to tell. Van was absolutely reckless; Searle was not. The +former would have crowded on another notch of speed, but Bostwick +feared, and shut off a trifle of his power. Even then he was rocking, +quivering, careening onward like a star escaped from its course; and +the gains Van made were slow. +</P> + +<P> +The man on the second team paused to see them pass. In smoke and dust +and with war's own din they cleaved the startled air. And the man who +saw the look that had set on Van's hard-chiseled face was aware that +unless his car should fail there was nothing on earth he could not +catch. +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick had begun to weaken. The pace over sage-brush, rocks, and +basins of sand was racking both the car and the nerves that held the +wheel. How long such a flight could be continued he dared not guess. +Even steel has limitations. To what he was fleeing he could scarcely +have told, since the telegraph would send its word throughout the +desert-land, and overhaul him finally. +</P> + +<P> +A sickening apprehension assailed him, however, within the minute. One +of his cylinders was missing. His trained ear caught at the change of +the "tune," and he felt his speed decreasing. He glanced back briefly, +where the dusty lump of steel, like a red-hot projectile, thundered in +his wake. +</P> + +<P> +He beheld a sudden fan-like flare of dust in the cloud Van was making. +He even faintly heard the far report, and a grim joy sprang in his +being. +</P> + +<P> +Van had blown out a tire. Striking the high places, crowding on the +speed, holding to a straight-away course like a merciless fate, the +horseman heard an air cushion go, felt the lurch and lameness of the +car, and steadied it back upon its road. He did not retreat by so much +as a hair the lever advancing his spark. He did not budge the gas +control, but left it still wide open. If all of his tires should blow +out together he would not halt his pace. He would drive that car to +destruction, or to triumph in the race. +</P> + +<P> +Searle's rejoicing endured but the briefest span. His motor had begun +again to splutter, in mechanical death. Then, with a sudden memory, +sweat broke out on Bostwick's face. His gasolene was gone! He had +thoroughly intended refilling his tank, having barely had a sufficient +supply to run him from the claim to camp; and this had been neglected. +</P> + +<P> +His car bumped slowly for a score of yards, then died by the side of +the road. He leaped out madly, to assure himself the tank was really +dry. He cursed, he raved. It seemed absurd for this big, hot creature +to be dead. And meantime, like a whirlwind coming on, Van Buren was +crashing down upon him. +</P> + +<P> +"By God!" he cried, "I'll fix you for this!" and a wild thought flashed +to his mind—a thought of taking Van Buren's car and fleeing as before. +</P> + +<P> +He leaped in the tonneau and caught up a heavy revolver, stored beneath +the seat. He glanced at the cylinder. Four of the cartridges only +were unused. He remained inside the "fort" of the car, with the weapon +cocked and lowered out of sight. +</P> + +<P> +Charging down like a meteor, melting its very course, Van and the red +car came by leaps and plunges. He was shutting off the power +gradually, but still rushing up with frightening speed, when Bostwick +raised his gun and fired. +</P> + +<P> +The bullet went wide, and Van came on. Bostwick steadied and fired +again. There was no such thing as halting the demon in the car. But +the target's size was rapidly increasing! Nevertheless, the third shot +missed, like the others. Would the madman never halt? +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick dropped a knee to the floor, steadied the barrel on the +cushion, lined up the sights, and pulled the trigger. +</P> + +<P> +With the roar of the weapon Van abruptly drooped. The bullet had +pierced his shoulder. And he still came on. His face had suddenly +paled; his lips had hardened in a manner new to his face. He halted +the car, aware that his foe had exhausted his ammunition, since no more +shots were fired. +</P> + +<P> +His own big gun he drew deliberately. To sustain himself, through the +shock of his wound, was draining the utmost of his nerve. He was +hardly ten feet away from the man who stood there, a captive in his car. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Searle," he said, "you're a better shot than I thought—and a +better driver. In fact you drive so almighty well I am going to let +you drive me back to camp." He arose from his seat. He was bleeding. +His left arm was all but useless. "Come down," he added. "Come down +and take my seat. And don't make the slightest error in etiquette, +Searle, or I'll see if a forty-some-odd ball will bounce when it lands +on your skull." +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick had expected to be shot on the spot. No cornered rat could +have been more abjectly afraid. His nerve had oozed away the more for +the grimness of the man who stood before him—a man with such a wound +as that who was still the master of his forces! +</P> + +<P> +He was terribly white. His teeth fairly chattered in his head. He had +played a desperate part—and lost. The race and this present +<I>denouement</I> had shattered the man completely. He came down to the +ground and stood there, silently staring at Van. +</P> + +<P> +Despite his show of strength Van stepped with difficulty to the back of +his car and seated himself within. +</P> + +<P> +"Up in the seat there, Searle," he repeated, "and drive back at +moderate speed." +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick's surrender was complete. He climbed to the driver's +position, still silently, and started the car in an automatic way that +knew no thought of resistance. At the rear of his head Van held the +gun, and back towards Goldite they rolled. +</P> + +<P> +Two miles out the sheriff, in a borrowed car, grimly seated at the +driver's side, came bearing down upon them. The cars were halted long +enough for the sheriff to take his place with Searle, and then they +hastened on. +</P> + +<P> +Christler had instantly seen that Van was wounded. He as quickly +realized that to rush Van to town and medical attendance was the only +possible plan. +</P> + +<P> +He merely said, "You're hurt." +</P> + +<P> +Van tried to smile. "Slightly punctured." He was rapidly losing +strength. +</P> + +<P> +Christler thought to divert him. He shouted above the purring of the +car. +</P> + +<P> +"Found Matt all right. I'm goin' to take him back to the State +authorities in that convict suit that's hangin' 'round the store." +</P> + +<P> +Van was instantly aroused. "No you don't Bill! No you don't! I've +got use for those stripes myself. You'll buy Matt the best suit of +clothes in town, and charge the bill to me." +</P> + +<P> +If Bostwick heard, or understood, he did not make a sign. He was +driving like a servant on the box, but he could not have stood on his +feet. +</P> + +<P> +They were nearing the town. A cavalcade of horsemen, drivers of +buggies, and men on foot came excitedly trooping down the road to meet +the short procession. +</P> + +<P> +Despite his utmost efforts, Van was gone. Weak from the loss of blood +and the shock, he could hold up his frame no longer. +</P> + +<P> +"Bill," he said, as the sheriff turned around, "I guess I'm—all +in—for a little. Cold storage <I>him</I>, till I get back on my feet." +</P> + +<P> +He waved a loose gesture towards Bostwick, then sank unconscious on the +floor. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap45"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XLV +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE LAST CIGARS +</H3> + +<P> +Trimmer, the lumberman, not to be stayed, had broken in upon McCoppet +ruthlessly, with perceptions unerring concerning the troubles in the +air, when Lawrence was arrested. The gambler consented to an interview +with instinctive regard for his safety. That something significant was +laid on Trimmer's mind he felt with a subtle sense of divination. +</P> + +<P> +The lumberman, smoking furiously, came to his point with utmost +directness. +</P> + +<P> +"Opal," he said, "I'm goin' away, and I want ten thousand dollars. I +want it now. You owe me some you ain't paid up, and now I'm raisin' +the ante." +</P> + +<P> +"You're raising bunions," McCoppet assured him softly, throwing away +his unsmoked cigar and putting a fresh one in his mouth. "I'll pay you +what I agreed—when I get the ready cash." +</P> + +<P> +"Think so, do you, Opal?" inquired the lumberman, eying his man in +growing restlessness. "I think different, savvy? I'm onto you and +your game with Lawrence—you payin' him twenty thousand bucks to fake +the reservation. I want ten thousand right away, in the next ten +minutes, or you'd better pack your trunk." +</P> + +<P> +McCoppet, startled by the accusation, watched the savage manner in +which the lumberman ate up the smoke of his weed. He could think of +one way only in which a man of Trimmer's mentality could have come upon +certain private facts. +</P> + +<P> +"So," he said presently, "you crawled in under this place, this floor, +and caught it through the cracks." +</P> + +<P> +"Knot-hole," said Trimmer gesturing, "that one over there. And I tell +you, Opal, I want that money now. Do you hear? I want it now!" He +smashed his heavy fist upon the table, and off flew the ash of his +cigar. +</P> + +<P> +"What will you do if I refuse?" the gambler asked him coldly. "Wait! +Hold on! Don't forget, my friend, that Culver's murder is up to you, +and I'll give you up in a minute." +</P> + +<P> +The lumberman rose. Every moment that passed increased the danger to +them both. +</P> + +<P> +"Look a-here, Opal," he said in a threatening voice of anger, "I ain't +a-goin' to fool with you no longer. Hear me shout? Culver's up to you +as much as me. You stole the 'Laughin' Water' claim. There's hell +a-sizzlin' down the street right now—down to Lawrence's. If you don't +cough up ten thousand bucks pretty pronto——" +</P> + +<P> +"So, Larry—so, you've split on me already," the gambler interrupted, +rising and narrowing his gaze upon the bloated face. "You've peddled +it maybe, and now you come to me——" +</P> + +<P> +"I ain't peddled nuthin'!" Trimmer cut in angrily. "I didn't tell no +one but Barger, and he ain't no friend of Van Buren's. But Lawrence is +caught. Pratt run out the line, and now it's me that stands between +you and trouble, and I want the money to stand." +</P> + +<P> +McCoppet was far less calm than he appeared. How much was already +really known to the town was a matter wholly of conjecture. And +Trimmer's haste to cash in thus and probably vanish excited his gravest +suspicions. He eyed his friend narrowly. +</P> + +<P> +"Larry, we'll wait and see how much you've maybe leaked." +</P> + +<P> +"No we won't wait fer nuthin'!—not fer nuthin', understand?" corrected +Trimmer aggressively. "I ain't a-trustin' you, Opal, no more! You +done me up at every turn, and now, by God! you're goin' to come to +terms!" He pulled an ugly, rusty gun, and thumped with its muzzle on +the table. "You'll never leave this room alive if I don't git the +money. Ring fer it, Opal, ring the bell, and order it in with the +drinks!" +</P> + +<P> +McCoppet would have temporized. It was not so much the money now as +the state of affairs in the street. How much was known?—and what was +being done? These were the questions in his mind. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't get excited, friend," he said. "If things are out, and you and +I are caught with the aces in our sleeves, we may have to fight back to +back." He was edging around to draw his pistol unobserved, +</P> + +<P> +But Trimmer was alert. "Stand still, there, Opal, I've got the drop," +he said. "I'm lookin' out fer number one, this morning, understand? +You ring the——" +</P> + +<P> +A sudden, loud knock at the door broke in upon his speech, and both men +started in alarm. +</P> + +<P> +"Opal! Opal!" cried a muffled voice in accents of warning just outside +the door, "Christler's on your trail! Come out! Come out and—huh! +Too late! You'll have to get out the window!" +</P> + +<P> +The roar and excitement of the coming crowd, aroused to a wild +indignation, broke even to the den. An army of citizens, leading the +way for Christler's deputies, was storming McCoppet's saloon. +</P> + +<P> +He heard, and a little understood. He knew too much to attempt to +explain, to accuse even Trimmer to a mob in heat. Nothing but flight +was possible, and perhaps even that was a risk. +</P> + +<P> +He started for the window. Trimmer leaped before him. +</P> + +<P> +"No you don't!" he said. "I told you, Opal——" +</P> + +<P> +"Take that!" the gambler cut in sharply. His gun leaped out with flame +at its end; and the roar, fire, bullet, and all seemed to bury in the +lumberman's body. A second shot and a third did the same—and Trimmer +went down like a log. +</P> + +<P> +His gun had fallen from his hand. With all his brute vitality he +crawled to take it up. One of the bullets had pierced his heart, but +yet he would not die. +</P> + +<P> +McCoppet had snatched up a chair and with it he beat out the window. +Then Trimmer's gun crashed tremendously—and Opal sank against the sill. +</P> + +<P> +He faced his man. A ghastly pallor spread upon his countenance. He +went down slowly, like a man of melting snow, his cigar still hanging +on his lip. +</P> + +<P> +He saw the lumberman shiver. But the fellow crowded his cigar stump in +his mouth, with fire and all, and chewed it up as he was dying. +</P> + +<P> +"Good shot," said McCoppet faintly. His head went forward on his +breast and he crumpled on the floor. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap46"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XLVI +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +WASTED TIME +</H3> + +<P> +Van was conveyed to Mrs. Dick's. The fever attacked him in his +helplessness and delirium claimed him for its own. He glided from +unconsciousness into a wandering state of mind before the hour of noon. +</P> + +<P> +His wound was an ugly, fiery affair, made worse by all that he did. +For having returned from his lethargy, he promptly began to fight anew +all his battles with horses, men, and love that had crossed his summer +orbit. +</P> + +<P> +Gettysburg, Dave, and Napoleon begged for the brunt of the battle. +They got it. For three long days Van lay upon his bed and flung them +all around the room. He hurt them, bruised them, even called them +names, but ever like three faithful dogs, whom beatings will never +discourage—the beatings at least of a master much beloved—they +returned undaunted to the fray, with affection constantly increasing. +</P> + +<P> +There were three other nurses—two women and Algy, the cook. But Beth +was the one who slept the least, who glided most often to the sick +man's side, who wetted his lips and renewed the ice and gave him a +cooler pillow. And she it was who suffered most when he called upon +her name. +</P> + +<P> +"Beth! Beth!" he would call in a wildness of joy, and then pass his +hand across his eyes, repeating: "—this is the man I hate more than +anyone else in the world!" +</P> + +<P> +That she finally knew, that the tell-tale portion of her letter had +been found when Bostwick was searched—all this availed her nothing +now, as she pleaded with Van to understand. He fought his fights, and +ran his race, and returned to that line so many times that she feared +it would kill him in the end. +</P> + +<P> +At midnight on that final day of struggling he lay quite exhausted and +weak. His mind was still adrift upon its sea of dreams, but he fought +his fights no more. The fever was still in possession, but its method +had been changed. It had pinned him down as a victim at last, for +resistance had given it strength. +</P> + +<P> +At evening of the seventh day he had slept away the heat. He was +wasted, his face had grown a tawny stubble of beard, but his strength +had pulled him through. +</P> + +<P> +The sunlight glory, as the great orb dipped into purple hills afar, +streamed goldenly in through the window, on Beth, alone at his side. +It blazoned her beauty, lingering in her hair, laying its roseate tint +upon the pale moss-roses of her cheeks. It richened the wondrous +luster of her eyes, and deepened their deep brown tenderness of love. +She was gold and brown and creamy white, with tremulous coral lips. +Yet on her face a greater beauty burned—the beauty of her +inner-self—the beauty of her womanhood, her nature, shining through. +</P> + +<P> +This was the vision Van looked upon, when his eyes were open at last. +He opened them languidly, as one at peace and restored to control by +rest. He looked at her long, and presently a faint smile dawned in his +eyes. +</P> + +<P> +She could not speak, as she knelt at his side, to see him thus return. +She could only place her hand upon her cheek and give herself up to his +gaze—give all she was, and all her love, and a yearning too vast to be +expressed. +</P> + +<P> +The smile from his eyes went creeping down his face as the dawn-glow +creeps down a mountain. Perhaps in a dream he had come upon the truth, +or perhaps from the light of her soul. For he said with a faint, wan +smile upon his lips: +</P> + +<P> +"I don't believe it, Beth. You meant to write 'love' in your letter." +</P> + +<P> +The tears sprang out of her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"I did! I did! I did!" she sobbed in joy too great to be contained. +"I've always loved you, <I>always</I>!" +</P> + +<P> +Despite his wound, his weakness—all—she thrust an arm beneath his +neck and pillowed her cheek on his breast. He wanted no further +explanation, and she had no words to spend. +</P> + +<P> +One of his arms was remarkably efficient. It circled her promptly and +drew her up till he kissed her on the lips. Then he presently said: +</P> + +<P> +"How much time have we wasted?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, <I>days</I>!" she said, warmly blushing. "Ever since that night on the +desert." +</P> + +<P> +He shook a smiling negative. +</P> + +<P> +"Wrong. We've wasted all our lives." +</P> + +<P> +He kissed her again, then sank into slumber with the dusk. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap47"></A> +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XLVII +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A TRIBUTE TO THE DESERT +</H3> + +<P> +Love is a healer without a rival in the world. Van proved it—Van and +Beth, of course, together, with Gettysburg, Dave, and Napoleon to help, +and Algy to furnish the sauce. All were present, including Glen and +Mrs. Dick, on the summer day of celebration when at last Van came down +to dinner. At sight of the wan, wasted figure, Algy, in his +characteristic way, fought down his heathen emotions. +</P> + +<P> +"What's mallah you, Van?" he demanded, his face oddly twitching as he +spoke. "Makee evlybody <I>sick</I>! That velly superstich! Nobody's got +time cly for you come home—makee my dinner spoil!" +</P> + +<P> +He bolted for the kitchen, swearing in loving Chinese. +</P> + +<P> +But with that day passed, Van soon snatched back his own. His strength +returned like a thing that was capable of gladness, lodging where it +belonged. His spirit had never been dimmed. +</P> + +<P> +Bostwick, who had been detained by the sheriff, faithfully waiting till +Van should "get back on his feet," was almost relieved when his day for +departure finally dawned. He was dressed, at Van's express desire, in +the convict suit which he had worn on the day of his arrival. +</P> + +<P> +Van was on hand when at last the stage, with Bostwick and Christler for +passengers, was ready to pull up the street. +</P> + +<P> +"Searle," he said, "for a man of your stripe you are really to be +envied. You're going to about the only place I know where it's even +remotely possible to be good and not be lonesome." +</P> + +<P> +Searle went. Lawrence, perhaps more fortunate, had managed to escape. +He had fled away to Mexico, taking the bulk of his plunder. +</P> + +<P> +Gettysburg, Dave, and Napoleon returned once more to the placer and +sluices on the hill. Glenmore Kent was of the party, as superintendent +of the mine. He held a degree from a school of mines, and knew even +more than he had learned. Moreover, he had saved the gold pilfered by +Bostwick and McCoppet. +</P> + +<P> +Then one sunny morning Van and Beth were married by a Justice of the +Peace. Algy and Mrs. Dick were the lawful witnesses of the rites. The +only nuptial present was the gift of a gold mine in the mountains to +the bride. +</P> + +<P> +"You see," said Van, "<I>you</I> are my 'Laughing Water' claim—and just +about all I can handle." +</P> + +<P> +They were alone. She came to his arms and kissed him with all the +divinity and passion of her nature. He presently took her face in his +hands and gave her a rough little shake. +</P> + +<P> +"Where shall we go to spend our honeymoon?" +</P> + +<P> +She blushed like a tint of sunset, softly, warmly, and hid her cheek +upon his shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"Out in the desert—underneath the sky." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE END +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Furnace of Gold, by Philip Verrill Mighels + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FURNACE OF GOLD *** + +***** This file should be named 16629-h.htm or 16629-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/2/16629/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Furnace of Gold + +Author: Philip Verrill Mighels + +Illustrator: J. N. Marchand + +Release Date: August 31, 2005 [EBook #16629] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FURNACE OF GOLD *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +The Furnace of Gold + +By + +PHILIP VERRILL MIGHELS + + + + +Author of + +THE PILLARS OF EDEN, BRUVVER JIM'S BABY, ETC + + + + + +Illustrations by + +J. N. MARCHAND + + + + + + +GROSSET & DUNLAP + +Publishers :: New York + + + + +Copyright, 1909, by + +P. V. Mighels + + +Copyright, 1910, by + +Desmond FitzGerald, Inc. + + + +_All Rights Reserved_ + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + + I. PRINCE OR BANDIT + II. INTO THE MOUNTAINS + III. A RESCUE + IV. CONGENIAL COMPANY + V. VAN'S PARTNERS + VI. THE BATTLE + VII. AN EXCHANGE OF QUESTIONS + VIII. A NIGHT'S EXPENSES + IX. PROGRESS AND SALT + X. THE LAUGHING WATER CLAIM + XI. ALGY STIRS UP TROUBLE + XII. BOSTWICK LOSES GROUND + XIII. A COMBINATION OF FORCES + XIV. MOVING A SHACK + XV. HATCHING A PLOT + XVI. INVOLVING BETH + XVII. UNEXPECTED COMPLICATIONS + XVIII. WHEREIN MATTERS THICKEN + XIX. VAN AND BETH AND BOSTWICK + XX. QUEENIE + XXI. IN THE SHADOW OF THE ROPE + XXII. TWO MEETINGS AFTER DARK + XXIII. BETH'S DESPERATION + XXIV. A BLIZZARD OF DUST + XXV. A TIMELY DELIVERANCE + XXVI. THE NIGHT IN THE DESERT + XXVII. TALL STORIES + XXVIII. WORK AND SONG + XXIX. SUSPICIOUS ANSWERS + XXX. BETH'S ONE EXPEDIENT + XXXI. McCOPPET BUSIES HIS MIND + XXXII. THE HARDSHIPS OF THE TRAIL + XXXIII. THE CLOUDS OF TROUBLE GATHER + XXXIV. THE TAKING OF THE CLAIM + XXXV. THE MEETINGS OF TWO STRONG MEN + XXXVI. VAN RUNS AMUCK + XXXVII. THE PRIMITIVE LAW + XXXVIII. BETH MAKES DEMANDS + XXXIX. ALGY'S COOKING AND BETH'S DESPAIR + XL. GLEN AND REVELATIONS + XLI. SUVY PROVES HIS LOVE + XLII. THE FURNACE OF GOLD + XLIII. PREPARING THE NET FOR A DRAW + XLIV. THE ENGINES OF CLIMAX + XLV. THE LAST CIGARS + XLVI. WASTED TIME + XLVII. A TRIBUTE TO THE DESERT + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +He Proceeded to Pan from a Dozen Different + Places in the Cove . . . . Frontispiece [missing from book] + +His Hold Was Giving Way + +The Angry Miner Lurching in Closer to Shoot [missing from book] + +"Don't You Want to Give This Man a Chance?" + +Beth Felt Her Heart Begin New Gymnastics [missing from book] + +No Corpse Snatched from Its Grave Could Have + Been More Helplessly Inert + +"Yesh, He's Broke the Law" + +Till the Mechanism Burst, He would Chase His + Man Across the Desert [missing from book] + + + + +THE FURNACE OF GOLD + + +CHAPTER I + +PRINCE OR BANDIT + +Now Nevada, though robed in gray and white--the gray of sagebrush and the +white of snowy summits--had never yet been accounted a nun when once +again the early summer aroused the passions of her being and the wild +peach burst into bloom. + +It was out in Nauwish valley, at the desert-edge, where gold has been +stored in the hungry-looking rock to lure man away from fairer pastures. +There were mountains everywhere--huge, rugged mountains, erected in the +igneous fury of world-making, long since calmed. Above them all the sky +was almost incredibly blue--an intense ultramarine of extraordinary +clearness and profundity. + +At the southwest limit of the valley was the one human habitation +established thereabout in many miles, a roadside station where a spring +of water issued from the earth. Towards this, on the narrow, side-hill +road, limped a dusty red automobile. + +It contained three passengers, two women and a man. Of the women, one +was a little German maid, rather pretty and demure, whose duty it was to +enact the chaperone. The other, Beth Kent, straight from New York City, +well--the wild peach was in bloom! + +She was amazingly beautiful and winning. It seemed as if she and not the +pink mountain blossoms must be responsible for all that haunting +redolence in this landscape of passionless gray. Her brown eyes burned +with glorious luminosity. Her color pulsed with health and the joyance +of existence. Her red lips quivered with unuttered ecstacies that surged +in the depths of her nature. Even the bright brown strands of her hair, +escaping the prison of her cap, were catching the sunlight and flinging +it off in the most engaging animation. She loved this new, unpeopled +land--the mountains, the sky, the vastness of it all! + +For a two-fold reason she had come from New York to Nevada. In the first +place her young half-brother, Glenville Kent--all the kin she had +remaining in the world--had been for a month at Goldite camp, where she +was heading, and all that he wrote had inflamed her unusual love of +adventure till she knew she must see it for herself. Moreover, he was +none too well. She had come to visit and surprise him. + +In the second place, her fiance, Searle Bostwick, he who was now at the +wheel, had also been marooned, as it were, in this sagebrush land, by the +golden allurements of fortune. Beth had simply made up her mind to come, +and for two days past had been waiting, with her maid, at the pretty +little town of Freemont, on the railroad, for Searle to appear in his +modern ship of the desert and treat her to the one day's drive into +Goldite, whither he also was bound. + +The man now intent on the big machine and the sandy road was a noticeable +figure, despite the dust upon his raiment. He was a tall, well-modeled +man of thirty-five, with an air of distinction upon him, materially +heightened by his deep-set, piercing gray eyes, his firm, bluish jaw, and +the sprinkling of frost in his hair. + +He wore no moustache. His upper lip, somewhat over long, bore that same +bluish tint that a thick growth of beard, even when diligently shaved, +imparted to his face. He was, indeed, a handsome being, in a somewhat +stern, determined style. + +He was irritated now by the prospect of labor at the station. Even +should he find some willing male being whose assistance with the tire +might be invoked, the task would still involve himself rather +strenuously; and above all things he loathed rough usage of his hands. +For three more miles he cursed the mechanism, then he halted the car at +the station. + +A shack that served as lodging-house, saloon, and dining-room, a shack +for a stable, and a shack for a shed, together with a rough corral, +comprised the entire group of buildings at the place. Six or eight fine +cottonwoods and a number of twisted apple trees made the little place +decidedly inviting. Behind these, rising almost sheer from the level +yard, the mountains heaved upward grayly, their vast bulk broken, some +hundred yards away, by a yawning rock canyon, steep and forbidding. + +The station proprietor, who emerged from the door at sound of the halting +machine, was a small, lank individual, as brown as an Indian and as +wrinkled as a crocodile. The driver in the car addressed him shortly. + +"I wonder if you can help me put on a tire?" + +The lank little host regarded him quietly, then looked at the women and +drew his hand across his mouth. + +"Wal, I dunno," he answered. "I've set a tire and I've set a hen, but I +wouldn't like to tell ye what was hatched." + +The girl in the tonneau laughed in frank delight--a musical outburst that +flattered the station host tremendously. The man at the wheel was +already alighting. + +"You'll do," he said. "My name is Bostwick. I'm on my way to Goldite, +in a hurry. It won't take us long, but it wants two men on the job." + +He had a way of thrusting his disagreeable tasks upon his fellow beings +before they were prepared either to accept or refuse a proposition. He +succeeded here so promptly that the girl in the car made no effort to +restrain her amusement. She was radiantly smiling as she leaned above +the wheel where the two men were presently at work. + +In the midst of the toil a sound of whistling came upon the air. The +girl in the auto looked up, alertly. It was the Toreador's song from +Carmen that she heard, riotously rendered. A moment later the whistler +appeared--and an exclamation all but escaped the girl's red, parted lips. + +Mounted on a calico pony of strikingly irregular design, a horseman had +halted at the bend of a trail that led to the rear of the station. He +saw the girl and his whistling ceased. + +From his looks he might have been a bandit or a prince. He was a roughly +dressed, fearless-looking man of the hills, youthful, tall, and as +carelessly graceful in the saddle as a fish in its natural clement. + +The girl's brown eyes and his blue eyes met. She did not analyze the +perfect symmetry or balance of his features; she only knew his hair and +long moustache were tawny, that his face was bronzed, that his eyes were +bold, frank depths of good humor and fire. He was splendid to look +at--that she instantly conceded. And she looked at him steadily till a +warm flush rose to the pink of her ears, when her glance fell, abashed, +to the pistol that hung on his saddle, and so, by way of the hoofs of his +pinto steed, to the wheel, straight down where she was leaning. + +The station-keeper glanced up briefly. + +"Hullo, Van," was all he said. + +The horseman made no reply. He was still engaged in looking at the girl +when Bostwick half rose, with a tool in hand, and scowled at him silently. + +It was only a short exchange of glances that passed between the pair, +nevertheless something akin to a challenge played in the momentary +conflict, as if these men, hurled across the width of a continent to +meet, had been molded by Fate for some antagonistic clash, the essence of +which they felt thus soon with an utter strangeness between them. + +Bostwick bent promptly to his labors with the tire. The girl in the +tonneau stepped past her maid and opened the door on the further side of +the car. Bostwick stood up at once. + +"I wouldn't get out, Beth--I wouldn't get out," he said, a little +impatiently. "We'll be ready to go in five minutes." + +Nevertheless she alighted. + +"Don't hurry on my account," she answered. "The day is getting warm." + +The eyes of both Bostwick and the horseman followed her graceful figure +as she passed the front of the car and proceeded towards the orchard. +Above the medium height and superbly modeled, she appeared more beautiful +now than before. She had not descended for a change of position, or even +to inspect the place. As a matter of fact she was hoping to secure a +profile view of the bold-looking horseman on the pony. Her opportunity +soon arrived. He spoke to the station proprietor. + +"Want to see you for a moment, Dave," and he rode a little off to a tree. + +Dave ceased helping on the tire with marked alacrity and went to the +horseman at once. The two engaged in an earnest conversation, somewhat +of which obviously concerned the auto and its passengers, since the lank +little host made several ill-concealed gestures in the car's direction +and once turned to look at the girl. + +She had halted by the orchard fence from which, as a post of vantage, she +was apparently looking over all the place. Her brown eyes, however, +swung repeatedly around to the calico pony and its rider. + +Yes, she agreed, the horseman was equal to the scene. He fitted it all, +mountains, sky, the sense of wildness and freedom in the air. What was +he, then? Undoubtedly a native--perhaps part Indian--perhaps---- + +There was something sinister, she was certain, in the glance he cast +towards the car. He was armed. Could it be that he and the station man +were road-agents, plotting some act of violence? They were certainly +talking about the machine, or its owner, with exceptional earnestness of +purpose. + +Bostwick had finished with the tire. + +"Come along, Beth, come along!" he called abruptly. + +No sooner had she turned to walk to the car than the horseman rode up in +her path. Her heart sank suddenly with misgivings. She halted as the +unknown visitor addressed himself to Bostwick. + +"May I speak to you a moment privately?" + +Bostwick bristled with suspicions at once. + +"I have nothing of a private nature to discuss with you," he answered. +"If you have anything to say to me, please say it and be prompt." + +The horseman changed color, but lost no whit of the native courtesy that +seemed a part of his being. + +"It isn't particularly private," he answered quietly. "I only wished to +say I wouldn't rush off to Goldite this morning. I'd advise you to stay +here and rest." + +Bostwick, already irritated by delay, and impervious to any thought of a +possible service in the horseman's attitude, grew more impatient and far +more irritating. + +"I haven't desired your advice," he answered sharply. "Be good enough to +keep it to yourself." He advanced to the station owner, held out a bill, +and added: "Here you are, my man, for your trouble." + +"Heck!" said the lank little host. "I don't want your money." + +Across the horseman's handsome visage passed a look that, to the girl, +boded anything but peace. Bostwick's manner was an almost intolerable +affront, in a land where affronts are resented. However, the stranger +answered quietly, despite the fact that Bostwick nettled him to an +extraordinary degree. + +"I agree that the sooner _you_ vamoose, the prompter the improvement in +the landscape. But you're not going off to Goldite with these ladies in +the car." + +Matters might still have culminated differently had Bostwick even asked a +civil "Why?" for Van was a generous and easy-going being. + +Beth, in the road, felt her heart beat violently, with vague excitement +and alarm. Bostwick glared, in sudden apprehension as to what the +horseman had in mind. + +"Is this a hold-up?" he demanded. "What do you mean?" + +The rider dismounted, in a quick, active manner, and opened the door of +the tonneau. + +"You wouldn't have thanked me for advice," he replied; "you would hardly +thank me more for information." He added to the maid in the car: + +"Please alight, your friend is impatient to be starting." He nodded +towards the owner of the auto. + +The maid came down, demurely, casting but a glance at the tall, +commanding figure by the wheel. He promptly lifted out a suitcase and +three decidedly feminine-looking bags. + +Bostwick by now was furious. + +"It's an outrage!" he cried, "a dastardly outrage! You can see I am +wholly unarmed! Do you mean to restrain these ladies here by force?" + +The horseman slipped his arm through the reins of his pony's bridle, +surveying Bostwick calmly. + +"Do you mean to desert them if I do? I have not yet ordered you to +leave." + +"Ordered me to leave!" echoed the car owner fiercely. "I can neither be +ordered to leave nor to stay! But I shall go--do you hear?--I shall +go--and the ladies with me! If you mean to rob us, do so at once and +have it over! My time is precious, if yours is not!" + +Van smiled. "I might be tempted to rob a gentleman," he said, "but to +deprive your passengers of your company would be a charity. Pray waste +no more of your precious time if that is your only concern." + +Beth had regained a shadow of her former composure. Her courage had +never been absent. She was less alarmed than before and decidedly +curious as to what this encounter might signify. She dared address the +horseman. + +"But--but surely--you seem---- You must have some excellent reason +for--for acting so peculiarly." + +He could not repress the brightness in his eyes as he met her +half-appealing gaze. + +"Reason, advice, and information would apparently be alike unwelcome to +your chauffeur," he answered, doffing his hat. "He is eager to hasten on +his way, therefore by all means let us bid him begone." + +Bostwick grew rapidly wilder at each intimation of his social standing--a +friend of the maid, and Beth's chauffeur! His impatience to proceed with +all possible haste to Goldite was consuming. He had not intended that +anything under the sun should delay him another single hour--not even +Beth, should occasion arise to detain her. Even now he was far more +concerned about himself and the business of his mission than he was for +the women in his charge. He was much afraid, however, of the horseman's +visible gun. He was not at all a person of courage, and the man before +him presented such an unknown quantity that he found himself more or less +helpless. At most he could merely attempt a bluff. + +"You'll pay for this!" he cried somewhat shrilly, his face a black mask +of anger. "I'll give you just half a minute to release these ladies and +permit them to go with me in peace! If you refuse----" + +The horseman interrupted. + +"I said before you had not been ordered on your way, but now I've changed +my mind. Don't talk any more--get into your car and hike!" + +The gleam in his eye achieved two results: It cowed the last vestige of +bravado in Bostwick's composition and ignited all the hatred of his +nature. He hesitated for a moment, his lips parting sidewise as if for a +speech of defiance which his moral courage refused to indorse. Then, not +daring to refuse the horseman's command, he climbed aboard the car, the +motor of which had never ceased its purring. + +"You'll pay for this!" he repeated. + +The girl, now pale again and tremendously disturbed, was regarding +Bostwick with a new, cold light in her eyes--a light that verged upon +contempt. She had never seen this lack of courageous spirit in the man +before. + +"But, Searle! You're not going--you're not really going, like this?" + +It was the horseman who replied. + +"You see, his time is precious. Also in his present state of mind he is +certainly unfit company for--well, for Dave, here, a man who loves the +pure white dove of peace." The station owner grinned. Van turned once +more to the car owner, adding, placidly: "There, there, driver----" + +Bostwick broke in vehemently. + +"I refuse to abandon these ladies! Your conduct is not only that of a +coward, it is----" + +Van looked him over in mock astonishment. + +"Say, Searle," he said, "don't you savvy you've lost your vote in this +convention? I told you to do these ladies the kindness to sweeten the +atmosphere with your absence. Now you hit the trail--and hit it quick!" + +Bostwick looked helplessly at the girl. + +"I am entirely unarmed," he said as before, though she knew there was a +pistol in the car. "This ruffian----" + +The horseman cut him short. + +"So long, Searle. I trust you'll meet congenial company on the road, but +I advise you even now to return the way you came." + +Bostwick glared at him vindictively, but impotently. His jaw was set and +hard. A cold fire glittered in his eyes. How selfishly eager he was to +be started on his way not even the girl could have known. Moreover, some +sort of plan for the horseman's speedy punishment had taken possession of +his mind. + +"Have courage, Beth," he said to the girl. "Have courage." + +He speeded up his motor, dropped in his clutch, and the car slowly +started on its way. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +INTO THE MOUNTAINS + +Beth stood perfectly still beside the road, watching the auto round the +hill where it presently disappeared from view. The station owner +picked up a sliver of wood and began to whittle industriously. The +horseman remained with his bridle reins in hand, amusedly looking at +his captive. The maid sat down upon the suitcase, dropped her skirt in +a modest little manner, and cast her gaze upon the ground. + +Beth was the first to speak. + +"Well, Elsa, I hope you are comfortable." + +"Yes, Miss, thank you," said the maid. + +Thereupon Miss Kent turned to the horseman and laughed. Someway she +could not feel alarmed, in the presence of this man of the hills, in +whose eyes merry devils were dancing. + +"Isn't this absurd?" she said. + +"Searle must have been born absurd," replied the horseman, once more +removing his hat. He waved it towards the station host imperiously. +"Dave, present me to the lady." And as Dave floundered, hopelessly +puzzled, he added: "Give me a knock-down, man, don't you savvy?" + +Dave dropped his sliver, snatched off his hat, and rid himself of a +quid of something strong--all in one convulsion of activity. + +"'Scuse me," he apologized, approaching nearer. "Miss--Miss--Miss +Laffin' Water, this is Van. His whole name's----" + +"That's enough," Van interrupted. "I'm gratified to meet you, +Senorita, I'm sure." + +He extended his hand. Beth knew not what to do, wherefore she gave him +her own. + +"How do you do, Mr. Van?" she answered tremulously, and she drew her +fingers back again at once. "If you don't mind," she added, "we really +must continue on to Goldite as soon as possible." A fleeting look of +doubt and alarm had swept all the mirth from her eyes. After all, even +with this "introduction" what were these men's intentions? It was a +grave affair to be halted thus--to be practically abducted--to be left +with no protection, in the hands of roadside strangers, one, at least, +of whom was certainly inclined to be lawless and outrageously bold. + +The horseman regarded her seriously, as if with a certain divination of +her worry. Someway, from the look in his eyes her confidence returned, +she knew not why. + +"Do you ride?" he asked her, "--you and your maid?" + +"Why, yes--that is----" she addressed the maid on the suitcase. "Elsa, +can you ride--on a horse?" + +Elsa said: "Yes, Miss, if it is part of my duty." + +Beth's composure increased. After all, it was a glorious day, the +horseman was handsome, and she had wished for a little adventure--but +not too much! + +"What does it mean?" she asked of Van more boldly. "We were perfectly +comfortable, riding in the car. If you really intend to permit us to +go, why couldn't we have gone on as we were?" + +Dave started to answer. + +"You see, Miss----" + +Van cut in abruptly. + +"Never mind, Dave; this isn't your pie." To Beth he added: "If you've +brought any particularly appropriate garments for riding, suppose you +retire for preparations. Dave will tote the bags inside the house." + +"You bet I will!" said Dave, who, as Elsa rose, took suitcase and all +in one load. + +Beth hesitated. The horseman had started already for the stable at the +rear. How superbly straight was his figure! What a confident, +impudent grace beset him as he moved! How could it be possible for +such a man to be other than a gentleman--no matter where he was found? +Some strange little thrill of excitement and love of adventure stirred +in the girl's full veins. Resistance was useless. Come what might, +she was helpless in the hands of this man--and he seemed a person to be +trusted. + +"Come, Elsa," she said, bravely deciding to face whatsoever might +arise. "You may wear the second of my skirts." + +Fifteen minutes later, therefore, she and her maid emerged from the +shack attired in brown cloth, and kahki, respectively, her own skirt +long and graceful, while Elsa's was shorter and divided. Aside or +cross-saddle Beth was equally at home upon a horse--or always had been, +in the parks. + +Van and Dave now returned, leading two extra ponies from the stable. +One was a bay, accoutered with a man's deep Mexican saddle, whereon was +secured a coiled lasso; the other was a wiry little roan mare, with a +somewhat decrepit but otherwise sound side-saddle tightly cinched upon +her back. + +"Our stable chamberlain has slipped a cog on the outfits for ladies +recently," said Van apologetically, "but I reckon these will have to +do." + +Beth looked the two mounts over uncritically. They seemed to be +equally matched, as to general characteristics, since neither appeared +either strong or plump. She said: + +"Shall we ride very far?" + +"No, just a pleasant little jog," replied the horseman. "They call it +forty miles to Goldite by the ridge, but it isn't an inch over thirty." + +Thirty miles!--over the mountains!--with an unknown man and her maid! +Beth suppressed a gasp of despair and astonishment, not to mention +trepidation, by making an effort that verged upon the heroic. + +"But we--we can never arrive in Goldite tonight!" she said. "We can't +expect to, can we?" + +"It takes more than that to kill these bronchos," Van cheerfully +assured her. "I can only guarantee that the horses will make it--by +sunset." + +Beth flushed. He evidently entertained a very poor notion of her +horsemanship. Her pride was aroused. She would show him something--at +least that no horse could make this journey without her! + +"Thank you," she said, and advancing to the roan she addressed herself +to Dave. "Will you please help me up. Mr. Van may assist my maid." + +Dave grinned and performed his offices as best he could, which was +strongly, if not with grace. Van shook a threatening fist, behind his +captive's back. He had meant to take this honor to himself. + +Fairly tossing the greatly delighted little Elsa to the seat on the +bay, he mounted his own sturdy animal and immediately started for the +canyon below, leaving Beth and her maid to trail behind. + +The girl's heart all but failed her. Whither were they going?--and +towards what Fate? What could be the outcome of a journey like this, +undertaken so blindly, with no chance for resistance? The horseman had +stubbornly refused a reply to her question; he was calmly riding off +before them now with the utmost indifference to her comfort. There was +nothing to do but to follow, and resign herself to--the Lord alone knew +what. The little roan mare, indeed, required no urging; she was +tugging at the bit to be off. With one last look of helplessness at +the station and Dave--who someway bore the hint of a fatherly air upon +him--she charged her nerves with all possible resolution and rode on +after her leader. + +Elsa permitted her broncho to trudge at the tail of the column. She +dared to cast one shy, disconcerting little glance at Dave--and he +suddenly felt he would burst into flame and consume himself utterly to +ashes. + +The great canyon yawned prodigiously where its rock gates stood open to +grant the party admission to the sanctum of the hills. Sheer granite +walls, austere and frowning, rose in sculptured immensity on either +side, but the trail under foot was scored between some scattered +wild-peach shrubs, interspersed with occasional bright-green clumps of +manzanita. The air was redolent of warmth and fragrance that might +with fitness have advertised the presence in the hills of some +glorified goddess of love--some lofty, invisible goddess, guarded by +her mountain snows, yet still too languorous and voluptuous to pass +without at least trailing on the summery air the breath that exhaled +from her being. It was all a delight, despite vague alarms, and the +promise ahead was inviting. + +Van continued straight onward, with never so much as a turn of his +head, to the horses in the rear. He seemed to have quite forgotten the +two half-frightened women in his wake. Beth had ample opportunity for +observing again the look of strength and grace upon him. However, she +found her attention very much divided between tumultuous joyance in the +mountain grandeur, bathed in the marvelously life-exciting air, and +concern for the outcome of the day. If a faint suggestion of pique at +the manner in which the horseman ignored her presence crept +subconsciously into all her meditations, she did not confess it to +herself. + +Elsa's horrid little habit of accepting anything and everything with +the most irresponsible complacency rendered the situation aggravating. +It was so utterly impossible to discuss with such a being even such of +the morning's developments as the relationship of mistress and maid +might otherwise have permitted. + +A mile beyond the mouth of the canyon the slight ascent was ended, the +chasm widened, rough slopes succeeded the granite walls, and a charming +little valley, emerald green and dotted with groups of quaking aspen +trees, stretched far towards the wooded mountain barriers, looming +hugely ahead. It was like a dainty lake of grass, abundantly supplied +with little islands. + +The sheer enchantment of it, bathed as it was in sun-gold, and +sheltered by prodigious, snow-capped summits, so intensely white +against the intensity of azure, aroused some mad new ecstacy in all +Beth's being. She could almost have done something wild--she knew not +what; and all the alarm subsided from her thoughts. As if in answer to +her tumult of joy, Van spurred his pinto to a gallop. Instantly +responding to her lift of the reins, Beth's roan went romping easily +forward. The bay at the rear, with Elsa, followed rhythmically, +pounding out a measure on the turf. + +A comparatively short session of this more rapid locomotion sufficed +for the transit of the cove--that is, of the wide-open portion. The +trail then dived out of sight in a copse where pine trees were +neighbors of the aspens. Van disappeared, though hardly more than +fifty feet ahead. Through low-hanging boughs, that she needs must push +aside, Beth followed blindly, now decidedly piqued by the wholly +ungallant indifference to her fate of the horseman leading the way. + +She caught but a glimpse of him, now and again, in the density of the +growth. How strange it was to be following thus, meekly, helplessly, +perforce with some sort of confidence, in the charge of this unknown +mountain man, to--whatsoever he might elect! The utterly absurd part +of it all was that it was pleasant! + +At length they emerged from the shady halls of trees, to find +themselves confronted by the wall of mountains. Already Van was riding +up the slope, where larger pines, tall thickets of green chincopin, and +ledges of rock compelled the trail to many devious windings. Once more +the horseman was whistling his Toreador refrain. He did not look back +at his charges. That he was watching them both, from the tail of his +eye, was a fact that Beth felt--and resented. + +The steepness of the trail increased. At times the meager pathway +disappeared entirely. It lay upon rocks that gave no sign of the hoofs +that had previously rung metallic clinks upon the granite. How the man +in the lead discerned it here was a matter Beth could not comprehend. +Some half-confessed meed of admiration, already astir in her nature for +the horseman and his way, increased as he breasted the ascent. How +thoroughly at home--how much a part of it all he appeared, as he rode +upon his pony! + +Two hours of steady climbing, with her mare oblique beneath her weight, +and Beth felt an awe in her being. It was wonderful; it was almost +terrible, the fathomless silence, the altitudes, this heretofore +unexperienced intimacy with the mountains' very nakedness! It was +strange altogether, and impressive, the vast unfolding of the world +below, the frequency with which the pathway skirted some dark +precipice--and the apparent unconcern of the man ahead, now so +absolutely master. And still that soul-inviting exhilaration of the +air aroused those ecstacies within her spirit that she had not known +were there. + +They were nearing the summit of the pass. It was still a thousand feet +below the snow. To the left a mighty chasm trenched the adamant, its +bottom lowered away to depths of mysterious blue. Its side, above +which the three stout ponies picked their way, was a jagged set of +terraces, over the brink of which the descents were perpendicular. + +Rising as if to bar the way, the crowning terrace apparently ended the +trail against all further advance. Here Van finally halted, +dismounted, and waited for the advent of his charges. + +Beth rode up uncertainly, her brown eyes closely scrutinizing his face. +It appeared as if they had come to the end of everything--the place for +leaping off into downward space. + +"Let me see if the cinches are tight," said the horseman quietly, and +he looked to the girth of her saddle. + +It was found to be in a satisfactory condition. The girth on the bay +he tightened, carelessly pushing Elsa's foot and the stirrup aside for +the purpose. + +His own horse now showed unmistakable signs of weariness. He had +traveled some twenty odd miles to arrive at Dave's before undertaking +this present bit of hardship. Since then Van had pushed him to the +limit of his strength and speed, in the effort to reach Goldite with +the smallest possible delay. + +If a sober expression of sympathy came for a second in the horseman's +steady eyes, as he glanced where his pony was standing, it quickly gave +way to something more inscrutable as he looked up at Beth, in advancing +once more to the fore. + +"Both of you give them the reins," he instructed quietly. "Just drop +them down. Let the bronchos pick the trail." He paused, then added, +as if on second thought, "Shut your eyes if you find you're getting +dizzy--don't look down." + +Beth turned slightly pale, in anticipation of some ordeal, undoubtedly +imminent, but the light in her eyes was one of splendid courage. She +might feel they were all at the gate of something awful, but her nature +rose to meet it. She said nothing; she simply obeyed directions and +looked with new emotions on the somewhat drooping mare to whom her own +safety was entrusted. + +Van was once more in his saddle. He started, and the ponies behind +resumed their faithful plodding at his heels. + +A few rods ahead they encountered a change, and Beth could scarcely +repress a gasp of surprise and apprehension. The trail was laid upon +the merest granite shelf, above that terrible chasm. She was +terrified, frankly. The man and pony in the lead were cut with +startling sharpness against the gray of the rock--the calico coloring, +the muscular intensity, the bending of the man to every motion--as they +balanced with terrifying slenderness above the pit of death. + +For a moment the girl thought nothing of herself and of how she too +must pass that awful brink, for all her concern was focused on the man. +Then she realized what she must do--was doing--as her roan mare +followed on. She was almost upon it herself! + +Her hand flew down to the reins to halt the pony, involuntarily. A +wild thought of turning and fleeing away from this shelf of destruction +launched itself upon her mind. It was folly--a thing impossible. +There was nothing to do but go on. Shutting her eyes and holding her +breath she felt the mare beneath her tremulously moving forward, +smelling out the places of security whereon to rest her weight. + +Elsa, sublimely unresponsive, alike to the grandeur or the danger of +the place, rode as placidly here as in the valley. + +They passed the first of the shelf-like brinks, traversed a safer +contour of the wall, and were presently isolated upon the second bridge +of granite, which was also the last, much longer than the first, but +perhaps not so narrow or winding. + +Van had perspired in nervous tension, as the two women rode above the +chasm. Men had gone down here to oblivion. He was easier now, more +careless of himself and horse, less alert for a looseness in the +granite mass, as he turned in his saddle to look backward. + +Suddenly, with a horrible sensation in his vitals, he felt his pony +crumpling beneath him, even as he heard Beth sound a cry. + +A second later he was going, helplessly, with the air-rush in his ears +and the pony's quiver shivering up his spine. All bottomless space +seemed to open where they dropped. He kicked loose the stirrups, even +as the pony struck upon the first narrow terrace, ten feet down, and +felt the helpless animal turned hoofs and belly upward by the blow. + +He had thrust himself free--apart from the horse--but could not cling +to the rotten ledge for more than half a second. Then down once more +he was falling, as before, only a heart-beat later than the pinto. + +Out of the lip of the next shelf below the pony's weight tore a jagged +fragment. The animal's neck was broken, and he and the stone-mass +plunged on downward together. + +Van half way fell through a stubborn bush--that clung with the +mysterious persistency of life to a handful of soil in a crevice--and +his strong hands closed upon its branches. + +He was halted with a jolt. The pony hurtled loosely, grotesquely down +the abyss, bounding from impacts with the terraces, and was presently +lost to mortal sight in the dust and debris he carried below for a +shroud. Sounds of his striking--dull, leaden sounds, tremendous in the +all-pervading silence--came clearly up to the top. Then Van found his +feet could be rested on the shelf, and he let himself relax to ease his +arms. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A RESCUE + +Beth had uttered that one cry only, as man and horse careened above the +pit. She now sat dumbly staring where the two had disappeared. +Nothing could she see of Van or his pony. A chill of horror attacked +her, there in the blaze of the sun. It was not, even then, so much of +herself and Elsa she was thinking--two helpless women, lost in this +place of terrible silence; she was smitten by the fate of their guide. + +Van, for his part, looked about as best he might, observing his +situation comprehensively. He was safe for the moment. The ledge +whereon he was bearing a portion of his weight was narrow and crumbling +with old disintegration. The shrub to which he clung was as tough as +wire cable, and had once been stoutly rooted in the crevice. Now, +however, its hold had been weakened by the heavy strain upon it, and +yet he must continue to trust a part of his weight to its branches. +There was nothing, positively nothing, by which he could hope to climb +to the trail up above. + +He deliberately rested and fostered his breath, not a trifle of which +had been jolted in violence from his body. Presently he raised his +voice and called out, as cheerfully as possible: + +"Ship ahoy! Hullo--Miss Laughing Water!" + +For a moment there was no response. Beth was to utterly overcome to +speak. She hardly dared believe it was his call she heard, issuing up +from the tomb. She feared that her hope, her frantic imagination, her +wish to have it so, had conjured up a voice that had no genuine +existence. Her lips moved, but made no audible sound. She trembled +violently. Van called again, with more of his natural power. + +"Hullo! Hullo! Miss Beth--are you up there on the trail?" + +"Oh, yes! Oh! what shall I do?" cried Beth in a sudden outburst of +relief and pent-up emotions. "Tell me what to do!" + +Van knew she was rather near at hand. The bridge and trail were +certainly no more than twenty-five feet above his head. He could make +her hear with little effort. + +"Brace up and keep your nerve," he instructed. "We're O.K. up to date. +Just ride ahead till you come to the flat. Let Elsa hold your mare. +Can you hear me plainly?" + +"Oh! yes--yes--then what next?" replied the worried girl. + +Van resumed calmly: "You'll find a rawhide rope on Elsa's saddle. Come +back with that, on foot. Then I'll tell you what to do. Don't try to +hurry; take your time, and don't worry." After a moment, as he got no +reply, he added: "Have you started?" + +Beth had not budged her mare, for terror of what she must do. She was +fortifying all her resolution. She answered with genuine bravery: + +"Yes--I--I'll do what you say." + +She took up the reins. Her pale face was set, but she did not close +her eyes to cross the dizzying brink. The mare went forward--and +Elsa's bay resumed his patient tagging, up to and past the fateful +place where a part of the shelf-edge, having been dislodged, had let +Van's pony fall. + +For ten age-long minutes Van waited on his ledge, feeling the +treacherous, rotted stuff break silently away beneath his feet. The +shrub, too, was showing an earthy bit of root as it slowly but +certainly relinquished its hold on the substance which the crevice had +divided. The man could almost have calculated how many seconds the +shelf and the shrub could sustain their living burden. + +Then Beth returned. She had left her maid with the horses; she held +the lasso in her hand. To creep on foot along the granite bridge was +taxing the utmost of her courage. She could not ascertain precisely +where it was that the horseman was waiting below. She was guided only +by the broken ledge, where pony and all had disappeared. Therefore, +she called to him weakly. + +"Mr. Van--Mr. Van--where are you?" + +Van's heart turned over in his breast. + +"Just below that split boulder in the trail," he answered cheerily. +"Go to that." + +A silence succeeded, then he heard, in tremulous accents: + +"I'm here--but how am I going to tie the rope?" + +Van answered distinctly, for much depended on precision. + +"Uncoil it first. On one end there's an eye that runs the loop. Open +the loop to a pretty good size and slip it over the smaller portion of +the boulder. Then push it well down in the crevice, and pull it tight." + +He knew that the rope was far too short to loop the larger rock and +reach his hands. He waited while he thought she might be working--as +indeed she was--and presently added: "Got that done?" + +"Yes," she called. "Yes--but are you sure----" + +His hold was giving way. He answered crisply: + +"Now drop me the end. Don't wait!" + +[Illustration: His hold was giving way.] + +Beth had forgotten all danger to herself. She had ceased to tremble. +She paid out the rope with commendable promptness. + +"Does it reach?" she cried. "Can you get it?" + +He could not. Though sufficiently long it was ten feet away, on his +right. His seconds were growing fearfully precious. + +"Just shift it over, more towards Elsa," he called, still calmly. +"Move it about ten feet." + +It began to approach him jerkily. It halted, then once more it moved. +The shrub in his grasp gave out an inch, and was coming from its +anchorage. Then his fist was closed on the rope. + +"All right!" he called. "Let go--and stand aside!" + +"But--oh, if the rock shouldn't hold!" cried the girl. "Are you sure +it won't pull over?" + +He was not at all certain of the boulder. This explained his +directions, "stand aside!" If it came--it must not involve the girl. +There was nothing for him but to trust to its weight against his own. +He was strong. He began to come up, bracing a foot against the +crumbling wall, winding the rope around one of his legs--or his leg +around the rope, and resting whensoever he could. + +Beth stood there, nearly as tense as the rope. Her brown eyes were +fixed on the bedded boulder; her face was more gray than its bulk. + +At the edge, where the lasso impinged upon the granite, small particles +were breaking and falling ominously. Scarcely daring to breathe, as +she felt how the man was toiling up from the maw of the chasm, Beth +could not bear to look where he must come--if come he ever should. + +It seemed an eternity of waiting. At last, when new misgivings had +seized upon her heart, she heard his labored breathing. Even then she +did not turn. She feared to watch his efforts; she feared to break the +spell. A minute later she heard his even voice. + +"It's a wonderful view--from down below." + +The glad, eager light in her eyes, which his eyes met from the brink, +put strength in both his arms. He came up to safety in an outburst of +vigor that was nothing short of magnificent. + +"Oh!" said the girl, and she leaned against the wall in a sudden need +for support. + +"I really had no intention of--deserting like that," panted Van, with a +smile that was just a trifle forced. "But it's so much easier to--drop +into a habit than it--ever is to get out." + +She made no reply, but remained where she was, weakly leaning against +the wall and slowly regaining the strength she had lost at the moment +of beholding him safe. She was not the fainting kind, but she was +human--womanly human. + +Van began immediately to release and re-coil the rope. + +"Too bad to throw away a pony like that," he resumed regretfully. "I +always intended, if he died a Christian death, to have his hide tanned +for a rug." + +He was saying anything, no matter what, to dissipate the reactionary +collapse into which he feared the girl was falling. + +"Now then," he added, when the rope was well in hand, "we've wasted all +the time we can spare on a second-rate vaudeville performance. Come +along." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +CONGENIAL COMPANY + +He started ahead as he had before, with that show of utter unconcern +towards the girl that was absolutely new to her experience. Her eyes +were wide with appeal as she watched him striding up the trail. For +herself she wanted nothing; but her womanly nature craved some trifling +sign, some word of assurance that the man was uninjured--really safe +again and whole--after that terrible plunge. But this from the +horseman was impossible. He had not even thanked her for the rescue. + +"You horrid, handsome wretch!" she murmured vexedly, stimulated to +renewed activity by her resentment; then she followed along the narrow +way. + +They came to the flat, beyond the wall, where Elsa sat keeping the +horses. The maid looked the horseman over quite calmly, inquiring: + +"What for dit you did it--go down there?" + +"Just for ducks," said Van. He halted for Beth's approach, put her up +on the roan, and once more strode off in the trail ahead with a +promptness that was certainly amazing. + +There was no understanding such a person. Beth gave it up. The whole +affair was inexplicable--his attitude towards Searle at the station, +his abduction of herself and the maid, and this trailing of the pair of +them across these terrible places, for no apparent reason in the world. + +Her mare followed on in the tracks of the muscular figure, over whom, +for a moment, she had almost wished to yearn. His escape from death +had been so slender--and he would not even rest! + +The flat was, in reality, the hog's back or ridge of a lofty spur of +the mountains. Except for the vast bluish canyons and gorges far +below, the view was somewhat restricted here, since towering summits, +in a conclave of peaks, arose to right and left. + +After a time, as they swung around on the trend of the ridge, they came +abreast a mighty gap in the mountains to the left, and there, far down, +lay a valley as flattened by perspective as the unruffled surface of a +lake. + +Here Van presently halted, peering down and searching the vast gray +floor with the keenest attention. He went on further, and halted +again, Beth meanwhile watching his face with increasing curiosity. + +At the third of his stops she gazed no more on the panorama of +immensity, but rather gazed at him. + +"What is it you expect to see?" she inquired at last. "Goldite isn't +down there, is it?" + +"I'm rather expecting--if I haven't miscalculated on the time---- +There he is now," he answered, still staring afar off down upon the +valley. He raised his arm and extended a finger to point towards the +north-most limit of the level stretch of land. "Do you see that small, +dark object in the road? That's a road, that slender yellow streak +that you can follow." + +Beth obeyed directions and thereby discerned, with remarkable +clearness, the moving object, far away below. She did not in the least +suspect its nature. + +"Why, yes--what is it?" she asked with languid interest, having +expected something more significant. "Is it some small animal?" + +"Yes," responded Van. "It's Searle." + +Beth was instantly all attention. + +"Not Mr. Bostwick, in his car?" + +Van continued to study the gray of the world-wide map. + +"I rather wonder----" he mused, and there he halted, presently adding, +"He's climbing a hill. You might not think so, looking down from here, +but it's steep and sandy, for a car." + +She was watching eagerly. + +"And he's no further along towards Goldite than this?" + +"He's had some tough old going," answered Van. "He's in luck to----" +then to himself, as he continued to scan the scene for something he did +not apparently find. "By Jupe! I'd have sworn Matt Barger----" He +broke off abruptly, adding in a spirit of fairness, "Searle is getting +right up to the ridge all right. Good boy! He must have a powerful +motor under the--There! By George! I knew it! I knew it! Got him! +right there in the gravel!" + +The girl looked suddenly upon him, wholly unable to comprehend the +sharp exclamations he was making. + +"What has got him? What do you mean?" she demanded in vague alarm. "I +don't see what you----" + +"That's Matt every time--I thought so," he resumed, as he stepped a +little closer to the girl. "Don't you see them?--those lively little +specks, swarming all around the machine?" + +Beth bent her gaze on the drama, far below--a play in which she knew +but one of the characters, and nothing of the meaning of the scene. + +"I see--yes--something like a lot of tiny ants--or something. What are +they?--not robbers?--not men?" + +"Part men, part hyenas," he told her quietly. "It's a lot of State +convicts, escaped from their prison, two days free--and desperate." + +She was suddenly very pale. Her eyes were blazing. + +"Convicts! Out of prison?" + +"A good long way out," he told her watching, "and clever enough to hike +for the mines, with the camps all full of strangers. They learn to be +good mixers, when they're trying to escape." + +Beth gazed at him searchingly. + +"You--knew they were out--and waiting on the road?" + +"Everyone knew they were out--and I certainly thought big Matt would do +precisely what you see he has done." + +"Matt?" she echoed. + +"The leader," he explained, "a clever brute as ever worried a sheriff." + +She was not in the least interested in the personality of the convict +thus described. Her mind had flown to another aspect of the case--the +case involving herself. + +"And this was why you wouldn't let us go in the auto?" she said. "You +expected this?" + +He looked at her quickly. + +"Searle wouldn't take my advice, you know." His eyes were once more +merry. "What could I do?" + +"But Mr. Bostwick wouldn't have gone if you had told him!" she said. +"Oh, I'm surprised you'd do it--let him go and be captured like that!" +She was looking down upon the silent drama intently as she added: "I +don't see why you ever did it!" + +He was still amused. + +"Oh, I thought perhaps Searle deserved it." + +She blazed a little. + +"You told him you hoped he'd meet congenial company on the road. You +didn't mean----" + +"Guilty as charged in the indictment. I guess I did." + +"Oh! I wouldn't have thought----" she started, then she shivered in +horror, reflecting swiftly on the fate that might have befallen herself +and Elsa had they too been captured with Searle. It was all explained +at last--the horseman's earnest talk with Dave, his quiet but grim +refusal to permit herself and Elsa to remain with the car, and the +hazardous ride he had since dared compel them to take at such peril to +his life! And now, his persistent advance on foot, when perhaps he was +painfully injured! He had done then such a service as she could never +in her life forget. His treatment of Searle had perhaps, even as he +said, been deserved. Nevertheless, Searle was much to her, very much, +indeed--or had been--up to this morning--and she was worried. + +"What do you think they will do?" she added in a spirit of contrition +that came at once upon her. "They must be terrible men!" + +"They won't do much but take his money and clothes, and maybe beg for a +ride," said Van reassuringly. "They'll see he isn't fit to kill." + +Beth glanced at him briefly, inquiringly. What a baffling light it was +that played in the depths of his eyes! What manner of being was he, +after all? She could not tell. And yet she felt she could trust +him--she certainly knew not why. Despite his ways of raillery she felt +he was serious, true as steel, and big in heart and nature. + +"I mustn't forget to thank you," she murmured. "I mean for sparing +us--all that. I do thank you, most sincerely, for----" + +"Never mind that," he interrupted. "We're going to be late to lunch." + +He turned once more to the trail and started off, in his active manner, +together with a thorough indifference as to what became of Bostwick. + +Beth, with a feeling that something ought yet to be done for Searle, +down in the valley with the convicts, cast one helpless glance at the +scene of the hold-up, then perforce urged her pony forward. + +Van halted no more. He led the way doggedly onward, over the rises, +through great silent forests, past crystal springs, and down dark, +somber ravines. At a quarter of one he emerged from a gorge upon the +level acre of a tiny cove, still high in the mountains fastnesses. +Here he let out a whoop like an Indian, its echo filling all the place. + +An answering call came clearly from somewhere near at hand. Beth felt +a sudden alarm to know there were human beings near. What sort they +were was a matter entirely of conjecture. Then presently she +discovered a number of small, rude buildings, and a fair-sized cabin, +planted next the hill. The door of the latter was open. A tall man +appeared in the frame. + +"This," said Van, who had waited for the girl to ride once more to his +side, "is the Monte Cristo mine--the worst false alarm that ever +disfigured the map." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +VAN'S PARTNERS + +The Monte Cristo mining property comprised a tunnel in the hill, a +glory hole, a little toy quartz-mill--five stamps strong--the +bunk-house, kitchen, blacksmith-shop, stable, corral, and four human +beings. These latter were a Chinese cook named Algy, a Piute Indian +half-breed called Cayuse, and two rare souls--Napoleon G. Blink and +"Gettysburg"--miners, and boastful old worthies, long partnered and +beloved by Van. + +Just at present the tunnel was empty, the glory-hole was deserted, and +the quartz-mill was silent. The mine had proved a failure. Van had +expended many thousands of dollars and ten months of time to +demonstrate the facts; and now, in possession of much new experience, +an indomitable spirit, two tired partners, and a brand-new claim, he +was facing his fate, as heretofore, with a wonderful boyish cheer. + +Not all this knowledge was vouchsafed to Beth when she and her maid +were presently put in possession of the place. With the utmost gravity +Van introduced her by old Dave's appellation, Miss Laughing Water. The +maid he merely called Elsa. His explanation as to whence they hailed, +whither they were bound, why he had taken them in charge, and how he +had lost the pinto pony, was notable chiefly for its brevity. He and +his charges were hungry and somewhat pressed for time, he announced, +and he therefore urged Algy to haste. + +Dinner had been promptly served at twelve. Algy was therefore in +despair--for Algy was proud of his art. He still had good red beans, +most excellent coffee, corn-fed bacon, the best of bread and butter, a +hunger-inspiring stew of lamb, white potatoes, fine apple sauce, and +superlative gingerbread on hand in great abundance, however, but in +spite of it all he spluttered. + +"What's mallah you, Van?" he demanded several times. "Wha' for no tell +me blingee ladies? How you s'plose I gettee dinner? Sominagot, you +come like this, that velly superstich." + +He would readily have laid down his very life for Van, but he laid a +good dinner instead. During its preparation Beth and her maid sat down +on a bench beside the bunk-house, in the presence of Cayuse, Napoleon, +and Gettysburg, while Van led the horses to the stable for refreshment, +and Algy talked to himself in pigeon English. + +It was an odd situation for the girl from New. York, but she found +herself amused. Both Napoleon and Gettysburg had been cast for amusing +roles, which they did not always fill. Neither, as might be supposed +from his name, had ever even smelled the faintest suggestion of things +military. Napoleon had once been a sailor, or, to be more accurate, a +river boatman. He was fat, short, red-headed, red-necked, red-nosed, +and red-eyed. His hands were freckled, his arms were hairy. He turned +his head to one side like a bird--and promptly fell in love with demure +little Elsa. + +Gettysburg was as thin as Napoleon was fat. He had a straggling gray +beard, a very bald pate, high cheek bones, and a glass eye. This eye +he turned towards the maid, perhaps because it was steady. He also had +a nervous way of drawing one hand down his face till he lowered his jaw +prodigiously, after which, like the handle of a knocker, it would fall +back to place with quite a thump. He did this twice as he stared at +Beth, and then he remarked: + +"Quite a hike yit, down to Goldite." + +"I suppose it is," said Beth in her interesting way. "How far is it, +really, from here?" + +"'Bout twenty miles of straight ahead, and two miles of straight up, +and three of straight down--if a feller could go straight," said +Gettysburg gravely, "but he can't." + +Beth looked very much concerned. She had hoped they were almost there, +and no more hills to climb or descend. She felt convinced they had +ridden over twenty miles already, and the horseman had assured her it +was thirty at the most, from the station so far behind the mountains. + +"But--Mr. Van can't walk so far as that," she said. "I'm sure I don't +see what----" + +She was interrupted by the reappearance of Van himself. + +"Isn't there a horse on the place?" he asked his partners collectively. +"What have you done with the sorrel?" + +Gettysburg arose. "Loaned him to A. C., yistiddy," said he. "But the +outlaw's on the job." + +"Not Vesuvius?" Van replied incredulously. "You don't mean to say he's +turned up again unslaughtered?" + +"Cayuse here roped him, up to Cedar flat," imparted Gettysburg. +"Cornered him there in natural corral and fetched him home fer fun." + +Napoleon added: "But Cayuse ain't been on board, you bet. He likes +something more old-fashioned than Suvy. Split my bowsprit, I wouldn't +tow no horse into port which I was afraid to board. When I was bustin' +bronchos I liked 'em to be bad." + +"Yes," agreed Gettysburg, "so bad they couldn't stand up." + +A bright glitter came for a moment in Van's blue eyes. + +"If Suvy's the only equine paradox on the place, he and I have got to +argue things out this afternoon," he said, "but I'll have my dinner +first." + +Beth was listening intently, puzzled to know precisely what the talk +implied. She was vaguely suspicious that Van, for the purpose of +escorting her on, would find himself obliged to wage some manner of war +with a horse of which the Indian was afraid. + +Further discussion of the topic was interrupted now by the cook, who +appeared to announce his dinner served. Beth and her maid were, +therefore, directed by Van to a table set for two, while he, with +Napoleon and Gettysburg for company, repaired to a place in the kitchen. + +Beth was hungry. She ate with all the relish of a mountaineer. Algy, +moreover, was a kitchen magician in the art of transforming culinary +commonplaces into viands of toothsome delight. Elsa became +speechlessly busy. Despite her wishes in the matter, Beth could hear +the men talking beyond. + +"So them convicts has hiked over this way already," said the voice of +Gettysburg distinctly. "We heard from A. C. about the prison break, +but he wasn't on to which ones they was." + +"One is Matt Barger," Van informed them. "He's the only one I know." + +"Matt Barger! Not _your_ Matt Barger?" demanded Gettysburg sharply. + +Van nodded. "Mine when I had him." + +Gettysburg arose excitedly. + +"He ain't come hunting fer you as quick as this?" he inquired uneasily. +"That ain't what's fetched him over to the desert?" + +"Haven't asked him," answered Van. "He promised to look me up if ever +he got out alive." + +"Look you up!" Gettysburg was obviously over-wrought by the mere +intelligence that Barger was at liberty. "You know what he'll do! You +know him, boy! You know he'll keep his word. You can't go foolin' +around alone. You've got to be----" + +"Pass the beans," Van interrupted. He added more quietly: "Sit down, +Gett, and shut the front door of your face." + +Napoleon was eating, to "keep Van company." He pushed away his plate. + +"Just our luck if these here derelicts was to foul us, skipper and +crew," he observed ruefully. "Just our luck." + +Gettysburg sat down, adding: "Why can't you wait, Van, wait till the +whole kit and boodle of us can move to the bran'-new claim?" + +Van finished half a cup of coffee. + +"I told you I should continue on without delay. The horses will +probably come to-night for all of you to follow me to-morrow." + +"Then why don't you wait and go with us?" repeated Gettysburg. "We'll +git there by noon, and you ain't got nuthin' to ride." + +The horseman answered: "Suvy's the prettiest gaited thing you ever +saw--when he gaits." + +"Holy toads!" said the older man apprehensively, "you ain't +sure-a-goin' to tackle the outlaw today?" + +"I've always felt we'd come to it soon or late," was Van's reply. "And +I've got to have a horse this afternoon. We can't kill each other but +once." + +"Supposen he stoves in your pilot-house," said Napoleon. "What shall +we do about the claim, and all this cargo, and everything?" + +"The claim? Work it, man, work it," Van responded. "What's a mining +claim for but to furnish good hard work for a couple of old ring-tailed +galoots who've shirked it all their lives?" + +"Work it, yep, but what on?" asked Gettysburg. "We're as broke as a +hatched-out egg." + +"Haven't you worked on shinbones and heavenly hopes before?" inquired +the busy leader of the partnership. "And that reminds me, Algy, what +about you?" he added to the Chinese cook. "We can't afford a +tippe-bob-royal chef of your dimensions after this. I guess you'll +have to poison somebody else." + +"What's mallah you, Van?" Algy demanded aggressively. "You makee me +velly sick. You get velly lich I cook your glub. You go bloke, I cook +alle same. Sominagot, I b'long go with you all time. You no got good +luck I never want the money, you savvy? You go hell--go anywhere--I go +same place--that's all. You talkee big fool, that velly superstich." +He looked at Van fiercely to disguise a great alarm, a fear that he +might, after all, be dismissed in the break-up impending. + +Van shrugged his shoulders. + +"Sentenced for life. All right, Algy, if your cooking kills us off, at +least, as the brave young husband remarked, it will all be in the +family." + +Algy still looked as fierce as one of his heathen idols. + +"You t'ink velly smart," he said, still concealing his feelings. +"Lats!" and with that he went out to chop some wood. + +"Batten me into the pantry!" said Napoleon. "I'll bet old Algy'd board +the outlaw himself, fer you, Van, squall and all." + +"That horse ain't human," Gettysburg exploded anew. "Van, you can't +ride no such Fourth-of-July procession!" + +"Shut up!" murmured Van, with a gesture towards the room where Beth and +her maid were dining. He added aloud: "The chances are we'll find he's +a cheap Sunday-school picnic. Napoleon, you and Cayuse go out and +prepare his mind for work." + +"Aye, aye," said Napoleon rising to go, "but I wish we had some +soothin' syrup, skipper." + +He and the Indian were heard to depart, by Beth, sitting back in her +chair. She was greatly alarmed by all she had heard of vengeful +convicts and the vicious horse, and could eat no more for nervous dread. + +"That horse has killed his man, and you know it," said Gettysburg in a +whisper that the girl distinctly overhead. "Boy, boy, let the Injun +ride him first." + +"There, there, ease off," Van answered quietly. "You keep the women +entertained about the mill while Suvy and I are debating." + +He gulped down a last drink of coffee, silenced the miner's further +remonstrances, and departed by way of the kitchen door. + +Beth arose hurriedly and hastened forth, intent upon immediate +prevention, if possible, of any further ordeals undertaken in behalf of +herself. She was thoroughly frightened. A prescience of something +ominous impending seemed to grip her very heart. She glanced about, +helplessly, unfamiliar with the place. Van was nowhere in sight. She +started to run around the cabin when Gettysburg appeared in her path. + +"Well, well," said he nervously, "now who'd a-thought you'd finished +eatin'?" + +"Oh please," she said, "please go tell Mr. Van I'd rather he wouldn't +attempt to ride _any_ horse again to-day. Will you please go tell him +that?" + +"You bet your patent leathers!" said Gettysburg. "You just go over and +globe-trot the quartz-mill while I'm gone, and we'll fix things right +in a shake." + +He strode off in haste. Beth watched him go. She made no move towards +the quartz-mill, which Gettysburg had indicated, over on the slope. + +She soon grew restive, awaiting his return. Elsa came out and sat +down. The old miner failed to reappear. + +At length, unable to endure any longer her feeling of alarm and +suspense, Beth resolutely followed where Gettysburg had gone, and soon +came in sight of the stable and high corral. Then her heart struck a +blow of excitement in her breast, and her knees began to weaken beneath +her. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE BATTLE + +Too late to interfere in the struggle about to be enacted, the girl +stood rigidly beside a great red pine tree, fixing her gaze upon Van, +on whose heels, as he walked, jingled a glinting pair of spurs. + +From the small corral he was leading forth as handsome an animal as +Beth had ever seen, already saddled, bridled--and blindfolded. The +horse was a chestnut, magnificently sculptured and muscled. He was of +medium size, and as trim and hard as a nail. His coat fairly glistened +in the sun. + +Despite his beauty there was something about him that betokened menace. +It was not altogether that the men all stood away--all save Van--nor +yet that the need for a blindfold argued danger in his composition. +There was something acutely disquieting in the backward folding of his +ears, the quiver of his sinews, the reluctant manner of his stepping. + +Beth did not and could not know that an "outlaw" is a horse so utterly +abandoned to ways of broncho crime and equine deviltry that no man is +able to break him--that having conquered man after man, perhaps even +with fatal results to his riders, he has become absolutely depraved and +impossible of submission. She only knew that her heart was beating +rapidly, painfully, that her breath came in gasps, that her whole +nervous system was involved in some manner of anguish. She saw the +Chinese cook run past to witness the game, but all her faculties were +focused on the man and horse--both sinister, tense, and grim. + +Van had not turned in Beth's direction. He was wholly unaware of her +presence. He halted when the horse was well out towards the center of +the open, and the outlaw braced awkwardly, as if to receive an attack. + +With the bridle reins held in his hand at the pommel of the saddle, Van +stood for a moment by the chestnut's side, then, with incredible +celerity of movement, suddenly placed his foot in the stirrup and was +up and well seated before the blinded pony could have moved. + +Nothing happened. No one made a sound. No one, apparently, save Beth, +had expected anything to happen. She felt a rush of relief--that came +prematurely. + +Van now leaned forward, as the horse remained stiffly braced, and +slipping the blindfold from the pony's eyes, sat back in the saddle +alertly. + +Even then the chestnut did not move. He had gone through this ordeal +many times before. He had often been mounted--but not for long at a +time. He had even been exhausted by a stubborn "broncho buster"--some +hardy human burr who could ride a crazy comet--but always he had won in +the end. In a word he had earned his sobriquet, which in broncho-land +is never lightly bestowed. + +Van was not in the least deceived. However, he was eager for the +conflict to begin. He had no time to waste. He snatched off his hat, +let out a wild, shrill yell, dug with his spurs and struck the animal a +resounding slap on the flank, that, like a fulminate, suddenly +detonated the pent-up explosives in the beast. + +He "lit into" bucking of astounding violence with the quickness of +dynamite. + +It was terrific. For a moment Beth saw nothing but a mad grotesquerie +of horse and man, almost ludicrously unnatural, and crazed with +eccentric motion. + +The horse shot up in the air like a loose, distorted piece of statuary, +blown from its pedestal by some gigantic disturbance. He appeared to +buckle in his mid-air leap like a bended thing of metal, then dropped +to the earth, stiff-legged as an iron image, to bound up again with mad +and furious gyrations that seemed to the girl to twist both horse and +rider into one live mass of incongruity, + +He struck like a ruin, falling from the sky, went up again with +demon-like activity, once more descended--once more hurtled wildly +aloft--and repeated this maneuver with a swiftness utterly bewildering. + +Had some diabolical wind, together with a huge, volcanic force, taken +insane possession of the animal, to fire him skyward, whirl him about, +thrash him down viciously and fling him up again, time after time, he +could not have churned with greater violence. + +He never came down in the same place twice, but he always came down +stiff-legged. The jolt was sickening. All about, in a narrow, +earth-cut circle he bucked, beginning to grunt and warm to his work and +hence to increase the deviltry and malice of his actions. + +Van had yelled but that once. He saw nothing, knew nothing, save a +dizzy world, abruptly gone crazy about him. + +To Beth it seemed as if the horror would never have an end. One +glimpse she had of Van's white face, but nothing could it tell of his +strength or the lack thereof. She felt she must look and look till he +was killed. There could be no other issue, she was sure. And for +herself there could be no escape from the awful fascination of the +merciless brute, inflicting this torture on the man. + +It did end, however, rather unexpectedly--that particular phase of the +conflict. The horse grew weary of the effort, made in vain, to +dislodge the stubborn torment on his back. He changed the program with +the deadliest of all a broncho's tricks. + +Pausing for the briefest part of a second, while Van must certainly +have been reeling with hideous motion and jolt, the chestnut quickly +reared on high, to drop himself clean over backwards. It was thus that +once he had crushed the life from a rider. + +"Oh!" screamed Both, and she sank beside the tree. + +The men all yelled. They were furious and afraid. + +With hoofs wildly flaying the air, while he loomed tall and unreal in +such an attitude, the broncho hung for a moment in mid-poise, then +dropped over sheer--as if to be shattered into fragments. + +But a mass of the bronze-like group was detached, and fell to one side, +on its thigh. It was Van. He had seen what was coming in time. + +Instantly up, as the brute rolled quickly to arise, he leaped in the +saddle, the horn of which had snapped, and he and the chestnut came +erect together, as if miraculously the equestrian group had been +restored. + +"Yi! Yi!" he yelled, like the madman he was--mad with the heat of the +fight--and he dug in his spurs with vicious might. + +Back to it wildly, with fury increased, the broncho leaped responsively. + +Here, there, all the field over, the demon thrashed, catapulting +incredibly. He tried new tricks, invented new volcanics of motion, +developed new whirlwinds of violence. + +Once more, then, as he had on the first occasion, the beast reared up +and fell backward to the earth. Once more Van dropped away from his +bulk and caught him before he could rise. This time, however, he did +not immediately mount--and the men went running to his side. + +"Fer God's sake, boy, let me kill the brute!" cried Gettysburg taking +up a club. + +"I'll shoot him! I'll shoot him! I'll shoot him!" said Napoleon +wildly, but without any weapon in his hands. + +Beth beheld and heard it all. She was once more standing rigidly by +her tree, unable to move or speak. She wished to run to Van as the men +had run, but not to slay the broncho--only to beg the horseman not to +mount again. + +She saw him push the men away and stand like the broncho's guard. His +face was streaked with blood--his blood--jolted alike from his mouth +and nose by the shocks to which he had been subjected. + +"Let the horse alone!" he commanded roughly. "Good stuff in this +broncho--somewhere. Get me a bottle of water, right away--a big +one--get it full." + +His partners started at once to raise objections. The Indian stood by +stolidly looking on. + +"You can't go no further. Van, you can't----" started Gettysburg. + +"Sominagot! Una ma, hong oy! Una ca see fut!" said the Chinese-cook, +swearing vehemently in the language likeliest to count, and he ran at +once towards the kitchen. + +Van was replacing the blindfold on the broncho's eyes. The animal was +panting, sweating, quivering in every muscle. His ears went backward +and forward rapidly. The blindfold shut out a wild, unreasoning +challenge and defiance that burned like a torch in his eyes. + +Algy came running with a big bottle, filled and corked. + +"Fer God's sake, leave me kill him!" Gettysburg was repeating +automatically. "Van, if you ain't got no respect fer yourself, ain't +you got none left fer us old doggone cusses?" + +"Give me the bottle, Algy," Van replied. "You're the only game sport +on the ranch." + +Still he did not discover Beth. His attentions were engrossed by the +horse. He was dizzy, dazed, but a dogged master still of his forces. +Up he mounted to the saddle again, the bottle held firmly in his grasp. + +"Slip off the blinder," he said to his friends, and Algy it was who +obeyed. + +"Damn you, now you buck!" cried Van wildly, and his heels ignited the +volcano. + +For five solid minutes the broncho redoubled his scheme of demoniac +fury. Then he poised, let out a shrill scream of challenge, and +abruptly raised to repeat the backward fall. + +Up, up he went, an ungainly sight, and then--the heavens split in twain. + +He was only well lifted from the earth when, with a thunderous, +terrible blow, Van crashed the bottle downward, fairly between his +ears, and burst it on his skull. + +The weapon was shattered with a frightening thud. Red pieces of glass +and streaming water poured in a cataract down across the broncho's eyes +as if very doom itself had suddenly cracked. A cataclysm could not +have been more horrible. An indescribable fright and awe overwhelmed +the brutish mind as with a cloud of lead. + +Down swiftly he dropped to his proper position, perhaps with a fear +that his crown was gaping open from impact with the sky. He was +stunned by the blow upon his brain, and weakened in every fiber. He +started to run, in terror of the thing, and the being still solid in +the saddle. Wildly he went around the cove, in the panic of utter +defeat. + +The men began to cheer, their voices choked and hoarse. Van rode now +as fate might ride the very devil. He spurred the horse to furious, +exhausting speed, guiding him wildly around the mountain theater. +Again and again they circled the grassy arena, till foam and lather +whitened the broncho's flank, chest, and mouth, and his nostril burned +red as living flame. + +When at last the animal, weary and undone, would have sobered down to a +trot or walk, Van forced him anew to crazy speed. At least five miles +he drove him thus, till the broncho's sides, like the rider's face, +were red with blood mingled with sweat. + +Beth, at the climax, had gone down suddenly, leaning against the tree. +She had not fainted, but was far too weak to stand. Her eyes only +moved. She watched the two, that seemed welded into one, go racing +madly against fatigue. + +At last she beheld the look of the conquered--the utter surrender of +the broken and subdued--gleam dully from the wilted pony's eyes. She +pitied the animal she had feared and hated but a few brief moments +before. She began to think that the man was perhaps the brute, after +all, to ride the exhausted creature thus without a sign of mercy. + +She rose to her feet as the two came at last to a halt, master and +servant, conquered and conqueror, man and quivering beast. + +Then Van got down, and her heart, that had pitied the horse, welled +with deeper feeling for the rider. She had never in her life seen a +face so drawn, so utterly haggard beneath a mask of red as that +presented by the horseman. + +Van nearly fell, but would not fall, and instead stood trembling, his +arm by natural inclination now circling the neck of the pony. + +"Well, Suvy," he said not ungently, "we gave each other hell. +Hereafter we're going to be friends." + +Beth heard him. She also saw the chestnut turn and regard the man with +a look of appeal and dumb questioning in his eyes that choked her--with +joy and compassion together. She someway knew that this man and horse +would be comrades while they lived. + +Half an hour afterward as she, Van, and Elsa rode forward as before, +she saw the man in affection pat the broncho on the neck. And the +horse pricked his ears in a newfound gladness in service and friendship +that his nature could not yet comprehend. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +AN EXCHANGE OF QUESTIONS + +Youth is elastic, and Van was young. An hour of quiet riding restored +him astoundingly. He bore no signs of fatigue that Beth could detect +upon his face. Once more, as he had in the morning, he was riding ahead +in the trail, apparently all but oblivious of the two anxious women in +his charge. + +They had wound far downward through a canyon, and now at length were +emerging on a sagebrush slope that lowered to the valley. Van halted for +Beth to ride to his side, and onward they continued together. + +"I suppose you have friends to whom you are going in Goldite," he said, +"--or at least there's someone you know." + +"Yes," she answered, "my brother." + +Van looked at her in his quizzical way, observing: + +"I don't believe I know him." + +Her glance was almost one of laughter. + +"Why, how can you tell? You don't even know his name." She paused, then +added quietly: "It's Glenmore Kent." She felt he had a right to know not +only her brother's name, but also her own, if only for what he had done. +"You might, of course, know him after all," she concluded. "He has quite +a number of acquaintances." + +"Kent," said Van. To himself it was "Beth Kent" he was saying. "No, +guess not. No such luck, but I hope you'll find him in the camp." + +"Do you think I may not?" She was just a trifle startled by the +possibility. + +He was grave for once. + +"Men come and go in a mining town, where everyone's unduly excited. If +he isn't on deck, then have you no one else? Have you any alternative +plan?" + +"Why, no," she confessed, her alarm increasing, "not unless Mr. Bostwick +has arrived and arranged our accommodations." + +"I wouldn't count on Searle," drawled Van significantly. "He may have to +walk." + +"Not across the awful desert?" + +"If he goes around he'll be longer." + +"Why--but----" she gasped, "there is nothing to eat--no water--there +isn't anything on the desert, is there?--anywhere?" + +He was looking intently into the deep brown depths of her eyes as he +answered: + +"There's so little to eat that the chipmunks have to fetch in their +lunches." + +Beth continued to gaze upon him. If she noted the lights of laughter +lying soberly subdued in his eyes, she also discerned something more, +that affected her oddly. Despite the horseman's treatment of her +escort--a treatment she confessed he had partially deserved--and despite +the lightness of his speeches, she felt certain of the depth of his +nature, convinced of the genuine earnestness of his purposes--the honesty +and worth of his friendship. + +She knew she was tremendously indebted for all he had done and was doing, +but aside from all that, in her heart of hearts she admired bravery, +courage, and a dash of boldness more than anything else in the world. +She was not yet certain, however, whether the man at her side was brave +or merely reckless, courageous, or indifferent to danger, bold or merely +audacious. She knew nothing about him whatsoever, nothing except he must +be tired, lame, and bruised from exertions undertaken in her behalf. It +had been a long, long day. She felt as if they had known each other +always--and had always been friends. + +Her mind went back to the morning as if to an era of the past. The +thought of the convicts who had captured Bostwick aroused new +apprehensions in her breast, though not for the man with the car. +Someway Searle seemed strangely far away and dimmed in her regard. She +was thinking of what she had overheard, back there at the Monte Cristo +mine. + +"This has been a trying day," she said, apparently ignoring Van's last +observation. "You have taken a great deal of trouble for--for us--and we +appreciate it fully." + +Van said gravely: "Taking trouble is the only fun I have." + +"You laugh at everything," she answered, "but isn't it really a serious +thing--a menace to everyone--having those convicts out of prison?" + +"It isn't going to be a knitting-bee, rounding them up," Van admitted. +"And meantime they're going to be exacting of everyone they meet." + +She looked at him half seriously, but altogether brightly. + +"And what if they chance to meet you?" + +"Oh, we'd exchange courtesies, I reckon." + +She had no intention of confessing how much she had overheard, but she +was tremendously interested--almost fearful for the man's safety, she +hardly dared ask herself why. She approached her subject artfully. + +"Do you know them, then?" + +"Well, yes, the leader--slightly," he answered. "I sent him up for +murder, stealing cattle, and robbing sluices. He was too annoying to +have around." + +"Oh! Then won't he feel ugly, resentful?" she inquired earnestly. +"Won't he try to hunt you up--and pay you back?" + +Van regarded her calmly. + +"He told me to expect my pay--if ever he escaped--and he's doubtless got +his check-book along." + +"His check-book?" + +"Colt--forty-four," Van drawled by way of explanation. + +She turned a trifle pale. + +"He'd shoot you on sight?" + +"If he sighted me first." + +Her breath came hard. She realized that the quiet-seeming horseman at +her side would kill a fellow-being--this convict, at least--as readily as +he might destroy a snake. + +"How long ago did you put him in jail?" she inquired. + +"Four years ago this summer." + +"Have you always lived here--out West?" + +"I've lived every day I've been here," he answered evasively. "Do I look +like a native?" + +She laughed. "Oh, I don't know. We came here straight from New York, a +week ago, Elsa and I. Mr. Bostwick joined us two days later. I really +know nothing of the country at all." + +"New York," he said, and relapsed into silent meditation. How far away +seemed old New Amsterdam! How long seemed the brief six years since he +had started forth with his youthful health, his strength, determination, +boyish dreams, and small inheritance to build up a fortune in the West! +What a mixture of sunshine and failure it had been! What glittering +hopes had lured him hither and yon in the mountains, where each great +gateway of adventure had charged its heavy toll! + +He had lost practically all of his money; he had gained his all of +manhood. He had suffered privation and hardship; he had known the vast +comfort of friends--true friends, as certain as the very heart in his +breast to serve him to the end. + +Like a panoramic dream he beheld a swift procession of mine-and-cattle +scenes troop past for swift review. He lived again whole months of +nights spent out alone beneath the sky, with the snow and the wind hurled +down upon him from a merciless firmament of bleakness. Once more he +stumbled blindly forward in the desert--he and Gettysburg--perishing for +water, giving up their liquid souls to the horribly naked and insatiate +sun. Again he toiled in the shaft of a mine till his back felt like a +crackly thing of glass with each aching fissure going deeper. + +Once more the gold goddess beckoned with her smile, and fortune was +there, almost in reach--the fortune that he and his partners had sought +so doggedly, so patiently--the fortune for which they had starved and +delved and suffered--only to see it vanish in the air as the sunshine +will vanish from a peak. + +Old hopes, like ghosts, went skulking by, vain charlatans, ashamed. But +friendships stood about in every scene--bright presences that cast a +roseate glow on all the tribulations of his life. And it seemed as if a +failure here was half a failure only, after all. It had not robbed him +either of his youth, his strength, or a certain boyish credulity and +trust in all his kind. He still believed he should win his golden goal, +and he loved the land that had tried him. + +His last, his biggest venture, the Monte Cristo mine was, however, +gone--everything sold to meet the company debts. Nevertheless, he had +once more purchased a claim, with all but his very last dollar in the +world, and he and his partners would soon be on the ground, assaulting +the stubborn adamant with powder, pick, and drill, in the fever of the +miner's ceaseless dream. + +To-day, as he rode beside the girl, he wondered at it all--why he had +labored so persistently. The faint, far-off shadow of a sweetheart, long +since left behind, failed to supply him a motive. She had grown +impatient, listened to a suitor more tangible than Van's absent self, and +so, blamelessly, had faded from his scheme of hopes, leaving no more than +a fragrance in his thoughts, with certainly no bitterness or anger. + +"Old New York," he repeated, at the end of his reverie, and meeting once +more the steady brown eyes of the girl with whom the fates had thrown +him, he fetched up promptly with the present. + +"How long has your brother been out here in Goldite?" + +"About a month," she answered. "He's been in the West for nearly a year, +and wrote Mr. Bostwick to come." + +"Mr. Bostwick is doubtless a very particular friend of your family." + +"Why, yes, he's my---- That is, he _was_--he always has been a very +particular friend--for several years," she faltered suddenly turning red. +"We haven't any family, Glen and I--and he's my half brother only--but +we're just like chums---and that was why I wanted to come. I expect to +surprise him. He doesn't know I'm here." + +Van was silent and she presently added: + +"I hope you and Glen will be friends. I know how much he'll wish to +thank you." + +He looked at her gravely. + +"I hope he won't. It's up to me to thank him." + +They had come to a road at the level of the valley--a desert valley, +treeless, grassless, gray, and desolate. The sun was rapidly nearing the +rim of the mountains, as if to escape pursuit of a monstrous bank of +clouds. + +Van spurred his chestnut to a gallop, and the horses bearing the women +responded with no further need of urging. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +A NIGHT'S EXPENSES + +From Karrish to Goldite by the road was twenty-seven miles. There were +fifteen mile of bottles by the way--all of them empty. A blind man +with a nose for glass could have smelled out the trail unerringly +across that desert stretch. Karrish was the nearest town for a very +great distance around. + +Over the road innumerable caravans were passing. Everything was +rushing to Goldite. There were horsemen, hurried persons on foot, men +in carriages and autos, twenty-horse freight teams, and men on tiny +burros. Nearly all were shedding bottles as they went. A waterless +land is not necessarily devoid of all manner of moisture. + +A dozen of the slowly laboring freight outfits were passed by Van and +his two companions. What engines of toil they represented! The ten +pairs of sweating, straining animals seemed almost like some giant +caterpillar, harnessed to a burden on wheels. They always dragged +three wagons, two of which were huge gray hulks, incredibly heavy with +giant-powder, canned goods, bottled goods, picks, shovels, bedding, +hay, great mining machinery, and house-hold articles. These wagons +were hitched entrain. The third wagon, termed a "trailer," was small +and loaded merely with provisions for the teamster and the team. The +whole thing, from end to end, beat up a stifling cloud of dust. + +The sun went down while Beth, Van, and Elsa were still five miles from +their goal. They rode as rapidly as possible. The horses, however, +were jaded, and the way was slightly up grade. The twilight was brief. +It descended abruptly from the western bank of clouds, by now as thick +and dark as mud. Afar off shone the first faint light of the gold-camp +to which the three were riding. This glimmering ray was two miles out +from the center of town. Goldite was spread in a circle four miles +wide, and the most of it was isolated tents. + +The darkness shut down like a pall. A vivid, vicious bolt of +lightning--a fiery serpent, overcharged with might--struck down upon +the mountain tops, pouring liquid flame upon the rocks. A sweeping +gust of wind came raging down upon the town, hurling dust and gravel on +the travelers. + +Van rode ahead like a spirit of the storm. He knew the need for haste. +Beth simply let her pony go. She was cramped and far too wearied for +effort. + +They were galloping now past the outskirts of the camp, the many +scattered tents of the men who were living on their claims. All the +world was a land of claims, staked off with tall white posts, like +ghosts in the vanishing light. Ahead, a multitude of lights had +suddenly broken on the travelers' vision, like a nearby constellation +of stars. + +They rode into all of it, blazing lights, eager crowds upon the +streets, noise of atrocious music from the brilliant saloons, and rush +of wind and dust, not a minute too soon. They had barely alighted and +surrendered their horses to a friend of Van's when the rain from the +hilltops swooped upon the camp in a fury that seemed like an elemental +threat to sweep all the place, with its follies, hopes, and woes, its +excitements, lawlessness, and struggles, from the face of the barren +desert world. + +Beth and her maid were lame and numb. Van could only hustle them +inside a grocery-and-hardware store to save them from a drenching. The +store was separated from a gambling-hall saloon by the flimsiest board +partition. Odors of alcohol, confusion of voices, and calls of a +gamester came unimpeded to the women's senses, together with some +mighty bad singing, accompanied lustily by strains and groans pounded +from a ghastly piano. + +"Sit down," said Van, inverting a tub at the feet of the wondering +women. "I'll see if I can rustle up your brother." + +He went out in the rain, dived impartially into the first of the +crowded saloons, was somewhat hilariously greeted by a score of +convivial fellows, found no one who knew of young Glen Kent, and +proceeded on to the next. + +The horseman was well and favorably known in all directions. He was +eagerly cornered wheresoever he appeared by a lot of fellows who were +friends to little purpose, in an actual test. However, he clung to his +mission with commendable tenacity of purpose, and kept upon his way. +Thus he discovered at length, when he visited the bank--an institution +that rarely closed before ten o'clock in the evening--that Kent had +been gone for the past two weeks, no one knew where, but somewhere out +south, with a party. + +There was nothing to do after that but to look for fit apartments for +the gently reared girl and her maid. Hunting a needle in the ocean +would have been a somewhat similar task. Van went at once at the +business, with his customary spirit. He was presently informed there +was nothing resembling a room or a bed to be had in all the place. A +hundred men would walk the streets or sleep in chairs that night. The +one apartment suitable for two lone women to occupy had been secured +the previous day by "Plunger" Trask, an Eastern young man who would bet +that grass was not green. + +Van searched for Trask and found him "cashing in" a lot of assorted +chips, representing his winnings at a faro game at which he had been +"bucking." + +"Hello, there, Van," he said familiarly as the horseman touched him on +the shoulder. "Come and have a drink." + +"My teeth are floating now from drink," said Van, "but I'll take +something else if you say so. I want your apartments for the night." + +"Say, wire me!" answered the plunger. "That's the cutest little bunch +of nerve I ever saw off the Bowery! How much money have you got in +your clothes?" + +"About forty-five dollars," said Van. "Is it good?" + +"Not as a price, but O.K. in a flip," said Trask, with an itch for +schemes of chance. "I'll throw you the dice, my room against your +forty-five--and the devil take your luck if you win!" + +Van agreed. They borrowed a box of dice, threw three times apiece--and +the horseman paid over his money. + +"There you are, old man," said the plunger cheerfully. "Satisfied, I +hope." + +"Not quite," said Van. "I'll owe you forty-five more and throw you +again." + +"Right ho!" responded Trask. "Go as far as you like." + +They shook again. Van lost as before. He borrowed again, +undiscouraged. For the third time they cast the little cubes of +uncertainty and this time Van actually won. The room was his to +dispose of as he pleased. It had cost him ninety dollars for the night. + +In his pocket he had cautiously retained a little money--seven and +one-half dollars, to be accurate. He returned to Beth, informed her of +all he had discovered concerning her brother, took herself and Elsa to +dine in the camp's one presentable restaurant, paid nearly seven +dollars for the meal, and gave what remained to the waiter. + +Then Beth, who had never in her life been so utterly exhausted, +resigned herself to Elsa's care, bade Van good-night, and left him +standing in the rain before the door, gallant, and smiling to the end. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +PROGRESS AND SALT + +Goldite, by the light of day, presented a wonderful spectacle. It was +a mining camp positively crystallizing into being before the very eyes +of all beholders. It was nearly all tents and canvas structures--a +heterogeneous mixture of incompleteness and modernity to which the +telegraph wires had already been strung from the outside world. It had +no fair supply of water, but it did have a newspaper, issued once a +week. + +A dozen new buildings, flimsy, cheap affairs, were growing like +toadstools, day and night. Several brick buildings, and shacks of mud, +were rising side by side. Everywhere the scene was one of crowds, +activity, and hurry. Thousands of men were in the one straight street, +a roughly dressed, excited throng, gold-bitten, eager, and open-handed. +Hundreds of mules and horses, a few bewildered cows, herds of great +wagons, buggies, heaps of household goods, and trunks, with +fortifications of baled hay and grain, were crowded into two great +corrals, where dusty teamsters hastened hotly about, amidst heaps of +dusty harness, sacks of precious ore and the feed troughs for the +beasts. + +Beth had slept profoundly, despite the all-night plague of noises, +penetrating vividly through the shell-like walls of the house. She was +out with Elsa at an early hour, amazingly refreshed and absorbingly +interested in all she heard and saw. The sky was clear, but a chill +wind blew down from the mountains, flapping canvas walls in all +directions. + +The building wherein the women had rested was a wooden lodging house, +set barely back from the one business street of the camp. Next door +was a small, squat domicile constructed of bottles and mud. The +bottles were laid in the "mortar" with their ends protruding. Near by, +at the rear of a prosperous saloon, was a pyramid of empty bottles, +fully ten feet high--enough to build a little church. + +Drawn onward by the novelty of all the scene, Beth crossed the main +street--already teeming with horses, wagons, and men--and proceeded +over towards a barren hill, followed demurely by her maid. The hill +was like a torn-up battlefield, trenched, and piled with earthworks of +defense, for man the impetuous had already flung up great gray dumps of +rock, broken and wrenched from the bulk of the slope, where he quested +for gleaming yellow metal. He had ripped out the adamant--the matrix +of the gold--for as far as Beth could see. Like ant-heaps of +tremendous dimensions stood these monuments of toil--rock-writings, +telling of the heat and desire, the madness of man to be rich. + +The world about was one of rocks and treeless ridges, spewed from some +vast volcanic forge of ages past. It was all a hard, gray, adamantine +world, unlovely and severe--a huge old gold furnace, minus heat or +fire, lying neglected in a universe of mountains that might have been a +workshop in the ancient days when Titans wrought their arts upon the +earth. + +Beth gazed upon it all in wonder not unmingled with awe. What a place +it was for man to live and wage his puny battles! Yet the fever of all +of it, rising in her veins, made her eager already to partake of the +dream, the excitement that made mere gold-slaves of the men who had +come here compelling this forbidding place to yield up some measure of +comfort and become in a manner their home. + +Van, in the meanwhile, having spent the time till midnight on his feet, +and the small hours asleep on a bale of hay, was early abroad, engaged +in various directions. He first proceeded to the largest general store +in the camp and ordered a generous bill of supplies to be sent to his +newest claim. Next he arranged with a friendly teamster for the prompt +return of the two borrowed horses on which Beth and her maid had come +to camp. Then, on his way to an assayer's office, where samples of +rock from the claim in question had been left for the test of fire, he +encountered a homely, little, dried-up woman who was scooting about +from store to store with astonishing celerity of motion. + +"Tottering angels!" said he. "Mrs. Dick!" + +"Hello--just a minute," said the lively little woman, and she dived +inside the newest building and was out almost immediately with a great +sack of plunder that she jerked about with most diverting energy. + +"Here, fetch this down to the house," she demanded imperiously. +"What's the good of my finding you here in Goldite if you don't do +nothing for your country?" + +Van shouldered the sack. + +"What are you doing here anyhow?" said he, "--up before breakfast and +busy as a hen scratching for one chicken." + +"Come on," she answered, starting briskly towards a new white building, +off the main thoroughfare, eastward. "I live here--start my +boarding-house today. I'm going to get rich. Every room's furnished +and every bed wanted as fast as I can make 'em up. Have you had your +breakfast?" + +"Say, you're my Indian," answered Van. "I've got you two customers +already. You've got to take them in and give them your best if you +turn someone else inside out to do it." + +Mrs. Dick paused suddenly. + +"Bronson Van Buren! You're stuck on some woman at last!" + +"At last?" said Van. "Haven't I always been stuck after you?" + +Mrs. Dick resumed her brisk locomotion. + +"Snakes alive!" she concluded explosively. "She's respectable, of +course? But you said two. Now see here, Van, no Mormon games with me!" + +"Her _maid_--it's her maid that's with her," Van explained. "Don't +jump down my throat till I grease it." + +"Her maid!" Mrs. Dick said no more as to that. The way she said it +was enough. They had come to the door of her newly finished house, a +clean, home-like place from which a fragrance of preparing breakfast +flowed like a ravishing nectar. "Where are they now?" she demanded +impatiently. "Wherever they are it ain't fit for a horse! Why don't +you go and fetch 'em?" + +Van put the bag inside the door, then his hands on Mrs. Dick's +shoulders. + +"I'll bet your mother was a little red firecracker and your father a +bottle of seltzer," he said. Then off he went for Beth. + +She was not, of course, at "home" when he arrived at the place he had +found the previous evening. Disturbed for a moment by her absence, he +presently discerned her, off there westward on the hill from which she +was making a survey of the camp. + +Three minutes after he was climbing up the slope and she turned and +looked downward upon him. + +"By heavens!" he said beneath his breath, "--what beauty!" + +The breeze was molding her dress upon her rounded form till she seemed +like the statue of a goddess--a goddess of freedom, loveliness, and +joy, sculptured in the living flesh--a figure vibrant with glowing +health and youth, startlingly set in the desert's gray austerity. With +the sunlight flinging its gold and riches upon her, what a marvel of +color she presented!--such creamy white and changing rose-tints in her +cheeks--such a wonderful brown in her hair and eyes--such crimson of +lips that parted in a smile over even little jewels of teeth! And she +smiled on the horseman, tall, and active, coming to find her on the +hill. + +"Good morning!" she cried. "Oh, isn't it wonderful--so big, and bare, +and _clean_!" + +Van smiled. + +"It's a hungry-looking country to me--looks as if it has eaten all the +trees. If it makes you think of breakfast, or just plain coffee and +rolls, I've found a place I hope you'll like, with a friend I didn't +know was here." + +"You are very kind, I'm sure," she said. "I'm afraid we're a great +deal of trouble." + +"That's what women were made for," he answered her frankly, a bright, +dancing light in his eyes. "They couldn't help it if they would, and I +guess they wouldn't if they could." + +"Oh, indeed?" She shot him a quick glance, half a challenge. "I +_guess_ if you don't mind we won't go to the place you've found, for +breakfast, this morning." + +"You'd better guess again," he answered, and taking her arm, in a +masterful way that bereft her of the power of speech or resistance, he +marched her briskly down the slope and straight towards Mrs. Dick's. + +"Thank your stars you've struck a place like this," he said. "If you +don't I'll have to thank them for you." + +"Perhaps I ought to thank you first," she ventured smilingly. It would +have seemed absurd to resent his boyish ways. + +"You may," he said, "when I get to be one of your stars." + +"Oh, really? Why defer mere thanks _indefinitely_?" + +"It won't be indefinitely, and besides, thanks will keep--and breakfast +won't." + +He entered the house, with Beth and her maid humbly trailing at his +heels. Mrs. Dick came bustling from the kitchen like a busy little +ant. Van introduced his charges briefly. Mrs. Dick shook hands with +them both. + +"Well!" she said, "I like you after all! And it's lucky I do, for if I +didn't I don't know's I should take you or not, even if Van did say I +had to." + +Van took her by the shoulders and shook her boyishly. + +"You'd take a stick of dynamite and a house afire, both in one hand, if +I said so," he announced. "Now don't get hostile." + +"Well--I s'pose I would," agreed Mrs. Dick. She added to Beth: "Ain't +he the dickens and all? Just regular brute strength. Come right +upstairs till I show you where you're put. I've turned off two men to +let you have the best room in the house." + +Beth had to smile. She had never felt so helpless in her life--or so +amused. She followed Mrs. Dick obediently, finding the two-bed room +above to be a bright, new-smelling apartment of acceptable size and +situation. In answer to a score of rapid-fire questions on the part of +Mrs. Dick, she imparted as much as Van already knew concerning herself +and her quest. + +Mrs. Dick became her friend forthwith, then hastened downstairs to the +kitchen. Van and Beth presently took breakfast together, while Elsa, +with a borrowed needle and thread, was busied with some minor repairing +of garments roughly used the day before. Other boarders and lodgers of +the house had already eaten and gone, to resume their swirl in the +maelstrom of the camp. + +For a time the two thus left alone in the dining-room appeased their +appetites in silence. Van watched the face of the girl for a time and +finally spoke. + +"I'll let you know whatever I hear about your brother, if there is any +more to hear. Meantime you'll have to remain here and wait." + +She was silent for a moment, reflecting on, the situation. + +"You took my suitcase away from Mr. Bostwick, you'll remember," she +said, "and left it where we got the horses." + +"It will be here to-day," he answered. "I arranged for that with Dave." + +"Oh. But of course you cannot tell when Mr. Bostwick may appear." + +"His movements couldn't be arranged so conveniently, otherwise he +wouldn't appear at all." + +She glanced at him, startled. + +"Not come at all? But I need him! Besides, he's my---- I expect him +to go and find my brother. And the trunk checks are all in his +pocket--wait!--no they're not, they're in my suitcase after all." + +"You're in luck," he assured her blandly, "for Searle has doubtless +lost all his pockets." + +"Lost his pockets?" she echoed. "Perhaps you mean the convicts took +them--took his clothing--everything he had." + +"Everything except his pleasant manner," Van agreed. "They have plenty +of that of their own." + +She was lost for a moment in reflection. + +"Poor Searle! Poor Mr. Bostwick!" + +Van drank the last of his coffee. + +"Was Searle the only man you knew in all New York?" + +She colored. "Certainly not. Of course not. Why do you ask such a +question?" + +"I was trying to understand the situation, but I give it up." He +looked in her eyes with mock gravity, and she colored. + +She understood precisely what he meant--the situation between herself +and Bostwick, to whom, she feared, she had half confessed herself +engaged. She started three times to make a reply, but halted each +answer for a better. + +"You don't like Mr. Bostwick," she finally observed. + +Van told her gravely: "I like him like the old woman kept tavern." + +She could not entirely repress a smile. + +"And how did she keep it--the tavern?" + +"Like hell," said Van. He rose to go, adding; "You like him about that +way yourself--since yesterday." + +Her eyes had been sparkling, but now they snapped. + +"Why--how can you speak so rudely? You know that isn't true! You know +I like--admire Mr. Bost---- You haven't any right to say a thing like +that--no matter what you may have done for me!" + +She too had risen. She faced him glowingly. + +He suddenly took both her hands and held them in a firm, warm clasp +from which there could be no escape. + +"Beth," he said audaciously, "you are never going to marry that man." + +She was struggling vainly to be free. Her face was crimson. + +"Let me go!" she demanded. "Mr. Van--you let me go! I don't see how +you dare to say a thing like that. I don't know why----" + +"You can't marry Searle," he interrupted, "because you are going to +marry me." + +He raised her hands to his lips and kissed them both. + +"Be back by and by," he added, and off he went, through the kitchen, +leaving Beth by the table speechless, burning and confused, with a +hundred wild emotions in her heart. + +He continued out at the rear of the place, where little Mrs. Dick was +valiantly tugging at two large buckets of water. He relieved her of +the burden. + +"Say, Priscilla," he drawled, "if a smoke-faced Easterner comes around +here while I'm gone, looking for--you know--Miss Kent, remember he +can't have a room in your house if he offers a million and walks on his +hands and prays in thirteen languages." + +Little Mrs. Dick glanced up at him shrewdly. + +"Have you got it as bad as that? Snakes alive! All right, I guess +I'll remember." + +"Be good," said Van, and off he went to the assayer's shop for which he +had started before. + +The assayer glanced up briefly. He was busy at a bucking-board, where, +with energetic application of a very heavy weight, on the end of a +handle, he was grinding up a lot of dusty ore. + +"Greeting, Van," said he. "Come in." + +Van shook his outstretched hand. + +"I thought I'd like to see those results," he said, "--that rock I +fetched you last, remember? You thought you could finish the batch +last week. Gold rock from the 'See Saw' claim that I bought three +weeks ago." + +"Yes, oh yes. Now what did I do with---- Finished 'em up and put 'em +away somewhere," said the assayer, dusting his hands and moving towards +his desk. "Such a lot of stuff's been coming in--here they are, I +reckon." He drew a half dozen small printed forms from a cavity in the +desk, glanced them over briefly and handed the lot to Van. "Nothing +doing. Pretty good rock for building purposes." + +"Nothing doing?" echoed Van incredulously, staring at the assay records +which showed in merciless bluntness that six different samples of +reputed ore had proved to be absolutely worthless. "The samples you +assayed first showed from ten to one hundred and fifty dollars to the +ton, in gold." + +"What's that got to do with this?" inquired the master of acids and +fire. "You don't mean to say----" + +"Do with it, man? It all came out of the same identical prospect," Van +interrupted. "These were later samples than the others, that's all." + +The assayer glanced over his shoulder at the hope-destroying slips. + +"The 'See Saw' claim," he said perfunctorily. "You bought it, Van, who +from?" + +"From Selwyn Briggs." + +"Sorry," said the assayer briefly. "H'm! That Briggs!" + +"You don't mean---- It couldn't have been salted on me!" Van declared. +"I took my own samples, broke down a new face purposely, sacked it all +myself--and sealed the sacks. No one touched those sacks till you +broke the seals in this office. He couldn't have salted me, Frank. +What possible chance----" + +The assayer went to a shelf, took down a small canvas bag, glanced at a +mark that identified it as one in which samples of "See Saw" rock had +arrived for the former assay, and turned it inside out. + +"Once in a while I've heard of a cute one squirting a sharp syringe +full of chloride of gold on worthless rock, through the meshes of the +canvas, even after the samples were sealed," he imparted quietly. +"This sack looks to me like some I've encountered before that were +pretty rich in gold. I'll assay the cloth if you like." + +Van took the sack in his hand, examined it silently, then glanced as +before at his papers. + +"Salted--by that lump of a Briggs!" His lip was curved in a mirthless +smile. "I guess I've got it in the neck all right. These last samples +tell the real story." He slapped the papers across his hand, then tore +them up in tiny bits and threw them on the floor." + +"Sorry, old man," said the assayer, as before. "Hope you didn't pay +him much for the claim." + +"Not much," said Van. "All I had--and some of it borrowed money." + +The assayer puckered up his mouth. + +"Briggs has skipped--gone East." + +"I know. Well--all in a lifetime, I suppose. Pay you, Frank, when I +can." + +"That's all right," his friend assured him. "Forget it if you like." + +Van started off, but returned. + +"Say, Frank," he said, "don't hawk this around. It's bad enough for me +to laugh at myself. I don't want the chorus joining in." + +"I'm your clam," said Frank. "So long, and better luck!" + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE LAUGHING WATER CLAIM + +A man who lives by uncertainties has a singular habit of mind. He is +ever lured forward by hopes and dreams that overlap each other as he +goes. While the scheme in hand is proving hopeless, day by day, he +grasps at another, just ahead, and draws himself onward towards the +gilded goal, forgetful of the trickery of all those other schemes +behind, that were equally bright in their day. + +Van had relinquished all hold on the golden dream once dangled before +him by the Monte Cristo mine, to lay strong hands on the promise +vouchsafed by the "See Saw" claim which he had purchased. As he walked +away from the assayer's shop he felt his hands absolutely empty. For +the very first time in at least four years he had no blinding glitter +before his vision to entice him to feverish endeavor. He was a dreamer +with no dreams, a miner without a mine. + +He felt chagrined, humiliated. After all his time spent here in the +world's most prodigious laboratory of minerals, he had purchased a +salted mine! A sharper man, that sad-faced, half-sick Selwyn Briggs, +had actually trimmed him like this! + +Salted! And he was broke. Well, what was the next thing to do? He +thought of the fine large bill of goods, engaged for himself and +partners to take to the "See Saw" claim. It made him smile. But he +would not rescind the order--for a while. His partners, with his +worldly goods, the Chinese cook and all the household, save Cayuse, +would doubtless arrive by noon. He and they had to eat; they had to +live. Also they had to mine, for they knew nothing else by way of +occupation. They must somehow get hold of some sort of claim, and go +on with their round of hopes and toil. They had never been so utterly +bereft--so outcast by the goddess of fortune--since they had thrown +their lots together. + +He dreaded the thought of meeting various acquaintances here in +camp--the friends to whom he had said he was going that day to the "See +Saw" property, far over the Mahogany range, near the Indian +reservation. He determined to go. Perhaps the shack and the +shaft-house on the claim, with the windlass and tools included by +Briggs in the bill of sale, might fetch a few odd dollars. + +Slowly down the street he went to the hay-yard where his pony was +stabled. He met a water man, halting on his rounds at the front of a +neat canvas dwelling. The man had three large barrels on a wagon, each +full of muddy, brackish water. A long piece of hose was thrust into +one, its other end dangled out behind. + +From the tent emerged a woman with her buckets. The water man placed +the hose-end to his mouth, applied a lusty suction, and the water came +gushing forth. He filled both receptacles, collected the price, and +then drove on to the next. + +Sardonically Van reflected that even the fine little stream of water on +his claim, in a land where water was so terribly scarce, was absolutely +worthless as an asset. It was over a mountain ridge of such tremendous +height that it might as well have been in the forests of Maine. + +Despite the utter hopelessness of his present situation, his spirits +were not depressed. Gettysburg, he reflected, was a genius for bumping +into queer old prospectors--relics of the days of forty-nine, still +eagerly pursuing their _ignis fatuous_ of gold--and from some such +desert wanderer he would doubtless soon pick up a claim. There was +nothing like putting Gettysburg upon the scent. + +Van wrote a note to his partners. + + +"Dear Fellow Mourners: + +"Have just discovered a joke. I was salted on the 'See Saw' property. +Our pipe dream is defunct. Have gone over to lay out remains. If you +find any oldtimers who have just discovered some lost bonanza, take +them into camp. Don't get drunk, get busy. Be back a little after +noon." + + +This he left with the hay-yard man where his partners would stop when +they arrived. Mounted on Suvy, his outlaw of the day before, he rode +from Goldite joyously. After all, what was the odds? He had been no +better off than now at least a hundred times. At the worst he still +had his partners and his horse, a breakfast aboard, and a mountain +ahead to climb. + +Indeed, at the light of friendship in his broncho's eyes, as well as at +the pony's neigh of welcome, back there at the yard, he had felt a +boundless pleasure in his veins. He patted the chestnut's neck, in his +rough, brusque way of companionship, and the horse fairly quivered with +pleasure. + +For nearly two hours the willing animal went zig-zagging up the rocky +slopes. The day was warming; the sun was a naked disk of fire. It was +hard climbing. Van had chosen the shorter, steeper way across the +range. From time to time, where the barren ascent was exceptionally +severe, he swung from the saddle and led the broncho on, to mount +further up as before. + +Thus they came in time to a zone of change, over one of the ridges, a +region where rocks and ugliness gave way to a growth of brush and +stunted trees. These were the outposts, ragged, dwarfed, and warped, +of a finer growth beyond. + +Fifteen miles away, down between the hills, flowed a tortuous stream, +by courtesy called a river. It sometimes rose in a turgid flood, but +more often it sank and delivered up its ghost to such an extent that a +man could have held it in his hat. Nevertheless some greenery +flourished on its banks. + +When Van at last could oversee the vast, unpeopled lands of the Piute +Indian reservation, near the boundary of which his salted claim had +been staked, he had only a mile or so to ride, and all the way down +hill. + +He came to the property by eleven o'clock of the morning. He looked +about reflectively. The rough board cabin and the rougher shaft-house +were scarcely worth knocking down for lumber. There, on the big, +barren dike, were several tunnels and prospects, in addition to the +shaft, all "workings" that Briggs had opened up in his labors on the +ledge. They were mere yawning mockeries of mining, but at least had +served a charlatan's requirements. A few tools lay about, abominably +neglected. + +The location was rather attractive, on the whole. The clear stream of +water had coaxed a few quaking aspens and alders into being, among the +stunted evergreens. Grass lay greenly along the bank, a charming +relief to the eye. The sandy soil was almost level in the narrow cove, +which was snugly surrounded by hills, except at the lower extremity, +where the brook tumbled down a wide ravine. + +Van, on his horse, gazed over towards the Indian reservation idly. How +vain, in all likelihood, were the wonderful tales of gold ledges lying +within its prohibited borders. What a madness was brewing in the camps +all around as the day for the reservation opening rapidly approached! +How they would swarm across its hills and valleys--those gold-seeking +men! What a scramble it would be, and all for--what? + +There were tales in plenty of men who had secretly prospected here on +this forbidden land, and marked down wonderful treasures. Van looked +at his salted possessions. What a chance for an orgie of salting the +reservation claims would afford! + +With his pony finally secured to a tree near at hand, the horseman +walked slowly about. A gold pan lay rusting, half filled with rock and +dirt, by a bench before the cabin. It was well worth cleaning and +taking away, together with some of the picks, drills, and hammers. + +He carried it over to the brook. There he knelt and washed it out, +only to find it far more rusted than it had at first appeared. He +scooped it full of the nearest gravel and scoured it roughly with his +hands. Three times he repeated this process, washing it out in the +creek. + +Ready to rise with it, cleaned at last, he caught up a shallow film of +water, flirted it about with a rotary motion, to sluice out the last +bit of stubborn dross, then paused to stare in unbelief at a few bright +particles down at the edge, washed free of all the gravel. + +Incredulous and not in the least excited, he drew a small glass from +has pocket and held it on the specks. There could be no doubt of their +nature. They were gold. + +Interested, but doubting the importance of his find, Van pawed up half +a pan full of gravel and dipped the receptacle full of water. Then +stirring the sand and stuff with his hand, he panned it carefully. + +The result at the end was such a string of colors as he had never +washed in all his wide experience. To make a superficial prospect of +the claim he proceeded to pan from a dozen different places in the +cove, and in every instance got an exceptional showing of coarse, +yellow gold, with which the gravel abounded. + +He knelt motionless at last, beside the stream, singularly unperturbed, +despite the importance of his find. Briggs had slipped up, absolutely, +on the biggest thing in many miles around, by salting and selling a +quartz claim here to a man with a modest sum of money. + +The cove was a placer claim, rich as mud in gold, and with everything +needed at hand. + +Then and there the name of the property was changed from the "See Saw" +to the "Laughing Water" claim. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +ALGY STIRS UP TROUBLE + +Bostwick arrived in Goldite at three in the afternoon, dressed in +prison clothes. He came on a freight wagon, the deliberate locomotion +of which had provided ample time for his wrath to accumulate and +simmer. His car was forty miles away, empty of gasolene, stripped of +all useful accessories, and abandoned where the convicts had compelled +him to drive them in their flight. + +A blacker face than his appeared, with anger and a stubble of beard +upon it, could not have been readily discovered. His story had easily +outstripped him, and duly amused the camp, so that now, as he rode +along the busy street, in a stream of lesser vehicles, autos, and dusty +horsemen, arriving by two confluent roads, he was angered more and more +by the grins and ribald pleasantries bestowed by the throngs in the +road. + +To complicate matters already sufficiently aggravating, Gettysburg, +Napoleon C. Blink, and Algy, the Chinese cook, from the Monte Cristo +mine, now swung into line from the northwest road, riding on horses and +burros. They were leading three small pack animals, loaded with all +their earthly plunder. + +The freight team halted and a crowd began to congregate. Bostwick was +descending just as the pack-train was passing through the narrow way +left by the crowd. His foot struck one of the loaded burros in the +eye. The animal staggered over against the wall of men, trampling on +somebody's feet. Somebody yelled and cursed vehemently, stepping on +somebody else. A small-sized panic and melee ensued forthwith. More +of the animals took alarm, and Algy was frightened half to death. His +pony, a wall-eyed, half-witted brute, stampeded in the crowd. Then +Algy was presently in trouble. + +There had been no Chinese in Goldite camp, largely on account of race +prejudice engendered and fostered by the working men, who still +maintained the old Californian hatred against the industrious +Celestials. In the mob, unfortunately near the center of confusion, +was a half-drunken miner, rancorous as poison. He was somewhat roughly +jostled by the press escaping Algy's pony. + +"Ye blank, blank chink--I'll fix ye fer that!" he bawled at the top of +his voice, and heaving his fellow white men right and left he laid +vicious hands on the helpless cook and, dragging him down, went at him +in savage brutality. + +"Belay there, you son of a shellfish!" yelled Napoleon, dismounting and +madly attempting to push real men away. "I'll smash in your +pilot-house! I'll---- Leave me git in there to Algy!" + +Gettysburg, too, was on the ground. He, Bostwick, and a hundred men +were madly crowded in together, where two or three were pushing back +the throng and yelling to Algy to fight. + +Algy was fighting. He was also spouting most awful Chinese oaths, +sufficient to warp an ordinary spine and wither a common person's +limbs. He kicked and scratched like a badger. But the miner was an +engine of destruction. He was aggravated to a mood of gory slaughter. +He broke the Chinaman's arm, almost at once, with some viciously +diabolical maneuver and leaped upon him in fury. + +In upon this scene of yelling, cursing, and fighting Van rode +unannounced. He saw the crowd increasing rapidly, as saloons, stores, +hay-yard, bank, and places of lodging poured out a curious army, mostly +men, with a few scattered women among them--all surging eagerly forward. + +Algy, meantime, in a spasm of pain and activity, struggled to his feet +from the dust and attempted to make his escape. Van no more than +beheld him that he leaped from his horse and broke his way into the +ring. + +When he laid his hand on the miner's collar it appeared as if that +individual would be suddenly jerked apart. Algy went down in collapse. + +"Why don't you pick on a man of your color?" + +Van demanded, and he flung the miner headlong to the ground. + +A hundred lusty citizens shouted their applause. + +Little Napoleon broke his way to the center. Gettysburg was just +behind him. Van was about to kneel on the ground and lift his +prostrate cook when someone bawled out a warning. + +He wheeled instantly. The angered miner, up, with a gun in hand, was +lurching in closer to shoot. He got no chance, even to level the +weapon. Van was upon him like a panther. The gun went up and was +fired in the air, and then was hurled down under foot. + +Two things happened then together. The sheriff arrived to arrest the +drunken miner, and a woman pushed her way through the press. + +"Van!" she cried. "Van--oh, Van!" + +He was busy assisting his partners to escort poor Algy away. He noted +the woman as she parted the crowd. He was barely in time to fend her +off from flinging herself in his arms. + +"Oh, Van!" she repeated wildly. "I thought you was goin' to git it +sure!" + +"Don't bother me, Queenie," he answered, annoyed, and adding to +Gettysburg, "Take him to Charlie's," he turned at once to his broncho, +mounted actively, and began to round up the scattered animals brought +into camp by his partners. + +He had barely ridden clear of the crowd when his glance was caught by a +figure off to the left. + +It was Beth. She was standing on a packing case, where the surging +disorder had sent her. She had seen it all, the fight, his arrival, +and the woman who would have clasped him in her arms. + +Her face was flushed. She avoided his gaze and turned to descend to +the walk. Then Bostwick, in his convict suit, stepped actively forward +to meet her. + +Van saw the look of surprise in her face, at beholding the man in this +attire. She recoiled, despite herself, then held forth her hand for +his aid. Bostwick took it, assisted her down, and they hastily made +their escape. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +BOSTWICK LOSES GROUND + +The one retreat for Beth was the house where she was lodging. She went +there at once, briefly explaining to Bostwick on the way how it chanced +she had come the day before. What had happened to himself she already +knew. + +Bostwick was a thoroughly angered man. He had seen the horseman in the +fight and had hoped to see him slain. To find Beth safe and even +cheerful here annoyed him exceedingly. + +"Have you lodged a complaint--done anything to have this fellow +arrested?" he demanded, alluding to Van. "Have you reported what was +done to me?" + +"Why, no," said Beth. "What's the use? He did it all in kindness, +after all." + +"Kindness!" + +"Of a sort--a rough sort, perhaps, but genuine--a kindness to me--and +Elsa," she answered, flushing rosily. "He saved me from----" she +looked at the convict garb upon him, "--from a disagreeable experience, +I'm sure, and secured me the very best accommodations in the town." + +They had almost come to her lodgings. Bostwick halted in the road, his +gun-metal jaw protruding formidably. + +"You haven't already begun to admire this ruffian--glorify this +outlaw?" he growled, "--after what he did to me?" + +"Don't stop to discuss it here," she answered, beholding Mrs. Dick at +the front of the house. "I haven't had time to do anything. You must +manage to change your clothes." + +"I'll have my reckoning with your friend," he assured her angrily. +"Have you engaged a suite for me?" + +They had come to the door of the house. Beth beheld the look of +amazement, suspicion, and repugnance on the face of Mrs. Dick, and her +face burned red once more. + +"Oh, Mrs. Dick," she said, "this is Mr. Bostwick, of whom I spoke." She +had told of Bostwick's capture by the convicts. "Do you think you +could find him a room?" + +"A room? I want a suite--two rooms at least," said Bostwick +aggressively. "Is this a first-class place?" + +"It ain't no regular heaven, and I ain't no regular Mrs. Saint Peter," +answered Mrs. Dick with considerable heat, irritated by Bostwick's +personality and recognizing in him Van's "smoke-faced Easterner." She +added crisply: "So you might as well vamoose the ranch, fer I couldn't +even put you in the shed." + +"But I've got to have accommodations!" insisted Bostwick. "I prefer +them where my fiancee--where Miss Kent is stopping. I'm sure you can +manage it someway--let someone go. The price is no object to me." + +"I don't want you that bad," said Mrs. Dick frankly. "I said no and +I'm too busy to say it again." + +She bustled off with her ant-like celerity, followed by Bostwick's +scowls. + +"You'll have to give up your apartments here," he said to Beth. "I'll +find something better at once." + +"Thank you, I'm very well satisfied," said Beth. "You'll find this +town quite overcrowded." + +"You mean you propose to stay here in spite of my wishes?" + +"Please don't wish anything absurd," she answered. "This is really no +place for fastidious choosing--and I am very comfortable." + +A lanky youth, with a suitcase and three leather bags, came shuffling +around the corner and dropped down his load. + +"Van told me to bring 'em here with his--something I don't remember," +imparted the youth. "That's all," and he grinned and departed. + +Bostwick glowered, less pleased than before. + +"That fellow, I presume. He evidently knows where you are stopping." + +Beth was beginning to feel annoyed and somewhat defiant. She had never +dreamed this man could appear so repellant as now, with his stubble of +beard and this convict garb upon him. She met his glance coldly. + +"He found me the place. I am considerably in his obligation." + +Bostwick's face grew blacker. + +"Obligation? Why don't you admit at once you admire the fellow?--or +something more. By God! I've endured about as much----" + +"Mr. Bostwick!" she interrupted. She added more quietly: "You've been +very much aggravated. I'm sorry. Now please go somewhere and change +your clothing." + +"Aggravated?" he echoed. "You ought to know what he is, by instinct. +You must have seen him in a common street brawl! You must have seen +that woman--that red-light night-hawk throwing herself in his arms. +And to think that you--with Glenmore in town---- Why isn't your +brother here with you?" + +Beth was smarting. The sense of mortification she had felt at the +sight of that woman in the street with Van, coupled with the sheer +audacity of his conduct towards herself that morning, had already +sufficiently shamed her. She refused, however, to discuss such a +question with Bostwick. + +"Glen isn't here," she answered coldly. "I trust you will soon be +enabled to find him--then--we can go." + +"Not here?" repeated Bostwick. "Where is he, then?" + +"Somewhere out in another camp--or mining place--or something. Now +please go and dress. We can talk it over later." + +"This is abominable of Glen," said Bostwick. "Is McCoppet in town?" + +She looked her surprise. "McCoppet?" + +"You don't know him, of course," he hastened to say. "I shall try to +find him at once." He turned to go, beheld her luggage, and added: "Is +there anyone to take up your things?" + +She could not bear to have him enter her apartment in this awful prison +costume. + +"Oh, yes," she answered. "You needn't be bothered with the bags." + +"Very well. I shall soon return." He departed at once, his impatience +suddenly increased by the thought of seeking out McCoppet. + +Beth watched him going. A sickening sense of revulsion invaded all her +nature. And when her thoughts, like lawless rebels, stole guiltily to +Van, she might almost have boxed her own tingling ears in sheer +vexation. + +She entered the house, summoned Elsa from her room, and had the luggage +carried to their quarters. Then she opened her case, removed some +dainty finery, and vaguely wondered if the horseman would like her in +old lavender. + +Van, in the meantime, had been busy at the hay-yard known as Charlie's. +Not only had Algy's arm been broken, by the bully in the fight, but he +had likewise been seriously mauled and beaten. His head had been cut, +he was hurt internally. A doctor, immediately summoned by the +horseman, had set the fractured member. Algy had then been put to bed +in a tent that was pitched in the yard where the horses, mules, cows, +pyramids of merchandise, and teamsters were thicker than flies on +molasses. + +Gettysburg and Napoleon, quietly informed by Van of the latest turn of +their fortune, were wholly unexcited by the news. The attack on Algy, +however, had acted potently upon them. They started to get drunk and +achieved half a load before Van could herd them back to camp. + +Napoleon was not only partially submerged when Van effected his +capture; he was also shaved. Van looked him over critically. + +"Nap," he said, "what does this mean?--you wasting money on your face?" + +Napoleon drunk became a stutterer, who whistled between his discharges +of seltzer. + +"Wheresh that little g-g-g-(whistle) girl?" he answered, "--lit-tle +D-d-d-d-(whistle) Dutch one that looksh like--looksh like--quoth the +r-r-r-r-(whistle) raven--NEVER MORE!" + +Van divined that this description was intended to indicate Elsa. + +"Gone back to China," said he. "That shave of yours is wasted on the +desert air." + +Gettysburg, whose intellect was top heavy, had the singular habit, at a +time like this, of removing his crockery eye and holding it firmly in +his fist, to guard it from possible destruction. He stared uncertainly +at both his companions. + +"China!" said he tragically. "China?" + +"Hold on, now, Gett," admonished Van, steering his tall companion as a +man might steer a ladder, "you don't break out in the woman line again +or there's going to be some concentrated anarchy in camp." + +"No, Van, no--now honest, no woman," said Gettysburg in a confidential +murmur. "I had my woman eye took out the last time I went down to +'Frisco." + +"You're a l-l-l-(whistle) liar!" ejaculated Napoleon. + +"What!" Gettysburg fairly shrieked. + +"Metaphorical speakin'--meta phor-f-f-f-f-f-(whistle) phorical +speakin'," Napoleon hastened to explain. +"Metaphor-f-f-f-(whistle)-phorical means you don't really +m-m-m-m-(whistle) mean what you say--means--quoth the +r-r-r-r-r-(whistle) raven--NEVER MORE!" + +Van said: "If you two old idiots don't do the lion and the lamb act +pretty pronto I'll send you both to the poor house." + +They had entered the hay-yard, among the mules and horses. Gettysburg +promptly reached down, laid hold of Napoleon, and kissed him violently +upon the nose. + +Napoleon wept. "What did I s-s-s-s-(whistle) say?" he sobbed +lugubriously. "Oh, death, where is thy s-s-s-s-(whistle) sting?" + +Evening had come. The two fell asleep in Algy's tent, locked in each +other's arms. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +A COMBINATION OF FORCES + +Bostwick effected a change of dress in the rear of the nearest store. +A rough blue shirt, stout kahki garments and yellow "hiking" boots +converted him into one of the common units of which the camp throng was +comprised. He was then duly barbered, after which he made a strenuous +but futile endeavor to procure accommodations for the night. + +There was no one with leisure to listen to his tirade on the shameful +inadequacy of the attributes of civilization in the camp, and after one +brief attempt to arouse civic indignation against Van for his acts of +deliberate lawlessness, he perceived the ease with which he might +commit an error and render himself ridiculous. He dropped all hope of +publicly humiliating the horseman and deferred his private vengeance +for a time more opportune. + +Wholly at a loss to cope with a situation wherein he found himself so +utterly neglected and unknown, despite the influential position he +occupied both in New York and Washington, he resolved to throw himself +entirely upon the mercies of McCoppet. + +He knew his man only through their correspondence, induced by Beth's +brother, Glenmore Kent. Inquiring at the bank, he was briefly directed +to the largest saloon of the place. When he entered the bar he found +it swarming full of men, miners, promoters, teamsters, capitalists, +gamblers, lawyers, and--the Lord alone knew what. The air was a reek +of smoke and fumes of liquor. A blare of alleged music shocked the +atmosphere. Men drunk and men sober, all were talking mines and gold, +the greatness of the camp, the richness of the latest finds, and the +marvel of their private properties. Everyone had money, everyone had +chunks of ore to show to everyone else. + +At the rear were six tables with layouts for games of chance. Faro, +"klondike," roulette, stud-poker, almost anything possibly to be +desired was there. All were in full blast. Three deep the men were +gathered about the wheel and the "tiger." Gold money in stacks stood +at every dealer's hand. Bostwick had never seen so much metal currency +in all his life. + +He asked for McCoppet at the bar. + +"Opal? Somewhere back--that's him there, talkin' to the guy with the +fur on his jaw," informed the barkeeper, making a gesture with his +thumb. "What's your poison?" + +"Nothing, thank you," answered Bostwick, who started for his man, but +halted for McCoppet to finish his business with his friend. + +The man on whom Bostwick was gazing was a tall, slender, slightly +stooped individual of perhaps forty-five, with a wonderful opal in his +tie, from which he had derived his sobriquet. He was clean-shaved, big +featured, and gifted with a pair of heavy-lidded eyes as lustreless as +old buttons. He had never been seen without a cigar in his mouth, but +the weed was never lighted. + +Bostwick noted the carefulness of the man's attire, but gained no clue +as to his calling. To avoid stupid staring he turned to watch a game +of faro. Its fascinations were rapidly engrossing his attentions and +luring him onward toward a reckless desire to tempt the goddess of +chance, when he presently beheld McCoppet turn away from his man and +saunter down the room. + +A moment later Bostwick touched him on the shoulder. + +"Beg pardon," he said, "Mr. McCoppet?" + +McCoppet nodded. "My name." + +"I'd like to introduce myself--J. Searle Bostwick," said the visitor. +"I expected to arrive, as I wrote you----" + +"Glad to meet you, Bostwick," interrupted the other, putting forth his +hand. "Where are you putting up?" + +"I haven't been able to find accommodations," answered Bostwick warmly. +"It's an outrage the way this town is conducted. I thought perhaps----" + +"I'll fix you all right," cut in McCoppet. "Are you ready for a talk? +Nothing has waited for you to come." + +"I came for an interview--in fact----" + +"Private room back here," McCoppet announced, and he started to lead +the way, pausing for a moment near a faro table to cast a cold glance +at the dealer. + +"Wonderfully interesting game," said Bostwick. "It seems as if a man +might possibly beat it." + +There might have been a shade of contempt in the glance McCoppet cast +upon him. He merely said: "He can't." + +Bostwick laughed. "You seem very positive." + +McCoppet was moving on again. + +"I own the game." + +He owned everything here, and had his designs on two more places like +it, down the street. He almost owned the souls of many men, but gold +and power were the goals on which his eyes were riveted. + +Bostwick glanced at him with newer interest as they passed down the +room, and so to a tight little office the walls of which were specially +deadened against the transmission of sound. + +"Have anything to drink?" inquired the owner, before he took a chair, +"--whiskey, wine?" + +"Thanks, no," said Bostwick, "not just yet." He took the chair to +which McCoppet waved him. "I must say I'm surprised," he admitted, "to +see the numbers of men, the signs of activity, and all the rest of it +in a camp so young. And by the way, it seems young Kent is away." + +"Yes," said the gambler, settling deeply into his chair and sleepily +observing his visitor. "I sent him away last week." + +Bostwick was eager. + +"On something good for the--for our little group?" + +"On a wild goose seance," answered McCoppet. "He's in the way around +here." + +"Oh," said Bostwick, who failed to understand. "I thought----" + +"Yes. I culled your thought from your letters," interrupted his host +drawlingly. "We might as well understand each other first as last. +Bostwick--are you out here to work this camp my way or the kid's?" + +Bostwick was cautious. "How does he wish to work it?" + +"Like raising potatoes." + +"And your plan is----" + +"Look here, do I stack up like a Sunday-school superintendent? I +thought you and I understood each other. I don't run no game the other +man can maybe beat. Didn't you come out here with that understanding?" + +"Certainly, I----" + +"Then never mind the kid. What have you got in your kahki?" + +"Our syndicate to buy the Hen Hawk group----" started Bostwick, but the +gambler cut in sharply. + +"That's sold and cold. You have to move here; things happen. What did +you do about the reservation permit?" + +Bostwick looked about the room furtively, and edged his chair a bit +closer. + +"I secured permission from Government headquarters to explore all or +any portions of the reservation, and take _assistants_ with me," he +imparted in a lowered tone of voice. "I had it mailed to me here by +registered post. It should be at the post-office now." + +"Right," said McCoppet with more of an accent of approval in his +utterance. "Get it out to-day. I've got your corps of assistants +hobbled here in camp. They can get on the ground to-morrow morning." + +Bostwick's eyes were gleaming. + +"There's certainly gold on this reservation?" + +"Now, how can anybody tell you that?" demanded McCoppet, who from his +place here in Goldite had engineered the plan whereby his and +Bostwick's expert prospectors could explore every inch of the +Government's forbidden land in advance of all competitors. "We're +taking a flyer, that's all. If there's anything there--we're on." + +Bostwick reflected for a moment. "There's nothing at present that our +syndicate could do?" + +"There'll be plenty of chances to use ready money," McCoppet assured +him, rising. "You're here on the ground. Keep your shirt on and leave +the shuffling to me." + +Bostwick, too, arose. "How long will young Kent be away?" + +"As long as I can keep him busy out South." + +"What is he doing out South?" + +"Locating a second Goldite," said the gambler. "Keeps him on the +move." He threw away his chewed cigar, placed a new one in his mouth, +and started for the door. "Come on," he added, "I'll identify you over +at the postoffice and show you where you sleep." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +MOVING A SHACK + +Less than a week had passed since Bostwick's arrival in Goldite, but +excitement was rife in the air. Despite the angered protests of half a +thousand mining men, the Easterner, with four of the shrewdest +prospectors in the State, had traversed the entire mineral region of +the reservation in the utmost security and assurance. Five hundred men +had been forced to remain at the border, at the points of official +guns. A few desperate adventurers had crept through the guard, but +nearly all were presently captured and ejected from the place, while +Bostwick--granted special privileges--was assuming this inside track. + +The day for the opening of the lands was less than two weeks off--and +the news leaked out and spread like a wind that the "Laughing Water" +claim had suddenly promised amazing wealth as a placer where Van and +his partners were taking out the gold by the simplest, most primitive +of methods. + +The rush for the region came like a stampede of cattle. An army of men +went swarming over the ridges and overran the country like a plague of +ants. They trooped across the border of the reservation, so close to +the "Laughing Water" claim, they staked out all the visible world, +above, below, and all about Van's property, they tore down each others' +monuments, including a number where Van had located new, protective +claims, and they builded a tent town over night, not a mile from his +first discovery. + +At the claim in the cove the fortunate holders of a private treasury of +gold had lost no time. In the absence of better lumber, for which they +had no money, Van and his partners had torn down the shaft-house, made +it into sluices, and turned in the water from the stream. That was all +the plant required. They had then commenced to shovel the gravel into +the trough-like boxes, and the gold had begun to lodge behind the +riffles. + +The cove became a theatre of curiosity, envy, and covetous longings. +Men came there by motor, on horses, mules, and on foot to take one +delirious look and rush madly about to improve what chances still +remained. The fame of it swept like prairie fire, far and wide. The +new-made town began at once to spread and encroach upon all who were +careless of their holdings. Lawlessness was rampant. + +At the cabin on the "Laughing Water" claim Algy, the Chinese cook, was +still disabled. Gettysburg was chief culinary artist. Napoleon +hustled for grub, the only supplies of which were over at Goldite--and +expensive. All were constantly exhausted with the labors of the day. + +Despite their vigilance they awoke one morning to see a brand-new cabin +standing on the claim, at the top of a hill. A man was on the rough +pine roof, rapidly laying weather paper. Van beheld him, watched him +for a moment, then quietly walked over to the site. + +"Say, friend," he called to the man on the roof, "you've broken into +Eden by mistake. This property is mine and I haven't any building lots +to sell." + +The visiting builder took out a huge revolver and laid it on a block. +He said nothing at all. Van felt his impatience rising. + +"I'm talking to you, Mr. Carpenter," he added. "Come on, now, I don't +want any trouble with neighbors, but this cabin will have to be +removed." + +"Go to hell!" said the builder. He continued to pound in his nails. + +"If I go," said Van calmly, "I'll bring a little back. Are you going +to move or be moved?" + +"Don't talk to me, I'm busy," answered the intruder. "I'm an irritable +man, and everything I own is irritable, understand?" And taking up his +gun he thumped with it briskly on the boards. + +"If you're looking for trouble," Van replied, "you won't need a +double-barreled glass." + +He turned away and the man continued operations. When he came to the +shack Van selected a hammer and a couple of drills from among a lot of +tools in the corner. + +To his partner's questions as to what the visitor intended he replied +that only time could tell. + +"Here, Nap," he added, fetching forth the tools, "I want you to take +this junk and go up there where the neighbor is working. Just sit down +quietly and drill three shallow holes and don't say a word to yonder +busy bee. If he asks you what's doing, play possum--and don't make the +holes too deep." + +Napoleon went off as directed. His blows could presently be heard as +he drilled in a porphyry dike. + +His advent puzzled the man intent on building. + +"Say, you," said he, "what's on your programme?" + +Napoleon drilled and said nothing. + +The carpenter watched him in some uneasiness. + +"Say, you ain't starting a shaft?" + +No answer. + +"Ain't this a placer? Say, you, are you deef?" + +Napoleon pounded on the steel. + +"Go to hell!" said the builder, as he had before, "--a man that can't +answer civil questions!" + +He resumed his labors, pausing now and then to stare at Napoleon, in a +steadily increasing dubiety of mind. + +In something less than twenty minutes he had done very little roofing, +owing to a nervousness he found it hard to banish, while Napoleon had +all but completed his holes. Then Van came leisurely strolling to the +place, comfortably loaded with dynamite, of which a man may carry much. + +With utter indifference to the man on the roof he proceeded to charge +those shallow holes. As a matter of fact he overcharged them. He used +an exceptional amount of the harmless looking stuff, and laid a short +fuse to the cap. When he turned to the builder, who had watched +proceedings with a sickening alarm at his vitals, that industrious +person had taken on a heavy, leaden hue. + +"You see I went where you told me," said Van, "and I've brought some +back as I promised. This shot has got to go before breakfast--and +breakfast is just about ready." + +"For God's sake give a man a chance," implored the man who had +trespassed in the night. "I'll move the shack to-morrow." + +"You won't have to," Van informed him, "but you'd better move your meat +to-day." + +He took out a match, scratched it with quiet deliberation and lighted +the end of the fuse. + +"For God's sake--man!" cried the carpenter, and without even waiting to +climb from the roof he rolled to the edge in a panic, fell off on his +feet, and ran as if all the fiends of Hades were fairly at his heels. + +Van and Napoleon also moved away with becoming alacrity. Three minutes +later the charge went off. It sounded like the crack of doom. It +seemed to split the earth and very firmament. A huge black toadstool +of smoke rose up abruptly. Something like a blot of yellowish color +spattered all over the landscape. It was the shack. + +It had moved. The smoke cloud drifted rapidly away. On the hill was a +great jagged hole, lined with rock, but there was nothing more. The +cabin was hung in lumber shreds on the stunted trees for hundreds of +feet in all directions. With it went hammers, saws and a barrel of +nails whose usefulness was ended. + +Gettysburg, aproned, and fresh from his labors at the stove, came +hastening out of the cabin to where his partners stood, in great +distress of mind. + +"Holy toads, Van!" he said excitedly, "it must have been the shot! +I've dropped an egg--and what in the world shall I do?" + +"Cackle, man, cackle," Van answered him gravely. "That's a mighty rare +occurrence." + +"And two-bits apiece!" almost wailed poor Gettysburg, diving back into +the cabin, "and only them four in the shack!" + +That was also the day that Bostwick came out upon the scene. He came +with his prospectors, all the party somewhat disillusionized as to all +that fabled gold upon the Indian reservation. + +Some word of the wealth of the "Laughing Water" claim had come to +Searle early in the week. He did not visit the cabin or the owners of +the cove. For fifteen minutes, however, he sat upon his horse and +scanned the place in silence. Then out of his newly-acquired knowledge +of the boundaries of the reservation the hounds of his mind jumped up a +half-mad plan. His cold eyes glittered as he looked across to where +Van and his partners were toiling. His lips were compressed in a smile. + +He rode to Goldite hurriedly and sought out his friend McCoppet. When +the two were presently closeted together where their privacy was +assured, a conspiracy, diabolically insidious, was about to have its +birth. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +HATCHING A PLOT + +"You're back pretty pronto," drawled the gambler, by way of an opening +remark. "Found something too big to keep hidden?" + +"That reservation is a false alarm, as Billy and the others will tell +you," answered Bostwick, referring to McCoppet's chosen prospectors. +"The rush will prove a farce." + +"You've decided sudden, ain't you?" asked McCoppet. "There's a good +big deck there to stack." + +"We've wasted time and money till to-day." Bostwick rose from his +chair, put one foot upon it, and leaned towards the gambler as one +assuming a position of equality, if not of something more. "Look here, +McCoppet, you asked me the day I arrived what sort of a game I'd come +to play. I ask you now if you are prepared to play something +big--and--well, let us say, a trifle risky?" + +"Don't insult my calling," answered the gambler. "I call. Lay your +cards on the table." + +Bostwick sat down and leaned across the soiled green baize. + +"You probably know as much as I do about the 'Laughing Water' +claim--its richness--its owners--and where it's located." + +McCoppet nodded, narrowing his eyes. + +"A good dog could smell their luck from here." + +"But do you know where it lies--their claim?" insisted Bostwick +significantly. "That's the point I'm making at present." + +"It's just this side of the reservation, from what I hear," replied the +gambler, "but if there's nothing on the reservation even near the +'Laughing Water' ground----" + +Bostwick interrupted impatiently: "What's the matter with _the +'Laughing Water' being on the reservation_?" + +McCoppet was sharp but he failed to grasp his associate's meaning. + +"But it ain't," he said, "and no one claims it is." + +Bostwick lowered his voice and looked at the gambler peculiarly. + +"No one claims it _yet_!" + +McCoppet threw away his cigar and took out a new one. + +"Well? Come on. I bite. What's the answer?" + +Bostwick leaned back in his chair. + +"Suppose an accredited surveyor were to run out the reservation +line--the line next the 'Laughing Water' claim--and make an error of an +inch at the farthest end. Suppose that inch, projected several miles, +became about a thousand feet--wouldn't the 'Laughing Water' claim be +discovered to be a part of the Indian reservation?" + +McCoppet eyed him narrowly, in silence, for a moment. He had suddenly +conceived a new estimate of the man who had come from New York. + +Bostwick again leaned forward, continuing: + +"No one will be aware of the facts but ourselves--therefore no one will +think of attempting to relocate the 'Laughing Water' ground, lawfully, +at six o'clock on the morning of the rush. But we will be on hand, +with the law at our backs, and quietly take possession of the property, +on which--as it is reservation ground--the present occupants are +trespassing." + +McCoppet heard nothing of what his friend was saying. All the +possibilities outlined had flashed through his mind at Bostwick's first +intimation of the plan. He was busy now with affairs far ahead in the +scheme. + +"Culver, the Government agent and surveyor is a dark one," he mused +aloud, half to himself. "If only Lawrence, his deputy, was in his +shoes---- Your frame-up sounds pretty tight, Bostwick, but Culver may +block us with his damnable squareness." + +"Every man has his price," said Bostwick, "--big and little. Culver, +you say, represents the Government? Where is he now?" + +McCoppet replied with a question: "Bostwick, how much have you got?" + +Bostwick flushed. "Money? Oh, I can raise my share, I hope." + +"You hope?" repeated the gambler. "Ain't your syndicate back of any +game you open, with the money to see it started right?" + +Bostwick was a trifle uneasy. The "syndicate" of which he had spoken +was entirely comprised of Beth and her money, which he hoped presently +to call his own. He had worked his harmless little fiction of big +financial men behind him in the certainty of avoiding detection. + +"Of course, I can call on the money," he said, "but I may need a day or +so to get it. How much shall we require?" + +McCoppet chewed his cigar reflectively. + +"Culver will sure come high--if we get him at all--but--it ought to be +worth fifty thousand to you and me to shift that reservation line a +thousand feet--if reports on the claim are correct." + +It was a large sum. Bostwick scratched the corner of his mouth. + +"That would be twenty-five thousand apiece." + +"No," corrected McCoppet, "twenty thousand for me and thirty for you, +for equal shares. I've got to do the work underground." + +"Perhaps I could handle what's his name, Culver, myself," objected +Bostwick. "The fact that I'm a stranger here----" + +"And what will you do if he refuses?" interrupted the gambler. "Will +you still have an ace in your kahki?" + +Bostwick stared. + +"If he should refuse, and tell the owners----" + +"Right. Can you handle it then?" + +Bostwick answered: "Can you?" + +"It's my business to get back what I've lost--and a little bit more. +You leave it to me. Keep away from Culver, and bring me thirty +thousand in the morning." + +Bostwick was breathing hard. He maintained a show of calm. + +"The morning's a little bit soon for me to turn around. I'll bring it +when I can." + +McCoppet arose. The interview was ended. He added: + +"Have a drink?" + +"I'll wait," said Bostwick, "till we can drink a toast to the 'Laughing +Water' claim." + +McCoppet opened the door, waved Bostwick into the crowded gaming room, +and was about to follow when his roving gaze abruptly lighted on a +figure in the place--a swarthy, half-breed Piute Indian, standing in +front of the wheel and roulette layout. + +Quickly stepping back inside the smaller apartment, the gambler pulled +down his hat. His face was the color of ashes. + +"So long. See you later," he murmured, and he closed the door without +a sound. + +Bostwick, wholly at a loss to understand his sudden dismissal, lingered +for a moment only in the place, then made his way out to the street, +and went to the postoffice, where he found a letter from Glenmore Kent. +Intent upon securing the needed funds from Beth with the smallest +possible delay, he dropped the letter, unread, in his pocket and headed +for the house where Beth was living. He walked, however, no more than +half a block before he altered his mind. Pausing for a moment on the +sidewalk, he turned on his heel and went briskly to his own apartments, +where he performed an unusual feat. + +First he read the letter from Kent. It was dated from the newest camp +in the desert and was filled with glittering generalities concerning +riches about to be discovered. It urged him, in case he had arrived in +Goldite, to hasten southward forthwith--"and bring a bunch of money." +Glenmore's letters always appealed for money--a fact which Bostwick had +remembered. + +The man sat down at his table and wrote a letter to himself. With +young Kent's epistle for his model, he made an amazingly clever forgery +of the enthusiastic writer's chirography, and at the bottom signed the +young man's name. + +This spurious document teemed with figures and assertions concerning a +wonderful gold mine which Glenmore had virtually purchased. He needed +sixty thousand dollars at once, however, to complete his remarkable +bargain. Only two days of his option remained and therefore delay +would be fatal. He expected this letter to find his friend at Goldite +and he felt assured he would not be denied this opportunity of a +lifetime to make a certain fortune. He would, of course, appeal to +Beth--with certainty of her help from the wealth bequeathed her by her +uncle--but naturally she was too far away, + +Glenmore was unaware of the fact that his sister had come to the West. +Bostwick overlooked no details of importance. Armed with this +plausible missive, he went at once to Mrs. Dick's and found that Beth +was at home. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +INVOLVING BETH + +Goldite to the Eastern girl, who had found herself practically +abandoned for nearly a week, had proved to be a mixture of discomforts, +excitements, and disturbing elements. Fascinated by the maelstrom of +the mining-camp life, and unwilling to retreat from the scene until she +should see her roving brother, and gratify at least a curiosity +concerning Van, she nevertheless felt afraid to be there, not only on +account of the roughness and uncertainty of the existence, but also +because, despite herself, she had attracted undesirable attention. +Moreover, the house was full of "gentlemen" lodgers, with three of whom +Elsa was conducting most violent flirtations. + +There were few respectable women in the town. It was still too early +for their advent. Beth had been annoyed past all endurance. There was +no possibility of even mild social diversions; there was no one to +visit. While the street could be described as perfectly safe, it was +nevertheless an uncomfortable place in which to walk. Bostwick's car +had been recovered and brought into camp, but skilled as she was at the +steering wheel, she had hardly desired or dared to take it out. + +Crime was frequent in the streets and houses. Disturbing reports of +marauding expeditions on the part of the convicts, still at large, came +with insistent frequency. Altogether the week had been a trial to her +nerves. It had also been a vexation. No man had a right, she told +herself, to do and say the things that Van had said and done, only to +go off, without so much as a little good-by and give no further sign. +She told herself she had a right to at least some sort of opportunity +to tender her honest congratulations. She had heard of his claim--the +"Laughing Water"--and perhaps she wished to know how it chanced to have +this particular name. If certain disturbing reflections anent that +woman who had run to him wildly, out in the street, came mistily +clouding the estimate she tried to place upon his character, she +confessed he certainly had the right to make an explanation. In a +purely feminine manner she argued that she had the right to some such +explanation--if only because of certain liberties he had taken with her +hands--on which memories still warmly burned. + +Wholly undecided as to what she would do if she could, and impatient +with Bostwick for his sheer neglect in searching out her brother, she +was thoroughly glad to see him to-day when he came so unannounced to +the house. + +"Well if you don't look like a mountaineer!" she said, as she met him +in the dining-room, which was likewise the parlor of the place. "Where +in the world have you been, all this time? You haven't come back +without Glen?" + +He had gone away ostensibly to find her brother. + +"Well, the fact is he wasn't where I went, after all," he said. "I +hastened home, after all that trip, undertaken for nothing, and found a +letter from him here. I've come at once to have an important talk." + +"A letter?" she cried. "Let me see it--let me read it, please. +He's--where? He's well? He's successful?" + +"Sit down," answered Bostwick, taking a chair and placing his hat on +the table. "There's a good deal to say. But first, how have you been +here, all alone?" + +"Oh--very well--I suppose," she answered, restraining the natural +resentment she felt at his patent neglect. "It isn't exactly the place +I'd choose to remain in, alone all the time." + +"Poor little girl, I've been thinking of that," he told her, reaching +across the table to take her hands. "It's worried me, Beth, worried me +greatly--your unprotected position, and all that." + +"Oh, you needn't worry." She withdrew her hands. Someway it seemed a +sacrilege for him to touch them--it was not to be borne--she hardly +knew why, or since when. "I want to know about Glen," she added. +"Never mind me." + +"But I do mind," he assured her. His hand was trembling. "Beth, I--I +can't talk much--I mean romantic talk, and all that, but--well--I've +about concluded we ought to be married at once--for your sake--your +protection--and my peace of mind. I have thought about it ever since I +left you here alone." + +The brightness expressive of the gayety of her nature departed from her +eyes. She looked fixedly at the man's dark face, with its gray, +deep-set, penetrative eyes, its bluish jaw, and knitted brows. It +frightened her, someway, as it never had before. He had magnetized her +always--sometimes more than now, but his influence crept upon her +subtly even here. + +"But I--I think I'd rather not--just yet," she faltered, crimsoning and +dropping her gaze to the table. "You promised not to--to urge me +again--at least till I've spoken to Glen." + +"But I could not have known--forseen these conditions," he told her, +leaning further towards her across the table. "Why shouldn't we be +married now--at once? A six months' engagement is certainly long +enough. Your position here is--well--almost dubious. You must see +that. It isn't right of me--decent--not to make you my wife +immediately. I wish to do so--I wish it very much." + +She arose, as if to wrench herself free from the spell he was casting +upon her. + +"I'm all right--I'm quite all right," she said. "I'd rather not--just +now. There's no one here who cares a penny who or what I am. If my +position here is misunderstood--it can do no harm. I'd rather you +wouldn't say anything further about it--just at present." + +Her agitation did not escape him. If he thought of the horseman who +had carried her off while sending himself to the convicts, his plan for +vengeance only deepened. + +"You must have some reason for refusing." He too arose. + +"No--no particular reason," she answered, artlessly walking around the +table, apparently to pick up a button from the floor, but actually to +avoid his contact. "I just don't wish to--to be married +now--here--that's all. I ask you to keep your promise--not to ask it +while we remain." + +He had feared to lose her a score of times before. He feared it now +more potently than ever. And there was much that he must ask. The +risk of giving her a fright was not to be incurred. + +"Very well," he said resignedly, "but--it's very hard to wait." + +"Won't you sit down?" she asked him, an impulse of gratitude upon her. +"Now do be good and sensible, and tell me all about Glen." + +She returned to the table and resumed her seat. + +Bostwick sat opposite and drew his forged letter from his pocket. He +had placed it in Glenmore's envelope after tearing the young man's +letter into scraps. + +"This letter," said he, "was sent from way down in the desert--from +Starlight, another new camp. It looks to me as if the boy has struck +something very important. I'll read you what he says--or you can read +it for yourself." + +"No, no--read it. I'd rather listen." + +He read it haltingly, as one who puzzles over unfamiliar writing. Its +effect sank in the deeper for the method. Beth was open-eyed with +wonder, admiration, and delight over all that Glen had done and was +about to accomplish. She rose to the bait with sisterly eagerness. + +"Why, he _must_ have the chance--he's _got_ to have the chance!" she +cried excitedly. "What do you think of it yourself?" + +Bostwick fanned the blaze with conservatism. + +"It's quite a sum of money and Glen might overestimate the value of the +mine. I've inquired around and learn that the property is considered +tremendously promising. If we--if he actually secures that claim it +will doubtless mean a for---- I don't like to lose my sense of +judgment, but I do want to help the boy along. Frankly, however, I +don't see how I can let him have so much. I couldn't possibly send him +but thirty thousand dollars at the most." + +Beth's eyes were blazing with excitement. She had never dreamed that +Searle could be so generous--so splendid. An impulse of gratitude and +admiration surged throughout her being. + +"You'd _do_ it?" she said. "You'll do as much as that for Glen?" + +"Why, how can I do less?" he answered. "That claim will doubtless be +worth half a million, maybe more--if all I hear is reliable--and I get +it from disinterested parties. The boy has done a good big thing. +I've got to help him out. It seems too bad to offer him only half of +what he needs, but I'm not a very wealthy man. I can't be utterly +Quixotic. We've all got to help him all we can." + +"Oh, thank you, Searle--thank you for saying 'we,'" she said in a voice +that slightly trembled. "I'm glad of the chance--glad to show dear +Glen that a sister can help a little, too." + +He stared at her with an excellent imitation of surprise in his gaze. + +"You'll--help?" he said in astonishment, masterfully simulated. "Not +with the other thirty thousand?" + +"Why not?" she cried. "Why not, when Glen has the chance of his life? +You don't really think I'd hesitate?" + +"But," said he, leading her onward, "he needs the money now--at once. +You'd have to get it here by wire, and all that sort of trouble." + +"Then we'd better get things started," she said. "You'll help me, +Searle, I'm sure." + +"If you wish it," said Bostwick, "certainly." + +"Dear Glen!" she said. "Dear boy! I'll write him a letter at once." + +Bostwick started, alertly, as she ran in her girlish pleasure to a +stand where she had placed her materials for writing. + +"Good," he commented drily, "I'll mail it with one of my own." + +She dashed off a bright effusion with all her spontaneous enthusiasm. +Bostwick supplied her with the address, and presently took the letter +in his hand. He had much to do at the bank, he informed her, by way of +preparing for the deal. He promised to return when he could. + +On his way down street be deliberately tore the letter to the smallest +of fragments and scattered them widely on the wind. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +UNEXPECTED COMPLICATIONS + +On the following morning news arrived in Goldite that temporarily +dimmed the excitement attendant upon stories of the "Laughing Water" +property and the coming stampede to the Indian reservation. + +Matt Barger and three others of the convicts, still uncaptured, had +pillaged a freight team, of horses, provisions, and arms, murdered a +stage driver, robbed the express of a large consignment of gold, and +escaped as before to the mountains. + +Two separate posses were in pursuit. Rewards aggregating ten thousand +dollars were offered for Barger, dead or alive, with smaller sums for +each of his companions. Their latest depredations had occurred +alarmingly close to the mining camp, from which travel was becoming +hazardous. + +The gold theft was particularly disquieting to the Goldite mining +contingent. Dangers beset their enterprises in many directions at the +very best. To have this menace added, together with worry over every +man's personal safety in traveling about, was fairly intolerable. The +inefficient posses were roundly berated, but no man volunteered to +issue forth and "get" Matt Barger--either alive or as a corpse. + +The man who arrived with the news was one of Van's cronies, Dave, the +little station man whom Beth had met the morning of her coming. He was +here in response to a summons from Van, who thought he saw an +opportunity to assist his friend to better things. Everything Dave +owned he had fetched across the desert, including both the horses that +Beth and Elsa once had ridden. The station itself he had sold. He had +launched forth absolutely on Van's new promises, burning all his +bridges, as it were, behind him. + +Van came down to meet him. He had other concerns in Goldite, some with +Culver, the Government representative, and others a trifle more +personal, and intended to combine them all in one excursion. + +No sooner had he appeared on the street, after duly stabling "Suvy" at +the hay-yard, than a hundred acquaintances, suddenly transformed into +intimate friends, by the change in his fortunes, pounced upon him in a +spirit of generosity, hilarity, and comaraderie that cloyed not only +his senses, but even his movements in the camp. + +He was dragged and carried into four saloons like a helpless, +good-natured bear cub, strong enough to resist by inflicting injuries, +but somewhat amused by the game. Intelligence of his advent went the +rounds. The local editor and the girl he had addressed as "Queenie," +on the day of the fight in the street, were rivals in another joyous +attack as he escaped at last to proceed about his own affairs. + +The editor stood no chance whatsoever. Van had nothing to say, and +said so. Moreover, Queenie was a very persistent, as well as a very +pretty, young person, distressingly careless of deportment. She clung +to Van like a bur. + +"Gee, Van!" she cried with genuine tears in her eyes, "didn't I always +say you was the candy? Didn't I always say I'd give you my head and +breathe through my feet--day or night? Didn't I tell 'em all you was +the only one? You're the only diamonds there is for me--and I didn't +never wait for you to strike it first." + +"No, you didn't even wait for an invitation," answered Van with a +smile. "Everybody's got to hike now. I'm busy, trying to breathe." + +She clung on. Unfortunately, down in an Arizona town, Van had trounced +a ruffian once in Queenie's protection--simply because of her gender +and entirely without reference to her character or her future attitude +towards himself. In her way she personified a sort of adoration and +gratitude, which could neither be slain nor escaped by anything that he +or anyone else could do. Her devotion, however, had palled upon him +early, perhaps more because of its habit of increasing. It had +recently become a pest. + +"Busy?" she echoed. "You said that before. When ain't you going to be +busy?" + +"When I'm dead," he answered, and wrenching loose he dived inside a +hardware store, to purchase a hunting knife for Gettysburg, then went +at once to a barber shop and shut out the torment of friends. + +He escaped at the rear, when his face had been groomed, and made his +way unseen to Mrs. Dick's. + +Beth was not at home. She and Bostwick were together at the office of +the telegraph company, where Searle was assisting her, as she thought +to aid her brother, to such excellent purpose that her thirty thousand +dollars bid fair to repose in the bank at his call before the business +day should reach its end. + +Mrs. Dick seemed to Van the one and only person in the camp unaffected +by the news of his luck. She treated him precisely as she always had +and doubtless always should. Therefore, he had no difficulty in +getting away to Culver at his office. + +The official surveyor was a fat-cheeked, handsome man, with a silky +brown beard, an effeminate voice, and prodigious self-conceit. He was +pacing up and down the inside office, at the rear of the rough board +building, when Van came in and found him. The horseman's business was +one of maps and land-office data made essential to his needs by the new +recording of the "Laughing Water" property as a placer instead of a +quartz claim. He had drawn a crude outline of his holdings and in +taking it forth from his pocket found the knife bought for Gettysburg +in the way. He removed the weapon and placed it on the table near at +hand. + +"There's so much of this desert unsurveyed," he said, "that no man can +tell whether he's just inside or just outside of Purgatory." + +"So you come to me to find out?" Culver demanded somewhat shortly. "Do +you tin-horn miners think that's all this office is for?" + +"Well, in my instance, I had to come to some wiser spirit than myself +to get my bearings," answered Van drawlingly. "You can see that." + +"There are the maps." Culver waved his hand towards a drawer in the +office table, and moved impatiently over to a window, the view from +which commanded a section of the street, including the bank. + +Van was presently engrossed in a search for quarter sections, ranges, +and townships. + +"Look here," said Culver, turning upon him aggressively, "what's this +racket I hear about you taking the inside track with that stunning new +petticoat in town?" + +Van looked up without the least suspicion of the man's real meaning. + +"If you are referring to that reckless young woman called Queenie----" + +"Oh, Queenie--rats!" interrupted Culver irritably. "You know who I +mean. I guess you call her Beth." + +Van's face took on a look of hardness as if it were chiseled in stone. +He had squared around as if at a blow. For a moment he faced the +surveyor in silence. + +"You are making some grave mistake," he said presently in ominous calm. +"Please don't make such an allusion as that again." + +"So, the shot went home," Culver laughed unctuously, turning for a +moment from the window. "I thought it would. You know you couldn't +expect to keep anything like that all to yourself, Van Buren. You're +not the only ladies' man on the beach. And as for this clod of a +Bostwick----" He had turned to look out as before, and grew suddenly +excited. Beth was in view at the bank. "By the gods!" he exclaimed +with a sudden change of tone, "she is the handsomest bit of +confectionery on earth. If I don't win her----" + +His utterance promptly ceased, together with his abominable activities +and primping in the window. Van, who did not know that this creature +had been Beth's particular annoyance, had crossed the room without a +sound and laid his grip on Culver's collar. + +"You cur!" he said quietly, and choking the man he flung him down +against the floor and wall as if he had been the merest puppet. + +Someone had entered the outside door. Neither Culver nor Van heard the +sound. Culver rolled over, scrambled to his feet, and with his face +and neck engorged with rage, came rushing at the horseman like a fury. + +"You blackguard!" he screamed, "I'll tear out your heart for that! +I'll kill you like----" + +"Shut up!" Van commanded quietly, stopping the onrush of his angered +foe by putting his hand against the surveyor's face and sending him +reeling as before. "Don't tell me what you'll do to me--or to anyone +else in this camp! And if ever I hear of you opening your mouth again +as you did here a moment ago, I'll tie a knot so hard in your carcass +you'll have to be buried in a hat box!" + +He glanced towards the doorway. A stranger stood on the threshold. +Bowing, Van passed him and left the place, too angered to think either +of the maps or of his knife. + +Culver, raging like a maniac, bowled headlong into the visitor, in his +effort to overtake the horseman, but found himself baffled and took out +his wrath in foul vituperation that presently drove the stranger from +the place. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +WHEREIN MATTERS THICKEN + +The stranger who had witnessed the trouble at Culver's office had come +there at the instance of McCoppet. It was, therefore, to McCoppet that +he carried the intelligence of what had taken place, so far as he had +seen. + +The gambler was exceedingly pleased. That Culver would now be ready, +as never before, to receive a proposition whereby the owners of the +"Laughing Water" claim could be deprived of their ground, he was well +convinced. + +For reasons best known to himself and skillfully concealed from all +acquaintances, McCoppet had remained practically in hiding since the +moment in which he had beheld that half-breed Piute Indian in the +saloon. He remained out of sight even now, dispatching a messenger to +Culver, in the afternoon, requesting his presence for a conference for +the total undoing of Van Buren. + +Culver, who in ordinary circumstances might have refused this request +with haughty insolence, responded to the summons rather sooner than +McCoppet had expected. He was still red with anger, and meditating +personal violence to Van at the earliest possible meeting. + +McCoppet, with his smokeless cigar in his mouth, and his great opal +sentient with fire, received his visitor in the little private den to +which Bostwick had been taken. + +"How are you, Culver?" he said off-handedly. + +"I wanted to have a little talk. I sent a man up to your shop a while +ago, and he told me you fired Van Buren out of the place on the run." + +"That's nobody's business but mine," said Culver aggressively. "If +that is all you care to talk about----" + +"Don't roil up," interrupted the gambler. "I don't even know what the +fight was about, and I don't care a tinker's whoop either. I got you +here to give you a chance to put Van Buren out of commission and make a +lifetime winning." + +Culver looked at him sharply. + +"It must be something crooked." + +"Nothing's crooked that works out straight," said McCoppet. "What's +life anyhow but a sure-thing game? It's stacked for us all to lose out +in the end. What's the use of being finniky while we live--as long as +even the Almighty's dealing brace?" + +Culver was impatient. "Well?" + +"I won't beat around the chapparal," said McCoppet. "It ain't my way." +Nevertheless, with much finesse and art he contrived to put his +proposition in a manner to rob it of many of its ugly features. +However, he made the business plain. + +"You see," he concluded, "the old reservation line might actually be +wrong--and all you'd have to do would be to put it right. That's what +we want--we want the line put right." + +Culver was more angered than before. He understood the conspiracy +thoroughly. No detail of its cleverness escaped him. + +"If you thought you could trade on my personal unpleasantness with an +owner of the 'Laughing Water' claim," he said hotly, "you have made the +mistake of your life. I wish you good-day." + +He rose to go. McCoppet rose and stopped him. + +"Don't get feverish," said he. "It don't pay. I ain't requesting this +service from you for just your feelings against a man. There's plenty +in this for us all." + +"You mean bribe money, I suppose," said Culver no less aggressively +than before. "Is that what you mean?" + +"Don't call it hard names," begged the gambler. "It's just a +retainer--say twenty thousand dollars." + +Culver burned to the top of his ears. He looked at McCoppet intently +with an expression the gambler could not interpret. + +"Just to change that line a thousand feet," urged the man of gambling +propensities. "I'll make it twenty-five." + +Still Culver made no response. With all his other hateful attributes +of character he was tempered steel on incorruptibility. He was not +even momentarily tempted to avenge himself thus on Van Buren. + +McCoppet thought he had him wavering. He attempted to push him over +the brink. + +"Say," said he persuasively, lowering his voice to a tone of the +confidential, "I can strain a little more out of one of my partners and +make it thirty thousand dollars." He had no intention of employing a +cent of his own. Bostwick was to pay all these expenses. "Thirty +thousand dollars, cash," he repeated, "the minute you finish your +work--and make it look like a Government _correction_ of the line." + +Culver broke forth on him with accumulated wrath. + +"You damnable puppy!" he said in a futile effort to be adequate to the +situation. "You sneak! Of all the accursed +intrigues--insults--robberies that ever were hatched---- By God, sir, +if you offered me a million of money you shouldn't alter that +Government line by a hair! If you speak to me again--I'll knock you +down!" + +He flung the door wide open, went out like a rocket, and bowled a man +half over in his blind haste to be quit the place. + +McCoppet was left there staring where he had gone--staring and afraid +of what the results would probably be to all the game. He had no eyes +to behold a man who had suddenly discerned him from the crowds. A +moment later he started violently as a huge form stood in the door. + +"Trimmer!" he said, "I'm busy!" + +"You're goin' to be busier in about a minute, if I don't see you right +now," said the man addressed as Trimmer, a raw, bull-like lumberman +from the mountains. "Been waitin' to see you some time." + +"Come in," said the gambler instantly regaining his composure. "Come +in and shut the door. How are you, anyway?" He held out his hand to +shake. + +Trimmer closed the door. "Ain't ready to shake, jest yet," he said. +"I come here to see you on business." + +"That's all right, Larry," answered McCoppet. "That's all right. Sit +down." + +"I'm goin' to," announced his visitor. He took a chair, pulled out a +giant cigar, and lighting it up smoked like a pile of burning leaves. +"You seem to be pretty well fixed," he added, taking a huge black +pistol from his pocket and laying it before him on the table. "Looks +like money was easy." + +"I ain't busted," admitted the gambler. "Have a drink?" + +"Not till we finish." The lumberman settled in his chair. "That was +the way you got me before--and you ain't goin' to come it again." + +McCoppet waited for his visitor to open. Trimmer was not in a hurry. +He eyed the man across the table calmly, his small, shifting optics +dully gleaming. + +Presently he said; "Cayuse is here in camp." + +Cayuse was the half-breed Piute Indian whose company McCoppet had +avoided. Partially educated, wholly reverted to his Indian ways and +tribal brethren, Cayuse was a singular mixture of the savage, plus +civilized outlooks and ethical standards that made him a dangerous +man--not only a law unto himself, as many Indians are, but also a +strange interpreter of the law, both civilized and aboriginal. + +McCoppet had surmised what was coming. + +"Yes--I noticed he was here." + +"Know what he come fer?" asked the lumberman. "Onto his game?" + +"You came here to tell me. Deal the cards." + +Trimmer puffed great lungfuls of the reek from his weed and took his +revolver in hand. + +"Opal," said he, enjoying his moment of vantage, "you done me up for a +clean one thousand bucks, a year ago--while I was drunk--and I've been +laying to git you ever since." + +McCoppet was unmoved. + +"Well, here I am." + +"You bet! here you are--and here you're goin' to hang out till we fix +things _right_!" The lumberman banged his gun barrel on the table hard +enough to make a dent. "That's why Cayuse is here, too. Mrs. Cayuse +is dead." + +The gambler nodded coldly, and Trimmer went on. + +"She kicked the bucket havin' a kid which wasn't Cayuse's--too darn +white fer even him--and Cayuse is on the war trail fer that father." + +McCoppet threw away his chewed cigar and replaced it with a fresh one. +He nodded as before. + +"Cayuse is on that I know who the father was," resumed the visitor. "I +told him to come here to Goldite and I'd give up the name." + +He began to consume his cigar once more by inches and watched the +effect of his words. There was no visible effect. McCoppet had never +been calmer in his life--outwardly. Inwardly he had never felt Dearer +to death, and his own kind of fright was upon him. + +"Well," he said, "your aces look good to me. What do you want--how +much?" + +"I ought to hand you over to Cayuse--good riddance to the whole +country," answered Trimmer, with rare perspicacity of judgment. "You +bet you're goin' to pay." + +"If you want your thousand back, why don't you say so?" inquired the +gambler quietly. "I'll make it fifteen hundred. That's pretty good +interest, I reckon." + +"Your reckoner's run down," Trimmer assured him. "I want ten thousand +dollars to steer Cayuse away." + +McCoppet slowly shook his head. "You ain't a hog, Larry, you're a +Rockyfeller. Five thousand, cash on the nail, if you show me you can +steer Cayuse so far off the trail he'll never get on it again." + +Five thousand dollars was a great deal of money to Trimmer. Ten +thousand was far in excess of his real expectations. But he saw that +his power was large. He was brutally frank. + +"Nope, can't do it, Opal, not even fer a friend," and he grinned. +"I've got you in the door and I'm goin' to jamb you hard. Five +thousand ain't enough." + +Things had been going against the gambler for nearly an hour. He had +been acutely alarmed by the presence of Cayuse in the camp. His mind, +like a ferret in a trap, was seeking wildly for a loophole of +advantage. Light came in upon him suddenly, with a thought of Culver, +by whom, subconsciously, he was worried. + +"How do you mean to handle the half-breed?" he inquired by way of +preparing his ground. "You've promised to cough up a name." + +Trimmer scratched his head with the end of his pistol. + +"I guess I could tell him I was off--don't know the father after all." + +"Sounds like a kid's excuse," commented McCoppet. "Like as not he'd +take it out of you." + +The likelihood was so strong that Trimmer visibly paled. + +"I've got to give him somebody's name," he agreed with alacrity. "Has +anyone died around here recent?" + +"Yes," answered McCoppet with ready mendacity. + +"Culver, who used to do surveying." + +"Who?" asked Trimmer. "Don't know him." + +McCoppet leaned across the table. + +"Yes you do. He stopped you once from stealing--from picking up a lot +of timber land. Remember?" + +Trimmer was interested. His vindictive attributes were aroused. + +"Was that the cuss? I never seen him. Do you think Cayuse would know +who he was?--and believe it--the yarn?" + +"Cayuse was once his chain-man." McCoppet was tremendously excited, +though apparently as cold as ice, as he swiftly thought out the +niceties of his own and fate's arrangements. "Cayuse's wife once +worked for Mrs. Culver, cooking and washing." + +"Say, anybody'd swaller that," reflected the lumberman aloud. "But +five thousand dollars ain't enough." + +"I'll make it seven thousand five hundred--that's an even split," +agreed the gambler. He thought he foresaw a means whereby he could +save this amount from the funds that Bostwick would furnish. He rose +from his seat. "A thousand down, right now--the balance when Cayuse is +gone, leaving me safe forever. You to give him the name right now." + +Trimmer stood up, quenched the light on the stub of his cigar, and +chewed up the butt with evident enjoyment. + +"All right," he answered. "Shake." + +Ten minutes later he had found Cayuse, delivered up the name agreed +upon, and was busy spending his money acquiring a load of fiery drink. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +VAN AND BETH AND BOSTWICK + +Van was far too occupied to retain for long the anger that Culver had +aroused in all his being. Moreover, he had come to camp in a mood of +joyousness, youth, and bounding emotions such as nothing could +submerge. The incident with Culver was closed. As for land-office +data, it was far from being indispensable, and Gettysburg's knife was +forgotten. + +He had fetched down a nugget from the "Laughing Water" claim, a bright +lump of virgin gold, rudely fashioned by nature like a heart. This he +took at once to a jeweler's shop, where more fine diamonds were being +sold than in all the rest of the State, and while it was being soldered +to a pin he returned to the hay-yard for Dave. His business was to +purchase the mare on which, one beautiful morning when the wild peach +was in bloom, Beth Kent had ridden by his side. Dave would have given +him the animal out of hand. Van compelled him to receive a market +price. Even ponies here were valuable, and Dave had been poor all his +life. + +"Say, Van," he drawled, when at length the transaction was complete, +"this camp has set me to thinkin'. It's full of these rich galoots, +all havin' an easy time. If ever I git a wad of dough I'm comin' here +and buy five dollars worth of good sardines and eat 'em, every one. +Never have had enough sardines in all my life." + +"I'd buy them for you now and sit you down," said Van, "only why start +a graveyard with a friend?" + +Some woman who had come and gone from Goldite had disposed of a +beautiful side saddle, exposed in the hay-yard to the weather. Van +paid fifty dollars and became its owner. The outfit for Beth was soon +complete. He ordered the best of feed and attention for her +roan--bills to be rendered to himself--and hastening off to the +jeweler's, found his pin ready and reposing in a small blue box. +Avoiding a number of admiring friends, he slipped around a corner, and +once more appeared at Mrs. Dick's. + +Beth was in the dining-room, alone. Her papers were spread upon the +table. She was flushed with the day's excitements, + +Van had entered unannounced. His active tread upon the carpet of the +hall had made no sound. When he halted in the doorway, transfixed by +the beauty of the face he saw reflected in the sideboard mirror +opposite, Beth was unconscious of his presence. + +She was busily gathering up her documents. Her pretty hands were +moving lightly on the table. Her eyes were downcast, focused where she +worked. Only the wondrous addition of their matchless brown, thought +Van, was necessary to complete a picture of the most exquisite +loveliness he had ever beheld. + +He had come there prepared to be sedate--at least not over-bold again, +or too presumptuous. Already, however, a riot of love was in his +veins. He loved as he fought--with all his strength, with a tidal +impetuosity that could scarcely understand resistance or imagine +defeat. To restrain himself from a quick descent upon her position and +a boyish sweeping of her up in his powerful arms was taxing the utmost +of his self-control. Then Beth glanced up at the mirror. + +The light of her eyes seemed to liquify his heart. He felt that mad, +joyous organ spread abruptly, throughout his entire being. + +She rose up suddenly and turned to greet him. + +"Why--Mr. Van!" she stammered, flushing rosily. "I _heard_ you were in +town." + +He came towards her quietly enough, the jeweler's box in his hand. + +"I called before," he answered in his off-hand way. "You must have +been out with poor old Searle." + +"Oh," she said, "poor old Searle? Why poor?" + +"I told you why before," he said boldly, in spite of himself. He was +standing before her by the table, looking fairly into her eyes, with +that dancing boyishness amazingly bright in his own. "You remember, +too--you can't forget." + +The flush in her cheeks increased. Her glance was lowered. + +"You didn't give me time to--rebuke you for that," she answered, +attempting to assume a tone of severity. "You had no right--it wasn't +nice or like you in the least." + +"Yes it was, nice, and like me," he corrected. "I've brought you a +nugget from the claim." He opened the box and shook out the pin on the +table. + +She had started to make a reply concerning his actions when leaving on +that former occasion. The words were pushed aside. + +"Oh, my!" she said in a little exclamation, instead. "A +nugget!--gold!--not from the--not from your claim?" + +His hand slightly trembled. + +"From the 'Laughing Water' claim. Named for the girl I'm going to +marry." + +She gasped, almost audibly. The things he said were so wholly +unexpected--so almost naked in their bluntness. + +"The girl--some girl you--Isn't it beautiful?" she faltered helplessly. +"Of course I don't know--how any girl could have such a singular name." + +"Yes you do," he corrected in his shockingly candid way. "You know +when Dave gave her the name." + +"Do I?" she asked weakly, trying to smile, and feeling some wonderful, +welcome sort of fear of the passion with which he fairly glowed. "You +are--very positive." + +He moved a trifle closer, touching the pin, with a finger, as she held +it in her hand. His voice slightly shook as he asked: + +"Do you like it?" + +"The pin? Of course. A genuine nugget! You were very kind, I'm sure." + +"I thought when you and I ride over to the claim, some day, you ought +to have a horse of your own," he announced in his manner of finality. +"So your horse and outfit are over at Charlie's, at your order." + +She looked up at him swiftly. "My horse--over at Charlie's?" + +"Yes, Charlie's--the hay-yard. I thought you liked a side-saddle best +and I found a good one in the hay." + +"But--I haven't any horse," she protested, failing for a moment to +grasp his meaning. "How could I have a horse in Goldite?" + +"You couldn't help having him--that's all--any more than you can help +having me." + +The light in his eyes was far too magnetic for her own brown glance to +escape. She hardly knew what she was saying, or what she was thinking. +She was simply aflame with happiness in his presence--and she feared he +must read it in her glance. That the horse was his gift she +comprehended all at once--but--what had he said--what was it he had +said, that she must answer? Her heart and her mind had coalesced. +There was love in both and little of reason in either. She knew he was +holding her eyes to his with the sheer force of overwhelming love. + +She tried to escape. + +"You--mean-----" + +He broke all control like a whirlwind. + +"I mean I can't hold it any longer! I love you!--I love you to death!" + +He took her in his arms suddenly, passionately, crushing her almost +fiercely against his heart. He kissed her on the lips--once--twice--a +dozen times in half a minute--feeling the warm, moist softness in the +contact and holding her pliant figure yet more closely. + +She, too, was mad with it all, for a second. Then she began to battle +with his might. + +"Van!--Mr. Van!" she said, pushing his face away with a hand he might +have devoured. "Let me go! Let me go! How dare---- You shan't! You +shan't! Let me go!" + +Her nature, in revolt for a moment against her better judgment, refused +to do the bidding of her muscles. Then she gathered strength out of +the whirlwind itself and pushed him away like a tigress. + +"You shan't!" she repeated. "You ought to be ashamed! How dare you +treat me----" + +He had turned abruptly, looking towards the door. Her utterance was +halted by his movement of listening. She had barely time to take up +her papers, and make an effort at regaining her composure. Bostwick +was coming down the hall. He presently appeared at the door. For a +moment there was silence. + +Van was the first to speak. + +"How are you, Searle?" he said cheerily. "Got over your grouch?" + +Bostwick looked him over with ill-concealed loathing. + +"You thought you were clever, I suppose," he said in a growl-like tone +that certainly fitted his face. "What are you doing here, I'd like to +know?" + +"Tottering angels!" said Van, "didn't that experience do you any good +after all? No wonder the convicts wouldn't have you!" + +Beth was afraid for what Bostwick might have heard. She could not +censure Van for what he had done; she saw he would make no +explanations. At best she could only attempt to put some appearance of +the commonplace upon the horseman's visit. + +"Mr. Van Buren came--to see Mrs. Dick," she faltered, steadying her +voice as best she might. "They're--very old friends." + +"What's that?" demanded Bostwick, coming into the room and pointing at +the bright nugget pin, lying exposed upon the table. "Some present, I +suppose, for Mrs. Dick?" He started to take it in his hand. + +Van interposed. "It's neither for Mrs. Dick nor for you. It's a +present I've made to Miss Kent." + +Bostwick elevated his brows. + +"Indeed?" + +Beth fluttered in with a word of defense. + +"It's just a little souvenir--that's all--a souvenir of--of my escape +from those terrible men." + +"And Searle's return," added Van, who felt the very devil in his veins +at sight of Bostwick helpless and enraged. + +Searle opened his lips as if to fling out something of his wrath. He +held it back and turned to Beth. + +"It will soon be night. We have much to do. I suppose I may see you, +privately--even here?" + +Beth was helpless. And in the circumstances she wished for Van to go. + +"Certainly," she answered, raising her eyes for a second to the +horseman's, "--that is--if----" + +"Certainly," Van answered cordially. "Good-by." He advanced and held +out his hand. + +She gave him her own because there was nothing else to do--and the +tingling of his being made it burn. She did not dare to meet his gaze. + +"So long, Searle," he added smilingly. "Better turn that grouch out to +pasture." + +Then he went. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +QUEENIE + +The shadows of evening met Van, as he stepped from the outside door and +started up the street. Then a figure emerged from the shadows and met +him by the corner. + +It was Queenie. Her eyes were red from weeping. A smile that someway +affected Van most poignantly, he knew not why, came for a moment to her +lips. + +"You didn't expect to see me here," she said. "I had to come to see if +it was so." + +"What is it, Queenie? What do you mean? What do you want?" he +answered. "What's the trouble?" + +"Nothing," she said. "I don't want nothing I can git--I +guess--unless--Oh, _is_ it her, Van? Is it sure all over with me?" + +"Look here," he said, not unkindly, "you've always been mistaken, +Queenie. I told you at the time--that time in Arizona--I'd have done +what I did for an Indian squaw--for any woman in the world. Why +couldn't you let it go at that?" + +"You know why I couldn't," she answered with a certain intensity of +utterance that gave him a species of chill. "After what you done--like +the only real friend I ever had--I belonged to you--and couldn't even +take myself away." + +"But I didn't want anyone to belong to me, Queenie. You know that. I +could barely support my clothes." + +Her eyes burned with a strange luminosity. Her utterance was eager. + +"But you want somebody to belong to you now? Ain't that what's the +matter with you now?" + +He did not answer directly. + +"I didn't think it was in you, Queenie, to follow me around and play +the spy. I've liked you pretty well--but--I couldn't like this." + +She stared at him helplessly, as an animal might have looked. + +"I couldn't help it," she murmured, repressing some terrible emotion of +despair. "I won't never trouble you no more." + +She turned around and went away, walking uncertainly, as if from +physical weakness and the blindness of pain. + +Van felt himself inordinately wrung--felt it a cruelty not to run and +overtake her--give her some measure of comfort. There was nothing he +could do that would not be misunderstood. Moreover, he had no adequate +idea of what was in her mind--or in her homeless heart. He had known +her always as a butterfly; he could not take her tragically now. + +"Poor girl," he said as he watched her vanishing from sight, "if only +she had ever had a show!" + +He looked back at Mrs. Dick's. Bostwick had ousted him after all, +before he could extenuate his madness, before he could ascertain +whether Beth were angry or not--before he could bid her good-by. + +Now that the cool of evening was upon him, along with the chill of +sober reflection, he feared for what he had done. He was as mad, as +crude as Queenie. Yet his fear of Beth's opinion was a sign that he +loved her as a woman should be loved, sacredly, and with a certain awe, +although he made no such analysis, and took no credit to himself for +the half regrets that persistently haunted his reflections. + +It would be a moonlight night, he pondered. He had counted on riding +by the lunar glow to the "Laughing Water" claim. Would Beth, by any +possibility, attempt to see him--come out, perhaps, in the +moonlight--for a word before he should go? + +He could not entertain a thought of departing without again beholding +her. He wanted to know what she would say, and when he might see her +again. After all, what was the hurry to depart? He might as well wait +a little longer. + +He went to the hay-yard. Dave had disappeared. Half an hour of search +failed to bring him to light. On the point of entering a restaurant to +allay his sense of emptiness, Van was suddenly accosted by a wild-eyed +man, bare-headed and sweating, who ran at him, calling as he came. + +"Hey!" he cried. "Van Buren! Come on! Come on! She's dyin' and all +she wants is you!" + +"What's wrong with you, man?" inquired the horseman, halted by the +fellow's words. "What are you talking about?" + +"Queenie!" gasped the fellow, panting for his breath. "Took poison--O, +Lord! Come on! Come on! She don't want nothing but you!" + +Van turned exceedingly pale. + +"Poison? What you want is the doctor!" + +"He's there--long ago!" answered the informant excitedly, and swabbing +perspiration from his face. "She won't touch his dope. It's all over, +I guess--only she wants to see you." + +"Show me the way, then--show me the way. Where is she?" Van shook the +man's shoulder roughly. "Don't stand here trembling. Take me to the +place." + +The man was in a wretched plight, from fear and the physical suffering +induced by what he had seen. He reeled drunkenly as he started down +the street, then off between some rows of canvas structures, heading +for a district hung with red. + +At the edge of this place, at an isolated cabin, comprising two small, +rough rooms, the man seemed threatened with collapse. + +"May be too late," he whispered hoarsely, as he listened and heard no +sounds from the house. "I'm goin' to stay outside--and wait." + +The door was ajar. Without waiting for anything further, Van pushed it +open and entered. + +"There he is--I knew it!" cried Queenie from the room at the rear. It +was a cry that smote Van like a stab. + +Then he came to the room where she was lying. + +"I knew you'd come--I knew it, Van!" said the girl in a sudden outburst +of sobbing, and she tried to rise upon her pillow. Agony, which she +had fought down wildly, seized her in a spasm. She doubled on the bed. + +Van glanced about quickly. The doctor--a young, inexperienced man--was +there, sweating, a look of abject helplessness upon his face. The room +was a poor tawdry place, with gaudy decorations and a litter of +Queenie's finery. In her effort to conquer the pains that possessed +her body, the girl had distorted her face almost past recognition. + +Van came to the bedside directly, placed his hand on her shoulder, and +gave her one of his characteristic little shakings. + +"Queenie, what have you done?" he said. "What's going on?" + +She tried to smile. It was a terrible effort. + +"It's nobody's fault--but what was the use, Van?--what was there in it +for me?" + +"She won't take anything--the antidote--anything! There isn't a +stomach pump in town!" the doctor broke in desperately. "She's got to! +It's getting too late! We'll have to force it down! Maybe she'd take +it for you." He thrust a goblet into Van's nervous hand. It contained +a misty drink. + +"For God's sake take this, Queenie," Van implored. "Take it quick!" + +She shrank away, attempting with amazing force of will to mask her pain. + +"I'd take the stuff--for your sake--when I--wouldn't for God," she +faltered, sitting up, despite her bodily anguish. "You don't ask me +to--do it for you." + +"I do, Queenie--take it for me!" he answered, wrung again as he had +been at her smiles, an hour before, but now with heart-piercing +poignancy. "Take it for me, if you won't for anyone else." + +She received the glass--and deliberately threw it on the floor. The +doctor cried out sharply. Queenie shook her head, all the time +fighting down her agony, which was fast making inroads to her life. +She fell back on her pillow. + +"You didn't--ask me--Van 'cause you love me. Nobody--wants me to live. +That's all right. Do you s'pose you could kiss me good-by?" + +The look on her face was peculiarly childish, as she drove out the +lines of anguish in a superhuman effort made for him. And the yearning +there brought back again that thought he had voiced before, that +night--why couldn't the child have had a chance? + +The doctor was feverishly mixing another potent drink. + +Van bent down and kissed her, indulgently. + +"Force her to take it!" cried the doctor desperately. "Force her to +take it!" + +"Queenie," Van said, "you've got to take this stuff." + +Her hand had found his and clutched it with galvanic strength. + +"Don't--make me," she begged, closing her eyes in a species of ecstacy +that no man may understand. "I'd rather--not--Van--please. Only about +a minute now. Ain't it funny--that love--can burn you--up?" Her grip +had tightened on his hand. + +The doctor ran to the window, which he found already opened. He ran +back in a species of frenzy. + +"Make her take it, make her take it! God!" he said. "Not to do +anything--not to do a thing!" + +Queenie smiled at Van again--terribly. Her fingers felt like iron +rods, pressing into his flesh. As if to complete her renunciation she +dropped his hand abruptly. She mastered some violent convulsion that +left the merest flicker of her life. + +"Good-by, Van--good luck," she whispered faintly. + +"Queenie!" he said. "Queenie!" + +Perhaps she heard. After an ordeal that seemed interminable her face +was calm and still, a faint smile frozen on her marble features. + +Van waited there a long time. Someway it seemed as if this thing could +be undone. The place was terribly still. The doctor sat there as if +in response to a duty. He was dumb. + +When Van went out, the man on the doorstep staggered in. + +The moon was up. It shone obliquely down into all that rock-lined +basin, surrounded by the stern, forbidding hills--the ancient, +burned-out furnace of gold that man was reheating with his passions. +Afar in all directions the lighted tents presented a ghostly unreality, +their canvas walls illumined by the candles glowing within. A jargon +of dance-hall music floated on the air. Outside it all was the desert +silence--the silence of a world long dead. + +Van would gladly have mounted his horse and ridden away--far off, no +matter where. Goldite, bizarre and tragic--a microcosm of the world +that man has fashioned--was a blot of discordant life, he felt, upon an +otherwise peaceful world. As a matter of fact it had only begun its +evening's story. + +He stood in the road, alone, for several minutes, before he felt he +could begin to resume the round of his own existence. When he came at +length to the main street's blaze of light, a deeply packed throng +could be seen in all the thoroughfare, compactly blocked in front of a +large saloon. + +Culver, the Government representative in the land-office needs, had +been found in his office murdered. He had been stabbed. Van's knife, +bought for Gettysburg, had been employed--and found there, red with its +guilt. + +All this Van was presently to discover. He was walking towards the +surging mob when a miner he had frequently seen came running up and +halted in the light of a window. Then the man began to yell. + +"Here he is!" he cried. "Van Buren!" + +The mob appeared to break at the cry. Fifty men charged down the +street in a species of madness and Van was instantly surrounded. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +IN THE SHADOW OF THE ROPE + +Mob madness is beyond explanation. Cattle stampeding are no more +senseless than men in such a state. Goldite, however, was not only +habitually keyed to the highest of tension, but it had recently been +excited to the breaking point by several contributing factors. Lawless +thefts of one another's claims, ore stealing, high pressure over the +coming rush to the Indian reservation, and a certain apprehension +engendered by the deeds of those liberated convicts--all these elements +had aroused an over-revulsion of feeling towards criminality and a +desire to apply some manner of law. And the primal laws are the laws +that spring into being at such a time as this--the laws that cry out +for an eye for an eye and a swiftness of legal execution. + +Into the vortex of Goldite's sudden revulsion Van was swept like a +straw. There was no real chance for a hearing. His friends of the +morning had lost all sense of loyalty. They were almost as crazed as +those whom his recent success had irritated. The story of his row with +Culver had spread throughout the confines of the camp. No link in the +chain of circumstantial evidence seemed wanting to convict him. A +bawling sea of human beings surrounded him with violence and menace. + +To escape the over-wrought citizens, the sheriff, assuming charge of +Van, dragged him on top of a stack of lumber, piled three feet high +before a building. The cry for a rope and a lynching began with a +promptness that few would have expected. In normal times it could +scarcely have been broached. + +Snatching new-made deputies, hit-or-miss from the mob, and summarily +demanding their services, the sheriff exerted his utmost powers to stem +the tide that was rising. Something akin to a trial began then and +there. A big red-faced drummer from Chicago, a man that Van had never +seen, became his voluntary advocate, standing between him and the mob. + +He had power, that man, both of limb and presence. His voice, also, +was mighty. He shoved men about like rubber puppets and shouted his +demands for law and order. + +Van, having flung off half a dozen citizens, who in the excitement had +felt some fanatical necessity for clutching him, faced the human wolves +about him in a spirit of angry resentment. The big man from Chicago +mowed his way to the pile of lumber and clambered up by the sheriff. +The pile raised its occupants only well above the surging pack of faces. + +"Stop your howling! Stop your noise!" roared the drummer from his +elevation. "Don't you want to give this man a chance?" + +[Illustration: "Don't you want to give this man a chance?"] + +He was heard throughout the street. + +"He's got to prove his innocence or hang!" cried someone shrilly. "A +murder foul as that!" + +Another one bawled: "Where was he then? Make him tell where he was at +six o'clock!" + +Culver's watch had been shattered and stopped at precisely six o'clock, +presumably by his fall against a table in his office, when he suddenly +went down, at the hands of his assassin. This fact was in possession +of the crowd. + +A general shout for Van to explain where he was at the vital moment +arose from all the crowd. The drummer turned to Van. + +"There you are," he said. "There's your chance. If you wasn't around +the surveyor's shack, you ought to be able to prove it." + +Van could have proved his alibi at once, by sending around to Queenie's +residence. He was nettled into a stubbornness of mind and righteous +anger by all this senseless accusation. He did not realize his +danger--the blackness of the case against him. That a lynching was +possible he could scarcely have been made to believe. Nevertheless, as +the Queenie matter was one of no secrecy and the facts must soon be +known, he was turning to the drummer to make his reply when his eye was +caught by a face, far out in the mass of human forms. + +It was Beth that he saw, her cheek intensely white in the light +streaming forth from a store. Bostwick was there at her side. Beth +had been caught in the press of the throng as they came from the +telegraph office. + +He realized that at best his story concerning Queenie would be +sufficiently black. With Beth in this theater of accusation the story +of Queenie must wait. + +"It's nobody's business where I was," he said. "This whole affair is +absurd!" + +Half a dozen of the men who were nearest heard his reply. One of them +roared it out lustily. The mob was enraged. The cries for a violent +termination to the scene increased in volume. Men were shouting, +swearing, and surging back and forth tumultuously, wrought to a frenzy +of primal virtue. + +One near Beth called repeatedly for a lynching. He had cut a long new +piece of rope from a coil at a store of supplies and was trying to drag +it through the crowd. + +The girl had heard and seen it all. She realized its full +significance. She had never in her life felt so horribly oppressed +with a sense of terrible things impending. Impetuously she accosted a +man who stood at her side. + +"Oh, tell them he was with me!" she said. + +The man looked her over, and raising himself on his tip toes, shook his +hat wildly at the mob. + +"Say," he shouted at the top of his might, "here's a girl he was with +at six o'clock." + +It seemed as if only the men near at hand either heard or paid +attention. On the farther side, away from Beth, the shouts for mob law +were increasing. She turned to Bostwick hotly. + +"Can't you do anything? Tell them he was there with us--down at Mrs. +Dick's at six o'clock!" + +"He wasn't!" said Searle. "He left there at five forty-five." + +The man who had shouted listened to them both. + +"Five forty-five?" he repeated. "That makes a difference!" + +The drummer had caught the shout from out at the edge. + +"Who's that?" he called. "Who's got that alibi?" + +"All wrong!--No good!" yelled the man who stood by Beth. + +The girl had failed to realize how her statement would sound--in such a +place as Goldite. Van had turned sick when it reached him. He was +emphatically denying the story. The gist of it went through the mass +of maddened beings, only to be so soon impugned by the man who had +started it from Beth. The fury, at what was deemed an attempted +deception, burst out with accumulated force. + +The sheriff had drawn a revolver and was shouting to the mob to keep +away. + +"This man has got to go to jail!" he yelled. "You've got to act +accordin' to the law!" + +He ordered his deputies to clear the crowd and make ready for retreat. +Three of them endeavored to obey. Their efforts served to aggravate +the mob. + +Confusion and chaos of judgment seemed rising like a tide. In the very +air was a feeling that suddenly something would go, something too far +strained to hold, and some terrible deed occur before these people +could ask themselves how it had been accomplished. + +The fellow with the rope was being boosted forward by half a dozen +intoxicated fools. Had the rope been a burning fuse it could scarcely +have ignited more dangerous material than did its strands of manilla, +in those who could lay their hands upon it. + +The drummer was shouting himself raw in the throat--in vain. + +Van was courting disaster by the very defiance of his attitude. It +seemed as if nothing could save him, when two separate things occurred. + +The doctor who had been with Van at Queenie's death arrived in the +press, got wind of the crisis, and vehemently protested the truth. +Simultaneously, the lumberman, Trimmer, drunk, and enjoying what he +deemed a joke, hoarsely confided to some sober men the fact that Cayuse +had done the murder. + +Even then, when two centers of opposition to the madness of the mob had +been created, the menace could not at once be halted. + +The man with the rope had approached so near the lumber-pile that the +sheriff could all but reach him. A furious battle ensued, and waged +around the planks, between the deputies and lynchers. It lasted till +fifty active men of the camp, aroused to a sense of reaction by the +facts that were now becoming known, hurled the struggling fighters +apart and dragged them off, all the while spreading the news they had +heard concerning the half-breed Indian. + +No less excited when at last they knew that Van was innocent, the great +crowd still occupied the street, hailing Trimmer to the lumber-pile and +demanding to know how he came by the facts, and where Cayuse had gone. + +Trimmer was frightened into soberness--at least into soberness +sufficient to protect himself and McCoppet. He said he had seen the +Indian coming from Culver's office, with blood upon his hands. The +Indian had gone straight westward from the town, to elude pursuit in +the mountains. + +The fact that Van had been at Queenie's side at her death became town +property at once. It came in all promptness to Beth. + +With a feeling of sickness pervading all her being, she was glad to +have Bostwick take her home. + +It was late when at last the street was clear, and Van could finally +make his escape from danger and returning friends. Dave by then had +found himself; that is, he made his way, thus tardily, to the +horseman's side--and the two went at length to their dinner. + +At half-past eight, with the moon well up, Dave and Van were ready for +departure. Their horses were saddled. One extra animal was packed +with needed provisions for the crew on the "Laughing Water" claim. Van +had ordered all he could for Queenie's final journey--the camp's best +possible funeral, which he could not remain to attend. There was +nothing to do but to mount and ride away, but--Beth was down at Mrs. +Dick's. + +Resistance was useless. Bidding Dave wait with the horses at the yard. +Van made his way around through the shadows of the houses, and coming +out upon a rocky hill, a little removed from the boarding place, was +startled to see Beth abruptly rise before him. + +The house had oppressed her--and the moon had called. Bostwick, in +alarm concerning possible disaster to the plans he had made with +McCoppet, now that Culver was dead, had gone to seek the gambler out +and ascertain the status of affairs. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +TWO MEETINGS AFTER DARK + +For a moment neither Beth nor Van could speak. The girl, like a +startled moon-sprite, wide-eyed and grave, had taken on a mood of +beauty such as the man had never seen. She seemed to him strangely +fragile, a trifle pale, but wholly exquisite, enchanting. + +No signs were on her face, but she had wept--hot, angry tears, within +the hour. And here was the cause of them all! She had wished he would +come--and feared he would come, as conflicting emotions possessed her. +Now that he stood here, with moonlight on half of his face, her +thoughts were all unmarshaled. + +Van presently spoke. + +"I'm a kid, after all. I couldn't go away without--this." + +"I wish you had! I wish you had!" she answered, at his smile. "I wish +I had never seen you in the world!" + +His heart was sore for jesting, but he would not change his way. + +"If not in the world, where _would_ you have wished to see me, then?" + +"I never wished to see you at all!" she replied. "Your joke has gone +too far. You have utterly mistaken my sense of gratitude." + +"Guess not," he said. "I haven't looked for gratitude--nor wanted it, +either." + +"You had no right!" she continued. "You have said things--done +things--you have taken shameful advantage--you have treated me like--I +suppose like--that other--that other---- You dared!" + +Van's face took on an expression of hardness, to mask the hurt of his +heart. + +"Who says so?" he demanded quietly. "You know better." + +"It's true!" she answered hotly. "You had no right! It was mere brute +strength! You cannot deny what you have been--to that miserable +woman!" Tears of anger sped from her eyes, and she dashed them hotly +away. + +Van stepped a little closer. + +"Beth," he said, suddenly taking her hand, "none of this is true, and +you know it. You're angry with that woman, not with me." + +She snatched her hand away. + +"You shan't!" she said. "Don't you dare to touch me again. I hate +you--hate you for what you have done! You've been a brute probably to +her as well as to me!" + +"To you? When?" he demanded + +"All the time! To-day!--Now!--when you say I'm angry at a--woman who +is dead!--a woman who died for you!" + +It hit him. + +"Poor Queenie," he said, "poor child." + +"Yes--poor Queenie!" Her eyes blazed in the moonlight. "To think that +you dared to treat me like----" + +"Beth!" he interrupted, "I won't permit it. I told you to-day I loved +you. That makes things right. You love me, and that makes them +sacred. I'd do all I've done over again--_all_ of it--Queenie and the +rest! I'm not ashamed, nor sorry for anything I've done. I love +you--I say--I love you. That's what I've never done before--and never +said I did--and that's what makes things right!" + +Beth was confused by what he said--confused in her judgment, her +emotions. Weakly she clung to her argument. + +"You haven't any right--it isn't true when you say I love you. I +don't! I won't! You can't deny that woman died of a broken heart for +you!" + +"I don't deny anything about her," he said. "I tried to be her friend. +God knows she needed friends. She was only a child, a pretty child. +I'm sorry. I've always been sorry. She knew I was only a friend." + +She felt he was honest. She knew he was wrung--suffering, but not in +his conscience. Yet what was she to think? She had heard it all--all +of Queenie's story. + +"You kissed her," she said, and red flamed up in her cheeks. + +"It was all she asked," he answered simply. "She was dying." + +"And you're paying for her funeral." + +"I said I was her friend." + +"Oh, the shamelessness of it!" she exclaimed as before, "--the way it +looks! And to think of what you dared to do to me!" + +"Yes, I kissed you without your asking," he confessed. "I expect to +kiss you a hundred thousand times. I expect to make you my wife--for a +love like ours is rare. Whatever else you think you want to say, +Beth--now--don't say it--unless it's just good-night." + +With a sudden move forward he took her two shoulders in his powerful +hands and gave her a rough little shake. Then his palms went swiftly +to her face, he kissed her on the lips, and let her go. + +"You!--Oh!" she cried, and turning she ran down the slope of the hill +as hard as she could travel. + +He watched her going in the moonlight. Even her shadow was beautiful, +he thought, but all his joy was grave. + +She disappeared within the house, without once turning to see what he +had done. He could not know that from one of the darkened windows she +presently peered forth and watched him depart from the hill. He was +not so assured as he had tried to make her think, and soberness dwelt +within his breast. + +Half an hour later he and old Dave were riding up the mountain in the +moonlight. The night from the eminence was glorious, now that the town +was left behind. Goldite lay far below in the old dead theatre of past +activities, dotting the barren immensity with its softened lights like +the little thing it was. How remote it seemed already, with its vices, +woes, and joys, its comedy and tragedy, its fevers, strifes, and toil, +disturbing nothing of the vast serenity of the planet, ever rolling on +its way. How coldly the moon seemed looking on the scene. And yet it +had cast a shadow of a girl to set a man aflame. + +Meantime Bostwick had been delayed in securing McCoppet's attention. +The town was still excited over all that had happened; the saloons were +full of men. Culver had been an important person, needful to many of +the miners and promoters of mining. His loss was an aggravation, +especially as his deputy, Lawrence, was away. + +The more completely to allay suspicions that might by any possibility +creep around the circle to himself, McCoppet had been the camp's most +active figure in organizing a posse, with the sheriff, to go out and +capture Cayuse. His reasons for desiring the half-breed's end were +naturally strong, nevertheless his active partisanship of law and +justice excited no undesirable talk. He was simply an influential +citizen engaged in a laudable work. + +It was late when at length he and Bostwick could snatch a few minutes +to themselves. The gambler's first question then was something of a +puzzle to Bostwick. + +"Well, have you got that thirty thousand?" + +"Got it? Yes, I've got it," Bostwick answered nervously, "but what is +the good of it now?" + +It was McCoppet's turn to be puzzled. + +"Anything gone wrong with Van Buren, or his claim?" + +"Good heavens! Isn't it sufficient to have things all gone wrong with +Culver? What could be worse than that?" + +The gambler flung his cigar away and hung a fresh one on his lip. + +"Say, don't you worry on Culver. Don't his deputy take his place?" + +"His deputy?" + +"Sure, his deputy--Lawrence--a man we can get hands down." + +Bostwick stared at him hopefully. + +"You don't mean to say this accident--this crime--is fortunate, after +all?" + +"It's a godsend." McCoppet would have dared any blasphemy. + +Bostwick's relief was inordinate. + +"Then what is the next thing to do?" + +"Wait for Lawrence," said the gambler. Then he suddenly arose. "No, +we can't afford the time. He might be a week in coming. You'll have +to go get him, to-morrow." + +"Where is he, then?" + +"Way out South, on a survey. You'd better take that car of yours, with +a couple of men I'll send along, and fetch him back mighty pronto. We +can't let a deal like this look raw. The sooner he runs that +reservation line the better things will appear." + +Bostwick, too, had risen. + +"Will your men know where to find him?" + +"If he's still on the map," said the gambler. "You leave that to me. +Better go see about your car to-night. I'll hustle your men and your +outfit. See you again if anything turns up important. Meantime, is +your money in the bank?" + +"It's in the bank." + +"Right," said McCoppet. "Good-night." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +BETH'S DESPERATION + +The following day in Goldite was one of occurrences, all more or less +intimately connected with the affairs of Van and Beth. + +Bostwick succeeded in making an early start to the southward in his +car. McCoppet had provided not only a couple of men as guides to the +field where Lawrence was working, but also a tent, provisions, and +blankets, should occasion arise for their use. + +Beth was informed by her fiance that word had arrived from her brother, +to whom Searle said he meant to go. The business of buying Glenmore's +mine, he said, required unexpected dispatch. Perhaps both he and Glen +might return by the end of the week. + +By that morning's train the body of Culver was shipped away--and the +camp began to forget him. The sheriff was after Cayuse. + +Early in the afternoon the body of the girl who had never been known in +Goldite by any name save that of Queenie, was buried on a hillside, +already called into requisition as a final resting place for such as +succumbed in the mining-camp, too far from friends, or too far lost, to +be carried to the world outside the mountains. Half a dozen women +attended the somewhat meager rites. There was one mourner only--the +man who had run to summon Van, and who later had waited by the door. + +At four o'clock the Goldite _News_ appeared upon the streets. It +contained much original matter--or so at least it claimed. The account +of the murder of Culver, the death of Queenie, and the threatened +lynching of Van Buren made a highly sensational story. It was given +the prominent place, for the editor was proud to have made it so full +in a time that he deemed rather short. On a second page was a tale +less tragic. + +It was, according to one of its many sub-headings, "A Humorous Outcrop +concerning two Maids and a Man." It related, with many gay sallies of +"wit," how Van had piloted Mr. J. Searle Bostwick into the hands of the +convicts, recently escaped, packed off his charges, Miss Beth Kent and +her maid, and brought them to Goldite by way of the Monte Cristo mine, +in time to behold the discomfited entrance of the said J. Searle +Bostwick in prisoner's attire. Mr. Bostwick was described as having +been "on his ear" towards Van Buren ever since. + +In the main the account was fairly accurate. Gettysburg, Napoleon, and +old Dave had over-talked, during certain liquifying processes. The +matter was out beyond repair. + +Mrs. Dick was prompt in pouncing on the story, hence Beth was soon +presented with a copy. In the natural annoyance she felt when it was +read, there was one consolation, at least: Searle was away, to be gone +perhaps two or three days. He might not see the article, which would +soon be forgotten in the camp. + +To culminate the day's events, that evening Elsa ran away. She went +with a "gentleman" lodger, taking the slight precaution to be married +by the Justice of the Peace. + +Beth discovered her loss too late to interfere. She felt herself +alone, indeed, with Bostwick away, her brother off in the desert, and +Van--she refused to think of Van. Fortunately, Mrs. Dick was more than +merely a friend. She was a staunch little warrior, protecting the +champion, to anger whom was unhealthy. Despite the landlady's attitude +of friendliness, however, Beth felt wretchedly alone. It was a +terrible place. She was cooped up all day within the lodging house, +since the street full of men was more than she cared to encounter; and +with life all about her, and wonderful days spreading one after another +across the wide-open land, her liberties were fairly in a cage. + +From time to time she thought of the horse, awaiting her order at the +hay-yard. She tried to convince herself she would never accept or ride +the animal. She was certain she resented everything Van had done. She +felt the warmest indignation at herself for breaking into bits of song, +for glowing to the tips of her ears, for letting her heart leap wildly +in her breast whenever she thought of the horseman. + +Two days went by and she chafed under continued restraints. No word +had come from Bostwick, none from Glen--and not a sign from the +"Laughing Water" claim. From the latter she said to herself she wished +no sign. But Searle had no right to leave her thus and neglect her in +every respect. + +The morning of the third long day Mrs. Dick brought her two thin +letters. One had been mailed in Goldite, by a messenger down from the +"Laughing Water" claim. It came from Van. He had written the briefest +of notes: + +"Just to send my love. I want you to wear my nugget." + +Folded into the paper was a spray of the wild peach bloom. + +Beth tried to think her blushes were those of indignation, which +likewise caused the beat of her heart to rise. But her hand fluttered +prettily up to her breast, where the nugget was pinned inside her +waist. Also his letter must have been hard to understand--she read it +seventeen times. + +Then she presently turned to the other. It was addressed in +typewritten characters, but the writing inside she knew--her brother +Glen's. + + +"Dear Old Sis: Say, what in the dickens are you doing out here in the +mines, by all that's holey?--and what's all this story in the Goldite +_News_ about one Bronson Van Buren doing the benevolent brigand stunt +with you and your maid, and shunting Searle off with the Cons? Why +couldn't you let a grubber know you were hiking out here to the desert? +Why all this elaborate surprise--this newspaper wireless to your fond +and lonesome? + +"What's the matter with your writing hand? Is this Van-brigand holding +them both? What's the matter with Searle? I wrote him two or three +aeons ago, when he might have been of assistance. Now I'm doing my +eight hours a day in an effort to sink down to China. I'm on the +blink, in a way, but not for long, for this is the land where +opportunity walks night and day to thump on your door--and I'll grab +her by the draperies yet. + +"But _me_!--working as a common miner!--though I've got a few days off +to go and look at a claim with a friend of mine, so you needn't answer +till you hear again. + +"If Searle is dead, why don't he say so? I only touched him for a few +odd dollars--I only needed a grub-stake--fifty would have done the +trick--and he doesn't come through. And nobody writes. I guess it's +me for the Prodigal, but when I do get next to the fatted calf I'll get +inside and eat my way out by way of his hoofs and horns. Why couldn't +you and Searle and the maid come down and have a look at me--working? +_It's worth it_. Come on. Maybe it's easier than writing. Yours for +the rights of labor, GLEN." + + +Astonished by the contents of this communication, Beth read it again, +in no little bewilderment, to make sure she had made no mistake. No +letter from herself? No word from Searle? No answer to Glen's request +for money? And he had only asked for a "few odd dollars?" There must +be something wrong. He had sent the most urgent requirement for sixty +thousand dollars. And she herself had written, at once. Searle had +assured her he had sent him word by special messenger. Starlight was +less than a long day's ride away. Glen had already had time to see +that account in the paper and write. + +She had no suspicions of Bostwick. She had seen Glen's letter and read +it for herself. And Searle had responded immediately with an offer to +lend her brother thirty thousand dollars. There must be some mistake. +Glen might be keeping his news and plans from herself, as men so often +will. Searle might even have overlooked the importance of keeping Glen +fully posted, intending to go so soon to Starlight. Her own letter +might have miscarried. + +She tried to fashion explanations--but they would not entirely fit. +Searle had been gone three days. He had gone before the Goldite _News_ +was issued. The paper had arrived at Glen's while the man in his car +had failed. + +For a moment she sickened with the reflection that Searle might once +more have fallen captive to the convicts, still at large--and with all +the money! Then she presently assured herself that news so sinister as +this would have been very prompt to return. + +It was all too much to understand--unless Glen were ill--or out of his +reason. His two letters, the one to Searle and this one to herself, +were so utterly conflicting. It was not to be solved from such a +distance. Moreover, Glen wrote that he was off on a trip, and asked +her to wait before replying. It was irritating, all this waiting, +alone here in Goldite, but there seemed to be nothing else to do. + +The long morning passed, and she fretted. In the afternoon the Goldite +_News_ broke its record. It printed an extra--a single sheet, in +glaring type, announcing the capture of the convicts. By a bold and +daring coup, it said, the entire herd of criminals, all half starved +and weakened by privations, had been rounded up and transported back to +prison. Unfortunately, the report was slightly inaccurate. Matt +Barger, the leader in the prison delivery, and the most desperate man +in the lot, had escaped the posse's vigilance. Of this important +factor in the welcome story of the posse's work Goldite was ignorant, +and doomed to be in ignorance a week. + +The news to Beth was a source of great relief. But her troubles in +other directions were fated to increase. That evening three men called +formally--formally, that is to say, in so far as dressing in their best +was concerned and putting on their "company manners." But Beth and +courtship were their objects, a fact that developed, somewhat crudely +with the smallest possible delay. + +One of these persons, Billy Stitts by name, was fairly unobjectionable +as a human being, since he was a quaint, slow-witted, bird-like little +creature, fully sixty years of age and clearly harmless. The others +were as frankly in pursuit of a mate as any two mountain animals. + +Beth was frightened, when the purport of their visit flashed upon her. +She felt a certain sense of helplessness. Mrs. Dick was too busy to be +constantly present; Elsa was gone; the ways of such a place were new +and wholly alarming. She felt when she made her escape from the three +that her safety was by no means assured. Her room was her only +retreat. Except for Mrs. Dick, there was not another woman in the +house. She was wholly surrounded by men--a rough, womanless lot whose +excitements, passions, and emotions were subjected to changes +constantly, as well as to heats, by the life all around them in the +mines. + +That night was her first of real terror. Every noise in the building, +and some in the streets, made her start awake like a hunted doe, with +imaginings of the most awful description. She scarcely slept at all. + +The following day old Billy Stitts called again, very shortly after +breakfast. He proved such an amiable, womanly old chap that he was +almost a comfort to the girl. She sent him to the postoffice, for a +possible letter from Glen. He went with all the pleasure and alacrity +of a faithful dog, apologizing most exuberantly on his return for the +fact that no letter had come. + +She remained in the house all day. The afternoon brought the two rough +suitors of the night before, and two more equally crude. Mrs. Dick, to +Beth's intense uneasiness, regarded the matter as one to be expected, +and quite in accord with reason and proper regulations. A good-looking +girl in camp, with her men-folks all giving her the go-by--and what +could you expect? Moreover, as some of these would-be courtiers were +husky and in line for fortune's smile, with chances as good as any +other man's, she might do worse than let them come, and hear what they +had to say. It was no girl's need to be neglected as Searle and Van +were patently neglecting Beth. + +This was the stage in which Beth at length began to meditate on Spartan +remedies. The situation was not to be endured. No word had come from +Searle. The world might have swallowed him up. She was sick of +him--sick of his ways of neglect. And as for Van---- + +There was no one to whom she could turn--unless it were Glen. If only +she could flee to her brother! She thought about it earnestly. She +tried to plan the way. + +Her horse was at the hay-yard. Starlight was only one day off in the +desert. The convicts were no longer about. If only she could ride +there--even alone! An early start--a little urging of the pony--she +could fancy the journey accomplished with the utmost ease; then +scornful defiance, both of Bostwick and of Van. + +But a woman--riding in this lawless land alone! She was utterly +disheartened, disillusionized at the thought. It would be no less than +madness. And yet, it seemed as if she must presently go. Searle's +silence, coupled to conditions here, was absolutely intolerable. + +With plans decidedly hazy--nothing but a wild, bright dream really +clear--she questioned Billy Stitts concerning the roads. He was +familiar with every route in miles, whether roadway, trail, or "course +by compass," as he termed trackless cruising in the desert. He gave +her directions with the utmost minutae of detail as to every highway to +Starlight. He drew her a plan. She was sure that she could almost +ride to Starlight in the dark. What branches of the road to shun, +which trails to choose, possibly, for gaining time, what places to +water a famishing horse--all these and more she learned with feverish +interest. + +"Now a man would do this," and "a man would do that," said Billy time +after time, till a new, fantastic notion came bounding full-fledged +into Beth's anxious brain and almost made her laugh with delight. She +could _dress as a man_ and ride as a man and be absolutely safe on the +journey! She knew a dozen unusual arts for dying the skin and +concealing the hair and making the hands look rough. Make-up in +private theatricals, at professional hands, she had learned with +exceptional thoroughness. + +She would need a suit of kahki, miners' books, a soft, big hat, and +flannel shirt. They were all to be had at the store. She could order +her horse to be saddled for a man. She could readily dress and escape +unseen from the house. In a word, she could do the trick! + +The plan possessed her utterly. It sent her blood bounding through her +veins. Her face was flushed with excitement. She loved adventure--and +this would be something to do! + +Nevertheless, despite all her plans, she had no real intention of +attempting a scheme so mad. Subconsciously she confessed to herself it +was just the merest idle fancy, not a thing to be actually ventured, or +even entertained. + +That night, when she was more beset, more worried than before, however, +desperation was increasing upon her. The plan she had made no longer +seemed the mere caprice of one in pursuit of pleasure--it appeared to +be the only possible respite from conditions no longer to be borne. + +When the morning came, after a night of mental torture and bodily fear, +her patience had been strained to the point of breaking, and resolve +was steeling her courage. + +The word that should have come from Searle was still delinquent. But +old Billy Stitts brought her a letter from Glen. + + +"Dear Sis: I can only write a line or two. Had a thump on the head, +but it didn't knock off my block. Don't worry. All right in a few +days, sure. Guess you couldn't come, or you'd be here, in response to +my last. But Searle might show up, anyhow. You can write me now. +Hope you're well and happy. Is the brigand still on the job? Can't +really write. With love, GLEN." + + +Her heart stood still as she; read her brother's lines, in a scrawled +hand indicative of weakness. She resolved in that instant to go. + +"Mr. Stitts," she raid in remarkable calm, for all that she felt, "my +brother needs some clothing--everything complete, boots, shirts, and +all. He's just about my size. I wish you'd go and buy them." + +"Lord, I know the best and the cheapest in camp!" said Billy eagerly. +"I'll have 'em here before you can write him your letter--but the stage +don't go back till Friday." + +She had given no thought to the tri-weekly stage. She dismissed it +now, with a wave of gratitude towards Van for the horse--gratitude, or +something, surging warmly in her veins. She almost wished he could +ride at her side, but checked that lawlessness sternly. She would ride +to Glen alone! + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +A BLIZZARD OF DUST + +At daylight Beth was dressed as a man and surveying herself in the +mirror. She had passed a sleepless night. She was fevered, excited, +and nervous. + +Her work had been admirably done. She looked no more rawly new or +youthful than scores of young tenderfeet, daily in the streets of the +camp. The stain on her face had furnished an astonishing disguise, +supported as it was by male attire. Her hair was all up in the crown +of her hat, which was set on the back of her head. It was fastened, +moreover, with pins concealed beneath the leather band. Altogether the +disguise was most successful. Beth had disappeared: a handsome young +man had been conjured in her place. + +Her mare, which Billy had ordered, came promptly to the door. She +heard her arrive--and her heart stroked more madly than before. +Trembling in every limb, and treading as softly as a thief, she made +her way downstairs. + +On the dining-room table was the package of lunch that Mrs. Dick had +agreed to prepare. Beth had told her she meant to take an early +morning ride and might not be back in time for breakfast. With this +bundle in hand she went out at the door, her courage all but failing at +thought of the man with the horse at the threshold. She shrank from +being seen in such an outfit. + +It was too late now to retreat, however, she told herself bravely, and +out she went. + +"Say, git a move, young feller," said the hostler with her pony. "I +ain't got time to play horse-post here all day." + +"Thank you for being so prompt," said Beth, in a voice that was faint, +despite her efforts to be masculine, and she gave him a coin. + +"I'll tie that there bundle on behind," he volunteered, less gruffly, +and Beth was glad of his assistance. + +A moment later she took a gasp of breath and mounted to the seat. +Collapse of all the project had seemed imminent, but an actual feeling +of relief and security ensued when she was settled in the saddle. + +"So long," said the hostler, and Beth responded manfully, "So long." + +She rode out slowly, towards the one main road. A feeling of the +morning's chill assailed her, making her shiver. The noise of her +pony's hoof-beats seemed alarmingly resonant. + +But nothing happened. The streets were deserted, save for a few +half-drunken wanderers, headed for the nearest saloon. On the far-off +peaks of the mountains the rosy light of sunrise faintly appeared. In +the calm of the great barren spaces, even Goldite was beautiful at last. + +A sense of exhilaration pervaded Beth's youthful being. She was glad +of what she had done. It was joyous, it was splendid, this absolute +freedom in all this stern old world! + +The road wound crookedly up a hill, as it left the streets of the town +behind. The scattered tents extended for a mile in this direction, the +squares of silent canvas, like so many dice, cast on the slopes by a +careless fate that had cast man with them in the struggle. + +Beth and her pony finally topped the hill, to be met by a sea of +mountains out beyond. Up and down these mighty billows of the earth +the highway meandered, leading onward and southward through the desert. + +The mare was urged to a gallop, down an easy slope, then once more she +walked as before. All the mountains in the west were rosy now, till +presently the sun was up, a golden coin, struck hot from the very mints +of God, giving one more day with its glory. + +Its very first rays seemed a comfort, suggesting a welcome warmth. +Beth could have called out songs of gladness well nigh uncontainable. +She had all the big world to herself. Even the strangely twisted +clouds in the sky seemed made for her delight. They were rare in this +wonderful dome of blue and therefore things of beauty. + +For an hour or more her way was plain, and to ride was a god-like +privilege. Her ease of mind was thoroughly established. What had been +the necessity for all those qualms of fear? The matter was simple, +after all. + +It was ten o'clock before she ate her breakfast. She had come to the +so-called river, the only one in perhaps a hundred miles. It was quite +a respectable stream at this particular season, but spread very thinly +and widely at the ford. + +By noon she was half way of her distance. The sun was hot; summer +baking of the desert had begun. Her mare was sweating profusely. She +had urged her to the top of her strength. Nevertheless she was still +in excellent condition. To the westward the sky was overcast in a +manner such as Beth had never seen, with a dark, copperous storm-head +that massed itself prodigiously above the range. + +Already she had come to three branchings of the road and chosen her way +in confidence, according to Billy Stiff's directions. When she came to +a fourth, where none had been indicated, she was sure, either in +Billy's instructions, or upon his drawing, she confessed herself +somewhat uncertain. She halted and felt for the map. + +It was not to be found. She had left it behind at Mrs. Dick's. Dimly +she fancied she remembered that Billy had said on the fourth branch, +keep to the right. There could be no doubt that this branch was the +fourth, howsoever out of place it appeared. She rode to the right, +and, having passed a little valley, found herself enfolded in a rolling +barrier of hills where it seemed as if the sun and rocks were of almost +equal heat. + +At mid-afternoon Beth abruptly halted her pony and stared at the world +of desert mountains in confusion not unmixed with alarm. She was out +at the center of a vast level place, almost entirely devoid of +vegetation--and the road had all but disappeared. It branched once +more, and neither fork was at all well defined, despite the fact that +travel to Starlight was supposed to be reasonably heavy. She had made +some mistake. She suddenly remembered something that Billy had said +concerning a table mountain she should have passed no later than +half-past one. It had not been seen along her way. She was tired. +Weariness and the heat had broken down a little of the bright, joyous +spirit of the morning. A heart-sinking came upon her. She must turn +and ride back to--she knew not which of the branches of the road, any +one of which might have been wrongly selected. + +Her mare could not be hurried now; she must last to get her to +Starlight. To add to other trifles of the moment, the bank of cloud, +so long hung motionless above the western summits, moved out across the +path of the sun and blotted out its glory with a density that would +have seemed impossible. + +Scarcely had Beth fairly turned her back to the west when a wind storm +swooped upon the desert. It came as a good stiff breeze, at first, +flecking up but little of the dust. Then a sudden, ominous change +occurred. All the blue of the sky was overwhelmed, under a sudden +expansion of the copperous clouds. An eclipse-like darkness enveloped +the world, till the farthest mountains disappeared and the near-by +ranges seemed to magnify themselves as they blended with the sky. + +With a sound as of an on-rushing cataclysm the actual storm, cyclonic +in all but the rotary motion, came beating down upon the startled earth +like a falling wall of air. + +In less than two minutes the world, the atmosphere, everything had +ceased to be. It was a universe of dust and sand, hurtling--God knew +whither. + +In the suddenness of the storm's descent upon her, Beth became +speechless with dismay. Her mare dropped her head and slowly continued +to walk. Road, hills, desert--all had disappeared. To go onward was +madness; to remain seemed certain death. Despair and horror together +gripped Beth by the heart. There was nothing in the world she could do +but to close her eyes and double low above the saddle, her hat bent +down to shield her face. + +At the end of a few minutes only the frightfulness of the thing could +no longer be endured. Beth had been all but torn from her seat by the +sheer weight and impact of the wind. All the world was roaring +prodigiously. The sand and dust, driving with unimaginable velocity, +smoked past in blinding fury. + +The mare had ceased to move. Beth was aware of her inertia, dimly. +She remembered at last to dismount and stand in the animal's shelter. +At length on the raging and roaring of the air-sea, crashing onward in +its tidal might, came a fearful additional sound. It was rushing +onward towards the girl with a speed incredible--a sound of shrieking, +or whistling, that changed to a swishing as if of pinions, Titanic in +size, where some monstrous winged god was blown against, his will in a +headlong course through the tumult. + +Then the something went by--the whole roof of a house--from twenty +miles away. It scraped in the earth, not ten feet off from where the +pony stood--and she bolted and ran for her life. + +Down went Beth, knocked over by the mare. With a hideous crash the +flying roof was hurled against a nearby pinnacle of rock. The wooden +wings split upon the immovable obstruction, and on they went as before. + +The pony had disappeared, in panic that nothing could have allayed. +The storm-pall swallowed her instantly, Beth could not have seen her +had she halted a rod away. Her eyes had been opened for half a moment +only before she was flung to the earth. She was rolling now, and for +the moment was utterly powerless to rise or to halt her locomotion. + +When she presently grasped at a little gray shrub, came to a halt, and +tried to stand erect, she was buffeted bodily along by the wind with no +strength in her limbs to resist. + +She was blown to the big rock pinnacle on which the roof had been +divided. An eddy twisted her rudely around to the shelter, and she +flung herself down upon the earth. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +A TIMELY DELIVERANCE + +How long she lay there Beth could never have known. It seemed a time +interminable, with the horror of the storm in all the universe. It was +certainly more than an hour before the end began to come. Then clouds +and the blizzard of sand and dust, together with all the mighty +roaring, appeared to be hurled across the firmament by the final gust +of fury and swept from the visible world into outer space. + +Only a brisk half-gale remained in the wake of the huger disturbance. +The sky and atmosphere cleared together. The sun shone forth as +before--but low to the mountain horizon. When even the clean wind too +had gone, trailing behind its lawless brother, the desert calm became +as absolute as Beth had beheld it in the morning. + +She crept from her shelter and looked about the plain. Her eyes were +red and smarting. She was dusted through and through. In all the +broad, gray expanse there was not a sign of anything alive. Her mare +had vanished. Beth was lost in the desert, and night was fast +descending. + +Deliverance from the storm, or perhaps the storm's very rage, had +brought her a species of calm. The fear she had was a dull, persistent +dread--an all-pervading horror of her situation, too large to be acute. +Nevertheless, she determined to seek for the road with all possible +haste and make her way on foot, as far as possible, towards the +Starlight highway and its possible traffic. + +She was stiff from her ride and her cramped position on the earth. She +started off somewhat helplessly, where she felt the road must be. + +She found no road. Her direction may have been wrong. Possibly the +storm of wind had swept away the wagon tracks, for they had all been +faint. It had been but half a road at best for several miles. Her +heart sank utterly. She became confused as to which way she had +traveled. Towards a pass in the hills whence she felt she must have +come she hastened with a new accession of alarm. + +She was presently convinced that she had chosen entirely wrong. A +realizing sense that she was hopelessly mixed assailed her crushingly. +To turn in any direction might be a grave mistake. But to stand here +and wait--do nothing--with the sun going down--this was +preposterous--suicidal! She must go on--somewhere! She must find the +road! She must keep on moving--till the end! Till the end! How +terrible that thought appeared, in such a situation! + +She almost ran, straight onward towards the hills. Out of breath very +soon, she walked with all possible haste and eagerness, all the time +looking for the road she had left, which the storm might have wiped +from the desert. She was certain now that the mountains towards which +she was fleeing were away from the Goldite direction. + +Once more she changed her course. She realized then that such efforts +as these must soon defeat themselves. At least she must stick to one +direction--go on in a line as straight as possible, till she came to +something! Yet if she chose her direction wrong and went miles away +from anything---- + +She had to go on. She had to take the chance. She plodded +southwestward doggedly, for perhaps a mile, then halted at something +like a distant sound, and peered towards the shadows of the sunset. + +There was nothing to be seen. A hope which had risen for a moment in +her breast, at thought of possible deliverance, sank down in collapse, +and left her more faint than before. The sun was at the very rim of +the world. Its edge began to melt its way downward into all the solid +bulk of mountains. It would soon be gone. Darkness would ensue. The +moon would be very late, if indeed it came at all. Wild animals would +issue from their dens of hiding, to prowl in search of food. Perhaps +the sound she heard had been made by an early night-brute of the +desert, already roving for his prey! + +Once more she went on, desperately, almost blindly. To keep on going, +that was the one essential! She had proceeded no more than a few rods, +however, when she heard that sound again--this time more like a shout. + +Her heart pounded heavily and rapidly. She shaded her eyes with her +hand, against the last, slanted sun-rays, and fancied she discerned +something, far off there westward, in the purples flung eastward by the +mountains. Then the last bit of all that molten disk of gold +disappeared in the summits, and with its going she beheld a horseman, +riding at a gallop towards herself. + +The relief she felt was almost overwhelming--till thoughts of such an +encounter came to modify her joy. She was only an unprotected +girl--yet--she had no appearance of a woman! This must be her +safeguard, should this man now approaching prove some rough, lawless +being of the mines. + +She stood perfectly still and waited. A man would have hurried forward +to meet this deliverance, so unexpectedly vouchsafed. But she was too +excited, too uncertain--too much of a girl. Then presently, when the +horseman was still a hundred yards away, her heart abruptly turned over +in her bosom. + +The man on the horse was Van. She knew him--knew that impudent pose, +that careless grace and oneness with his broncho! She did not know he +was chasing that flying roof which had frightened her horse from her +side; that he had bought an old cabin, far from his claim, to move it +to the "Laughing Water" ground--only to see it wrenched from his hold +by the mighty gale and flung across the world. She knew nothing of +this, but she suddenly knew how glad was her whole tingling being, how +bounding was the blood in her veins! And she also knew, abruptly, that +now if ever she must play the man. She had all but forgotten she was +angry with Van. That, and a hundred reasons more, made it absolutely +imperative now that he should not know her for herself! + +She made a somewhat wild attempt at a toilet of her hair--in case the +wind had ripped the tell-tale strands from beneath her hat. Then with +utter faintness in her being, and weakness in her knees, she prepared +to give him reception. + +He had slowed his horse to a walk. He rode up deliberately, +scrutinizing in obvious puzzlement the figure before him in the sand. + +"Hullo," he said, while still a rod away, "what in blazes are you doing +here, man--are you lost?" + +Beth nodded. "I'm afraid I am." Her utterance was decidedly girlish, +and quavering. + +"Lost your voice somewhere, too, I reckon," said Van. "Where are you +going? Where are you from?" + +"Starlight," answered Beth, at a loss for a better reply, and making an +effort to deepen her tones as she talked. "I lost my horse in the +storm." + +Van looked around the valley. + +"Did, hey? Didn't happen to see a stray roof, anywhere, did you? I +lost one." + +"I--haven't seen anything," faltered Both, whose only wish was to have +him say something about her escape from this terrible place. "But +something frightened my pony." + +"I was curious to see how far that roof would hike, that's all," he +told her by way of explanation of his presence here on his horse, and +he turned to look at her again. "Didn't you know this so-called +cut-off to Starlight would take you more time than the road?" + +"No, I--I didn't know it," said Beth, afraid he must presently +penetrate her masquerade if he looked like that upon her. "What do you +advise me to do?" + +He ignored her question, demanding: + +"Say, is your name Kent?--Glenmore Kent?" + +Beth felt her heart begin new gymnastics. This was her cue. + +"Why, yes. But--how did you know--know me?" + +"I've met your sister, in Goldite. You can't get to Starlight +to-night." + +She had passed muster! A herd of wild emotions were upon her. But +first here was her predicament--and what he said was not at all +reassuring. Certain alarms that his coming had banished returned in a +vague array. + +She showed her dread in her eyes. "Perhaps I could get to Goldite." + +"How?" He was half unconsciously patting Suvy, the horse, whose +ecstasy thereat was not to be concealed. + +Beth knew not how. She wished Van would cease that study of her face. +Perhaps she could think more clearly. + +"Why--I suppose I could walk--if I knew the way," she said. "Is it +very far? I admit I'm bewildered. I was lost." + +"It would be a long ride," he told her. "A lost man is hopeless. I +couldn't even show you the way so you could keep it--especially at +night." + +New fears came surging upon her in all their force and numbers. + +"But--what shall I do?" + +Van reflected. + +"My claim is the nearest camp from here, since the wind took down that +shack. And that was abandoned anyway. Can you hike some twenty-odd +miles?" + +Twenty-odd miles!--on foot! For a second she was almost tempted to +disclose herself, and beg him, for something a trifle more sympathetic +than what he seemed to be offering another fellow man. But that could +not be done. And night was descending rapidly. The twilight was +brief--and on the wane. + +"Why--perhaps so," she answered, attempting to smile. "I'll try." + +Something in her smile went straight to his heart--he wondered why. To +feel as he did towards this unknown man, even the brother of the girl +he madly loved--this was certainly absurd. It was not to be explained; +it was simply upon him, that was enough. He dismounted. + +"Here, get on my horse and ride. I want to walk and stretch my legs." + +Beth all but gasped. She!--ride on Suvy!--the horse she had seen so +nearly kill this man!--a horse that might perhaps permit no other +living thing upon his back! Yet she knew not how to refuse--and to +walk very far would be impossible. + +"I'm--afraid I'm a very poor horseman," she admitted guardedly. "If +your pony should happen----" + +Van had thought that Suvy might resent a stranger's liberties. He +turned to the broncho peculiarly. + +"How about it, boy?" he asked the horse gravely. "I want you to stand +for it, savvy?" He looked at the animal inquiringly. How he knew that +Suvy consented was only for him to comprehend. He squared about to +Beth, who was watching with wonder, and something far softer, in her +heart. "Get on," he said. "He was raised as a cradle for babies." + +Beth was pale, but she had to be a man. She stepped to the broncho's +side and mounted to the saddle. Suvy trembled in every sinew of his +being. + +Van gave him a pat on the neck again, turned his back and started +straight northward. The pony followed at his heels like a dog with a +master he loves. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +THE NIGHT IN THE DESERT + +At ten o'clock that night the moon had not yet risen. Its glow was on +the eastern sky, however, and at length it appeared, a broken orb with +its waning side lopped from its bulk. + +Beth was still in the saddle. She was utterly exhausted; she could +scarcely remain in her seat. For more than an hour Van had plodded +onward without even turning to speak. They had talked intermittently, +and he had told her his name. Far off in the dimness of the desert +level--the floor of a second mighty valley--a lone coyote began his +dismal howling. Beth, on the horse, felt a chill go down her spine. +Van seemed not to hear. The howl was repeated from time to time +intermittently, like the wail of a ghost, forever lost to hope. + +When the moon at last shone fairly on the broncho and the girl, Van +cast a glance at her face. He was startled. The young rider looked so +much like Beth--and looked so utterly tired! + +Van halted, and so did the pony. The man looked up at his companion. + +"You're in no fit condition to go on," he said. "What's the use of our +trying to make it? To camp right here is as good as going on all +night, which don't suit my legs worth a cent." + +Beth was wearied almost to collapse. But--to camp out here--all +night!--they two! Aside from the terrors that had crept to her soul at +sound of the distant coyote, this present aspect of the situation was +appalling. Indeed, she began to see that whether they went on or +remained, she must spend the night in this man's company. + +She was almost too tired to care how such a thing would appear. He +thought her a man--it had been inescapable--there was nothing she could +do to prevent the course of events. And come what might she must +presently slip from that saddle, in her weakness, faintness, and +hunger, if the penalty were all but life itself. + +"I'm--sure I can walk--and let you ride," she said. "I'd like to go +on, but I know I can't sit here any longer." + +She tried to dismount by herself--as any man must do. In her stiffness +she practically fell from the saddle, sinking on her side upon the +ground. Only for a second was she prostrate thus at his feet, but her +coat fell back from her kahki vest--and a gleam of the moonlight fell +upon a bright little object, pinned above her heart. + +Van beheld it--and knew what it was--his nugget, washed from the +"Laughing Water" claim! + +The truth seemed to pour upon him like the waters of an all-engulfing +wave--the overwhelming, wonderful truth that was also almost terrible, +in what it might mean to them both. + +There was one thing only the man could do--ignore this fact that he had +discovered and treat her like a man. This he knew instantly. He +turned with a man's indifference to one of his sex and vaulted to +Suvy's back. + +"Come on," he said, "if you're anxious to get under cover." + +He could trust himself to say no more. He rode ahead. + +Beth did her best to follow, and make no complaint. The broncho, +however, was a rapid walker. This she had not realized while Van was +striding on in the lead. She fell behind repeatedly, and Van was +obliged to halt his horse and wait. She began to be lame. It had been +a torture to ride; it was agony to walk. + +Van now became strangely urgent. He had never loved her more. His +love had taken on a sacredness, out here in the night, with Beth so +weary and helpless. More than anything he had ever desired in his life +he wished to keep her sacred--spared from such a complication as their +night out here alone might engender. + +Yet he saw the first little limp when she began to falter. He was +watching backward constantly, his whole nature eager to protect +her--save her from hurt, from this merciless toil across the desert. +He longed to take her in his arms and carry her thus, securely. He was +torn between the wish to hasten her along, for her own greater ease of +mind, and the impulse to halt this hardship. He knew not what to do. + +They had gone much less than a mile when he brought up his pony at her +side. + +"Here, Kent," he said, "you walk like a bride-groom going up the aisle. +You'll have to get up here and ride." He dismounted actively. + +Beth could have dropped in her tracks for weariness. She was tired to +the marrow of her bones. + +"I can't," she answered. "Perhaps--we'd better camp." A hot flush +rushed upward to her very scalp, fortunately, however, unseen. + +Van regarded her sternly. + +"I've changed my mind. I haven't time to camp out here to-night. +You'll have to ride." + +It seemed to Beth that, had it been to save her life, she could +scarcely have climbed to that saddle. To remain on the horse would, +she knew, be far beyond her strength. She continued on her feet only +by the utmost exertion of her will. Someway since Van had found her in +this dreadful place she had lost strength rapidly--perhaps for the +leaning on him. With Van's ultimatum now to confront, she could summon +no nerve or resolution. + +Her face paled. "You'd better go on, if you have to be at your claim," +she said, aware that she could offer no argument, no alternative plan +to his wish for an onward march. "I'm--not used to riding--much. I +can't ride any more tonight." + +He knew she told the truth, knew how gladly she would have continued +riding, knew what a plight of collapse she must be approaching to +submit to a thought of remaining here till morning. He could not go +and leave her here. The thought of it aroused him to something like +anger. He realized the necessity of assuming a rougher demeanor. + +"Damn it, Kent," he said, "you're no less lost than you were before. +You know I can't go off and leave you. And I want to get ahead." + +She only knew she could not ride, come what might. + +"You didn't say so, a little while ago," she ventured, half +imploringly. "I'm sorry I'm so nearly dead. If you must go on----" + +That cut him to the heart. How could he be a brute? + +"I ought to go!" he broke in unguardedly. "I mean I've got to +think--I've got work to do in the morning. Don't you suppose you could +try?" + +The moonlight was full on his face. All the laughter she knew so well +had disappeared from his eyes. In its place she saw such a look of +yearning and worry--such a tenderness of love as no woman ever yet saw +and failed to comprehend. She divined in that second that he knew who +she was--she felt it, through all her sense of intuition and the fiber +of her soul. She understood his insistence on the march, the saving +march, straight onward without a halt. She loved him for it. She had +loved him with wild intensity, confessed at last to herself, ever since +the moment he had appeared in the desert to save her. + +If a certain reckless abandon to this love rocked her splendid +self-control, it was only because she was so utterly exhausted. Her +judgment was sound, unshaken. Nevertheless, despite judgment and +all--to go on was out of the question. God had flung them out here +together, she thought, for better or for worse. That Van would be the +fine chivalrous gentleman she had felt him to be at the very first +moment of their accidental acquaintance, she felt absolutely assured. +She accepted a certain inevitable fatality in the situation---perhaps +the more readily now that she knew he knew, for she seemed so much more +secure. + +His question remained unanswered while she thought of a thousand +things. Could she try to go on? + +She shook her head. "What's the use of my riding--perhaps another +mile? You might go on and send a man to guide me in the morning." + +What an effort it cost her to make such a harsh suggestion not even Van +could know. A terrible fear possessed her that he might really act +upon her word. To have him stay was bad enough, but to have him go +would be terrible. + +"Hell!" he said, keeping up his acting. "You talk like a woman. +Haven't I wasted time enough already without sending someone out here +to-morrow morning? What makes you think you're worth it?" He turned +his back upon her, hung the stirrup of the saddle on the horn, and +began to loosen the cinch. + +Like the woman that she was, she enjoyed his roughness, his impudence, +and candor. It meant so much, in such a time as this. After a moment +she asked him: + +"What do you mean to do?" + +He hauled off the saddle and dropped it to the ground. + +"Make up the berths," he answered. "Here's your bedding." He tossed +the blanket down at her feet. It was warm and moist from Suvy's body. +He then uncoiled his long lasso, secured an end around the pony's neck, +and bade him walk away and roll. + +The broncho obeyed willingly, as if he understood. Van took up the +saddle, carried it off a bit, and dropped it as before. + +Beth still remained there, with the blanket at her feet. + +Van addressed her. "Got any matches?" + +"No," she said. "I'm afraid----" + +"Neither have I," he interrupted. "No fire in the dressing-room. +Good-night. No need to set the alarm clock. I'll wake you bright and +early." Once more he took up his saddle and started off in the +ankle-high brush of the plain. + +Beth watched him with many misgivings at her heart. + +"Where--where are you going?" she called. + +"To bed," he called in response. "Want room to kick around, if I get +restless." + +She understood--but it was hard to bear, to be left so alone as this, +in such a place. He went needlessly far, she was sure. + +Grateful to him, but alarmed, made weaker again by having thus to make +her couch so far from any protection, she continued to stand there, +watching him depart. He stooped at last, and his pony halted near him, +like a faithful being who must needs keep him always in sight. Even +the pony would have been some company for Beth, but when Van stretched +himself down upon the earth, with the saddle for a pillow, she felt +horribly alone. + +There was nothing to do but to make the best of what the fates allowed. +She curled herself down on the chilly sand with the blanket tucked +fairly well around her. But she did not sleep. She was far too tired +and alarmed. + +Half an hour later three coyotes began a fearsome serenade. Beth sat +up abruptly, as terrified as if she had been but a child. She endured +it for nearly five minutes, hearing it come closer all the while. Then +she could bear it no more. She rose to her feet, caught up her +blanket, and almost ran towards the pony. More softly then she +approached the place where Van lay full length upon the ground. She +beheld him in the moonlight, apparently sound asleep. + +As closely as she dared she crept, and once more made her bed upon the +sand. There, in a child-like sense of security, with her fearless +protector near, she listened in a hazy way to the prowling beasts, now +cruising away to the south, and so profoundly slept. + +Van had heard her come. Into his heart snuggled such a warmth and holy +joy as few men are given to feel. He, too, went to sleep, thinking of +his nugget on her breast. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +TALL STORIES + +Daylight had barely broadened into morning when Van was astir from his +bed. The air was chill and wonderfully clean. Above the eastern run +of hills the sun was ready to appear. + +Beth still lay deep in slumber. She had curled up like a child in her +meager covering. Van watched her from his distance. A little shiver +passed through her form, from time to time. Her hat was still in +place, but how girlish, how sweet, how helpless was her face--the +little he could see! How he wished he might permit her to sleep it out +as nature demanded. For her own sake, not for his, he must hasten her +onward to Goldite, by way of the "Laughing Water" claim. + +He walked off eastward where a natural furrow made a deep depression in +the valley. His pony followed, the lasso dragging in the sand. Once +over at the furrow edge, the man took out his pistol and fired it off +in the air. + +Beth was duly aroused. Van saw her leap to her feet, then he +disappeared in the hollow, with his broncho at his heels. + +The girl was, if possible, stiffer than before. But she was much +refreshed. For a moment she feared Van was deserting, till she noted +his saddle, near at hand. Then he presently emerged upon the level of +the plain and returned to the site of their camp. + +"First call for breakfast in the dining-car," he said. "We can make it +by half-past eight." + +"If only we could have a cup of good hot coffee first, before we +start," said Beth, and she smiled at the vainness of the thought. + +"We won't get good coffee at the claim," Van assured her dryly. "But +near-coffee would lure me out of this." + +He was rapidly adjusting the blanket and saddle on his horse. + +"You'll have to ride or we can't make speed," he added. "As a walker +you're sure the limited." + +She appreciated thoroughly the delicacy with which he meant to continue +the fiction of her sex. But he certainly was frank. + +"Thank you," she answered amusedly. "I'd do better, perhaps, if I +weren't so over-burdened with flattery." + +"You'll have to do better, anyhow," he observed, concluding +preparations with Suvy. "There you are. Get on. Father Time with +hobbles on could beat us getting a move." + +He started off, leaving her to mount by herself. She managed the +matter somewhat stiffly, suppressing a groan at the effort, and then +for an hour she was gently pummeled into limberness as the pony +followed Van. + +They came at the end of that time to one of the upper reaches of that +same river she had forded the previous day. To all appearances the +wide shallow bed was a counterpart of the one over which her horse had +waded. But the trail turned sharply down the stream, and followed +along its bank. + +They had halted for the pony to drink. Van also refreshed himself and +Beth dismounted to lie flat down and quench her long, trying thirst. + +"Right across there, high up in the hills, is the 'Laughing Water' +claim," said Van, pointing north-eastward towards the mountains. "Only +three miles away, if we could fly, but six as we have to go around." + +"And why do we have to go around?" Beth inquired. "Aren't we going to +cross the river here?" + +"Looks like a river, I admit," he said, eying the placid stream. +"That's a graveyard there--quicksand all the way across." + +Beth's heart felt a shock at the thought of what could occur to a +traveler here, unacquainted with the treacherous waters. + +"Good gracious!" she said. She added generously: "Couldn't I walk a +little now, and--share the horse?" + +"When you walk it gets on Suvy's nerves to try to keep step," he +answered. "Fall in." + +They went two miles down the river, then, across on a rock-and-gravel +bottom, at a ford directly opposite a jagged rift in the mountains. +This chasm, which was short and steep, they traversed perspiringly. +The sun was getting warm. Beyond them then the way was all a rough, +hard climb, over ridges, down through canyons, around huge dykes of +rock and past innumerable foldings of the range. How Van knew the way +was more than Beth could understand. She was already growing wearied +anew, since the night had afforded her very little rest, and she had +not eaten for nearly a day. + +Van knew she was in no condition for the ride. He was watching her +constantly, rejoicing in her spirit, but aching for her aches. He set +a faster pace for the broncho to follow, to end the climb as soon as +possible. + +At length, below a rounded ridge, where stunted evergreens made a +welcome bit of greenery, he came to a halt. + +"We're almost there," he said. "You'll have to remain at the claim +till somewhere near noon, then I'll show you the way down to Goldite." + +"Till noon?" She looked at him steadily, a light of worry in her eyes +as she thought of arriving so late at Mrs. Dick's, with what +consequences--the Lord alone knew. + +"I can't get away much earlier," he said, and to this, by way of acting +his part, he added: "Do you want to wear me out?" + +She knew what he meant. He would wait till noon to give her time to +rest. She would need all the rest he could make possible. And then he +would only "show her the way to Goldite." He would not ride with her +to town. She might yet escape the compromising plight into which she +had been thrust. His thoughtfulness, it seemed, could have no end. + +"Very well," she murmured. "I'm sorry to have made you all this +trouble." She was not--someways; she was lawlessly, inordinately glad. + +The "trouble" for Van had been the most precious experience in all his +life. + +"It has been one wild spasm of delight," he said in his dryest manner +of sarcasm. "But between us, Kent, I'm glad it's no continuous +performance." + +He went over the ridge, she following. A moment later they were +looking down upon the "Laughing Water" claim from that self-same +eminence from which Searle Bostwick had seen it when he rode one day +from the Indian reservation. + +"This," said Van, "is home." + +"Oh," said the girl, and tears sprang into her eyes. + +And a very home, indeed, it presently seemed, when they came to the +shack, where Gettysburg, Napoleon, old Dave, and even Algy, the Chinese +cook, came forth to give them cordial welcome. + +Beth was introduced to all as Glenmore Kent--and passed inspection. + +"Brother of Miss Beth Kent," said Van, "who honored us once with a +visit to the Monte Cristo fiasco. He's been lost on the desert and +he's too done up to talk, so I want him to be fed and entertained. And +of the two requirements, the feed's more important than the vaudeville +show, unless your stunts can put a man to sleep." + +Algy and Gettysburg got the impromptu breakfast together. The placer +sluices outside were neglected. Nobody wished to shovel sand for gold +when marvelous tales might be exchanged concerning the wind storm that +had raged across the hills the day before. + +Indeed, as Van and Beth sat together at the board, regaling themselves +like the two famished beings they were, their three entertainers +proceeded to liberate some of the tallest stories concerning storms +that mortal ever heard. + +Napoleon and Gettysburg became the hottest of rivals in an effort to +deliver something good. Gettysburg furnished a tale of a breeze in the +unpeopled wilds of Nebraska where two men's farms, fully twenty miles +apart, had undergone an astounding experience whereby a complete +exchange of their houses, barns, and sheds had been effected by a +cyclone, without the slightest important damage to the structures. + +When this was concluded, Napoleon looked pained. "I think you lie, +Gett--metaphorical speakin'!" he hastened to add. "But shiver my +bowsprit if I didn't see a ship, once, ten days overdue, jest snatched +up and blowed into port two days ahead of time, and never touched +nothing all the way, I remember the year 'cause that was the winter ma +had twins and pa had guinea pigs." + +"Wal," drawled Dave, who had all this time maintained a dignified +silence, "I've saw some wind, in my time, but only one that was really +a leetle mite too obstreperous. Yep, that was a pretty good blow--the +only wind I ever seen which blew an iron loggin' chain off the fence, +link by link." + +Napoleon paid Dave a compliment. He said: + +"You old son of a gun!" + +Van thought the storms had raged sufficiently. + +"Is work unpopular, or did the wind blow the water from the creek?" + +"I like to work," admitted Gettysburg, "but it's fun to watch you +epicures eatin'." + +Beth felt embarrassed. + +"Epicures?" echoed Napoleon. "You don't know what an epicure is? +That's a vulgar remark when you don't know no meaning of a word." + +"Epicure? Me not know what an epicure is?" replied old Gettysburg +aggressively. "You bet I do. An epicure's a feller which chaws his +fodder before he swallers it." + +Napoleon subsided. Then he arose and sauntered out to work, Dave and +Gettysburg following. Van hastily drank his cup of coffee, which, as +he had predicted, was not particularly good, and started for the +others. He halted in the door. + +"Make yourself comfortable, if you can here, Kent," he said. "You had +an exhausting experience yesterday. Perhaps you had better lie down." + +Beth merely said: "Thank you." But her smile was more radiant than +sunshine. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +WORK AND SONG + +Having presently finished her breakfast, Beth joined the group outside, +curious to behold the workings of a placer mine in actual operation. + +There was not much to see, but it was picturesque. In their lack of +funds the partners had constructed the simplest known device for +collecting the gold from the sand. They had built a line of sluices, +or troughs of considerable length, propped on stilts, or supports about +knee high, along the old bed of the canyon. The sluices were mere +square flumes, set with a fairly rapid grade. + +Across the bottom of all this flume, at every yard or less of its +length, small wooden cleats had been nailed, to form the "riffles." +Into the hoses the water from the creek was turned, at the top. The +men then shoveled the sand in the running stream and away it went, +sluicing along the water-chute, its particles rattling down the wooden +stairway noisily. The gold was expected to settled behind the riffles, +owing to its weight. + +All the flume-way dripped from leakages. The sun beat down upon the +place unshaded. Water escaped into all the pits the men were digging +as they worked, so that they slopped around in mud above their ankles. +Dave wore rubber boots and was apparently protected. As a matter of +fact the boots promptly filled with water. Napoleon and Gettysburg +made no effort to remain dry shod, but puddled all day with soused +footgear. + +Van rode off to the "reservation town," a mile below the hill, to +bargain for a tent reported there for sale. Sleeping quarters here on +the claim were far too crowded. Until lumber for a cabin could be +purchased they must make what shifts they might. + +It had taken but the briefest time for the miners to go at their work. +Beth stood near, watching the process with the keenest interest. It +seemed to her a back-breaking, strenuous labor. These sturdy old +fellows, grown gray and stooped with toil--grown also expectant of +hardship, ill-luck, and privations--were pathetic figures, despite +their ways of cheer. + +That Van had attached them to himself in a largeness of heart by no +means warranted by their worth was a conviction at which anyone must +promptly arrive. They were lovable old scamps, faithful, honest, and +loyal to the man they loved--but that was all that could be stated. +Perhaps it was enough. As partners with whom to share both life and +fortune they might have seemed impossible to many discerning men. + +Beth sat down on a rock, near Gettysburg. Someway she, too, liked the +three old chaps of whom work had made three trademarks. Old Gettysburg +began to sing. The words of his song, halted by grunts as he shoveled, +were, to say the least, unexpected: + + + The frog he swore he'd have a ride, + (Shovel) + With a rinktum bolly kimo; + Sword and pistols by his side, + (Shovel) + With a rinktum bolly kimo. + For lunch he packed a beetle bug, + (Shovel) + With a rinktum bolly kimo; + Tucked inside his tummy snug, + (Shovel) + With a rinktum bolly kimo. + + Kimo, karo, pito, garo, + Kimo, bolly mitty kimo. + (Shovel) + Shing-shang hammyriddle, allibony, ringtang, + Folderolli bolly mitty kimo. + (Three shovelings and some meditation) + + The frog he rode a slimy eel, + (Shovel) + With a rinktum bolly kimo. + The sun made his complexion peel, + (Shovel) + With a rinktum bolly kimo. + The frog's legs went to join a fry, + (Shovel) + With a rinktum bolly kimo. + The eel became a juicy pie, + (Shovel) + With a rinktum bolly kimo. + + (Chorus) + + +Napoleon looked up at the end of the song and spat upon his hands. + +"Gett," he said placidly, "I think that's a lie--metaphorical speakin'. +Ain't mad, are you?" + +Gettysburg made no response. He merely shoveled. + +One of the sluices, weakened by a leak that had undermined its pinning, +fell from place, at the farther end of the line. Old Dave went down to +repair it. Napoleon took advantage of his absence to come to Beth, +with an air of imparting something confidential. + +"Splice my main brace," said he, with his head on one side, quaintly, +"wasn't that a blasphermous yarn old Dave was givin' us about the wind +blowing that log chain away a link at a time? Old son of a gun!" + +Beth was inquisitive. + +"Why do you call him a son of a gun?" + +Napoleon scratched his head. + +"Well, you see, Dave's mother held up his father with a Colt forty-five +and makes him marry her. Then along comes Dave. I reckon that makes +him a sure enough son of a gun." + +Beth said: "Oh." She turned a little red. + +"Yep, good old cuss, Dave is, though. No good for a seafearing man, +however. He could never learn to swear--he ain't got no ear for music." + +He returned to his shovel. He and Gettysburg worked in silence for +fifteen minutes. Old Dave returned and joined them. Gettysburg tuned +up for another of his songs, the burden of which was the tale of a +hen-pecked man. + +Once more at its end Napoleon looked up and spat on his hands. + +"There ain't nothing that can keep some women down 'cept a +gravestone--and I've seen some gravestones which was tilted." + +Despite the interest and amusement she felt in it all, Beth was +becoming sleepy as she sat there in the sun. She shook off the spell +and arose, approaching closer to the bank and flume where Gettysburg +was toiling. He labored on, silently, for several minutes, then +paused, straightened up by degrees, as if the folds in his back were +stubborn, and looked at their visitor steadily, his glass eye +particularly fixed. One of his hands pulled down his jaw, and then it +closed up with a thump. + +"Guess this kind of a racket is sort of new to you, Mr. Kent," he +ventured. "Ever seen gold washin' before?" + +"No," Beth confessed, "and I don't see where the gold is to come from +now." + +Gettysburg chuckled. "Holy toads! Miners do a heap of work and never +see it neither. Me and Van and Napoleon has went through purg and +back, many's the time, and was lucky to git out with our skeletons, +sayin' nuthin' about the gold." + +"Oh." She could think of nothing else to say. + +"In fact Van was all that got me out onct--Napoleon, too. We wasn't +worth it, prob'ly. That's the joke on Van. Since then us three cusses +has starved, and froze, and clean roasted, chasin' gold." + +"Oh." + +"We was lost in the snow, one winter, with nuthin' to eat but a plug of +tobacker, a can of vasolene, and a porous plaster. We lived on that +menu fer a week--that and snow-soup. But Van got us out all +right--packed Napoleon about five miles on his back. Nap was so thin +there wasn't enough of him to die." His one good eye became dreamily +focused on the past. He smiled. "But someways the desert is worse +than the snow. We got ketched three times without no water. Never did +know, Nap or me, how Van got our two old dried-up carcasses out the +last time, down to Death Valley. He's a funny cuss, old Van." + +Once more Beth merely answered: "Oh." + +"You bet!" resumed Gettysburg. "He never quits. It ain't in him. He +works his hands off and his soul out of its socket, every time." He +laughed heartily. "Lord! we have done an awful lot of fool work fer +nuthin'! We've tackled tunnels and shafts, and several games like +this, and pretty near died a dozen different styles--all uneasy kinds +of dyin'--and we've lived when it was a darn sight uneasier than +croakin', and kept on tryin' out new diggin's, and kept on bein' busted +all the time. 'Nuff to make a lemon laugh, the fun we've had. But +now, by Jupe! we've struck it at last--and it ain't a-goin' to git +away!" + +"Oh, I'm glad--I'm glad!" said Beth, winking back a bit of suspicious +moisture that came unbidden in her eyes as she looked on this +weather-beaten, hardship-beaten old figure, still sturdily ready for +the fates. "I'm sure you all deserve it! I'm sure of that!" + +"Wal, that's a question fer God Almighty," Gettysburg replied. "But +there's the gold, the good yellow gold! And I'm awful glad fer Van!" + +Into the water he dipped his crooked old fingers, and scratching down +behind a riffle he fetched up a small amount of gold, doubly bright +with the water and the sunlight upon it. + +"Gold--and we git it easy," he added, repeating: "I'm awful glad fer +Van. You ought to see him shovel!" He dropped the gold back into the +water carelessly. "It ain't a-goin' to do us old jack-legged cusses +much good, at our age, but I would like to go to San Francisco this +summer once, and shoot the chutes!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +SUSPICIOUS ANSWERS + +Beth and Van rode away from the claim just after lunch; she on a +borrowed horse. The girl had not slept, but she had rested well and +was far more fit for the journey back to town than either she or Van +had expected. + +He went with her part way only--far enough to put her safely on a trail +from which she could not wander. They talked but little as they +rode--perhaps because they had so much to say that could not be +approached. Never for a moment did Van relax his vigilance upon +himself, or treat her otherwise than as a man for whom he had conceived +a natural liking. + +When they came to the place of parting he pulled up his broncho and +faced about in the trail. + +"Well, Kent," he said, "so long. You'll have no trouble now." He held +forth his hand. + +Beth gave him hers--and all her heart. Nevertheless, his clasp was as +brief as he would give to one of his sex. + +"So long," she answered. "Good luck. I am under many obligations." + +"They won't make you very round shouldered," he said. "See you again." + +That was their parting. He rode back at once--and Beth continued on +her way. She turned three times in her saddle to watch him as he went, +but she did not catch him glancing back. + +About sundown she rode into Goldite, went at once to Mrs. Dick's, and +tied her horse to a post. Mrs. Dick she met in the hall. + +"Snakes alive!" exclaimed that lively little person. "If you ain't +back as natural as life!" The garb had not deceived her for a moment. +"Where in the world have you been, in such a rig?" + +Beth's answer was ready. + +"I went to see my brother, and had to spend the night on the desert." + +Mrs. Dick stared at her in wonder. "Talk to me about the Eastern women +being mollycuddles! You don't mean his cabin was blown down by the +storm?" + +Beth was ill-prepared for this, but she met it. + +"I wish you could have seen that roof go by!" + +"Are you hungry?" the hostess demanded. "You look all wore out." + +"I am," Beth admitted. "Has Mr. Bostwick been here in my absence?" + +"He ain't been here in anything--nope." + +Beth's relief was inexpressible. She was safe, with everything behind +her! No one knew, or would ever need to know, the secret in possession +of herself and Van. + +"If anyone comes that you can send, will you kindly have my horse taken +over to the stable?" she said. "I must go upstairs and rest." + +"Here's Billy Stitts a-comin' now," replied the housewife, moving +towards the door. "He's been worried to death about you bein' gone!" + +Beth ran at once for the stairs, and later, from the window, saw the +faithful old Billy leading her pony away. She closed her door, +darkened the light, and soon clambered wearily into bed, where she +dropped off to sleep like a child, lost to the world through the dinner +hour and till something like three in the morning. She awaked then for +a moment, long enough to think of Van, then sighed in absolute comfort +and turned to sleep again. + +It was nine o'clock in the morning when at last she appeared on the +scene. + +"Land snakes!" said Mrs. Dick, who had heard her coming down. "Ain't +you the sleeper! Well, I've kept your breakfast, but I couldn't keep +last night's supper. Your friend, Mr. Bostwick, was here about eight, +but I told him he'd have to wait if it took you a week to come to." + +"You didn't tell him I'd been away, I hope," said Beth, suddenly +alarmed at the thought of Searle's presence in the town. "I'd rather +no one knew but you." + +"Lord! I wouldn't tell him if a rat was dead in his pocket!" Mrs. Dick +expostulated. "I can't abide the man, and you might as well know it, +even if it does hurt your feelings." + +Beth sat down to her breakfast. "You're as good as you can be." + +"Well, the breakfast ain't--'taint fresh," said Mrs. Dick. "But I'll +see you git a decent lunch." + +She bustled off into the kitchen. Beth had barely finished eating when +Bostwick again appeared. + +The man was tanned from his trip in the desert. He seemed alert, +excited, keen over prospects rapidly coming to a head. + +"Well, well, Beth," he said as he came inside the dining-room, "I'm +back, you see, but I've certainly had a time of it! The car broke +down, and Glen had left Starlight when at last I arrived, and I hunted +for him all through the mountains and only found him four days ago, and +we've been going ever since. I couldn't write, but I did feel cut up, +I assure you, about leaving you here alone for so long a time." + +He advanced as if to kiss her, but Beth avoided his caress. She was +calm and possessed. She meant to ascertain just how far the man was +trying to deceive her. + +"Won't you sit down, and tell me all about it," she said. "You saw +Glen four days ago?" She resumed her place in her chair. + +"Three or four days ago--I'm mixed in my dates," he said, as he also +took a seat. "He's looking fine, and sent his love, of course." + +That the man was lying, in every particular, she began to feel +convinced. + +"You left him well? He was feeling strong and well?" + +"Never better," he assured her. "You can see what this wonderful +sunlight does, even to me." + +"Yes, I see. And you left Starlight yesterday?" + +"Yesterday afternoon. I had trouble running back. Otherwise we'd have +been here in the evening." + +She glanced at him quickly. "We? Glen didn't come along? He isn't +here?" + +"Oh, no, no, certainly not," he hastened to say. "I brought in a man +who--who is interested in the purchase we have made." + +That served to arouse her sense of wonderment at what he had really +been doing with her money. He was attempting to deceive her concerning +Glen, and perhaps his entire story was a fabrication. + +"Oh," she said. "Then you have purchased the mine--you and Glen?" + +"Well--a few minor details remain to be concluded," he said +off-handedly. "We are not yet in actual possession of the property. +There will be no further hitches, however--and the claim is certainly +rich." + +For the life of her she could not tell what lay at the bottom of the +business. The strange conflicts and discrepancies between Glen's very +own letters made the riddle utterly obscure. She felt that Searle was +fashioning falsehoods in every direction. That he had not visited Glen +at all was her fixed conviction. A sudden distrust, almost a loathing +for this heavy-browed man, was settling down upon her, inescapably. +Someway, somehow she must know about Glen for herself. Her own +attempted trip to Starlight had discouraged all thought of further +adventure, and no reliance whatsoever could be placed on Searle's +reports. Perhaps the reputed mining property was likewise a myth--or +if such a property existed, Glen might never have heard of it at all. +But Glen's letter--she was always forgetting that letter--the one he +had written to Searle. + +She said: "Where is this mine that Glen has found?" + +He colored slightly. "We have all agreed not to talk too much about it +yet. It's not very far from here--I can tell you that. Precautions +are necessary where a hundred men follow every prospector about, night +and day, if he happens to have found a bit of valuable ore. A thousand +men would be after this property if they knew the way to secure it." + +Perhaps, after all, Glen, had purposely concealed this matter from +herself. Bostwick sounded plausible. Her mind reverted to her +brother's illness, for Glen to her was of far more importance than all +the mines in Nevada. + +"I am glad to hear that Glen is _well_," she said, determined on +another tack. "He hasn't answered my letter." + +Once more Bostwick colored, beneath his tan and the gun-metal tint of +his jaw. + +"I suppose he's been too busy," he answered. "Have you written again?" + +"Not yet," she answered honestly. "I wasn't sure of his whereabouts. +You are sure he's in Starlight now?" + +"Yes--but you needn't write," he hastened to say. "He said he might +come, perhaps to-morrow." He rose from his chair. "I've got to hurry +off, little girl. These negotiations cannot wait. I'll run in when I +can--this afternoon at the latest. I'm glad to see you looking so +well." He approached her with lover-like intent. "My heart has been +empty and forlorn, away from you, Beth. Surely you have a little--a +little something for me, pet? You know how starved----" + +"Oh--Mrs. Dick is coming!" she interrupted desperately. "You must have +a great deal to do." + +Mrs. Dick was making a large and lively noise in the kitchen. + +Bostwick listened for a second, his deep-set eyes keenly fixed on the +girl, like very orbs of suspicion and jealousy. He lowered his voice. + +"Has that ruffian, Van Buren, been here recently?" + +She raised her brows in well-feigned astonishment, + +"I haven't heard of any ruffian being in town." + +Bostwick studied her face for a moment in silence. + +"I'll be around this afternoon," he repeated. "Good-by." + +He departed hurriedly, glancing at his watch as he went. + +Not a block from the house he met old Billy Stitts, who, though quite +unknown to the New York man, knew Bostwick in a way of his own. + +"Morning, Uncle.--Howdy?" he said, blocking Bostwick's path. "Back, I +see. Welcome home. I guess you don't know me as well as I know you. +My name is Stitts--Billy Stitts--and I'm gittin' on fine with your +niece. I'm the one which runs her errands and gits the inside track." + +Bostwick, staring at Billy ominously, and about to sweep him aside as a +bit of old rubbish, too familiar and impudent for tolerance, paused +abruptly in his impulse, at a hint which Billy had supplied. + +"Oh," he said. "How are you? So you are the friend who runs Miss +Kent's errands? You must be the one she asked me to befriend." + +"Did she?" said old Billy, inordinately pleased. "What did I tell you +about the inside track?" + +"I'm glad if you have been of use," Bostwick told him insidiously. +"You didn't say what your services have been. Just a few little +errands, I suppose?" + +"Never you mind," said Billy, with a profoundly impressive wink. +"That's between her and me. That ain't even fer you, Uncle Bostwick," +and he winked again. + +"Of course, of course," agreed Bostwick, half consumed with rage at the +old fellow's abominable manners and familiarity. "I'll keep you in +mind and add some reward of my own on the next occasion." + +He bowed and hastened on his way, boiling with curiosity to know what +it was that Beth had been doing to require this old tattler's services. +He meant to ascertain. His suspicions went at once to Van, at thought +of whom he closed down his jaw like a vise. + +Filled with a turmoil of thoughts that seethed in his brain, like a +brew in a witch's cauldron--some of them dark and some golden bright, +and some of them red with lust for many things--he proceeded down +street to McCoppet's place, to find himself locked out of the private +den, where the gambler was closeted with Lawrence. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +BETH'S ONE EXPEDIENT + +Bostwick had told Beth partial truths. His journey had been hard. His +car had been twice disabled on the desert; Lawrence had been difficult +to find; delays had confronted him at every turn, and not until +midnight of the day before this had he come with his quarry to +Goldite--barely in time to save the situation, with the reservation +opening less than forty-eight hours away. + +He had not seen Glen, nor approached the town of Starlight closer than +fifteen miles. He had not yet expended Beth's money, which only that +morning had been practically placed at McCoppet's disposal. But having +finally landed the Government surveyor in camp, he had achieved the +first desirable end in the game they were playing, and matters were +moving at last with a speed to suit the most exacting. + +During the interim between Searle's departure and return affairs had +been a trifle complicated in another direction--affairs that lay +between the gambler and his friend, the lumberman, big Trimmer. + +Trimmer had been paid one thousand dollars only of the sum agreed upon +when he gave the name of Culver to the half-breed Indian, Cayuse. He +had since spent his money, demanded the balance due, and threatened +McCoppet with exposure, only to be met with a counter threat of prison +for life as the half-breed's accomplice in the crime. McCoppet meant +to pay a portion of the creature's price, but intended to get it from +Bostwick. Indeed, to-day he had the money, but was far too much +engrossed with Lawrence to give the lumberman a thought. + +Trimmer, waxing greedy through the ease with which he had blackmailed +McCoppet, had developed a cunning of his own. Convinced that the +gambler was accustomed to incubating plans in his private office, the +lumberman made shift to excavate a hole beneath the floor of that +particular den of privacy, and, after having spent half a night in +vain, in this place of concealment, was at last being duly rewarded as +he listened to McCoppet and Lawrence. + +With his ear to a knot-hole he gathered in everything essential to a +knowledge of the plot. He became aware that Lawrence "fell" for twenty +thousand dollars; he overheard the details of the "survey" about to be +made; but to save his very life he could not have fathomed the means +that were about to be employed to "jump" the mining property belonging +to Van Buren and his partners. + +Equipped with this latest means of squeezing McCoppet, the creature +emerged from his hole in time to meet the gambler at the bar, during a +moment of Bostwick's temporary absence. + +"Opal," he said significantly, "I need to see you fer a minute. It +won't be no healthier to refuse me now than it was the first time I +come." + +The gambler looked at him coldly. "I haven't got time to talk now, +Larry, but some of your money is at your order any time you want it, in +gold, or poker chips, or gin." + +Trimmer was placated. "All right," he said, and cunningly resolved, +upon the spot, to keep his latest secret on the ice. + +Lawrence had already disappeared to hasten arrangements for getting out +upon his work. + +Bostwick had waited half an hour in the utmost impatience. With a +hundred things to increase his restlessness of mind and body, he had +finally gone to the postoffice and there discovered a letter from +Glenmore Kent. + +It was short, and now no longer fresh. It had been composed just after +the young man's accident, and after relating how he had received a not +inconsiderable injury, requested Searle to come to Starlight at once, +if possible, and not to divulge any needless facts to Beth. + +"I'm broke, and this knock puts me down and out," the letter concluded. +"Come down, like a good old chap, and cheer me up." + +Bostwick destroyed the letter promptly, lest it fall by some accident +into other hands than his own. Not without a slight feeling of guilt, +the man shut out all thought, for the present, of deserting Goldite and +the plot. That Beth would learn nothing from himself as to Glen's +condition was a certainty. He was glad of this wisdom in the boy--this +show of courage whereby he had wished his sister spared. + +But the more he thought upon Beth's attitude towards himself, and the +mystifying confessions old Billy Stitts had made, concerning the +errands he was running for the girl, the more Bostwick fretted and +warmed with exasperation, suspicion, and jealousy. He returned to +McCoppet's. The door to the den was still barred. Impatiently he +started again for Mrs. Dick's. He was not in the least certain as to +what he meant to do or say, but felt obliged to do something. + +Meantime, Beth had written to her brother. Bostwick's evasions and +lies had aroused more than merely a vague alarm in her breast. She had +begun to feel, perhaps partially by intuition, that something was +altogether wrong. Searle's anxiety to assure her she need not write to +Glen--that he was coming to Goldite--had provided the one required +element to excite a new trend in her thought. She knew that Glen would +not come soon to town. She knew she must get him word. She had +thought of one way only to insure herself and Glen against deceit--ask +Van to go in person with her letter, and bring her Glen's reply. + +Had she felt the affair to be in the slightest degree unimportant she +might have hesitated to think of making this request, but the more she +dwelt upon it the more essential it seemed to become. Her brothers +very life might be dependent upon this promptness of action. A very +large sum of money was certainly involved in some sort of business of +which, she felt, both she and Glen were in ignorance. Bostwick had +certainly not seen Glen at all. His deceptions might mean +anything!--the gravest of dangers to them all! + +It had taken her the briefest time only to resolve upon her course--and +then old Billy came upon the scene, as if in answer to a question she +had asked--how to get her request and the letter to Glen across the +hills to Van, at the "Laughing Water" claim? + +Three letters she wrote, and tore to scraps, before one was finally +composed to express all she felt, in the way that she wished it +expressed. Old Billy went off to wait and returned there duly, +enormously pleased by his commission. He knew the way to the "Laughing +Water" claim and could ride the borrowed pony. + +As pleased as a dog with a parcel of meat, entrusted to his keeping by +a confident master, he finally started for the hay-yard, with two +dainty letters in his keeping. One was to Van, with Beth's request; +the other was, of course, to her brother. + +Bostwick met the proud old beau at the corner of the street. + +"Say, Uncle, what did I tell you," said Billy at once. "This time it's +the biggest errand yet." + +Bostwick had wondered if he might not catch Mr. Stitts in some such +service as he boasted now, and his wit was worthy of his nature. + +"Yes," he said readily, "Miss Kent was saying she thought perhaps she +could get you to carry a note to Mr. Van Buren." It was a hazardous +coup but he dared it with the utmost show of pleasure in his smile. +For a second, however, as he watched the old man's face, he feared he +had overshot the mark. + +Old Billy was pleased and disappointed together. However, his wish to +prove his importance greatly outweighed his chagrin that Beth should +have taken even "Uncle" Bostwick into her confidence. + +"That ain't all she give me," he announced, as foolishly as a child. +"I've got her letter to her brother, over to Starlight, too, and +nothin' couldn't stop me from takin' it up to the 'Laughing Water' +claim. You bet I'll see Van Buren gits it right into his hand from me!" + +If Bostwick had contemplated making an attempt to bribe the old beau +into permitting him a glance at the letters, he abandoned the thought +with sagacious alacrity. He must think of something safer. A letter +to Van Buren and one to Glen was more than he had counted on +discovering. It made him decidedly uneasy. + +"I'm sure you'll deliver everything safely," he said, masking his +annoyance with a smile. "Before you go, perhaps, you'd take something +to drink." + +The suggestion in his mind was crude, but at least it was something. + +"Huh!" said old Billy, "Me!--drink and git a jag when she's expectin' +me to hike right out of camp? Guess you don't know me, Uncle, not +worth a mice! Didn't I say nuthin' couldn't stop me? And I'm goin' +right now." + +He clapped his bony old hand over his pocket, where the two precious +letters reposed, and winking prodigiously at Bostwick, departed +forthwith from the scene. + +Bostwick could have run him down, beaten him to the ground and snatched +the letters from him, but he did not dare. Instead, he merely +continued to grin while Billy remained in sight. Then instead of going +on to Beth's, he circled a building and returned down street towards +McCoppet's. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +MCCOPPET BUSIES HIS MIND + +Unfortunately for Bostwick he knew no ruffians in the camp--none of the +Trimmers who would, perhaps, accept a sum of money to waylay a man, +bash him over the head, and filch required letters from his pocket. He +was not precisely willing, moreover, to broach such an undertaking to +the gambler. This, after all, was his private affair, to be shared +with no one he knew. + +The man had arrived at the truth concerning the letters with +commendable skill in deduction. He had himself destroyed Beth's +earlier letter to her brother, for reasons of policy. He had found her +conduct cold, if not suspicious, this morning. How far she had been +excited to distrust himself or the mails he could not estimate. He was +certain, however, she had sent a request to Van Buren to carry a letter +to Glen. + +Her reasons for taking precautions so extraordinary were undoubtedly +significant. He was galled; his anger against Van Buren was consuming. +But first and foremost he must block the harm Beth's letter to her +brother might accomplish. For two days more young Kent and Beth must +remain in ignorance of what was being done through the use of her +money--of the fact that no mine of Glen's discovery was the object of +the scheme he was working, and that none of his own alleged money was +being employed in the game. + +He made up his mind to go to Starlight himself--to be on hand when Van +Buren should arrive. With Glenmore ill, or injured, in his bed, the +case might offer simple handling, Further neglect of Glenmore might, +indeed, be fatal, at a juncture so delicate. From every possible +viewpoint the thing to do was to intercept Van Buren. + +He found McCoppet just returned from launching Lawrence forth upon his +work. Three of the gambler's chosen men had accompanied the +Government's surveyor. They had taken Bostwick's car. Instructions +had been simple enough. Push over the reservation line to cover the +"Laughing Water" claim, by night of the following day. + +Searle was taken to the private den. McCoppet imparted his information +with the utmost brevity. + +"Nothing for us to do but to wait till six o'clock, day after to-morrow +morning," he concluded, "then play our cards--and play 'em quick." + +"You've taken my car?" said Bostwick, whose personal plans were thrown +into utter confusion, for the moment. "I wanted that car for my own +use. I've got to go to Starlight to-morrow." + +"Sit down," said McCoppet, throwing away his unsmoked cigar and taking +another from his pocket. "What's going on at Starlight?" + +Bostwick had no intention of divulging his personal affairs, but there +was something in this that trenched upon "company" concerns. + +"Van Buren's going over there, to see young Kent," he admitted. "I've +got to see him first." + +McCoppet looked up at him sharply. + +"Young Kent ain't next to anything?" he demanded. + +"Not yet." + +"Look here," said the gambler, whose wits were inordinately keen, "is +anything leaking, Bostwick? What about the girl--the young chump's +sister? You're not putting her wise to the layout?" + +"Certainly not!" said Bostwick. "She knows nothing. But it wouldn't +be safe for this mix-up to occur. At any rate, I propose to be there +when Van Buren arrives." + +McCoppet arose, plunged his hands in his pockets, and paced up and down +reflectively. + +"Someways I'm glad Van Buren's going," he said. "I've been trying to +figure how I could play the game to have him away when we come to take +the trick. He's hostile in a fight. I guess it's all right. Don't +need you here. You can copper any possible harm down there at +Starlight, and meantime I'll see if there's any known way of delaying +Van Buren's return." + +"But how am I going to get down there and back?" said Bostwick, intent +upon the need for haste. "I can't get around without a car." + +"Don't get tropical," said McCoppet calmly. "I can get you a car in +fifteen minutes. It ain't as good as yours, but we needed the one that +was surest to keep on its legs. If you ain't got anything more on your +mind, I want to chase around for a lumberman--a friend of mine--before +he gits any drunker." + +Bostwick arose. + +"Arrange for that car to take me to-night, after dinner. I think +that's all." + +He repaired to his room to attend to a dozen small affairs, then went +once more to Beth's. She was not in the least surprised to hear him +say he meant to return to Starlight and to Glen that night, on business +of importance to them all, but she did not believe him in the least. +He remained in the hope of entrapping her into some sort of +self-betrayal as to what she had recently done, but without avail. + +The hour that he spent at Mrs. Dick's was dull for them both--dull and +distasteful to the girl, growing so rapidly to hate and distrust him, +dull and aggravating to Bostwick, with jealousy increasing upon him. +His one consolation lay in the fact that in less than two days Van +Buren would be no better off than a pauper at best with scarcely a +shelter for his head. + +One of the interesting and vital chapters in the whole affair was +meanwhile in McCoppet's hands and receiving his attention. Trimmer had +been captured, far more sober than the gambler could have hoped. The +two were in the den once more, the lumberman smoking an excellent cigar +as if it had been a stick of candy. + +McCoppet came to his subject promptly. + +"Look here, Larry," he said, "you know Van Buren when you see him." + +Trimmer glanced up sharply, ready in an instant to resent what he felt +to partake of the nature of a personal affront. + +"Don't git funny, Opal. If ever I fight Van Buren when I'm sober I'll +eat him alive. I was drunk when he licked me, and you know it!" + +McCoppet leaned back in his chair and half closed his eyes. + +"I didn't know but what you'd like to sober up and lick him." + +Trimmer stared, shifted uneasily in his seat, and demanded: + +"Where? Where is he at?" + +"He's going to Starlight to-morrow--from up by the reservation--from +his claim. If he don't git back for a couple of days--I could make it +worth your while; and you could cash in for that time he licked you +when you wasn't in condition." + +Again Trimmer fidgeted. "I guess he licked me fair enough. I admit +he's all right in a scrap. I ain't holdin' nuthin' agin him. +Goldite's good enough fer me." + +McCoppet knew the creature was afraid to meet his man--that Trimmer's +attack on Van Buren, once before, had been planned with much +deliberation, had amounted to an ambush, in point of fact, resulting in +disaster to the bully. + +"I counted on you to help me, Larry," he said, drumming on the table +with his fingers. "You're the only man of your kind with brains in all +the camp." + +Trimmer had smoked his cigar to within an inch of his mouth. He +extinguished the fire and chewed up the stump voraciously. + +"Say!" he suddenly ejaculated, leaping to his feet and coming around +the table, "I can fix him all right," and he lowered his voice to a +whisper. "Barger would give up a leg to git a show at Van Buren!" + +"Barger?" echoed McCoppet. "Matt? But they got him! Got 'em all." + +"Got nuthin'," the lumberman ejaculated. "What's the good of all +these lyin' papers when I seen Matt myself, readin' the piece about him +goin' back to the pen?" + +McCoppet rose, went to the window, and returned again. + +"Larry, you're all right," he said. "Where's Barger now?" + +Trimmer winked. "That's his business, and mine." + +"All right--that's all right," agreed the gambler. "Wouldn't he take +it as a favor if you passed him some money and the word about Van +Buren's hike to Starlight?" + +Trimmer got out a new cigar, lit up, and began to smoke as before. + +"I was goin' to pass him some of mine," he confessed. "Yours will suit +me just as good." + +"Five hundred ought to help him some," said the gambler. "Come out to +the bar." + + +At dark the lumberman left the camp on foot, heading for the mountains. +Bostwick departed in the borrowed car at eight. The whole town was +ablaze with light, and tumultuous with sound. Glare and disturbance +together, however, only faintly symbolized the excitement and fever in +the camp. A thousand men were making final preparations for the rush +so soon to come--the mad stampede upon the reservation ground, barely +more than a day removed. + +Miners with outfits, gamblers with their paraphernalia, saloon men with +case on case of liquors, assayers, lawyers, teamsters, cooks--even a +half dozen women--comprised the heterogeneous army making ready for the +charge. The streets were filled with horses, men, and mules. The +saloons were jammed to suffocation. Musical discord filled the air. +Only the land, the silent old hills, the ancient, burned-out furnace of +gold, was absolutely calm. Overhead a few clouds blurred the sky. +Beyond them the eternal march of the stars proceeded in the majesty of +space, with billions of years in which to fulfil the cosmic cycle of +existence. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +THE HARDSHIPS OF THE TRAIL + +In the night, far out to the northward, a storm descended like a +cataclysm. Torrential rains were poured upon the hills from a +cloudburst exceptionally savage. Only the scattered outposts, as it +were, of the storm were blown as far as Goldite. A sprinkle of rain +that dried at once was the most those mountains received. + +Van made an early start from the "Laughing Water" claim, to deliver +Beth's letter in Starlight. Her note to himself he read once more as +his pony jogged down the descent. + + +"Dear Mr. Van: I wonder if I dare to ask a favor--from one who has done +so much already? My brother, in Starlight, is ill. He has hurt +himself, I do not know how badly. A letter I sent has never been +received, and I am worried. The effort I made to see him--well--at +least, I'm glad I made the effort. But meantime, what of poor Glen? +Some little fear I have may be groundless. I shall therefore keep it +to myself--but I have it, perhaps because I am a woman. I must know +the truth about my brother--how he is--what has been happening. It is +far more important than I dare confess. I have written him a letter +and sent it to you in the hope you may not find it impossible to carry +it to Glen in person. If I am asking too much, please do not hesitate +to say so. I am sure you will be friendly enough for that--to say 'no' +if need be to another friend--_your_ friend, BETH KENT." + + +She did not regret that desert experience--that was almost enough for +him to know! He had lived in a glow since that wonderful night--and +this letter provided another. He rode like a proud young crusader of +old, with his head in a region of sunshine and gold, his vision +transfixed by a face. Her love had become his holy grail--and for that +he would ride to death itself. + +His way he shortened, or thought to shorten, by dropping down from the +reservation heights to the new-made town a mile below. He came upon +the place abruptly, after dipping once into a canyon, and looked with +amazement on the place. In the past twelve hours it had doubled in +size and increased twenty-fold in its fever. The face of the desert +was literally alive with men and animals. Half of Goldite and +practically all of a dozen lesser camps were there. Confusion, +discomfort, and distraction seemed hopelessly enthroned. The "rush" +was written in men's faces, in their actions, in their baggage, words, +and rising temperature. + +A dozen stalwart stampeders pounced upon Van like wolves. They wanted +to know what he thought of the reservation, where to go, whether or not +there was any more ground like that of the "Laughing Water" claim, what +he had heard from his Indian friends, and what he would take for his +placer. The crowd about him rapidly increased. Men in a time of +excitement such as this flock as madly as sheep whenever one may lead. +Anything is news--any man is of interest who has in his pocket a piece +of rock, or has in his eye a wink. No man is willing to be left +outside. He must know all there is to be known. + +It was utterly useless for Van to protest his ignorance of the +reservation ground. He owned a deposit of placer gold. Success had +crowned his efforts. It was something to get in touch with success, +rub shoulders with a man who had the gold. + +His friends were there in the red-faced mob. They said they were his +friends, and they doubtless knew. Some were, indeed, old acquaintances +whom Van would gladly have assisted towards a needed change of fortune. +He was powerless, not only to aid these men, but also to escape. +Despite his utmost endeavors they held him there an hour, and to make +up the time, he chose the hottest, roughest trail through the range, +when at last he was clear of the town. + +The climb he made on his pony to slice a few miles from his route was +over a mountain and through a gulch that was known as The Devil's +Slide. It was gravel that moved underfoot with never-failing +treachery, gravel made hot by the rays of the sun, and flinging up a +scorching heat while it crawled and blistered underfoot. On midsummer +days men had perished here, driven mad by the dancing of the air and +the dread of the movement where they trod. The last two miles of this +desolate slope Van walked and led his broncho. + +He entered "Solid Canyon" finally, and mounting once more let Suvy pick +the way between great boulders, where gray rattlesnakes abounded in +exceptional numbers. These were the hardships of the ride, all there +were that Van felt worth the counting. He had reckoned without that +far-off storm, which had raged in the darkness of the night. + +He came to the river, the ford between the banks where he and Beth had +found a shallow stream. For a moment he stared at it speechlessly. A +great, swiftly-moving flood was there, tawny, roiled with the mud torn +down and dissolved in the water's violence, and foaming still from a +plunge it had taken above. + +It was ten to twenty feet deep. This Van realized as he sat there on +his sweating horse, measuring up the banks. The depth had encroached +upon the slope whereon he was wont to ascend the further side. There +was one place only where he felt assured a landing might be achieved. + +"Well, Suvy," he said to the animal presently, "it looks more like a +swim than a waltz quadrille, and neither of us built web-footed." + +Without further ado he placed Beth's letter in his hat, then rode his +pony down the bank and into the angry-looking water. Suvy halted a +moment uncertainly, then, like his master, determined to proceed. + +Five feet out he was swimming, headed instinctively up the stream and +buried deep under the surface. Van still remained in the saddle. He +was more than waist under, loosely clinging to his seat and giving the +pony the reins. + +Suvy was powerful, he swam doggedly, but the current was tremendous in +its sheer liquid mass and momentum. Van slipped off and swam by the +broncho's side. Together the two breasted the surge of the tide, and +now made more rapid progress. It required tremendous effort to forge +ahead and not be swept headlong to a choppy stretch of rapids, just +below. + +"Up stream, boy, up stream," said Van, as if to a comrade, for he had +noted the one likely place to land, and Suvy was drifting too far +downward. + +They came in close to the bank, as Van had feared, below the one fair +landing. Despite his utmost efforts, to which the pony willingly +responded, they could not regain what had been lost. The broncho made +a fine but futile attempt to gain a footing and scramble up the almost +perpendicular wall of rock and earth by which he was confronted. Time +after time he circled completely in the surge, to no avail. He may +have become either confused or discouraged, Whichever it was, he +turned about, during a moment when Van released the reins, and swam +sturdily back whence he come. + +Van, in the utmost patience, turned and followed. Suvy awaited his +advent on the shore. + +"Try to keep a little further up, boy, if you can," said the man, and +he mounted and rode as before against the current. + +The broncho was eager to obey directions, eager to do the bidding of +the man he strangely loved. All of the first hard struggle was +repeated--and the current caught them as before. Again, as formerly, +Van slipped off and swam by his pony's side. He could not hold his +shoulder against the animal, and guide him thus up the stream, but was +trailed out lengthwise and flung about in utter helplessness, forming a +drag against which the pony's most desperate efforts could not prevail. + +They came to the bank precisely as they had before, and once again, +perhaps more persistently, Suvy made wild, eager efforts to scramble +out where escape was impossible. Again and again he circled, pawed the +bank, and turned his eyes appealingly to Van, as if for help or +suggestions. + +At last he acknowledged defeat, or lost comprehension of the struggle. +He swam as on the former trial to the bank on the homeward side. + +There was nothing for Van but to follow as before. When he came out, +dripping and panting, by the animal, whose sides were fairly heaving as +he labored for breath, he was still all cheer and encouragement. + +"Suvy," said he, "a failure is a chap who couldn't make a fire in hell. +We've got to cross this river if we have to burn it up." + +He took the broncho's velvety nose in his hands and gave him a rough +little shake. Then he patted him smartly on the neck. + +"For a pocket-size river," he said as he looked at the flood, "this is +certainly the infant prodigy. Well, let's try it again." + +Had the plunge been straight to sudden death that broncho would have +risked it unswervingly at the urging of his master. Suvy was somewhat +exhausted by the trials already made, in vain. But into the turgid +down-sweep he headed with a newly conjured vigor. + +Van now waited merely for the pony to get started on his way, when he +lifted away from the saddle, with the water's aid, and clung snugly up +to the stirrup. He swam with one hand only. To keep himself afloat +and offer no resistance to the broncho was the most that he could do, +and the best. + +The struggle was tremendous. Suvy had headed more obliquely than +before against the current, and having encountered a greater +resistance, with his strength somewhat sapped, was toiling like an +engine. + +Inch by inch, foot by foot, he forged his way against the liquid wall +that split upon him. Van felt a great final quiver of muscular energy +shake the living dynamic by his side, as Suvy poured all his fine young +might into one supreme effort at the end. Then he came to the landing, +got all his feet upon the slope, and up they heaved in triumph! + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +THE CLOUDS OF TROUBLE GATHER + +By the route beyond the river that Van was obliged to choose, the +distance from his claim to Starlight was more than forty miles. His +pony had no shoes, and having never been ridden far, was a trifle soft +for a trip involving difficulties such as this mountain work abundantly +afforded. When they came to Phonolite Pass, the last of the cut-offs +on the trail, Van rode no more than a hundred yards into its shadows +before he feared he must turn. + +Phonolite is broken shale, a thin, sharp rock that gives forth a +pleasant, metallic sound when struck, like shattered crockery. For a +mile this deposit lay along the trail across the width of the pass. +For the bare-footed pony there was cruelty in every step. The barrier +of rock was far more formidable than the river in its flood. + +Van was not to be halted in his object. He had a letter to deliver; he +meant to take it through, though doom itself should yawn across his +path. The hour was late; the sun was rapidly sinking. Van pulled up +his broncho and debated. + +Absolute silence reigned in the world of mountains. But if the place +seemed desolate, it likewise seemed secure. Nevertheless, death lurked +in the trail ahead. Barger was there. He was lying in the rocks, +concealed where the chasm was narrow. He had ridden four hours--on the +mare Beth had lost--to arrive ahead of Van Buren. The muzzle of a long +black revolver that he held in hand rested upon a shattered boulder. +His narrow eyes lay level with a rift in the group of rocks that hid +him completely from view. Van was in sight, and the convict's breath +came quickly as he waited. + +Van dismounted from his pony's back and picked up one of his hoofs. + +"Worn down pretty flat," he told the animal. "Perhaps if I walk we can +make it." He started on foot up the tinkling way, watching the broncho +with solicitude. + +Suvy followed obediently, but the pointed rocks played havoc with his +feet. He lurched, in attempting to right his foot on one that turned, +and the long lassoo, secured to the saddle, flopped out, fell back, and +made him jump. Van halted as before. The convict was barely fifty +yards away. His pistol was leveled, but he waited for a deadlier aim, +a shorter shot. + +"Nope! We'll have to climb the hill," Van decided reluctantly. +"You're a friend of mine, Suvy, and even if you weren't, you'd have to +last to get back." He turned his back on death, unwittingly, to spare +the horse he loved. + +Delayed no less than an hour by this enforced retreat, he patiently led +the broncho back to the opening of the pass, and, still on foot, led +the steep way up over the mountain. + +Barger rose up and cursed himself for not having risked a shot. He +dared not attempt a dash upon his man; he could not know where Van +might again be intercepted; he was helpless, baffled, enraged. Half +starved, keenly alive only in his instinct to accomplish his revenge, +the creature was more like a hunted, retaliating animal than like a +man. He had sworn to even the score with Van Buren; he was not to be +deflected from his course. But to get his man here was no longer +possible. The horse Beth had lost, now in the convict's possession, +was all but famished for water, not to mention food. There was nothing +to choose but retreat towards the river, to the northward, where the +mountains might yet afford an ambush as Van was returning home. + +Far away in the mountains, at the "Laughing Water" claim, while the sun +was setting on a scene of labors, all but concluded for the day, the +group of surveyors, with Lawrence in charge, appeared along the +southern ridge. + +Gettysburg, Napoleon, and Dave were still in the water by the sluices. +They were grimed, soiled with perspiration, wearied by the long, hard +day of toil. Shovel in hand old Gettysburg discovered the men with an +instrument who trekked along the outside edge of the claim. Chain-man, +rod-man, and Lawrence with his shining theodolite, set on its three +slender legs, they were silhouetted sharply against the evening sky. +Their movements and their presence here were beyond the partners' +comprehension. It was Gettysburg who climbed up the slope, and +anchored himself in their path. + +"What you doin'?" he said to the rod-man presently, when that tired +individual approached and continued on his way. + +"What does it look like--playing checkers?" said the man. "Can't the +Government do nuthin'--run no county line ner nuthin' without everybody +sittin' up to notice?" + +No less than fifty men they had met that day had questioned what the +Government was doing. The "county line" suggestion had been the only +hint vouchsafed--and that had sufficed to allay the keenest suspicion. + +"That all?" said Gettysburg, and, watching as he went, he slowly +returned to his partners. His explanation was ample. The surveyors +proceeded on. + +Meantime, in absolute ignorance of all that was happening on his +property, Van continued towards Starlight unmolested. An hour after +sundown he rode to the camp, inquired his way to the rough-board shack, +where Kent was lying ill, and was met at the door by a stranger, whom +Glen had employed as cook and "general nurse." + +Bostwick was there. He remained unseen. His instructions were +imperative--and the "nurse" had no choice but to obey. + +"Of course, Kent's here," he admitted, in response to Van's first +question. "He can't see no one, neither--no matter who it is." + +"I've brought a letter from his sister," Van explained. "He's got to +have it, and have it now. If he wishes to send any answer back, I'm +here to take it." + +The "nurse" looked him over. + +"The orders from the doctor is no visitors!" he said. "And that goes. +If you want to leave the letter, why you kin." + +Van produced the letter. + +"If the man's as ill as that, I have no desire to butt in for an +interview," he said. "Oblige me by ascertaining at your earliest +convenience whether or not I may be of service to Mr. Kent in returning +his reply." + +The man looked bewildered. He received the letter, somewhat dubiously, +and disappeared. Van waited. The reception was not precisely what he +might have expected, but, for the matter of that, neither had the trip +been altogether what he might have chosen. + +It was fully twenty minutes before the nurse reappeared. + +"He was just woke up enough to say thank you and wants to know if +you'll oblige him with the favor of takin' his hand-write back to his +sister in the mornin'?" + +Van looked him over steadily. After all, the man within might be +utterly sick and weak. His request was natural. And the service was +for Beth. + +"Certainly," he said. "I'll be here at seven in the morning." + +Starlight was nearly deserted. Gratified to discover sufficient food +and bedding for himself and his pony, Van made no complaint. + +At six in the morning he was rousing up the blacksmith, fortunately not +yet gone to join the reservation rush. Suvy was shod, and at seven +o'clock he and Van were again at Glenmore's cabin. + +His man was in waiting. In his hand he held an envelope, unsealed. + +"Mr. Kent's asleep, but here's his hand-write to his sister," he said. +"He wants you to read it out before you hike." + +Van received the envelope, glanced at the man inquiringly, and removed +a single sheet of paper. It was not a note from Glen; it appeared to +be the final page of Beth's own letter to her brother. Van knew the +strong, large chirography. His eye ran swiftly over all the lines. + + +"--so I felt I ought to know about things, and let you know of what is +going on. There is more that I cannot tell you. I wrote you much in +my former letter--much, I mean, about the man who will carry this +letter, so unsuspiciously--the man I shall yet repay if it lies within +my power. For the things he has done--and for what he is--for what he +represents--this is the man I hate more than anything or anyone else in +the world. You would understand me if you knew it all--all! Let him +carry some word from you to Your loving sister, BETH." + + +Van had read and comprehended the full significance of the lines before +he realized some error had been made--that this piece of Beth's letter +had been placed by mistake in the envelope for him to take, instead of +the letter Glen had written. + +He did not know and could not know that Bostwick, within, by the sick +man's side, had kept Glen stupid and hazy with drugs, that the one word +"hate" had been "love" on the sheet he held in his hand till altered by +the man from New York, or that something far different from an utterly +despicable treachery towards himself had been planned in Beth's warm, +happy heart. + +The thing, in its enormity, struck him a blow that made him reel, for a +moment, till he could grasp at his self-control. He had made no sign, +and he made none now as he folded the sheet in its creases. + +"I'm afraid you made some mistake," he said. "This is not the note +from Mr. Kent. Perhaps you will bring me the other." + +"What?" said the man, unaware of the fact that Bostwick had purposely +arranged this scheme for putting the altered sheet in Van Buren's hands. + +"What's that?" He glanced at the sheet in genuine surprise. +"Keerect," he said. "I'll go and git you the letter." + +Van mounted his horse. His face had taken on a chiseled appearance, as +if it had been cut in stone. He had ridden here through desert heat +and flood, for this--to fetch such a letter as this, to a man he had +never seen nor cared to see, and whose answer he had promised to return. + +He made no effort to understand it--why she should send him when the +regular mail would have answered every purpose. The vague, dark hints +contained in her letter--hints at things going on--things she could not +tell--held little to arouse his interest. A stabbed man would have +taken more interest in the name of the maker of the weapon, stamped on +the dagger's blade, than did Van in the detail of affairs between +Glenmore Kent and his sister. Beth had done this thing, and he had +fondly believed her love was welded to his own. She had meant it, +then, when she cried in her passion that she hated him for what he had +done. Her anger that night upon the hill by Mrs. Dick's had not been +jealousy of Queenie, but rage against himself. She was doubtless in +love with Bostwick after all--and would share this joke with her lover. + +He shrugged his shoulders. Luck had never been his friend. By what +right had he recently begun to expect her smile? And why had he +continued, for years, to believe in man or in Fate? All the madness of +joy he had felt for days, concerning Beth and the "Laughing Water" +claim, departed as if through a sieve. He cared for nothing, the +claim, the world, or his life. As for Beth--what was the use of +wishing to understand? + +The "nurse" came out at the door again, this time with a note which +Bostwick had written, with a few suggestions from Glen, in an unsealed +cover as before. + +"I told young Kent you didn't take no time to read the other," he said, +holding up the epistle. "If you want to read this----" + +"Thank you," Van interrupted, taking the letter and thrusting it at +once in his pocket. "Thank Mr. Kent for his courtesies, in my behalf." +He turned and rode away. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +THE TAKING OF THE CLAIM + +Before six o'clock that morning, while Van was arousing the blacksmith, +the reservation madness broke its bounds. Twenty-five hundred +gold-blinded men made the rush for coveted grounds. + +The night had been one long revel of drinking, gambling, and +excitement. No one had slept in the reservation town--for no one had +dared. Bawling, singing, and shouting, the jollier element had shamed +the coyotes from the land. Half a thousand camp fires had flared all +night upon the plain. The desert had developed an oasis of flowing +liquors, glaring lights, and turmoil of life, lust, and laughter. Good +nature and bitter antagonism, often hand in hand, had watched the night +hours pale. + +By daylight the "dead line" of the reservation boundary--the old, +accepted line that all had acknowledged--resembled a thin, dark battle +formation, ready for the charge. It was a heterogeneous array, where +every unit, instead of being one of an army mobilized against a common +foe, was the enemy of all the others, lined up beside him. There were +men on foot, men on horses, mules, and burros, men in wagons, +buckboards, and buggies, and men in automobiles. + +At half-past five the pressure of greed became too great to bear. A +few unruly stragglers, far down the line, no longer to be held in +check, bent portions of the long formation inward as they started out +across the land. The human stampede began almost upon the instant. +Keepers on their horses, riding up and down, were swept away like chips +before a flood. Scattering wildly over hill and plain, through +gulches, swales, and canyons, the mad troop entered on the unknown +field, racing as if for their lives. + +Gettysburg, Napoleon, and Dave had watched for an hour the human hedge +below the "Laughing Water" claim. They, too, had been up since +daylight, intent upon seeing the fun. They had eaten their breakfast +at half-past four. At a quarter of six they returned, to their shack +and began at their daily work. + +The cold mountain stream, diverted to the sluices, went purling down +over the riffles. The drip from countless negligible leaks commenced +in its monotony. Into the puddles of mud and water the three old +miners sloshed, with shovels and picks in hand. They were tired before +their work began. Gettysburg, at sixty-five, had been tired for +twenty-five years. Nevertheless, he began his day with song, his +cheery, + + + Rinktum bolly kimo. + + +They were only fairly limbered up when four active men appeared +abruptly on the property, at the corners of the claim, and began the +work of putting up white location posts, after knocking others down. +They were agents employed by McCoppet, in behalf of Bostwick and +himself. + +Napoleon was the first to note their presence. He was calling +attention to the nearest man when a fifth man appeared by the cabin. +He, too, had a new location post, or stake, to be planted at the center +of the claim. He was not only armed as to weapons, but protruding from +his pocket was a wad of "legal" documents, more to be feared than his +gun. + +He came straight towards Gettysburg, walking briskly. + +"Morning," he said. "I've come to notify you men to get off of this +here claim. This ground belongs to me and my partners, by right of +prior location--made right now." + +He thrust his stake a little into the yielding sand and had posted a +notice, made out in due form, before the wet old workers by the sluice +could conclude that the man had lost his wits. + +"What you givin' us, anyway?" said Gettysburg, remaining ankle-deep in +the mud. "Don't you know this here is the 'Laughin' Water' claim, +which was located proper----" + +"This claim on the reservation," interrupted McCoppet's agent. "The +line was run out yesterday, according to Government instructions, and +the line takes in this ground." He continued at his work. + +Napoleon got stirred up then and there. + +"You're a liar!" he cried out recklessly, "--metaphorical speakin'. +Belay there, my hearty. You and your dog-gone pirate craft----" + +McCoppet himself, on horseback, came riding down the slope. + +"That's enough from you!" interrupted the gambler's agent. "You and +your crowd is liable for trespass, or Government prosecution, getting +on the reservation land ahead of date. This ground belongs to me and +my company, understand, with everything on it--and all the gold you've +took out! And all you take away is your personal effects--and you take +'em and git, right now!" + +"Now hold on," said Gettysburg, dazed by what he heard. "I seen that +Government surveyor cuss. He said he was only running out a county +line." + +McCoppet took the case in hand, as he halted by the boxes. + +"Now, boys, don't waste your time in argument," he said. "You've made +a mistake, that's all. Take my advice and hike to the reservation now, +before the gang stakes everything in sight. You can't go up against +the law, and you've done too much illegal work already." + +"Illegal?" cried Napoleon. "You're a liar, Opal. Ain't mad, are you? +I've drunk at your saloon, and you know this claim belongs to Van and +us!" + +"Don't I say you've made a mistake?" repeated the gambler. "I don't +hold any feelings about it. Nobody was on for a sure thing about the +reservation line till Lawrence run it out. We had suspicions, from a +study of the maps, but it took the Government surveyor to make the +matter certain. It's a cinch you're on the reservation land. You can +copper all your rights, and play to win the bet this claim belongs to +me--and everything else that's any good. Now don't stop to talk. Go +to Lawrence for Government facts--and git a-going pronto." + +Gettysburg was pulling down his sleeves. Old age had suddenly claimed +him for its own. The song had dried from his heart, and the light of +his wonderful youth and hope departed from his eye. Dave was too +stunned to think. All three felt the weight of conviction sink them in +the chilling mire. The survey of the day before made doubt impossible. + +Gettysburg looked at the boxes, the pits they had dug, the water +running over the riffles, behind which lay the gold. + +"I wish Van was to home," he said. "He'd know." + +Their helplessness without the absent Van was complete. In the game of +life they were just old boys who would never become mature. + +"Van Buren couldn't do no good," McCoppet assured them. "This ain't a +matter of wrangling or fighting; it's a matter of law. If the law +ain't with us you'll get the property back. Van Buren would tell you +the same. He didn't know the ground was reservation. We give him the +benefit of that. But all the gold you've got on the place you'll have +to leave with me. You never had no rights on the Government preserves, +and I'm here ahead of all the bunch in staking it out at six o'clock, +the legal opening hour." + +Napoleon started to speak again, but glanced at Gettysburg instead. A +bluff was useless, especially with Gettysburg looking so utterly +defeated. From his tall, old partner, Napoleon looked at Dave. + +"Can't we tack somewhere?" he said. "Couldn't we hold the wheel and +wait fer Van?" + +Gettysburg repeated: "I wish Van was to home." + +"Come on, come on," McCoppet urged, beginning to lose his patience. +"If you think you've got any rights, go to Lawrence and see. You're +trespassing here. I don't want to tell you harsh to pack your duds and +hunt another game, but you can't stay here no longer." + +Gettysburg hesitated, then slowly came out of the water. He looked at +the sluices hazily. + +"Just gittin' her to pay," he said. "The only easy minin' I ever done." + +Napoleon, suddenly dispirited--utterly dispirited--had nothing more to +say. Slowly and in broken order the three old cronies wended towards +the cabin. Less than an hour later, with all their meager treasure in +worldly goods roped to the last of Dave's horses, they quitted the +claim, taking Algy, the Chinese cook, along. They were homeless +wanderers with no place in all the world to turn. Without Van they +were utterly lost. They expected him to come that day to the cove. +Therefore, on a desert spot, not far from the new reservation line, +taking possession of a bit of hill so poor that no one had staked it, +they made their camp in the sand and rocks, to await Van's pleasure in +returning. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +THE MEETINGS OF TWO STRONG MEN + +Matt Barger, riding in the night, intent upon nothing save the chance +to deal out his vengeance to Van Buren, had camped beside the river, at +the turn where Van and Beth had skirted the bank to the regular fording +below. The convict's horse, which Beth had lost, was tethered where +the water-way had encouraged a meager growth of grass. Barger himself +had eaten a snake and returned to a narrow defile in the range, where +his ambush could be made. + +To insure himself against all misadventure he rolled a mass of boulders +down the hill, to block the trail. His barrier was crude but +efficient. Neither man nor horse could have scaled it readily, and the +slopes on either side were not only well-nigh perpendicular, they were +also built of crumbling stone that broke beneath the smallest weight. +He labored doggedly, persistently, despite his half-starved condition, +and when he had finished he looked to his gun, proceeded down the trail +some fifty yards or more, climbed the slope, and there in the rocks, +where the walls gave way to a sandy acclivity, concealed himself to +wait. + +The sun at noon found Van a mark for punishment. The day was the +hottest of the season. The earth and rocks irradiated heat that danced +in the air before him. All the world was vibrant, the atmosphere a +shimmer, as if in very mockery of the thoughts that similarly rose and +gyrated in his brain. His horse was suffering for water. The river +was still an hour away, so steep was the climb through the range. + +The trail he would gladly have avoided, had such a course been +practical. He had ridden here with Beth, and therefore the mockery was +all the more intense. His inward heat and the outward heat combined to +make him savage. There was nothing, however, on which to vent his +feelings. Suvy he loved. Perhaps, he reflected, the horse was his one +faithful friend. Certainly the broncho toiled most willingly across +the zone of lifelessness to bear him on his way. + +Up through the narrowing walls of sand and adamant they slowly +ascended. Barger saw them once, far down the trail, then lost them +again as they rounded a spur of the shimmering hillside, coming nearer +where he lay. He was up the slope a considerable distance--farther +than he meant to risk a shot. His breath came hard as he presently +beheld Van Buren fairly entering the trap. + +Van's head had fallen forward on his breast. He looked at nothing. +His face was set and hard. Barger raised his pistol, sighted down the +barrel--and repressed the impulse to fire as the horseman came onward, +unsuspiciously. + +No sooner was Van around the turn, where in less than a minute he would +find his progress blocked, than Barger arose and ran with all his might +down the slope. + +He let out a yell of exultation as he came to the trail. Van turned in +his saddle instantly, beholding the man in the pass. He knew that +sinister form. + +His pony had bounded forward, frightened by the cry. Down went Van's +hand to his own revolver, and the gun came up cocked for action. + +One glance he cast up the trail ahead--and saw through Barger's trick. +The _cul de sac_ was perfect, and the convict had halted to fire. + +It made a singular picture on Van Buren's retina--that gaunt, savage +being, hairy, wild of eye, instinct with hatred and malice, posing +awkwardly, and the sun-lit barrel of polished steel, just before its +yawning muzzle belched lead and a cloud and a roaring detonation. + +The bullet went wide, and Barger fired again, quickly, but more +steadily. That one landed. It got Van just along the arm, burning in +a long, shallow wound that barely brought the blood. + +Van's gun was down, despite Suvy's panic of cavortings. He pulled the +trigger. The hammer leaped two ways, up and back--but the gun made no +report, no buck, no cloud to answer Barger's. The cartridges, +subjected to all that water of the day before, were worthless. + +The third of Barger's shots was fired from a closer range, as the eager +creature closed in upon his enemy. It let the daylight enter Van's +hat, near the top. + +Van had snapped every shell in his weapon, with amazing rapidity--to no +avail. The cylinder had flung around like a wheel, but the sounds were +those of a toy. + +Barger was steadied in his tracks for better marksmanship. He had +heard that succession of metallic snaps; he knew he had Van Buren at +his mercy. Three of his shots remained unfired, and a second, unused +pistol in his belt, with more ammunition. The fellow even smiled as he +was aiming. + +There was one thing to do--and Van did it. He leaped his broncho clean +against the wall, then spurred him straight for Barger. The shot that +split the air again was splattered on the rocks. Before the convict +could make ready to avoid the charge, Suvy was almost upon him. He +partially fell and partially leaped a little from the broncho's path, +but was struck as the pony bounded by. + +He yelled, for his leg was trampled and hurt by the pressure of Suvy's +shoe, nevertheless he scrambled to his feet at once, and fired wildly +at his man. + +He emptied his gun, drew the other, and ran, too eager for his deed of +revenge to halt and take a steady aim. A bullet punctured the +broncho's ear, and the blood flew back upon Van. + +They were past the walls in the briefest time, and Van attacked the +slope. Barger came after, yelling in rage. He tripped, and his hurt +leg dropped him down. + +Already wearied, and famished for drink, Suvy nevertheless rose to the +needs of the moment with a strength incredible. He scaled that sandy, +treacherous slope like an engine built for the purpose. It was love, +pure love for the master on his back, that steeled the mighty sinews in +his body. + +Two shots and two bullets from below proclaimed renewed activities +where Barger was once more on his feet. But the man had lost too much +ground to recover his advantage. He knew that Van Buren, with a horse +like that, could win the high ridge and escape. + +He raged; he cursed himself and his God, for this second failure of his +deed. Then once again he abruptly thought of a chance whereby to +redeem his galling failures. His man on the horse would be more than +an hour in reaching the river by the slopes. A man on foot could beat +him there, and beat him across to the farther side, from which to +attack with surer aim--from the cover of the willows by the ford. The +flood had subsided. This Barger knew. The water was hardly knee high +on a man, and better than all, Van Buren would scarcely dream of such a +plan as within the range of possibilities. + +Laboriously, in a fever of impatience, Barger made shift, after +strenuous work, to climb his barrier of rock. Then up to the summit of +the trail he sped, and down on the farther side. + +Meantime Van, disgusted with himself for riding away from a fight, +could only revile his useless gun and excuse himself a trifle because +of his defenselessness. The skirmish had served to arouse him, +however, and for that he was thankful to the convict who had waited in +the pass. + +Then he wondered how it came at all that Matt should have thus been +lying there in wait. The fellow must have been informed, to prepare so +elaborate a trap. It hardly seemed as if a plot against his life could +explain this trip that Beth had desired him to take. He could scarcely +credit a thing so utterly despicable, so murderous, to her, yet for +what earthly reasons had she sent him on the trip with a letter the +stage could have carried? + +The thing was preposterous! No woman on earth could have sanctioned an +alliance with Barger. But--what of Bostwick--the man who had spent a +portion of his time with the liberated convicts? A revenge like this +would appeal to him, would seem to him singularly appropriate. Beth +could have lent her assistance to the plan without guilty knowledge of +an outcome such as this, and Bostwick--Beth knew that Barger was Van's +enemy. He had told her so himself. Facts were facts. Her letter to +Glen revealed her state of mind--and here was this attack, a planned +attack, proving conclusively that Barger had been prepared beforehand +with knowledge of the trip. + +From having been depressed before, Van was made thoroughly angry. The +whole thing was infamous, dastardly--and Beth could not be acquitted. +Strangely enough, against the convict, Barger, the horseman felt no +wrath. Barger had a grievance, howsoever mistaken, that was adequate. +He was following his bent consistently. He had made his threat in the +open; he must plan out his work according to his wits. He was simply a +hunted beast, who turned upon his hunters. + +It was Bostwick on whom Van concentrated a rising heat--and he promised +the man would find things warm in camp, and the fight only well under +way. + +Even when the summit was achieved, the broncho slacked off nothing of +his pace. Sweat glistened wetly upon him. His bleeding ear was going +backward and forward tremulously, as he listened for any word from Van, +and for anything suspicious before them. Van noted a certain +wistfulness in the pony's demeanor. + +"Take it easy, boy," he urged in a voice of affection that the broncho +understood. "Take it easy." He dismounted to lead the animal down the +slope, since a steep descent is far more trying on a ridden horse than +climbing up the grade. He halted to pat the pony on the neck, and give +his nose a rough caress, then on they went, the shadow they cast the +only shade upon the burning hill. + +It was fully an hour after leaving the pass, where Barger had piled in +the rock, before the horseman and his broncho dropped again in the +trail that led onward to the river. Van was again in the saddle. +Alert for possible surprises, but assured that his man could find no +adequate cover hereabouts, he emerged from behind the last of the turns +all eagerness to give his horse a drink. + +A yell broke suddenly, terribly, on the desert stillness. It came from +Barger, out in the river, on the bar--strangely anchored where he stood. + +Van saw him instantly, saw a human fantastic, struggling, writhing, +twisting with maniacal might, the while the horrible quicksand held him +by the legs, and swallowed him, inch by inch. + +"Fer Christ's sake--help!" the creature shrilled in his plight. He had +flung away revolvers, cartridges, even his coat, reducing his weight +when the stuff only gripped him by the ankles. He was half to his +thighs. He was sinking to his waist, and with all of his furious +efforts, the frightful sand was shuddering, as if in animal +ecstacy--some abominable ecstacy of hunger, voracious from long denial, +as it sucked him further down. + +"Fer Christ's sake, Van Buren--fer Christ's sake, man! I'm a human +being," shrieked the victim of the sand. "_I'm a human being_, man!" + +Van had not hesitated by so much as a moment as to what he meant to do. +He was off his horse in a leap. He paused for a second to looked about +for any accidental means of assistance the place might afford. It +afforded none. The man in the quicksand continued to yell, to struggle +hopelessly, to sink in that shivering pool of life-engulfing stuff. + +Then the horseman thought of his rope, the raw-hide lasso, always +secured upon his saddle. He snatched at the knots to tear it loose. + +"Don't move--don't struggle!" he shouted at the man, and down toward +the edge he came running, the rope-noose running out as he sped. + +He dared not step beyond the bank, and so involve himself. Barger was +well out from the edge. The throw at best was long and difficult. + +"Hold up your hands, above your head!" he called. "Don't thrash +around!" + +The convict obeyed. His haggard, bearded face was turned to Van like a +mask of horror. The eyes were blazing fearfully. The fellow's +attitude, as he held his hands above his head, and continued to sink, +was a terrible pose of supplication--an awful eloquence of prayer. + +Van threw--and the cast fell short. + +Barger groaned. He had ceased to yell. He remained mutely holding up +his hands, while the cold abyss crept upward to his waist--the wet lips +swallowing, swallowing in silence. + +Van jerked in the rope with one impatient gesture. He coiled it +swiftly, but with nicety. Then round and round he swung the gaping +loop--and threw with all his strength. + +For a second the loop hung snake-like in the air, above the convict's +head. Then it fell about him, splashed the curdled sand, and was +pulled up taut, embracing Barger's waist. + +"Hoist it up under your arms!" called Van. "Try to move your legs when +I pull!" + +He wasted no time in attempting to haul the convict out himself. He +led his pony quickly to the edge, took two half hitches of the rope +about the pommel of the saddle, then shouted once more to his man. + +"Ready, Barger. Try to kick your feet." To the horse he said: "Now, +Suvy, a strong, steady pull." And taking the pony's bit in hand he +urged him slowly forward, + +It was wonderful, the comprehension in the broncho's mind. But the +pull was an awful thing. The rope came taut--and began to be strained, +and Suvy was sweating as he labored. Out on the end of it, bitten by +the loop, that slipped ever tighter about him, the human figure was +bent over sharply, between the two contending forces. + +He let out one yell, for the pain about his chest--then made no further +sound. The rawhide rope was like a fiddle-string. It seemed absurd +that an anchor so small, so limber, in the sand, could hold so hard +against the horse. Van urged a greater strain. He knew that the rope +would hold. He did not know how much the man could bear before +something awful might occur. There was nothing else to do. + +It seemed a time interminable. No one made a sound. The queer, +distorted figure out in the stream could have uttered no sound to save +his life. The silence was beginning to be hideous. + +Then an inch of the rope came landward, as the broncho strained upon +it. The anchor had started from its hold. + +"Now! now!" said Van, and with quick, skillful urging he caught at the +slight advantage. + +Like an old, half-buried pile, reluctant to budge from its bed in sand +and ooze, the human form was slowly dragged from the place. No corpse, +rudely snatched from its grave, could have been more helplessly +inert--more stretched out of all living semblance to a man. + +[Illustration: No corpse snatched from its grave could have been more +helplessly inert.] + +Across the firmer sand, and through a lagoon of water, Barger was +hurriedly drawn. The pony was halted when the man was at the bank, and +back to the convict Van went running, to loosen the bite of the noose. + +Barger lay prostrate on the earth, his eyes dully blinking in the sun. +His feet were bare. They had slipped from his boots, which were buried +beyond in the sand. His face had taken on a hue of death. From hair +to his ankles he was shockingly emaciated--a gaunt, wasted figure, +motionless as clay. + +Van fetched a pint of water in his hat. He sprinkled it roughly in the +convict's face, and, propping up his head, helped him to take a drink. + +Barger could not lift a hand, or utter a word. Van recoiled the rope, +secured it on the saddle, then sat down to await the man's recovery. +It was slow. Barger's speech was the first returning function. It was +faint, and weak, and blasphemous. + +"It's hell," he said, "when God Almighty turns agin a man. Ain't the +sheriff's enough--_without a thing like that_?" His thumb made a +gesture towards the river, which he cursed abominably--cursing it for a +trap, a seeming benefit, here in the desert, ready to eat a man alive. + +Van made no reply. He rather felt the man was justified--at least in +some opinions. Towards Barger he felt no anger, but rather a pity +instead. + +After a time the convict moved sufficiently to prop himself up against +the bank. He looked at Van dully. This was the man who had "sent him +up"--and saved him from the sand. There was much that lay between +them, much that must always lie. He had no issues to dodge. There was +nothing cowardly in Barger, despite his ways. + +"I nearly got you, up yonder," he said, and he jerked his thumb towards +the mountains, to indicate the pass where he and Van had met an hour +before. + +Van nodded. "You sure did. Who told you to look for me here?" + +Barger closed his eyes. "Nothing doing." He could not have been +forced to tell. + +Van smiled. "That's all right." There was no resentment in the tone. + +Barger looked at him curiously. + +"What for did you pull me out?" + +"Don't know," Van confessed. "Perhaps I hated to have the quicksand +cheat the pen." + +"Must have had some good reason," agreed the prostrate man. He was +silent for a moment, and then he added: "I s'pose I'm your meat." + +As before, Van nodded: "I reckon you are." + +Barger spat. It was his first vigorous indication of returning +strength. + +"Someways," he said, "I'd rather you'd shoot me here, right now, than +send me back to the pen. But I couldn't stand fer that!" He made his +characteristic gesture towards the river. As Van made no comment the +fellow concluded: "I s'pose you need the reward." + +Van was aware there was ten thousand dollars as a price on the +convict's head, a fact which he someway resented. To-day, more than at +any time within his life, he felt out of sympathy with law--with man's +law, made against man. + +He began to pull off his boots. + +"No," he said, "I don't want any State's reward, much less express +company money. Maybe if it wasn't for those rewards I'd take you into +camp." He inverted his boots and shook out a few grains of sand. + +Barger glanced at him suspiciously. + +"What are you goin' to do with me, then, now you've got me to rights?" + +"Nothing," said Van, "nothing this afternoon." He stood up. "You and +I break even, Barger, understand? Don't take me wrong. I'm not +turning you loose entirely. You belong to me. Whenever I call for the +joker, Matt, I want you to come." + +He would never call, and he knew it. He merely left the matter thus to +establish a species of ownership that Barger must acknowledge. There +is law of the State, and law of God, and law of man to man. The latter +it was that concerned Van Buren now, and upon it he was acting. + +Laboriously, weakly, Barger arose to his feet. He looked at Van +peculiarly, with a strange light dully firing in his eyes. + +"I agree to that," he answered slowly. "I agree to that." + +He put out his hand to shake--to bind his agreement. It was almost +like offering his oath. + +Van took it, and gave it his usual grip. + +"So long, Barger," he said. "I reckon you need these boots." + +He waved his hand loosely at the boots that lay upon the ground, went +at once to his horse, and mounted to his seat. + +"The regular ford of this river's down below," he added to the +speechless convict, standing there gaunt and wondering upon the marge. +"So long." + +Barger said nothing. Van rode away on the trail by the stream, and was +presently gone, around the bend. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +VAN RUNS AMUCK + +Instead of turning northward in the mountain range and riding on to the +"Laughing Water" claim, Van continued straight ahead to Goldite. The +letter to Beth was heavy in his pocket. Until he should rid himself of +its burden he knew he should have no peace--no freedom to act for +himself. + +He had been delayed. The sun was setting when at last he rode his +broncho to the hay-yard in the camp, and saw that he was fed with +proper care. Then he got some boots and walked to Mrs. Dick's. + +Beth, from her window, looking towards the sun, discovered him coming +to the place. She had never in her life felt so wildly joyous at +beholding any being of the earth. She had watched for hours, counting +his steps across the desert's desolation one by one, tracing his course +from Starlight "home" by all the signs along the trail which she and he +had traveled together. + +She ran downstairs like a child. She had momentarily forgotten even +Glen. Nothing counted but this sight of Van--his presence here with +herself. When she suddenly burst from the door into all the golden +glory of the sunset, herself as glorious with color, warmth, and youth +as the great day-orb in the west, Van felt his heart give one +tumultuous heave in his breast, despite the resentment he harbored. + +There had never been a moment when her smile had been so radiant, when +the brown of her eyes had been so softly lighted and glowing, when her +cheeks had so mirrored her beauty. + +How superb she was, he said to himself--how splendid was her acting! +He could almost forgive himself for having played the fool. His +helplessness, his defenselessness had been warranted. But--her smile +could befuddle him no more. He took off his hat, with a certain cold +elegance of grace. His face still wore that chiseled appearance of +stone-like hardness. + +"Oh!" she cried, in her irrepressible happiness of heart. "You're +home! You're safe! I'm glad!" + +It was nothing, her cry that he was safe. She had worried only for the +desert's customary perils, but this he could not know. He thought she +referred to a possible meeting with Barger. He was almost swept from +his balance by her look, for a bright bit of moisture had sprung in her +eyes and her smile took on a tenderness that all but conquered him anew. + +"I delivered your letter in Starlight," he said. "I return your +brother's reply." + +He had taken the letter from his pocket. He held it forth. + +She took it. If memories of Glen started rushingly upon her, they were +halted by something she felt in the air, something in the cold, set +speech of the man she loved as never she had thought to love a creature +of the earth. She made no reply, but stood looking peculiarly upon +him, a question written plainly in her glance. + +"If there is nothing more," he added, "permit me to wish you good-day." +He swept off his hat as he had before, turned promptly on his heel, and +departed the scene forthwith. + +She tried to cry out, to ask him what it meant, but the thing had come +like a blow. It had not been what he had said, so much as the manner +of its saying--not so much what she had heard as what her heart had +felt. A deluge of ice water, suddenly thrown upon her, could scarcely +have chilled or shocked her more than the coldness that had bristled +from his being. + +Wholly at a loss to understand, she leaned in sudden weakness against +the frame of the door, and watched him disappearing. Her smile was +gone. In its place a dumb, white look of pain and bewilderment had +frozen on her face. Had not that something, akin to anger, which her +nature had felt to be emanating from him remained so potently to +oppress her, she could almost have thought the thing a joke--some +freakish mood of playfulness after all the other moods he had shown. +But no such thought was possible. The glitter in his eyes had been +unmistakable. Then, what could it mean? + +She almost cried, as she stood there and saw him vanish. She had +counted so much upon this moment. She had prayed for his coming safely +back from the desert. She had so utterly unbound the fetters from her +love. Confession of it all had been ready in her heart, her eyes, and +on her lips. Reaction smote her a dulling blow. Her whole impulsive +nature crept back upon itself, abashed--like something discarded, flung +at her feet ingloriously. + +"Oh--Van!" she finally cried, in a weak, hurt utterance, and back along +the darkening hall she went, her hand with Glen's crushed letter +pressed hard upon her breast. + +Van, for his part, far more torn than he could have believed possible, +proceeded down the street in such a daze as a drunken man might +experience, emerging from liquor's false delights to life's cold, +merciless facts. The camp was more emptied than he had ever known it +since first it was discovered. Only a handful of the reservation +stragglers had returned. The darkness would pour them in by hundreds. + +Half way down the thoroughfare Van paused to remember what it was his +body wanted. It was food. He started again, and was passing the bank +when someone called from within. + +"Hello, there--Van!" came the cry. "Hello! Come in!" + +Van obeyed mechanically. The cashier, Rickart, it was who had shouted +the summons--a little, gray-eyed, thin-faced man, with a very long +moustache. + +"How are you, Rick?" said the horseman familiarly. "What's going on?" + +"Haven't _you_ heard?--_you_?" interrogated Rickart. "I thought it was +funny you were loafing along so leisurely. Didn't you know to-day was +the day for the rush?" + +"I did," said Van. "What about it?" + +"Not much," his friend replied, "except your claim has been jumped by +McCoppet and one J. Searle Bostwick, who got on to the fact that the +reservation line included all your ground." + +Van looked his incredulity. + +"What's the joke?" he said. "I bite. What's the answer?" + +"Joke?" the cashier echoed. "Joke? They had the line surveyed +through, yesterday, and Lawrence confirmed their tip. Your claim, I +tell you, was on reservation ground, and McCoppet had his crowd on deck +at six o'clock this morning. They staked it out, according to law, as +the first men on the job after the Government threw it open--and there +they are." + +Van leaned against the counter carelessly, and looked at his friend +unmoved. + +"Who told you the story?" he inquired. "Who brought it into camp?" + +"Why a dozen men--all mad to think they never got on," said Rickart, +not without heat. "It's an outrage, Van! You might have fought them +off if you'd been on deck, and made the location yourself! Where have +you been?" + +Van smiled. The neatness of the whole arrangement began to be +presented to his mind. + +"Oh, I was out of the way all right," he said. "My friends took care +of that." + +"I thought there was something in the wind, all along," imparted the +little cashier. "Bostwick and McCoppet have been thicker than thieves +for a week. But the money they needed wasn't Bostwick's. I wired to +New York to get his standing--and he's got about as much as a pin. But +the girl stood in, you bet! She's got enough--and dug up thirty +thousand bucks to handle the crowd's expenses." + +Van straightened up slowly. + +"The girl?" + +"Miss Kent--engaged to Bostwick--you ought to know," replied the man +behind the counter. "She's put up the dough and I guess she's in the +game, for she turned it all over like a man." + +Van laughed, suddenly, almost terribly. + +"Oh, hell, Rick, come out and git a drink!" he said. "Here," as he +noted a bottle in the desk, "give me some of that!" + +Rickart gave him the bottle and a glass. He poured a stiff amber +draught and raised it on high, a wild, fevered look in his eyes. + +"Here's to the gods of law and order!" he said. "Here's to faith, +hope, and charity. Here's to friendship, honor, and loyalty. Here's +to the gallant little minority that love their neighbors as themselves. +Give me perfidy or give me death! Hurray for treason, strategy, and +spoils!" + +He drank the liquid fire at one reckless gulp, and laughing again, in +ghastly humor, lurched suddenly out at the open door and across to the +nearest saloon. + +Rickart, in sudden apprehension for the "boy" he genuinely loved, +called out to him shrilly, but in vain. Then he scurried to the +telephone, rang up the office of the sheriff, and presently had a +deputy on the wire. + +"Say, friend," he called, "if Bostwick or McCoppet should return to +camp to-night, warn them to keep off the street. Van Buren's in, and I +don't want the boy to mix himself in trouble." + +"All right," came the answer, "I'm on." + +In less than an hour the town was "on." Men returning by the scores +and dozens, nineteen out of every twenty exhausted, angered with +disappointment, and clamorous for refreshments, filled the streets, +saloons, and eating houses, all of them talking of the "Laughing Water" +claim, and all of them ready to sympathize with Van--especially at his +expense. + +His night was a mixture of wildness, outflamings of satire on the +virtues, witty defiance of the fates, and recklessness of everything +save reference to women. Not a word escaped his lips whereby his +keenest, most delighted listener could have probed to the heart of his +mood. To the loss of his claim was attributed all his pyrotechnics, +and no one, unless it was Rickart, was aware of the old proverbial +"woman in the case," who had planted the sting that stung. + +Rickart, like a worried animal, following the footsteps of his master, +sought vainly all night to head Van off and quiet him down in bed. At +two in the morning, at McCoppet's gambling hall, where Van perhaps +expected to encounter the jumpers of his claim, the little cashier +succeeded at last in commanding Van's attention. Van had a glass of +stuff in his hand--stuff too strong to be scathed by all the pure food +enactments in the world. + +"Look here, boy," said Rickart, clutching the horseman's wrist in his +hand, "do you know that Gettysburg, and Nap, and Dave are camping on +the desert, waiting for you to come home?" + +Van looked at him steadily. He was far from being dizzied in his +brain. Since the blow received at the hands of Beth had not sufficed +to make him utterly witless, then nothing drinkable could overcome his +reason. + +"_Home_?" he said. "Waiting for me to come _home_." + +Suddenly wrenching his hand from Rickart's grip he hurled the glass of +liquor with all his might against the mirror of the bar. The crash +rose high above the din of human voices. A radiating star was abruptly +created in the firmament of glass, and Van was starting for the door. + +The barkeeper scarcely turned his head. He was serving half a dozen +men, and he said: "Gents, what's your poison?" + +A crowd of half-intoxicated revelers started for Van and attempted to +haul him back. He flung them off like a lot of pestiferous puppies, +and cleared the door. + +He went straight to the hay-yard, saddled his horse, and headed up over +the mountains. He had eaten no dinner; he wanted none. The fresh, +clean air began its work of restoration. + +It was daylight when he reached the camp his partners had made on the +desert. Napoleon and Gettysburg were drunk. Discouraged by his long +delay, homeless, and utterly disheartened, they had readily succumbed +to the conveniently bottled sympathy of friends. + +No sooner had the horseman alighted at the camp than Napoleon flung +himself upon him. He was weeping. + +"What did I sh-sh-sh-sh-(whistle) shay?" he interrogated brokenly, +"home from a foreign--quoth the r-r-r-r-r-(whistle) raven--NEVER MORE!" + +Gettysburg waxed apologetic, as he held his glass eye in his hand. + +"Didn't mean to git in thish condition, Van--didn't go to do it," he +imparted confidentially. "Serpent that lurks in the glash." + +Van resumed his paternal role with a meed of ready forgiveness. + +"Let him who hath an untainted breath cast the first bottle," he said. +Even old Dave, thought sober, was disqualified, and Algy was asleep. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +THE PRIMITIVE LAW + +Bostwick and McCoppet had made ample provision against attack at the +claim. Their miners, who set to work at once to enlarge the facilities +for extracting the gold from the ground, were gun-fighters first and +toilers afterward. The place was guarded night and day, visitors being +ordered off with a strictness exceptionally rigid. + +Van and his partners were down and out. They had saved almost nothing +of the gold extracted from the sand, since the bulk of their treasure +had fallen, by "right of law" into the hands of the jumpers. + +Bostwick avoided Van as he would a plague. There was never a day or +night that fear did not possess him, when he thought of a possible +encounter; yet Van had planned no deed of violence and could not have +told what the results would be should he and Bostwick meet. + +In his customary way of vigor, the horseman had begun a semi-legal +inquiry the first day succeeding the rush. He interviewed Lawrence, +the Government representative, since Culver's removal from the scene. +Lawrence was prepared for the visit. He expressed his regrets at the +flight Van's fortunes had taken. Bostwick had come, he said, with +authority from Washington, ordering the new survey. No expectation had +been entertained, he was sure, that the old, "somewhat imaginary" and +"decidedly vague" reservation line would be disturbed, or that any +notable properties would be involved. Naturally, after the line was +run, establishing the inclusion of the "Laughing Water" claim, and much +other ground, in the reservation tract, Mr. Bostwick had been justified +in summary action. It was the law of human kind to reach for all +coveted things. + +Van listened in patience to the exposition of the case. He studied the +maps and data as he might have studied the laws of Confucius written in +their native tongue. The thing looked convincing. It was not at all +incredible or unique. It bore Government sanction, if not its +trademark. And granting that the reservation tract did actually extend +so far as to lap across the "Laughing Water" claim, the right of an +entrant to locate the ground and oust all previous trespassers after +the legal opening was undeniable. + +Much of the natural fighting spirit, welded by nature into Van's being, +had been sickened into inactivity by the blow succeeding blow received +at the hands of Beth Kent. The case against her was complete. + +Her letter to her brother was sufficient in itself. The need for its +delivery in person to her brother he thought undoubtedly a ruse to get +himself out of the way. If she had not planned with the others to warn +the convict, Barger, of his trip, she had certainly loaned her money to +Bostwick for his needs--and her letter contained the threat, "I will +repay!" + +At the end of three days of dulling disgust and helplessness, Van and +his "family" were camping in a tent above the town of Goldite, on a +hill. They were all but penniless: they had no occupation, no hope. +They were down once more at the ladder's bottom rung, depleted in +spirit, less young than formerly, and with no idea of which way to turn. + +Van meant to fight, if the slightest excuse could be discovered. His +partners would back him, with their lives. But he and they, as they +looked their prospects fairly in the face, found themselves utterly +disarmed. Except for the credit, extended by friends of Van, +starvation might have lurked about their tent. All delayed seeking for +outside work while the prospect of putting up a fight to regain their +property held forth a dim glimmer of hope. + +The last of Van's money went to meet a debt--such a debt as he would +not disregard. The account was rendered by a cutter of stone, who had +carved upon a marble post the single legend: + + QUEENIE. + +This post was planted where a small earth mound was raised upon the +hill--and word of the tribute went the rounds of the camp, where +everyone else had forgotten. + +The town's excitement concerning the rush had subsided with greater +alacrity as reports came back, in rapid procession--no gold on the +reservation. The normal excitements of the mining field resumed where +the men had left them off. News that Matt Barger was not only still at +large, but preying on wayside travelers, aroused new demands for the +sheriff's demonstrations of his fitness to survive. The fact was +recalled that Cayuse, the half-breed murderer of Culver, was as yet +unreported from the hills. + +The sheriff, who had ridden day and night, in quest of either of the +"wanted" men, came back to Goldite from a week's excursion, packed full +of hardships, vigilance, and work, to renew his force and make another +attempt. He offered a job to Van. + +"There's ten thousand dollars in Barger," he said. "And I guess you +could use the money. There's nothing but glory in gittin' Cayuse, but +I'll give you your pick of the pair." + +That some half-formed notion of procuring a secret survey of the +reservation line, in his own behalf, had occupied Van's thoughts +somewhat insistently, was quite to be expected. That the work would +prove expensive was a matter of course. Money was the one particular +thing of which he stood in need. Nevertheless, at the sheriff's +suggestion he calmly shook his head. + +"Thanks, old man. Blood-money wouldn't circulate worth a whoop in my +system. But I think I could land Cayuse." He held no grudge against +Culver now. Perhaps he regretted the fuss he had made on the day of +Culver's death. "I'll take ten dollars a day," he added, "and see what +I can do about the Indian." + +"I knew it! I knew you'd do more than all the gang--myself in the +count," the sheriff exclaimed in profound relief. "I'm beat! I own +it! I ain't seen a trace of that black-headed devil since I started. +If you'll fetch him in----" + +"Don't promise more than ten dollars a day," Van interrupted. "If you +do you can get him yourself. I haven't said I'll fetch him in. I +merely said perhaps I could get him." + +"All right," said the sheriff, bewildered. "All right. I don't care +what happens, if you git him." + +Glad, perhaps, to escape the town--to flee from the air that Beth was +breathing, Van rode off that afternoon. + +He did not seek the Indian murderer, nor for traces of his place of +concealment. He went due west, to the nearest Indian camp, on the now +diminished reservation. He called upon a wise and grave Piute, as old +as some of the hills. + +"Captain Sides," he said, when the due formalities of greeting had been +gratified, "I want you to get Cayuse. He stabbed a white man, Culver, +Government man--and you Piutes know all about it. Indians know where +an Indian hides. This man has broken the law. He's got to pay. I +want your men to get him." + +Old Captain Sides was standing before his house. He was tall and +dignified. + +"Yesh--he's broke the law," he agreed. "Mebbe my boys, they's get him." + +[Illustration: "Yesh--he's broke the law."] + +That was all, but a strange thing happened. On the following night +four grim Piutes brought Cayuse from his mountain retreat. They were +all his kinsmen, uncles, brothers, and cousins. He was taken to a +council in the brush, a family council with Captain Sides as Chieftain, +Magistrate, and father of the tribe. And a solemn procedure followed. +Cayuse was formally charged with infraction of the law and asked for +his defense. He had no defense--nothing but justification. He +admitted the killing, and told of why it had been done. He had taken +an eye for an eye. + +"I have broken the white man's law," he said. "The white man first +broke mine. I'm ready to pay. The Indian stands no show to get away. +I broke the law, and I am glad. They want my life. That's all right. +That's the law. But I don't want the white man to hang me. That ain't +good Indian way. My people can satisfy this law. They can shoot me +like a man. No white is going to hang Cayuse, and that's all I've got +to say." + +To an Anglo Saxon mind this attitude is not to be readily comprehended. +To the Indian members of Cayuse's clan it addressed itself as wisdom, +logic, and right. The council agreed to his demands. The case, +historical, but perhaps not unique, has never been widely known. + +As solemnly as doom itself, the council proceeded with its task. Some +manner of balloting was adopted, and immediate members of the Cayuse +totem drew lots as to which must perform the lawful deed. It fell to a +brother of the prisoner--a half-brother only, to be accurate, since the +doomed man's father had been white. + +Together Cayuse and this kinsman departed from the camp, walking forth +through the darkness in the brush. They chatted in all pleasantness, +upon the way. Cayuse could have broken and run. He never for a moment +so much as entertained the thought. + +They came to a place appropriate, and, still in all friendliness, +backed by a sense of justice and of doom, the guiltless brother shot +the half-breed dead--and the chapter, with the Indians, was concluded. + +Van was gone three days from Goldite camp. He returned and reported +all that had been done. He had seen the executed man. An even thirty +dollars he accepted for his time, and with it bought food for his +partners. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII + +BETH MAKES DEMANDS + +Beth Kent, while the camp was writing its feverish annals, had +undergone emotions in the whole varied order of the gamut. She had +felt herself utterly deserted and utterly unhappy. She had hoped +against hope that Van would come, that something might explain away his +behavior, that she herself might have an opportunity of ascertaining +what had occurred. + +One clew only was vouchsafed her puzzling mind: Searle had actually +gone to Glen at last, had been there at the hour of Van's arrival, and +had written Glen's letter to herself. Some encounter between the men +had doubtless transpired, she thought, and Van had been poisoned +against her. What else could it mean, his coldness, his abrupt +departure, after all that had been, and his stubborn silence since? + +The letter from Glen had been wholly unsatisfactory. Bostwick had +written it, he said, at Glen's dictation. It echoed the phrases that +Searle himself had employed so persistently, many of them grossly +mendacious, as Beth was sufficiently aware. Her effort had been +futile, after all. She was not at all certain as to Glen's condition; +she was wholly in the dark in all directions. + +On the day succeeding the reservation rush she received the news at +Mrs. Dick's, not only that Van had lost his claim, and that McCoppet +and Searle were its latest owners, but also that Van had run amuck that +night after leaving herself. + +Some vague, half-terrifying intuition that Searle was engaged in a +lawless, retaliatory enterprise crept athwart her mind and rendered her +intensely uneasy. Her own considerable sum of money might even be +involved in--she could not fathom what. Something that lay behind it +all must doubtless explain Van's extraordinary change. It was +maddening; she felt there must be _something_ she could do--there +_must_ be something! She was not content to wait in utter helplessness +for anything more to happen--anything more that served to wreck human +happiness, if not very life itself! + +She felt, moreover, she had a right to know what it was affecting Van. +He had come unbidden into her life. He had swept her away with his +riotous love. He had taught her new, almost frightening joys of +existence. He had drawn upon her very soul--kissing into being a +nature demanding love for love. He had taken her all for himself, +despite her real resistance. She could not cease to love so quickly as +he. She had rights, acquired in surrender--at least the right to know +what evil thing had wrought its way upon him. + +But fret as she might, and burn as she might, with impatience, +love-created anger and resentment of some infamy, doubtless practiced +on them both, there was nothing in the world she could do. + +She wrote again to Glen and had the letter posted in the mail. She +asked for information. Was he better? Could he come to Goldite soon? +Had he met Mr. Van? Had he understood that confession in her letter? +Had he really purchased a mine, with Searle, or had he, by some strange +mischance, concerned himself with the others in taking the "Laughing +Water" claim? + +She explained that she was wholly in the dark, that worry was her only +companion. She begged him to come, if traveling were possible, and +told of her effort to see him. + +That Bostwick had opened and read her letter to Glen, suppressing that +final page, together with sundry questions and references to himself, +she could never have dreamed. It is ignorance always that baffles, as +we grope our way in the world. And Beth had not yet entirely lost all +trust in Bostwick himself. + +Searle, in the meantime, having gone straight to the "Laughing Water" +claim from Glenmore Kent, had remained three days away from Goldite and +had taken no time to write. When he came at last the girl's suspicions +were thoroughly aroused. That the man was a dangerous trickster, a +liar, and perhaps a scoundrel she was rapidly becoming convinced. + +He arrived at the house in the late afternoon while Mrs. Dick and Beth +were engaged together in the dining-room, sewing at a quilt. The +meeting was therefore a quiet one and Beth escaped any lover-like +demonstrations he might otherwise have made. + +Mrs. Dick, in her frank dislike of Bostwick, finally carried her work +upstairs. + +"Well, well, sweetheart!" Bostwick exclaimed. "You must have heard the +news, of course. I expect your congratulations!" + +He rose and approached her eagerly. She was standing. She moved a +chair and placed herself behind it. + +"I suppose you mean the claim you've--taken," she said. "You're elated +over that?" + +"Good Lord! aren't you?" he answered. "It's the biggest thing I've +ever done! It's worth a million, maybe more--that 'Laughing Water' +claim! And to think that Van Buren, the romantic fool, putting marble +slabs on the graves of the _demi-monde_, and riding about like a big +tin toreador, should have bought a property on reservation ground, and +lost it, gold and all!" + +His relish in the triumph was fairly unctuous. His jaw seemed to +oscillate in oil as he mouthed his contempt of the horseman. + +Beth flamed with resentment. Her love for Van increased despite her +judgment, despite her wish, as she heard him thus assailed. She knew +he had placed a stone on Queenie's grave. She admired the fearless +friendliness of the action--the token whereby he had linked the +unfortunate girl in death to the human family from which she had +severed herself in life. + +Not to be goaded to indiscretion now she sat down as before with her +work. + +"And the money--yours and mine--did it go to assist in this unexpected +enterprise, and not to buy a claim with Glen?" + +"Certainly. No--no--not all of it--certainly not," he stammered, +caught for a moment off his guard. "Some of my funds I used, of +course, in necessary ways. Don't you worry about your thirty thousand. +You'll get it back a hundredfold, from your interest in the claim." + +She glanced up suddenly, startled by what he had said. + +"_My_ interest in the claim?" + +"Certainly, your interest. You didn't suppose I'd freeze you out, my +little woman--my little wife--to be? You are one of the company, of +course. You'll be a director later on--and we'll clean up a fortune in +a year!" + +She was exceedingly pale. What wonder Van had a grievance! He had +doubtless heard it all before he came that night to deliver Glen's +letter from Starlight. He might even have thought she had sent him to +Glen to got him away from his claim. + +A thousand thoughts, that seemed to scorch like fire, went rocketing +through her brain. The thing was too much to be understood at once--it +went too deep--it involved such possibilities. She must try to hold +herself in check--try to be clever with this man. + +"Oh," she said, dropping her eyes to her work, "and Glen is in it too?" + +Bostwick was nervous. He sat down. + +"Well, yes--to some extent--a little slice of mine," he faltered. +"Naturally he has less than I've given to you." + +"But--didn't he discover the opportunity--the chance?" + +"Certainly not!" he declared vehemently. "It's all my +doing--everything! Wholly my idea from the start!" The impulse to +boast, to vaunt his cleverness, was not to be resisted. "I told Van +Buren the game had only begun! He thought himself so clever!" + +She clung to her point. + +"But--of course you told me Glen had found the chance, requiring sixty +thousand dollars." + +"That was a different proposition--nothing to do with this. I've +dropped that game entirely. This is big enough for us all!" + +She looked the picture of unsophisticated innocence, sewing at a gaudy +square of cloth. + +"Did this affair also require the expenditure of sixty thousand +dollars?" + +"No, of course not. Didn't I say so before?" + +"How much did it need--if I may ask?" + +Bostwick colored. He could not escape. He dared not even hint at the +sum he had employed. + +"Oh, just the bare expenses of the survey--nothing much." + +"Then," she said, "if you don't mind returning my thirty thousand +dollars, I think I'll relinquish my share." + +He rose hurriedly. + +"But I--but you--it won't be possible--just yet," he stammered. "This +is perfectly absurd! I want you in--want you to retain your interest. +There are certain development expenses--and--they can't be handled +without considerable money." + +"Why not use your own? I much prefer to withdraw." She said it +calmly, and looked him in the eye. + +He avoided her glance, and paced up and down the room. + +"It can't be done!" he said. "I've pledged my support--our support--to +get the claim on its feet." + +She grew calmer and colder. + +"Wasn't the claim already on its feet. I heard it was paying +well--that quite a lot of gold was seized when--when you and the others +took the place." + +His impatience and uneasiness increased. + +"Oh, it was being worked--in a pickyune, primitive fashion. We're +going at it right!" + +The color came and went in her face. She felt that the man had +employed her money, and could not repay it if he would. She pushed the +point. + +"Of course, you'll remember I gave you the money to assist my brother +Glen. It was not to help secure or develop this other property. I +much prefer not to invest my money this way. I shall have to request +its return." + +Bostwick was white. + +"Look here, Beth, is this some maudlin sentiment over that brigand, Van +Buren? Is that what you mean?" + +She rose once more and confronted him angrily. It was not a mere girl, +but a strong and resolute woman he was facing. + +"Mr. Bostwick," she said, "you haven't yet acquired the right to demand +such a thing as that of me. For reasons of my own, maudlin or +otherwise, I refuse to have my funds employed in the manner you say you +mean to use them. I insist upon the immediate return to me of thirty +thousand dollars." + +If rage at Van Buren consumed his blood, Bostwick's fear was a greater +emotion. Before him he could plainly discern the abject failure of his +plans--the plan to marry this beautiful girl, the plan to go on with +McCoppet and snatch a fortune from the earth. It was not a time for +defiance. He must fence. He must yield as far as possible--till the +claim should make him independent. Of the tirade on his tongue against +Van Buren he dared not utter a word. His own affairs of love would +serve no better. + +He summoned a smile to his ghastly lips and attempted to assume a calm +demeanor. + +"Very well," he said. "If that is the way you feel about your money, I +will pay you back at once." + +"If you please," she said. "To-day." + +"But--the bank isn't open after three," he said in a species of panic. +"You can't be utterly unreasonable." + +"It was open much later when we were wiring New York some time ago," +she reminded him coldly. "I think you'll find it open to-night till +nine." + +"Well--perhaps I can arrange it, then," he said in desperation. "I'll +get down there now and see what I can do." + +He took his hat and, glad to escape a further inquisition, made +remarkable haste from the house. + +Trembling with excitement, quivering on the verge of half-discovered +things, flashes of intuition, fragments of deduction, Beth waited an +hour for developments. + +Searle did not return. She had felt he would not. She was certain her +money was gone. + +At dusk a messenger boy arrived with the briefest note, in Bostwick's +familiar hand. + +"Sudden, urgent call to the claim. No time for business. Back as soon +as possible. With love and faith, yours, SEARLE." + +How she loathed his miserable lie! + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX + +ALGY'S COOKING AND BETH'S DESPAIR + +Van and the new supply of provender arrived together at the tent where +the partners made their temporary home. It was nearly dusk, the mellow +end of a balmy day. Gettysburg, Napoleon, and Dave were all inside the +canvas, filling the small hollow cube of air with a mighty reek from +their pipes, and playing seven-up on a greasy box. The Chinese cook +was away, much to Van's surprise. + +"Gett," he said, throwing off his belt and revolver, "if Nap was to +deal the cards on your tombstone, on the day of Gabriel's trump, I'll +bet you'd break the crust and take a hand. What have you done with +Algy?" + +"He's went to git a job," said Gettysburg. "He called us all a lot of +babies. I doggone near kicked him in the lung." + +Outside, where a wagon had halted with Van's new purchases, the driver +hauled out two respectable boxes and dropped them on the earth. + +"What's that?" demanded Napoleon, leaping to his feet. "If it's +pirates come to board us again----" + +"Don't scare it away," Van interrupted warningly. "It's grub." + +With one accord the three old cronies started for the door of the tent. +Van followed, prepared to get a dinner under way, since his system was +woefully empty. + +To the utter astonishment of all, a visitor was bustling up the hill. +It was Mrs. Dick. + +"Where's Van?" she panted, while still a rod away. "Here, Van!" she +exclaimed, the moment she clapped her eyes upon him, "you're just the +one I want to see, and I'm an awful busy woman, but I've got to make a +deal with you and the sooner it's over the better. So as long as +Charlie Sing is cookin' our victuals already I just run up to fight it +out, and we might as well begin the program tonight, so all you boys +come down to dinner in just about half an hour." + +The men were all at sea, even Napoleon, who had once sailed a +near-briny river. + +"Sit down," said Van, "and give the grounds a chance to settle. We can +almost see daylight through what you said, but who, for instance, is +Charlie Sing?" + +"As if you didn't know!" Mrs. Dick responded warmly. "If you think I'm +goin' to call that Chinaman Algy, or anything white, you're way off +your ca-base! Algy! for a Chinaman! Not but what he's a good enough +cook, and I like him as a friend of yours--and him almost makin' me cry +with his tryin' to nurse you four old helpless galoots, but I draw the +line at fancy names, and don't you forget it!" + +The "four old galoots" looked at one another in bewilderment. Van led +Mrs. Dick gently but firmly to a box of provisions and pushed her down +upon it. + +"Now take a breath," he said, "and listen. Do we understand you to say +that Algy has gone to your boarding-house and taken a job as cook?" + +"He has," said Mrs. Dick, "but I've named him Charlie." + +"That'll turn his stomick," ventured Gettysburg gravely. "He was proud +of 'Algy.'" + +"He certainly must be desperate," added Van. "I don't quite savvy how +it happened." + +"Oh, you don't?" said little Mrs. Dick. "Well, I _do_. He come down +there and says to me, says he, 'We're broke, Van and us,' he says, 'and +I'll go to work and cook for you if you'll board all the family,' or +words to that effect, says he, 'and give Van twenty dollars a month, +salary,' he says, and I says I'll do it, quicker than scat. And that's +all there is to say, and if Charlie wasn't a Chinaman I'd kiss him in +the bargain!" With a quick, impatient gesture she made a daub at her +eye and flecked away a jewel. + +Van hauled at his collar, which was loose enough around his neck. + +"Say, boys," he said, "think of Algy, being kissed in the bargain. I +always thought he got his face at a bargain counter." + +"That's all right, Bronson Van Buren!" answered Mrs. Dick indignantly, +"but I never come that near to kissin' you!" + +Van suddenly swooped down upon her, picked her up bodily, and kissed +her on the cheek. Then he placed her again on the box. + +"Why didn't you say what you wanted, earlier?" he said. "Now, don't +talk back. I want you to harken intently. I'm perfectly willing that +Algy should waste his sweetness on the desert air of your +boarding-house, if it pleases you and him. I'm willing these old +ring-tailed galoots should continue to eat his fascinating poisons, and +I certainly hope he'll draw his monthly wage, but I'm going to be too +busy to board in any one place, and Algy's salary would make a load I +must certainly decline to carry." + +Mrs. Dick looked at the horseman in utter disappointment. + +"You won't come? Maybe you mean my house ain't good enough?" + +Napoleon was somewhat excited by prospects of again beholding Elsa, of +whose absence he was wholly unaware. + +"We won't go, neither!" he declared. "Doggone you, Van, you know we +won't go without the skipper, and you're shovin' us right out of +heaven!" + +Gettysburg added: "I don't want to say nuthin', but my stomach will +sure be the seat of anarchy if it has to git cheated out of goin' down +to Mrs. Dick's." + +Van was about to reply to them all. He had paused to frame his answer +artfully, eager as he was to foster the comfort of his three old +partners, but wholly unwilling to accept from either Mrs. Dick or +Algernon the slightest hint of aid. + +"I admit that a man's reach should be above the other fellow's grasp, +and all that," he started, "but here's the point----" + +He was interrupted suddenly. A man, running breathlessly up the slope +and waving his hat in frantic gestures, began to shout as he came. + +"Mrs. Dick! Mrs. Dick!" he cried at the top of his voice. "Help! +help! You've got to come!" + +Mrs. Dick leaped quickly to her feet to face the oncoming man. It was +old Billy Stitts. He had come from Beth. + +"Come on! Come on!" he cried as he neared the group, towards which he +ceased to run, the better to catch his breath and yell. "There's hell +a-poppin' in the boarding-house! You've got to come!" + +He surged up the last remaining ascent at a lively stride. + +"What's the matter? What in the world are you drivin' at?" demanded +Mrs. Dick. "Hold your tongue long enough to tell me what's the matter." + +"It's the _chink_!" exploded Billy pantingly. "They tried to run him +off the place! He's locked the kitchen and gone to throwin' out hot +water and Chinese language like a fire-engine on a drunk. And now +they're all a-packin' up to quit the house, and you won't have a +doggone boarder left, fer they won't eat Chinese chuck!" + +"What?" said Van drawlingly, "refuse to eat Algy's confections?--a +crowd like that? By all the culinary gods of Worcestershire and +mustard, they'll eat out of Algy's hand." + +He dived inside the tent, caught up his gun, and was strapping it on +before Mrs. Dick could catch her breath to utter a word of her wrath. + +"Well," said Gettysburg dubiously, "I hate trouble on an empty stomach, +but----" + +"You stay in camp till you hear the dinner bell," Van interrupted. +"This game is mine and Mrs. Dick's. You'll get there in time for +dessert." + +He did not wait for Mrs. Dick. He started at a pace that none could +follow. Mrs. Dick began to run at his heels, calling instructions as +she went. + +"Be careful of the crock'ry, Van! The stove's bran'-new! I'd hate to +have you break the chairs! And don't forgit Miss Kent!" + +Old Billy Stitts had remained with the others at the camp. + +"Ain't she the female woman?" he said. "Ain't she just about it?" + +No one answered. The three old cronies were watching Van as he went. + +Van, for his part, heard nothing of what Mrs. Dick was saying, except +the name "Miss Kent." He had not forgotten for a moment that Beth was +at the seat of war, or that he would perhaps be wiser by far never to +behold her again. He was speeding there despite all he felt at what +she had done, for she might be involved in trouble at the house, +and--at least she was a woman. + +He arrived in the midst of a newly concerted plan on the part of +lodgers and strangers combined to smoke Algy out of the kitchen. They +had broken windows, overturned the furniture, and worked up a lively +humor. Algy had exhausted his supply of hot water, but not his supply +of language. It seemed as if the stream of Oriental invective being +poured through the walls of the building might have withered almost +anything extant. But Goldite whisky had failed on his besiegers +earlier and their vitals were proof against attack. + +Van arrived among them abruptly. + +"What's all this pillow-fight about?" he demanded in a voice that all +could hear. "Which one of you fellows is it that's forgotten he's a +man? Who's looking for trouble with my Chinese cook and Mrs. Dick?" + +He boded no good to any man sufficiently hardy to argue the matter to a +finish. The attackers lost heart as they faced about and found him +there ready for action. From a half-open window above the scene Beth +was watching all that was done. + +A spokesman for the lodgers found his voice. + +"Well, we ain't a-goin' to stay in no doggone house with a chink shoved +in fer a cook." + +Van nodded: "Have you ever tried Algy's cooking?" + +"No, we ain't! And we ain't a-goin' to, neither!" + +The others murmured their assent. + +"You're a fine discriminating cluster of bifurcated, viviparous +idiots," said Van in visibly disturbing scorn. "You fellows would have +to be grabbed by the scruff of the neck and kicked into Eden, I reckon, +even if the snake was killed and flung over the fence, and the fruit +offered up on silver platters. The man who hasn't eaten one of Algy's +dinners isn't fit to live. The man who refuses to eat one better begin +right now on his prayers." He took out his gun and waved it loosely +about, adding: "Which one of you remembers 'Now I lay me down to +sleep'?" + +There was no response. The ten or twelve disturbers of the peace were +stirring uneasily in their tracks. + +Van gave them a chance. + +"All who prefer to recite, 'Now I sit me up to eat,' please raise their +hands. Raise 'em up, raise 'em up!" he commanded with the gun. "Put +up both hands, while you're at it." + +Up went all the hands. Mrs. Dick arrived, and stood looking on and +panting in excitement. + +"Thanks for this unanimous vote," Van resumed. "I want to inform you +boarders in particular that if ever I hear of one of you missing a meal +of Algy's cooking, or playing hookey from this lodging-house, as long +as Mrs. Dick desires your inglorious company, I'll hand you forthwith +over to the pound-keeper with instructions not to waste his chloroform, +but to drown the whole litter in a bag." + +"Oh, well!" said the spokesman, "I'd just as soon eat the chink's +cookin', if it's good." + +"Me, too," said a follower, meek as a lamb. A number echoed "Me, too." +One added: "We was just having a little bit of fun." + +"Well," said Van judicially, "Algy's entitled to his share." He raised +his voice: "Hey there, Algy--come out here and play with the boys." + +Mrs. Dick had caught sufficient breath to explode. + +"Fun!" she said. "My windows broken! My house all upset. Snakes +alive, if ever I heard----" + +Algy appeared and interrupted. + +"What's mallah you, Van?" he said. "I got no time fool lound now. +Been play too much. All time play, that velly superstich! Nobody got +time to work." + +"That's all right," Van assured him. "The boys here wish to apologize +for wasting your valuable time. In fact, they insist. Now then, boys, +down on your knees, every Jack in the crowd." + +That gun of his had a horribly loose way of waving about to cover all +the men. They slumped to, rather than knelt on, their knees. + +"Suminagot!" said Algy. "All time too muchee monkey fooling! My +dinner not git leady, Van, you savvy that? What's mallah you?" + +Van ignored the cook, in addressing the men. + +"It's your earnest desire to apologize, boys, I believe," he said. +"All in favor will please say Aye." + +The men said Aye in growlings, rumblings, and pipings. + +Van addressed his cook. "Do you want them to kiss your hand?" + +"_Ah_! Unema! hong oy!" said Algy blasphemously. "You makee me velly +sick! Just wash my hands for finish my dinner. Too much +monkey-doodle!" and off he went to his work, followed at once by Mrs. +Dick. + +"Algy's too modest," Van assured the crowd. "And none of you chaps are +fit to apologize to Mrs. Dick, so you'd better go wash up for dinner. +But don't let me hear so much as a peep about Algy from one of this +bunch, or Eden will turn into Hades." As the men arose to their feet +sheepishly, and began to slink away he added to the spokesman, "You +there with the face for pie, go up to my camp and call the boys to +feed." + +The men disappeared. Van, left alone, was turning away when his glance +was attracted to the window, up above, where Beth was looking down. +His face turned red to the topmost rim of his ears. + +The girl was pale, but resolute. + +"May I see you a moment, please?" she said, "before the men come in?" + +"Certainly." Van went to the front and waited at the foot of the +stairs. + +When Beth came down he was standing in the doorway, looking off at the +shadowy hills. He heard her steps upon the stairs and turned, removing +his hat. + +For a moment Beth faced him silently, her color coming and going in +rapid alternations. She had never seemed more beautiful than now, in +her mood of worry and courage. + +"Thank you for waiting," she said to him faintly, her heart beating +wildly in her bosom, "I felt as if I had the right--felt it only +right--won't you please tell me what I have done?" + +It was not an easy matter for Van to hold his own, to check an impulse +utterly incontinent, utterly weak, that urged him fairly to the edge of +surrender. But his nature was one of intensity, and inasmuch as he had +loved intensely, he distrusted now with equal force. + +"What you have done?" he repeated. "I'm sure I can't tell you of +anything that you do not know yourself. What do you wish me to say?" + +"I don't know! I don't know," she told him honestly. "I thought if I +asked you--asked you like this--you'd tell me what is the matter." + +"There's nothing the matter." + +"But there is!" she said. "Why not be frank? I know that you're in +trouble. Perhaps you blame----" + +"I told you once that taking trouble and having trouble supply all the +fun I have," he interrupted. "The man without trouble became extinct +before he was born." + +"Oh, please don't jest," she begged him earnestly. "You and I were +friends--I'm sure we were friends--but now----" + +"Now, if we are not, do you think the fault is mine?" + +He, too, was white, for the struggle was great in his soul. + +"It isn't mine!" she said. "I want to say that! I had to say that. I +stopped you--just to say that." She blushed to say so much, but she +met his stern gaze fearlessly with courage in her eyes. + +He could not understand her in the least, unless she still had more to +do, and thought to hold his friendship, perhaps for Searle's +protection. He forced himself to probe in that direction. + +"And you'd wish to go on being friends?" + +It was a hard question--hard to ask and hard to answer. She colored +anew, but she did not flinch. Her love was too vast, too strong and +elemental to shrink at a crucial moment. + +"I valued your friendship--very much," she confessed steadily. "Why +shouldn't I wish it to continue?" + +It was aggravating to have her seem so honest, so splendid, so womanly +and fine, when he thought of that line in her letter. He could not +spare himself or her in the agitation of his nature. + +"Your way and mine are different," he said. "My arts in deceit were +neglected, I'm afraid." + +Her eyes blazed more widely than before. Her color went like sunset +tints from the sky, leaving her face an ashen hue of chill. + +"Deceit?" she repeated. "You mean that I--I have deceived you? What +do you mean?" + +He could bear no more of her apparent innocence. It was breaking his +resolution down. + +"Oh, we may as well be candid!" he exclaimed. "What's the use of +beating round the bush? I saw your letter--read your letter--by +mistake." + +"My letter?" + +"Your letter to your brother. Through some mistake I was given the +final page--a fragment merely--instead of your brother's reply to be +brought to you. I was asked to read it--which I did. Is that enough?" + +"My letter to---- The last----" At a sudden memory of that letter's +last page, with her heart's confession upon it, she burned a blinding +crimson. "You read----" she stammered, "--and now----" She could not +look him in the face. She leaned against the stair in sudden weakness. + +"After that," he said, "does my conduct occasion surprise?" + +What he meant, in the light of the letter as she had written it to +Glen, as she thought he must have read it, was beyond her +comprehension. She had fondly believed he loved her. He had told her +so in actions, words, and kisses. What terrible secret, deep hidden in +his breast, could possibly lie behind this thing was more than mind +could fathom. Or did he scorn and loathe her now for having succumbed +to his love? He had read her confession that she loved him more than +anything else in all the world. He knew the last faint word in her +heart--and flung her away like this! + +She cast one frightened, inquiring look at his face. It was set and +hard as stone. The light in his eyes was cold, an accusing glitter. +She felt herself utterly abashed, utterly shamed. Her heart had lain +naked before him, throbbing with its secret. His foot was upon it. +There was nothing to cover its nakedness--nothing to cover her +confusion. + +For a moment she stood there, attempting to shrink within herself. Her +attitude of pain and shame appeared to him as guilt. He felt the whole +thing poignantly--felt sorry to send his shaft so truly home, sorry to +see the effect of the blow. But, what was the use? His was the way of +plain, straightforward dealing. Better one swift wound, even unto +death, than a lingering torture for years. + +He opened his lips as if to speak. But there was nothing more to say. +He turned towards the door. + +Beth could not suppress one little cry. + +"Oh!" It was half a moan, half a shuddering gasp. + +With her last rally of strength she faced the stairway, and weakly +stumbled up the steps. + +A spasm of agony seized Van by the cords of his heart. He went blindly +away, with a vision in his eyes of Beth groping weakly up the stairs--a +doe with a mortal hurt. + + + + +CHAPTER XL + +GLEN AND REVELATIONS + +How she spent that night Beth never could have told. Her mind had +refused to work. Only her heart was sensible of life and emotions, for +there lay her wound, burning fiercely all the long hours through. That +Van had made excuses to his partners and disappeared on "business" was +a matter of which she received no account. + +In the morning the unexpected happened. Her brother Glen arrived in +Goldite, having driven from Starlight with a friend. He appeared at +Mrs. Dick's while Beth was still in her room, indisposed. She had +eaten no dinner. She took no breakfast. But with Glenmore's advent +she was suddenly awakened to a new excitement, almost a new sort of +hope. + +Young Kent was a smooth-faced, boyish chap, slightly stooped, +exceedingly neat, black-haired, and of medium height. He was like Beth +only in a "family" manner. His nose was a trifle large for his face, +but something in his modest, good-natured way, coupled to his earnest +delivery of slang in all his conversation, lent him a certain charm +that no one long resisted. + +He was standing in his characteristic pose, with one hand buried in his +pocket, as he laughingly explained himself to Mrs. Dick, when Beth came +running down the stairs. + +"Glen!" she cried, as she ran along the hall, and casting herself most +fervently upon him, with her arms about his neck, she had a good, +sky-clearing cry, furious and brief, and looked like a rain-wet rose +when she pushed him away and scrutinized him quickly through her tears. + +"I say, Sis, why this misplaced fountain on the job?" he said. "Do I +look as bad as that?" + +"Oh, Glen," she said, "you've been ill! You were hurt! I've worried +so. You're well? You've entirely recovered? Oh, I'm so glad to see +you. Glen! There's so much I've got to say!" + +"Land snakes!" said Mrs. Dick. "If I don't hurry----" and off she went. + +"You're the phonograph for mine," said Glen. "What's the matter with +your eyes? Searle hasn't got you going on the lachrymals already?" + +"No, I--I'm all right," she said excitedly. "I didn't sleep well, +that's all. Do sit down. I've so many things to say, so much to ask, +I don't know where to begin. It was such a surprise, your coming like +this! And you're looking so well. You got my letter, of course?" + +Glen sat down, and Beth sat near, her hand upon his arm. They had been +more like companions than mere half-brother and sister, all their +lives. The bond of affection between them was exceptionally developed. + +"I came up on account of your letter," he said. "Either my perceptive +faculties are on the blink or there's something decaying in Denmark. +It's you for the Goddess of Liberty enlightening the unenlightened +savage. I'm from Missouri and I want you to start the ticker on the +hum." + +"You know what Searle has done?" she said. "How much do you know of +what has happened?" + +"Nothing. I've been retired on half knowledge for a month," said Glen. +"I haven't been treated right. I'm here to register a roar. Nobody +tells me you're in the State till I read that account in the paper. I +dope it out to Searle that I am bumping the bumps, and there is nothing +doing. He shows up at last and hands me a species of coma and leaves +me with twenty-five dollars! That's what I get. What I've been doing +is a longer story. I apologize for not having seen your friend who +brought the letter, but it's up to you to apologize for a bum epistle +to the Prodigal." + +"Wait a minute, Glen--wait a minute, please; don't go so fast," she +said, gripping tighter to his arm. "I must get this all as straight +and plain as possible. You don't mean to say that Searle really +drugged you, or something like that--what for?" + +"I want to know," said Glen. "What's the answer? Perhaps he preferred +I should not behold your Sir Cowboy Gallahad." + +"There is something going on," she said, "something dark and horrible. +How did you happen to show Mr. Van Buren--let him see the last page of +my letter?" + +"I didn't let him see anything," said Glen. "I was dopy, I tell you. +I didn't even see the letter myself. Searle sat on the bed and read it +aloud--and lit his cigar with part of it later." + +"My letter?" she said, rising abruptly, and immediately sitting down +again. "You never saw---- Searle got it--read it! Oh, the +shamelessness! Then--it must have been Searle who made the +mistake--let Mr. Van Buren see it--see what I wrote--see---- What did +he read you--read about Van--Mr. Van Buren--almost the last thing in +the letter?" + +Glen was surprised at her agitation. He glanced at her blankly. + +"Nothing," he said. "He read me nothing--as I remember--about your +friend. Was it something in particular?" + +She arose again abruptly and wrung her hands in a gesture of baffled +impatience. + +"Oh, I don't know what it all means!" she said. "To think of Searle +being there, and intercepting my letter!--daring to read it!--burning +it up!--reading you only a portion! Of course, he didn't read you my +suspicions concerning himself?" + +"Not on your half-tone," Glen assured her. "What's all this business, +anyway? Put me wise, Sis, I'm groping like a blind snail in the +mulligatawny." + +Beth sat down as before and leaned her chin in her palm in an attitude +of concentration. + +"Don't you know what Searle has done--taking the 'Laughing Water' +claim?--Mr. Van Buren's claim?" + +"I don't know anything!" he told her convincingly. "I'm a howling +wilderness of ignorance. I want to know." + +"Let's start at the very beginning," she said. "Just as soon as Searle +brought your letter--the first one, I mean--in which you asked for +sixty thousand dollars to buy a mine----" + +"Whoap! Jamb on the emergency!" Glen interrupted. "I never wrote such +a letter in my life!" + +She looked at him blankly. + +"But--Glen--I saw your letter. I read it myself--at this very table." + +Glen knitted his brows and became more serious. + +"A letter from me?--touching Searle for sixty thou? Somebody's nutty." + +"But Glen--what I saw with my own eyes----" + +"Can't help it. Nothing doing!" he interrupted as before. "If Searle +showed you any such letter as that he wrote it him--hold on, I wrote +him for a grub-stake, fifty dollars at the most, but I haven't even +seen a mine that any man would buy, that the other man would sell, and +Searle sure got my first before I was bug-house from that wollop on the +block." He put his hand to the sore spot on his head and rubbed it +soothingly. + +Beth was pale. She failed to observe his gesture, so absorbed were all +her faculties in the maze of facts in which she was somewhat helplessly +struggling. + +"Could Searle have written such a letter as that?" she said. "What +for?" + +"For money--if he wrote it," said Glen. "Did he touch you for a loan?" + +Beth's eyes were widely blazing. Her lips were white and stiff. + +"Why, Glen, I advanced thirty thousand dollars--I thought to help you +buy a mine. Searle was to put in a like amount--but recently----" + +"Searle! Thirty thousand bucks!" said Glen. "He hasn't got thirty +thousand cents! The man who drove me up last night knows the bank +cashier, Mr. Rickart, like a brother--and Rickart told him Searle is a +four-flusher--hasn't a bean--and looks like a mighty good imitation of +a crook. Searle! You put up thirty--stung, Beth, stung, good and +plenty!" + +Beth's hand was on her cheek, pressing it to whiteness. + +"Oh, I've been afraid that something was wrong--that something +terrible---- Why, Glen, that would be _forgery_--obtaining money under +false pretences! He may have done anything--_anything_ to get the +'Laughing Water' claim! He may have done something--said +something--written something to make Van--Mr. Van Buren think that +I---- Oh, Glen, I don't know what to do!" + +Her brother looked at her keenly. + +"You're in trouble, Sis," he hazarded. "Is 'Van' the candy boy with +you?" + +She blushed suddenly. The contrast from her paleness was striking. + +"He's the one who is in trouble," she answered. "And he may think that +I--he does think something. He has lost his mine--a very valuable +property. Searle and some Mr. McCoppet have taken it away from Mr. Van +Buren and all those poor old men--after all their work, their +waiting--everything! You've got to help me to see what we can do!" + +"McCoppet's a gambler--a short-card, tumble weed," said Glen. "You've +got to put me next. Tell me the whole novelette, beginning at chapter +one." + +"As fast as I can," she answered, and she did. She related everything, +even the manner in which she and Searle had first become engaged--a +business at which she marveled now--and of how and when she had +encountered Van, the results of the meeting, the subsequent events, and +the heart-breaking outcome of the trip that Van had made to carry her +letter to Starlight. + +In her letter, her love had been confessed. She glossed that item over +now as a spot too sensitive for exposure. She merely admitted that +between herself and Van had existed a friendship such as comes but once +in many a woman's life--a friendship recently destroyed, she feared, by +some horrible machinations of Bostwick. + +"You can see," she concluded, "that Mr. Van Buren must think me guilty +of almost anything. He doubtless knows my money, that I thought was +helping you, went to meet the expense of taking away his property. He +probably thinks I sent him to you to get him out of the way, while +Searle and the others were driving his partners off the claim. + +"My money is gone. I asked for its return and I'm sure Searle cannot +repay me. I'm told he couldn't have used so much as thirty thousand +dollars in anything legitimate, so far, on the 'Laughing Water' claim. +If he'd forge a letter from you, and lie like this and deceive me so, +what wouldn't he do to rob these men of their mine?" + +"I scent decay," said Glenmore gravely. "Have you got any plans in +your attic?" + +"Why, I don't know what to do, of course!" she admitted. "But I've got +to do something. I've got to show Mr. Van Buren I'm not a willful +party to these horrible things. I don't believe I'll ever get my money +back. I don't want a share of a stolen mine. I'd be glad to let the +money go, and more--all I've got in the world--if only I could prove to +Van that I haven't deceived him, haven't taken part in anything +wrong--if only I could make these cheats give the 'Laughing Water' +back!" + +"Van _is_ the candy. I'll have to meet him, sure," said Glen with +conviction, looking on her face. "I wish you were wise to more of this +game--the way they worked it--how they doped it out. I'll look around +and find out how the trick was done, and then we'll go to it together. +Guess I'll look for Van right off the bat." + +She glanced at him with startled eyes. + +"No, Glen--please don't. I'd rather you wouldn't--just yet. You don't +understand. I can't let him think I'm--making overtures. He must +think I have a _little_ pride. If his mine has been stolen I want to +give it back--before he ever sees me again. If you knew how much--oh, +how very much, I wish to do that----" + +"I'm on," he interrupted. "It will do me good to put a crimp in +Searle." + + + + +CHAPTER XLI + +SUVY PROVES HIS LOVE + +If a single ray of far-off hope had lingered in Van's meditations +concerning Beth, and the various occurrences involving himself and his +mining property, it vanished when he told her of the letter he had seen +and beheld her apparent look of guilt. + +One thing the interview had done: it had cleared his decks for action. +He had lain half stunned, as it were, till now, while Bostwick held the +"Laughing Water" claim and worked it for its gold. A look that was +grim and a heat that would brook no resistance had come together upon +him. + +That claim was his, by right of purchase, by right of discovery as to +its worth! He had earned it by hardships, privations, suffering! He +meant to have it back! If the law could avail him, well and good! If +not, he'd make a law! + +McCoppet he knew for a thief--a "law-abiding" criminal of the subtlest +type. Bostwick, he was certain, was a crook. Behind these two lay +possibilities of crime in all its forms. That suddenly ordered survey +of the line was decidedly suspicious. Bostwick and his fiancee had +come prepared for some such coup--and money was a worker of miracles +such as no man might obstruct. + +Van became so loaded full of fight that had anyone scratched a match +upon him he might have exploded on the spot. He thought of the +simplest thing to do--hire a private survey of the reservation line, +either to confirm or disprove the work that Lawrence had done, and then +map out his course. The line, however, was long, surveyors were fairly +swamped with work, not a foot could be traveled without some ready cash. + +He went to Rickart of the bank. Rickart listened to his plan of +campaign and shook his head. + +"Don't waste your money, Van," he said. "The Government wouldn't +accept the word of any man you could hire. Lawrence would have to be +discredited. Nobody doubts his ability or his squareness. The +reservation boundary was wholly a matter of guess. You'll find it +includes that ground--and the law will be against you. I'd gladly lend +you the money if I could, but the bank people wouldn't stand behind me. +And every bean I've got of my own I've put in the Siwash lease." + +Van was in no mood for begging. + +"All right, Rick," he said. "But I'll have that line overhauled if I +have to hold up a private surveyor and put him over the course at the +front of a gun." He went out upon the street, more hot than before. + +In two days time he was offered twenty dollars--a sum he smilingly +refused. He was down and out, in debt all over the camp. He could not +even negotiate a loan. From some of his "friends" he would not have +accepted money to preserve his soul. + +Meantime, spurred to the enterprise by little Mrs. Dick, old +Gettysburg, Napoleon, and Dave accepted work underground and began to +count on their savings for the fight. + +At the "Laughing Water" claim, during this period, tremendous elation +existed. Not only had three lines of sluices been installed, with +three shifts of men to shovel night and day, but a streak of gravel of +sensational worth had been encountered in the cove. The clean-up at +sunset every day was netting no less than a thousand dollars in gold +for each twenty-four hours at work. + +This news, when it "leaked," begot another rush, and men by the +hundreds swarmed again upon the hills, in all that neighborhood, +panning the gravel for their lives. Wild-catting started with an +impetus that shook the State itself. And Van could only grit his teeth +and continue, apparently, to smile. + +All this and more came duly to the ears of Glenmore Kent and Beth. The +girl was in despair as the days went by and nothing had been +accomplished. The meager fact that Lawrence had run and corrected the +reservation line, at Searle's behest, was all that Glen had learned. + +But of all the men in Goldite he was doubtless best equipped with +knowledge concerning Bostwick's Eastern standing. He knew that Searle +had never had the slightest Government authority to order the survey +made--and therein lay the crux of all the matter. It was all he had to +go upon, but he felt it was almost enough. + +The wires to New York were tapped again, and Beth was presently a local +bank depositor with a credit of twenty thousand dollars. In a quiet, +effective manner, Glen then went to work to secure a surveyor on his +own account, or rather at Beth's suggestion. + +With the fact of young Kent's advent in the town Van was early made +acquainted. When Beth procured the transfer of her money from New York +to Goldite, Rickart promptly reported the news. It appeared to Van a +confirmation of all his previous suspicions. He could not fight a +woman, and Bostwick and McCoppet remained upon the claim. Searle wrote +nearly every day to Beth, excusing his absence, relating his success, +and declaring the increase of his love. + +On a Wednesday morning Glenmore's man arrived by stage from Starlight, +instruments and all. His name was Pratt. He was a tall, slow-moving, +blue-eyed man, nearly sixty years of age, but able still to carry a +thirty-pound transit over the steepest mountain ever built. Glen met +him by appointment at the transportation office and escorted him at +once to Mrs. Dick's. + +Already informed as to what would be required, the surveyor was +provided with all the data possible concerning the reservation limits. + +Beth was tremendously excited. "I'm glad you've come," she told him +candidly. "Can you start the work to-day?" + +"You will want to keep this quiet," he said. "I need two men we can +trust, and then I'm ready to start." + +"Two?" said Glen. "That's awkward. I thought perhaps you could get +along with little me." + +Beth, in her tumult of emotions, was changing color with bewildering +rapidity. + +"Why--I expected to go along, of course," she said. "I've got a +suit--I've done it before--I mean, I expect to dress as you are, Glen, +and help to run the line." + +Pratt grinned good-naturedly. "Keeps it all in the family. That's one +advantage." + +"All right," said Glen. "Hike upstairs and don your splendors." + +He had hired a car and stocked it with provisions, tents, and bedding. +He hastened off and returned with the chauffeur to the door. + +Beth, in the costume she had worn on the day when Van found her lost in +the desert, made a shy, frightened youth, when at length she appeared, +but her courage was superb. + +At ten o'clock they left the town, and rolled far out to the westward +on their course. + +Van learned of their departure. He was certain that Beth had gone to +the "Laughing Water" claim, perhaps to be married to Bostwick. Three +times he went to the hay-yard that day, intent upon saddling his +broncho, riding to the claim himself, and fighting out his rights by +the methods of primitive man. + +On the third of his visits he met a stranger who offered to purchase +Suvy on the spot at a price of two hundred dollars. + +"Don't offer me a million or I might be tempted," Van told him gravely. +"I'll sell you my soul for a hundred." + +The would-be purchaser was dry. + +"I want a soul I can ride." + +Van looked him over critically. + +"Think you could ride my cayuse?" + +"This broach?" said the man. "Surest thing you know." + +"I need the money," Van admitted. "I'll bet you the pony against your +two hundred you can't." + +"You're on." + +Van called to his friend, the man who ran the yard. + +"Come over here, Charlie, and hold the stakes. Here's a man who wants +to ride my horse." + +Charlie came, heard the plan of the wager, accepted the money, and +watched Van throw on the saddle. + +"I didn't know you wanted to sell," he said. "You know I want that +animal." + +"If he goes he sells himself," said Van. "If he doesn't, you're next, +same terms." + +"Let me have that pair of spurs," said the stranger, denoting a pair +that hung upon a nail. "I guess they'll fit." + +He adjusted the spurs as one accustomed to their use. Van merely +glanced around. Nevertheless, he felt a sinking of the heart. Five +hundred dollars, much as he needed money, would not have purchased his +horse. And inasmuch as luck had been against him, he suddenly feared +he might be on the point of losing Suvy now for a price he would have +scorned. + +"Boy," he said in a murmur to the broncho, "if I thought you'd let any +bleached-out anthropoid like that remain on deck, I wouldn't want you +anyway--savvy that?" + +Suvy's ears were playing back and forth in excessive nervousness and +questioning. He had turned his head to look at Van with evident joy at +the thought of bearing him away to the hills--they two afar off +together. Then came a disappointment. + +"There you are," said Van, and swinging the bridle reins towards the +waiting man, he walked to a feed-trough and leaned against it +carelessly. + +"Thanks," said the stranger. He threw away a cigarette, caught up the +reins, adjusted them over Suvy's neck, rocked the saddle to test its +firmness, and mounted with a certain dexterity that lessened Van's +confidence again. After all, Suvy was thoroughly broken. He had +quietly submitted to be ridden by Beth. His war-like spirit might be +gone--and all would be lost. + +Indeed, it appeared that Suvy was indifferent--that a cow would have +shown a manner no less docile or resigned. He did look at Van with a +certain expression of surprise and hurt, or so, at least, the horseman +hoped. Then the man on his back shook up the reins, gave a prick with +the spurs, and Suvy moved perhaps a yard. + +The rider pricked again, impatiently. Instantly Suvy's old-time +fulminate was jarred into violent response. He went up in the air +prodigiously, a rigid, distorted thing of hardened muscles and +engine-like activities. He came down like a new device for breaking +rocks--and the bucking he had always loved was on, in a fury of +resentment. + +"Good boy!" said Van, who stood up stiffly, craning and bending to +watch the broncho's fight. + +But the man in the saddle was a rider. He sat in the loose security of +men who knew the game. He gave himself over to becoming part of the +broncho's very self. He accepted Suvy's momentum, spine-disturbing +jolts, and sudden gyrations with the calmness and art of a master. + +All this Van beheld, as the pony bucked with warming enthusiasm, and +again his heart descended to the depths. It was not the bucking he had +hoped to see. It was not the best that lay in Suvy's thongs. The +beating he himself had given the animal, on the day when their +friendship was cemented, had doubtless reduced the pony's confidence of +winning such a struggle, while increasing his awe of man. Some miners +passing saw the dust as the conflict waged in the yard. They hastened +in to witness the show. Then from everywhere in town they appeared to +pour upon the scene. The word went around that the thing was a +bet--and more came running to the scene. + +Meantime, Suvy was rocketing madly all over the place. Chasing a +couple of cows that roamed at large, charging at a monster pile of +household furnishings, barely avoiding the feed-trough, set in the +center of the place, scattering men in all directions, and raising a +dust like a concentrated storm, the broncho waxed more and more hot in +the blood, more desperately wild to fling his rider headlong through +the air. But still that rider clung. + +Van had lost all sense save that of worry, love for his horse, and +desire to see him win this vital struggle. A wild passion for Suvy's +response to himself--for a proving love in the broncho's +being--possessed his nature. He leaned far forward, awkwardly, +following Suvy about. + +"I'm ashamed of you, Suvy!" he began to cry. "Suvy! Suvy, where's +your pride? Why don't you do him, boy? Why don't you show them? +Where's your pride? My boy! my boy!--don't you love me any more? +You're a baby, Suvy! You're a baby!" He paused for a moment, +following still and watching narrowly. "Suvy! Suvy! You're gone if +you let him ride you, lad! If you love me, boy, don't break my heart +with shame!" + +Suvy and a hundred men heard his wild, impassioned appeal. The men +responded as if in some pain of the heart they could not escape, thus +to see Van Buren so completely wrapped up in his horse. Then some all +but groaned to behold the bucking cease. + +It seemed as if Suvy had quit. The man in the saddle eased. + +"Boy!" yelled Van, in a shrill, startling cry that made the pony +shiver. He had seen some sign that no one but himself could +understand. "Boy! not that! not that!" + +Already Suvy had started to rise, to drop himself backwards on his +rider. + +He heard and obeyed. He went up no more than to half his height, then +seemed to be struck by a cyclone. Had all the frightful dynamic of an +earthquake abruptly focused in his being, the fearful convulsion of his +muscles could scarcely have been greater. It was all so sudden, so +swift and terrible, that no man beheld how it was done. It was simply +a mad delirium of violence, begun and ended while one tumultuous +shudder shook the crowd. + +Everyone saw something loose and twisting detached from the pony's +back. Everyone witnessed a blur upon the air and knew it was the man. +He was flung with catapultic force against a frightened cow. He struck +with arms and legs extended. He clung like a bur to the bovine's side, +for a moment before he dropped--and everyone roared unfeelingly, in +relief of the tension on the nerves. + +The next they knew Van was there with his horse, shaking the animal's +muzzle. + +"My boy!" he said. "My boy! My luck has changed!" + +Apparently it had. The man who had thought he could ride the horse +limped weakly to a blanket-roll, and sat himself down to gather up the +pieces of his breath and consciousness. He wanted no more. He felt it +was cheap at the price he had paid to escape with a hint of his life. + +Van waited for nothing, not even the money that Charlie of the hay-yard +was holding. He mounted to the saddle that had been the seat of hell, +and in joy unspeakable Suvy walked away, in response to the pressure of +his knees. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII + +THE FURNACE OF GOLD + +All the following day, which was Thursday, two small companies were out +in the hills. One was Beth's, where she, Glen, and Pratt toiled slowly +over miles and miles of baking mountains and desert slopes and rocks, +tracing out the reservation boundary with a long slender ribbon of +steel. + +The other group, equally, if less openly, active, comprised the sheriff +and three of his men. They were trailing out the boundary of one man's +endurance, against fatigue, starvation, and the hatred of his kind. + +Barger had been at his work once more, slaying and robbing for his +needs. He had killed a Piute trailer, put upon his tracks; he had +robbed a stage, three private travelers, and a freight-team loaded with +provisions. He had lived on canned tomatoes and ginger snaps for a +week--and the empty tins sufficiently blazed his orbit. + +He was known to be mounted, armed, and once more reduced to extremities +in the way of procuring food. A trap had been laid, a highway baited +with an apparently defenseless wagon, with two mere desert prospectors +and their outfit for a load--and this he was expected to attack. + +The morning waned and the afternoon was speeding. Old Pratt, with Beth +and Glen, was eager to finish by sunset. The farther he walked the +more the surveyor apparently warmed to his work. Beth became footsore +by noon. But she made no complaint. She plodded doggedly ahead, the +ribbon-like "chain" creeping like a serpent, on and on before her. + +At the forward end Glen was dragging the thing persistently over hills +and dales, and bearing the rod for Pratt with his transit to sight. + +The surveyor himself was at times as much as a mile or more behind, +dumbly waving Glen to right or left, as he peered through his glass and +set the course by the compass and angles of his transit. Anon he +signaled the two to wait, and Beth sat down to watch him come, "set +up," and wave them onward as before. + +She was thus alone, at the end of the chain, for hours at a stretch. +So often as Pratt came up from the rear and established a station for +his instrument, she asked how the line was working out, and what were +the prospects for the end. + +"Can't tell till we get much closer to the claim," said Pratt, with +never varying patience. "We'll know before we die." + +In the heat that poured from sky and rocks it might have been possible +to doubt the surveyor's prediction. But Beth went on. Her exhaustion +increased. The glare of the cloudless sky and greenless earth seemed +to burn all the moisture from her eyes. The terrible silence, the +dread austerity of mountains so rock-ribbed and desolate, oppressed her +with a sense of awe. + +She was toiling as many a man has toiled, through the ancient, +burned-out furnace of gold, so intensely physical all about her; and +also she was toiling no less painfully through the furnace of gold that +love must ever create so long as the dross must be burned from human +ore that the bullion of honor, loyalty, and faith may shine in its +purity and worth. + +She began to feel, in a slight degree, the tortures that Van, old +Gettysburg, Napoleon, and Dave had undergone for many weary years. It +was not their weakness for the gold of earth that had drawn them +relentlessly on in lands like these; it was more their fate, a species +of doom, to which, like the helpless puppets that we are, we must all +at last respond. + +She felt a new weight in the cruelty whereby the owners of the +"Laughing Water" claim had been suddenly bereft of all they possessed +after all their patient years of serving here in this arid waste of +minerals. The older men in Van's partnership she pitied. + +For Van she felt a sense of championing love. His cause was her cause, +come what might--at least until she could no longer keep alive her +hope. Her passion to set herself to rights in his mind was great, but +secondary, after all, to the love in her heart, which would not, could +not die, and which, by dint of its intensity, bore her onward to fight +for his rights. + +Alone so much in the burning land all day, she had long, long hours in +which to think of Van, long hours in which to contemplate the silence +and the vast dispassion of this mountain world. Her own inward burning +offset the heat of air and earth; a sense of the aridness her heart +would know without Van's love once more returned, was counter to the +aridness of all these barren rocks. The fervor of her love it was that +bore her onward, weary, sore, and drooping. + +What would happen at the end of day, if Pratt should confirm the +Lawrence survey, bestowing the claim on Bostwick and McCoppet, she did +not dare to think. Her excitement increased with every chain length +moving her onward towards the cove. She did not know the hills or +ravines, the canyons descended or acclivities so toilsomely climbed, +and, therefore, had not a guide in the world to raise or depress her +hope. There was nothing to do but sustain the weary march and await +the survey's end. + +All day in Goldite, meanwhile, Van had been working towards an end. He +had two hundred dollars, the merest drop in the bucket, as he knew, +with which to fight the Bostwick combination. He was thoroughly aware +that even when the line could be run, establishing some error or fraud +on the part of surveyor Lawrence, the fight would barely be opened. + +McCoppet and Bostwick, with thousands of dollars at command, could +delay him, block his progress, force him into court, and perhaps even +beat him in the end. The enginery of dollars was crushing in its +might. Nevertheless, if a survey showed that the line had been falsely +moved, he felt he could somewhat rely upon himself to make the seat of +war too warm for comfort. + +There was no surveyor nearer than two hundred miles, with Pratt, as Van +expressed it, "camping with the foe." He had shaken his partners +untimely from their beds that morning--(the trio were mining nights, on +the four-to-midnight shift)--and busied them all with the work of the +day, by way of making preparations. + +He spent nearly twenty silver dollars on the wire, telegraphing various +towns to secure a competent man. He sent a friend to the Government +office, where Lawrence was up to his ears in work, and procured all the +data, including metes and bounds, of the reservation tract before its +fateful opening. + +The day was consumed in the petty affairs attendant upon such a +campaign. When his three old partners went away to their work at four +o'clock in the afternoon, a wire had come from far out north that a man +who was competent to run the line was starting for Goldite forthwith. + +The moonless night, at ten o'clock, found Van alone at his tent. From +the top of the hill whereon he had camped a panoramic view of all the +town swung far in both directions. The glare of the lamps, the noise +of life--even the odor of man upon the air--impinged upon his senses +here, as he sat before the door and gazed far down upon it. He thought +that man with his fire, smells, and din made chaos in a spot that was +otherwise sacred to nature. + +He thought of the ceaseless persistence with which the human family +haunts all the corners of the earth, pursues life's mysteries, invades +its very God. He thought of this desert as a place created barren, +lifeless, dead, and severe for some inscrutable purpose--perhaps even +fashioned by the Maker as His place to be alone. But the haunter was +there with his garish town, his canvas-tented circus of a day, and God +had doubtless moved. + +How little the game amounted to, at the end of a man's short span! +What a senseless repetition it seemed--the same old comedies, the same +old tragedies, the same old bits of generosity, and greed, of weakness, +hope, and despair! Except for a warm little heartful of love--ah +_love_! He paused at that and laughed, unmirthfully. That was the +thing that made of it a Hades, or converted the desert into heaven! + +"Dreamers! dreamers--all of us!" he said, and he went within to flatten +down his blankets for the night. + +He had finally blown out his candle and stretched himself upon the +ground, to continue his turmoil of thinking, when abruptly his sharp +ear caught at a sound as of someone slipping on a stone that turned, +just out upon the slope. He sat up alertly. + +Half a minute passed. Then something heavy lurched against the tent, +the flap was lifted, and a man appeared, stooped double as if in pain. + +"Who's there?" demanded Van. "Is that you, Gett?" He caught up his +gun, but it and the hand that held it were invisible. + +"It's me," said a voice--a croaking voice. "Matt Barger." + +He fell on the floor, breathing in some sort of anguish, and Van struck +a match, to light the candle. + +The flame flared blindingly inside the canvas whiteness. A great, +moving shadow of Van was projected behind him on the wall. The light +gleamed brightly from his gun. But it fell on an inert mass where +Barger had fallen to the earth. + +He did not move, and Van, mechanically igniting the candle's wick, +while he eyed the man before him, beheld dry blood, and some that was +fresh, on the haggard face, on the tattered clothing, and even on one +loose hand. + +"Barger!" he said. "What in thunder, man----" + +The outlaw rallied his failing strength and raised himself up on one +hand. He could barely speak, but his lips attempted a smile. + +"I thought I heard you--call fer the joker," he said, "and so--I come." + +Van was up. He saw that the man had been literally shot to pieces. +One of his arms was broken. A portion of his scalp was gone. He was +pierced in the body and leg. He had met the posse, fought his fight, +escaped with wounds that must have stopped any animal on earth, and +then had dragged himself to Van, to repay his final debt. + +"I haven't called--I haven't called for anything," said Van. "You're +wounded, man, you're----" + +Barger rose up weakly to his knees. + +"Need the money, don't you--now?" he interrupted. "You can--use the +reward, I guess." + +"Good God, I don't want that kind of money!" Van exclaimed. "Who got +you, Matt--who got you?" + +"Sheriff," said the convict dispassionately. "Good man, Christler--and +a pretty good shot--but I got away with his lead." + +He slumped again, like a waxen thing on melting props, deprived of all +support. + +Van plunged out to the water bench, with its bucket, near the door. He +brought back a basin of water, knelt on the ground, and bathed the +convict's face. He poured some liquor between the dead-white lips. He +slashed and unbuttoned the clothing and tried to staunch the wounds. +He bound up the arm, put a bandage on the leg and body, continuing from +time to time to dash cold water in the pallid, bearded face. + +Barger had fainted at last. What hideous tortures the fellow had +endured to drag and drive himself across the mountain roughnesses to +win to this tent, Van could but weakly imagine. + +The convict finally opened his eyes and blinked in the light of the +candle. + +"What in hell--was the use of my comin' here," he faltered, "if you +don't take the money--the reward?" + +"I don't want it!" said Van. "I told you that before." + +Barger spoke with difficulty. + +"It's different now; they've--got you in a hole. Van Buren, I'm your +meat! I'm--nuthin' but meat, but you acted--as if I was a man!" + +"We're all in a hole--it's life," said Van, continuing his attentions +to the wounds. "I don't want a cent of blood-money, Matt, if I have to +starve on the desert. Now lie where you are, and maybe go to sleep. +You won't be disturbed here till morning." + +"By mornin'--all hell can't--disturb me," Barger told him painfully, +with something like a ghastly smile upon his lips. "I'm goin'--there +to see." + +He lapsed off again into coma. Van feared the man was dead. But +having lived a stubborn life, Barger relinquished his hold unwillingly, +despite his having ceased at last to care. + +For nearly an hour Van worked above him, on the ground. Then the man +not only aroused as before, but sat up, propped on his arm. + +"God, I had to--wake!" he said. "I was sure--forgettin' to tell you." + +Van thought the fellow's mind was wandering. + +"Lie down, Matt, lie down," he answered. "Try to take it easy." + +"Too late--fer me to take--anything easy," replied the outlaw, speaking +with a stronger voice than heretofore. "Gimme a drink of whisky." + +Van gave him the drink and he tossed it off at a draught. + +"I said to myself I'd be--hanged if I'd tell you, that--day you cheated +the quicksand," Barger imparted jerkily, "but you've got--a--right to +know. McCoppet and that--pal of his give Lawrence twenty +thousand--dollars, cash, to queer you on the--reservation line and run +you off your claim." + +Van scrutinized the sunken face and glittering eyes with the closest +attention. + +"What's that?" he said. "Bought Lawrence to fake out the reservation +line? Who told you, Matt? Who told you that?" + +The convict seemed to gain in strength. He was making a terrible +effort to finish all he had to impart. + +"Trimmer put me--on to all the game. It was him that told me--you was +goin' through, when I--pretty near got you, in the pass." + +Van's eyes took on a deep intensity. + +"Trimmer? Trimmer?" + +"Larry Trimmer--Pine-tree Trimmer," explained the convict impatiently. +"McCoppet--wanted you detained, the day they--jumped your claim. +Lawrence--he run the line out crooked fer--twenty thousand bucks. +Culver was put away by Cayuse, mebbe because--he was square--Larry +wasn't sure---- I guess--that's all, but it ought to--help you some." + +He dropped himself down and languidly closed his eyes. + +"Good heavens, man," said Van, still staring, "are you sure of what +you're saying?" + +There was no response for a time. Then Barger murmured: + +"Excuse me, Van Buren, fer--bein' so damn--long--dyin'." + +"You're not dying, Matt--go to sleep," said. Van. "I'll be here +beside you, all night." + +He sat down, got up and sat down again, stirred to the depths of his +being by the story the man had revealed. Beth's money, then, had gone +for this, to bribe a Government agent! A tumult of mad, revengeful +thoughts went roaring through his mind. A grim look came upon his +face, and fire was flashing from his eyes. He arose and sat down a +dozen times, all the while looking at the worn, broken figure that lay +on the earth at his feet. What an ill-used, gaunt, and exhausted frame +it was, loose and abandoned by the strength that once had filled it +with vigor and might. What a boyish look had come at last upon the +haggard, sunken face! + +The night wind was chill. He had forgotten for himself, but he thought +of it now for Barger. He laid his blankets on the inert limbs and up +around the shoulders. + +Perhaps another hour went by, with Van still sleepless by his charge. +The convict stirred. + +"Van--Buren," he said in a hoarse, rattling whisper, "Van----" + +Van was instantly alert. + +"Hello." + +Barger partially raised his hand. + +"So long,"--and the hand dropped downward. + +"Matt!" answered Van, quickly kneeling on the earth. He caught up the +fingers, felt their faint attempt to close upon his own--and the man on +the ground was dead. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII + +PREPARING THE NET FOR A DRAW + +Beth Kent, as the sun was going from the sky, fell down three times in +utter exhaustion. She and the others had come to within a mile of the +"Laughing Water" claim. Pratt was far away in the rear, on the last of +his stations. Glen, in the lead, was forging ahead on a second supply +of strength. Hidden from the sight of either of the others, Beth was +ready for collapse. + +But onward crept that merciless ribbon of steel that Glen was dragging. +Three times the girl rose and stumbled onward, up the last acclivity. +Her legs were like lead. She stubbed her toes on every rock. She +could almost have cried with the aches of weariness. It seemed as if +that terrible hill unfolded new and steeper slopes for every one she +climbed. + +She went down repeatedly. To have lain there, hungry, but indifferent +to anything but sleep, would have been the most heavenly thing she +could conceive. She was literally falling up the hill, with all her +machinery slumping towards inertia, when finally Pratt, on his distant +hill, sent the signal for Glen to halt. + +"All right, Beth--rest!" he called from the end of the chain, and she +sank at once in her tracks. + +It was almost dusk when Pratt came toiling up the hill. Glen had come +down to Beth's position. He too was thoroughly tired. How the line +had come out was more than he could care. But Beth, with the last of +her flickering strength, arose to hasten Pratt. + +"No use in the three of us being seen," he said, planting his transit +in the sand, but making no effort to adjust it to a level. "That ridge +there overlooks the claim. I'll climb up alone and take a bird's-eye +view." + +"We're as near as that!" cried Beth in startled surprise. "Then what +do you think? Does the line include the claim?" + +"I'll have to look around from the ridge," repeated Pratt with +aggravating caution. "You can wait ten minutes here." + +He started laboriously up the slope--and Beth stood tensely watching. +She thought she saw him top the ridge, but he disappeared from sight. + +The darkness was gathering swiftly in all the desert world. The girl's +excitement and impatience grew with a new flare up of energy. To think +that Searle was so near at hand, with fate a-hover in the air, sent her +pulses bounding madly. + +It seemed as if Pratt would never return from the hill. She could +almost have dashed to the summit herself, to learn the outcome of their +labors. Then at last, from a small ravine, not far away, he appeared +in his leisurely manner. + +Beth ran along the slope to meet him. + +"Well?" she cried. "What did you find?" + +He smiled. "Unless I'm crazy, Lawrence is either a liar or a fool. +That claim is safe outside the line by nearly an eighth of a mile." + +"Oh!" cried the girl. She collapsed on the ground and sobbed in +exhaustion and joy. + +She could go no further. She had kept her strength and courage up for +this, and now, inside the goal, she cared not what might happen. + +They camped upon the spot. The man with the car, which had taken them +out, had been ordered to meet them down at Reservation town--the +mushroom camp which had sprung into being no more than a week before +the rush. All the way down there Pratt continued alone. He and the +chauffeur, long after dark, returned with provisions and blankets. +They had driven the car as far as possible, then climbed the ravine on +foot. + +At nine o'clock Beth was asleep beneath the stars, dreaming of her +meeting with Van. + +At daylight all were up, and in the chill of the rarified mountain air +were walking stiffly to the car. The chauffeur, who had slept in his +machine, promised breakfast by eight at Mrs. Dick's. He tore up the +road and he tore away their breath, but he came into Goldite half an +hour ahead of time, and claimed he had driven "pretty slow." + +Meantime, the night in the mining-camp had brought no untoward +excitement. Van, at his tent, with the covered figure lying on the +earth, had welcomed his partners at midnight with the news that a +"homeless and worn-out pilgrim of the desert" had come desiring rest. +He was sleeping hard; he was not to be disturbed. In the morning he +was scheduled to depart. + +Tired to utter unconcern, the three old worthies made their beds with +Van beside the man at peace. And the whole five slept with a trust and +abandon to nature that balanced the living and the dead. + +Van was out, had eaten his breakfast, and was waiting for the sheriff +when Beth and her party returned. He beheld them, felt his heart lift +upward like a lever in his breast, at sight of Beth in her male attire, +and grimly shut his jaws. + +Christler, the sheriff, arrived a little after eight, bringing in a +wounded deputy. Barger had shot him in the thigh. Van did not wait +for his man to eat, but urged him home to his bachelor shack and sat +him down to a drink of something strong, with a cracker to munch for a +meal. + +Christler was tired. He was somewhat stout; he had been in the saddle +almost constantly for weeks, and now, as a victim of chagrin and +disappointment, he was utterly dejected and done. + +"Good Lord, Van, ain't a man to breathe--hain't he got no rights to +live, whatsoever?" he inquired. "You'd chase me up, or somebody would, +if I was in my grave." + +"You'd break out of your grave," Van told him, "if you knew what's +going on." + +Christler looked dubious, draining at his glass. + +"Well, I dunno. It 'ud have to be something pretty rich." + +"Bill," said Van, "you're going to stand in and work with me as you +haven't worked for a year. It's going to be worth it. Opal McCoppet, +and one Searle Bostwick, of New York, have stolen my claim by +corrupting Lawrence for twenty thousand dollars, running a false +reservation line, and maybe putting Culver out of the way because he +was square in his business." + +Christler paused in the act of biting his cracker. + +"What!" + +"There's going to be something doing, Bill," Van added, leaning forward +on the table. "I'm going to round up all this gang to-day if it kills +you to keep on the trail." + +Christler still sat staring. + +"By the Lord Harry!" he said. "By the Lord--but, Van, I didn't come +home to rest. I've got Barger going, somewhere, shot to a sieve. But +he's some disappeared. If that ain't just my luck! I'm goin' to git +him though, you bet! Lord!--my pride--my profession pride--not to +mention that little old reward! I admit I want that money, Van. I +reckon I've pretty near----" + +"Yes, you've earned it," Van interrupted. "I'm going to see that you +get it. Bill, but first you get busy with me." + +"You'll see that I get----" Christler put the cracker in his mouth. +"Don't talk to a genuine friend like that. I'm tired already." + +"Are you?" said Van. "Let's see. Barger is here--in camp." + +Up shot the sheriff as if from the force of a blast. + +"What!" he shrilled. "Barger! Van, I'll----" + +Van grinned. + +"Don't forget you're tired, Bill. Matt won't get away." + +"Good Lord, boy--tell me where's he at!" cried Christler, dancing on +the floor as he strapped his guns upon him. "Me a-thinkin' I had shot +him up and all this time----" + +"You shot him enough, poor devil," Van interrupted quietly. "He's dead +in my tent on the hill." + +The sheriff paused with one hand held in the air. + +"Dead! Crawled all the way to Goldite!" He started for the door. + +"Hold on," said the horseman, blocking his path. "I told you Matt +can't get away. We're going out to get Lawrence first, and then +McCoppet and his friend." + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV + +THE ENGINES OF CLIMAX + +McCoppet was in town. He had come to camp at midnight of the previous +day, duly followed by his friend Larry Trimmer. The lumberman had +waxed impatient. Fully two thousand dollars of the money he had +"earned" was still unpaid--and hard to get. He had gone to the +"Laughing Water" claim, in vain, and a surly heat was rising in his +veins. + +Bostwick was due, in his car, at nine o'clock, His visit to Goldite was +not entirely one of business. He had grown alarmed at the lack of news +from Beth. His letters had been ignored. He not only feared for the +fate of his affairs of the heart, but perhaps even more for what she +might have done with respect to the money she had asked him to return, +a very small proportion of which he was now prepared to repay. + +Meantime, Beth, her brother, and Pratt had gratified their most crying +needs on Algy's cooking, much to that worthy Celestial's delight. +There were two things Beth intended to perform: report the results of +her labors to Van, and attack Mr. Lawrence in his den. + +Precisely what she meant to say or do to the Government representative +she did not or could not determine. Some vague idea of making him +confess to an infamy practiced at Bostwick's instance was the most she +had in mind. If half the success already achieved could be expected +here, she would have a report worth while to make when Van should be +presently encountered. + +Impetuous, eager to hasten with her work, she insisted upon an +immediate advance. Glenmore readily supported her position. Pratt +developed shyness. His forte was hiking over desert hills, lugging a +transit, running lines or levels; he felt out of place as a fighter, or +even an accuser. Nevertheless, he went, for Beth insisted. + +Already the streets were crowded full of life, as the three proceeded +down the thoroughfare. A mining-camp is a restless thing; its peoples +live in the streets. Freight teams, flowing currents of men, chains of +dusty mules, disordered cargoes on the sidewalks, and a couple of +automobiles were glaringly cut out from their shadows, as the sunlight +poured upon them. Sunlight and motion, false-fronted buildings, tents, +and mountains, and fever--that is the camp on the desert. + +With excitement increasing upon her at every step, Beth glanced at the +crowds in a rapid search for Van. He was not to be seen. In all the +throng, where old men and youths, pale and swarthy, lazy and alert were +circulating like the blood of Goldite's arteries, there was not a face +that she knew. + +They came to the office where Lawrence presided just as a stranger was +departing, Lawrence was alone. He occupied the inner apartment, as +Culver had done, but the door was standing open. + +It was Beth who knocked and entered first as the man called out his +invitation. She had never in her life appeared more beautiful. Color +was flaming in her cheeks as on a rose. Her eyes were exceptionally +bright and brown. The exquisite coral of her lips was delicately +tremulous with all her short, quick breathing. + +Lawrence arose, as she and the others appeared in the door, and removed +his hat. He was a short, florid person, with a beard of fiery red. +His eyes were of the lightest gray; and they were shifting. + +"Good-morning," he said, in undisguised astonishment, beholding Beth. +"You--pardon me--you----" + +"Good-morning," Beth replied faintly. "We called--are you Mr. +Lawrence?" + +"At your service." Lawrence bowed. "I rarely expect--in my line of +work--my business. Miss--Miss----" + +"Miss Kent," said Glenmore, interrupting. "And my name is Kent. I +suppose you're wise to Mr. Pratt." + +Lawrence continued to bow. + +"I'm very happy to--how are you, Pratt? How are you? Won't you have a +chair, Miss Kent?" + +Pratt nodded and murmured a greeting. He was decidedly uneasy. + +Beth always moved by impulse. It hastened her now to the issue. She +sat down and faced their man. + +"Mr. Lawrence," she said, "I believe you ran the reservation line, not +long ago, and gave Mr. Bostwick and a friend of his the 'Laughing +Water' claim." + +Lawrence looked alive. + +"I certainly ran the line," he said. "Instructions came from--from +headquarters, to ascertain the precise limitations of the reservation. +The _results_ gave the 'Laughing Water' claim to its present owners, by +right of prior location, after the opening hour, as the claim was +included in the tract." He had uttered this speech before. It fell +very glibly from his tongue. + +"Yes, we know all that--so far as it's true," said Beth with startling +candor, "but we know it isn't true at all, and you've got to confess +that you made some ridiculous blunder or else that you were bribed." + +She had not intended to plump it out so bluntly, so baldly, but a +certain indignation in her breast had been rapidly increasing, and her +impulse was not to be stayed. + +"Gee!" murmured Glen, "that's going some!" + +Lawrence turned white, whether with anger or fright could not have been +determined. + +"Miss Kent!" he said. "You--you're making a very serious----" + +"Oh, I know!" she interrupted. "I expect you to deny it. But a great +deal of money--my money--has been used, and Mr. Pratt has run the +line--with myself and my brother--yesterday--so we know that you've +either been fooled or you've cheated." + +Lawrence had risen. His face was scarlet. + +"Upon my word!" he said. "Pratt, you and your friend I can order from +the office! The lady----" + +"You can't order anything!--not a thing!" said Beth. "Glen! Mr. +Pratt!--you've got to stay and help! I know the truth--and it's got to +be confessed! Mr. Van Buren----" + +"I can leave myself, since you insist upon remaining," interrupted +Lawrence, taking his hat and striding towards the door, in a panic to +get to McCoppet for much-needed aid. "Such an utterly unheard of +affront as this----" + +"Glen! run and find Mr. Van Buren!" Beth broke in excitedly. "Don't +let him go, Mr. Pratt!" + +Lawrence had reached his outer office and was almost at the door. Beth +was hastening after, with Glen at her heels. All were abruptly halted. + +Van and the sheriff appeared in the door, before which idlers were +passing. Beth was wild with joy. + +"Van," she cried, "Oh, Mr. Van Buren, I'm sure this man has cheated you +out of your claim! We ran the line ourselves--my brother, Mr. Pratt, +and I--yesterday--we finished yesterday! We found the claim is not +inside the reservation! My money was used--I'm sure for bribery! But +they've got to give you back your claim, if it takes every penny I've +got! I was sending Glen to let you know. I asked Mr. Lawrence to +confess! You won't let him go! You mustn't let him go! I am sure +there's something dreadful going on!" + +It was a swift, impassioned speech, clear, ringing, honest in every +word. It thrilled Van wondrously, despite the things that had +been--her letter, and subsequent events. He all but lost track of the +business in hand, in the light of her sudden revelations. He did not +answer readily, and Lawrence broke out in protestation. + +"It's infamous!" he cried. "If anyone here except a woman had +charged--had been guilty of all these outrageous lies----" + +Half a dozen loiterers had halted at the door, attracted by the shrill +high tones of his voice. + +"That's enough of that, Lawrence," Van interrupted quietly. "Every +word of this is true. You accepted twenty thousand dollars to falsify +that line. Your chief was murdered to get him out of the way, because +it was _known_ you could be bribed. I came here to get you, and I'll +get all the crowd, if it kills half the town in the fight." With one +quick movement he seized his man by the collar. "Here, Bill, hustle +him out," he said to Christler. "We've got no time to waste." + +Lawrence, the sheriff, and himself were projected out upon the sidewalk +by one of his quick maneuvers. A crowd of men came running to the +place. Above the rising murmur of their voices, raised in excitement, +came a shrill and strident cry. + +"Van! Van!" was the call from someone in the crowd. + +It was lean old Gettysburg. Dave and Napoleon were pantingly chasing +where he ran. + +"Van!" yelled Gettysburg again. "It's Barger!--Barger!--dead in the +tent--it's Barger--up there--dead!" + +Barger! The name acted as swiftly on the crowd as oil upon a flame. +It seemed as if the wave of news swept like a tide across the street, +down the thoroughfare, and into every shop. + +Two automobiles were halted in the road, their engines purring as they +stood. Their drivers dismounted to join the gathering throng. One of +the men was Bostwick, down from the hills. He had searched for Beth at +Mrs. Dick's, and then had followed here. + +"Barger! Barger's dead in camp and the 'Laughing Water' claim was +stolen--and Culver killed!" One man bawled it to the crowd--and it +sped to Bostwick's ears. + +One being only departed from the scene--Trimmer, the lumberman, swiftly +seeking McCoppet. + +Van, in his heat, had told too much, accusing the prisoner in hand. He +silenced Gettysburg abruptly and started to force aside the crowd. + +"Gentlemen, gentlemen, move aside," he said. "I've got--by Jupe! +there's Bostwick!" + +It was Bostwick fleeing to his car that Van had discovered. Searle had +seen enough in the briefest of glances. He had heard too much. He +realized that only in flight could the temper of the mob be avoided. +He had seen this mob in action once before--and the walls of his +stomach caved. + +Like a youthful Hercules in strength and action, Van went plunging +through the crowd to get his man. But he could not win. Bostwick had +speeded up his motor in a panic for haste and his car leaped away like +a dragon on wings, the muffler cut-out roaring like a gattling. + +Van might perhaps have shot and killed the escaping man who held the +wheel, but he wanted Searle alive. + +A roar from the crowd replied to the car. A score of men ran madly in +pursuit. None of them knew the details of the case, but they knew that +Bostwick was wanted. + +They drifted rearward from the hurtling car like fragments of paper in +its wake. The few down street who danced for a moment before the +modern juggernaut, to stop it in its course, sprang nimbly away as it +rocketed past--and Searle was headed for the desert. + +One wild, sweeping glance Van cast about, for a horse or something to +ride. Suvy was stabled, unsaddled, up the street. Bostwick and his +cloud of dust were dropping away in a swiftly narrowing perspective. +And there stood a powerful, dusty-red car--empty--its motor in motion! + +There was no time to search for its owner. There were half a dozen +different cars with which Van Buren was familiar. He ran to it, +glanced at its levers, wheel, and clutch, recognized the one type he +had coveted, and hurled himself into the seat. + +"Here! You!" yelled the owner, fighting through the crowd, but three +big miners fell upon him and bore him to the earth. They hoped to see +a race. + +They saw it begin with a promptness incredible. + +One--two changes of the snarling gears they heard before the deafening +cut-out belched its explosions. Then down the street, in pursuit of +the first, the second machine was fired. + +The buildings, to Van, were blended in grayish streaks, on either side, +as his gaze was fastened on the vanishing car ahead. He shoved up his +spark, gave her all the gas, froze to the wheel like a man of +steel--and swooped like a ground-skimming comet out upon the world. + +The road for a distance of fully five miles was comparatively level. +It was rutted by the wheels of heavy traffic, but with tires in the +dusty ruts a car ran unimpeded. + +Both, for a time were in the road, flaying up a cloud of smoke like a +cyclone ripping out its path. + +Searle had not only gained a half-mile lead, but his car was apparently +swifter. He knew its every trick and ounce of power. He drove +superbly. He was reckless now, for he had not missed the knowledge +that behind him was a meteor burning up his trail. + +Like a leaping beast--a road-devouring minotaur--the car with Van shot +roaringly through space. He could not tell that Searle, ahead, was +slipping yet further in the lead. He only knew that, come what might, +till the mechanism burst, or the earth should split, he would chase his +man across the desert. The dust in the air from Bostwick's car drove +blindingly upon him. Far, far away, a mere speck on the road, he +beheld a freight-team approaching--a team of twenty animals at least, +that he and Bostwick must encounter. + +A sudden memory of road conditions decided him to move. The ruts where +he was were bad enough--they were worse where the team must be passed. + +He did not reduce his speed to take to the brush. The car beneath him +flung clean off the ground as he swung to climb out of the grooves. It +landed with all four wheels a-spin, but only struck on two. A sudden +swerve, far out of the course, and the monster righted abruptly. +Another sharp turn, and away it went again, crushing the brush and +flinging up the sand in a track of its own that paralleled the road, +but rougher though free from the ruts. + +The brush was small, six inches high, but the wheels bounced over it +madly. The whole car hurtled and bounded in a riot of motion. It +dived, it plunged nose upward, it roared like a fiend--but it shot with +cannon-ball velocity across the desert's floor. + +Five minutes later Bostwick's car was almost fronting the team in the +road, with its score of dusty mules. He dared not take the ruts at +speed, and groaned as he slowed to climb the bank. He lost but little +time, however, since once on the side he was going ahead again like +mad; nevertheless, he cast a glance behind and saw that his gap had +narrowed. Moreover, he would not attempt to return to the ruts as +before, as a second of the teams was coming a mile or so away. + +Like two pitching porpoises, discharging fiery wrath and skimming the +gray of the desert sea, the two devices raced upon the brush. And +nerve began to tell. Van was absolutely reckless; Searle was not. The +former would have crowded on another notch of speed, but Bostwick +feared, and shut off a trifle of his power. Even then he was rocking, +quivering, careening onward like a star escaped from its course; and +the gains Van made were slow. + +The man on the second team paused to see them pass. In smoke and dust +and with war's own din they cleaved the startled air. And the man who +saw the look that had set on Van's hard-chiseled face was aware that +unless his car should fail there was nothing on earth he could not +catch. + +Bostwick had begun to weaken. The pace over sage-brush, rocks, and +basins of sand was racking both the car and the nerves that held the +wheel. How long such a flight could be continued he dared not guess. +Even steel has limitations. To what he was fleeing he could scarcely +have told, since the telegraph would send its word throughout the +desert-land, and overhaul him finally. + +A sickening apprehension assailed him, however, within the minute. One +of his cylinders was missing. His trained ear caught at the change of +the "tune," and he felt his speed decreasing. He glanced back briefly, +where the dusty lump of steel, like a red-hot projectile, thundered in +his wake. + +He beheld a sudden fan-like flare of dust in the cloud Van was making. +He even faintly heard the far report, and a grim joy sprang in his +being. + +Van had blown out a tire. Striking the high places, crowding on the +speed, holding to a straight-away course like a merciless fate, the +horseman heard an air cushion go, felt the lurch and lameness of the +car, and steadied it back upon its road. He did not retreat by so much +as a hair the lever advancing his spark. He did not budge the gas +control, but left it still wide open. If all of his tires should blow +out together he would not halt his pace. He would drive that car to +destruction, or to triumph in the race. + +Searle's rejoicing endured but the briefest span. His motor had begun +again to splutter, in mechanical death. Then, with a sudden memory, +sweat broke out on Bostwick's face. His gasolene was gone! He had +thoroughly intended refilling his tank, having barely had a sufficient +supply to run him from the claim to camp; and this had been neglected. + +His car bumped slowly for a score of yards, then died by the side of +the road. He leaped out madly, to assure himself the tank was really +dry. He cursed, he raved. It seemed absurd for this big, hot creature +to be dead. And meantime, like a whirlwind coming on, Van Buren was +crashing down upon him. + +"By God!" he cried, "I'll fix you for this!" and a wild thought flashed +to his mind--a thought of taking Van Buren's car and fleeing as before. + +He leaped in the tonneau and caught up a heavy revolver, stored beneath +the seat. He glanced at the cylinder. Four of the cartridges only +were unused. He remained inside the "fort" of the car, with the weapon +cocked and lowered out of sight. + +Charging down like a meteor, melting its very course, Van and the red +car came by leaps and plunges. He was shutting off the power +gradually, but still rushing up with frightening speed, when Bostwick +raised his gun and fired. + +The bullet went wide, and Van came on. Bostwick steadied and fired +again. There was no such thing as halting the demon in the car. But +the target's size was rapidly increasing! Nevertheless, the third shot +missed, like the others. Would the madman never halt? + +Bostwick dropped a knee to the floor, steadied the barrel on the +cushion, lined up the sights, and pulled the trigger. + +With the roar of the weapon Van abruptly drooped. The bullet had +pierced his shoulder. And he still came on. His face had suddenly +paled; his lips had hardened in a manner new to his face. He halted +the car, aware that his foe had exhausted his ammunition, since no more +shots were fired. + +His own big gun he drew deliberately. To sustain himself, through the +shock of his wound, was draining the utmost of his nerve. He was +hardly ten feet away from the man who stood there, a captive in his car. + +"Well, Searle," he said, "you're a better shot than I thought--and a +better driver. In fact you drive so almighty well I am going to let +you drive me back to camp." He arose from his seat. He was bleeding. +His left arm was all but useless. "Come down," he added. "Come down +and take my seat. And don't make the slightest error in etiquette, +Searle, or I'll see if a forty-some-odd ball will bounce when it lands +on your skull." + +Bostwick had expected to be shot on the spot. No cornered rat could +have been more abjectly afraid. His nerve had oozed away the more for +the grimness of the man who stood before him--a man with such a wound +as that who was still the master of his forces! + +He was terribly white. His teeth fairly chattered in his head. He had +played a desperate part--and lost. The race and this present +_denouement_ had shattered the man completely. He came down to the +ground and stood there, silently staring at Van. + +Despite his show of strength Van stepped with difficulty to the back of +his car and seated himself within. + +"Up in the seat there, Searle," he repeated, "and drive back at +moderate speed." + +Bostwick's surrender was complete. He climbed to the driver's +position, still silently, and started the car in an automatic way that +knew no thought of resistance. At the rear of his head Van held the +gun, and back towards Goldite they rolled. + +Two miles out the sheriff, in a borrowed car, grimly seated at the +driver's side, came bearing down upon them. The cars were halted long +enough for the sheriff to take his place with Searle, and then they +hastened on. + +Christler had instantly seen that Van was wounded. He as quickly +realized that to rush Van to town and medical attendance was the only +possible plan. + +He merely said, "You're hurt." + +Van tried to smile. "Slightly punctured." He was rapidly losing +strength. + +Christler thought to divert him. He shouted above the purring of the +car. + +"Found Matt all right. I'm goin' to take him back to the State +authorities in that convict suit that's hangin' 'round the store." + +Van was instantly aroused. "No you don't Bill! No you don't! I've +got use for those stripes myself. You'll buy Matt the best suit of +clothes in town, and charge the bill to me." + +If Bostwick heard, or understood, he did not make a sign. He was +driving like a servant on the box, but he could not have stood on his +feet. + +They were nearing the town. A cavalcade of horsemen, drivers of +buggies, and men on foot came excitedly trooping down the road to meet +the short procession. + +Despite his utmost efforts, Van was gone. Weak from the loss of blood +and the shock, he could hold up his frame no longer. + +"Bill," he said, as the sheriff turned around, "I guess I'm--all +in--for a little. Cold storage _him_, till I get back on my feet." + +He waved a loose gesture towards Bostwick, then sank unconscious on the +floor. + + + + +CHAPTER XLV + +THE LAST CIGARS + +Trimmer, the lumberman, not to be stayed, had broken in upon McCoppet +ruthlessly, with perceptions unerring concerning the troubles in the +air, when Lawrence was arrested. The gambler consented to an interview +with instinctive regard for his safety. That something significant was +laid on Trimmer's mind he felt with a subtle sense of divination. + +The lumberman, smoking furiously, came to his point with utmost +directness. + +"Opal," he said, "I'm goin' away, and I want ten thousand dollars. I +want it now. You owe me some you ain't paid up, and now I'm raisin' +the ante." + +"You're raising bunions," McCoppet assured him softly, throwing away +his unsmoked cigar and putting a fresh one in his mouth. "I'll pay you +what I agreed--when I get the ready cash." + +"Think so, do you, Opal?" inquired the lumberman, eying his man in +growing restlessness. "I think different, savvy? I'm onto you and +your game with Lawrence--you payin' him twenty thousand bucks to fake +the reservation. I want ten thousand right away, in the next ten +minutes, or you'd better pack your trunk." + +McCoppet, startled by the accusation, watched the savage manner in +which the lumberman ate up the smoke of his weed. He could think of +one way only in which a man of Trimmer's mentality could have come upon +certain private facts. + +"So," he said presently, "you crawled in under this place, this floor, +and caught it through the cracks." + +"Knot-hole," said Trimmer gesturing, "that one over there. And I tell +you, Opal, I want that money now. Do you hear? I want it now!" He +smashed his heavy fist upon the table, and off flew the ash of his +cigar. + +"What will you do if I refuse?" the gambler asked him coldly. "Wait! +Hold on! Don't forget, my friend, that Culver's murder is up to you, +and I'll give you up in a minute." + +The lumberman rose. Every moment that passed increased the danger to +them both. + +"Look a-here, Opal," he said in a threatening voice of anger, "I ain't +a-goin' to fool with you no longer. Hear me shout? Culver's up to you +as much as me. You stole the 'Laughin' Water' claim. There's hell +a-sizzlin' down the street right now--down to Lawrence's. If you don't +cough up ten thousand bucks pretty pronto----" + +"So, Larry--so, you've split on me already," the gambler interrupted, +rising and narrowing his gaze upon the bloated face. "You've peddled +it maybe, and now you come to me----" + +"I ain't peddled nuthin'!" Trimmer cut in angrily. "I didn't tell no +one but Barger, and he ain't no friend of Van Buren's. But Lawrence is +caught. Pratt run out the line, and now it's me that stands between +you and trouble, and I want the money to stand." + +McCoppet was far less calm than he appeared. How much was already +really known to the town was a matter wholly of conjecture. And +Trimmer's haste to cash in thus and probably vanish excited his gravest +suspicions. He eyed his friend narrowly. + +"Larry, we'll wait and see how much you've maybe leaked." + +"No we won't wait fer nuthin'!--not fer nuthin', understand?" corrected +Trimmer aggressively. "I ain't a-trustin' you, Opal, no more! You +done me up at every turn, and now, by God! you're goin' to come to +terms!" He pulled an ugly, rusty gun, and thumped with its muzzle on +the table. "You'll never leave this room alive if I don't git the +money. Ring fer it, Opal, ring the bell, and order it in with the +drinks!" + +McCoppet would have temporized. It was not so much the money now as +the state of affairs in the street. How much was known?--and what was +being done? These were the questions in his mind. + +"Don't get excited, friend," he said. "If things are out, and you and +I are caught with the aces in our sleeves, we may have to fight back to +back." He was edging around to draw his pistol unobserved, + +But Trimmer was alert. "Stand still, there, Opal, I've got the drop," +he said. "I'm lookin' out fer number one, this morning, understand? +You ring the----" + +A sudden, loud knock at the door broke in upon his speech, and both men +started in alarm. + +"Opal! Opal!" cried a muffled voice in accents of warning just outside +the door, "Christler's on your trail! Come out! Come out and--huh! +Too late! You'll have to get out the window!" + +The roar and excitement of the coming crowd, aroused to a wild +indignation, broke even to the den. An army of citizens, leading the +way for Christler's deputies, was storming McCoppet's saloon. + +He heard, and a little understood. He knew too much to attempt to +explain, to accuse even Trimmer to a mob in heat. Nothing but flight +was possible, and perhaps even that was a risk. + +He started for the window. Trimmer leaped before him. + +"No you don't!" he said. "I told you, Opal----" + +"Take that!" the gambler cut in sharply. His gun leaped out with flame +at its end; and the roar, fire, bullet, and all seemed to bury in the +lumberman's body. A second shot and a third did the same--and Trimmer +went down like a log. + +His gun had fallen from his hand. With all his brute vitality he +crawled to take it up. One of the bullets had pierced his heart, but +yet he would not die. + +McCoppet had snatched up a chair and with it he beat out the window. +Then Trimmer's gun crashed tremendously--and Opal sank against the sill. + +He faced his man. A ghastly pallor spread upon his countenance. He +went down slowly, like a man of melting snow, his cigar still hanging +on his lip. + +He saw the lumberman shiver. But the fellow crowded his cigar stump in +his mouth, with fire and all, and chewed it up as he was dying. + +"Good shot," said McCoppet faintly. His head went forward on his +breast and he crumpled on the floor. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI + +WASTED TIME + +Van was conveyed to Mrs. Dick's. The fever attacked him in his +helplessness and delirium claimed him for its own. He glided from +unconsciousness into a wandering state of mind before the hour of noon. + +His wound was an ugly, fiery affair, made worse by all that he did. +For having returned from his lethargy, he promptly began to fight anew +all his battles with horses, men, and love that had crossed his summer +orbit. + +Gettysburg, Dave, and Napoleon begged for the brunt of the battle. +They got it. For three long days Van lay upon his bed and flung them +all around the room. He hurt them, bruised them, even called them +names, but ever like three faithful dogs, whom beatings will never +discourage--the beatings at least of a master much beloved--they +returned undaunted to the fray, with affection constantly increasing. + +There were three other nurses--two women and Algy, the cook. But Beth +was the one who slept the least, who glided most often to the sick +man's side, who wetted his lips and renewed the ice and gave him a +cooler pillow. And she it was who suffered most when he called upon +her name. + +"Beth! Beth!" he would call in a wildness of joy, and then pass his +hand across his eyes, repeating: "--this is the man I hate more than +anyone else in the world!" + +That she finally knew, that the tell-tale portion of her letter had +been found when Bostwick was searched--all this availed her nothing +now, as she pleaded with Van to understand. He fought his fights, and +ran his race, and returned to that line so many times that she feared +it would kill him in the end. + +At midnight on that final day of struggling he lay quite exhausted and +weak. His mind was still adrift upon its sea of dreams, but he fought +his fights no more. The fever was still in possession, but its method +had been changed. It had pinned him down as a victim at last, for +resistance had given it strength. + +At evening of the seventh day he had slept away the heat. He was +wasted, his face had grown a tawny stubble of beard, but his strength +had pulled him through. + +The sunlight glory, as the great orb dipped into purple hills afar, +streamed goldenly in through the window, on Beth, alone at his side. +It blazoned her beauty, lingering in her hair, laying its roseate tint +upon the pale moss-roses of her cheeks. It richened the wondrous +luster of her eyes, and deepened their deep brown tenderness of love. +She was gold and brown and creamy white, with tremulous coral lips. +Yet on her face a greater beauty burned--the beauty of her +inner-self--the beauty of her womanhood, her nature, shining through. + +This was the vision Van looked upon, when his eyes were open at last. +He opened them languidly, as one at peace and restored to control by +rest. He looked at her long, and presently a faint smile dawned in his +eyes. + +She could not speak, as she knelt at his side, to see him thus return. +She could only place her hand upon her cheek and give herself up to his +gaze--give all she was, and all her love, and a yearning too vast to be +expressed. + +The smile from his eyes went creeping down his face as the dawn-glow +creeps down a mountain. Perhaps in a dream he had come upon the truth, +or perhaps from the light of her soul. For he said with a faint, wan +smile upon his lips: + +"I don't believe it, Beth. You meant to write 'love' in your letter." + +The tears sprang out of her eyes. + +"I did! I did! I did!" she sobbed in joy too great to be contained. +"I've always loved you, _always_!" + +Despite his wound, his weakness--all--she thrust an arm beneath his +neck and pillowed her cheek on his breast. He wanted no further +explanation, and she had no words to spend. + +One of his arms was remarkably efficient. It circled her promptly and +drew her up till he kissed her on the lips. Then he presently said: + +"How much time have we wasted?" + +"Oh, _days_!" she said, warmly blushing. "Ever since that night on the +desert." + +He shook a smiling negative. + +"Wrong. We've wasted all our lives." + +He kissed her again, then sank into slumber with the dusk. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII + +A TRIBUTE TO THE DESERT + +Love is a healer without a rival in the world. Van proved it--Van and +Beth, of course, together, with Gettysburg, Dave, and Napoleon to help, +and Algy to furnish the sauce. All were present, including Glen and +Mrs. Dick, on the summer day of celebration when at last Van came down +to dinner. At sight of the wan, wasted figure, Algy, in his +characteristic way, fought down his heathen emotions. + +"What's mallah you, Van?" he demanded, his face oddly twitching as he +spoke. "Makee evlybody _sick_! That velly superstich! Nobody's got +time cly for you come home--makee my dinner spoil!" + +He bolted for the kitchen, swearing in loving Chinese. + +But with that day passed, Van soon snatched back his own. His strength +returned like a thing that was capable of gladness, lodging where it +belonged. His spirit had never been dimmed. + +Bostwick, who had been detained by the sheriff, faithfully waiting till +Van should "get back on his feet," was almost relieved when his day for +departure finally dawned. He was dressed, at Van's express desire, in +the convict suit which he had worn on the day of his arrival. + +Van was on hand when at last the stage, with Bostwick and Christler for +passengers, was ready to pull up the street. + +"Searle," he said, "for a man of your stripe you are really to be +envied. You're going to about the only place I know where it's even +remotely possible to be good and not be lonesome." + +Searle went. Lawrence, perhaps more fortunate, had managed to escape. +He had fled away to Mexico, taking the bulk of his plunder. + +Gettysburg, Dave, and Napoleon returned once more to the placer and +sluices on the hill. Glenmore Kent was of the party, as superintendent +of the mine. He held a degree from a school of mines, and knew even +more than he had learned. Moreover, he had saved the gold pilfered by +Bostwick and McCoppet. + +Then one sunny morning Van and Beth were married by a Justice of the +Peace. Algy and Mrs. Dick were the lawful witnesses of the rites. The +only nuptial present was the gift of a gold mine in the mountains to +the bride. + +"You see," said Van, "_you_ are my 'Laughing Water' claim--and just +about all I can handle." + +They were alone. She came to his arms and kissed him with all the +divinity and passion of her nature. He presently took her face in his +hands and gave her a rough little shake. + +"Where shall we go to spend our honeymoon?" + +She blushed like a tint of sunset, softly, warmly, and hid her cheek +upon his shoulder. + +"Out in the desert--underneath the sky." + + + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Furnace of Gold, by Philip Verrill Mighels + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FURNACE OF GOLD *** + +***** This file should be named 16629.txt or 16629.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/2/16629/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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