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diff --git a/old/bkcnr10.txt b/old/bkcnr10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3f80032 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/bkcnr10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10364 @@ +Project Gutenberg Etext Bucky O'Connor, by William MacLeod Raine +#2 in our series by William MacLeod Raine + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Association/Carnegie-Mellon + University" within the 60 days following each + date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) + your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, +scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty +free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution +you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg +Association / Carnegie-Mellon University". + +*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +Scanned by Mary Starr of Glendale, California. + + + + + +Bucky O'Connor +A Tale of the Unfenced Border + +by William MacLeod Raine + + + +To My Brother + +EDGAR C. RAINE + +MY DEAR WANDERER: + +I write your name on this page that you may know we hold you not +less in our thoughts because you have heard and answered again +the call of the frozen North, have for the time disappeared, +swallowed in some of its untrodden wilds. As in those old days of +59 Below On Bonanza, the long Winter night will be of +interminable length. Armed with this note of introduction then, +Bucky O'Connor offers himself, with the best bow of one +Adventurer to another, as a companion to while away some few of +those lonely hours. + +March, 1910, Denver. + + + +BUCKY O'CONNOR + + +CONTENTS + +1. Enter "Bear-Trap" Collins +2. Taxation Without Representation +3. The Sheriff Introduces Himself +4. A Bluff is Called +5. Bucky Entertains +6. Bucky Makes a Discovery +7. In the Land of Revolutions +8. First Blood! +9. "Adore Has Only One D" +10. The Hold-Up of the M. C. P. Flyer +11. "Stone Walls Do Not a Prison Make" +12. A Clean White Man's Option +13. Bucky's First-Rate Reasons +14. Le Roi Est Mort; Vive Le Roi +15. In the Secret Chamber +16. Juan Valdez Scores +17. Hidden Valley +18. A Dinner for Three +19. A Villon of the Desert +20. Back to God's Country +21. The Wolf Pack +22. For a Good Reason + + +CHAPTER 1. ENTER "BEAR-TRAP" COLLINS + +She had been aware of him from the moment of his spectacular +entrance, though no slightest sign of interest manifested itself +in her indolent, incurious eyes. Indeed, his abundant and +picturesque area was so vivid that it would have been difficult +not to feel his presence anywhere, let alone on a journey so +monotonous as this was proving to be. + +It had been at a water-tank, near Socorro, that the Limited, +churning furiously through brown Arizona in pursuit of a lost +half-hour, jarred to a sudden halt that shook sleep from the +drowsy eyes of bored passengers. Through the window of her +Pullman the young woman in Section 3 had glimpsed a bevy of angry +train officials eddying around a sturdy figure in the center, +whose strong, lean head rose confidently above the press. There +was the momentary whirl of a scuffle, out of the tangle of which +shot a brakeman as if propelled from a catapult. The circle +parted, brushed aside by a pair of lean shoulders, muscular and +broad. Yet a few moments and the owner of the shoulders led down +the aisle to the vacant section opposite her a procession whose +tail was composed of protesting trainmen. + +"You had no right to flag the train, Sheriff Collins, and you'll +have to get off; that's all there is to it," the conductor was +explaining testily. + +"Oh, that's all right," returned the offender with easy good +nature, making himself at home in Section 4. "Tell the company to +send in its bill. No use jawing about it." + +"You'll have to get off, sir." + +"That's right--at Tucson." + +"No, sir. You'll have to get off here. I have no authority to let +you ride." + +"Didn't I hear you say the train was late? Don't you think you'd +arrive earlier at the end of your run if your choo-choo got to +puffing?" + +"You'll have to get off, sir." + +"I hate to disoblige," murmured the owner of the jingling spurs, +the dusty corduroys, and the big, gray hat, putting his feet +leisurely on the cushion in front of him. "But doesn't it occur +to you that you are a man of one idea?" + +"This is the Coast Limited. It doesn't stop for anybody--not even +for the president of the road." + +"You don't say! Well, I ce'tainly appreciate the honor you did me +in stopping to take me on." His slight drawl was quite devoid of +concern. + +"But you had no right to flag the train. Can't you understand +ANYTHING?" groaned the conductor. + +"You explain it again to me, sonny. I'm surely thick in the +haid," soothed the intruder, and listened with bland good-humor +to the official's flow of protest. + +"Well--well! Disrupted the whole transcontinental traffic, didn't +I? And me so innocent, too. Now, this is how I figured it out. +Here's me in a hurry to get to Tucson. Here comes your train +a-foggin'--also and likewise hittin' the high spots for Tucson. +Seemed like we ought to travel in company, and I was some dubious +she'd forget to stop unless I flagged her. Wherefore, I aired my +bandanna in the summer breeze." + +"But you don't understand." The conductor began to explain anew +as to a dull child. "It's against the law. You'll get into +trouble." + +"Put me in the calaboose, will they?" + +"It's no joke." + +"Well, it does seem to be worrying you," Mr. Collins conceded. +"Don't mind me. Free your mind proper." + +The conductor, glancing about nervously, noticed that passengers +were smiling broadly. His official dignity was being chopped to +mince-meat. Back came his harassed gaze to the imperturbable +Collins with the brown, sun-baked face and the eyes blue and +untroubled as an Arizona sky. Out of a holster attached to the +sagging belt that circled the corduroy trousers above his hips +gleamed the butt of a revolver. But in the last analysis the +weapon of the occasion was purely a moral one. The situation was +one not covered in the company's rule book, and in the absence of +explicit orders the trainman felt himself unequal to that +unwavering gaze and careless poise. Wherefore, he retreated, +muttering threats of what the company would do. + +"Now, if I had only known it was against the law. My thick haid's +always roping trouble for me," the plainsman confided to the +Pullman conductor, with twinkling eyes. + +That official unbent. "Talking about thick heads, I'm glad my +porter has one. If it weren't iron-plated and copper-riveted he'd +be needing a doctor now, the way you stood him on it." + +"No, did I? Ce'tainly an accident. The nigger must have been in +my way as I climbed into the car. Took the kink out of his hair, +you say? Here, Sam!" He tossed a bill to the porter, who was +rolling affronted eyes at him. "Do you reckon this is big enough +to plaster your injured feelings, boy?" + +The white smile flashed at him by the porter was a receipt for +indemnity paid in full. + +Sheriff Collins' perception of his neighbor across the aisle was +more frank in its interest than the girl's had been of him. The +level, fearless gaze of the outdoors West looked at her +unabashed, appreciating swiftly her points as they impinged +themselves upon his admiration. The long, lithe lines of the +slim, supple body, the languid grace missing hauteur only because +that seemed scarce worth while, the unconscious pride of self +that fails to be offensive only in a young woman so well equipped +with good looks as this one indubitably was the rider of the +plains had appraised them all before his eyes dismissed her from +his consideration and began a casual inspection of the other +passengers. + +Inside of half an hour he had made himself persona grata to +everybody in the car except his dark-eyed neighbor across the +way. That this dispenser of smiles and cigars decided to leave +her out in the distribution of his attentions perhaps spoke well +for his discernment. Certainly responsiveness to the geniality of +casual fellow passengers did not impress Mr. Collins as likely to +be an outstanding, quality in her. But with the drummer from +Chicago, the young mining engineer going to Sonora, the two shy +little English children just in front of him traveling to meet +their father in California, he found intuitively common ground of +interest. Even Major Mackenzie, the engineer in charge of the +large irrigation project being built by a company in southern +Arizona, relaxed at one of the plainsman's humorous tales. + +It was after Collins had half-depopulated the car by leading the +more jovial spirits back in search of liquid refreshments that an +urbane clergyman, now of Boston but formerly of Pekin, Illinois, +professedly much interested in the sheriff's touch-and-go manner +as presumably quite characteristic of the West, dropped into the +vacant seat beside Major Mackenzie. + +"And who might our energetic friend be?" he asked, with an +ingratiating smile. + +The young woman in front of them turned her head ever so slightly +to listen. + +"Val Collins is his name," said the major. "Sometimes called +'Bear-trap Collins.' He has always lived on the frontier. At +least, I met him twelve years ago when he was riding mail between +Aravaipa and Mesa. He was a boy then, certainly not over +eighteen, but in a desperate fight he had killed two men who +tried to hold up the mail. Cow-puncher, stage-driver, miner, +trapper, sheriff, rough rider, politician--he's past master at +them all." + +"And why the appellation of 'Bear-trap,' may I ask?" The smack of +pulpit oratory was not often missing in the edifying discourse of +the Reverend Peter Melancthon Brooks. + +"Well, sir, that's a story. He was trapping in the Tetons about +five years ago thirty miles from the nearest ranch-house. One +day, while he was setting a bear-trap, a slide of snow plunged +down from the tree branches above and freed the spring, catching +his hand between its jaws. With his feet and his other hand he +tried to open that trap for four hours, without the slightest +success. There was not one chance in a million of help from +outside. In point of fact, Collins had not seen a human being for +a month. There was only one thing to do, and he did it." + +"And that was?" + +"You probably noticed that he wears a glove over his left hand. +The reason, sir, is that he has an artificial hand." + +"You mean--" The Reverend Peter paused to lengthen his delicious +thrill of horror. + +"Yes, sir. That's just what I mean. He hacked his hand off at the +wrist with his hunting-knife." + +"Why, the man's a hero!" cried the clergyman, with unction. + +Mackenzie flung him a disgusted look. "We don't go much on heroes +out here. He's game, if that's what you mean. And able, too. +Bucky O'Connor himself isn't any smarter at following a trail." + +"And who is Bucky O'Connor?" + +"He's the man that just ran down Fernendez. Think I'll have a +smoke, sir. Care to join me?" + +But the Pekin-Bostonian preferred to stay and jot down in his +note-book the story of the beartrap, to be used later as a sermon +illustration. This may have been the reason he did not catch the +quick look that passed without the slightest flicker of the +eyelids between Major Mackenzie and the young woman in Section 3. +It was as if the old officer had wired her a message in some code +the cipher of which was known only to them. + +But the sheriff, returning at the head of his cohorts, caught it, +and wondered what meaning might lie back of that swift glance. +Major Mackenzie and this dark-eyed beauty posed before others as +strangers, yet between them lay some freemasonry of understanding +to which he had not the key. + +Collins did not know that the aloofness in the eyes of Miss +Wainwright--he had seen the name on her suit-case--gave way to +horror when her glance fell on his gloved hand. She had a swift, +shuddering vision of a grim-faced man, jaws set like a vise, +hacking at his wrist with a hunting-knife. But the engaging +impudence of his eye, the rollicking laughter in his voice, shut +out the picture instantly. + +The young man resumed his seat, and Miss Wainwright her listless +inspection of the flying stretches of brown desert. Dusk was +beginning to fall, and the porter presently lit the lamps. +Collins bought a magazine from the newsboy and relapsed into it, +but before he was well adjusted to reading the Limited pounded to +a second unscheduled halt. + +Instantly the magazine was thrown aside and Collins' curly head +thrust out of the window. Presently the head reappeared, +simultaneously with the crack of a revolver, the first of a +detonating fusillade. + +"Another of your impatient citizens eager to utilize the +unspeakable convenience of rapid transit," suggested the +clergyman, with ponderous jocosity. + +"No, sir; nothing so illegal," smiled the cattleman, a whimsical +light in his daredevil eyes. He leaned forward and whispered a +word to the little girl in front of him, who at once led her +younger brother back to his section. + +"I had hoped it would prove to be more diverting experience for a +tenderfoot," condescended the gentleman of the cloth. + +"It's ce'tainly a pleasure to be able to gratify you, sir. You'll +be right pleased to know that it is a train hold-up." He waved +his hand toward the door, and at the word, as if waiting for his +cue, a masked man appeared at the end of the passage with a +revolver in each hand. + + + +CHAPTER 2. TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION + +"Hands up!" + +There was a ring of crisp menace in the sinister voice that was a +spur to obedience. The unanimous show of hands voted "Aye" with a +hasty precision that no amount of drill could have compassed. + +It was a situation that might have made for laughter had there +been spectators to appreciate. But of whatever amusement was to +be had one of the victims seemed to hold a monopoly. Collins, his +arm around the English children by way of comfort, offered a +sardonic smile at the consternation his announcement and its +fulfillment had created, but none of his fellow passengers were +in the humor to respond. + +The shock of an earthquake could not have blanched ruddy faces +more surely. The Chicago drummer, fat and florid, had disappeared +completely behind a buttress of the company's upholstery. + +"God bless my soul!" gasped the Pekin-Bostonian, dropping his +eyeglass and his accent at the same moment. The dismay in his +face found a reflection all over the car. Miss Wainwright's hand +clutched at her breast for an instant, and her color ebbed till +her lips were ashen, but her neighbor across the aisle noticed +that her eyes were steady and her figure tense. + +"Scared stiff, but game," was his mental comment. + +"Gents to the right and ladies to the left; line up against the +walls; everybody waltz." called the man behind the guns, with +grim humor. + +The passengers fell into line as directed, Collins with the rest. + +"You're calling this dance, son; it's your say-so, I guess," he +conceded. + +"Keep still, or I'll shoot you full of holes," growled the +autocrat of the artillery. + +"Why, sure! Ain't you the real thing in Jesse Jameses?" soothed +the sheriff. + +At the sound of Collins' voice, the masked man had started +perceptibly, and his right hand had jumped forward an inch or two +to cover the speaker more definitely. Thereafter, no matter what +else engaged his attention, the gleaming eyes behind the red +bandanna never wandered for a moment from the big plainsman. He +was taking no risks, for he remembered the saying current in +Arizona, that after Collins' hardware got into action there was +nothing left to do but plant the deceased and collect the +insurance. He had personal reasons to know the fundamental +accuracy of the colloquialism. + +The train-conductor fussed up to the masked outlaw with a +ludicrous attempt at authority. "You can't rob the passengers on +this train. I'm not responsible for the express-car, but the +coaches--" + +A bullet almost grazed his ear and shattered a window on its way +to the desert. + +"Drift, you red-haired son of a Mexican?" ordered the man behind +the red bandanna. "Git back to that seat real prompt. This here's +taxation without representation." + +The conductor drifted as per suggestion. + +The minutes ticked themselves away in a tense strain marked by +pounding hearts. The outlaw stood at the end of the aisle, +watching the sheriff alertly. + +"Why doesn't the music begin?" volunteered Collins, by way of +conversation, and quoted: "On with the dance. Let joy be +unconfined." + +A dull explosion answered his question. The bandits were blowing +open the safe in the express-car with dynamite, pending which the +looting of the passengers was at a standstill. + +A second masked figure joined his companion at the end of the +passage and held a hurried conversation with him. Fragments of +their low-voiced talk came to Collins. + +"Only thirty thousand in the express-car. Not a red cent on the +old man himself." + +"Where's the rest?" The irritation in the newcomer's voice was +pronounced. + +Collins slewed his head and raked him with keen eyes that missed +not a detail. He was certain that he had never seen the man +before, yet he knew at once that the trim, wiry figure, so clean +of build and so gallant of bearing, could belong only to Wolf +Leroy, the most ruthless outlaw of the Southwest. It was written +in his jaunty insolence, in the flashing eyes. He was a handsome +fellow, white-toothed, black-haired, lithely tigerish, with +masterful mouth and eyes of steel, so far as one might judge +behind the white mask he wore. Alert, cruel, fearless from the +head to the heel of him, he looked the very devil to lead an +enterprise so lawless and so desperate as this. His vigilant eyes +swept contemptuously up and down the car, rested for a moment on +the young woman in Section 3, and came back to his partner. + +"Bah! A flock of sheep--tamest bunch of spring lambs we ever +struck. I'll send Scott in to go through them. If anybody gets +gay, drop him." And the outlaw turned on his heel. + +Another of the highwaymen took his place, a stout, squat figure +in the flannel shirt, spurs, and chaps of a cow-puncher. It took +no second glance to tell Collins this bandy-legged fellow had +been a rider of the range. + +"Come, gentlemen, get a move on you," Collins implored. "This +train's due at Tucson by eight o'clock. We're more than an hour +late now. I'm holding down the job of sheriff in that same town, +and I'm awful anxious to get a posse out after a bunch of +train-robbers. So burn the wind, and go through the car on the +jump. Help yourself to anything you find. Who steals my purse +takes trash. 'Tis something, nothing. 'Twas mine; 'tis his. +That's right, you'll find my roll in that left-hand pocket. I +hate to have you take that gun, though. I meant to run you down +with that same old Colt's reliable. Oh, well, just as you say. +No, those kids get a free pass. They're going out to meet papa at +Los Angeles, boys. See?" + +Collins' running fire of comment had at least the effect of +restoring the color to some cheeks that had been washed white and +of snatching from the outlaws some portion of their sense of +dominating the situation. But there was a veiled vigilance in his +eyes that belied his easy impudence. + +"That lady across the aisle gets a pass, too, boys," continued +the sheriff. "She's scared stiff now, and you won't bother her, +if you're white men. Her watch and purse are on the seat. Take +them, if you want them, and let it go at that." + +Miss Wainwright listened to this dialogue silently. She stood +before them cool and imperious and unwavering, but her face was +bloodless and the pulse in her beautiful soft throat fluttered +like a caged bird. + +"Who's doing this job?" demanded one of the hold-ups, wheeling +savagely on the impassive officer "Did I say we were going to +bother the lady? Who's doing this job, Mr. Sheriff?" + +"You are. I'd hate to be messing the job like you--holding up the +wrong train by mistake." This was a shot in the dark, and it did +not quite hit the bull's-eye. "I wouldn't trust you boys to rob a +hen-roost, the amateur way you go at it. When you get through, +you'll all go to drinking like blue blotters. I know your +kind--hell-bent to spend what you cash in, and every mother's son +of you in the pen or with his toes turned up inside of a month." + +"Who'll put us there?" gruffly demanded the bowlegged one. + +Collins smiled at him with confidence superb "Mebbe I will--and +if I don't Bucky O'Connor will--those of you that are left alive +when you go through shooting each other in the back. Oh, I see +your finish to a fare-you-well." + +"Cheese it, or I'll bump you off." The first out law drove his +gun into the sheriff's ribs. + +"That's all right. You don't need to punctuate that remark. I +line up with the sky-pilot and chew the cud of silence. I merely +wanted to frame up to you how this thing's going to turn out. +Don't come back at me and say I didn't warn you, sonnie." + +"You make my head ache," snarled the bandy-legged outlaw sourly, +as he passed down with his sack, accumulating tribute as he +passed down the aisle with his sack, accumulating tribute as he +went. + +The red-kerchiefed robber whooped when they came to the car +conductor. "Dig up, Mr. Pullman. Go way down into your jeans. +It's a right smart pleasure to divert the plunder of your bloated +corporation back to the people. What! Only fifty-seven dollars. +Oh, dig deeper, Mr. Pullman." + +The drummer contributed to the sack eighty-four dollars, a +diamond ring, and a gold watch. His hands were trembling so that +they played a tattoo on the sloping ceiling above him. + +"What's the matter, Fatty? Got a chill?" inquired one of the +robbers, as he deftly swept the plunder into the sack. + +"For--God's sake--don't shoot. I have--a wife--and five +children," he stammered, with chattering teeth. + +"No race suicide for Fatty. But whyfor do they let a sick man +like you travel all by his lone?" + +"I don't know--I--Please turn that weapon another way." + +"Plumb chuck full of malaria," soliloquized the owner of the +weapon, playfully running its business end over the Chicago man's +anatomy. "Shakes worse'n a pair of dice. Here, Fatty. Load up +with quinine and whisky. It's sure good for chills." The man +behind the bandanna gravely handed his victim back a dollar. +"Write me if it cures you. Now for the sky-pilot. No white chips +on this plate, parson. It's a contribution to the needy heathen. +You want to be generous. How much do you say? + +The man of the cloth reluctantly said thirty dollars, a Lincoln +penny, and a silver-plated watch inherited from his fathers. The +watch was declined with thanks, the money accepted without. + +The Pullman porter came into the car under compulsion of a +revolver in the hand of a fourth outlaw, one in a black mask. His +trembling finger pointed out the satchel and suit-case of Major +Mackenzie, and under orders he carried out the baggage belonging +to the irrigation engineer. Collin observed that the bandit in +the black mask was so nervous that the revolver in his hand +quivered like an aspen in the wind. He was slenderer and much +shorter than the Mexican, so that the sheriff decided he was a +mere boy. + +It was just after he had left that three shots in rapid +succession rang out in the still night air. + +The red-bandannaed one and his companion, who had apparently been +waiting for the signal, retreated backward to the end of the car, +still keeping the passengers covered. They flung rapidly two or +three bullets through the roof, and under cover of the smoke +slipped out into the night. A moment later came the thud of +galloping horses, more shots, and, when the patter of hoofs had +died away--silence. + +The sheriff was the first to break it. He thrust his brown hands +deep into his pockets and laughed--laughed with the joyous, +rollicking abandon of a tickled schoolboy. + +"Hysterics?" ventured the mining engineer sympathetically. + +Collins wiped his eyes. "Call 'em anything you like. What pleases +me is that the reverend gentleman should have had this diverting +experience so prompt after he was wishing for it." He turned, +with concern, to the clergyman. "Satisfied, sir? Did our little +entertainment please, or wasn't it up to the mark?" + +But the transported native of Pekin was game. "I'm quite +satisfied, if you are. I think the affair cost you a hundred +dollars or so more than it did me." + +"That's right," agreed the sheriff heartily. "But I don't grudge +it--not a cent of it. The show was worth the price of admission." + +The car conductor had a broadside ready for him. "Seems to me you +shot off your mouth more than you did that big gun of yours, Mr. +Sheriff." + +Collins laughed, and clapped him on the back. "That's right. I'm +a regular phonograph, when you wind me up." He did not think it +necessary to explain that he had talked to make the outlaws talk, +and that he had noted the quality of their voices so carefully +that he would know them again among a thousand. Also he had +observed--other things--the garb of each of the men he had seen, +their weapons, their manner, and their individual peculiarities. + +The clanking car took up the rhythm of the rails as the delayed +train plunged forward once more into the night. Again the clack +of tongues, set free from fear, buzzed eagerly. The glow of the +afterclap of danger was on them, and in the warm excitement each +forgot the paralyzing fear that had but now padlocked his lips. +Courage came flowing back into flabby cheeks and red blood into +hearts of water. + +At the next station the Limited stopped, and the conductor swung +from a car before the wheels had ceased rolling and went running +into the telegraph office. + +"Fire a message through for me, Pat. The Limited has been held +up," he announced. + +"Held up?" gasped the operator. + +"That's right. Get this message right through to Sabin. I'm not +going to wait for an answer. Tell him I'll stop at Apache for +further instructions." + +With which the conductor was out again waving his lantern as a +signal for the train to start. Sheriff Collins and Major +Mackenzie had entered the office at his heels. They too had +messages to send, but it was not until the train was already +plunging into the night that the station agent read the yellow +slips they had left and observed that both of them went to the +same person. + +"Lieutenant Bucky O'Connor, Douglas, Arizona," was the address he +read at the top of each. His comment serves to show the opinion +generally in the sunburned territory respecting one of its +citizens. + +"You're wise guys, gents, both of yez. This is shure a case for +the leftenant. It's send for Bucky quick when the band begins to +play," he grinned. + +Sitting down, he gave the call for Tucson, preparatory to +transmitting the conductor's message to the division +superintendent. His fingers were just striking the first tap when +a silken voice startled him. + +"One moment, friend. No use being in a hurry." + +The agent looked up and nearly fell from his stool. He was gazing +into the end of a revolver held carelessly in the hand of a +masked man leaning indolently on the counter. + +"Whe--where did you come from?" the operator gasped. + +"Kaintucky, but I been here a right smart spell. Why? You takin' +the census?" came the drawling answer. + +"I didn't hear youse come in." + +"I didn't hear you come in, either," the man behind the mask +mocked. But even as he spoke his manner changed, and crisp menace +rang in his voice. "Have you sent those messages yet?" + +"Wha--what messages?" + +"Those lying on your desk. I say, have you sent them?" + +"Not yet." + +"Hand them over here." + +The operator passed them across the counter without demur. + +"Now reach for the roof." + +Up shot the station agent's hands. The bandit glanced over the +written sheets and commented aloud: + +"Huh! One from the conductor and one from Mackenzie. I expected +those. But this one from Collins is ce'tainly a surprise party. I +didn't know he was on the train. Lucky for him I didn't, or mebbe +I'd a-put his light for good and all. Friend, I reckon we'll +suppress these messages. Military necessity, you understand." And +with that he lightly tore up the yellow sheets and tossed them +away. + +"The conductor will wire when he reaches Apache," the operator +suggested, not very boldly. + +The outlaw rolled a cigarette deftly and borrowed a match. "He +most surely will. But Apache is seventy miles from here. That +gives us an extra hour and a half, and with us right now time is +a heap more valuable than money. You may tell Bucky O'Connor when +you see him that that extra hour and a half cinches our escape, +and we weren't on the anxious seat any without it." + +It may have been true, as the train robber had just said, that +time was more valuable to him then than money, but if so he must +have held the latter of singularly little value. For he sat him +down on the counter with his back against the wall and his legs +stretched full length in front of him and glanced over the Tucson +Star in leisurely fashion, while Pat's arms still projected +roofward. + +The operator, beginning to get over his natural fright, could not +withhold a reluctant admiration of this man's aplomb. There was a +certain pantherish lightness about the outlaw's movements, a trim +grace of figure which yet suggested rippling muscles perfectly +under control, and a quiet wariness of eye more potent than words +at repressing insurgent impulses. Certainly if ever there was a +cool customer and one perfectly sure of himself, this was he. + +"Not a thing in the Star to-day," Pat's visitor commented, as he +flung it away with a yawn. "I'll let a thousand dollars of the +express company's money that there will be something more +interesting in it to-morrow." + +"That's right," agreed the agent. + +"But I won't be here to read it. My engagements take me south. +I'll make a present to the great Lieutenant O'Connor of the +information. We're headed south, tell him. And tell Mr. Sheriff +Collins, too--happy to entertain him if he happens our way. If it +would rest your hands any there's no law against putting them in +your trousers pockets, my friend." + +From outside there came a short sharp whistle. The man on the +counter answered it, and slipped at once to the floor. The door +opened, to let in another masked form, but one how different from +the first! Here was no confidence almost insolent in its +nonchalance. The figure was slight and boyish, the manner +deprecating, the brown eyes shy and shrinking He was so obviously +a novice at outlawry that fear sat heavy upon his shoulders. When +he spoke, almost in a whisper, his teeth chattered. + +"All ready, sir." + +"The wires are cut?" demanded his leader crisply. + +"Yes, sir." + +"On both sides?" + +"On both sides." + +His chief relieved the operator of the revolver in his desk, +broke it, emptied out the shells, and flung them through the +window, then tossed the weapon back to its owner. + +"You'll not shoot yourself by accident now," he explained, and +with that he had followed his companion into the night. + +There came to the station agent the sound of galloping horses, +growing fainter, until a heavy silence seemed to fill the night. +He stole to the door and locked it, pulled down the window +blinds, and then reloaded his revolver with feverish haste. This +done, he sat down before his keys with the weapon close at hand +and frantically called for Tucson over and over again. No answer +came to him, nor from the other direction when he tried that. The +young bandit had told the truth. His companions had cut the wires +and so isolated from the world for the time the scene of the +hold-up. The agent understood now why the leader of the outlaws +had honored him with so much of his valuable time. He had stayed +to hold back the telegrams until he knew the wires were cut. + + + +CHAPTER 3. THE SHERIFF INTRODUCES HIMSELF + +Bear-trap Collins, presuming on the new intimacy born of an +exciting experience shared in common, stepped across the aisle, +flung aside Miss Wainwright's impedimenta, and calmly seated +himself beside her. She was a young woman capable of a hauteur +chillier than ice to undue familiarity, but she did not choose at +this moment to resent his assumption of a footing that had not +existed an hour ago. Picturesque and unconventional conduct +excuses itself when it is garbed in picturesque and engaging +manners. She had, besides, other reasons for wanting to meet him, +and they had to do with a sudden suspicion that flamed like tow +in her brain. She had something for which to thank him--much more +than he would be likely to guess, she thought--and she was +wondering, with a surge of triumph, whether the irony of fate had +not made his pretended consideration for her the means of his +undoing. + +"I am sorry you lost so much, Miss Wainwright," he told her. + +"But, after all, I did not lose so much as you. Her dark, +deep-pupiled eyes, long-lashed as Diana's, swept round to meet +his coolly. + +"That's a true word. My reputation has gone glimmering for fair, +I guess." He laughed ruefully. "I shouldn't wonder, ma'am, when +election time comes round, if the boys ain't likely to elect to +private life the sheriff that lay down before a bunch of +miscreants." + +"Why did you do it?" + +His humorous glance roamed round the car. "Now, I couldn't think +it proper for me to shoot up this sumptuous palace on wheels. And +wouldn't some casual passenger be likely to get his lights put +out when the band began to play? Would you want that Boston +church to be shy a preacher, ma'am?" + +Her lips parted slightly in a curve of scorn. "I suppose you had +your reasons for not interfering." + +"Surely, ma'am. I hated to have them make a sieve of me." + +"Were you afraid?" + +"Most men are when Wolf Leroy's gang is on the war path." + +"Wolf Leroy?" + +"That was Wolf who came in to see they were doing the job right. +He's the worst desperado on the border--a sure enough bad +proposition, I reckon. They say he's part Spanish and part +Indian, but all pisen. Others say he's a college man of good +family. I don't know about that, for nobody knows who he really +is. But the name is a byword in the country. People lower their +voices when they speak of him and his night-riders." + +"I see. And you were afraid of him?" + +"Very much." + +Her narrowed eyes looked over the strong lines of his lean face +and were unconvinced. "I expect you found a better reason than +that for not opposing them." + +He turned to her with frank curiosity. "I'd like real well to +have you put a name to it." + +But he was instantly aware that her interest had been side +tracked. Major Mackenzie had entered the car and was coming down +the aisle. Plainer than words his eyes asked a question, and hers +answered it. + +The sheriff stopped him with a smiling query: "Hit hard, major?" + +Mackenzie frowned. "The scoundrels took thirty thousand from the +express car, I understand. Twenty thousand of it belonged to our +company. I was expecting to pay off the men next Tuesday." + +"Hope we'll be able to run them down for you," returned Collins +cheerfully. "I suppose you lay it to Wolf Leroy's gang?" + +"Of course. The work was too well done to leave any doubt of +that." The major resumed his seat behind Miss Wainwright. + +To that young woman the sheriff repeated his unanswered question +in the form of a statement. "I'm waiting to learn that better +reason, ma'am." + +She was possessed of that spice of effrontery more to be desired +than beauty. "Shall we say that you had no wish to injure your +friends?" + +"My friends?" + +Her untender eyes mocked his astonishment. "Do I choose the wrong +word?" she asked, with an audacity of a courage that delighted +him. "Perhaps they are not your friends--these train robbers? +Perhaps they are mere casual acquaintances?" + +His bold eyes studied with a new interest her superb, confident +youth--the rolling waves of splendid Titian hair, the lovely, +subtle eyes with the depths of shadowy pools in them, the +alluring lines of long and supple loveliness. Certainly here was +no sweet, ingenuous youth all prone to blushes, but the complex +heir of that world-old wisdom the weaker sex has shaped to serve +as a weapon against the strength that must be met with the wit of +Mother Eve. + +"You ce'tainly have a right vivid imagination, ma'am," he said +dryly. + +"You are quite sure you have never seen them before?" her velvet +voice asked. + +He laughed. "Well, no--I can't say I am." + +"Aren't you quite sure you have seen them?' + +Her eyes rested on him very steadily. + +"You're smart as a whip, Miss Wainwright. I take off my hat to a +young lady so clever. I guess you're right. About the identity of +one of those masked gentlemen I'm pretty well satisfied." + +She drew a long breath. "I thought so." + +"Yes," he went on evenly, "I once earmarked him so that I'd know +him again in case we met." + +"I beg pardon. You--what?" + +"Earmarked him. Figure of speech, ma'am. You may not have +observed that the curly-headed person behind the guns was shy the +forefinger of his right hand. We had a little difficulty once +when he was resisting arrest, and it just happened that my gun +fanned away his trigger finger." He added reminiscently: + +"A good boy, too, Neil was once. We used to punch together on the +Hashknife. A straight-up rider, the kind a fellow wants when Old +Man Trouble comes knocking at the door. Well, I reckon he's a +miscreant now, all right." + +"They knew YOU--at least two of them did." + +"I've been pirootin' around this country, boy and man, for +fifteen years. I ain't responsible for every yellow dog that +knows me," he drawled. + +"And I noticed that when you told them not to rob the children +and not to touch me they did as you said." + +"Hypnotism," he suggested, with a smile. + +"So, not being a child, I put two and two together and draw an +inference." + +He seemed to be struggling with his mirth. "I see you do. Well, +ma'am, I've been most everything since I hit the West, but this +is the first time I've been taken for a train robber." + +"I didn't say that," she cried quickly. + +"I think you mentioned an inference." The low laugh welled out of +him and broke in his face. "I've been busy on one, too. It's a +heap nearer the truth than yours, Miss Mackenzie." + +Her startled eyes and the swift movement of her hand toward her +heart showed him how nearly he had struck home, how certainly he +had shattered her cool indifference of manner. + +He leaned forward, so close that even in the roar of the train +his low whisper reached her. "Shall I tell you why the hold-ups +didn't find more money on your father or in the express car, Miss +Mackenzie?" + +She was shaken, so much so that her agitation trembled on her +lips. + +"Shall I tell you why your hand went to your breast when I first +mentioned that the train was going to be held up, and again when +your father's eyes were firing a mighty pointed question at you?" + +"I don't know what you mean," she retorted, again mistress of +herself. + +Her gallant bearing compelled his admiration. The scornful eyes, +the satirical lift of the nostrils, the erect, graceful figure, +all flung a challenge at him. He called himself hard names for +putting her on the rack, but the necessity to make her believe in +him was strong within him. + +"I noticed you went right chalky when I announced the hold-up, +and I thought it was because you were scared. That was where I +did you an injustice, ma'am, and you can call this an apology. +You've got sand. If it hadn't been for what you carry in the +chamois skin hanging on the chain round your neck you would have +enjoyed every minute of the little entertainment. You're as game +as they make them." + +"May I ask how you arrived at this melodramatic conclusion?" she +asked, her disdainful lip curling. + +"By using my eyes and my ears, ma'am. I shouldn't have noticed +your likeness to Major Mackenzie, perhaps, if I hadn't observed +that there was a secret understanding between you. Now, whyfor +should you be passing as strangers? I could guess one reason, and +only one. There have twice been attempted hold-ups of the +paymaster of the Yuba reservoir. It was to avoid any more of +these that Major Mackenzie took charge personally of paying the +men. He has made good up till now. But there have been rumors for +months that he would be held up either before leaving the train +or while he was crossing the desert. He didn't want to be seen +taking the boodle from the express company at Tucson. He would +rather have the impression get out that this was just a casual +visit. It occurred to him to bring along some unsuspected party +to help him out. The robbers would never expect to find the money +on a woman. That's why the major brought his daughter with him. +Doesn't it make you some uneasy to be carrying fifty thousand in +small bills sewed in your clothes and hung round your neck?" + +She broke into musical laughter, natural and easy. "I don't +happen to have fifty thousand with me." + +"Oh, well, say forty thousand. I'm no wizard to guess the exact +figure." + +Her swift glance at him was almost timid. + +"Nor forty thousand," she murmured. + +"I should think, ma'am, you'd crinkle more than a silk-lined lady +sailing down a church aisle on Sunday." + +A picture in the magazine she was toying with seemed to interest +her. + +"I expect that's the signal for 'Exit Collins.' I'll say good-by +till next time, Miss Mackenzie." + +"Oh, is there going to be a next time?" she asked, with elaborate +carelessness. + +"Several of them." + +"Indeed!" + +He took a notebook from his pocket and wrote. + +"I ain't the son of a prophet, but I'm venturing a prediction," +he explained. + +She had nothing to say, and she said it competently. + +"Concerning an investment in futurities I'm making," he +continued. + +Her magazine article seemed to be beginning, well. + +"It's a little guess about how this train robbery is coming out. +If you don't mind, I'll leave it with you." He tore the page out, +put it in an empty envelope, sealed the flap, and handed it to +her. + +"Open it in a month, and see whether my guess is a good one." + +The dusky lashes swept round indolently. "Suppose I were to open +it to-night." + +"I'll risk it," smiled the blue eyes. + +"On honor, am I?" + +"That's it." He held out a big, brown hand. + +"You're going to try to capture the robbers, are you?" + +"I've been thinking that way--with the help of Lieutenant Bucky +O'Connor, I mean." + +"And I suppose you've promised yourself success." + +"It's on the knees of chance, ma'am. We may get them. They may +get us." + +"But this prediction of yours?" She held up the sealed envelope. + +"That's about another matter." + +"But I don't understand. You said--" She gave him a chance to +explain. + +"It ain't meant you should. You'll understand plenty at the +proper time." + +He offered her his hand again. "We're slowing down for Apache. +Good-by--till next time." + +The suede glove came forward, and was buried in his handshake. + +He understood it to be an unvoiced apology of its owner for her +suspicions, and his instinct was correct. For how could her +doubts hold their ground when he had showed himself a sharer in +her secret and a guardian of it? And how could anything sinister +lie behind those frank, unwavering eyes or consist with that +long, clean stride that was carrying him so forcefully to the +vestibule? + +At Apache no telegrams were found waiting for those who had been +expecting them. Communication with the division superintendent at +Tucson uncovered the fact that no message of the hold-up had yet +reached him. It was an easy guess for Collins to find the reason. + +"We're in the infant class, major," he told Mackenzie, with a +sardonic laugh. "Leroy must have galloped down the line direct to +the station after the hold-up. Likely enough he went into the +depot just as we went out. That gives him the other hour or two +he needs to make his getaway with the loot. Well, it can't be +helped now. If I can only reach Bucky there's one chance in fifty +he can head them off from crossing into Sonora. Soon as I can get +together a posse I'll take up the trail from the point of the +hold-up. But they'll have a whole night's start on me. That's a +big handicap." + +From Apache Collins sent three dispatches. One was to his deputy, +Dillon, at Tucson. It read: + +"Get together at once posse of four and outfit same for four +days." + +Another went to Sabin, the division superintendent: + +"Order special to carry posse with horses from Tucson to Big Gap. +Must leave by midnight. Have track clear." + +The third was a notification to Lieutenant O'Connor, of the +Arizona Rangers, of the hold-up, specifying time and place of the +occurrence. The sheriff knew it was not necessary to add that the +bandits were probably heading south to get into Sonora. Bucky +would take that for granted and do his best to cover the likely +spots of the frontier. + +It was nearly eleven when the Limited drew in to Tucson. Sabin +was on the platform anxiously awaiting their arrival. Collins +reached him even before the conductor. + +"Ordered the special, Mr. Sabin?" he asked, in a low voice. + +The railroad man was chewing nervously on an unlit cigar. "Yes, +sheriff. You want only an engine and one car, I suppose." + +"That will be enough. I've got to go uptown now and meet Dillon. +Midnight sharp, please." + +"Do you know how much they got?" Sabin whispered. + +"Thirty thousand, I hear, besides what they took from the +passengers. The conductor will tell you all about it. I've got to +jump to be ready." + +A disappointment awaited him in the telegrapher's room at the +depot. He found a wire, but not from the person he expected. The +ranger in charge at Douglas said that Lieutenant O'Connor was at +Flag staff, but pending that officer's return he would put +himself under the orders of Sheriff Collins and wait for +instructions. + +The sheriff whistled softly to himself and scratched his head. +Bucky would not have waited for instructions. By this time that +live wire would have finished telephoning all over Southern +Arizona and would himself have been in the saddle. But Bucky in +Flagstaff, nearly three hundred miles from the battlefield, so +far as the present emergency went, might just as well be in +Calcutta. Collins wired instructions to the ranger and sent a +third message to the lieutenant. + +"I expect I'll hear this time he's skipped over to Winslow," he +told himself, with a rueful grin. + +The special with the posse on board drew out at midnight sharp. +It reached the scene of the holdup before daybreak. The loading +board was lowered and the horses led from the car and picketed. +Meanwhile two of the men lit a fire and made breakfast while the +others unloaded the outfit and packed for the trail. The first +faint streaks of gray dawn were beginning to fleck the sky when +Collins and Dillon, with a lantern, moved along the railroad bed +to the little clump of cottonwoods where the outlaws had probably +lain while they waited for the express. They scanned this ground +inch by inch. The coals where their camp-fire had been were still +alive. Broken bits of food lay scattered about. Half-trampled +into the ground the sheriff picked up a narrow gold chain and +locket. This last he opened, and found it to contain a tiny +photograph of a young mother and babe, both laughing happily. A +close search failed to disclose anything else of interest. + +They returned to their companions, ate breakfast, and saddled. It +was by this time light enough to be moving. The trail was easy as +a printed map, for the object of the outlaws had been haste +rather than secrecy. The posse covered it swiftly and without +hesitation. + +"Now, I wonder why this trail don't run straight south instead of +bearing to the left into the hills. Looks like they're going to +cache their stolen gold up in the mountains before they risk +crossing into Sonora. They figure Bucky'll be on the lookout for +them," the sheriff said to his deputy. + +"I believe you've guessed it, Val. Stands to reason they'll want +to get rid of the loot soon as they can. Oh, hell!" + +Dillon's disgust proved justifiable, for the trail had lost +itself in a mountain stream, up or down which the outlaws must +have filed. A month later and the creek would have been dry. But +it was still spring. The mountain rains had not ceased feeding +the brook, and of this the outlaws had taken advantage to wipe +out their trail. + +The sheriff looked anxiously at the sky. "It's fixin' to rain, +Jim. Don't that beat the Dutch? If it does, that lets us out +plenty." + +The men they were after might have gone either upstream or down. +It was impossible to know definitely which, nor was there time to +follow both. Already big drops of rain were splashing down. + +"We'll take a chance, and go up. They're probably up in the hills +somewhere right now," said Collins, with characteristic decision. + +He had guessed right. A mile farther upstream horses had +clambered to the bank and struck deeper into the hills. But +already rain was falling in a brisk shower. The posse had not +gone another quarter of a mile before the trail was washed out. +They were now in a rough and rocky country getting every minute +steeper. + +"It's going to be like lookin' for a needle in a haystack, Val," +Dillon growled. + +Collins nodded. "We ain't got one chance in a hundred, Jim, but I +reckon we'll take that chance." + +For three days they blundered around in the hills before they +gave it up. The first night, about dusk, the pursuers were +without knowing it so warm that one of the bandits lay with his +rifle on a rock rim not a stone's throw above them as they wound +through a little ravine. But Collins got no glimpse of the +robbers. At last he reluctantly gave the word to turn back. +Probably the men he wanted had already slipped down to the plains +and across to Mexico. If not, they might play hide and seek with +him a month in the recesses of these unknown mountains. + +Next morning the sheriff struck a telephone wire, tapped it, got +Sabin on the line, told him of his failure and that he was +returning to Tucson. About the middle of the afternoon the +dispirited posse reached its sidetracked special. + +A young man lay stretched full length on the loading board, with +a broad-brimmed felt hat over his eyes. He wore a gray flannel +shirt and corduroy trousers thrust into half-leg laced boots. At +the sound of voices he turned lazily on his side and watched the +members of the posse swing wearily from their saddles. An amiable +smile, not wholly free of friendly derision, lit his good-looking +face. + +"Oh, you sheriff," he drawled. + +Collins swung round, as if he had been pricked with a knife +point. He stared an instant before he let out a shout of welcome +and fell upon the youth. + +"Bucky, by thunder!" + +The latter got up nimbly in time to be hospitably thumped and +punched. He was a lithe, slender young fellow, of medium height, +and he carried himself lightly with that manner of sunburned +competency given only by the rough-and-tumble life of the +outdoors West. + +While the men reloaded the car he and the sheriff stood apart and +talked in low tones. Collins told what he knew, both what he had +seen and inferred, and Bucky heard him to the end. + +"Yes, it ce'tainly looks like one of Wolf Leroy's jobs," he +agreed. "Nobody else but Leroy would have had the nerve to follow +you right up to the depot and put the kibosh on sending those +wires. He's surely game from the toes up. Think of him sittin' +there reading the newspaper half an hour after he held up the +Limited!" + +"Did he do that, Bucky?" The sheriff's tone conceded admiration. + +"He did. He's the only train robber ever in the business that +could have done it. Oh, the Wolf's tracks are all over this job." + +"No doubt about that. I told you I recognized York Neil by him +being shy that trigger finger I fanned off down at Tombstone. +Well, they say he's one of the Wolf's standbys." + +"Yes. I warned him two months ago that if he didn't break away +he'd die sudden. Somehow I couldn't persuade him he was an awful +sick man right then. You saw four of these hold-ups in all, +didn't you, Val?" + +"Four's right. First off Neil, then the fellow I took to be the +Wolf. After he went out a bowlegged fellow came in, and last a +slim little kid that was a sure enough amateur, the way his gun +shook." + +"Any notion how many more there were?" + +"I figured out two more. A big gazabo in a red wig held up Frost, +the engineer. He knew it was a wig because he saw long black hair +peeping out around his neck. Then there must 'a' been another in +charge of blowing up the express car, a Mexican, from the +description the messenger gives of him." + +Bucky nodded. "Looks like you got it figured about right, Val. +The Mexican is easy to account for. The Wolf spends about half +his time down in Chihuahua and trains with some high-class +greasers down there. Well, we'll see what we'll see. I'll set my +rangers at rounding up the border towns a bit, and if I don't +start anything there I'll hike down into Mexico and see what's +doing. I'll count on you to run the Arizona end of it while I'm +away, Val. The Wolf's outfit is a pretty wild one, and it won't +be long till something begins to howl. We'll keep an eye on the +gambling halls and see who is burning up money. Oh, they'll leave +plenty of smoke behind them," the ranger concluded cheerfully. + +"There will be plenty of smoke if we ever do round 'em up, not to +mention a heap of good lead that will be spilled," the sheriff +agreed placidly. "Well, all I got to say is the sooner the +quicker. The bunch borrowed a mighty good .45 of mine I need in +my biz. I kinder hanker to get it back muy pronto." + +"Here's hoping," Bucky nodded gayly. "I bet there will be a right +lively wolf hunt. Hello! The car's loaded. All aboard for +Tucson." + +The special drew out from the side track and gathered speed. Soon +the rhythmic chant of the rails sounded monotonously, and the +plains on either side of the track swam swiftly to the rear. + + + +CHAPTER 4. A BLUFF IS CALLED + +Torpid lay Aravaipa in a coma of sunheat. Its adobe-lined streets +basked in the white glare of an Arizona spring at midday. One or +two Papago Indians, with their pottery wares, squatted in the +shade of the buildings, but otherwise the plaza was deserted. Not +even a moving dog or a lounging peon lent life to the drowsy +square. Silence profound and peace eternal seemed to brood over +the land. + +Such was the impression borne in upon the young man riding +townward on a wiry buckskin that had just topped the rise which +commanded the valley below. The rider presented a striking enough +appearance to take and hold the roving eye of any young woman in +search of romance. He was a slender, lithe young Adonis of medium +height. His hair and eyebrows left one doubtful whether to +pronounce them black or brown, but the eyes called for an +immediate verdict of Irish blue. Every inch of him spoke of +competency--promised mastership of any situation likely to arise. +But when the last word is said it was the eyes that dominated the +personality. They could run the whole gamut of emotions, or they +could be impervious as a stone wall. Now they were deep and +innocent as a girl's, now they rollicked with the buoyant youth +in them. Comrades might see them bubbling with fun, and the next +moment enemies find them opague as a leaden sky. Not the least +wonder of them was that they looked out from under long lashes, +soft enough for any maiden, at a world they appraised with the +shrewdness of a veteran. + +The young man drew rein above the valley, sitting his horse in +the easy, negligent fashion of one that lives in the saddle. A +thumb was hitched carelessly in the front pocket of his chaps, +which pocket served also as a holster for the .45 that protruded. + +Even in the moment that he sat there a change came over Aravaipa. +As a summer shower sweeps across a lake so something had ruffled +the town to sudden life. From stores and saloons men dribbled, +converging toward a common centre hurriedly. + +"I reckon, Bucky, the band has begun to play," the rider told +himself aloud. "Mebbe we better move on down in time for the +music." + +But no half-expected revolver shots shattered the stillness, even +though interest did not abate. + +"There's ce'tainly something doing at the Silver Dollar this glad +mo'ning. Chinks, greasers, and several other kinds of citizens +driftin' that way, not to mention white men. I expect there will +be room for you, Bucky, if you hurry before the seats are all +sold out." + +He cantered down the plaza, swung from the saddle, threw the rein +over the pony's head to the ground, and jingled across the +sidewalk into the gambling house. It was filled with a motley +crowd of miners, vaqueros, tourists, cattlemen, Mexicans, +Chinese, and a sample of the rest of the heterogeneous population +of the Southwest. Behind this assemblage the newcomer tiptoed in +vain to catch a glimpse of the cause of the excitement. +Wherefore, he calmly removed an almond-eyed Oriental from a chair +on which he was standing, tipped the ex-Cantonese a half dollar, +and appropriated the point of vantage himself. + +There was a cleared space in the corner by the roulette table, +and here, his chair tipped back against the wall and a glass of +whisky in front of him, sat a sufficiently strange specimen of +humanity. He was a man of about fifty years, large boned and +gaunt. Dressed in fringed buckskin trousers and a silver-laced +Mexican sombrero, he affected the long hair, the sweeping +mustache, and the ferocious aspect that are the custom of the +pseudo-Westerners who do business in the East with fake medical +remedies. Around his waist was a belt garnished with knives by +the dozen. These were long and pointed, sharpened to a razor +edge. One of them was in his hand poised for a throw at the +instant Bucky mounted the chair and looked over the densely +packed mass of heads in front of him. + +The ranger's keen glance swept to the wall and took in the +target. A slim lad of about fifteen stood against it with his +arms outstretched. Above and below each hand and on either side +of the swelling throat knives quivered in the frame wall. There +was a flash of steel, and the seventh knife sank into the wood so +close to the crisp curls that a lock hung by a hair, almost +completely severed by the blade. The boy choked back a scream, +his big brown eyes dilating with terror. + +The bully sipped at his highball and deliberately selected +another knife. To Bucky's swift inspection it was plain he had +drunk too much and that a very little slip might make an end of +the boy. The fascinated horror in the lad's gaze showed that he +realized his danger. + +"Now, f'ler cit'zens, I will continue for your 'musement by +puttin' next two knives on right and lef' sides of his cheek. +Observe, pleash, that these will land less than an inch from hish +eyes. As the champion knife thrower in the universe I claim--" + +What he claimed his audience had to guess, for at this instant +another person took a part in the act. Bucky had stepped lightly +across the intervening space on the shoulders of the tightly +packed crowd and had dropped as lightly to the ground in front of +the astonished champion of the universe. + +"I reckon you've about wore out that target. What's the matter +with trying a brand new one drawled the ranger, his quiet, +unwavering eye fixed on the bloated, mottled face of the +imitation "bad man." + +The bully, half seas over, leaned forward and gripped his knife. +He was sober enough to catch the jeer running through the other's +words without being sufficiently master of himself to appreciate +the menace that underlay them. + +"Wha's that? Say that again!" he burst out, purple to the collar +line. He was not used to having beardless boys with long, soft +eyelashes interfering with his amusements, and a blind rage +flooded his heart. + +"I allowed that a change of targets would vary the entertainment, +if you haven't any objections, seh," the blue-eyed stranger +explained mildly. + +"Who is this kid?" demanded the bully, with a sweep of his arm +toward the intruder. + +Nobody seemed to know, wherefore the ranger himself gave the +information mildly: + +"Bucky O'Connor they call me." + +A faint murmur of surprise soughed through the crowd, for Bucky +O'Connor of the Arizona Rangers was by way of being a public hero +just now on account of his capture of Fernendez, the stage +robber. But the knife thrower had but lately arrived in the +country. The youth carried with him none of the earmarks of his +trade, unless it might be that quiet, steady gaze that seemed to +search the soul. His voice was soft and drawling, his manner +almost apologetic. In the smile that came and went was something +sweet and sunny, in his bearing a gay charm that did not +advertise the recklessness that bubbled from his daredevil +spirit. Surely here was an easy victim upon whom to vent his +spleen, thought the other in his growing passion. + +"You want to be my target, do you?" he demanded, tugging +ferociously at his long mustache. + +"If you please, seh." + +The fellow swore a vile oath. "Just as you say. Line up beside +the other kid." + +With three strides Bucky reached the wall, and turned. + +"Let 'er go," his gentle voice murmured. + +He was leaning back easily against the wall, his thumb hitched +carelessly in the revolver pocket of his worn leather chaps. He +looked at ease, every jaunty inch of him, but a big bronzed +cattleman who had just pushed his way in noticed that the frosty +blue eyes never released for an instant those of the enemy. + +The bully at the table passed an uncertain hand over his face to +clear his blurred vision, poised the cruel blade in his hand, and +sent it flashing forward with incredible swiftness. The steel +buried itself two inches deep in the soft pine beside Bucky's +head. So close had it shaved him that a drop of blood gathered +and dropped from his ear to the floor. + +"Good shot," commented the ranger quietly, and on the instant his +revolver seemed to leap from its holster to his hand. Without +raising or moving his arm in the least, Bucky fired. + +Again a murmur eddied through the crowd. The bullet had neatly +bored the bully's ear. He raised his hand in dazed fashion and +brought it away covered with blood. With staring eyes he looked +at his moist red fingers, then at his latest victim, who was +proving such an unexpected surprise. + +The big cattleman, who by this time had pushed a way with his +broad shoulders to the front, observed the two men attentively +with a derisive smile on his frank face. He was seeing a bluff +called, and he enjoyed it. + +"You'll be able to wear earrings, Mr. Champion of the Universe, +after I have ventilated the other," suggested the ranger affably. +"Come again, seh." + +But his opponent had had enough, and more than enough. It was one +thing to browbeat a harmless boy, quite another to measure +courage with a young gamecock like this. He had all the advantage +of the first move. He was an expert and could drive his first +throw into the youth's heart. But at bottom he was a coward and +lacked the nerve, if not the inclination, to kill. If he took up +that devil-may-care challenge he must fight it out alone. +Moreover, as his furtive glance went round the ring of faces, he +doubted whether a rope and the nearest telegraph pole might not +be his fate if he went the limit. Sourly he accepted defeat, +raging in his craven spirit at the necessity. + +"Hell! I don't fight with boys," he snarled, + +"So?" + +Bucky moved forward with the curious lightness of a man +spring-footed. His gaze held the other's shifting eyes as he +plucked the knife from his opponent's hand. + +"Unbuckle that belt," he ordered. + +All said, the eye is a prince of weapons. It is a moral force +more potent than the physical, and by it men may measure strength +to a certainty. So now these two clinched and battled with it +till the best man won. The showman's look gave way before the +stark courage of the other. His was no match for the inscrutable, +unwavering eye that commanded him. His fingers began to twitch, +edged slowly toward his waist. For an instant they fumbled at the +buckle of the belt, which presently fell with a rattle to the +floor. + +"Now, roll yore trail to the wall. Face this way! Arms out! +That's good! You rest there comfortable while I take these pins +down and let the kid out." + +He removed the knives that hemmed in the boy and supported the +half-fainting figure to a chair beside the roulette table. But +always he remained in such a position as to keep the big bully he +was baiting in view. The boy dropped into the chair and covered +his face with his hands, sobbing with deep, broken breaths. The +ranger touched caressingly the crisp, fair hair that covered the +head in short curls. + +"Don't you worry, bub. Now, don't you. It's all over with now. +That coyote won't pester you any more. Will you, Mr. False Alarm +Bad Man?" + +At the last words he wheeled suddenly to the showman. "You're +right sorry already you got so gay, ain't you? Come! Speak yore +little piece, please." + +He waited for an answer, and his gaze held fast to the bloated +face that cringed before his attack. + +"What's your name?" + +"Jay Hardman," quavered the now thoroughly sobered bad man. + +"Dead easy jay, I reckon you mean. Now, chirp, up and tell the +boy how sorry you are you got fresh with your hardware." + +"He's my boy. I guess I can do what I like with him," the man +burst out angrily. "I wasn't hurting him any, either. That's part +of our show, to--" + +Bucky fondled suggestively the revolver in his hand. A metallic +click came to his victim. + +"Don't you shoot at me again," the man broke off to scream. + +The Colt clipped the sentence and the man's other ear. + +"You can put in your order now for them earrings we were +mentionin', Mr. Deadeasy. You see, I had to puncture this one so +folks would know they were mates." + +"I'll put you in the pen for this," the fellow whined, in terror. + +"Funny how you will get off the subject. We were discussin' an +apology when you got to wandering in yore haid." + +The mottled face showed white in patches. Beads of perspiration +stood out on the forehead of Hardman. "I didn't aim to hurt him +any. I'll be right glad to explain to you " + +A bullet plowed a path through the long hair that fell to the +showman's shoulders and snipped a lock from it. + +"You don't need to explain a thing to me, seh. I'm sure resting +easy in my mind. But as you were about to re-mark you're fair +honin' for a chance to ask the kid's pardon. Now, ain't I a mind +reader, seh?" + +A trembling voice stammered huskily an apology. + +"Better late than too late. Now, I've a good mind to take a vote +whether I'd better unload the rest of the pills in this old +reliable medicine box at you. Mebbe I ought to pump one into that +coyote heart of yours." + +The fellow went livid. "My God, you wouldn't kill an unarmed man, +would you?" + +For answer the ranger tossed the weapon on the table with a +scornful laugh and strode up to the other. The would-be bad man +towered six inches above him, and weighed half as much again. But +O'Connor whirled him round, propelled him forward to the door, +and kicked him into the street. + +"I'd hate to waste a funeral on him," he said, as he sauntered +back to the boy at the table. + +The lad was beginning to recover, though his breath still came +with a catch. His rag of a handkerchief was dabbing tears out of +his eyes. O'Connor noticed how soft his hands and how delicate +his features. + +"This kid ain't got any more business than a rabbit going around +in the show line with that big scoundrel. He's one of these +gentle, rock-me-to-sleep-mother kids that ought to stay in the +home nest and not go buttin' into this hard world. I'll bet a +doughnut he's an orphan, though." + +Bucky had been brought up in the school of experience, where +every student keeps his own head or goes to the wall. All his +short life he had played a lone hand, as he would have phrased +it. He had campaigned in Cuba as a mere boy. He had ridden the +range and held his own on the hurricane deck of a bucking +broncho. From cowpunching he had graduated into the tough little +body of territorial rangers at the head of which was "Hurry Up" +Millikan. This had brought him a large and turbulent experience +in the knack of taking care of himself under all circumstances. +Naturally, a man of this type, born and bred to the code of the +outdoors West, could not fail of a certain contempt for a boy +that broke down and cried when the game was going against him. + +But Bucky's contempt was tolerant, after all. He could not deny +his sympathy to a youngster in trouble. Again he touched gently +the lad's crisp curls of burnished gold. + +"Brace up, bub. The worst is yet to come," he laughed awkwardly. +"I reckon there's no use spillin' any more emotion over it. He +ain't your dad, is he?" + +The lad's big brown eyes looked up into the serene blue ones and +found comfort in their strength. "No, he's my uncle--and my +master." + +"This is a free country, son. We don't have masters if we're good +Americans, though we all have to take orders from our superior +officers. You don't need to serve this fellow unless you want to. +That's a cinch." + +The boy's troubled eyes were filmed with reminiscent terror. "You +don't know him. He is terrible when he is angry," he murmured. + +"I don't think it," returned Bucky contemptuously. "He's the +worst blowhard ever. Say the word and I'll run the piker out of +town for you." + +The boy whipped up the sleeve of the fancy Mexican jacket he wore +and showed a long scar on his arm. "He did that one day when he +was angry at me. He pretended to others that it was an accident, +but I knew better. This morning I begged him to let me leave him. +He beat me, but he was still mad; and when he took to drinking I +was afraid he would work himself up to stick me again with one of +his knives." + +Bucky looked at the scar in the soft, rounded arm and swept the +boy with a sudden puzzled glance that was not suspicion but +wonder. + +"How long have you been with him, kid?" + +"Oh, for years. Ever since I was a little fellow. He took me +after my father and mother died of yellow fever in New Orleans. +His wife hates me too, but they have to have me in the show." + +"Then I guess you had better quit their company. What's your +name?" + +"Frank Hardman. On the show bills I have all sorts of names." + +"Well, Frank, how would you like to go to live on a ranch?" + +"Where he wouldn't know I was?" whispered the boy eagerly. + +"If you like. I know a ranch where you'd be right welcome." + +"I would work. I would do anything I could. Really, I would try +to pay my way, and I don't eat much," Frank cried, his eyes as +appealing as a homeless puppy's. + +Bucky smiled. "I expect they can stand all you eat without going +to the poorhouse. It's a bargain then. I'll take you out there +to-morrow." + +"You're so good to me. I never had anybody be so good before." +Tears stood in the big eyes and splashed over. + +"Cut out the water works, kid. You want to take a brace and act +like a man," advised his new friend brusquely. + +"I know. I know. If you knew what I have done maybe you wouldn't +ask me to go with you. I--I can't tell you anything more than +that," the youngster sobbed. + +"Oh, well. What's the diff? You're making a new start to-day. +Ain't that right?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Call me Bucky." + +"Yes, sir. Bucky, I mean." + +A hand fell on the ranger's shoulder and a voice in his ear. +"Young man, I want you." + +The lieutenant whirled like a streak of lightning, finger on +trigger already. "I'll trouble you for yore warrant, seh," he +retorted. + +The man confronting him was the big cattleman who had entered the +Silver Dollar in time to see O'Connor's victory over the showman. +Now he stood serenely under Bucky's gun and laughed. + +"Put up your .45, my friend. It's a peaceable conference I want +with you." + +The level eyes of the young man fastened on those of the +cattleman, and, before he spoke again, were satisfied. For both +of these men belonged to the old West whose word is as good as +its bond, that West which will go the limit for a cause once +under taken without any thought of retreat, regardless of the +odds or the letter of the law. Though they had never met before, +each knew at a glance the manner of man the other was. + +"All right, seh. If you want me I reckon I'm here large as life," +the ranger said, + +"We'll adjourn to the poker room upstairs then, Mr. O'Connor" + +Bucky laid a hand on the shoulder of the boy. "This kid goes with +me. I'm keeping an eye on him for the present." + +"My business is private, but I expect that can be arranged. We'll +take the inner room and let him have the outer." + +"Good enough. Break trail, seh. Come along, Frank." + +Having reached the poker room upstairs, that same private room +which had seen many a big game in its day between the big cattle +kings and mining men of the Southwest, Bucky's host ordered +refreshments and then unfolded his business. + +"You don't know me, lieutenant, do you?" + +"I haven't that pleasure, seh." + +"I am Major Mackenzie's brother." + +"Webb Mackenzie, who came from Texas last year and bought the +Rocking Chair Ranch?" + +"The same." + +"I'm right glad to meet you, seh." + +"And I can say the same." + +Webb Mackenzie was so distinctively a product of the West that no +other segment of the globe could have produced him. Big, +raw-boned, tanned to a leathery brick-brown, he was as much of +the frontier as the ten thousand cows he owned that ran the range +on half as many hills and draws. He stood six feet two and tipped +the beam at two hundred twelve pounds, not an ounce of which was +superfluous flesh. Temperamentally, he was frank, imperious, +free-hearted, what men call a prince. He wore a loose tailor-made +suit of brown stuff and a broad-brimmed light-gray Stetson. For +the rest, you may see a hundred like him at the yearly stock +convention held in Denver, but you will never meet a man even +among them with a sounder heart or better disposition. + +"I've got a story to tell you, Lieutenant O'Connor," he began. +"I've been meaning to see you and tell it ever since you made +good in that Fernendez matter. It wasn't your gameness. Anybody +can be game. But it looked to me like you were using the brains +in the top of your head, and that happens so seldom among law +officers I wanted to have a talk with you. Since yesterday I've +been more anxious. For why? I got a letter from my brother +telling me Sheriff Collins showed him a locket he found at the +place of the T. P. Limited hold-up. That locket has in it a +photograph of my wife and little girl. For fifteen years I +haven't seen that picture. When I saw it last 'twas round my +little baby's neck. What's more, I haven't seen her in that time, +either." + +Mackenzie stopped, swallowed hard, and took a drink of water. + +"You haven't seen your little girl in fifteen years," exclaimed +Bucky. + +"Haven't seen or heard of her. So far as I know she may not be +alive now. This locket is the first hint I have had since she was +taken away, the very first news of her that has reached me, and I +don't know what to make of that. One of the robbers must have +been wearing it, the way I figure it out. Where did he get it? +That's what I want to know." + +"Suppose you tell me the story, seh," suggested the ranger +gently. + +The cattleman offered O'Connor a cigar and lit one himself. For a +minute he puffed slowly at his Havana, leaning far back in his +chair with eyes reminiscent and half shut. Then he shook himself +back into the present and began his tale. + +"I don't reckon you ever heard tell of Dave Henderson. It was +back in Texas I knew him, and he's been missing sixteen years +come the eleventh of next August. For fifteen years I haven't +mentioned his name, because Dave did me the dirtiest wrong that +one man ever did another. Back in the old days he and I used to +trail together. We was awful thick, and mostly hunted in couples. +We began riding the same season back on the old Kittredge Ranch, +and we went in together for all the kinds of spreeing that young +fellows who are footloose are likely to do. Fact is, we suited +each other from the ground up. We frolicked round a-plenty, like +young colts will, and there was nothing on this green earth Dave +could have asked from me that I wouldn't have done for him. +Nothing except one, I reckon, and Dave never asked that of me." + +Mackenzie puffed at his cigar a silent moment before resuming. +"It happened we both fell in love with the same girl, little +Frances Clark, of the Double T Ranch. Dave was a better looker +than me and a more taking fellow, but somehow Frances favored me +from the start. Dave stayed till the finish, and when he seen he +had lost he stood up with me at the wedding. We had agreed, you +see, that whoever won it wasn't to break up our friendship. + +"Well, Frankie and I were married, and in course of time we had +two children. My boy, Tom, is the older. The other was a little +girl, named after her mother." The cattleman waited a moment to +steady his voice, and spoke through teeth set deep in his Havana. +"I haven't seen her, as I said, since she was two years and ten +months old--not since the night Dave disappeared." + +Bucky looked up quickly with a question on his lips, but he did +not need to word it. + +Mackenzie nodded. "Yes, Dave took her with him when he lit out +across the line for Mexico" + +But I'll have to go back to something that happened earlier. +About three months before this time Dave and me were riding +through a cut in the Sierra Diablo Mountains, when we came on a +Mexican who had been wounded by the Apaches. I reckon we had come +along just in time to scare them off before they finished him. We +did our best for him, but he died in about two hours. Before +dying, he made us a present of a map we found in his breast +pocket. It showed the location of a very rich mine he had found, +and as he had no near kin he turned it over to us to do with as +we pleased. + +"Just then the round-up came on, and we were too busy to pay much +attention to the mine. Each of us would have trusted the other +with his life, or so I thought. But we cut the paper in half, +each of us keeping one part, in order that nobody else could +steal the secret from the one that held the paper. The last time +I had been in El Paso I had bought my little girl a gold chain +with two lockets pendent. These lockets opened by a secret +spring, and in one of them I put my half of the map. It seemed as +safe a place as I could devise, for the chain never left the +child's neck, and nobody except her mother, Dave, and I knew that +it was placed there. Dave hid his half under a rock that was +known to both of us. The strange thing about the story is that my +false friend, in the hurry of his flight, forgot to take his +section of the map with him. I found it under the rock next day, +so that his vile treachery availed him nothing from a mercenary +point of view." + +"Didn't take his half of the map with him. That's right funny," +Bucky mused aloud. + +"We never could understand why he didn't." + +"Mebbe if you understood that a heap of things might be clear +that are dark now." + +"Mebbe. Knowing Dave Henderson as I did, or, rather, as I thought +I did, such treachery as his was almost unbelievable. He was the +sweetest, sunniest soul I ever knew, and no two brothers could +have been as fond of each other as we seemed to be. But there was +no chance of mistake. He had gone, and taken our child with him, +likely in accordance with a plan of revenge long cherished by +him. We never heard of him or the child again. They disappeared +as completely as if the earth had swallowed them up. Our cook, +too, left with him that evil night." + +"Your cook?" It was the second comment Bucky had ventured, and it +came incisively. "What manner of man was he?" + +"A huge, lumbering braggart. I could never understand why Dave +took the man with him." + +"If he did." + +"But I tell you he did. They disappeared the same night, and the +trail showed they went the same road. We followed them for about +an hour next day, but a heavy rain came up and blotted out the +tracks." + +"What was the cook's name?" + +"Jeff Anderson." + +"Have you a picture of him, or one of your friend?" + +"Back at the ranch I had pictures of Dave, but I burned them +after he left. Yes, I reckon we have one of Anderson, standing in +front of the chuck wagon." + +"Send it to me, please." + +"All right." + +The ranger asked a few questions that made clearer the situation +on the day of the kidnapping, and some more concerning Anderson, +then fell again into the role of a listener while Mackenzie +concluded his story. + +"All these years I have kept my eyes open, confident that at last +I would discover something that would help me to discover the +whereabouts of my child, or, at least, give me a chance to punish +the scoundrel who betrayed my confidence. Yesterday my brother's +letter gave the first clue we have had. I want that lead worked. +Ferret this thing out to the bottom, lieutenant. Get me something +definite to go on. That's what I want you to do. Run the thing to +earth, get at the facts, and find my child for me. I'll give you +carte blanche up to a hundred thousand dollars. All I ask of you +is to make good. Find the little girl, or else bring me face to +face with that villain Henderson. Can you do it?" + +O'Connor was strangely interested in this story of treachery and +mystery. He rose with shining eyes and held out his hand. "I +don't know, seh. but I'll try damned hard to do three things: +find out what has become of the little girl, of Dave Henderson, +and of the scoundrel who stole your baby because he thought the +map was in the pocket." + +"You mean that you don't think Dave--" + +"That is exactly what I mean. Your cook, Anderson, kidnapped the +child, looks like to me. I saw that locket Collins found. My +guess was that the marks on the end of the chain were deep teeth +marks. The man that stole your baby tried first to cut the chain +with his teeth so as to steal the chain. You see, he could not +find the clasp in the dark. Then the child wakened and began to +cry. He clapped a hand over its mouth and carried the little girl +out of the room. Then he heard somebody moving about, lost his +nerve, and jumped on the horse that was waiting, saddled, at the +door. He took the child along simply because he had to in order +to get the chain and the secret he thought it held." + +"Perhaps; but that does not prove it was not Dave." + +"It's contributory evidence, seh. Your friend could have slipped +the chain from her neck any day, or he could have opened the +locket and taken the map. No need for him to steal in at night. +Do you happen to remember whether your little girl had any +particular aversion to the cook?" + +The cattleman's forehead frowned in thought. "I do remember, now, +that she was afraid of him. She always ran screaming to her +mother when he tried to be friendly with her. He was a sour sort +of fellow." + +"That helps out the case a heap, for it shows that he wanted to +make friends with her and she refused. He was thus forced to take +the chain when she was asleep instead of playing with her till he +had discovered the spring and could simply take the map." + +"But he didn't know anything about the map. He was not in our +confidence." + +"You and your friend talked it over evenings when he was at the +ranch, and other places, too, I expect." + +"Yes, our talk kind of gravitated that way whenever we got +together." + +"Well, this fellow overheard you. That's probable, at least." + +"But you're ignoring the important fact. Dave disappeared too +that night, with my little girl." + +Bucky cut in sharply with a question. "Did he? How do you know he +disappeared WITH her? Why not AFTER? That's the theory my mind is +groping on just now." + +"That's a blind trail to me. Why AFTER? And what difference does +it make?" + +"All the difference in the world. If he left after the cook, you +have been doing him an injustice for fifteen years, seh." + +Mackenzie leaned forward, excitement burning in his eyes. "Prove +that, young man, and I'll thank you to the last day of my life. +It's for my wife's sake more than my own I want my little girl +back. She jes' pines for her every day of her life. But for my +friend--if you can give me back the clean memory of Dave you'll +have done a big thing for me, Mr. O'Connor." + +"It's only a working theory, but this is what I'm getting at. You +and Henderson had arranged to take an early start on a two days' +deer hunt next mo'ning. That's what you told me, isn't it?" + +"We were to start about four. Yes, sir." + +"Well, let's suppose a case. Along comes Dave before daybreak, +when the first hooters were beginning to call. Just as he reaches +your ranch he notices a horse slipping away in the darkness. +Perhaps he hears the little girl cry out. Anyhow, instead of +turning in at the gate, he decides to follow. Probably he isn't +sure there's anything wrong, but when he finds out how the horse +he's after is burning the wind his suspicions grow stronger. He +settles down to a long chase. In the darkness, we'll say, he +loses his man, but when it gets lighter he picks up the trail +again. The tracks lead south, across the line into Mexico. Still +he keeps plodding on. The man in front sees him behind and gets +scared because he can't shake him off. Very likely he thinks it +is you on his track. Anyhow, while the child is asleep he waits +in ambush, and when Henderson rides up he shoots him down. Then +he pushes on deeper into Chihuahua, and proceeds to lose himself +there by changing his name." + +"You think he murdered Dave?" The cattleman got up and began to +pace up and down the floor. + +"I think it possible." + +Webb Mackenzie's face was pallid, but there was a new light of +hope in it. "I believe you're right. God knows I hope so. That +may sound a horrible thing to say of my best friend, but if it +has got to be one or the other--if it is certain that my old +bunkie came to his death foully in Chihuahua while trying to save +my baby, or is alive to-day, a skulking coward and villain--with +all my heart I hope he is dead." He spoke with a passionate +intensity which showed how much he had cared for his early +friend, and how much the latter's apparent treachery had cut him. +"I hope you'll never have a friend go back on you, Mr. O'Connor, +the one friend you would have banked on to a finish. Why, Dave +Henderson saved my life from a bunch of Apaches once when it was +dollars to doughnuts he would lose his own if he tried it. We +were prospecting in the Galiuros together, and one mo'ning when +he went down to the creek to water the hawsses he sighted three +of the red devils edging up toward the cabin. There might have +been fifty of them there for all he knew, and he had a clear run +to the plains if he wanted to back one of the ponies and take it. +Most any man would have saved his own skin, but not Dave. He +hoofed it back to the cabin, under fire every foot of the way, +and together we made it so hot for them that they finally gave up +getting us. We were in the Texas Rangers together, and pulled +each other through a lot of close places. And then at the end-- +Why, it hurt me more than it did losing my own little girl." + +Bucky nodded. Since he was a man and not a father, he could +understand how the hurt would rankle year after year at the +defalcation of his comrade. + +"That's another kink we have got to unravel in this tangle. First +off, there's your little girl, to find if she is still alive. +Second, we must locate Dave Henderson or his grave. Third, +there's something due the scoundrel who is responsible for this. +Fourthly, brethren, there's that map section to find. And lastly, +we've got to find just how this story you've told me got mixed +with the story of the holdup of the Limited. For it ce'tainly +looks as if the two hang together. I take it that the thing to do +is to run down the gang that held up the Limited. Once we do +that, we ought to find the key to the mystery of your little +girl's disappearance. Or, at least, there is a chance we shall. +And it's chances we've got to gamble on in this thing." + +"Good enough. I like the way you go at this. Already I feel a +heap better than I did." + +"If the cards fall our way you're going to get this thing settled +once for all. I can't promise my news will be good news when I +get it, but anything will be better than the uncertainty you've +been in, I take it," said Bucky, rising from his chair. + +"You're right there. But, wait a moment. Let's drink to your +success." + +"I'm not much of a sport," Bucky smiled. "Fact is, I never drink, +seh." + +"Of course. I remember, now. You're the good bad man of the +West," Mackenzie answered amiably. "Well, I drink to you. Here's +good hunting, lieutenant." + +"Thank you." + +"I suppose you'll get right at this thing?" + +"I've got to take that kid in the next room out to my ranch +first. I won't stand for that knife thrower making a slave of +him." + +"What's the matter with me taking the boy out to the Rocking +Chair with me? My wife and I will see he's looked after till you +return." + +"That would be the best plan, if it won't trouble you too much. +We'd better keep his whereabouts quiet till this fellow Hardman +is out of the country." + +"Yes, though I hardly think he'd be fool enough to show up at the +Rocking Chair. If my vaqueros met up with him prowling around +they might show him as warm a welcome as you did half an hour +ago." + +"A chapping would sure do him a heap of good," grinned Bucky, and +so dismissed the Champion of the World from his mind. + + + +CHAPTER 5. BUCKY ENTERTAINS + +Bucky began at once to tap the underground wires his official +position made accessible to him. These ran over Southern Arizona, +Sonora, and Chihuahua. All the places to which criminals or +frontiersmen with money were wont to resort were reported upon. +For the ranger's experience had taught him that since the men he +wanted had money in their pockets to burn gregarious impulse +would drive them from the far silent places of the desert to the +roulette and faro tables where the wolf and the lamb disport +themselves together. + +The photograph from Webb Mackenzie of the cook Anderson reached +him at Tucson the third day after his interview with that +gentleman, at the same time that Collins dropped in on him to +inquire what progress he was making. + +O'Connor told him of the Aravaipa episode, and tossed across the +table to him the photograph he had just received. + +"If we could discover the gent that sat for this photo it might +help us. You don't by any chance know him, do you, Val?" + +The sheriff shook his head. "Not in my rogues' gallery, Bucky." + +The ranger again examined the faded picture. A resemblance in it +to somebody he had met recently haunted vaguely his memory. As he +looked the indefinite suggestion grew sharp and clear. It was a +photograph of the showman who had called himself Hardman. All the +trimmings were lacking, to be sure--the fierce mustache, the long +hair, the buckskin trappings, none of them were here. But beyond +a doubt it was the same shifty-eyed villain. Nor did it shake +Bucky's confidence that Mackenzie had seen him and failed to +recognize the man as his old cook. The fellow was thoroughly +disguised, but the camera had happened to catch that curious +furtive glance of his. But for that O'Connor would never have +known the two to be the same. + +Bucky was at the telephone half an hour. In the middle of the +next afternoon his reward came in the form of a Western Union +billet. It read: + +"Eastern man says you don't want what is salable here." + +The lieutenant cut out every other word and garnered the wheat of +the message: + +"Man you want is here." + +The telegram was marked from Epitaph, and for that town the +ranger and the sheriff entrained immediately. + +Bucky's eye searched in vain the platform of the Epitaph depot +for Malloy, of the Rangers, whose wire had brought him here. The +cause of the latter's absence was soon made clear to him in a +note he found waiting for him at the hotel: + +"The old man has just sent me out on hurry-up orders. Don't know +when I'll get back. Suggest you take in the show at the opera +house to-night to pass the time." + +It was the last sentence that caught Bucky's attention. Jim +Malloy had not written it except for a reason. Wherefore the +lieutenant purchased two tickets for the performance far back in +the house. From the local newspaper he gathered that the showman +was henceforth to be a resident of Epitaph. Mr. Jay Hardman, or +Signor Raffaello Cavellado, as he was known the world over by +countless thousands whom he had entertained, had purchased a +corral and livery stable at the corner of Main and Boothill +Streets and solicited the patronage of the citizens of Hualpai +County. That was the purport of the announcement which Bucky +ringed with a pencil and handed to his friend. + +That evening Signor Raffaello Cavellado made a great hit with his +audience. He swaggered through his act magnificently, and held +his spectators breathless. Bucky took care to see that a post and +the sheriff's big body obscured him from view during the +performance. + +After it was over O'Connor and the sheriff returned to the hotel, +where also Hardman was for the present staying, and sent word up +to his room that one of the audience who had admired very much +the artistic performance would like the pleasure of drinking a +glass of wine with Signor Cavellado if the latter would favor him +with his company in room seven. The Signor was graciously pleased +to accept, and followed his message of acceptance in person a few +minutes later. + +Bucky remained quietly in the corner of the room back of the door +until the showman had entered, and while the latter was meeting +Collins he silently locked the door and pocketed the key. + +The sheriff acknowledged Hardman's condescension brusquely and +without shaking hands. "Glad to meet you, seh. But you're +mistaken in one thing. I'm not your host. This gentleman behind +you is." + +The man turned and saw Bucky, who was standing with his back +against the door, a bland smile on his face. + +"Yes, seh. I'm your host to-night. Sheriff Collins, hyer, is +another guest. I'm glad to have the pleasure of entertaining you, +Signor Raffaello Cavellado," Bucky assured him, in his slow, +gentle drawl, without reassuring him at all. + +For the fellow was plainly disconcerted at recognition of his +host. He turned with a show of firmness to Collins. "If you're a +sheriff, I demand to have that door opened at once," he +blustered. + +Val put his hands in his pockets and tipped back his chair. "I +ain't sheriff of Hualpai County. My jurisdiction don't extend +here," he said calmly. + +"I'm an unarmed man," pleaded Cavellado. + +"Come to think of it, so am I." + +"I reckon I'm holding all the aces, Signor Cavellado," explained +the ranger affably. "Or do you prefer in private life to be +addressed as Hardman--or, say, Anderson?" + +The showman moistened his lips and offered his tormentor a +blanched face. + +"Anderson--a good plain name. I wonder, now, why you changed it?" +Bucky's innocent eyes questioned him blandly as he drew from his +pocket a little box and tossed it on the table. "Open that box +for me, Mr. Anderson. Who knows? It might explain a heap of +things to us." + +With trembling fingers the big coward fumbled at the string. With +all his fluent will he longed to resist, but the compelling eyes +that met his so steadily were not to be resisted. Slowly he +unwrapped the paper and took the lid from the little box, inside +of which was coiled up a thin gold chain with locket pendant. + +"Be seated," ordered Bucky sternly, and after the man had found a +chair the ranger sat down opposite him. + +From its holster he drew a revolver and from a pocket his watch. +He laid them on the table side by side and looked across at the +white-lipped trembler whom he faced. + +"We had better understand each other, Mr. Anderson. I've come +here to get from you the story of that chain, so far as you know +it. If you don't care to tell it I shall have to mess this floor +up with your remains. Get one proposition into your cocoanut +right now. You don't get out of this room alive with your secret. +It's up to you to choose." + +Quite without dramatics, as placidly as if he were discussing +railroad rebates, the ranger delivered his ultimatum. It seemed +plain that he considered the issue no responsibility of his. + +Anderson stared at him in silent horror, moistening his dry lips +with the tip of his tongue. Once his gaze shifted to the sheriff +but found small comfort there. Collins had picked up a newspaper +and was absorbed in it. + +"Are you going to let him kill me?" the man asked him hoarsely. + +He looked up from his newspaper in mild protest at such unreason. +"Me? I ain't sittin' in this game. Seems like I mentioned that +already." + +"Better not waste your time, signor, on side issues," advised the +man behind the gun. "For I plumb forgot to tell you I'm allowing +only three minutes to begin your story, half of which three has +already slipped away to yesterday's seven thousand years. Without +wantin' to hurry you, I suggest the wisdom of a prompt decision." + +"Would he do it?" gasped the victim, with a last appeal to +Collins. + +"Would he what? Oh, shoot you up. Cayn't tell till I see. If he +says he will he's liable to. He always was that haidstrong." + +"But--why--why--" + +"Yes, it's sure a heap against the law, but then Bucky ain't a +lawyer. I don't reckon he cares sour grapes for the law--as law. +It's a right interesting guess as to whether he will or won't." + +"There's a heap of cases the law don't reach prompt. This is one +of them," contributed the ranger cheerfully. He pocketed his +watch and picked up the .45. "Any last message or anything of +that sort, signor? I don't want to be unpleasant about this, you +understand." + +The whilom bad man's teeth chattered. "I'll tell you anything you +want to know." + +"Now, that's right sensible. I hate to come into another man's +house and clutter it up. Reel off your yarn." + +"I don't know--what you want." + +"I want the whole story of your kidnapping of the Mackenzie +child, how came you to do it, what happened to Dave Henderson, +and full directions where I may locate Frances Mackenzie. Begin +at the beginning, and I'll fire questions at you when you don't +make any point clear to me. Turn loose your yarn at me hot off +the bat." + +The man told his story sullenly. While he was on the round-up as +cook for the riders he had heard Mackenzie and Henderson +discussing together the story of their adventure with the dying +Spaniard and their hopes of riches from the mine he had left +them. From that night he had set himself to discover the secret +of its location, had listened at windows and at keyholes, and had +once intercepted a letter from one to the other. By chance he had +discovered that the baby was carrying the secret in her locket, +and he had set himself to get it from her. + +But his chance did not come. He could not make friends with her, +and at last, in despair of finding a better opportunity, he had +slipped into her room one night in the small hours to steal the +chain. But it was wound round her neck in such a way that he +could not slip it over her head. She had awakened while he was +fumbling with the clasp and had begun to cry. Hearing her mother +moving about in the next room, he had hastily carried the child +with him, mounted the horse waiting in the yard, and ridden away. + +In the road he became aware, some time later, that he was being +pursued. This gave him a dreadful fright, for, as Bucky had +surmised, he thought his pursuer was Mackenzie. All night he rode +southward wildly, but still his follower kept on his trail till +near morning, when he eluded him. He crossed the border, but late +that afternoon got another fright. For it was plain he was still +being followed. In the endless stretch of rolling hills he twice +caught sight of a rider picking his way toward him. The heart of +the guilty man was like water. He could not face the outraged +father, nor was it possible to escape so dogged a foe by flight. +An alternative suggested itself, and he accepted it with sinking +courage. The child was asleep in his arms now, and he hastily +dismounted, picketed his horse, and stole back a quarter of a +mile, so that the neighing of his bronco might not betray his +presence. Then he lay down in a dense mesquit thicket and waited +for his foe. It seemed an eternity till the man appeared at the +top of a rise fifty yards away. Hastily Anderson fired, and +again. The man toppled from his horse, dead before he struck the +ground. But when the cook reached him he was horrified to see +that the man he had killed was a member of the Rurales, or +Mexican border police. In his guilty terror he had shot the wrong +man. + +He fled at once, pursued by a thousand fears. Late the next night +he reached a Chihuahua village, after having been lost for many +hours. The child he still carried with him, simply because he had +not the heart to leave it to die in the desert alone. A few weeks +later he married an American woman he met in Sonora. They adopted +the child, but it died within the year of fever. + +Meanwhile, he was horrified to learn that Dave Henderson, +following hard on his trail, had been found bending over the spot +where the dead soldier lay, had been arrested by a body of +Rurales, tried hurriedly, and convicted to life imprisonment. The +evidence had been purely circumstantial. The bullet found in the +dead body of the trooper was one that might have come from his +rifle, the barrel of which was empty and had been recently fired. +For the rest, he was a hated Americano, and, as a matter of +course, guilty. His judges took pains to see that no message from +him reached his friends in the States before he was buried alive +in the prison. In that horrible hole an innocent man had been +confined for fifteen years, unless he had died during that time. + +That, in substance, was the story told by the showman, and +Bucky's incisive questions were unable to shake any portion of +it. As to the missing locket, the man explained that it had been +broken off by accident and lost. When he discovered that only +half the secret was contained on the map section he had returned +the paper to the locket and let the child continue to carry it. +Some years after the death of the child, Frances, his wife had +lost the locket with the map. + +"And this chain and locket--when did you lose them?" demanded +Bucky sharply. + +"It must have been about two months ago, down at Nogales, that I +sold it to a fellow. I was playing faro and losing. He gave me +five dollars for it." + +And to that he stuck stoutly, nor could he be shaken from it. +Both O'Connor and the sheriff believed he was lying, for they +were convinced that he was the bandit with the red wig who had +covered the engineer while his companions robbed the train. But +of this they had no proof. Nor did Bucky even mention his +suspicion to Hardman, for it was his intention to turn him loose +and have him watched. Thus, perhaps, he would be caught +corresponding or fraternizing with some of the other outlaws. +Collins left the room before the showman, and when the latter +came from the hotel he followed him into the night. + +Meanwhile, Bucky went out and tapped another of his underground +wires. This ran directly to the Mexican consul at Tucson, to whom +Bucky had once done a favor of some importance, and from him to +Sonora and Chihuahua. It led to musty old official files, to +records already yellowed with age, to court reports and prison +registers. In the end it flashed back to Bucky great news. Dave +Henderson, arrested for the murder of the Rurales policeman, was +still serving time in a Mexican prison for another man's crime. +There in Chihuahua for fifteen years he had been lost to the +world in that underground hole, blotted out from life so +effectually that few now remembered there had been such a person. +It was horrible, unthinkable, but none the less true. + + + +CHAPTER 6. BUCKY MAKES A DISCOVERY + +For a week Bucky had been in the little border town of Noches, +called there by threats of a race war between the whites and the +Mexicans. Having put the quietus on this, he was returning to +Epitaph by way of the Huachuca Mountains. There are still places +in Arizona where rapid transit can be achieved more expeditiously +on the back of a bronco than by means of the railroad, even when +the latter is available. So now Bucky was taking a short cut +across country instead of making the two train changes, with the +consequent inevitable delays that would have been necessary to +travel by rail. + +He traveled at night and in the early morning, to avoid the heat +of the midday sun, and it was in the evening of the second and +last day that the skirts of happy chance led him to an adventure +that was to affect his whole future life. He knew a waterhole on +the Del Oro, where cows were wont to frequent even in the summer +drought, and toward this he was making in the fag-end of the +sultry day. While still some hundred yards distant he observed a +spiral of smoke rising from a camp-fire at the spring, and he at +once made a more circumspect approach. For it might be any one of +a score of border ruffians who owed him a grudge and would be +glad to pay it in the silent desert that tells no tales and +betrays no secrets to the inquisitive. + +He flung the bridle-rein over his pony's neck and crept forward +on foot, warily and noiselessly. While still some little way from +the water-hole he was arrested by a sound that startled him. He +could make out a raucous voice in anger and a pianissimo +accompaniment of womanish sobs. + +"You're mine to do with as I like. I'm your uncle. I've raised +you from a kid, and, by the great mogul! you can't sneak off with +the first good-for nothing scoundrel that makes eyes at you. +Thought you had slipped away from me, you white-faced, sniveling +little idiot, but I'll show you who is master." + +The lash of a whip rose and fell twice on quivering flesh before +Bucky leaped into the fireglow and wrested the riding-whip from +the hands of the angry man who was plying it. + +"Dare to touch a woman, would you?" cried the ranger, swinging +the whip vigorously across the broad shoulders of the man. "Take +that--and that--and that, you brute!" + +But when Bucky had finished with the fellow and flung him a limp, +writhing huddle of welts to the ground, three surprises awaited +him. The first was that it was not a woman he had rescued at all, +but a boy, and, as the flickering firelight played on his face, +the ranger came to an unexpected recognition. The slim lad facing +him was no other than Frank Hardman, whom he had left a few days +before at the Rocking Chair under the care of motherly Mrs. +Mackenzie. The young man's eyes went back with instant suspicion +to the fellow he had just punished, and his suspicions were +verified when the leaping light revealed the face of the showman +Anderson. + +Bucky laughed. "I ce'tainly seem to be interfering in your +affairs a good deal, Mr. Anderson. You may take my word for it +that you was the last person in the world I expected to meet +here, unless it might be this boy. I left him safe at a ranch +fifty miles from here, and I left you a staid business man of +Epitaph. But it seems neither of you stayed hitched. Why for this +yearning to travel?" + +"He found me where I was staying. I was out riding alone on an +errand for Mrs. Mackenzie when he met me and made me go with him. +He has arranged to have me meet his wife in Mexico. The show +wouldn't draw well without me. You know I do legerdemain," Frank +explained, in his low, sweet voice. + +"So you had plans of your own, Mr. Anderson. Now, that was right +ambitious of you. But I reckon I'll have to interfere with them +again. Go through him, kid, and relieve him of any guns he +happens to be garnished with. Might as well help yourself to his +knives, too. He's so fond of letting them fly around promiscuous +he might hurt himself. Good. + +Now we can sit down and have a friendly talk. Where did you say +you was intending to spend the next few weeks before I +interrupted so unthinking and disarranged your plans? I'm talking +to you, Mr. Anderson." + +"I was heading for Sonora," the man whined. + +What Bucky thought was: "Right strange direction to be taking for +Sonora. I'll bet my pile you were going up into the hills to meet +some of Wolf Leroy's gang. But why you were taking the kid along +beats me, unless it was just cussedness." What he said was: + +"Oh, you'll like Epitaph a heap better. I allow you ought to stay +at that old town. It's a real interesting place. Finished in the +adobe style and that sort of thing. The jail's real comfy, too." + +"Would you like something to eat, sir?" presently asked Frank +timidly. + +"Would I? Why, I'm hungry enough to eat a leather mail-sack. Trot +on your grub, young man, and watch my smoke." + +Bucky did ample justice to the sandwiches and lemonade the lad +set in front of him, but he ate with a wary eye on a possible +insurrection on the part of his prisoner. + +"I'm a new man," he announced briskly, when he had finished. +"That veal loaf sandwich went sure to the right spot. If you had +been a young lady instead of a boy you couldn't fix things up +more appetizing." + +The lad's face flushed with embarrassment, apparently at the +ranger's compliment, and the latter, noticed how delicate the +small face was. It made an instinctive, wistful appeal for +protection, and Bucky felt an odd little stirring at his tender +Irish heart. + +"Might think I was the kid's father to see what an interest I +take in him," the young man told himself reprovingly. "It's all +tommyrot, too. A boy had ought to have more grit. I expect he +needed that licking all right I saved him from." + +When Bucky had eaten, the camp things were repacked for travel. +Epitaph was only twenty-three miles away, and the ranger +preferred to ride in the cool of the night rather than sit up +till daybreak with his prisoner. Besides, he could then catch the +morning train from that town and save almost a day. + +So hour after hour they plodded on, the prisoner in front, +O'Connor in the center, and Frank Hardman bringing up the rear. +It was an Arizona night of countless stars, with that peculiar +soft, velvety atmosphere that belongs to no other land or time. +In the distance the jagged, violet line of mountains rose in +silhouette against a sky not many shades lighter, while nearer +the cool moonlight flooded a land grown magical under its divine +touch. + +The ranger rode with a limp ease that made for rest, his body +shifting now and again in the saddle, so as to change the weight +and avoid stiffness. + +It must have been well past midnight that he caught the long +breath of a sigh behind him. The trail had broadened at that +point, for they were now down in the rolling plain, so that two +could ride abreast in the road. Bucky fell back and put a +sympathetic hand on the shoulder of the boy. + +"Plumb fagged out, kid?" he asked. + +"I am tired. Is it far?" + +"About four miles. Stick it out, and we'll be there in no time." + +"Yes, sir." + +"Don't call me sir. Call me Bucky." + +"Yes, sir." + +Bucky laughed. "You're ce'tainly the queerest kid I've run up +against. I guess you didn't scramble up in this rough-and-tumble +West like I did. You're too soft for this country." He let his +firm brown fingers travel over the lad's curly hair and down the +smooth cheek. "There it is again. Shrinking away as if I was +going to hurt you. I'll bet a biscuit you never licked the +stuffing out of another fellow in your life." + +"No, sir," murmured the youth, and Bucky almost thought he +detected a little, chuckling laugh. + +"Well, you ought to be ashamed of it. When come back from old +Mexico I'm going to teach you how to put up your dukes. You're +going to ride the range with me, son, and learn to stick to your +saddle when the bronc and you disagrees. Oh, I'll bet all you +need is training. I'll make a man out of you yet," the ranger +assured his charge cheerfully. "Will you?" came the innocent +reply, but Bucky for a moment had the sense of being laughed at. + +"Yes, I 'will you,' sissy," he retorted, without the least +exasperation. "Don't think you know it all. Right now you're +riding like a wooden man. You want to take it easy in the saddle. +There's about a dozen different positions you can take to rest +yourself." And Bucky put him through a course of sprouts. "Don't +sit there laughing at folks that knows a heap more than you ever +will get in your noodle, and perhaps you won't be so done up at +the end of a little jaunt like this," he concluded. And to his +conclusion he presently added a postscript: "Why, I know kids +your age can ride day and night for a week on the round-up +without being all in. How old are you, son?" + +"Eighteen." + +"That's a lie," retorted the ranger, with immediate frankness. +"You're not a day over fifteen, I'll bet." + +"I meant to say fifteen," meekly corrected the youth. + +"That's another of them. You meant to say eighteen, but you found +I wouldn't swallow it. Now, Master Frank, you want to learn one +thing prompt if you and I are to travel together. I can't stand a +liar. You tell the truth, or I'll give you the best licking you +ever had in your life." + +"You're as bad a bully as he is," the boy burst out, flushing +angrily. + +"Oh, no, I'm not," came the ranger's prompt unmoved answer. "But +just because you're such a weak little kid that I could break you +in two isn't any reason why I should put up with any foolishness +from you. I mean to see that you act proper, the way an honest +kid ought to do. Savvy?" + +"I'd like to know who made you my master?" demanded the boy +hotly. + +"You've ce'tainly been good and spoiled, but you needn't ride +your high hawss with me. Here's the long and the short of it. To +tell lies ain't square. If I ask you anything you don't want to +answer tell me to go to hell, but don't lie to me. If you do I'll +punish you the same as if you were my brother, so long as you +trail with me. If you don't like it, cut loose and hit the pike +for yourself." + +"I've a good mind to go." + +Bucky waved a hand easily into space. "That's all right, too, +son. There's a heap of directions you can hit from here. Take any +one you like. But if I was as beat as you are, I think I'd keep +on the Epitaph road." He laughed his warm, friendly laugh, before +the geniality of which discord seemed to melt, and again his arm +went round the other's weary shoulders with a caressing gesture +that was infinitely protecting. + +The boy laughed tremulously. "You're awfully good to me. I know +I'm a cry-baby, sissy boy, but if you'll be patient with me I'll +try to be gamer." + +It certainly was strange the way Bucky's pulse quickened and his +blood tingled when he touched the little fellow and heard that +velvet voice's soft murmur. Yes, it surely was strange, but +perhaps the young Irishman's explanation was not the correct one, +after all. The cause he offered to himself for this odd joy and +tender excitement was perfectly simple. + +"I'm surely plumb locoed, or else gone soft in the haid," he told +himself grimly. + +But the reason for those queer little electric shocks that pulsed +through him was probably a more elemental and primeval one than +even madness. + +Arrived at Epitaph, Bucky turned loose his prisoner with a +caution and made his preparations to leave immediately for +Chihuahua. Collins had returned to Tucson, but was in touch with +the situation and ready to set out for any point where he was +needed. + +Bucky, having packed, was confronted with a difficulty. He looked +at it, and voiced his perplexity. + +"Now, what am I going to do with you, Curly Haid? I expect I had +better ship you back to the Rocking Chair." + +"I don't want to go back there. He'll come out again and find me +after you leave." + +"Where do you want to go, then? If you were a girl I could put +you in the convent school here," he reflected aloud. + +Again that swift, deep blush irradiated the youth's cheeks. "Why +can't I go with you?" he asked shyly. + +The ranger laughed. "Mebbe you think I'm going on a picnic. Why, +I'm starting out to knock the chip off Old Man Trouble's +shoulder. Like as not some greaser will collect Mr. Bucky's scalp +down in manyana land. No, sir, this doesn't threaten to be a Y. +P. S. C. E. excursion." + +"If it is so dangerous as that, you will need help. I'm awful +good at making up, and I can speak Spanish like a native." + +"Sho! You don't want to go running your neck into a noose. It's a +jail-break I'm planning, son. There may be guns a-popping before +we get back to God's country--if we ever do. Add to that, trouble +and then some, for there's a revolution scheduled for old +Chihuahua just now, as your uncle happens to know from reliable +information." + +"Two can always work better than one. Try me, Bucky," pleaded the +boy, the last word slipping out with a trailing upward inflection +that was irresistible. + +"Sure you won't faint if we get in a tight pinch, Curly?" scoffed +O'Connor, even though in his mind he was debating a surrender. +For he was extraordinarily taken with the lad, and his judgment +justified what the boy had said. + +"I shall not be afraid if you are with me." + +"But I may not be with you. That's the trouble. Supposing I +should be caught, what would you do?" + +"Follow any orders you had given me before that time. If you had +not given any, I would use my best judgment." + +"I'll give them now," smiled Bucky. "If I'm lagged, make straight +for Arizona and tell Webb Mackenzie or Val Collins." + +"Then you will take me?" cried the boy eagerly. + +"Only on condition that you obey orders explicitly. I'm running +this cutting-out expedition." + +"I wouldn't think of disobeying." + +"And I don't want you to tell me any lies." + +"No." + +Bucky's big brown fist caught the little one and squeezed it. +"Then it's a deal, kid. I only hope I'm doing right to take you." + +"Of course you are. Haven't you promised to make a man of me?" +And again Bucky caught that note of stifled laughter in the +voice, though the big brown eyes met his quite seriously. + +They took the train that night for El Paso, Bucky in the lower +berth and his friend in the upper of section six of one of the +Limited's Pullman cars. The ranger was awake and up with the day. +For a couple of hours he sat in the smoking section and discussed +politics with a Chicago drummer. He knew that Frank was very +tired, and he let him sleep till the diner was taken on at +Lordsburg. Then he excused himself to the traveling man. + +"I reckon I better go and wake up my pardner. I see the +chuck-wagon is toddling along behind us." + +Bucky drew aside the curtains and shook the boy gently by the +shoulder. Frank's eyes opened and looked at the ranger with that +lack of comprehension peculiar to one roused suddenly from deep +sleep. + +"Time to get up, Curly. The nigger just gave the first call for +the chuck-wagon." + +An understanding of the situation flamed over the boy's face. He +snatched the curtains from the Arizonian and gathered them +tightly together. "I'll thank you not to be so familiar," he said +shortly from behind the closed curtains. + +"I beg your pahdon, your royal highness. I should have had myself +announced and craved an audience, I reckon," was Bucky's ironic +retort; and swiftly on the heels of it he added. "You make me +tired, kid." + +O'Connor was destined to be "made tired" a good many times in the +course of the next few days. In all the little personal +intimacies Frank possessed a delicate fastidiousness outside the +experience of the ranger. He was a scrupulously clean man +himself, and rather nice as to his personal habits, but it did +not throw him into a flame of embarrassment to brush his teeth +before his fellow passengers. Nor did it send him into a fit if a +friend happened to drop into his room while he was finishing his +dressing. Bucky agreed with himself that this excess of shyness +was foolishness, and that to indulge the boy was merely to lay up +future trouble for him. A dozen times he was on the point of +speaking his mind on the subject, but some unusual quality of +innocence in the lad tied his tongue. + +"Blame it all, I'm getting to be a regular old granny. What +Master Frank needs is a first-class dressing-down, and here the +little cuss has got me bluffed to a fare-you-well so that I'm mum +as a hooter on the nest," he admitted to himself ruefully. "Just +when something comes up that needs a good round damn I catch that +big brown Sunday school eye of his, and it's Bucky back to +Webster's unabridged. I've got to quit trailing with him, or I'll +be joining the church first thing I know. He makes me feel like I +want to be good, confound the little swindle." + +Notwithstanding the ranger's occasional moments of exasperation, +the two got along swimmingly. Each of them found a continued +pleasure in delving into the other's unexplored mental recesses. +They drifted into one of those quick, spontaneous likings that +are rare between man and man. Some subtle quality of affection +bubbled up like a spring in the hearts of each for the other. +Young Hardman could perhaps have explained what lay at the roots +of it, but O'Connor admitted that he was "buffaloed" when he +attempted an analysis of his unusual feeling. + +From El Paso a leisurely run on the Mexican Central Pacific took +them to Chihuahua, a quaint old city something about the size of +El Paso. Both Bucky and his friend were familiar with the manners +of the country, so that they felt at home among the narrow adobe +streets, the lounging, good-natured peons, and the imitation +Moorish architecture. They found rooms at a quiet, inconspicuous +hotel, and began making their plans for an immediate departure in +the event that they succeeded in their object. + +At a distance it had seemed an easy thing to plan the escape of +David Henderson and to accomplish it by craft, but a sight of the +heavy stone walls that encircled the prison and of the numerous +armed guards who paced to and fro on the walls, put a more +chilling aspect on their chances. + +"It isn't a very gay outlook," Bucky admitted cheerfully to his +companion, "but I expect we can pull it off somehow. If these +Mexican officials weren't slower than molasses in January it +might have been better to wait and have him released by process +of law on account of Hardman's confession. But it would take them +two or three years to come to a decision. They sure do hate to +turn loose a gringo when they have got the hog-tie on him. Like +as not they would decide against him at the last, then. Course +I've got the law machinery grinding, too, but I'm not banking on +it real heavy. We'll get him out first any old way, then get the +government to O. K. the thing." + +"How were you thinking of proceeding?" + +"I expect it's time to let you in on the ground floor, son. I +reckon you happen to know that down in these Spanish countries +there's usually a revolution hatching. There s two parties among +the aristocrats, those for the government and those ferninst. The +'ins' stand pat, but the 'outs' have always got a revolution up +their sleeves. Now, there's mostly a white man mixed up in the +affair. They have to have him to run it and to shoot afterward +when the government wins. You see, somebody has to be shot, and +it's always so much to the good if they can line up gringoes +instead of natives. Nine times out of ten it's an Irish-American +lad that is engineering the scheme. This time it happens to be +Mickey O'Halloran, an old friend of mine. I'm going to put it up +to Mick to find a way." + +"But it isn't any affair of his. He won't do it, will he?" + +"Oh, I thought I told you he was Irish." + +"Well?" + +"And spoiling for trouble, of course. Is it likely he could keep +his fist out of the hive when there's such a gem of a chance to +get stung?" + +It had been Frank's suggestion that they choose rooms at a hotel +which open into each other and also connect with an adjoining +pair. The reason for this had not at first been apparent to the +ranger, but as soon as they were alone Frank explained. + +"It is very likely that we shall be under surveillance after a +day or two, especially if we are seen around the prison a good +deal. Well, we'll slip out the back way to-night, disguised in +some other rig, come boldly in by the front door, and rent the +rooms next ours. Then we shall be able to go and come, either as +ourselves or as our neighbors. It will give us a great deal more +liberty." + +"Unless we should get caught. Then we would have a great deal +less. What's your notion of a rig-up to disguise us, kid?" + +"We might have several, in case of emergencies. For one thing, we +could easily be street showmen. You can do fancy shooting and I +can do sleight-of-hand tricks or tell fortunes." + +"You would be a gipsy lad?" + +The youngster blushed. "A gipsy girl, and you might be my +husband." + +"I'm no play actor, even if you are," said Bucky. "I don't want +to be your husband, thank you." + +"All you would have to do is to be sullen and rough. It is easy +enough." + +"And you think you could pass for a girl? You're slim and soft +enough, but I'll bet you would give it away inside of an hour." + +The boy laughed, and shot a swift glance at O'Connor under his +long lashes. "I appeared as a girl in one of the acts of the show +for years. Nobody ever suspected that I wasn't." + +"We might try it, but we have no clothes for the part." + +"Leave that to me. I'll buy some to-day while you are looking the +ground over for our first assault an the impregnable fortress." + +"I don't know. It seems to me pretty risky. But you might buy the +things, and we'll see how you look in them. Better not get all +the things at the same store. Sort of scatter your purchases +around." + +They separated at the door of the hotel, Frank to choose the +materials he needed, and O'Connor to look up O'Halloran and get a +permit to visit the prison from the proper authorities. When the +latter returned triumphantly with his permit he found the boy +busy with a needle and thread and surrounded by a litter of +dress-making material. + +"I'm altering this to fit me and fixing it up," he explained. + +"Holy smoke! Who taught you to sew?" asked Bucky, in surprise. + +"My aunt, Mrs. Hardman. I used to do all the plain sewing on my +costumes. Did you see your friend and get your permit?" + +"You bet I did, and didn't. Mickey was out, but I left him a +note. The other thing I pulled off all right. I'm to be allowed +to visit the prison and make a careful inspection of it at my +leisure There's nothing like a pull, son." + +"Does the permit say you are to be allowed to steal any one of +the prisoners you take a fancy to? asked Frank, with a smile. + +"No, it forgot to say that. When do you expect to have that +toggery made?" + +"A good deal of it is already made, as you see. I'm just making a +few changes. Do you want to try on your suit?" + +"Is THIS mine?" asked the ranger, picking up with smiling +contempt the rather gaudy blouse that lay on a chair. + +"Yes, sir, that is yours. Go and put it on and we'll see how it +fits." + +Bucky returned a few minutes later in his gipsy uniform, with a +deprecating grin. + +"I'll have to stain your face. Then you'll do very well," said +Frank, patting and pulling at the clothes here and there. "It's a +good fit, if I do say it that chose it. The first thing you want +to do when you get out in it is to roll in the dust and get it +soiled. No respectable gipsy wears new clothes. Better have a +tear or two in it, too." + +"You ce'tainly should have been a girl, the way you take to +clothes, Curly." + +"Making up was my business for a good many years, you know," +returned the lad quietly. "If you'll step into the other room for +about fifteen minutes I'll show you how well I can do it." + +It was a long half-hour later that Bucky thumped on the door +between the rooms. "Pretty nearly ready, kid? Seems to me it is +taking you a thundering long time to get that outfit on." + +"How long do you think it ought to take a lady to dress?" + +"Ten minutes is long enough, and fifteen, say, if she is going to +a dance. You've been thirty-five by my Waterbury." + +"It's plain you never were married, Mr. Innocent. Why, a girl +can't fix her hair in less than half an hour." + +"Well, you got a wig there, ain't you? It doesn't take but about +five seconds to stick that on. Hurry up, gringo! I'm clean +through this old newspaper." + +"Read the advertisements," came saucily through the door. + +"I've read the durned things twice." + +"Learn them by heart," the sweet voice advised. + +"Oh, you go to Halifax!" + +Nevertheless, Mr. Bucky had to wait his comrade's pleasure. But +when he got a vision of the result, it was so little what he had +expected that it left him staring in amazement, his jaw fallen +and his eyes incredulous. + +The vision swept him a low bow. "How do you like Bonita?" it +demanded gaily. + +Bucky's eyes circled the room, to make sure that the boy was not +hidden somewhere, and came back to rest on his surprise with a +look that was almost consternation. Was this vivid, dazzling +creature the boy he had been patronizing, lecturing, promising to +thrash any time during the past four days? The thing was +unbelievable, not yet to be credited by his jarred brain. How +incredibly blind he had been! What an idiot of sorts! Why, the +marks of sex sat on her beyond any possibility of doubt. Every +line of the slim, lissom figure, every curve of the soft, +undulating body, the sweep of rounded arm, of tapering +waist-line, of well-turned ankle, contributed evidence of what it +were folly to ask further proof. How could he have ever seen +those lovely, soft-lashed eyes and the delicate little hands +without conviction coming home to him? And how could he have +heard the low murmur of her voice, the catch of her sobs, without +knowing that they were a denial of masculinity? + +She was dressed like a Spanish dancing girl, in short kilts, red +sash, and jaunty little cap placed sidewise on her head. She wore +a wig of black hair, and her face was stained to a dusky, gipsy +hue. Over her thumb hung castanets and in her hand was a +tambourine. Roguishly she began to sway into a slow, rhythmic +dance, beating time with her instruments as she moved. Gradually +the speed quickened to a faster time. She swung gracefully to and +fro with all the lithe agility of the race she personified. No +part could have been better conceived or executed. Even +physically she displayed the large, brilliant eyes, the +ringleted, coal-black hair, the tawny skin, and the flashing +smile that showed small teeth of dazzling ivory, characteristic +of the Romanies he had met. It was a daring part to play, but the +young man watching realized that she had the free grace to carry +it out successfully. She danced the fandango to a finish, swept +him another low bow, and presented laughingly to him the +tambourine for his donation. Then, suddenly flinging aside the +instrument, she curtsied and caught at his hand. + +"Will the senor have his fortune told?" + +Bucky drew a handful of change from his pocket and selected a +gold eagle. "I suppose I must cross your palm with gold," he +said, even while his subconscious mind was running on the new +complication presented to him by this discovery. + +He was very clear about one thing. He must not let her know that +he knew her for a girl. To him she must still be a boy, or their +relation would become impossible. She had trusted in her power to +keep her secret from him. On no other terms would she have come +with him; of so much he was sure, even while his mind groped for +a sufficient reason to account for an impulse that might have +impelled her. If she found out that he knew, the knowledge would +certainly drive her at once from him. For he knew that not the +least charm of the extraordinary fascination she had for him lay +in her sweet innocence of heart, a fresh innocence that consisted +with this gay Romany abandon, and even with a mental experience +of the sordid, seamy side of life as comprehensive as that of +many a woman twice her age. She had been defrauded out of her +childish inheritance of innocence, but, somehow, even in her foul +environment the seeds of a rare personal purity had persistently +sprung up and flourished. Some flowers are of such native +freshness that no nauseous surroundings can kill their fragrance. +And this was one of them. + +Meanwhile, her voice ran on with the patter of her craft. There +was the usual dark woman to be circumvented and the light one to +be rewarded. Jealousies and rivalries played their part in the +nonsense she glibly recited, and somewhere in the future lay, of +course, great riches and happiness for him. + +With a queer little tug at his heart he watched the dainty finger +that ran so lightly over his open palm, watched, too, the bent +head so gracefully fine of outline and the face so mobile of +expression when the deep eyes lifted to his in question of the +correctness of her reading. He would miss the little partner that +had wound himself so tightly round his heart. He wondered if he +would find compensating joy in this exquisite creature whom a few +moments had taken worlds distant from him. + +Suddenly tiring of her diversion, she dropped his hand. "You +don't say I do it well," she charged, aware suspiciously, at +last, of his grave silence. + +"You do it very well indeed. I didn't think you had it in you, +kid. What's worrying me is that I can never live up to such a +sure enough gipsy as you." + +"All you have to do is to look sour and frown if anybody gets too +familiar with me. You can do that, can't you?" + +"You bet I can," he answered promptly, with unnecessary emphasis. + +"And look handsome," she teased. + +"Oh, that will be easy for me--since you are going to make me up. +As a simple child of nature I'm no ornament to the scenery, but +art's a heap improving sometimes." + +She thought, but did not say, that art would go a long way before +it could show anything more pleasing than this rider of the +plains. It was not alone his face, with the likable blue eyes +that could say so many things in a minute, but the gallant ease +of his bearing. Such a springy lightness, such sinewy grace of +undulating muscle, were rare even on the frontier. She had once +heard Webb Mackenzie say of him that he could whip his weight in +wildcats, and it was easy of belief after seeing how surely he +was master of the dynamic power in him. It is the emergency that +sifts men, and she had seen him rise to several with a readiness +that showed the stuff in him. + +That evening they slipped out unobserved in the dusk, and a few +minutes later a young gipsy and his bride presented themselves at +the inn to be put up. The scowling young Romany was particular, +considering that he spent most nights in the open, with a sky for +a roof. So the master of the inn thought when he rejected on one +pretense or another the first two rooms that were shown him. He +wanted two rooms, and they must connect. Had the innkeeper such +apartments? The innkeeper had, but he would very much like to see +the price in advance if he was going to turn over to guests of +such light baggage the best accommodations in the house. This +being satisfactorily arranged, the young gipsies were left to +themselves in the room they had rented. + +The first thing that the man did when they were alone was to roll +a cigarette, which operation he finished deftly with one hand, +while the other swept a match in a circular motion along his +trousers leg. In very fair English the Spanish gipsy said: "You +ce'tainly ought to learn to smoke, kid. Honest, it's more comfort +than a wife." + +"How do you know, since you are not married?" she asked archly. + +"I been noticing some of my poor unfortunate friends," he +grinned. + + + +CHAPTER 7. IN THE LAND OF REVOLUTIONS + +The knock that sounded on the door was neither gentle nor +apologetic. It sounded as if somebody had flung a baseball bat at +it. + +O'Connor smiled, remembering that soft tap of yore. "I reckon--" +he was beginning, when the door opened to admit a visitor. + +This proved to be a huge, red-haired Irishman, with a face that +served just now merely as a setting for an irresistible smile. +The owner of the flaming head looked round in surprise on the +pair of Romanies and began an immediate apology to which a sudden +blush served as accompaniment. + +"Beg pardon. I didn't know The damned dago told me " He stopped +in confusion, with a scrape and a bow to the lady. + +"Sir, I demand an explanation of this most unwarrantable +intrusion," spoke the ranger haughtily, in his best Spanish. + +A patter of soft foreign vowels flowed from the stranger's +embarrassment. + +"You durned old hawss-stealing greaser, cayn't you talk English?" +drawled the gipsy, with a grin. + +The other's mouth fell open with astonishment He stared at the +slim, dusky young Spaniard for an instant before he fell upon him +and began to pound his body with jovial fists. + +"You would, would you, you old pie-eating fraud! Try to fool your +Uncle Mick and make him think you a greaser, would you? I'll +learn yez to play horse with a fullgrown, able-bodied white man." +He punctuated his points with short-arm jolts that Bucky +laughingly parried. + +"Before ladies, Mick! Haven't you forgot your manners, Red-haid?" + +Swiftly Mr. O'Halloran came to flushed rigidity. "Madam, I must +still be apologizing. The surprise of meeting me friend went to +me head, I shouldn't wonder." + +Bucky doubled up with apparent mirth. "Get into the other room, +Curly, and get your other togs on," he ordered. "Can't you see +that Mick is going to fall in love with you if he sees you a +minute longer, you young rascal? Hike!" + +"Don't you talk that way to a lady, Bucky," warned O'Halloran, +again blushing vividly, after she had disappeared into the next +room. "And I want to let yez have it right off the bat that if +you've been leading that little Mexican senorita into trouble +you've got a quarrel on with Mike O'Halloran." + +"Keep your shirt on, old fire-eater. Who told you I was wronging +her any?" + +"Are you married to her?" + +"You bet I ain't. You see, Mick, that handsome lady you're going +to lick the stuffing out of me about is only a plumb ornery sassy +young boy, after all." + +"No!" denied Mick, his eyes two excited interrogation-points. +"You can't stuff me with any such fairy-tale, me lad." + +"All right. Wait and see," suggested the ranger easily. "Have a +smoke while you're falling out of love." + +"You young limb, I want you to tell me all about it this very +minute, before I punch holes in yez." + +Bucky lit his cigar, leaned back, and began to tell the story of +Frank Hardman and the knife-thrower. Only one thing he omitted to +tell, and that was the conviction that had come home to him a few +moments ago that his little comrade was no boy, but a woman. +O'Halloran was a chivalrous Irishman, a daredevil of an +adventurer, with a pure love of freedom that might very likely in +the end bring him to face a row of loaded carbines with his back +to a wall, but Bucky had his reticencies that even loyal +friendship could not break down. This girl's secret he meant to +guard until such time as she chose of her own free will to tell +it. + +Frank returned just as he finished the tale of the knife episode, +and Mick's frank open eyes accused him of idiocy for ever having +supposed that this lad was a woman. Why, he was a little fellow +not over fifteen--not a day past fifteen, he would swear to that. +He was, to be sure, a slender, girlish young fellow, a good deal +of a sissy by the look of him, but none the less a sure enough +boy. Convinced of this, the big Irishman dismissed him promptly +from his thoughts and devoted himself to Bucky. + +"And what are yez doing down in greaser land? Thought you was +rustling cows for a living somewheres in sunburnt Arizona," he +grinned amiably. + +"Me? Oh, I came down on business. We'll talk about that +presently. How's your one-hawss revolution getting along, Reddy? +I hope it's right peart and healthy." + +O'Halloran's eyes flashed a warning, with the slightest nod in +the world toward the boy. + +"Don't worry about him. He's straight as a string and knows how +to keep his mouth shut. You can tell him anything you would me." +He turned to the boy sitting quietly in an inconspicuous corner. +"Mum's the word, Frank. You understand that, of course?" + +The boy nodded. "I'll go into the next room, if you like." + +"It isn't necessary. Fire ahead, Mike." + +The latter got up, tiptoed to each door in turn, flung it +suddenly open to see that nobody was spying behind it, and then +turned the lock. "I have use for me head for another year or two, +and it's just as well to see that nobody is spying. You +understand, Bucky, that I'm risking me life in telling you what +I'm going to. If you have any doubts about this lad--" He +stopped, keen eyes fixed on Frank. + +"He's as safe as I am, Mike. Is it likely I would take any risks +about a thing of that sort with my old bunkie's tough neck +inviting the hangman?" asked O'Connor quietly. + +"Good enough. The kid looks stanch, and, anyhow, if you guarantee +him that's enough for me." He accepted another of the ranger's +cigars, puffed it to a red glow, and leaned back to smile at his +friend. "Glory, but it's good to see ye, Bucky, me bye. You'll +never know how a man's eyes ache to see a straight-up white man +in this land of greasers. It's the God's truth I'm telling ye +when I say that I haven't had a scrimmage with me hands since I +came here. The only idea this forsaken country has of exchanging +compliments is with a knife in the dark." He shook his flaming +head regretfully at the deplorably lost condition of a country +where the shillalah was unknown as a social institution. + +"If I wasn't tied up with this Valdez bunch I'd get out +to-morrow, and sometimes I have half a mind to pull out anyhow. +If you've never been associated, me lad, with half a dozen most +divilishly polite senors, each one of them watching the others +out of the corner of his slant eyes for fear they are going to +betray him or assassinate him first, you'll never know the joys +of life in this peaceful and contented land of indolence. Life's +loaded to the guards with uncertainties, so eat, drink, and be +merry, for to-morrow you hang, or your friend will carve ye in +the back with a knife, me old priest used to say, or something +like it. 'Tis certain he must have had in mind the +Spanish-American, my son." + +"Which is why you're here, you old fraud," smiled Bucky. "You've +got to grumble, of course, but you couldn't be dragged away while +there's a chance of a row. Don't I know you of old, Reddy?" + +"Anyway, here I am, with me neck so near to the rope it fairly +aches sometimes. If you have any inclinations toward suicide, +I'll be glad to introduce ye to me revolutionary friends." + +"Thank you, no. The fact is that we have a little private war of +our own on hand, Mike. I was thinking maybe you'd like to enlist, +old filibuster." + +"Is the pay good?" + +"Nothing a day and find yourself," answered Bucky promptly. + +"No reasonable man could ask fairer than that," agreed +O'Halloran, his grin expanding. "Well, then, what's the row? +Would ye like to be dictator of Chihuahua or Emperor of Mexico?" + +"There's an American in the government prison here under a life +sentence. He is not guilty, and he has already served fifteen +years." + +"He is like to serve fifteen more, if he lives that long." + +"Wrong guess. I mean to get him out." + +"And I'm meaning to go to Paradise some day, but will I?" + +"You're going to help me get him out, Mike." + +"Who told ye that, me optimistic young friend?" + +"I didn't need to be told." + +"Well, I'll not lift a finger, Bucky--not a finger." + +"I knew you wouldn't stand to see a man like Henderson rot in a +dungeon. No Irishman would." + +"You needn't blarney me. I'm too old a bird to be caught with +chaff. It's a dirty shame, of course, about this man Henderson, +but I'm not running the criminal jurisprudence of Mexico meself." + +"And I said to Webb Mackenzie: 'Mickey O'Halloran is the man to +see; he'll know the best way to do it as nobody else would.' I +knew I could depend on you." + +"You've certainly kissed the blarney stone, Mr. O'Connor," +returned the revolutionist dryly. "Well, then, what do you want +me to do?" + +"Nothing much. Get Henderson out and help us to get safely from +the country whose reputation you black-eye so cheerfully." + +"Mercy of Hiven! Bring me the moon and a handful of stars, says +he, as cool as you please." + +The ranger told the story of Henderson and Mackenzie's lost child +in such a way that it lost nothing in the telling. O'Halloran was +moved. "'Tis a damned shame about this man Henderson," he blurted +out. + +Bucky leaned back comfortably and waved airily his brown hand. +"It's up to you," his gay, impudent eyes seemed to say. + +"I don't say I won't be able to help you," conceded O'Halloran. +"It happens, me bye, that you've dropped in on me just before the +band begins to play." He lowered his voice almost to a whisper. +"There's a shipment of pianos being brought down the line this +week. The night after they arrive I'm looking for music." + +"I see. The piano boxes are filled with rifles and ammunition. " + +"You have a mind like a tack, Bucky. Rifles is the alias of them +pianos. They'll make merry music once we get them through." + +"That's all very well, but have you reckoned with the government +at Mexico? Chihuahua isn't the whole country, Mickey. Suppose +President Diaz takes a hand in the game and sends troops in on +you?" + +"He won't," answered the other, with a wink. "He's been seen. The +president isn't any too friendly to that old tyrant Megales, who +is now governor here. There's an election next week. The man that +gets most votes will be elected, and I'm thinking, Bucky, that +the man with most rifles will the most votes. Now, says Diaz, in +effect, with an official wave of his hand, 'Settle your own rows, +gintlemen. I don't give a damn whether Megales or Valdez is +governor of Chihuahua, subject, of coorse, to the will of the +people.' Then he winks at Valdez wid his off eye as much as to +say: 'Go in an' win, me boy; me prayers are supporting ye. But be +sure ye do nothing too illegal.' So there ye are, Bucky. If ould +Megales was to wake up election morning and find that the +polling-places was in our hands, his soldiers disarmed or bought +over, and everything contributing smoothly to express the will of +the people in electing him to take a swift hike out of Chihuahua, +it is likely that he might accept the inevitable as the will of +fate and make a strategic retreat to climes more healthy." + +"And if in the meantime he should discover those rifles, or one +of those slant-eyed senors should turn out a Benedict Arnold, +what then, my friend?" + +"Don't talk in that cruel way. You make me neck ache in +anticipation," returned O'Halloran blithely. + +"I think we'll not travel with you in public till after the +election, Mr. O'Halloran," reflected Bucky aloud. + +"'Twould be just as well, me son. My friends won't be overpopular +with Megales if the cards fall his way." + +"If you win, I suppose we may count Henderson as good as a free +man?" + +"It would be a pity if me pull wouldn't do a little thing like +that," scoffed the conspirator genially. + +"But, win or lose, I may be able to help you. We need musicians +to play those pianos we're bringing in. Well, the most dependable +men we can set to play some of them are the prisoners in the +fortress. There's likely to be a wholesale jail delivery the +night before the election. Now, it's just probable that the lads +we free will fight to keep their freedom. That's why we use them. +They HAVE to be true to us because, if they don't, WHICHEVER SIDE +WINS back they go to jail." + +"Of course. I wish I could take a hand myself. But I can't, +because I'm a soldier of a friendly power. We'll get Henderson +out the night before the election and leave on the late train. +You'll have to arrange the program in time for us to catch that +train. " + +O'Halloran looked drolly at him. "I'm liking your nerve, young +man. I pull the chestnuts out of the fire for yez and, likely +enough, get burned. You walk off with your chestnut, and never a +'Thank ye' for poor Mickey the catspaw." + +"It doesn't look like quite a square deal, does it?" laughed the +ranger. "Well, we might vary the program a bit. Bucky O'Connor, +Arizona ranger, can't stop and take a hand in such a game, but I +don't know anything to prevent a young gipsy from Spain staying +over a few days." + +"If you stay, I shall," announced the boy Frank. + +"You'll do nothing of the kind, seh. You'll do just as I say, +according to the agreement you made with me when I let you come," +was Bucky's curt answer. "We're not playing this game to please +you, Master Frank." + +Yet though the ranger spoke curtly, though he still tried to hold +toward his comrade precisely the same attitude as he had before +discovering her sex, he could not put into his words the same +peremptory sting that, he had done before when he found that +occasionally necessary. For no matter how severely he must seem +to deal with her to avoid her own suspicions as to what he knew, +as well as to keep from arousing those of others, his heart was +telling a very different story all the time. He could see again +the dainty grace with which she had danced for him, heard again +that low voice breaking into a merry piping lilt, warmed once +more to the living, elusive smile, at once so tender and mocking. +He might set his will to preserve an even front to her gay charm, +but it was beyond him to control the thrills that shot his +pulses. + + + +CHAPTER 8. FIRST BLOOD! + +Occasionally Alice Mackenzie met Collins on the streets of +Tucson. Once she saw him at the hotel where she was staying, deep +in a discussion with her father of ways and means of running down +the robbers of the Limited. He did not, however, make the least +attempt to push their train acquaintanceship beyond the give and +take of casual greeting. Without showing himself unfriendly, he +gave her no opportunity to determine how far they would go with +each other. This rather piqued her, though she would probably +have rebuffed him if he had presumed far. Of which probability +Val Collins was very well aware. + +They met one morning in front of a drug store downtown. She +carried a parasol that was lilac-trimmed, which shade was also +the outstanding note of her dress. She was looking her very best, +and no doubt knew it. To Val her dainty freshness seemed to +breathe the sweetness of spring violets. + +"Good morning, Miss Mackenzie. Weather like this I'm awful glad I +ain't a mummy," he told her. "The world's mighty full of +beautiful things this glad day." + +"Essay on the Appreciation of Nature, by Professor Collins," she +smiled. + +"To be continued in our next," he amended. "Won't you come in and +have a sundae? You look as if you didn't know it, but the rest of +us have discovered it's a right warm morning." + +Looking across the little table at him over her sundae, she +questioned him with innocent impudence. "I saw you and dad deep +in plans Tuesday. I suppose by now you have all the train robbers +safely tucked away in the penitentiary?" + +"Not yet," he answered cheerfully. + +"Not yet!" Her lifted eyebrows and the derisive flash beneath +mocked politely his confidence. "By this time I should think they +might be hunting big game in deepest Africa." + +"They might be, but they're not." + +"What about that investment in futurities you made on the train? +The month is more than half up. Do you see any chance of +realizing?" + +"It looks now as if I might be a false prophet, but I feel way +down deep that I won't. In this prophet's business confidence is +half the stock in trade." + +"Really. I'm very curious to know what it is you predicted. Was +it something good?" + +"Good for me," he nodded. + +"Then I think you'll get it," she laughed. "I have noticed that +it is the people that expect things--and then go out and take +them--that inherit the earth these days. The meek have been +dispossessed." + +"I'm glad I have your good wishes." + +"I didn't say you had, but you'll get along just as well without +them,'' she answered with a cool little laugh as she rose. + +"I'd like to discuss that proposition with you more at length. +May I call on you some evening this week, Miss Mackenzie?" + +There was a sparkle of hidden malice in her answer. "You're too +late, Mr. Collins. We'll have to leave it undiscussed. I'm going +to leave to-day for my uncle s ranch, the Rocking Chair." + +He was distinctly disappointed, though he took care not to show +it. Nevertheless, the town felt empty after her train had gone. +He was glad when later in the day a message came calling him to +Epitaph. It took him at least seventy-five miles nearer her. + +Before he had been an hour at Epitaph the sheriff knew he had +struck gold this time. Men were in town spending money lavishly, +and at a rough description they answered to the ones he wanted. +Into the Gold Nugget Saloon that evening dropped Val Collins, +big, blond, and jaunty. He looked far less the vigorous sheriff +out for business than the gregarious cowpuncher on a search for +amusement. + +Del Hawkes, an old-time friend of his staging days, pounced on +him and dragged him to the bar, whence his glance fell genially +on the roulette wheel and its devotees, wandered casually across +the impassive poker and Mexican monte players, took in the +enthroned musicians, who were industriously murdering "La +Paloma," and came to rest for barely an instant at a distant faro +table. In the curly-haired good-looking young fellow facing the +dealer he saw one of the men he had come seeking. Nor did he need +to look for the hand with the missing trigger finger to be sure +it was York Neil--that same gay, merry-hearted York with whom he +used to ride the range, changed now to a miscreant who had +elected to take the short cut to wealth. + +But the man beside Neil, the dark-haired, pallid fellow from +whose presence something at once formidable and sinister and yet +gallant seemed to breathe--the very sight of him set the mind of +Collins at work busily upon a wild guess. Surely here was a +worthy figure upon whom to set the name and reputation of the +notorious Wolf Leroy. + +Yet the sheriff's eyes rested scarce an instant before they went +traveling again, for he wanted to show as yet no special interest +in the object of his suspicions. The gathering was a motley one, +picturesque in its diversity. For here had drifted not only the +stranded derelicts of a frontier civilization, but selected types +of all the turbid elements that go to make up its success. +Mexican, millionaire, and miner brushed shoulders at the +roulette-wheel. Chinaman and cow-puncher, Papago and plainsman, +tourist and tailor, bucked the tiger side by side with a +democracy found nowhere else in the world. The click of the +wheel, the monotonous call of the croupier, the murmur of many +voices in alien tongues, and the high-pitched jarring note of +boisterous laughter, were all merged in a medley of confusion as +picturesque as the scene itself. + +"Business not anyways slack at the Nugget," ventured Collins, to +the bartender. + +"No, I don't know as 'tis. Nearly always somethin' doing in +little old Epitaph," answered the public quencher of thirsts, +polishing the glass top of the bar with a cloth. + +"Playing with the lid off back there, ain't they?" The sheriff's +nod indicated the distant faro-table. + +"That's right, I guess. Only blue chips go." + +"It's Wolf Leroy--that Mexican-looking fellow there," Hawkes +explained in a whisper. "A bad man with the gun, they say, too. +Well, him and York Neil and Scott Dailey blew in last night from +their mine, up at Saguache. Gave it out he was going to break the +bank, Leroy did. Backing that opinion usually comes high, but +Leroy is about two thousand to the good, they say." + +"Scott Dailey? Don't think I know him." + +"That shorthorn in chaps and a yellow bandanna is the gentleman; +him that's playing the wheel so constant. You don't miss no +world-beater when you don't know Scott. He's Leroy's Man Friday. +Understand they've struck it rich. Anyway, they're hitting high +places while the mazuma lasts." + +"I can't seem to locate their mine. What's its brand?" + +"The Dalriada. Some other guy is in with them; fellow by the name +of Hardman, if I recollect; just bought out a livery barn in town +here." + +"Queer thing, luck; strikes about as unexpected as lightning. +Have another, Del?" + +"Don't care if I do, Val. It always makes me thirsty to see +people I like. Anything new up Tucson way?" + +The band had fallen on "Manzanilla," and was rending it with +variations when Collins circled round to the wheel and began +playing the red. He took a place beside the bow-legged vaquero +with the yellow bandanna knotted loosely round his throat. For +five minutes the cow-puncher attended strictly to his bets. Then +he cursed softly, and asked Collins to exchange places with him. + +"This place is my hoodoo. I can't win--" The sentence died in the +man's throat, became an inarticulate gurgle of dismay. + +He had looked up and met the steady eyes of the sheriff, and the +surprise of it had driven the blood from his heart. A revolver +thrust into his face could not have shaken him more than that +serene smile. + +Collins took him by the arm with a jovial laugh meant to cover +their retreat, and led him into one of the curtained alcove +rooms. As they entered he noticed out of the corner of his eye +that Leroy and Neil were still intent on their game. Not for a +moment, not even while the barkeeper was answering their call for +liquor, did the sheriff release Scott from the rigor of his eyes, +and when the attendant drew the curtain behind him the officer +let his smile take on a new meaning. + +"What did I tell you, Scott?" + +"Prove it," defied Scott. "Prove it--you can't prove it." + +"What can't I prove?" + +"Why, that I was in that " Scott stopped abruptly, and watched +the smile broaden on the strong face opposite him. His dull brain +had come to his rescue none too soon. + +"Now, ain't it funny how people's thoughts get to running on the +same thing? Last time I met up with you there you was collecting +a hundred dollars and keep-the-change cents from me, and now here +you are spending it. It's ce'tinly curious how both of us are +remembering that little seance in the Pullman car." + +Scott took refuge in a dogged silence. He was sweating fear. + +"Yes, sir. It comes up right vivid before me. There was you +a-trainin' your guns on me--" + +"I wasn't," broke in Scott, falling into the trap. + +"That's right. How come I to make such a mistake? Of cou'se you +carried the sack and York Neil held the guns." + +The man cursed quietly, and relapsed into silence. + +"Always buy your clothes in pairs?" + +The sheriff's voice showed only a pleasant interest, but the +outlaw's frightened eyes were puzzled at this sudden turn. + +"Wearing a bandanna same color and pattern as you did the night +of our jamboree on the Limited, I see. That's mightily careless +of you, ain't it?" + +Instinctively a shaking hand clutched at the kerchief. "It don't +cut any ice because a hold-up wears a mask made out of stuff like +this " + +"Did I say it was a mask he wore?" the gentle voice quizzed. + +Scott, beads of perspiration on his forehead, collapsed as to his +defense. He fell back sullenly to his first position: "You can't +prove anything." + +"Can't I?" The sheriff's smile went out like a snuffed candle. +Eyes and mouth were cold and hard as chiseled marble. He leaned +forward far across the table, a confident, dominating assurance +painted on his face. "Can't I? Don't you bank on that. I can +prove all I need to, and your friends will prove the rest. +They'll be falling all over themselves to tell what they +know--and Mr.Dailey will be holding the sack again, while Leroy +and the rest are slipping out." + +The outlaw sprang to his feet, white to the lips. + +"It's a damned lie. Leroy would never--" He stopped, again just +in time to bite back the confession hovering on his lips. But he +had told what Collins wanted to know. + +The curtain parted, and a figure darkened the doorway--a slender, +lithe figure that moved on springs. Out of its sardonic, +devil-may-care face gleamed malevolent eyes which rested for a +moment on Dailey, before they came home to the sheriff. + +"And what is it Leroy would never do?" a gibing voice demanded +silkily. + +Scott pulled himself together and tried to bluff, but at the look +on his chief's face the words died in his throat. + +Collins did not lift a finger or move an eyelash, but with the +first word a wary alertness ran through him and starched his +figure to rigidity. He gathered himself together for what might +come. + +"Well, I am waiting. What it is Leroy would never do?" The voice +carried a scoff with it, the implication that his very presence +had stricken conspirators dumb. + +Collins offered the explanation. + +"Mr. Dailey was beginning a testimonial of your virtues just as +you right happily arrived in time to hear it. Perhaps he will now +proceed." + +But Dailey had never a word left. His blunders had been crying +ones, and his chief's menacing look had warned him what to +expect. The courage oozed out of his heart, for he counted +himself already a dead man. + +"And who are you, my friend, that make so free with Wolf Leroy's +name?" It was odd how every word of the drawling sentence +contrived to carry a taunt and a threat with it, strange what a +deadly menace the glittering eyes shot forth. + +"My name is Collins." + +"Sheriff of Pica County?" + +"Yes." + +The eyes of the men met like rapiers, as steady and as searching +as cold steel. Each of them was appraising the rare quality of +his opponent in this duel to the death that was before him. + +"What are you doing here? Ain't Pica County your range?" + +"I've been discussing with your friend the late hold-up on the +Transcontinental Pacific." + +"Ah!" Leroy knew that the sheriff was serving notice on them of +his purpose to run down the bandits. Swiftly his mind swept up +the factors of the situation. Should he draw now and chance the +result, or wait for a more certain ending? He decided to wait, +moved by the consideration that even if he were victorious the +lawyers were sure to draw out of the fat-brained Scott the cause +of the quarrel. + +"Well, that don't interest me any, though I suppose you have to +explain a heap how come they to hold you up and take your gun. +I'll leave you and your jelly-fish Scott to your gabfest. Then +you better run back home to Tucson. We don't go much on visiting +sheriffs here." He turned on his heel with an insolent laugh, and +left the sheriff alone with Dailey. + +The superb contempt of the man, his readiness to give the sheriff +a chance to pump out of Dailey all he knew, served to warn +Collins that his life was in imminent danger. On no hypothesis +save one--that Leroy had already condemned them both to death in +his mind--could he account for such rashness. And that the blow +would fall soon, before he had time to confer with other +officers, was a corollary to the first proposition. + +"He'll surely kill me on sight," Scott burst out. + +"Yes, he'll kill you," agreed the sheriff, "unless you move +first." + +"Move how?" + +"Against him. Protect yourself by lining up with me. It's your +only show on earth." + +Dailey's eyes flashed. "Then, by thunder, I ain't taking it! I'm +no coyote, to round on my pardners." + +"I give it to you straight. He means murder." + +Perspiration poured from the man's face. "I'll light out of the +country." + +The sheriff shook his head. "You'd never get away alive. Besides, +I want you for holding up the Limited. The safest place for you +is in jail, and that's where I'm going to put you. Drop that gun! +Quick! That's right. Now, you and I are going out of this saloon +by the back door. I'm going to walk beside you, and we're going +to laugh and talk as if we were the best of friends, but my hand +ain't straying any from the end of my gun. Get that, amigo? All +right. Then we'll take a little pasear." + +As Collins and his prisoner reappeared in the main lobby of the +Gold Nugget, a Mexican slipped out of the back door of the +gambling-house. The sheriff called Hawkes aside. + +"I want you to call a hack for me, Del. Bring it round to the +back door, and arrange with the driver to whip up for the depot +as soon as we get in. We ought to catch that 12:20 up-train. When +the hack gets here just show up in the door. If you see Leroy or +Neil hanging around the door, put your hand up to your tie. If +the coast is clear, just move off to the bar and order +something." + +"Sure," said Hawkes, and was off at once, though just a thought +unsteady from his frequent libations. + +Both hands of the big clock on the wall pointed to twelve when +Hawkes appeared again in the doorway at the rear of the Gold +Nugget. With a wink at Collins, he made straight for the cocktail +he thought he needed. + +"Now," said the sheriff, and immediately he and Dailey passed +through the back door. + +Instantly two shots rang out. Collins lurched forward to the +ground, drawing his revolver as he fell. Scott, twisting from his +grasp, ran in a crouch toward the alley along the shadow of the +buildings. Shots spattered against the wall as his pursuers gave +chase. When the Gold Nugget vomited from its rear door a rush of +humanity eager to see the trouble, the noise of their footsteps +was already dying in the distance. + +Hawkes found his friend leaning against the back of the hack, his +revolver smoking in his hand. + +"For God's sake, Val!" screamed Hawkes. "Did they get you?" + +"Punctured my leg. That's all. But I expect they'll get Dailey." + +"How come you to go out when I signaled you to stay?" + +"Signaled me to stay, why--" + +Collins stopped, unwilling to blame his friend. He knew now that +Hawkes, having mixed his drinks earlier in the evening, had mixed +his signals later. + +"Get me a horse, Del, and round up two or three of the boys. I've +got to get after those fellows. They are the ones that held up +the Limited last week. Find out for me what hotel they put up at +here. I want their rooms searched. Send somebody round to the +corrals, and let me know where they stabled their horses. If they +left any papers or saddle-bags, get them for me." + +Fifteen minutes later Collins was in the saddle ready for the +chase, and only waiting for his volunteer posse to join him. They +were just starting when a frightened Chinaman ran into the plaza +with the news that there had been shooting just back of his +laundry on the edge of town and that a man had been killed. + +When the sheriff reached the spot, he lowered himself from the +saddle and limped over to the black mass huddled against the wall +in the bright moonlight. He turned the riddled body over and +looked down into the face of the dead man. I was that of the +outlaw, Scott Dailey. That the body had been thoroughly searched +was evident, for all around him were scattered his belongings. +Here an old letter and a sack of tobacco, its contents emptied on +the ground; there his coat and vest, the linings of each of them +ripped out and the pockets emptied. Even the boots and socks of +the man had been removed, so thorough had been the search. +Whatever the murderers had been looking for it was not money, +since his purse, still fairly well lined with greenbacks, was +found behind a cactus bush a few yards away. + +"What in time were they after?" frowned Collins. "If it wasn't +his money--and it sure wasn't--what was it? I ce'tainly would +like to know what the Wolf wanted so blamed bad. Guess I'll not +follow Mr. Leroy just now till my leg is in better shape. Maybe I +had better investigate a little bit round town first." + +The body was taken back to the Gold Nugget and placed on a table, +pending the arrival of the undertaker. It chanced that Collins, +looking absently over the crowd, glimpsed a gray felt hat that +looked familiar by reason of a frayed silver band found it. +Underneath the hat was a Mexican, and him the sheriff ordered to +step forward. + +"Where did you get that hat, Manuel?" + +"My name is Jose--Jose Archuleta," corrected the olive-hued one. + +"I ain't worrying about your name, son. What I want to know is +where you found that hat." + +"In the alley off the plaza, senor." + +"All right. Chuck it up here." + +"Muy bien, senor." And the dusty hat was passed from hand to hand +till it reached the sheriff. + +Collins ripped off the silver band and tore out the sweat-pad. It +was an off chance--one in a thousand--but worth trying none the +less. And a moment later he knew it was the chance that won. For +sewed to the inside of the discolored sweat-pad was a little +strip of silk. With his knife he carefully removed the strip, and +found between it and the leather a folded fragment of paper +closely covered with writing. He carried this to the light, and +made it out to be a memorandum of direction of some sort. Slowly +he spelled out the poorly written words: + +From Y. N. took Unowhat. Went twenty yards strate for big rock. +Eight feet direckly west. Fifty yards in direcksion of suthern +Antelope Peke. Then eighteen to nerest cotonwood. J. H. begins +hear. + +Collins read the scrawl twice before an inkling of its meaning +came home to him. Then in a flash his brain was lighted. It was a +memorandum of the place where Dailey's share of the plunder was +buried. + +His confederates had known that he had it, and had risked capture +to make a thorough search for the paper. That they had not found +it was due only to the fact that the murdered man had lost his +hat as he scurried down the streets before them. + +The doctor, having arrived, examined the wound and suggested an +anaesthetic. Collins laughed. + +"I reckon not, doc. You round up that lead pill and I'll endure +the grief without knockout drops." + +While the doctor was probing for the bullet lodged in his leg, +the sheriff studied the memorandum found in Dailey's hat. He +found it blind, disappointing work, for there was no clearly +indicated starting-point. Bit by bit he took it: + +From Y. N. took Unowhat. + +This was clear enough, so far as it went. It could only mean that +from York Neil the writer had taken the plunder to hide. +But--WHERE did he take it? From what point? A starting-point must +be found somewhere, or the memorandum was of no use. Probably +only Neil could supply the needed information, now that Dailey +was dead. + +Went twenty yards strate for big rock. Eight feet direckly west. +Fifty yards in direcksion of suthern Antelope Peke. Then eighteen +to nerest cotonwood. + +All this was plain enough, but the last sentence was the puzzler. + +J. H. begins hear. + +Was J. H. a person? If so, what did he begin. If Dailey had +buried his plunder, what had J. H. left to do? + +But had he buried it? Collins smiled. It was not likely he had +handed it over to anybody else to hide for him. And yet-- + +He clapped his hand down on his knee. "By the jumping California +frog, I've got it!" he told himself. "They hid the bulk of what +they got from the Limited all together. Went out in a bunch to +hide it. Blind-folded each other, and took turn about blinding up +the trail. No one of them can go get the loot without the rest. +When they want it, every one of these memoranda must be +Johnny-on-the-spot before they can dig up the mazuma. No wonder +Wolf Leroy searched so thorough for this bit of paper. I'll bet a +stack of blue chips against Wolf's chance of heaven that he's the +sorest train-robber right this moment that ever punctured a +car-window." + +Collins laughed softly, nor had the smile died out of his eyes +when Hawkes came into the room with information to the point. He +had made a round of the corrals, and discovered that the outlaws' +horses had been put up at Jay Hardman's place, a tumble-down +feed-station on the edge of town. + +"Jay didn't take kindly to my questions," Hawkes explained, "but +after a little rock-me-to-sleep-mother talk I soothed him down +some, and cut the trail of Wolf Leroy and his partners. The old +man give me several specimens of langwidge unwashed and uncombed +when I told him Wolf and York was outlaws and train-robbers. +Didn't believe a word of it, he said. 'Twas just like the fool +officers to jump an innocent party. I told Jay to keep his shirt +on--he could turn his wolf lose when they framed up that he was +in it. Well, sir! I plumb thought for a moment he was going to +draw on me when I said that. Say he must be the fellow that's in +on that mine, with Leroy and York Neil. He's a big, long-haired +guy." + +Collins' eyes narrowed to slits, as they always did when he was +thinking intensely. Were their suspicions of the showman about to +be justified? Did Jay Hardman's interest in Leroy have its source +merely in their being birds of a feather, or was there a more +direct community of lawlessness between them? Was he a member of +Wolf Leroy's murderous gang? Three men had joined in the chase of +Dailey, but the tracks had told him that only two horses had +galloped from the scene of the murder into the night. The +inference left to draw was that a local accomplice had joined +them in the chase of Scott, and had slipped back home after the +deed had been finished. + +What more likely than that Hardman had been this accomplice? +Hawkes said he was a big long-haired fellow. So was the man that +had held up the engineer of the Limited. He was--"J. H. begins +hear." Like a flash the ill-written scrawl jumped to his sight. +"J. H." was Jay Hardman. What luck! + +The doctor finished his work, and Collins tested his leg +gingerly. "Del, I'm going over to have a little talk with the old +man. Want to go along?" + +"You bet I do, Val"--from Del Hawkes. + +"You mustn't walk on that leg for a week or two yet, Mr. +Collins," the doctor explained, shaking his head. + +"That so, doctor? And it nothing but a nice clean flesh-wound! +Sho! I've a deal more confidence in you than that. Ready, Del?" + +"It's at your risk then, Mr. Collins." + +"Sure." The sheriff smiled. "I'm living at my own risk, doctor. +But I'd a heap rather be alive than daid, and take all the risk +that's coming, too. But since you make a point of it, I'll do +most of my walking on a bronco's back." + +They found Mr. Hardman just emerging from the stable with a +saddle-pony when they rode into the corral. At a word from +Collins, Hawkes took the precaution to close the corral gate. + +The fellow held a wary position on the farther side of his horse, +the while he ripped out a raucous string of invectives. + +"Real fluent, ain't he?" murmured Hawkes, as he began to circle +round to flank the enemy. + +"Stay right there, Del Hawkes. Move, you redhaided son of a brand +blotter, and I'll pump holes in you!" A rifle leveled across the +saddle emphasized his sentiments. + +"Plumb hospitable," grinned Hawkes, coming promptly to a halt. + +Collins rode slowly forward, his hand on the butt of the revolver +that still lay in its scabbard. The Winchester covered every step +of his progress, but he neither hastened nor faltered, though he +knew his life hung in the balance. If his steely blue eyes had +released for one moment the wolfish ones of the villain, if he +had hesitated or hurried, he would have been shot through the +head. + +But the eyes of a brave man are the king of weapons. Hardman's +fingers itched at the trigger he had not the courage to pull. For +such an unflawed nerve he knew himself no match. + +"Keep back," he screamed. "Damn it, another step and I'll fire!" + +But he did not fire, though Collins rode up to him, dismounted, +and threw the end of the rifle carelessly from him. + +"Don't be rash, Hardman. I've come here to put you under arrest +for robbing the T. P. Limited, and I'm going to do it." + +The indolent, contemptuous drawl, so free of even a suggestion of +the strain the sheriff must have been under, completed his +victory. The fellow lowered his rifle with a peevish oath. + +"You're barkin' up the wrong tree, Mr. Collins." + +"I guess not," retorted the sheriff easily. "Del, you better +relieve Mr. Hardman of his ballast. He ain't really fit to be +trusted with a weapon, and him so excitable. That Winchester came +awful near going off, friend. You don't want to be so careless +when you're playing with firearms. It's a habit that's liable to +get you into trouble." + +Collins had not shaved death so closely without feeling a +reaction of boyish gaiety at his adventure. It bubbled up in his +talk like effervescing soda. + +"Now we'll go into a committee of the whole, gentlemen, adjourn +to the stable, and have a little game of 'Button, button, who's +got the button?' You first, Mr. Hardman. If you'll kindly shuck +your coat and vest, we'll begin button-hunting." + +They diligently searched the miscreant without hiding anything +pertaining to "J. H. begins hear." + +"He's bound to have it somewhere," asseverated Collins. "It don't +stand to reason he was making his getaway without that paper. We +got to be more thorough, Del." + +Hawkes, under the direction of his friend, ripped up linings and +tore away pockets from clothing. The saddle on the bronco and the +saddle-blankets were also torn to pieces in vain. + +Finally Hawkes scratched his poll and looked down on the +wreckage. "I hate to admit it, Val, but the old fox has got us +beat; it ain't on his person." + +"Not unless he's got it under his skin," agreed Collins, with a +grin. + +"Maybe he ate it. Think we better operate and find out?" + +An idea hit the sheriff. He walked up to Hardman and ordered him +to open his mouth. + +The jaws set like a vise. + +Collins poked his revolver against the closed mouth. "Swear for +us, old bird. Get a move on you." + +The mouth opened, and Collins inserted two fingers. When he +withdrew them they brought a set of false teeth. Under the plate +was a tiny rubber bag that stuck to it. Inside the bag was a +paper. And on it was written four lines in Spanish. Those lines +told what he wanted to know. They, too, were part of a direction +for finding hidden treasure. + +The sheriff wired at once to Bucky, in Chihuahua. Translated into +plain English, his cipher dispatch meant: "Come home at once. +Trail getting red hot." + +But Bucky did not come. As it happened, that young man had other +fish to fry. + + + +CHAPTER 9. "ADORE HAS ONLY ONE D." + +After all, adventures are to the adventurous. In this prosaic +twentieth century the Land of Romance still beckons to eager eyes +and gallant hearts. The rutted money-grabber may deny till he is +a nerve-racked counting-machine, but youth, even to the end of +time, will laugh to scorn his pessimism and venture with elastic +heel where danger and mystery offer their dubious hazards. + +So it was that Bucky and his little comrade found nothing of +dulness in the mission to which they had devoted themselves. In +their task of winning freedom for the American immured in the +Chihuahua dungeon they already found themselves in the heart of a +web of intrigue, the stakes of which were so high as to carry +life and death with them in the balance. But for them the sun +shone brightly. It was enough that they played the game and +shared the risks together. The jocund morning was in their +hearts, and brought with it an augury of success based on nothing +so humdrum or tangible as reason. + +O'Connor carried with him to the grim fortress not only his +permit for an inspection, but also a note from O'Halloran that +was even more potent in effect. For Colonel Ferdinand Gabilonda, +warden of the prison, had a shrewd suspicion that a plot was +under way to overthrow the unpopular administration of Megales, +and though he was an office-holder under the present government +he had no objection to ingratiating himself with the opposition, +providing it could be done without compromising himself openly. +In other words, the warden was sitting on the fence waiting to +see which way the cat would jump. If the insurgents proved the +stronger party, he meant to throw up his hat and shout "Viva +Valdez." On the other hand, if the government party crushed them +he would show himself fussily active in behalf of Megales. Just +now he was exerting all his diplomacy to maintain a pleasant +relationship with both. Since it was entirely possible that the +big Irishman O'Halloran might be the man on horseback within a +very few days, the colonel was all suave words and honeyed smiles +to his friend the ranger. + +Indeed he did him the unusual honor of a personally conducted +inspection. Gabilonda was a fat little man, with a soft, purring +voice and a pompous manner. He gushed with the courteous +volubility of his nation, explaining with great gusto this and +that detail of the work. Bucky gave him outwardly a deferent ear, +but his alert mind and eyes were scanning the prisoners they saw. +The ranger was trying to find in one of these scowling, defiant +faces some resemblance to the picture his mind had made of +Henderson. + +But Bucky looked in vain. If the man he wanted was among these he +had changed beyond recognition. In the end he was forced to ask +Gabilonda plainly if he would not take him to see David +Henderson, as he knew a man in Arizona who was an old friend of +his, and he would like to be able to tell him that he had seen +his friend. + +Henderson was breaking stone when O'Connor got his first glimpse +of him. He continued to swing his hammer listlessly, without +looking up, when the door opened to let in the warden and his +guests. But something in the ranger's steady gaze drew his eyes. +They were dull eyes, and sullen, but when he saw that Bucky was +an American, the fire of intelligence flashed into them. + +"May I speak to him?" asked O'Connor. + +"It is against the rules, senor, but if you will be brief--" The +colonel shrugged, and turned his back to them, in order not to +see. It must be said for Gabilonda that his capacity for blinking +what he did not think it judicious to see was enormous. + +"You are David Henderson, are you not?" The ranger asked, in a +low voice. + +Surprise filtered into the dull eyes. "That was my name," the man +answered bitterly. "I have a number now." + +"I come from Webb Mackenzie to get you out of this," the ranger +said. + +The man's eyes were no longer dull now, but flaming with hatred. +"Curse him, I'll take nothing from his hands. For fifteen years +he has let me rot in hell without lifting a hand for me." + +"He thought you dead. It can all be explained. It was only last +week that the mystery of your disappearance was solved." + +"Then why didn't he come himself? It was to save his little girl +I got myself into this place. If I had been in his shoes I would +have come if I'd had to crawl on my hands and knees." + +"He doesn't know yet you are here. I wrote him simply that I knew +where you were, and then I came at once." Bucky glanced round +warily at the fat colonel gazing placidly out of the barred +window. "I mean to rescue you, and I knew if he were here his +impulsiveness would ruin everything." + +"Do you mean it? For God's sake! don't lie to me. If there's no +hope for me, don't say there is." The prisoner's voice shook and +his hands trembled. He was only the husk of the man he had been, +but it did Bucky's heart good to see that the germ of life was +still in him. Back in Arizona, on the Rocking Chair Ranch, with +the free winds of the plains beating on his face, he would pick +up again the old strands of his broken life, would again learn to +love the lowing of cattle and the early morning call of the +hooter to his mate. + +"I mean it. As sure as I stand here I'll get you out, or, if I +don't, Webb Mackenzie will. We're calling the matter to the +attention of the United States Government, but we are not going +to wait till that time to free you. Keep up your courage, man. It +is only for a little time now." + +Tears leaped to the prisoner's eyes. He had been a game man in +the dead years that were past, none gamer in Texas, and he could +still face his jailers with an impassive face; but this first +kindly word from his native land in fifteen years to the man +buried alive touched the fount of his emotions. He turned away +and leaned against the grating of his cell, his head resting on +his forearm. "My God! man, you don't know what it means to me. +Sometimes I think I shall go mad and rave. After all these years +But I know you'll fail--It's too good to be true," he finished +quietly. + +"I'll not fail, though I may be delayed. But I can't say more. +Gabilonda is coming back. Next time I see you it will be to take +you out to freedom. Think of that always, and believe it." + +Gabilonda bowed urbanely. "If the senor has seen all he cares to +of this department we will return to the office," he suggested +suavely. + +"Certainly, colonel. I can't appreciate too much your kindness in +allowing me to study your system so carefully." + +"Any friend of my friend the Senor O'Halloran is cherished deeply +in my heart," came back the smiling colonel, with a wave of his +plump, soft hand. + +"I am honored, sir, to receive such consideration at the hands of +so distinguished a soldier as Colonel Gabilonda," bowed Bucky +gravely, in his turn, with the most flowery Spanish he could +muster. + +There was another half-hour of the mutual exchange of compliments +before O'Connor could get away. Alphonse and Gaston were fairly +outdone, for the Arizonian, with a smile hidden deep behind the +solemnity of his blue eyes, gave as good as he got. When he was +at last fairly in the safety of his own rooms he gave way to limp +laughter while describing to his little friend that most +ceremonious parting. + +"He pressed me to his manly bay window, Curly, and allowed he was +plumb tickled to death to have met me. Says I, coming back equal +strong, 'twas the most glorious day of my life." + +"Oh, I know YOU," answered young Hardman, with a smile. + +"A friend of his friend O'Halloran--" + +"Mr. O'Halloran was here while you were away. He seemed very +anxious to see you; said he would call again in an hour. I think +it must be important." + +Came at that instant O'Halloran's ungentle knock, on the heels of +which his red head came through the open door. + +"You're the very lad I'm wanting to see, Bucky," he announced, +and followed this declaration by locking all the doors and +beckoning him to the center of the room. + +"Is that tough neck of yours aching again, Reddy?" inquired his +friend whimsically. + +"It is that, me bye. There's the very divil to pay," he +whispered. + +"Cough it out, Mike." + +"That tyrant Megales is onto our game. Somebody's leaked, or else +he has a spy in our councils--as we have in his, the ould +scoundrel." + +"I see. Your spy has told you that his spy has reported to him--" + +"That the guns are to be brought in to-night. He has sent out a +guard to bring them in safely to him. If he gets them, our game +is up, me son, and you can bet your last nickle on that." + +"If he gets them! Is there a chance for us?" + +"Glory be! there is. You see, he doesn't know that we know what +he has done. For that reason he sent out only a guard of forty +men. If he sent more we would suspect what he was doing, ye see. +That is the way the old fox reasoned. But forty--they were able +to slip out of the city on last night's train in civilian's +clothes and their arms in a couple of coffins." + +"Why didn't he send a couple of hundred men openly, and at the +same time arrest you all?" + +"That doesn't suit his book at all. For one thing, he probably +doesn't know all of us, and he doesn't want to bag half of us and +throw the rest into immediate rebellion. It's his play not to +force the issue until after the election, Bucky. He controls all +the election machinery and will have himself declared reelected, +the old scamp, notwithstanding that he's the most unpopular man +in the State. To precipitate trouble now would be just +foolishness, he argues. So he'll just capture our arms, and after +the election give me and my friends quiet hell. Nothing public, +you know--just unfortunate assassinations that he will regret +exceedingly, me bye. But I have never yit been assassinated, and, +on principle, I object to being trated so. It's very destructive +to a man's future usefulness." + +"And so?" laughed the ranger. + +"And so we've arranged to take a few lads up the line and have a +train hold-up. I'm the robber-in-chief. Would ye like to be +second in command of the lawless ruffians, me son?" + +Bucky met his twinkling eye gaily. "Mr. O'Connor is debarred from +taking part in such an outrageous affair by international +etiquette, but he knows a gypsy lad would be right glad to join, +I reckon." + +"Bully for him. If you'll kindly have him here I'll come around +and collect him this evening at eight-thirty sharp." + +"I hope you'll provide a pleasant entertainment for him." + +"We'll do our best," grinned the revolutionist. "Music provided +by Megales' crack military band. A lively and enjoyable occasion +guaranteed to all who attend. Your friend will meet some of the +smartest officers in the State. It promises to be a most +sumptuous affair." + +"Then my friend accepts with pleasure." + +After the conspirator had gone, Frank spoke up. "You wouldn't go +away with him and leave me here alone, would you?" + +"I ce'tainly shouldn't take you with me, kid. I don't want my +little friend all shot up by greasers." + +"If you're going, I want to go, too. Supposing-- if anything were +to happen to you, what could I do?" + +"Leave the country by the next train. Those are the orders." + +"You're always talking about a square deal. Do you think that is +one? I might say that I don't want YOU shot. You don't care +anything about my feelings." The soft voice had a little break in +it that Bucky loved. + +He walked across to his partner, that rare, tender smile of his +in his eyes. "If I'm always talking about a square deal I reckon +I have got to give you one. Now, what would you think a square +deal, Curly? Would it be square for me to let my friend +O'Halloran stand all the risk of this and then me take the reward +when Henderson has been freed by him? Would that be your notion +of the right telling?" + +"I didn't say that, though I don't see why you have to mix +yourself up in his troubles. Why should you go out and kill these +soldiers that haven't injured you?" + +"I'm not going to kill any of them," he smiled "Besides, that +isn't the way I look at it. This fellow Megales is a despot. He +has made out to steal the liberty of the people from them. +President Diaz can't interfere because the old rascal governor +does everything with that smooth, oily way of his under cover of +law. It's up to some of the people to put up a good strong kick +for themselves. I ain't a bit sorry to give them the loan of my +foot while they are doing it." + +"Then can't I go, too? I don't want to be left alone here and you +away fighting." + +Bucky's eyes gleamed. He dared an experiment in an indifferent +drawl. "Whyfor don't you want to stay alone, kid? Are you afraid +for yourself or for me?" + +His partner's cheeks were patched with roses. Shyly the long, +thick lashes lifted and let the big brown eyes meet his blue +ones. "Maybe I'm afraid for both of us." + +"Would you care if one of their pills happened along in the +scrimmage and put me out of business? Honest, would you?" + +"You haven't any right to talk that way. It's cruel," was the +reply that burst from the pretty lips, and he noticed that at his +suggestion the roses had died from soft cheeks. + +"Well, I won't talk that way any more, little partner," he +answered gaily, taking the small hand in his. "For reasons good. +I'm fire-proof. The Mexican bullet hasn't been cast yet that can +find Bucky O'Connor's heart." + +"But you mustn't think that, either, and be reckless," was the +next injunction. The shy laugh rang like music. "That's why I +want to go along, to see that you behave yourself properly." + +"Oh, I'll behave," he laughed; for the young man found it very +easy to be happy when those sweet eyes were showing concern for +him. "I've got several good reasons why I don't aim to get bumped +off just yet. Heaps of first-rate reasons. I'll tell you what +some of them are one of these days," he dared to add. + +"You had better tell me now." The gaze that fell before his +steady eyes was both shy and eager. + +"No, I reckon I'll wait, Curly," he answered, turning away with a +long breath. "Well, we better go out and get some grub, tortillas +and frijoles, don't you think?" + +"Just as you like." The lad's breath was coming a little fast. +They had been on the edge of some moment of intimacy that Bucky's +partner both longed for and dreaded. "But you have not told me +yet whether I can go with you." + +"You can't. I'm sorry. I'd like first-rate to take you, if you +want to go, but I can't do it. I hate to disappoint you if you're +set on it, but I've got to, kid. Anything else you want I'll be +glad to do." + +He added this last because Frank looked so broken. hearted about +it. + +"Very well." Swift as a flash came the demand: "Tell me these +heaps of first-rate reasons you were mentioning just now." + +Under the sun-tan he flushed. "I reckon I'll have to make another +exception, Curly. Those reasons ain't ripe yet for telling." + +"Then if you are--if anything happens--I'll never know them. And +you promised you would tell me--you, who pretend to hate a liar +so," she scoffed. + +"Would it do if I wrote those reasons and left them in a sealed +envelope? Then in case anything happened you could open it and +satisfy that robust curiosity of yours." He recognized that he +had trapped himself, and he was making the best bargain left him. + +"You may write them, if you like. But I'm going to open the +letter, anyway. The reasons belong to me now. You promised." + +"I'll make a new deal with you, then," he smiled. "I'll take +awful good care of myself to-night if you'll promise not to open +the envelope for two weeks unless--well, unless that something +happens that we ain't expecting." + +"Call it a week, and it's a bargain." + +"Better say when we're back across the line again. That may be +inside of three days, if everything goes well," he threw in as a +bait. + +"Done. I'm to open the letter when we cross the line into Texas." + +Bucky shook the little hand that was offered him and wished +mightily that he had the right to celebrate with more fervent +demonstrations. + +That afternoon the ranger wrote with a good deal of labor the +letter he had promised. It appeared to be a difficult thing for +him to deliver himself even on paper of those good and sufficient +reasons. He made and destroyed no less than half a dozen openings +before at last he was fairly off. Meanwhile, Master Frank, busy +over some alterations in Bucky's gypsy suit, took pleasure in +deriding with that sweet voice the harassed correspondent. + +"It might be a love letter from the pains you take with it. Would +you like me to come and help you with it?" the sewer railed +merrily. + +"I ain't used to letter writing much," apologized the scribe, +wiping his bedewed brow, which had suddenly gone a shade more +flushed. + +"Apparently not. I expect, from the time you give it, the result +will be a literary classic." + +"Don't you disturb me, Curly, or I'll never get done," implored +the tortured ranger. + +"You're doing well. You've only been an hour and a half on six +lines," the tormentor mocked. + +Womanlike, she was quite at her ease, since he was very far +indeed from being at his. Yet she had a problem of her own she +was trying to decide. + +Had he discovered, after all, that she was not a boy, and had his +reasons--the ones he was trying to tell in that disturbing +letter--anything to do with that discovery? Such a theory +accounted for several things she had noticed in him of late. +There was an added respect in his manner for her. He never now +invaded the room recognized as hers without a specific +invitation, nor did he seem any longer to chafe at the little +personal marks of fastidiousness that had at first appeared to +annoy him. To be sure, he ordered her about, just as he had been +in the habit of doing at first. But it was conceivable that this +might be a generous blind to cover up his knowledge of her sex. + +"How do you spell guessed--one s or two?" he presently asked, out +of the throes of composition. + +She spelled it, and added demurely: "Adore has only one d" + +Bucky laid down his pen and pretended to glare at him. "You young +rascal, what do you mean by bothering me like that? Act like +that, you young imp, and you'll never grow up to be a gentleman." + +Their glances caught and held, the minds of each of them busy +over that last prediction of his. For one long instant masks were +off and both were trying to find an answer to a question in the +eyes opposite. Then voluntarily each gaze released the other in a +confusion of sweet shame. For the beating of a lash, soul had +looked into naked soul, all disguise stripped from them. She knew +that he knew. Yet in that instant when his secret was surprised +from him another secret, sweeter than the morning song of birds, +sang its way into both their hearts. + + + +CHAPTER 10. THE HOLD-UP OF THE M. C. P. FLYER + +Agua Negra is twelve miles from Chihuahua as the crow flies, but +if one goes by rail one twists round thirty sinuous miles of +rough mountainous country in the descent from the pass to the +capital of the State. The ten men who slipped singly or by twos +out of the city in the darkness that evening and met at the +rendezvous of the Santa Dolorosa mission did not travel by rail +to the pass, but followed a horseback trail which was not more +than half the distance. + +At the mission O'Halloran and his friend found gathered half a +dozen Mexicans, one or two of them tough old campaigners, the +rest young fellows eager for the excitement of their first active +service. + +"Is Juan Valdez here yet?" asked O'Halloran, peering around in +the gloom. + +"Not yet; nor Manuel Garcia," answered a young fellow. + +Bucky was introduced to those present under the name of +Alessandro Perdoza, and presently also to the two missing members +of the party who arrived together a few moments later. Juan +Valdez was the son of the candidate who was opposing the +reelection of Megales, and Manuel Garcia was his bosom friend, +and the young man to whom his sister was engaged. They were both +excellent types of the honorable aristocratic young Mexican. They +were lightly built, swarthy your men, possessed of that perfect +grace and courtesy which can be found at its best in the Spanish +races. Gay, handsome young cavaliers as they were, filled with +the pride of family, Bucky thought them almost ideal companions +for such a harebrained adventure as this. The ranger was a social +democrat to the marrow. He had breathed in with the Southwest +breezes the conviction that every man must stand on his own +bottom, regardless of adventitious circumstance, but he was not +fool enough to think all men equal. It had been his experience +that some men, by grace of the strength in them, were born to be +masters and others by their weakness to be servants. He knew that +the best any civilization can offer a man is a chance. Given +that, it is up to every man to find his own niche. + +But though he had no sense of deference to what is known as good +blood, Bucky had too much horse sense to resent the careless, +half-indifferent greeting which these two young sprouts of +aristocracy bestowed on the rest of the party. He understood that +it was the natural product of their education and of that of the +others. + +"Are we all here?" asked Garcia. + +"All here," returned O'Halloran briskly. "Rodrigo will guide the +party. I ride next with Senor Garcia. Perdoza and Senor Valdez +will bring up the rear. Forward, gentlemen, and may the Holy +Virgin bring a happy termination to our adventure." He spoke in +Mexican, as they all did, though for the next two hours +conversation was largely suspended, owing to the difficulty of +the precipitous trail they were following. + +Coming to a bit of the road where they were able to ride two +abreast, O'Connor made comment on the smallness of their number. +"O'Halloran must have a good deal of confidence in his men. Forty +to ten is rather heavy odds, is it not, senor?" + +"There are six more to join us at the pass. The wagons have gone +round by the road and the drivers will assist in the attack." + +"Of course it is all in the surprise. I have seen three men hold +up a train with five hundred people on it. Once I knew a gang to +stick up a treasure train with three heavily armed guards +protecting the gold. They got them right, with the drop on them, +and it was good-by to the mazuma." + +"Yes, if they have had any warning or if our plans slip a cog +anywhere we shall be repulsed to a certainty." + +By the light of a moon struggling out from behind rolling clouds +Bucky read eleven-thirty on his watch when the party reached Agua +Negra. It was still thirty minutes before the Flyer was due, and +O'Halloran disposed his forces with explicit directions as to the +course to be followed by each detail. Very rapidly he sketched +his orders as to the present disposition of the wagons and the +groups of attackers. When the train slowed down to remove the +obstacles they placed on the track, Garcia and another young man +were to command parties covering the train from both sides, while +Rodrigo and one of the drivers were to cover the engineer and the +fireman. + +O'Halloran himself, with Bucky and young Valdez, rode rapidly in +the direction of the approaching train. At Concho the engine +would take on water for the last stiff climb of the ascent, and +here he meant to board the train unnoticed, just as it was +pulling out, in order to emphasize the surprise at the proper +moment and render resistance useless. If the troopers were all +together in the car next the one with the boxes of rifles, he +calculated that they might perhaps be taken unawares so sharply +as to render bloodshed unnecessary. + +Concho was two miles from the summit, and when the three men +galloped down to the little station the headlight of the +approaching engine was already visible. They tied their horses in +the mesquit and lurked in the thick brush until the engine had +taken water and the signal for the start was given Then +O'Halloran and Bucky slipped across in the darkness to the train +and swung themselves to the platform of the last car. To Valdez, +very much against his will, had fallen the task of taking the +horses back to Agua Negra Since the track wound round the side of +the mountain in such a way as to cover five miles in making the +summit from Concho, the young Mexican had ample time to get back +to the scene of action before the train arrived. + +The big Irishman and Bucky rested quietly in the shadows of the +back platform for some time. Then they entered the last car, +passed through it, and on to the next. In the sleeper they met +the conductor, but O'Halloran quietly paid their fares and passed +forward. As they had hoped, the whole detail of forty men were in +a special car next to the one containing the arms consigned to +Michael O'Halloran, importer of pianos. + +Lieutenant Chaves, in charge of the detail sent out to see that +the rifles reached Governor Megales instead of the men who had +paid for them, was finding his assignment exceedingly +uninteresting. There was at Chihuahua a certain black-eyed dona +with whom he had expected to enjoy a pleasant evening's +flirtation. It was confounded luck that it had fallen to him to +take charge of the escort for the guns. He had endured in +consequence an unpleasant day of dusty travel and many hours of +boredom through the evening. Now he was cross and sleepy, which +latter might also be said of the soldiers in general. + +He was connected with a certain Arizona outfit which of late had +been making money very rapidly. If one more coup like the last +could be pulled off safely by his friend Wolf Leroy he would +resign from the army and settle down. It would then no longer be +necessary to bore himself with such details as this. + +There was, of course, no necessity for alertness in his present +assignment. The opposition was scarcely mad enough to attempt +taking the guns from forty armed men. Chaves devoutly hoped they +would, in order that he might get a little glory, at least, out +of the affair. But of course such an expectation would be +ridiculous. No, the journey would continue to be humdrum to the +end, he was wearily assured of that, and consequently attempted +to steal a half hour's sleep while propped against a window with +his feet in the seat opposite. + +The gallant lieutenant was awakened by a cessation of the +drumming of the wheels. Opening his eyes, he saw that the train +was no longer in motion. He also saw--and his consciousness of +that fact was much more acute--the rim of a revolver about six +inches from his forehead. Behind the revolver was a man, a young +Spanish gypsy, and he was offering the officer very good advice. + +"Don't move, sir. No cause for being uneasy. Just sit quiet and +everything will be serene. No, I wouldn't reach for that +revolver, if I were you." + +Chaves cast a hurried eye down the car, and at the end of it +beheld the huge Irishman, O'Halloran, dominating the situation +with a pair of revolvers. Chaves' lambs were ranged on either +side of the car, their hands in the air. Back came the +lieutenant's gaze to the impassive face in front of him. Taken by +and large, it did not seem an auspicious moment for garnering +glory. He decided to take the advice bestowed on him. + +"Better put your hands up and vote with your men. Then you won't +be tempted to play with your gun and commit suicide. That's +right, sir. I'll relieve you of it if you don't object." + +Since the lieutenant had no objections to offer, the smiling +gypsy possessed himself of the revolver. At the same instant two +more men appeared at the end of the car. One of them was Juan +Valdez and another one of the mule-skinners. Simultaneously with +their entrance rang out a most disconcerting fusillade of small +arms in the darkness without. Megales' military band, as +O'Halloran had facetiously dubbed them to the ranger, arrived at +the impression that there were about a thousand insurgents +encompassing the train. Chaves choked with rage, but the rest of +the command yielded to the situation very tranquilly, with no +desire to offer themselves as targets to this crackling explosion +of Colts. Muy bien! After all, Valdez was a better man to serve +than the fox Megales. + +Swiftly Valdez and the wagon driver passed down the car and +gathered the weapons from the seats of the troopers. Raising a +window, they passed them out to their friends outside. Meanwhile, +the sound of an axe could be heard battering at the door of the +next car, and presently the crash of splintering wood announced +that an entrance had been forced. + +"Breaking furniture, I reckon," drawled Bucky, in English, for +the moment forgetful of the part he was playing. "I hope they'll +be all right careful of them pianos and not mishandle them so +they'll get out of tune." + +"So, senor, you are American," said Chaves, in English, with a +sinister smile. + +O'Connor shrugged, answering in Spanish: "I am Romany. Who shall +say, whether American, or Spanish, or Bohemian? All nations call +to me, but none claim me, senor." + +The lieutenant continued to smile his meaning grin. "Yet you are +American," he persisted. + +"Oh, as you please. I am what you will, lieutenant." + +"You speak the English like a native." + +"You are complimentary." + +Chaves lifted his eyebrows. "For believing that you are in +costume, that you are wearing a disguise, Mr. American?" + +Bucky laughed outright, and offered a gay retort. "Believe me, +lieutenant, I am no more disguised as a gypsy than you are as a +soldier." + +The Mexican officer flushed with anger at the suggestion of +contempt in the careless voice. His generalship was discredited. +He had been outwitted and made to yield without a blow. But to +have it flung in his teeth with such a debonair insolence threw +him into a fury. + +"If you and I ever meet on equal terms, senor, God pity you," he +ground out between his set jaws. + +Bucky bowed, answering the furious anger in the man's face as +much as his words. "I shall try to be careful not to offer myself +a sheath for a knife some dark night," he scoffed. + +A whistle blew, and then again. The revolver of Bucky rang out +almost on the same instant as those of O'Halloran. Under cover of +the smoke they slipped out of the car just as Rodrigo leaped down +from the cab of the engine. Slowly the train began to back down +the incline in the same direction from which it had come. The +orders given the engineer were to move back at a snail's pace +until he reached Concho again. There he was to remain for two +hours. That Chaves would submit to this O'Halloran did not for a +moment suspect. + +But the track would be kept obstructed till six o'clock in the +morning, and a sufficient guard would wait in the underbrush to +see that the right of way was not cleared. In the meantime the +wagons would be pushing toward Chihuahua as fast as they could be +hurried, and the rest of the riders would guard them till they +separated on the outskirts of the town and slipped quietly in. In +order to forestall any telegraphic communication between +Lieutenant Chaves and his superiors in the city, the wires had +been cut. On the face of it, the guns seemed to be safe. Only one +thing had O'Halloran forgotten. Eight miles across the hills from +Concho ran the line of the Chihuahua Northern. + + + +CHAPTER 11. "STONE WALLS DO NOT A PRISON MAKE." + +The two young Spanish aristocrats rode in advance of the convoy +on the return trip, while O'Halloran and Bucky brought up the +rear. The roads were too rough to permit of rapid travel, but the +teams were pushed as fast as it could safely be done in the dark. +It was necessary to get into the city before daybreak, and also +before word reached Megales of the coup his enemies had made. +O'Halloran calculated that this could be done, but he did not +want to run his margin of time too fine. + +"When the governor finds we have recaptured the arms, will he not +have all your leaders arrested today and thrown into the prison?" +asked the ranger. + +"He will--if he can lay hands on them. But he had better catch +his hare before he cooks it. I'm thinking that none of us will be +at home to-day when his men come with a polite invitation to go +along with them." + +"Then he'll spend all day strengthening his position. With this +warning he will be a fool if he can't make himself secure before +night, when the army is on his side." + +"Oh, the army is on his side, is it? Now, what would you say if +most of the officers were ready to come over to us as soon as we +declare ourselves? And ye speak of strengthening his position. +The beauty of his position, me lad, from our point of view, is +that he doesn't know his weak places. He'll be the most +undeceived man in the State when the test comes--unless something +goes wrong." + +"When do you propose to attack the prison?" + +"To-night. To-morrow is election day, and we want all the byes we +can on hand to help us out." + +"Do you expect to throw the prison doors wide open--let every +scoundrel in Chihuahua loose on the public." + +"We couldn't do that, since half of them are loose already," +retorted O'Halloran dryly. "And as for the rest--we expect to +make a selection, me son, to weed out a few choice ruffians and +keep them behind the bars. But if ye know anything about the +prisons of this country, you're informed, sir, that half the poor +fellows behind bars don't belong there so much as the folk that +put them there. I'm Irish, as ye are yourself, and it's me +instinct to fight for the under dog. Why shouldn't the lads +rotting behind those walls have another chance at the game? By +the mother of Moses! they shall, if Mike O'Halloran has anything +to say about it." + +"You ce'tainly conduct your lawful elections in a beautifully +lawless way," grinned the ranger. + +"And why not? Isn't the law made for man?" + +"For which man--Megales?" + +"In order to give the greatest liberty to each individual man. +But here comes young Valdez riding back as if he were in a bit of +a hurry." + +The filibuster rode forward and talked with the young man for a +few minutes in a low voice. When he rejoined Bucky he nodded his +head toward the young man, who was again headed for the front of +the column. "There's the best lad in the State of Chihuahua. He's +a Mexican, all right, but he has as much sense as a white man. He +doesn't mix issues. Now, the lad's in love with Carmencita +Megales, the prettiest black-eyed lass in Mexico, and, by the +same token, so is our friend Chaves, who just gave us the guns a +little while ago. But Valdez is a man from the heel of him to the +head. Miss Carmencita has her nose in the air because Juan +doesn't snuggle up to ould Megales and flatter him the same way +young Chaves does. So the lad is persona non grata at court with +the lady, and that tin soldier who gave up the guns without a +blow gets the lady's smiles. But it's my opinion that, for all +her haughty ways, miss would rather have our honest fighting lad +than a roomful of the imitation toy kind." + +A couple of miles from the outskirts of the city the wagons +separated, and each was driven to the assigned place for the +hiding of the rifles till night. At the edge of the town Bucky +made arrangements to join his friend again at the monument in the +centre of the plaza within fifteen minutes. He was to bring his +little partner with him, and O'Halloran was to take them to a +place where they might lie in hiding till the time set for the +rising. + +"I would go with ye, but I want to take charge of the unloading. +Don't lose any time, lad, for as soon as Megales learns of what +has happened his fellows will scour the town for every mother's +son of us. Of course you have been under surveillance, and it's +likely he'll try to bag you with the rest of us. It was a great +piece of foolishness me forgetting about the line of the +Chihuahua Northern and its telegraph. But there's a chance Chaves +has forgot, too. Anyway, get back as soon as you can; after we're +hidden, it will be like looking for a needle in a haystack to put +his fat finger on us." + +Bucky went singing up the stairway of the hotel to his room. He +was keen to get back to his little friend after the hazards of +the night, eager to see the brown eyes light up with joy at sight +of him and to hear the soft voice with the trailing inflection +drawl out its shy questions. So he took the stairs three at a +time, with a song on his lips and in his heart. + + "'Tis you shall reign, shall reign alone + My dark Rosaleen! My own Rosaleen! + 'Tis you shall have the golden throne, + 'Tis you shall reign, and reign alone + My dark Rosaleen!" + +O'Connor, somewhat out of breath, was humming the last line when +he passed through the gypsy apartments and opened his own door, +to meet one of the surprises of his life. Yet he finished the +verse, though he was looking down the barrels of two revolvers in +the hands of a pair of troopers, and though Lieutenant Chaves, +very much at his ease, sat on the table dangling his feet. + +Bucky's sardonic laughter rang out gayly. "I ce'tainly didn't +expect to meet you here, lieutenant. May I ask if you have +wings?" + +"Not exactly, senor. But it is quite possible you may have before +twenty-four hours," came the swift retort. + +"Interesting, if true," remarked the ranger carelessly, tossing +his gloves on the bed. "And may I ask to what I am indebted for +the pleasure of a visit from you?" + +"I am returning your call, sir, and at the very earliest +opportunity. I assure you that I have been in the city less than +ten minutes, Senor whatever-you-choose-to-call-yourself. My +promptness I leave you to admire." + +"Oh, you're prompt enough, lieutenant. I noticed that when you +handed over your gun to me so lamblike." He laughed it out +flippantly, buoyantly, though it was on his mind to wonder +whether the choleric little officer might not kill him out of +hand for it. + +But Chaves merely folded his arms and looked sternly at the +American with a manner very theatrical. "Miguel, disarm the +prisoner," he ordered. + +"So I'm a prisoner," mused Bucky aloud. "And whyfor, lieutenant?" + +"Stirring up insurrection against the government. The prisoner +will not talk," decreed his captor, a frowning gaze attempting to +quell him. + +But here the popinjay officer reckoned without his host, for that +gentleman had the most indomitable eyes in Arizona. It was not +necessary for him to stiffen his will to meet the other's attack. +His manner was still lazy, his gaze almost insolent in its +indolence, but somewhere in the blue eyes was that which told +Chaves he was his master. The Mexican might impotently rebel--and +did; he might feed his vanity with the swiftness of his revenge, +but in his heart he knew that the moment was not his, after all, +or that it was his at least with no pleasure unalloyed. + +"The prisoner will not talk," repeated Bucky, with drawling +mockery. "Sure he will, general. There's several things he's +awful curious to know. One of them is how you happen to be +Johnnie-on-the-spot so opportune." + +The lieutenant's dignity melted before his vanity. Having so +excellent a chance to sun the latter, he delivered himself of an +oration. After all, silent contempt did not appear to be the best +weapon to employ with this impudent fellow. + +"Senor, no Chaves ever forgets an insult. Last night you, a +common American, insulted me grossly--me, Lieutenant Ferdinand +Chaves, me, of the bluest Castilian blood." He struck himself +dramatically on the breast. "I submit, senor, but I vow revenge. +I promised myself to spit on you, to spit on your Stars and +Stripes, the flag of a nation of dirty traders. Ha! I do so now +in spirit. The hour I have longed for is come." + +Bucky took one step forward. His eyes had grown opaque and +flinty. "Take care, you cur." + +Swiftly Chaves hurried on without pressing the point. He had a +prophetic vision of his neck in the vise grip of those brown, +sinewy hands, and, though his men would afterward kill the man, +small good would he get from that if the life were already +squeezed out of him. + +"And so what do I do? I think, and having thought I act with the +swiftness of a Chaves. How? I ride across country. I seize a hand +car. My men pump me to town on the roadbed of the Northern. I +telephone to the hotels and find where Americans are staying. +Then I come here like the wind, arrest your friend, and send him +to prison, arrest you also and send you to the gallows." + +"That's real kind of you, general," replied Bucky, in irony +sportive. "But you really are putting yourself out too much for +me. I reckon I'll not trouble you to go so far. By the way, did I +understand you to say you had arrested a friend of mine?" + +Indifferently he flung out the question, if his voice were index +of his feeling, but his heart was pumping faster than it normally +ought. + +"He is in prison, where you will shortly join him. Soldiers, to +the commandant with your captive." + +If Bucky had had any idea of attempting escape, he now abandoned +it at once. The place of all places where he most ardently +desired to be at that moment was in the prison with his little +comrade. His desire marched with that of Chaves so far, and the +latter could not hurry him there too fast to suit him. + +One feature of the situation made him chuckle, and that was this: +The fiery lieutenant, intent first of all on his revenge, had +given first thought to the capture of the man who had made +mincemeat of his vanity and rendered him a possible subject of +ridicule to his fellow officers. So eager had he been to +accomplish this that he had failed as yet to notify his superiors +of what had happened, with the result that the captured guns had +been safely smuggled in and hidden. Bucky thought he could trust +O'Halloran to see that he did not stay long behind bars and +bolts, unless indeed the game went against that sanguine and most +cheerful plotter. In which event--well, that was a contingency +that would certainly prove embarrassing to the ranger. It might +indeed turn out to be a good deal more than embarrassing in the +end. The thing that he had done would bear a plain name if the +Megales faction won the day--and the punishment for it would be +easy to guess. But it was not of himself that O'Connor was +thinking. He had been in tight places before and squeezed safely +out. But his little friend, the one he loved better than his +life, must somehow be extricated, no matter how the cards fell. + +The ranger was taken at once before General Carlo, the ranking +army officer at Chihuahua, and, after a sharp preliminary +examination, was committed to prison. The impression that +O'Connor got of Carlo was not a reassuring one. The man was a +military despot, apparently, and a stickler for discipline. He +had a hanging face, and, in the Yaqui war, had won the nickname +of "the butcher' for his merciless treatment of captured natives. +If Bucky were to get the same short shrift as they did--and he +began to suspect as much when his trial was set for the same day +before a military tribunal--it was time for him to be setting +what few worldly affairs he had in order. Technically, Megales +had a legal right to have him put to death and the impression +lingered with Bucky that the sly old governor would be likely to +do that very thing and later be full of profuse regrets to the +United States Government that inadvertently a citizen of the +great republic had been punished by mistake. + +Bucky was registered and receipted for at the prison office, +after which he was conducted to his cell. The corridors dripped +as he followed under ground the guide who led the way with a +flickering lantern. It was a gruesome place to contemplate as a +permanent abode. But the young American knew that his stay here +would be short, whether the termination of it were liberty or the +gallows. + +Reaching the end of a narrow, crooked corridor that sloped +downward, the turnkey unlocked a ponderous iron door with a huge +key, and one of the guards following at Bucky's heels, pushed him +forward. He fell down two or three steps and came to a sprawling +heap on the floor of the cell. + +From the top of the steps came a derisive laugh as the door swung +to and left him in utter darkness. + +Stiffly the ranger got to his knees and was about to rise when a +sound stopped him. Something was panting in deep breaths at the +other side of the cell. A shiver of terror went goose-quilling +down O'Connor's back. Had they locked him up with some wild +beast, to be torn to pieces? Or was this the ghost of some +previous occupant? In such blackness of gloom it was easy to +believe, or, at least, to imagine impossible conceptions that the +light of day would have scattered in an instant. He was +afraid--afraid to the marrow. + +And then out of the darkness came a small, trembling voice: "Are +you a prisoner, too, sir?" + +Bucky wanted to shout aloud his relief--and his delight. The +sheer joy of his laughter told him how badly he had been +frightened. That voice--were he sunk in twice as deep and dark an +inferno--he would know it among a thousand. He groped his way +forward toward it. + +"Oh, little pardner, I'm plumb tickled to death you ain't a +ghost," he laughed. + +"It is--Bucky?" The question joyfully answered itself. + +"Right guess. Bucky it is." + +He had hold of her hands by this time, was trying to peer down +into the happy-brown eyes he knew were scanning him. "I can't see +you yet, Curly Haid, but it's sure you, I reckon. I'll have to +pass my hand over your face the way a blind man does," he +laughed, and, greatly daring, he followed his own suggestion, and +let his fingers wander across her crisp, thick hair, down her +soft, warm cheeks, and over the saucy nose and laughing mouth he +had often longed to kiss. + +Presently she drew away shyly, but the lilt of happiness in her +voice told him she was not offended. "I can see you, Bucky." The +last word came as usual, with that sweet, hesitating, upward +inflection that made her familiarity wholly intoxicating, even +while the comradeship of it left room for an interpretation +either of gay mockery or something deeper. "Yes, I can see you. +That's because I have been here longer and am more used to the +darkness. I think I've been here about a year." He felt her +shudder. "You don't know how glad I am to see you." + +"No gladder than I am to feel you," he answered gayly. "It's +worth the price of admission to find you here, girl o'mine." + +He had forgotten the pretense that still lay between them, so far +as words went when they had last parted. Nor did it yet occur to +him that he had swept aside the convention of her being a boy. +But she was vividly aware of it, and aware, too, of the demand +his last words had made for a recognition of the relationship +that existed in feeling between them. + +"I knew you knew I was a girl," she murmured. + +"You knew more than that," he challenged joyfully. + +But, in woman's way, she ignored his frontal attack. He was going +at too impetuous a speed for her reluctance. "How long have you +known that I wasn't a boy--not from the first, surely?" + +"I don't know why I didn't, but I didn't. I was sure locoed," he +confessed. "It was when you came out dressed as a gypsy that I +knew. That explained to me a heap of things I never had +understood before about you." + +"It explained, I suppose, why I never had licked the stuffing out +of any other kid, and why you did not get very far in making a +man out of me as you promised," she mocked. + +"Yes, and it explained how you happened to say you were eighteen. +By mistake you let the truth slip out. Course I wouldn't believe +it." + +"I remember you didn't. I think you conveyed the impression to me +diplomatically that you had doubts." + +"I said it was a lie," he laughed. "I sure do owe you a heap of +apologies for being so plumb dogmatic when you knew best. You'll +have to sit down on me hard once in a while, or there won't be +any living with me." + +Blushingly she did some more ignoring. "That was the first time +you threatened to give me a whipping," she recalled aloud. + +"My goodness! Did I ever talk so foolish?" + +"You did, and meant it." + +"But somehow I never did it. I wonder why I didn't." + +"Perhaps I was so frail you were afraid you would break me." + +"No, that wasn't it. In the back of my haid somewhere there was +an instinct that said: 'Bucky, you chump, if you don't keep your +hands off this kid you'll be right sorry all your life.' Not +being given to many ideas, I paid a heap of respect to that one." + +"Well, it's too bad, for I probably needed that whipping, and now +you'll never be able to give it to me." + +"I shan't ever want to now." + +Saucily her merry eyes shot him from under the long lashes. "I'm +not so sure of that. Girls can be mighty aggravating." + +"That's the way girls are meant to be, I expect," he laughed. +"But fifteen-year-old boys have to be herded back into line. +There's a difference." + +She rescued her hands from him and led the way to a bench that +served for a seat. "Sit down here, sir. There are one or two +things that I have to explain." She sat down beside him at the +farther end of the bench. + +"This light is so dim, I can't see you away over there," he +pleaded, moving closer. + +"You don't need to see me. You can hear me, can't you?" + +"I reckon." + +She seemed to find a difficulty in beginning, even though the +darkness helped her by making it impossible for him to see her +embarrassment. Presently he chuckled softly. "No, ma'am, I can't +even hear you. If you're talking, I'll have to come closer." + +"If you do, I'll get up. I want you to be really earnest." + +"I never was more earnest in my life, Curly." + +"Please, Bucky? It isn't easy to say it, and you mustn't make it +harder." + +"Do you have to say it, pardner?" he asked, more seriously. + +"Yes, I have to say it." And swiftly she blurted it out. "Why do +you suppose I came with you to Mexico?" + +"I don't know." He grappled with her suggestion for a moment. "I +suppose--you said it was because you were afraid of Hardman." + +"Well, I wasn't. At least, I wasn't afraid that much. I knew that +I would have been quite safe next time with the Mackenzies at the +ranch." + +"Then why was it?" + +"You can't think of any reason?" She leaned forward and looked +directly into his eyes--eyes as honest and as blue as an Arizona +sky. + +But he stood unconvicted--nay, acquitted. The one reason she had +dreaded he might offer to himself had evidently never entered his +head. Whatever guesses he might have made on the subject, he was +plainly guiltless of thinking she might have come with him +because she was in love with him. + +"No, I can't think of any other reason, if the one you gave isn't +the right one." + +"Quite sure?" + +"Quite sure, pardner." + +"Think! Why did you come to Chihuahua?" + +"To run down Wolf Leroy's gang and to get Dave Henderson out of +prison." + +"Perhaps there is a reason why I should want him out of prison, a +better reason than you could possibly have." + +"I don't savvy it. How can there be? You don't know him, do you? +He's been in prison almost ever since you were born." And on top +of his last statement Bucky's eyes began to open with a new +light. "Good heavens! It can't be possible. You're not Webb +Mackenzie's little girl, are you?" + +She did not answer him in words, but from her neck she slipped a +chain and handed it to him. On the chain hung a locket. + +The ranger struck a match and examined the trinket. "It's the +very missing locket. See! Here's the other one. Compare them +together." He touched the spring and it opened, but the match was +burned out and he had to light another. "Here's the mine map that +has been lost all these years. How did you get this? Have you +always had it? And how long have you known that you were Frances +Mackenzie?" + +His questions tumbled out one upon another in his excitement. + +She laughed, answering him categorically. "I don't know, for +sure. Yes, at least a great many years. Less than a week." + +"But--I don't understand--" + +"And won't until you give me a chance to do some of the talking," +she interrupted dryly. + +"That's right. I reckon I am getting off left foot first. It's +your powwow now," he conceded. + +"So long as I can remember exactly I have always lived with the +man Hardman and his wife. But before that I can vaguely recall +something different. It has always seemed like a kind of +fairyland, for I was a very little tot then. But one of the +things I seem to remember was a sweet, kind-eyed mother and a +big, laughing father. Then, too, there were horses and lots of +cows. That is about all, except that the chain around my neck +seemed to have some connection with my early life. That's why I +always kept it very carefully, and, after one of the lockets +broke, I still kept it and the funny-looking paper inside of it." + +"I don't understand why Hardman didn't take the paper," he +interrupted. + +"I suppose he did, and when he discovered that it held only half +the secret of the mine he probably put it back in the locket. I +see you have the other part." + +"It was lost at the place where the robbers waited to hold up the +T. P. Limited. Probably you lost it first and one of the robbers +found it." + +"Probably," she said, in a queer voice. + +"What was the first clue your father had had for many years about +his little girl. He happened to be at Aravaipa the day you and I +first met. I guess he took a fancy to me, for he asked me to take +this case up for him and see if I couldn't locate you. I ran +Hardman down and made him tell me the whole story. But he lied +about some of it, for he told me you were dead." + +"He is a born liar," the girl commented. "Well, to get on with my +story. Anderson, or Hardman, as he now calls himself, except when +he uses his stage name of Cavallado, went into the show business +and took me with him. When I was a little bit of a girl he used +to use me for all sorts of things, such as a target for his knife +throwing and to sell medicine to the audience. Lots of people +would buy because I was such a morsel of a creature, and I +suppose he found me a drawing card. We moved all over the country +for years. I hated the life. But what could I do?" + +"You poor little lamb," murmured the man. "And when did you find +out who you were?" + +"I heard you talking to him the night you took him back to +Epitaph, and then I began to piece things together. You remember +you went over the whole story with him again just before we +reached the town." + +"And you knew it was you I was talking about?" + +"I didn't know. But when you mentioned the locket and the map, I +knew. Then it seemed to me that since this man Henderson had lost +so many years of his life trying to save me I must do something +for him. So I asked you to take me with you. I had been a boy so +long I didn't think you would know the difference, and you did +not. If I hadn't dressed as a girl that time you would not know +yet." + +"Maybe, and maybe not," he smiled. "Point is, I do know, and it +makes a heap of difference to me." + +"Yes, I know," she said hurriedly. "I'm more trouble now." + +"That ain't it," he was beginning, when a thought brought him up +short. As the daughter of Webb Mackenzie this girl was no longer +a penniless outcast, but the heiress of one-half interest in the +big Rocking Chair Ranch, with its fifteen thousand head of +cattle. As the first he had a perfect right to love her and to +ask her to marry him, but as the latter--well, that was quite a +different affair. He had not a cent to bless himself with outside +of his little ranch and his salary, and, though he might not +question his own motives under such circumstances, there would be +plenty who would question them for him. He was an independent +young man as one could find in a long day's ride, and his pride +rose up to padlock his lips. + +She looked across at him in shy surprise, for all the eagerness +had in an instant been sponged from his face. With a hard, +impassive countenance he dropped the hand he had seized and +turned away. + +"You were saying--" she suggested. + +"I reckon I've forgot what it was. It doesn't matter, anyhow." + +She was hurt, and deeply. It was all very well for her to try her +little wiles to delay him, but in her heart she longed to hear +the words he had been about to say. It had been very sweet to +know that this brown, handsome son of Arizona loved her, very +restful to know that for the first time in her life she could +trustfully let her weakness lean on the strength of another. And, +more than either, though she sometimes smilingly pretended to +deny it to herself, was the ultimate fact that she loved him. His +voice was music to her, his presence joy. He brought with him +sunshine, and peace, and happiness. + +He was always so reliable, so little the victim of his moods. +What could have come over him now to change him in that swift +instant? Was she to blame? Had she unknowingly been at fault? Or +was there something in her story that had chilled him? It was +characteristic of her that it was herself she doubted and not +him; that it never occurred to her that her hero had feet of clay +like other men. + +She felt her heart begin to swell, and choked back a sob. It +wrung him to hear the little breath catch, but he was a man, +strong-willed and resolute. Though he dug his finger nails into +his palms till the flesh was cut he would not give way to his +desire. + +"You're not angry at me--Bucky?" she asked softly. + +"No, I'm not angry at you." His voice was cold because he dared +not trust himself to let his tenderness creep into it. + +"I haven't done anything that I ought not to? Perhaps you think +it wasn't--wasn't nice to--to come here with you." + +"I don't think anything of the kind," his hard voice answered. "I +think you're a prince, if you want to know." + +She smiled a little wanly, trying to coax him back into +friendliness. "Then if I'm a prince you must be a princess," she +teased. + +"I meant a prince of good fellows" "Oh!" She could be stiff, too, +if it came to that. + +And at this inopportune moment the key turned harshly and the +door swung open. + + + +CHAPTER 12. A CLEAN WHITE MAN'S OPTION + +The light of a lantern coming down the steps blinded them for a +moment. Behind the lantern peered the yellow face of the turnkey. +"Ho, there, Americano! They want you up above," the man said. +"The generals, and the colonels, and the captains want a little +talk with you before they hang you, senor." + +The two soldiers behind the fellow cackled merrily at his wit, +and the encouraged turnkey tried again. + +"We shall trouble you but a little time. Only a few questions, +senor, an order, and then poco tiempo, after a short walk to the +gallows--paradise." + +"What--what do you mean?" gasped the girl whitely. + +"Never mind, muchacho. This is no affair of yours. Your turn will +come later. Have no fear of that," nodded the wrinkled old +parchment face. + +"But--but he hasn't done anything wrong." + +"Ho, ho! Let him explain that to the generals and the colonels," +croaked the old fellow. "And that you may explain the sooner, +senor, hurry--let your feet fly!" + +Bucky walked across to the girl he loved and took her hands in +his. + +"If I don't come back before three hours read the letter that I +wrote you yesterday, dear. I have left matches on that bench so +that you may have a light. Be brave, pardner. Don't lose your +nerve, whatever you do. We'll both get out of this all right +yet." + +He spoke in a low voice, so that the guards might not hear, and +it was in kind that she answered. + +"I'm afraid, Bucky; afraid away down deep. You don't half believe +yourself what you say. I can't stand it to be here alone and not +know what's going on. They might be--be doing what that man said, +and I not know anything about it till afterward." She broke down +and began to sob. "Oh, I know I'm a dreadful little coward, but I +can't be like you--and you heard what he said." + +"Sho! What he says is nothing. I'm an American citizen, and I +reckon that will carry us through all right. Uncle Sam has awful +long arms, and these greasers know it. I'm expecting to come back +here again, little pardner. But if I don't make it, I want you, +just as soon as they turn you loose, to go straight to your +father's ranch." + +"Come! This won't do. Look alive, senor," the turnkey ordered, +and to emphasize his words reached a hand forward to pluck away +the sobbing lad. Bucky caught his wrist and tightened on it like +a vise. "Hands off, here!" he commanded quietly. + +The man gave a howl of pain and nursed his hand gingerly after it +was released. + +"Oh, Bucky, make him let me go, too," the girl wailed, clinging +to his coat. + +Gently he unfastened her fingers. "You know I would if I could, +Curly; but it isn't my say-so." + +And with that he was gone. Ashen-faced she watched him go, and as +soon as the door had closed groped her way to the bench and sank +down on it, her face covered with her hands. He was going to his +death. Her lover was going to his death. Why had she let him go? +Why had she not done something--thought of some way to save him? + +The ranger's guards led him to the military headquarters in the +next street from the prison. He observed that nearly a whole +company of Rurales formed the escort, and this led him to +conclude that the government party was very uneasy as to the +situation and had taken precautions against a possible attempt at +rescue. But no such attempt was made. The sunny streets were +pretty well deserted, except for a few lounging peons hardly +interested enough to be curious. The air of peace, of order, sat +so incongruously over the plaza that Bucky's heart fell. Surely +this was the last place on earth for a revolution to make any +headway of consequence. His friends were hidden away in holes and +cellars, while Megales dominated the situation with his troops. +To expect a reversal of the situation was surely madness. + +Yet even while the thought was in his mind he caught a glimpse in +a doorway of a man he recognized. It was Rodrigo, one of his +allies of the previous night's escapade, and it seemed to him +that the man was trying to tell him something with his eyes. If +so, the meaning of his message failed to carry home, for after +the ranger had passed he dared not look back again. + +So far as the trial itself went, O'Connor hoped for nothing and +was the less disappointed. One glance at his judges was enough to +convince him of the futility of expectation. He was tried by a +court-martial presided over by General Carlo. Beside him sat a +Colonel Onate and Lieutenant Chaves. In none of the three did he +find any room for hope. Carlo was a hater of Americans and a +butcher by temperament and choice, Chaves a personal enemy of the +prisoner, and Onate looked as grim an old scoundrel as Jeffreys +the hanging judge of James Stuart. Governor Megales, though not +technically a member of the court, was present, and took an +active part in the prosecution. He was a stout, swarthy little +man, with black, beady eyes that snapped restlessly to and fro, +and from his manner to the officers in charge of the trial it was +plain that he was a despot even in his own official family. + +The court did not trouble itself with forms of law. Chaves was +both principal witness and judge, notwithstanding the protest of +the prisoner. Yet what the lieutenant had to offer in the way of +testimony was so tinctured with bitterness that it must have been +plain to the veriest novice he was no fit judge of the case. + +But Bucky knew as well as the judges that his trial was a merely +perfunctory formality. The verdict was decided ere it began, and, +indeed, so eager was Megales to get the farce over with that +several times he interrupted the proceedings to urge haste. + +It took them just fifteen minutes from the time the young +American was brought into the room to find him guilty of treason +and to decide upon immediate execution as the fitting punishment. + +General Carlo turned to the prisoner. "Have you anything to say +before I pronounce sentence of death upon you?" + +"I have," answered Bucky, looking him straight in the eyes. "I am +an American, and I demand the rights of a citizen of the United +States." + +"An American?" Incredulously Megales lifted his eyebrows. "You +are a Spanish gypsy, my friend." + +The ranger was fairly caught in his own trap. He had donned the +gypsy masquerade because he did not want to be taken for what he +was, and he had succeeded only too well. He had played into their +hands. They would, of course, claim, in the event of trouble with +the United States, that they had supposed him to be what his +costume proclaimed him, and they would be able to make good their +pretense with a very decent appearance of candor. What an idiot +of sorts he had been! + +"We understand each other perfectly, governor. I know and you +know that I am an American. As a citizen of the United States I +claim the protection of that flag. I demand that you will send +immediately for the United States consul to this city." + +Megales leaned forward with a thin, cruel smile on his face. +"Very well, senor. Let it be as you say. Your friend, Senor +O'Halloran, is the United States consul. I shall be very glad to +send for him if you can tell me where to find him. Having +business with him to-day, I have despatched messengers who have +been unable to find him at home. But since you know where he is, +and are in need of him, perhaps you can assist me with +information of value." + +Again Bucky was fairly caught. He had no reason to doubt that the +governor spoke truth in saying that O'Halloran was the United +States consul. There were in the city as permanent residents not +more than three or four citizens of the United States. With the +political instinct of the Irish, it would be very characteristic +of O'Halloran to work his "pull" to secure for himself the +appointment. That he had not happened to mention the fact to his +friend could be accounted for by reason of the fact that the +duties of the office at that place were few and unimportant. + +"We are waiting, senor. If you will tell us where we may send?" +hinted Megales. + +"I do not know any more than you do, if he is not at home." + +The governor's eyes glittered. "Take care, senor. Better sharpen +your memory." + +"It's pretty hard to remember what one never knew," retorted the +prisoner. + +The Mexican tyrant brought his clinched fist slowly down on the +table in front of him. "It is necessary to remember, sir. It is +necessary to answer a few questions. If you answer them to our +satisfaction you may yet save your life." + +"Indeed!" Bucky swept his fat bulk scornfully from head to foot. +"If I were what you think me, do you suppose I would betray my +friends?" + +"You have no option, sir. Answer my questions, or die like a +dog." + +"You mean that you would not think you had any option if you were +in my place, but since I'm a clean white man there's an option. +By God! sir, it doesn't take me a whole lot of time to make it, +either. I'll see you rot in hell before I'll play Judas." + +The words rang like a bell through the room, not loud, but clear +and vibrant. There was a long instant's silence after the +American finished speaking, and as his eyes swept from one to +another of the enemy Bucky met with a surprise. On Colonel +Onate's face was a haggard look of fear--surely it was fear--that +lifted in relief at the young man's brave challenge. He had been +dreading something, and the dread was lifted. Onate! Onate! The +ranger's memory searched the past few days to locate the name. +Had O'Halloran mentioned it? Was this man one of the officers +expected to join the opposition when it declared itself against +Megales? He had a vague recollection of the name, and he could +have heard it only through his friend. + +"Was Juan Valdez a member of the party that took the rifles from +Lieutenant Chaves and his escort?" + +Bucky laughed out his contempt. + +"Speak, sir," broke in Chaves. "Answer the governor, you dog." + +"If I speak, it will be to tell you what a cur I think you." + +Chaves flushed angrily and laid a hand on his revolver. "Who are +you that play dice with death, like a fool?" + +"My name, seh, is Bucky O'Connor." + +At the words a certain fear, followed by a look of triumph, +passed over the face of Chaves. It was as if he had had an +unpleasant shock that had instantly proved groundless. Bucky did +not at the time understand it. + +"Why don't you shoot? It's about your size, you pinhead, to kill +an unarmed man." + +"Tell all you know and I promise you your life." It was Megales +who spoke. + +"I'll tell you nothing, except that I'm Bucky O'Connor, of the +Arizona Rangers. Chew on that a while, governor, and see how it +tastes. Kill me, and Uncle Sam is liable to ask mighty loud +whyfor; not because I'm such a mighty big toad in the puddle, but +because any man that stands under that flag has back of him the +biggest, best, and gamest country on God's green footstool." +Bucky spoke in English this time, straight as he could send it. + +"In that case, I think sentence may now be pronounced, general." + +"I warn you that the United States will exact vengeance for my +death." + +"Indeed!" Politely the governor smiled at him with a malice +almost devilish. "If so, it will be after you are dead, Senor +Bucky O'Connor, of the Arizona Rangers." + +Colonel Onate leaned forward and whispered something to General +Carlo, who shook his head and frowned. Presently the black head +of Chaves joined them, and the three were in excited discussion. +Arms waved like signals, as is usual among the Latin races who +talk with their hands and expressive shrugs of the shoulders. +Outvoted by two to one, Onate appealed to the governor, who came +up and listened, frowning, to both sides of the debate. In their +excitement the voices raised, and to Bucky came snatches of +phrases that told him his life hung in the balance. Carlo and +Chaves were for having him executed out of hand, at latest, by +sunset. The latter was especially vindictive. Indeed, it seemed +to the ranger that ever since he had mentioned his name this man +had set himself more malevolently to compass his death. Onate +maintained, on the other hand, that their prisoner was worth more +to them alive than dead. There was a chance that he might weaken +before morning and tell secrets. At worst they would still have +his life as a card to hold in case of need over the head of the +rebels. If it should turn out that this was not needed, he could +be executed in the morning as well as to-night. + +It may be conceived with what anxiety Bucky listened to the +whispered conversation and waited for the decision of the +governor. He was a game man, noted even in a country famous for +its courageous citizens, but he felt strangely weak now as he +waited with that leather-crusted face of his bereft of all +expression. + +"Give him till morning to weaken. If he still stays obstinate, +hang him in the dawn," decided the governor, his beady eyes fixed +on the prisoner. + +Not a flicker of the eyelid betrayed the Arizonian's emotion, but +for an instant the world swam dizzily before him. Safe till +morning! Before then a hundred chances might change the current +of the game in his favor. How brightly the sunshine flooded the +room! What a glorious world it was, after all! Through the open +window poured the rich, full-throated song of a meadow lark, and +the burden of its blithe song was, "How good is this life the +mere living." + + + +CHAPTER 13. BUCKY'S FIRST-RATE REASONS + +How long Frances Mackenzie gave herself up to despair she never +knew, but when at last she resolutely took herself in hand it +seemed hours later. "Bucky told me to be brave, he told me not to +lose my nerve," she repeated to herself over and over again, +drawing comfort from the memory of his warm, vibrant voice. "He +said he would come back, and he hates a liar. So, of course, he +will come." With such argument she tried to allay her wild fears. + +But on top of all her reassurances would come a swift, blinding +vision of gallant Bucky being led to his death that crumpled her +courage as a hammer might an empty egg shell. What was the use of +her pretending all was well when at that very moment they might +be murdering him? Then in her agony she would pace up and down, +wringing her hands, or would beat them on the stone walls till +the soft flesh was bruised and bleeding. + +It was in the reaction, after one of these paroxysms of despair, +that in her groping for an anchor to make fast her courage she +thought of his letter. + +"He said in three hours I was to read it if he didn't come back. +It must be more than three hours now," she said aloud to herself, +and knew a fresh dread at his prolonged absence beyond the limit +he had set. + +In point of fact, he had been gone less than three-quarters of an +hour, but in each one of them she had lived a lifetime of pain +and died many deaths. + +By snatches she read her letter, a sentence or a fragment of a +sentence at a time as the light served. Luckily he had left a +case nearly full of matches, and one after another of them +dropped, charred and burned out, before she had finished reading. +After she had read it, her first love letter, she must needs go +over it again, to learn by heart the sweet phrases in which he +had wooed her. It was a commonplace note enough, far more neutral +than the strong, virile writer who had lacked the cunning to +transmit his feeling to ink and paper. But, after all, it was +from him, and it told the divine message, however haltingly. No +wonder she burned her little finger tips from the flame of the +matches creeping nearer unheeded. No wonder she pressed it to her +lips in the darkness and dreamed her happy dream in those few +moments when she was lost in her love before cruel realities +pressed home on her again. + +"I told you, Little Curly Haid, that I had first-rate reasons for +not wanting to be killed by these Mexicans. So I have, the best +reasons going. But they are not ripe to tell you, and so I write +them. + +"I guessed your secret, little pardner, right away when I seen +you in a girl's outfit. If I hadn't been blind as a bat I would +have guessed it long since, for all the time my feelings were +telling me mighty loud that you were the lovingest little kid +Bucky had ever come across. + +"I'll not leave you to guess my secret the way you did me yours, +dear Curly, but right prompt I'll set down adore (with one D) and +say you hit the bull's-eye that time without expecting to. But if +I was saying it I would not use any French words sweetheart, but +plain American. And the word would be l-o-v-e, without any D's. +Now you have got the straight of it, my dear. I love you--love +you--love you, from the crown of that curly hear to the soles of +your little feet. What's more, you have got to love me, too, +since I am, + +"Your future husband, + +"BUCKY O CONNOR. + +"P. S.--And now, Curly, you know my first-rate reasons for not +meaning to get shot up by any of these Mexican fellows." + +So the letter ran, and it went to her heart directly as rain to +the thirsty roots of flowers. He loved her. Whatever happened, +she would always have that comfort. They might kill him, but they +could not take away that. The words of an old Scotch song that +Mrs. Mackenzie sang came back to her: + + "The span o' life's nae large eneugh, + Nor deep enough the sea, + Nor braid eneugh this weary warld, + To part my love frae me." + +No, they could not part their hearts in this world or the next, +and with this sad comfort she flung herself on the rough bed and +sobbed. She would grieve still, but the wildness of her grief and +despair was gone, scattered by the knowledge that however their +troubles eventuated they were now one in heart. + +She was roused after a long time by the sound of the huge key +grating in the lock. Through the opened door a figure descended, +and by an illuminating swing of the turnkey's lantern she saw +that it was Bucky. Next moment the door had closed and they were +in each other's arms. Bucky's stubborn pride, the remembrance of +the riches which of a sudden had transformed his little partner +into an heiress and set a high wall of separation between them, +these were swept clean away on a great wave of love which took +Bucky off his feet and left him breathless. + +"I had almost given you up," she cried joyfully. + +Again he passed his hand across her face. "You've been crying, +little pardner. Were you crying on account of me?" + +"On account of myself, because I was afraid I had lost you. Oh, +Bucky, isn't it too good to be true?" + +The ranger smiled, remembering that he had about fourteen hours +to live, if the Megales faction triumphed. "Good! I should think +it is. Bully! I've been famished to see Curly Haid again." + +"And to know that everything is going to come out all right and +that we love each other." + +"That's right good hearing and most ce'tainly true on my side of +it. But how do you happen to know it so sure?" he laughed gayly. + +"Why, your letter, Bucky. It was the dearest letter. I love it." + +"But you weren't to read it for three hours," he pretended to +reprove, holding her at arm's length to laugh at her. + +"Wasn't it three hours? It seemed ever so much longer." + +"You little rogue, you didn't play fair." And to punish her he +drew her soft, supple body to him in a close embrace, and for the +first time kissed the sweet mouth that yielded itself to him. + +"Tell me all about what happened to you," she bade him playfully, +after speech was again in order. + +"Sure." He caught her hand to lead her to the bench and she +winced involuntarily. + +"I burned it," she explained, adding, with a ripple of shy +laughter: "When I was reading your letter. It doesn't really +hurt, though." + +But he had to see for himself and make much over the little +blister that the flame of a match revealed to him. For they were +both very much in love, and, in consequence, bubbling over with +the foolishness that is the greatest inherited wisdom of the +ages. + +But though her lover had acquiesced so promptly to her demand for +a full account of his adventures since leaving her, that young +man had no intention of offering an unexpurged edition of them. +It was his hope that O'Halloran would storm the prison during the +night and effect a rescue. If so, good; if not, there was no need +of her knowing that for them the new day would usher in fresh +sorrow. So he gave her an account of his trial and its details, +told her how he had been convicted, and how Colonel Onate had +fought warily to get the sentence of execution postponed in order +to give their friends a chance to rescue them. + +"When Megales remanded me to prison I wanted to let out an +Arizona yell, Curly. It sure seemed too good to be true." + +"But he may want the sentence carried out some time, if he +changes his mind. Maybe in a week or two he may take a notion +that " She stopped, plainly sobered by the fear that the good +news of his return might not be final. + +"We won't cross that bridge till we come to it. You don't suppose +our friends are going to sit down and fold their hands, do you? +Not if I've got Mike O'Halloran and young Valdez sized up right. +Fur is going to begin to fly pretty soon in this man's country. +But it's up to us to help all we can, and I reckon we'll begin by +taking a preliminary survey of this wickiup." + +Wickiup was distinctly good, since the word is used to apply to a +frail Indian hut, and this cell was nothing less than a tomb +built in the solid rock by blowing out a chamber with dynamite +and covering the front with a solid sheet of iron, into which a +door fitted. It did not take a very long investigation to prove +to Bucky that escape was impossible by any exit except the door, +which meant the same thing as impossible at all under present +conditions. Yet he did not yield to this opinion without going +over every inch of the walls many times to make sure that no +secret panel opened into a tunnel from the room. + +"I reckon they want to keep us, Curly. Mr. Megales has sure got +us real safe this time. I'd be plumb discouraged about breaking +jail out of this cage. It's ce'tainly us to stay hitched a +while." + +About dark tortillas and frijoles were brought down to them by +the facetious turnkey, who was accompanied as usual by two +guards. + +"Why don't my little birdies sing?" he asked, with a wink at the +soldiers. "One of them will not do any singing after daybreak +to-morrow. Ho, ho, my larks! Tune up, tune up!" + +"What do you mean about one not singing after daybreak?" asked +the girl, with eyes dilating. + +"What! Hasn't he told you? Senor the ranger is to be hanged at +the dawn unless he finds his tongue for Governor Megales. Ho, ho! +Our birdie must speak even if he doesn't sing." And with that as +a parting shot the man clanged the door to after him and locked +it. + +"You never told me, Bucky. You have been trying to deceive me," +she groaned. + +He shrugged his shoulders. "What was the use, girlie? I knew it +would worry you, and do no good. Better let you sleep in peace, I +thought." + +"While you kept watch alone and waited through the long night. +Oh, Bucky!" She crept close to him and put her arms around his +neck, holding him tight, as if in the hope that she could keep +him against the untoward fate that was reaching for him. "Oh, +Bucky, if I could only die for you!" + +"Don't give up, little friend. I don't. Somehow I'll slip out, +and then you'll have to live for me and not die for me." + +"What is it that the governor wants you to say that you won't?" + +"Oh, he wants me to sell our friends. I told him to go climb a +giant cactus." + +"Of course you couldn't do that," she sighed regretfully. + +He laughed. "Well, hardly, and call myself a white man." + +"But--" She blanched at the alternative. "Oh, Bucky, we must do +something. We must-- we must." + +"It ain't so bad as it looks, honey. You want to remember that +Mike O'Halloran is on deck. What's the matter with him knocking +out a home run and bringing us both in. I put a heap of +confidence in that red-haided Irishman," he answered cheerfully. + +"You say that just to--to give me courage. You don't really think +he can do anything," she said wanly. + +"That's just what I think, Curly. Some men have a way of getting +things done. When you look at O'Halloran you feel this, the same +as you do when you look at Val Collins. Oh, he'll get us out all +right. I've been in several tighter holes than this one." His +mention of Collins suggested a diversion, and he took up a less +distressing theme lightly. "Wonder what Val is doing at this +precise moment. I'll bet he's beginning to make things warm for +Wolf Leroy's bunch of miscreants. We'll have the robbers of the +Limited behind the bars within two weeks now, or I miss my +guess." + +He had succeeded in diverting her attention better than he had +dared to hope. Her big eyes fixed on his much as if he had raised +for her some forgotten spectre. + +"That's another thing I must tell you. I didn't think to before. +But I want you to know all about me now. Don't think me bad, +Bucky. I'm only a girl. I couldn't help myself," she pleaded. + +"What is it you have done that is so awful?" he smiled, and went +to gather her into his arms. + +She stayed him with a gesture of her hand. "No, not yet. Mebbe +after you know you won't want to. I was one of the robbers of the +Limited." + +"You--what!" he exclaimed, for once struck dumb with sheer +amazement. + +"Yes, Bucky. I expect you'll hate me now. What is it you called +me--a miscreant? Well, that's what I am." + +His arms slipped round her as she began to sob, and he gentled +her till she could again speak. "Tell me all about it, little +Curly." he said. + +"I didn't go into it because I wanted to. My master made me. I +don't know much about the others, except that I heard the names +they called each other." + +"Would you know them again if you saw them? But of course you +would." + +"Yes. But that's it, Bucky. I hated them all, and I was in mortal +fear all the time. Still--I can't betray them. They thought I +went in freely with them--all but Hardman. It wouldn't be right +for me to tell what I know. I've got to make you see that, dear." + +"You'll not need to argue that with me, honey. I see it. You must +keep quiet. Don't tell anybody else what you've told me." + +"And will they put me in the penitentiary when the rest go +there?" + +"Not while Bucky O'Connor is alive and kicking," he told her +confidently. + +But the form in which he had expressed his feeling was +unfortunate. It brought them back to the menace of their +situation. Neither of them could tell how long he would be alive +and kicking. She flung herself into his arms and wept till she +could weep no more. + + + +CHAPTER 14. LE ROI EST MORT; VIVE LE ROI + +When the news reached O'Halloran that Megales had scored on the +opposition by arresting Bucky O'Connor, the Irishman swore +fluently at himself for his oversight in forgetting the Northern +Chihuahua. So far as the success of the insurgents went, the loss +of the ranger was a matter of no importance, since O'Halloran +knew well that nothing in the way of useful information could be +cajoled or threatened out of him. But, personally, it was a blow +to the filibuster, because he knew that the governor would not +hesitate to execute his friend if his fancy or his fears ran that +way, and the big, red-headed Celt would not have let Bucky go to +death for a dozen teapot revolutions if he could help it. + +"And do you think you're fit to run even a donation party, you +great, blundering gumph?" Mike asked himself, in disgust. "You a +conspirator! You a leader of a revolution! By the ghost of Brian +Boru, you had better run along back to the kindergarten class." + +But he was not the man to let grass grow under his feet while he +hesitated how to remedy his mistake. Immediately he got in touch +with Valdez and a few of his party, and decided on a bold +counterstroke that, if successful, would oppose a checkmate to +the governor's check and would also make unnecessary the +unloosing of the State prisoners on the devoted heads of the +people. + +"But mind, gentlemen," said Juan Valdez plainly, "the governor +must not be injured personally. I shall not consent to any +violence, no matter what the issue. Furthermore, I should like to +be given charge of the palace, in order to see that his wants are +properly provided for. We cannot afford to have our movement +discredited at the outset by unnecessary bloodshed or by any +wanton outrages." + +O'Halloran smothered a smile. "Quite right, senor. Success at all +hazards, but, if possible, success with peace. And, faith, +subject to the approval of the rest of those present, I do hereby +appoint you keeper of the governor's person and his palace, as +well as all that do dwell therein, including his man servants, +his maid servants, and his daughter. We hold you personally +responsible for their safe keeping. See that none of them cherish +the enemy or give aid and comfort to them." The Irishman +finished, with a broad smile that seemed to say: "Begad, there's +a clear field. Go in and win, me bye." + +Nothing could be done in broad daylight, while the troops of the +government party patrolled the streets and were prepared to +pounce on the first suspects that poked their noses out of the +holes where they were hidden. Nevertheless, their spies were busy +all day, reporting to the opposition leaders everything that +happened of interest. In the course of the day General Valdez, +the father of Juan, was arrested on suspicion of complicity and +thrown into prison, as were a score of others thought to be in +touch with the Valdez faction. All day the troops of the governor +were fussily busy, but none of the real leaders of the insurgents +was taken. For General Valdez, though he had been selected on +account of his integrity and great popularity to succeed Megales, +was unaware of the plot on foot to retire the dictator from +power. + +It was just after nightfall that a farmer drove into Chihuahua +with a wagonload of alfalfa. He was halted once or twice by +guards on the streets, but, after a very cursory inspection, was +allowed to pass. His route took him past the back of the +governor's palace, an impressive stone affair surrounded by +beautiful grounds. Here he stopped, as if to fasten a tug. Out of +the hay tumbled fifteen men armed with rifles and revolvers, all +of them being careful to leave the wagon on the side farthest +from the palace. + +"Now, me lads, we're all heroes by our talk. It's up to us to +make good. I can promise one thing: by this time to-morrow we'll +all be live patriots or dead traitors. Which shall it be?" + +O'Halloran's concluding question was a merely rhetorical one, for +without waiting for an answer he started at the double toward the +palace, taking advantage of the dense shrubbery that offered +cover up to the last twenty yards. This last was covered with a +rush so rapid that the guard was surprised into a surrender +without a protest. + +Double guard was on duty on account of the strained situation, +but the officer in charge, having been won over to the Valdez +side, had taken care to pick them with much pains. As a +consequence, the insurgents met friends in place of enemies, and +within three minutes controlled fully the palace. Every entrance +was at once closed and guarded, so that no news of the reversal +could reach the military barracks. + +So silently had the palace been taken that, except the guards and +one or two servants held as prisoners, not even those living +within it were aware of anything unusual. + +"Senor Valdez, you are appointed to notify the senorita that she +need not be alarmed at what has occurred. Senor Garcia will act +as captain of the day, and allow nobody to leave the building +under any pretext whatever. I shall personally put the tyrant +under arrest. Rodrigo and Jose will accompany me." + +O'Halloran left his subordinates at the door when he entered the +apartments of the governor. The outer room was empty, and the +Irishman passed through it to the inner one, where Megales was +accustomed to take his after-dinner siesta. + +To-night, however, that gentleman was in no mood for peaceful +reflection followed by slumber. He was on the edge of a volcano, +and he knew it. The question was whether he could hold the lid on +without an eruption. General Valdez he dared not openly kill, on +account of his fame and his popularity, but that pestilent +Irishman O'Halloran could be assassinated and so could several of +his allies--if they only gave him time. That was the rub. The +general dissatisfaction at his rule had been no secret, of +course, but the activity of the faction opposing him, the +boldness and daring with which it had risked all to overthrow +him, had come as so complete a surprise that he had been +unprepared to meet it. Everywhere to-night his guards covered the +city, ready to crush rebellion as soon as it showed its head. +Carlo was in personal charge of the troops, and would remain so +until after the election to-morrow, at which he would be declared +formally reelected. If he could keep his hands on the reins for +twenty-four hours more the worst would be past. He would give a +good deal to know what that mad Irishman, O'Halloran, was doing +just now. If he could once get hold of him, the opposition would +collapse like a house of cards. + +At that precise moment in walked the mad Irishman pat to the +Mexican's thought of him. + +"Buenos noches, excellency. I understand yon have been looking +for me. I am, senor, yours to command." The big Irishman brought +his heels together and gave a mocking military salute. + +The governor's first thought was that he was a victim of +treachery, his second that he was a dead man, his third that he +would die as a Spanish gentleman ought. He was pale to the eyes, +but he lost no whit of his dignity. + +"You have, I suppose, taken the palace," he said quietly. + +"As a loan, excellency, merely as a loan. After to-morrow it will +be returned you in the event you still need it," replied +O'Halloran blandly. + +"You expect to murder me, of course?" + +The big Celt looked shocked. "Not at all! The bulletins may +perhaps have to report you accidentally killed or a victim of +suicide. Personally I hope not." + +"I understand; but before this lamentable accident happens I beg +leave to assure myself that the palace really is in your hands, +senor. A mere formality, of course." The governor smiled his +thin-lipped smile and touched a bell beside him. + +Twice Megales pressed the electric bell, but no orderly appeared +in answer to it. He bowed to the inevitable. + +"I grant you victor, Senor O'Halloran. Would it render your +victory less embarrassing if I were to give you material +immediately for that bulletin on suicide?" He asked the question +quite without emotion, as courteously as if he were proposing a +stroll through the gardens. + +O'Halloran had never liked the man. The Irish in him had always +boiled at his tyranny. But he had never disliked him so little as +at this moment. The fellow had pluck, and that was one certain +passport to the revolutionist's favor. + +"On the contrary, it would distress me exceedingly. Let us +reserve that bulletin as a regrettable possibility in the event +that less drastic measures fail." + +"Which means, I infer, that you have need of me before I pass by +the Socratic method," he suggested, still with that pale smile +set in granite "I shall depend on you to let me know at what +precise hour you would like to order an epitaph written for me. +Say the word at your convenience, and within five minutes your +bulletin concerning the late governor will have the merit of +truth." + +"Begad, excellency, I like your spirit. If it's my say-so, you +will live to be a hundred. Come the cards are against you. Some +other day they may fall more pat for you. But the jig's up now." + +"I am very much of your opinion, sir," agreed Megales. + +"Then why not make terms?" + +"Such as--" + +"Your life and your friends' lives against a graceful +capitulation." + +"Our lives as prisoners or as free men?" + +"The utmost freedom compatible with the circumstances. Your +friends may either leave or remain and accept the new order of +things. I'm afraid it will be necessary for you and General Carlo +to leave the state for your own safety. You have both many +enemies." + +"With our personal possessions?" + +"Of course. Such property as you cannot well take may be left in +the hands of an agent and disposed of later." + +Megales eyed him narrowly. "Is it your opinion, on honor, that +the general and I would reach the boundaries of the State without +being assassinated?" + +"I pledge you my honor and that of Juan Valdez that you will be +safely escorted out of the country if you will consent to a +disguise. It is only fair to him to say that he stands strong for +your life." + +"Then, sir, I accept your terms if you can make it plain to me +that you are strong enough to take the city against General +Carlo." + +From his pocket O'Halloran drew a typewritten list and handed it +to the governor, who glanced it over with interest. + +"These army officers are all with you?" + +"As soon as the word is given." + +"You will pardon me if I ask for proof?" + +"Certainly. Choose the name of any one of them you like and send +for him. You are at liberty to ask him whether he is pledged to +us." + +The governor drew a pencil-mark through a name. O'Halloran +clapped his hands and Rodrigo came into the room. + +"Rodrigo, the governor desires you to carry a message to Colonel +Onate. He is writing it now. You will give Colonel Onate my +compliments and ask him to make as much haste as is convenient." + +Megales signed and sealed the note he was writing and handed it +to O'Halloran, who in turn passed it to Rodrigo. + +"Colonel Onate should be here in fifteen minutes at the farthest. +May I in the meantime offer you a glass of wine, Dictator +O'Halloran?" At the Irishman's smile, the Mexican governor +hastened to add, misunderstanding him purposely: "Perhaps I +assume too much in taking the part of host here. May I ask +whether you will be governor in person or by deputy, senor?" + +"You do me too much honor, excellency. Neither in person nor by +deputy, I fear. And, as for the glass of wine--with all my heart. +Good liquor is always in order, whether for a funeral or a +marriage." + +"Or an abdication, you might add. I drink to a successful reign, +Senor Dictator: Le roi est mort; vive le roi!" + +The Irishman filled a second glass. "And I drink to Governor +Megales, a brave man. May the cards fall better for him next time +he plays." + +The governor bowed ironically. "A brave man certainly, and you +might add: 'Who loses his stake without striking one honest blow +for it.' " + +"We play with stacked cards, excellency. Who can forestall the +treachery of trusted associates?" + +"Sir, your apology for me is very generous, no less so than the +terms you offer," returned Megales sardonically. + +O'Halloran laughed. "Well, if you don't like my explanations I +shall have to let you make your own. And, by the way, may I +venture on a delicate personal matter, your excellency?" + +"I can deny you nothing to-night, senor," answered Megales, +mocking at himself. + +"Young Valdez is in love with your daughter. I am sure that she +is fond of him, but she is very loyal to you and flouts the lad. +I was thinking, sir, that--" + +The Spaniard's eye flashed, but his answer came suavely as he +interrupted: "Don't you think you had better leave Senor Valdez +and me to arrange our own family affairs? We could not think of +troubling you to attend to them." + +"He is a good lad and a brave." + +Megales bowed. "Your recommendation goes a long way with me, +senor, and, in truth, I have known him only a small matter of +twenty years longer than you." + +"Never a more loyal youngster in the land." + +"You think so? A matter of definitions, one may suppose. Loyal to +the authorized government of his country, or to the rebels who +would illegally overthrow it?" + +"Egad, you have me there, excellency. 'Tis a question of point of +view, I'm thinking. But you'll never tell me the lad pretended +one thing and did another. I'll never believe you like that +milksop Chaves better." + +"Must I choose either a fool or a knave?" + +"I doubt it will be no choice of yours. Juan Valdez is an ill man +to deny what he sets his heart on. If the lady is willing--" + +"I shall give her to the knave and wash my hands of her. Since +treason thrives she may at last come back to the palace as its +mistress. Quien sabe?" + +"Less likely things have happened. What news, Rodrigo?" This last +to the messenger, who at that moment appeared at the door. + +"Colonel Onate attends, senor." + +"Show him in." + +Onate was plainly puzzled at the summons to attend the governor, +and mixed with his perplexity was a very evident anxiety. He +glanced quickly at O'Halloran as he entered, as if asking for +guidance, and then as questioningly at Megales. Had the Irishman +played Judas and betrayed them all? Or was the coup already +played with success? + +"Colonel Onate, I have sent for you at the request of Governor +Megales to set his mind at rest on a disturbing point. His health +is failing and he considers the advisability of retiring from the +active cares of state. I have assured him that you, among others, +would, under such circumstances, be in a friendly relation to the +next administration. Am I correct in so assuring him?" + +Megales pierced him with his beady eyes. "In other words, Colonel +Onate, are you one of the traitors involved in this rebellion?" + +"I prefer the word patriot, senor," returned Onate, flushing. + +"Indeed I have no doubt you do. I am answered," he exclaimed +scornfully. "And what is the price of patriotism these days, +colonel?" + +"Sir!" The colonel laid his hand on his sword. + +"I was merely curious to know what position you would hold under +the new administration." + +O'Halloran choked a laugh, for by chance the governor had hit the +nail on the head. Onate was to be Secretary of State under +Valdez, and this was the bait that had been dangled temptingly +under his nose to induce a desertion of Megales. + +"If you mean to reflect upon my honor I can assure you that my +conscience is clear," answered Onate blackly. + +"Indeed, colonel, I do not doubt it. I have always admired your +conscience and its adaptability." The governor turned to +O'Halloran. "I am satisfied, Senior Dictator. If you will permit +me--" + +He walked to his desk, unlocked a drawer, and drew forth a +parchment, which he tossed across to the Irishman. "It is my +commission as governor. Allow me to place it in your hands and +put myself at the service of the new administration." + +"If you will kindly write notes, I will send a messenger to +General Carlo and another to Colonel Gabilonda requesting their +attendance. I think affairs may be quickly arranged." + +"You are irresistible, senor. I hasten to obey." + +Megales sat down and wrote two notes, which he turned over to +O'Halloran. The latter read them, saw them officially sealed, and +dispatched them to their destinations. + +When Gabilonda was announced, General Carlo followed almost at +his heels. The latter glanced in surprise at O'Halloran. + +"Where did you catch him, excellency?" he asked. + +"I did not catch him. He has caught me, and, incidentally, you, +general," answered the sardonic Megales. + +"In short, general," laughed the big Irishman, "the game is up. " + +"But the army--You haven't surrendered without a fight?" + +"That is precisely what I have done. Cast your eye over that +paper, general, and then tell me of what use the army would be to +us. Half the officers are with the enemy, among them the +patriotic Colonel Onate, whom you see present. A resistance would +be futile, and would only result in useless bloodshed." + +"I don't believe it," returned Carlo bluntly. + +"Seeing is believing, general," returned O'Halloran, and he gave +a little nod to Onate. + +The colonel left the room, and two or three minutes later a bell +began to toll. + +"What does that mean?" asked Carlo. + +"The call to arms, general. It means that the old regime is at an +end in Chihuahua. VIVA VALDEZ." + +"Not without a struggle," cried the general, rushing out of the +room. + +O'Halloran laughed. "I'm afraid he will not be able to give the +countersign to Garcia. In the meantime, excellency, pending his +return, I would suggest that you notify Colonel Gabilonda to turn +over the prison to us without resistance." + +"You hear your new dictator, colonel," said Megales. + +"Pardon me, your excellency, but a written order--" + +"Would relieve you of responsibility. So it would. I write once +more." + +He was interrupted as he wrote by a great shout from the plaza. +"VIVA VALDEZ!" came clearly across the night air, and presently +another that stole the color from the cheek of Megales. + +"Death to the tyrant! Death to Megales!" repeated the governor, +after the shouts reached them. + +"I fear, Senor Dictator, that your pledge to see me across the +frontier will not avail against that mad-dog mob." He smiled, +waving an airy hand toward the window. + +The Irishman set his bulldog jaw. "I'll get you out safely or, +begad! I'll go down fighting with you." + +"I think we are likely to have interesting times, my dear +dictator. Be sure I shall watch your doings with interest so long +as your friends allow me to watch anything in this present +world." The governor turned to his desk and continued the letter +with a firm hand. "I think this should relieve you of +responsibility, colonel." + +By this time General Carlo had reentered the room, with a +crestfallen face. + +O'Halloran had been thinking rapidly. "Governor, I think the +safest place for you and General Carlo, for a day or two, will be +in the prison. I intend to put my friend O'Connor in charge of +its defense, with a trustworthy command. There is no need of word +reaching the mob as to where you are hidden. I confess the +quarters will be narrows but--" + +"No narrower than those we shall occupy very soon if we do not +accept your suggestion," smiled Megales. "Buertos! Anything to +escape the pressing attentions of your friends outside. I ask +only one favor, the loan of a revolver, in order that we may +disappoint the mad dogs if they overpower the guard of Senor +O'Connor." + +Hastily O'Halloran rapped out orders, gathered together a little +force of five men, and prepared to start. Both Carlo and Megales +he furnished with revolvers, that they might put an end to their +lives in case the worst happened. But before they had started +Juan Valdez and Carmencita Megales came running toward them. + +"Where are you going? It is too late. The palace is surrounded!" +cried the young man. "Look!" He swept an excited arm toward the +window. "There are thousands and thousands of frenzied people +calling for the lives of the governor and General Carlo." + +Carlo shook like a leaf, but Megales only smiled at O'Halloran +his wintry smile. "That is the trouble in keeping a mad dog, +senor. One never knows when it may get out of leash and bite +perhaps even the hand that feeds it." + +Carmencita flung herself, sobbing, into the arms of her father +and filled the palace with her screams. Megales handed her over +promptly to her lover. + +"To my private office," he ordered briskly. "Come, general, there +is still a chance." + +O'Halloran failed to see it, but he joined the little group that +hurried to the private office. Megales dragged his desk from the +corner where it set and touched a spring that opened a panel in +the wall. Carlo, blanched with fear at the threats and curses +that filled the night, sprang toward the passageway that +appeared. + +Megales plucked him back. "One moment, general. Ladies first. +Carmencita, enter." + +Carlo followed her, after him the governor, and lastly Gabilonda, +tearing himself from a whispered conversation with O'Halloran. +The panel swung closed again, and Valdez and O'Halloran lifted +back the desk just as Garcia came running in to say that the mob +would not be denied. Immediately O'Halloran threw open a French +window and stepped out to the little railed porch upon which it +opened. He had the chance of his life to make a speech, and that +is the one thing that no Irishman can resist. He flung out from +his revolver three shots in rapid succession to draw the +attention of the mob to him. In this he succeeded beyond his +hopes. The word ran like wildfire that the mad Irishman, +O'Halloran, was about to deliver a message to them, and from all +sides of the building they poured to hear it. He spoke in +Mexican, rapidly, his great bull voice reaching to the utmost +confines of the crowd. + +"Fellow lovers of liberty, the hour has struck that we have +worked and prayed for. The glorious redemption of our State has +been accomplished by your patriotic hands. An hour ago the +tyrants, Megales and Carlo, slipped out of the palace, mounted +swift horses, and are galloping toward the frontier." + +A roar of rage, such as a tiger disappointed of its kill might +give, rose into the night. Such a terrible cry no man made of +flesh and blood could hear directed at him and not tremble. + +"But the pursuit is already on. Swift riders are in chase, with +orders not to spare their horses so only they capture the fleeing +despots. We expect confidently that before morning the tyrants +will be in our hands. In the meantime, let us show ourselves +worthy of the liberty we have won. Let us neither sack nor +pillage, but show our great president in the City of Mexico that +not ruffians but an outraged people have driven out the +oppressors." + +The huge Celt was swimming into his periods beautifully, but it +was very apparent to him that the mob must have a vent for its +stored excitement. An inspiration seized him. + +"But one sacred duty calls to us from heaven, my fellow citizens. +Already I see in your glorious faces that you behold the duty. +Then forward, patriots! To the plaza, and let us tear down, let +us destroy by fire, let us annihilate the statue of the dastard +Megales which defaces our fair city. Citizens, to your patriotic +duty!" + +Another wild yell rang skyward, and at once the fringes of the +crowd began to vanish plazaward, its centre began to heave, its +flanks to stir. Three minutes later the grounds of the palace +were again dark and empty. The Irishman's oratory had won the +day. + + + +CHAPTER 15. IN THE SECRET CHAMBER + +The escaping party groped its way along the passage in the wall, +down a rough, narrow flight of stone steps to a second tunnel, +and along this underground way for several hundred yards. Since +he was the only one familiar with the path they were traversing, +the governor took the lead and guided the others. At a distance +of perhaps an eighth of a mile from the palace the tunnel forked. +Without hesitation, Megales kept to the right. A stone's throw +beyond this point of divergence there began to be apparent a +perceptible descent which terminated in a stone wall that blocked +completely the way. + +Megales reached up and put his weight on a rope suspended from +the roof. Slowly the solid masonry swung on a pivot, leaving room +on either side for a person to squeeze through. The governor +found it a tight fit, as did also Gabilonda. + +"I was more slender last time I passed through there. It has been +several years since then," said the governor, giving his daughter +a hand to assist her through. + +They found themselves in a small chamber fitted up as a living +room in a simple way. There were three plain chairs, a bed, a +table, and a dresser, as well as a cooking stove. + +"This must be close to the prison. We have been coming in that +direction all the time. It is strange that it could be so near +and I not know of it," said the warden, looking around curiously. + +Megales smiled. "I am the only person alive that knew of the +existence of this room or of the secret passage until half an +hour ago. I had it built a few years since by Yaquis when I was +warden of the prison. The other end, the one opening from the +palace, I had finished after I became governor." + +"But surely the men who built it know of its existence." + +Again Megales smiled. "I thought you knew me better, Carlo. The +Yaquis who built this were condemned raiders. I postponed their +execution a few months while they were working on this. It was a +convenience both to them and to me." + +"And is also a convenience to me," smiled Carlo, who was +beginning to recover from his terror. + +"But I don't quite understand yet how we are to get out of here +except by going back the way we came," said Gabilonda. + +"Which for some of us might prove a dangerously unhealthy +journey. True, colonel, and therefore one to be avoided." Megales +stepped to the wall, spanned with his fingers a space from the +floor above a joint in the masonry, and pressed against the +concrete. Inch by inch the wall fell back and opened into a lower +corridor of the prison, the very one indeed which led to the cell +in which Bucky and his love were imprisoned. Cautiously the +Spaniard's glance traveled down the passage to see it was empty +before he opened the panel door more than enough to look through. +Then he beckoned to Gabilonda. "Behold, doubting Thomas!" + +The warden gasped. "And I never knew it, never had a suspicion of +it." + +"But this only brings us from one prison to another," objected +the general. "We might be penned in here as well as at the +castle." + +"Even that contingency has been provided for. You noticed, +perhaps, where the tunnel forked. The left branch runs down to +the river-wash, and by ten minutes' digging with the tools lying +there one can force an exit." + +"Your excellency is certainly a wonder, and all this done without +arousing the least suspicion of anybody," admired the warden. + +"The wise man, my dear colonel, prepares for emergencies; the +fool trusts to his luck," replied the governor dryly. + +"Are we to stay here for the present, colonel?" broke in the +governor's daughter. "And can you furnish accommodations for the +rest of us if we stay all night, as I expect we must?" + +"My dear senorita, I have accommodations and to spare. But the +trouble is that your presence would become known. I should be the +happiest' man alive to put my all at the accommodation of +Chihuahua's fairest daughter. But if it should get out that you +are here--" Gabilonda stopped to shrug his fat shoulders at the +prospect. + +"We shall have to stay here, or, at least, in the lower tier of +cells. I'm sorry, Carmencita, but there is no other course +compatible with safety," decided Megales promptly. + +The warden's face cleared. "That is really not a point for me to +decide, governor. This young American, O'Connor, is now in charge +of the prison. I must release him at once, and shall then bring +him here to confer with you as to means of safety." + +Bucky's eyes opened wide when Gabilonda and Megales came alone +and without a lantern to his cell. In the darkness it was +impossible to recognize them, but once within the closed cell the +warden produced a dark lantern from under his coat. + +"Circumstances have arisen that make the utmost vigilance +necessary," explained the warden. "I may begin my explanations by +congratulating you and your young friend. Let me offer a thousand +felicitations. Neither of you are any longer prisoners." + +If he expected either of them to fall on his neck and weep tears +of gratitude at his pompous announcement, the colonel was +disappointed. From the darkness where the ranger's little partner +sat on the bed came a deep sigh of relief, but O'Connor did not +wink an eyelash. + +"I may conclude, then, that Mike O'Halloran has been getting in +his work?" was his cool reply. + +"Exactly, senor. He is the man on horseback and I travel afoot," +smiled Megales. + +Bucky looked him over coolly from head to foot. "Still I can't +quite understand why your ex-excellency does me the honor of a +personal visit." + +"Because, senor, in the course of human events Providence has +seen fit to reverse our positions. I am now your prisoner and you +my jailer," explained Megales, and urbanely added a whimsical +question. "Shall you have me hanged at dawn?" + +"It would be a pleasure, and, I reckon, a duty too. But I can't +promise till I've seen Mike. Do some more explaining, colonel. I +want to know all about the round-up O'Halloran is boss of. Did he +make a right good gather?" + +The subtleties of American humor baffled the little Mexican, but +he appreciated the main drift of the ranger's query, and narrated +with much gesticulation the story of the coup that O'Halloran had +pulled off in capturing the government leaders. + +"It was an exceedingly neat piece of strategy," its victim +admitted. "I would give a good deal to have the privilege of +hanging your red-headed friend, but since that is denied me, I +must be grateful he does not take a fancy to hang me." + +"In case he doesn't, your excellency," was Bucky's addendum. + +"I understand he has decided to deport me," retorted Megales +lightly. "It is perhaps better politics, on the whole, better +even than a knife in the back." + +"Unless rumor is a lying jade, you should be a good judge of +that, governor," said the American, eyeing him sternly. + +Megales shrugged. "One of the penalties of fame is that one gets +credit for much he does not deserve. There was your immortal +General Lincoln, a wit so famous in your country that every good +story is fathered upon him, I understand. So with your humble +servant. Let a man accomplish his vendetta upon the body of an +enemy, and behold! the world cries: 'A victim of Megales.'" + +"Still, if you deserve your reputation as much as our immortal +General Lincoln deserves his, the world may be pardoned for an +occasional error." O'Connor turned to the warden. "What does he +mean by saying that he is my prisoner? Have you a message for me +from O'Halloran, colonel?" + +"It is his desire, senor, that, pending the present uncertain +state of public opinion, you accept the command of the prison and +hold safe all persons detained here, including his excellency and +General Carlo. He desired me to assure you that as soon as is +possible he will arrive to confer with you in person." + +"Good enough, and are you a prisoner, too, colonel?" + +"I did not so understand Senor O'Halloran." + +"If you're not you have to earn your grub and lodgings. I'll +appoint you my deputy, colonel. And, first off, my orders are to +lock up his excellency and General Carlo in this cell till +morning." + +"The cell, Senor O'Connor, is damp and badly ventilated," +protested Gabilonda. + +"I know that a heap better than you do, colonel," said Bucky +dryly. "But if it was good enough for me and my pardner, here, I +reckon it's good enough for them. Anyhow, we'll let them try it, +won't we, Frank;" + +"If you think best, Bucky." + +"You bet I do." + +"And what about the governor's daughter?" asked Gabilonda. + +"You don't say! Is she a guest of this tavern?" + +The colonel explained how they had reached the prison and the +circumstances that had led to their hurried flight, while the +ranger whistled the air of a cowboy song, his mind busy with this +new phase of the case. + +"She's one of these here Spanish blue-blooded senoritas used to +guitar serenades under her window. Now, what would you do with +her in a jail, Bucky?" he asked himself, in humorous dismay; but +even as he reflected on it his roving eye fell on his friend. +"The very thing. I'll take Curly Haid in to her and let them fall +in love with each other. You're liable to be some busy, Bucky, +and shy on leisure to entertain a lady, let alone two." + +And so he arranged it. Leaving the former governor and General +Carlo in the cell just vacated by them, Frances and he +accompanied Gabilonda to the secret room behind the corridor +wall. + +All three parties to the introduction that followed acknowledged +secretly to a surprise. Miss Carmencita had expected the friend +of big, rough, homely O'Halloran to resemble him in kind, at +least. Instead, she looked on a bronzed young Apollo of the +saddle with something of that same lithe grace she knew and loved +in Juan Valdez. And the shy boy beside him--why, the darling was +sweet enough to kiss. The big, brown, helpless eyes, the +blushing, soft cheeks, the crop of thick, light curls were +details of an extraordinarily taking picture. Really, if these +two were fair specimens, Americans were not so bad, after all. +Which conclusion Juan Valdez's fondness for that race may have +helped in part to form. + +But if the young Spanish girl found a little current of pleasure +in her surprise, Bucky and his friend were aware of the same +sensation. All the charm of her race seemed summed up in +Carmencita Megales. She was of blue blood, every feature and +motion told that. The fine, easy set of her head, the fire in the +dark, heavy-lashed eyes, the sweep of dusky chin and cheek and +throat certified the same story. She had, too, that coquettish +hint of uncertainty, that charm of mystery so fatal in its lure +to questing man. Even physically the contradiction of sex +attracted. Slender and lissom as a fawn, she was yet a creature +of exquisitely rounded curves. Were her eyes brown or black +or--in the sunlight--touched with a gleam of copper? There was +always uncertainty. But much more was there fire, a quality that +seemed to flash out from her inner self. She was a child of +whims, a victim of her moods. Yet in her, too, was a passionate +loyalty that made fickleness impossible. She knew how to love and +how to hate, and, despite her impulses, was capable of surrender +complete and irrevocable. + +All of this Bucky did not read in that first moment of meeting, +but the shrewd judgment behind the level blue eyes came to an +appraisal roughly just. Before she had spoken three sentences he +knew she had all her sex's reputed capacity for injustice as well +as its characteristic flashes of generosity. + +"Are you one of the men who have rebelled against my father and +attempted to murder him?" she flashed. + +"I'm the man he condemned to be hanged tomorrow morning at dawn +for helping Juan Valdez take the guns," retorted Bucky, with a +laugh. + +"You are his enemy, and, therefore, mine." + +"I'm a friend of Michael O'Halloran, who stood between him and +the mob that wanted to kill him." + +"Who first plotted against him and seduced his officers to betray +him," she quickly replied. + +"I reckon, ma'am, we better agree to disagree on politics," said +Bucky good-naturedly. "We're sure liable to see things different +from each other. Castile and Arizona don't look at things with +the same eyes." + +She looked at him just then with very beautiful and scornful +ones, at any rate. "I should hope not." + +"You see, we're living in the twentieth century up in the +sunburned State," said Bucky, with smiling aplomb. + +"Indeed! And we poor Chihuahuans?" + +"When I see the ladies I think you're ce'tainly in the golden +age, but when I break into your politics, I'm some reminded of +that Richard Third fellow in the Shakespeare play." + +"Referring, I presume, to my father?" she demanded haughtily. + +"In a general way, but eliminating the most objectionable points +of the king fellow." + +"You're very kind." She interrupted her scorn to ask him where he +meant her to sleep. + +He glanced over the room. "This might do right here, if we had +that bed aired." + +"Do you expect to put me in irons?" + +"Not right away. Colonel, I'll ask you to go to the office and +notify me as soon as Senor O'Halloran arrives." He waited till +the colonel had gone before adding: "I'm going to leave this boy +with you, senorita, for a while. He'll explain some things to you +that I can't. In about an hour I'll be back, perhaps sooner. So +long, Curly. Tell the lady your secret." And with that Bucky was +out of the room. + +"Your secret, child! What does he mean?" + +The flame of color that swept into the cheeks of Frances, the +appeal in the shamed eyes, held Carmencita's surprised gaze. Then +coolly it traveled over the girl and came back to her burning +face. + +"So that's it, is it?" + +But the scorn in her voice was too much for Frances. She had been +judged and condemned in that cool stare, and all the woman in her +protested at its injustice. + +"No, no, no!" she cried, running forward and catching at the +other's hand. "I'm not that. You don't understand." + +Coldly Carmencita disengaged her hand and wiped it with her +kerchief. "I understand enough. Please do not touch me." + +"May I not tell you my story?" + +"I'll not trouble you. It does not interest me." + +"But you will listen?" implored the other. + +"I must ask to be excused." + +"Then you are a heartless, cruel woman," flamed Frances. "I'm +good--as good as you are." The color patched her cheek and ebbed +again. "I wouldn't treat a dog as you do me. Oh, cruel, cruel!" + +The surprising extravagance of her protest, the despair that rang +in the fresh young voice, caught the interest of the Mexican +girl. Surely such a heart-broken cry did not consist with guilt. +But the facts--when a young and pretty girl masquerades through +the country in the garb of a boy with a handsome young man, not +much room for doubt is left. + +Frances was quick to see that the issue was reopened. "Oh, +senorita, it isn't as you think. Do I look like--" She broke off +to cover with her hands a face in which the pink and white warred +with alternate success. "I ought not to have come. I ought never +to have come. I see that now. But I didn't think he would know. +You see, I had always passed as a boy when I wanted to." + +"A remarkably pretty one, child," said Miss Carmencita, a smile +dimpling her cheeks. "But how do you mean that you had passed as +a boy?" + +Frances explained, giving a rapid sketch of her life with the +Hardmans during which she had appeared every night on the stage +as a boy without the deception being suspected. She had +cultivated the tricks and ways of boys, had tried to dress to +carry out the impression, and had always succeeded until she had +made the mistake of putting on a gypsy girl's dress a couple of +days before. + +Carmencita heard her out, but not as a judge. Very early in the +story her doubts fled and she succumbed to the mothering instinct +in her. She took the American girl in her arms and laughed and +cried with her; for her imagination seized on the romance of the +story and delighted in its fresh unconventionality. Since she had +been born Carmencita's life had been ordered for her with +precision by the laws of caste. Her environment wrapped her in so +that she must follow a set and beaten path. It was, to be sure, a +flower-strewn one, but often she impotently rebelled against its +very orderliness. And here in her arms was a victim of that +adventurous romance she had always longed so passionately to +know. Was it wonder she found it in her heart to both love and +envy the subject of it? + +"And this young cavalier--the Senor Bucky, is it you call +him?--surely you love him, my dear." + +"Oh, senorita!" The blushing face was buried on her new friend's +shoulder. "You don't know how good he is." + +"Then tell me," smiled the other. "And call me Carmencita." + +"He is so brave, and patient, and good. I know there was never a +man like him." + +Miss Carmencita thought of one and demurred silently. "I'm sure +this paragon of lovers is at least part of what you say. Does he +love you? But I am sure he couldn't help it." + +"Sometimes I think he does, but once--" Frances broke off to ask, +in a pink flame: "How does a lover act?" + +Miss Carmencita's laughter rippled up. "Gracious me, have you +never had one before." + +"Never." + +"Well, he should make verses to you and pretty speeches. He +should sing serenades about undying love under your window. +Bonbons should bombard you, roses make your rooms a bower. He +should be ardent as Romeo, devoted as a knight of old. These be +the signs of a true love," she laughed. + +Frances' face fell. If these were the tokens of true love, her +ranger was none. For not one of the symptoms could fairly be said +to fit him. Perhaps, after all, she had given him what he did not +want. + +"Must he do all that? Must he make verses?" she asked blankly, +not being able to associate Bucky with poetasting. + +"He must," teased her tormentor, running a saucy eye over her +boyish garb. "And why not with so fair a Rosalind for a subject?" +She broke off to quote in her pretty, uncertain English, acquired +at a convent in the United States, where she had attended school: + + "From the east to western Ind, + No jewel is like Rosalind. + Her worth being mounted on the wind, + Through all the world bears Rosalind. + + All the pictures, fairest lin'd, + Are but black to Rosalind. + Let no face be kept in mind + But the fair of Rosalind." + +So your Shakespeare has it, does he not?" she asked, reverting +again to the Spanish language, in which they had been talking. +But swift on the heels of her raillery came repentance. She +caught the dispirited girl to her embrace laughingly. "No, no, +child! Nonsense ripples from my tongue. These follies are but for +a carpet lover. You shall tell me more of your Senor Bucky and I +shall make no sport of it." + +When Bucky returned at the expiration of the time he had set +himself, he found them with their arms twined about each other's +waists, whispering the confidences that every girl on the +threshold of womanhood has to tell her dearest friend. + +"I reckon you like my pardner better than you do me," smiled +Bucky to Miss Carmencita. + +"A great deal better, sir, but then I know him better." + +Bucky's eyes rested for a moment almost tenderly on Frances. "I +reckon he is better worth knowing," he said. + +"Indeed! And you so brave, and patient, and good?" she mocked. + +"Oh! Am I all that?" asked Bucky easily. + +"So I have been given to understand." + +Out of the corner of his eye O'Connor caught the embarrassed, +reproachful look that Frances gave her audacious friend, and he +found it easy to fit quotation marks round the admirable +qualities that had just been ascribed to him. He guessed himself +blushing a deux with his little friend, and also divined Miss +Carmencita's roguish merriment at their confusion. + +"I AM all those things you mentioned and a heap more you forgot +to say," claimed the ranger boldly, to relieve the situation. +"Only I didn't know for sure that folks had found it out. My +mind's a heap easier to know I'm being appreciated proper at +last." + +Under her long, dark lashes Miss Carmencita looked at him in +gentle derision. "I'm of opinion, sir, that you get all the +appreciation that is good for you." + +Bucky carried the war into the enemy's country. "Which same, I +expect, might be said of Chihuahua's most beautiful belle. And, +talking of Senor ,Valdez reminds me that I owe a duty to his +father, who is confined here. I'll be saying good night ladies." + +"It's high time," agreed Miss Megales. "Talking of Senor Valdez, +indeed!" + +"Good night, Curly Haid." + +"Good night, Bucky." + +To which, in mocking travesty, added, in English, Miss +Carmencita, who seemed to have an acute attack of Shakespeare: + +"Good night, good night; parting is such sweet sorrow + That I shall say good night till + It be morrow." + + + +CHAPTER 16. JUAN VALDEZ SCORES + +The first thing Bucky did after leaving the two young women was +to go down in person with one of the guards to the cell of David +Henderson. The occupant of the cell was asleep, but he woke up +when the two men entered. + +"Who is it?" he demanded. + +"Webb Mackenzie's man come to release you," answered Bucky. + +The prisoner fell to trembling like an aspen. "God, man, do you +mean it?" he begged. "You wouldn't deceive an old man who has +lived fifteen years in hell?" + +"It's true, friend, every word of it. You'll live to ride the +range again and count your cattle on the free hillside. Come with +me up to the office and we'll talk more of it." + +"But may I? Will they let me?" trembled Henderson, fearful lest +his cup of joy be dashed from him. "I'm not dreaming, am I? I'll +not wake the way I often do and find that it is all a dream, will +I?" He caught at the lapel of O'Connor's coat and searched his +face. + +"No, your dreams are true at last, Dave Henderson. Come, old +friend, take a drink of this to steady you. It's all coming out +right now." + +Tears streamed down the face of the man rescued from a living +grave. He dashed them away impatiently with a shaking hand. "I +used to be as game as other men, young man, and now you see what +a weakling I am. Don't judge me too hard. Happiness is a harder +thing to stand than pain or grief. They've tried to break my +spirit many a time and they couldn't, but you've done it now with +a word." + +"You'll be all right as soon as you are able to realize it. I +don't wonder the shock unnerves you. Have you anything you want +to take out of here with you before you leave forever?" + +Pathetically the prisoner looked round on his few belongings. +Some of them had become endeared to him by years of use and +association, but they had served their time. "No, I want to +forget it all. I came in with nothing. I'll take out nothing. I +want to blot it all out like a hideous nightmare." + +Bucky ordered Colonel Gabilonda to bring up from his cell General +Valdez and the other arrested suspects. They reached the office +at the same time as Mike O'Halloran, who greeted them with the +good news that the day was won. The Megales faction had melted +into mist, and all over the city a happy people was shouting for +Valdez. + +"I congratulate you, general. We have just telegraphed the news +over the State that Megales has resigned and fled. There can be +no doubt that you will be elected governor to-morrow and that the +people's party will win the day with an unprecedented vote. Glory +be, Chihuahua is at last free from the heel of tyranny. Viva +Valdez! Viva Chihuahua libra!" + +Bucky at once introduced to General Valdez the American prisoner +who had suffered so long and unjustly. He recited the story of +the abduction of the child, of Henderson's pursuit, of the +killing of the trooper, and of the circumstantial evidence that +implicated the Texan and upon which he was convicted. He then +drew from his pocket a signed and attested copy of the confession +of the knife thrower and handed it to the general. + +Valdez looked it over, asked an incisive question or two of +Bucky, heard from Henderson his story, and, after a few moments' +discussion of the matter with O'Halloran, promised a free pardon +as his first official act after being elected to the +governorship, in case he should be chosen. + +The vote next day amply justified the hopes of O'Halloran and his +friends. The whole ticket, sent out by telegraph and messengers +throughout the State, was triumphantly elected by large +majorities. Only in one or two out-of-the-way places, where the +news of the fall of Megales did not arrive in time to affect the +voting, did the old government party make any showing worthy of +consideration. + +It was after Valdez's election had been made certain by the +returns that O'Halloran and Juan Valdez posted to the prison and +visited father and daughter. They separated in the lower +corridor, one to visit the defeated governor, the other Miss +Carmencita. The problem before Juan Valdez was to induce that +young woman to remain in Chihuahua instead of accompanying her +father in his flight. He was a good fighter, and he meant to win, +if it were a possibility. She had tacitly admitted that she loved +him, but he knew that she felt that loyalty demanded she stay by +her father in his flight. + +When O'Halloran was admitted to the cell where the governor and +the general were staying he laughed aloud. + +"Faith, gentlemen, is this the best accommodation Governor Valdez +can furnish his guests? We must petition him to improve the +sanitation of his hotel." + +"We are being told, one may suppose, that General Valdez is the +newly elected governor?" + +"Right, your excellency, elected by a large majority to succeed +the late Governor Megales." + +"Late!" The former governor lifted his eyebrows. "Am I also being +told that necessity demands the posting of the suicide bulletin, +after all?" + +"Not at all. Sure, I gave you me word, excellency. And that is +one of the reasons why I am here. We have arranged to run a +special down the line to-night, in order to avoid the risk of the +news leaking out that you are still here. Can you make your +arrangements to take that train, or will it hurry your packing +too much?" + +Megales laughed. "I have nothing to take with me except my +daughter. The rest of my possessions may be forwarded later." + +"Oh, your daughter! Well, that's pat, too. What about the lad, +Valdez?" + +"Are you his representative, senor?" + +"Oh, he can talk for himself. " O'Halloran grinned. "He's doing +it right now, by the same token. Shall we interrupt a tete-a-tete +and go pay our compliments to Miss Carmencita? You will want to +find out whether she goes with you or stays here." + +"Assuredly. Anything to escape this cave." + +Miss Carmencita was at that moment reiterating her everlasting +determination to go wherever her father went. "If you think, sir, +that your faithlessness to him is a recommendation of your +promised faithfulness to me, I can only wish you more light on +the feelings of a daughter," she was informing Valdez, when her +father slipped through the panel door and stood before her. + +"Brava, senorita!" he applauded, with subtle irony, clapping his +hands. "Brava, brava!" + +That young woman swam blushingly toward him and let her face +disappear in an embrace. + +"You see, one can't have everything, Senor Valdez," continued +Megales lightly. "For me, I cannot have both Chihuahua and my +life; you, it seems, cannot have both your successful revolution +and my daughter. " + +"Your excellency, she loves me. Of that I am assured. It rests +with you to say whether her life will be spoiled or not. You know +what I can offer her in addition to a heart full of devotion. It +is enough. Shall she be sacrificed to her loyalty to you?" the +young man demanded, with all the ardor of his warm-blooded race. + +"It is no sacrifice to love and obey my father," came a low +murmur from the former governor's shoulder. + +"Since the world began it has been the law of life that the young +should leave their parents for a home of their own," Juan +protested. + +"So the Scripture says," agreed Megales sardonically. "It further +counsels to love one's enemies, but, I think, omits mention of +the enemies of one's father." + +"Sir, I am not your enemy. Political exigencies have thrown us +into different camps, but we are not so small as to let such +incidentals come between us as a vital objection in such a +matter." + +"You argue like a lawyer," smiled the governor. "You forget that +I am neither judge nor jury. Tyrant I may have been to a fickle +people that needed a firm hand to rule them, but tyrant I am not +to my only daughter." + +"Then you consent, your excellency?" cried Valdez joyously. + +"I neither consent nor refuse. You must go to a more final +authority than mine for an answer, young man." + +"But you are willing she should follow where her heart leads?" + +"But certainly." + +"Then she is mine," cried Valdez. + +"I am not," replied the girl indignantly over her shoulder. + +Megales turned her till her unconsenting eyes met his. "Do you +want to marry this young man, Carmencita?" + +"I never told him anything of the sort," she flamed. + +"I didn't quite ask what you had told him. The question is +whether you love him." + +"But no; I love you," she blushed. + +"I hope so," smiled her father. "But do you love him? An honest +answer, if you please." + +"Could I love a rebel?" + +"No Yankee answers, muchacha. Do you love Juan Valdez?" + +It was Valdez that broke triumphantly the moment's silence that +followed. "She does. She does. I claim the consent of silence." + +But victory spoke too prematurely in his voice. Cried the proud +Spanish girl passionately: "I hate him!" + +Megales understood the quality of her hate, and beckoned to his +future son-in-law. "I have some arrangements to make for our +journey to-night. Would it distress you, senor, if I were to +leave you for a while?" + +He slipped out and left them alone. + +"Well?" asked O'Halloran, who had remained in the corridor. + +"I think, Senor Dictator, I shall have to make the trip with only +General Carlo for a companion," answered the Spaniard. + +The Irishman swung his hat. "Hip, hip, hurrah! You're a gentleman +I could find it in me heart to both love and hate, governor." + +"And you're a gentleman," returned the governor, with a bow, "I +could find it in my heart to hang high as Haman without love or +hate." + +Michael linked his arm in that of his excellency. + +"Sure, you're a broth of a lad, Senor Megales," he said +irreverently, in good, broad Irish brogue. "Here, me bye, where +are you hurrying?" he added, catching at the sleeve of Frances +Mackenzie, who was slipping quietly past. + +"Please, Mr. O'Halloran, I've been up to the office after water. +I'm taking it to Senorita Carmencita." + +"She doesn't want water just now. You go back to the office, son, +and stay there thirty minutes. Then you take her that water," +ordered O'Halloran. + +"But she wanted it as soon as I could get it, sir." + +"Forget it, kid, just as she has. Water! Why, she's drinking +nectar of the gods. Just you do as I tell ye." + +Frances was puzzled, but she obeyed, even though she could not +understand his meaning. She understood better when she slid back +the panel at the expiration of the allotted time and caught a +glimpse of Carmencita Megales in the arms of Juan Valdez. + + + +CHAPTER 17. HIDDEN VALLEY + +Across the desert into the hills, where the sun was setting in a +great splash of crimson in the saddle between two distant peaks, +a bunch of cows trailed heavily. Their tongues hung out and they +panted for water, stretching their necks piteously to low now and +again. For the heat of an Arizona summer was on the baked land +and in the air that palpitated above it. + +But the end of the journey was at hand and the cowpuncher in +charge of the drive relaxed in the saddle after the easy fashion +of the vaquero when he is under no tension. He did not any longer +cast swift, anxious glances behind him to make sure no pursuit +was in sight. For he had reached safety. He knew the 'Open +sesame' to that rock wall which rose sheer in front of him. +Straight for it he and his companion took their gather, swinging +the cattle adroitly round a great slab which concealed a gateway +to the secret canon. Half a mile up this defile lay what was +called Hidden Valley, an inaccessible retreat known only to those +who frequented it for nefarious purposes. + +It was as the man in charge circled round to head the lead cows +in that a faint voice carried to him. He stopped, listening. It +came again, a dry, parched call for help that had no hope in it. +He wheeled his pony as on a half dollar, and two minutes later +caught sight of an exhausted figure leaning against a cottonwood. +He needed no second guess to surmise that she was lost and had +been wandering over the sandy desert through the hot day. With a +shout, he loped toward her, and had his water bottle at her lips +before she had recovered from her glad surprise at sight of him. + +"You'll feel better now," he soothed. "How long you been lost, +ma'am?" + +"Since ten this morning. I came with my aunt to gather poppies, +and somehow I got separated from her and the rig. These hills +look so alike. I must have got turned round and mistaken one for +another." + +"You have to be awful careful here. Some one ought to have told +you," he said indignantly. + +"Oh, they told me, but of course I knew best," she replied, with +quick scorn of her own self-sufficiency. + +"Well, it's all right now," the cowpuncher told her cheerfully. +He would not for a thousand dollars have told her how near it had +come to being all wrong, how her life had probably depended upon +that faint wafted call of hers. + +He put her on his horse and led it forward to the spot where the +cattle waited at the gateway. Not until they came full upon them +did he remember that it was dangerous for strange young women to +see him with those cattle and at the gateway to the Hidden canon. + +"They are my uncle's cattle. I could tell the brand anywhere. Are +you one of his riders? Are we close to the Rocking Chair Ranch?" +she cried. + +He flung a quick glance at her. "Not very close. Are you from the +Rocking Chair?" + +"Yes. I'm Mr. Mackenzie's niece." + +"Major Mackenzie's daughter?" demanded the man quickly. + +"Yes." She said it with a touch of annoyance, for he looked at +her as a man does who has heard of her before. She knew that the +story had been bruited far and wide of how she had passed through +the hands of the train robbers carrying thirty thousand dollars +on her person. She had no doubt that it was in this connection +her rescuer had heard of her. + +He drew off to one side and called his companion to him. + +"Hardman, you ride up to the ranch and tell Leroy I've just found +Miss Mackenzie wandering around on the desert, lost. Ask him +whether I'm to bring her up. She's played out and can't travel +far, tell him." + +The showman rode on his errand and the other returned to Helen. + +"You better light, ma'am. We'll have to wait here a few minutes," +he explained. + +He helped her dismount. She did not understand why it was +necessary to wait, but that was his business and not hers. Her +roving eyes fell upon the cattle again. + +"They ARE my uncle's, aren't they?" + +"They were," he corrected. "Cattle change hands a good deal in +this country," he added dryly. + +"Then you're not one of his riders?" Her stark eyes passed over +him swiftly. + +"No, ma'am." + +"Are we far from the Rocking Chair?" + +"A right smart distance. You've been traveling, you see, for +eight or nine hours." + +It occurred to her that there was something elusive, something +not quite frank, about the replies of this young man. Her glance +raked him again and swept up the details of his person. One of +them that impressed itself upon her mind was the absence of a +finger on his right hand. Another was that he was a walking +arsenal. This startled her, though she was not yet afraid. She +relapsed into silence, to which he seemed willing to consent. +Once and again her glance swept him. He looked a tough, +weather-beaten Westerner, certainly not a man whom a woman need +be afraid to meet alone on the plains, but the oftener she looked +the more certain she became that he was not a casual puncher busy +at the legitimate work of his craft. + +"Do you--live near here?" she asked presently. + +"I live under my hat, ma'am," he told her. + +"Sometimes near here, sometimes not so near." + +This told her exactly nothing. + +"How far did you say it was to the Rocking Chair?" + +"I didn't say." + +At the sound of a horses footfall she turned, and she saw that +whereas they had been two, now they were three. The newcomer was +a slender, graceful man, dark and lithe, with quick, piercing +eyes, set deep in the most reckless, sardonic face she had ever +seen. + +The man bowed, with a sweep of his hat almost derisive. "Miss +Mackenzie, I believe." + +She met him with level eyes that confessed no fear. + +"Who are you, sir?" + +"They call me Wolf Leroy." + +Her heart sank. "You and he are the men that held up the +Limited.'' + +"If we are, you are the young lady that beat us out of thirty +thousand dollars. We'll collect now," he told her, with a silky +smile and a glitter of white, even teeth. + +"What do you mean? Do you think I carry money about with me?" + +"I didn't say that. We'll put it up to your father." + +"My father?" + +"He'll have to raise thirty thousand dollars to redeem his +daughter." He let his bold eyes show their admiration. "And she's +worth every cent of it." + +"Do you mean--" She read the flash of triumph in his ribald eyes +and broke off. There was no need to ask him what he meant. + +"That's what I mean exactly, ma'am. You're welcome to the +hospitality of Hidden Valley. What's ours is yours. You're +welcome to stay as long as you like, but I reckon YOU'RE NOT +WELCOME TO GO WHENEVER YOU WANT TO--not till we get that thirty +thousand." + +"You talk as if he were a millionaire," she told him scornfully. + +"The major's got friends that are. If it's a showdown he'll dig +the dough up. I ain't a bit worried about that. His brother, +Webb, will come through." + +"Why should he?" She stood as straight and unbending as a young +pine, courage regnant in the very poise of the fine head. "You +daren't harm a hair of my head, and he knows it. For your life, +you daren't." + +His eyes glittered. Wolf Leroy was never a safe man to fling a +challenge at. "Don't you be too sure of that, my dear. There +ain't one thing on this green earth I daren't do if I set my mind +to it. And your friends know it." + +The other man broke in, easy and unmoved. "Hold yore hawses, cap. +We got no call to be threatening this young lady. We keep her for +a ransom because that's business. But she's as safe here as she +would be at the Rocking Chair. She's got York Neil's word for +that." + +The Wolf snarled. "The word of a miscreant. That'll comfort her a +heap. And York Neil's word don't always go up here." + +The cowpuncher's steady eyes met him. "It'll go this time." + +The girl gave her champion a quiet little nod and a low "Thank +you." It was not much, but enough. For on the frontier "white +men" do not war on women. Her instinct gave just the right manner +of treating his help. It assumed that since he was what he was he +could do no less. Moreover, it had the unexpected effect of +spurring the Wolf's vanity, or something better than his vanity. +She could see the battle in his face, and the passing of its +evil, sinister expression. + +"Beg your pardon, Miss Mackenzie. York's right. I'll add my word +to his about your safety. I'm a wolf, they'll tell you. But when +I give my word I keep it." + +They turned and followed through the gateway the cattle which +Hardman and another rider were driving up the canon. Presently +the walls fell back, the gulch opened to a saucer-shaped valley +in which nestled a little ranch. + +Leroy indicated it with a wave of his hand. "Welcome to Hidden +Valley, Miss Mackenzie," he said cynically. + +"Afraid I'm likely to wear my welcome out if you keep me here +until my father raises thirty thousand dollars," she said +lightly. + +"Don't you worry any about that. We need the refining influences +of ladies' society here. I can see York's a heap improved +already. Just to teach us manners you're worth your board and +keep." Then hardily, with a sweeping gesture toward the weary +cattle: "Besides, your uncle has sent up a contribution to help +keep you while you visit with us." + +York laughed. "He sent it, but he didn't know he was sending it." + +Leroy surrendered his room to Miss Mackenzie and put at her +service the old Mexican woman who cooked for him. She was a +silent, taciturn creature, as wrinkled as leather parchment and +about as handsome, but Alice found safety in the very knowledge +of the presence of another woman in the valley. She was among +robbers and cutthroats, but old Juanita lent at least a touch of +domesticity to a situation that would otherwise have been +impossible. The girl was very uneasy in her mind. A cold dread +filled her heart, a fear that was a good deal less than +panic-terror, however. For she trusted the man Neil even as she +distrusted his captain. Miscreant he had let himself be called, +and doubtless was, but she knew no harm could befall her from his +companions while he was alive to prevent it. A reassurance of +this came to her that evening in the fragment of a conversation +she overheard. They were passing her window which she had raised +on account of the heat when the low voices of two men came to +her. + +"I tell you I'm not going, Leroy. Send Hardman," one said. + +"Are you running this outfit, or am I, Neil?" + +"You are. But I gave her my word. That's all there's to it." + +Alice was aware that they had stopped and were facing each other +tensely. + +"Go slow, York. I gave her my word, too. Do you think I'm +allowing to break it while you're away?" + +"No, I don't. Look here, Phil. I'm not looking for trouble. +You're major-domo of this outfit What you say goes--except about +this girl. I'm a white man, if I'm a scoundrel." + +"And I'm not?" + +"I tell you I'm not sayin' that," the other answered doggedly. + +"You're hinting it awful loud. I stand for it this time, York, +but never again. You butt in once more and you better reach for +your hardware simultaneous. Stick a pin in that." + +They had moved on again, and she did not hear Neil's answer. +Nevertheless, she was comforted to know she had one friend among +these desperate outlaws, and that comfort gave her at least an +hour or two of broken, nappy sleep. + +In the morning when she had dressed she found her room door +unlocked, and she stepped outside into the sunshine. York Neil +was sitting on the porch at work on a broken spur strap. Looking +up, he nodded a casual good morning. But she knew why he was +there, and gratitude welled up in her heart. Not a young woman +who gave way to every impulse, she yielded to one now, and shook +hands with him. Their eyes met for a moment and he knew she was +thanking him. + +An eye derisive witnessed the handshake. "An alliance against the +teeth of the wolf, I'll bet. Good mo'ning, Miss Mackenzie," +drawled Leroy. + +"Good morning," she answered quietly, her hands behind her. + +"Sleep well?" + +"Would you expect me to?" + +"Why not, with York here doing the virgin-knight act outside your +door?" + +Her puzzled eyes discovered that Neil's face was one blush of +embarrassment. + +"He slept here on the po'ch," explained Leroy, amused. "It's a +great fad, this outdoor sleeping. The doctors recommend it strong +for sick people. You wouldn't think to look at him York was sick. +He looks plumb husky. But looks are right deceptive. It's a fact, +Miss Mackenzie, that he was so sick last night I wasn't dead sure +he'd live till mo'ning." + +The eyes of the men met like rapiers. Neil said nothing, and +Leroy dropped him from his mind as if he were a trifle and +devoted his attention to Alice. + +"Breakfast is ready, Miss Mackenzie. This way, please." + +The outlaw led her to the dining room, where the young woman met +a fresh surprise. The table was white with immaculate linen and +shone with silver. She sat down to breakfast food with cream, +followed by quail on toast, bacon and eggs, and really good +coffee. Moreover, she discovered that this terror of the border +knew how to handle his knife and fork, was not deficient in the +little niceties of table decorum. He talked, and talked well, +ignoring, like a perfect host, the relation that existed between +them. They sat opposite each other and ate alone, waited upon by +the Mexican woman. Alice wondered if he kept solitary state when +she was not there or ate with the other men. + +It was evening before Hardman returned from the mission upon +which he had been sent in place of the obstinate Neil. He +reported at once to Leroy, who came smilingly to the place where +she was sitting on the porch to tell her his news. + +"Webb Mackenzie's going to raise that thirty thousand, all right. +He's promised to raise it inside of three days," he told her +triumphantly. + +"And shall I have to stay here three whole days?" + +He looked with half-shut, smoldering eyes at her slender +exquisiteness, compact of a strange charm that was both well-bred +and gypsyish. There was a scarce-veiled passion in his gaze that +troubled her. More than once that day she had caught it. + +"Three days ain't so long. I could stand three months of you and +wish for more," he told her. + +Lightly she turned the subject, but not without a chill of fear. +Three days was a long time. Much might happen if this wolf +slipped the leash of his civilization. + +It was next day that an incident occurred which was to affect the +course of events more than she could guess at the time. A bunch +of wild hill steers had been driven down by Hardman, Reilly, and +Neil in the afternoon and were inclosed in the corral with the +cows from the Rocking Chair Ranch. Just before sunset Leroy, who +had been away all day, returned and sauntered over from the +stable to join Alice. It struck the girl from his flushed +appearance that he had been drinking. In his eye she found a wild +devil of lawlessness that set her heart pounding. If Neil and he +clashed now there would be murder done. Of that she felt sure. + +That she set herself to humor the Wolf's whims was no more for +her own safety than for that of the man who had been her friend. +She curbed her fears, clamped down her startled maiden modesty, +parried his advances with light words and gay smiles. Once Neil +passed, and his eyes asked a question. She shook her head, +unnoticed by Leroy. She would fight her own battle as long as she +could. It was to divert him that she proposed they go down to the +corral and look at the wild cattle the men had driven down. She +told him she had heard a great deal about them, but had never +seen any. If he would go with her she would like to look at them. + +The outlaw was instantly at her service, and they sauntered +across. In her hand the girl carried a closed umbrella she had +been using to keep off the sun. + +They stood at the gate of the corral looking at the long-legged, +shaggy creatures, as wild and as active almost as hill deer. On +horseback one could pass to and fro among them without danger, +but in a closed corral a man on foot would have taken a chance. +Nobody knew this better than Leroy. But the liquor was still in +his head, and even when sober he was reckless beyond other men. + +"They need water," he said, and with that opened the gate and +started for the windmill. + +He sauntered carelessly across, with never a glance at the +dangerous animals among which he was venturing. A great bull +pawed the ground lowered its head, and made a rush at the +unconscious man. Alice called to him to look out, then whipped +open the gate and ran after him. Leroy turned, and, in a flash, +saw that which for an instant filled him with a deadly paralysis. +Between him and the bull, directly in the path of its rush, stood +this slender girl, defenseless. + +Even as his revolver flashed out from the scabbard the outlaw +knew he was too late to save her, for she stood in such a +position that he could not hit a vital spot. Suddenly her +umbrella opened in the face of the animal. frightened, it set its +feet wide and slithered to a halt so close to her that its chorus +pierced the silk of the umbrella. With one hand Leroy swept the +girl behind him; with the other he pumped three bullets into the +forehead of the bull. Without a groan it keeled over, dead before +it reached the ground. + +Alice leaned against the iron support of the windmill. She was so +white that the man expected her to sink down. One glance showed +him other cattle pawing the ground angrily. + +"Come!" he ordered, and, putting an arm round her waist, he ran +with her to the gate. Yet a moment, and they were through in +safety. + +She leaned against him helpless for an instant before she had +strength to disengage herself. "Thank you. I'm all right now." + +"I thought you were going to faint," he explained. + +She nodded. "I nearly did." + +His face was colorless. "You saved my life." + +"Then we're quits, for you saved mine," she answered, with a +shaken attempt at a smile. + +He shook his head. "That's not the same at all. I had to do +that, and there was no risk to it. But you chose to save me, to +risk your life for mine." + +She saw that he was greatly moved, and that his emotion had swept +away the effects of the liquid as a fresh breeze does a fog. + +"I didn't know I was risking my life. I saw you didn't see." + +"I didn't think there was a woman alive had the pluck to do +it--and for me, your enemy. That what you count me, isn't it--an +enemy?" + +"I don't know. I can't quite think of you as friend, can I?" + +"And yet I would have protected you from any danger at any cost." + +"Except the danger of yourself," she said, in low voice, meeting +him eye to eye. + +He accepted her correction with a groan, an wheeled away, leaning +his arms on the corral fence and looking away to that saddle +between the peak which still glowed with sunset light. + +"I haven't met a woman of your kind before in ten years," he said +presently. "I've lived on you looks, your motions, the +inflections of your voice. I suppose I've been starved for that +sort of thing and didn't know it till you came. It's been like a +glimpse of heaven to me." He laughed bitterly: and went on: "Of +course, I had to take to drinking and let you see the devil I am. +When I'm sober you would be as safe with me as with York. But the +excitement of meeting you-- I have to ride my emotions to death +so as to drain them to the uttermost. Drink stimulates the +imagination, and I drank." + +"I'm sorry." + +Her voice said more than the words. He looked at her curiously. +"You're only a girl. What do you know about men of my sort? You +have been wrappered and sheltered all your life. And yet you +understand me better than any of the people I meet. All my life I +have fought with myself. I might have been a gentleman and I'm +only a wolf. My appetites and passions, stronger than myself +dragged me down. It was Kismet, the destiny ordained for me from +my birth." + +"Isn't there always hope for a man who knows his weaknesses and +fights against them?" she asked timidly. + +"No, there is not," came the harsh answer. "Besides, I don't +fight. I yield to mine. Enough of that. It is you we have to +consider, not me. You have saved my life, and I have got to pay +the debt." + +"I didn't think who you were," her honesty compelled her to say. + +"That doesn't matter. you did it. I'm going to take you back to +your father and straight as I can." + +Her eyes lit. "Without a ransom?" + +"Yes." + +"You pay your debts like a gentleman, sir." + +"I'm not coyote all through." + +She could only ignore the hunger that stared out of his eyes for +her. "What about your friends? Will they let me go?" + +"They'll do as I say. What kicking they do will be done mostly in +private, and when they're away from me." + +"I don't want to make trouble for you." + +"You won't make trouble for me. If there's any trouble it Will be +for them," he said grimly. + +Neither of them made any motion toward the house. The girl felt a +strange impulse of tenderness toward this man who had traveled so +fast the road to destruction. She had seen before that deep +hunger of the eyes, for she was of the type of woman that holds a +strong attraction for men. It told her that he had looked in the +face of his happiness too late--too late by the many years of a +misspent life that had decreed inexorably the character he could +no longer change. + +"I am sorry," she said again. "I didn't see that in you at first. +I misjudged you. One can't label men just good or bad, as the +novelists used to. You have taught me that--you and Mr. Neil." + +His low, sardonic laughter rippled out. "I'm bad enough. Don't +make any mistake about that, Miss Mackenzie. York's different. +He's just a good man gone wrong. But I'm plain miscreant." + +"Oh, no," she protested. + +"As bad as they make them, but not wolf clear through," he said +again. "Something's happened to me to-day. It won't change me. +I've gone too far for that. But some morning when you read in the +papers that Wolf Leroy died with his boots on and everybody in +sight registers his opinion of the deceased you'll remember one +thing. He wasn't a wolf to you--not at the last." + +"I'll not forget," she said, and the quick tears were in her +eyes. + +York Neil came toward them from the house. It was plain from his +manner he had a joke up his sleeve. + +"You're wanted, Phil," he announced. + +"Wanted where?" + +"You got a visitor in there," Neil said, with a grin and a jerk +of his thumb toward the house. "Came blundering into the draw +sorter accidental-like, but some curious. So I asked him if he +wouldn't light and stay a while. He thought it over, and figured +he would." + +"Who is it?" asked Leroy. + +"You go and see. I ain't giving away what your Christmas presents +are. I aim to let Santa surprise you a few. + +Miss Mackenzie followed the outlaw chief into the house, and over +his shoulder glimpsed two men. One of them was the Irishman, Cork +Reilly, and he sat with a Winchester across his knees. The other +had his back toward them, but he turned as they entered, and +nodded casually to the outlaw. Helen's heart jumped to her throat +when she saw it was Val Collins. + +The two men looked at each other steadily in a long silence. Wolf +Leroy was the first to speak. + +"You damn fool!" The swarthy face creased to an evil smile of +derision. + +"I ce'tainly do seem to butt in considerable, Mr. Leroy," +admitted Collins, with an answering smile. + +Leroy's square jaw set like a vise. "It won't happen again, Mr. +Sheriff." + +"I'd hate to gamble on that heavy," returned Collins easily. Then +he caught sight of the girl's white face, and rose to his feet +with outstretched hand. + +"Sit down," snapped out Reilly. + +"Oh, that's all right I'm shaking hands with the lady. Did you +think I was inviting you to drill a hole in me, Mr. Reilly?" + + + +CHAPTER 18. A DINNER FOR THREE + +"I thought we bumped you off down at Epitaph," Leroy said. + +"Along with Scott? Well, no. You see, I'm a regular cat to kill, +Mr. Leroy, and I couldn't conscientiously join the angels with so +lame a story as a game laig to explain my coming," said Collins +cheerfully. + +"In that case--" + +"Yes, I understand. You'd be willing to accommodate with a hole +in the haid instead of one in the laig. But I'll not trouble +you." + +"What are you doing here? Didn't I warn you to attend to your own +business and leave me alone?" + +"Seems to me you did load me up with some good advice, but I +plumb forgot to follow it." + +The Wolf cursed under his breath. "You came here at your own +risk, then?" + +"Well, I did and I didn't," corrected the sheriff easily. "I've +got a five-thousand policy in the Southeastern Life Insurance +Company, so I reckon it's some risk to them. And, by the way, +it's a company I can recommend." + +"Does it insure against suicide?" asked Leroy, his masked, +smiling face veiling thinly a ruthless purpose. + +"And against hanging. Let me strongly urge you to take out a +policy at once," came the prompt retort. + +"You think it necessary?" + +"Quite. When you and York Neil and Hardman made an end of Scott +you threw ropes round your own necks. Any locoed tenderfoot would +know that." + +The sheriff's unflinching look met the outlaw's black frown +serene and clear-eyed. + +"And would he know that you had committed suicide when you ran +this place down and came here?" asked Leroy, with silken cruelty. + +"Well, he ought to know it. The fact is, Mr. Leroy, that it +hadn't penetrated my think-tank that this was your hacienda when +I came mavericking in." + +"Just out riding for your health?" + +"Not exactly. I was looking for Miss Mackenzie. I cut her trail +about six miles from the Rocking Chair and followed it where she +wandered around. The trail led directly away from the ranch +toward the mountains. That didn't make me any easy in my mind. So +I just jogged along and elected myself an investigating +committee. I arrived some late, but here I am, right side up--and +so hearty welcome that my friend Cork won't hear of my leaving at +all. He don't do a thing but entertain me--never lets his +attention wander. Oh, I'm the welcome guest, all right. No doubt +about that." + +Wolf Leroy turned to Alice. "I think you had better go to your +room," he said gently. + +"Oh, no, no; let me stay," she implored. "You would never--you +would never--" The words died on her white lips, but the horror +in her eyes finished the question. + +He met her gaze fully, and answered her doggedly. "You're not in +this, Miss Mackenzie. It's between him and me. I shan't allow +even you to interfere." + +"But--oh, it is horrible! for two minutes." + +He shook his head. + +"You must! Please." + +"What use?" + +Let me see you alone + +Her troubled gaze shifted to the strong, brown, sun-baked face of +the man who had put himself in this deadly peril to save her. His +keen, blue-gray eyes, very searching and steady, met hers with a +courage she thought splendid, and her heart cried out +passionately against the sacrifice. + +"You shall not do it. Oh, please let me talk it over with you." + +"No." + +"Have you forgotten already?--and you said you would always +remember." She almost whispered it. + +She had stung his consent at last. "Very well," he said, and +opened the door to let her pass into the inner room. + +But she noticed that his eyes were hard as jade. + +"Don't you see that he came here to save me?" she cried, when +they were alone. "Don't you see it was for me? He didn't come to +spy out your place of hiding." + +"I see that he has found it. If I let him go, he will bring back +a posse to take us." + +"You could ride across the line into Mexico." + +"I could, but I won't." + +"But why?" + +"Because, Miss Mackenzie, the money we took from the express car +of the Limited is hidden here, and I don't know where it is; +because the sun won't ever rise on a day when Val Collins will +drive me out of Arizona." + +"I don't know what you mean about the money, but you must let him +go. You spoke of a service I had done you. This is my pay." + +"To turn him loose to hunt us down?" + +"He'll not trouble you if you let him go." + +A sardonic smile touched his face. "A lot you know of him. He +thinks it his duty to rid the earth of vermin like us. He'd never +let up till he got us or we got him. Well, we've got him now, +good and plenty. He took his chances, didn't he? It isn't as if +he didn't know what he was up against. He'll tell you himself +it's a square deal. He's game, and he won't squeal because we win +and he has to pay forfeit." + +The girl wrung her hands despairingly. + +"It's his life or mine--and not only mine, but my men's," +continued the outlaw. "Would you turn a wolf loose from your +sheep pen to lead the pack to the kill?" + +"But if he were to promise " + +"We're not talking about the ordinary man--he'd promise anything +and lie to-morrow. But Sheriff Collins won't do it. If you think +you can twist a promise out of him not to take advantage of what +he has found out you're guessing wrong. When you think he's a +quitter, just look at that cork hand of his, and remember how +come he to get it. He'll take his medicine proper, but he'll +never crawl." + +"There must be some way," she cried desperately, + +"Since you make a point of it, I'll give him his chance." + +"You'll let him go?" The joy in her voice was tremulously plain. + +He laughed, leaning carelessly against the mantelshelf. But his +narrowed eyes watched her vigilantly. "I didn't say I would let +him go. What I said was that I'd give him a chance." + +"How?" + +"They say he's a dead shot. I'm a few with a gun myself. We'll +ride down to the plains together, and find a good lonely spot +suitable for a graveyard. Then one of us will ride away, and the +other will stay, or perhaps both of us will stay." + +She shuddered. "No--no--no. I won't have it." + +"Afraid something might happen to me, ma'am?" he asked, with a +queer laugh, + +"I won't have it." + +"Afraid, perhaps, he might be the one left for the coyotes and +the buzzards?" + +She was white to the lips, but at his next word the blood came +flaming back to her cheeks. + +"Why don't you tell the truth? Why don't you; say you love him, +and be done with it? Say it and I'll take him back to Tucson with +you safe as if he were a baby." + +She covered her face with her hands, but with two steps he had +reached her and captured he hands. + +"The truth," he demanded, and his eyes compelled. + +"It is to save his life?" + +He laughed harshly. "Here's melodrama for you! Yes--to save your +lover's life." + +She lifted her eyes to his bravely. "What you say is true. I love +him." + +Leroy bowed ironically. "I congratulate Mr. Collins, who is now +quite safe, so far as I am concerned. Meanwhile, lest he be +jealous of your absense, shall we return now?" + +Some word of sympathy for the reckless scamp trembled on her +lips, but her instinct told her would hold it insult added to +injury, and she left her pity unvoiced. + +"If you please." + +But as he heeled away she laid a timid hand on his arm. He turned +and looked grimly down at the working face, at the sweet, soft, +pitiful eyes brimming with tears. She was pure woman now, all the +caste pride dissolved in yearning pity. + +"Oh, you lamb--you precious lamb," he groaned, and clicked his +teeth shut on the poignant pain of his loss. + +"I think you're splendid," she told him. "Oh, I know what you've +done--that you are not good. I know you've wasted your life and +lived with your hand against every man's. But I can't help all +that. I look for the good in you, and I find it. Even in your +sins you are not petty. You know how to rise to an opportunity." + +This man of contradictions, forever the creature of his impulses, +gave the lie to her last words by signally failing to rise to +this one. He snatched her to him, and looked down hungry-eyed at +her sweet beauty, as fresh and fragrant as the wild rose in the +copse. + +"Please," she cried, straining from him with shy, frightened +eyes. + +For answer he kissed her fiercely on the cheeks, and eyes, and +mouth. + +"The rest are his, but these are mine," he laughed mirthlessly. + +Then, flinging her from him, he led the way into the next room. +Flushed and disheveled, she followed. He had outraged her maiden +instincts and trampled down her traditions of caste, but she had +no time to think of this now. + +"If you're through explaining the mechanism of that Winchester to +Sheriff Collins we'll reluctantly dispense with your presence, +Mr. Reilly. We have arranged a temporary treaty of peace," the +chief outlaw said. + +Reilly, a huge lout of a fellow with a lowering countenance, +ventured to expostulate. "Ye want to be careful of him. He's +quicker'n chain lightning." + +His chief exploded with low-voiced fury. "When I ask your advice, +give it, you fat-brained son of a brand blotter. Until then +padlock that mouth of yours. Vamos." + +Reilly vanished, his face a picture of impotent malice, and Leroy +continued: + +"We're going to the Rocking Chair in the morning, Mr. Collins--at +least, you and Miss Mackenzie are going there. I'm going part +way. We've arranged a little deal all by our lones, subject to +your approval. You get away without that hole in your head. Miss +Mackenzie goes with you, and I get in return the papers you took +off Scott and Webster." + +"You mean I am to give up the hunt?" asked Collins. + +"Not at all. I'll be glad to death to see you blundering in again +when Miss Mackenzie isn't here to beg you off. The point is that +in exchange for your freedom and Miss Mackenzie's I get those +papers you left in a safety-deposit vault in Epitaph. It'll save +me the trouble of sticking up the First National and winging a +few indiscreet citizens of that burgh. Savvy?" + +"That's all you ask?" demanded the surprised sheriff. + +"All I ask is to get those papers in my hand and a four-hour +start before you begin the hunt. Is it a deal?" + +"It's a deal, but I give it to you straight that I'll be after +you as soon as the four hours are up," returned Collins promptly. +"I don't know what magic Miss Mackenzie used. Still, I must +compliment her on getting us out mighty easy." + +But though the sheriff looked smilingly at Alice, that young +woman, usually mistress of herself in all emergencies, did not +lift her eyes to meet his. Indeed, he thought her strangely +embarrassed. She was as flushed and tongue-tied as a country girl +in unaccustomed company. She seemed another woman than the +self-possessed young beauty he had met a month before on the +Limited, but he found her shy abashment charming. + +"I guess you thought you had come to the end of the passage, Mr. +Collins," suggested the outlaw, with listless curiosity. + +"I didn't know whether to order the flowers or not, but 'way down +in my heart I was backing my luck," Collins told him. + +"Of course it's understood that you are on parole until we +separate," said Leroy curtly. + +"Of course." + +"Then we'll have supper at once, for we'll have to be on the road +early." He clapped his hands together, and the Mexican woman +appeared. Her master flung out a command or two in her own +language. + +"--poco tiempo,--" she answered, and disappeared. + +In a surprisingly short time the meal was ready, set out on a +table white with Irish linen and winking with cut glass and +silver. + +"Mr. Leroy does not believe at all in doing when in Rome as the +Romans do," Alice explained to Collins, in answer to his start of +amazement. "He's a regular Aladdin. I shouldn't be a bit +surprised to see electric lights come on next." + +"One has to attempt sometimes to blot out the forsaken desert," +said Leroy. "Try this cut of slow elk, Miss Mackenzie. I think +you'll like it." + +"Slow elk! What is that?" asked the girl, to make talk. + +"Mr. Collins will tell you," smiled Leroy. + +She turned to the sheriff, who first apologized, with a smile, to +his host. "Slow elk, Miss Mackenzie, is veal that has been +rustled. I expect Mr. Leroy has pressed a stray calf into our +Service " + +"I see," she flashed. "Pressed veal." + +The outlaw smiled at her ready wit, and took on himself the +burden of further explanation. "And this particular slow elk +comes from a ranch on the Aravaipa owned by Mr. Collins. York +shot it up in the hills a day or two ago." + +"Shouldn't have been straying so far from its range," suggested +Collins, with a laugh. "But it's good veal, even if I say it that +shouldn't." + +"Thank you," burlesqued the bandit gravely, with such an ironic +touch of convention that Alice smiled. + +After dinner Leroy produced cigars, and with the permission of +Miss Mackenzie the two men smoked while the conversation ran on a +topic as impersonal as literature. A criticism of novels and +plays written to illustrate the frontier was the line into which +the discussion fell, and the girl from the city, listening with a +vivid interest, was pleased to find that these two real men +talked with point and a sense of dexterous turns. She felt a sort +of proud proprietorship in their power, and wished that some of +the tailors' models she had met in society, who held so good a +conceit of themselves, might come under the spell of their +strong, tolerant virility. Whatever the difference between them, +it might be truly said of both that they had lived at first hand +and come in touch closely with all the elemental realities. One +of them was a romantic villain and the other an unromantic hero, +but her pulsing emotions morally condemned one no more than the +other. + +This was the sheer delight of her esthetic sense of fitness, that +strong men engaged in a finish fight could rise to so perfect a +courtesy that an outsider could not have guessed the antagonism +that ran between them, enduring as life. + +Leroy gave the signal for breaking up by looking at his watch. +"Afraid I must say 'Lights out.' It's past eleven. We'll have to +be up and on our way with the hooters. Sleep well, Miss +Mackenzie. You don't need to worry about waking. I'll have you +called in good time. Buenos noches." + +He held the door for her as she passed out; and, in passing, her +eyes rose to meet his. + +"--Buenos noches, senor;--I'm sure I shall sleep well to-night," +she said. + +It had been the day of Alice Mackenzie' life. Emotions and +sensations, surging through her, had trodden on each other's +heels. Woman-like, she welcomed the darkness to analyze and +classify the turbid chaos of her mind. She had been swept into +sympathy with an outlaw, to give him no worse name. She had felt +herself nearer to him than to some honest men she could name who +had offered her their love. + +Surely, that had been bad enough, but worse was to follow. This +discerning scamp had torn aside her veils of maiden reserve and +exposed the secret fancy of her heart, unknown before even to +herself. She had confessed love for this big-hearted sheriff and +frontiersman. Here she could plead an ulterior motive. To save +his life any deception was permissible. Yes, but where lay the +truth? With that insistent demand of the outlaw had rushed over +her a sudden wave of joy. What could it mean unless it meant what +she would not admit that it could mean? Why, the man was +impossible. He was not of her class. She had scarce seen him a +half-dozen times. Her first meeting with him had been only a +month ago. One month ago-- + +A remembrance flashed through her that brought her from the bed +in a barefoot search for matches. When the candle was relit he +slipped a chamoisskin pouch from her neck and from it took a +sealed envelope. It was the note in which the sheriff on the +night of the train robbery had written his prediction of how the +matter would come out. She was to open the envelope in a month, +and the month was up to-night. + +As she tore open the flap it came to her with one of her little +flashing smiles that she could never have guessed under what +circumstances she would read it. By the dim flame of a guttering +candle, in a cotton nightgown borrowed from a Mexican menial, a +prisoner of the very man who had robbed her and the recipient of +a practical confession of love from him not three hours earlier! +Surely here was a situation to beggar romance. But before she had +finished reading the reality was still more unbelievable. + +I have just met for the first time the woman I am going to marry +if God is good to one. I am writing this because I want her to +know it as soon as I decently can. Of course, I am not worthy of +her, but then I don't know any man that is. + +So the fact goes--I'm bound to marry her if there's nobody else +in the way. This isn't conceit. It is a deep-seated certainty I +can't get away from, and don't want to. When she reads this, she +will think it a piece of foolish presumption. My hope is she will +not always think so. Her Lover, + +VAL COLLINS. + +Her swift-pulsing heart was behaving very queerly. It seemed to +hang delightfully still, and then jump forward with odd little +beats of joy. She caught a glimpse of her happy face, and blew +out the light for shame, groping her way back to bed with the +letter carefully guarded against crumpling by her hand. + +Foolish presumption indeed. Why, he had only seen her once, and +he said he would marry her with never a by-your-leave! Wasn't +that what he had said? She had to strike another match to learn +the lines that had not stuck word for word in her mind, and after +that another match to get a picture of the scrawl to visualize in +the dark. + +How dared he take her for granted? But what a masterly way of +wooing for the right man! What idiotic folly if he had been the +wrong one! Was he, then, the right one? She questioned herself +closely, but came to no more definite answer than this--that her +heart went glad with a sweet joy to know he wanted to marry her. + +She resolved to put him from her mind, and in this resolve she +fell at last into smiling sleep. + + + +CHAPTER 19. A VILLON OF THE DESERT + +When Alice Mackenzie looked back in after years upon the +incidents connected with that ride to the Rocking Chair, it was +always with a kind of glorified pride in her villain-hero. He had +his moments, had this twentieth-century Villon, when he +represented not unworthily the divinity in man; and this day held +more than one of them. Since he was what he was, it also held as +many of his black moods. + +The start was delayed, owing to a cause Leroy had not foreseen. +When York went, sleepy-eyed, to the corral to saddle the ponies, +he found the bars into the pasture let clown, and the whole +remunda kicking up its heels in a paddock large as a goodsized +city. The result was that it took two hours to run up the bunch +of ponies and another half-hour to cut out, rope, and saddle the +three that were wanted. Throughout the process Reilly sat on the +fence and scowled. + +Leroy, making an end of slapping on and cinching the last saddle, +wheeled suddenly on the Irishman. "What's the matter, Reilly?" + +"Was I saying anything was the matter?" + +"You've been looking it right hard. Ain't you man enough to say +it instead of playing dirty little three-for-a-cent tricks--like +letting down the corral-bars?" + +Reilly flung a look at Neil that plainly demanded support, and +then descended with truculent defiance from the fence. + +"Who says I let down the bars? You bet I am man enough to say +what I think; and if ye think I ain't got the nerve--" + +His master encouraged him with ironic derision. "That's right, +Reilly. Who's afraid? Cough it up and show York you're game." + +"By thunder, I AM game. I've got a kick coming, sorr." + +"Yes?" Leroy rolled and lit a cigarette, his black eyes fixed +intently on the malcontent. "Well, register it on the jump. I've +got to be off." + +"That's the point." The curly-headed Neil had lounged up to his +comrade's support. "Why have you got to be off? We don't savvy +your game, cap." + +"Perhaps you would like to be major-domo of this outfit, Neil?" +scoffed his chief, eying him scornfully. + +"No, sir. I ain't aimin' for no such thing. But we don't like the +way things are shaping. What does all this here funny business +mean, anyhow?" His thumb jerked toward Collins, already mounted +and waiting for Leroy to join him. "Two days ago this world +wasn't big enough to hold him and you. Well, I git the drop on +him, and then you begin to cotton up to him right away. Big +dinner last night--champagne corks popping, I hear. What I want +to know is what it means. And here's this Miss Mackenzie. She's +good for a big ransom, but I don't see it ambling our way. It +looks darned funny." + +"That's the ticket, York," derided Leroy. "Come again. Turn your +wolf loose." + +"Oh! I ain't afraid to say what I think." + +"I see you're not. You should try stump-speaking, my friend. +There's a field fox you there." + +"I'm asking you a question, Mr. Leroy." + +"That's whatever," chipped in Reilly. + +"Put a name to it." + +"Well, I want to know what's the game, and where we come in." + +"Think you're getting the double-cross?" asked Leroy pleasantly, +his vigilant eyes covering them like a weapon. + +"Now you're shouting. That's what I'd like right well to know. +There he sits"--with another thumbjerk at Collins--"and I'm a +Chink if he ain't carryin' them same two guns I took offen him, +one on the train and one here the other day. I ain't sayin' it +ain't all right, cap. But what I do say is--how about it?" + +Leroy did some thinking out loud. "Of course I might tell you +boys to go to the devil. That's my right, because you chose me to +run this outfit without any advice from the rest of you. But +you're such infants, I reckon I had better explain. You're always +worrying those fat brains of yours with suspicions. After we +stuck up the Limited you couldn't trust me to take care of the +swag. Reilly here had to cook up a fool scheme for us all to hide +it blindfold together. I told you straight what would happen, and +it did. When Scott crossed the divide we were in a Jim Dandy of a +hole. We had to have that paper of his to find the boodle. Then +Hardman gets caught, and coughs up his little recipe for helping +to find hidden treasure. Who gets them both? Mr. Sheriff Collins, +of course. Then he comes visiting us. Not being a fool, he leaves +the documents behind in a safety-deposit vault. Unless I can fix +up a deal with him, Mr. Reilly's wise play buncoes us and himself +out of thirty thousand dollars." + +"Why don't you let him send for the papers first?" + +"Because he won't do it. Threaten nothing! Collins ain't that +kind of a hairpin. He'd tell us to shoot and be damned." + +"So you've got it fixed with him?" demanded Neil. + +"You've a head like a sheep, York," admired Leroy. "YOU don't +need any brick-wall hints to hit you. As your think-tank has +guessed, I have come to an understanding with Collins." + +"But the gyurl--I allow the old major would come down with a +right smart ransom." + +"Wrong guess, York. I allow he would come down with a right smart +posse and wipe us off the face of the earth. Collins tells me the +major has sent for a couple of Apache trailers from the +reservation. That means it's up to us to hike for Sonora. The +only point is whether we take that buried money with us or leave +it here. If I make a deal with Collins, we get it. If I don't, +it's somebody else's gold-mine. Anything more the committee of +investigation would like to know?" concluded Leroy, as his cold +eyes raked them scornfully and came to rest on Reilly. + +"Not for mine," said Neil, with an apologetic laugh. "I'm +satisfied. I just wanted to know. And I guess Cork corroborates." + +Reilly growled something under his breath, and turned to hulk +away. + +"One moment. You'll listen to me, now. You have taken the liberty +to assume I was going to sell you out. I'll not stand that from +any man alive. To-morrow night I'll get back from Tucson. We'll +dig up the loot and divide it. And right then we quit company. +You go your way and I go mine." And with that as a parting shot, +Leroy turned on his heel and went direct to his horse. + +Alice Mackenzie might have searched the West with a fine-tooth +comb and not found elsewhere two such riders for an escort as +fenced her that day. Physically they were a pair of superb +animals, each perfect after his fashion. If the fair-haired +giant, with his lean, broad shoulders and rippling flow of +muscles, bulked more strikingly in a display of sheer strength, +the sinewy, tigerish grace of the dark Apollo left nothing to be +desired to the eye. Both of them had been brought up in the +saddle, and each was fit to the minute for any emergency likely +to appear. + +But on this pleasant morning no test of their power seemed likely +to arise, and she could study them at her ease without hindrance. +She had never seen Leroy look more the vagabond enthroned. For +dress, he wore the common equipment of Cattleland--jingling +spurs, fringed chaps, leather cuffs, gray shirt, with kerchief +knotted loosely at the neck, and revolver ready to his hand. But +he carried them with an air, an inimitable grace, that marked him +for a prince among his fellows. Something of the kind she hinted +to him in jesting paradoxical fashion, making an attempt to win +from his sardonic gloom one of his quick, flashing smiles. + +He countered by telling her what he had heard York say to Reilly +of her. "She's a princess, Cork," York had said. "Makes my +Epitaph gyurl look like a chromo beside her. Somehow, when she +looks at a fellow, he feels like a whitewashed nigger." + +All of them laughed at that, but both Leroy and the sheriff tried +to banter her by insisting that they knew exactly what York +meant. + +"You can be very splendid when you want to give a man that +whitewashed feeling; he isn't right sure whether he's on the map +or not," reproached the train-robber. + +She laughed in the slow, indolent way she had, taking the straw +hat from her dark head to catch better the faint breath of wind +that was soughing across the plains. + +"I didn't know I was so terrible. I don't think yon ever had any +awe of anybody, Mr. Leroy." Her soft cheek flushed in unexpected +memory of that moment when he had brushed aside all her maiden +reserves and ravished mad kisses from her. "And Mr. Collins is +big enough to take care of himself," she added hastily, to banish +the unwelcome recollection. + +Collins, with his eyes on the light-shot waves that crowned her +vivid face, wondered whether he was or not. If she had been a +woman to desire in the queenly, half-insolent indifference of +manner with which she had first met him, how much more of charm +lay in this piquant gaiety, in the warm sweetness of her softer +and more pliant mood! It seemed to him she had the gift of +comradeship to perfection. + +They unsaddled and ate lunch in the shade of the live-oaks at El +Dorado Springs, which used to be a much-frequented watering-hole +in the days when Camp Grant thrived and mule-skinners freighted +supplies in to feed Uncle Sam's pets. Two hours later they +stopped again at the edge of the Santa Cruz wash, two miles from +the Rocking Chair Ranch. + +It was while they were resaddling that Collins caught sight of a +cloud of dust a mile or two away. He unslung his field-glasses, +and looked long at the approaching dust-swirl. Presently he +handed the binoculars to Leroy. + +"Five of them; and that round-bellied Papago pony in front +belongs to Sheriff Forbes, or I'm away wrong." + +Leroy lowered the glasses, after a long, unflurried inspection. +"Looks that way to me. Expect I'd better be burning the wind." + +In a few sentences he and Collins arranged a meeting for next day +up in the hills. He trailed his spurs through the dust toward +Alice Mackenzie, and offered her his brown hand and wistful smile +irresistible. "Good-by. This is where you get quit of me for +good." + +"Oh, I hope not," she told him impulsively. "We must always be +friends." + +He laughed ruefully. "Your father wouldn't indorse those unwise +sentiments, I reckon--and I'd hate to bet your husband would," he +added audaciously, with a glance at Collins. "But I love to hear +you say it, even though we never could be. You're a right game, +stanch little pardner. I'll back that opinion with the lid off." + +"You should be a good judge of those qualities. I'm only sorry +you don't always use them in a good cause." + +He swung himself to his saddle. "Good-by." + +"Good-by--till we meet again." + +"And that will be never. So-long, sheriff. Tell Forbes I've got a +particular engagement in the hills, but I'll be right glad to +meet him when he comes." + +He rode up the draw and disappeared over the brow of the hillock. +She caught another glimpse of him a minute later on the summit of +the hill beyond. He waved a hand at her, half-turning in his +saddle as he rode. + +Presently she lost him, but faintly the wind swept back to her a +haunting snatch of uncouth song: + + "Oh, bury me out on the lone prairee, + In my narrow grave just six by three," + +Were the words drifted to her by the wind. She thought it +pathetically likely he might get the wish of his song. + +To Sheriff Forbes, dropping into the draw a few minutes later +with his posse, Collins was a well of misinformation literally +true. Yes, he had followed Miss Mackenzie's trail into the hills +and found her at a mountain ranch-house. She had been there a +couple of days, and was about to set out for the Rocking Chair +with the owner of the place, when he arrived and volunteered to +see her as far as her uncle's ranch. + +"I reckon there ain't any use asking you if you seen anything of +Wolf Leroy's outfit," said Forbes, a weather-beaten Westerner +with a shrewd, wrinkled face. + +"No, I reckon there's no use asking me that," returned Collins, +with a laugh that deceptively seemed to include the older man in +the joke. + +"We're after them for rustling a bunch of Circle 33 cows. Well, +I'll be moving. Glad you found the lady, Val. She don't look none +played out from her little trek across the desert. Funny, ain't +it, how she could have wandered that far and her afoot?" + +The Arizona sun was setting in its accustomed blaze of splendor, +when Val Collins and Alice Mackenzie put their horses again +toward the ranch and the rainbow-hued west. In his contented eyes +were reflected the sunshine and a serenity born of life in the +wide, open spaces. They rode in silence for long, the gentle +evening breeze blowing in soughs. + +"Did you ever meet a man of such promises gone wrong so utterly? +He might have been anything--and it has come to this, that he is +hunted like a wild beast. I never saw anything so pitiful. I +would give anything to save him." + +He had no need to ask to whom she was referring. "Can't be done. +Good qualities bulge out all over him, but they don't count for +anything. 'Unstable as water.' That's what's the matter with him. +He is the slave of his own whims. Hence he is only the splendid +wreck of a man, full of all kinds of rich outcropping pay-ore +that pinch out when you try to work them. They don't raise men +gamer, but that only makes him a more dangerous foe to society. +Same with his loyalty and his brilliancy. He's got a haid on him +that works like they say old J. E. B. Stuart's did. He would run +into a hundred traps, but somehow he always worked his men out of +them. That's Leroy, too. If he had been an ordinary criminal he +would have been rounded up years ago. It's his audacity, his iron +nerve, his ,good horse-sense judgment that saves his skin. But +he's ce'tainly up against it at last." + +"You think Sheriff Forbes will capture him?" + +He laughed. "I think it more likely he'll capture Forbes. But we +know now where he hangs out, and who he is. He has always been a +mystery till now. The mystery is solved, and unless he strikes +out for Sonora, Leroy is as good as a dead man." + +"A dead man?" + +"Does he strike you as a man likely to be taken alive? I look to +see a dramatic exit to the sound of cracking Winchesters." + +"Yes, that would be like him," she confessed with shudder. "I +think he was made to lead a forlorn hope. Pity it won't be one +worthy of the best in him." + +"I guess he does have more moments set to music than most of us, +and I'll bet, too, he has hidden way in him a list of 'Thou shalt +nots.' I read a book once by a man named Stevenson that was sure +virgin gold. He showed how every man, no matter how low he falls, +has somewhere in him a light that burns, some rag of honor for +which he is still fighting I'd hate to have to judge Leroy. Some +men, I reckon, have to buck against so much in themselves that +even failure is a kind of success for them." + +"Yet you will go out to hunt him down?" she' said, marveling at +the broad sympathy of the man. + +"Sure I will. My official duty is to look out for society. If +something in the machine breaks loose and goes to ripping things +to pieces, the engineer has to stop the damage, even if he has to +smash the rod that's causing the trouble." + +The ponies dropped down again into the bed of the wash, and +plowed across through the heavy sand. After they had reached the +solid road, Collins resumed conversation at a new point. + +"It's a month and a day since I first met you Miss Mackenzie," he +said, apparently apropos of nothing. + +She felt her blood begin to choke. "Indeed!" + +"I gave you a letter to read when I was on the train." + +"A letter!" she exclaimed, in well-affected surprise. + +"Did you think it was a book of poems? No, ma'am, it was a +letter. You were to read it in a month. Time was up last night. I +reckon you read it." + +"Could I read a letter I left at Tucson, when it was a hundred +miles away?" she smiled with sweet patronage. + +"Not if you left it at Tucson," he assented, with an answering +smile. + +"Maybe I DID lose it." She frowned, trying to remember. + +"Then I'll have to tell you what was in it." + +"Any time will do. I dare say it wasn't important." + +"Then we'll say THIS time." + +"Don't be stupid, Mr. Collins. I want to talk about our desert +Villon." + +"I said in that letter--" + +She put her pony to a canter, and they galloped side by side in +silence for half a mile. After she had slowed down to a walk, he +continued placidly, as if oblivious of an interruption: + +"I said in that letter that I had just met the young lady I was +expecting to marry." + +"Dear me, how interesting! Was she in the smoker?" + +"No, she was in Section 3 of the Pullman." + +"I wish I had happened to go into the other Pullman, but, of +course, I couldn't know the young lady you were interested in was +riding there." + +"She wasn't." + +"But you've just told me " + +"That I said in the letter you took so much trouble to lose that +I expected to marry the young woman passing under the name of +Miss Wainwright." + +"Sir!" + +"That I expected--" + +"Really, I am not deaf, Mr. Collins." + +"--expected to marry her, just as soon as she was willing." + +"Oh, she is to be given a voice in the matter, is she?" + +"Ce'tainly, ma'am." + +"And when?" + +"Well, I had been thinking now was a right good time." + +"It can't be too soon for me," she flashed back, sweeping him +with proud, indignant eyes. + +"But I ain't so sure. I rather think I'd better wait." + +"No, no! Let us have it done with once and for all." + +He relapsed into a serene, abstracted silence. + +"Aren't you going to speak?" she flamed. + +"I've decided to wait." + +"Well, I haven't. Ask me this minute, sir, to marry you." + +"Ce'tainly, if you cayn't wait. Miss Mackenzie, will you--" + +"No, sir, I won't--not if you were the last man on earth," she +interrupted hotly, whipping herself into a genuine rage. "I never +was so insulted in my life. It would be ridiculous if it weren't +so--so outrageous. You EXPECT, do you? And it isn't conceit, but +a deep-seated certainty you can't get away from." + +He had her fairly. "Then you DID read the letter." + +"Yes, sir, I read it--and for sheer, unmatched impudence I have +never seen its like." + +"Now, I wish you would tell me what you REALLY think," he +drawled. + +Not being able, for reasons equestrian, to stamp her foot, she +gave her bronco the spur. + +When Collins again found conversation practicable, the Rocking +Chair, a white adobe huddle in the moonlight, lay peacefully +beneath them in the alley. + +"It's a right quaint old ranch, and it's seen a heap of +rough-and-tumble life in its day. If those old adobe bricks could +tell stories, I expect they could put some of these romances out +of business." Miss Mackenzie's covert glance questioned +suspiciously what this diversion might mean. + +"All this country's interesting. Take Tucson now that burg is +loaded to the roofs with live stories. It's an all-right business +town, too--the best in the territory," he continued +patriotically. "She ain't so great as Douglas on ore or as +Phoenix on lungers, but when it comes, to the git-up-and-git +hustle, she's there rounding up the trade from early morn till +dine." + +He was still expatiating in a monologue with grave enthusiasm on +the town of his choice, when they came to the pasture fence of +the ranch. + +"Some folks don't like it--call it adobe-town, and say it's full +of greasers. Everybody to his taste, I say. Little old Tucson is +good enough for me." + +She gave a queer little laugh as he talked. She had put a taboo +on his love story herself, but she resented the perfectly unmoved +good humor with which he seemed to be accepting her verdict. She +made up her mind to punish him, but he gave her no chance. As he +helped her to dismount, he said: + +"I'll take the horses round to the stable, Miss Mackenzie. +Probably I won't see you again before I leave, but I'm hoping to +meet you again in Tucson one of these days. Good-by." + +She nodded a curt good-by and passed into the house. She was +vexed and indignant, but had too strong a sense of humor not to +enjoy a joke even when it was against herself. + +"I forgot to ask him whether he loves me or Tucson more, and as +one of the subjects seems to be closed I'll probably never find +out," she told herself, but with a queer little tug of pain in +her laughter. + +Next moment she was in the arms of her father. + + + +CHAPTER 20. BACK TO GOD'S COUNTRY + +To minimize the risk, Megales and Carlo left the prison by the +secret passage, following the fork to the river bank and digging +at the piled-up sand till they had forced an exit. O'Halloran met +them here with horses, and the three men followed the riverwash +beyond the limits of the town and cut across by a trail to a +siding on the Central Mexican Pacific tracks. The Irishman was +careful to take no chances, and kept his party in the mesquit +till the headlight of an approaching train was visible. + +It drew up at the siding, and the three men boarded one of the +two cars which composed it. The coach next the engine was +occupied by a dozen trusted soldiers, who had formerly belonged +to the bodyguard of Megales. The last car was a private one, and +in it the three found Henderson, Bucky O'Connor, and his little +friend, the latter still garbed as a boy. + +Frances was exceedingly eager to don again the clothes proper to +her sex, and she had promised herself that, once habited as she +desired, nothing could induce her ever to masquerade again. Until +she met and fell in love with the ranger she had thought nothing +of it, since it had been merely a matter of professional business +to which she had been forced. Indeed, she had sometimes enjoyed +the humor of the deception. It had lent a spice o enjoyment to a +life not crowded with it. But after she met Bucky there had grown +up in her a new sensitiveness. She wanted to be womanly, to +forget her turbid past and the shifts to which she had sometimes +been put. She had been a child; she was now a woman. She wanted +to be one of whom he need be in no way ashamed. + +When their train began to pull out of the depot at Chihuahua she +drew a deep sigh of relief. + +"It's good to get away from here back to the States. I'm tired of +plots and counterplots. For the rest of my life I want to be just +a woman," she said to Bucky. + +The young man smiled. "I reckon I must quit trying to make you a +gentleman. Fact is, I don't want you to be one any more." + +She slanted a look at him to see what that might mean and another +up the car to make sure that Henderson was out of hearing. + +"It was rather hopeless, wasn't it?" she smiled. "We'll do pretty +well if we succeed in making me a lady in course of time. I've a +lot to learn, you know." + +"Well, you got lots of time to learn it," he replied cheerfully. +"And I've got a notion tucked away in the back of my haid that +you haven't got such a heap to study up. Mrs. Mackenzie will put +you next to the etiquette wrinkles where you are shy." + +A shadow fell on the piquant, eager face beside him. "Do you +think she will love me?" + +"I don't think. I know. She can't help it." + +"Because she is my mother? Oh, I hope that is true." + +"No, not only because she is your mother." + +She decided to ask for no more reasons. Henderson, pleased at the +wide stretch of plain as only one who had missed the open air for +many years could be, was on the observation platform in the rear +of the car, one glance at his empty seat showed her. There was no +safety for her shyness in the presence of that proverbial three +which makes a crowd, and she began to feel her heart again in +panic as once before. She took at once the opening she had given. + +"I do need a mother so much, after growing up like Topsy all +these years. And mine is the dearest woman in the world. I fell +in love with her before, and I did not know who she was when I +was at he ranch." + +"I'll agree to the second dearest in the world, but I reckon you +shoot too high when you say the plumb dearest." + +"She is. We'll quarrel if you don't agree," trying desperately to +divert him from the topic she knew he meant to pursue. For in the +past two days he had been so busy helping O'Halloran that he had +not even had a glimpse of her. As a consequence of which each +felt half-dubious of the other's love, and Frances felt wholly +shy about expressing her own or even listening to his. + +"Well, we're due for a quarrel, I reckon. But we'll postpone it +till we got more time to give it. He drew a watch from his pocket +and glanced at it "In less than fifteen minutes Mike and our two +friends who are making their getaway will come in that door +Henderson just went out of. That means we won't get a chance to +be alone together, for about two days. I've got something to say +to you, Curly Haid, that won't keep that long with out running my +temperature clear up. So I'm allowing to say it right now +immediate. No, you don't need to turn them brown appealers on me. +It won't do a mite of good. It's Bucky to the bat and he's bound +to make a hit or strike out." + +"I think I hear Mr. Henderson coming," murmured Frances, for lack +of something more effective to say. + +"Not him. He's hogtied to the scenery long enough to do my +business. Now, it won't take me long if I get off right foot +first. You read my letter, you said?" + +"Which letter?" She was examining attentively the fringe of the +sash she wore. + +"Why, honey, that love-letter I wrote you. If there was more than +one it must have been wrote in my sleep, for I ce'tainly +disremember it." + +He could just hear her confused answer: "Oh, yes, I read that. I +told you that before." + +"What did you think? Tell me again." + +"I thought you misspelled feelings." + +"You don't say. Now, ain't that too bad? But, girl o' mine, I +expect you were able to make it out, even if I did get the +letters to milling around wrong. I meant them feelings all right. +Outside of the spelling, did you have any objections to them, + +"How can I remember what you wrote in that letter several days +ago?" + +"I'll bet you know it by heart, honey, and, if you don't, you'll +find it in your inside vest pocket, tucked away right close to +your heart." + +"It isn't," she denied, with a blush. + +"Sho! Pinned to your shirt then, little pardner. I ain't +particular which. Point is, if you need to refresh that ailin' +memory of yours, the document is--right handy. But you don't need +to. It just says one little sentence over and over again. All you +have got to do is to say one little word, and you don't have to +say it but once." + +"I don't understand you," her lips voiced. + +"You understand me all right. What my letter said was 'I love +you,' and what you have got to say is: 'Yes'" + +"But that doesn't mean anything." + +"I'll make out the meaning when you say it." + +"Do I have to say it?" + +"You have to if you feel it." + +Slowly the big brown eyes came up to meet his bravely. "Yes, +Bucky." + +He caught her hands and looked down into her pure, sweet soul. + +"I'm in luck," he breathed deeply. "In golden luck to have you +look at me twice. Are you sure?" + +"Sure. I loved you that first day I met you. I've loved you every +day since," she confessed simply. + +Full on the lips he kissed her. + +"Then we'll be married as soon as we reach the Rocking Chair." + +"But you once said you didn't want to be my husband," she taunted +sweetly. "Don't you remember? In the days when we were gipsies." + +"I've changed my mind. I want to, and I'm in a hurry." + +She shook her head. "No, dear. We shall have to wait. It wouldn't +be fair to my mother to lose me just as soon as she finds me. It +is her right to get acquainted with me just as if I belonged to +her alone. You understand what I mean, Bucky. She must not feel +as if she never had found me, as if she never had been first with +me. We can love each other more simply if she doesn't know about +you. We'll have it for a secret for a month or two." + +She put her little hand on his arm appealingly to win his +consent. His eyes rested on it curiously, Then he took it in his +big brown one and turned it palm up. Its delicacy and perfect +finish moved him, for it seemed to him that in the contrast +between the two hands he saw in miniature the difference of sex. +His showed strength and competency and the roughness that comes +of the struggle of life. But hers was strangely tender and +confiding, compact of the qualities that go to make up the +strength of the weak. Surely he deserved the worst if he was not +good to her, a shield and buckler against the storms that must +beat against them in the great adventure they were soon to begin +together. + +Reverently he raised the little hand and kissed its palm. + +"Sure, sweetheart I had forgotten about your mother's claim. We +can wait, I reckon," he added with a smile. "You must always set +me straight when I lose the trail of what's right, Curly Haid. +You are to be a guiding-star to me." + +"And you to me. Oh, Bucky, isn't it good?" + +He kissed her again hurriedly, for the train was jarring to a +halt. Before he could answer in words, O'Halloran burst into the +coach, at the head of his little company. + +"All serene, Bucky. This is the last scene, and the show went +without a hitch in the performance anywhere. " + +Bucky smiled at Frances as he answered his enthusiastic friend: + +"That's right. Not a hitch anywhere." + +"And say, Bucky, who do you think is in the other coach dressed +as one of the guards?" + +"Colonel Roosevelt," the ranger guessed promptly. + +"Our friend Chaves. He's escaping because he thinks we'll have +him assassinated in revenge," the big Irishman returned +gleefully. "You should have seen his color, me bye, when he +caught sight of me. I asked him if he'd been reduced to the +ranks, and he begged me not to tell you he was here. Go in and +devil him." + +Bucky glanced at his lover. "No, I'm so plumb contented I haven't +the heart." + +* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * + +At the Rocking Chair Ranch there was bustle and excitement. +Mexicans scrubbed and scoured under the direction of Alice and +Mrs. Mackenzie, and vaqueros rode hither and thither on bootless +errands devised by their nervous master. For late that morning a +telephone call from Aravaipa had brought Webb to the receiver to +listen to a telegram. The message was from Bucky, then on the +train on his way home. + +"The best of news. Reach the Rocking Chair tonight." + +That was the message which had disturbed the serenity of big Webb +Mackenzie and had given to the motherly heart of his wife an +unusual flutter. The best of news it could not be, for the ranger +had already written them of the confession of Anderson, which +included the statement of the death of their little daughter. But +at least he might bring the next best news, information that +David Henderson was free at last and his long martyrdom ended. + +So all day hurried preparations were being made to receive the +honored guests with a fitting welcome. The Rocking Chair was a +big ranch, and its hospitality was famous all over the Southwest. +It was quite unnecessary to make special efforts to entertain, +but Webb and his wife took that means of relieving the strain on +them till night. + +Higher crept the hot sun of baked Arizona. It passed the zenith +and began to descend toward the purple hills in the west, went +behind them with a great rainbow splash of brilliancy peculiar to +that country Dusk came, and died away in the midst of a +love-concert of quails. Velvet night, with its myriad stars, +entranced the land and made magic of its hills and valleys. + +For the fiftieth time Webb dragged out his watch and consulted +it. + +"I wish that young man had let us know which way he was coming, +so I could go and meet them. If they come by the river they +should be in the Box canyon by this time. But if I was to ride +out, like as not they would come by the mesa," he sputtered. + +"What time is it, Webb?" asked his wife. scarcely less excited. + +He had to look again, so absent-minded had been his last glance +at the watch. "Nine-fifteen. Why didn't I telephone to Rogers and +ask him to find out which way they were coming? Sometimes I'm +mighty thick-headed." + +As Mackenzie had guessed, the party was winding its way through +the Box Canyon at that time of speaking. Bucky and Frances led +the way, followed by Henderson and the vaquero whom Mackenzie had +telephoned to guide them from Aravaipa. + +"I reckon this night was made for us, Curly Haid. Even good old +Arizona never turned out such a one before. I expect it was +ordered for us ever since it was decided we belonged to each +other. That may have been thousands of years ago." Bucky laughed, +to relieve the tension, and looked up at the milky way above. +"We're like those stars, honey. All our lives we have been +drifting around, but all the time it had been decided by the +God-of-things-as-they-are that our orbits were going to run +together and gravitate into the same one when the right time +came. It has come now." + +"Yes, Bucky," she answered softly. "We belong, dear." + +"Hello, here's the end of the canon. The ranch lies right behind +that spur." + +"Does it?" Presently she added: "I'm all a-tremble, Bucky. To +think I'm going to meet my father and my mother for the first +time really, for I don't count that other time when we didn't +know. Suppose they shouldn't like me." + +"Impossible. Suppose something reasonable," her lover replied. + +"But they might not. You think, you silly boy, that because you +do everybody must. But I'm so glad I'm clothed and in my right +mind again. I couldn't have borne to meet my mother with that +boys suit on. Do you think I look nice in this? I had to take +what I could find ready-made, you know." + +Unless his eyes were blinded by the glamour of love, he saw the +sweetest vision of loveliness he had known. Such a surpassing +miracle of soft, dainty curves, such surplusage of beauty in bare +throat, speaking eye, sweet mouth, and dimpled cheeks! But Bucky +was a lover, and perhaps no fair judge, for in that touch of +vagueness, of fairy-land, lent by the moonlight, he found the +world almost too beautiful to believe. Did she look NICE? How +beggarly words were to express feelings, after all. + +The vaquero with them rode forward and pointed to the valley +below, where the ranch-house huddled in a pellucid sea of +moonlight. + +"That's the Rocking Chair, sir." + +Presently there came a shout from the ranch, and a man galloped +toward them. He passed Bucky with a wave of his hand and made +directly for Henderson. + +"Dave! Dave, old partner," he cried, leaping from his horse and +catching the other's hand. "After all these years you've risen +from the dead and come back to me." His voice was broken with +emotion. + +"Come! Let's canter forward to the ranch," said Bucky to Frances +and the vaquero, thinking it best to leave the two old comrades +together for a while. + +Mrs. Mackenzie and Alice met them at the gate. "Did you bring +him? Did you bring Dave?" the older lady asked eagerly. + +"Yes, we brought him," answered Bucky, helping Frances to +dismount. + +He led the girl to her mother. "Mrs. Mackenzie, can you stand +good news?" + +She caught at the gate. "What news? Who is this lady?" + +"Her name is Frances." + +"Frances what?" + +"Frances Mackenzie. She is your daughter, returned, after all +these years, to love and be loved." + +The mother gave a little throat cry, steadied herself, and fell +into the arms of her daughter. "Oh, my baby! My baby! Found at +last." + +Quietly Bucky slipped away to the stables with the ponies. As +quietly Alice disappeared into the house. This was sacred ground, +and not even their feet should rest on it just now. + +When Bucky returned to the house, he found his sweetheart sitting +between her father and mother, each of whom was holding one of +her hands. Henderson had retired to clean himself up. Happy tears +were coursing down the cheeks of the mother, and Webb found it +necessary to blow his nose frequently. He jumped up at sight of +the ranger. + +"Young man, you're to blame for this. You've found my friend and +you've found my daughter. Brought them both back to us on the +same day. What do you want? Name it, and it's yours, if I can +give it." + +Bucky looked at Frances with a smile in his eyes. He knew very +well what he wanted, but he was under bonds not to name it yet. + +"I'll set you up in the cattle business, sir. I'll buy you sheep, +if you prefer. I'll get you an interest in a mine. Put a name to +what you want." + +"I'm no robber. You paid the expenses of my trip. That's all I +want right now." + +"It's not all you'll get. Do you think I'm a cheap piker? No, +sir. You've got to let me grub-stake you." Mackenzie thumped a +clinched fist down on the table. + +"All right, seh. You're the doctor. Give me an interest in that +map and I'll prospect the mine this summer, if I can locate it." + +"Good enough, and I'll finance the proposition. You and Dave can +take half-shares in the property. In the meantime, are you open +to an engagement?" + +"Depends what it is," replied Bucky cautiously. + +"My foreman's quit on me. Gone into business for himself. I'm +looking for a good man. Will you be my major-domo?" + +Bucky's heart leaped. He had been thinking of how he must report +almost immediately to HurryUp Millikan, of the rangers. Now, he +could resign from that body and stay near his love. Certainly +things were coming his way. + +"I'd like to try it, seh," he answered. "I may not make good, but +I sure would like to have a chance at it." + +"Make good! Of course you'll make good. You're the best man in +Arizona, sir," cried Webb extravagantly. He wheeled on his +new-found daughter. "Don't you think so, Frankie?" + +Frances blushed, but answered bravely: "Yes, sir. He makes +everything right when he takes hold of it." + +"Good. We're not going to let him get away from us after making +us so happy, are we, mother? This young man is going to stay +right here. We never had but one son, and we are going to treat +him as much like one as we can. Eh, mother?" + +"If he will consent, Webb." She went up to the ranger and kissed +his tanned cheek. "You must pardon an old woman whom you've made +very happy." + +Again Bucky's laughing blue eyes met the brown ones of his +sweetheart. + +"Oh, I'll consent, all right, and I reckon, ma'am, it's mighty +good of you to treat me so white. I'll sure try to please you." + +Webb thumped him on the back. "Now, you're shouting. We want you +to be one of us, young man." + +Once more that happy, wireless message of eyes followed by +O'Connor's assent. "That's what I want myself, seh." + +Bucky found a surprise waiting for him at the stables. A heavy +hand descended upon his shoulder. He whirled, and looked up into +the face of Sheriff Collins. + +"You here, Val?" he cried in surprise. + +"That's what. Any luck, Bucky?" + +They went out and sat down on the big rocks back of the corral. +Here each told the other his story, with certain reservations. +Collins had just got back from Epitaph, where he had been to get +the fragments of paper which told the secret of the buried +treasure. He was expecting to set out in the early morning to +meet Leroy. + +"I'll go with you," said Bucky immediately. + +Val shook his head. "No, I'm to go alone. That's the agreement." + +"Of course if that's the agreement." Nevertheless, the ranger +formed a private intention not to be far from the scene of +action. + + + +CHAPTER 21. THE WOLF PACK + +"Good evening, gentlemen. Hope I don't intrude on the +festivities." + +Leroy smiled down ironically on the four flushed, startled faces +that looked up at him. Suspicion was alive in every rustle of the +men's clothes. It breathed from the lowering countenances. It +itched at the fingers longing for the trigger. The unending +terror of a bandit's life is that no man trusts his fellow. Hence +one betrays another for fear of betrayal, or stabs him in the +back to avoid it. + +The outlaw chief had slipped into the room so silently that the +first inkling they had of his presence was that gentle, insulting +voice. Now, as he lounged easily before them, leg thrown over the +back of a chair and thumbs sagging from his trouser pockets, they +looked the picture of schoolboys caught by their master in a +conspiracy. How long had he been there? How much had he heard? +Full of suspicion and bad whisky as they were, his confident +contempt still cowed the very men who were planning his +destruction. A minute before they had been full of loud threats +and boastings; now they could only search each other's faces +sullenly for a cue. + +"Celebrating Chaves' return from manana land, I reckon. That's +the proper ticket. I wonder if we couldn't afford to kill another +of Collins' fatted calves." + +Mr. Hardman, not enjoying the derisive raillery, took a hand in +the game. "I expect the boys hadn't better touch the sheriff's +calves, now you and him are so thick." + +"We're thick, are we?" Leroy's indolent eyes narrowed slightly as +they rested on him. + +"Ain't you? It sure seemed that way to me when I looked out of +that mesquit wash just above Eldorado Springs and seen you and +him eating together like brothers and laughing to beat the band. +You was so clost to him I couldn't draw a bead on him without +risking its hitting you." + +"Spying, eh?" + +"If that's the word you want to use, cap. And you were enjoying +yourselves proper." + +"Laughing, were we? That must have been when he told me how funny +you looked in the 'altogether' shedding false teeth and +information about hidden treasure." + +"Told you that, did he?" Mr. Hardman incontinently dropped +repartee as a weapon too subtle, and fell back on profanity. + +"That's right pat to the minute, cap, what you say about the +information he leaks," put in Neil. "How about that information? +I'll be plumb tickled to death to know you're carrying it in you +vest pocket." + +"And if I'm not?" + +"Then ye are a bigger fool than I had expected sorr, to come back +here at all," said the Irishman truculently. + +"I begin to think so myself, Mr. Reilly. Why keep faith with a +set of swine like you?" + +"Are you giving it to us that you haven't got those papers?" + +Leroy nodded, watching them with steady, alert eyes. He knew he +stood on the edge of a volcano that might explode at any moment. + +"What did I tell yez?" Reilly turned savagely to the other +disaffected members of the gang. "Didn't I tell yez he was +selling us out?" + +Somehow Leroy's revolver seemed to jump to his hand without a +motion on his part. It lay loosely in his limp fingers, unaimed +and undirected. + +"SAY THAT AGAIN, PLEASE." + +Beneath the velvet of Leroy's voice ran a note more deadly than +any threat could have been. It rang a bell for a silence in which +the clock of death seemed to tick. But as the seconds fled +Reilly's courage oozed away. He dared not accept the invitation +to reach for his weapon and try conclusions with this debonair +young daredevil. He mumbled a retraction, and flung, with a +curse, out of the room. + +Leroy slipped the revolver back in his holster and quoted, with a +laugh: + +"To every coward safety, +And afterward his evil hour." + +"What's that?" demanded Neil. "I ain't no coward, even if Jay is. +I don't knuckle under to any man. You got a right to ante up with +some information. I want to know why you ain't got them papers +you promised to bring back with you." + +"And I, too, senor. I desire to know what it means," added +Chaves, his eyes glittering. + +"That's the way to chirp, gentlemen. I haven't got them because +Forbes blundered on us, and I had to take a pasear awful sudden. +But I made an appointment to meet Collins to-morrow." + +"And you think he'll keep it?" scoffed Neil. + +"I know he will." + +"You seem to know a heap about him," was the significant retort. + +"Take care, York." + +"I'm not Hardman, cap. I say what I think. + +"And you think?" suggested Leroy gently. + +"I don't know what to think yet. You're either a fool or a +traitor. I ain't quite made up my mind. When I find out you'll +ce'tainly hear from me straight. Come on, boys." And Neil +vanished through the door. + +An hour later there came a knock at Leroy's door. Neil answered +his permission to enter, followed by the other trio of flushed +beauties. To the outlaw chief it was at once apparent with what +Dutch courage they had been fortifying themselves to some +resolve. It was characteristic of him, though he knew on how +precarious a thread his life was hanging, that disgust at the +foul breaths with which they were polluting the atmosphere was +his first dominant emotion. + +"I wish, Lieutenant Chaves, next time you emigrate you'd bring +another brand of poison out to the boys. I can't go this stuff. +Just remember that, will you?" + +The outlaw chief's hard eye ran over the rebels and read them +like a primer They had come to depose him certainly, to kill him +perhaps. Though this last he doubted. It wouldn't be like Neil to +plan his murder, and it wouldn't be like the others to give him +warning and meet him in the open. Warily he stood behind the +table, watching their awkward embarrassment with easy assurance. +Carefully he placed face downward on the table the Villon he had +been reading, but he did it without lifting his eyes from them. + +"You have business with me, I presume." + +"That's what we have," cried Reilly valiantly, from the rear. + +"Then suppose we come to it and get the room aired as soon as +possible," Leroy said tartly. + +"You're such a slap-up dude you'd ought to be a hotel clerk, cap. +You're sure wasted out here. + +So we boys got together and held a little election. Consequence +is, we--fact is, we--" + +Neil stuck, but Reilly came to his rescue. + +"We elected York captain of this outfit." + +"To fill the vacancy created by my resignation. Poor York! You're +the sacrifice, are you? On the whole, I think you fellows have +made a wise choice. York's game, and he won't squeal on you, +which is more than I could say of Reilly, or the play actor, or +the gentlemen from Chihuahua. But you want to watch out for a +knife in the dark, York. 'Uneasy lies the head that wears a +crown,' you know." + +"We didn't come here to listen to a speech, cap, but to notify +you we was dissatisfied, and wouldn't have you run the outfit any +longer," explained Neil. + +"In that event, having heard the report of the committee, if +there's no further new business, I declare this meeting adjourned +sine die. Kindly remove the perfume tubs, Captain Neil, at your +earliest convenience." + +The quartette retreated ignominiously. They had come prepared to +gloat over Leroy's discomfiture, and he had mocked them with that +insolent ease of his that set their teeth in helpless rage. + +But the deposed chief knew they had not struck their last blow. +Throughout the night he could hear the low-voiced murmur of their +plottings, and he knew that if the liquor held out long enough +there would be sudden death at Hidden Valley before twenty-four +hours were up. He looked carefully to his rifle and his +revolvers, testing several shells to make sure they had not been +tampered with in his absence. After he had made all necessary +preparations, he drew the blinds of his window and moved his +easy-chair from its customary place beside the fire. Also he was +careful not to sit where an shadow would betray his position. +Then back he went to his Villon, a revolver lying on the table +within reach. + +But the night passed without mishap, and with morning he ventured +forth to his meeting with the sheriff. He might have slipped out +from the back door of his cabin and gained the canyon, by +circling unobserved, up the draw and over the hogback, but he +would not show by these precautions any fear of the cutthroats +with whom he had to deal. As was his scrupulous custom, he shaved +and took his morning bath before appearing outdoors. In all +Arizona no trimmer, more graceful figure of jaunty recklessness +could be seen than this one stepping lightly forth to knock at +the bunk-house door behind which he suspected were at least two +men determined on his death by treachery. + +Neil came to the door in answer to his knock and within he could +see the villainous faces at bloodshot eyes of two of the others +peering at him. + +"Good mo'ning, Captain Neil. I'm on my way to keep that +appointment I mentioned last night I'd ce'tainly be glad to have +you go along. Nothing like being on the spot to prevent +double-crossing." + +"I'm with you in the fling of a cow's tail. Come on, boys." + +"I think not. You and I will go alone." + +"Just as you say. Reilly, I guess you better saddle Two-step and +the Lazy B roan." + +"I ain't saddling ponies for Mr. Leroy," returned Reilly, with +thick defiance. + +Neil was across the room in two strides. "When I tell you to do a +thing, jump! Get a move on and saddle those broncs." + +"I don't know as--" + +"Vamos!" + +Reilly sullenly slouched out. + +"I see you made them jump," commented the former captain audibly, +seating himself comfortably on a rock. "It's the only way you'll +get along with them. See that they come to time or pump lead into +them. You'll find there's no middle way." + +Neil and Leroy had hardly passed beyond the rock-slide before the +others, suspicion awake in their sodden brains, dodged after them +on foot. For three miles they followed the broncos as the latter +picked their way up the steep trail that led to the Dalriada +Mine. + +"If Mr. Collins is here, he's lying almighty low," exclaimed +Neil, as he swung from his pony at the foot of the bluff from the +brow of which the gray dump of the mine straggled down like a +Titan's beard. + +"Right you are, Mr. Neil." + +York whirled, revolver in hand, but the man who had risen from +behind the big boulder beside the trail was resting both hands on +the rock before him. + +"You're alone, are you?" demanded York. + +"I am." + +Neil's revolver slid back into its holster. "Mornin', Val. What's +new down at Tucson?" he said amiably. + +"I understood I was to meet you alone, Mr. Leroy," said the +sheriff quickly, his blue-gray eyes on the former chief. + +"That was the agreement, Mr. Collins, but it seems the boys are +on the anxious seat about these little socials of ours. They've +embraced the notion that I'm selling them. I hated to have them +harassed with doubts, so I invited the new majordomo of the ranch +to come with me. Of cou'se, if you object--" + +"I don't object in the least, but I want him to understand the +agreement. I've got a posse waiting at Eldorado Springs, and as +soon as I get back there we take the trail after you. Bucky +O'Connor is at the head of the posse." + +York grinned. "We'll be in Sonora then, Val. Think I'm going to +wait and let you shoot off my other fingers?" + +Collins fished from his vest pocket the papers he had taken from +Scott hat and from Webster. "I think I'll be jogging along back +to the springs. I reckon these are what you want." + +Leroy took them from him and handed them to Neil. "Don't let us +detain you any longer, Mr. Collins. I know you're awful busy +these days." + +The sheriff nodded a good day, cut down the hill on the slant, +and disappeared in a mesquit thicket, from the other side of +which he presently emerged astride a bay horse. + +The two outlaws retraced their way to the foot of the hill and +remounted their broncos. + +"I want to say, cap, that I'm eating humble-pie in big chunks +right this minute," said Neil shamefacedly, scratching his curly +poll and looking apologetically at his former chief. "I might 'a' +knowed you was straight as a string, all I've seen of you these +last two years. If those coyotes say another word, cap--" + +An exploding echo seemed to shake the mountain, and then another. +Leroy swayed in the saddle, clutching at his side. He pitched +forward, his arms round the horse's neck, and slid slowly to the +ground. + +Neil was off his horse in an instant, kneeling beside him. He +lifted him in his arms and carried him behind a great outcropping +boulder. + +"It's that hound Collins," he muttered, as he propped the wounded +man's head on his arm. "By God, I didn't think it of Val." + +Leroy opened his eyes and smiled faintly. "Guess again, York." + +"You don't mean " + +He nodded. "Right this time--Hardman and Chaves and Reilly. They +shot to get us both. With us out of the way they could divide the +treasure between them." + +Neil choked. "You ain't bad hurt, old man. Say you ain't bad +hurt, Phil." + +"More than I can carry, York; shot through and through. I've been +doubtful of Reilly for a long time;" + +"By the Lord, if I don't get the rattlesnake for this!" swore +Neil between his teeth. "Ain't there nothin' I can do for you, +old pardner?" + +In sharp succession four shots rang out. Neil grasped his rifle, +leaning forward and crouching for cover. He turned a puzzled face +toward Leroy. "I don't savvy. They ain't shooting at us." + +"The sheriff," explained Leroy. "They forgot him, and he doubled +back on them." + +"I'll bet Val got one of them," cried Neil, his face lighting. + +"He's got one--or he's quit living. That's a sure thing. Why +don't you circle up on them from behind, York?" + +"I hate to leave you, cap--and you so bad. Can't I do a thing for +you?" + +Leroy smiled faintly. "Not a thing. I'll be right here when you +get back, York." + +The curly-headed young puncher took Leroy's hand in his, gulping +down a boyish sob. "I ain't been square with you, cap. I reckon +after this-- when you git well--I'll not be such a coyote any +more." + +The dying man's eyes were lit with a beautiful tenderness. +"There's one thing you can do for me, York. . . . I'm out of the +game, but I want you to make a new start. . . . I got you into +this life, boy. Quit it, and live straight. There's nothing to +it, York." + +The cowboy-bandit choked. "Don't you worry about me, cap. I'm all +right. I'd just as lief quit this deviltry, anyhow." + +"I want you to promise, boy." A whimsical, half-cynical smile +touched Leroy's eyes. "You see, after living like a devil for +thirty years, I want to die like a Christian. Now, go, York." + +After Neil had left him, Leroy's eyes closed. Faintly he heard +two more shots echoing down the valley, but the meaning of them +was already lost to his wandering mind. + +Neil dodged rapidly round the foot of the mountain with intent to +cut off the bandits as they retreated. He found the sheriff +crouching behind a rock scarce two hundred yards from the scene +of the murder. At the same moment another shot echoed from well +over to the left. + +"Who can that be?" Neil asked, very much puzzled. + +"That's what's worrying me, York," the sheriff returned. + +Together they zigzagged up the side of the mountain. Twice from +above there came sounds of rifle shots. Neil was the first to +strike the trail to the mine. None too soon for as he stepped +upon it, breathing heavily from his climb, Reilly swung round a +curve and whipped his weapon to his shoulder. The man fired +before York could interfere and stood watching tensely the result +of his shot. He was silhouetted against the skyline, a beautiful +mark, but Neil did not cover him. Instead, he spoke quietly to +the other. + +"Was it you that killed Phil, Reilly?" + +The man whirled and saw Neil for the first time. His answer was +instant. Flinging up his rifle, he pumped a shot at York. + +Neil's retort came in a flash. Reilly clutched at his heart and +toppled backward from the precipice upon which he stood. Collins +joined the cowpuncher and together they stepped forward to the +point from which Reilly had plunged down two hundred feet to the +jagged rocks below. + +At the curve they came face to face with Bucky O'Connor. Three +weapons went up quicker than the beating of an eyelash. More +slowly each went down again + +"What are you doing here, Bucky?" the sheriff asked. + +"Just pirootin' around, Val. It occurred to me Leroy might not +mean to play fair with you, so I kinder invited myself to the +party. When I heard shooting I thought it was you they had +bushwhacked, so I sat in to the game " + +"You guessed wrong, Bucky. Reilly and the others rounded on +Leroy. While they were at it they figured to make a clean job and +bump off York, too. From what York says Leroy has got his. + +The ranger turned a jade eye on the outlaw. Has Mr. Neil turned +honest man, Val? Taken him into your posse, have you?" he asked, +with an edge of irony in his voice. + +The sheriff laid a hand on the shoulder of the man who had been +his friend before he turned miscreant. + +"Don't you worry about Neil, Bucky," he advised gently. "It was +York shot Reilly, after York had cut loose at him, and I +shouldn't wonder if that didn't save your life. Neil has got to +stand the gaff for what he's done, but I'll pull wires to get his +punishment made light." + +"Killed Reilly, did he?" repeated O'Connor. "I got Anderson back +there." + +"That makes only one left to account for. I wonder who he is?" +Collins turned absent-mindedly to Neil. The latter looked at him +out of an expressionless face. Even though his confederate had +proved traitor he would not betray him. + +"I wonder," he said. + +Bucky laughed. "Made a mistake that time, Val." + +"I plumb forgot the situation for a moment," the sheriff grinned. +"Anyhow, we better be hittin' his trail." + +"How about Phil?" Neil suggested. + +"That's right. One of us has ce'tainly got to go back and attend +to him." + +"You and Neil go back. I'll follow up this gentleman who is +escaping," the ranger said. + +And so it was arranged. The two men returned from their grim work +of justice to the place where the outlaw chief had been left. His +eyes lit feebly at sight of them. + +"What news, York?" he asked. + +"Reilly and Hardman are killed. How are you feelin', cap?" The +cow-puncher knelt beside the dying outlaw and put an arm under +his head. + +"Shot all to pieces, boy. No, I got no time to have you play +doctor with me." He turned to Collins with a gleam of his +unconquerable spirit. "You came pretty near making a clean +round-up, sheriff. I'm the fourth to be put out of business. +You'd ought to be content with that. Let York here go." + +"I can't do that, but I'll do my best to see he gets off light." + +"I got him into this, sheriff. He was all right before he knew +me. I want him to get a chance now. " + +"I wish I could give him a pardon, but I can't do it. I'll see +the governor for him though." + +The wounded man spoke to Collins alone for a few minutes, then +began to wander in his mind He babbled feebly of childhood days +back in his Kentucky home. The word most often on his lips was +"Mother." So, with his head resting on Neil's arm and his hand in +that of his friend, he slipped away to the Great Beyond. + + + +CHAPTER 22. FOR A GOOD REASON + +The young ladies, following the custom of Arizona in summer, were +riding by the light of the stars to avoid the heat of the day. +They rode leisurely, chatting as their ponies paced side by side. +For though they were cousins they were getting acquainted with +each other for the first time. Both of them found this a +delightful process, not the less so because they were +temperamentally very different. Each of them knew already that +they were going to be great friends. They had exchanged the +histories of their lives, lying awake girl fashion to talk into +the small hours, each omitting certain passages, however, that +had to do with two men who were at that moment approaching nearer +every minute to them. + +Bucky O'Connor and Sheriff Collins were returning to the Rocking +Chair Ranch from Epitaph, where they had just been to deposit +twenty-seven thousand dollars and a prisoner by the name of +Chaves. Just at the point where the road climbed from the plains +and reached the summit of the first stiff hill the two parties +met and passed. The ranger and the sheriff reined in +simultaneously. Yet a moment and all four of them were talking at +once. + +They turned toward the ranch, Bucky and Frances leading the way. +Alice, riding beside her lover in the darkness, found the +defenses upon which she had relied begin to fail her. +Nevertheless, she summoned them to her support and met him full +armed with the evasions and complexities of her sex. + +"This is a surprise, Mr. Collins," he was informed in her best +society voice. + +"And a pleasure?" + +"Of course. But I'm sorry that father has been called to Phoenix. +I suppose you came to tell him about your success." + +"To brag about it," he corrected. "But not to your father--to his +daughter." + +"That's very thoughtful of you. Will you begin now?" + +"Not yet. There is something I have to tell you, Miss Mackenzie." + +At the gravity in his voice the lightness slipped from her like a +cloak. + +"Yes. Tell me your news. Over the telephone all sorts of rumors +have come to us. But even these were hearsay." + +"I thought of telephoning you the facts. Then I decided to ride +out and tell you at once. I knew you would want to hear the story +at first hand." + +Her patrician manner was gone. Her eyes looked their thanks at +him. "That was good of you. I have been very anxious to get the +facts. + +One rumor was that you have captured Sir. Leroy. Is it true?" + +It seemed to her that his look was one of grave tenderness. "No, +that is not true. You remember what we said of him--of how he +might die?" + +"He is dead--you killed him," she cried, all the color washed +from her face. + +"He is dead, but I did not kill him." + +"Tell me," she commanded. + +He told her, beginning at the moment of his meeting with the +outlaws at the Dalriada dump and continuing to the last scene of +the tragedy. It touched her so nearly that she could not hear him +through dry-eyed. + +"And he spoke of me?" She said it in a low voice, to herself +rather than to him. + +"It was just before his mind began to wander--almost his last +conscious thought. He said that when you heard the news you would +remember. What you were to remember he didn't say. I took it you +would know." + +"Yes. I was to remember that he was not all wolf to me." She told +it with a little break of tears in her voice. + +"Then he told me to tell you that it was the best way out for +him. He had come to the end of the road, and it would not have +been possible for him to go back." Presently Collins added +gently: "If you don't mind my saying so, I think he was right. He +was content to go, quite game and steady in his easy way. If he +had lived, there could have been no going back for him. It was +his nature to go the limit. The tragedy is in his life, not in +his death." + +"Yes, I know that, but it hurts one to think it had to be--that +all his splendid gifts and capabilities should end like this, and +that we are forced to see it is best. He might have done so +much." + +"And instead he became a miscreant. I reckon there was a lack in +him somewhere." + +"Yes, there was a great lack in him somewhere." + +They were silent for a time. She broke it to ask about York Neil. + +"You wouldn't send him to prison after doing what he did, would +you?" + +"Meaning what?" + +"You say yourself he helped you against the other outlaws. Then +he showed you where to start in finding the buried money. He +isn't a bad man. You know how he stood by me when I was a +prisoner," she pleaded. + +He nodded. "That goes a long way with me, Miss Mackenzie. The +governor is a right good friend of mine. I meant to ask him for a +pardon. I reckon Neil means to live straight from now on. He +promised Leroy he would. He's only a wild cow-puncher gone wrong, +and now he's haided right he'll pull up and walk the narrow +trail." + +"But can you save him from the penitentiary?" + +Collins smiled. "He saved me the trouble. Coming through the +Canon Del Oro in the night, he ducked. I reckon he's in Mexico +now." + +"I'm glad." + +"Well, I ain't sorry myself, though I helped Bucky hunt real +thorough for him." + +"Father will be pleased to know you got the treasure back," Alice +said presently, after they had ridden a bit in silence. + +"And your father's daughter, Miss Alice--is she pleased?" + +"What pleases father pleases me." Her voice, cool as the plash of +ice water, might have daunted a less resolute man. But this one +had long since determined the manner of his wooing and was not to +be driven from it. + +"I'm glad of that. Your father's right friendly to me," he +announced, with composure. + +"Indeed!" + +"Sho! I ain't going to run away and hide because you look like +you don't know I'm in Arizona. What kind of a lover would I be if +I broke for cover every time you flashed those dark eyes at me?" + +"Mr. Collins!" + +"My friends call me Val," he suggested, smiling. + +"I was going to ask, Mr. Collins, if you think you can bully me." + +"It might be a first rate thing for you if I did, Miss Mackenzie. +All your life you haven't done anything but trample on sissy +boys. Now, I expect I'm not a sissy boy, but a fair imitation of +a man, and I shouldn't wonder but you'd find me some too restless +for a door-mat." His maimed hand happened to be resting on the +saddle horn as he spoke, and the story of the maiming emphasized +potently the truth of his claim. + +"Don't you assume a good deal, Mr. Collins, when you imply that I +have any desire to master you?" + +"Not a bit," he assured her cheerfully. "Every woman wants to +boss the man she's going to marry, but if she finds she can't +she's glad of it, because then she knows she's got a man." + +"You are quite sure I am going to marry you?" she asked +gently--too gently, he thought. + +"I'm only reasonably sure," he informed her. "You see, I can't +tell for certain whether your pride or your good sense is the +stronger." + +She caught a detached glimpse of the situation, and it made for +laughter. + +"That's right, I want you should enjoy it," he said placidly. + +"I do. It's the most absurd proposal--I suppose you call it a +proposal--that ever I heard." + +"I expect you've heard a good many in your time. + +"We'll not discuss that, if you please." + +"I AM more interested in this one," he agreed. + +"Isn't it about time to begin on Tucson?" + +"Not to-day, ma'am. There are going to be a lot of to-morrows for +you and me, and Tucson will have to wait till then." + +"Didn't I give you an answer last week?" + +"You did, but I didn't take it. Now I'm ready for your +sure-enough answer." + +She flashed a look at him that mocked his confidence. "I've heard +about the vanity of girls, but never in my experience have I met +any so colossal as this masculine vanity now on exhibit. Do you +really think, Mr. Collins, that all you have to do to win a woman +is to look impressive and tell her that you have decided to marry +her?" + +"Do I look as if I thought that?" he asked her. + +"It is perfectly ridiculous--your absurd attitude of taking +everything for granted. Well, it may be the Tucson custom, but +where I come from it is not in vogue." + +"No, I reckon not. Back there a boy persuades girl he loves her +by ruining her digestion with candy and all sorts of ice +arrangements from soda-fountain. But I'm uncivilized enough to +assume you're a woman of sense and not a spoiled schoolgirl." + +The velvet night was attuned to the rhythm of her love. She felt +herself, in this sea of moon romance, being swept from her +moorings. Star-eyed, she gazed at him while she still fought +again his dominance. + +"You ARE uncivilized. Would you beat me when I didn't obey?" she +asked tremulously. + +He laughed in slow contentment. "Perhaps; but I'd love you while +I did it." + +"Oh, you would love me." She looked across under her long lashes, +not as boldly as she would have liked, and her gaze fell before +his. "I haven t heard before that that was in the compact you +proposed. I don't think you have remembered to mention it." + +He swung from the saddle and put a hand to her bridle rein. + +"Get down," he ordered. + +"Why?" + +"Because I say so. Get down." + +She looked down at him, a man out of a thousand and for her one +out of a hundred million. Before she was conscious of willing it +she stood beside him. He trailed the reins of the ponies, and in +two strides came back to her. + +"What--do you--want?" + +"I want you. girl." His arm swept round her, and he held her +while he looked down into her shining eyes. "So I haven't told +you that I love you. Did you need to be told?" + +"We must go on," she murmured weakly. "Frances and Lieutenant +O'Connor--" + +"--Have their own love-affairs to attend to. + +"We'll manage ours and not intrude." + +"They might think--" + +He laughed in deep delight. "--that we love each other. They're +welcome to the thought. I haven't told you that I love you, eh? I +tell you now. It's my last trump, and right here I table it. I'm +no desert poet, but I love you from that dark crown of yours to +those little feet that tap the floor so impatient sometimes. I +love you all the time, no matter what mood you're in--when you +flash dark angry eyes at me and when you laugh in that slow, +understanding way nobody else in God's world has the trick of. +Makes no difference to me whether you're glad or mad, I want you +just the same. That's the reason why I'm going to make you love +me." + +"You can't do it." Her voice was very low and not quite steady. + +"Why not--I'll show you." + +"But you can't--for a good reason." + +"Put a name to it." + +"Because. Oh, you big blind man--because I love you already." She +burlesqued his drawl with a little joyous laugh: "I reckon if +you're right set on it I'll have to marry you, Val Collins." + +His arm tightened about her as if he would hold her against the +whole world. His ardent eyes possessed hers. She felt herself +grow faint with a poignant delight. Her lips met his slowly in +their first kiss. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext Bucky O'Connor, by William MacLeod Raine + |