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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/18926-8.txt b/18926-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ffd6946 --- /dev/null +++ b/18926-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9697 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Judith of Blue Lake Ranch, by Jackson +Gregory, Illustrated by W. Herbert Dunton + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Judith of Blue Lake Ranch + + +Author: Jackson Gregory + + + +Release Date: July 27, 2006 [eBook #18926] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JUDITH OF BLUE LAKE RANCH*** + + +E-text prepared by Al Haines + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 18926-h.htm or 18926-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/9/2/18926/18926-h/18926-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/9/2/18926/18926-h.zip) + + + + + +JUDITH OF BLUE LAKE RANCH + +by + +JACKSON GREGORY + +Author of +The Joyous Trouble Maker, Six Feet-Four, Etc. + +Illustrated by W. Herbert Dunton + + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: Judith's spurs answered him, and the bit . . . brought +him about, whirling . . . bucking as only . . . a devil-hearted horse +knows how to buck.] + + + + +New York +Grosset & Dunlap +Publishers +Copyright, 1919, by +Charles Scribner's Sons +Published March, 1919 +Reprinted April, 1920 +Copyright, 1917, 1918, by the Ridgeway Company + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + I. BUD LEE WANTS TO KNOW + II. JUDITH TAKES A HAND + III. AND RIDES AN OUTLAW + IV. JUDITH PUTS IT STRAIGHT + V. THE BIGNESS OF THE VENTURE + VI. YOUNG HAMPTON REGISTERS A PROTEST + VII. THE HAPPENING IN SQUAW CREEK CAÑON + VIII. RIFLE SHOTS FROM THE CLIFFS + IX. THE OLD TRAIL + X. UNDER FIRE + XI. IN THE OLD CABIN + XII. PARDNERS + XIII. THE CAPTURE OF SHORTY + XIV. SPRINGTIME AND A VISION + XV. JUST A GIRL, AFTER ALL + XVI. POKER FACE AND A WHITE PIGEON + XVII. "ONCE A FOOL--ALWAYS A FOOL" + XVIII. JUDITH TRIUMPHANT + XIX. BUD LEE SEEKS CROOKED CHRIS QUINNION + XX. THE FIGHT AT THE JAILBIRD + XXI. BURNING MEMORY + XXII. PLAYING THE GAME + XXIII. THE WRATH OF POLLOCK HAMPTON + XXIV. A SIGNAL-FIRE? + XXV. THE TOOLS WHICH TREVORS USED + XXVI. JUDITH'S PERIL + XXVII. ALONE IN THE WILDERNESS + XXVIII. BACON, KISSES, AND A CONFESSION + XXIX. LEE AND OLD MAN CARSON RIDE TOGETHER + XXX. THE FIGHT + XXXI. YES, JUDITH WAS WAITING + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +Judith's spurs answered him, and the bit . . . brought him about, +whirling . . . bucking as only . . . a devil-hearted horse knows how to +buck . . . . . . _Frontispiece_ + +A lean, muscular hand fell lightly upon his shoulder and he was jerked +back promptly + +Quinnion was down and shooting, with but ten steps . . . between him +and the man whom he sought to kill + +"You'll find your work cut out for you." + + + + +Judith of Blue Lake Ranch + + +I + +BUD LEE WANTS TO KNOW + +Bud Lee, horse foreman of the Blue Lake Ranch, sat upon the gate of the +home corral, builded a cigarette with slow brown fingers, and stared +across the broken fields of the upper valley to the rosy glow above the +pine-timbered ridge where the sun was coming up. His customary gravity +was unusually pronounced. + +"If a man's got the hunch an egg is bad," he mused, "is that a real +good and sufficient reason why he should go poking his finger inside +the shell? I want to know!" + +Tommy Burkitt, the youngest wage-earner of the outfit and a profound +admirer of all that taciturnity, good-humor, and quick capability which +went into the make-up of Bud Lee, approached from the ranch-house on +the knoll. "Hi, Bud!" he called. "Trevors wants you. On the jump." + +Lee watched Tommy coming on with that wide, rocking gait of a man used +to much riding and little walking. The deep gravity in the foreman's +eyes was touched with a little twinkle by way of greeting. + +Burkitt stopped at the gate, looking up at Lee. "On the jump, Trevors +said," he repeated. + +"The hell he did," said Lee pleasantly. "How old are you this morning, +Tommy?" + +Burkitt blushed. "Aw, quit it, Bud," he grinned. Involuntarily the +boy's big square hand rose to the tender growth upon lip and chin +which, like the flush in the eastern sky, was but a vague promise of a +greater glory to be. + +"A hair for each year," continued the quiet-voiced man. "Ten on one +side, nine on the other." + +"Ain't you going to do what Trevors says?" demanded Tommy. + +For a moment Lee sat still, his cigarette unlighted, his broad black +hat far back upon his close-cropped hair, his eyes serenely +contemplative upon the pink of the sky above the pines. Then he +slipped from his place and, though each single movement gave an +impression of great leisureliness, it was but a flash of time until he +stood beside Burkitt. + +"Stick around a wee bit, laddie," he said gently, a lean brown hand +resting lightly on the boy's square shoulder. "A man can't see what is +on the cards until they're tipped, but it's always a fair gamble that +between dawn and dusk I'll gather up my string of colts and crowd on. +If I do, you'll want to come along?" + +He smiled at young Burkitt's eagerness and turned away toward the +ranch-house and Bayne Trevors, thus putting an early end to an +enthusiastic acquiescence. Tommy watched the tall man moving swiftly +away through the brightening dawn. + +"They ain't no more men ever foaled like him," meditated Tommy, in an +approval so profound as to be little less than out-and-out devotion. + +And, indeed, one might ride up and down the world for many a day and +not find a man who was Bud Lee's superior in "the things that count." +As tall as most, with sufficient shoulders, a slender body, +narrow-hipped, he carried himself as perhaps his forebears walked in a +day when open forests or sheltered caverns housed them, with a lithe +gracefulness born of the perfect play of superb physical development. +His muscles, even in the slightest movement, flowed liquidly; he had +slipped from his place on the corral gate less like a man than like +some great, splendid cat. The skin of hands, face, throat, was very +dark, whether by inheritance or because of long exposure to sun and +wind, it would have been difficult to say. The eyes were dark, very +keen, and yet reminiscently grave. From under their black brows they +had the habit of appearing to be reluctantly withdrawn from some great +distance to come to rest, steady and calm, upon the man with whom he +chanced to be speaking. Such are the serene, dispassionate eyes of one +who for many months of the year goes companionless, save for what +communion he may find in the silent passes of the mountains, in the +wide sweep of the meadow-lands or in the soul of his horse. + +The gaunt, sure-footed form was lost to Tommy's eyes; Lee had passed +beyond the clump of wild lilacs whose glistening, heart-shaped leaves +screened the open court about which the ranch-house was built. A +strangely elaborate ranch-house, this one, set here so far apart from +the world of rich residences. There was a score of rooms in the great, +one-story, rambling edifice of rudely squared timbers set in +field-stone and cement, rooms now closed and locked; there were +flower-gardens still cultivated daily by José, the half-breed; a pretty +court with a fountain and many roses, out upon which a dozen doorways +looked; wide verandas with glimpses beyond of fireplaces and long +expanses of polished floor. For, until recently, this had been not +only the headquarters of Blue Lake Ranch, but the home as well of the +chief of its several owners. Luke Sanford, whose own efforts alone had +made him at forty-five a man to be reckoned with, had followed his +fancy here extensively and expensively, allowing himself this one +luxury of his many lean, hard years. Then, six months ago, just as his +ambitions were stepping to fresh heights, just as his hands were +filling with newer, greater endeavor, there had come the mishap in the +mountains and Sanford's tragic death. + +Lee passed silently through the courtyard, by the fountain which in the +brightening air was like a chain of silver run through invisible hands, +down the veranda bathed in the perfume of full-blown roses, and so came +to the door at the far end. The door stood open; within was the office +of Bayne Trevors, general manager. Lee entered, his hat still far back +upon his head. The sound of his boots upon the bare floor caused +Trevors to look up quickly. + +"Hello, Lee," he said quietly. "Wait a minute, will you?" + +Quite a different type from Lee, Bayne Trevors was heavy and square and +hard. His eyes were the glinting gray eyes of a man who is forceful, +dynamic, the sort of man who is a better captain than lieutenant, whose +hands are strong to grasp life by the throat and demand that she stand +and deliver. Only because of his wide and successful experience, of +his initiative, of his way of quick, decisive action mated to a marked +executive ability, had Luke Sanford chosen Bayne Trevors as his +right-hand man in so colossal a venture as the Blue Lake Ranch. Only +because of the same pushing, vigorous personality was he this morning +general manager, with the unlimited authority of a dictator over a +petty principality. + +In a moment Trevors lifted his frowning eyes from the table, turning in +his chair to confront Lee, who stood lounging in leisurely manner +against the door-jamb. + +"That young idiot wants money again," he growled, his voice as sharp +and quick as his eyes. "As if I didn't have enough to contend with +already!" + +"Meaning young Hampton, I take it?" said Lee quietly. + +Trevors nodded savagely. + +"Telegram. Caught it over the line the last thing last night. We'll +have to sell some horses this time, Lee." + +Lee's eyes narrowed imperceptibly. "I didn't plan to do any selling +for six months yet," he said, not in expostulation but merely in +explanation. "They're not ready." + +"How many three-year-olds have you got in your string in Big Meadow?" +asked Trevors crisply. + +"Counting those eleven Red Duke colts?" + +"Counting everything. How many?" + +"Seventy-three." + +The general manager's pencil wrote upon the pad in front of him "73," +then swiftly multiplied it by 50. Lee saw the result, 3,650 set down +with the dollar sign in front of it. He said nothing. + +"What would you say to fifty dollars a head for them?" asked Trevors, +whirling again in his swivel chair. "Three thousand six fifty for the +bunch?" + +"I'd say the same," answered Lee deliberately, "that I'd say to a man +that offered me two bits for Daylight or Ladybird. I just naturally +wouldn't say anything at all." + +"Who are Daylight and Ladybird?" demanded Trevors. + +"They're two of _my_ little horses," said Lee gently, "that no man's +got the money to buy." + +Trevors smiled cynically. "What are the seventy-three colts worth +then?" + +"Right now, when I'm just ready to break 'em in," said Bud Lee +thoughtfully, "the worst of that string is worth fifty dollars. I'd +say twenty of the herd ought to bring fifty dollars a head; twenty more +ought to bring sixty; ten are worth seventy-five; ten are worth an even +hundred; seven of the Red Duke stock are good for a hundred and a +quarter; the other four Red Dukes and the three Robert the Devils are +worth a hundred and fifty a head. The whole bunch, an easy fifty-seven +hundred little iron men. Which," he continued dryly, "is considerable +more than the thirty-six hundred you're talking about. And, give me +six months, and I'll boost that fifty-seven hundred. Lord, man, that +chestnut out of Black Babe by Hazard, is a real horse! Fifty +dollars----" + +He stared hard at Trevors a moment. And then, partially voicing the +thought with which he had grappled upon the corral gate, he added +meditatively: "There's something almighty peculiar about an outfit +that will listen to a man offer fifty bucks on a string like that." + +His eyes, cool and steady, met Trevors's in a long look which was +little short of a challenge. + +"Just how far does that go, Lee?" asked the manager curtly. + +"As far as you like," replied the horse foreman coolly. "Are you going +to sell those three-year-olds for thirty-six hundred?" + +"Yes," answered Trevors bluntly, "I am. What are you going to do about +it?" + +"Ask for my time, I guess," and although his voice was gentle and even +pleasant, his eyes were hard. "I'll take my own little string and move +on. + +"Curse it!" cried Trevors heatedly. "What difference does it make to +you? What business is it of yours how I sell? You draw down your +monthly pay, don't you? I raised you a notch last month without your +asking for it, didn't I?" + +"That's so," agreed the foreman equably. "It's a cinch none of the +boys have any kick coming at the wages." + +For a moment Trevors sat frowning up at Lee's inscrutable face. Then +he laughed shortly. "Look here, Bud," he said good-humoredly, an +obvious seriousness of purpose under the light tone. "I want to talk +with you before you do anything rash. Sit down." But Lee remained +standing, merely saying, "Shoot." + +"I wonder," explained Trevors, "if the boys understand just the size of +the job I've got in my hands? You know that the ranch is a +million-dollar outfit; you know that you can ride fifteen miles without +getting off the home-range; you know that we are doing a dozen +different kinds of farming and stock-raising. But you don't know just +how short the money is! There's that young idiot now, Hampton. He +holds a third interest and I've got to consider what he says, even if +he is a weak-minded, inbred pup that can't do anything but spend an +inheritance like the born fool he is. His share is mortgaged; I've +tried to pay the mortgage off. I've got to keep the interest up. +Interest alone amounts, to three thousand dollars a year. Think of +that! Then there's Luke Sanford dead and his one-third interest left +to another young fool, a girl!" + +Trevors's fist came smashing down upon his table. "A girl!" he +repeated savagely. "Worse than young Hampton, by Heaven! Every two +weeks she's writing for a report, eternally butting in, making +suggestions, hampering me until I'm sick of the job." + +"That would be Luke's girl, Judith?" + +"Yes. Two of the three owners' kids, writing me at every turn. And +the third owner, Timothy Gray, the only sensible one of the lot, has +just up and sold out his share, and I suppose I'll be hearing next that +some superannuated female in an old lady's home has inherited a fortune +and bought him out. Why, do you think I'd hold on to my job here for +ten minutes if it wasn't that my reputation is in making a go of the +thing? And now you, the best man I've got, throw me down!" + +"I don't see," said Lee slowly, after a brief pause, "just what good it +does to sell a string of real horses like they were sheep. Half of +that herd is real horse-flesh, I tell you." + +"Hampton wants money. And besides, a horse is a horse." + +"Is it?" A hard smile touched Lee's lips. "That's just where a man +makes a mistake. Some horses are cows, some are clean spirit. You can +stake your boots on that, Trevors." + +"Well," snapped Trevors, "suppose you are right. I've got to raise +three thousand dollars in a hurry. Where will I get it?" + +"Who is offering fifty dollars a head for those horses?" asked Lee +abruptly. "It might be the Big Western Lumber Company?" + +"Yes." + +"Uh-huh. Well, you can kill the rats in your own barn, Trevors. I'll +go look for a job somewhere else." + +Bayne Trevors, his lips tightly compressed, his eyes steady, a faint, +angry flush in his cheeks, checked what words were flowing to his +tongue and looked keenly at his foreman. Lee met his regard with cool +unconcern. Then, just as Trevors was about to speak, there came an +interruption. + + + + +II + +JUDITH TAKES A HAND + +The quiet of the morning was broken by the quick thud of a horse's shod +hoofs on the hard ground of the courtyard. Bud Lee in the doorway +turned to see a strange horse drawn up so that upon its four bunched +hoofs it slid to a standstill; saw a slender figure, which in the early +light he mistook for a boy, slip out of the saddle. And then, +suddenly, a girl, the spurs of her little riding-boots making jingling +music on the veranda, her riding-quirt swinging from her wrist, had +stepped by him and was looking with bright, snapping eyes from him to +Trevors. + +"I am Judith Sanford," she announced briefly, and there was a note in +her young voice which went ringing, bell-like, through the still air. +"Is one of you men Bayne Trevors?" + +A quick, shadowy smile came and went upon the lips of Bud Lee. It +struck him that she might have said in just that way: "I am the Queen +of England and I am running my own kingdom!" He looked at her with +eyes filled with open interest and curiosity, making swift appraisal of +the flush in the sun-browned cheeks, the confusion of dark, curling +hair disturbed by her furious riding, the vivid, red-blooded beauty of +her. Mouth and eyes and the very carriage of the dark head upon her +superb white throat announced boldly and triumphantly that here was no +wax-petalled lily of a lady but rather a maid whose blood, like the +blood of the father before her, was turbulent and hot and must boil +like a wild mountain-stream at opposition. Her eyes, a little darker +than Trevors's, were the eyes of fighting stock. + +Trevors, irritated already, turned hard eyes up at her from under +corrugated brows. He did not move in his chair. Nor did Lee stir +except that now he removed his hat. + +"I am Trevors," said the general manager curtly. "And, whether you are +Judith Sanford or the Queen of Siam, I am busy right now." + +"He got the queen idea, too!" was the quick thought back of Bud Lee's +fading smile. + +"You talk soft with me, Trevors!" cried the girl passionately, "if you +want to hold your job five minutes! I'll tolerate none of your high +and mighty airs!" + +Trevors laughed at her, a sneer in his laugh. "I talk the way I talk," +he answered roughly. "If people don't like the sound of it they don't +have to listen! Lee, you round up those seventy-three horses and crowd +them over the ridge to the lumber-camp. Or, if you want to quit, quit +now and I'll send a sane man." + +The hot color mounted higher in the girl's face, a new anger leaped up +in her eyes. + +"Take no orders this morning that I don't give," she said, for a moment +turning her eyes upon Lee. And to Trevors: "Busy or not busy, you take +time right now to answer my questions. I've got your reports and all +they tell me is that you are going in the hole as fast as you can. You +are spending thousands of dollars needlessly. What business have you +got selling off my young steers at a sacrifice? What in the name of +folly did you build those three miles of fence for?" + +"Go get those horses, Lee," said Trevors, ignoring her. + +Again she spoke to Lee, saying crisply: "What horses is he talking +about?" + +With his deep gravity at its deepest, Bud Lee answered: "All L-S stock. +The eleven Red Duke three-year-olds; the two Robert the Devil colts; +Brown Babe's filly, Comet----" + +"All mine, every running hoof of 'em," she said, cutting in. "What +does Trevors want you to do with them? Give them away for ten dollars +a head or cut their throats?" + +"Look here--" cried Trevors angrily, on his feet now. + +"You shut up!" commanded the girl sharply. "Lee, you answer me." + +"He's selling them fifty dollars a head," he said with a secret joy in +his heart as he glanced at Trevors's flushed face. + +"Fifty dollars!" Judith gasped. "Fifty dollars for a Red Duke colt +like Comet!" + +She stared at Lee as though she could not believe it. He merely stared +back at her, wondering just how much she knew about horse-flesh. + +Then, suddenly, she whirled again upon Trevors. + +"I came out to see if you were a crook or just a fool," she told him, +her words like a slap in his face. "No man could be so big a fool as +that! You--you crook!" + +The muscles under Bayne Trevors's jaws corded. "You've said about +enough," he shot back at her. "And even if you do own a third of this +outfit, I'll have you understand that I am the manager here and that I +do what I like." + +From her bosom she snatched a big envelope, tossing it to the table. +"Look at that," she ordered him. "You big thief! I've mortgaged my +holding for fifty thousand dollars and I've bought in Timothy Gray's +share. I swing two votes out of three now, Bayne Trevors. And the +first thing I do is run you out, you great big grafting fathead! You +_would_ chuck Luke Sanford's outfit to the dogs, would you? Get off +the ranch. You're fired!" + +"You can't do a thing like this!" snapped Trevors, after one swift +glance at the papers he had whisked out of their covering. + +"I can't, can't I?" she jeered at him. "Don't you fool yourself for +one little minute! Pack your little trunk and hammer the trail." + +"I'll do nothing of the kind. Why, I don't know even who you are! You +say that you are Judith Sanford." He shrugged his massive shoulders. +"How do I know what game you are up to? Wayward maidens," and in his +rage he sneered at her evilly, "have been known before to lie like +other people!" + +"You can't bluff me for two seconds, Bayne Trevors," she blazed at him. +"You know who I am, all right. Send for Sunny Harper," she ended +sharply. + +"Discharged three months ago," Trevors told her with a show of teeth. + +"Johnny Hodge, then," she commanded. "Or Tod Bruce or Bing Kelley. +They all know me." + +"Fired long ago, all of them," laughed Trevors, "to make room for +competent men." + +"To make room for more crooks!" she cried, her own brown hands balled +into fists scarcely less hard than Trevors's had been. Then for the +third time she turned upon Lee. "You are one of his new thieves, I +suppose?" + +"Thank you, ma'am," said Bud Lee gravely. + +"Well, answer me. Are you?" + +"No, ma'am," he told her, with no hint of a twinkle in his calm eyes. +"Leastwise, not his exactly. You see, I do all my killing and highway +robbing on my own hook. It's just a way I have." + +"Well," Judith sniffed, "I don't know. It will be a jolt to me if +there's a square man left on the ranch! Go down to the bunk-house and +tell the cook I'm here and I'm hungry as a wild-cat. Tell him and any +of the boys that are down there that I've come to stay and that Trevors +is fired. They take orders from me and no one else. And hurry, if you +know how. Goodness knows, you look as though it would take you half an +hour to turn around!" + +"Thank you, ma'am," said Bud Lee. "But you see I had just told Trevors +here he could count me out. I'm not working for the Blue Lake any +more. As I go down to the corral, shall I send up one of the boys to +take your orders?" + +There was a little smile under the last words, just as there was a +little smile in Bud Lee's heart at the thought of the boys taking +orders from a little slip of a girl. Inside he was chuckling, vastly +delighted with the comedy of the morning. + +"She's a sure-enough little wonder-bird, all right," he mused. "But, +say, what does she want to butt in on a man's-size job for, I want to +know?" + +"Lee," called Trevors, "you take orders from me or no one on this +ranch. You can go now. And just keep your mouth shut." + +Bud Lee stood there in the doorway, his hat spinning upon a brown +forefinger, his thoughts his own. He was turning to go out and down to +his horse when he saw the look in Trevors's eyes, a look of consuming +rage. The general manager's voice had been hoarse. + +"I guess," said Lee quietly, "that I'll stick around until you two get +through quarrelling. I might come in handy somehow." + +"Damn you," shouted Trevors, "get out!" + +"Cut out the swear-words, Trevors," said Lee with quiet sternness. +"There's a lady here." + +"Lady!" scoffed Trevors. He laughed contemptuously. "Where's your +lady? That?" and he levelled a scornful finger at the girl. "A +ranting tough of a female who brings a breath of the stables with her +and scolds like a fishwife. . . ." + +"Shut up!" said Lee, crossing the room with quick strides, his face +thrust forward a little. + +"You shut up!" It was Judith's voice as Judith's hand fell upon Bud +Lee's shoulder, pushing him aside. "If I couldn't take care of myself +do you think I'd be fool enough to take over a job like running the +Blue Lake? Now--" and with blazing eyes she confronted Trevors--"if +you've got any more nice little things to say, suppose you say them to +me!" + +Trevors's temper had had ample provocation and now stood naked and hot +in his hard eyes. In a blind instant he laid his tongue to a word +which would have sent Bud Lee at his throat. But Judith stood between +them and, like an echo to the word, came the resounding slap as +Judith's open palm smote Trevors's cheek. + +"You wildcat!" he cried. And his two big hands flew out, seeking her +shoulders. + +"Stand back!" called Judith. "Just because you are bigger than I am, +don't make any mistake! Stand back, I tell you!" + +Bud Lee marvelled at the swiftness with which her hand had gone into +her blouse and out again, a small-caliber revolver in the steady +fingers now. He had never known a man--himself possibly +excepted--quicker at the draw. + +But Bayne Trevors, from whose make-up cowardice had been omitted, +laughed sneeringly at her and did not stand back. His two hands out +before him, his face crimson, he came on. + +"Fool!" cried the girl. "Fool!" + +Still he came on. Lee gathered himself to spring. + +Judith fired. Once, and Trevors's right arm fell to his side. A +second time, and Trevors's left arm hung limp like the other. The +crimson was gone from his face now. It was dead white. Little beads +of sweat began to form on his brow. + +Lee turned astonished eyes to Judith. + +"Now you know who's running this outfit, don't you?" she said coolly. +"Lee, have a team hitched up to carry Trevors wherever he wants to go. +He's not hurt much; I just winged him. And then tell the cook about my +breakfast." + +But Lee stood and looked at her. He had no remark to offer. Then he +turned to go upon her bidding. As he went down to the bunk-house he +said softly under his breath: "Well, I'm damned. I most certainly am!" + + + + +III + +AND RIDES AN OUTLAW + +Wrinkled, grizzled old half-breed José, his hands trembling with +eagerness, stood in the smaller rose-garden culling the perfect buds, a +joyous tear running its zigzag way down each cheek. + +"_La señorita_ ees come home!" he announced triumphantly as Lee drew +near on his way to the bunk-house. "_Jesús Maria_! Een my heart it is +like the singing of leetle birdies. _Mira, señor_. My flowers +bloomin' the brighter, already--no?" + +Bud Lee paused. "So you know Miss Sanford then?" he asked. + +José threw out his hands and opened his night-black eyes to their most +enormous extent. "Do I know God?" he demanded. + +"Well," smiled Bud, "as to that. . . ." + +"But, señor," cried the devout José, "like on holy days I feel that +Dios comes to sit down in the corner of my heart, so without seeing _la +señorita_ I know she ees come home! She ees in the air like the light +of sun, like the sweetness of my roses!" + +"You've known her a long time, Joe?" + +"Seence she ees born!" and José, unashamed, wiped away a tear upon the +back of a leathery hand. "Señor Sanford and me, señor, we teach her +when she ees so leetle!" José's shaking hand was lowered until it +marked the stature of a twelve-inch pigmy. In all things must the old +fellow gain his emphasis by exaggeration which more often than not took +the form of plain lying. "Never at all unteel one year ago does she +leave us and the _rancho_. We, us two who love her, señor, learn her +to walk and to ride and to shoot and to talk. You shall hear her say, +'_Buenos dias, José, mi amigo_!' You shall see her kees the cheek of +old José." + +Again his leathery hand was put in requisition, this time to wipe clean +the cheek to be honored. "And one theeng I tell you, señor," he added +confidentially. "Her papa was a wild devil before her. Her mama ees +grow up on the ranch; and when she marry _el señor_ Sanford was like a +wild boy. And _mi señorita_, she ees the cross be tween a wild devil +and a sweet saint, señor _Madre de Dios_! I would go down to hell for +her to bring back fire to warm her leetle feet een weenter!" + +Lee went thoughtfully on his way to the bunk-house. The cook, an +importation of Bayne Trevors, a big, upstanding fellow with bare arms +covered with flour, was putting on the breakfast to which a dozen +rough-garbed men were sitting down. + +"I've got orders for you fellows," said Lee from the doorway. "The +boss of the outfit, the real owner, you know, just blew in. Up at the +house. Says you boys are to stick around to take orders straight from +headquarters. You, Benny," to the cook, "are to have a man's-size +breakfast ready in a jiffy." + +Naturally Benny led the clamor with a string of oaths. What in blazes +did the owner of the ranch have to show up for anyway?--he wanted to +know. He accepted the fact as a personal affront. Who was this +owner?--demanded Ward Hannon, the foreman of the lower ranch, where the +alfalfa-fields were. + +Bud Lee explained gravely that the newcomer was some sort of relative +of old Luke Sanford, who had recently acquired a controlling interest +in the ranch. Ward Hannon grunted contemptuously. "The Lord deliver +us!" he moaned. "Eastern jasper! One of the know-all-about-it brand, +huh, Bud? I'll bet he combs his hair in the middle and smokes +cigareets out'n a box! The putty-headed loons can't even roll their +own smokes." + +"Don't believe," hazarded Lee indifferently, "from the looks of our +visitor that--that the owner smokes anything!" + +"Listen to that!" grunted Ward Hannon. + +"Softy, huh?" + +"Well," Bud admitted slowly, "looks sort of like a girl, you know!" + +"Wouldn't that choke you?" demanded Carson, the cow foreman, a thin, +awkward little man, gray in the service of "real men." "Taking orders +off'n a fool Easterner's bad enough. But old man or young, Bud?" + +"Just a kid," was Lee's further dampening news. And as he nonchalantly +buttered his hotcakes he added carelessly: "Something of a scrapper, +though. Just put two thirty-two calibers into Trevors." + +They stared at him incredulously. Then Carson's dry cackle led the +laughter. + +"You're the biggest liar, Bud Lee," said the old man good-naturedly, "I +ever focussed my two eyes on. I'll lay an even bet there ain't nobody +showed a-tall up this morning." + +"You, Tommy," said Lee to the boy at his side, "shovel your grub down +lively and go hitch Molly and old Pie-face to the buckboard. That's +orders from headquarters," he grinned. "Trevors is to be hauled away +first thing." + +Tommy looked curiously at his superior. "On the level, Bud?" he asked +doubtingly. + +"On the level, laddie," was the quiet response. + +And young Burkitt, wondering, but doubting no longer, hastened with his +breakfast. + +The others, looking at Lee's sober face questioningly, fired a +broadside of inquiries at him. But they got no further information. + +"I've told you boys all the news," he announced positively. "Lordy! +Isn't that an earful for this time of day? The real boss is on the +job: Trevors is winged; you are to stick around for orders from +headquarters. If you want to know any more'n that, why--just go up to +the house and ask your blamed questions." + +Out of the tail of his eye he saw the swift approach of Bayne Trevors. +The general manager's face was black with rage and through that dark +wrath showed a dull red flush of shame. He walked with his two arms +lax at his sides. + +"Give me a cup of coffee, Ben," he commanded curtly, slumping into a +chair. "Hurry!" + +Benny, looking at him curiously, brought a steaming cup and offered it. +Trevors moved to lift a hand; then sank back a little farther in his +chair, his face twisting in his pain. + +"Put some milk in it," he snarled. "Then hold it to my mouth. For the +love of Heaven, hurry, man!" + +Then no man there doubted longer the mad tale Bud Lee had brought them. +Down from Trevors's sleeves, staining each hand, there had come a +broadening trickle of blood. Trevors set his teeth and waited. Benny +at last cooled the coffee and held it to his lips. Trevors drank +swiftly, draining the cup. + +"Get this coat off me," he commanded. "Curse you, don't tear my arms +off! Slit the sleeves." + +Benny's big, razor-edged butcher-knife cut away coat and shirt sleeves. +And at last, to the eager gaze of the men in the bunk-house, there +appeared the two wounds, one upon the outer right shoulder, the other +upon the left forearm. + +It was Lee who, pushing the clumsy cook aside, silently made the two +bandages from strips of Trevors's shirt. It was Lee who brought a +flask of brandy from which Trevors drank deep. + +And then came Judith. + +They stared at her as they might have done had the heavens opened and +an angel come down, or the earth split and a devil sprung up. She +looked in upon them with quick, keen eyes which sought to take every +man's measure. They returned her regard with a variety of amazed +expressions. Never since these men had come to work for Bayne Trevors +had a woman so much as ridden by the door. And to have her stand +there, composed, utterly at her ease, her air vaguely authoritative, a +vitally vivid being who might, suddenly, have taken tangible form from +the dawn, bewildered them. Bud Lee had told of the coming of the Blue +Lake owner; he had not mentioned that that owner had brought his +daughter with him. + +"I am Judith Sanford," she said in her abrupt fashion, quite as she had +made the announcement to Lee and Trevors. "This outfit belongs to me. +I have fired Trevors. You take your orders straight from me from now +on. Cookie, give me some coffee." + +She came in without ceremony and sat down at the head of the table. +Benny gasped, stood for a moment rooted to the floor, and then, +Judith's eyes hard upon him, hastily brought the coffee. From some +emotion certainly not clear to him he went a violent red. Perhaps the +emotion was just sheer embarrassment. He brought hot cakes with one +hand while with the other he buttoned his gaping shirt-collar over a +bulging, hairy chest. + +Men who had finished their breakfasts rose hastily with a marked +awkwardness and ill-concealed haste and went outside, whence their low +voices came back in a confused consultation. Men who had not finished +followed them. In an amazingly short time there were but the girl, +Lee, Trevors and the cook in the room. Then Trevors went out, Benny at +his heels. Bud Lee, moving with his usual leisureliness, was following +when Judith's cool voice said quietly: + +"You, Lee, wait a moment. I want to talk with you." + +Lee hesitated. Then he came back and waited. + +The men outside naturally grouped about the general manager. His angry +voice, lifted clearly, reached the two in the room. + +"I'm fired," said Trevors harshly. "As soon as I can get going I am +leaving for the Western Lumber camp. Every one of you boys holds his +job here because I gave it to him. Do you want to hold it now, with a +fool girl telling you what to do? Do you want men up and down the +State to laugh at you and jeer at you for a pack of softies and +imbeciles? Or do you want to roll your blankets and quit? To every +man that jumps the job here and follows me to-day I promise a job with +the Western. You fellows know the sort of boss I've been to you. You +can guess the sort of boss that chicken in there would be. Now I'm +going. It's up to you. Stick to a white man or fuss around for a +woman?" + +He had said what he had to say and, cursing when his shoulder struck a +form near him, made his way down to the stables. Burkitt was ahead of +him, going for the team. + +"Well, Lee," said Judith sharply, "where do you get off? Do you want +to stick? Or shall I count you out?" + +"I guess," said Bud very gently, "you'd better count me out." + +"You're going with that crook?" + +"No. I'm going on my own." + +"Why? You're getting good money here. If you're square I'll keep you +at the same figure." + +But Bud shook his head. + +"I'm game to play square," he said slowly. "I'll stick a week, giving +you the chance to get a man in my place. That's all." + +"What's the matter with you?" she cried hotly. "Why won't you stay +with your job? Is it because you don't want to take orders from me?" + +Then Lee lifted his grave eyes to hers and answered simply: "That's it. +I'm not saying you're not all right. But I got it figured out, there's +just two kinds of ladies. If you want to know, I don't see that you've +got any call to tie into a man's job." + +"Oh, scat!" cried the girl angrily. "You men make me tired. Two kinds +of ladies! And ten thousand kinds of men! You want me to dress like a +doll, I suppose, and keep my hands soft and white and go around like a +brainless, simpering fool! There _are_ two kinds of _ladies_, my fine +friend: the kind that can and the kind that can't! Thank God I'm none +of your precious, sighing, hothouse little fools!" + +Gulping down a last mouthful of coffee, she was on her feet and passed +swiftly out among the men. + +"You men!" she cried, and they turned sober eyes upon her, "listen to +me! You've heard that big stiff rant; now hear me! I'm here because I +belong here. My dad was Luke Sanford and he made this ranch. I was +raised here. It's two-thirds mine right now. Trevors there is a crook +and I told him so. He's been trying to sell me out, to make such a +failure of the outfit that I'd have to let it go for a comic song. He +got gay and I fired him. He tried to manhandle me and I plugged him. +And now I am going to run my own outfit! What have you got to say +about it, you grumbling old grouch with the crooked face! Put up or +shut up! I'm calling you!" + +The men turned from her to Ward Hannon, the field foreman, who had been +Trevors's right-hand man and who now was sneering openly. + +"I'm saying it's no work for a kid of a girl," grumbled Hannon. "You +run an outfit like this?" He laughed derisively. "It can't be did." + +"It can't, can't it?" cried Judith. "Tell me why, old smarty. Spit it +out lively." + +Jake Carson's shrill cackle cut through a low rumble of laughter. +"That's passing it to him straight," said the old cattleman. "What's +the word, Ward?" + +Ward Hannon shrugged his shoulders and spat impudently. "I ain't +saying nothing," he growled, "only this: I got a right to quit, ain't +I? Well, I'm quitting. Any time you ketch me working for a female +girl that can't ride a horse 'thout falling off, that can't see a pig +stuck 'thout fainting, that can't walk a mile 'thout getting laid up, +that can't. . . ." + +"Slow up there!" called Judith. "Didn't I stick a pig already this +morning, and have I keeled over yet? Didn't I ride the forty miles +from Rocky Bend last night and get here before sun-up? Listen to me, +chief kicker: If you've got a horse on the ranch I can't ride I'll quit +right now and give you my job! How's that strike you? I tell you the +word on this ranch is going to be: 'Put up or shut up!' Which is it, +Growly?" + +Again the men laughed and Hannon's face showed his anger. + +"Mean that, lady?" he demanded briefly. + +"You can just bet your eyes I mean it!" + +Hannon turned toward the stable. "All right. We'll see who's going to +put or shut up!" he jeered over his shoulder. "You ride the Prince +just two little minutes and I'll stay and work for you!" + +Bud Lee from the doorway interfered. He was a man who loved fair play +and he knew the Prince. "None of that, Ward," he called sternly. "Not +the Prince!" + +But Judith, her eyes aflame, whirled upon Lee, her voice like a whip as +she said: "Lee, you keep out of this. The sooner you learn who's +running things here the better for you." + +"Maybe so," said Lee quietly. "But don't you fool yourself you can +ride Prince. There's not a man on the job except me that can ride +him." It was not boastfully said, but with calm assurance. "He's an +outlaw, Miss Judith. He's the horse that killed Jimmy Carpenter last +spring, and Jimmy----" + +"Go ahead, Ward," ordered Judith. "You don't have to stop every time +the wind blows, do you?" + +Even Bud Lee smiled. But old Carson spoke up, saying: "Bud's right, +miss. And if Ward wants to know, he's a low-down dawg to try to turn a +trick like this. . . ." + +"Go ahead, Ward," Judith repeated. "I've got something to do to-day +besides play pussy-wants-a-corner with you boys." + +Ward went, his eyes filled with malice. Two or three of the other men +joined their voices to Bud's and Carson's, expostulating, telling of +that fearful thing, an outlaw horse. Judith maintained a scornful +silence. + +In due time Ward came back. He was leading a saddled horse, a great, +wild-eyed roan that snapped viciously as he came on, walking with the +wide, spreading stride of a horse little used to the saddle. Judith +measured him with her eyes as she had measured the men in the +bunk-house. + +"He's an ugly devil," she said, and Lee, at her side, smiled again. +But the girl had not altered her intention. She stepped closer, +looking to cinch, bit, and reins. She commanded Ward to draw the +latigo tighter, and Ward did so, dodging back as the big brute snapped +at him. + +Judith laughed. "Look out, Ward," she taunted him. "He's after your +hair!" + +Two men held the Prince. At Judith's command they shortened the +stirrups and then blinded him with a bandanna handkerchief. Then, +moving with almost incredible swiftness, she was in the saddle, the +reins firmly gripped. The Prince, a sudden trembling thrilling through +him, stood with his four feet planted. The girl leaned forward and +whipped the blind from his red-rimmed eyes. + +"There's a good boy!" said Judith coolly. "Buck a little for the lady, +Prince!" + +Slowly the great muscles of Prince's leg and shoulder and flank corded. +The trembling passed; he was like a horse carven in bluish granite. He +shook his head a little. Judith, her hand tightening upon the reins, +held his head well up, the severe bit thwarting the attempt to get his +nose down between his forelegs. + +Then suddenly, without sign of warning, the horse whirled, leaping far +out to the left, striking with hard hoofs bunched, gathering himself as +he landed, swerving with the quickness of light, plunging again to the +right. And again he stood still. Judith, sitting securely on his +rebellious back, laughed. Her laughter, cool and unafraid, sent a +strange little thrill through Bud Lee--who, with fear in his heart, was +watching her. + +"Look out for him now!" he called warningly. + +In truth the Prince had not yet begun. He had tried a trick which +would have unseated any but one who rode well. He knew that he had to +do with something more than a rank amateur. + +Now he plunged toward the corral, his purpose plain, the one desire in +his heart to crush his rider against the high fence. But Judith's +spurs answered him, and the bit, savage in his jaws, brought him about, +whirling, sidling, striking, bucking as only a strong, fearless, +devil-hearted horse knows how to buck. He doubled up under her; he +rose and fell in a quick series of short jumps which tore and jerked at +her body, which strove to tear her knees away from his sides and break +the grip of her hand on the reins. But it seemed to the men watching +that the girl knew before the horse which way he would jump, that she +knew how to sway her body with his so that she and he were not two +separate beings but just one, moving together in some mad devil's +dance. The Prince, in the midst of the vicious bucking, tried to rear, +seeking to throw himself backward; a quick, sharp blow of a loaded +quirt between his ears brought his forefeet back to earth. + +"Can she ride!" whispered Bud Lee. "I want to know!" + +Again the maddened Prince reared and again she brought him to earth. +Again he resumed the terribly tearing series of short, sharp bucks. +And still, her hair tumbling, blown about her shoulders, she rode him. + +Old Carson was muttering and pulling at his lip nervously. Out of the +corner of his mouth in a voice that was almost a whimper, he kept +cursing and saying to Ward Hannon: "You skunk! You ornery skunk! Hunt +your hole after this!" + +Suddenly, with a quick, concerted action of spur, whip, and rein, +Judith swung the Prince about so that he was headed for the open +valley, running toward the west, giving him his head only a little, +driving him. He broke into a thundering run, snorting as, with mane +and tail flying, he dashed through the men who fell away from his +furious rush. And as he ran, Judith spurred him so that his only +thought lay in running away from the menace upon his back. + +"She ain't giving him time to buck!" laughed old Carson hysterically. +"Mama! Ain't she sure enough--God! She's goin' to get a fall." + +For horse and rider had come to the wide irrigating ditch which, since +Judith Sanford had lived here, had been constructed to carry the water +of Blue Lake River down to the alfalfa-fields. She saw it when she was +too close to swerve. + +The men watching saw her lean forward in the saddle, gather her reins, +lift her whip. Then the lifted whip came down, the spurs touched the +Prince's sweating sides, the big horse leaped far and clear of the +ditch and there floated back Judith's laughter. + +Three minutes later she rode back to the bunkhouse and slipped from the +saddle. Bud Lee, going to her, had his hat in his hand. + +"Now, Ward," she said quickly, her breathing hurried, her cheeks red, +"what do you say?" + +"I said I'd stick if you rode him," muttered Ward. "And----" + +"And," cried the girl with quick passion, "I'll tell you something. +You're a great big lumbering coward! Stick with me?" She laughed +again, a new laugh, ringing with her scorn. "Here's your outlaw; I've +gentled him a bit. You ride him!" + +His fellows laughed at Ward; for the field foreman was no horseman and +the timorous way in which he had brought out this snapping, vicious +animal had testified to the fact. He drew back now, muttering. + +"Ride him!" cried Judith, her voice stinging him. "Ride him or get off +the ranch! Which is it?" + +Ward Hannon, glad of the opening, answered surlily: "Aw! think I want +to take orders off'n a woman? You're right, I'll get off'n the ranch!" + +"That's two down," said Judith. "Now, take this horse back to the +stable; I'm going up to the office. You men come there in five +minutes. If you want to stay, and are worth your salt, you can. Or +I'll give you your time. It's up to you: it's a free country. But--" +and she said it slowly, confronting them--"if you all throw me down and +leave me short-handed without giving me time to take on another set of +men, you are a pretty low-lived bunch!" + +Then, without turning, she went swiftly to the ranch-house. Old man +Carson wiped the sweat from his forehead. + +"I remember hearing about Luke Sanford's girl," he said simply. "This +is her, all right." + + + + +IV + +JUDITH PUTS IT STRAIGHT + +"Old man" Carson--so-called through lack of courtesy and because of the +sprinkling of gray through his black hair, a man of perhaps +forty-five--filled an unthinkably disreputable pipe with his own +conception of "real tobacca" and chuckled so that the second match was +required; before he was ready to say his say. + +"You just listen to me, you boys!" he said. "I worked with the Down +River outfit a year before Trevors sent me word he had a job open here +at better pay. That's only seventy-five miles, and news does +percolate, give it time. None of you fellers ever saw old Luke +Sanford?" + +"I'd been working here close to two weeks when he got killed," Bud said +as Carson's twinkling eyes went from face to face. "I got my job +straight from him, not Trevors." + +"That's so," said Carson. "Well, Bud knows the sort Luke Sanford was. +He was dead and buried when I come to the Blue Lake, but I'd saw him +twice and I'd heard of him more times than that. Quiet man that +'tended to his own business and didn't say so all-fired much 'less he +was stirred up. And then--!" He whistled his meaning. "A fighter. +All he ever got he fought for. All he ever held on to he fought for. +He bucked Western Lumber for a dozen years, first and last. And, by +cripes, he nailed their durned hides on his stable-door, too! + +"Well, I heard tell about this same Luke Sanford ten years ago and +more--about him and his little girl. From what folks said I guess +there never was a man wanted a boy-baby worse'n Luke Sanford before +Judith come. And I guess there never was a man put more stock in his +own flesh and blood than Luke did in her as soon as he got used to her +being a she. I don't know just exactly how old she was ten years ago, +women folks being so damn' tricky in the looks of their ages, but I'd +say she was eight or nine or ten or eleven years old. Anyhow, Luke had +took her in hand already." + +"Taught her to ride, huh?" asked one of the men. + +"You're shouting, Poker Face," nodded Carson with vehemence. "He sure +did! Why, that girl's rid real horses since she was the size of a pair +of boots. Luke took her everywhere he went, up in the mountains, over +the Big Ridge, down valley-ways, into town when he went off on his +yearly. And they say Luke wasn't no poky rider, either. You've rode +his string, Bud? What are those for horses, huh?" + +"I'm a little particular when it comes to a saddle-horse," Bud +admitted. "But I never asked any better than old Sanford's string." + +"You hear him!" said Carson. "Well, that Judy girl has rid horses like +them for a dozen years. And her dad--anyway, folks say so down on the +river--showed her his way to ride and his way to shoot and his way to +play cards! I guess," and he spoke with slow thoughtfulness, "that +she's a real chip off'n the old block. It's my guess number two that +she ain't just shooting off her face promiscuous when she says there's +something crooked in the deal Trevors has been handing her. And, third +bet, there's most likely going to be seven kinds of hell popping around +this end of the woods for a spell." + +"What are you doing about it, Carson?" asked the man whose unusually +vacuous expression gave him his name of Poker Face. "Stick on the job +or quit?" + +"Me?" Carson sought a match, and when he had found it, held it long in +his grimy fingers, staring at it thoughtfully. "Me stay an' let a +she-girl boss me? Well, it ain't the play a man might look to me to +make, an' I ain't saying it's the trick I'd do every day in the week. +But here there's some things to set a man scratching his head: she's a +winner, all right, an' I'm the first man to up an' say so. She's got +the sand an' she's got the savvy. Take 'em together an' they make what +you call gumption. Sure it ain't no woman's job to step in an' run an +outfit like this one; a woman ain't nacherally cut out for that sort of +thing any more'n a man is to darn socks an' drink tea with lemon in it. +Again, tipping it over so's you can look at the other side, like a fair +man ought to, what's she going to do? She lands here sudden, striking +all four feet in a mess of trouble. She grabs holt of things, seeing +they belong to her in a way, an' seeing she's fed Trevors his time. I +might go trailing my luck some other-where, if I did the first fool +thing that plopped into my nut. But playing fair, I'm going to stick +an' do my damnedest to see Luke Sanford's girl put up her scrap. Yes, +sir." + +"What did she want to fire Trevors for?" asked Benny, the cook. + +Carson, looking at him contemptuously, spoke in contemptuous answer +about the stem of his pipe. "Any man on the job can answer you that, +Cookie. It's been open an' shut the last month Trevors is either crazy +or crooked. I said, didn't I, Western Lumber's itching to get its +devil-fish legs wropped aroun' Blue Lake timber? They've busted more +than one rancher up in the mountains. Trevors is in with 'em. Any man +on the ranch that don't know that, don't want to know it!" He removed +his pipe at last, and his look upon Benny was full of meaning. "Roll +that in your dough, Cookie, an' make biscuits out'n it." + +"Go easy there, grandfather," growled Benny. + +"That's something I ain't learned," was old Carson's ready answer, +lightly given. "I've told you before, if you don't want your name +printed plain don't come around asking me to spell it." + +Benny growled an answer but did not take up the quarrel. He knew +Carson well enough to know that there was no man living readier for a +fight or abler to conduct his own part of it. Carson, smaller than +Benny, was wiry, quick-footed, hard-eyed. There was something about +him that caused a man of Benny's sort to stop and think. + + +"_Qué hay_, Bud?" called a voice, and old José, his face shining with +his joy--Bud was certain that Judith had actually kissed the leathery +cheek and wondered how she could do it!--came down the knoll. "_La +señorita_ wants you!" + +"Haw!" gurgled Bandy O'Neil facetiously. "It's your manly beauty, Bud! +You ol' son-of-a-gun of a lady-killer!" + +Bud Lee swung about upon his heel to glare at Bandy. But suddenly +conscious of a flush creeping up hotly under his tan, he turned his +back and strode away to the house. Bandy's "haw, haw!" followed him. +Lee's face was flaming when he entered the office. + +"What do you want with me?" he said shortly, angered at Bandy, Judith +Sanford and himself. + +"Bow, wow!" retorted Judith, looking up from Trevors's table. "Whose +dog art thou? Do you want me to think you are as fierce as you look?" + +"You sent for me?" he said coolly. + +She looked up at him critically. "What's come over you, Lee? I took +you for a cool head--Heaven knows I need a few cool heads around me +right now!--and here you show up with red in your eye, barking at me." + +"Let's pass up what I look like," said Lee stiffly. "What can I do for +you. Miss Sanford?" + +"Hm," said Judith. "On your high horse, are you? All right, stay +there. What I want is some information. How long have you been on the +Blue Lake pay-roll?" + +"A little over six months," he answered colorlessly. + +"_Over_ six months?" A quick look of interest came into her eyes. +"Trevors hired you? Or dad?" + +"Your father." + +"Then"--and a sudden, swift smile came for the first time that morning +into the girl's eyes--"you're square! Thank God for one man to be sure +of." + +She had risen with a quick impetuosity and put out her hand. Lee took +it into his own, and felt it shut hard, like a man's. + +"Just how do you know I'm square?" he asked slowly. + +"Dad was human," she replied softly. "He made some mistakes. But he +never made a mistake in a horse foreman yet. He has said to me a dozen +times: 'Judy, watch the way a man treats his horse if you want to size +him up! And never put your horses into the care of a man who isn't +white, clean through.' Dad knew, Bud Lee!" + +Lee made no answer. For a little Judith, back at the long table and +looking strangely small in the big, bare room before this massive piece +of furniture, stared into vacancy with reminiscent eyes. Then, with a +little shrug of her shoulders, she turned again to the tall foreman. + +"Why did you tell Trevors this morning that you were going to quit +work?" she asked with abrupt directness. + +"Because," he answered, and by now his flush had subsided and his grave +good-humor had come back to him with his customary serenity, "I felt +like moving on." + +"Because," she insisted, "you know that there was some dirty work afoot +and did not care to be messed up in it?" + +Now here, most positively, Bud Lee said within himself, was a person to +reckon with. How did she know all that? She was just a girl, +somewhere, as old Carson put it, between eighteen and twenty-two. What +business did a kid like this have knowing so blamed much? + +"You've got your rope on the right pair of horns," he said after his +brief pause. + +"How did you know that Trevors was working the double-cross on this +deal?" she demanded. + +"I didn't know," he said stiffly. "I just guessed. The same as you. +He was spending too much money; he was getting too little to show for +it; he was selling too much stock too cheap." + +"What's the matter with you?" cried the girl, surprising him with the +heat of her words and the sudden darkening of her eyes. "Why do you +insist on being so downright stand-offish and stiff and aloof? What +have I done to you that you can't be decent? Here I am only putting +foot on my own land and you make me feel like an intruder." + +"I am answering your questions." + +"Like a half-animated trained iceberg, yes. Can't you act like a human +being? Oh, I've got your number, Bud Lee, and you are just as narrow +between the horns as the rest of the outfit. You are narrow and +prejudiced and blindly unreasonable! I know as much about ranching as +any man of you; I know more about this outfit because the best man that +ever set foot on it, and that's Luke Sanford, taught me every crook, +and bend of it; and now, just because I'm a girl and not a boy, you +stand off like I had the smallpox; just when I need loyalty and +understanding and when, the Lord knows, I've already got a double +handful of trouble, I can't count for a minute on men that have been +taking my pay for months! Get some of the mildew and cobwebs out of +your head and tell me this: What reason in the world is there why you +choose to think I haven't any business wearing my own shoes?" + +"That's sure putting it straight," said Lee slowly. + +"You just bet it's putting it straight!" she announced vigorously. +"And you'll find that it's a way I have, putting things straight. I +was trained to the business by a better man than you'll ever be, Bud +Lee." + +"Maybe so," he admitted without heat. "I'll take off my hat to Luke +Sanford for a man. And I'll take off my hat to you, if you want to +know. But, training or no training, this is no job for a lady, and +shooting up Trevors and riding the Prince isn't going to make it so. +Sure enough it's none of my butt-in what sort of thing you do. But at +the same time there's no call for me to say you're doing fine when I +don't see it that way." + +"What you're looking for," sniffed Judith contemptuously, "is a female +being extinct this one hundred years! You'd have every girl wear tails +to her gowns, and duck and dodge behind fans and faint every time she +jabbed her thumb with a pin!" + +"I can't see that a woman's place is riding bucking broncos and +rampsing around. . . ." + +"A woman's place!" she scoffed. "Her place where a blunder-headed man +puts her! How do you know what her place is? Do you suppose the blood +in a healthy-bodied, healthy-minded woman is any different from your +blood? How would you like to be told just what your place is? To be +jammed, for instance, into a little bungalow in a city; to be squeezed +into a dress-suit and told 'Stay there and look sweet'; to be commanded +not to get up a natural sweat, nor to kick over the traces with which +some woman had hitched you to the cart of convention. How'd _you_ like +it, Bud Lee?" + +Bud Lee grinned and a new look crept into his eyes. "Being Bud Lee," +he answered frankly, "I wouldn't stand it for one little tick of the +clock! If you want me to swap talk with you; all day at ninety bucks a +month, all right. I'd say there's two kinds of men, too. There's my +kind; there's the Dave Burril Lee kind. You see, he's a sort of +relation of mine, is Dave Burril Lee, and I'm not exactly proud of him. +He's the kind that wears dress-suits and sticks in a bungalow. He's +proud of his name Burril and Lee, both, because big men down South wore +'em before he did, and they were relations. He's swelled up over the +way he can dance and ride after a fox, and over the coin he's got in +the bank. Then there's Bud Lee who ducks out of that sort of a +scrap-heap and beats it for the open." + +"I get you!" broke in Judith, her eyes very bright. "And you men here, +my men, want me to be the sort of woman that your precious cousin, Dave +Burril, is a man? Is that it? Where's your logic this morning?" + +"Meaning horse sense?" he smiled. "It's in these few little words: +'What's right for a man may be dead wrong for a woman.'" + +"Oh, scat!" she cried impatiently. "What am I wasting time with you +for? You're right when you say that if I am paying you ninety dollars +a month and grub and blankets I'd better get something out of you +besides talk." She swung back to her table. "What was Trevors's +latest excuse for selling at a sacrifice?" she asked, her tone dry and +businesslike. "Why was he selling those horses at fifty dollars a +head?" + +"Told me he just had a wire last night from Young Hampton, asking for +three thousand," he explained in a similar tone, though his eyes were +twinkling at her. + +"Pollock Hampton has his nerve!" she snapped. She took up the +telephone instrument at her elbow and demanded the Western Union at +Rocky Bend. "Judith Sanford speaking," she said crisply. "Repeat the +message of last night for the general manager, Blue Lake Ranch." + +In a moment she had it. "So Trevors wasn't lying about that part of +it," she said reluctantly. And to the Western Union agent, "Take this +message: + + +POLLOCK HAMPTON, Hotel Glennlyn, San Francisco: + +Impossible send money now or for some time. Have fired Trevors. +Running outfit myself. Need every cent we can raise to pay interest on +loans, men's salaries and keep going. This is final. + +JUDITH SANFORD, _General Manager_. + + +"That may start his gray matter working," she ended as she clicked up +the receiver. "Now, Lee, will you stick with me ten days or so and +give me time to get a man in your place?" + +"Yes, I'll do that, Miss Sanford." + +"You will help me in every way you can while you are with me?" + +"When I work for a man--or a woman," he added gravely, "I don't hold +back anything." + +"All right. Then start in right now and tell me about the gang Trevors +has taken on. Are they all crooks?" + +"I wouldn't say so. I wouldn't put it that strong." + +"That little gray, quick-spoken man with the smelly pipe--he's +straight, isn't he?" + +"That would be old Carson? Yes; he's a good man. You won't find a +better." + +"Is he going to quit, too? Just because I've come?" + +Lee shook his head. "If you work him right Carson will stick right +along. Being white clean through, being broader-minded than I am"--and +the twinkle came again into his eyes--"Carson'll show you a square +deal." + +"Has he any love for Bayne Trevors?" + +"Maybe you'd better ask Carson." + +In a flash she was on her feet and had gone to the door. "Carson!" she +called loudly. "Come here, will you?" + +There was a little silence, a low sound of laughter, then Carson's +sharp voice answering: "I'm coming!" + +Judith went back to her chair. She did not speak until Carson's wiry +form slipped through the doorway. Then with the old cattleman's +shrewd, hard eyes upon her she turned from a clip full of papers she +had been looking through and spoke to him quietly: + +"You used to work for the Granite Canyon crowd, didn't you, Carson?" + +"Yes'm," he answered. + +"Cattle foreman there for several years?" + +"Yes'm." + +"Helped clean out the Roaring Creek gang didn't you, Carson?" + +Carson shifted a bit, colored under her fixed eyes, and finally +admitted: + +"Yes'm." + +"Haven't had a real first-class fight for quite a bit, have you, +Carson? Not since that gash on your jaw healed? Not since you and +Scotty Webb mixed with the Roaring Creekers?" + +Carson rubbed his jaw, flashed a quick look at Bud Lee as though for +moral support, looked still further embarrassed, and finally choked +over his brief: + +"No'm." + +Judith sat smiling brightly up at his hard features. "I've heard dad +talk about that," she said thoughtfully. "I guess I've got at least +one real man on the ranch, Carson. Oh, don't dodge like that! I'm not +going to put my arms around you and kiss you on the top of your head. +But I do love a man that loves a fair fight. . . . Lee, here, has +given me his promise to stick on the job for ten days or so, to give me +time to get some one else to look after my horses." + +"Yes'm," said Carson, fingering his pipe and looking down. + +For a few moments the girl sat still, now and then flashing a quick, +keen look from one to the other of her two foremen. Then, abruptly, +her eyes on Carson, she snapped: "You've found out, more or less +recently, haven't you, that Bayne Trevors is a crook? You've perhaps +even guessed that he's been taking money from me with one hand and from +the Western Lumber with the other?" + +"Yes'm," said Carson. "I doped it up like that." + +"Why," cried the girl, "he's fired all of the old men and Heaven knows +how many of his sort he's put in their places! Help me clean 'em out, +Carson! Where will we begin? I've chucked Trevors and Ward Hannon. +Who goes next, Carson?" + +"Benny the cook," said Carson gently. "An' I'd be obliged, ma'am, if +you'd let me go boot him off'n the ranch." + +"That's talking," she said enthusiastically. "You can attend to him. +Any one else?" + +Carson shook his head. "I got my suspicions," he said. "But that's +all I'm dead sure on." + +"The others can wait then. Now, I'm taking a gamble on you and Lee. +You have all kinds of chances to double-cross me. But I've got to take +a chance now and then. I'm going to tell you something: Trevors is +trying to sell me out to the Western Lumber people. He is one of their +crowd and has been since they bought him up six months ago. They want +our timber tract over the north ridge but they don't think they will +have to pay the price. They want the lake; they want the water-power +of Blue Lake River! They want pretty well all we've got. The ranch +outside the stock we've got running on it, is worth a clean million +dollars if it is worth a nickel. Well, the Western Lumber Company has +offered us exactly two hundred and fifty thousand! Only quarter of +what it's worth! They know we're mortgaged; they know the interest we +have to pay is heavy; they know Pollock Hampton, for one, is a spender +who knows nothing about big business; they think that I, because I'm a +girl, am a fool. It looks to them like a melon easy to cut and ripe +for the slicing." + +She paused a moment, frowning thoughtfully at the floor. Then suddenly +she lifted her eyes to Carson's, saying crisply: "Trevors took time at +the end to tell me something. That something was that he was going to +make me sell. He was excited a bit, I'll admit, or he wouldn't have +spoken quite so plainly. And he counted upon the fact of my sex, of +course, to feel confident that he could throw a scare into me. He even +threatened, if I hadn't come to my senses before the ranch was dry in +the summer, to burn me out!" + +Carson blinked at her. "How's that?" he asked. + +She told him again, coolly indifferent, it seemed to Carson. + +"The durned polecat!" whispered the cattle foreman. + +"Now then," cried Judith, "you've got your first job cut out for you. +Let Bayne Trevors or one of his gang set foot on Blue Lake land, and +I'll tell you what I think of you, Carson! Or is the job going to be +too big for you?" + +Carson smiled deprecatingly. "I'd like to see 'em try it," he said in +that soft, whispering voice which upon occasions was characteristic of +him. "I sure would, Miss Judy!" + +"That's all this morning, Carson," she said quietly. "On your way +don't forget to look in on your friend Benny." + +Carson went hastily down the knoll, his eyes bright. Judith laughed +softly. + +"I've got his number, Bud Lee! All that's needed to keep that old +mountain-lion on the job is to show him a real fight ahead! And by +golly, Mr. Man, there's going to be scrap enough from the very jump to +make Carson forget whether he's working for a woman or John W. Satan, +Esquire!" + + + + +V + +THE BIGNESS OF THE VENTURE + +"And now," said Judith Sanford to the stillness about her--she was +alone in the big ranch-house--"not being constructed of iron, I'm going +to take a snooze." + +She yawned, stretched her supple young body luxuriously, and passed +slowly through the empty rooms which, at her command, José had opened +to the sweet morning air. Through the great living-room, library, and +music-room, where the grand piano stood dejectedly in its mantle of +dust, she came to her own chambers at the southwest corner of the +building. Her bed was made, the sheets clean and fresh and inviting, +dressing-gown and slippers were upon the window-seat, and from her +table a vase of glorious roses sent out a welcoming perfume. + +"Good old José," she smiled. + +Vivid blossom that she was upon the tough, hardy stalk of her pioneer +ancestry, creature of ardent flame and passion which her blood and her +life in the open had made her, she was not devoid of the understanding +of the limit of physical endurance. Last night, through the late +moonlight and later starlight, through the thick darkness which lay +across the mountain trails before the coming of day, on into the dawn, +she had ridden the forty miles from the railroad at Rocky Bend. +Certain of treachery on the part of Bayne Trevors, she had arrived only +to find him plotting another blow at her interests. She had ridden a +mad brute of a horse whose rebellious struggle against her authority +had taxed her to the last ounce of her strength. She had shot a man in +the right shoulder and the left forearm. . . . And now, with no one to +see her, she was pale and shaking a little, suddenly faint from the +heavy beating of her own heart. She had had virtually no sleep last +night. She was glad of it. For now she would sleep, sleep. + +"I am not to be called, no matter what happens," she said to José who +came trotting to the tinkle of her bell. "Thank you for the roses, +José." + +Slipping out of her clothes, she drew the sheet up to her throat--and +tossed for a wretched hour before sleep came to her. A restless sleep, +filled with broken bits of unpleasant dreams. + +At two o'clock, swiftly dressing after a leisurely bath, she went out +into the courtyard, where she found José making a pretense of +gardening, whereas in truth for a matter of hours he had done little +but watch for her coming. + +"José," she said, as he swept off his wide hat and made her the bow +reserved for _la señorita_ and _la señorita_ alone, "you will have to +be lady's maid and errand-boy for me until I get things running right. +I am going to telephone into town this minute for a woman to do my +cooking and housekeeping and be a nuisance around generally. While I +do that, will you scare up something for me to eat and then saddle a +horse for me? And don't make a fire, either; just something cold out +of a can, you know." + +She went to the office, arranged over the wire with Mrs. Simpson of +Rocky Bend to come out on the following day, and then spent fifteen +minutes studying the pay-roll taken from the safe, which, fortunately, +Trevors had left open. As José came in with a big tray she was running +through a file of reports made at the month-end, two weeks ago, by +certain of the ranch foremen. + +"Put it down on the table, José. Thank you," and she found time for a +smile at her devoted servitor; "Now, have a horse ready, will you?" And +without waiting for José's answer, taking up the telephone, she asked +for the office at the Lower End, as the rich valley land of the western +portion of the ranch was commonly known. + +Briefly making herself known to the owner of the boyish voice which +answered, she asked, for "Doc" Tripp and was informed that the ranch +veterinarian was no longer with the outfit. Judith frowned. + +"Where is he?" + +"Rocky Bend, I think." + +"When did he leave us?" + +"Three days ago." + +"Why?" + +"Fired. Mr. Trevors let him go." + +"Hm!" said Judith. "Who has taken his place?" + +"Bill Crowdy is sort of acting vet, right now." + +"Thanks," she said. Clicking off, she put in a call for "Doc" Tripp in +Rocky Bend. "Get him for me as quick as you can, will you, please?" +she asked of the operator in town. + +For five minutes she munched at a sandwich and pored over the papers +before her, dealing with this or that of the many interests of the big +ranch. When at last her telephone-bell rang she found that it was +Tripp. + +"Hello, Doc," she said cordially. "I haven't seen you for so long I +almost have forgotten how you comb your hair!" Tripp laughed with her +at that; across the miles she could picture him running his big hand +through the rebellious shock. "Yes, I'm back to stay, and from the +looks of it I didn't come any too soon. Yes, Doc, we do miss him," and +her voice softened wonderfully to Tripp's mention of the man who had +been more than father to her, more than friend to him. "But we are +going to buck up and show folks that he _knew_. He would have made a +go of the thing; we are going to do it. What was the trouble with you +and Trevors?" + +Tripp explained succinctly. He and the general manager had disagreed +openly and frequently about that part of the work in which, until the +coming of Trevors, the veterinarian had been entirely unhampered. Two +months ago Trevors had reduced Tripp's wages and had threatened another +cut. + +"Just to make me quit, you know," he added. "And I would have quit if +it had been any other outfit in the world." + +"I know," she said, and she did understand. "Go on. What was the +excuse for canning you?" + +"Case of lung-worms," he told her. "Some of the calves, I don't know +just how many yet. He insisted on my treating them the old way." + +"Slaked lime? Or sulphur fumes?" she said quickly. "And you insisted +on chloroform?" + +"You've hit it!" he exclaimed wonderingly. "How'd you know?" + +"I haven't been loafing on the job the last six months," she laughed. +"I've been at the school at Davis and hobnobbing with some of the +university men at Berkeley. They're doing some great work there. Doc, +I'll want to talk to you about it. You're going down there, expenses +paid, to brush up with a course or two this year. Now, how soon can +you get back here?--Trevors? Oh, Trevors is fired. I'm running the +ranch myself. And, Doc, I need a few men like you! Can you come early +to-morrow?--To-night? You're a God-blessed brick! Yes, I'll stop that +murderous sulphur treatment if it isn't too late. Good-by." + +She lost no time in calling for Bill Crowdy, the man whom Trevors had +put into Tripp's place. + +"By the way," she said when the man with the voice which had sounded so +boyish in her ears answered again, "who are you?" + +"Ed Masters," he told her. "Electrician, you know." + +A glance at the pay-roll in front of her showed that Edward Masters, +general electrician, was a new man and was drawing eighty-five dollars +monthly. + +"What are you doing this afternoon?" she demanded sharply--"just +hanging around the office? Is that the way you earn your eighty-five +dollars?" + +"Not always. But Trevors told me to be on hand to-day to take some +orders." + +"What work?" + +"Don't know," he said frankly. "He didn't say." + +"Well," said Judith, "I'll tell you one thing, Ed Masters. If you are +one of the loaf-around kind you'd better call for your time to-night. +If there's anything for you to do, go do it. Don't wait for Trevors. +He's gone. Yes, for good. You can report to me here the first thing +in the morning. Now send me Crowdy." + +"He's down in the hospital and the hospital phone is out of order." + +"And you're an electrician, hanging around for orders! That's your +first job. Send the first man you can get your hands on to tell Crowdy +I say not to touch one of those calves with the lung-worm. And not to +do anything else but get ready to talk with me. I'll be down in half +an hour." + +She clicked up the receiver, drank a cup of lukewarm coffee, noting +subconsciously that José must have had a fire ready against the time of +her awakening, and again consulted the files before her. Then again +she used the telephone, ringing the Lower End office. This time it was +another voice answering her. + +"Where's Masters?" she asked. + +"Gone down to the cow hospital," was the answer. + +"Where's Johnson, the irrigation foreman?" + +"Out in the south fields." + +"And Dennings?" + +"Went to look the olives over." + +"Send out for both of them. I'm coming right down as fast as a horse +will carry me and I want to talk with them. Wait a minute--I'll tell +you when I'm through with you. Who are you, anyway?" + +"Williams, the ranch carpenter." + +"What _are_ you doing to-day? Repairs needed at the office where you +are?" + +"No. You see----" + +"You bet I see!" she cried warmly. "The first thing I see is that I've +got more men on this job than I need. If there's no work for you to +do, call tonight for your time. If you've got anything to do, go do +it." + +She clicked off again, waited a brief second and rang three for the +dairy. After she had rung several times and got no answer, she +murmured to herself: + +"There's some one too busy on the ranch to be just hanging round after +all, it seems." + +And she went out to José and the waiting horse. + +As she rode the five miles down to the office at the Lower End, her +thoughts were constantly charged with an appreciation of the wonders +which had been worked about her everywhere since that day, ten years +ago, when she had first come with Luke Sanford to the original Blue +Lake ranch. Then there had been only a wild cattle-range, ten thousand +acres of brush, timber, and uncultivated open spaces. Nowhere would +one find rougher, wilder stock-land in California. But Luke Sanford +had seen possibilities and had bought the whole ten thousand acres, +counting, from the first sight of it, upon acquiring as soon as might +be those other thousands of acres which now made Blue Lake ranch one of +the biggest of Western ventures. + +It was late May, and the afternoon air was sweet and warm with the +passing of spring. The girl's eager eyes travelled the length of the +sky-seeking cliff almost at the back door of the ranch-house, which +stood like some mighty barricade thrown up in that mythical day given +over to the colossal struggle of a contending race of giants, and she +found that there, alone, time had shown no change. Elsewhere, +improvements at every turn were living monuments to the tireless brain +of her father. Stock-corrals, sturdily built, out-houses spotless in +their gleaming whitewash, monster barns, fenced-off fields, bridges +across the narrow chasm of the frothing river, telephone-poles with +their wires binding into one sheaf the numerous activities of the +ranch, a broad, graded road over which she and her father had come here +the last time together in the big touring-car. + +Here the valley was only a mile across, shut in on both sides by cliff +and steep, rocky mountain, walled by cliffs at the upper end, where the +river from three-mile distant Blue Lake came down in flashing +waterfalls. + +But, as she rode, the valley widened, changed in character. At first, +wandering herds of beef-cattle, with now and then a riding cowboy +turning in his saddle to wonder at her; then a gate to be opened as she +stooped forward from her own saddle, and wide fields where the grass +stood tall and untrodden and blooded Jersey cows looked up in mild +interest; yonder a small pasture in which were five Guernseys, kept in +religious seclusion, under ideal conditions, to further certain +investigations into the ratios of five different kinds of fodder to the +amount of butter-fat produced; across a green meadow a pure-blooded +Jersey bull, whose mellow bellowings drew Judith's eyes to the clean +line of his perfect back, over which, with pawing hoofs, he was +throwing much trampled earth; in a more distant pen, accepting the +trumpeted challenge and challenging back, a beautiful specimen of +careful breeding in Ayrshire. + +The road wound on, following generally the line of the river, which +began a generous broadening, flowing more evenly through level fields. +Looking down the valley, Judith could see the whitewashed clump of +buildings where were the second office, the store and the blacksmith's +shop, the tiny cottages. And beyond, the barns, the dairy, the tall +silos standing like lookout towers, the alfalfa-fields crisscrossed +with irrigating ditches, and still farther on, the pasture-lands where +the big herd of cows was grazing. + +Here the valley was spread out until from side to side it measured +something more than four miles. The bordering mountains, like the +river, had grown into a softer mood; rolling hills scantily timbered, +rich in grass, were dotted with herds, cattle and horses, or fenced off +here and there, reserved for later pasturage. + +Across the river, to the south, Judith marked the wandering calves, +offspring of the herd; to the north, along the foothills, the subdued +green of the olive-orchards. + +"It's a big, big thing!" she whispered, and her eyes were very bright +with it all, her cheeks flushed. "Big!" + +Passing one of the great barns, she heard the trumpet call of a +stallion and, turning, saw in the corral one of those glorious brutes +which Bud Lee had spoken of to Trevors as "clean spirit." From the +instant her eyes filled to the massive beauty of him, she knew who he +was: Night Shade, sprung from the union of Mountain King and Black +Empress; regal-blooded, ebon-black from silken fetlock to flowing mane; +a splendid four-year-old destined to tread his proud way to a first +prize at the coming State fair at Sacramento, a horse many +stock-fanciers had coveted. + +She stopped and marvelled afresh at him, paid him his due of unstinted +admiration, and then spurred on to the little clump of buildings +marking the lower ranch headquarters. At the store, where a ten-by-ten +room was partitioned off to serve as office, she swung down from the +saddle and, leaving her horse with dragging reins, went in. + +"Hello, Charlie. You're still left to us, are you?" she said, as she +stepped forward to shake hands with Miller, the storekeeper and general +utility man of the settlement. "I'm glad to see you. + +"So'm I, Miss Judy," grinned Charlie, looking the part. "Howdy." + +"I wanted to see Johnson and Dennings. Are they here yet?" + +"No," answered Miller. "Johnson, the ditch man, you mean? He's +somewhere at the Upper End. Has got a crew of men up there making a +new dam or somethin' or other. Been at it purty near a week, now, I +guess. They camp up there." + +"How many men are with him?" she asked quickly. + +"About a dozen," and he looked hard at her. Judith frowned. But +instead of saying what she might be thinking, she inquired where +Dennings was. + +"Out in the olive-orchards, I guess." He paused, filled a pipe he had +neither desire nor intention of smoking, and said abruptly: "What's +this I hear about Trevors? Canned him?" + +"Yes." + +"Um!" said Miller. "Well, Miss Judy, I ain't sayin' it wasn't purty +near time he got the hooks. But, lemme tell you something. While +you're riding around this afternoon, if I was you I'd pike over to the +milking corrals." + +She looked at him sharply. + +"What is it, Charlie?" + +"You just ride over," said Miller. "It ain't more'n a step an' I'll +just shet up store an' mosey along after you." + +Vaguely uneasy because of Charlie Miller's manner, Judith galloped down +toward the four corrals where the cows were milked. From a distance +she saw that there were a number of men, ten or twelve of them, +standing in a close-packed group. She wondered what it was that had +drawn them from their work at this time of day; what that big, +bull-voiced man was saying to them. She heard the muttering rumble of +his words before the words themselves meant anything to her. A quick +glance over her shoulder showed her Charlie Miller hastening behind +her, pick-handle in hand. + +Her way carried her by a long, narrow building standing out like a +great capital E, the cow hospital. She thought of Bill Crowdy and the +sick calves as she drew near, but was passing on to the men at the milk +corrals, when the breeze, blowing lightly from the west, brought to her +nostrils a whiff of sulphur. + +A quick tide of red ran into her cheeks; that fool, Ed Masters, had not +told Crowdy to refrain from the old-fashioned, deadly treatment! +Almost before her horse had set his four feet at the command of a quick +touch upon the reins, the girl was down and hurrying into the middle +door of the three, calling out as she went: + +"Crowdy! Oh, Crowdy!" + +She came into a small whitewashed room where were a table, two chairs, +and a telephone; passed through this into the calf-yard. Here were +several compartments with doors which allowed of making them almost +air-tight. And here she was met by a stronger smell of sulphur fumes. + +"Crowdy!" she called again. "Where are you?" + +Bill Crowdy, a heavy, squat figure of a man, shifty-eyed, with hard +mouth and a nervous, restless air, came down a long hallway, smoking a +cigarette. His eyes rested with no uncertain dislike upon Judith's +eager face. + +"I'm Crowdy," he said. "Want me?" + +"I told Masters to tell you to stop the sulphur treatment for the +lung-worm calves. Hasn't he told you?" + +"Mr. Trevors said I was to give it to them," said Crowdy. "I can't be +taking orders off'n every hop-o'-my-thumb like that college kid." + +"Then Masters did tell you?" + +"Sure, he told me," said Crowdy in surly defiance. "But if I was to +listen to everything the likes of him says----" + +Judith's eyes were fairly snapping. + +"You'll listen to the likes of me, Bill Crowdy!" she cried +passionately, a small fist clinched. "You get those calves out into +some fresh air just as quick as the Lord will let you! Into a pen by +themselves. Doc Tripp will attend to them in the morning." + +"Tripp's gone." + +"He's on his way back, right now. And you're on your way off the +ranch. Understand? You can come to the office for your pay to-night." + +Crowdy shrugged his shoulders and turned away. + +"If I'm fired," he growled in that ugly voice which was so fitting a +companion to that ugly mouth of his, "I quit right now. Get some of +your other Willies to turn your calves out." + +For a moment, in the heat of her anger, Judith's quirt was lifted as +though she would strike him. Then she turned instead and ran to do her +own bidding. A moment later Miller was with her. The two of them got +the calves--there were seven of them--out of the sulphur-laden air and +into the corral. The poor brutes, coughing softly in paroxysms, some +of them frothing at the mouth, two of them falling repeatedly and +rising slowly upon trembling legs, filed by in a pitiful string. One +of the youngest lay still in the hospital, dead. + +"He would have killed them all," said Judith, her teeth set as she +looked at the living calves in the corral where, with necks thrust far +out, they fought for each breath. "And Bayne Trevors ordered a +treatment that he knows has gone into the discard! Charlie, that man +has gone further than I thought he had the nerve to go." + +"Crowdy did something else that don't look just right," said Miller, +gazing with eyes of longing after the burly, departing figure. "I saw +him do it just after Masters carried him your message. He drove three +of the sick calves--there's a dozen or more got the worms, you +know--out into the pasture with the well calves." + +Judith didn't answer. She looked at Miller a moment as though she +thought this must be some wretched jest of his. And when she read in +his eyes the earnestness in his heart, there rose within her the +question: "How far has Bayne Trevors gone?" + +"Charlie," she said finally, "I want you to close store for the rest of +the day. Get some one to help you and cut the sick calves out from the +bunch. Haze them back here into the detention corral. Tripp will +attend to them all in the morning. Now, tell me--what's wrong down at +the milk corrals? What are all of those men up to?" + +"We're going to see, me an' you," answered Miller. "I don't just know. +But I do know there's a big guy down there that come onto the ranch a +couple of hours ago an' that don't belong here. He's that guy talking. +Name of Nelson. He ain't done any talking to me, but from a word or +two I picked up from one of the milkers I got a hunch he's been sent +over by Trevors." + +Nelson, the big emissary for Trevors--for he admitted the fact openly +and pleasantly--took off his hat to Judith and said he guessed he'd be +going. And the men with whom he had been talking, including all of the +milkers and all of the other workmen upon whom Nelson could get his +meddlesome hands at short notice, all men whom Trevors had placed here, +made known in hesitant speech or awkward silence that they were going +with Nelson. There were good jobs open with the lumber company, it +seemed. Nelson even expressed the hope that the quitting of these men +wouldn't work any hardship to the Blue Lake ranch. + +Judith, her eyes flashing, asked no man of them to remain, seeing that +thus she would but humiliate herself fruitlessly, and turned away. And +yet, with the herds of cows with bursting bags soon ready for the +nightly milking, she watched the men move away, her heart bitter with +anger. + +"They've got to be milked, Charlie," was all that she said. "Who will +milk them until I can get a new crew?" + +"I'll tuck in an' help," answered Miller ruefully. "I hate it worse'n +poison, an' I can't milk more'n ten cows, workin twenty-four-hour +shifts. I'll try an' scare up some of the other boys that can milk." +But he shook his head and looked regretfully at the pick-handle. "Good +milkers is scarce as gold eggs," he muttered. "And the separator men +has quit with the rest." + +"Get Masters, the electrician, on the job. Get anybody you can. I'm +going back to the ranchhouse pretty soon and I'll try to send some one +from there." + +"Cowboys can't milk," said Miller positively. "An' besides, they +won't. But somehow we'll make out for a day or so." + +"We've got to make out!" exclaimed Judith. "We've got to beat that man +Trevors, Charlie, and do it quick. If he'll try to keep us +short-handed, if he'll spend money to do it, if he'll do a trick like +giving sulphur for lung-worm and then send infected stock out into the +herds, I don't know just where he will stop--unless we stop him." + + +In spite of her intentions, it was nearing the time of dusk when she +returned to the ranchhouse. As she came up the knoll from the barn, +she saw for the first time a thin line of bluish smoke rising from the +north ridge. Saw and understood the new menace. + +For that way had Benny, the discharged cook, gone. + + + + +VI + +YOUNG HAMPTON REGISTERS A PROTEST + +It was after eight o'clock when Tripp rode in on a sweat-wet horse. +Judith met him in the courtyard, giving him her two hands impulsively. + +"I'm so glad you've come, Doc!" she cried softly. "Oh, you don't know +how glad--yet." + +She called José to take Tripp's mount and then led the way into the +great living-room where deep cushions and leather chairs made for +comfort. + +"I'll give you time to draw a second breath," she told him, forcing +into her tone a lightness which she did not quite feel, even though a +surge of satisfaction had warmed her at the first thud of his horse's +hoofs. "Then we'll talk." + +She switched on the lights and turned to look at Tripp. He was the +same little old Doc Tripp, she noted. His wiry body scarcely bigger +than a boy's of fourteen, he was a man of fifty whose face, like his +body, suggested the boy with bright, eager eyes and a frank, friendly +smile. + +"Prettier than ever, eh, Judy?" Tripp cocked his head to one side and +gave his unqualified approval of the slim, supple body, and superb +carriage of this girl of the mountains, warming to the vivid, vital +beauty of the rosy face. "Been driving those cow-college boys down at +Berkeley plumb crazy, I'll bet a prize colt!" + +Judith laughed at him, watched his slight form disappear in the wide +arms of a chair which seemed fairly to smother him in its embrace. +Then from her own nook by the fireplace she opened her heart to him: + +"It's not just that Trevors has crippled me by taking all of my milkers +away; not just that he has come near doing I don't know how much harm +in having Crowdy turn those calves with the lung-worm out into the +fields with the others; not just that during the last few months, he +has lost money for us right and left; not just that Benny, the cook, +has tried to fire the range." + +"What's that last?" said Tripp quickly. "Tried to smoke you out, huh?" + +She told him briefly. How she had first seen the smoke as she came +back to the ranch-house; how she had sent José on the run to get some +of the other hands to see that the fire did not spread; how, a little +while ago, Carson, the cattle foreman, had come in and assured her that +the damage was negligible. + +"It was just a brush fire," said Judith. "Thank Heaven, things are +pretty green yet. Carson says it might have been lighted by Benny, +who, it seems, is one of Trevors's hirelings and not above this sort of +thing; or it might have been accidentally started by some careless +hunter. Anyway, and that's enough for me, the fire broke out close to +the trail that Benny travelled on his way to the Western Lumber camp. +But it isn't just these things which have set me to wondering, Doc. +What I want to know is this: in how many other, still undiscovered +ways, has Trevors been knifing us? And what else will he have ready to +spring on us now?" + +"Just what do you mean?" Tripp looked a her keenly. + +"This case of lung-worm, to begin with: where did it come from?" + +"Imported," said Tripp. "Trevors bought those calves, or at least four +of the sick ones, last month. Brought them in from somewhere down the +river. Smuggled 'em in, so far as I am concerned. Never gave me a +chance to look them over." He paused a second. "Specially imported, I +might say." + +"I knew it!" cried Judith. "That's the sort of thing I am afraid of. +If he has gone to the limit of introducing one disease among our +cattle, what other plagues has he brought to the ranch? Has he +imported any other outside stock?" + +"No. He's been busier selling at a sacrifice than buying, just as I +wrote you. Never another head has he bought lately--unless," and +Tripp's eyes twinkled at her, "you count pigeons!" + +"Pigeons!" repeated Judith. + +Tripp nodded. + +"Funny, isn't it," he went on lightly--"that a man like Bayne Trevors, +hard as nails and as free of sentiment as a mule, should fancy little +cooing, innocent-like pigeons? You'll hear them in the morning." + +But Judith was not to be distracted by Tripp's talk. She smiled at +him, however, to show him that she had understood and appreciated the +purpose back of his light words. + +"We're all going to have our hands full for a spell, Doc," was what she +said. "To Trevors, with a free swing here, it must have appeared +rather a simple matter to make so complete a failure as to force us, +encumbered as we are, into selling out to the highest bidder inside the +year. Especially when he counted young Pollock Hampton as a man +without business experience and Judith Sanford as a girl without +brains! But, Doc, he must have known, too, that at any time there +might occur the very thing which has happened--that he'd lose his job. +He strikes me as a rather long-headed man, doesn't he you? Now, a man +who saw ahead, figuring on this very contingency, would have more than +one trick up his sleeve. We've caught him, luckily, at the sick-calf +game, before it is too late. I think that the obvious thing for you to +do is to make certain that all the rest of the stock are in shape. +Will you begin to-morrow making a thorough investigation?" + +"Yes," he answered. "You're right there, Judith. There's nothing like +making sure." + +"He's not through with us," continued the girl thoughtfully; "you could +read that in the look of his jaw and eye when he left. Just what he +stands to make on his play, I don't know. But I do know that the +Western Lumber crowd is offering us only a quarter of what they'd be +willing to pay if they had to. That means that they could afford to +bribe Bayne Trevors pretty heavily and still save half a million on the +deal if he succeeded in the thing he has begun." + +"In his way," admitted Tripp thoughtfully, "Trevors is a big man. Big +men cost big money. And, besides, it looks to me as though he were a +heavy stockholder in the Western Lumber. He'd stand to win two ways." + +"Another thing I want you to do," Judith went on, "is to try to locate +all of dad's old men whom Trevors let go. Johnny Hodge and Kelley and +Harper and Tod Bruce. We'll need them. We've got to have men that +crooked money can't buy." + +"Aren't you magnifying things, Judith?" asked Tripp quietly. "There's +such a thing as law in this country, you know." + +But she shook her head. + +"Maybe I am seeing the dangers too big. But I don't think so. And it +will be a lot better for Blue Lake ranch if I see them that way at the +beginning. And as for the law, it costs money. I'm not sure that +Trevors or the lumber people would be averse to getting us involved in +a lot of legal intricacies. Oh, he has been careful not to leave any +definite proof behind him." + +"You hit the bell that time!" laughed Tripp, and Judith smiled with him +as there came to their ears the faint tinkle of the telephone-bell in +the office. + +Judith excused herself and hastened to answer the summons. Hastened +because she wanted to be back with Tripp as soon as might be. So, +knowing her way so well about the big house, she went quickly through +the dark hall-way without turning aside to switch on the lights and +came into the office, dimly lighted by the stars shining in through the +windows. + +"Doc!" Her voice rang out suddenly and Tripp sprang to his feet, +wondering what had put that note into her exclamation. "Doc! Come +here, quick!" + +He ran into the hall that was suddenly illuminated as at last Judith's +groping hand found the office switch. He saw Judith running ahead of +him, out of the door opening on to the veranda and down into the +courtyard. + +"What is it?" he asked sharply. + +"There was some one here," she told him quickly. "He went out that +way, I think. Look through the lilacs." + +She ran on one way, Tripp hurrying the other, wondering. They saw the +lilacs standing still in the starlight, saw the thick shadows thrown by +the columns and grape-covered trellises, heard the murmuring of the +fountain. + +"José, perhaps," suggested Tripp, coming at last to her side. + +"No!" cried Judith. "It wasn't. It was somebody in his stocking feet, +standing in the hallway, listening to us. I heard him run before me; I +saw him for a second, framed against the square of the window as he +slipped through and out on the veranda. Who could it have been, Doc?" + +But a close search through the shrubbery showed them nothing. It was +clear that if a man had been listening at the door he could have had +ample opportunity to slip away into the darkness. He would not be +loitering here now. + +The telephone-bell was still insistently ringing and they turned back +to the office. + +"Judy," said Tripp solicitously, "don't you go and get nerves, now." + +"You think I imagined the whole thing!" She looked at him with clear, +confident eyes. "Don't you fool yourself for one little minute, Doc +Tripp. I'm not the imagining kind--yet!" + +She snatched up the telephone instrument. + +"Hello," said Judith. "Who is it?" + +It was the telegraph operator in Rocky Bend. A message for Miss Judith +Sanford from Pollock Hampton, San Francisco. And the message ran: + + +What were you thinking of to chuck Trevors? Thoroughly excellent man. +You should have consulted me. Don't do anything more until I come. +Send conveyance to meet Saturday train. Bringing five guests with me. + +POLLOCK HAMPTON. + + +Judith turned frowning to Tripp. + +"As if I didn't have enough on my hands already," she exclaimed +bitterly, "without Hampton dragging his fool guests into the mix-up! I +could slap his face." + +"Do it!" chuckled Tripp. "Good idea!" + + + + +VII + +THE HAPPENING IN SQUAW CREEK CAÑON + +Busy days followed for Judith Sanford and for every man remaining upon +Blue Lake ranch. A score of men, including the milkers, Johnson, the +irrigation foreman and his crew of laborers, had quit work, going over +openly to Bayne Trevors at the Western Lumber camp. He had work there +for every man of them, and Judith was not the only one upon the ranch +who came to wonder how much money Trevors--or the lumber company--was +prepared to spend in fighting her. From the first day she found the +outfit short-handed. + +Almost her first answer to Trevors's _coup_ was to telegraph San +Francisco for a Firth milking-machine, together with an expert sent out +by the Firth Company to install and superintend its working for the +first few days. At the same time she hired from one of the Sacramento +dairies a man who was to be foreman of her own dairy industry, a +capable fellow with an intimate practical knowledge of automatic +milkers. He, with a couple of strippers paid overtime wages managed +until the dairy crew could be builded up again. Her new foreman from +the first took the greater part of this burden off her shoulders. + +Mrs. Simpson, the matron from Rocky Bend, arrived, true to her promise +and, motherly soul that she was, took a keen interest in Judith's +comforts and in caring for the big house, of which she immediately +waxed proud with an air of semiproprietorship. José, from the first, +bestowed upon the cheerful, bustling woman a black hatred born of his +thoroughgoing Latin jealousy. From this or that corner, appearing +unexpectedly, glaring darkly at her in a manner which ruffled her +placidity and suggested to her lively imagination terrible visions of +knives in one's back, he brought an actual thrill into Mrs. Simpson's +long days of routine. + +Busy days also for Bud Lee, who had already begun the education of a +string of colts. Busy days for Doc Tripp who, unhampered, trusted, +aided at every turn by his employer, was from dawn until dark among the +ranch live stock, all but feeling pulse and taking temperature of +horses, cows, colts, calves, hogs, and mules. He stopped the calf +sickness; effected cures in every case excepting one. And the rest of +the stock he finally gave a clean bill of health. + +Busy days for Carson. Painstakingly he estimated, to the head, the +number of cattle the pastures should be carrying, counting from long +experience upon the hard months to come from August until December; +estimating values; appearing at the week's end to suggest the purchase +of a herd of calves from the John Peters Dairy Company, to be had now +at a very attractive figure. And suggesting, almost insistently, upon +buying a certain Shorthorn bull worth twice the twelve hundred dollars +asked for him. Busy days for the foremen who had held over from the +management of Trevors or who had been taken on since. The first crop +of alfalfa, shot through with foxtails, must be cut without delay and +fed into the silos before the beards of the interloping growth could +harden. Busy days for the short-handed milking crew; busy days of +installing the new milking-machines. + +Judith and Doc Tripp had sought to find some trace of the man who, +Judith insisted, had listened at the door in the hall. They had found +nothing. So that episode, as well as Trevors himself, was shoved aside +in their minds, in the stress of activity demanding attention +everywhere. + +With Saturday came Pollock Hampton and his guests. Trevors had +misnamed him a fool, sweepingly mistaking youth, business inexperience +and a careless way, for lack of brains. Just a breezy young fellow, +likable, gay-hearted, keen for the joy of life, scarcely more than a +boy after all. One of those rare beings whose attitude toward his +fellow mortals was one of generous faith, who sought to see the best in +people, who had an outspoken admiration for efficiency in any form. He +came to the ranch prepared to like everything and everybody. + +"Look here!" he exclaimed to Judith, before she had had time for more +than a sweeping appraisal of his friends. "Why didn't you tell me you +were up to a thing like this? Great Scott, Judith, you don't know what +you are tackling, do you? It's ripping of you; you're a sheer wonder +to tie into it; you've got no end of nerve. But running a ranch like +this--why, it's a big proposition for a thunderingly big man to swing." + +"Is it?" smiled Judith. + +Beyond that, the only answer he got from this brief conference was the +timely suggestion that his chief concern for the immediate present lay +in making his guests comfortable. + +Accompanying young Hampton were "Major" Langworthy, a little short, +fat, bald gentleman, who, so far as the knowledge of his club members +went, had never been connected with any part of the army or navy, +unless one counted his congenial brigades of cocktail drinkers; Mrs. +Langworthy, his supercilious, uninteresting wife; Marcia, his languidly +graceful daughter, in whom Hampton gave certain signs of being +considerably interested; Marshal Rogers, the Oakland lawyer, and Frank +Farris, the artist. Also Marcia's maid and Hampton's Japanese valet, +Fujioki. In due course of time this representative of the Flowery +Kingdom grew to be great friends with José, the two forthwith suspected +by Mrs. Simpson of all sorts of dark plots and of a racial sympathy +which must be watched lest it produce "something terrible." + +Pollock Hampton, holding a third of the shares of the big venture, with +his legitimate claim upon a third of the income, was of course a factor +which must be taken into account. Judith, knowing little of him, +sought to know more, watched him when he was talking, got his views +upon many matters that came up haphazard, and found that, while she +liked him, she would have been more than glad if he had not come to +still further complicate matters for her. For it was open and shut +that his interest and enthusiasm would demand a voice. She asked +frankly how long he planned to stay? + +"I'm here for good," he answered cheerfully. His explanation followed +with a grin, quite as though he were telling her of some rare good +news: "Money's all gone, creditors are nuisances, there's no prospect +with you here of having you send me anything. What is left for me but +to stay?" + +Judith suggested a monthly allowance. Hampton laughed good-humoredly. + +"Pay me to keep me out of the way? There's nothing stirring, Judith. +Absolutely. I'm here to give a hand." + +Judith had hopes, even yet, that a couple or weeks or a month at the +most, of life as it runs forty miles from a railroad would dampen and +finally extinguish his bright enthusiasm. But swiftly those hopes +died. This was his first visit to the mountains, and for a man sick of +the city's social round, every inch of the ranch, river and cliffs and +rolling hills had its compelling interest. Perhaps the thing which +Judith overlooked was the blood of his fathers. For before Pollock +Hampton, Sr., had made his money, he and his wife had been, like Luke +Sanford, pioneers. Now something in the mountains here called vaguely +to the soul of young Hampton and made him restless and stirred his +heart. He looked up at the sheer and mighty fall of rock behind the +ranchhouse and his face glowed; he leaned over the rail of a rustic +bridge and forgot Marcia, who was with him, as he watched the beauty of +the foam-flecked water. As he stood stock-still, looking on while Bud +Lee rode a bucking bronco, his eyes were bright and eager. + +"Glory to be!" he exclaimed to the major, who had been coaxed away from +the buffet for a brief half-hour. "Watch that man ride! While I've +been learning to dance and play the piano these men have been doing +real things." + +"Let's go have something," said the major hurriedly. For it did not +fit in with his and Mrs. Langworthy's plans to have Hampton risk his +neck at such pastimes--at least not yet. + +It soon became obvious that long ago Hampton had given freely of his +admiration to Bayne Trevors. For Trevors had taken the time, his own +purpose in mind, to look in upon Hampton some months ago in San +Francisco. Further, he had created the impression which he sought to +make. An impression, by the way, not entirely erroneous. + +"A great man!" cried Hampton warmly. "The only man I know big enough +to swing a job like this." + +To himself he said that the chief good he could do at the outset was to +work to get Trevors back. With this in his mind and having had no full +account of Judith's manner of ejecting the general manager, he went +straight to her. + +"Trevors is a friend of mine," he said lightly. "I'm going to ask him +over to meet my guests. No objection, is there?" + +She looked at him keenly. + +"Do as you please," was her cool answer. "I imagine he won't care to +come." + +Launched upon his first business venture, Hampton went to the +telephone. That evening at table he surprised Judith not a little when +he said casually that Trevors had said he'd run over in a day or so, as +soon as he could find time. + +"What's that?" he asked, breaking off. + +For certainly Judith had started to speak. But now she merely shrugged +her shoulders and sat in silent thoughtfulness. + +Mrs. Langworthy had no liking to bestow upon such as Judith. The girl, +she confided every night to the major, was unladylike, unwomanly, +_outré_, horsy, unthinkable, an insult to any woman into whose presence +she came. The major agreed monosyllabically or with silent nods for +the sake of peace. Personally he was rather inclined to fancy Judith's +uncorseted figure, to admire her red-blooded beauty, and he always +touched up the ends of his mustaches in her presence. + +Judith, having early taken Mrs. Langworthy's measure, found an impish +joy in murdering the proprieties for her especial benefit. She said +"Damn" upon occasions when Mrs. Langworthy was there to hear; she rode +her horse at a gallop into the yard and right up to the veranda when +Mrs. Langworthy was there to see, swinging down as her mount jerked to +standstill, as "ladylike" about it all as a wild Comanche; at table she +talked of prize boars and sick calves and other kindred vulgar matters. + +But the major admired her; Marcia, as days went by, proved to be a +sweet-tempered, somewhat timid, but highly good-natured, affectionate +creature generously offering her good-will; and Rogers, the lawyer, and +Farris, the artist, both of the sophisticated, self-sufficient type, +were little behind the major in interest. + +During the last week of May, a rumor came to Judith's ears of which, at +first, she thought little. Carson, coming to her upon a bit of ranch +business, remarked dryly before taking his departure, that a report had +got around among his men--Poker Face had mentioned it to him--that Blue +Lake ranch was on its last legs; that it was even to be doubted, if the +men ever saw another pay-day before the whole affair went into a +receiver's hands. Judith laughed at him and told him not to worry. + +"Me?" said Carson. "I'm not the worrying kind. But idees like that +ain't good to have floating around. A man won't do more'n half work +when he's wondering all the time if he's going to get his mazuma for +it." + +But, when again the rumor came, this time telephoned up to her from the +Lower End by Doc Tripp, she frowned and wondered. And she was careful, +upon the thirtieth of May, to send Charlie Miller, the storekeeper, +into Rocky Bend for the monthly pay-roll money. She gave him her check +for one thousand dollars which, with what was in Charlie's safe at the +store and in her own here, would more than pay the monthly wages. +Charlie left for Rocky Bend in the afternoon, spending the night in +town to get the customary morning start for the ranch. The men were to +be paid at six o'clock. + +Upon this same day Pollock Hampton told Judith that Bayne Trevors was +coming to the ranch to have dinner, spend the night and the following +day. Judith made no reply beyond favoring him with a quick look of +question. She had not believed that the man would come. What next? + +The last day of May came, and true to his premise, Trevors was a guest +at the house from which, so short a time ago, he had been evicted. He +dined there that night, cool and self-confident, casually polite to +Judith, civil and courteous to the other guests, especially to Major +and Mrs. Langworthy and Marcia, leading conversations unobtrusively, +making himself liked. He watched a game of billiards, but refused to +play, saying carelessly that he had a stiff shoulder. He and Hampton +strolled out into the starlight and for some two or three hours walked +up and down, talking quietly. + +"A gentleman!" cried Mrs. Langworthy with spirit. "It just shows that +a person can do out-doors work and not sink back into the barbarian!" + +The morning after Trevors's arrival, Judith was up betimes and +breakfasted alone. Lunching early, noon found her in the office +expecting Charlie Miller. She was at work on the pay-roll book when +her telephone rang. It was Doc Tripp and there was suppressed +excitement in his voice. + +"Bad news, Judy," he began. "It sure looks as though you were getting +your share." + +"What is it, Doc?" she broke in sharply. "Tell me!" + +"It's Charlie Miller. Hurt. No, not bad. Thrown off his horse, back +in Squaw Creek cañon. And--robbed." + +Quickly he told all that had happened. Miller, hastening back with the +wage money, was riding through the narrow gorge when a man had sprung +out suddenly in front of him. Miller's horse, shying, swerving +unexpectedly, had thrown him. Before he could get to his feet the bag +of gold under his coat had been torn off, his revolver wrenched away +and the highwayman, his face masked with a red bandana handkerchief, +had run into the thick timber. + +"Charlie just walked in, reeling like a drunken man," Tripp concluded. +"His fall and a rap over the head with a gun-butt have made him pretty +sick. I am sending out a posse of men from this end to try and get the +stick-up man. You'd better do the same up there." + +For a moment Judith sat staring at the telephone dully. Robbed of a +thousand dollars, and in broad daylight! A thing like this had not +occurred on the Blue Lake for a dozen years. + +"Bayne Trevors!" she gasped. For, suddenly, she thought that she +understood the significance of the rumor which had twice in a week come +to her. Perhaps, as Tripp himself had said, she was getting nerves. +Trevors himself was on the ranch right now. . . . Her two fists +clinched. Yes, Trevors was here with triple purpose: To curry favor +with Hampton against a possible need of it, to establish an alibi for +himself, to witness Judith's discomfiture, when at six o'clock she must +turn the men away with an excuse. + + + + +VIII + +RIFLE SHOTS FROM THE CLIFFS + +Thank Heaven it was just noon! Judith sprang to her feet, her eyes +bright and hard, and ran down to the men's quarters. Coming up from +the corral were Carson and Bud Lee. + +"Miller with the pay-roll money has been held up and robbed at Squaw +Creek," she told them swiftly. "Get some men together, Carson, and try +to head the robber off." + +The two men, having glanced quickly at each other, stood a moment +looking at her curiously. + +"That's on the level, is it, Miss Judith?" demanded Carson slowly. + +"Of course it's on the level!" she cried impatiently. "Oh, I know what +you're thinking. I'm going to phone immediately to the bank at Rocky +Bend and have another man sent out with more money. You can count upon +getting your pay at six o'clock!" + +"I told you, didn't I," muttered Carson, "that I wasn't worrying none +personal? But if I was you I'd sure have the money on tap!" + +With that he left her, going hastily to round up what men he could find +and get them into their saddles. Bud Lee, his eyes still on her, stood +where he was. + +"Well," demanded the girl, "aren't you going, too?" Suddenly angered +by his leisurely air, she added cuttingly: "Not afraid, are you?" + +"I was thinking," Lee answered coolly, "that the stick-up gent will +most probably figure on a play like that. If he was real wise he'd +mosey along toward Rocky Bend and pop off your second man. Two +thousand bucks a day would make a real nice little draw." + +Judith paused, frowning. There was truth in that. If Trevors really +were behind this, he would have chosen his man carefully; he would have +planned ahead. + +"If you'll do my way," continued Lee thoughtfully, "I'll have just +enough time to roll a smoke and saddle little old Climax. He's in the +stable now. You're not afraid of my double-crossing you? Even if a +smart-headed man had planned the hold-up he wouldn't figure on a play +like this. He'd think we'd have a Rocky Bender bring it out or else +wait until to-morrow." + +"It won't do," she decided quickly. "I want that money here at six +o'clock." + +"Eighty miles," mused the horse foreman. "Six hours. That's riding +right along, but do it my way and I'll gamble you my own string of +horses--and they're worth considerable more than a thousand--that I'll +be back, heeled, at six." + +Judith, quick at decisions, looked him hard in the eye, heard his plan, +and three minutes later Bud Lee, a revolver in his shirt, rode away +from the ranch-house, headed toward Rocky Bend. Judith already had +called up Tripp, and the veterinarian himself, leading the fastest +saddle-horse he could get his hands on at brief notice, was also riding +toward Rocky Bend, from the Lower End, five miles in advance of Lee at +the start. He went at a gentle trot, consulting his watch now and then. + +So Bud Lee, riding as once those hard, dare-devil riders rode who +carried across the land the mail-bag of the Pony Express, overtook Doc +Tripp and changed to a fresh horse at the end of the first fifteen +miles. He swung out of his saddle, stretched his long legs, remarked +lightly that it was a real fine day, and was gone again upon a fresh +mount with twenty-five miles between him and Rocky Bend. The clock at +the bank marked forty-three minutes after two as Lee, leaving a +sweating horse at the door on Main Street, presented his check at the +paying teller's window. The money, in a small canvas bag, was ready. + +"Hello, Bud," and "Hello, Dan'l," was the beginning and end of the +conversation which ensued. Lee did not stop to count the money. He +drew his belt up a hole as he went back to the door, found a fresh +horse there fighting its bit and all but lifting the stable-boy off his +feet, mounted and sped back along Main Street. + +Judith was to send out another man leading still another fresh horse +for him so that he could not fail to be back at the ranch-house by six +o'clock. As Bud Lee, riding hard but never without thought for the +horse which carried him, began the return trip, he drew the heavy +caliber revolver from his shirt and thrust it into his belt. When he +had left Rocky Bend half a dozen miles behind him and was hurrying on +into the outskirts of that country of rolling hills and pine forests, +his hand was never six inches from the gun-butt. + +The road wound in and out among the pines, always climbing. Lee raced +on, his eyes bright and keen, watchful and suspicious of every still +shadow or stirring branch. Coming up the two-mile-long Cuesta Grade, +he saved his horse a little. From the top of the mountain, before he +again followed a winding road back to the river's side, he saw a +horseman riding a distant ridge; the glinted upon the rider's rifle. + +"Old Carson himself," thought Lee. "Looking for the hold-up man. +Shucks! They'll never find him this trip." + +Letting his own animal out into its swinging stride as he got down to +more level going, he hammered on at his clip of fifteen miles an hour. +In the thick shade of the forest, three miles before he came to the +line fence of the Blue Lake ranch, he saw another horseman, this one Ed +Masters, the "college kid." The young fellow's flushed, eager face +passed in a blur as Lee shot by. + +Another mile, and Bud Lee was riding through a clearing, with the tall +cliffs of Squaw Creek cañon looming high on his left, when suddenly and +absolutely without warning, his horse screamed, gathered itself for a +wild plunge, staggered, stood a moment trembling terribly, then with a +low moan collapsed under him. + +Lee swung out and to one side, landing clear as the big brute fell. He +did not understand. He had ridden the animal hard but certainly not +hard enough for this. And then he saw and his eyes blazed with anger. +He had heard no shot, nothing beyond the metallic pounding of the shod +hoofs on flinty road, but there from an ugly hole in the neck the +saddle-horse was pouring out its blood. + +"Smokeless powder and a Maxim silencer!" muttered Lee, his eyes taking +note of the ten thousand possible hiding-places on the cliff's. + +In his ears there was a little whine as a second bullet sang its way by +his head. Again he sought to locate the marksman, again saw nothing +but crag and precipice and brushy clump. He took time for that thing +which came so hard to him, sent a bullet from his own revolver into his +horse's brain, and then slipped out of the clearing into the shelter of +the pines. + +"Two miles left to the border line," he estimated it. "Afoot." + +Stiff from the saddle, he moved on slowly for a little. But as his +muscles responded and warmed to the effort, he broke into a trotting +run. Only a little now could he keep under cover; if he went on with +any degree of speed he must keep to the road and the open. The thought +came to him that he might lie under cover until dark. The second +thought came to him that he had assured Judith that he would be back on +time, and he forged ahead. + +For the second time that day he heard the whine of a bullet. He +thought that the shot came from the cliffs just at the head of Squaw +Creek cañon. But he could not be sure. There was ample protection +there for a man hiding, tall brush in a hollow and three or four +stunted trees, wind-twisted. He'd make the climb to-morrow and see +about it. Now he'd keep right on moving. Little used to travelling +save on a horse's back he was shot through with odd little pains when +at last he came to the border-line fenced and the waiting horse. Tommy +Burkitt held it for him while Lee mounted. + +"Somebody up on the cliffs, head of the cañon," panted Lee at Tommy's +amazed expression when Lee came running into sight. "Killed my horse. +Go after him, Tommy. Tell the other boys." And on he went, pounding +out the last fifteen miles, the canvas bag beating safely against his +side. + +Judith, in the courtyard, watched him ride in. She looked swiftly at +him from the watch on her wrist. Her eyes brightened. It lacked seven +minutes to six. As Bud dropped the canvas bag into her hands she +flashed at him the most wonderful, radiant smile that the long horseman +had ever seen. She gripped his lean, brown hand hard in hers. + +"Bud, you're a brick!" she cried. + +Mrs. Langworthy had just come out with Hampton, Trevors, and the major. + +Judith turned from Lee to Trevors but managed to keep half an eye on +Mrs. Langworthy. + +"You see, it's pay-day with us, Mr. Trevors," she said quietly. "And +when pay-day comes we pay our men at six o'clock in spite of hell and +high water!" + +Bud Lee, leading his horse away, turned for a word. "A man killed a +horse for me to-day," he said very gently, and his eyes rested steadily +upon Trevors. "If I ever get him, or the man who put him up to it, I'm +going to get him right." + + + + +IX + +THE OLD TRAIL + +On the Blue Lake Ranch there was more than one man ready to scoff at +the idea of a robbery like this one, frank enough to voice the +suspicion: "It's just a stall for time!" So much had last week's rumor +done for them, preparing them to expect something that would set aside +the customary monthly pay-day. But when they had seen Charlie Miller's +bruised head and heard his story; when they had sat on their horses and +looked down at the animal which had been shot under Bud Lee, they were +silent. And, besides, when long after dark they came in behind Carson +from a fruitless quest, their pay was ready for them as formerly, in +gold and silver. + +Major Langworthy imbibed an unusually large number of cocktails and +long before noon of the following day had suggested that the ranch be +put immediately under military law, hinting that a military-mustached +gentleman be appointed commanding general of the Blue Lake forces, and +forming within his own mind the picture of himself in the office, +revolver on table, cocktail at elbow, directing the manoeuvres from +this point of vantage, not to say safety. Mrs. Langworthy ruffled her +feathers and sniffed when Judith's name was mentioned. It was +perfectly clear to her that all the ruffians of the West would be quick +to take the advantage arising from the ridiculous condition of a rowdy +girl assuming men's pantaloons. + +"I am rather inclined to think, mama," said Marcia, "that you don't do +Judith justice." + +Trevors, with little to say to any one, took his departure in the +forenoon, extracting from Hampton the promise to ride over and see the +lumber-camp some day soon. + +Judith, held at the office by a lot of first-of-the-month details, did +not get away until close to eleven o'clock that morning. Then she rode +swiftly down the river, a purpose of her own in mind. At the store she +stopped for a sympathetic word with Charlie Miller who had long ago +forgotten his own hurt in his grief and anger that he had lost her +thousand dollars for her. + +"What's a thousand dollars, Charlie?" she laughed at him. "We'll lose +and make many a thousand before the year dies." + +Just below the Lower End settlement she came upon Doc Tripp. He was in +one of the quarantine hog-corrals, his sleeves rolled up, a puzzled +look of worry puckering his boyish face. + +"What's up, Doc?" asked Judith. + +"Don't know, Judy. That's what gets my mad up. Just performed an +autopsy on one of your Poland-China gilts." + +"Found it dead?" asked Judith. + +"Killed it," grunted Tripp. "Sick. Half dozen more are off their feed +and don't look right. A man's always afraid of the cholera. And," +stubbornly, "I won't believe it! There's been no chance of infection; +why, there's not an infected herd this side of the Bagley ranch, sixty +miles the other side of Rocky Bend, a clean hundred miles from here. +But, just the same, I'm taking temperatures this morning and having my +herders cut out all the dull-looking ones and break the herds up." + +"Not getting nerves? Are you, Doc?" And Judith spurred on down the +valley. + +Before she came to the spot where Bud Lee's horse had been shot she +came upon Lee himself. A rifle across his arm, he was looking up at +the cliffs of Squaw Creek cañon. + +"Well, Lee," she said, "what do you make of it?" + +He showed no surprise at seeing her and answered slowly, that far-away +look in his eyes as though he were alone still and speaking simply to +Bud Lee. + +"Using smokeless powder nowadays is a handy thing for a man shooting +under cover," he said. "Then rig up your gun with a silencer and get +off at fair range, half a mile and up, with a telescope sight, and it's +real nice fun picking folks off!" + +"All of that spells preparation," suggested Judith. + +He nodded. When he offered no further remark but sat staring up at the +cliffs, Judith asked: + +"What else have you learned by coming back down here? Anything?" + +"There were two men, anyway. I'd guess, three. The one who stuck up +Charlie and then drifted while the drifting was good. Then the two +other jaspers that tried to wing me." + +"How do you know that?" + +"My horse that was shot," he explained, "got it in the left side of the +neck. Now, look at that hole in the little fir-tree yonder." + +Judith saw what he meant now. At this point Lee yesterday had heard +the second bullet singing dangerously near. It had struck the fir, and +plainly had been fired from some point off to the right of the cañon. +Her eyes went swiftly, after his up the cliff walls. + +"I doped it out while I was running," he went on. "Look at the way the +trees grow here. If a man was on the cliffs shooting at me, and coming +that close to winging me, why, he'd have to be off to the right. These +big pines would shunt him off from the other side. It's open and shut +there were two of them. And darn good shots," he added dryly. + +Briefly he went on to give her the rest of the results of his two-hour +seeking for something definite. If she'd ride on a little she'd come +to the spot where his horse had been killed; she would see in the road +the signs where, at Tripp's, orders, the carcass had been dragged away. +From there, looking off to the left, up the cliffs, she would see the +spot which Lee believed had harbored one of the riflemen. High above +the cañon rose the rocky pinnacle he had marked yesterday, with brush +standing tall in a little depression. + +"Indian Head," broke in Judith, gazing upward. "Bud Lee, I'll bet a +horse you're right. . . ." + +"And," said Lee, swinging from the saddle, "I'm going up there to have +a little look around." + +In an instant the girl was at his side. + +"I am going with you," she said simply. + +He looked at her curiously. Then he shrugged his shoulders. An angry +flush came to the girl's cheeks, but she went on with him. Not a word +passed between them during the entire hour required to climb the steep +side of the mountain and come under Indian Head cliffs. Here they +stood together upon a narrow ledge panting, resting. Again Judith saw +Lee glance at her curiously. He had not sought to accommodate his +swift climbing to a girl's gait and yet he had not distanced her in the +ascent. But in Lee's glance there was nothing of approval. There were +two kinds of women, as he had said, and . . . + +"Pretty steep climb from here up," he remarked bluntly. + +"For a valley man or a cobble-pounder, maybe," was Judith's curt +rejoinder. + +Thereafter they did not speak again until, after nearly another hour, +they at last came to the crest of Indian Head. And here, in the +eagerness of their search, rewarded by the signs which they found, they +forgot, both of them, to maintain their reserve. + +In the clump of brush, close to the outer fringe, behind a low, broad +boulder, a man had lain on his belly no longer ago than yesterday. +Broken twigs showed it, a small bush crushed down told of it, the marks +of his toes in some of the softer soil proclaimed it eloquently. And, +had other signs been required, there they were: two empty brass +cartridges where the automatic ejector had thrown them several feet +away. Lee picked up one of the shells. + +"Latest thing in an up-to-the-minute Savage," he told her. "That gun +is good for twice the distance he used it for. I'm in tolerable luck +to be mountain-climbing to-day, I guess!" + +While Judith visualized just what had occurred, saw the tall man--he +must have been tall for his boot toes to scratch the earth yonder while +his rifle-barrel lay for support across the boulder in front--resting +his gun and firing down into the cañon--Lee was back at her side, +saying shortly: + +"What do you think? There's a plain trail up here, old as the hills, +but tip-top for speedy going." + +"And," said Judith without looking up, "it runs down into the next +saddle, to the north of that ridge, curves up again and with monuments +all along the way, runs straight to the Upper End and comes down from +the northeast to the lake." + +Lee looked at her, wondering. + +"You knew about it all the time, then?" + +"If we hadn't been on our high horses," she told him quietly, "I should +have told you about it. It's the old Indian Trail. If the man we want +turned east, then he went right on to the lake before he stopped +putting one foot in front of the other. Unless he hid out all night, +which I don't believe." + +"What makes you think he went that far?" + +"There's no other trail up here that gets anywhere. If he left this +one for a short cut he'd know, if he knows anything, that he'd have to +take a chance every ten steps of breaking his neck in the dark. Now," +and she rose swiftly, confronting him, "the thing for you to do, Bud +Lee, is to get back to your horse, take the road, make time getting to +the Upper End and see what you can see there!" + +Hurrying back to their horses, they rode to the ranch-house where +Judith, with no word of adieu, left Lee to go to the house. Lee made a +late lunch, saddled another horse, and when the bunk-house clock stood +at a quarter of four, started for the Upper End. + +"That girl's got the savvy," was his one remark to himself. + + + + +X + +UNDER FIRE + +Blue Lake, while but three miles farther eastward, flashed its jewelled +waters into the sun from a plane fully five hundred feet higher than the +tall chimneys of the ranch-house. About it stood the most precipitous +granite cliffs to be found hereabouts. They rose, sheer and majestic, +still another five hundred feet, here and there eight hundred and a +thousand. The lake, half a mile in diameter, circular like some polished +mirror presented by an ancient giant to his lady-love, was shut in +everywhere by these crags and cliffs save at the west, where the +overflowing water, going to swell the turbulent river, poured like molten +crystal through a wide gorge. The farther cliffs marked the eastern +boundary-line of the ranch. Beyond them lay a small plateau rimmed about +on three sides by still other steep precipices. + +Lee, coming to the water's edge sought to guess where the old Indian +Trail came down. And again, startling him for a second time, Judith rode +up. + +She, too, had a fresh horse; she too now carried a rifle across her arm. +Bud Lee frowned. + +"What makes you so certain, Bud Lee," was her abrupt word of greeting, +"that Bayne Trevors is back of this deal?" + +"When did I say that?" he countered. + +"Yesterday, when I told you Charlie Miller had been held up, you +intimated that a long-headed man had planned the whole thing. That means +Trevors, doesn't it?" + +"One of us," said Lee calmly, ignoring her question and looking her +straight in the eyes, "is going back. Which one?" + +"Neither!" she retorted promptly. She even smiled confidently at him. +"For I won't. And you won't." + +"Do you need to be told," he asked her coolly, "that this is no sort of +job for a girl? You'd only be in the way." + +"If you want glittering generalities," she jeered at him, "then listen to +this: A man's job, first, last, and all the time, is to be chivalrous to +a woman! And not a bumptious boor!" + +With that she spurred by him, taking the trail which led off to the right +and so under the cliffs and to the mouth of a great, ragged chasm. In +spite of him, Bud Lee grinned after her. And, seeing that she was not to +be turned back, he followed. + +They left their horses and followed the old footpath, made their way into +the chasm deeper and deeper and little by little climbed upward. The +climb was less difficult than it looked, and fifteen minutes brought them +to the upland plateau and to the door of an old cabin, made of logs, set +back in a tiny grove of cedars. + +"I haven't been here for a year," cried the girl, forgetful of the +constraint which had held them until now. "It's like getting back home +for the first time! I love it." + +"So do I," Lee said within himself. + +"Look!" exclaimed Judith. "Some one has been repairing the old cabin! +He's made a bench yonder under the big tree, too. And he has walled in +the spring with rocks, and . . . Who in the world can it be? There's +even a little garden of wild flowers!" + +Bud Lee, for no reason clear to himself, flushed. He offered no +explanation at first. Here he spent many an hour when the time was his +for idling, lying on the grass, looking out over the immensity of the +wilderness; here he came many a night to sleep under the stars, far from +the other boys, when his soul craved solitude; here upon many a Sunday, +when work was slack, did he come to smoke alone, loaf alone, read from +the few books on the cabin's shelves. + +"Maybe," he suggested at last, when it was clear that Judith was going +straight to the door, "this is where our stick-up gents hang out. Choice +place for a cutthroat to hibernate, huh?" + +"I don't believe it," answered Judith positively. "The man who made his +hermitage here has a soul!" + +Behind her back Lee smiled. + +"We've got something to do," he said hastily, "without wasting time +poking into old shacks. Where's the Indian Trail you talked about?" + +"Shack!" cried Judith indignantly. "You make me sick. Bud Lee! I'd +rather own this cabin and live here, than have a palace on Fifth Avenue!" + +She knocked at the door, knowing that silence would answer her, but +hoping to have a man, calm-eyed, gentle-voiced, a romantic hermit in all +of his picturesqueness, come to the door. + +"Going in?" asked Lee in well-simulated carelessness. + +"No," she told him freezingly. "Why should I? Would you want people +poking about into your home just because it was in the heart of the +wilderness and you weren't there to drive them out?" + +"No," answered Bud gravely. "Now that you ask me, I wouldn't! Let's go +find that trail." + +"But," continued Judith, "not being a fool, and realizing that one of the +men we want might possibly be in hiding in here, I am going to peek in." + +"Not being a fool," he repeated after her, adding gently, "and being a +girl, which means filled with curiosity." + +A disdainful shoulder gave him his answer. The door was unlocked, after +immemorial Western custom, and Judith opened it. Lee heard her little +gasp of pure delight. + +"He's a dear, the man who lives here!" she announced positively. "You +can just tell by looking at his home." + +Looking in over her shoulder, Bud Lee wondered just what in his one-room +shanty had caught her enthusiasm. He was secretly pleased that it had +done so, though that "it" was somewhat vague in his masculine mind. +There was the rock fireplace with an iron hook protruding from each side +for coffee-pot and stew-pot; a bunk with a blanket smoothed over +cedar-boughs; a shelf with a dozen books; little else, so far as he could +see or remember, to catch at Judith's delight. Yet she, looking through +woman's eyes, read in one quick "peek" the character of the dweller in +this abode. One who was content with little, who loved a clean, outdoor +life, and who was tranquilly above the pettiness of humanity. Judith +closed the door softly. + +"I'd like to look inside his books!" she confessed. "But I won't." + +The lean horse foreman chuckled. Judith sniffed at him. + +"You haven't any curiosity about such things as books," she retorted. +"To be sure, why should you have?" + +Again, leaving the cabin, she went before him. Going straight across the +plateau, she showed him where one could clamber up a steep way to the +ridge. Once up there, it was but ten minutes until, in a hollow, they +found the monument marking a trail, a stone set upon a boulder. + +It was after five o'clock. When, following the trail back and forth in +its winding along the side of the ridge, they found the signs they +sought, it was fast growing dark. But there, in a narrow defile where +loose soil had filtered down, were tracks left by a large boot. Lee went +down on his hands and knees to study them in the dusk. He got up with a +little grunt and moved down the trail. Again he found tracks, this time +more clearly defined. So dark was it now that they had lighted several +matches. + +"Two men," he announced wonderingly. "Fresh tracks, too. Made this +morning or last night, I'll bet. One coming east from Indian Head. The +other coming west from the plateau behind us. Who's _he_? Where'd he +come from?" + +"He's the second of the two men who shot at you," said Judith quickly. +"Don't I know every trail in this neck of the woods, Bud Lee? He +followed another old, worn-out trail on the south side of the ranch. +They met here just as I knew they would!" + +"What for?" Lee frowned through the darkness at her eager face. "What +would they want to get together for? If they had any sense they would +scatter and clean out of the country." + +"Unless," Judith reminded him, "they don't intend to clean out at all! +Unless they mean to stick to the cliffs and try their hands again at +their sort of game. They'll figure that we will expect them to be a long +way from here by now, won't they? Then where would they be safer than +right here in these mountains? Give me a rifle and something to eat and +I'll defy an army getting me out there. And think of it: If this is +Trevors's work, if he means business, think what two gunmen on these +heights could do to us. They could pick off a three-thousand-dollar +stallion down in the pens; they could drop more than one prize bull or +cow; and," she added sharply, "if they thought about girls as some men +think, they could take a chance on scaring Judith Sanford out of the +country." + +Lee stared at her a long time in silence. + +"I wouldn't have said," he offered finally, "that Bayne Trevors would +make quite so strong a play as that." + +"You wouldn't! Then look him in the eye! And where's his risk, if he's +picked the right men, if he sees them through, keeping the back door open +when they want to run for it? You just gamble your boots, Bud Lee, that +Bayne Trevors . . ." + +Without warning, without a sound of explosion came a wiry whine into the +still air, a little venomous ping, and a bullet sped by just over their +heads. But, through the gloom, they both saw the flash of the gun as it +spat fire and lead, and, as though one impulse commanded them, Judith's +rifle and Bud Lee's went to their shoulders and two reverberating reports +rang out in answer. + +"Lie down, damn it!" cried Bud Lee to the girl at his side, as again +there came the flash from the cliffs off to the right and as again he +answered it with his rifle. + +"Lie down yourself!" snapped Judith. And once more her rifle spoke with +his. + +For one instant, framed against the darkening sky along the cliff edge +five hundred yards away to the right, they saw the silhouette of a man, +leaping from one boulder to another, a man who looked gigantically big in +the uncertain light. They fired; he jumped again and passed out of sight. + +"Got his nerve," grunted Lee as he pumped lead at the running figure. + +As an answer there came the third flash, the bullet striking the trail in +front of them. And then the fourth flash, from a point a hundred yards +to the left of the other. + +"That's Number Two," muttered Lee. "They've got us in the open, +Judith. Let's beat it back to the cabin." + +"I'm with you," said Judith, between shots. "It's just +foolishness" . . . _bang_! . . . "sticking out here" . . . _bang_! . . . +"for them to pop us off." _Bang_! _Bang_! + +They ran then, Bud slipping in front of her, his tall body looming darkly +between her and the cliffs whence the shots came. He slid along the +sharp slope to the plateau, putting out his arms toward her. And as she +came down, Bud Lee grunted and cursed under his breath. For there had +been another flash out of the thickening night, this one from the refuge +toward which they were running. A third man was shooting from the +shelter of the cabin walls. And Lee had felt a stinging pain as though a +hot iron had scorched its way along the side of his leg. + +"Hurt much?" asked Judith quickly. Without waiting for an answer, she +pumped two shots at the flash by the cabin. + +"No," grunted Lee. "Just scared. And now what? I want to know." + + + + +XI + +IN THE OLD CABIN + +Bud Lee, in the thicker darkness lying along the edge of the plateau, +sat with his back against the rocks while he gave swift first aid to +his wound. He brought into requisition the knotted handkerchief from +about his throat, bound it tightly around the calf of his leg, and said +lightly to Judith: + +"Just a fool scratch, you know. But I've no hankering to dribble out a +lot of blood from it." + +Judith made no answer. Lee took up his rifle and turned to the spot +where she had been standing a moment ago. She was not there. + +"Gone!" he grunted, frowning into the blackness hemming him in. "Now, +what do you suppose she's up to? Fainted, most likely." + +He got up and moved along the low rock wall, seeking her. A spurt of +flame from the east corner of the cabin drew his eyes away from his +search and he pumped three quick shots in answer. + +"Little chance of hitting anything," he muttered. "Too blamed dark. +Just fool's luck that I got mine in the leg." + +Again he sought Judith, calling softly. There was no answer. Once +more came the spurt of flame from the shelter of the cabin wall. Then +fifty yards off to Lee's right, some fifty yards nearer the cabin, +another shot. + +The first suspicion that one of the men from the cliffs had made his +way down to join issue at close quarters, was gone in a clear +understanding. That was the bark of Judith's rifle; she had slipped +away from him without an instant's delay and was creeping closer and +closer to the cabin. + +"Damn the girl!" cried Lee angrily. "She'll get her fool self killed!" + +But as he ran forward to join her, he realized that she was doing the +right thing--the only thing if they did not want to lie out here all +night for the men on the cliffs to pick off in the morning light. He +knew that she could shoot; it seemed that she could do everything that +was a man's work and which a woman should know nothing about. + +A fresh thought locked his hand like steel about his gun-stock. +Suppose that Judith, in the mad thing she was attempting, should +actually succeed in it, that she should bring down the man she was +attacking? How would Bud Lee feel about it when the boys came to know? +What would Bud Lee answer when they asked what he was doing about that +time? "Nursin' a scratched leg? Mos' likely! Huh!" He could hear +old Carson's dry cackle. + +Frowning into the night, he thought that he could make out the dim blur +of Judith's form. The girl was standing erect; shooting, too, for +again the duel of red spurts of flame told where she and her quarry +stood. + +Meantime Lee ran on, changing his original purpose, swerving out from +where Judith was moving forward, turning to the left, hopeful to come +to close quarters with their assailant before she could go down under +that sharp rifle-fire or could bring down the other. For certainly, if +she kept on that way, the time would come when some one would stop hot +lead. + +Lee shifted his rifle to his left hand, taking his revolver into his +right. From the cliffs came a shot and he grunted at it +contemptuously. It could do nothing but assure those below that there +was still some one up there. + +"Three of them to our two," he estimated, "counting the two jaspers on +the cliff. Two of us to their one, counting what's down here. And +that's all that counts right this minute." + +A shot from Judith; a shot from the cabin; two shots from the cliffs. +The two shots from above brought fresh news; not only were they closer +together, but they indicated the men up yonder were coming down. Lee +hurried. + +Then, at last, his narrowed eyes made out the faint outline of that +which he sought. Close to the cabin, low down, evidently upon his +knees, was the most important factor to be considered, now. Still Lee +was too far away to be certain of a hit and he meant with all of the +grim determination in him to hit something at last. He ran on drawing +the fire away from Judith. A rifle-ball sang close to his side, +another and an other. He lost the dim shape of the kneeling man, who, +he thought, had risen from his knees and was standing, his body +tight-pressed to the cabin. + +"Why the devil doesn't he run for it?" wondered Lee. + +But evidently, be the reason what it might, the man had no intention of +running. A bullet cut through Lee's sleeve. At last Lee answered. He +ran in closer as he fired and, running, emptied his revolver, jammed it +into his waistband, clubbed his rifle . . . and realized with something +of a shock that there were but the two rifles on the cliffs to take +into consideration. That other rifle, at the cabin, was still. Out of +ammunition? Or plugged? Or playing 'possum? Which? + +"Stop shooting!" he shouted to Judith. + +"I'm coming!" she cried back to him. + +Almost at the same instant, their two rifles ready, they came to the +cabin. Between them on the ground a man lay at the corner, moving +helplessly, groping for his fallen gun, falling back. + +"Open the door," said Bud. "I'll get him inside and we'll see who he +is. Hurry, Judith; those other jaspers are working down this way as +fast as they know how." + +Judith, taking time to snatch up the fallen rifle, ran around to the +door. Lee slipped his hands under the armpits of the wounded man and +dragged him in Judith's wake. In the cabin, the door shut, Lee struck +a match and went to a little shelf where there was a candle. + +"Bill Crowdy!" gasped Judith. + +Almost before Lee saw the man's face he saw the canvas bag tied to his +belt, a bag identical with the one he himself had brought from the bank +at Rocky Bend. + +"The man that stuck up Charlie Miller," he said slowly. "And there's +your thousand bucks, or I'm a liar. I get something of their play now: +those two fellows up there were waiting to meet him and split the swag +three ways. And I've got the guess they'll be asking a look-in yet!" + +He dropped a heavy bar into its place across the door and then went to +the two small windows and fastened the heavy oaken shutters. When he +came back to Judith she was bending over the wounded man. Crowdy's +eyes were closed; he looked to be on the verge of death. The girl's +face was almost as white as Crowdy's. + +Lee knelt and with quick fingers sought the wound. There was a hole in +Crowdy's chest, high up near the throat, that was bleeding profusely. +At first that seemed the only wound. But in a second Lee had found +another. This was in the leg, and this, like Lee's, was bound tightly +with a handkerchief. + +"Got that, first rattle out of the box!" commented Lee. "See it? +That's why he stuck on the job and didn't try to run for it. Looks +like a rifle-ball had smashed the bone." + +He didn't look up. His fingers, busy with the string at Crowdy's belt, +brought away the canvas bag. There was blood on it; it was heavy and +gave forth the mellow jangle of gold. + +"You win back your thousand on to-night's play," he said, holding up +the bag to Judith, lifting his eyes to her face. + +But Judith shrank back, her eyes wide with horror. + +"I don't want it! I can never touch it!" she whispered. + +Suddenly she was shaking from head to foot, her eyes fixed in terrible +fascination upon Crowdy's face. Lee tossed the bag to the bunk across +the room, whence it fell clanking to the floor. + +"Now she's going to faint," was his thought. "Well, I won't blame her +so damn much. Poor little kid!" + +But he did not look at her again. He tore away Crowdy's shirt to +discover just how serious the wound in the chest was. The collar-bone +had been broken; the ball had ploughed its way through the upper chest, +well above the heart, and could be felt under the skin of the shoulder. +Unless Bill Crowdy bled to death, he stood an excellent chance of doing +time in the penitentiary. Lee stanched the flow of blood, made a rude +bandage, and then, lifting the body gently, carried it to the bunk. +Crowdy's lax arm, extended downward at the side of the bunk, seemed to +be reaching again for the canvas bag; the red fingers touched it with +their tips. + +"Now," said Lee, speaking bluntly, afraid that a tone of sympathy might +merely aid the girl to "shake to pieces," "we've got a chance to be on +our way before Number Two and Number Three get into the game. Let's +run for it, Judith." + +Judith went to the bench by the fireplace and sank down upon it. For a +moment she made no reply. Then she shook her head. + +"We'll stay here until morning," she said finally, her voice surprising +Lee, who had looked for a sign of weakening to accord with her sudden +pallor and visible trembling. + +"What for?" he wanted to know. "We'll have another fight on our hands +if we do. Those fellows, this deep in it, are not going to quit while +they know that there's all that money in the shack!" + +"I don't care," said Judith firmly. "I won't run from them or anybody +else I know! And, besides, Bud Lee, I am not going to give them the +chance to get Crowdy away. . . . Do you think he is going to die?" + +"No, I don't. Doc Tripp will fix him up." + +"Then here I stay, for one. When I go, Bill Crowdy goes with me! He's +going to talk, and he's going to help me send Bayne Trevors to the pen." + +Bud Lee expressed all he had to say in a silent whistle. He'd made +another mistake, that was all. Judith wasn't going to faint for him +to-night. + +"Then," he said presently, setting her the example, "slip some fresh +cartridges into your rifle and get ready for more shooting. I'll put +out the light and we'll wait for what's next." + +Judith replenished the magazine of her rifle. Lee, watching from under +the low-drawn brim of his hat, noted that her fingers were steady now. +Crowdy moved on his bunk, lifted a hand weakly, groaned, and grew +still. Presently he stirred again, asking weakly for water. + +Lee went to the water-bucket standing in a corner. It happened to be +half full. He filled a cup, and lifting Crowdy's head, held it to the +fevered lips. + +"Not exactly what you'd call fresh, is it, Crowdy?" he said lightly. +"But the spring's outside and I'm scared to go out in the dark." + +Crowdy drank thirstily and lay back, his eyes closed again. Lee +rearranged his bandage. + +"Put out the light now?" he asked Judith. + +"No," she answered. "What's the use, Bud? There are no holes in the +walls they could stick a gun-barrel through, are there?" + +No one knew better than he that there were not. + +"You see," said Judith, with a half-smile, heroically assumed, "I'm a +little afraid of the dark, too! Anyway, since we've got to spend the +night with a man in Crowdy's shape, it will be more cosey, won't it, +with the light on?" + +She even put out her hand to one of the books on the shelves which she +could reach from her bench. + +"And now," she added, "I'm sure that our hermit won't mind if we peep +into his library, will he?" + +"No," answered Lee gravely. "Most likely he'll be proud." + +Lee found time to muse that life is made of incongruities, woman of +inconsistencies. Here with a badly hurt man lying ten feet from her, +with every likelihood of the night stillness being ripped in two by a +rifle-shot, Judith sat and turned the pages of a book. It was a volume +on the breeding and care of pure-blooded horses. Odd sort of thing for +her hermit to have brought here with him! Her hand took down another +volume. Horses again; a treatise by an eminent authority upon a newly +imported line from Arabia. A third book; this, a volume of Elizabethan +lyrics. Bud Lee flushed as he watched her. She turned the pages +slowly, came back to the fly-leaf page, read the name scrawled there +and, turning swiftly to Lee, said accusingly: + +"David Burrill Lee, you are a humbug!" + +"Wrong again," grinned Lee. "A hermit, you mean! 'A man with a soul.' +. . ." + +"Scat!" answered Judith. But, under Bud Lee's teasing eyes, the color +began to come back into her cheeks. She _had_ been a wee bit +enthusiastic over her hermit, making of him a picturesque ideal. She +had visioned him, even to the calm eyes, gentle voice. A quick little +frown touched her brows as she realized that the eyes and voice which +her fancy had bestowed upon the hermit were in actuality the eyes and +voice of Bud Lee. But she had called him a dear. And Lee had been +laughing at her all the time--had not told her, would never have told +her. The thought came to her that she would like to slap Bud Lee's +face for him. And she had told Tripp she would like to slap Pollock +Hampton's. Good and hard! + + + + +XII + +PARDNERS + +From without came the low murmur of men's voices. Judith laid her book +aside and drew her rifle across her knees, her eyes bright and eager. +At infrequent intervals for perhaps three or four minutes the two +voices came indistinctly to those in the cabin. Then silence for as +long a time. And then a voice again, this time quite near the door, +calling out clearly: + +"Hey, you in there! Pitch the money out the window and we'll let you +go." + +"There's a voice," said Judith quietly, "to remember! I'll be able to +swear to it in court." + +Certainly a voice to remember, just as one remembers an unusual face +for years, though it be but a chance one seen in a crowd. A voice +markedly individual, not merely because it was somewhat high-pitched +for a man's, but rather for a quality not easily defined, which gave to +it a certain vibrant, unpleasant harshness, sounding metallic almost, +rasping, as though with the hiss of steel surfaces rubbing. Altogether +impossible to describe adequately, yet, as Judith said, not to be +forgotten. + +Judith noticed a puzzled look on Bud's face. He called out: "What did +you say out there?" + +Word for word came the command again: + +"Pitch the money out of the window and we'll let you go." + +Lee turned triumphantly to Judith. + +"I've got his tag!" he whispered to her. "I played poker with that +voice one night not four months ago in Rocky Bend!" + +"Who is he?" Judith whispered back. "With Crowdy down, if we know who +one of these men is, the rest will be easy. Who is he?" + +"A bad egg," Lee told her gravely. "He's done time in the State pen. +He's been out less than a year. Gunman, stick-up man, convicted once +already for manslaughter . . ." + +"Not Chris Quinnion, Bud Lee!" she cried excitedly. "Not Chris +Quinnion!" + +"Sh!" he commanded softly. "There's no use tipping our hand off to +him. Yes; it's crooked Chris Quinnion. You don't know him, do you?" + +He had never seen her eyes look as they looked now. They were as hard +and bright as steel; no true woman's eyes, he thought swiftly. Rather +the eyes of a man with murder in his heart. + +"Then, thank God!" whispered Judith, her voice tense. "Can you keep a +secret with me, Bud Lee? Were it not for the man calling to us now, +Luke Sanford would be here in our stead. Crooked Chris Quinnion served +his time in San Quentin because my father sent him there. And he had +not been free six months before he kept his oath and murdered my poor +old dad!" + +"Well?" came the interrupting snarl of Quinnion's voice, like the +ominous whine of an enraged animal. "What's the word?" + +"Give us five minutes to think it over," returned Lee coolly. And, +incredulous eyes on Judith's set face, he said gently: "I was on the +ranch when the accident happened. He must have driven that heavy car a +little too close to the edge of the grade. The bank just naturally +gave way." + +Judith, her lips tightly compressed, shook her head. + +"You didn't find him under the car, did you? And the blow that killed +him might have been dealt with some heavy weapon in the hands of a man +standing behind him, mightn't it? I know, Bud Lee, I know!" + +"How do you know?" he demanded intently. "You weren't here even." + +"No. I was in San Francisco. But the day before I had a letter from +father. He expected me home very soon. He was going out, he said in +his letter, to look at the road over the mountain. He wrote that the +grade was dangerous, especially at the very place where the car went +over! He wanted me to know so that in case he could not get the work +done on it before I came, I would be careful. On top of that would he +go and run his car into such danger as that? Oh, I know!" she cried +again, her hands hard upon her rifle. "I know, I tell you! From the +first I suspected. I knew that Chris Quinnion had threatened a dozen +times to 'get' father; I knew that soon or late he would try. I wrote +Emmet Sawyer, our county sheriff, and told him what I believed, asked +him to go to the spot and see what the signs told. A square man is +Emmet Sawyer and as sharp as tacks." + +"And he told you that you were mistaken?" + +"He did nothing of the kind! He reported that the tracks of the car +showed that it had kept well away from the bank, that evidently it had +stopped there, that again it had gone on, swerving so as to run close +to the edge! I know what happened: Father got out to look at the +dangerous spot and to put up the sign he had brought with him and that +was found in the road. Chris Quinnion had followed him, perhaps to +shoot him down from behind, Chris Quinnion's way! Then he saw a safer +way. He came up behind poor old dad and struck him in the head with +something, rifle-barrel or revolver. He started the car up and let it +run over the bank. He--" + +She broke off then. Bud Lee felt that he knew what she would say if +she could bring herself to go on; that she would tell how crooked Chris +Quinnion had thrown the unconscious man down over the bank to lie, +bruised and broken, by the wrecked car. + +"You've got to be almighty sure before you make a charge like that," he +reminded her. "If Quinnion had done it, why didn't Emmet Sawyer get +the dead-wood on him?" + +"Because," she whispered quickly, "a man fooled Sawyer! Yes, and +fooled me! Quinnion established an alibi. A man whose word there was +no reason to doubt said that Quinnion was with him at the time of the +murder. And that man was--Bayne Trevors!" + +"Trevors?" muttered Lee. He shook his head. "Trevors is a hard man, +Judith. And he's a scoundrel, if you want to know! But frame up a +murder deal--plan to murder Luke Sanford--No. I don't believe it!" + +"Is he the man to miss a chance that lay at his hand? The main chance +for him? The chance to hold a man like Chris Quinnion in the hollow of +his hand, to make him do his bidding, to set him just such work as he +is doing now? Answer me! Is Bayne Trevors above a deal like that?" + +Bud Lee's answer was silence. + +"And there is one other thing," went on Judith swiftly, "known to no +one but Emmet Sawyer, whom I told, and me and Chris Quinnion: In +father's letter he told me that a man had paid him some money the day +before, and that he was going to drive to Rocky Bend to bank it. +'There are some tough customers in the country,' he wrote, 'and it's +foolhardy to have too much money in our old safe.' That money, several +hundred dollars, was never banked. It was not found on his body. +Where did it go?" + +"Even that doesn't incriminate Quinnion, you know." + +"No. The rest is pure guesswork on my part. Guesswork based on what I +know. Not enough to hang Chris Quinnion, Bud Lee. But enough to make +me sure. He's working at Trevor's game right now. If we can prove +that it is Trevors's game, it will go to show how worthless his alibi +was." + +"Well?" called Quinnion, the third time. "What about it? We ain't +goin' to wait all night." + +"Tell him," whispered Judith, her hand on Lee's arm, "to come and get +it if he wants it! One of us can hold the cabin against the two of +them while the other slips out in the dark and rides back to the +ranch-house for help. If we're in luck, Bud Lee, we'll corner the +bunch of them before daylight!" + +Lee stood a moment looking down into her face, his mind filled with +uncertainties. With all his soul he wished that Judith had not come +with him to-night, that he had only himself to think of now. Quinnion, +not to be further put off, called again, the snarl of his voice rising +into ugly threat. Still Lee, thinking of Judith, hesitated. + +"It's the only way," she insisted. "If we gave them the money they'd +want Bill Crowdy next. If they got Crowdy away with them into the +mountains I am not sure that they could not hide until they got him +safe in Trevors's hands. Then we'd have the whole fight still to make, +sooner or later. It's our one bet, Lee!" + +And Bud Lee, seeing no better way ahead for them, blew out the candle, +forced Judith to stand close to the rock chimney of the fireplace, took +his station near her, and answered Quinnion, saying shortly: + +"Come ahead when you're ready. We're waiting." + +Quinnion's curse, the crack of his rifle, the flying splinters from the +cabin door, came together like one implacable menace. + +"And now, Bud Lee," cried Judith quickly, "I don't mind telling you, +not seeing the end of the string we are playing, that you are a man to +my liking!" + +"My hat's off," said Lee, with grave simplicity. "And in any old kind +of a fight a man wouldn't want a better pardner than I can reach now, +putting out my hand. He'd want--just a thoroughbred! And now, little +pardner, let's give them--fits!" + +Judith, even as Quinnion's second shot tore into the door, laughed +softly. + +"Finish it as you began it, Bud Lee! Even George Washington swore at +Monmouth, you know!" + +So Bud Lee amended his words and spoke his thought: + +"Then, pardner, let's give 'em hell!" + +Crouching in the dark, reserving their own fire while they waited for +something more definite than the bark of a rifle to shoot at, their +hand met. + + + + +XIII + +THE CAPTURE OF SHORTY + +It came about, quite as matters often do, that at the +three-mile-distant ranch headquarters it was one who knew comparatively +little of the ways of this part of the world who was first to suspect +that all was not well with Judith Sanford. To Pollock Hampton her +failure to appear at dinner was significant. + +Together with the other newcomers to the ranch from the city he had +been deeply moved by yesterday's outlawry. Drawing upon a vivid +imagination, he peopled the woods with desperate characters. When +after dinner an hour passed without bringing Judith, he began to show +signs of nervous anxiety. Without making his fears known to his +friends, he went to the office and telephoned to Doc Tripp. All that +Tripp could tell him was that he didn't know where Judith was and +didn't care; she could take care of herself. Though the veterinarian +didn't say as much, he was at the moment puzzled by the new sickness +among the hogs and his irritable concern in this matter allowed him +scant interest in other people's affairs. + +Hampton learned from Mrs. Simpson that in the afternoon Judith after a +hurried lunch had taken her rifle and ridden away. Where? Mrs. +Simpson did not know. But she grasped the opportunity to confide in +Hampton a certain suspicion which she held in connection with the +robbery and killing of Bud Lee's horse under him--a suspicion which was +growing rapidly into positive certainty. She didn't like to mention +the matter to him, since Fujioki was his servant. But had he noted +Fujioki and that other black Spanish, José? They had a community of +interest which must extend far beyond racial kinship; they were, even +at this very second, out in the courtyard together talking in subdued +voices. Mrs. Simpson had been raised a lady, Mr. Hampton, sir; and she +knew that in the best families one was not supposed to eavesdrop. But +at a time like this. . . . Well, she _had_ crept up behind the +lilac-bushes and they _were_ speaking guardedly about the hold-up! +Almost in whispers, with every sign of guilt---- + +"Hurried lunch?" said Hampton. "Took her rifle, did she?" + +His eyes had grown very serious as he stared down into Mrs. Simpson's +concerned face. + +"Send José to me," was what he said next. + +"Aren't you afraid, Mr. Hampton?" she exclaimed, picturing to herself +this pleasant young gentleman at death-grips with the sombre José. +However, she obeyed and called José whom Hampton merely sent to the +men's quarters with word for Carson and Lee to come to the house. Mrs. +Simpson, witnessing the bloodless meeting from the hallway, was a +little relieved and very much disappointed. + +Hampton strode up and down the office, the frown gathering upon his +usually smooth brows. Plainly if something had happened to Judith the +present responsibility lay upon his shoulders as next in authority. + +"Here I am," announced Carson briefly. "What is it?" + +"I am a little worried, Carson," said Hampton, "about Miss Sanford." + +"Huh?" grunted the old cattleman. + +"Judith hasn't put in an appearance and it's growing late," continued +Hampton hastily "I'm afraid----" + +"Afraid? Afraid of what? You don't think she eloped with your Jap or +stole the spoons, do you?" snapped Carson. He had been interrupted at +the crucial point in a game of cribbage with Poker Face and the +cattleman's weak spot was cribbage. He glared at Hampton belligerently. + +"Where is Lee?" questioned Hampton sharply. "I told José I wanted the +two of you. Why didn't he come?" + +"Dunno," answered Carson, still without interest. "I ain't seen him. +Wasn't in for supper----" + +"I tell you," cried Hampton, angry at Carson's quiet acceptance of +facts which to him were darkly significant, "he, too, was out with his +rifle to-day; I saw him myself. Now _he_ fails to show up! Don't you +see what all this points to?" + +Carson, who seldom lost his poise with one-half of his brain still +given over to the hand he meant to play with Poker Face, merely sighed +and shook his head. + +"I'm real busy down at the bunk-house, Mr. Hampton," at last came his +quiet answer, "where me an' Poker Face is figuring out something +important. As for worrying about a man like Bud Lee or a girl like +Judy, why, I just ain't going to do it a-tall. Most likely if you'll +call up the Lower End----" + +"I've done it!" Whirling in his impatient stride across the room, +Hampton came swiftly to Carson's side. "They're not there. They left +the Lower End this afternoon and came on here. Then, both armed, they +rode away again at four or five o'clock. I tell you, man, something +has happened to them." + +"Don't believe it," retorted Carson. "Not for one little half-minute, +I don't. What's to happen? Huh?" + +"You know as well as I do what sort of characters are about. The man +who robbed Charlie Miller--who shot at Bud Lee----" + +"Whoa!" grinned Carson. "Don't you go and fool yourself. That +stick-up gent is a clean hundred miles from here right now an' still +going, real lively. If any other jasper lent him a hand, why, he's on +his way, too. Not stopping to pick flowers. It's the way them kind +plays the game." + +Carson was so cheerfully certain, so amused at the thought of Bud Lee +and Judith Sanford requiring anybody's assistance, so confident +concerning the methods of outlaws, that finally Hampton sent him away, +half assured, and went himself to his friends in the living-room. Here +he found the major and Mrs. Langworthy reading and yawning. Marcia +laughed at a jest of Farris's, while Rogers sought to interest her in +himself. The every-day, homelike atmosphere had its effect in allaying +his picturesque fears. Hampton noted how her handful of days in the +country had done Marcia a world of good, putting fresh, warm color in +her rather pale cheeks, breeding a new sparkle in her eyes. She was +good to look upon. + +He let half an hour slip by in restless inactivity. For, no matter +what Carson might say or these people in here do, Judith had not yet +come in. When Marcia addressed a bright remark to him, he started and +stammered: "I _beg_ your pardon!" They laughed at him, saying that +Pollock Hampton was growing absent-minded in his old age. But their +banter failed to reach him; he was telling himself that some accident +might have befallen one or both of two persons whom he frankly admired +for their efficiency. + +By half past eight they had caught his uneasiness. At every little +sound they turned expectantly. Still no Judith. Mrs. Simpson, +comfortable woman that she was, came in, bustling with apprehension. +Mrs. Langworthy shook off for a little her listlessness and recounted +how she had watched "that girl" riding like a wild Indian toward the +Upper End. Perhaps her gun had gone off accidentally. + +"Or," she concluded with a touch of venom, "it wouldn't be above her to +run off with that long horse foreman." + +"Eh?" said the major. "Don't believe it. A fine fig--ahem. Where +should she run to? And why run at all?" + +Marcia looked a quick distress to Mr. Hampton. + +"It _is_ late," she said timidly, "Oh, Pollock! Do you think----" + +No longer to be restrained, Hampton left them and went to his room for +a rifle and cartridge-belt. He intended to slip out quietly, feeling +that he would get from Farris and Rogers only the sort of disbelief he +had gotten from Carson. Marcia met him in the hall; she had heard his +quick steps and guessed that he was going out. Now clearly, though she +was frightened, she was delighted with him. He had never thrilled her +like this before. She had never guessed that Pollock Hampton could be +so stern-faced, so purposeful. She whispered an entreaty that he be +careful, then as he went out, ran back to the others, her eyes shining. + +"Pollock is going to see what is the matter," she announced excitedly. +Whereat Mrs. Langworthy stared at her and then indicated facially her +supreme disgust. The major suggested taking something, the occasion so +plainly demanding it. + +Hampton passed swiftly through the courtyard. He saw the light of the +bunk-house gleaming brightly. On his way down the knoll he came upon +Tommy Burkitt. + +"Is it Mr. Hampton?" asked Tommy, coming close in the darkness to peer +at him. + +"Yes. What is it? Who are you?" + +"I'm Burkitt, Tommy Burkitt, you know--Bud Lee's helper. I--I am +afraid something has happened. Lee hasn't come in yet; they tried to +pick him off once already, you know----" + +"Neither has Miss Sanford come in," said Hampton quickly, sensing here +at last a fear that was fellow to his own. "They rode toward the Upper +End. You know the way, Burkitt?" + +He moved on toward the corral; Burkitt turned and came with him. + +"Sure I know the trail," muttered Tommy. "You're goin' to see what's +wrong with 'em! Miss Judy, too! My God----" + +"Bring out a couple of horses," Hampton commanded crisply. "We've lost +time enough already." + +"I'll go tell Carson an' the boys----" + +"I have already told Carson. He says it's all nonsense. Leave him +alone." + +Tommy, boy that he was, asked no further questions, but ran ahead and +brought out two horses. In a twinkling he had saddled them, and the +two riders, each with a rifle across his arm, were hurrying over the +mountain trail. + +In the blackness which lay along the upper river Hampton gave his horse +a free rein and let it follow at Tommy's heels. The roar of the +lashing water, the pounding of shod hoofs, the whining creak of +saddle-leather were the only sounds coming to them out of the night. +When, finally, they drew rein under the cliffs at the lake's edge all +was silent save for the faint distant booming of the river below them. + +"Now which way?" whispered Hampton, his voice eloquent of suppressed +excitement and eagerness. + +Tommy was shaking his head in uncertainty when suddenly from above +there came to them the sharp report of a rifle. Then, like a bundle at +firecrackers, a volley of half a dozen staccato shots. + +"Listen to that, Burkitt," muttered Hampton. "They're at it now--we're +on time----" + +Tommy slipped from the saddle wordlessly, came to Hampton's side and +tugged gently at his leg, whispering for him to get down. Leaving +their horses there, they slipped into the utter darkness of the narrow +chasm in the rocks which gave access to the plateau above. + +"Now," cautioned Tommy guardedly, as they came to the top, "keep close +to me if you don't want to take a header about a thousan' feet. Look!" +He nudged Hampton and pointed. "There are two horses across yonder; +Bud's an' Miss Judy's, most likely." + +Hampton did not see them, did not seek to see them. Something new, +vital, big, had swept suddenly into his life. He was at grips +first-hand with unmasked, pulsing forces. A tremor went through him +and he was not ashamed of it; for it was not the quaking of fear, but +the thrill in the blood of a man who, plucked from a round of social +artificialities, finds himself with the smell of burnt powder in his +nostrils and who feels a swift eagerness for what may lie just yonder +waiting for him. "They're at it now!" he whispered to Burkitt. +Men--yes, and a girl--were shooting, not at just wooden and paper +targets, but at other men! At men who shot back, and shot to kill. + +"Listen," said Burkitt. "Somebody's in the old cabin; somebody's +outside. Which is which? We got to be awful careful." + +They began a slow, cautious approach, slipping from bush to bush, from +tree to tree, standing motionless now and then to frown into the folds +of the night's curtains. Abruptly the firing ceased. They made out +vaguely the two forms of the attackers, having located them a moment +ago by the spurting flames from their guns. Then, "Got enough in +there?" came the snarling voice of Quinnion. "If you haven't, I'm +going to burn you out an' be damned to you!" + +He got an answer he little expected. For Hampton, running out into the +open, now that he knew that Bud and Judith must be in the cabin, was +firing as he came. Burkitt's rifle spoke with his. + +"Run for it, Shorty!" yelled Quinnion. "You know where. We're up +against the Blue Lake boys." + +"Bud!" shouted Tommy. "Oh, Bud!" + +"In the cabin," came Bud's ringing answer. "Give 'em hell, Tommy! +Coming!" + +With his words came the sound of the door snapping back against the +wall, the reports of Tommy's rifle and Hampton's pumping hot lead after +two racing forms. + +"They'll get away!" shouted Hampton, a sudden red rage upon him. +"Curse it! It's too dark----" + +Then Tommy gave over shooting and yelled to Lee to hold his fire. For +instead of two there were three flying forms, three fast-racing, +blurring, shadowy shapes merging with the night. Pollock Hampton, his +rifle clubbed in his hand, was running with a college sprinter's speed +after Quinnion and Shorty, calling breathlessly: + +"Look out, they'll get away!" + +Once Quinnion stopped to shoot back. The hissing lead went wide of the +pursuer and he gave over firing and settled down to good, hard running, +disappearing from Hampton's staring eyes. But Shorty was still to be +seen, running heavily. + +"Don't shoot, Bud!" cried Tommy again as two figures ran out of the +cabin. "Hampton's out there--the crazy fool----" + +"Hampton, come back!" shouted Lee, running after him. + +But Hampton was gaining on the heavy-set Shorty and had no thought of +coming back. Nor a thought of anything in all the wide world just then +but overtaking the flying figure in front of him. Shorty stumbled over +a fallen log and rose, cursing and calling: + +"Chris! Lend a hand." + +That little chance of an uprooted tree saved Hampton's life that night. +Shorty, falling, had dropped his gun and hurt his knee. For a moment +he groped wildly for the lost rifle, then ran on without it. Hampton +cleared the log, and with a yell rather befitting a victorious savage +than the young man whom Mrs. Langworthy hoped to call her son, threw +his long arms about Shorty's neck. + +"I got him!" shouted Hampton. "By glory----" + +Shorty drove a big brutal fist smashing into his captor's face. But +Hampton merely lowered his head, hiding it against Shorty's heaving +shoulder, and tightened his grip. Shorty struggled to his feet, +shaking at him, tearing at him, driving one fist after the other into +Hampton's body. But with a grimness of purpose as new to him as was +the whole of to-night's adventure Hampton held on. + +Judith and Lee and Burkitt came to them as they were falling again. +Now suddenly, with other hard hands upon him, Shorty relaxed, and +Hampton, his face bloody, his body sore, sank back. He had done a mad +thing--but triumph lay in that he had done it. + +"A man never can tell," muttered Bud Lee, with less thought of the +captive than of the captor--"never can tell." + +"I am thinking," said Judith wonderingly, "that I never quite did you +justice, Pollock Hampton!" + + + + +XIV + +SPRINGTIME AND A VISION + +Hampton's captive, known to them only as Shorty, a heavy, surly man +whose small, close-set eyes burned evilly under his pale brows, rode +that night between Hampton and Judith down to the ranch-house. He +maintained a stubborn silence after the first outburst of rage. His +hands tied behind his back, a rope run round his waist and down on each +side through a cinch-ring, he sat idly humped forward, making no +protest. + +Burkitt and Lee, despite Judith's objections because of Lee's wounded +leg, remained at the cabin with Bill Crowdy. Crowdy had lost a deal of +blood, and though he complained of little pain, was clearly in sore +need of medical attention. Judith, coming to the bunk-side just before +she left, assured him very gently that she would send Doc Tripp to him +immediately and, further, that she would telephone into Rocky Bend for +a physician. Crowdy, like Shorty, refused to talk. + +"Aw, hell," he grunted as Lee demanded what influence had brought him +with Shorty and Quinnion into this mad project, "let me alone, can't +you?" + +And Lee let him alone. He and Burkitt sat and smoked and so passed the +remaining hours of a long night. The folly of seeking Quinnion in this +thick darkness was so obvious that they gave no thought to it, +impatiently awaiting the dawn and the coming of the men whom Judith +would send. + +The events of the rest of the night and of the morrow may be briefly +told: Shorty's modest request of a glass of whiskey was granted him. +Then, his hands still bound securely by Carson, he was put in the small +grain-house, a windowless, ten-by-ten house of logs. An admirable jail +this, with its heavy padlock snapped into a deeply embedded staple and +the great hasp in place. The key safely in Judith's possession, Shorty +was left to his own thoughts while Judith, and Hampton went to the +house. + +In answer to Judith's call, Doc Tripp came without delay, left brief, +disconcerting word that without the shadow of a doubt the hogs were +stricken with cholera, and went on with his little bag to see what his +skill could do for Bill Crowdy. + +"Ought to give him sulphur fumes," grunted Tripp. But his hands were +very gentle with the wounded man for all that. + +Pollock Hampton had no thought of sleep that night; didn't so much as +go to bed. He lay on a couch in the living-room and Marcia Langworthy, +tremendously moved at the recital Judith gave of Hampton's heroism, +fluttered about him, playing nurse to her heart's delight. The major +suggested that Hampton have something and Hampton was glad to accept. +Mrs. Langworthy complacently looked into the future and to the maturity +of her own plans. In truth, good had come out of evil, and Marcia and +Hampton held hands quite unblushingly. + +Before daylight Carson, with half a dozen men, had breakfasted, saddled +and was ready to ride to the Upper End to begin the search for +Quinnion. But before he rode, Carson made the discovery that during +the night the staple and hasp on the grain-house door had been wrenched +away and that Shorty was gone, leaving behind him no sign of the way of +his going. Carson's face was a dull, brick red. Not yet had he +brought himself to accept the full significance of events. A hold-up, +such as Charlie Miller had experienced, is one thing; a continued +series of incidents like these happening upon the confines of the Blue +Lake Ranch, was quite another. Hampton, knowing nothing of conditions +in the mountains, had been quick to imagine the predicament in which he +had found Judith and Bud Lee. To Carson that had been a thing not to +be thought of. Now, only too plainly he realized that Shorty had had +an accomplice at the ranch headquarters who had come to his assistance. + +Carson blamed himself for the escape. And yet, he growled to himself, +in a mingling of shame and anger, it would have looked like plumb +foolishness to sit out in front of that heavy door all night, when he +himself had tied Shorty's hands. + +"Quinnion might have let him loose," he mused as he went slowly to the +house to tell Judith what had happened. "An' then he mightn't. If he, +didn't, then who the devil did?" + +Judith received the news sleepily and much more quietly than Carson had +expected. + +"We'll have to keep our eyes open after this, Carson," was her +criticism. Remembering the night when she had been so certain that +there had been some one listening to her talk with Tripp she added +thoughtfully: "We've got to keep an eye on our own men, Carson. Some +one of our crowd, taking my pay, is double-crossing us. Now, get your +men on the jump and we won't bother about the milk-spilling. If we are +in luck we'll get Shorty yet. And Quinnion, Carson! Don't forget +Quinnion. And we've still got Bill Crowdy; we'll get everything out of +him that he knows." + +The cattleman rode away in heavy silence, headed toward the cabin at +the Upper End, his men riding with him, an eager, watchful crowd. But +Carson had his doubts about getting Quinnion, his fears that it would +be a long time before he ever put a rope again to Shorty's thick wrists. + +During the day Emmet Sawyer, the Rocky Bend sheriff, came, and with him +Doctor Brannan. Sawyer assured Judith that he would be followed +shortly by a posse led by a deputy and that they would hunt through the +mountains until they got the outlaws. He listened to all that she had +to tell him and then looked up Bud Lee. + +"You didn't see Quinnion?" he asked. "Could you swear to him if we +ever bring him in? Just by his voice?" + +"Yes," answered Lee. "I can. But see if you can't get Crowdy to +squeal. We're shy Shorty's real name, too, you know." + +To all questions put him, Bill Crowdy answered with stubborn denial of +knowledge or not at all. He had been alone; he didn't know any man +named Quinnion; he didn't know anything about Shorty. And he hadn't +robbed Miller. That canvas bag, then, with the thousand dollars in it? +He had found it; picked it up in a gully. + +"I won't do any talking," he grunted in final word, "until I get a +lawyer to talk to. I know that much, Sawyer, if I don't know a hell of +a lot. An' you can get it out'n your head that I'm the kind to snitch +on a pal--even if I had one, which I didn't." + +Crowdy, at Doctor Brannan's orders, was taken to Rocky Bend where +Sawyer promised him a speedy trial, conviction and heavy sentence +unless he changed his mind and turned state's evidence. And--to be +done with Bill Crowdy for good and all--he never came to stand trial. +A mad attempt at escape a week later, another bullet-hole given him in +his struggle with his jailer, and with lips still stubbornly locked, he +died without "snitching on a pal." + + +Under fire in the dark cabin with life grown suddenly tense for them, +Bud Lee and Judith Sanford had touched hands lingeringly. No one who +knew them guessed it; certainly one of them, perhaps both, sought to +forget it. There had been that strange thrill which comes sometimes +when a man's hand and a woman's meet. Bud Lee grunted at the memory of +it; Judith, remembering, blushed scarlet. For, at that moment of deep, +sympathetic understanding touched with the romance which young life +will draw even from a dark night fraught with danger, there had been in +Bud Lee's heart but an acceptance, eager as it was, of a "pardner." +For the time being he thought of her--or, rather, he thought that he +thought of her, as a man would think of a companion of his own sex. He +approved of her. But he did not approve of her as a girl, as a woman. + +He had said: "There are two kinds of women." And Judith, knowing that +his ideal was an impossible but poetic She, rich in subtle feminine +graces, steeped in that vague charm of her sex like a rose in its own +perfume, had accepted his friendship during a dark hour, allowing +herself to forget that upon the morrow, if morrow came to them at all, +he would hold her in that gentle scorn of his. + +"A narrow-minded, bigoted fool!" she cried in the seclusion of her +bedroom. "I'll show you where you get off, Mr. Bud Lee! Just you +wait." + +When she and Lee met, she looked him straight in the eye with marked +coolness, oddly aloof, and Lee, lifting his hat, was stiff and +short-worded. + +In the long, quiet hours which came during the few days following the +end of a fruitless search for Quinnion and Shorty, he had ample time to +analyze his own emotion. He liked her; from the bottom of his heart he +liked her. But she was not the lady of his dreams. She rode like a +man, she shot like a man, she gave her orders like a man. She was +efficient. She was as square as a die; under fire she was a pardner +for any man. But she was not a little lady to be thought of +sentimentally. He wondered what she would look like if she shed boots +and broad hat and riding-habit and appeared before a man in an evening +gown--"all lacy and ribbony, you know." He couldn't picture her that +way; he couldn't imagine her dallying, as the lady of his dreams +dallied, in an atmosphere of rose-leaves, perhaps a volume of Tennyson +on her knee. + +"Shucks!" he grinned to himself, a trifle shame-facedly. "It's just +the springtime in the air." + + +In such a mood there appeared to Bud Lee a vision. Nothing less. He +was in the little meadow hidden from the ranch-house by gentle hills +still green with young June. He had been working Lovelady, a newly +broken saddle-mare. Standing with his back to a tree, a cigarette in +the making in his hands, his black hat far back upon his head, he +smilingly watched Lovelady as with regained freedom she galloped back +across the meadow to her herd. Then a shadow on the grass drew Lee's +eyes swiftly away from the mare and to the vision. + +Over the verdant flooring of the meadow, stepping daintily in and out +among the big golden buttercups, came one who might well have been that +lady of his dreams. A milk-white hand held up a pale-pink skirt, +disclosing the lacy flounce of a fine underskirt, pale-pink stockings +and mincing little slippers; a pink parasol cast the most delicate of +tints upon a pretty face from which big blue eyes looked out a little +timorously upon the tall horse foreman. + +He knew that this was Marcia Langworthy. He had never known until now +just how pretty she was, how like a flower. + +Marcia paused, seemed to hesitate, dodged suddenly as a noisy bumblebee +sailed down the air. Then the bee buzzed on and Marcia smiled. Still +stepping daintily she came on until, with her parasol twirling over her +shoulder, she stood in the shade with Lee. + +"You're Mr. Lee, aren't you?" asked Marcia. She was still smiling and +looked cool and fresh and very alluring. + +Lee dropped the makings of his cigarette, ground the paper into the sod +with his heel and removed his hat with a gallantry little short of +reverence. + +"Yes," he answered, his gravity touched with the hint of a responsive +smile. "Is there something I can do for you, Miss Langworthy?" + +"Oh!" cried Marcia. "So you know who I am? Yet I have never seen you, +I think." + +"The star doesn't always see the moth, you know," offered Lee, a little +intoxicated by the first "vision" of this kind he had seen in many +years. + +"Oh!" cried Marcia again, and then stopped, looking at him, frankly +puzzled. She knew little first-hand of horse foremen. But she had +seen Carson, even talked with him. And she had seen other workmen. +She would, until now, have summed them all up as illiterate, awkward, +and impossibly backward and shy. A second long, curious glance at Lee +failed to show that he was embarrassed, though in truth he had had time +to be a bit ashamed of that moth-and-star observation of his. Instead, +he appeared quite self-possessed. And he was good-looking, remarkably +good-looking. And he didn't seem illiterate; quite the contrary, +Marcia thought. In an instant she catalogued this tall, dark, +calm-eyed man as interesting. + +She twirled her parasol at him and laughed softly. A strand of blond +hair that was very becoming where it was, against her delicate cheek, +she tucked back where it evidently belonged, since there it looked even +more becoming. + +"Mr. Hampton isn't here, is he?" she asked. + +"No. Come to think of it, he did say this morning that he would be out +right after lunch to help me break Lovelady. But I haven't seen him." + +"He wanted me to stroll out here with him," Marcia explained. "And I +wouldn't. It was too hot. Didn't you find it terribly hot about an +hour ago, Mr. Lee?" + +As a matter of fact Bud Lee had been altogether too busy an hour ago +with the capers of Lovelady to note whether it was hot or cold. But he +courteously agreed with Miss Langworthy. + +"Then," she ran on brightly, "it got cool all of a sudden. Or at least +I did. And I thought that Polly had come out here, so I walked out to +surprise him. And now, he isn't here!" + +Marcia looked up at Lee helplessly, smilingly, fascinatingly. It was +quite as though she had added: "Oh, dear! What _shall_ I do?" + +Pollock Hampton had fully meant to come. But by now he had forgotten +all about Bud Lee and horses to ride and to be bucked off by. A +telegram had come from a nasty little tailor in San Francisco who had +discovered Hampton's retreat and who was devilishly insistent upon a +small matter--oh, some suits and things, you know. The whole thing +totalled scarcely seven hundred dollars. He went to find Judith, to +beg an advance against his wages or allowance or dividends or whatever +you call it. Judith was out somewhere at the Lower End, Mrs. Simpson +thought. Hampton saddled his own horse and went to find her. All this +Marcia was to learn that evening. + +After the swift passing of a few bright minutes, Marcia and Bud Lee +strolled together across the meadow to the spring. Marcia, it seemed, +was interested in everything. Lee told her much of the ways of horses, +of breaking them, of a score of little ranch matters, not without their +color. Marcia noted that he spoke rather slowly, and guessed that he +was choosing his words with particular care. + +She was delighted when they came to the bank under the willows where a +pipe sent forth a clear, cold stream of water from a shady recess in +the hillside. Here, at Lee's solicitous suggestion, she rested after +her long walk--it was nearly a half-mile to the ranch-house--disposing +her skirts fluffily about her, taking her seat upon a convenient log +from which, with his hat, Lee had swept the loose dust. + +"I'm dreadfully improper, am I not?" said Marcia. "But I am tired, and +it is hot, isn't it? Out there in the fields, I mean. Here it's just +lovely. And I do so love to hear about all the things you know which +are so wonderful to me. Isn't life narrow in the cities? Don't you +think so, Mr. Lee?" + +The breeze playing gently with the ribbons of her sunshade brought to +him the faintest of violet perfumes. He lay at her feet, obeying her +tardy command to have the smoke which she had interrupted. His eyes +were full of her. + +"I'd so love," went on Marcia dreamily, "to live always out-of-doors. +Out here I feel so sorry for the people I know in town. Here women +must grow up so sweet and pure and innocent; men must be so fine and +manly and strong!" + +And she meant it. It was perfectly clear that she spoke in utter +sincerity. For this long, summer day, no matter how she would feel +to-morrow, Marcia was in tune with the open, yearned for the life blown +clean with the air of the mountains. In the morning her mood had been +one of rebellion, for her mother had said things which both hurt and +shocked the girl. Her mother was so mercenary, so unromantic. Now, as +a bit of reaction, the rebellious spirit had grown tender; opposition +had been followed by listlessness; and into the mood of tender +listlessness there had come a man. A man whom Marcia had never noted +until now and who was an anomaly, almost a mystery. + + +Fate, in the form of old Carson, turned a herd of bellowing steers out +into the fields lying between the meadow and the ranch-house that +afternoon just as Marcia, making a late concession to propriety, was +shaking her skirts and lifting her parasol. It was scarcely to be +wondered at that the steers seemed to Marcia a great herd of +bloodthirsty beasts. Then there were her pink gown and sunshade. . . . + +"Oh, dear, oh, dear!" cried Marcia. + +So it was under Lee's protection that she went back through the meadows +and to the house. At first she was frightened by the strange noises +his led horse made, little snorts which made her jump. But in the end +she put out a timid hand and stroked the velvet nose. When finally Bud +Lee lifted his hat to her at the base of the knoll upon which the house +stood Marcia thanked him for his kindness. + +"I've been terribly unconventional, haven't I?" she smiled at him. +"But I mustn't again. Next time we meet, Mr. Lee, I am not even going +to speak to you. Unless," relenting brightly, "you come up to the +house and are properly introduced!" + +As she went through the lilacs Lee saw her wave her parasol to him. + + + + +XV + +JUST A GIRL, AFTER ALL + +Three days later Bud Lee learned that Judith Sanford was, after all, +"just a girl, you know"; that at least for once in her life she had +slipped away to be by herself and to cry. He stopped dead in his +tracks when he came unexpectedly upon her, become suddenly awkward, +embarrassed, a moment uncertain, but yielding swiftly to an impulse to +run for it. + +"Come here, Bud Lee!" commanded Judith sharply, dabbing at her eyes. +"I want to talk with you." + +He was at the Upper End where he had ridden for half a dozen young +horses which were to be taken down into the meadow for their education. +And here she was, on a bench outside the old cabin, indulging herself +in a hearty cry. + +"I--I didn't know you were here," he stammered. "I was going to make +some coffee and have lunch here. I do, sometimes. It's a real fine +day, isn't it, Miss Sanford? Nice and warm and--" His voice trailed +off indistinctly. + +"Oh, scat!" cried Judith at him, half laughing, still half crying. She +had wiped her eyes but still two big tears, untouched, trembled on her +cheeks. In spite of him Lee couldn't keep his eyes off of them. + +"I'm just crying," Judith told him then, with a sudden assumption of +cool dignity which had in it something of defiance. "I've got a right +to, if I want to, haven't I? What do you look at me like that for?" + +"Sure," he answered hastily. "It does you good to cry; I know. Great +thing. All ladies do, sometimes----" + +Judith sniffed. + +"You know all that there is to be known about '_ladies_,' don't you? +In your vast wisdom all you've got to do is lump 'em in one of your +brilliant generalities. That's the man of you!" + +"Maybe I'd better go make the coffee?" he suggested hurriedly. "It's +after twelve. And it'll do you good. A nice hot cup." + +"Maybe you had," said Judith icily. "Perhaps I can postpone my +conversation with you until the water boils." + +Lee went into the cabin without looking back. Judith, watching him, +saw that he ran his hand across his forehead. She sniffed at him +again. But when Lee had the coffee ready she had washed her face at +the spring, had tucked her tumbled hair back under her hat, and, +looking remarkably cool, came into the cabin. Lee thought of his +meeting with Marcia, of her repeated assurance that she knew she had +violated the conventions. + +"You _can_ make coffee," Judith nodded her approval as she sipped at +the black beverage, cooled a little by condensed milk. Lee was busied +with a tin containing potted meat. "Now, have you got over your shock +so that I can talk with you?" + +He smiled at her across the little oil-cloth-covered table, and +answered lightly and with his old assurance that he guessed he had +steadied his nerve. Hadn't he told her a cup of coffee would do +wonders? + +"Would it go to your head," began the girl abruptly, "if I were to tell +you that I size you up as the best man I've got on my pay-roll?" + +"I'd try to keep both feet on the ground," he said gravely, though he +wondered what was coming. + +"I'll explain," she continued, her tone impersonally businesslike. +"Next to you, I count on Doc Tripp; next to Tripp, on Carson. They are +good men; they are trustworthy; they understand ranch conditions and +they know what loyalty to the home-range means. But Tripp is just a +veterinarian; simply that and nothing more. His horizon isn't very +wide. Neither is Carson's." + +"And mine?" he grinned at her. "Read me my horoscope, Miss Sanford!" + +"You have taken the trouble to be something more than just a horse +foreman," she told him quietly. "I don't know what your advantages +have been; if you haven't gone through high school, then at least you +have been ambitious enough to get books, to read, to educate yourself. +You have developed further than Carson; you have broadened more than +Tripp." + +"Thanks," he offered dryly. + +"Oh, I'm not seeking to intrude into your private affairs, Mr. Bud +Lee!" she cried warmly at his tone. "I have no desire to do so, having +no interest in them. First of all, I want one thing clear: You said +when I first came that you'd stay a few days, long enough for me to get +a man in your place. We have both been rather too busy to think of +your leaving or my seeking a substitute. Now what? The job is yours +as long as you want it--if you'll stay. I don't want you leaving me in +the lurch. Do you want to go? Or do you want to stick?" + +What did he want? He had anticipated an interference from the girl in +his management of the duty allotted him and no such interference had +come. She left him unhampered, even as she did Tripp and Carson. He +had his interest in his horses. It was pleasant here. This cabin was +a sort of home to him. Besides, he had the idea that Quinnion and +Shorty might again be heard from--that if Trevors was backing their +play, there would be other threats offered the Blue Lake outfit from +which he had no desire to run. There was such a thing as loyalty to +the home-range, and in the half-year he had worked here it had become a +part of him. + +"I'll stick," he said quietly. + +"I'm glad of that," replied Judith. "Oh, you'll have your work cut out +for you, Bud Lee, and, that you may be the better fitted to do it, I +want you to know just what I am up against." + +She paused a moment, stirring her coffee with one of Lee's tin spoons, +gathering her thoughts. Then, speaking thoughtfully, she explained: + +"It's a gamble, with us bucking the long odds. Dad left me a third +interest, clear, valued, counting stock, at a good deal more than four +hundred thousand dollars. He left me no cash. Dad never had any cash. +Just so soon as he got his hands on it he put it to work. I knew he +had planned taking over another one-third interest, and I went on with +his plans. I mortgaged my share for two hundred thousand dollars, +which I got at five per cent. That means I have to dig up each year, +just interest, ten thousand dollars. That's a pretty big lump, you +know." + +"Yes," he admitted slowly. "That's big; mighty big." + +"With the money I raised," Judith continued, "I bought out the third +owner, Timothy Gray. He let his holding go for three hundred and fifty +thousand. It was a bargain for me--if I can make a go of it. I still +owe, on the principal, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. I owe +on my mortgage two hundred thousand. Total of my indebtedness, three +hundred and fifty thousand dollars. And that's bigger, Bud Lee." + +"Yes. That's bigger figures than I can quite get the hang of." + +No wonder she had been crying. Even if everything went smooth on the +Blue Lake she, too, had her work cut out for her. + +"Now," she ran on, her voice stirring him with the ringing note in it, +"I can make a go of it--if they will just let me alone! I am playing +close to the table, Lee, close! I have a little money in the bank, +enough to run along for two or three months, that's all. I said that +dad left no cash. I didn't mention his insurance." Her eyes grew +suddenly wet but she did not avert them from Lee's face, going on +quietly: "That was ten thousand dollars. Close to seven thousand had +to go for his current obligations. I have about two thousand to run +on." + +"Close hauled," grunted Lee. And to himself, he remarked as he had +remarked once before: "She's got her sand." + +Quite naturally Bud Lee thought swiftly of his horses. He had told +Trevors that he wanted to make no sale for at least six months. Given +until then--if Judith could make a go of it without forcing a +sale--he'd show her the way to at least seven or eight thousand, with a +good percentage of clear profit. + +"To begin with," Judith's voice interrupted his musings, "I am going to +have trouble with Carson. I admit that he's an exceptionally good +cattle foreman; I admit, too, that he has his limitations. He is of +the old school, and has got to learn something! Already he has his +weather-eye cocked for the lean season; he'll be coming to me in August +or September, telling me I've got to begin selling. That's the way +they all do! And the result is that beef cattle drop and the market +clogs with them. What I am going to do is make Carson start in buying +then. Oh, he'll buck like one of his own red bay steers but he'll buy!" + +"We're pretty well stocked up," Lee offered gently. "Turning the hills +over to the hogs makes a difference, too. We're going to be short of +feed long before September is over." + +"Short of range feed, yes," she retorted warmly. "But we're going to +put our trust in our silos, Lee, and make them do such work for us as +they have never done before. Then, when other folks are forced to sell +off for what they can get, we'll hold on and buy. We won't sell before +December or January, when the market is up." + +He shook his head. Though not of the old school which had produced +Carson, still he put little faith in those tall towers into which +alfalfa and Indian corn were fed to make lush fodder. + +"I don't know a whole lot about silos," he admitted. + +"Neither does Carson," said Judith. "He looks at such things as silos +and milking-machines and tractors and fences even as the old Indians +must have looked at the inroads of the white men. But, do you know +where he has been these last few days?" + +"In San Francisco? Heard him say he was going to take a few days off." + +Judith laughed. + +"That's Carson for you! He wouldn't admit where he was going. I sent +him down to Davis where the State experimental farm and laboratories +are. He's going to see silo, study silo, think silo until he gets a +new idea into his head. I have ordered a big extension in our +irrigated area, I have begun the construction of two more silos. When +Carson gets back he's going to look around for some more shorthorns at +bargain prices. I have an idea it wouldn't do you any harm either, to +look over what we are doing down at the Lower End." + +Again she paused. Then, her eyes suddenly darkening, she told him +what, after all, lay top-most in her mind. + +"I have said that if I am given the chance, I can make a go of this. +It's up to you, Bud Lee, to help see that I get that chance. An +attempt was made to spread the lung-worm through my calves. Now it's +the hogs. Do you know what the latest news is from the pens? There's +cholera among them." + +"Where did it come from?" he demanded. "Tripp's been keeping the +health of our stock up right along." + +"Where did it come from?" Judith repeated after him. "That's what I +don't know. We've been so careful. But where did the calf sickness +come from? Bayne Trevors imported it." + +The inference was clear. He stared at her with frowning eyes. + +"I don't see how he could have done it without Tripp's getting on to +it. He hasn't bought any new hogs." + +"But you understand now why I wanted to talk to you? If I win out in +the thing I have taken on my shoulders, it is going to be by a close +margin. I've thought it all out. We can't slip up in a single deal! +But, it's up to you to give me a hand. To find out for yourself such +things as where did the cholera come from! And to look out, that the +next time they don't burn us out, when the range is dry. To see that +nothing happens to your horses. To keep your two eyes wide open. To +help me find the man, working with us right now, who is double-crossing +us, who turned Shorty loose, who is watching a chance to do his knife +act again somewhere else. Do you get me, Bud Lee?" + +"I get you," replied Lee. + + +From without, gay voices, calling merrily, interrupted them. Lee went +swiftly to the door while Judith finished her coffee and pulled her +broad hat a little lower to throw its shadow in her eyes. + +"Ahoy, there!" It was Pollock Hampton's voice. "We saw your horses +and thought we'd catch you picnicking. Got a fire going, too! Say, +that's bully. Come ahead, Marcia." + +Marcia, a long riding-habit gathered in one hand, her cheeks flushed +with her ride, her eyes bright as they rested upon the tall form in the +doorway, came on behind Hampton. As the eyes of the two girls met, a +sudden hot flush flooded Judith's cheeks. She hated herself for it; +she wondered just how red her eyes were. + +"Say, Judith," called Hampton, "I'm glad as the dickens we found you. +Sawyer, the sheriff, telephoned just now. Said to tell you he'd +located Quinnion. The funny part of it is that we made a mistake. It +wasn't Quinnion at all that tried to shoot you and Bud up the other +night." + +"How's that?" demanded Lee. "Who says it wasn't?" + +"Sawyer. Found Quinnion at a sheepman's place thirty or forty miles +north of here. The sheepman swore Quinnion had been with him two +weeks, was with him that night." + +"A sheepman _can_ lie," grunted Lee. + +Judith's brief moment of confusion passed, she ushered Marcia into the +cabin. True to her promise, Miss Langworthy, though she flashed a +quick look toward Lee, did not speak to him. He found himself flushing +quite as hotly as Judith had done. + +"We've just finished our lunch," Judith was saying. "And we've left +you half of our coffee." + +"I've been simply dying to see this place!" cried Marcia impetuously. +"I told Pollock that it was a sure sign he didn't love me any more if +he wouldn't bring me. And you and--and one of the men," her eyes on +Judith's, "actually were in here, being shot at! Judith, dear, you are +just the bravest girl in the world. If I'd been here I'd have simply +died. I know I would." + +Perhaps she would. At any rate she shuddered delightfully. She found +a bullet-hole in the door and put a pink forefinger into it, giving a +second little shiver. She managed to keep her back full upon Lee. + +"Oh, by the way," said Hampton, busy opening the parcel of lunch they +had brought with them, "Marcia's heard all about you, Bud. You said +you wanted to meet Lee, Marcia. Well, here he is, tall and handsome in +a devilish reckless way, looking at the dimple at the back of your +neck. Miss Langworthy, Mr. Lee. Judith, that coffee smells good!" + +"You are a naughty little boy, Pollock," said Miss Langworthy coolly. +Nevertheless she turned smiling to Lee and put out her hand to him. +"Mr. Hampton really makes quite a hero of you," she said composedly. +"I think I have seen you--from a distance, you know." + +The small whiteness of her hand was swallowed up in the lean brown of +his. + +"Hampton's a prevaricator," he said gravely, as he looked down into the +merry blue eyes turned up to him. "But he's a gentleman I have to +thank for the introduction. I am very happy to know you, Miss +Langworthy." + +"And now," cried Marcia, slipping her hand out of Lee's and going to a +chair near the table, "do tell me all about that terrible, terrible +night. But do you think we are quite safe here now, Mr. Lee?" + + +To herself Judith was saying: "Just the type to be Bud Lee's ideal +lady!" + + +When they left the cabin, an hour later, Judith challenged Hampton to a +ride and so left Marcia and Bud Lee to follow leisurely. + + + + +XVI + +POKER FACE AND A WHITE PIGEON + +Mrs. Simpson had made a discovery. It was epoch-marking! It was +tremendous. Nothing short of that! So, at the very least, Mrs. +Simpson was prepared to maintain stoutly in the face of possible +ridicule. + +Though, as Judith's housekeeper, she had sufficient household duties on +her plump shoulders to send a less doughty woman creeping wearily to +bed with the chickens, she found time before the dawn and long after +nightfall to keep her eye upon that Black Spanish and his recruit and +treacherous ally, Fujioki. + +One morning, very early, Mrs. Simpson, from the thick curtains of the +living-room, saw José "prowling around suspicious-like in the +courtyard!" She thrilled at the sight. She always thrilled to José. +The half-breed had gone silently, "sneaking-like," by Judith's outer +door. He had paused there, listening. He had gone back to the +courtyard, hesitating, pretending that he was looking at the roses! +Such a ruse on the part of so black-hearted a villain inspired in the +scarcely breathing Mrs. Simpson a vast disgust. As if he could fool +_her_ like that, pottering around among the roses! + +She, too, sought to move silently in his wake, though under her ample +weight the veranda creaked audibly. Still, making less noise than +usual, she peered through the lilacs. She saw José at the base of the +knoll, going swiftly toward the stables. She saw another man who, +evidently, was a third of the "gang," and who, of course, had risen +early to creep out of the men's bunkhouse before the others were awake, +to meet José. Screening herself behind the lilacs, her heart throbbing +as it had not done for many a long year, she watched. + +José and the other man did meet. José stopped. The two exchanged a +few words, too low for Mrs. Simpson to hear at that distance. But she +made out that the other man had something in his hand, something white. +A pigeon! For, suddenly released, it fluttered out of the man's hands +and, circling high above Mrs. Simpson's head, flew to join the other +birds cooing on the housetop! + +"A carrier-pigeon!" gasped Mrs. Simpson. "Taking a message to the +other cutthroats!" + +From that instant there was no doubt in her mind. This fitted in too +well with her many suspicions not to be the clew she had sought long +and unceasingly. + +José went on, the man from the bunk-house went back into it, and Mrs. +Simpson fled to the house and hastened excitedly to Judith's room. +Judith, rudely awakened, came hurriedly to her door in her +dressing-gown, her eyelids heavy with sleep. When she heard, she +laughed. + +"You dear old goose!" cried Judith joyously. "I just love you to +death. You put fresh interest into life." + +Despite Mrs. Simpson's earnest protests, Judith hugged her and pushed +her out again, saying that since she was awake now she would want her +breakfast just as soon as she could get it. The housekeeper shook her +head and retreated heavily. + +"You've got to show some folks a man cutting their throats," she +muttered to herself, "before they'll believe it. It is a +carrier-pigeon and I know it. And that Black Spanish--ugh! He makes +my blood curdle, just to look at him!" + +"Carrier-pigeons!" laughed Judith, as she began a hurried dressing. +"The dear old goosie! And poor old José. She'll get something on him +yet. I wonder why she----" + +Suddenly Judith broke off. She was standing in front of a tall mirror, +still only half-dressed. As she looked into the bright face of the +smiling girl in the glass, a sudden change came. Pigeons! Doc Tripp +had said that Trevors had got them; had remarked on the incongruity of +a man like Trevors caring for little cooing birds. It was rather odd. +Carrier-pigeons--carrier---- + +Judith whipped on her dressing-gown again and, slipperless, her warm, +bare feet pat-patting upon the cold surfaces of the polished floors, +she ran to the office. + +"Send José to me," she called to Mrs. Simpson. "In the office. I want +him immediately." + +A warm glow came into Mrs. Simpson's breast. With a big kitchen poker +behind her broad back, she hastened out to call José. Judith, at the +telephone, called for Doc Tripp. + +"Come up immediately," she commanded, "prepared to make a test for +hog-cholera germs, Doc. No, I am not sure of anything, but I think I +begin to see where it came from and how. Hurry, will you?" + +To José she said abruptly: + +"Go down to the men's quarters, José. Tell Carson and Lee to come +right up." And as José turned to go, she added carelessly: "Seen any +of the men yet?" + +"_Si, señorita_," answered José. "Poky Face is up." + +"Poker Face? All right, José. The others will be about, then." + +José took little more time for his errand than for his elaborate bow. +Carson and Lee came promptly, Carson a score of steps in advance, for +Lee had tarried just long enough to wash his face and brush his hair; +Carson had not. + +"Tell me," demanded Judith, looking at her cattleman with intent +eagerness, "what do you know about Poker Face?" + +"One of the best men I've got," answered Carson heartily. + +"Square, you think?" + +"Yes. If I didn't think so he'd have been on his way a long time ago." + +"How long has he been here? Who took him on?" + +"Trevors hired him. About the same time he hired me." + +Bud Lee, entering then, wondered what new thing was afoot. He glanced +down and saw a bare foot peeping out from the hem of Judith's heavy red +robe; he saw the hair tumbled in a glorious brown confusion over her +shoulders. She was amazingly pretty this way. + +"I want you two men to just stick around until I send for you again," +said Judith, her eyes upon Carson alone, a little pink, naked foot +suddenly withdrawn and tucked somewhere under her in her chair. "And +keep your eyes on Poker Face. Keep him here, too, Carson. By the way, +did any of you boys come in late last night? Or early this morning?" + +"Why, no," answered Carson slowly. "An' yes. None of the reg'lar +boys, but a man from down the river, looking for a job. Heard we was +short-handed. Blew in early. Just got in a few moments ago, Poker +Face said." + +Quick new interest flew into Judith's eyes. + +"Keep him here, too!" she cried. "And I'll give you something to do +while you wait: bring me all the pigeons you can get your hands +on--white ones. Shoot them if you have to. And be careful you don't +rub the dust off their feet." + +Carson's eyes went swiftly to Bud Lee's. In Carson's mind there was a +quick suspicion: The strain of life on the ranch was proving too much +for a girl, after all. + +Judith, reading his thought, turned up her nose at him and, seeking to +keep her feet hidden as she walked by sagging a little at the knees, +went to the door. Turning there, she saw in Lee's eyes the hint of a +smile, a very approving, admiring smile. + +"Impudent!" she cried within herself. Looking very tiny, her knees +bent so that her robe might sweep the floor, she continued with all +possible dignity to the hallway. Once there, she ran for her room, her +gown fluttering widely about her. In her room, though she dressed +hurriedly, she still took time for a long and critical examination of +two rows of little pink toes. + +"Just the same," she said to the flushed Judith in the mirror, "they +are very nice feet--Bud Lee, I'd just like to make you squirm one of +these days. You're altogether too--too--oh, scat, Judy. What's the +matter with you?" + +In less than half an hour Doc Tripp, showing every sign of a hurried +toilet, rode into the courtyard. He came swiftly into the office, bag +in hand. Judith, waiting impatiently for him, lost no words in telling +him her suspicions. And Doc Tripp, hearing her out, swore softly and +fluently, briefly asking her pardon when he had done. + +"I'm a jackass," he said fervently. "I always knew I was a fool, but I +didn't know that I was an idiot! Why, Judy, those damned pigeons have +been sailing all over the ranch, billing and cooing and picking up and +toting cholera germs. Any fool can see it now. I might have known +something was up when Trevors bought the infernal things. It's as +simple as one, two, three. Now this other jasper, pretending to look +for a job, brings on some more of them, so that the disease will spread +the faster. Let me get my two hands on him, Judith. For the love of +God, lead me to him." + +But, instead, she led him to the dozen white pigeons which Carson +brought in. + +Tripp, all business again, improvised his laboratory, washed the +pigeons' feet, made his test, with never another curse to tell of his +progress. Judith left him and went into the courtyard, where, in a +moment, Carson came to her. + +"You better tell me what's up," he said sharply. "I know something is. +That new guy that just come in is darned hard to keep. Just as quick +as I grab a shotgun an' go to shooting pigeons he moseys out to the +corrals an' starts saddling his horse." + +"Don't let him go!" + +Carson smiled a dry, mirthless smile. + +"Bud is looking out for him right now," he explained. "Don't you worry +none about his going before we say so. But I want to know what the +play is." + +Judith told him. Carson shook his head. + +"Think of that?" he muttered. "Why, a man that would do a trick like +that oughtn't to be let live two seconds. Only," and he wrinkled his +brows at her, "where does Poker Face come in? We ain't got no call to +suspicion he's in on it." + +"You watch him, just the same, Carson. We know that somebody here has +been working against us. Some one who turned Shorty loose. Maybe it +isn't Poker Face, and maybe it is." + +"He plays a crib game like a sport an' a gentleman," muttered Carson. +"He beat me seven games out'n nine last night!" And, still with that +puzzled frown in his eyes, he went to watch Poker Face and the new man. +To have one of the men for whom he was responsible suspected hurt old +Carson sorely. And Poker Face, the man with whom he delighted to play +a game of cards--it was almost as though Carson himself had come under +suspicion. + +"You're going to stick around just a little while, stranger," Bud Lee +was saying quietly to a shifty-eyed man in the corral. "Just why, I +don't know. Orders, you know." + +"Orders be damned," snarled the newcomer. "I go where I please and +when I please." + +He set a foot to his stirrups. A lean, muscular hand fell lightly upon +his shoulder and he was jerked back promptly. Lee smiled at him. And +the shifty-eyed man, though he protested sharply, remained where he was. + +[Illustration: A lean, muscular hand fell lightly upon his shoulder and +he was jerked back promptly.] + +A thin, saturnine man whose lips never seemed to move, a man with +dead-looking eyes into which no light of emotion ever came, watched +them expressionlessly from where he stood with Carson. It was Poker +Face. + +"No," Poker Face answered, to a sharp question from the persistent +Carson. + +"Sure, are you?" + +"Yes." + +At last word came from Judith. Carson and Lee were to bring both of +the suspected men to the house. Doc Tripp, wiping his hands on a +towel, his sleeves up, bestowed upon the two of them a look of +unutterable contempt and hatred. + +"You low-lived skunks!" was his greeting to them. + +"Easy, Doc," continued Judith from her desk. "That won't get us +anywhere. Who are you?" she demanded of the man standing at Lee's side. + +"Me?" demanded the man with an assumption of jauntiness. "I'm Donley, +Dick Donley, that's who I am!" + +"When did you get here?" + +"'Bout an hour ago." + +"What did you come for?" + +"Lookin' for a job." + +"Did Carson say he hadn't anything for you?" + +"No, he didn't. You're askin' a lot of questions, if you want to +know," he added with new surliness. + +"Then why are you going in such a hurry? Don't you like to see any one +shoot pigeons?" + +Donley stared back at her insolently. + +"Because I didn't fall for the crowd," he retorted bluntly. "An', if +you want to know, because I didn't hanker for the job when I found out +who was runnin' it." + +"Meaning me? A girl? That it?" + +"You guessed it." + +"Who told you that I was running the outfit?" she demanded suddenly, +her eyes hard on his. "You must have found that out pretty soon! Who +told you?" + +Donley hesitated, his eyes running from her to the other faces about +him, resting longest upon the expressionless, dead-looking eyes of +Poker Face. + +"What difference does it make who told me?" he snapped. + +"Answer me," she commanded. "Who told you?" + +"Well," said Donley, "he did. Poker Face told me." + +"Who told you that his name was Poker Face?" Judith shot the question +at him. + +Donley moved a scuffling foot back and forth, stirring uneasily. That +he was lying, no one there doubted; that he was but a poor liar after +all was equally evident. + +"You ain't got no call to keep me here," he said at last. "I ain't +goin' to answer questions all day." + +"You'll answer my questions if you don't want me to turn you over to +Emmet Sawyer in Rocky Bend!" she told him coolly. "How did you know +this man was called Poker Face? Did you know him before?" + +Donley's eyes went again, furtive and swift, to Poker Face. But so did +all other eyes. Poker Face gave no sign. + +"Yes," answered Donley then, taking refuge at last upon the solid basis +of truth. + +"Did you know this man?" Judith asked then of Poker Face, turning +suddenly on him. + +"No," said Poker Face. + +Donley, having guessed wrong, flushed and dropped his head. Then he +looked up defiantly and with a short, forced laugh. + +"Suppose I know him or don't know him," he asked with his old +insolence, "whose business is it?" + +But Judith was giving her attention to Poker Face now. + +"Where did you get that white pigeon you turned loose this morning?" +she asked crisply. + +"Caught it," was the quiet answer. + +"How?" + +"With my han's." + +"Why?" + +"Jus' for fun." + +"Did you know that pigeons could carry hog-cholera on their feet?" + +"No. But I wouldn't have been afraid, not bein' a hawg." + +Donley tittered. Poker Face looked unconcerned. + +"Take that man Donley into the hall," Judith said to Lee. "See if he +has got any pigeon feathers sticking to him anywhere, inside his shirt, +probably. If you need any help, say so." + +Very gravely Bud Lee put a hand on Donley's shoulder. + +"Come ahead, stranger," he said quietly. + +"You go to hell!" cried Donley, springing away. + +But Bud Lee's hand was on him, and though he struggled and cursed and +threatened he went with Lee into the hallway. Tripp, watching through +the open door, smiled. Donley was on his back, Lee's knees on his +chest. + +"I'll tell you one thing, stranger," Bud Lee was saying to him softly, +as his hand tore open Donley's shirt, "you open your dirty mouth to +cuss just once more in Miss Sanford's presence and I'll ruin the looks +of your face for you. Now lie still, will you?" + +"Connect me with the Bagley ranch," Judith directed the Rocky Mountain +operator. "That's right, isn't it, Doc?" + +"Yes," answered Tripp. "That's the nearest case of cholera." + +"Hello," said Judith when the connection had been established. "Mr. +Bagley? This is Judith Sanford, Blue Lake ranch. I've got a case of +hog-cholera here, too. I want some information." + +She asked her questions, got her answers. Triumphantly she turned to +Tripp. + +The Bagley ranch, though a hundred miles away, was the nearest +cholera-infected place of which Tripp had any knowledge. Bagley did +have a flock of pigeons; a man, a month or so ago, had bought two dozen +from him; the man wasn't Trevors. Bagley didn't know who he was. The +same man, however, had shown up three days ago and had asked for +another half-dozen of the birds. There had been three white pigeons +among them. He was a shifty-eyed chap, Bagley said, old brown suit, +hat with a rattlesnake skin around the crown. That, point for point, +spelled Donley. + +Lee returned with the shirt which he had ripped from his prisoner's +back. Adhering to the inside of it were little, downy feathers and +three or four larger feathers from a pigeon's wing. + +"I guess he rode mostly at night, at that," concluded Lee. "A great +little fat man you must have looked, stranger, with six of those +birdies in your shirt." + +Donley's face was a violet red. But a glance from Lee shut his mouth +for him. Poker Face, still looking on, gave no sign of interest. + +"Put him in the grain-house," said Judith, her eyes bright with anger. +"And see that he doesn't go Shorty's trail. Poker Face, have you +anything else to say for yourself?" + +"No," answered Poker Face. + +"Then," cried Judith hotly, "you can have your time right now! Donley, +here, I'll prosecute. He's going to pay for this morning's work. I've +got nothing on you. It's up to you to see that I don't get it! And +you can tell Shorty for me--yes, and Quinnion too, and Bayne Trevors, +if you like--that I am ready and waiting for your next play! And don't +forget that when San Quentin is full there's still room in Folsom." + +Judith telephoned Emmet Sawyer that she had a man for him. Lee and +Carson conducted an expostulating Donley to the grain-house and jailed +him wordlessly. Then Carson put a man on guard at the door, daylight +though it was. When all was done he filled his pipe slowly and turned +troubled eyes after Poker Face. + +"She made a mistake there, though," he said regretfully. "A better +cow-hand I never ask to see, Bud. An' you ought to see the game of +crib that man plays! Nope, Judy; you're wrong there." + +But Bud Lee, the man who did not approve of the sort of woman who did +man's work, said with unusual warmth: + +"Don't you fool yourself, Carson! She hasn't made one little misplay +yet!" + + + + +XVII + +"ONCE A FOOL--ALWAYS A FOOL" + +Though, under the surface, life upon Blue Lake ranch was sufficiently +tense, the remaining days of June frivoled by as bright and bonny as +the little meadow-blues flirting with the field-flowers. + +Since from the very first the ranch had been short-handed, the hours +from dawn to dusk were filled with activity. Carson, who, true to +Judith's expectations, had brought back some new ideas from his few +days at the experimental farm--ideas not to be admitted by Carson, +however--bought a hundred young steers from a neighboring overstocked +range. In the lower corrals the new milking-machines were working +smoothly, only a few of the older cows refusing to have anything to do +with them. + +Tripp had succeeded in locating and getting back some of the men who +had worked long under Luke Sanford and whom Trevors had discharged. It +was a joy to see the familiar faces of Sunny Harper, Johnny Hodge, Bing +Kelley, Tod Bruce. The alfalfa acreage was extended, a little more +than doubled. Plans were made for an abundance of dry fodder to be fed +with the lush silage during the coming lean months. Bud Lee broke his +string of horses, and with Tommy Burkitt and one other dependable man +began perfecting their education, with an eye turned toward a +profitable sale in January. + +Quinnion, perforce, was left undisturbed upon the sheep-ranch whither +Emmet Sawyer had followed him. Against Bud Lee's word that he had had +a hand at the trouble at the old cabin were the combined oaths of two +of the sheepmen that he had been with them at the time. + +Hampton's guests, who had planned for a month at the ranch, stayed on. +But they would be leaving at the end of June. That is, Farris and +Rogers positively; the Langworthys, perhaps. The major was content +here, and to stay always and always, would be an unbounded joy--of +course, with little runs to the city for the opera season and for +shopping trips, and a great, jolly house-party now and then. + +The only fly in Marcia's ointment was Hampton himself. She confessed +as much to Judith. She liked him, oh, ever so much! But was that +love? She yearned for a man who would thrill her through and through, +and Hampton didn't always do that. Just after his heroic capture of +the terrible Shorty, Marcia was thrilled to her heart's content. But +there were other days when Hampton was just Pollock Hampton. If it +could only be arranged so that she could stay on and on, with no day of +reckoning to come, no matrimonial ventures on the horizon . . . + +"That's simple, my dear," Judith smiled at her. "When you get through +being Pollock Hampton's guest, you can be mine for a while." + +Hampton was now a great puzzle to Mrs. Langworthy, and even an object +of her secret displeasure. Not that that displeasure ever went to the +limit of changing Mrs. Langworthy's plans. But she longed for the +right to talk to him as a mother should. For, seeking to emulate those +whom he so unstintedly admired, Bud Lee and Carson and the rest of the +hard-handed, quick-eyed men in the service of the ranch, Hampton was no +longer the careless, frankly inefficient youth who had escorted his +guests here. He went for days at a time unshaven, having other matters +to think of; he came to the table bringing with him the aroma of the +stables. He wore a pair of trousers as cylindrical in the leg as a +stove-pipe; over them he wore a pair of cheap blue overalls, with the +proper six-inch turn-up at the bottom to show the stovepipe trousers +underneath. The overalls got soiled, then dirty, then disgracefully +blotched with wagon grease and picturesque stains, and Hampton made no +apologies for them. + +Twice he left the ranch, once to be gone overnight, intending that it +should be a mystery where he went. But, since he rode the north trail +which led to the Western Lumber camp, no one doubted that he had gone +to see Bayne Trevors, in whom he still stoutly believed. + +Between the 15th and the memorable 30th of June, Bud Lee saw little of +Judith Sanford. She was here, there, everywhere; busy, preoccupied. +Marcia he talked with twice; once when they rode together while +Hampton, racing recklessly down a rocky slope for a shot at a deer got +a fall, a sore shoulder and made his debut in certain new swear-words; +once when all of the guests, with the exception of Farris, who was +painting the portrait of the stallion, Nightshade, and the major, who +had "letters to write," came out to watch the horse-breaking. This +time, introduced to Mrs. Langworthy, Lee got for his bow a remarkably +cold stare. Others might forget, here in the open, the distinction +between people of the better class and their servants--not Mrs. +Langworthy, if you please. + +Having created his imaginary woman, Lee was ripe to fall in love with +her when she came. He had thrilled to the touch of Judith's hand that +night in the cabin; his thoughts, many and many a day, centred about +the superbly alive beauty that was Judith's. The fact disturbed him +vaguely. The thought that he was very deeply interested in her in the +good old way between man and maid, never entered his stubborn head. +She was as far removed from his ideal woman as the furthermost star in +the infinite firmament. Perhaps it was this very disquiet within him, +caused by Judith, which now turned his thoughts to Marcia. + +"That's the sort of woman," he told himself stoutly. "A man's woman; +his other self, not just a pardner; the necessary other side of him, +not just the same side in a different way." + +Marcia had little, feminine ways of helplessness which turned +flatteringly to the strength of the other sex. Judith asked no man to +aid her in mounting her horse; Marcia coquettishly slipped a daintily +slippered foot into a man's palm, rising because of his strength. + +Now, when his thoughts went to Judith, Bud Lee turned them dexterously +to Marcia, making his comparisons, shaping them to fit into his pet +theory. When, days passing, he did not see Judith, he told himself +that he was going to miss Marcia when she left. When one day he came +unexpectedly upon Judith and with lips and eyes she flashed her ready +smile at him, he felt that odd stir in his blood. What a pity that a +girl like her, who might have been anything, elected to do a man's +work! When, again unexpectedly, he came another day upon Marcia riding +with Hampton, there was no quick stirring of the pulses, and he +contented himself with the thought: "Now, that is the sort of woman. A +man's woman! His other self . . ." and so on. + + +When Judith planned a little party to mark the departure of Marcia on +the 30th of June--it wasn't definitely decided that the Langworthys +were leaving then, but at least Farris and Rogers were--the reasons +actuating her were rather more complex than Judith herself fully +realized or would have admitted. She liked Marcia; she wanted to do at +least this much for her. Living-room, dining-room, music-room, +library--they would all be cleared of the larger pieces of furniture, +the double-doors thrown open. The string band from Rocky Bend would +come. Judith would send out invitations to the nicer people there and +to the ranches hereabout. She would have a barbecue, there would be +races and the usual holiday games, then the dance. Marcia would know +nothing of it until the last day, when her eager enthusiasm would send +her a-flutter to her dressing-room. + +Unanalyzed, it was simplicity itself, this giving a farewell party to +Marcia. Under analysis, it was a different matter. The boys at the +ranch would be invited, and of course most of them would come. Bud Lee +would come. Judith would see to that, even if he should hesitate. + +Bud Lee had always been so self-possessed, had so coolly found her +lacking, that, piqued a little, Judith longed for the opportunity to +place him in an atmosphere where a little of his calm self-possession +might be snatched from him. If she could embarrass him, if she could +see the red rise under his tanned skin, she would be giving Mr. Lee a +lesson good for his soul. + +"I've got powerful little use for an affair like that," said Lee +coolly, when she told him. "Thank you, Miss Sanford, but I don't think +I'll come." + +Judith shrugged her shoulders as though it did not in the least matter +to her. + +"I'm giving it for Marcia," she said. "Do you think it would be quite +nice to her to stay away? I am afraid that she will be hurt." + +Not Judith's words, but the look in her eyes changed Lee's intentions. + +"If it's for Miss Langworthy," he said quietly, "I'll come." + + +The day came and Bud Lee began to regret that he had given his promise +to go to Marcia's dance. All day he was taciturn, aloof, avoiding not +only the visitors from Rocky Bend and the other ranches, but his own +fellows as well. He took no part in the races, was missing when the +blazing trenches and smell of broiling meat told that the barbecue was +in progress. He worked with his horses as he had worked yesterday, as +he would work to-morrow. With the dusk he went, not to the men's +quarters, but to the old cabin at the Upper End. + +Again and again that day he had thought of that look in Judith's eyes +when she had asked him to come for Marcia's sake. What the devil did +she mean by it? He didn't know exactly, but he did know that in its +own vague way it irritated him. Her eyes had laughed at him, they had +teased, they had told him that Judith herself wasn't wasting a single +thought upon Mr. Bud Lee, but that she had noticed his obvious interest +in Miss Langworthy. + +"Damn it," muttered Lee. "I won't go." + +But he had said that he would go, and in little things as in big ones +he was scrupulous. He would go, just to dance with Marcia and show +Miss Judith a thing or two. He felt unreasonably like taking Miss +Judith across his knee and spanking her. And he did have a curiosity +to see just what Judith would look like in a real party-dress. + +"Poor little wild Indian," he grumbled. "She's got the making of a +wonder in her, and she doesn't even know it. What's worse, doesn't +care." + +He sat with a dead cigarette between his fingers, staring at the +wind-blown flame of his coal-oil lamp. Judith was doing this as she +did everything that she set her two hands on, thoroughly and with her +whole heart and soul. In that lay the key to her character. There was +no half-way with her. When she gave, it was open-handedly, with no +reservation; where she loved or hated, it was unreservedly; if she gave +a dance it would be a dance for the countryside to remember. + +Yesterday Hampton had wondered, grinning, what he'd look like in a +dress-suit again. Hadn't had a thing on here of late but his war togs. +Whereby he called attention to his turned-up overalls, soft shirt, +battered hat, and flapping vest with the tobacco-tag hanging out. + +Bud Lee turned down the wick of his lamp, which had been smoking, and +sat staring at it another five minutes. + +"By thunder," he said softly to himself. "I'll do it." + +He shoved the bunk away from its place in the corner, opened a +trap-door in the floor and, lamp in hand, went down into the cabin's +cellar. Here was a long pine box, hooped with tin bands for shipping, +its lid securely nailed on. He set down his lamp and with shirt-sleeve +wiped off some of the accumulation of dust and spider-web. A card with +the words, "David Burrill Lee, Rocky Bend," tacked to it made its +appearance. Lee shook his head and attacked the lid. + +"It's like digging out a dead man," he muttered. "Well, we'll bury him +again to-morrow." + +It was a box of odds and ends. Clothing, a few books, a pack of +photographs, an ornate bridle, a pair of gold-chased spurs, a couple of +hats, gloves, no end of the varied articles which might have gone +hastily into such a receptacle as this from the hurried packing in a +bachelor's apartments. + +Bud Lee, with a dress-suit and the articles it demands, even to tie and +dancing-shoes, went back into the room above. + +"Like Hampton," he mused, looking at the things in his hands, "I wonder +what it'll feel like to get back into these! I'm a fool." He laughed +shortly and set to work to improvise a flat-iron to take the worst +wrinkles out of the cloth. "Once a fool, always a fool. You can't get +away from it." + +It was settled. He was going to Marcia's party. He insisted upon +calling it in his mind, "Marcia's party." And he was wondering, as he +shaved, how Judith was going to look. + + + + +XVIII + +JUDITH TRIUMPHANT + +As Bud Lee came through the lilacs into the courtyard, he heard the +tinkle of a distant piano and the tremolo of a violin, so faint as +hardly to be distinguished above the plash and gurgle of the fountains. +The court, bathed in soft light, seemed a corner of fairyland, the +music vanishing elfin strains of some mischievous troop putting sighs +and love dreams into a sleeping maid's breast. The night was rich with +stars, warm with summer, serene with the peace of the mountains. He +was late. They were already dancing within. + +He stood a moment, looking in at the outer edge of the flood of light +which gushed through the wide doors. Behind him Japanese lanterns +hanging from a vine-covered trellis; before him flowers, bright +chandeliers, girls' dresses like fluttering, many-colored, diaphanous +butterfly wings. He had been saying to himself: "I must hurry if I +want to dance with Marcia." And something stirring restlessly within +him shoved aside the thought of Marcia and put in its stead the old +wonder: "What sort of a Judith would he see to-night?" + +He found it difficult to form any picture of her here, among these gay, +inconsequent merry-makers. Judith to him spelled a girl upon a horse, +booted, spurred, with a scarf about her neck fluttering wildly behind +her as she rode, the superb, splendid figure of a girl of the +out-of-doors, alive with the hot pioneer blood which had been her rich +inheritance, a sort of wonderful boy-girl. Remove her flapping hat, +her boots, and spurs and riding-suit, and what was left of Judith? + +Outside were half a dozen of the boys who had not mustered courage to +set foot on the polished floors, Carson and Tommy Burkitt among them. +Tommy stared at Bud Lee and his jaw dropped in amazement. Carson took +swift stock of such clothes as he had never suspected a good horse +foreman owned, and gasped faintly: + +"The damn . . . lady-killer!" + +But Lee had neither eyes nor thoughts for them, nor remembrance of his +own change from working garb to that of polite society. The dance came +to a lingering end, the couples throughout the big rooms strolled up +and down, clapping their hands softly or vehemently as their natures or +degree of enthusiasm dictated, and Lee forgot Marcia and sought eagerly +for a glimpse of Judith. + +Refused a second encore, the couples stood about chatting, the hum of +lively voices bespeaking eager enjoyment. There was no early chill +upon the assembly, to be dissipated as the dance wore on; the day of +festivity outdoors had thawed the thin crust of icy strangeness which +is so natural a part of such a function as this. Already it seemed +that everybody was on the most cheerful terms with everybody else. + +Suddenly Lee's eyes, still seeking Judith, found Marcia. Surrounded by +a little knot of men, each of them plainly seeking to become her happy +partner for the next dance, adorably helpless as usual, Miss Langworthy +was allowing the men to fight it out among themselves. Lee moved a +little nearer to see her better. In a pale-blue gown, fluffy as a +summer cloud, her cheeks delicately flushed, a white rose like a +snowdrop in the gold of her hair, she was flutteringly happy, reminding +him of those little meadow blues that had flown palpitatingly about him +that day in the fields. And she was obviously as much at her ease +here, in an atmosphere of music and flattery, as the tiny butterflies +in their own meadows. + +Bud Lee came in, his tall form conspicuous, and went straight to +Marcia. She saw him immediately; forget herself to stare almost as +Carson had done; smiled at him brightly; waved her fan to him. + +He took her hand and told her with his eyes how pretty she was. The +delicate tint in Marcia's cheeks deepened and warmed, her eyes grew +even brighter. + +"Flatterer!" she chided him. "Are we to talk of the moth and the star +again, Mr. Lee?" + +The knot of men about her melted away. Lee stood looking down into her +upturned eyes, measuring her gentle beauty. He had thought of her as a +little blue butterfly--she was more like a wee white moth, fluttering, +fluttering . . . + +The music, again from a hidden distance, set feet to tapping. Marcia +plainly hesitated, flashed a quick look from Lee to the others about +them, then whispered hurriedly: + +"It's terrible of me, but----" + +And she slipped her hand into his arm, cast another searching glance +over her shoulder for a partner who had been too tardy in finding her, +and yielded to the temptation to have this first dance with "the most +terribly fascinating man there"! Lee slipped his arm about her, felt +her sway with him, and lightly they caught the beat of the dance and +lost themselves in it. And still, again and again turning away from +Marcia, he sought Judith. + +The dance over, their talk was interrupted by an excited and rather +overdignified youth with a hurt look in his young worshipping eyes, who +stiffly reminded Miss Langworthy that she had cut his dance. She was +so contrite and helpless about it that the youth's heart was touched; +she blamed herself for her terribly stupid way of always getting things +tangled up, gave him the promise of the next dance, which she had +already given to some one else, disposed of him with charming skill, +and sighed as she turned again to Lee. + +"I haven't paid my respects to our hostess," he said quietly. "Where +is Miss Sanford?" + +"She sent her excuses," Marcia told him. "Aren't we in a draft, Mr. +Lee?" + +He moved with her away from the soft current of air, a distinct +disappointment moving him to the verge of sudden anger. What business +had Judith to stay away? + +"You mean she isn't coming at all?" he asked quickly. + +"Oh, no," she told him, busy with the rose in her hair, her eyes bright +on his. "Just as the dance was beginning she had to go to the +telephone. Some ranch business, I don't know what. But she sent word +she would be here immediately--I believe," and Marcia made her remark +teasingly, though she did want to know, "that a certain mysterious +gentleman who masquerades as a horse-breaker is very much interested in +Judith." + +"What makes you say a thing like that?" he asked, startled a little. + +Marcia laughed. + +"A woman's intuition, Sir Mystery!" she informed him gayly. + +"What does the woman's intuition find to be the mysterious gentleman's +interest in a certain Miss Langworthy?" he asked lightly. + +"It tells her that he likes her; that it would be fun for him to come +and play with her; that he would be kind and courteous; but that he +considers her very much as he would a foolish little butterfly!" + +Again she startled him. He looked at her wonderingly. But before he +could frame a bantering reply, Marcia had involuntarily gripped at his +arm with a look upon her face that first was sheer bewildered +astonishment, and was crying for him to look yonder. + +Judith had come. + +Across the floor, now nearly deserted, Bud Lee and Marcia stared at +her. She was coming toward them, her dainty little slippers seeming to +kiss their own reflections in the gleaming floor. It was Judith and +not Judith. It was some strange, unknown Judith. A wonderfully +gowned, transcendently lovely Judith. A Judith who had long hidden +herself, masquerading, and who now stepped forth smiling and bright and +vividly beautiful; a Judith of bare white arms, round and soft and rich +in their tender curves; a Judith whose filmy gown floated about her +like a sun-shot mist; a Judith whose skin above the low-cut corsage was +like a baby's, whose tender mouth was a red flower, whose hair was a +shimmering mass of bronze-brown, whose eyes were Aphrodite's own, +glorious, dawn-gray; a Judith of rare maidenly charm; a glorious, +palpitant, triumphant Judith. + +It might have been just because it was fitting that they should greet +their hostess so; it might have been because the men and women who saw +this new Judith were caught suddenly in a compelling current of +admiration, that above the hum of voices rose from everywhere a quick +clapping of hands as she came through the room. The color of her +cheeks deepened, her eyes flashed a joyous acknowledgment of the +greeting, and bright and cool and self-possessed she came on to Marcia. + +"Marcia, dear," she said, taking Marcia's two hands--and Bud Lee found +that even Judith's voice had taken on a new note, deeper, richer, +gladder, fraught with the quality of low music--"forgive me for being +late. I wanted to be here every little second to see you enjoy +yourself." She put her lips closer to Marcia's ear, whispering: "You +are the prettiest thing to-night I ever saw!" + +Marcia shook her head, her eyes filled with frank wonder. + +"Don't fib, Judith, dear," she answered. And, for Marcia, she was very +grave. "I know you have a glass in your room. You wonderful, +wonderful Judith!" + +Their voices were indistinct to Bud Lee. Now at the moment when she +was so rich in the splendor of her own sweet femininity he filled his +heart with her. Judith had come in the only way Judith could come, +surrendering herself utterly to the hour. + +She turned to him, no surprise at his own costume in her happy eyes, +and gave him her cool hand. A swift tremor ran through him at the +contact, a tremor which was like that of the night in the cabin, which +he could not conceal, which Judith must notice. She said something, +but he let the words go, holding only the vibrant music of the voice. + +She had stirred him, and now he did not seek a theory for a buckler; +the sight of her, the brushing of her fingers against his, made riotous +tumult in his blood. + +The first strains of a waltz joined the lure of Judith's warm +loveliness, whispering, counselling, commanding: "Take her." Marcia +gasped and stepped back, startled by the look she saw in the eyes of +this man who, having spoken no word since Judith came, put out his arms +and took her into them. Judith flashed at him a look of quick wonder. +His face was almost stern; no hint of a smile had come into his eyes. +He merely caught her to him as though she were his, and swung her out +into the whirl of dancers. + +"You are rather--abrupt, aren't you?" said Judith coolly. + +"Am I?" he asked gravely. "I don't know. It seems to me that I have +been loitering, just loitering while----" + +He didn't attempt to finish. He held Judith in his arms while for him +the room was emptied of its gay throng, the music no longer pulsed; its +beat was in the rhythm of their bodies, swaying as one. + +The dance over, she was lost to him in the crowd of men who came +eagerly to her. His eyes followed her wherever she went. A slow anger +kindled in his heart that she should let other men talk with her, that +she should suffer another man to take her in his arms. + +A number of country dances followed. He stood by the door waiting a +little before he went again to Judith. He saw Marcia across the room +beckoning to him with her fan. There was nothing to do but to go to +her. He frowned but went, still watching for Judith. Marcia wanted +him to meet some of her friends. He shook hands with Hampton, was +introduced to Rogers. Marcia explained that Mr. Lee was the gentleman +who achieved perfect wonders in the education of his horses. She +turned to introduce Farris, the artist. But Farris broke into Marcia's +words with a sudden exclamation. + +"Dave Lee!" he cried, as if he could not believe his eyes. "You! +Here!" + +"Hello, Dick," Lee answered quietly. "Yes, I'm here. I didn't know +that you were the artist fellow Hampton had brought up with him." + +Farris's hand went out swiftly to be gripped in Lee's. Marcia, +mystified, looked from one to the other. + +"You two know each other? Why, isn't that----" + +She didn't know just what it was, so stopped, looking frankly as though +she'd like to have one of them finish her sentence for her. + +"But," muttered Farris, "I thought that you----" + +"Never mind, Dick," said Lee quickly. And to Marcia's mystified +expression: "You'll pardon us a moment, Miss Langworthy? I want to +talk a little with Mr. Farris." + +His hand on the artist's elbow, Bud Lee forced him gently away. The +two disappeared into the little room off the library where José was +placing a great bowl of punch on the table. + +"_Que hay_, Bud," grinned José. "Your ol' nose smell the booze damn' +queek, no?" + +He set down his bowl and went out. Farris stared wonderingly at Lee. + +"Bud, is it?" he grunted. "Breaker of horses; hired man at a dollar a +day----?" + +"Ninety dollars a month, Dick," Lee corrected g him, with a short +laugh. "Give a fellow his true worth, old-timer." + +Farris frowned. + +"What devil's game is this!" he demanded sharply. "Isn't it enough +that you should drop out of the world with never a word, but that you +must show up now breaking horses and letting such chaps as Mrs. +Simpson's Black Spanish chum with you? Not a cursed word in five +years, and I've lain awake nights wondering. When you went to +smash----" + +"When a Lee goes to smash," said Bud briefly, "he goes to smash. +That's all there is to it." + +"But there was no sense, no use in your dropping out of sight that +way----" + +"There was," said Lee curtly, "or I shouldn't have done it. It wasn't +just that I went broke; that was a result of my own incompetence in a +bit of speculation and didn't worry me a great deal. But other things +did. There were a couple of the fellows that I thought were friends of +mine. I found out that they had knifed me; had helped pluck me to +feather their own nests. It hurt, Dick; hurt like hell. Losing the +big ranch in the South was a jolt, I'll admit; seeing those fellows +take it over and split it two ways between them, sort of knocked the +props out from under me. I believed in them, you see. After that I +just wanted to get away and sort of think things over." + +"You went to Europe?" + +"I did not. I don't know how that report got out, but if people chose +to think I had gone to take a hand in the fighting over there, I saw no +need to contradict a harmless rumor. I took a horse and beat it up +into the coast mountains. I tell you, Dick, I wanted to think! And I +found out before I was through thinking that I was sick of the old +life, that I was sick of people, the sort of people you and I knew, +that there was nothing in the world but horses that I cared the snap of +my finger about, that the only life worth living--for me--was a life in +the open. I drifted up this way. I've been living my own life in my +own way for five years. I am happier at it than I used to be. That's +all of the flat little story, Dick." + +"You might have let me know, it seems to me," said Farris a bit stiffly. + +"So I might," answered Lee thoughtfully. "I was going to in the first +place. But you'll remember that you were off somewhere travelling when +the bubble broke. When Dick Farris travels," and his grave smile came +back to him, "let no mad letter think that it can track him down. Then +I hit my stride in this sort of life; I grew away from the old news; +the years passed as years do after a man is twenty-five; and I just +didn't write. But I didn't forget, Dickie, old man," he said warmly, +and his hand rested on Farris's shoulder. "You can put it in that old +black pipe of yours and smoke it, that I didn't forget. Some day I +planned to hit town again, heeled you know, and remind you of auld lang +syne." + +"You are a fool, David Burrill Lee," said Farris with conviction. +"Look here: you can take a new start, pull yourself together, come +back--where you belong." + +But Lee shook his head. + +"That's like the old Dick Farris I used to know," he said gently. "But +this is where I belong, Dick. I don't want to start over, I don't want +to come back to the sort of thing we knew. The only thing in the world +I do want is right here. And I don't see that it would do any good for +you to go stirring up any memories about the old Lee that was shot +'somewhere in France.'" + +When Farris had to go and claim a dance, Lee watched him with eyes soft +with affection. Then he, too, left the room and went back to the outer +door, to his old spot, looking for Judith. + +"The only thing I want is right here," he repeated softly. + +He watched Farris join Marcia and Judith. He noted the eager +excitement in Marcia's eyes, saw her turn impulsively to Farris. The +artist shook his head and left them, ostensibly going in search of his +partner. Marcia was speaking excitedly to Judith. Lee frowned. + +Once more that night he held Judith in his arms. He meant to make +amends for his brusque way with her before. But again the magic of her +presence was like a glorious mist, shutting them in together, shutting +all of the world out. They spoke little and the music had its will +with them. Judith did not know that she sighed as the dance ended. +She seemed moving in a dream as Lee led her through the door. They +were out in the courtyard, the stars shining softly down on them. In +the subdued light here he stood still, looking down into her +pleasure-flushed face. Again the insistent tremor shot down his blood. + + +Here in this tender light she looked to him the masterpiece of God +striving for the perfect in a woman's form. Her gown, gently stirred +by the warm breeze, seemed a part of her, elusive, alive, feminine. +The milk-white of bare throat and shoulder and rounded arm, the rise +and fall of her breast, the soft lure of her eyes, the tender smile +upon her lips, drew him slowly closer, closer to her. She lifted her +face a little, raising her eyes until they shone straight into his. + +"Judith," he said very quietly, very gravely, making her wonder at the +tone and the words to follow: "You have had your way with me to-night. +Do you understand all that means? And now--I am going to have my way +with you!" + +He caught her in his arms, crushed her to him, kissed her. Then he let +her go and stood, stern-faced, watching her. + +For a moment he thought that the hand at her side was rising to strike +him full in the face. But he did not move. + +Had such been Judith's intention, suddenly it changed. + +"So," she cried softly, "this is the sort of fine gentleman into which +a dress-suit has made Bud Lee, horse foreman! For so great an honor +surely any woman would thank him!" + +She made him a slow, graceful courtesy, and laughed at him. And so she +left him, her laughter floating back, taunting him. + +Lee watched her until she had gone from his sight. Then he turned and +went down the knoll, into the night. + + + + +XIX + +BUD LEE SEEKS CROOKED CHRIS QUINNION + +Going down the knoll to the bunk-house, Bud Lee cursed himself at every +stride. He cursed Carson when the cattle foreman, turning to follow +him, addressed a merry remark to him concerning his "lady-killing +clothes." The words reminded him of Judith's and he didn't cherish the +remembrance. In the bunk-house Carson watched him curiously over his +old pipe as Lee began ripping off his dress-suit. + +"A feller called you up a while ago," said Carson, still bright-eyed +with interest but pretending that that interest had to do with the new +wall telephone recently installed. "Sandy Weaver, it was. Said----" + +"What did he want?" demanded Lee, swinging suddenly on Carson, his coat +balled up in his hand and hurled viciously under a bunk. + +"Wasn't I telling you?" Carson grunted. "What's eating you, Bud? You +ac' mighty suspicious, like a man that had swallered poison or else was +coming down with the yeller jaundice or else was took sudden an' +powerful bad with love. They all treats a man similar----" + +"Damn it," growled Lee irritably, "can't you tell me what Weaver said?" + +"Said, call him up, real pronto," replied Carson cheerfully. "Say, +Bud, where in heck _did_ you get that outfit? By cripes, if I had a +regalia like that I'd be riding herd in 'em ev'ry Sunday! On the +square now----" + +But Lee wasn't listening to him and Carson knew it. He had gone +quickly to the telephone, had rung the one bell for "Central," and a +moment later was speaking with Sandy Weaver of the Golden Spur saloon. +Carson sucked at his pipe and kept his eyes on Lee's face. + +The ensuing conversation, only one side of which came to Carson, was +brief. Most of the talking was done by Sandy Weaver. Lee asked three +questions; the third a simple, + +"Sure of it, Sandy?" + +Then he jammed the receiver back upon its hook, and with no remark +continued his hurried dressing. When he had come in, his face had been +flushed; now it was suddenly red, the hot red of rage. His eyes, when +they met Carson's once, were stern, bright with the same quick anger. +When he had drawn on his working garb and stuffed his trousers into his +boots, he went to his bunk and tossed back the blanket. From the straw +mattress he took a heavy, old style Colt revolver. Carson, still +watching him, saw him spin the cylinder, slip a box of fresh cartridges +into his pocket and turn to the door. + +"Riding, Bud?" He got to his feet, stuffed his pipe into his pocket +and reached for his hat. "Care if I mosey along?" + +"What for?" asked Lee curtly. + +"Oh, hell, what's the use being a hawg," Carson grumbled deep down in +his brown throat. "If you're on your way to little ol' Rocky hunting +trouble, if they's going to be shooting-fun, why can't you let me in on +it?" + +Lee stood a moment framed in the doorway, frowning down at Carson. +Then he turned on his heel and went out, saying coolly over his +shoulder: + +"Come on if you want to. Quinnion's in town." + + +As their horses' hoofs hammered the winding road for the forty miles +into Rocky Bend the two riders were for the most part silent. All of +the explanation which Lee had to give, or cared to give, was summed up +in the brief words: + +"Quinnion's in town." + +To Judith, Lee had said that night they fought together at the Upper +End that he had recognized Quinnion's voice; "I played poker with that +voice not four months ago." That he had had ample reason to remember +the man as well, he had not gone on to mention. But Carson knew. + +Carson had sat at Lee's left hand that night, across the table from +Chris Quinnion, and had seen the look of naked hatred in two pairs of +eyes when Lee had risen to his feet and coolly branded Quinnion as a +crook and a card sharp. For a little the two men had glared at each +other, their muscles corded and ready, their eyes alert and suspicious, +their hands close to their pockets. Then Quinnion had sneered in that +evil voice of his: "You got the drop on me this time. Look out for the +next." He too had risen and with Lee's eyes hard upon him had gone out +of the room. And Carson had been disappointed in a fight. But +now--now that Bud Lee in this mood was going straight to Rocky Bend and +Quinnion, Carson filled his deep lungs with a sigh of satisfaction. +Life had grown dull here of late; there wasn't a fresh scar on his +battered body. + +Though the railroad had at last slipped through it, Rocky Bend was +still a bad little town and proud of its badness. To the northeast lay +the big timber tracts into which the Western Lumber Company was tearing +its destructive way; only nine miles due west were the Rock Creek +mines, running full blast; on the other sides it was surrounded by +cattle ranges where a lusty brood of young untamed devils were +constrained to give themselves soberly to their work during the long, +dusty days. But at night, always on a Saturday evening, there came +into Rocky Bend from lumber-camps, mines, and cow outfits a crowd of +men whose blood ran red and turbulent, seeking a game of cards, a +"whirl at the wheel," a night of drinking or any other amusement which +fate might vouchsafe them. Good men and bad, they were all hard men +and quick. Otherwise they would not have come into Rocky Bend at all. + +Lee and Carson riding out of the darkness into the dim light of the +first of the straggling street-lamps, passed swiftly between the rows +of weather-boarded shacks and headed toward the Golden Spur saloon. + +Though the hour was late there were many saddle-ponies standing with +drooping heads here and there along the board sidewalks; from more than +one barroom came the gay ragtime of an automatic piano or the scrape +and scream of a fiddle. Men lounged up and down the street, smoking, +calling to one another, turning in here or there to have a drink or +watch a game. + +The two newcomers, watching each man or group of men, rode on slowly +until they came to the building on whose false front was a gigantic +spur in yellow paint. Here they dismounted, tied their horses, and +went in. Carson, with a quick eye toward preparedness for what might +lie on the cards, looked for Lee's gun. It wasn't in his pocket; it +wasn't in his waistband, ready to hand. It wasn't anywhere that Carson +could see. At the door he whispered warningly: + +"Better be ready, Bud. Ain't lost your gun, have you?" + +Lee shook his head and stepped into the room. At the long bar were +three or four men, drinking. Quinnion was not among them. There were +other men at the round tables, playing draw, solo, stud horse. One +glance showed that Quinnion was not in the room. But there were other +rooms at the rear for those desiring privacy. Lee, nodding this way +and that to friends who accosted him, made his way straight to the bar. + +"Hello, Sandy," he said quietly. + +Sandy Weaver, the bartender, looked at him curiously. A short, heavy, +blond man was Sandy Weaver, who ran a fair house and gave his attention +strictly to his own business. Save when asked by a friend to do him a +favor, such a favor as to keep an eye on another man. + +"Hello, Bud," returned Sandy, putting out a red hand. All expression +of interest had fled from his placid face. "Come in right away, eh? +Hello, Carson. Have somethin'; on me, you know." + +Lee shook his head. + +"Not to-night, Sandy," he said. "Thanks just the same." + +"Me," grinned Carson, "I'll go you, Sandy. Same thing--you know." + +Sandy shoved out whiskey-bottle and glass. Then he turned grave eyes +to Lee. + +"One of these fellers can tend bar while we talk if you want, Bud," he +offered. + +"You say Quinnion has been talking?" asked Lee. + +"Yes. Considerable. All afternoon an' evening, I guess. I didn't +hear him until I called you up." + +"Then," continued the man from Blue Lake ranch, "I don't see any call +for you and me to whisper, Sandy. What did he say?" + +"Said you was a liar, Bud. An' a skeerd-o-your-life damn bluff." + +A faint, shadowy smile touched Lee's eyes. + +"Just joshing, Sandy. But that wasn't all, was it?" + +"No," said Sandy, wiping his bar carefully. "There was the other word, +Bud. An'--say, Billy, tell him what Quinnion had to say down to the +Jailbird." + +Lee turned his eyes to Billy Young. Young, a cattleman from the Up and +Down range, shifted his belt and looked uncomfortable. + +"Damn if I do!" he blurted out. "It ain't none of my funeral. An' if +you ask me, I don't like the sound of that kind of talk in my mouth. +Maybe I can't find my way to church of a Sunday for staggerin' with +red-eye, but I ain't ever drug a nice girl's name into a barroom." + +"So," said Lee very quietly, "that's it, is it?" + +"Yes," said Sandy Weaver slowly, "that's it, Bud. Us boys knowed ol' +Luke Sanford an' liked him. Some of us even knowed his girl. All of +us know the sort she is. When Quinnion started his talk--oh, it's a +song an' dance about you an' her all alone in some damn cabin, trying +to crawl out'n the looks of things by accusin' Quinnion of tryin' to +shoot you up!--well, folks jus' laughed at him. More recent, somebody +must have took him serious an' smashed him in the mouth. He looks like +it. But," and Sandy shrugged his thick shoulders elaborately, "if it's +up to anybody it's up to you." + +For a moment Bud Lee, standing very straight, his hat far back, his +eyes hard and cold, looked from one to another of the men about him. +In every face he saw the same thing; their contempt for a man like +Quinnion, their wordless agreement with Sandy that it "was up to Bud +Lee." Lee's face told them nothing. + +"Where is he?" he asked presently. + +"Mos' likely down to the Jailbird," said Billy, Young. "That's where +he hangs out lately." + +Lee turned and went out, Carson at his heels, all eyes following him. +In his heart was a blazing, searing rage. And that rage was not for +Quinnion alone. He thought of Judith as he had seen her that very +night, a graceful, gray-eyed slip of a girl, the sweetest little maid +in all of the world known to him--and of how he, brutal in the surge of +love for her, had swept her into his arms, crushed her to him, forced +upon her laughing lips the kiss of his own. + +"My God," he said within himself, "I was mad. It would be a good thing +if I got Quinnion to-night--and he got me. Two of a kind," he told +himself sneeringly. + +As he made his way down the ill-lighted street, his hat drawn over his +eyes now. Bud Lee for a moment lost sight of the rows of rude +shanties, the drowsing saddle-ponies, the street-lamps, and saw only +the vision of a girl. A girl clean and pure, a girl for a man to kneel +down to in worship, a girl who, as he had seen her last, was a +fairylike creature born of music and soft laughter and starlight, a +maid indescribably sweet. In the harshness of the mood which gripped +him, she seemed to him superlatively adorable; the softness of her eyes +at the moment before he had kissed her haunted him. As he strode on +seeking Quinnion, who had spoken evil of her, he carried her with him +in his heart. + +The horrible thing was that her name had already been bandied about +from a ruffian's lips. Lee winced at that even as he had winced at the +remembrance of having been brutally rough with her himself. But what +was past was past; Quinnion had talked and must talk no more. + +"He'll start something the minute he sees you," cautioned Carson, his +own revolver loose in the belt under his coat, his hard fingers like +talons gripped about the butt. "Keep your eye peeled, Bud. Better +cool off a speck before you tie into him. You're too mad, I tell you, +for straight, quick shooting." + +Lee made no answer. Side by side the two men went on. They had left +the sidewalk and walked down the middle of the rusty, rut-gouged +street. Every man they met, every figure standing in the shadows, +received their quick, measuring looks. + +"Most likely," suggested the cattle foreman, "by now he's got drunk an' +gone to sleep it off." + +But Lee knew better than that. Quinnion wasn't the sort that got +drunk. He'd drink until the alcohol stirred up all of the evil in his +ugly heart; then he'd stop, always sure of his eye and his hand. It +was far more likely that with a crowd of his own sort he was gambling +in the card-room of the Last Chance saloon, the Jailbird saloon as +"white" men called it. For there was an ill-famed hang-out at the far +end of the straggling town, just at the edge of the Italian settlement, +that of late had come to be frequented by such as Quinnion; men who +were none too well loved by the greater part of the community, men who, +like Quinnion, had served time in jail or penitentiary. Black Steve, +who was both proprietor and bartender, and who looked like a low-class +Italian, though he spoke the vernacular of the country, was the god of +the "dago" quarter, the friend of those who had gotten entangled with +the law. Only last year he had killed his man in his own saloon, then +gone clear, through the combined perjury of his crowd. + +The street grew steadily gloomier, filled with shadows. In front of +the Jailbird the only light came from within and made scant war on the +lurking darkness without. Lee's ears were greeted with the crazy whine +of an old accordion, and with men's voices lifted in laughter. He +shoved the swing door open with his shoulder, Carson pushed the other +half back, and the two stood on the threshold, their eyes swiftly +seeking Quinnion. + +As though their presence had been a command for silence, a sudden hush +fell over the Jailbird. The accordion man drew out a last gasping note +and turned black round eyes upon them. Black Steve, oily and +perspiring behind his bar, caressed a heavy black mustache and looked +at them out of cold, expressionless eyes. + +The first glance had shown Lee that Quinnion was not there. At least +not in the main room, but there were the card-rooms at the rear. He +gave no sign of having felt the hostility of the many eyes turned upon +him, but went quickly down through the room, turning neither to right +nor left. + +"Hol' on there," came the big booming voice of Steve. "What you +fellers want, huh?" + +Lee gave him no answer but strode on. Carson, at Lee's heels like a +grim old dog, showed his teeth a little. Steve, striking the bar with +a heavy hand, shouted in menacing tones: + +"Hol' on, I say! Nobody goin' to break in on a play that's running in +my card-rooms. If you fellers want anything, you ask me." + +"Go ahead, Bud," said Carson jocosely. "It's only the ol' black calf +bawling same as usual." + +But Lee needed no urging. He had heard voices beyond the closed door +in front of him, among them a certain high-pitched, snarling, +indescribably evil voice which he knew. He put his hand on the knob +and found that the door was locked. With no waste of time, he drew +back a step, lifted his foot and drove his heel smashing into the lock. +Then, throwing himself forward, driving his shoulder into the door, he +burst it off its hinges. + +At last he had found Quinnion. + +Here were half a dozen men, not playing cards, but interrupted in a +quiet talk. Standing on the far side of the table was a man who was as +evil a thing to see as was his voice to hear; his face twisted, drawn +to the left side, the left eye a mere slit of malevolence, the uneven +teeth showing in an eternal, mirthless grin, a man whose hands, when +his arms were lax as now, hung almost to his knees, a man twisted +morally, mentally, and physically. + +Bud Lee had eyes only for this man. But suddenly Carson had seen +another man, seeking to screen himself behind the great, misshapen bulk +of Quinnion, and with new eagerness was crying: + +"It's Shorty, Bud! He's mine!" + +But Shorty was no man's yet. At his back was a window; it was closed +and the shade was drawn, but to Shorty it spelled safety. Head first +he went through it, tearing the green shade down, crashing through the +glass, leaving discussion behind him. With a bellow of rage Carson +went after him, forgetful in the instant that there was another matter +on hand to-night. Shorty, consigned to Carson's care and the +grain-house, had slipped away and had laughed at him. Ever since, +Carson had been yearning for the chance to get his two hands on +Shorty's fat throat. Before the smash and tinkle of falling glass had +died away Carson, plunging as Shorty had plunged, was lost to the +bulging eyes which sought to follow him, gone head first into the +darkness without. + +Lee kept his eyes hard on Quinnion's. He moved a little, so that the +wall was at his back. His coat was unbuttoned; his left hand was in +his pocket, his arm holding back his coat a little on that side. The +right hand was lax at his side, like Quinnion's. + +He had seen the other men, though his eyes had seemed to see only one +man. One of them he knew; the others he had seen. They were the sort +to be found in Quinnion's company. They were the nucleus of what was +spoken of as Quinnion's crowd. + +"Quinnion," said Lee quietly, "you are a damned dirty-mouthed liar." + +The words came like little slaps in the face. Of the four men still in +the room with Quinnion three of them moved swiftly to one side, their +eyes on their leader's face, which showed nothing of what might lie in +his mind. + +"I have taken the trouble," went on Lee coolly, when Quinnion, leering +back at him, made no reply, "to ride forty miles to-night for a little +talk with you. You are a crook and a card-cheat. I told you that once +before. You have been telling men that I am a coward and a +four-flusher. For that I am going to run you out of town to-night. Or +kill you." + +Then Quinnion laughed at him. + +"Just for that?" he jeered. "Or because I've been tellin' a true story +about you an'----" + +He didn't get her name out. Perhaps he hadn't expected to. His eyes +had been watchful. Now, as he threw himself to one side, he whipped +out his gun, dropping to one knee, his body partly concealed by the +table. At the same second Bud Lee's right hand, no longer lax, sped to +the revolver gripped under the coat at his left arm-pit. + +It was a situation by no means new to the four walls of the Jailbird +nor to the men concerned. It was a two-man fight, with as yet no call +for the four friends of Quinnion to interfere. It would take the spit +and snarl of a revolver, the flash of flame, the acrid smell of +burning-powder to switch their sympathetic watching into actual +participation. No new situation certainly for Chris Quinnion who took +quick stock of the table with its heavy top and screened his body with +it; no new situation for Steve, the big bartender who was at the +shattered door almost as Bud Lee sent it rocking drunkenly. + +Since a fight like this in a small room may end in three seconds and +yet remain a fight for men to talk of at street corners for many a day +thereafter, it is surely a struggle baffling adequate description. For +while you speak of it, it is done; while a dock ticks, two guns may +carry hot lead, and cut in two two threads of life. + +Quinnion was down and shooting, with but ten steps or less between him +and the man whom he sought to kill; Bud Lee was standing, tall and +straight, back to wall, his first bullet ripping into the boards of the +table, sending a flying splinter to stick in Quinnion's face, close to +a squinting, slitted eye; and as the two guns spoke like one, a third +from the open barroom shattered the lamp swinging from the ceiling +between Lee and Quinnion. Steve, the bartender, had taken a hand. + +[Illustration: Quinnion was down and shooting, with but ten steps . . . +between him and the man whom he sought to kill.] + +The card-room was plunged in darkness so thick that Lee's frowning eyes +could no longer make out Quinnion's head above the table, so black that +to Quinnion's eyes the tall form of Lee against the wall was lost in +shadow. + + + + +XX + +THE FIGHT AT THE JAILBIRD + +As Steve fired his shot into the lamp, Bud Lee understood just what +would be Steve's next play; the bartender had given his friends brief +respite from the deadly fire of the Blue Lake man, and now would turn +his second shot through the flimsy wall itself on the man standing +there. Lee did not hesitate now, but with one leap was across the +room, avoiding the table, seeking to come to close quarters with +Quinnion and have the thing over and done with. In the bitterness +still gnawing at his heart, he told himself again that it would be no +calamity to the world if the two men who had insulted Judith Sanford +went down together. + +Again Steve fired. His bullet ripped into the wall, tearing a hole +through the partition where a brief instant ago Lee had stood. The +light out in the barroom was extinguished. In the cardroom it was +utterly, impenetrably dark now, only a vague square of lesser darkness +telling where was the window through which Shorty had fled. + +A red flare of flame from where Quinnion crouched, and Lee stood very +still, refusing the temptation to fire back. For Quinnion's bullet had +sped wide of the mark, striking the wall a full yard to Lee's left. +Quinnion's eyes had not found him, would not find him soon if he stood +quite motionless. The fight was still to be made, Quinnion's friends +would be taking a hand now, Steve had already joined issue. There were +six of them against him and with one shot fired from his heavy Colt +there were but five left. No shot to be wasted. + +A little creaking of a floorboard, a vague, misty blur almost at his +side, and still Lee saved his fire. Quickly he lifted the big +revolver, held welded to a grip of steel, throwing it high above his +head and striking downward. There was almost no sound; just the +thudding blow as the thick barrel struck a heavy mat of hair, and with +no outcry a man went down to lie still. At the same moment the dim +square of the window showed a form slipping through; one man was +seeking safety from a quarrel not his own. And as he went, there came +again a soft thudding blow and Carson's dry voice outside, saying +calmly: + +"Shorty got away, but you don't, pardner. Give 'em hell, Bud. I'm in +the play again." + +"Two men down," grunted Lee to himself with grim satisfaction. "And +old Carson back on the job. Only two to our one now." + +The form in the window crumpled and under Carson's quick hands was +jerked out. Suddenly it was very still in the little room. Steve did +not fire a third time; Quinnion held his fire. For Lee had made no +answer and they were taking heavy chances with every shot now, chances +of shooting the wrong man. Each of the four watchful men in the narrow +apartment breathed softly. + +Once more Lee lifted his gun above his head. As he held it thus, he +put out his left hand gently, inch by inch, gropingly. Extended full +length, it touched nothing. Slowly he moved it in a semi-circle, the +gun in his right hand always ready to come crashing down. His fingers +touched the wall, then moving back assured him that no one was within +reach. Lifting a foot slowly, he took one cautious step forward, +toward the spot where he had last seen Quinnion. Again his arm, +circling through the darkness, sought to locate for him one of the men +who must be very near him now. Suddenly it brushed a man's shoulder. + +There was a sharp, muttered exclamation, and again a flare of red flame +as this man fired. But he had misjudged Bud Lee's position by a few +inches, the bullet cut through Lee's coat, and Lee's clubbed revolver +fell unerringly, smashing into the man's forehead. There was a low +moan, a revolver clattered to the floor, a body fell heavily. + +"A new situation," thought Lee. Three men down before a clock could +tick off as many minutes and not a single man shot. It was a place for +a man like Charlie Miller with his old pick-handle. + +"Bud," called Carson's voice sharply, "are you all right?" + +"Yes," answered Lee briefly, and as he answered moved sharply to one +side so that his voice might not draw a shot from Quinnion or the other +men. There came two spurts of flame, one from each of the corners of +the room opposite him, the reports of the two shots reverberating +loudly. But this was mere guesswork--shooting at no more definite +thing than a man's voice, and Lee having moved swiftly had little fear. +And he knew pretty well where those two men were now. + +So did Carson, who from without fired in twice through the window. +Then again it grew so silent that a clock ticking somewhere out in the +barroom was to be heard distinctly, so that again the men guarded their +breathing. + +Lee thought that he knew where Quinnion was, in the corner at his right +close to the rear wall. Not square in the corner, of course, for +having fired he was fox enough to shift his position a little. True, +no sound had told of such a movement. But Quinnion could be trusted to +make no sound at a time like this. Lee, equally silent, again set a +slow foot out, moving cautiously toward the spot where his eyes sought +Quinnion in the dark. + +He was calculating swiftly now: Quinnion had fired twice from the +screen of the table just as Steve shot out the light; he had fired +again just now, it was a fair bet that at least one of the other shots +had been his. That meant that he had fired four times. If Quinnion +still carried his old six-shooter he had but two shots at most left to +him, for there had been no time which he would risk in reloading. + +Lee swept off his hat and tossed it out before him to the spot where he +believed Quinnion was and dropped swiftly to his knee as he did so. +There was a snarl, Quinnion's evil snarl, and a shot that sped high +above his head. His hat had struck Quinnion full in the face. Then +Lee again sprang onward, again struck out with his clubbed revolver. +The blow missed Quinnion's head but caught him heavily on the shoulder +and sent him staggering back against the wall. Lee could hear the bulk +of his body crashing against the boards. And again leaping, he struck +the second time at Quinnion. This time there was no snarl, but a +falling weight and stillness. + +There was a sound of a chair violently thrown down, the scuffle of +hasty feet and in the door the faint blur of a flying figure seeking +refuge in the bar. Lee flung the crippled door shut after the fugitive +and then with his left hand struck a match, his revolver ready in his +right. + +Holding the tiny flame down toward the floor, he made out two prone +bodies. One, that of the first man he had struck down, a man whom he +knew by name as Lefty Devine, a brawler and boon companion of Quinnion. +The other Quinnion himself. Devine lay very still, clearly completely +stunned. Quinnion moved a little. + +Carson's weather-beaten face peered in at the window. + +"Better do the hot foot, Bud," he grunted softly, "while the trail's +open. Steve will be mixing in again." + +But Lee seemed in no haste now. When the match had burned out, he +dropped it and slipped fresh cartridges into his gun. That done, he +stooped, gathered up Quinnion's feebly struggling body in his arms and +carried it to the window. + +"Here," he said coolly to Carson. "Take him through." + +"What the hell do you want of him?" Carson wanted to be told. "Ain't +going to scalp him, are you, Bud?" + +"Take him out," commanded Lee with no explanation. Carson obeyed, +jerking the now complaining Quinnion out hastily and unceremoniously. +Lee followed as Steve threw open the barroom door. + +"It's a new one on me, just the same," said Carson dryly as he watched +Lee stoop and gather Quinnion up in his arms. "After a little party +like this one, I'm generally travelling on an' not stopping to pick +flowers an' gather sooveneers! You ain't got cannibal blood in you, +have you, Bud?" + +While Carson was cudgelling his brains for the answer and Steve was +making cautious examination of the card-room, Lee with his burden in +his arms passed through the darkness lying at the rear of the saloon +and out into the street. Carson followed to take care of a sortie +should Steve and the rest not have had all they wanted for one night. +He chuckled, remarking to himself that Bud Lee and Quinnion were the +very picture of a young mother and her babe in arms. + +Not until they again reached the Golden Spur did Lee's burden +completely recover consciousness. Many a man on the street looked +wonderingly after them, demanded to know "what was up," and, receiving +no answer, swung in behind Carson. + +In the Golden Spur the arrivals were greeted by a heavy silence. Sandy +Weaver forgot to set out the drinks which had just been ordered by +three men who, in their turn, forgot that they had ordered. Men at the +tables playing cards put down their hands and rose or turned +expectantly in their seats. + +Lee put Quinnion down on the floor. The man lay there a moment +blinking at the lights above him and at the faces around him. At +length his eyes came to Lee. + +"Damn you," he muttered, trying to rise, and slowly getting to his feet +with the aid of a chair, "I'll get you----" + +Then Bud Lee gave his brief explanation, cutting Quinnion's ugly snarl +in two. + +"This is Quinnion's farewell party," he said bluntly. "He is a liar +and a crook and an undesirable citizen. I have told him all that +before. He took it upon himself to say about town that I am all of +those things which he is himself. I have damn near killed him for it; +I am going to give him ten minutes to get out of town. If he doesn't +do it, I am going to kill him. And in that ten minutes he is going to +find time to eat his words." + +"I'll see you in--" began Quinnion, as something of the old bluster +came back to him. + +"Shut up!" snapped Lee. "Carson, let me have your gun." + +Carson, wondering, gave it. Lee dropped it on the floor at Quinnion's +foot. + +"Pick that gun up and we'll finish what we've begun," he said coolly to +Quinnion. "I won't shoot until you've got it in your hand and have +straightened up. Then I'll kill you. Unless first you admit that you +are the contemptible liar every one knows you are, and second, get out +of town and stay out. It's up to you, Quinnion." + +Knowing Quinnion, the men moved swiftly so that they did not stand +behind either him or Lee. Sandy Weaver, shifting a few feet along his +bar, shook his head and sighed. + +"It'll be both of them," he muttered. + +Quinnion turned his head a little, his red-rimmed eyes going from face +to face, his tongue moving back and forth between his lips. For an +instant his eyes dropped to the gun at his feet, and a little spasmodic +contraction of his body showed that he was tempted to take up the +weapon. But he hesitated, and again turned to Lee. + +"It's up to you," repeated Lee. "If you're not a coward after all, +pick it up." Lee's hands were at his sides, his own revolver in his +pocket. Quinnion was tempted. The evil lights in his eyes danced like +witch-fires. Again he hesitated; but his hesitation was brief. With +his whining, ugly laugh he lurched to the bar. + +"Gimme a drink, Sandy," he commanded. + +"Neither now nor after a while," Sandy told him briefly. "I ain't +dirtyin' my glasses that-a-way." + +"There you are," jeered Quinnion, with a sullen sort of defiance. "You +swat me over the head while I ain't lookin' an' then bring me in here +where they're all your friends. If I drop you I get all mussed up with +their bullets. No, thanks." + +"For the last time," said Lee, and his low voice was ominous, "I tell +you what to do. If you don't do it, I'll kill you just the same. +You've got your chance. Count ten seconds, Sandy." + +"One," said Sandy, watching the clock on the wall, "two, three, four, +five, six, seven----" + +"Curse you!" cried Quinnion then, a look of fear at last in his eyes. +"I'll get you for this some day, Bud Lee. Now you've got me----" + +"Keep on counting, Sandy," commanded Lee. + +"Eight," said Sandy, "nine----" + +"I lied!" snapped Quinnion. "An' I'm leavin' town for a while." + +And lurching as he walked, he made his way out of the room, his eyes on +the floor, his face a burning red. + +"Carson and I are riding back to the ranch as soon as our horses rest +up and get some grain," said Lee, his fingers slowly rolling a brown +cigarette. "We'll mosey out now, see Quinnion on his way and drop back +to make up a little game of draw for a couple of hours. Strike you +about right, Billy? And you, Watson? And you, Parker?" + +They listened to him, took the cue from him, and allowed what lay +between him and Chris Quinnion to lie in silence. But there was not a +man there but in his own fashion was saying to himself: + +"It's a good beginning. But where's the end going to be?" + + + + +XXI + +BURNING MEMORY + +As June had slipped by, so did July and August. On Blue Lake ranch +life flowed smoothly. Men were too busy with each day's work to sit +into the nights prophesying trouble ahead. And in truth it seemed that +if Bayne Trevors had ever actively opposed the success of the Sanford +venture he had by now accepted the role of inactivity forced upon him +by circumstance. He was with the Western Lumber Company, as director +and district superintendent, seemingly giving all his dynamic force to +the legitimate affairs of the company. + +But there were those who placed no faith in the obvious. Bud Lee kept +in touch with Rocky Bend and learned that Quinnion had not come back; +that no one knew where he had gone. Carson's man, Shorty, was sought +by Emmet Sawyer and his disappearance was like that of a pricked +bubble; it seemed that Shorty had no actual physical existence or that, +if he had, he had taken it into some other corner of the world. +Quinnion's friends had also gone from Rocky Bend, like Quinnion leaving +behind them no sign to show where they had gone. + +Knowing Quinnion as he did, and having his own conception of the +character of Bayne Trevors, Bud Lee said to himself that too great a +quiet portended strife to come. If Quinnion was the man to carry in +his breast the hate that drove him to the murder of Judith's father, +then he was the man to remember the humiliation he had suffered at +Lee's hands, to remember and to strike back when the time was ripe. + +Judith had heard of the night in Rocky Bend, a lurid and wonderfully +distorted account from Mrs. Simpson, who had received it in a letter +from her daughter. + +"So that was what Bud Lee did after he kissed me!" mused Judith. + +She sent immediately for Carson and forced from him the full story. +Dismissing Carson, she remained for a long while alone. Only one +remark had she made to the cattle foreman, and that a little aside from +the issue occupying his mind: + +"Keep your weather eye open for what's in the wind," she told him +briefly. "Behind Quinnion is Trevors, and the year isn't over yet." + +The ranch was stocked to its utmost capacity. Carson had bought +another herd of cattle; Lee had added to his string of horses. The dry +season was on them, herds were moved higher up the slopes into the +fresh pastures. Carson, converted now to the silos, was a man with one +idea and that idea ensilage. Again the alfalfa acreage was extended, +so that each head of cattle might have its daily auxiliary fodder. +Carson now agreed with Judith in the matter of holding back sales for +the high prices which would come at the heels of the lean months. + +The man Donley, who had brought to the ranch the pigeons carrying +cholera, was tried in Rocky Bend. The evidence, though circumstantial, +was strong against him, and the prosecution was pushed hard. But it +was little surprise to any one at the ranch when the trial resulted in +a hung jury. The ablest lawyer in the county had defended Donley, and +finally, late in August, secured his acquittal. The man himself did +not have ten dollars in the world; the attorney taking his case was a +high-priced lawyer. Obviously, to Judith Sanford at least, Bayne +Trevors was standing back of every play his hirelings made. + +Doc Tripp had the hog-cholera in hand. And every day, out with the +live stock whose well-being was his responsibility, he worked as he had +never worked before, watchful, eager, suspicious. "If they'll drop +cholera down on us out of the blue sky," he snapped, "I'd like to know +what they won't try." + + +For the first few days following the dance Bud Lee had within his soul +room but for one emotion: he had held Judith in his arms. He had set +his lips on hers. He went hot and cold with the remembrance. Being a +man, he made his man-suppositions of the emotions that rankled in her +breast. He imagined her contempt of a man who by his strength had +forced her lips to wed his; he pictured her scorn, her growing hatred. +He told himself that he should go, rid the ranch of his presence, take +his departure without a word with her. For, already, he had fitted her +into his theory of the perfect woman, lifting her high above himself +and above the human world. It was a continued insult for him to remain +here. + +But, after careful thought, he remembered what Judith had already told +him; he was one of the men whom she could trust to do her work for her, +one of the men she most needed, a man whom she would need sorely if +Bayne Trevors were lying quiet now but to strike harder, expectedly, +later. + +Judith did not dismiss him, as at first he had been sure she would. So +he stayed on, remaining away from the ranch headquarters, sleeping when +he could in the cabin above the lake, spending his days with his +horses, avoiding her but keeping her personality in his soul, her +interests in his heart. When the winter had passed, when she had made +her sales and had the money in hand for the payments upon the +mortgages, then he would go. Whereat, no doubt, the high gods smiled. + +As time passed, there came about a subtle change in the attitude of the +outfit toward Pollock Hampton, whom they had been at the beginning +prone to accept as a "city guy." It began to appear that under his +lightness there was often a steady purpose; that if he didn't know +everything about a ranch, he was learning fast; that in his outspoken +admiration of things rough and manly and primal there were certain +lasting qualities. Whereas formerly his being thrown from a spirited +mount was almost a daily occurrence, now he rode rather well. With +tanned face and hard hands, he was, as Carson put it, "growing up." + +He came to Judith one day serious-faced, thoughtful-eyed. + +"Look here, Judith," he began abruptly, "I'm no outsider just looking +on at this game. You're the chief owner and the boss and I'm not +kicking at that any longer. Your dad raised you to this sort of thing +and you have a way of getting by with it. But, on the other hand, I'm +part owner and you've got to consider me." + +Judith smiled at him. + +"What now, Pollock?" she asked. + +"You're the boss," he repeated stoutly. "But I've got a right to be +next in authority. Under you, you know. Why, by cripes, I go around +feeling as if I had to take orders from Carson or Tripp or any other of +the foremen!" + +"'By cripes' is good!" laughed Judith. "Go ahead." + +"That's all," he insisted. "You can tell them, when you get a chance, +that I am your little old right-hand man. Suppose," he suggested +vaguely, "that you left the ranch a day or so. Or even longer, some +time. There's got to be some one here who is the head when there is +need for it." + +Judith mirthfully acquiesced. Hampton's interest was sufficiently +heavy for him to be entitled to some consideration. Besides, she had +come to experience a liking for the boy and had seen in him the change +for the better which his new life was working in him. Further, she +meant to make it her business that she did not leave the ranch for a +day or so, or an hour or so, when she should be there. Consequently, +within a week Pollock Hampton was known humorously from one end to the +other of the big ranch as the Foreman-at-Large. + + +Marcia Langworthy, visiting in southern California, wrote brief, sunny +notes to Hampton, intricate letters to Judith. The mystery of Bud Lee +of which she had had a glimpse when the artist, Dick Farris, and Lee +recognized each other as old friends had piqued her curiosity in a way +which allowed that young daughter of Eve no rest until she had made her +own investigations. She wrote at length, telling Judith all that she +had learned of Lee. How he had been quite the rage, my dear. Oh, +tremendously rich, with great ranch in the South, a wonderful adobe +hacienda of the old Spanish days, where, like a young king, he had +entertained lavishly. How, believing in his friends, he had lost +everything, then had dropped out of the world, content equally to allow +that world to believe him soldiering in France or dead in the trenches +and to take his wage as a common laborer. Wasn't it too romantic for +anything? + +In due course, following up her letters, Marcia herself came back to +the Blue Lake ranch, Judith's guest now. The major and Mrs. Langworthy +were visiting in the East--it seemed that they always visited +somewhere--and Marcia would stay at the ranch indefinitely. Hampton +drove into Rocky Bend for her and held the girl's breathless admiration +all the way home, handling the reins of his young team in a thoroughly +reckless, shivery manner. + +"Isn't he splendid?" cried Marcia when she slipped away with Judith to +her room. + +Under the bright approval of Marcia's eyes Hampton flushed with +pleasure. Could Mrs. Langworthy have seen them together she would have +nudged the major and whispered in his ear. + +During the two months after the dance, Bud Lee and Judith had seen +virtually nothing of each other. When routine duties or a necessary +report brought them for a few minutes into each other's society there +was a marked constraint upon them. Never had the man lost the stinging +sense of his offense against her; never had Judith condescended to be +anything but cool and brief with him. While no open reference was made +to what was past, still the memory of it must lie in each heart, and +though Lee held his eyes level with hers and drank deep of the warm +loveliness of her, he told himself angrily that he was beneath her +contempt. The chivalry within him, so great and essential a part of +the man's nature, was a wounded thing, hurt by his own act. The old +feeling of camaraderie which had sprung up between them at times was +gone now; they could no longer be "pardners" as they had been that +night in the old cabin. + +He told himself curtly that he did not regret that; that now it was +inevitable that they should be less than strangers since they could not +be more than friends. That the girl was ready to forgive him, that she +had never been as harsh with him as he was himself, that there was a +golden, delicious possibility that she should feel as he did--so mad an +idea had not come to Bud Lee, horse foreman. + +A few days after Marcia's arrival there came to the ranch a letter +which was addressed: + + Pollock Hampton, Esq., + General Manager, + Blue Lake Ranch. + + +It was from Doan, Rockwell & Haight, big stock-buyers of Sacramento, +submitting an unsolicited order for a surprisingly large shipment of +cattle and horses. The price offered was ridiculously low, even for +this season of low figures due to the fact that many overstocked +ranches were throwing their beef-cattle and range horses on the market. +So low, in fact, that Judith's first surmise when Hampton brought it to +her was that the typist taking the company's dictation had made an +error. + +Judith tossed the note into the waste-basket. Then she retrieved it to +frown at it wonderingly, and, finally, to file it. It began by having +for her no significance worthy of speculation. It soon began to puzzle +her. Finally, it faintly disturbed her. + +Here were two points of interest. First: Doan, Rockwell & Haight was +the company to which Bayne Trevors, when general manager, had made many +a sacrifice sale. Because the Blue Lake had knocked down to them +before, did they still count confidently upon continued mismanagement? +Surely they must know that the management of the ranch had changed. +And this brought her to the second point: How did it come about that +they had addressed, not her, but Pollock Hampton? Was this just a +trifle? + +Long ago Judith had told herself that she must keep her two eyes wide +open for seeming trifles. In spite of her, though she scoffed at her +"nerves," the girl had the uneasy conviction that this offer had been +prompted by Trevors; that Trevors, for purposes of his own, had given +instructions that the letter be addressed to Hampton; that this was the +first sign of a fresh campaign directed against her from the dark; that +trouble was again beginning. + +Thoughtfully she smoothed out the letter, impaling it on her file. + + + + +XXII + +PLAYING THE GAME + +Pollock Hampton, Foreman-at-Large, came and went on the ranch, carrying +orders, taking always a keen interest in whatever work fell to hand, an +interest of a fresh kind, in that it was born of a growing +understanding. The men grew to like him; Bud Lee tactfully sought to +acquaint him with many ranch matters which would prove of value to him. +Carson, however, grown nervous over the new method in stock-raising +still in its experimental stage, was given to take any suggestion from +Hampton in the light of a personal affront. + +"Damn him," he growled deep in his throat when Hampton had ridden out +with word to shift one of the herds into a fresh pasture, an act on +which Carson had already decided, "some day I'll just take him between +my thum' an' finger an' anni-hilate him." + +The greater bulk of the stock had been steadily shifted higher in the +hills. The hogs grazed on the slopes at the north of the Lower End; +cattle and horses had been pushed eastward to the little valleys in the +mountains about the lake. Even the plateau, where the old cabin stood, +was now stocked with Lee's prize string of horses. Then, one day +Hampton came galloping through the herds of shorthorns, seeking Carson. + +"Crowd them down to the Lower End again," he shouted above the din. +"Cut out the scrawny ones and haze the rest into the pens." + +Carson's steel-blue eyes snapped, his teeth showed like a dog's. + +"Drunk?" he sneered. "What's eating you?" + +"Do as you're told," retorted Hampton hotly. "Those are orders from +headquarters and it's up to you to obey them. Get me?" + +"If ever I do get you, sonny," grunted Carson, "there won't be enough +of you left for the dawgs to quarrel over. Orders or no orders, I +ain't going to do no such fool thing." + +Hampton reined his horse in closer, staring frowningly at the old +cattleman. The purplish color of rage mounted in Carson's tanned +cheeks. + +"You'll do what you're told or go get your time," he announced tersely. +"We've got an order for five hundred beef cows and we're selling +immediately." + +Carson's jaw dropped. + +"What?" he demanded, not quite believing his ears. "Say that again, +will you?" + +"I said it once," retorted Hampton. "Now get busy." + +"Who are we selling to? I ain't heard about it." + +"An oversight, my dear Mr. Carson," laughed Hampton, his own anger +risen. "Quite an oversight that you were not consulted. We are +selling to Doan, Rockwell & Haight. Ever heard of them?" + +"Who says we're selling?" + +"I say so. And, if you've got to have all the news, Miss Sanford says +so." + +"She does, does she? Hm-m. First I knew of it. What figger?" + +"Really, does that concern you? If the price suits me and Miss +Sanford, who own the stock, does it in any way affect you? I don't +want to quarrel with you, Carson, and I do appreciate that you are a +good man in your way. But just because you have worked here a long +time, don't make the mistake of thinking that you own the ranch." + +With that he whirled his horse, and was gone. Carson, with puckered +brows, stared after him. + +But orders were orders, and Carson though the heart was sore, barked +out his commands to his herders to turn the cattle back toward the +lower fields. He had been converted to the new way, he had grown to +dream of the fat prices his cow brutes would fetch in the winter +market, he knew that prices now were rock-bottom low, that Doan, +Rockwell & Haight were close buyers who before now had cut the throat +of the Blue Lake ranch in sacrifice sales when Bayne Trevors ran the +outfit. + +"We're standing to lose thousan's an' thousan's of dollars," he told +himself in disgust. "All we've spent on irrigation an' fences an' +silos an' ditches, all gone to heck in a han'-basket. Not counting +thousan's of more dollars lost in selling at what we can get this time +of year. It makes me sick, damn throwin'-up sick." + +Riding down a long, winding trail, out through a patch of chaparral +into a rocky gorge, Hampton turned east again toward the higher +plateau. Taking the roundabout way which led from the far side of the +lake and along the flank of the mountain to the table-land, he came to +a scattering band of horses and Tommy Burkitt. + +"Where's Lee?" called Hampton. + +Burkitt grinned at him by way of greeting, and then pointed across the +plateau to a ravine leading to a still higher, smaller, shut-in valley. +Hampton galloped on and a quarter of an hour later came up with Lee. +The horse foreman was sitting still in his saddle, his eyes taking +stock of a fresh bit of pasture into which he planned turning his +horses a little later. It was one of a dozen small meadows on the +mountain creeks where the cañon walls widened out into an oval-shaped +valley, less than a half-mile long, where there was much rich grass. + +"Hello, Hampton," called Lee pleasantly. "What's the word?" + +The perspiration streaming down Hampton's face had in no way dampened +his ardor. + +"Big doings," he cried warmly. "We're cutting loose, Bud, at last and +piling up the shining ducats! You're to gather up a hundred of the +most likely cayuses you've got and shove them down to the Lower End. +We're selling pretty heavily to Doan, Rockwell & Haight." + +A new flicker came into Lee's eyes. Then they went hard as polished +agate. + +"I didn't quite get you, Hampton," he said softly. "You say we're +selling a hundred horses? Now?" + +Hampton nodded, understanding nothing of what lay in Lee's heart. + +"On the jump, just as fast as we can get them on the run," he said +triumphantly. "Judith wanted me to tell you." + +"I see," answered Lee slowly. + +His eyes left Hampton's flushed face and went to the distant cliffs. +It was no way of Bud's to hide his eyes from a man, and yet now he did +hide them. He did not want Hampton to see what they showed so plainly, +in spite of his attempt to master his emotion. He was hurt. Long ago +he had offended Judith, and she had waited until now to repay his rude +insult with this cool little slap in the face. She had not consulted +him, she had not mentioned a sale to him, and now she sent Hampton and +did not even come to him with a word of explanation. It was quite as +if she had said: + +"You are just a servant of mine, like the rest, Bud Lee, and I treat +you accordingly." + +Until Judith had come, there had been nothing that this man loved as he +did his work among his horses. He watched them as day after day they +grew into clean-blooded perfection; he appraised their values; he saw +personally to their education, helping each one of them individually to +become the true representative of the proudest species of animal life. +Had he turned his eye now to the herd down yonder he could have seen +the animal he had selected for a brood-mare next year, the +three-year-old destined to draw all eyes as he stepped daintily among +the best of the single-footers in Golden Gate Park, the rich red bay +gelding that he would mate for a splendid carriage team. . . . Oh, he +knew them all like human friends, planned the future for each, the sale +of each would be no sorrow but rather a triumph of success. And now, +to see them lumped and sold to Doan, Rockwell & Haight--even that hurt. +But most of all did Judith's treatment of him cut, cut deep. + +"You're a fool, Bud Lee," he told himself softly. "Oh, God, what a +fool!" + +"The buyers will be here the first thing to-morrow," said Hampton. +"Judith says we're to have everything ready for them." + +"I'll not keep her waiting," answered Lee quietly. And with a quick +touch of the spur he whirled his horse and left Hampton abruptly, going +straight to the plateau. + +"Round 'em up, Tommy," he said sharply. "Every damned hoof of them: +They go back to the corrals." + +Though quick questions surged up in Tommy's brain, none of them was +asked just yet, for he had seen the look on Lee's face. + +It was early in the afternoon when Hampton carried his messages to +Carson and Lee. It was after dark when Lee, his work done, his heart +still sore and heavy, came into the men's bunk-house. It was very +still, though close to a dozen men were in the room. Lee's eyes found +Carson and he guessed the reason for the silence. Carson was in a +towering rage that flamed red-hot in his eyes; under the spell of his +dominating emotion, the men sat and stared at him. + +"Well, what's wrong?" asked Lee coolly from the door. + +"Good goddlemighty!" growled Carson snappishly. "You stan' there an' +ask what's the matter. If they's anything that ain't the matter an' +you'll spell its name to me I'll put in with you. The whole outfit's +going to pot, an' I, for one, don't care how soon it goes." + +"Rather a nice way for a cattle foreman to talk about his ranch, isn't +it?" asked Lee colorlessly. + +"Cattle foreman?" sniffed Carson with further expletives. "Now will +you stan' on your two feet an' explain to me how in blue blazes a man +can be a cattle foreman when there ain't no cattle!" + +"So that's it, is it? I didn't know how close you were selling off----" + +"Don't say _me_ selling! Why, I got silage to run my cow brutes all +winter, what with the dry feed in them cañons----" + +Lee didn't hear the rest. It had been his intention to come in and +smoke with the boys, and perhaps play a game of whist. Anything to +keep from thinking. But now, moving on impulse, he turned and left the +shack, going swiftly up the knoll to the ranch-house. + +Just stepping into the courtyard soft under the moon, tinkling with the +play of the fountains, stirred his heart to quicker beating. He had +not set foot here for over two months, not since that night which he +knew he should forget and yet to whose memory he clung desperately. +This was the first time in many a long week that he had gone out of his +way to seek Judith. And now words which Judith herself had spoken to +him one day were now at least a part of the cause sending him to speak +with her. She had said that he was loyal, that she needed loyal men. +He still took her wage, he was still a Blue Lake ranch-hand, he still +owed her his loyalty, though it came from a sore heart. + +If she were hard driven in some way which she had not seen fit to +confide to him, if she were forced to make this tremendous sale, if she +were mad or had at last lost her nerve, frightened at the thought of +the heavy sums of money to be raised at the end of the winter, well, +then it still could do no harm for him to speak his mind to her. +Hampton had told him the price which the horses were to bring; it was +pitifully small and Lee meant to tell her so, to tell her further that +he would guarantee an enormous gain over it if she gave him time. He +would be doing his part though she called him meddler for his pains. +Marcia Langworthy, hidden in a big chair on the veranda, watched him +approach with interest, though Lee was unconscious of her presence. He +had lifted a hand to rap at the door when she called to him, saying: + +"Good evening, Mr. Mysterious Lee. Have you forgotten me?" + +Though he had pretty well forgotten her, it was not necessary to tell +her that he had. He came toward her, putting out his hand. + +"Good evening, Miss Langworthy," he said cordially. "I haven't seen +much of you this time, have I? Two reasons, you know: busy all day and +half the night, for one thing, and for another, Hampton has monopolized +you, hasn't he?" + +Marcia laughed softly. + +"To a man your size the second reason is absurd. . . . Will you sit +down? You see, I am taking it for granted that you come here to see +me. Unless," and her eyes twinkled brightly up at him, "you were +surreptitiously calling on Mrs. Simpson?" + +"I'd love to talk with you," he assured her. "But, as I've just +hinted, my work here has got into the habit of running away with me +into the night. I really came up for a word with Miss Sanford." + +"Oh, didn't you know?" asked Marcia. "Judith isn't here." + +"Isn't here?" He frowned. "No, I didn't know. I haven't seen much of +her lately and didn't know her plans. Where is she?" + +"In San Francisco. Her lawyers sent for her, you know. Something +about a tangle in her father's business. Funny you hadn't heard; she +left Saturday night." + +Saturday? This was Tuesday evening. Judith had been away three full +days. Lee, thinking hurriedly, thought that he saw now the explanation +of Judith's ordering a sale like this. Her lawyers had found what +Marcia called a "tangle" in Luke Sanford's affairs; there had been an +insistent call for a large sum of money to straighten it out, and +Judith had accepted the only solution. + +Still, it didn't seem like Judith to sell like this at a figure so +ridiculously low. Doan, Rockwell & Haight were not the only buyers on +the coast. Lee himself could get more for the horses if he had two +days' time to look around; the cattle were worth a great deal more than +they were being sold for, even with the market down. + +"Did she have an idea what the trouble was before she left?" he asked +finally. + +"Why," said Marcia, "I don't know. You see, she slipped out late +Saturday night after we'd all gone to bed. There was a message for her +over the telephone; she got up, dressed, saddled her own horse and rode +into Rocky Bend alone, just leaving a note for me that she might be +gone a week or two." + +Just why he experienced a sense of uneasiness even then, Lee did not +know. It was like Judith to act swiftly when need be; to go alone and +on the spur of the minute to catch her train; to slip out quietly +without disturbing her guest. + +"You have heard from her since?" he demanded abruptly. + +"Not a word," said Marcia. "She doesn't like letter-writing and so I +haven't expected to hear from her." + +Lee chatted with her for a moment, then claiming work still to be done, +turned to go back down the knoll. A new thought upon him, he once more +came to Marcia's side. + +"I expect I'd better see Hampton," he said. "Do you know where he is?" + +"Where he has been every night since Judith left," laughed Marcia. +"He's old Mr. Business Man these days. In the office." + +There Lee found him. Hampton, his hair ruffled, Judith's table +littered with market reports, and many sheets of paper covered with +untidy figures, looked up at Lee's entrance. + +"Hello, Bud," he said, reaching for cigarette and match. "Got +everything ready for to-morrow?" + +"Why didn't you tell me Miss Sanford had gone away?" was Lee's sharp +rejoinder. Hampton flushed. + +"Devil take those two eyes of yours, Bud," he said testily. "They've +got a way of boring through a man until he feels like they were +scorching the furniture behind him. Well, I'll tell you. While Judith +is away I am running this outfit. And if the men think I'm coming +straight from her with an order they obey it. If they get the notion +she isn't here, they're apt to ask questions. That's why." + +"This sale to Doan, Rockwell & Haight," said Lee quickly. "You didn't +cook that up, did you, Hampton?" + +"Lord, no!" cried Hampton. From its place on a file he took a yellow +slip of paper, tossing it to Lee. "She sent me that this morning." + +It was a Western Union telegram, saying briefly: + +POLLOCK HAMPTON, + Blue Lake Ranch. + +Am forced to sell heavily. Sending Doan, Rockwell & Haight Wednesday +morning, one hundred horses; as many beef cattle as Carson can round +up. Accept terms made in their letter to you last week. + +JUDITH SANFORD. + + +The date-line upon the message gave the sending point as San Francisco. + +"They wrote _you_ a letter offering to buy?" said Lee thoughtfully, his +eyes rising slowly from the paper in his fingers. "How'd it happen +they didn't write to _her_?" + +"Well, it's a natural enough mistake, isn't it? Knowing that she and I +were both part-owners, knowing that we were both here, isn't it quite +to be expected that they would write to the man instead of to the +woman? Of course I gave her the letter as soon as I had opened it." + +"Of course," answered Lee. + +But his thoughts were not with his answer. They were with Bayne +Trevors. He knew that Trevors had long ago sold to these people; he +knew, too, that at least two of the heavy shareholders in the Western +Lumber Company were interested in Doan, Rockwell & Haight. Tom +Rockwell himself was second vice-president of the lumber company. + +"Have you had any other word from Miss Sanford?" he asked. + +"No." + +"Know who her lawyers are?" + +"No. I don't." + +"Anything in her papers here that would tell us?" + +"No. Her papers are in the safe yonder and it's locked and I don't +know the combination." + +"Know what hotel she is stopping at in the city?" + +"No. Look here, Bud; what are you driving at? I don't get you." + +"No?" answered Lee absently. + +What Bud Lee was thinking was: "Here are too many coincidences!" +Little things, each one in itself safe from suspicion. But when he +meditated that the offer had come from this particular firm, that it +had come just a few days before Judith's first departure from the +ranch, that it had been addressed not to her but to Hampton, so that he +must have the opportunity to read it, that she had been called suddenly +to the city, that that call had come after the house was quiet, its +occupants in bed, that no letter had come since she had left, that no +one knew where to reach her--when he passed all of these things in +review the bitterness in his heart died under them and the first +anxiety sprang up anew, grown almost into fear for her. + +"There's just one thing, Hampton," he said, his eyes hard on the boy's +face. "We don't sell a single hoof in the morning. Not a cow nor a +horse until Judith is here herself." + +Hampton, new in his role of general manager, flushed hotly, his own +eyes showing fight. + +"I like you, Lee," he said sharply, his tone that of master to man. +"And I don't want us to quarrel. But Judith wired me to sell, I've +wired the buyers an acceptance and we do sell in the morning!" + +For a full minute Bud Lee stood stone still, staring into Hampton's +face. Then, tossing the telegram to the table, he turned and went out. +His face had gone suddenly white. + +"They've got you somehow, Judith girl," he whispered through tense +lips. "But the fight is still to be made. And, by God, there's a day +of squaring accounts coming for a man named Bayne Trevors!" + +He went to the bunk-house, neither seeing Marcia nor hearing her when +she called after him, and with a word to Carson brought the irate +cattle foreman hurriedly outside. + + + + +XXIII + +THE WRATH OF POLLOCK HAMPTON + +Bayne Trevors's way had ever been to play safe, the way of a coward or +a wise man. Even now, no doubt he was giving an account of himself in +legitimate endeavor at the lumber camp, putting in his appearance at +his regular hour, safe miles lying between him and that which might +occur upon the Blue Lake ranch, establishing alibis, conducting himself +like the man he wished the world to think him. But in the mind of Bud +Lee there was no question, no doubt. Bayne Trevors, or one of Bayne +Trevors's gang, was even at this instant holding Judith somewhere until +this colossal deal could be put over. Trevors or one of his gang--and +Lee's face went whiter, his hands shut tighter into hard fists, as +there came to his mind the picture of Quinnion's twisted face and evil, +red-rimmed eyes. + +"Well?" snapped Carson. "What now?" + +"There's going to be no sale in the morning," said Lee, and at the new +strange tone in Lee's voice Carson jerked up his head, thrusting it +forward, peering at the other through the moon-lit night. + +"Say it again," muttered Carson. "Who said so? Miss Judith?" + +"She isn't here," replied Lee briefly. "Hasn't been here since +Saturday night." + +Now, with more cause than ever, did Carson stare at him. + +"Then what did Pollock Hampton say sell for? By cripes, if this is one +of that young hop-o'-my-thumb's jokes, I'm going up to the house an' +murder him. That's all. An' right now." + +Lee laid a hand on Carson's arm. + +"Hold on, old-timer," he said shortly. "We'll have a talk with him +after a while. Now I want to talk with you." + +Contenting himself with the coldest of brief outlines, Bud Lee told +Carson of Judith's absence and of his own suspicions. Carson, who had +listened to him gravely, at the end shook his head. + +"That's a pretty bald play, Bud," he said slowly. "I don't believe +Trevors would get that coarse in his work. It doesn't look like him a +little bit." + +"Does this sale look the least little bit like Judith?" demanded Lee +sharply. "Is it her style to go over our heads this way, Carson? If +she's got to sell heavily, why pick out this particular set of buyers? +Why is the deal rushed through while she's away? I tell you there's a +nigger in the wood-pile and it's up to you and me to smoke him out. +Come up to the house with me." + +Marcia did not see them as they drew near in the moonlight. For, with +a plan shaping in his brain, Lee judged best that they should not be +seen. He and Carson passed in a wide arc about the left end of the +courtyard, around the end of the house and so to a door opening front +the office to the back of the house. This door he found unlocked and +pushed quietly open. + +Hampton lifted swift eyes, sensing something stern and ominous in this +silent approach. + +"We want to talk things over with you," began Lee. + +"If you've come to bulldoze me out of that deal in the morning," +retorted Hampton, "you might as well keep still. I'm going to sell." + +"I don't know that you'd exactly call it bull-dozing," smiled Lee, +determined to be pleasant with the young fellow as long as possible. +"But you've got sense enough to listen to reason, Hampton." + +"Have I?" jeered Pollock. "Thanks." + +"If Miss Sanford wants the deal to go through," continued Lee, "why, +then, of course, through it goes. If she doesn't, there's going to be +no sale." + +"I tell you she wired me to sell; I showed you the telegram----" + +"But you didn't prove to me that she sent it. You didn't know yourself +whether it had been sent by her or Doan, Rockwell & Haight, or by Bayne +Trevors or the devil himself." He took up the telephone and said into +it, "Western Union, Rocky Bend. . . . That you, Benton? This is Lee +of the Blue Lake. We want to get in communication with Miss Judith +Sanford, somewhere in San Francisco. Send this message to every hotel +there, will you? And rush it: '_Must have word with you immediately. +Important. Telephone_.' Got it? Oh, sign it, Carson and--and Tripp. +Rush it, I tell you, Benton. And if you get in touch with Miss Sanford +in any way, tip us off here, will you? Thanks." + +"She might be visiting with friends," muttered Hampton, little pleased +at the thought that Lee and Carson were seeking to rob him of his newly +acquired importance. + +"Where's Mrs. Simpson?" asked Lee. + +"Gone to bed," answered Hampton. + +"And Miss Langworthy is still on the veranda. Now Hampton, Carson and +I want a look at Miss Sanford's room. Come with us, will you?" + +"I'm damned if I will!" cried the boy hotly. "I don't know what you +are up to, but I'm boss here and I'm giving orders, not taking them. +If there's any reason in all this, I've got the right to know what it +is." + +"Yes," answered Lee thoughtfully. "You've got the right. I just don't +like the looks of affairs, Hampton. I don't believe all that I hear. +I don't believe Miss Sanford sent that wire. I don't believe she is in +San Francisco. I do believe that your friend Trevors has got hold of +her somehow, and that he is playing you for a sucker. That's our +reason in this. Now will you come with us to her room?" + +"Trevors?" said Hampton. Then he laughed. "You are like the rest, +Bud. Trevors is a gentleman, and you try to make him a crook. Such a +scheme as you imagine is absurd and ridiculous. And I won't go prying +with you into Judith's room." + +"Come on, Carson," said Lee. "If Hampton wants to stay here, let him." + +But the young fellow was on his feet, his face flushed, his eyes +excited. + +"You'll get out of this house and do it quick!" he cried sharply. "If +you think for one little minute that I'll stand for your high-handed +actions, you're mistaken." + +At a look from Lee, Carson stepped quickly forward, so that Hampton +stood between them. + +"You come with us," and now Lee no longer sought to be pleasant. "And +keep still or we'll stop your mouth with a yard of cloth. This way, +Carson." + +With right and left arms gripped, with lagging feet and furious eyes, +Hampton went between them to the door. For an instant only did he +struggle; then, with a snort of disgust, seeing the futility of making +a fool of himself, he went quietly. + +Just what he expected as a result of a visit to the girl's room, Lee +did not know. He hoped for some sign to tell him something, anything. + +Quietly the three went through the house until they came to Judith's +dainty blue-and-white bedroom. Here all had been set in order by Mrs. +Simpson. A great vase of rosebuds, brought by José this morning, +accepted by Mrs. Simpson with suspicion and searched carefully for a +lurking scorpion or a coiled rattlesnake, stood on a table by the +window. On entering the room a sort of awkward shyness fell over both +Lee and Carson. Hampton, freed now and standing alone, though under +Carson's hard eye, stared at them angrily. + +"When you get through with this foolishness," he told them stiffly, +"you can either apologize or call for your time." + +Neither answered. Carson little by little had come to share Lee's +uncertainty and anxiety; and now, like Lee, sought eagerly to find a +sign--something to tell that Judith had been lured away by Trevors or +Quinnion; or that she had been overpowered here and taken out, perhaps +through a window. + +But Judith had gone Saturday night, and Mrs. Simpson had done her work +thoroughly. It might be well to call the housekeeper and question her. +Had she found a chair overturned, a rug rumpled, a table shoved a +little from its accustomed place? But, again, it would be as well not +to start suspicion and surmise in other minds; if, after all, there +were no true cause for it. Judith _might_ be in San Francisco; she +_might_ have sent the order to sell. + +"Chances is we're smelling powder where there wasn't no shot," said +Carson hesitatingly. + +"Bright boy!" mocked Hampton. "You'll make a great little gumshoe +artist one of these days." + +Had Bud Lee not loved Judith as he did, with his whole heart and soul, +it well might have been that he and Carson and Hampton would have gone +out of the room knowing no more than when they had come in. But it +seemed to Lee that the room which knew Judith so intimately, was +seeking to open its dumb lips to whisper to him of danger to her. He +had come here troubled for her; he stood, looking about him frowningly, +his heart heavy, fear mounting within him. And at length he found a +sign. + +At the far end of the room, in a corner, was Judith's writing-table, on +which were several opened letters, pen and ink, a pad of paper. Lee +stepped to it. If she had been lured away after nightfall, then some +message had come to her. If that message had come by word of mouth, +there was no need seeking it; if it had been a note, fate might have +kept it here. + +Impaled on a sharp file was a sheet of note-paper. The note was brief, +typewritten, even to the signature--that of Doc Tripp. It ran: + +DEAR JUDITH: + +I am afraid of a new trouble. Have spotted another one of T's gang +working for us. Also have got a bullet-hole in my right hand. Nothing +serious so far. Come down right away. Don't let any one see you as I +want to spring a surprise on them. Am not even using the telephone, as +I've a notion they are watching me. Hurry. + +TRIPP. + + +"Come back to the office," said Lee bluntly. And well in front of +Carson and Hampton, who stared wonderingly at the paper in his hand, he +went to the office telephone and called for Tripp. + +"How's your hand?" he asked when Tripp answered. + +"All right," replied Tripp. "Why?" + +"Get it hurt?" + +"No." + +"Did you write Miss Sanford a hurry-up note within the last few days?" + +"No." + +"Sure of that, Doc? Typewritten note?" + +"Of course I'm sure," snapped Tripp. "What's wrong?" + +"God knows," answered Lee shortly. "But you'd better come up here and +come on the jump. Also, keep your mouth shut until you can get a +chance to talk with me or Carson." + +He clicked up the receiver and turned terrible eyes on the two men +watching him. + +"They've got her," he said slowly. "They've got her, Carson. They've +had her since Saturday night!" + +Carson read the note. Only then did it pass into Hampton's hands. The +boy, angered at the way in which he had been ignored, insulted in his +sense of dignity by those words of Lee's to Tripp, "Talk with me or +Carson," seeing the reins of power being snatched from his hands, was +speechless with wrath. + +"You fellows have butted in all I'll stand for!" he cried at them, his +shut fists shaking. "I tell you I'm running this outfit and what I say +goes. I don't believe that Trevors or any man living would do a trick +like that. I tell you it's ridiculous. And, no matter where Judith +is, when she is not here I run the ranch. I need money; she needs +money; we've got a fair chance to sell; I've passed my word we are +going to sell; and by God, we are going to sell." + +In another mood, Hampton would not have spoken this way. In another +mood and with time for argument, Bud Lee would have expostulated with +him. Now, however, Lee said tersely: + +"Carson, it's up to you and me. Get the boys out, to the last man of +them. Turn every hoof of cattle and horses back into the Upper End. +We've got to do it to-night. Get them into the little valley above the +plateau. We can hold them there, even if they try to force our hands, +which will be like them. I take this to be Trevors's last big play. +And, by thunder, he has mighty near gotten away with it!" + +"Don't you dare do it!" blazed out young Hampton. "Carson, you take +orders from me. Get out of this house and leave the stock where they +are. In the morning----" + +"Go ahead, Carson," cut in Lee's hard voice. "I'll take care of +Hampton here." + +"You will, will you?" cried Hampton. + +With one bound he was at the table, jerking open a drawer. As his hand +sought the weapon lying there, Bud Lee was on him, throwing him back. +Carson looked at them a moment, then went to the door. + +"You're right, Bud," he said calmly as he went out. + +Lee, forcing himself to show a calmness like Carson's, said gently to +Hampton: + +"Can't you see the play? It's up to you to kick in and stop it. +There's a telephone; call up the buyers in Rocky Bend. They're there +now, or at least their drivers are, if they're coming out here in the +morning. Tell them the deal is off." + +"Can't I see?" said Hampton, writhing out of Lee's hands, on his way to +the door. "You bet I can see! If you and Carson think that you can +run me----" + +Then, for good and all, Lee gave over trying to reason with Hampton. +There was too much to be done to waste time. He drew Hampton back, +forcing him against the wall. As he tried to call out, Lee's hand over +his mouth smothered his words. + +"You're coming with me," he said sharply. "Right now." + +Though he struggled, Hampton was little more than a baby in the horse +foreman's muscular grip. Tripped, with a heel behind his calf, he fell +heavily, Lee upon him. Both arms were pinioned behind him, and Lee's +neckerchief thrust into his mouth. He writhed in impotent rage. His +outcries died in his throat, the loudest of them not reaching Marcia's +ears above the creaking of her rocking-chair. Lee still held Hampton's +tied hands gripped in his own. So the two men went out the back door, +down toward the corrals. + +Seeing men hurrying from the bunk-house to the stables under Carson's +snapping orders. Lee called out for Tommy Burkitt. And in a moment, +with bulging eyes, Burkitt came running. + +"Bring out three horses, Tommy," Lee commanded, giving no explanation. +"Hurry, and keep your mouth shut." + +Burkitt obeyed Lee as he always did, silently and unquestioningly. +Very soon he returned, riding, leading two saddled horses. + +"Get into the saddle, Hampton," said Lee sternly. "There's no time for +nonsense. Get up or I'll put you up." + +"Curse you," Hampton said in smothered anger, his tone making clear the +meaning of the indistinct mutter. But he climbed into the saddle. + +"Come on, Tommy." Lee, too, was up, his hand on Hampton's reins. +"We're going up to the old cabin. You're going to ride herd on Hampton +while I do something else. I'll tell you everything when we get there." + +So they rode into the night, headed toward the narrow passes of the +Upper End, Hampton and Lee side by side, Tommy Burkitt staring after +them as he followed. No longer were Bud Lee's thoughts with his +captive, nor with the herds Carson's men were driving back to the +higher pastures. They were entirely for Judith, and they were filled +with fear. She had been gone for three full days; she was somewhere in +the clutch of Trevors or of one of his cutthroats. He thought of her, +of Quinnion's red-rimmed, evil eyes, and as he had not prayed in all +the years of his life Bud Lee prayed that night. + + + + +XXIV + +A SIGNAL-FIRE? + +Lee left Hampton securely bound and under Tommy Burkitt's watchful eyes +in the old cabin, and rode straight back to the ranch-house. Marcia +was not yet in bed and he made his first call upon her. Marcia was +delighted, then vaguely perturbed, as he made known his errand without +giving any reason. He wanted to see the note from Judith. Marcia +brought it, wondering. He carried it with him to Judith's office and +compared it carefully with scraps of her handwriting which he found +there. The result of his study was what he had expected: the writing +of the note to Marcia was sufficiently like Judith's to pass muster to +an uncritical eye, looking, in fact, what it purported to be, a very +hasty scrawl. But Lee decided that Judith had not written it. He +slipped it into his pocket. + +Tripp was waiting for him, impatient and worried, when he came back +from the Upper End. From Tripp he learned that one of the men, a +fellow the boys called Yellow-jacket, had unexpectedly asked for his +time Saturday afternoon and had left the ranch, saying that he was sick. + +"He's the chap who brought the fake note from you," said Lee. "It's +open and shut, Doc. Another one of Trevors's men that we ought to have +fired long ago. The one thing I can't get, is why he didn't do a +finished job of it and hang around until Miss Sanford left, then get +away with the note. It would have left no evidence behind him." + +"She must have locked her door and windows when she went out," was +Tripp's solution. "And probably he didn't hang around wasting time and +taking chances." + +Tripp's boyish face had lost its youthful look. His eyes, meeting +Lee's steadily, had in them an expression like Lee's. + +"If it's Quinnion--" Tripp began. Then he stopped abruptly. + +Lee and Tripp were together in the office not above fifteen minutes. +Then Tripp left to return to the Lower End, to get the rest of the men +out, to help in the big drive of cattle and horses which must be +returned to the shut-in valleys of the Upper End. Lee went to the +bunk-house, slipped revolver and cartridges into his pockets, took a +rifle and rode again to the old cabin. + +"It's Trevors's big, last play," he told himself gravely, over and +over. "He'll be backing it up strong, playing his hand for all that +there's in it, and he'll have taken time and care to fill in his hand +so that we're bucking a royal flush. And there's only one way to beat +a royal flush, and that's with a gun. But I can't quite see the whole +play, Trevors; I can't quite see it." + +There were enough men to do the night's work without him and Tommy +Burkitt, and Lee gave no thought now to Carson, swearing in the +darkness of some shadow-filled gorge. He did not know what the +morrow's work would be for him, but he made his preparations none the +less, eager for the coming dawn. He fried many slices of bacon while +Hampton glared at him and Tommy watched him interestedly; he made a +light, compact lunch, such as best "sticks to a man's ribs," wrapped it +in heavy paper and slipped the package into the bosom of his shirt. He +completed his equipment with a fresh bag of tobacco and many matches. +He loaded his rifle, added a plentiful supply of ammunition to his +outfit from the box on the shelf. Then he went outside to be alone, to +frown at the black wall of the night, to think, to await the dawn. + +"I'm coming to you, Judith girl," he whispered over and over to +himself. "Somehow." + + +Dawn trembled over the mountain-tops, grew pale rose and warm pink and +glorious red in the eastern sky, and Bud Lee, throwing down his coiled +rope which had been put into service a dozen times during the night, +said shortly: + +"Here we camp, boys. I'll leave you my fried bacon, Tommy, and take +the raw with me. You're not even to light a fire. And you're to stick +here until I come for you." + +They had travelled deeper and deeper into the fastnesses of the +mountains, mounting higher and higher until now, in a nest of crags and +cliffs, on a flank of Devil's Mountain, they could look far to the +westward and catch brief glimpses of the river from Blue Lake slipping +out of the shadows. They had gone a way which Lee knew intimately, +travelling a trail which brought them again and again under broken +cliffs, where they must use hands and feet manfully, and now and then +make service of a loop of rope cast up over an outjutting crag. + +"They'll never follow us here, Tommy," he said confidently. "If they +do, you've got the drop on them and you've got a rifle. You know what +to do, Tommy, old man." + +"I know, Bud," said Tommy, his eyes shining. For never before had Bud +Lee called him that--"old man." + +Long ago the gag had been removed from Hampton's mouth. Long ago, +consequently, Hampton had said his say, had made his promises. When he +got out of this--glory to be! wouldn't he square the deal, though! Did +Lee know what kidnapping was? That there were such things as laws, +such places as prisons? + +"Here," said Lee not unkindly, "I'll loosen the rope about your wrists. +That's all the chances we're going to take with you. Come, be a sport, +my boy. You're the right sort inside; just as soon as this fracas is +over, when you know that we were right and that all this is a put-up +job on you, your friend Trevors playing you for a sucker and getting +Miss Sanford out of the way, you'll say we were right and I know it." + +"That so?" snapped Hampton. "You just start now and keep going, Bud +Lee, if you don't want to do time in the jug." + +Tommy Burkitt, staring back across the broken miles of mountain, cañon, +and forest, his eyes frowning, was muttering: + +"Look at that, Bud. What do you make of it?" + +For a little Lee did not answer. He and Tommy and Hampton, standing +among the rocks, turned their eyes together toward the hills rimming in +the northern side of Blue Lake ranch. + +"I make out," said Lee slowly, "that Trevors means business and that +Carson has got his work cut out for him this morning, Tommy." + +For the thing which had caught the boy's eyes was a blaze on the ridge, +its flames leaping and ricking at the thinning darkness, its smoke a +black smudge on the horizon, staining the glow of the dawn. And +farther along the same ridge was a second blaze, smaller with distance, +but growing as it licked at the dry brush. Still farther a third. + +"If that fire ever gets a good start," muttered Lee heavily, "it's +going to sweep the ranch. God knows where it will stop. And just how +Carson is going to fight fire with one hand and hold his stock with the +other, I don't know." + +But even then he turned his eyes away from the ranch, sweeping the +ragged jumble of mountains about him. Judith was gone. Judith needed +him and he did not dare try to estimate the soreness of her need. What +did it matter that Carson and Tripp and the rest had their problems to +face back there? There was only one thing all of the wide world that +mattered. And did not even know where she was, north, south, east, or +west! Somewhere in these mountains, no doubt. But where, when a man +might ride a hundred miles this way or that and have no sign if he +passed within calling distance of her? + +In his heart Bud Lee prayed, as he had prayed last night, asking God +that he might come to Judith. And it seemed to him, standing close to +God on the rocky heights, that his prayer had been heard and answered. +For, far off to the east, still farther in the solitude of the +mountains, rising from a rugged peak, a thin line of smoke rose into +the paling sky. + +It might be that Judith was there. It might be that she was scores of +miles from the beckoning smoke. But Lee had asked a sign and there, +like a slender finger pointing to the brightening sky, was a sign. + +He stooped swiftly for rifle and rope and packet of bacon. + +"Where you goin', Bud?" asked Tommy. + +"To Judith," answered Bud Lee gently. + +For in his heart was that faith which is born of love. + + + + +XXV + +THE TOOLS WHICH TREVORS USED + +To Judith life had changed from a pleasant game in the sunshine to a +hideous nightmare. In a few dragging hours she had come to know +incredulity, anxiety, misery, dejection, black hopelessness, and icy +terror. She had come to look through a man's eyes at that which lay in +his heart, to feel for the first time in her fearless life that the +fortitude was slipping out of her bosom, that the strength was melting +in her. + +She lay on a rude bed of fir-boughs, an utter, impenetrable blackness +like a palpable weight on her eyeballs. When it was silent about her, +and for the most part silence reigned with the oppressive gloom, she +yearned so for a little sound that she moved her foot along the rock +floor under her or snapped a dry twig between her fingers or even +listened eagerly for the coming of the terrible woman who was her +jailer. + +Gropingly, again and again she went over in her thoughts the long +journey here, seeking fruitlessly to know whether she had come north, +south, or east from the ranch-house. It was one of these three +directions, for there were no such mountains as these to the west, no +such monster cliffs, no deep cavern reaching into the bowels of the +earth The sense that, even were she freed, she had no slightest idea +where she was, which way she must go, stunned her. + +"Will I go mad after a while?" she wondered miserably. "Am I already +going mad? Oh, God, have mercy on me----" + +From the instant when, Saturday night, she had been gripped suddenly in +a man's strong arms, when another man had smothered her outcry, she had +known in her heart that Bayne Trevors was taking his desperate chance +in the game. But in the darkness she had had only the two vague blurs +of their bodies to guess at. They had been masked; her own eyes were +covered, a bandage brought tightly over them, her mouth gagged, her +hands tied behind her, her body lifted into the saddle--all in a +moment. Neither man had spoken. Then, tied in the saddle, she only +knew that she was riding, that one man rode in front of her, leading +her horse, the other following close behind. The sense of direction +which she had lost in those first five minutes she had never been given +opportunity to regain. She might, even now, be a gunshot from her own +ranch; she might be twenty miles from it. + +For the greater part of that Saturday night they had ridden; and when +trails died under them and rocks rose steeply, they walked, she and one +man. The other stayed with the horses. Not once did she hear a man's +voice; she did not know whether it was Trevors himself, or Quinnion, or +some utter stranger who forced her into this hiding. + +They had climbed cliffs, now going down into chasms, now following +roaring creeks or making their way along the spine of some rocky ridge. +The one man with her was masked, his eyes rather guessed at than seen +through the slits of his bandanna handkerchief. He had jerked the +bandage from her eyes, since blindfolded she would make such poor +progress. But still he guarded his tongue. + +"He would speak," she thought, "but that I would recognize his voice. +Trevors or Quinnion? Which?" + +Feeling the first quick spurt of hope when she saw that there was but +one man to deal with, she was aquiver to seize the first opportunity +for flight. But that hope died swiftly as she recognized that no such +opportunity was to be granted her. Once she paused, looking to a +possible leap over a low ledge and escape in a thick bit of timber. +But the two eyes through the slits in the improvised mask had been keen +and quick, a heavy hand was laid on her arm, she felt the fingers bite +into her flesh as he sought to drive into her a full comprehension of +his grim determination that she should not escape. + +It was when they had clambered high upon a mass of tumbled boulders, +topping a ridge, that Judith had seen the man's face. Docilely she had +obeyed his gestures for an hour; now, suddenly maddened at the silence +and the mask over his face, she sprang unexpectedly upon him, shoving +him from the rock on which he had stepped, snatching off his mask as +she did so. For the first time she heard his voice, cursing her coolly +as he gripped and held her. + +It was Bayne Trevors, at last come out the open, his eyes hard on hers. + +"It's just as well that you know whom you are up against," he said as +he held her with his hand heavy on her shrinking shoulder. + +Summoning all of the reckless fearlessness which was her birthright, +she laughed at him coolly, laughed as the two stood against the +sky-line, upon the barren breast of a lonesome land. + +"So you are a fool, after all, Bayne Trevors!" she jeered at him. +"Fool enough to mix first-hand in a dangerous undertaking." + +Trevors shrugged. + +"Yes?" He slipped the handkerchief into his pocket and stared at her +with a glint of anger in the blue-gray of his eyes. He lifted his +broad shoulders. "Or wise man enough to do my own work when needs be, +and when I'd have no bungling? I'm going to square with you, girl. +Square with you for meddling, for a bullet-hole in each shoulder. If +there's a fool in our little junketing party, it's a girl who thought +she could handle a man's-size job." + +They went on, over the ridge and down. Judith made no second attempt +to surprise him, for always his eyes watched her. Nor did she seek to +hold back or in any way to hamper him now. For, swiftly adjusting +herself to the new conditions, she made her first decision: Trevors did +think her a "fool of a girl," Trevors did sneer at her helplessness in +that man's way of his. Let him think her a little fool; let him hold +her in his contempt; let him grow to think her cowed and afraid and +helpless. Then, when the time came---- + +Again she had been blindfolded; seeing the look in Trevors's eyes, she +had offered no objection. Again she had followed him in a darkness +made at sunrise by a bandage across her eyes. Again, the bandage +removed, she winked at the sunlight. Again they climbed ridges, +dropped down into tiny valleys, fought their way along thunderous +ravines where the water was lashed into white foam. Again blindfolded, +again trudging on, her whole body beginning to tremble with fatigue, +the weakness of hunger upon her. And at length, out of a cañon, making +a perilous way up the steep walls of rock, they came to the mouth of +the black cavern in which she lay now, waiting for the sound of a +stirring foot. + +Only an instant had Judith stood upon the ledge outside the cave before +she was thrust into the black interior. But in that instant her eager +eyes had made out, upon a tiny bit of table-land across the chasm of +the gorge, a cabin, sending aloft a plume of smoke. + +Then, after an hour, the terrible woman had come to whom Trevors had +intrusted her, bringing food and water in her hard, blackened hands, +carrying the flickering fires of madness in her unfathomable eyes. A +lantern set on the floor made rude shadows, and out of them crept this +woman, leering at Trevors, peering at Judith, licking her thin lips, +and chuckling to herself. + +"I have brought her back to you, Ruth," he said, speaking softly, more +softly than Judith had thought the man could speak. "You will know +what to do with her. And you will not let her escape you again." + +The mad woman, for only too plainly was her reason strangely misshapen, +stood in silence, her great muscular body looming high above Judith's, +a giant of a woman, bigger than Trevors even, broad and heavy, her +forearms thick and corded, her bare throat like the bull neck of a +prize-fighter. + +"I will know, I will know," she said, her eyes filled with cunning, her +voice a strange singsong oddly at variance with the coarse bigness of +her body. "Oh, no, she will never escape from me again." + +"I will have a man on the ledge outside night and day," went on +Trevors. "But we cannot be so sure of others as we are of ourselves, +Ruth. You know that, don't you?" + +"Oh, yes, I know," she answered quickly. As she spoke she suddenly +shot out her long arm so that her great, bony hand fastened like a big +claw on the girl's shoulder. "I have got her again! She is mine, all +mine. Oh, I will keep her well." + +In a little while Trevors left. He had not returned. Mad Ruth, still +gripping Judith's shoulder, half led her, half thrust her farther back +in the cavern. Judith made no resistance. Always, even when terror +was uppermost she held one thought in mind: "If I can make them think +me a little fool and a weakling, my chance may come after a while." + +As the two women passed around a bend in the sinuous tunnel-like cave, +the faint rays of the lantern they had left behind them died out, and +heavy darkness shut them in. Judith could barely make out the huge +form towering over her. But Ruth, whether her eyes were like a cat's +and accustomed to this sombre place, or whether a hand on a rock wall +or a foot on the uneven floor under her told her which way to go, moved +on without hesitation. Judith estimated roughly that they had come +fifty yards from the outside ledge in front of the cave when she was +pushed down and felt the rude bed of fir-boughs under her. + +"So," grunted the woman, for the first time removing her hard hand from +the girl's shoulder, "I've got you again, my pretty. And this time you +don't play any more little tricks on your old mother." + +She was gone swiftly, all but silently, through the gloom, her form +vaguely outlined against the lantern's glimmer, to bring the food and +water which she had set down when she came in. Judith drank and ate. + +It was only little by little, in fragments which she obtained during +the slow days which followed, that she came to understand Trevors's +scheme. And the scheme was in keeping with the man; so far as it was +possible, Bayne Trevors was still playing safe. + +Mad Ruth was an odd mixture of crazed suspicion, shrewd cunning, +cruelty, and madness. Perhaps very long ago--Judith came to believe +that it had occurred at the time when she had gone mad, for God knows +what reason--Mad Ruth had had a little daughter. The girl had been +lost to her, whether through death when an infant, or some tragic +accident when a young girl, Judith never knew. But Ruth's heart had +been bound up in that baby of hers; when madness came, it centred and +turned upon the return of her child, "Who had run away from her, but +who would come back some time." Trevors, having learned of her mad +passion, had shaped it to his purpose. + +But that was not all. Judith had been brought to the cave early Sunday +morning. Sunday afternoon there came to the cave a well-dressed man +carrying a little black bag in his hand. He talked with Ruth; he took +up the lantern and came to look at Judith. + +"So I'll know you again," he laughed. Then he went away. In fragments +which through long, empty hours her busy mind pieced together, bridging +the gaps, she grasped the rest of Trevors's plan. This man was a +physician, sent here from some one of the many mining towns in the +mountains, probably from a camp twenty or thirty miles away. He, too, +was a Trevors hireling. Should Judith ever accuse Trevors of having +brought her here, there was another story to be told. And this man +would tell it: How he had been summoned here to attend a girl who had +had a fall, who had wandered delirious through the mountains until Ruth +had found her; whom he had treated here, not daring at first to move +her for fear of permanent shock to her reason; who could give them no +help to establish her identity; who had a thousand absurd fears and +fancies and accusations to make; who in her babbling had at one time +accused Bayne Trevors of having forcibly abducted her; who at another +had cried that it was a man named Carson, a man named Lee, who had +brought her here. + +Judith spent many a long hour exploring her prison, hoping to find a +way out. So far as she knew she had but one person to reckon with, Mad +Ruth. True, Trevors had said that he'd have a man on the ledge outside +day and night; Judith had never seen such a person, had never heard his +voice, and began to believe that it was a bit of bluff on Trevors's +part. But she had never again been where she could look out of the +cave's mouth, since Mad Ruth had her own pallet on the floor at the +narrowest part of the cave where it was like the neck of a monster +bottle, and always at the first sound of the girl's approach, was on +her feet to thrust her back. Clearly there was no way out of this +place of shadows except that through which she had come. + +Judith sought an explanation of her imprisonment, and after long +groping she came very near the truth: Trevors would work his will with +Hampton through Hampton's faith in him and admiration for him. And, in +her absence, Hampton was the head of Blue Lake ranch. + + +Sunday night, hearing Mad Ruth moving cautiously, Judith raised herself +on her elbow, listening. She was confident that the woman was moving +toward the cave's mouth; she hoped wildly that Mad Ruth was tricked +into believing her asleep and was going out. Her shoes in her hands, +her stockinged feet falling lightly, Judith moved toward the mad +woman's couch. + +Ruth was going out; was in fact even now slipping out of the narrow +throat of the cave and to the ledge. But Judith could not see her. +For a new, unexpected obstacle was in her way. Her outthrust hands +touched not rock walls but heavy wooden panels; she knew then that the +narrow neck of the cave was fitted with a heavy door and that it had +been drawn shut, fastened from without. In a sudden access of fury and +despair she beat at it with her two hands, crying out bitterly. + +It was so dark, so inky black, and as still, save for her own outcry, +as a tomb sealed and forgotten. Such darkness, smothering hope, +suddenly was filled with vague terrors; for one worn-out and nervous as +Judith was, the darkness seemed to harbor a thousand ugly things which +watched her and mocked at her despair and reached out vile hands toward +her. She called loudly, and for answer had the crazed laugh of Mad +Ruth which floated in to her from without, but which seemed to drop +down from the void above. + +"Judith, Judith," the girl whispered after the first outburst, when she +found that she was shaking pitifully. "You've got to do better than +this; I'm ashamed of you." + +She went back to her couch, where she sat down seeking to hold her +jangling nerves in check. But, despite her intention, she sat shaking, +listening, listening--praying for even the footfall of her jailer. + +When Ruth was with her she attempted in a hundred ways to gauge the +woman's warped brain, to seek some way to get the better of her, to +gain her trust and so to slip away. But she found that here was the +usual cunning born of madness, and that Ruth's one idea was to keep the +girl who had escaped her once but who must never escape again. There +were times when suspicion awakened in Ruth's mind, and she broke into +violent rage, so that her big body shook and her eyes in the +lantern-light were cruel and murderous, when Judith shrank back, and +tried to change the woman's thoughts. For more than once had Mad Ruth +cried out: + +"I'll kill you! Kill you with my own hands to keep you here. To keep +you mine, mine, mine!" + +The woman carried no weapon, but after her two hands had once gripped +the girl's shoulders, shaking her, Judith knew that Ruth needed no +weapon. Hers was a strength greater than Trevors's, greater than two +men's. If Mad Ruth saw fit to kill Judith with her two hands, she +could do it. + + +Sunday passed and Sunday night; Monday and Monday night. Judith knew +that she had accomplished nothing, except perhaps to make Ruth believe +that she was very much of a coward. In Ruth's mad brain that was +little enough, since this did not allay her cunning watchfulness. Then +Judith began to do something else, something actively. Just to be +occupied, was something. Her fingers selected the largest, thickest +branch from her bed of fir-boughs. It was perhaps a couple of inches +in diameter and heavy, because it was green. Silently, cautious of a +twig snapped, she began with her fingers to strip the branch, tough and +pliable. Then the limb must be cut into a length which would make it a +club to be used in a cramped space. She found a bit of stone, hard +granite, which had scaled from the walls and which had a rough edge. +With this, working many a quiet hour, she at last cut in two the +fir-bough. She lifted it in her hands, to feel the weight of it, +before she thrust it under her bed to lie hidden there against possible +need. Poor thing as it was, she felt no longer utterly defenseless. + +Once Mad Ruth, lighting the lantern, had dropped a good match. When +she had gone, Judith secured it hastily, hiding it as if it were gold. +She knew that now and then Mad Ruth went down the cliffs and to the +cabin across the chasm. Always at night and at the darkest hour. When +she heard her go, Judith rose swiftly and went to the heavy door. +Always she found it locked; her shaking at it hardly budged the heavy +timbers. But though she could not see it, she studied it with her +fingers until she had a picture of it in her mind. A picture that only +increased her hopelessness. Barehanded she could never hope to break +it down or push it aside. And above it and below, and on each side, +were the solid walls of stone. + +She no longer knew what day it was. She scarcely knew if it were day +or night. But, setting herself something to do so that she would not +go mad, mad as Mad Ruth, she secured for herself another weapon. +Another bit of stone which her groping fingers had found and hidden +with her club; a jagged, ugly rock half the size of a man's head. Some +little scraps of bread and meat, hoarded from her scanty meals, she hid +in her blouse. + +"If I could stun her, just stun her," she got into the way of +whispering to herself. "Not kill her outright--just stun her----" + +At last, seeing that she must work her own salvation with the crude +weapons given her, Judith told herself that she could wait no longer. +Another day and another and she would be weak from the confinement and +poor food and nervous, wakeful hours. She must act while the strength +was in her. And, if Trevors had spoken the truth, if there were a man +to deal with outside--well, she must shut her mind to that until she +came to it. + +Mad Ruth was gone again, and Judith stood by the thick door, her heart +beating furiously while she waited. It seemed to her eager impatience +that Ruth would never come back. Then after a long, long time she +heard a little scraping sound upon the rock ledge outside, the sound of +a quick step. And then, before she heard the snarling, ugly voice +which she had heard once and had never forgotten, she knew that this +time she had waited too long, that it was not Ruth coming. + +One man--and there might be others. She stepped back to her bed, hid +the two weapons and waited. She must make no mistakes now. + +The door was flung open. Outside it was dark, pitch-dark. But +evidently the man entering had no fear of being seen. He threw down a +bundle of dry fagots, and set fire to them. The blaze, leaping up, +casting wavering gleams to where Judith stood, showed her plainly the +twisted, ugly face of Quinnion, his red-rimmed eyes peering at her, +filled with evil light. + + + + +XXVI + +JUDITH'S PERIL + +"The better to see you by, my dear!" was Quinnion's word of greeting. +Judith made no answer. She drew a little farther back into the +shadows, a little closer to the things she had hidden among the +fir-branches. + +"Ho," sneered Quinnion, his mood from the first plain enough to read in +the glimpses of his face and in the added harshness of his voice. +"Timid little fawn, huh? By God, a man would say from the bluff you +put up that it was all a dream about findin' you an' the han'some Lee +in the cabin together! Stan' off all you damn please; I've come to +tame you, you little beauty of the big innocent eyes!" + +Not drunk; no, Quinnion was never drunk. But, as he came a step +closer, the heavy air of the cave grew heavier with the whiskey he +carried, whiskey enough to stimulate the evil within him, not to quench +it. + +"Stand back!" cried Judith, with a sharp intake of breath. "I want to +talk with you, Chris Quinnion." + +"So you know who I am, do you? Well, much good it'll do you." + +"I know who you are and what you are," she told him defiantly, suddenly +sick of her long hours of playing baby, knowing at the moment less fear +than hatred and loathing. "Listen to me: Bayne Trevors has come out in +the open at last; he has made his big play and is going to lose out on +it. Your one chance now is to let me go and to go yourself. Go fast +and far, Chris Quinnion. For when the law knows the sort Bayne Trevors +is and how you have worked hand and glove with him, it will know just +how much his word was worth when he swore you were with him when father +was killed! Coward and cur and murderer!" + +Quinnion laughed at her. + +"Little pussy-cat," he jeered. "You've got claws, have you? And you +spit and growl, do you? Want me to let you go back to that swaggering +lover of yours, do you? Back to Lee----" + +"That's enough, Quinnion," she said sharply. + +"Is it?" He laughed at her again, and again came on toward her, the +red-rimmed evil of his eyes driving quick fear at last into her. +"Enough? Why, curse you and curse him, I haven't begun yet! When I'm +through with you I'll go fast enough. And he can have you then an' +damn welcome to him!" + +"Stop!" cried Judith. + +His laughter did not reach her ears now, but as he kicked the fire at +his foot and the flames leaped up and showed his face, she read the +laughter in his soul; read it through the gleaming eyes, the twisted +mouth which showed the teeth at one side in a horrible leer. His long +arms thrust out before him, he came on. + +"Oh, my God!" cried Judith. "My God!" + +Then suddenly she was silent. She thought that she had known the +uttermost of fear and now for the first time did she fully know what +terror was. His strength was many times her strength, his brutality +was unbounded, she was alone with him. There was no one to call to, +not even Ruth, the mad woman. + +She was shaking now, shaking so that she could barely stand. Quinnion +came on, his long arms out. . . . + +She felt the strength die out of her body, grew for a moment blind and +dizzy and sick. She tried again to call out to him, to plead with him. +But her voice stuck in her throat. + +He was gloating over her, a look strangely like Mad Ruth's in his eyes. +Good God! He was like Mad Ruth; the same eyes, the same long, powerful +arms, the same look of cunning! In a flash there came to her a +suspicion which was near certainty: this man was blood of Mad Ruth's +blood, bone of her bone; her son, and, like her, tainted with madness. + +He shot out a long arm, his hand barely brushing her shoulder. She +shrank back. He stood, content to pause a moment, to gloat further +over her. + +"You little beauty," he said, panting. "You little white and pink and +brown beauty!" + +Judith had shuddered when he touched her. But a strange thing had +happened to her. His touch had angered her so that she almost forgot +to be afraid, angered her so that the loathing was gone in white hot +hatred, giving her back her old strength. + +Now, though he had the brutal force of a strong man, Quinnion did not +have the swiftness of movement of an alert, desperate girl. Before he +could grasp her motive she leaped toward him and toward the bed of +boughs, found the ragged stone, and lifting it high above her head +flung it full into his face. The man staggered back, crying out in +throaty harshness, a cry of blind rage. But he did not fall, did not +pause more than a brief instant. + +A little dazed, with blood in his eyes, he lunged toward her. She had +found the club now and struck with all her might, again beating into +his face and again and again. He sought to grapple with her and she +beat him back. She saw his hand go to his hip and heard him curse her, +and she leaped in on him and, panting with the blow, struck again. He +flung up his arm. She struck once more. Taking the blow full across +the face, Quinnion reeled back, stumbled at an uneven spot in the rock +floor, balanced, almost falling. . . . + +Only a moment he held thus. But there was a chance to pass him in the +narrow way, and she took her chance, her heart beating wildly. And as +she shot by she struck again. + +She heard him after her, shouting curses, stumbling a little, coming +on. The door was open, thank God, the door was open! She shot +through. If she could but take time to close it! But there was no +time for that; he was almost at her heels. And outside was the ledge +and the dizzy climb down. + +If she slipped, if she fell, well, it would just be a clean death and +nothing more. Quinnion was but a few steps behind her. He had not +fired. Had he perhaps dropped his gun back there in the darkness? Or +was he so sure of taking her, alive and struggling, into his arms in +another moment? + +She was on the ledge. It was dark, pitch-dark. + +But she found a handhold, threw herself flat down and thrust her feet +out over the edge, less afraid of what lay below than what came on +behind her. She was gripping the ledge now with her hands, already +torn and bleeding, her feet swinging, touching sheer rock wall, +slipping, seeking a foothold. Quinnion was just there, above her. She +must move her hands so that he could not reach her. It seemed an +eternity that she hung there, seeking a place somewhere to set her feet. + +She found it, another, lesser ledge which she had almost missed, and +knew that this way she had clambered upward with Bayne Trevors. If she +could only find another step and another before Quinnion came upon her! +She held her club in her teeth; she must not let that go. + +Quinnion was over the ledge, following her. She heard his heavy +breathing, heard him cursing her again. She was going so slowly, so +slowly, and Quinnion would know the way better than she. Quinnion +would make better time in the dark. + +She moved along this lower ledge. At each instant she wondered if it +were to be her last, if she were going to fall, if a swift drop through +the darkness would be the end of life. + +Suddenly there was scarce room in the girl's breast for hatred of Chris +Quinnion, so filled was it with the love of life. She wanted to see +the sun come up again, she wanted the sweet breath of the dawn in her +nostrils, the beauty of a sun-lit world in her eyes. She thought of +Bud Lee. + +Clinging to the rocks, hanging on desperately, taking a score of +desperate chances momentarily, she made her way on and down. She found +scant handhold and, almost falling, dropped her club, heard it strike, +strike again. Black as the night was, its gloom was less than that of +the cavern to which Judith had grown accustomed; little by little she +began to make out the broken surface of the cliffs. The chasm below +was a pool of ink; above were the little stars; in the eastern sky, low +down, was a promise of the rising moon. + +The surge of quickening hope came into her heart. Had she hurt +Quinnion more than she had guessed? For, slowly as she made her +hazardous way down, it seemed to her that Quinnion came even more +slowly. Could she but once get down into the gorge below, could she +slip along the course of the racing stream, she might run and the sound +of her steps would be lost even to her own ears in the sound of the +water; the sight of her flying body would be lost to Quinnion's eyes. + +Then she heard him laughing above her. Laughing, with a snarl and a +curse in his laugh, and something of malicious triumph. Was he so +certain of her then? + +"Ruth!" called Quinnion. "Oh, Ruth! The girl's gettin' away. Goin' +down the rocks. Head her off at the bottom." + +Judith had found, because her fate was good to her, the long slanting +crack in the wall of rock up which she had come that day with Bayne +Trevors. There was still danger of a fall, but the danger was less now +than it had been ten seconds ago. She could move more swiftly now and +confidence had begun to com to her that she could elude Quinnion. But +now, suddenly, she heard Mad Ruth's voice screaming a shrill answer to +Quinnion's shout; knew that Ruth had been in her cabin across the gorge +and was running to intercept her at the foot of the cliffs. + +Well, still there was a race to be run and the odds not entirely +uneven. Ruth must descend the other side of the cañon, get down into +the gorge, make the crossing, which, so far as Judith knew, might be +farther up or farther down stream, come to the cliffs below Judith +before Judith herself made her way down. + +Again Judith took what risks the night and the rocks offered her and +thanked God in her soul that it was given her to take a chance in the +open, to use her own muscles in her own fight, not to lie longer, +playing the part of a do-nothing. Now and then, across the void, there +floated to her a little moaning cry from the mad woman's lips. Now and +then she heard a curse from Quinnion above; often from above her, from +below her own feet, from across the chasm, dropping stones, falling +almost sheer, told of haste and death which might come from an unlucky +step. + +Fast as Judith went now, having a fair sort of cliff trail under her, +Mad Ruth went faster. The gorge measured a scant fifty feet between +them and the girl's alert senses told her that already Ruth was on a +level with her. Ruth was winning in the desperate race. She knew her +way down so perfectly, her heart was so filled with madness, that +danger was nothing to her. + +Down and down climbed Judith, caution wedded to haste, as she told +herself that she had a chance yet, that that chance must not be tossed +away in a fall, though it were but a few feet. She must have no +sprained ankle if she meant to see the sun rise to-morrow. + +The flush had brightened in the sky where the moon was so near the +ridge. The moon, too, had joined in the race; with one quick glance +toward it, Judith again discarded caution for haste. She must get down +into the floor of the cañon before the moonlight did; she must be +running before its radiance showed her out to Quinnion and Ruth. + +Her hands were cut and bleeding, her heart was beating wildly, already +her body was sore and bruised. But these things she did not know. She +only knew that Quinnion was still coming on above her, and coming more +swiftly now, quite as swiftly as she herself moved, since his feet, +too, were in the better trail; that Mad Ruth had completed the descent +across the chasm and by now must be crossing the stream upon some +fallen log or rude bridge; that one minute more, or perhaps two, would +decide her fate. + +She could see the stream, glinting palely in the starlight. It seemed +very near; its thunder filled her ears. Down she went and down, down +until at last she was not ten feet above its surface, with a strip of +gently sloping bank just under her. She stooped, took firm hold upon a +knob of boulder, prepared to swing down and drop to the bottom. And, +as she stooped, she heard a little whining moan just under her and +straightened up, tense and terrified. Mad Ruth was there before her. +Mad Ruth was waiting. + + + + +XXVII + +ALONE IN THE WILDERNESS + +And Quinnion was coming on. She was trapped, caught between the two of +them. She heard Quinnion laugh again; he, too, had heard Ruth. + +"Oh, God help me!" whispered Judith. "God help me now!" + +There was no time to hesitate. If she stood here, Quinnion would in a +moment wrap his arms about her; if she dropped down, she would be in +the frenzied clutch of Mad Ruth. + +A second she crouched, peering down into the gloom below her, seeking +to make out the form of the mad woman. Then she did not merely drop, +but jumped, landing fair upon the waiting figure, striking with her +boots on Mad Ruth's ample shoulders. A scream of rage from Ruth, a +little, strangling cry from Judith, and the two fell together. Ruth +clutched as she went down and a hand closed over the girl's ankle. +Judith rolled, struck again with the free boot, twisted sharply and +felt the grip torn loose from her ankle. She was free. + +She jumped up and ran and knew that Ruth was running just behind her, +screaming terribly. Judith fell, and her heart grew sick within her. +But again she was up just as Ruth's hand clutched at her skirt, +clutched and was torn away as Judith ran on. Quinnion cursed from +above as she had not yet heard him curse. Ruth reviled both her and +Quinnion for having let her go. + +Judith was running swiftly and felt that she could get the better of +the heavier, older woman in a race of this sort. She stumbled and +fell, and fear again gripped her; it seemed so long before she could +rise and clamber over a fallen log and race on. But the darkness which +tricked her protected her at the same time, playing no favorites now. +Ruth, too, had fallen; Ruth, too, was frenzied at the brief delay. + +Stumbling, falling, rising, staggering back from a tree into which she +had run full tilt, bruised and torn, the girl ran on. At every free +step hope shot upward in her heart; at every fall she grew sick with +dread. + +The cañon broadened rapidly, the ground underfoot grew less broken and +littered with boulders and logs. Through tangles of brush she went +blindly, throwing herself forward, falling, rising, falling, rising +again. It was a nightmare of a race, with Ruth always just there, +almost at her heels. She turned as far away from the stream as she +could, keeping under the cliffs where there was less brush; where the +way was more open; where the shadows were thickest. + +She was outdistancing Mad Ruth. Ruth's weird voice came from a greater +distance; the woman was ten, maybe twenty, feet behind her. + +The moon at last rose pale gold above the eastern ridge. And now +Judith could thank God for it. For the cañon had widened more and +more, the banks of the river were studded with big trees, there were +wide open spaces between them through which she shot like a frightened +deer, turning this way and that, darting about a clump of little firs, +plunging into the shadows under great sky-seeking cedars, running as +she had never run before and as she knew Mad Ruth could not run. + +Free! She was free. The triumph of it danced in her blood. On she +ran and now Quinnion's voice and Ruth's were confused with the roar of +the river. On she ran and on and on, and but faintly there came to her +the sound of breaking brush somewhere behind her. Never had her blood +sung within her as it sang now; never had the dim, moonlit solitudes of +the mountains opened their sheltering arms to one more grateful to slip +into them, like a wounded child into the soothing embrace of its mother. + +Now again she turned so that her flying steps brought her close to the +water's edge. Louder and louder grew its shouting voice in her ears, +little by little drowning out the sounds of Ruth and Quinnion behind +her. Now, in all the glorious night, there was no sound to reach her +but the sound of running water and her own beating feet. She was free. + +But still she ran, summoning all of the reserve of strength and +will-power which was hers to command. The sky was brightening to the +climbing moon. She must round many a sweeping curve of the river, pass +under many a sheltering, shadowing tree before she dared slow her steps. + +When she felt that she was overtaxing herself, she dropped from the +wild pace she had set herself into a little jogging trot. When her +whole body cried out at the effort demanded of it, she slowed down to a +brisk walk. She was shot through with pain, her throat ached, she was +growing dizzy. But on she went stubbornly. It was a full hour after +the last sound of pursuit had died out after her that she flung herself +down at the water's edge to drink and bathe her arms and face in the +cold stream. And, even then, she chose a spot where the shadow of a +great pine lay like ink over the bank. + + +The moon was high in the sky, the world bright with it, when Judith +left the valley into which the cañon had widened and made her way +slowly upward along a timbered ridge to the west. Of Quinnion and Mad +Ruth she now had no fear. Their chance of coming upon her was less +than negligible. She could creep into a clump of thick-standing young +trees and, even if they should come, could watch them go past. But as +they had dropped out of her world, another matter had entered it. The +mountains had befriended her; they had opened their arms to her and +that was all that she had asked of them. They had mothered her, +drawing her into hiding against their bosom. But it was a barren, +barren breast. And already she was hungry, daring to eat but sparingly +of her handful of bread and meat. + +From this ridge, finding an open crest, she stood looking out over the +world. Mile after mile of mountain and cañon and cliff fell away on +every side. She sought eagerly for a landmark: to see yonder in the +distance Old Baldy or Copper Mountain or Three Fools' Peak, any one of +the mountains or ridges known to her. And in the end she could only +shake her head and sigh wearily and slip down where she was to fall +asleep, thanking God that she was free, asking God to lead her aright +in the morning. + +The stars watched over her, a pale, worn-out girl sleeping alone in the +heart of the wilderness; the night breezes sang through the century-old +tree-tops; and Judith, having striven to the utter-most, slept in heavy +dreamlessness. + +With the cool dawn she awoke shivering and hungry. Her hair had +tumbled about her face, and sitting up she braided it with numb, sore +fingers. She looked at her hands; they well stained with blood from +many cuts. Her skirt was torn and soiled; her stockings were in +strips; her knees were bruised. But as she rose to her feet and once +more searched the riddle of a crag-broken world, her heart was light +with thankfulness. + +Last night the one friend she had with her was the north star. To-day +she would seek to push on toward the west. In that direction she +believed the Blue Lake ranch lay, though at best it was a guess. But +going westward she could follow the course of the bigger streams, and +soon or late, if her strength held, she would come to some open valley +where men ran stock. Now, she would go down into the little meadow +lying a mile away yonder and seek to find something to eat. If she +could but dig a few wild onions, wild potatoes, they would keep her +alive. West she would go, if for no other reason than because thus she +would be setting her back squarely upon the cavern where Quinnion and +Ruth were. + +The sun rolled into a clear blue sky and warmed her. She made her way +down the long flank of the mountain and into the tiny meadow. For +upward of two hours she remained there, nibbling at roots which she dug +up with a broken stick, seeking edible growths which she knew, finding +little, but enough to keep the life in her, the heart warm in her +breast. Then she went on, over a ridge again, down into a cañon and +along the stream which rose here and flowed westward. + +By noon she was faint and sick and had to stop often to rest, her legs +shaking under her. Again she made a scant meal. She had stumbled on a +tiny field of wild potatoes and ate what she could of them, thinking +longingly of a match for a fire. The match which Ruth had dropped she +still had, but she carefully reserved it now, thinking how perhaps a +trout, caught in a pool, might save her life. + +In her already half-starved condition and with the demands constantly +put on her strength, she would grow weaker and weaker if help did not +soon come. But she was still filled with the glory of freedom. + +It was a heart-weary, trembling Judith who late that afternoon made her +way upward along another ridge, seeking anxiously to find from this +lookout some landmark which she had sought in vain last night. In her +blouse were the few roots she had brought with her from the field +discovered at noon. Lying in a little patch of dry grass, resting, she +watched the day go down and the night drift into the mountains, filling +the ravines, creeping up the slopes, rising slowly to the peak to which +she had climbed, seeping into her soul. Never had the passing of the +day seemed to her so majestic a thing, truly filled with awe. Never +until now had the solitudes seemed so vast, so utterly, stupendously +big. Never until now, as she lay staring up into the limitless sky, +having given up the world about her as unknown, had she drunk to the +lees of the cup of loneliness. + +So great was the weariness of her tired body that as she lay still, +watching the stars come out one by one, she was half-resigned to lie so +and let death come to find her. It seemed to her that there in the +rude arms of Mother Earth a human life was a matter of no greater +consequence than the down upon a moth's wing. But she rested a little +and this mood, foreign to her intrepid heart, passed, and she sat up, +again resolute, again ready to make her fight as long as life beat +through her blood. At last she took the one match from her pocket. +She scarcely dared breathe when, with dry grass and twigs piled against +a rock, her dress shielding them from the wind, she rubbed the match +softly against her boot. A sputtering flame, making the blue light of +burning sulphur, died down, creating panic in her breast, then flared, +crackled, licked at the grass. She had a fire and she knew how to use +it! + +When a log was blazing, assuring her that her fire was safe, she rose +swiftly and went in search of the tree she meant to burn. She found a +giant pine, pitch-oozing, standing in a rocky open space where there +was little danger of the fire spreading. Fagged out and eager as she +was, she had not come to the point of forgetting what a great +forest-fire meant. + +She went back to her burning log, for a blazing dry branch which she +carried swiftly to the tree. Then she piled dry grass and dead twigs, +logs as heavy as she could carry, bits of brush. The flames licked at +the tree, ran up it, seemed to fall away, sprang at it again, +hungering. Now and then a long tongue of fire went crackling high up +along the side of the tree. Judith went back to a spot where, in a +ring of boulders, there was another grassy plot, threw herself down an +lay staring at the tongues of fire which were climbing higher and +higher. + +Some one would see her beacon. A forest ranger, perhaps, whose duty it +was to ride fast and far to battle with the first spark threatening the +wooded solitudes; perhaps some crew in a logging-camp, than whom none +knew better the danger of spreading fires; perhaps some cow-boy, even +one of her own men--perhaps Quinnion and Ruth? She then would hide +among the rocks until they had come and gone. Even now, against the +sleep falling upon her, she drew farther back through the tumbled +boulders. Perhaps, Bud Lee. . . . + +She went to sleep beyond the circle of bright light, tired and hungry +and striving against a returning hopelessness, her young body curled up +in the nest she had found, a cheek cuddled against her arm, wondering +vaguely if some one would see her fire and come--if that some one might +be Bud Lee. + + + + +XXVIII + +BACON, KISSES, AND A CONFESSION + +Throughout the night the tree blazed unseen. Judith's eyes were closed +in the heavy sleep of exhaustion. The flames roared and leaped high +skyward, burning branches felt crashingly, to lie smouldering on the +rocky soil, the upstanding trunk glowed, vivid against the sky-line. + +In the early morning at least two pairs of eyes found the plume of +smoke above the still burning giant pine. A man named Greene, one of +the government forest rangers, blazing a new trail over Devil's Ridge, +came out upon a height, saw it and watched it frowningly across the +miles. It called him to a hard ride, perhaps to a difficult journey on +foot after he must leave his horse. He turned promptly from the work +in hand, ran to his horse, swung up and sped back to his cabin, to +telephone to the nearest station, passing the word. Then with axe and +shovel, he began his slow way toward the beacon. + +Bud Lee, from the mountain-top where he and Burkitt had taken Hampton, +saw it. Lee judged roughly that it was separated from him by four or +five miles of broken country, impassable to a man on horseback, to be +covered laboriously foot in a matter of weary hours. + +Lee and Greene approached the signal smoke from different quarters. +Lee from the west, Greene from the northeast. They fought their way on +toward it with far different emotions in their breasts. Greene with +the desire to do a day's work and kill a forest-fire in its beginning. +Lee with the passionate hope of finding Judith. Lee reached his +journey's end first. + +As he came pantingly up the last climb he discharged his rifle again +and again, to tell her that he was coming, to put hope into her. And, +because he was a lover and a lover must be filled with dread when she +is out of his sight, he felt a growing anxiety. She had lighted the +fire last night; what might have happened to her since then? Had she +been wandering, lost all these days? If nothing else, then had she +waited here half the night and in the end had she gone on plunging deep +into some cañon hidden to him? Would he find her well? Would he find +her at all? + +Suddenly he called out, shouting mightily, and began running, though +the way was steep. He had seen Judith, he had found her. She was +standing among the scattered boulders, her back to a great rock. She +was waving to him. Her lips were moving, though he could not see that +yet, could not hear her tremulous: + +"Oh, thank God, thank God!" + +"Judith," he called, "Judith!" + +Now, near enough to see her distinctly, he saw that her face was white, +that the hand she held out was shaking, that her clothes were torn, +that she looked pitifully in need of him. But at last, when he stood +at her side, one of the old rare smiles came into Judith's tired eyes, +her lips curved, and she said quietly: + +"Good morning, Bud Lee. You were very good--to come to me." + +"Oh, Judith," he cried sharply. But no other word came to his lips +then. The brave little smile had gone, the whiteness of her face smote +him to the heart. And now she was shaking from head to foot, and he +knew why she had not stepped out to meet him, why she had kept her back +to the rock. He thought that she was going to fall, he saw two big +tears start from the suddenly closed eyelids, and with a little +inarticulate cry he took her into his arms. + +"If you had not come, Bud Lee," she whispered faintly, "I should have +died, I think." + +Very tenderly he gathered her up so that her little boots were swung +clear of the flinty ground and she lay quiet in his arms. He stood a +moment holding her thus, looking with eyes alternately hard and tender +into her face. He wanted to hold her thus always, to watch the glad +color come back into her cheeks, to carry her, like a baby, back across +the weary miles and home. And, oddly, perhaps, the thought came back +to him and hurt him as it had never hurt him before, that he had once +been brutal with her, that he had crushed her in his arms and forced +upon her lips his kiss. He had been brutal with Judith, when now he +could kill a man for laying a little finger on her. + +"I have been a brute with you, a brute," he muttered to himself. But +Judith heard him, her eyes fluttered open and into them came again her +glorious smile. + +"Because you kissed me that night, Bud Lee?" she asked him. + +"Don't!" he cried sharply. "Don't even remember it, Judith." + +"Do you know so little of a girl, Bud Lee," she went on slowly, "to +think that a man can so easily--find her lips with his unless--unless +she wants to be kissed?" + +He almost doubted his ears; he could hardly believe that he had seen +what he had seen in Judith's eyes. They were closed now, she lay quiet +in his arms, it seemed that she had fainted, or, was asleep, so very +white and still was she. He had forgotten that he must carry her to +where he could lay her down and bring water to her, give her something +to eat. He just stood motionless, holding her to him, staring hungrily +down at her. + +"Are you going to play--I'm your baby--all day, Bud Lee?" she asked +softly. + +He carried her swiftly away from the ring of boulders and to a little +grassy, level spot where he put her down with lingering tenderness. +Judith had not been angry with him all these months! Judith had let +him kiss her because she wanted to be kissed--by him! + +He raked some coals out of the ashes, hastily set some slices of bacon +to fry, cursed himself for not having brought coffee and milk and sugar +and a steak and a flask of whiskey and enough other articles to load a +mule. He ran down into the cañon and brought water in his hat, +swearing at himself all the way up that he had not brought a cup. He +put his arm about her while she drank; kept his arm about her, kneeling +at her side, while he gave her a little, crisp slice of bacon, held his +arm there when she had finished, watching her solicitously. + +"The two nicest things in the world, Mr. Man," she said, with a second +attempt at the old Judith brightness, "are half-burnt bacon and Bud +Lee!" + +Then, because, though he had been slow to believe, he was not a fool, +and now did believe, he kissed her. And Judith's lips met his +lingeringly. Judith's two arms rose, slipped about his neck, holding +him tight to her. + +The faintest of flushes had come at last into a her cheeks. He saw it +and grew glad as he held her so that he could look into her face. But +now she laid a hand against his breast, holding him back from her. + +"That's all now," she told him, her eyes soft upon him. "Just one kiss +for each slice of bacon, Mr. Lee. But--I'm so hungry!" + +For a little there was nothing to do but for Judith to rest and get +some of her strength back. Lee made of his coat and vest a seat for +her against a rock, sat at her side, his arm about her, made her lean +against him and just be happy. Not yet would he let her tell him of +the horrors through which she had gone. And he saw no need of telling +her anything immediately of conditions as he had left them at the +ranch. Time enough for that when she was stronger, when they were near +Blue Lake. + +Greene, the forester, came at last up the mountain. He noted the +isolated tree, nodded at it approvingly, made a brief tour around the +charred circle, extinguishing a burning brand here and there. + +"What sort of a fool would want to climb way up here to start a fire, +anyway?" he grumbled. + +Then, unexpectedly, he came upon the happiest-looking man he had ever +seen, with his arms about an amazingly pretty girl. Not just the sort +of thing a lone forest ranger counts upon stumbling upon on the top of +a mountain. Greene stared in bewilderment. Bud Lee turning a flaming +red. Judith smiled. + +"Good morning, stranger," said Lee. "Fine day, isn't it?" + +Judith laughed. Greene continued to stare. Lee went a trifle redder. + +"If you two folks just started that fire for fun," grunted Greene +finally, "why, then, all I've got to say is you've got a blamed queer +idea of fun. Here I've been busting myself wide open to get to it." + +"Haven't got a flask of brandy on you, have you?" asked Lee. + +"Yes, I have. And what's more I'm going to take a shot at it right +now. If nobody asks you, I need it!" + +Now, Lee heard for the first time something of Judith's adventure. +For, recognizing the ranger in Greene, she told him swiftly why she had +started the fire, of her trouble with Quinnion, of the cave where +Quinnion had attacked her and of Mad Ruth. Greene's eyes lighted with +interest. He swept off his hat and came forward, suddenly apologetic +and very human, proffering his brandy, insisting with Lee upon her +taking a sip of it. + +Yes, he knew Mad Ruth, he knew where her cabin was. He could find the +cave from Judith's description. Also, he knew of Quinnion and would be +delighted to break a record getting back to his station and to White +Rock. White Rock was in the next county, but so, for that matter, was +the cave. He'd get the sheriff and would lose no time cornering +Quinnion if the man had not already slipped away. + +"I don't know you two real well," said Greene, with a quick smile at +the end, "but if you don't mind, pardner," and he put out his hand to +Lee, "I'd like to congratulate you! I don't know a man that's quite as +lucky this morning as you are!" + +"Thank you," laughed Judith. She rose and shook hands too. "We're at +Blue Lake ranch for the present. Come and see us." + +"Then you're Miss Sanford?" said Greene. He laughed. "I've heard of +you more than once. Greene's my name." + +"Lee's mine," offered Lee. + +"Bud Lee, eh? Oh, you two will do! So long, friends. I'm off to look +up Quinnion." + +And, swinging his axe blithely, Greene took his departure. + +"There are other things in the world besides just cliffs to stare at," +said Judith. "And I would like a bath and a change of clothes and a +chance to brush my hair. And the bacon doesn't taste so good as it did +and I want an apple and a glass of milk." + +So at last they left the mountain-top and made their slow way down. + +As they went Lee told her something of what had happened at the ranch, +how Carson would hold off the buyers, how Tommy Burkitt was assuming +charge of Pollock Hampton. And when they came near enough to Burkitt's +and Hampton's hiding-place, Lee fired a rifle several times to get +Burkitt's attention. Finally they saw the boy, standing against the +sky upon a big rock, waving to them. From Lee's shouts, from his +gestures, chiefly from the fact that Judith was there, Burkitt +understood and freed Hampton, the two of them coming swiftly down a to +Judith and Lee. + +Hampton's face was hot with the anger which had grown overnight. He +came on stiffly, chafing his wrists. + +"These two fools," he snapped to Judith, "have made an awful mess of +things. They've queered the deal with Doan, Rockwell & Haight, they've +made themselves liable to prosecution for holding me against my will, +they've----" + +"Wait a minute, Pollock," said Judith quietly. "It's you who have made +a mistake." + +Briefly, she told him what had happened. As word after word of her +account fell upon Hampton's ears, his eyes widened, the stiffness of +his bearing fell away, the glint of anger went out of his eyes, a look +of wonder came into them. And when she had finished, Hampton did not +hesitate. He turned quickly and put out two hands, one to Lee, one to +Burkitt. + +"I was a chump, same as usual," he grunted. "Forget it if you can. I +can't." + +They went on more swiftly now, the four of them together, Judith +insisting that that last sip of brandy had put new life into her. In a +little, seeing that Judith did in fact have herself in hand, Bud Lee, +with a hidden pressure of her hand, left them, hurrying on ahead, +trying to reach Carson or some of the men in Pocket Valley and to get +horses. + +As he drew nearer the ranch Lee saw smoke rising from the north ridge. +Again he could turn his thoughts a little to what lay in front of him, +wondering what luck Carson had had in his double task of fighting fire +and holding off the buyers. + +At any rate, the Blue Lake stock had not been driven off. The bawling +of the big herds told him that before he saw the countless tossing +horns. Then, dropping down into Pocket Valley from above, he found his +own string of horses feeding quietly. Beyond, the cattle. At first he +thought that the animals had been left to their own devices. He saw no +rider anywhere. Hurrying on, he shouted loudly. After he had called +repeatedly, there floated to him from somewhere down on the lower flat +an answering yell. And presently Carson himself came riding to meet +him. + +Carson's face was smeared with blood; one bruised, battered, discolored +eye was swelling shut, but in his uninjured eye there was triumphant +gladness. + +"We got the sons-o'-guns on the run, Bud," he announced from afar. +"Killed their pesky fires out before they got a good start, crippled a +couple of 'em, counting Benny, the cook, in on the deal, chased their +deputy sheriff off with a flea in his ear, an' set tight, holding our +own." + +"Where'd you get the eye, Carson?" demanded Lee. + +Carson grinned broadly, an evil grin of a distorted, battered face. + +"You want to take a good look at ol' Poker Face," he chuckled. "He +won't cheat no more games of crib for a coon's age. I jus' nacherally +beat him all to hell, Bud." + +"Where are the rest of the men?" Lee asked. + +"Watching the fires an' seeing no more don't get started." + +Then Lee told him of Judith. Carson's good eye opened wide with +interest. Carson's bruised lips sought to form for a whistle which +managed to give them the air of a maidenly pout. + +"He had the nerve!" he muttered. "Trevors had the nerve! Bud, we +ought to make a little call on that gent." + +Then, seeing Lee's face, Carson realized that anything he might have to +remark on this score was superfluous. Lee had already thought of that. + +They roped a couple of the wandering horses, improvised hackamores from +the rope cut in two, and went to meet Judith. Carson snatched eagerly +at her hand and squeezed it and looked inexpressible things from his +one useful eye. He gave his saddled horse to her, watched her and Lee +ride on to the ranch, and sent Tommy to the old cabin for another rope, +while he rounded up some more horses in a narrow cañon for Burkitt and +Hampton. + +"You damn' fool," he said growlingly to Hampton, "look what you've +done." + +"Of course I'm a damn fool," replied Hampton, by now his old cheerful +self. "I've apologized to Judith and Lee and Burkitt. I apologize to +you. I'll tell you confidentially that I'm a sucker and a +Come-on-Charlie. I haven't got the brains of a jack-rabbit." + +Carson went away grumbling. But for the first time he felt a vague +respect for Pollock Hampton. + +"He'll be a real man some day," thought Carson, "if the fool-killer +don't pick him off first." + + +"You may come and see me this evening," Judith told Bud Lee as he left +her to Marcia's arms. "I'll be eating and sleeping and taking baths +until then. Thank you for the bacon--and the water--and----" + +She smiled at him from Marcia's excited embrace. Bud Lee, the blood +tingling through him, left her. + +"Before I come to you, Judith girl," he whispered to himself as he +went, "I'll have to have little talk with Bayne Trevors." + + + + +XXIX + +LEE AND OLD MAN CARSON RIDE TOGETHER + +Bud Lee, riding alone toward the Western Lumber Camp, turned in his +saddle to glance back as he heard hoof-beats behind him. It was +Carson, and the old cattleman was riding hard. Lee frowned. Then for +an instant a smile softened his stern eyes. + +"Good little old Carson," he muttered. + +Carson came to his side, saying merely in his dry voice: + +"Mind if I come along, Bud? You an' me have rid into one thing an' +another more'n just once." + +"This is my fight," said Lee coolly. + +"Who said it wasn't?" demanded the other querulously. "Only you ain't +got any call to be a hawg, Bud. Besides, I got a right to see if +there's a fair break, ain't I? Say, look at them cow brutes back +yonder! Don't it beat all how silage, when you use it right, shapes +'em up?" + +Few enough words were said as the miles were flung behind them; few +were needed. A swift glance showed Carson that Lee carried a revolver +in his shirt; his own gun rode plainly in evidence in front of his hip. +What little conversation rose between them was of ranch matters. They +spoke of success now with confidence. These two foremen alone could +see the money in late winter and early spring from their cattle and +horses to carry the Blue Lake venture over the rapids. Then there were +the other resources of the diversified undertaking, the hogs, the prize +stock, the olives, poultry, dairy products. And soon or late Western +Lumber would pay the price for the timber tract, soon, if they saw that +they had to pay it or lose the forests which they had so long counted +upon. Lumber values were mounting every day. + +Neither man, when it chanced that Bayne Trevors's name was casually +mentioned, suggested: "Why not go to the law?" For to them it was very +clear that, once in the courts, the man who had played safe would laugh +at them. Against Judith's oath that he had kidnapped her would stand +Trevors's word that he had done nothing of the kind, coupled with his +carefully established perjured alibi and the lying testimony of the +physician who had visited Judith in the cave. This man and that might +be rounded up, Shorty and Benny and Poker Face, and if any of them +talked--which perhaps none of them would--at most they would say that +they had no orders from anybody but Quinnion. And where was Quinnion, +who stood as a buckler between Trevors and prosecution? And what +buckler in all the world can ever stand between one man and another? + +Now and then Carson sent a quick questioning glance toward Lee's +inscrutable face; now and then he sighed, his thoughts his own. Bud +Lee, knowing his companion as he did, shrewdly guessed that Carson was +hoping that events might so befall that there would be an open, +free-for-all fight and that he might not be forced to play the restless +part of a mere onlooker. Bud Lee hoped otherwise. + +"There's two ways to get a man," said Carson meditatively, out of a +long silence. "An' both is good ways: with a gun or with your hands." + +"Yes," agreed Bud quietly. + +"If it works out gun way," continued Carson, still with that +thoughtful, half-abstracted look in his eyes, "it don't hurt to +remember, Bud, that he shoots left-handed an' from the hip." + +Lee merely nodded. Carson did not look up from the bobbing ears of his +horse as he continued: + +"If it works out the other way an' it's just fists, it don't hurt to +remember how Trevors put out Scotty Webb last year in Rocky Bend. +Four-footed style, striking with his boot square in Scotty's belly." + +Trevors's name was not again referred to even in the vaguest terms. +The road in front of them, at last dropping down into the valley in +which the lumber-camp was, straightened out into a lane that ran +between stumps to the clutter of frame buildings. + +"Something doing at the office," offered Carson, as they drew near. +"Directors' meeting, likely." + +Two automobiles stood in the road ten steps from the closed door of the +unpretentious shack which bore the printed legend, "Office, Western +Lumber Company." The big red touring-car certainly belonged to Melvin, +the company's president. Carson looked curiously at Lee. + +Bud dismounted, dropped his horse's reins, shifted the revolver from +his shirt to his belt where it was at once unhidden and loosely held, +ready for a quick draw. Then he went up the three steps, Carson at his +heels, his gun also unhidden and ready. From within came voices, one +in protest, Bayne Trevors's ringing out, filled with mastery followed +by a laugh. Lee set his hand to the door. Then, only because it was +locked from within, did he knock sharply. + +"Who is it?" came the sharp inquiry. But the man who made it and who +was standing by the door, threw it open. + +"What do you want?" he demanded again. "We're busy." + +"I want to see Trevors," said Lee coolly. + +"You can't. He----" + +Lee shoved the man aside and strode on. Carson, close at Lee's heels, +his eyes glittering, stepped a little aside when once he was within the +room and took his place with his back against the wall close to the +door. + +It was a big, bare, barn-like room, furnished simply with one long +table and half a dozen chairs. Here were five men besides Bayne +Trevors. All except Trevors and the man who had opened the door were +seated; Trevors, at the far end of the room, was standing, an +oratorical arm slowly dropping to his side. + +His eyes met Lee's, ran quickly to Carson's, came back to Lee's and +rested there steadily. Beyond the slow falling of his extended arm, he +did not move. The muscles of his face hardened, the look of triumph +which just now had stood in his eyes changed slowly and in its place +came an expression that was twin to that in Bud Lee's eyes, just a look +of inscrutability with a hint of watchfulness under it, and the +hardness of agate. While a man might have drawn a deep breath into his +lungs and expelled it, neither Lee nor Trevor stirred. + +"What the devil is this?" demanded Melvin from across the table. +"Hold-up or what?" He rapped the table resoundingly. + +"Shut up!" snapped Carson. "It's just a two-man play, Melvin: Lee an' +Trevors." + +"Oh," said Melvin, and sank back, making no further protest. He was no +stranger to Carson or to Bud Lee, and he sensed what might be between +Lee and a man like Trevors. Then shrugging his shoulders, he said +carelessly: "I'm not the man to get in other men's way, and you know +it, Carson. But you might tell your friend Bud Lee that Bayne Trevors +is rather a big man influentially to mix things with. I've just +resigned this morning and Trevors is our new president." + +"Thanks," returned Carson dryly. "I don't think that'll make much +difference though, Melvin. Most likely you'll have two presidents +resigning the same day." + +At last Lee spoke. + +"Trevors," he said quietly, "maybe the law can't get you. But I can. +For reasons which both you and I understand you are going to clear out +of this part of the country." + +"Am I?" asked Trevors. The look of his eyes did not alter, the poise +of his big body did not shift, his hands, both at his sides again, +might have been carved in bronze. + +Then suddenly he laughed and threw out his arms in a wide gesture and +again dropped them, saying shortly: + +"You're playing the game the way I thought you would. You've got a +gun. I am unarmed--begin your shooting and be damned to you!" + +He even stepped forward, his eyes fearlessly upon Lee's, and settled +his big frame comfortably in a chair by the table. + +"Go ahead," he concluded. "I'm ready." + +"That's as it should be!" Lee's voice was vibrant. His hard eyes +brightened. With a quick jerk he drew the revolver from his belt and +dropped it to the floor at Carson's feet. + +Carson, though he stooped for it quickly, did not shift his watchful +eyes from Trevors. For Carson had known more fights in his life than +he had years; he knew men, and looked to Trevor for just the sort of +thing Trevors did. + +As Lee stepped forward, Trevors snatched open the drawer of the table +at his side, quick as light, and whipped out the weapon which lay there. + +"Go slow, Trevors!" came old Carson's dry voice. "I've got you covered +already, two-gun style." + +Trevors, even with his finger crooking to the trigger, paused and saw +the two guns in Carson's brown hands trained unwaveringly upon him. +There was much deadly determination in Carson's eyes. Again Trevors +laughed, drawing back his empty hand. + +"You yellow dog!" grunted Bud Lee, his tone one of supreme disgust. +"You damned yellow dog!" + +Trevors shrugged. + +"You see, gentlemen--two to one, with the odds all theirs." + +"You lie!" spat out Carson. "It's one to one an' I see the game goes +square." He stepped forward, removed the weapon from the table under +Trevors's now suddenly changeful eyes, and went back to his place with +his back to the wall. + +"For God's sake!" cried the one nervous man in the room, he who had +opened the door. "This is murder!" + +Melvin smiled, a smile as cheerless as the gleam of wintry starlight on +a bit of glass. + +"Will you fight him, Trevors?" he asked. "With your hands?" + +"Yes," answered Trevors. "Yes." + +"Move back the table," commanded Melvin, on his feet in an instant. +"And the chairs. Get them back." + +The table was dragged to the far end of the room; the chairs were piled +upon it. + +"Now," and Melvin's watch was in his hand, his voice coming with +metallic coldness, "it's to a finish, is it? Three-minute rounds, fair +fighting, no----" + +But now at last Bayne Trevors's blood was up, his slow anger had +kindled, he was moving his feet restlessly. + +"Damn it," he shouted, "whose fight is this but mine and Lee's? If he +wants a fight, let him come and get it; a man's fight and rules and +rounds and time be damned! Am I to dance around here and sidestep and +fence just for you to look on? . . . Carson!" + +"Well?" said Carson. + +"Lee challenges me, doesn't he? Then I'm the man to name the sort of +fight, am I not? Is that fair?" + +"Meaning just what?" asked Carson. + +"Meaning that I am going to get him, get him any way I can! You let us +fight this out our way, any way, and no interference!" + +"Talk to Bud there," rejoined the old cattleman calmly. "It ain't my +scrap." + +"Then, Lee," snapped Trevors, "come on if you want such a fight as +you'd get if you and I were alone in the mountains, with no man to +watch, a fight where a man can use what weapons God gave him, any +weapon he can lay his mind to, his eye to, his hand to! Or," and at +last the sneer came, "do you want a pair of padded gloves and somebody +to fan you?" + +Carson shifted his glance to Bud Lee's face. Lee merely nodded. + +"Then," cried Carson sternly, "go to it! No man steps in, an' you two +can fight it out like coyotes or mountain-lions for all of me." + +"Your word there will be no interference?" asked Trevors. "For you're +just a fool and not a liar, Carson." + +"My word," was the answer. + + + + +XXX + +THE FIGHT + +Bayne Trevors slipped out of his coat and vest, tossing them to the +pile of chairs on the table. He loosened his soft shirt-collar and was +ready. All of Bud Lee's simple preparations had been made when he +threw his broad hat aside. + +Then came the little pause which is forerunner to the first blow, when +two men measure each other, seeking each to read the other's purpose. + +"It ought to be a pretty even break," muttered Melvin, his interest +obviously that of a sporting man who would travel a thousand miles to +see a fight for a champion's belt. "Trevors has the weight by forty +pounds; Lee has the reach by a hair; both quick-footed; both hard; Lee, +maybe a little harder. Don't know. Even break. The sand will do +it--sand or luck." + +The two men drew slowly together. Their hands came up, their fists +showed glistening knuckles, their jaws were set, their feet moved +cautiously. Then suddenly Bud Lee sprang in and struck. + +Struck tentatively with his left hand that grazed Trevors's cheek and +did no harm; struck terribly with his right hand that drove through the +other man's guard and landed with the little sound of flesh on flesh on +Trevors's chest. Trevors's grunt and his return blow came together; +both men reeled back a half-pace from the impact, both hung an instant +upon an unsteady balance, both sprang forward. And as they met the +second time, they battled furiously, clinging together, striking +mercilessly, giving and taking with only the sound of scuffing +boot-heels and soft thuds and little coughing grunts breaking the +silence. Bayne Trevors gave back a stubborn step, striking right and +left as he did so; caught himself, hurled himself forward so that now +it was Bud Lee who was borne backward by the sheer weight of his +opponent. There was a gash on Lee's temple from which a thin stream of +blood trickled; Trevors's mouth was bleeding. + +"Under his guard, Trevors!" shouted Melvin, on the table now, his face +red, his eyes shining. "Under, under!" + +"Remember, Bud! Remember!" cried Carson. + +"That's it, that's it!" Melvin clapped his two big hands and came +perilously near falling from his point of vantage as Trevors's fists +drove into Lee's body and Lee went reeling back. "Give him hell! A +hundred dollars on Trevors!" + +"Take you!" called Carson without withdrawing his eyes from the two +forms reeling up and down, back and forth across the room. + +"Done!" cried Melvin. "Trevors, a hundred dollars----" + +He broke off, forgetful of his own words. The two men met again, clung +to each other in a ludicrous embrace, broke asunder, and Lee struck so +that his fist, landing fair upon Trevors's chin, hurled the bigger man +back, stumbling, falling---- + +But not fallen. For his back found the wall and saved him. As Lee +came on, rushing at him like a man gone mad, Trevors slipped aside and +struck back, for the critical moment gaining time to breathe. He spat, +wiped his bloody mouth with the back of his hand and again eluded a +rushing attack by ducking and stepping to one side. And ever, when he +sought to save his own body, he struck back, grunting audibly with the +effort. + +They fought everywhere, up and down, back and forth, until every foot +of the floor felt their heavy boots, until each of them was fighting +with all of the force that lay in him, fighting with that swelling +anger which grows at leaps and bounds when two men strive body to body, +when the hot breath of one mingles with the hot breath of the other, +when red rage looking out of one pair of eyes sees its reflection in +the other. Again and again Melvin muttered: "An even break! By God, +an even break!" And over and over did Carson's heart rise in his +breast as he saw Bud Lee drive Trevors, and over and over did his heart +sink when he saw Lee sway and reel under the sledge-hammer blows +beating at face and body. + +In the beginning there had been in Bud Lee's mind but the one thought: +This man had laid his hands upon Judith; this man must be punished and +punished by none other in God's wide world than Bud Lee. Now all cool +thought had fled, leaving just the hot desire to beat at that which +beat at him, to strike down that which strove to strike him down, to +master his enemy, to see the great, powerful body prone at his feet. +Now he was fighting for that simplest, most potent reason in the world, +just because he was fighting. And, though he knew that he had found a +man as quick and hard and strong as himself, still he told himself, +that he must fight a winning fight--there was some good reason why he +must fight a winning fight. + +His whole body was bruised and battered and sore. A glancing blow now +shot him through with pain. Trevors knew how to put his weight behind +his blows, and his weight was well over two hundred pounds. It was +like being hammered with a two-hundred-pound sledge. + +Give and take it was from the first blow, with none of the finesse of a +boxers' match, with less thought of escaping punishment than of +inflicting it. More than once had Bud Lee felt that he was falling +only to catch his balance and come back at Trevors; more than once had +Trevors gone reeling backward, smashing into the wall. Many a time did +Melvin count his money won and lost. And Carson, crouching now, tense, +eager, a little fearful, muttered constantly to himself. + +"They've both got the sand!" grunted Melvin. "Which one draws the +luck?" + +But luck stood by and did not enter into the battle that grew ever +hotter as Bud Lee's and Trevors's gorge rose higher at every blow. It +was to be simply the best man wins, and none of the six men who watched +knew from the beginning until the end who the best man was. What +tricks Trevors knew, he used, and they were met by what cunning lay in +Bud Lee; what strength, what resistance, what power to endure was each +panting body was called upon to the reserve. + +Already the spring had gone out of their steps. They came at each +other for the most part more slowly, more cautiously, but more +determined not to give over. Faces glistening with sweat, grimy with +the dust their pounding feet beat up from the floor, the roots of Lee's +hair red where with a bloody hand he had pushed it back, Trevors's lips +swollen and ugly, they fought on until the men who looked at them +wondered just where lay the limits upon which each depended. + +"Lee's tough," Carson whispered to himself. "Riding every day an' +working . . . Trevors has been setting in a chair. . . . Bud'll wear +him out. . . . My God! Bud, look out! Foot work. . . ." + +Yes, foot work, but not as Carson expected it, not the thing Bud Lee +looked for when he sensed rather than read in Trevors's eyes that a +fresh trick was coming. He was ready for a lifted boot, and, instead, +Trevors, rushing down upon him, threw grappling arms about him, +heedless of the fist smashing again into his cut lips. Trevors doubled +and twisted and got a grip about Lee's middle, at him, seeking to throw +him. + +Down they went together with no particular advantage to either man. +But as they rolled apart and Lee threw out an arm to lift himself +Trevors saw the chance he sought and mightily, brutally, cursing as he +jumped up for it, he drove the heel of his boot down upon Lee's hand on +the floor. + +From Lee's white lips burst an involuntary groan as it seemed to him +that every bone in his hand had been crushed, from Carson a choking cry +of rage, from Trevors a short laugh as he called out sharply: + +"Hands off, Carson! Our fight--any way----" + +Again on their feet, Trevors a second first and with the advantage +clearly his now rushed Lee, seeking to finish what he had begun. And +Bud Lee, his face white and drawn, looking ghastly with the blood +smears across it, moving swiftly but not swiftly enough, went down, +Trevors's weight against him, Trevors's fist beating into his side just +below the arm-pit. + +"Five hundred on Trevors!" shouted Melvin. Carson did not hear him. + +"At him, Bud, go at him!" he was crying over and over. "That's the +last dirty trick he's got. Get him, Buddie. Oh, for Gawd's sake, +Buddie, go get him!" + +Trevors was upon him again, but Lee slipped aside, even rolled over, +managed to get to his feet. Again Trevors bore down upon him, a new +leaping fire in his eyes. Again, though barely in time, Bud Lee +slipped away from him. He drew Trevors's harsh laugh after him and +Trevors's questing, eager fists. Lee put up his arm, his right arm, +guarding his face, and drew away, back and back. Carson was almost +whimpering, calling whiningly: + +"Stand up to him, Bud! Oh, go get him, Buddie!" + +Still up and down the room they went, Trevors rushing at Lee, Lee +taking what blows he must, striking out but little, seeking now only to +pull himself together, to get his head clear of daze and dizziness. +Stepping backward, he again got the wall at his shoulders, slipped to +one side, strove only to get the empty room behind him, succeeded and +let Trevors drive him, drive until again his back was to a wall. + +"Run away, will you?" panted Trevors. "I've got you, damn you. Got +you right." + +Lee didn't answer. He was thinking dully that Bayne Trevors was near +telling the truth, that Bud Lee was almost beaten--almost. That was as +far as a gentleman ever went--just to that desperate "almost beaten." +Not quite. No! not quite. Never that. + +Both men were nearly spent; Carson saw that while he cursed softly in +his corner; Melvin saw it and watched for the end, wondering just how +it would come. Trevors should swing for the point of the jaw, put all +that was in him into a final, smashing blow, beat through an +insufficient guard, do it now, quickly. For both Carson and Melvin saw +another thing, a thing which both had sensed at the outset: Bud Lee was +harder than Bayne Trevors. Lee, slipping away at every step was +getting something back which had nearly gone from him; Trevors was +breathing in noisy jerks; save for the vital fact that he now had two +hands to Bud Lee's one, Trevors was showing more signs of weariness +than Lee. + +"Bud'll get him--somehow," whispered Carson. "Good old Bud. Somehow." + +What Carson and Melvin sensed Trevors knew. He saw that Lee was having +less trouble in eluding him now, that Lee's feet were quicker, lighter +than his, that Lee was beginning to strike back viciously at him, and +when the blow landed, Trevors's big body rocked, shot through with +pain. There came to him the thought which was Melvin's, but it came in +Trevors's way: Now, quickly, before Lee was ready for it, must come the +end. So, for the third time that day Bayne Trevors, with much at +stake, resorted to "what weapons God gave him, what weapons he could +lay his mind to, his eyes to, his hands to"--his feet to. Resorting to +the old trick which came up from South American ports in disreputable +windjammers, which is known to the San Francisco waterfront, he raised +a heavy boot, striking for Lee's stomach, seeking with one low, +horrible blow to double up his already handicapped antagonist in +writhing pain on the floor. + +"An' I gave my word!" bellowed Carson, the sweat on his own tortured +brow. "Oh, my Gawd." + +But just that one brief instant too late did Bayne Trevors lift his +foot. For Bud Lee had expected this, never had forgotten it, had +prayed within his soul that the man he fought would use it. Just by +that fraction of time which has no name was he quicker than Trevors, +and he knew it. Now, as he read the sinister purpose in Trevors's +glaring eyes, as he glimpsed the raised boot as it left the floor, he +lowered his own head, averted it ever so little, stooped--and his hand +closed like locked iron about the calf of Trevors's leg. A stifled cry +from the bulkier man, a little grunt of effort from Lee, Lee straining, +heaving mightily, and Trevors went back, toppled, fought for his +slipping balance, and fell. As he went down Lee was upon him, Lee's +arm about his neck, Lee's weight flung upon him, Lee holding his body +between a powerful pair of knees which rode him as they rode daily some +struggling Blue Lake colt. + +Now Bud's left arm, defying the agony of a broken hand, was around him, +Lee's legs were about the frantically fighting body, and at last Lee's +right hand went its sure way to the thick, bared, pulsing throat. +Trevors's right arm was caught at his side, held there by the body upon +his. His left hand beat at Lee's face, struck and battered again only +to come back like a steam-driven piston to hammer again. But Bud Lee's +pain-racked body clung on, his thumb and fingers sank and sank deeper +into the corded muscles of the heaving throat, crooked like talons, +white and hard and relentless. + +Trevors's eyes were terrible, filled with hatred, red-flecked with +rage. He sought, with a great sudden heave, to roll over. But he +could not shake off the legs which were like stubborn tentacles about +him, could not free his throat of the tensing clutch. He tore at the +wrist, smote again at Lee's head, set his own hand to Lee's throat. In +an instant his hand was back at the hand worrying him, but he was +unable to drag it away. + +His face went white, flamed red, grew purplish. His eyes bulged up at +Lee's, his deep chest contracted spasmodically. Lee, summoning the +force within him, drove thumb and fingers deeper. + +"Got enough?" he panted. + +For the last time Trevors strained with him and they rolled like +death-locked mountain-lions. But still Lee's left arm was about +Trevors's neck, his legs about the tossing body, his hand at Trevors's +throat. Trevors's breath caught, failed him. . . . + +Then and then only did a new look come into the bulging eyes. A look +of more than fear, of utter, desperate terror. Trevors threw up his +hand weakly, then let it fall so that it struck the floor heavily, a +dead weight. + +Lee's grip at the strangling throat relaxed. But he did not move his +hand. + +"Got enough?" he panted again. + +The answer came brokenly, weakly, almost inarticulate. But it did come +and the men drawn close heard it: + +"Yes." + +"You'll get out of the country?" + +"Yes." + +Bud Lee drew back and rose, going to the door swiftly. He stooped for +his hat and passed out. And as Bayne Trevors got unsteadily to his +feet and sank slumping into the chair offered him, two big tears formed +in his eyes and rolled down his cheeks. The first tears in many a +year, the tears of a strong man broken for the first time in his life. + +"Sand did it!" grunted Melvin. "Just sand, Carson." + +"I'll stick aroun' an' see he moves on, Bud," Carson followed Lee to +say. "Oh, he'll go. But I'll just tell him how the boys is headed +this way by now an' it's tar an' feathers for him if he don't mosey +right along. That's something he couldn't stand right now. An', +Bud----" + +He put out his hand and locked Lee's in a grip that made the sore +fingers wince. Then, swinging upon the heel of his boot, he went back +to collect a hundred dollars from Melvin and help Bayne Trevors shape +his plans. + +But Bud Lee did not wait. He was on his horse, swaying a little, an +arm caught in a rude sling, glad to be out in the late sunlight. + +"Fog along, little horse," he was saying dully. "Fog right along. +She's waiting, little horse. Judith is waiting! Think of that. +That's right--fog right along." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +YES, JUDITH WAS WAITING . . . + +At the old cabin above the lake Bud Lee dismounted. His hand in its +rude sling was paining him terribly, demanding some sort of first-aid +treatment. To-morrow he could take it to a doctor; perhaps in an hour +or so he could get Tripp to look to it; just now he must do what he +could for it himself with hot water and strips torn from an old shirt. + +The hand treated first, it was slow, tedious business seeking to remove +the traces of his recent encounter with Trevors; and, though he could +wash his face and manage a change of clothes, there was nothing dapper +about the result. But at length, shaking his head at the bruised face +looking at him from his bit of mirror, he went out to his horse and +rode down the trail that led to the ranch headquarters. Judith was +waiting for him--that was vastly more important than the fact that he +had a crippled hand and a cut or so upon his face. + +Night had descended, serene with stars. He wondered if the boys were +back yet from the lumber-camp. He had met them, as Carson had +predicted he would, riding in a close-packed, silent, ominous body. He +felt assured that they would find no work for them to do at the +company's office, that Carson was right and Trevors would "be on his +way." But he stopped at the bunk-house. + +No, the boys hadn't come in yet. But there was a message for Lee, just +received by the cook. It was from Greene, the forester, brief and to +the point: + +Greene had lost no time in finding the sheriff of the adjoining county +at White Rock and in going with him to the cave. They had found +Quinnion. He was dead, the manner of his death clearly indicated. For +he lay at the foot of the cliffs straight below the cave's mouth, his +face terribly torn and scratched by a mad woman's nails, the mad woman +herself lying huddled and still close beside him. He had allowed the +escape of her captive; she had accused him after the two of them had +gone back to the cavern, had thrown herself upon him, tearing at his +face, and the two had fallen. Mother and son? Lee shuddered, hoping +within his heart that Judith had been mistaken. It was too horrible. + +But, such is youth, such is love. Bud Lee promptly forgot both Chris +Quinnion and Mad Ruth as he went through the lilacs to the house. He +remembered how Marcia had flown once to Pollock Hampton when he had +made a hero of himself, how again just to-day she had gone swiftly to +him because he had made a fool of himself and because it seemed she +loved him. In due time there was going to be a wedding at Blue Lake +ranch. A wedding! Just one? Lee hurried on. + + +Yes, Judith was waiting for him. She was there in the living-room, +curled up on a great couch, lifting her eyes expectantly as his step +sounded on the veranda. A wonderfully gowned, transcendently lovely +Judith; a Judith of bare white arms, round and warm and rich in their +tender curves; a Judith softly, alluringly feminine even in the eyes of +Bud Lee, no longer theorist; a Judith whose filmy gown clung +lingeringly to her like a sun-shot mist, a Judith whose tender mouth +was a red flower, whose eyes were Aphrodite's own, glorious, dawn-gray, +soft with the light shining in them, the unhidden light of love for the +man who came toward her swiftly; the Judith he had first held in his +arms and kissed. + +He came in quickly, his heart singing. The color suddenly ran up hot +and vivid in the girl's cheeks. Standing over her he put out his hand. +But she slipped her own hands behind her. + +"Good evening, Mr. Lee," said Judith brightly. "Really, you have taken +your time in making your first call. Won't you sit down?" + +"No," said Bud Lee gravely. "I'll take mine standing, please!" + +"Like a man to be shot at dawn?" cried Judith. "Dear me, Mr. Lee, that +sounds so tragic. What, pray, are you taking?" + +"A new job," said Lee. "I've come to tell you that just being horse +foreman doesn't suit me any longer. What you need and need right away +is a general manager. That's what I want to be, your general manager, +Judith. For life!" + +Judith laughed softly, happily. Her hands flew out to him like two +little homing birds, and she followed them--home. + +"You'll find your work cut out for you, Mr. Lee," she told him. + +[Illustration: "You'll find your work cut out for you."] + +"It's the kind of work I want," answered Bud Lee. + +Then suddenly her arms went about his neck and tears sprang into her +eyes and she set her lips to the cut he had sought to cover with his +hair, and took his sore, swathed hand tenderly into her own two hands, +laying it against her cheek. + +"Carson telephoned me," she whispered, her lips trembling all of a +sudden. "He told me how Trevors fought . . . and how you fought! And +he was half crying over the telephone, he was so proud of you. And I +am proud of you! And--oh, Bud Lee, Bud Lee, I love you so!" + + +From without came the sound of the Blue Lake boys returning, Carson at +their head. Riding close together they were singing, their voices +floating through the night in an old cowboy song. Mrs. Simpson heard +and ran out into the courtyard to listen. Marcia and Pollock Hampton, +lost to all save each other in the shadows far down the veranda, +listened, and Marcia clapped her hands. The voices were to be heard +from afar, the strong voices of a score of men. The strange thing is +that neither Judith nor Bud Lee heard; that neither had the vaguest +consciousness just then that there were in all the world any other, +mortals than--Judith and Bud Lee. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JUDITH OF BLUE LAKE RANCH*** + + +******* This file should be named 18926-8.txt or 18926-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/9/2/18926 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Herbert Dunton</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: Judith of Blue Lake Ranch</p> +<p>Author: Jackson Gregory</p> +<p>Release Date: July 27, 2006 [eBook #18926]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JUDITH OF BLUE LAKE RANCH***</p> +<br><br><center><h3>E-text prepared by Al Haines</h3></center><br><br> +<hr class="full" noshade> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<A NAME="img-front"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-front.jpg" ALT="Judith's spurs answered him, and the bit . . . brought him about, whirling . . . bucking as only . . . a devil-hearted horse +knows how to buck." BORDER="2" WIDTH="373" HEIGHT="594"> +<H3> +[Frontispiece: Judith's spurs answered him, and the bit … brought<BR> +him about, whirling … bucking as only … a devil-hearted horse<BR> +knows how to buck.]</H3> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +JUDITH OF BLUE LAKE RANCH +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +BY +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +JACKSON GREGORY +</H2> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +AUTHOR OF +<BR> +THE JOYOUS TROUBLE MAKER, SIX FEET-FOUR, ETC. +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +ILLUSTRATED BY +<BR> +W. HERBERT DUNTON +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +NEW YORK +<BR> +GROSSET & DUNLAP +<BR> +PUBLISHERS +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H5 ALIGN="center"> +Copyright, 1919, by +<BR> +CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS +<BR><BR> +Published March, 1919 +<BR> +Reprinted April, 1920 +<BR><BR> +Copyright, 1917, 1918, BY THE RIDGEWAY COMPANY +</H5> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS +</H2> + +<BR> + +<CENTER> + +<TABLE WIDTH="80%"> +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap01">BUD LEE WANTS TO KNOW</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap02">JUDITH TAKES A HAND</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap03">AND RIDES AN OUTLAW</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap04">JUDITH PUTS IT STRAIGHT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap05">THE BIGNESS OF THE VENTURE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap06">YOUNG HAMPTON REGISTERS A PROTEST</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap07">THE HAPPENING IN SQUAW CREEK CAÑON</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap08">RIFLE SHOTS FROM THE CLIFFS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap09">THE OLD TRAIL</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">X. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap10">UNDER FIRE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap11">IN THE OLD CABIN</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap12">PARDNERS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap13">THE CAPTURE OF SHORTY</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap14">SPRINGTIME AND A VISION</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap15">JUST A GIRL, AFTER ALL</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap16">POKER FACE AND A WHITE PIGEON</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap17">"ONCE A FOOL--ALWAYS A FOOL"</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap18">JUDITH TRIUMPHANT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap19">BUD LEE SEEKS CROOKED CHRIS QUINNION</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap20">THE FIGHT AT THE JAILBIRD</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap21">BURNING MEMORY</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap22">PLAYING THE GAME</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap23">THE WRATH OF POLLOCK HAMPTON</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXIV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap24">A SIGNAL-FIRE?</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap25">THE TOOLS WHICH TREVORS USED</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXVI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap26">JUDITH'S PERIL</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXVII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap27">ALONE IN THE WILDERNESS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXVIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap28">BACON, KISSES, AND A CONFESSION</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXIX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap29">LEE AND OLD MAN CARSON RIDE TOGETHER</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap30">THE FIGHT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXXI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap31">YES, JUDITH WAS WAITING</A></TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +ILLUSTRATIONS +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-front"> +Judith's spurs answered him, and the bit … brought him about,<BR> +whirling … bucking as only … a devil-hearted horse knows <BR> +how to buck . . . . . . <I>Frontispiece</I> +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-202"> +A lean, muscular hand fell lightly upon his shoulder and he was <BR> +jerked back promptly +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-252"> +Quinnion was down and shooting, with but ten steps … between <BR> +him and the man whom he sought to kill +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-392"> +"You'll find your work cut out for you." +</A> +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +Judith of Blue Lake Ranch +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +I +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +BUD LEE WANTS TO KNOW +</H3> + +<P> +Bud Lee, horse foreman of the Blue Lake Ranch, sat upon the gate of the +home corral, builded a cigarette with slow brown fingers, and stared +across the broken fields of the upper valley to the rosy glow above the +pine-timbered ridge where the sun was coming up. His customary gravity +was unusually pronounced. +</P> + +<P> +"If a man's got the hunch an egg is bad," he mused, "is that a real +good and sufficient reason why he should go poking his finger inside +the shell? I want to know!" +</P> + +<P> +Tommy Burkitt, the youngest wage-earner of the outfit and a profound +admirer of all that taciturnity, good-humor, and quick capability which +went into the make-up of Bud Lee, approached from the ranch-house on +the knoll. "Hi, Bud!" he called. "Trevors wants you. On the jump." +</P> + +<P> +Lee watched Tommy coming on with that wide, rocking gait of a man used +to much riding and little walking. The deep gravity in the foreman's +eyes was touched with a little twinkle by way of greeting. +</P> + +<P> +Burkitt stopped at the gate, looking up at Lee. "On the jump, Trevors +said," he repeated. +</P> + +<P> +"The hell he did," said Lee pleasantly. "How old are you this morning, +Tommy?" +</P> + +<P> +Burkitt blushed. "Aw, quit it, Bud," he grinned. Involuntarily the +boy's big square hand rose to the tender growth upon lip and chin +which, like the flush in the eastern sky, was but a vague promise of a +greater glory to be. +</P> + +<P> +"A hair for each year," continued the quiet-voiced man. "Ten on one +side, nine on the other." +</P> + +<P> +"Ain't you going to do what Trevors says?" demanded Tommy. +</P> + +<P> +For a moment Lee sat still, his cigarette unlighted, his broad black +hat far back upon his close-cropped hair, his eyes serenely +contemplative upon the pink of the sky above the pines. Then he +slipped from his place and, though each single movement gave an +impression of great leisureliness, it was but a flash of time until he +stood beside Burkitt. +</P> + +<P> +"Stick around a wee bit, laddie," he said gently, a lean brown hand +resting lightly on the boy's square shoulder. "A man can't see what is +on the cards until they're tipped, but it's always a fair gamble that +between dawn and dusk I'll gather up my string of colts and crowd on. +If I do, you'll want to come along?" +</P> + +<P> +He smiled at young Burkitt's eagerness and turned away toward the +ranch-house and Bayne Trevors, thus putting an early end to an +enthusiastic acquiescence. Tommy watched the tall man moving swiftly +away through the brightening dawn. +</P> + +<P> +"They ain't no more men ever foaled like him," meditated Tommy, in an +approval so profound as to be little less than out-and-out devotion. +</P> + +<P> +And, indeed, one might ride up and down the world for many a day and +not find a man who was Bud Lee's superior in "the things that count." +As tall as most, with sufficient shoulders, a slender body, +narrow-hipped, he carried himself as perhaps his forebears walked in a +day when open forests or sheltered caverns housed them, with a lithe +gracefulness born of the perfect play of superb physical development. +His muscles, even in the slightest movement, flowed liquidly; he had +slipped from his place on the corral gate less like a man than like +some great, splendid cat. The skin of hands, face, throat, was very +dark, whether by inheritance or because of long exposure to sun and +wind, it would have been difficult to say. The eyes were dark, very +keen, and yet reminiscently grave. From under their black brows they +had the habit of appearing to be reluctantly withdrawn from some great +distance to come to rest, steady and calm, upon the man with whom he +chanced to be speaking. Such are the serene, dispassionate eyes of one +who for many months of the year goes companionless, save for what +communion he may find in the silent passes of the mountains, in the +wide sweep of the meadow-lands or in the soul of his horse. +</P> + +<P> +The gaunt, sure-footed form was lost to Tommy's eyes; Lee had passed +beyond the clump of wild lilacs whose glistening, heart-shaped leaves +screened the open court about which the ranch-house was built. A +strangely elaborate ranch-house, this one, set here so far apart from +the world of rich residences. There was a score of rooms in the great, +one-story, rambling edifice of rudely squared timbers set in +field-stone and cement, rooms now closed and locked; there were +flower-gardens still cultivated daily by José, the half-breed; a pretty +court with a fountain and many roses, out upon which a dozen doorways +looked; wide verandas with glimpses beyond of fireplaces and long +expanses of polished floor. For, until recently, this had been not +only the headquarters of Blue Lake Ranch, but the home as well of the +chief of its several owners. Luke Sanford, whose own efforts alone had +made him at forty-five a man to be reckoned with, had followed his +fancy here extensively and expensively, allowing himself this one +luxury of his many lean, hard years. Then, six months ago, just as his +ambitions were stepping to fresh heights, just as his hands were +filling with newer, greater endeavor, there had come the mishap in the +mountains and Sanford's tragic death. +</P> + +<P> +Lee passed silently through the courtyard, by the fountain which in the +brightening air was like a chain of silver run through invisible hands, +down the veranda bathed in the perfume of full-blown roses, and so came +to the door at the far end. The door stood open; within was the office +of Bayne Trevors, general manager. Lee entered, his hat still far back +upon his head. The sound of his boots upon the bare floor caused +Trevors to look up quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello, Lee," he said quietly. "Wait a minute, will you?" +</P> + +<P> +Quite a different type from Lee, Bayne Trevors was heavy and square and +hard. His eyes were the glinting gray eyes of a man who is forceful, +dynamic, the sort of man who is a better captain than lieutenant, whose +hands are strong to grasp life by the throat and demand that she stand +and deliver. Only because of his wide and successful experience, of +his initiative, of his way of quick, decisive action mated to a marked +executive ability, had Luke Sanford chosen Bayne Trevors as his +right-hand man in so colossal a venture as the Blue Lake Ranch. Only +because of the same pushing, vigorous personality was he this morning +general manager, with the unlimited authority of a dictator over a +petty principality. +</P> + +<P> +In a moment Trevors lifted his frowning eyes from the table, turning in +his chair to confront Lee, who stood lounging in leisurely manner +against the door-jamb. +</P> + +<P> +"That young idiot wants money again," he growled, his voice as sharp +and quick as his eyes. "As if I didn't have enough to contend with +already!" +</P> + +<P> +"Meaning young Hampton, I take it?" said Lee quietly. +</P> + +<P> +Trevors nodded savagely. +</P> + +<P> +"Telegram. Caught it over the line the last thing last night. We'll +have to sell some horses this time, Lee." +</P> + +<P> +Lee's eyes narrowed imperceptibly. "I didn't plan to do any selling +for six months yet," he said, not in expostulation but merely in +explanation. "They're not ready." +</P> + +<P> +"How many three-year-olds have you got in your string in Big Meadow?" +asked Trevors crisply. +</P> + +<P> +"Counting those eleven Red Duke colts?" +</P> + +<P> +"Counting everything. How many?" +</P> + +<P> +"Seventy-three." +</P> + +<P> +The general manager's pencil wrote upon the pad in front of him "73," +then swiftly multiplied it by 50. Lee saw the result, 3,650 set down +with the dollar sign in front of it. He said nothing. +</P> + +<P> +"What would you say to fifty dollars a head for them?" asked Trevors, +whirling again in his swivel chair. "Three thousand six fifty for the +bunch?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'd say the same," answered Lee deliberately, "that I'd say to a man +that offered me two bits for Daylight or Ladybird. I just naturally +wouldn't say anything at all." +</P> + +<P> +"Who are Daylight and Ladybird?" demanded Trevors. +</P> + +<P> +"They're two of <I>my</I> little horses," said Lee gently, "that no man's +got the money to buy." +</P> + +<P> +Trevors smiled cynically. "What are the seventy-three colts worth +then?" +</P> + +<P> +"Right now, when I'm just ready to break 'em in," said Bud Lee +thoughtfully, "the worst of that string is worth fifty dollars. I'd +say twenty of the herd ought to bring fifty dollars a head; twenty more +ought to bring sixty; ten are worth seventy-five; ten are worth an even +hundred; seven of the Red Duke stock are good for a hundred and a +quarter; the other four Red Dukes and the three Robert the Devils are +worth a hundred and fifty a head. The whole bunch, an easy fifty-seven +hundred little iron men. Which," he continued dryly, "is considerable +more than the thirty-six hundred you're talking about. And, give me +six months, and I'll boost that fifty-seven hundred. Lord, man, that +chestnut out of Black Babe by Hazard, is a real horse! Fifty +dollars——" +</P> + +<P> +He stared hard at Trevors a moment. And then, partially voicing the +thought with which he had grappled upon the corral gate, he added +meditatively: "There's something almighty peculiar about an outfit +that will listen to a man offer fifty bucks on a string like that." +</P> + +<P> +His eyes, cool and steady, met Trevors's in a long look which was +little short of a challenge. +</P> + +<P> +"Just how far does that go, Lee?" asked the manager curtly. +</P> + +<P> +"As far as you like," replied the horse foreman coolly. "Are you going +to sell those three-year-olds for thirty-six hundred?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," answered Trevors bluntly, "I am. What are you going to do about +it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ask for my time, I guess," and although his voice was gentle and even +pleasant, his eyes were hard. "I'll take my own little string and move +on. +</P> + +<P> +"Curse it!" cried Trevors heatedly. "What difference does it make to +you? What business is it of yours how I sell? You draw down your +monthly pay, don't you? I raised you a notch last month without your +asking for it, didn't I?" +</P> + +<P> +"That's so," agreed the foreman equably. "It's a cinch none of the +boys have any kick coming at the wages." +</P> + +<P> +For a moment Trevors sat frowning up at Lee's inscrutable face. Then +he laughed shortly. "Look here, Bud," he said good-humoredly, an +obvious seriousness of purpose under the light tone. "I want to talk +with you before you do anything rash. Sit down." But Lee remained +standing, merely saying, "Shoot." +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder," explained Trevors, "if the boys understand just the size of +the job I've got in my hands? You know that the ranch is a +million-dollar outfit; you know that you can ride fifteen miles without +getting off the home-range; you know that we are doing a dozen +different kinds of farming and stock-raising. But you don't know just +how short the money is! There's that young idiot now, Hampton. He +holds a third interest and I've got to consider what he says, even if +he is a weak-minded, inbred pup that can't do anything but spend an +inheritance like the born fool he is. His share is mortgaged; I've +tried to pay the mortgage off. I've got to keep the interest up. +Interest alone amounts, to three thousand dollars a year. Think of +that! Then there's Luke Sanford dead and his one-third interest left +to another young fool, a girl!" +</P> + +<P> +Trevors's fist came smashing down upon his table. "A girl!" he +repeated savagely. "Worse than young Hampton, by Heaven! Every two +weeks she's writing for a report, eternally butting in, making +suggestions, hampering me until I'm sick of the job." +</P> + +<P> +"That would be Luke's girl, Judith?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. Two of the three owners' kids, writing me at every turn. And +the third owner, Timothy Gray, the only sensible one of the lot, has +just up and sold out his share, and I suppose I'll be hearing next that +some superannuated female in an old lady's home has inherited a fortune +and bought him out. Why, do you think I'd hold on to my job here for +ten minutes if it wasn't that my reputation is in making a go of the +thing? And now you, the best man I've got, throw me down!" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't see," said Lee slowly, after a brief pause, "just what good it +does to sell a string of real horses like they were sheep. Half of +that herd is real horse-flesh, I tell you." +</P> + +<P> +"Hampton wants money. And besides, a horse is a horse." +</P> + +<P> +"Is it?" A hard smile touched Lee's lips. "That's just where a man +makes a mistake. Some horses are cows, some are clean spirit. You can +stake your boots on that, Trevors." +</P> + +<P> +"Well," snapped Trevors, "suppose you are right. I've got to raise +three thousand dollars in a hurry. Where will I get it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Who is offering fifty dollars a head for those horses?" asked Lee +abruptly. "It might be the Big Western Lumber Company?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +"Uh-huh. Well, you can kill the rats in your own barn, Trevors. I'll +go look for a job somewhere else." +</P> + +<P> +Bayne Trevors, his lips tightly compressed, his eyes steady, a faint, +angry flush in his cheeks, checked what words were flowing to his +tongue and looked keenly at his foreman. Lee met his regard with cool +unconcern. Then, just as Trevors was about to speak, there came an +interruption. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +II +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +JUDITH TAKES A HAND +</H3> + + +<P> +The quiet of the morning was broken by the quick thud of a horse's shod +hoofs on the hard ground of the courtyard. Bud Lee in the doorway +turned to see a strange horse drawn up so that upon its four bunched +hoofs it slid to a standstill; saw a slender figure, which in the early +light he mistook for a boy, slip out of the saddle. And then, +suddenly, a girl, the spurs of her little riding-boots making jingling +music on the veranda, her riding-quirt swinging from her wrist, had +stepped by him and was looking with bright, snapping eyes from him to +Trevors. +</P> + +<P> +"I am Judith Sanford," she announced briefly, and there was a note in +her young voice which went ringing, bell-like, through the still air. +"Is one of you men Bayne Trevors?" +</P> + +<P> +A quick, shadowy smile came and went upon the lips of Bud Lee. It +struck him that she might have said in just that way: "I am the Queen +of England and I am running my own kingdom!" He looked at her with +eyes filled with open interest and curiosity, making swift appraisal of +the flush in the sun-browned cheeks, the confusion of dark, curling +hair disturbed by her furious riding, the vivid, red-blooded beauty of +her. Mouth and eyes and the very carriage of the dark head upon her +superb white throat announced boldly and triumphantly that here was no +wax-petalled lily of a lady but rather a maid whose blood, like the +blood of the father before her, was turbulent and hot and must boil +like a wild mountain-stream at opposition. Her eyes, a little darker +than Trevors's, were the eyes of fighting stock. +</P> + +<P> +Trevors, irritated already, turned hard eyes up at her from under +corrugated brows. He did not move in his chair. Nor did Lee stir +except that now he removed his hat. +</P> + +<P> +"I am Trevors," said the general manager curtly. "And, whether you are +Judith Sanford or the Queen of Siam, I am busy right now." +</P> + +<P> +"He got the queen idea, too!" was the quick thought back of Bud Lee's +fading smile. +</P> + +<P> +"You talk soft with me, Trevors!" cried the girl passionately, "if you +want to hold your job five minutes! I'll tolerate none of your high +and mighty airs!" +</P> + +<P> +Trevors laughed at her, a sneer in his laugh. "I talk the way I talk," +he answered roughly. "If people don't like the sound of it they don't +have to listen! Lee, you round up those seventy-three horses and crowd +them over the ridge to the lumber-camp. Or, if you want to quit, quit +now and I'll send a sane man." +</P> + +<P> +The hot color mounted higher in the girl's face, a new anger leaped up +in her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Take no orders this morning that I don't give," she said, for a moment +turning her eyes upon Lee. And to Trevors: "Busy or not busy, you take +time right now to answer my questions. I've got your reports and all +they tell me is that you are going in the hole as fast as you can. You +are spending thousands of dollars needlessly. What business have you +got selling off my young steers at a sacrifice? What in the name of +folly did you build those three miles of fence for?" +</P> + +<P> +"Go get those horses, Lee," said Trevors, ignoring her. +</P> + +<P> +Again she spoke to Lee, saying crisply: "What horses is he talking +about?" +</P> + +<P> +With his deep gravity at its deepest, Bud Lee answered: "All L-S stock. +The eleven Red Duke three-year-olds; the two Robert the Devil colts; +Brown Babe's filly, Comet——" +</P> + +<P> +"All mine, every running hoof of 'em," she said, cutting in. "What +does Trevors want you to do with them? Give them away for ten dollars +a head or cut their throats?" +</P> + +<P> +"Look here—" cried Trevors angrily, on his feet now. +</P> + +<P> +"You shut up!" commanded the girl sharply. "Lee, you answer me." +</P> + +<P> +"He's selling them fifty dollars a head," he said with a secret joy in +his heart as he glanced at Trevors's flushed face. +</P> + +<P> +"Fifty dollars!" Judith gasped. "Fifty dollars for a Red Duke colt +like Comet!" +</P> + +<P> +She stared at Lee as though she could not believe it. He merely stared +back at her, wondering just how much she knew about horse-flesh. +</P> + +<P> +Then, suddenly, she whirled again upon Trevors. +</P> + +<P> +"I came out to see if you were a crook or just a fool," she told him, +her words like a slap in his face. "No man could be so big a fool as +that! You—you crook!" +</P> + +<P> +The muscles under Bayne Trevors's jaws corded. "You've said about +enough," he shot back at her. "And even if you do own a third of this +outfit, I'll have you understand that I am the manager here and that I +do what I like." +</P> + +<P> +From her bosom she snatched a big envelope, tossing it to the table. +"Look at that," she ordered him. "You big thief! I've mortgaged my +holding for fifty thousand dollars and I've bought in Timothy Gray's +share. I swing two votes out of three now, Bayne Trevors. And the +first thing I do is run you out, you great big grafting fathead! You +<I>would</I> chuck Luke Sanford's outfit to the dogs, would you? Get off +the ranch. You're fired!" +</P> + +<P> +"You can't do a thing like this!" snapped Trevors, after one swift +glance at the papers he had whisked out of their covering. +</P> + +<P> +"I can't, can't I?" she jeered at him. "Don't you fool yourself for +one little minute! Pack your little trunk and hammer the trail." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll do nothing of the kind. Why, I don't know even who you are! You +say that you are Judith Sanford." He shrugged his massive shoulders. +"How do I know what game you are up to? Wayward maidens," and in his +rage he sneered at her evilly, "have been known before to lie like +other people!" +</P> + +<P> +"You can't bluff me for two seconds, Bayne Trevors," she blazed at him. +"You know who I am, all right. Send for Sunny Harper," she ended +sharply. +</P> + +<P> +"Discharged three months ago," Trevors told her with a show of teeth. +</P> + +<P> +"Johnny Hodge, then," she commanded. "Or Tod Bruce or Bing Kelley. +They all know me." +</P> + +<P> +"Fired long ago, all of them," laughed Trevors, "to make room for +competent men." +</P> + +<P> +"To make room for more crooks!" she cried, her own brown hands balled +into fists scarcely less hard than Trevors's had been. Then for the +third time she turned upon Lee. "You are one of his new thieves, I +suppose?" +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, ma'am," said Bud Lee gravely. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, answer me. Are you?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, ma'am," he told her, with no hint of a twinkle in his calm eyes. +"Leastwise, not his exactly. You see, I do all my killing and highway +robbing on my own hook. It's just a way I have." +</P> + +<P> +"Well," Judith sniffed, "I don't know. It will be a jolt to me if +there's a square man left on the ranch! Go down to the bunk-house and +tell the cook I'm here and I'm hungry as a wild-cat. Tell him and any +of the boys that are down there that I've come to stay and that Trevors +is fired. They take orders from me and no one else. And hurry, if you +know how. Goodness knows, you look as though it would take you half an +hour to turn around!" +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, ma'am," said Bud Lee. "But you see I had just told Trevors +here he could count me out. I'm not working for the Blue Lake any +more. As I go down to the corral, shall I send up one of the boys to +take your orders?" +</P> + +<P> +There was a little smile under the last words, just as there was a +little smile in Bud Lee's heart at the thought of the boys taking +orders from a little slip of a girl. Inside he was chuckling, vastly +delighted with the comedy of the morning. +</P> + +<P> +"She's a sure-enough little wonder-bird, all right," he mused. "But, +say, what does she want to butt in on a man's-size job for, I want to +know?" +</P> + +<P> +"Lee," called Trevors, "you take orders from me or no one on this +ranch. You can go now. And just keep your mouth shut." +</P> + +<P> +Bud Lee stood there in the doorway, his hat spinning upon a brown +forefinger, his thoughts his own. He was turning to go out and down to +his horse when he saw the look in Trevors's eyes, a look of consuming +rage. The general manager's voice had been hoarse. +</P> + +<P> +"I guess," said Lee quietly, "that I'll stick around until you two get +through quarrelling. I might come in handy somehow." +</P> + +<P> +"Damn you," shouted Trevors, "get out!" +</P> + +<P> +"Cut out the swear-words, Trevors," said Lee with quiet sternness. +"There's a lady here." +</P> + +<P> +"Lady!" scoffed Trevors. He laughed contemptuously. "Where's your +lady? That?" and he levelled a scornful finger at the girl. "A +ranting tough of a female who brings a breath of the stables with her +and scolds like a fishwife.…" +</P> + +<P> +"Shut up!" said Lee, crossing the room with quick strides, his face +thrust forward a little. +</P> + +<P> +"You shut up!" It was Judith's voice as Judith's hand fell upon Bud +Lee's shoulder, pushing him aside. "If I couldn't take care of myself +do you think I'd be fool enough to take over a job like running the +Blue Lake? Now—" and with blazing eyes she confronted Trevors—"if +you've got any more nice little things to say, suppose you say them to +me!" +</P> + +<P> +Trevors's temper had had ample provocation and now stood naked and hot +in his hard eyes. In a blind instant he laid his tongue to a word +which would have sent Bud Lee at his throat. But Judith stood between +them and, like an echo to the word, came the resounding slap as +Judith's open palm smote Trevors's cheek. +</P> + +<P> +"You wildcat!" he cried. And his two big hands flew out, seeking her +shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +"Stand back!" called Judith. "Just because you are bigger than I am, +don't make any mistake! Stand back, I tell you!" +</P> + +<P> +Bud Lee marvelled at the swiftness with which her hand had gone into +her blouse and out again, a small-caliber revolver in the steady +fingers now. He had never known a man—himself possibly +excepted—quicker at the draw. +</P> + +<P> +But Bayne Trevors, from whose make-up cowardice had been omitted, +laughed sneeringly at her and did not stand back. His two hands out +before him, his face crimson, he came on. +</P> + +<P> +"Fool!" cried the girl. "Fool!" +</P> + +<P> +Still he came on. Lee gathered himself to spring. +</P> + +<P> +Judith fired. Once, and Trevors's right arm fell to his side. A +second time, and Trevors's left arm hung limp like the other. The +crimson was gone from his face now. It was dead white. Little beads +of sweat began to form on his brow. +</P> + +<P> +Lee turned astonished eyes to Judith. +</P> + +<P> +"Now you know who's running this outfit, don't you?" she said coolly. +"Lee, have a team hitched up to carry Trevors wherever he wants to go. +He's not hurt much; I just winged him. And then tell the cook about my +breakfast." +</P> + +<P> +But Lee stood and looked at her. He had no remark to offer. Then he +turned to go upon her bidding. As he went down to the bunk-house he +said softly under his breath: "Well, I'm damned. I most certainly am!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +III +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +AND RIDES AN OUTLAW +</H3> + + +<P> +Wrinkled, grizzled old half-breed José, his hands trembling with +eagerness, stood in the smaller rose-garden culling the perfect buds, a +joyous tear running its zigzag way down each cheek. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>La señorita</I> ees come home!" he announced triumphantly as Lee drew +near on his way to the bunk-house. "<I>Jesús Maria</I>! Een my heart it is +like the singing of leetle birdies. <I>Mira, señor</I>. My flowers +bloomin' the brighter, already—no?" +</P> + +<P> +Bud Lee paused. "So you know Miss Sanford then?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +José threw out his hands and opened his night-black eyes to their most +enormous extent. "Do I know God?" he demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," smiled Bud, "as to that.…" +</P> + +<P> +"But, señor," cried the devout José, "like on holy days I feel that +Dios comes to sit down in the corner of my heart, so without seeing <I>la +señorita</I> I know she ees come home! She ees in the air like the light +of sun, like the sweetness of my roses!" +</P> + +<P> +"You've known her a long time, Joe?" +</P> + +<P> +"Seence she ees born!" and José, unashamed, wiped away a tear upon the +back of a leathery hand. "Señor Sanford and me, señor, we teach her +when she ees so leetle!" José's shaking hand was lowered until it +marked the stature of a twelve-inch pigmy. In all things must the old +fellow gain his emphasis by exaggeration which more often than not took +the form of plain lying. "Never at all unteel one year ago does she +leave us and the <I>rancho</I>. We, us two who love her, señor, learn her +to walk and to ride and to shoot and to talk. You shall hear her say, +'<I>Buenos dias, José, mi amigo</I>!' You shall see her kees the cheek of +old José." +</P> + +<P> +Again his leathery hand was put in requisition, this time to wipe clean +the cheek to be honored. "And one theeng I tell you, señor," he added +confidentially. "Her papa was a wild devil before her. Her mama ees +grow up on the ranch; and when she marry <I>el señor</I> Sanford was like a +wild boy. And <I>mi señorita</I>, she ees the cross be tween a wild devil +and a sweet saint, señor <I>Madre de Dios</I>! I would go down to hell for +her to bring back fire to warm her leetle feet een weenter!" +</P> + +<P> +Lee went thoughtfully on his way to the bunk-house. The cook, an +importation of Bayne Trevors, a big, upstanding fellow with bare arms +covered with flour, was putting on the breakfast to which a dozen +rough-garbed men were sitting down. +</P> + +<P> +"I've got orders for you fellows," said Lee from the doorway. "The +boss of the outfit, the real owner, you know, just blew in. Up at the +house. Says you boys are to stick around to take orders straight from +headquarters. You, Benny," to the cook, "are to have a man's-size +breakfast ready in a jiffy." +</P> + +<P> +Naturally Benny led the clamor with a string of oaths. What in blazes +did the owner of the ranch have to show up for anyway?—he wanted to +know. He accepted the fact as a personal affront. Who was this +owner?—demanded Ward Hannon, the foreman of the lower ranch, where the +alfalfa-fields were. +</P> + +<P> +Bud Lee explained gravely that the newcomer was some sort of relative +of old Luke Sanford, who had recently acquired a controlling interest +in the ranch. Ward Hannon grunted contemptuously. "The Lord deliver +us!" he moaned. "Eastern jasper! One of the know-all-about-it brand, +huh, Bud? I'll bet he combs his hair in the middle and smokes +cigareets out'n a box! The putty-headed loons can't even roll their +own smokes." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't believe," hazarded Lee indifferently, "from the looks of our +visitor that—that the owner smokes anything!" +</P> + +<P> +"Listen to that!" grunted Ward Hannon. +</P> + +<P> +"Softy, huh?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well," Bud admitted slowly, "looks sort of like a girl, you know!" +</P> + +<P> +"Wouldn't that choke you?" demanded Carson, the cow foreman, a thin, +awkward little man, gray in the service of "real men." "Taking orders +off'n a fool Easterner's bad enough. But old man or young, Bud?" +</P> + +<P> +"Just a kid," was Lee's further dampening news. And as he nonchalantly +buttered his hotcakes he added carelessly: "Something of a scrapper, +though. Just put two thirty-two calibers into Trevors." +</P> + +<P> +They stared at him incredulously. Then Carson's dry cackle led the +laughter. +</P> + +<P> +"You're the biggest liar, Bud Lee," said the old man good-naturedly, "I +ever focussed my two eyes on. I'll lay an even bet there ain't nobody +showed a-tall up this morning." +</P> + +<P> +"You, Tommy," said Lee to the boy at his side, "shovel your grub down +lively and go hitch Molly and old Pie-face to the buckboard. That's +orders from headquarters," he grinned. "Trevors is to be hauled away +first thing." +</P> + +<P> +Tommy looked curiously at his superior. "On the level, Bud?" he asked +doubtingly. +</P> + +<P> +"On the level, laddie," was the quiet response. +</P> + +<P> +And young Burkitt, wondering, but doubting no longer, hastened with his +breakfast. +</P> + +<P> +The others, looking at Lee's sober face questioningly, fired a +broadside of inquiries at him. But they got no further information. +</P> + +<P> +"I've told you boys all the news," he announced positively. "Lordy! +Isn't that an earful for this time of day? The real boss is on the +job: Trevors is winged; you are to stick around for orders from +headquarters. If you want to know any more'n that, why—just go up to +the house and ask your blamed questions." +</P> + +<P> +Out of the tail of his eye he saw the swift approach of Bayne Trevors. +The general manager's face was black with rage and through that dark +wrath showed a dull red flush of shame. He walked with his two arms +lax at his sides. +</P> + +<P> +"Give me a cup of coffee, Ben," he commanded curtly, slumping into a +chair. "Hurry!" +</P> + +<P> +Benny, looking at him curiously, brought a steaming cup and offered it. +Trevors moved to lift a hand; then sank back a little farther in his +chair, his face twisting in his pain. +</P> + +<P> +"Put some milk in it," he snarled. "Then hold it to my mouth. For the +love of Heaven, hurry, man!" +</P> + +<P> +Then no man there doubted longer the mad tale Bud Lee had brought them. +Down from Trevors's sleeves, staining each hand, there had come a +broadening trickle of blood. Trevors set his teeth and waited. Benny +at last cooled the coffee and held it to his lips. Trevors drank +swiftly, draining the cup. +</P> + +<P> +"Get this coat off me," he commanded. "Curse you, don't tear my arms +off! Slit the sleeves." +</P> + +<P> +Benny's big, razor-edged butcher-knife cut away coat and shirt sleeves. +And at last, to the eager gaze of the men in the bunk-house, there +appeared the two wounds, one upon the outer right shoulder, the other +upon the left forearm. +</P> + +<P> +It was Lee who, pushing the clumsy cook aside, silently made the two +bandages from strips of Trevors's shirt. It was Lee who brought a +flask of brandy from which Trevors drank deep. +</P> + +<P> +And then came Judith. +</P> + +<P> +They stared at her as they might have done had the heavens opened and +an angel come down, or the earth split and a devil sprung up. She +looked in upon them with quick, keen eyes which sought to take every +man's measure. They returned her regard with a variety of amazed +expressions. Never since these men had come to work for Bayne Trevors +had a woman so much as ridden by the door. And to have her stand +there, composed, utterly at her ease, her air vaguely authoritative, a +vitally vivid being who might, suddenly, have taken tangible form from +the dawn, bewildered them. Bud Lee had told of the coming of the Blue +Lake owner; he had not mentioned that that owner had brought his +daughter with him. +</P> + +<P> +"I am Judith Sanford," she said in her abrupt fashion, quite as she had +made the announcement to Lee and Trevors. "This outfit belongs to me. +I have fired Trevors. You take your orders straight from me from now +on. Cookie, give me some coffee." +</P> + +<P> +She came in without ceremony and sat down at the head of the table. +Benny gasped, stood for a moment rooted to the floor, and then, +Judith's eyes hard upon him, hastily brought the coffee. From some +emotion certainly not clear to him he went a violent red. Perhaps the +emotion was just sheer embarrassment. He brought hot cakes with one +hand while with the other he buttoned his gaping shirt-collar over a +bulging, hairy chest. +</P> + +<P> +Men who had finished their breakfasts rose hastily with a marked +awkwardness and ill-concealed haste and went outside, whence their low +voices came back in a confused consultation. Men who had not finished +followed them. In an amazingly short time there were but the girl, +Lee, Trevors and the cook in the room. Then Trevors went out, Benny at +his heels. Bud Lee, moving with his usual leisureliness, was following +when Judith's cool voice said quietly: +</P> + +<P> +"You, Lee, wait a moment. I want to talk with you." +</P> + +<P> +Lee hesitated. Then he came back and waited. +</P> + +<P> +The men outside naturally grouped about the general manager. His angry +voice, lifted clearly, reached the two in the room. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm fired," said Trevors harshly. "As soon as I can get going I am +leaving for the Western Lumber camp. Every one of you boys holds his +job here because I gave it to him. Do you want to hold it now, with a +fool girl telling you what to do? Do you want men up and down the +State to laugh at you and jeer at you for a pack of softies and +imbeciles? Or do you want to roll your blankets and quit? To every +man that jumps the job here and follows me to-day I promise a job with +the Western. You fellows know the sort of boss I've been to you. You +can guess the sort of boss that chicken in there would be. Now I'm +going. It's up to you. Stick to a white man or fuss around for a +woman?" +</P> + +<P> +He had said what he had to say and, cursing when his shoulder struck a +form near him, made his way down to the stables. Burkitt was ahead of +him, going for the team. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Lee," said Judith sharply, "where do you get off? Do you want +to stick? Or shall I count you out?" +</P> + +<P> +"I guess," said Bud very gently, "you'd better count me out." +</P> + +<P> +"You're going with that crook?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. I'm going on my own." +</P> + +<P> +"Why? You're getting good money here. If you're square I'll keep you +at the same figure." +</P> + +<P> +But Bud shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm game to play square," he said slowly. "I'll stick a week, giving +you the chance to get a man in my place. That's all." +</P> + +<P> +"What's the matter with you?" she cried hotly. "Why won't you stay +with your job? Is it because you don't want to take orders from me?" +</P> + +<P> +Then Lee lifted his grave eyes to hers and answered simply: "That's it. +I'm not saying you're not all right. But I got it figured out, there's +just two kinds of ladies. If you want to know, I don't see that you've +got any call to tie into a man's job." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, scat!" cried the girl angrily. "You men make me tired. Two kinds +of ladies! And ten thousand kinds of men! You want me to dress like a +doll, I suppose, and keep my hands soft and white and go around like a +brainless, simpering fool! There <I>are</I> two kinds of <I>ladies</I>, my fine +friend: the kind that can and the kind that can't! Thank God I'm none +of your precious, sighing, hothouse little fools!" +</P> + +<P> +Gulping down a last mouthful of coffee, she was on her feet and passed +swiftly out among the men. +</P> + +<P> +"You men!" she cried, and they turned sober eyes upon her, "listen to +me! You've heard that big stiff rant; now hear me! I'm here because I +belong here. My dad was Luke Sanford and he made this ranch. I was +raised here. It's two-thirds mine right now. Trevors there is a crook +and I told him so. He's been trying to sell me out, to make such a +failure of the outfit that I'd have to let it go for a comic song. He +got gay and I fired him. He tried to manhandle me and I plugged him. +And now I am going to run my own outfit! What have you got to say +about it, you grumbling old grouch with the crooked face! Put up or +shut up! I'm calling you!" +</P> + +<P> +The men turned from her to Ward Hannon, the field foreman, who had been +Trevors's right-hand man and who now was sneering openly. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm saying it's no work for a kid of a girl," grumbled Hannon. "You +run an outfit like this?" He laughed derisively. "It can't be did." +</P> + +<P> +"It can't, can't it?" cried Judith. "Tell me why, old smarty. Spit it +out lively." +</P> + +<P> +Jake Carson's shrill cackle cut through a low rumble of laughter. +"That's passing it to him straight," said the old cattleman. "What's +the word, Ward?" +</P> + +<P> +Ward Hannon shrugged his shoulders and spat impudently. "I ain't +saying nothing," he growled, "only this: I got a right to quit, ain't +I? Well, I'm quitting. Any time you ketch me working for a female +girl that can't ride a horse 'thout falling off, that can't see a pig +stuck 'thout fainting, that can't walk a mile 'thout getting laid up, +that can't.…" +</P> + +<P> +"Slow up there!" called Judith. "Didn't I stick a pig already this +morning, and have I keeled over yet? Didn't I ride the forty miles +from Rocky Bend last night and get here before sun-up? Listen to me, +chief kicker: If you've got a horse on the ranch I can't ride I'll quit +right now and give you my job! How's that strike you? I tell you the +word on this ranch is going to be: 'Put up or shut up!' Which is it, +Growly?" +</P> + +<P> +Again the men laughed and Hannon's face showed his anger. +</P> + +<P> +"Mean that, lady?" he demanded briefly. +</P> + +<P> +"You can just bet your eyes I mean it!" +</P> + +<P> +Hannon turned toward the stable. "All right. We'll see who's going to +put or shut up!" he jeered over his shoulder. "You ride the Prince +just two little minutes and I'll stay and work for you!" +</P> + +<P> +Bud Lee from the doorway interfered. He was a man who loved fair play +and he knew the Prince. "None of that, Ward," he called sternly. "Not +the Prince!" +</P> + +<P> +But Judith, her eyes aflame, whirled upon Lee, her voice like a whip as +she said: "Lee, you keep out of this. The sooner you learn who's +running things here the better for you." +</P> + +<P> +"Maybe so," said Lee quietly. "But don't you fool yourself you can +ride Prince. There's not a man on the job except me that can ride +him." It was not boastfully said, but with calm assurance. "He's an +outlaw, Miss Judith. He's the horse that killed Jimmy Carpenter last +spring, and Jimmy——" +</P> + +<P> +"Go ahead, Ward," ordered Judith. "You don't have to stop every time +the wind blows, do you?" +</P> + +<P> +Even Bud Lee smiled. But old Carson spoke up, saying: "Bud's right, +miss. And if Ward wants to know, he's a low-down dawg to try to turn a +trick like this.…" +</P> + +<P> +"Go ahead, Ward," Judith repeated. "I've got something to do to-day +besides play pussy-wants-a-corner with you boys." +</P> + +<P> +Ward went, his eyes filled with malice. Two or three of the other men +joined their voices to Bud's and Carson's, expostulating, telling of +that fearful thing, an outlaw horse. Judith maintained a scornful +silence. +</P> + +<P> +In due time Ward came back. He was leading a saddled horse, a great, +wild-eyed roan that snapped viciously as he came on, walking with the +wide, spreading stride of a horse little used to the saddle. Judith +measured him with her eyes as she had measured the men in the +bunk-house. +</P> + +<P> +"He's an ugly devil," she said, and Lee, at her side, smiled again. +But the girl had not altered her intention. She stepped closer, +looking to cinch, bit, and reins. She commanded Ward to draw the +latigo tighter, and Ward did so, dodging back as the big brute snapped +at him. +</P> + +<P> +Judith laughed. "Look out, Ward," she taunted him. "He's after your +hair!" +</P> + +<P> +Two men held the Prince. At Judith's command they shortened the +stirrups and then blinded him with a bandanna handkerchief. Then, +moving with almost incredible swiftness, she was in the saddle, the +reins firmly gripped. The Prince, a sudden trembling thrilling through +him, stood with his four feet planted. The girl leaned forward and +whipped the blind from his red-rimmed eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"There's a good boy!" said Judith coolly. "Buck a little for the lady, +Prince!" +</P> + +<P> +Slowly the great muscles of Prince's leg and shoulder and flank corded. +The trembling passed; he was like a horse carven in bluish granite. He +shook his head a little. Judith, her hand tightening upon the reins, +held his head well up, the severe bit thwarting the attempt to get his +nose down between his forelegs. +</P> + +<P> +Then suddenly, without sign of warning, the horse whirled, leaping far +out to the left, striking with hard hoofs bunched, gathering himself as +he landed, swerving with the quickness of light, plunging again to the +right. And again he stood still. Judith, sitting securely on his +rebellious back, laughed. Her laughter, cool and unafraid, sent a +strange little thrill through Bud Lee—who, with fear in his heart, was +watching her. +</P> + +<P> +"Look out for him now!" he called warningly. +</P> + +<P> +In truth the Prince had not yet begun. He had tried a trick which +would have unseated any but one who rode well. He knew that he had to +do with something more than a rank amateur. +</P> + +<P> +Now he plunged toward the corral, his purpose plain, the one desire in +his heart to crush his rider against the high fence. But Judith's +spurs answered him, and the bit, savage in his jaws, brought him about, +whirling, sidling, striking, bucking as only a strong, fearless, +devil-hearted horse knows how to buck. He doubled up under her; he +rose and fell in a quick series of short jumps which tore and jerked at +her body, which strove to tear her knees away from his sides and break +the grip of her hand on the reins. But it seemed to the men watching +that the girl knew before the horse which way he would jump, that she +knew how to sway her body with his so that she and he were not two +separate beings but just one, moving together in some mad devil's +dance. The Prince, in the midst of the vicious bucking, tried to rear, +seeking to throw himself backward; a quick, sharp blow of a loaded +quirt between his ears brought his forefeet back to earth. +</P> + +<P> +"Can she ride!" whispered Bud Lee. "I want to know!" +</P> + +<P> +Again the maddened Prince reared and again she brought him to earth. +Again he resumed the terribly tearing series of short, sharp bucks. +And still, her hair tumbling, blown about her shoulders, she rode him. +</P> + +<P> +Old Carson was muttering and pulling at his lip nervously. Out of the +corner of his mouth in a voice that was almost a whimper, he kept +cursing and saying to Ward Hannon: "You skunk! You ornery skunk! Hunt +your hole after this!" +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly, with a quick, concerted action of spur, whip, and rein, +Judith swung the Prince about so that he was headed for the open +valley, running toward the west, giving him his head only a little, +driving him. He broke into a thundering run, snorting as, with mane +and tail flying, he dashed through the men who fell away from his +furious rush. And as he ran, Judith spurred him so that his only +thought lay in running away from the menace upon his back. +</P> + +<P> +"She ain't giving him time to buck!" laughed old Carson hysterically. +"Mama! Ain't she sure enough—God! She's goin' to get a fall." +</P> + +<P> +For horse and rider had come to the wide irrigating ditch which, since +Judith Sanford had lived here, had been constructed to carry the water +of Blue Lake River down to the alfalfa-fields. She saw it when she was +too close to swerve. +</P> + +<P> +The men watching saw her lean forward in the saddle, gather her reins, +lift her whip. Then the lifted whip came down, the spurs touched the +Prince's sweating sides, the big horse leaped far and clear of the +ditch and there floated back Judith's laughter. +</P> + +<P> +Three minutes later she rode back to the bunkhouse and slipped from the +saddle. Bud Lee, going to her, had his hat in his hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, Ward," she said quickly, her breathing hurried, her cheeks red, +"what do you say?" +</P> + +<P> +"I said I'd stick if you rode him," muttered Ward. "And——" +</P> + +<P> +"And," cried the girl with quick passion, "I'll tell you something. +You're a great big lumbering coward! Stick with me?" She laughed +again, a new laugh, ringing with her scorn. "Here's your outlaw; I've +gentled him a bit. You ride him!" +</P> + +<P> +His fellows laughed at Ward; for the field foreman was no horseman and +the timorous way in which he had brought out this snapping, vicious +animal had testified to the fact. He drew back now, muttering. +</P> + +<P> +"Ride him!" cried Judith, her voice stinging him. "Ride him or get off +the ranch! Which is it?" +</P> + +<P> +Ward Hannon, glad of the opening, answered surlily: "Aw! think I want +to take orders off'n a woman? You're right, I'll get off'n the ranch!" +</P> + +<P> +"That's two down," said Judith. "Now, take this horse back to the +stable; I'm going up to the office. You men come there in five +minutes. If you want to stay, and are worth your salt, you can. Or +I'll give you your time. It's up to you: it's a free country. But—" +and she said it slowly, confronting them—"if you all throw me down and +leave me short-handed without giving me time to take on another set of +men, you are a pretty low-lived bunch!" +</P> + +<P> +Then, without turning, she went swiftly to the ranch-house. Old man +Carson wiped the sweat from his forehead. +</P> + +<P> +"I remember hearing about Luke Sanford's girl," he said simply. "This +is her, all right." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +IV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +JUDITH PUTS IT STRAIGHT +</H3> + + +<P> +"Old man" Carson—so-called through lack of courtesy and because of the +sprinkling of gray through his black hair, a man of perhaps +forty-five—filled an unthinkably disreputable pipe with his own +conception of "real tobacca" and chuckled so that the second match was +required; before he was ready to say his say. +</P> + +<P> +"You just listen to me, you boys!" he said. "I worked with the Down +River outfit a year before Trevors sent me word he had a job open here +at better pay. That's only seventy-five miles, and news does +percolate, give it time. None of you fellers ever saw old Luke +Sanford?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'd been working here close to two weeks when he got killed," Bud said +as Carson's twinkling eyes went from face to face. "I got my job +straight from him, not Trevors." +</P> + +<P> +"That's so," said Carson. "Well, Bud knows the sort Luke Sanford was. +He was dead and buried when I come to the Blue Lake, but I'd saw him +twice and I'd heard of him more times than that. Quiet man that +'tended to his own business and didn't say so all-fired much 'less he +was stirred up. And then—!" He whistled his meaning. "A fighter. +All he ever got he fought for. All he ever held on to he fought for. +He bucked Western Lumber for a dozen years, first and last. And, by +cripes, he nailed their durned hides on his stable-door, too! +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I heard tell about this same Luke Sanford ten years ago and +more—about him and his little girl. From what folks said I guess +there never was a man wanted a boy-baby worse'n Luke Sanford before +Judith come. And I guess there never was a man put more stock in his +own flesh and blood than Luke did in her as soon as he got used to her +being a she. I don't know just exactly how old she was ten years ago, +women folks being so damn' tricky in the looks of their ages, but I'd +say she was eight or nine or ten or eleven years old. Anyhow, Luke had +took her in hand already." +</P> + +<P> +"Taught her to ride, huh?" asked one of the men. +</P> + +<P> +"You're shouting, Poker Face," nodded Carson with vehemence. "He sure +did! Why, that girl's rid real horses since she was the size of a pair +of boots. Luke took her everywhere he went, up in the mountains, over +the Big Ridge, down valley-ways, into town when he went off on his +yearly. And they say Luke wasn't no poky rider, either. You've rode +his string, Bud? What are those for horses, huh?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm a little particular when it comes to a saddle-horse," Bud +admitted. "But I never asked any better than old Sanford's string." +</P> + +<P> +"You hear him!" said Carson. "Well, that Judy girl has rid horses like +them for a dozen years. And her dad—anyway, folks say so down on the +river—showed her his way to ride and his way to shoot and his way to +play cards! I guess," and he spoke with slow thoughtfulness, "that +she's a real chip off'n the old block. It's my guess number two that +she ain't just shooting off her face promiscuous when she says there's +something crooked in the deal Trevors has been handing her. And, third +bet, there's most likely going to be seven kinds of hell popping around +this end of the woods for a spell." +</P> + +<P> +"What are you doing about it, Carson?" asked the man whose unusually +vacuous expression gave him his name of Poker Face. "Stick on the job +or quit?" +</P> + +<P> +"Me?" Carson sought a match, and when he had found it, held it long in +his grimy fingers, staring at it thoughtfully. "Me stay an' let a +she-girl boss me? Well, it ain't the play a man might look to me to +make, an' I ain't saying it's the trick I'd do every day in the week. +But here there's some things to set a man scratching his head: she's a +winner, all right, an' I'm the first man to up an' say so. She's got +the sand an' she's got the savvy. Take 'em together an' they make what +you call gumption. Sure it ain't no woman's job to step in an' run an +outfit like this one; a woman ain't nacherally cut out for that sort of +thing any more'n a man is to darn socks an' drink tea with lemon in it. +Again, tipping it over so's you can look at the other side, like a fair +man ought to, what's she going to do? She lands here sudden, striking +all four feet in a mess of trouble. She grabs holt of things, seeing +they belong to her in a way, an' seeing she's fed Trevors his time. I +might go trailing my luck some other-where, if I did the first fool +thing that plopped into my nut. But playing fair, I'm going to stick +an' do my damnedest to see Luke Sanford's girl put up her scrap. Yes, +sir." +</P> + +<P> +"What did she want to fire Trevors for?" asked Benny, the cook. +</P> + +<P> +Carson, looking at him contemptuously, spoke in contemptuous answer +about the stem of his pipe. "Any man on the job can answer you that, +Cookie. It's been open an' shut the last month Trevors is either crazy +or crooked. I said, didn't I, Western Lumber's itching to get its +devil-fish legs wropped aroun' Blue Lake timber? They've busted more +than one rancher up in the mountains. Trevors is in with 'em. Any man +on the ranch that don't know that, don't want to know it!" He removed +his pipe at last, and his look upon Benny was full of meaning. "Roll +that in your dough, Cookie, an' make biscuits out'n it." +</P> + +<P> +"Go easy there, grandfather," growled Benny. +</P> + +<P> +"That's something I ain't learned," was old Carson's ready answer, +lightly given. "I've told you before, if you don't want your name +printed plain don't come around asking me to spell it." +</P> + +<P> +Benny growled an answer but did not take up the quarrel. He knew +Carson well enough to know that there was no man living readier for a +fight or abler to conduct his own part of it. Carson, smaller than +Benny, was wiry, quick-footed, hard-eyed. There was something about +him that caused a man of Benny's sort to stop and think. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"<I>Qué hay</I>, Bud?" called a voice, and old José, his face shining with +his joy—Bud was certain that Judith had actually kissed the leathery +cheek and wondered how she could do it!—came down the knoll. "<I>La +señorita</I> wants you!" +</P> + +<P> +"Haw!" gurgled Bandy O'Neil facetiously. "It's your manly beauty, Bud! +You ol' son-of-a-gun of a lady-killer!" +</P> + +<P> +Bud Lee swung about upon his heel to glare at Bandy. But suddenly +conscious of a flush creeping up hotly under his tan, he turned his +back and strode away to the house. Bandy's "haw, haw!" followed him. +Lee's face was flaming when he entered the office. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you want with me?" he said shortly, angered at Bandy, Judith +Sanford and himself. +</P> + +<P> +"Bow, wow!" retorted Judith, looking up from Trevors's table. "Whose +dog art thou? Do you want me to think you are as fierce as you look?" +</P> + +<P> +"You sent for me?" he said coolly. +</P> + +<P> +She looked up at him critically. "What's come over you, Lee? I took +you for a cool head—Heaven knows I need a few cool heads around me +right now!—and here you show up with red in your eye, barking at me." +</P> + +<P> +"Let's pass up what I look like," said Lee stiffly. "What can I do for +you. Miss Sanford?" +</P> + +<P> +"Hm," said Judith. "On your high horse, are you? All right, stay +there. What I want is some information. How long have you been on the +Blue Lake pay-roll?" +</P> + +<P> +"A little over six months," he answered colorlessly. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Over</I> six months?" A quick look of interest came into her eyes. +"Trevors hired you? Or dad?" +</P> + +<P> +"Your father." +</P> + +<P> +"Then"—and a sudden, swift smile came for the first time that morning +into the girl's eyes—"you're square! Thank God for one man to be sure +of." +</P> + +<P> +She had risen with a quick impetuosity and put out her hand. Lee took +it into his own, and felt it shut hard, like a man's. +</P> + +<P> +"Just how do you know I'm square?" he asked slowly. +</P> + +<P> +"Dad was human," she replied softly. "He made some mistakes. But he +never made a mistake in a horse foreman yet. He has said to me a dozen +times: 'Judy, watch the way a man treats his horse if you want to size +him up! And never put your horses into the care of a man who isn't +white, clean through.' Dad knew, Bud Lee!" +</P> + +<P> +Lee made no answer. For a little Judith, back at the long table and +looking strangely small in the big, bare room before this massive piece +of furniture, stared into vacancy with reminiscent eyes. Then, with a +little shrug of her shoulders, she turned again to the tall foreman. +</P> + +<P> +"Why did you tell Trevors this morning that you were going to quit +work?" she asked with abrupt directness. +</P> + +<P> +"Because," he answered, and by now his flush had subsided and his grave +good-humor had come back to him with his customary serenity, "I felt +like moving on." +</P> + +<P> +"Because," she insisted, "you know that there was some dirty work afoot +and did not care to be messed up in it?" +</P> + +<P> +Now here, most positively, Bud Lee said within himself, was a person to +reckon with. How did she know all that? She was just a girl, +somewhere, as old Carson put it, between eighteen and twenty-two. What +business did a kid like this have knowing so blamed much? +</P> + +<P> +"You've got your rope on the right pair of horns," he said after his +brief pause. +</P> + +<P> +"How did you know that Trevors was working the double-cross on this +deal?" she demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't know," he said stiffly. "I just guessed. The same as you. +He was spending too much money; he was getting too little to show for +it; he was selling too much stock too cheap." +</P> + +<P> +"What's the matter with you?" cried the girl, surprising him with the +heat of her words and the sudden darkening of her eyes. "Why do you +insist on being so downright stand-offish and stiff and aloof? What +have I done to you that you can't be decent? Here I am only putting +foot on my own land and you make me feel like an intruder." +</P> + +<P> +"I am answering your questions." +</P> + +<P> +"Like a half-animated trained iceberg, yes. Can't you act like a human +being? Oh, I've got your number, Bud Lee, and you are just as narrow +between the horns as the rest of the outfit. You are narrow and +prejudiced and blindly unreasonable! I know as much about ranching as +any man of you; I know more about this outfit because the best man that +ever set foot on it, and that's Luke Sanford, taught me every crook, +and bend of it; and now, just because I'm a girl and not a boy, you +stand off like I had the smallpox; just when I need loyalty and +understanding and when, the Lord knows, I've already got a double +handful of trouble, I can't count for a minute on men that have been +taking my pay for months! Get some of the mildew and cobwebs out of +your head and tell me this: What reason in the world is there why you +choose to think I haven't any business wearing my own shoes?" +</P> + +<P> +"That's sure putting it straight," said Lee slowly. +</P> + +<P> +"You just bet it's putting it straight!" she announced vigorously. +"And you'll find that it's a way I have, putting things straight. I +was trained to the business by a better man than you'll ever be, Bud +Lee." +</P> + +<P> +"Maybe so," he admitted without heat. "I'll take off my hat to Luke +Sanford for a man. And I'll take off my hat to you, if you want to +know. But, training or no training, this is no job for a lady, and +shooting up Trevors and riding the Prince isn't going to make it so. +Sure enough it's none of my butt-in what sort of thing you do. But at +the same time there's no call for me to say you're doing fine when I +don't see it that way." +</P> + +<P> +"What you're looking for," sniffed Judith contemptuously, "is a female +being extinct this one hundred years! You'd have every girl wear tails +to her gowns, and duck and dodge behind fans and faint every time she +jabbed her thumb with a pin!" +</P> + +<P> +"I can't see that a woman's place is riding bucking broncos and +rampsing around.…" +</P> + +<P> +"A woman's place!" she scoffed. "Her place where a blunder-headed man +puts her! How do you know what her place is? Do you suppose the blood +in a healthy-bodied, healthy-minded woman is any different from your +blood? How would you like to be told just what your place is? To be +jammed, for instance, into a little bungalow in a city; to be squeezed +into a dress-suit and told 'Stay there and look sweet'; to be commanded +not to get up a natural sweat, nor to kick over the traces with which +some woman had hitched you to the cart of convention. How'd <I>you</I> like +it, Bud Lee?" +</P> + +<P> +Bud Lee grinned and a new look crept into his eyes. "Being Bud Lee," +he answered frankly, "I wouldn't stand it for one little tick of the +clock! If you want me to swap talk with you; all day at ninety bucks a +month, all right. I'd say there's two kinds of men, too. There's my +kind; there's the Dave Burril Lee kind. You see, he's a sort of +relation of mine, is Dave Burril Lee, and I'm not exactly proud of him. +He's the kind that wears dress-suits and sticks in a bungalow. He's +proud of his name Burril and Lee, both, because big men down South wore +'em before he did, and they were relations. He's swelled up over the +way he can dance and ride after a fox, and over the coin he's got in +the bank. Then there's Bud Lee who ducks out of that sort of a +scrap-heap and beats it for the open." +</P> + +<P> +"I get you!" broke in Judith, her eyes very bright. "And you men here, +my men, want me to be the sort of woman that your precious cousin, Dave +Burril, is a man? Is that it? Where's your logic this morning?" +</P> + +<P> +"Meaning horse sense?" he smiled. "It's in these few little words: +'What's right for a man may be dead wrong for a woman.'" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, scat!" she cried impatiently. "What am I wasting time with you +for? You're right when you say that if I am paying you ninety dollars +a month and grub and blankets I'd better get something out of you +besides talk." She swung back to her table. "What was Trevors's +latest excuse for selling at a sacrifice?" she asked, her tone dry and +businesslike. "Why was he selling those horses at fifty dollars a +head?" +</P> + +<P> +"Told me he just had a wire last night from Young Hampton, asking for +three thousand," he explained in a similar tone, though his eyes were +twinkling at her. +</P> + +<P> +"Pollock Hampton has his nerve!" she snapped. She took up the +telephone instrument at her elbow and demanded the Western Union at +Rocky Bend. "Judith Sanford speaking," she said crisply. "Repeat the +message of last night for the general manager, Blue Lake Ranch." +</P> + +<P> +In a moment she had it. "So Trevors wasn't lying about that part of +it," she said reluctantly. And to the Western Union agent, "Take this +message: +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="salutation"> +POLLOCK HAMPTON, Hotel Glennlyn, San Francisco: +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +Impossible send money now or for some time. Have fired Trevors. +Running outfit myself. Need every cent we can raise to pay interest on +loans, men's salaries and keep going. This is final. +<BR><BR> +JUDITH SANFORD, <I>General Manager</I>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"That may start his gray matter working," she ended as she clicked up +the receiver. "Now, Lee, will you stick with me ten days or so and +give me time to get a man in your place?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I'll do that, Miss Sanford." +</P> + +<P> +"You will help me in every way you can while you are with me?" +</P> + +<P> +"When I work for a man—or a woman," he added gravely, "I don't hold +back anything." +</P> + +<P> +"All right. Then start in right now and tell me about the gang Trevors +has taken on. Are they all crooks?" +</P> + +<P> +"I wouldn't say so. I wouldn't put it that strong." +</P> + +<P> +"That little gray, quick-spoken man with the smelly pipe—he's +straight, isn't he?" +</P> + +<P> +"That would be old Carson? Yes; he's a good man. You won't find a +better." +</P> + +<P> +"Is he going to quit, too? Just because I've come?" +</P> + +<P> +Lee shook his head. "If you work him right Carson will stick right +along. Being white clean through, being broader-minded than I am"—and +the twinkle came again into his eyes—"Carson'll show you a square +deal." +</P> + +<P> +"Has he any love for Bayne Trevors?" +</P> + +<P> +"Maybe you'd better ask Carson." +</P> + +<P> +In a flash she was on her feet and had gone to the door. "Carson!" she +called loudly. "Come here, will you?" +</P> + +<P> +There was a little silence, a low sound of laughter, then Carson's +sharp voice answering: "I'm coming!" +</P> + +<P> +Judith went back to her chair. She did not speak until Carson's wiry +form slipped through the doorway. Then with the old cattleman's +shrewd, hard eyes upon her she turned from a clip full of papers she +had been looking through and spoke to him quietly: +</P> + +<P> +"You used to work for the Granite Canyon crowd, didn't you, Carson?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes'm," he answered. +</P> + +<P> +"Cattle foreman there for several years?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes'm." +</P> + +<P> +"Helped clean out the Roaring Creek gang didn't you, Carson?" +</P> + +<P> +Carson shifted a bit, colored under her fixed eyes, and finally +admitted: +</P> + +<P> +"Yes'm." +</P> + +<P> +"Haven't had a real first-class fight for quite a bit, have you, +Carson? Not since that gash on your jaw healed? Not since you and +Scotty Webb mixed with the Roaring Creekers?" +</P> + +<P> +Carson rubbed his jaw, flashed a quick look at Bud Lee as though for +moral support, looked still further embarrassed, and finally choked +over his brief: +</P> + +<P> +"No'm." +</P> + +<P> +Judith sat smiling brightly up at his hard features. "I've heard dad +talk about that," she said thoughtfully. "I guess I've got at least +one real man on the ranch, Carson. Oh, don't dodge like that! I'm not +going to put my arms around you and kiss you on the top of your head. +But I do love a man that loves a fair fight.… Lee, here, has +given me his promise to stick on the job for ten days or so, to give me +time to get some one else to look after my horses." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes'm," said Carson, fingering his pipe and looking down. +</P> + +<P> +For a few moments the girl sat still, now and then flashing a quick, +keen look from one to the other of her two foremen. Then, abruptly, +her eyes on Carson, she snapped: "You've found out, more or less +recently, haven't you, that Bayne Trevors is a crook? You've perhaps +even guessed that he's been taking money from me with one hand and from +the Western Lumber with the other?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes'm," said Carson. "I doped it up like that." +</P> + +<P> +"Why," cried the girl, "he's fired all of the old men and Heaven knows +how many of his sort he's put in their places! Help me clean 'em out, +Carson! Where will we begin? I've chucked Trevors and Ward Hannon. +Who goes next, Carson?" +</P> + +<P> +"Benny the cook," said Carson gently. "An' I'd be obliged, ma'am, if +you'd let me go boot him off'n the ranch." +</P> + +<P> +"That's talking," she said enthusiastically. "You can attend to him. +Any one else?" +</P> + +<P> +Carson shook his head. "I got my suspicions," he said. "But that's +all I'm dead sure on." +</P> + +<P> +"The others can wait then. Now, I'm taking a gamble on you and Lee. +You have all kinds of chances to double-cross me. But I've got to take +a chance now and then. I'm going to tell you something: Trevors is +trying to sell me out to the Western Lumber people. He is one of their +crowd and has been since they bought him up six months ago. They want +our timber tract over the north ridge but they don't think they will +have to pay the price. They want the lake; they want the water-power +of Blue Lake River! They want pretty well all we've got. The ranch +outside the stock we've got running on it, is worth a clean million +dollars if it is worth a nickel. Well, the Western Lumber Company has +offered us exactly two hundred and fifty thousand! Only quarter of +what it's worth! They know we're mortgaged; they know the interest we +have to pay is heavy; they know Pollock Hampton, for one, is a spender +who knows nothing about big business; they think that I, because I'm a +girl, am a fool. It looks to them like a melon easy to cut and ripe +for the slicing." +</P> + +<P> +She paused a moment, frowning thoughtfully at the floor. Then suddenly +she lifted her eyes to Carson's, saying crisply: "Trevors took time at +the end to tell me something. That something was that he was going to +make me sell. He was excited a bit, I'll admit, or he wouldn't have +spoken quite so plainly. And he counted upon the fact of my sex, of +course, to feel confident that he could throw a scare into me. He even +threatened, if I hadn't come to my senses before the ranch was dry in +the summer, to burn me out!" +</P> + +<P> +Carson blinked at her. "How's that?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +She told him again, coolly indifferent, it seemed to Carson. +</P> + +<P> +"The durned polecat!" whispered the cattle foreman. +</P> + +<P> +"Now then," cried Judith, "you've got your first job cut out for you. +Let Bayne Trevors or one of his gang set foot on Blue Lake land, and +I'll tell you what I think of you, Carson! Or is the job going to be +too big for you?" +</P> + +<P> +Carson smiled deprecatingly. "I'd like to see 'em try it," he said in +that soft, whispering voice which upon occasions was characteristic of +him. "I sure would, Miss Judy!" +</P> + +<P> +"That's all this morning, Carson," she said quietly. "On your way +don't forget to look in on your friend Benny." +</P> + +<P> +Carson went hastily down the knoll, his eyes bright. Judith laughed +softly. +</P> + +<P> +"I've got his number, Bud Lee! All that's needed to keep that old +mountain-lion on the job is to show him a real fight ahead! And by +golly, Mr. Man, there's going to be scrap enough from the very jump to +make Carson forget whether he's working for a woman or John W. Satan, +Esquire!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +V +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE BIGNESS OF THE VENTURE +</H3> + + +<P> +"And now," said Judith Sanford to the stillness about her—she was +alone in the big ranch-house—"not being constructed of iron, I'm going +to take a snooze." +</P> + +<P> +She yawned, stretched her supple young body luxuriously, and passed +slowly through the empty rooms which, at her command, José had opened +to the sweet morning air. Through the great living-room, library, and +music-room, where the grand piano stood dejectedly in its mantle of +dust, she came to her own chambers at the southwest corner of the +building. Her bed was made, the sheets clean and fresh and inviting, +dressing-gown and slippers were upon the window-seat, and from her +table a vase of glorious roses sent out a welcoming perfume. +</P> + +<P> +"Good old José," she smiled. +</P> + +<P> +Vivid blossom that she was upon the tough, hardy stalk of her pioneer +ancestry, creature of ardent flame and passion which her blood and her +life in the open had made her, she was not devoid of the understanding +of the limit of physical endurance. Last night, through the late +moonlight and later starlight, through the thick darkness which lay +across the mountain trails before the coming of day, on into the dawn, +she had ridden the forty miles from the railroad at Rocky Bend. +Certain of treachery on the part of Bayne Trevors, she had arrived only +to find him plotting another blow at her interests. She had ridden a +mad brute of a horse whose rebellious struggle against her authority +had taxed her to the last ounce of her strength. She had shot a man in +the right shoulder and the left forearm.… And now, with no one to +see her, she was pale and shaking a little, suddenly faint from the +heavy beating of her own heart. She had had virtually no sleep last +night. She was glad of it. For now she would sleep, sleep. +</P> + +<P> +"I am not to be called, no matter what happens," she said to José who +came trotting to the tinkle of her bell. "Thank you for the roses, +José." +</P> + +<P> +Slipping out of her clothes, she drew the sheet up to her throat—and +tossed for a wretched hour before sleep came to her. A restless sleep, +filled with broken bits of unpleasant dreams. +</P> + +<P> +At two o'clock, swiftly dressing after a leisurely bath, she went out +into the courtyard, where she found José making a pretense of +gardening, whereas in truth for a matter of hours he had done little +but watch for her coming. +</P> + +<P> +"José," she said, as he swept off his wide hat and made her the bow +reserved for <I>la señorita</I> and <I>la señorita</I> alone, "you will have to +be lady's maid and errand-boy for me until I get things running right. +I am going to telephone into town this minute for a woman to do my +cooking and housekeeping and be a nuisance around generally. While I +do that, will you scare up something for me to eat and then saddle a +horse for me? And don't make a fire, either; just something cold out +of a can, you know." +</P> + +<P> +She went to the office, arranged over the wire with Mrs. Simpson of +Rocky Bend to come out on the following day, and then spent fifteen +minutes studying the pay-roll taken from the safe, which, fortunately, +Trevors had left open. As José came in with a big tray she was running +through a file of reports made at the month-end, two weeks ago, by +certain of the ranch foremen. +</P> + +<P> +"Put it down on the table, José. Thank you," and she found time for a +smile at her devoted servitor; "Now, have a horse ready, will you?" And +without waiting for José's answer, taking up the telephone, she asked +for the office at the Lower End, as the rich valley land of the western +portion of the ranch was commonly known. +</P> + +<P> +Briefly making herself known to the owner of the boyish voice which +answered, she asked, for "Doc" Tripp and was informed that the ranch +veterinarian was no longer with the outfit. Judith frowned. +</P> + +<P> +"Where is he?" +</P> + +<P> +"Rocky Bend, I think." +</P> + +<P> +"When did he leave us?" +</P> + +<P> +"Three days ago." +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"Fired. Mr. Trevors let him go." +</P> + +<P> +"Hm!" said Judith. "Who has taken his place?" +</P> + +<P> +"Bill Crowdy is sort of acting vet, right now." +</P> + +<P> +"Thanks," she said. Clicking off, she put in a call for "Doc" Tripp in +Rocky Bend. "Get him for me as quick as you can, will you, please?" +she asked of the operator in town. +</P> + +<P> +For five minutes she munched at a sandwich and pored over the papers +before her, dealing with this or that of the many interests of the big +ranch. When at last her telephone-bell rang she found that it was +Tripp. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello, Doc," she said cordially. "I haven't seen you for so long I +almost have forgotten how you comb your hair!" Tripp laughed with her +at that; across the miles she could picture him running his big hand +through the rebellious shock. "Yes, I'm back to stay, and from the +looks of it I didn't come any too soon. Yes, Doc, we do miss him," and +her voice softened wonderfully to Tripp's mention of the man who had +been more than father to her, more than friend to him. "But we are +going to buck up and show folks that he <I>knew</I>. He would have made a +go of the thing; we are going to do it. What was the trouble with you +and Trevors?" +</P> + +<P> +Tripp explained succinctly. He and the general manager had disagreed +openly and frequently about that part of the work in which, until the +coming of Trevors, the veterinarian had been entirely unhampered. Two +months ago Trevors had reduced Tripp's wages and had threatened another +cut. +</P> + +<P> +"Just to make me quit, you know," he added. "And I would have quit if +it had been any other outfit in the world." +</P> + +<P> +"I know," she said, and she did understand. "Go on. What was the +excuse for canning you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Case of lung-worms," he told her. "Some of the calves, I don't know +just how many yet. He insisted on my treating them the old way." +</P> + +<P> +"Slaked lime? Or sulphur fumes?" she said quickly. "And you insisted +on chloroform?" +</P> + +<P> +"You've hit it!" he exclaimed wonderingly. "How'd you know?" +</P> + +<P> +"I haven't been loafing on the job the last six months," she laughed. +"I've been at the school at Davis and hobnobbing with some of the +university men at Berkeley. They're doing some great work there. Doc, +I'll want to talk to you about it. You're going down there, expenses +paid, to brush up with a course or two this year. Now, how soon can +you get back here?—Trevors? Oh, Trevors is fired. I'm running the +ranch myself. And, Doc, I need a few men like you! Can you come early +to-morrow?—To-night? You're a God-blessed brick! Yes, I'll stop that +murderous sulphur treatment if it isn't too late. Good-by." +</P> + +<P> +She lost no time in calling for Bill Crowdy, the man whom Trevors had +put into Tripp's place. +</P> + +<P> +"By the way," she said when the man with the voice which had sounded so +boyish in her ears answered again, "who are you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ed Masters," he told her. "Electrician, you know." +</P> + +<P> +A glance at the pay-roll in front of her showed that Edward Masters, +general electrician, was a new man and was drawing eighty-five dollars +monthly. +</P> + +<P> +"What are you doing this afternoon?" she demanded sharply—"just +hanging around the office? Is that the way you earn your eighty-five +dollars?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not always. But Trevors told me to be on hand to-day to take some +orders." +</P> + +<P> +"What work?" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't know," he said frankly. "He didn't say." +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said Judith, "I'll tell you one thing, Ed Masters. If you are +one of the loaf-around kind you'd better call for your time to-night. +If there's anything for you to do, go do it. Don't wait for Trevors. +He's gone. Yes, for good. You can report to me here the first thing +in the morning. Now send me Crowdy." +</P> + +<P> +"He's down in the hospital and the hospital phone is out of order." +</P> + +<P> +"And you're an electrician, hanging around for orders! That's your +first job. Send the first man you can get your hands on to tell Crowdy +I say not to touch one of those calves with the lung-worm. And not to +do anything else but get ready to talk with me. I'll be down in half +an hour." +</P> + +<P> +She clicked up the receiver, drank a cup of lukewarm coffee, noting +subconsciously that José must have had a fire ready against the time of +her awakening, and again consulted the files before her. Then again +she used the telephone, ringing the Lower End office. This time it was +another voice answering her. +</P> + +<P> +"Where's Masters?" she asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Gone down to the cow hospital," was the answer. +</P> + +<P> +"Where's Johnson, the irrigation foreman?" +</P> + +<P> +"Out in the south fields." +</P> + +<P> +"And Dennings?" +</P> + +<P> +"Went to look the olives over." +</P> + +<P> +"Send out for both of them. I'm coming right down as fast as a horse +will carry me and I want to talk with them. Wait a minute—I'll tell +you when I'm through with you. Who are you, anyway?" +</P> + +<P> +"Williams, the ranch carpenter." +</P> + +<P> +"What <I>are</I> you doing to-day? Repairs needed at the office where you +are?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. You see——" +</P> + +<P> +"You bet I see!" she cried warmly. "The first thing I see is that I've +got more men on this job than I need. If there's no work for you to +do, call tonight for your time. If you've got anything to do, go do +it." +</P> + +<P> +She clicked off again, waited a brief second and rang three for the +dairy. After she had rung several times and got no answer, she +murmured to herself: +</P> + +<P> +"There's some one too busy on the ranch to be just hanging round after +all, it seems." +</P> + +<P> +And she went out to José and the waiting horse. +</P> + +<P> +As she rode the five miles down to the office at the Lower End, her +thoughts were constantly charged with an appreciation of the wonders +which had been worked about her everywhere since that day, ten years +ago, when she had first come with Luke Sanford to the original Blue +Lake ranch. Then there had been only a wild cattle-range, ten thousand +acres of brush, timber, and uncultivated open spaces. Nowhere would +one find rougher, wilder stock-land in California. But Luke Sanford +had seen possibilities and had bought the whole ten thousand acres, +counting, from the first sight of it, upon acquiring as soon as might +be those other thousands of acres which now made Blue Lake ranch one of +the biggest of Western ventures. +</P> + +<P> +It was late May, and the afternoon air was sweet and warm with the +passing of spring. The girl's eager eyes travelled the length of the +sky-seeking cliff almost at the back door of the ranch-house, which +stood like some mighty barricade thrown up in that mythical day given +over to the colossal struggle of a contending race of giants, and she +found that there, alone, time had shown no change. Elsewhere, +improvements at every turn were living monuments to the tireless brain +of her father. Stock-corrals, sturdily built, out-houses spotless in +their gleaming whitewash, monster barns, fenced-off fields, bridges +across the narrow chasm of the frothing river, telephone-poles with +their wires binding into one sheaf the numerous activities of the +ranch, a broad, graded road over which she and her father had come here +the last time together in the big touring-car. +</P> + +<P> +Here the valley was only a mile across, shut in on both sides by cliff +and steep, rocky mountain, walled by cliffs at the upper end, where the +river from three-mile distant Blue Lake came down in flashing +waterfalls. +</P> + +<P> +But, as she rode, the valley widened, changed in character. At first, +wandering herds of beef-cattle, with now and then a riding cowboy +turning in his saddle to wonder at her; then a gate to be opened as she +stooped forward from her own saddle, and wide fields where the grass +stood tall and untrodden and blooded Jersey cows looked up in mild +interest; yonder a small pasture in which were five Guernseys, kept in +religious seclusion, under ideal conditions, to further certain +investigations into the ratios of five different kinds of fodder to the +amount of butter-fat produced; across a green meadow a pure-blooded +Jersey bull, whose mellow bellowings drew Judith's eyes to the clean +line of his perfect back, over which, with pawing hoofs, he was +throwing much trampled earth; in a more distant pen, accepting the +trumpeted challenge and challenging back, a beautiful specimen of +careful breeding in Ayrshire. +</P> + +<P> +The road wound on, following generally the line of the river, which +began a generous broadening, flowing more evenly through level fields. +Looking down the valley, Judith could see the whitewashed clump of +buildings where were the second office, the store and the blacksmith's +shop, the tiny cottages. And beyond, the barns, the dairy, the tall +silos standing like lookout towers, the alfalfa-fields crisscrossed +with irrigating ditches, and still farther on, the pasture-lands where +the big herd of cows was grazing. +</P> + +<P> +Here the valley was spread out until from side to side it measured +something more than four miles. The bordering mountains, like the +river, had grown into a softer mood; rolling hills scantily timbered, +rich in grass, were dotted with herds, cattle and horses, or fenced off +here and there, reserved for later pasturage. +</P> + +<P> +Across the river, to the south, Judith marked the wandering calves, +offspring of the herd; to the north, along the foothills, the subdued +green of the olive-orchards. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a big, big thing!" she whispered, and her eyes were very bright +with it all, her cheeks flushed. "Big!" +</P> + +<P> +Passing one of the great barns, she heard the trumpet call of a +stallion and, turning, saw in the corral one of those glorious brutes +which Bud Lee had spoken of to Trevors as "clean spirit." From the +instant her eyes filled to the massive beauty of him, she knew who he +was: Night Shade, sprung from the union of Mountain King and Black +Empress; regal-blooded, ebon-black from silken fetlock to flowing mane; +a splendid four-year-old destined to tread his proud way to a first +prize at the coming State fair at Sacramento, a horse many +stock-fanciers had coveted. +</P> + +<P> +She stopped and marvelled afresh at him, paid him his due of unstinted +admiration, and then spurred on to the little clump of buildings +marking the lower ranch headquarters. At the store, where a ten-by-ten +room was partitioned off to serve as office, she swung down from the +saddle and, leaving her horse with dragging reins, went in. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello, Charlie. You're still left to us, are you?" she said, as she +stepped forward to shake hands with Miller, the storekeeper and general +utility man of the settlement. "I'm glad to see you. +</P> + +<P> +"So'm I, Miss Judy," grinned Charlie, looking the part. "Howdy." +</P> + +<P> +"I wanted to see Johnson and Dennings. Are they here yet?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," answered Miller. "Johnson, the ditch man, you mean? He's +somewhere at the Upper End. Has got a crew of men up there making a +new dam or somethin' or other. Been at it purty near a week, now, I +guess. They camp up there." +</P> + +<P> +"How many men are with him?" she asked quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"About a dozen," and he looked hard at her. Judith frowned. But +instead of saying what she might be thinking, she inquired where +Dennings was. +</P> + +<P> +"Out in the olive-orchards, I guess." He paused, filled a pipe he had +neither desire nor intention of smoking, and said abruptly: "What's +this I hear about Trevors? Canned him?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +"Um!" said Miller. "Well, Miss Judy, I ain't sayin' it wasn't purty +near time he got the hooks. But, lemme tell you something. While +you're riding around this afternoon, if I was you I'd pike over to the +milking corrals." +</P> + +<P> +She looked at him sharply. +</P> + +<P> +"What is it, Charlie?" +</P> + +<P> +"You just ride over," said Miller. "It ain't more'n a step an' I'll +just shet up store an' mosey along after you." +</P> + +<P> +Vaguely uneasy because of Charlie Miller's manner, Judith galloped down +toward the four corrals where the cows were milked. From a distance +she saw that there were a number of men, ten or twelve of them, +standing in a close-packed group. She wondered what it was that had +drawn them from their work at this time of day; what that big, +bull-voiced man was saying to them. She heard the muttering rumble of +his words before the words themselves meant anything to her. A quick +glance over her shoulder showed her Charlie Miller hastening behind +her, pick-handle in hand. +</P> + +<P> +Her way carried her by a long, narrow building standing out like a +great capital E, the cow hospital. She thought of Bill Crowdy and the +sick calves as she drew near, but was passing on to the men at the milk +corrals, when the breeze, blowing lightly from the west, brought to her +nostrils a whiff of sulphur. +</P> + +<P> +A quick tide of red ran into her cheeks; that fool, Ed Masters, had not +told Crowdy to refrain from the old-fashioned, deadly treatment! +Almost before her horse had set his four feet at the command of a quick +touch upon the reins, the girl was down and hurrying into the middle +door of the three, calling out as she went: +</P> + +<P> +"Crowdy! Oh, Crowdy!" +</P> + +<P> +She came into a small whitewashed room where were a table, two chairs, +and a telephone; passed through this into the calf-yard. Here were +several compartments with doors which allowed of making them almost +air-tight. And here she was met by a stronger smell of sulphur fumes. +</P> + +<P> +"Crowdy!" she called again. "Where are you?" +</P> + +<P> +Bill Crowdy, a heavy, squat figure of a man, shifty-eyed, with hard +mouth and a nervous, restless air, came down a long hallway, smoking a +cigarette. His eyes rested with no uncertain dislike upon Judith's +eager face. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm Crowdy," he said. "Want me?" +</P> + +<P> +"I told Masters to tell you to stop the sulphur treatment for the +lung-worm calves. Hasn't he told you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Trevors said I was to give it to them," said Crowdy. "I can't be +taking orders off'n every hop-o'-my-thumb like that college kid." +</P> + +<P> +"Then Masters did tell you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sure, he told me," said Crowdy in surly defiance. "But if I was to +listen to everything the likes of him says——" +</P> + +<P> +Judith's eyes were fairly snapping. +</P> + +<P> +"You'll listen to the likes of me, Bill Crowdy!" she cried +passionately, a small fist clinched. "You get those calves out into +some fresh air just as quick as the Lord will let you! Into a pen by +themselves. Doc Tripp will attend to them in the morning." +</P> + +<P> +"Tripp's gone." +</P> + +<P> +"He's on his way back, right now. And you're on your way off the +ranch. Understand? You can come to the office for your pay to-night." +</P> + +<P> +Crowdy shrugged his shoulders and turned away. +</P> + +<P> +"If I'm fired," he growled in that ugly voice which was so fitting a +companion to that ugly mouth of his, "I quit right now. Get some of +your other Willies to turn your calves out." +</P> + +<P> +For a moment, in the heat of her anger, Judith's quirt was lifted as +though she would strike him. Then she turned instead and ran to do her +own bidding. A moment later Miller was with her. The two of them got +the calves—there were seven of them—out of the sulphur-laden air and +into the corral. The poor brutes, coughing softly in paroxysms, some +of them frothing at the mouth, two of them falling repeatedly and +rising slowly upon trembling legs, filed by in a pitiful string. One +of the youngest lay still in the hospital, dead. +</P> + +<P> +"He would have killed them all," said Judith, her teeth set as she +looked at the living calves in the corral where, with necks thrust far +out, they fought for each breath. "And Bayne Trevors ordered a +treatment that he knows has gone into the discard! Charlie, that man +has gone further than I thought he had the nerve to go." +</P> + +<P> +"Crowdy did something else that don't look just right," said Miller, +gazing with eyes of longing after the burly, departing figure. "I saw +him do it just after Masters carried him your message. He drove three +of the sick calves—there's a dozen or more got the worms, you +know—out into the pasture with the well calves." +</P> + +<P> +Judith didn't answer. She looked at Miller a moment as though she +thought this must be some wretched jest of his. And when she read in +his eyes the earnestness in his heart, there rose within her the +question: "How far has Bayne Trevors gone?" +</P> + +<P> +"Charlie," she said finally, "I want you to close store for the rest of +the day. Get some one to help you and cut the sick calves out from the +bunch. Haze them back here into the detention corral. Tripp will +attend to them all in the morning. Now, tell me—what's wrong down at +the milk corrals? What are all of those men up to?" +</P> + +<P> +"We're going to see, me an' you," answered Miller. "I don't just know. +But I do know there's a big guy down there that come onto the ranch a +couple of hours ago an' that don't belong here. He's that guy talking. +Name of Nelson. He ain't done any talking to me, but from a word or +two I picked up from one of the milkers I got a hunch he's been sent +over by Trevors." +</P> + +<P> +Nelson, the big emissary for Trevors—for he admitted the fact openly +and pleasantly—took off his hat to Judith and said he guessed he'd be +going. And the men with whom he had been talking, including all of the +milkers and all of the other workmen upon whom Nelson could get his +meddlesome hands at short notice, all men whom Trevors had placed here, +made known in hesitant speech or awkward silence that they were going +with Nelson. There were good jobs open with the lumber company, it +seemed. Nelson even expressed the hope that the quitting of these men +wouldn't work any hardship to the Blue Lake ranch. +</P> + +<P> +Judith, her eyes flashing, asked no man of them to remain, seeing that +thus she would but humiliate herself fruitlessly, and turned away. And +yet, with the herds of cows with bursting bags soon ready for the +nightly milking, she watched the men move away, her heart bitter with +anger. +</P> + +<P> +"They've got to be milked, Charlie," was all that she said. "Who will +milk them until I can get a new crew?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll tuck in an' help," answered Miller ruefully. "I hate it worse'n +poison, an' I can't milk more'n ten cows, workin twenty-four-hour +shifts. I'll try an' scare up some of the other boys that can milk." +But he shook his head and looked regretfully at the pick-handle. "Good +milkers is scarce as gold eggs," he muttered. "And the separator men +has quit with the rest." +</P> + +<P> +"Get Masters, the electrician, on the job. Get anybody you can. I'm +going back to the ranchhouse pretty soon and I'll try to send some one +from there." +</P> + +<P> +"Cowboys can't milk," said Miller positively. "An' besides, they +won't. But somehow we'll make out for a day or so." +</P> + +<P> +"We've got to make out!" exclaimed Judith. "We've got to beat that man +Trevors, Charlie, and do it quick. If he'll try to keep us +short-handed, if he'll spend money to do it, if he'll do a trick like +giving sulphur for lung-worm and then send infected stock out into the +herds, I don't know just where he will stop—unless we stop him." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +In spite of her intentions, it was nearing the time of dusk when she +returned to the ranchhouse. As she came up the knoll from the barn, +she saw for the first time a thin line of bluish smoke rising from the +north ridge. Saw and understood the new menace. +</P> + +<P> +For that way had Benny, the discharged cook, gone. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +VI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +YOUNG HAMPTON REGISTERS A PROTEST +</H3> + + +<P> +It was after eight o'clock when Tripp rode in on a sweat-wet horse. +Judith met him in the courtyard, giving him her two hands impulsively. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm so glad you've come, Doc!" she cried softly. "Oh, you don't know +how glad—yet." +</P> + +<P> +She called José to take Tripp's mount and then led the way into the +great living-room where deep cushions and leather chairs made for +comfort. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll give you time to draw a second breath," she told him, forcing +into her tone a lightness which she did not quite feel, even though a +surge of satisfaction had warmed her at the first thud of his horse's +hoofs. "Then we'll talk." +</P> + +<P> +She switched on the lights and turned to look at Tripp. He was the +same little old Doc Tripp, she noted. His wiry body scarcely bigger +than a boy's of fourteen, he was a man of fifty whose face, like his +body, suggested the boy with bright, eager eyes and a frank, friendly +smile. +</P> + +<P> +"Prettier than ever, eh, Judy?" Tripp cocked his head to one side and +gave his unqualified approval of the slim, supple body, and superb +carriage of this girl of the mountains, warming to the vivid, vital +beauty of the rosy face. "Been driving those cow-college boys down at +Berkeley plumb crazy, I'll bet a prize colt!" +</P> + +<P> +Judith laughed at him, watched his slight form disappear in the wide +arms of a chair which seemed fairly to smother him in its embrace. +Then from her own nook by the fireplace she opened her heart to him: +</P> + +<P> +"It's not just that Trevors has crippled me by taking all of my milkers +away; not just that he has come near doing I don't know how much harm +in having Crowdy turn those calves with the lung-worm out into the +fields with the others; not just that during the last few months, he +has lost money for us right and left; not just that Benny, the cook, +has tried to fire the range." +</P> + +<P> +"What's that last?" said Tripp quickly. "Tried to smoke you out, huh?" +</P> + +<P> +She told him briefly. How she had first seen the smoke as she came +back to the ranch-house; how she had sent José on the run to get some +of the other hands to see that the fire did not spread; how, a little +while ago, Carson, the cattle foreman, had come in and assured her that +the damage was negligible. +</P> + +<P> +"It was just a brush fire," said Judith. "Thank Heaven, things are +pretty green yet. Carson says it might have been lighted by Benny, +who, it seems, is one of Trevors's hirelings and not above this sort of +thing; or it might have been accidentally started by some careless +hunter. Anyway, and that's enough for me, the fire broke out close to +the trail that Benny travelled on his way to the Western Lumber camp. +But it isn't just these things which have set me to wondering, Doc. +What I want to know is this: in how many other, still undiscovered +ways, has Trevors been knifing us? And what else will he have ready to +spring on us now?" +</P> + +<P> +"Just what do you mean?" Tripp looked a her keenly. +</P> + +<P> +"This case of lung-worm, to begin with: where did it come from?" +</P> + +<P> +"Imported," said Tripp. "Trevors bought those calves, or at least four +of the sick ones, last month. Brought them in from somewhere down the +river. Smuggled 'em in, so far as I am concerned. Never gave me a +chance to look them over." He paused a second. "Specially imported, I +might say." +</P> + +<P> +"I knew it!" cried Judith. "That's the sort of thing I am afraid of. +If he has gone to the limit of introducing one disease among our +cattle, what other plagues has he brought to the ranch? Has he +imported any other outside stock?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. He's been busier selling at a sacrifice than buying, just as I +wrote you. Never another head has he bought lately—unless," and +Tripp's eyes twinkled at her, "you count pigeons!" +</P> + +<P> +"Pigeons!" repeated Judith. +</P> + +<P> +Tripp nodded. +</P> + +<P> +"Funny, isn't it," he went on lightly—"that a man like Bayne Trevors, +hard as nails and as free of sentiment as a mule, should fancy little +cooing, innocent-like pigeons? You'll hear them in the morning." +</P> + +<P> +But Judith was not to be distracted by Tripp's talk. She smiled at +him, however, to show him that she had understood and appreciated the +purpose back of his light words. +</P> + +<P> +"We're all going to have our hands full for a spell, Doc," was what she +said. "To Trevors, with a free swing here, it must have appeared +rather a simple matter to make so complete a failure as to force us, +encumbered as we are, into selling out to the highest bidder inside the +year. Especially when he counted young Pollock Hampton as a man +without business experience and Judith Sanford as a girl without +brains! But, Doc, he must have known, too, that at any time there +might occur the very thing which has happened—that he'd lose his job. +He strikes me as a rather long-headed man, doesn't he you? Now, a man +who saw ahead, figuring on this very contingency, would have more than +one trick up his sleeve. We've caught him, luckily, at the sick-calf +game, before it is too late. I think that the obvious thing for you to +do is to make certain that all the rest of the stock are in shape. +Will you begin to-morrow making a thorough investigation?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," he answered. "You're right there, Judith. There's nothing like +making sure." +</P> + +<P> +"He's not through with us," continued the girl thoughtfully; "you could +read that in the look of his jaw and eye when he left. Just what he +stands to make on his play, I don't know. But I do know that the +Western Lumber crowd is offering us only a quarter of what they'd be +willing to pay if they had to. That means that they could afford to +bribe Bayne Trevors pretty heavily and still save half a million on the +deal if he succeeded in the thing he has begun." +</P> + +<P> +"In his way," admitted Tripp thoughtfully, "Trevors is a big man. Big +men cost big money. And, besides, it looks to me as though he were a +heavy stockholder in the Western Lumber. He'd stand to win two ways." +</P> + +<P> +"Another thing I want you to do," Judith went on, "is to try to locate +all of dad's old men whom Trevors let go. Johnny Hodge and Kelley and +Harper and Tod Bruce. We'll need them. We've got to have men that +crooked money can't buy." +</P> + +<P> +"Aren't you magnifying things, Judith?" asked Tripp quietly. "There's +such a thing as law in this country, you know." +</P> + +<P> +But she shook her head. +</P> + +<P> +"Maybe I am seeing the dangers too big. But I don't think so. And it +will be a lot better for Blue Lake ranch if I see them that way at the +beginning. And as for the law, it costs money. I'm not sure that +Trevors or the lumber people would be averse to getting us involved in +a lot of legal intricacies. Oh, he has been careful not to leave any +definite proof behind him." +</P> + +<P> +"You hit the bell that time!" laughed Tripp, and Judith smiled with him +as there came to their ears the faint tinkle of the telephone-bell in +the office. +</P> + +<P> +Judith excused herself and hastened to answer the summons. Hastened +because she wanted to be back with Tripp as soon as might be. So, +knowing her way so well about the big house, she went quickly through +the dark hall-way without turning aside to switch on the lights and +came into the office, dimly lighted by the stars shining in through the +windows. +</P> + +<P> +"Doc!" Her voice rang out suddenly and Tripp sprang to his feet, +wondering what had put that note into her exclamation. "Doc! Come +here, quick!" +</P> + +<P> +He ran into the hall that was suddenly illuminated as at last Judith's +groping hand found the office switch. He saw Judith running ahead of +him, out of the door opening on to the veranda and down into the +courtyard. +</P> + +<P> +"What is it?" he asked sharply. +</P> + +<P> +"There was some one here," she told him quickly. "He went out that +way, I think. Look through the lilacs." +</P> + +<P> +She ran on one way, Tripp hurrying the other, wondering. They saw the +lilacs standing still in the starlight, saw the thick shadows thrown by +the columns and grape-covered trellises, heard the murmuring of the +fountain. +</P> + +<P> +"José, perhaps," suggested Tripp, coming at last to her side. +</P> + +<P> +"No!" cried Judith. "It wasn't. It was somebody in his stocking feet, +standing in the hallway, listening to us. I heard him run before me; I +saw him for a second, framed against the square of the window as he +slipped through and out on the veranda. Who could it have been, Doc?" +</P> + +<P> +But a close search through the shrubbery showed them nothing. It was +clear that if a man had been listening at the door he could have had +ample opportunity to slip away into the darkness. He would not be +loitering here now. +</P> + +<P> +The telephone-bell was still insistently ringing and they turned back +to the office. +</P> + +<P> +"Judy," said Tripp solicitously, "don't you go and get nerves, now." +</P> + +<P> +"You think I imagined the whole thing!" She looked at him with clear, +confident eyes. "Don't you fool yourself for one little minute, Doc +Tripp. I'm not the imagining kind—yet!" +</P> + +<P> +She snatched up the telephone instrument. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello," said Judith. "Who is it?" +</P> + +<P> +It was the telegraph operator in Rocky Bend. A message for Miss Judith +Sanford from Pollock Hampton, San Francisco. And the message ran: +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +What were you thinking of to chuck Trevors? Thoroughly excellent man. +You should have consulted me. Don't do anything more until I come. +Send conveyance to meet Saturday train. Bringing five guests with me. +<BR><BR> +POLLOCK HAMPTON. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Judith turned frowning to Tripp. +</P> + +<P> +"As if I didn't have enough on my hands already," she exclaimed +bitterly, "without Hampton dragging his fool guests into the mix-up! I +could slap his face." +</P> + +<P> +"Do it!" chuckled Tripp. "Good idea!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +VII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE HAPPENING IN SQUAW CREEK CAÑON +</H3> + + +<P> +Busy days followed for Judith Sanford and for every man remaining upon +Blue Lake ranch. A score of men, including the milkers, Johnson, the +irrigation foreman and his crew of laborers, had quit work, going over +openly to Bayne Trevors at the Western Lumber camp. He had work there +for every man of them, and Judith was not the only one upon the ranch +who came to wonder how much money Trevors—or the lumber company—was +prepared to spend in fighting her. From the first day she found the +outfit short-handed. +</P> + +<P> +Almost her first answer to Trevors's <I>coup</I> was to telegraph San +Francisco for a Firth milking-machine, together with an expert sent out +by the Firth Company to install and superintend its working for the +first few days. At the same time she hired from one of the Sacramento +dairies a man who was to be foreman of her own dairy industry, a +capable fellow with an intimate practical knowledge of automatic +milkers. He, with a couple of strippers paid overtime wages managed +until the dairy crew could be builded up again. Her new foreman from +the first took the greater part of this burden off her shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Simpson, the matron from Rocky Bend, arrived, true to her promise +and, motherly soul that she was, took a keen interest in Judith's +comforts and in caring for the big house, of which she immediately +waxed proud with an air of semiproprietorship. José, from the first, +bestowed upon the cheerful, bustling woman a black hatred born of his +thoroughgoing Latin jealousy. From this or that corner, appearing +unexpectedly, glaring darkly at her in a manner which ruffled her +placidity and suggested to her lively imagination terrible visions of +knives in one's back, he brought an actual thrill into Mrs. Simpson's +long days of routine. +</P> + +<P> +Busy days also for Bud Lee, who had already begun the education of a +string of colts. Busy days for Doc Tripp who, unhampered, trusted, +aided at every turn by his employer, was from dawn until dark among the +ranch live stock, all but feeling pulse and taking temperature of +horses, cows, colts, calves, hogs, and mules. He stopped the calf +sickness; effected cures in every case excepting one. And the rest of +the stock he finally gave a clean bill of health. +</P> + +<P> +Busy days for Carson. Painstakingly he estimated, to the head, the +number of cattle the pastures should be carrying, counting from long +experience upon the hard months to come from August until December; +estimating values; appearing at the week's end to suggest the purchase +of a herd of calves from the John Peters Dairy Company, to be had now +at a very attractive figure. And suggesting, almost insistently, upon +buying a certain Shorthorn bull worth twice the twelve hundred dollars +asked for him. Busy days for the foremen who had held over from the +management of Trevors or who had been taken on since. The first crop +of alfalfa, shot through with foxtails, must be cut without delay and +fed into the silos before the beards of the interloping growth could +harden. Busy days for the short-handed milking crew; busy days of +installing the new milking-machines. +</P> + +<P> +Judith and Doc Tripp had sought to find some trace of the man who, +Judith insisted, had listened at the door in the hall. They had found +nothing. So that episode, as well as Trevors himself, was shoved aside +in their minds, in the stress of activity demanding attention +everywhere. +</P> + +<P> +With Saturday came Pollock Hampton and his guests. Trevors had +misnamed him a fool, sweepingly mistaking youth, business inexperience +and a careless way, for lack of brains. Just a breezy young fellow, +likable, gay-hearted, keen for the joy of life, scarcely more than a +boy after all. One of those rare beings whose attitude toward his +fellow mortals was one of generous faith, who sought to see the best in +people, who had an outspoken admiration for efficiency in any form. He +came to the ranch prepared to like everything and everybody. +</P> + +<P> +"Look here!" he exclaimed to Judith, before she had had time for more +than a sweeping appraisal of his friends. "Why didn't you tell me you +were up to a thing like this? Great Scott, Judith, you don't know what +you are tackling, do you? It's ripping of you; you're a sheer wonder +to tie into it; you've got no end of nerve. But running a ranch like +this—why, it's a big proposition for a thunderingly big man to swing." +</P> + +<P> +"Is it?" smiled Judith. +</P> + +<P> +Beyond that, the only answer he got from this brief conference was the +timely suggestion that his chief concern for the immediate present lay +in making his guests comfortable. +</P> + +<P> +Accompanying young Hampton were "Major" Langworthy, a little short, +fat, bald gentleman, who, so far as the knowledge of his club members +went, had never been connected with any part of the army or navy, +unless one counted his congenial brigades of cocktail drinkers; Mrs. +Langworthy, his supercilious, uninteresting wife; Marcia, his languidly +graceful daughter, in whom Hampton gave certain signs of being +considerably interested; Marshal Rogers, the Oakland lawyer, and Frank +Farris, the artist. Also Marcia's maid and Hampton's Japanese valet, +Fujioki. In due course of time this representative of the Flowery +Kingdom grew to be great friends with José, the two forthwith suspected +by Mrs. Simpson of all sorts of dark plots and of a racial sympathy +which must be watched lest it produce "something terrible." +</P> + +<P> +Pollock Hampton, holding a third of the shares of the big venture, with +his legitimate claim upon a third of the income, was of course a factor +which must be taken into account. Judith, knowing little of him, +sought to know more, watched him when he was talking, got his views +upon many matters that came up haphazard, and found that, while she +liked him, she would have been more than glad if he had not come to +still further complicate matters for her. For it was open and shut +that his interest and enthusiasm would demand a voice. She asked +frankly how long he planned to stay? +</P> + +<P> +"I'm here for good," he answered cheerfully. His explanation followed +with a grin, quite as though he were telling her of some rare good +news: "Money's all gone, creditors are nuisances, there's no prospect +with you here of having you send me anything. What is left for me but +to stay?" +</P> + +<P> +Judith suggested a monthly allowance. Hampton laughed good-humoredly. +</P> + +<P> +"Pay me to keep me out of the way? There's nothing stirring, Judith. +Absolutely. I'm here to give a hand." +</P> + +<P> +Judith had hopes, even yet, that a couple or weeks or a month at the +most, of life as it runs forty miles from a railroad would dampen and +finally extinguish his bright enthusiasm. But swiftly those hopes +died. This was his first visit to the mountains, and for a man sick of +the city's social round, every inch of the ranch, river and cliffs and +rolling hills had its compelling interest. Perhaps the thing which +Judith overlooked was the blood of his fathers. For before Pollock +Hampton, Sr., had made his money, he and his wife had been, like Luke +Sanford, pioneers. Now something in the mountains here called vaguely +to the soul of young Hampton and made him restless and stirred his +heart. He looked up at the sheer and mighty fall of rock behind the +ranchhouse and his face glowed; he leaned over the rail of a rustic +bridge and forgot Marcia, who was with him, as he watched the beauty of +the foam-flecked water. As he stood stock-still, looking on while Bud +Lee rode a bucking bronco, his eyes were bright and eager. +</P> + +<P> +"Glory to be!" he exclaimed to the major, who had been coaxed away from +the buffet for a brief half-hour. "Watch that man ride! While I've +been learning to dance and play the piano these men have been doing +real things." +</P> + +<P> +"Let's go have something," said the major hurriedly. For it did not +fit in with his and Mrs. Langworthy's plans to have Hampton risk his +neck at such pastimes—at least not yet. +</P> + +<P> +It soon became obvious that long ago Hampton had given freely of his +admiration to Bayne Trevors. For Trevors had taken the time, his own +purpose in mind, to look in upon Hampton some months ago in San +Francisco. Further, he had created the impression which he sought to +make. An impression, by the way, not entirely erroneous. +</P> + +<P> +"A great man!" cried Hampton warmly. "The only man I know big enough +to swing a job like this." +</P> + +<P> +To himself he said that the chief good he could do at the outset was to +work to get Trevors back. With this in his mind and having had no full +account of Judith's manner of ejecting the general manager, he went +straight to her. +</P> + +<P> +"Trevors is a friend of mine," he said lightly. "I'm going to ask him +over to meet my guests. No objection, is there?" +</P> + +<P> +She looked at him keenly. +</P> + +<P> +"Do as you please," was her cool answer. "I imagine he won't care to +come." +</P> + +<P> +Launched upon his first business venture, Hampton went to the +telephone. That evening at table he surprised Judith not a little when +he said casually that Trevors had said he'd run over in a day or so, as +soon as he could find time. +</P> + +<P> +"What's that?" he asked, breaking off. +</P> + +<P> +For certainly Judith had started to speak. But now she merely shrugged +her shoulders and sat in silent thoughtfulness. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Langworthy had no liking to bestow upon such as Judith. The girl, +she confided every night to the major, was unladylike, unwomanly, +<I>outré</I>, horsy, unthinkable, an insult to any woman into whose presence +she came. The major agreed monosyllabically or with silent nods for +the sake of peace. Personally he was rather inclined to fancy Judith's +uncorseted figure, to admire her red-blooded beauty, and he always +touched up the ends of his mustaches in her presence. +</P> + +<P> +Judith, having early taken Mrs. Langworthy's measure, found an impish +joy in murdering the proprieties for her especial benefit. She said +"Damn" upon occasions when Mrs. Langworthy was there to hear; she rode +her horse at a gallop into the yard and right up to the veranda when +Mrs. Langworthy was there to see, swinging down as her mount jerked to +standstill, as "ladylike" about it all as a wild Comanche; at table she +talked of prize boars and sick calves and other kindred vulgar matters. +</P> + +<P> +But the major admired her; Marcia, as days went by, proved to be a +sweet-tempered, somewhat timid, but highly good-natured, affectionate +creature generously offering her good-will; and Rogers, the lawyer, and +Farris, the artist, both of the sophisticated, self-sufficient type, +were little behind the major in interest. +</P> + +<P> +During the last week of May, a rumor came to Judith's ears of which, at +first, she thought little. Carson, coming to her upon a bit of ranch +business, remarked dryly before taking his departure, that a report had +got around among his men—Poker Face had mentioned it to him—that Blue +Lake ranch was on its last legs; that it was even to be doubted, if the +men ever saw another pay-day before the whole affair went into a +receiver's hands. Judith laughed at him and told him not to worry. +</P> + +<P> +"Me?" said Carson. "I'm not the worrying kind. But idees like that +ain't good to have floating around. A man won't do more'n half work +when he's wondering all the time if he's going to get his mazuma for +it." +</P> + +<P> +But, when again the rumor came, this time telephoned up to her from the +Lower End by Doc Tripp, she frowned and wondered. And she was careful, +upon the thirtieth of May, to send Charlie Miller, the storekeeper, +into Rocky Bend for the monthly pay-roll money. She gave him her check +for one thousand dollars which, with what was in Charlie's safe at the +store and in her own here, would more than pay the monthly wages. +Charlie left for Rocky Bend in the afternoon, spending the night in +town to get the customary morning start for the ranch. The men were to +be paid at six o'clock. +</P> + +<P> +Upon this same day Pollock Hampton told Judith that Bayne Trevors was +coming to the ranch to have dinner, spend the night and the following +day. Judith made no reply beyond favoring him with a quick look of +question. She had not believed that the man would come. What next? +</P> + +<P> +The last day of May came, and true to his premise, Trevors was a guest +at the house from which, so short a time ago, he had been evicted. He +dined there that night, cool and self-confident, casually polite to +Judith, civil and courteous to the other guests, especially to Major +and Mrs. Langworthy and Marcia, leading conversations unobtrusively, +making himself liked. He watched a game of billiards, but refused to +play, saying carelessly that he had a stiff shoulder. He and Hampton +strolled out into the starlight and for some two or three hours walked +up and down, talking quietly. +</P> + +<P> +"A gentleman!" cried Mrs. Langworthy with spirit. "It just shows that +a person can do out-doors work and not sink back into the barbarian!" +</P> + +<P> +The morning after Trevors's arrival, Judith was up betimes and +breakfasted alone. Lunching early, noon found her in the office +expecting Charlie Miller. She was at work on the pay-roll book when +her telephone rang. It was Doc Tripp and there was suppressed +excitement in his voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Bad news, Judy," he began. "It sure looks as though you were getting +your share." +</P> + +<P> +"What is it, Doc?" she broke in sharply. "Tell me!" +</P> + +<P> +"It's Charlie Miller. Hurt. No, not bad. Thrown off his horse, back +in Squaw Creek cañon. And—robbed." +</P> + +<P> +Quickly he told all that had happened. Miller, hastening back with the +wage money, was riding through the narrow gorge when a man had sprung +out suddenly in front of him. Miller's horse, shying, swerving +unexpectedly, had thrown him. Before he could get to his feet the bag +of gold under his coat had been torn off, his revolver wrenched away +and the highwayman, his face masked with a red bandana handkerchief, +had run into the thick timber. +</P> + +<P> +"Charlie just walked in, reeling like a drunken man," Tripp concluded. +"His fall and a rap over the head with a gun-butt have made him pretty +sick. I am sending out a posse of men from this end to try and get the +stick-up man. You'd better do the same up there." +</P> + +<P> +For a moment Judith sat staring at the telephone dully. Robbed of a +thousand dollars, and in broad daylight! A thing like this had not +occurred on the Blue Lake for a dozen years. +</P> + +<P> +"Bayne Trevors!" she gasped. For, suddenly, she thought that she +understood the significance of the rumor which had twice in a week come +to her. Perhaps, as Tripp himself had said, she was getting nerves. +Trevors himself was on the ranch right now.… Her two fists +clinched. Yes, Trevors was here with triple purpose: To curry favor +with Hampton against a possible need of it, to establish an alibi for +himself, to witness Judith's discomfiture, when at six o'clock she must +turn the men away with an excuse. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +VIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +RIFLE SHOTS FROM THE CLIFFS +</H3> + + +<P> +Thank Heaven it was just noon! Judith sprang to her feet, her eyes +bright and hard, and ran down to the men's quarters. Coming up from +the corral were Carson and Bud Lee. +</P> + +<P> +"Miller with the pay-roll money has been held up and robbed at Squaw +Creek," she told them swiftly. "Get some men together, Carson, and try +to head the robber off." +</P> + +<P> +The two men, having glanced quickly at each other, stood a moment +looking at her curiously. +</P> + +<P> +"That's on the level, is it, Miss Judith?" demanded Carson slowly. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course it's on the level!" she cried impatiently. "Oh, I know what +you're thinking. I'm going to phone immediately to the bank at Rocky +Bend and have another man sent out with more money. You can count upon +getting your pay at six o'clock!" +</P> + +<P> +"I told you, didn't I," muttered Carson, "that I wasn't worrying none +personal? But if I was you I'd sure have the money on tap!" +</P> + +<P> +With that he left her, going hastily to round up what men he could find +and get them into their saddles. Bud Lee, his eyes still on her, stood +where he was. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," demanded the girl, "aren't you going, too?" Suddenly angered +by his leisurely air, she added cuttingly: "Not afraid, are you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I was thinking," Lee answered coolly, "that the stick-up gent will +most probably figure on a play like that. If he was real wise he'd +mosey along toward Rocky Bend and pop off your second man. Two +thousand bucks a day would make a real nice little draw." +</P> + +<P> +Judith paused, frowning. There was truth in that. If Trevors really +were behind this, he would have chosen his man carefully; he would have +planned ahead. +</P> + +<P> +"If you'll do my way," continued Lee thoughtfully, "I'll have just +enough time to roll a smoke and saddle little old Climax. He's in the +stable now. You're not afraid of my double-crossing you? Even if a +smart-headed man had planned the hold-up he wouldn't figure on a play +like this. He'd think we'd have a Rocky Bender bring it out or else +wait until to-morrow." +</P> + +<P> +"It won't do," she decided quickly. "I want that money here at six +o'clock." +</P> + +<P> +"Eighty miles," mused the horse foreman. "Six hours. That's riding +right along, but do it my way and I'll gamble you my own string of +horses—and they're worth considerable more than a thousand—that I'll +be back, heeled, at six." +</P> + +<P> +Judith, quick at decisions, looked him hard in the eye, heard his plan, +and three minutes later Bud Lee, a revolver in his shirt, rode away +from the ranch-house, headed toward Rocky Bend. Judith already had +called up Tripp, and the veterinarian himself, leading the fastest +saddle-horse he could get his hands on at brief notice, was also riding +toward Rocky Bend, from the Lower End, five miles in advance of Lee at +the start. He went at a gentle trot, consulting his watch now and then. +</P> + +<P> +So Bud Lee, riding as once those hard, dare-devil riders rode who +carried across the land the mail-bag of the Pony Express, overtook Doc +Tripp and changed to a fresh horse at the end of the first fifteen +miles. He swung out of his saddle, stretched his long legs, remarked +lightly that it was a real fine day, and was gone again upon a fresh +mount with twenty-five miles between him and Rocky Bend. The clock at +the bank marked forty-three minutes after two as Lee, leaving a +sweating horse at the door on Main Street, presented his check at the +paying teller's window. The money, in a small canvas bag, was ready. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello, Bud," and "Hello, Dan'l," was the beginning and end of the +conversation which ensued. Lee did not stop to count the money. He +drew his belt up a hole as he went back to the door, found a fresh +horse there fighting its bit and all but lifting the stable-boy off his +feet, mounted and sped back along Main Street. +</P> + +<P> +Judith was to send out another man leading still another fresh horse +for him so that he could not fail to be back at the ranch-house by six +o'clock. As Bud Lee, riding hard but never without thought for the +horse which carried him, began the return trip, he drew the heavy +caliber revolver from his shirt and thrust it into his belt. When he +had left Rocky Bend half a dozen miles behind him and was hurrying on +into the outskirts of that country of rolling hills and pine forests, +his hand was never six inches from the gun-butt. +</P> + +<P> +The road wound in and out among the pines, always climbing. Lee raced +on, his eyes bright and keen, watchful and suspicious of every still +shadow or stirring branch. Coming up the two-mile-long Cuesta Grade, +he saved his horse a little. From the top of the mountain, before he +again followed a winding road back to the river's side, he saw a +horseman riding a distant ridge; the glinted upon the rider's rifle. +</P> + +<P> +"Old Carson himself," thought Lee. "Looking for the hold-up man. +Shucks! They'll never find him this trip." +</P> + +<P> +Letting his own animal out into its swinging stride as he got down to +more level going, he hammered on at his clip of fifteen miles an hour. +In the thick shade of the forest, three miles before he came to the +line fence of the Blue Lake ranch, he saw another horseman, this one Ed +Masters, the "college kid." The young fellow's flushed, eager face +passed in a blur as Lee shot by. +</P> + +<P> +Another mile, and Bud Lee was riding through a clearing, with the tall +cliffs of Squaw Creek cañon looming high on his left, when suddenly and +absolutely without warning, his horse screamed, gathered itself for a +wild plunge, staggered, stood a moment trembling terribly, then with a +low moan collapsed under him. +</P> + +<P> +Lee swung out and to one side, landing clear as the big brute fell. He +did not understand. He had ridden the animal hard but certainly not +hard enough for this. And then he saw and his eyes blazed with anger. +He had heard no shot, nothing beyond the metallic pounding of the shod +hoofs on flinty road, but there from an ugly hole in the neck the +saddle-horse was pouring out its blood. +</P> + +<P> +"Smokeless powder and a Maxim silencer!" muttered Lee, his eyes taking +note of the ten thousand possible hiding-places on the cliff's. +</P> + +<P> +In his ears there was a little whine as a second bullet sang its way by +his head. Again he sought to locate the marksman, again saw nothing +but crag and precipice and brushy clump. He took time for that thing +which came so hard to him, sent a bullet from his own revolver into his +horse's brain, and then slipped out of the clearing into the shelter of +the pines. +</P> + +<P> +"Two miles left to the border line," he estimated it. "Afoot." +</P> + +<P> +Stiff from the saddle, he moved on slowly for a little. But as his +muscles responded and warmed to the effort, he broke into a trotting +run. Only a little now could he keep under cover; if he went on with +any degree of speed he must keep to the road and the open. The thought +came to him that he might lie under cover until dark. The second +thought came to him that he had assured Judith that he would be back on +time, and he forged ahead. +</P> + +<P> +For the second time that day he heard the whine of a bullet. He +thought that the shot came from the cliffs just at the head of Squaw +Creek cañon. But he could not be sure. There was ample protection +there for a man hiding, tall brush in a hollow and three or four +stunted trees, wind-twisted. He'd make the climb to-morrow and see +about it. Now he'd keep right on moving. Little used to travelling +save on a horse's back he was shot through with odd little pains when +at last he came to the border-line fenced and the waiting horse. Tommy +Burkitt held it for him while Lee mounted. +</P> + +<P> +"Somebody up on the cliffs, head of the cañon," panted Lee at Tommy's +amazed expression when Lee came running into sight. "Killed my horse. +Go after him, Tommy. Tell the other boys." And on he went, pounding +out the last fifteen miles, the canvas bag beating safely against his +side. +</P> + +<P> +Judith, in the courtyard, watched him ride in. She looked swiftly at +him from the watch on her wrist. Her eyes brightened. It lacked seven +minutes to six. As Bud dropped the canvas bag into her hands she +flashed at him the most wonderful, radiant smile that the long horseman +had ever seen. She gripped his lean, brown hand hard in hers. +</P> + +<P> +"Bud, you're a brick!" she cried. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Langworthy had just come out with Hampton, Trevors, and the major. +</P> + +<P> +Judith turned from Lee to Trevors but managed to keep half an eye on +Mrs. Langworthy. +</P> + +<P> +"You see, it's pay-day with us, Mr. Trevors," she said quietly. "And +when pay-day comes we pay our men at six o'clock in spite of hell and +high water!" +</P> + +<P> +Bud Lee, leading his horse away, turned for a word. "A man killed a +horse for me to-day," he said very gently, and his eyes rested steadily +upon Trevors. "If I ever get him, or the man who put him up to it, I'm +going to get him right." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +IX +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE OLD TRAIL +</H3> + + +<P> +On the Blue Lake Ranch there was more than one man ready to scoff at +the idea of a robbery like this one, frank enough to voice the +suspicion: "It's just a stall for time!" So much had last week's rumor +done for them, preparing them to expect something that would set aside +the customary monthly pay-day. But when they had seen Charlie Miller's +bruised head and heard his story; when they had sat on their horses and +looked down at the animal which had been shot under Bud Lee, they were +silent. And, besides, when long after dark they came in behind Carson +from a fruitless quest, their pay was ready for them as formerly, in +gold and silver. +</P> + +<P> +Major Langworthy imbibed an unusually large number of cocktails and +long before noon of the following day had suggested that the ranch be +put immediately under military law, hinting that a military-mustached +gentleman be appointed commanding general of the Blue Lake forces, and +forming within his own mind the picture of himself in the office, +revolver on table, cocktail at elbow, directing the manoeuvres from +this point of vantage, not to say safety. Mrs. Langworthy ruffled her +feathers and sniffed when Judith's name was mentioned. It was +perfectly clear to her that all the ruffians of the West would be quick +to take the advantage arising from the ridiculous condition of a rowdy +girl assuming men's pantaloons. +</P> + +<P> +"I am rather inclined to think, mama," said Marcia, "that you don't do +Judith justice." +</P> + +<P> +Trevors, with little to say to any one, took his departure in the +forenoon, extracting from Hampton the promise to ride over and see the +lumber-camp some day soon. +</P> + +<P> +Judith, held at the office by a lot of first-of-the-month details, did +not get away until close to eleven o'clock that morning. Then she rode +swiftly down the river, a purpose of her own in mind. At the store she +stopped for a sympathetic word with Charlie Miller who had long ago +forgotten his own hurt in his grief and anger that he had lost her +thousand dollars for her. +</P> + +<P> +"What's a thousand dollars, Charlie?" she laughed at him. "We'll lose +and make many a thousand before the year dies." +</P> + +<P> +Just below the Lower End settlement she came upon Doc Tripp. He was in +one of the quarantine hog-corrals, his sleeves rolled up, a puzzled +look of worry puckering his boyish face. +</P> + +<P> +"What's up, Doc?" asked Judith. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't know, Judy. That's what gets my mad up. Just performed an +autopsy on one of your Poland-China gilts." +</P> + +<P> +"Found it dead?" asked Judith. +</P> + +<P> +"Killed it," grunted Tripp. "Sick. Half dozen more are off their feed +and don't look right. A man's always afraid of the cholera. And," +stubbornly, "I won't believe it! There's been no chance of infection; +why, there's not an infected herd this side of the Bagley ranch, sixty +miles the other side of Rocky Bend, a clean hundred miles from here. +But, just the same, I'm taking temperatures this morning and having my +herders cut out all the dull-looking ones and break the herds up." +</P> + +<P> +"Not getting nerves? Are you, Doc?" And Judith spurred on down the +valley. +</P> + +<P> +Before she came to the spot where Bud Lee's horse had been shot she +came upon Lee himself. A rifle across his arm, he was looking up at +the cliffs of Squaw Creek cañon. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Lee," she said, "what do you make of it?" +</P> + +<P> +He showed no surprise at seeing her and answered slowly, that far-away +look in his eyes as though he were alone still and speaking simply to +Bud Lee. +</P> + +<P> +"Using smokeless powder nowadays is a handy thing for a man shooting +under cover," he said. "Then rig up your gun with a silencer and get +off at fair range, half a mile and up, with a telescope sight, and it's +real nice fun picking folks off!" +</P> + +<P> +"All of that spells preparation," suggested Judith. +</P> + +<P> +He nodded. When he offered no further remark but sat staring up at the +cliffs, Judith asked: +</P> + +<P> +"What else have you learned by coming back down here? Anything?" +</P> + +<P> +"There were two men, anyway. I'd guess, three. The one who stuck up +Charlie and then drifted while the drifting was good. Then the two +other jaspers that tried to wing me." +</P> + +<P> +"How do you know that?" +</P> + +<P> +"My horse that was shot," he explained, "got it in the left side of the +neck. Now, look at that hole in the little fir-tree yonder." +</P> + +<P> +Judith saw what he meant now. At this point Lee yesterday had heard +the second bullet singing dangerously near. It had struck the fir, and +plainly had been fired from some point off to the right of the cañon. +Her eyes went swiftly, after his up the cliff walls. +</P> + +<P> +"I doped it out while I was running," he went on. "Look at the way the +trees grow here. If a man was on the cliffs shooting at me, and coming +that close to winging me, why, he'd have to be off to the right. These +big pines would shunt him off from the other side. It's open and shut +there were two of them. And darn good shots," he added dryly. +</P> + +<P> +Briefly he went on to give her the rest of the results of his two-hour +seeking for something definite. If she'd ride on a little she'd come +to the spot where his horse had been killed; she would see in the road +the signs where, at Tripp's, orders, the carcass had been dragged away. +From there, looking off to the left, up the cliffs, she would see the +spot which Lee believed had harbored one of the riflemen. High above +the cañon rose the rocky pinnacle he had marked yesterday, with brush +standing tall in a little depression. +</P> + +<P> +"Indian Head," broke in Judith, gazing upward. "Bud Lee, I'll bet a +horse you're right.…" +</P> + +<P> +"And," said Lee, swinging from the saddle, "I'm going up there to have +a little look around." +</P> + +<P> +In an instant the girl was at his side. +</P> + +<P> +"I am going with you," she said simply. +</P> + +<P> +He looked at her curiously. Then he shrugged his shoulders. An angry +flush came to the girl's cheeks, but she went on with him. Not a word +passed between them during the entire hour required to climb the steep +side of the mountain and come under Indian Head cliffs. Here they +stood together upon a narrow ledge panting, resting. Again Judith saw +Lee glance at her curiously. He had not sought to accommodate his +swift climbing to a girl's gait and yet he had not distanced her in the +ascent. But in Lee's glance there was nothing of approval. There were +two kinds of women, as he had said, and … +</P> + +<P> +"Pretty steep climb from here up," he remarked bluntly. +</P> + +<P> +"For a valley man or a cobble-pounder, maybe," was Judith's curt +rejoinder. +</P> + +<P> +Thereafter they did not speak again until, after nearly another hour, +they at last came to the crest of Indian Head. And here, in the +eagerness of their search, rewarded by the signs which they found, they +forgot, both of them, to maintain their reserve. +</P> + +<P> +In the clump of brush, close to the outer fringe, behind a low, broad +boulder, a man had lain on his belly no longer ago than yesterday. +Broken twigs showed it, a small bush crushed down told of it, the marks +of his toes in some of the softer soil proclaimed it eloquently. And, +had other signs been required, there they were: two empty brass +cartridges where the automatic ejector had thrown them several feet +away. Lee picked up one of the shells. +</P> + +<P> +"Latest thing in an up-to-the-minute Savage," he told her. "That gun +is good for twice the distance he used it for. I'm in tolerable luck +to be mountain-climbing to-day, I guess!" +</P> + +<P> +While Judith visualized just what had occurred, saw the tall man—he +must have been tall for his boot toes to scratch the earth yonder while +his rifle-barrel lay for support across the boulder in front—resting +his gun and firing down into the cañon—Lee was back at her side, +saying shortly: +</P> + +<P> +"What do you think? There's a plain trail up here, old as the hills, +but tip-top for speedy going." +</P> + +<P> +"And," said Judith without looking up, "it runs down into the next +saddle, to the north of that ridge, curves up again and with monuments +all along the way, runs straight to the Upper End and comes down from +the northeast to the lake." +</P> + +<P> +Lee looked at her, wondering. +</P> + +<P> +"You knew about it all the time, then?" +</P> + +<P> +"If we hadn't been on our high horses," she told him quietly, "I should +have told you about it. It's the old Indian Trail. If the man we want +turned east, then he went right on to the lake before he stopped +putting one foot in front of the other. Unless he hid out all night, +which I don't believe." +</P> + +<P> +"What makes you think he went that far?" +</P> + +<P> +"There's no other trail up here that gets anywhere. If he left this +one for a short cut he'd know, if he knows anything, that he'd have to +take a chance every ten steps of breaking his neck in the dark. Now," +and she rose swiftly, confronting him, "the thing for you to do, Bud +Lee, is to get back to your horse, take the road, make time getting to +the Upper End and see what you can see there!" +</P> + +<P> +Hurrying back to their horses, they rode to the ranch-house where +Judith, with no word of adieu, left Lee to go to the house. Lee made a +late lunch, saddled another horse, and when the bunk-house clock stood +at a quarter of four, started for the Upper End. +</P> + +<P> +"That girl's got the savvy," was his one remark to himself. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +X +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +UNDER FIRE +</H3> + + +<P> +Blue Lake, while but three miles farther eastward, flashed its jewelled +waters into the sun from a plane fully five hundred feet higher than the +tall chimneys of the ranch-house. About it stood the most precipitous +granite cliffs to be found hereabouts. They rose, sheer and majestic, +still another five hundred feet, here and there eight hundred and a +thousand. The lake, half a mile in diameter, circular like some polished +mirror presented by an ancient giant to his lady-love, was shut in +everywhere by these crags and cliffs save at the west, where the +overflowing water, going to swell the turbulent river, poured like molten +crystal through a wide gorge. The farther cliffs marked the eastern +boundary-line of the ranch. Beyond them lay a small plateau rimmed about +on three sides by still other steep precipices. +</P> + +<P> +Lee, coming to the water's edge sought to guess where the old Indian +Trail came down. And again, startling him for a second time, Judith rode +up. +</P> + +<P> +She, too, had a fresh horse; she too now carried a rifle across her arm. +Bud Lee frowned. +</P> + +<P> +"What makes you so certain, Bud Lee," was her abrupt word of greeting, +"that Bayne Trevors is back of this deal?" +</P> + +<P> +"When did I say that?" he countered. +</P> + +<P> +"Yesterday, when I told you Charlie Miller had been held up, you +intimated that a long-headed man had planned the whole thing. That means +Trevors, doesn't it?" +</P> + +<P> +"One of us," said Lee calmly, ignoring her question and looking her +straight in the eyes, "is going back. Which one?" +</P> + +<P> +"Neither!" she retorted promptly. She even smiled confidently at him. +"For I won't. And you won't." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you need to be told," he asked her coolly, "that this is no sort of +job for a girl? You'd only be in the way." +</P> + +<P> +"If you want glittering generalities," she jeered at him, "then listen to +this: A man's job, first, last, and all the time, is to be chivalrous to +a woman! And not a bumptious boor!" +</P> + +<P> +With that she spurred by him, taking the trail which led off to the right +and so under the cliffs and to the mouth of a great, ragged chasm. In +spite of him, Bud Lee grinned after her. And, seeing that she was not to +be turned back, he followed. +</P> + +<P> +They left their horses and followed the old footpath, made their way into +the chasm deeper and deeper and little by little climbed upward. The +climb was less difficult than it looked, and fifteen minutes brought them +to the upland plateau and to the door of an old cabin, made of logs, set +back in a tiny grove of cedars. +</P> + +<P> +"I haven't been here for a year," cried the girl, forgetful of the +constraint which had held them until now. "It's like getting back home +for the first time! I love it." +</P> + +<P> +"So do I," Lee said within himself. +</P> + +<P> +"Look!" exclaimed Judith. "Some one has been repairing the old cabin! +He's made a bench yonder under the big tree, too. And he has walled in +the spring with rocks, and… Who in the world can it be? There's +even a little garden of wild flowers!" +</P> + +<P> +Bud Lee, for no reason clear to himself, flushed. He offered no +explanation at first. Here he spent many an hour when the time was his +for idling, lying on the grass, looking out over the immensity of the +wilderness; here he came many a night to sleep under the stars, far from +the other boys, when his soul craved solitude; here upon many a Sunday, +when work was slack, did he come to smoke alone, loaf alone, read from +the few books on the cabin's shelves. +</P> + +<P> +"Maybe," he suggested at last, when it was clear that Judith was going +straight to the door, "this is where our stick-up gents hang out. Choice +place for a cutthroat to hibernate, huh?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't believe it," answered Judith positively. "The man who made his +hermitage here has a soul!" +</P> + +<P> +Behind her back Lee smiled. +</P> + +<P> +"We've got something to do," he said hastily, "without wasting time +poking into old shacks. Where's the Indian Trail you talked about?" +</P> + +<P> +"Shack!" cried Judith indignantly. "You make me sick. Bud Lee! I'd +rather own this cabin and live here, than have a palace on Fifth Avenue!" +</P> + +<P> +She knocked at the door, knowing that silence would answer her, but +hoping to have a man, calm-eyed, gentle-voiced, a romantic hermit in all +of his picturesqueness, come to the door. +</P> + +<P> +"Going in?" asked Lee in well-simulated carelessness. +</P> + +<P> +"No," she told him freezingly. "Why should I? Would you want people +poking about into your home just because it was in the heart of the +wilderness and you weren't there to drive them out?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," answered Bud gravely. "Now that you ask me, I wouldn't! Let's go +find that trail." +</P> + +<P> +"But," continued Judith, "not being a fool, and realizing that one of the +men we want might possibly be in hiding in here, I am going to peek in." +</P> + +<P> +"Not being a fool," he repeated after her, adding gently, "and being a +girl, which means filled with curiosity." +</P> + +<P> +A disdainful shoulder gave him his answer. The door was unlocked, after +immemorial Western custom, and Judith opened it. Lee heard her little +gasp of pure delight. +</P> + +<P> +"He's a dear, the man who lives here!" she announced positively. "You +can just tell by looking at his home." +</P> + +<P> +Looking in over her shoulder, Bud Lee wondered just what in his one-room +shanty had caught her enthusiasm. He was secretly pleased that it had +done so, though that "it" was somewhat vague in his masculine mind. +There was the rock fireplace with an iron hook protruding from each side +for coffee-pot and stew-pot; a bunk with a blanket smoothed over +cedar-boughs; a shelf with a dozen books; little else, so far as he could +see or remember, to catch at Judith's delight. Yet she, looking through +woman's eyes, read in one quick "peek" the character of the dweller in +this abode. One who was content with little, who loved a clean, outdoor +life, and who was tranquilly above the pettiness of humanity. Judith +closed the door softly. +</P> + +<P> +"I'd like to look inside his books!" she confessed. "But I won't." +</P> + +<P> +The lean horse foreman chuckled. Judith sniffed at him. +</P> + +<P> +"You haven't any curiosity about such things as books," she retorted. +"To be sure, why should you have?" +</P> + +<P> +Again, leaving the cabin, she went before him. Going straight across the +plateau, she showed him where one could clamber up a steep way to the +ridge. Once up there, it was but ten minutes until, in a hollow, they +found the monument marking a trail, a stone set upon a boulder. +</P> + +<P> +It was after five o'clock. When, following the trail back and forth in +its winding along the side of the ridge, they found the signs they +sought, it was fast growing dark. But there, in a narrow defile where +loose soil had filtered down, were tracks left by a large boot. Lee went +down on his hands and knees to study them in the dusk. He got up with a +little grunt and moved down the trail. Again he found tracks, this time +more clearly defined. So dark was it now that they had lighted several +matches. +</P> + +<P> +"Two men," he announced wonderingly. "Fresh tracks, too. Made this +morning or last night, I'll bet. One coming east from Indian Head. The +other coming west from the plateau behind us. Who's <I>he</I>? Where'd he +come from?" +</P> + +<P> +"He's the second of the two men who shot at you," said Judith quickly. +"Don't I know every trail in this neck of the woods, Bud Lee? He +followed another old, worn-out trail on the south side of the ranch. +They met here just as I knew they would!" +</P> + +<P> +"What for?" Lee frowned through the darkness at her eager face. "What +would they want to get together for? If they had any sense they would +scatter and clean out of the country." +</P> + +<P> +"Unless," Judith reminded him, "they don't intend to clean out at all! +Unless they mean to stick to the cliffs and try their hands again at +their sort of game. They'll figure that we will expect them to be a long +way from here by now, won't they? Then where would they be safer than +right here in these mountains? Give me a rifle and something to eat and +I'll defy an army getting me out there. And think of it: If this is +Trevors's work, if he means business, think what two gunmen on these +heights could do to us. They could pick off a three-thousand-dollar +stallion down in the pens; they could drop more than one prize bull or +cow; and," she added sharply, "if they thought about girls as some men +think, they could take a chance on scaring Judith Sanford out of the +country." +</P> + +<P> +Lee stared at her a long time in silence. +</P> + +<P> +"I wouldn't have said," he offered finally, "that Bayne Trevors would +make quite so strong a play as that." +</P> + +<P> +"You wouldn't! Then look him in the eye! And where's his risk, if he's +picked the right men, if he sees them through, keeping the back door open +when they want to run for it? You just gamble your boots, Bud Lee, that +Bayne Trevors…" +</P> + +<P> +Without warning, without a sound of explosion came a wiry whine into the +still air, a little venomous ping, and a bullet sped by just over their +heads. But, through the gloom, they both saw the flash of the gun as it +spat fire and lead, and, as though one impulse commanded them, Judith's +rifle and Bud Lee's went to their shoulders and two reverberating reports +rang out in answer. +</P> + +<P> +"Lie down, damn it!" cried Bud Lee to the girl at his side, as again +there came the flash from the cliffs off to the right and as again he +answered it with his rifle. +</P> + +<P> +"Lie down yourself!" snapped Judith. And once more her rifle spoke with +his. +</P> + +<P> +For one instant, framed against the darkening sky along the cliff edge +five hundred yards away to the right, they saw the silhouette of a man, +leaping from one boulder to another, a man who looked gigantically big in +the uncertain light. They fired; he jumped again and passed out of sight. +</P> + +<P> +"Got his nerve," grunted Lee as he pumped lead at the running figure. +</P> + +<P> +As an answer there came the third flash, the bullet striking the trail in +front of them. And then the fourth flash, from a point a hundred yards +to the left of the other. +</P> + +<P> +"That's Number Two," muttered Lee. "They've got us in the open, +Judith. Let's beat it back to the cabin." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm with you," said Judith, between shots. "It's just +foolishness"… <I>bang</I>!… "sticking out here"… <I>bang</I>!… +"for them to pop us off." <I>Bang</I>! <I>Bang</I>! +</P> + +<P> +They ran then, Bud slipping in front of her, his tall body looming darkly +between her and the cliffs whence the shots came. He slid along the +sharp slope to the plateau, putting out his arms toward her. And as she +came down, Bud Lee grunted and cursed under his breath. For there had +been another flash out of the thickening night, this one from the refuge +toward which they were running. A third man was shooting from the +shelter of the cabin walls. And Lee had felt a stinging pain as though a +hot iron had scorched its way along the side of his leg. +</P> + +<P> +"Hurt much?" asked Judith quickly. Without waiting for an answer, she +pumped two shots at the flash by the cabin. +</P> + +<P> +"No," grunted Lee. "Just scared. And now what? I want to know." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +IN THE OLD CABIN +</H3> + + +<P> +Bud Lee, in the thicker darkness lying along the edge of the plateau, +sat with his back against the rocks while he gave swift first aid to +his wound. He brought into requisition the knotted handkerchief from +about his throat, bound it tightly around the calf of his leg, and said +lightly to Judith: +</P> + +<P> +"Just a fool scratch, you know. But I've no hankering to dribble out a +lot of blood from it." +</P> + +<P> +Judith made no answer. Lee took up his rifle and turned to the spot +where she had been standing a moment ago. She was not there. +</P> + +<P> +"Gone!" he grunted, frowning into the blackness hemming him in. "Now, +what do you suppose she's up to? Fainted, most likely." +</P> + +<P> +He got up and moved along the low rock wall, seeking her. A spurt of +flame from the east corner of the cabin drew his eyes away from his +search and he pumped three quick shots in answer. +</P> + +<P> +"Little chance of hitting anything," he muttered. "Too blamed dark. +Just fool's luck that I got mine in the leg." +</P> + +<P> +Again he sought Judith, calling softly. There was no answer. Once +more came the spurt of flame from the shelter of the cabin wall. Then +fifty yards off to Lee's right, some fifty yards nearer the cabin, +another shot. +</P> + +<P> +The first suspicion that one of the men from the cliffs had made his +way down to join issue at close quarters, was gone in a clear +understanding. That was the bark of Judith's rifle; she had slipped +away from him without an instant's delay and was creeping closer and +closer to the cabin. +</P> + +<P> +"Damn the girl!" cried Lee angrily. "She'll get her fool self killed!" +</P> + +<P> +But as he ran forward to join her, he realized that she was doing the +right thing—the only thing if they did not want to lie out here all +night for the men on the cliffs to pick off in the morning light. He +knew that she could shoot; it seemed that she could do everything that +was a man's work and which a woman should know nothing about. +</P> + +<P> +A fresh thought locked his hand like steel about his gun-stock. +Suppose that Judith, in the mad thing she was attempting, should +actually succeed in it, that she should bring down the man she was +attacking? How would Bud Lee feel about it when the boys came to know? +What would Bud Lee answer when they asked what he was doing about that +time? "Nursin' a scratched leg? Mos' likely! Huh!" He could hear +old Carson's dry cackle. +</P> + +<P> +Frowning into the night, he thought that he could make out the dim blur +of Judith's form. The girl was standing erect; shooting, too, for +again the duel of red spurts of flame told where she and her quarry +stood. +</P> + +<P> +Meantime Lee ran on, changing his original purpose, swerving out from +where Judith was moving forward, turning to the left, hopeful to come +to close quarters with their assailant before she could go down under +that sharp rifle-fire or could bring down the other. For certainly, if +she kept on that way, the time would come when some one would stop hot +lead. +</P> + +<P> +Lee shifted his rifle to his left hand, taking his revolver into his +right. From the cliffs came a shot and he grunted at it +contemptuously. It could do nothing but assure those below that there +was still some one up there. +</P> + +<P> +"Three of them to our two," he estimated, "counting the two jaspers on +the cliff. Two of us to their one, counting what's down here. And +that's all that counts right this minute." +</P> + +<P> +A shot from Judith; a shot from the cabin; two shots from the cliffs. +The two shots from above brought fresh news; not only were they closer +together, but they indicated the men up yonder were coming down. Lee +hurried. +</P> + +<P> +Then, at last, his narrowed eyes made out the faint outline of that +which he sought. Close to the cabin, low down, evidently upon his +knees, was the most important factor to be considered, now. Still Lee +was too far away to be certain of a hit and he meant with all of the +grim determination in him to hit something at last. He ran on drawing +the fire away from Judith. A rifle-ball sang close to his side, +another and an other. He lost the dim shape of the kneeling man, who, +he thought, had risen from his knees and was standing, his body +tight-pressed to the cabin. +</P> + +<P> +"Why the devil doesn't he run for it?" wondered Lee. +</P> + +<P> +But evidently, be the reason what it might, the man had no intention of +running. A bullet cut through Lee's sleeve. At last Lee answered. He +ran in closer as he fired and, running, emptied his revolver, jammed it +into his waistband, clubbed his rifle … and realized with something +of a shock that there were but the two rifles on the cliffs to take +into consideration. That other rifle, at the cabin, was still. Out of +ammunition? Or plugged? Or playing 'possum? Which? +</P> + +<P> +"Stop shooting!" he shouted to Judith. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm coming!" she cried back to him. +</P> + +<P> +Almost at the same instant, their two rifles ready, they came to the +cabin. Between them on the ground a man lay at the corner, moving +helplessly, groping for his fallen gun, falling back. +</P> + +<P> +"Open the door," said Bud. "I'll get him inside and we'll see who he +is. Hurry, Judith; those other jaspers are working down this way as +fast as they know how." +</P> + +<P> +Judith, taking time to snatch up the fallen rifle, ran around to the +door. Lee slipped his hands under the armpits of the wounded man and +dragged him in Judith's wake. In the cabin, the door shut, Lee struck +a match and went to a little shelf where there was a candle. +</P> + +<P> +"Bill Crowdy!" gasped Judith. +</P> + +<P> +Almost before Lee saw the man's face he saw the canvas bag tied to his +belt, a bag identical with the one he himself had brought from the bank +at Rocky Bend. +</P> + +<P> +"The man that stuck up Charlie Miller," he said slowly. "And there's +your thousand bucks, or I'm a liar. I get something of their play now: +those two fellows up there were waiting to meet him and split the swag +three ways. And I've got the guess they'll be asking a look-in yet!" +</P> + +<P> +He dropped a heavy bar into its place across the door and then went to +the two small windows and fastened the heavy oaken shutters. When he +came back to Judith she was bending over the wounded man. Crowdy's +eyes were closed; he looked to be on the verge of death. The girl's +face was almost as white as Crowdy's. +</P> + +<P> +Lee knelt and with quick fingers sought the wound. There was a hole in +Crowdy's chest, high up near the throat, that was bleeding profusely. +At first that seemed the only wound. But in a second Lee had found +another. This was in the leg, and this, like Lee's, was bound tightly +with a handkerchief. +</P> + +<P> +"Got that, first rattle out of the box!" commented Lee. "See it? +That's why he stuck on the job and didn't try to run for it. Looks +like a rifle-ball had smashed the bone." +</P> + +<P> +He didn't look up. His fingers, busy with the string at Crowdy's belt, +brought away the canvas bag. There was blood on it; it was heavy and +gave forth the mellow jangle of gold. +</P> + +<P> +"You win back your thousand on to-night's play," he said, holding up +the bag to Judith, lifting his eyes to her face. +</P> + +<P> +But Judith shrank back, her eyes wide with horror. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't want it! I can never touch it!" she whispered. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly she was shaking from head to foot, her eyes fixed in terrible +fascination upon Crowdy's face. Lee tossed the bag to the bunk across +the room, whence it fell clanking to the floor. +</P> + +<P> +"Now she's going to faint," was his thought. "Well, I won't blame her +so damn much. Poor little kid!" +</P> + +<P> +But he did not look at her again. He tore away Crowdy's shirt to +discover just how serious the wound in the chest was. The collar-bone +had been broken; the ball had ploughed its way through the upper chest, +well above the heart, and could be felt under the skin of the shoulder. +Unless Bill Crowdy bled to death, he stood an excellent chance of doing +time in the penitentiary. Lee stanched the flow of blood, made a rude +bandage, and then, lifting the body gently, carried it to the bunk. +Crowdy's lax arm, extended downward at the side of the bunk, seemed to +be reaching again for the canvas bag; the red fingers touched it with +their tips. +</P> + +<P> +"Now," said Lee, speaking bluntly, afraid that a tone of sympathy might +merely aid the girl to "shake to pieces," "we've got a chance to be on +our way before Number Two and Number Three get into the game. Let's +run for it, Judith." +</P> + +<P> +Judith went to the bench by the fireplace and sank down upon it. For a +moment she made no reply. Then she shook her head. +</P> + +<P> +"We'll stay here until morning," she said finally, her voice surprising +Lee, who had looked for a sign of weakening to accord with her sudden +pallor and visible trembling. +</P> + +<P> +"What for?" he wanted to know. "We'll have another fight on our hands +if we do. Those fellows, this deep in it, are not going to quit while +they know that there's all that money in the shack!" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't care," said Judith firmly. "I won't run from them or anybody +else I know! And, besides, Bud Lee, I am not going to give them the +chance to get Crowdy away.… Do you think he is going to die?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, I don't. Doc Tripp will fix him up." +</P> + +<P> +"Then here I stay, for one. When I go, Bill Crowdy goes with me! He's +going to talk, and he's going to help me send Bayne Trevors to the pen." +</P> + +<P> +Bud Lee expressed all he had to say in a silent whistle. He'd made +another mistake, that was all. Judith wasn't going to faint for him +to-night. +</P> + +<P> +"Then," he said presently, setting her the example, "slip some fresh +cartridges into your rifle and get ready for more shooting. I'll put +out the light and we'll wait for what's next." +</P> + +<P> +Judith replenished the magazine of her rifle. Lee, watching from under +the low-drawn brim of his hat, noted that her fingers were steady now. +Crowdy moved on his bunk, lifted a hand weakly, groaned, and grew +still. Presently he stirred again, asking weakly for water. +</P> + +<P> +Lee went to the water-bucket standing in a corner. It happened to be +half full. He filled a cup, and lifting Crowdy's head, held it to the +fevered lips. +</P> + +<P> +"Not exactly what you'd call fresh, is it, Crowdy?" he said lightly. +"But the spring's outside and I'm scared to go out in the dark." +</P> + +<P> +Crowdy drank thirstily and lay back, his eyes closed again. Lee +rearranged his bandage. +</P> + +<P> +"Put out the light now?" he asked Judith. +</P> + +<P> +"No," she answered. "What's the use, Bud? There are no holes in the +walls they could stick a gun-barrel through, are there?" +</P> + +<P> +No one knew better than he that there were not. +</P> + +<P> +"You see," said Judith, with a half-smile, heroically assumed, "I'm a +little afraid of the dark, too! Anyway, since we've got to spend the +night with a man in Crowdy's shape, it will be more cosey, won't it, +with the light on?" +</P> + +<P> +She even put out her hand to one of the books on the shelves which she +could reach from her bench. +</P> + +<P> +"And now," she added, "I'm sure that our hermit won't mind if we peep +into his library, will he?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," answered Lee gravely. "Most likely he'll be proud." +</P> + +<P> +Lee found time to muse that life is made of incongruities, woman of +inconsistencies. Here with a badly hurt man lying ten feet from her, +with every likelihood of the night stillness being ripped in two by a +rifle-shot, Judith sat and turned the pages of a book. It was a volume +on the breeding and care of pure-blooded horses. Odd sort of thing for +her hermit to have brought here with him! Her hand took down another +volume. Horses again; a treatise by an eminent authority upon a newly +imported line from Arabia. A third book; this, a volume of Elizabethan +lyrics. Bud Lee flushed as he watched her. She turned the pages +slowly, came back to the fly-leaf page, read the name scrawled there +and, turning swiftly to Lee, said accusingly: +</P> + +<P> +"David Burrill Lee, you are a humbug!" +</P> + +<P> +"Wrong again," grinned Lee. "A hermit, you mean! 'A man with a soul.' +. . ." +</P> + +<P> +"Scat!" answered Judith. But, under Bud Lee's teasing eyes, the color +began to come back into her cheeks. She <I>had</I> been a wee bit +enthusiastic over her hermit, making of him a picturesque ideal. She +had visioned him, even to the calm eyes, gentle voice. A quick little +frown touched her brows as she realized that the eyes and voice which +her fancy had bestowed upon the hermit were in actuality the eyes and +voice of Bud Lee. But she had called him a dear. And Lee had been +laughing at her all the time—had not told her, would never have told +her. The thought came to her that she would like to slap Bud Lee's +face for him. And she had told Tripp she would like to slap Pollock +Hampton's. Good and hard! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +PARDNERS +</H3> + + +<P> +From without came the low murmur of men's voices. Judith laid her book +aside and drew her rifle across her knees, her eyes bright and eager. +At infrequent intervals for perhaps three or four minutes the two +voices came indistinctly to those in the cabin. Then silence for as +long a time. And then a voice again, this time quite near the door, +calling out clearly: +</P> + +<P> +"Hey, you in there! Pitch the money out the window and we'll let you +go." +</P> + +<P> +"There's a voice," said Judith quietly, "to remember! I'll be able to +swear to it in court." +</P> + +<P> +Certainly a voice to remember, just as one remembers an unusual face +for years, though it be but a chance one seen in a crowd. A voice +markedly individual, not merely because it was somewhat high-pitched +for a man's, but rather for a quality not easily defined, which gave to +it a certain vibrant, unpleasant harshness, sounding metallic almost, +rasping, as though with the hiss of steel surfaces rubbing. Altogether +impossible to describe adequately, yet, as Judith said, not to be +forgotten. +</P> + +<P> +Judith noticed a puzzled look on Bud's face. He called out: "What did +you say out there?" +</P> + +<P> +Word for word came the command again: +</P> + +<P> +"Pitch the money out of the window and we'll let you go." +</P> + +<P> +Lee turned triumphantly to Judith. +</P> + +<P> +"I've got his tag!" he whispered to her. "I played poker with that +voice one night not four months ago in Rocky Bend!" +</P> + +<P> +"Who is he?" Judith whispered back. "With Crowdy down, if we know who +one of these men is, the rest will be easy. Who is he?" +</P> + +<P> +"A bad egg," Lee told her gravely. "He's done time in the State pen. +He's been out less than a year. Gunman, stick-up man, convicted once +already for manslaughter …" +</P> + +<P> +"Not Chris Quinnion, Bud Lee!" she cried excitedly. "Not Chris +Quinnion!" +</P> + +<P> +"Sh!" he commanded softly. "There's no use tipping our hand off to +him. Yes; it's crooked Chris Quinnion. You don't know him, do you?" +</P> + +<P> +He had never seen her eyes look as they looked now. They were as hard +and bright as steel; no true woman's eyes, he thought swiftly. Rather +the eyes of a man with murder in his heart. +</P> + +<P> +"Then, thank God!" whispered Judith, her voice tense. "Can you keep a +secret with me, Bud Lee? Were it not for the man calling to us now, +Luke Sanford would be here in our stead. Crooked Chris Quinnion served +his time in San Quentin because my father sent him there. And he had +not been free six months before he kept his oath and murdered my poor +old dad!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well?" came the interrupting snarl of Quinnion's voice, like the +ominous whine of an enraged animal. "What's the word?" +</P> + +<P> +"Give us five minutes to think it over," returned Lee coolly. And, +incredulous eyes on Judith's set face, he said gently: "I was on the +ranch when the accident happened. He must have driven that heavy car a +little too close to the edge of the grade. The bank just naturally +gave way." +</P> + +<P> +Judith, her lips tightly compressed, shook her head. +</P> + +<P> +"You didn't find him under the car, did you? And the blow that killed +him might have been dealt with some heavy weapon in the hands of a man +standing behind him, mightn't it? I know, Bud Lee, I know!" +</P> + +<P> +"How do you know?" he demanded intently. "You weren't here even." +</P> + +<P> +"No. I was in San Francisco. But the day before I had a letter from +father. He expected me home very soon. He was going out, he said in +his letter, to look at the road over the mountain. He wrote that the +grade was dangerous, especially at the very place where the car went +over! He wanted me to know so that in case he could not get the work +done on it before I came, I would be careful. On top of that would he +go and run his car into such danger as that? Oh, I know!" she cried +again, her hands hard upon her rifle. "I know, I tell you! From the +first I suspected. I knew that Chris Quinnion had threatened a dozen +times to 'get' father; I knew that soon or late he would try. I wrote +Emmet Sawyer, our county sheriff, and told him what I believed, asked +him to go to the spot and see what the signs told. A square man is +Emmet Sawyer and as sharp as tacks." +</P> + +<P> +"And he told you that you were mistaken?" +</P> + +<P> +"He did nothing of the kind! He reported that the tracks of the car +showed that it had kept well away from the bank, that evidently it had +stopped there, that again it had gone on, swerving so as to run close +to the edge! I know what happened: Father got out to look at the +dangerous spot and to put up the sign he had brought with him and that +was found in the road. Chris Quinnion had followed him, perhaps to +shoot him down from behind, Chris Quinnion's way! Then he saw a safer +way. He came up behind poor old dad and struck him in the head with +something, rifle-barrel or revolver. He started the car up and let it +run over the bank. He—" +</P> + +<P> +She broke off then. Bud Lee felt that he knew what she would say if +she could bring herself to go on; that she would tell how crooked Chris +Quinnion had thrown the unconscious man down over the bank to lie, +bruised and broken, by the wrecked car. +</P> + +<P> +"You've got to be almighty sure before you make a charge like that," he +reminded her. "If Quinnion had done it, why didn't Emmet Sawyer get +the dead-wood on him?" +</P> + +<P> +"Because," she whispered quickly, "a man fooled Sawyer! Yes, and +fooled me! Quinnion established an alibi. A man whose word there was +no reason to doubt said that Quinnion was with him at the time of the +murder. And that man was—Bayne Trevors!" +</P> + +<P> +"Trevors?" muttered Lee. He shook his head. "Trevors is a hard man, +Judith. And he's a scoundrel, if you want to know! But frame up a +murder deal—plan to murder Luke Sanford—No. I don't believe it!" +</P> + +<P> +"Is he the man to miss a chance that lay at his hand? The main chance +for him? The chance to hold a man like Chris Quinnion in the hollow of +his hand, to make him do his bidding, to set him just such work as he +is doing now? Answer me! Is Bayne Trevors above a deal like that?" +</P> + +<P> +Bud Lee's answer was silence. +</P> + +<P> +"And there is one other thing," went on Judith swiftly, "known to no +one but Emmet Sawyer, whom I told, and me and Chris Quinnion: In +father's letter he told me that a man had paid him some money the day +before, and that he was going to drive to Rocky Bend to bank it. +'There are some tough customers in the country,' he wrote, 'and it's +foolhardy to have too much money in our old safe.' That money, several +hundred dollars, was never banked. It was not found on his body. +Where did it go?" +</P> + +<P> +"Even that doesn't incriminate Quinnion, you know." +</P> + +<P> +"No. The rest is pure guesswork on my part. Guesswork based on what I +know. Not enough to hang Chris Quinnion, Bud Lee. But enough to make +me sure. He's working at Trevor's game right now. If we can prove +that it is Trevors's game, it will go to show how worthless his alibi +was." +</P> + +<P> +"Well?" called Quinnion, the third time. "What about it? We ain't +goin' to wait all night." +</P> + +<P> +"Tell him," whispered Judith, her hand on Lee's arm, "to come and get +it if he wants it! One of us can hold the cabin against the two of +them while the other slips out in the dark and rides back to the +ranch-house for help. If we're in luck, Bud Lee, we'll corner the +bunch of them before daylight!" +</P> + +<P> +Lee stood a moment looking down into her face, his mind filled with +uncertainties. With all his soul he wished that Judith had not come +with him to-night, that he had only himself to think of now. Quinnion, +not to be further put off, called again, the snarl of his voice rising +into ugly threat. Still Lee, thinking of Judith, hesitated. +</P> + +<P> +"It's the only way," she insisted. "If we gave them the money they'd +want Bill Crowdy next. If they got Crowdy away with them into the +mountains I am not sure that they could not hide until they got him +safe in Trevors's hands. Then we'd have the whole fight still to make, +sooner or later. It's our one bet, Lee!" +</P> + +<P> +And Bud Lee, seeing no better way ahead for them, blew out the candle, +forced Judith to stand close to the rock chimney of the fireplace, took +his station near her, and answered Quinnion, saying shortly: +</P> + +<P> +"Come ahead when you're ready. We're waiting." +</P> + +<P> +Quinnion's curse, the crack of his rifle, the flying splinters from the +cabin door, came together like one implacable menace. +</P> + +<P> +"And now, Bud Lee," cried Judith quickly, "I don't mind telling you, +not seeing the end of the string we are playing, that you are a man to +my liking!" +</P> + +<P> +"My hat's off," said Lee, with grave simplicity. "And in any old kind +of a fight a man wouldn't want a better pardner than I can reach now, +putting out my hand. He'd want—just a thoroughbred! And now, little +pardner, let's give them—fits!" +</P> + +<P> +Judith, even as Quinnion's second shot tore into the door, laughed +softly. +</P> + +<P> +"Finish it as you began it, Bud Lee! Even George Washington swore at +Monmouth, you know!" +</P> + +<P> +So Bud Lee amended his words and spoke his thought: +</P> + +<P> +"Then, pardner, let's give 'em hell!" +</P> + +<P> +Crouching in the dark, reserving their own fire while they waited for +something more definite than the bark of a rifle to shoot at, their +hand met. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap13"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE CAPTURE OF SHORTY +</H3> + + +<P> +It came about, quite as matters often do, that at the +three-mile-distant ranch headquarters it was one who knew comparatively +little of the ways of this part of the world who was first to suspect +that all was not well with Judith Sanford. To Pollock Hampton her +failure to appear at dinner was significant. +</P> + +<P> +Together with the other newcomers to the ranch from the city he had +been deeply moved by yesterday's outlawry. Drawing upon a vivid +imagination, he peopled the woods with desperate characters. When +after dinner an hour passed without bringing Judith, he began to show +signs of nervous anxiety. Without making his fears known to his +friends, he went to the office and telephoned to Doc Tripp. All that +Tripp could tell him was that he didn't know where Judith was and +didn't care; she could take care of herself. Though the veterinarian +didn't say as much, he was at the moment puzzled by the new sickness +among the hogs and his irritable concern in this matter allowed him +scant interest in other people's affairs. +</P> + +<P> +Hampton learned from Mrs. Simpson that in the afternoon Judith after a +hurried lunch had taken her rifle and ridden away. Where? Mrs. +Simpson did not know. But she grasped the opportunity to confide in +Hampton a certain suspicion which she held in connection with the +robbery and killing of Bud Lee's horse under him—a suspicion which was +growing rapidly into positive certainty. She didn't like to mention +the matter to him, since Fujioki was his servant. But had he noted +Fujioki and that other black Spanish, José? They had a community of +interest which must extend far beyond racial kinship; they were, even +at this very second, out in the courtyard together talking in subdued +voices. Mrs. Simpson had been raised a lady, Mr. Hampton, sir; and she +knew that in the best families one was not supposed to eavesdrop. But +at a time like this.… Well, she <I>had</I> crept up behind the +lilac-bushes and they <I>were</I> speaking guardedly about the hold-up! +Almost in whispers, with every sign of guilt—— +</P> + +<P> +"Hurried lunch?" said Hampton. "Took her rifle, did she?" +</P> + +<P> +His eyes had grown very serious as he stared down into Mrs. Simpson's +concerned face. +</P> + +<P> +"Send José to me," was what he said next. +</P> + +<P> +"Aren't you afraid, Mr. Hampton?" she exclaimed, picturing to herself +this pleasant young gentleman at death-grips with the sombre José. +However, she obeyed and called José whom Hampton merely sent to the +men's quarters with word for Carson and Lee to come to the house. Mrs. +Simpson, witnessing the bloodless meeting from the hallway, was a +little relieved and very much disappointed. +</P> + +<P> +Hampton strode up and down the office, the frown gathering upon his +usually smooth brows. Plainly if something had happened to Judith the +present responsibility lay upon his shoulders as next in authority. +</P> + +<P> +"Here I am," announced Carson briefly. "What is it?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am a little worried, Carson," said Hampton, "about Miss Sanford." +</P> + +<P> +"Huh?" grunted the old cattleman. +</P> + +<P> +"Judith hasn't put in an appearance and it's growing late," continued +Hampton hastily "I'm afraid——" +</P> + +<P> +"Afraid? Afraid of what? You don't think she eloped with your Jap or +stole the spoons, do you?" snapped Carson. He had been interrupted at +the crucial point in a game of cribbage with Poker Face and the +cattleman's weak spot was cribbage. He glared at Hampton belligerently. +</P> + +<P> +"Where is Lee?" questioned Hampton sharply. "I told José I wanted the +two of you. Why didn't he come?" +</P> + +<P> +"Dunno," answered Carson, still without interest. "I ain't seen him. +Wasn't in for supper——" +</P> + +<P> +"I tell you," cried Hampton, angry at Carson's quiet acceptance of +facts which to him were darkly significant, "he, too, was out with his +rifle to-day; I saw him myself. Now <I>he</I> fails to show up! Don't you +see what all this points to?" +</P> + +<P> +Carson, who seldom lost his poise with one-half of his brain still +given over to the hand he meant to play with Poker Face, merely sighed +and shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm real busy down at the bunk-house, Mr. Hampton," at last came his +quiet answer, "where me an' Poker Face is figuring out something +important. As for worrying about a man like Bud Lee or a girl like +Judy, why, I just ain't going to do it a-tall. Most likely if you'll +call up the Lower End——" +</P> + +<P> +"I've done it!" Whirling in his impatient stride across the room, +Hampton came swiftly to Carson's side. "They're not there. They left +the Lower End this afternoon and came on here. Then, both armed, they +rode away again at four or five o'clock. I tell you, man, something +has happened to them." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't believe it," retorted Carson. "Not for one little half-minute, +I don't. What's to happen? Huh?" +</P> + +<P> +"You know as well as I do what sort of characters are about. The man +who robbed Charlie Miller—who shot at Bud Lee——" +</P> + +<P> +"Whoa!" grinned Carson. "Don't you go and fool yourself. That +stick-up gent is a clean hundred miles from here right now an' still +going, real lively. If any other jasper lent him a hand, why, he's on +his way, too. Not stopping to pick flowers. It's the way them kind +plays the game." +</P> + +<P> +Carson was so cheerfully certain, so amused at the thought of Bud Lee +and Judith Sanford requiring anybody's assistance, so confident +concerning the methods of outlaws, that finally Hampton sent him away, +half assured, and went himself to his friends in the living-room. Here +he found the major and Mrs. Langworthy reading and yawning. Marcia +laughed at a jest of Farris's, while Rogers sought to interest her in +himself. The every-day, homelike atmosphere had its effect in allaying +his picturesque fears. Hampton noted how her handful of days in the +country had done Marcia a world of good, putting fresh, warm color in +her rather pale cheeks, breeding a new sparkle in her eyes. She was +good to look upon. +</P> + +<P> +He let half an hour slip by in restless inactivity. For, no matter +what Carson might say or these people in here do, Judith had not yet +come in. When Marcia addressed a bright remark to him, he started and +stammered: "I <I>beg</I> your pardon!" They laughed at him, saying that +Pollock Hampton was growing absent-minded in his old age. But their +banter failed to reach him; he was telling himself that some accident +might have befallen one or both of two persons whom he frankly admired +for their efficiency. +</P> + +<P> +By half past eight they had caught his uneasiness. At every little +sound they turned expectantly. Still no Judith. Mrs. Simpson, +comfortable woman that she was, came in, bustling with apprehension. +Mrs. Langworthy shook off for a little her listlessness and recounted +how she had watched "that girl" riding like a wild Indian toward the +Upper End. Perhaps her gun had gone off accidentally. +</P> + +<P> +"Or," she concluded with a touch of venom, "it wouldn't be above her to +run off with that long horse foreman." +</P> + +<P> +"Eh?" said the major. "Don't believe it. A fine fig—ahem. Where +should she run to? And why run at all?" +</P> + +<P> +Marcia looked a quick distress to Mr. Hampton. +</P> + +<P> +"It <I>is</I> late," she said timidly, "Oh, Pollock! Do you think——" +</P> + +<P> +No longer to be restrained, Hampton left them and went to his room for +a rifle and cartridge-belt. He intended to slip out quietly, feeling +that he would get from Farris and Rogers only the sort of disbelief he +had gotten from Carson. Marcia met him in the hall; she had heard his +quick steps and guessed that he was going out. Now clearly, though she +was frightened, she was delighted with him. He had never thrilled her +like this before. She had never guessed that Pollock Hampton could be +so stern-faced, so purposeful. She whispered an entreaty that he be +careful, then as he went out, ran back to the others, her eyes shining. +</P> + +<P> +"Pollock is going to see what is the matter," she announced excitedly. +Whereat Mrs. Langworthy stared at her and then indicated facially her +supreme disgust. The major suggested taking something, the occasion so +plainly demanding it. +</P> + +<P> +Hampton passed swiftly through the courtyard. He saw the light of the +bunk-house gleaming brightly. On his way down the knoll he came upon +Tommy Burkitt. +</P> + +<P> +"Is it Mr. Hampton?" asked Tommy, coming close in the darkness to peer +at him. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. What is it? Who are you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm Burkitt, Tommy Burkitt, you know—Bud Lee's helper. I—I am +afraid something has happened. Lee hasn't come in yet; they tried to +pick him off once already, you know——" +</P> + +<P> +"Neither has Miss Sanford come in," said Hampton quickly, sensing here +at last a fear that was fellow to his own. "They rode toward the Upper +End. You know the way, Burkitt?" +</P> + +<P> +He moved on toward the corral; Burkitt turned and came with him. +</P> + +<P> +"Sure I know the trail," muttered Tommy. "You're goin' to see what's +wrong with 'em! Miss Judy, too! My God——" +</P> + +<P> +"Bring out a couple of horses," Hampton commanded crisply. "We've lost +time enough already." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll go tell Carson an' the boys——" +</P> + +<P> +"I have already told Carson. He says it's all nonsense. Leave him +alone." +</P> + +<P> +Tommy, boy that he was, asked no further questions, but ran ahead and +brought out two horses. In a twinkling he had saddled them, and the +two riders, each with a rifle across his arm, were hurrying over the +mountain trail. +</P> + +<P> +In the blackness which lay along the upper river Hampton gave his horse +a free rein and let it follow at Tommy's heels. The roar of the +lashing water, the pounding of shod hoofs, the whining creak of +saddle-leather were the only sounds coming to them out of the night. +When, finally, they drew rein under the cliffs at the lake's edge all +was silent save for the faint distant booming of the river below them. +</P> + +<P> +"Now which way?" whispered Hampton, his voice eloquent of suppressed +excitement and eagerness. +</P> + +<P> +Tommy was shaking his head in uncertainty when suddenly from above +there came to them the sharp report of a rifle. Then, like a bundle at +firecrackers, a volley of half a dozen staccato shots. +</P> + +<P> +"Listen to that, Burkitt," muttered Hampton. "They're at it now—we're +on time——" +</P> + +<P> +Tommy slipped from the saddle wordlessly, came to Hampton's side and +tugged gently at his leg, whispering for him to get down. Leaving +their horses there, they slipped into the utter darkness of the narrow +chasm in the rocks which gave access to the plateau above. +</P> + +<P> +"Now," cautioned Tommy guardedly, as they came to the top, "keep close +to me if you don't want to take a header about a thousan' feet. Look!" +He nudged Hampton and pointed. "There are two horses across yonder; +Bud's an' Miss Judy's, most likely." +</P> + +<P> +Hampton did not see them, did not seek to see them. Something new, +vital, big, had swept suddenly into his life. He was at grips +first-hand with unmasked, pulsing forces. A tremor went through him +and he was not ashamed of it; for it was not the quaking of fear, but +the thrill in the blood of a man who, plucked from a round of social +artificialities, finds himself with the smell of burnt powder in his +nostrils and who feels a swift eagerness for what may lie just yonder +waiting for him. "They're at it now!" he whispered to Burkitt. +Men—yes, and a girl—were shooting, not at just wooden and paper +targets, but at other men! At men who shot back, and shot to kill. +</P> + +<P> +"Listen," said Burkitt. "Somebody's in the old cabin; somebody's +outside. Which is which? We got to be awful careful." +</P> + +<P> +They began a slow, cautious approach, slipping from bush to bush, from +tree to tree, standing motionless now and then to frown into the folds +of the night's curtains. Abruptly the firing ceased. They made out +vaguely the two forms of the attackers, having located them a moment +ago by the spurting flames from their guns. Then, "Got enough in +there?" came the snarling voice of Quinnion. "If you haven't, I'm +going to burn you out an' be damned to you!" +</P> + +<P> +He got an answer he little expected. For Hampton, running out into the +open, now that he knew that Bud and Judith must be in the cabin, was +firing as he came. Burkitt's rifle spoke with his. +</P> + +<P> +"Run for it, Shorty!" yelled Quinnion. "You know where. We're up +against the Blue Lake boys." +</P> + +<P> +"Bud!" shouted Tommy. "Oh, Bud!" +</P> + +<P> +"In the cabin," came Bud's ringing answer. "Give 'em hell, Tommy! +Coming!" +</P> + +<P> +With his words came the sound of the door snapping back against the +wall, the reports of Tommy's rifle and Hampton's pumping hot lead after +two racing forms. +</P> + +<P> +"They'll get away!" shouted Hampton, a sudden red rage upon him. +"Curse it! It's too dark——" +</P> + +<P> +Then Tommy gave over shooting and yelled to Lee to hold his fire. For +instead of two there were three flying forms, three fast-racing, +blurring, shadowy shapes merging with the night. Pollock Hampton, his +rifle clubbed in his hand, was running with a college sprinter's speed +after Quinnion and Shorty, calling breathlessly: +</P> + +<P> +"Look out, they'll get away!" +</P> + +<P> +Once Quinnion stopped to shoot back. The hissing lead went wide of the +pursuer and he gave over firing and settled down to good, hard running, +disappearing from Hampton's staring eyes. But Shorty was still to be +seen, running heavily. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't shoot, Bud!" cried Tommy again as two figures ran out of the +cabin. "Hampton's out there—the crazy fool——" +</P> + +<P> +"Hampton, come back!" shouted Lee, running after him. +</P> + +<P> +But Hampton was gaining on the heavy-set Shorty and had no thought of +coming back. Nor a thought of anything in all the wide world just then +but overtaking the flying figure in front of him. Shorty stumbled over +a fallen log and rose, cursing and calling: +</P> + +<P> +"Chris! Lend a hand." +</P> + +<P> +That little chance of an uprooted tree saved Hampton's life that night. +Shorty, falling, had dropped his gun and hurt his knee. For a moment +he groped wildly for the lost rifle, then ran on without it. Hampton +cleared the log, and with a yell rather befitting a victorious savage +than the young man whom Mrs. Langworthy hoped to call her son, threw +his long arms about Shorty's neck. +</P> + +<P> +"I got him!" shouted Hampton. "By glory——" +</P> + +<P> +Shorty drove a big brutal fist smashing into his captor's face. But +Hampton merely lowered his head, hiding it against Shorty's heaving +shoulder, and tightened his grip. Shorty struggled to his feet, +shaking at him, tearing at him, driving one fist after the other into +Hampton's body. But with a grimness of purpose as new to him as was +the whole of to-night's adventure Hampton held on. +</P> + +<P> +Judith and Lee and Burkitt came to them as they were falling again. +Now suddenly, with other hard hands upon him, Shorty relaxed, and +Hampton, his face bloody, his body sore, sank back. He had done a mad +thing—but triumph lay in that he had done it. +</P> + +<P> +"A man never can tell," muttered Bud Lee, with less thought of the +captive than of the captor—"never can tell." +</P> + +<P> +"I am thinking," said Judith wonderingly, "that I never quite did you +justice, Pollock Hampton!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap14"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XIV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +SPRINGTIME AND A VISION +</H3> + + +<P> +Hampton's captive, known to them only as Shorty, a heavy, surly man +whose small, close-set eyes burned evilly under his pale brows, rode +that night between Hampton and Judith down to the ranch-house. He +maintained a stubborn silence after the first outburst of rage. His +hands tied behind his back, a rope run round his waist and down on each +side through a cinch-ring, he sat idly humped forward, making no +protest. +</P> + +<P> +Burkitt and Lee, despite Judith's objections because of Lee's wounded +leg, remained at the cabin with Bill Crowdy. Crowdy had lost a deal of +blood, and though he complained of little pain, was clearly in sore +need of medical attention. Judith, coming to the bunk-side just before +she left, assured him very gently that she would send Doc Tripp to him +immediately and, further, that she would telephone into Rocky Bend for +a physician. Crowdy, like Shorty, refused to talk. +</P> + +<P> +"Aw, hell," he grunted as Lee demanded what influence had brought him +with Shorty and Quinnion into this mad project, "let me alone, can't +you?" +</P> + +<P> +And Lee let him alone. He and Burkitt sat and smoked and so passed the +remaining hours of a long night. The folly of seeking Quinnion in this +thick darkness was so obvious that they gave no thought to it, +impatiently awaiting the dawn and the coming of the men whom Judith +would send. +</P> + +<P> +The events of the rest of the night and of the morrow may be briefly +told: Shorty's modest request of a glass of whiskey was granted him. +Then, his hands still bound securely by Carson, he was put in the small +grain-house, a windowless, ten-by-ten house of logs. An admirable jail +this, with its heavy padlock snapped into a deeply embedded staple and +the great hasp in place. The key safely in Judith's possession, Shorty +was left to his own thoughts while Judith, and Hampton went to the +house. +</P> + +<P> +In answer to Judith's call, Doc Tripp came without delay, left brief, +disconcerting word that without the shadow of a doubt the hogs were +stricken with cholera, and went on with his little bag to see what his +skill could do for Bill Crowdy. +</P> + +<P> +"Ought to give him sulphur fumes," grunted Tripp. But his hands were +very gentle with the wounded man for all that. +</P> + +<P> +Pollock Hampton had no thought of sleep that night; didn't so much as +go to bed. He lay on a couch in the living-room and Marcia Langworthy, +tremendously moved at the recital Judith gave of Hampton's heroism, +fluttered about him, playing nurse to her heart's delight. The major +suggested that Hampton have something and Hampton was glad to accept. +Mrs. Langworthy complacently looked into the future and to the maturity +of her own plans. In truth, good had come out of evil, and Marcia and +Hampton held hands quite unblushingly. +</P> + +<P> +Before daylight Carson, with half a dozen men, had breakfasted, saddled +and was ready to ride to the Upper End to begin the search for +Quinnion. But before he rode, Carson made the discovery that during +the night the staple and hasp on the grain-house door had been wrenched +away and that Shorty was gone, leaving behind him no sign of the way of +his going. Carson's face was a dull, brick red. Not yet had he +brought himself to accept the full significance of events. A hold-up, +such as Charlie Miller had experienced, is one thing; a continued +series of incidents like these happening upon the confines of the Blue +Lake Ranch, was quite another. Hampton, knowing nothing of conditions +in the mountains, had been quick to imagine the predicament in which he +had found Judith and Bud Lee. To Carson that had been a thing not to +be thought of. Now, only too plainly he realized that Shorty had had +an accomplice at the ranch headquarters who had come to his assistance. +</P> + +<P> +Carson blamed himself for the escape. And yet, he growled to himself, +in a mingling of shame and anger, it would have looked like plumb +foolishness to sit out in front of that heavy door all night, when he +himself had tied Shorty's hands. +</P> + +<P> +"Quinnion might have let him loose," he mused as he went slowly to the +house to tell Judith what had happened. "An' then he mightn't. If he, +didn't, then who the devil did?" +</P> + +<P> +Judith received the news sleepily and much more quietly than Carson had +expected. +</P> + +<P> +"We'll have to keep our eyes open after this, Carson," was her +criticism. Remembering the night when she had been so certain that +there had been some one listening to her talk with Tripp she added +thoughtfully: "We've got to keep an eye on our own men, Carson. Some +one of our crowd, taking my pay, is double-crossing us. Now, get your +men on the jump and we won't bother about the milk-spilling. If we are +in luck we'll get Shorty yet. And Quinnion, Carson! Don't forget +Quinnion. And we've still got Bill Crowdy; we'll get everything out of +him that he knows." +</P> + +<P> +The cattleman rode away in heavy silence, headed toward the cabin at +the Upper End, his men riding with him, an eager, watchful crowd. But +Carson had his doubts about getting Quinnion, his fears that it would +be a long time before he ever put a rope again to Shorty's thick wrists. +</P> + +<P> +During the day Emmet Sawyer, the Rocky Bend sheriff, came, and with him +Doctor Brannan. Sawyer assured Judith that he would be followed +shortly by a posse led by a deputy and that they would hunt through the +mountains until they got the outlaws. He listened to all that she had +to tell him and then looked up Bud Lee. +</P> + +<P> +"You didn't see Quinnion?" he asked. "Could you swear to him if we +ever bring him in? Just by his voice?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," answered Lee. "I can. But see if you can't get Crowdy to +squeal. We're shy Shorty's real name, too, you know." +</P> + +<P> +To all questions put him, Bill Crowdy answered with stubborn denial of +knowledge or not at all. He had been alone; he didn't know any man +named Quinnion; he didn't know anything about Shorty. And he hadn't +robbed Miller. That canvas bag, then, with the thousand dollars in it? +He had found it; picked it up in a gully. +</P> + +<P> +"I won't do any talking," he grunted in final word, "until I get a +lawyer to talk to. I know that much, Sawyer, if I don't know a hell of +a lot. An' you can get it out'n your head that I'm the kind to snitch +on a pal—even if I had one, which I didn't." +</P> + +<P> +Crowdy, at Doctor Brannan's orders, was taken to Rocky Bend where +Sawyer promised him a speedy trial, conviction and heavy sentence +unless he changed his mind and turned state's evidence. And—to be +done with Bill Crowdy for good and all—he never came to stand trial. +A mad attempt at escape a week later, another bullet-hole given him in +his struggle with his jailer, and with lips still stubbornly locked, he +died without "snitching on a pal." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Under fire in the dark cabin with life grown suddenly tense for them, +Bud Lee and Judith Sanford had touched hands lingeringly. No one who +knew them guessed it; certainly one of them, perhaps both, sought to +forget it. There had been that strange thrill which comes sometimes +when a man's hand and a woman's meet. Bud Lee grunted at the memory of +it; Judith, remembering, blushed scarlet. For, at that moment of deep, +sympathetic understanding touched with the romance which young life +will draw even from a dark night fraught with danger, there had been in +Bud Lee's heart but an acceptance, eager as it was, of a "pardner." +For the time being he thought of her—or, rather, he thought that he +thought of her, as a man would think of a companion of his own sex. He +approved of her. But he did not approve of her as a girl, as a woman. +</P> + +<P> +He had said: "There are two kinds of women." And Judith, knowing that +his ideal was an impossible but poetic She, rich in subtle feminine +graces, steeped in that vague charm of her sex like a rose in its own +perfume, had accepted his friendship during a dark hour, allowing +herself to forget that upon the morrow, if morrow came to them at all, +he would hold her in that gentle scorn of his. +</P> + +<P> +"A narrow-minded, bigoted fool!" she cried in the seclusion of her +bedroom. "I'll show you where you get off, Mr. Bud Lee! Just you +wait." +</P> + +<P> +When she and Lee met, she looked him straight in the eye with marked +coolness, oddly aloof, and Lee, lifting his hat, was stiff and +short-worded. +</P> + +<P> +In the long, quiet hours which came during the few days following the +end of a fruitless search for Quinnion and Shorty, he had ample time to +analyze his own emotion. He liked her; from the bottom of his heart he +liked her. But she was not the lady of his dreams. She rode like a +man, she shot like a man, she gave her orders like a man. She was +efficient. She was as square as a die; under fire she was a pardner +for any man. But she was not a little lady to be thought of +sentimentally. He wondered what she would look like if she shed boots +and broad hat and riding-habit and appeared before a man in an evening +gown—"all lacy and ribbony, you know." He couldn't picture her that +way; he couldn't imagine her dallying, as the lady of his dreams +dallied, in an atmosphere of rose-leaves, perhaps a volume of Tennyson +on her knee. +</P> + +<P> +"Shucks!" he grinned to himself, a trifle shame-facedly. "It's just +the springtime in the air." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +In such a mood there appeared to Bud Lee a vision. Nothing less. He +was in the little meadow hidden from the ranch-house by gentle hills +still green with young June. He had been working Lovelady, a newly +broken saddle-mare. Standing with his back to a tree, a cigarette in +the making in his hands, his black hat far back upon his head, he +smilingly watched Lovelady as with regained freedom she galloped back +across the meadow to her herd. Then a shadow on the grass drew Lee's +eyes swiftly away from the mare and to the vision. +</P> + +<P> +Over the verdant flooring of the meadow, stepping daintily in and out +among the big golden buttercups, came one who might well have been that +lady of his dreams. A milk-white hand held up a pale-pink skirt, +disclosing the lacy flounce of a fine underskirt, pale-pink stockings +and mincing little slippers; a pink parasol cast the most delicate of +tints upon a pretty face from which big blue eyes looked out a little +timorously upon the tall horse foreman. +</P> + +<P> +He knew that this was Marcia Langworthy. He had never known until now +just how pretty she was, how like a flower. +</P> + +<P> +Marcia paused, seemed to hesitate, dodged suddenly as a noisy bumblebee +sailed down the air. Then the bee buzzed on and Marcia smiled. Still +stepping daintily she came on until, with her parasol twirling over her +shoulder, she stood in the shade with Lee. +</P> + +<P> +"You're Mr. Lee, aren't you?" asked Marcia. She was still smiling and +looked cool and fresh and very alluring. +</P> + +<P> +Lee dropped the makings of his cigarette, ground the paper into the sod +with his heel and removed his hat with a gallantry little short of +reverence. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," he answered, his gravity touched with the hint of a responsive +smile. "Is there something I can do for you, Miss Langworthy?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" cried Marcia. "So you know who I am? Yet I have never seen you, +I think." +</P> + +<P> +"The star doesn't always see the moth, you know," offered Lee, a little +intoxicated by the first "vision" of this kind he had seen in many +years. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" cried Marcia again, and then stopped, looking at him, frankly +puzzled. She knew little first-hand of horse foremen. But she had +seen Carson, even talked with him. And she had seen other workmen. +She would, until now, have summed them all up as illiterate, awkward, +and impossibly backward and shy. A second long, curious glance at Lee +failed to show that he was embarrassed, though in truth he had had time +to be a bit ashamed of that moth-and-star observation of his. Instead, +he appeared quite self-possessed. And he was good-looking, remarkably +good-looking. And he didn't seem illiterate; quite the contrary, +Marcia thought. In an instant she catalogued this tall, dark, +calm-eyed man as interesting. +</P> + +<P> +She twirled her parasol at him and laughed softly. A strand of blond +hair that was very becoming where it was, against her delicate cheek, +she tucked back where it evidently belonged, since there it looked even +more becoming. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Hampton isn't here, is he?" she asked. +</P> + +<P> +"No. Come to think of it, he did say this morning that he would be out +right after lunch to help me break Lovelady. But I haven't seen him." +</P> + +<P> +"He wanted me to stroll out here with him," Marcia explained. "And I +wouldn't. It was too hot. Didn't you find it terribly hot about an +hour ago, Mr. Lee?" +</P> + +<P> +As a matter of fact Bud Lee had been altogether too busy an hour ago +with the capers of Lovelady to note whether it was hot or cold. But he +courteously agreed with Miss Langworthy. +</P> + +<P> +"Then," she ran on brightly, "it got cool all of a sudden. Or at least +I did. And I thought that Polly had come out here, so I walked out to +surprise him. And now, he isn't here!" +</P> + +<P> +Marcia looked up at Lee helplessly, smilingly, fascinatingly. It was +quite as though she had added: "Oh, dear! What <I>shall</I> I do?" +</P> + +<P> +Pollock Hampton had fully meant to come. But by now he had forgotten +all about Bud Lee and horses to ride and to be bucked off by. A +telegram had come from a nasty little tailor in San Francisco who had +discovered Hampton's retreat and who was devilishly insistent upon a +small matter—oh, some suits and things, you know. The whole thing +totalled scarcely seven hundred dollars. He went to find Judith, to +beg an advance against his wages or allowance or dividends or whatever +you call it. Judith was out somewhere at the Lower End, Mrs. Simpson +thought. Hampton saddled his own horse and went to find her. All this +Marcia was to learn that evening. +</P> + +<P> +After the swift passing of a few bright minutes, Marcia and Bud Lee +strolled together across the meadow to the spring. Marcia, it seemed, +was interested in everything. Lee told her much of the ways of horses, +of breaking them, of a score of little ranch matters, not without their +color. Marcia noted that he spoke rather slowly, and guessed that he +was choosing his words with particular care. +</P> + +<P> +She was delighted when they came to the bank under the willows where a +pipe sent forth a clear, cold stream of water from a shady recess in +the hillside. Here, at Lee's solicitous suggestion, she rested after +her long walk—it was nearly a half-mile to the ranch-house—disposing +her skirts fluffily about her, taking her seat upon a convenient log +from which, with his hat, Lee had swept the loose dust. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm dreadfully improper, am I not?" said Marcia. "But I am tired, and +it is hot, isn't it? Out there in the fields, I mean. Here it's just +lovely. And I do so love to hear about all the things you know which +are so wonderful to me. Isn't life narrow in the cities? Don't you +think so, Mr. Lee?" +</P> + +<P> +The breeze playing gently with the ribbons of her sunshade brought to +him the faintest of violet perfumes. He lay at her feet, obeying her +tardy command to have the smoke which she had interrupted. His eyes +were full of her. +</P> + +<P> +"I'd so love," went on Marcia dreamily, "to live always out-of-doors. +Out here I feel so sorry for the people I know in town. Here women +must grow up so sweet and pure and innocent; men must be so fine and +manly and strong!" +</P> + +<P> +And she meant it. It was perfectly clear that she spoke in utter +sincerity. For this long, summer day, no matter how she would feel +to-morrow, Marcia was in tune with the open, yearned for the life blown +clean with the air of the mountains. In the morning her mood had been +one of rebellion, for her mother had said things which both hurt and +shocked the girl. Her mother was so mercenary, so unromantic. Now, as +a bit of reaction, the rebellious spirit had grown tender; opposition +had been followed by listlessness; and into the mood of tender +listlessness there had come a man. A man whom Marcia had never noted +until now and who was an anomaly, almost a mystery. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Fate, in the form of old Carson, turned a herd of bellowing steers out +into the fields lying between the meadow and the ranch-house that +afternoon just as Marcia, making a late concession to propriety, was +shaking her skirts and lifting her parasol. It was scarcely to be +wondered at that the steers seemed to Marcia a great herd of +bloodthirsty beasts. Then there were her pink gown and sunshade.… +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, dear, oh, dear!" cried Marcia. +</P> + +<P> +So it was under Lee's protection that she went back through the meadows +and to the house. At first she was frightened by the strange noises +his led horse made, little snorts which made her jump. But in the end +she put out a timid hand and stroked the velvet nose. When finally Bud +Lee lifted his hat to her at the base of the knoll upon which the house +stood Marcia thanked him for his kindness. +</P> + +<P> +"I've been terribly unconventional, haven't I?" she smiled at him. +"But I mustn't again. Next time we meet, Mr. Lee, I am not even going +to speak to you. Unless," relenting brightly, "you come up to the +house and are properly introduced!" +</P> + +<P> +As she went through the lilacs Lee saw her wave her parasol to him. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap15"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +JUST A GIRL, AFTER ALL +</H3> + + +<P> +Three days later Bud Lee learned that Judith Sanford was, after all, +"just a girl, you know"; that at least for once in her life she had +slipped away to be by herself and to cry. He stopped dead in his +tracks when he came unexpectedly upon her, become suddenly awkward, +embarrassed, a moment uncertain, but yielding swiftly to an impulse to +run for it. +</P> + +<P> +"Come here, Bud Lee!" commanded Judith sharply, dabbing at her eyes. +"I want to talk with you." +</P> + +<P> +He was at the Upper End where he had ridden for half a dozen young +horses which were to be taken down into the meadow for their education. +And here she was, on a bench outside the old cabin, indulging herself +in a hearty cry. +</P> + +<P> +"I—I didn't know you were here," he stammered. "I was going to make +some coffee and have lunch here. I do, sometimes. It's a real fine +day, isn't it, Miss Sanford? Nice and warm and—" His voice trailed +off indistinctly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, scat!" cried Judith at him, half laughing, still half crying. She +had wiped her eyes but still two big tears, untouched, trembled on her +cheeks. In spite of him Lee couldn't keep his eyes off of them. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm just crying," Judith told him then, with a sudden assumption of +cool dignity which had in it something of defiance. "I've got a right +to, if I want to, haven't I? What do you look at me like that for?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sure," he answered hastily. "It does you good to cry; I know. Great +thing. All ladies do, sometimes——" +</P> + +<P> +Judith sniffed. +</P> + +<P> +"You know all that there is to be known about '<I>ladies</I>,' don't you? +In your vast wisdom all you've got to do is lump 'em in one of your +brilliant generalities. That's the man of you!" +</P> + +<P> +"Maybe I'd better go make the coffee?" he suggested hurriedly. "It's +after twelve. And it'll do you good. A nice hot cup." +</P> + +<P> +"Maybe you had," said Judith icily. "Perhaps I can postpone my +conversation with you until the water boils." +</P> + +<P> +Lee went into the cabin without looking back. Judith, watching him, +saw that he ran his hand across his forehead. She sniffed at him +again. But when Lee had the coffee ready she had washed her face at +the spring, had tucked her tumbled hair back under her hat, and, +looking remarkably cool, came into the cabin. Lee thought of his +meeting with Marcia, of her repeated assurance that she knew she had +violated the conventions. +</P> + +<P> +"You <I>can</I> make coffee," Judith nodded her approval as she sipped at +the black beverage, cooled a little by condensed milk. Lee was busied +with a tin containing potted meat. "Now, have you got over your shock +so that I can talk with you?" +</P> + +<P> +He smiled at her across the little oil-cloth-covered table, and +answered lightly and with his old assurance that he guessed he had +steadied his nerve. Hadn't he told her a cup of coffee would do +wonders? +</P> + +<P> +"Would it go to your head," began the girl abruptly, "if I were to tell +you that I size you up as the best man I've got on my pay-roll?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'd try to keep both feet on the ground," he said gravely, though he +wondered what was coming. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll explain," she continued, her tone impersonally businesslike. +"Next to you, I count on Doc Tripp; next to Tripp, on Carson. They are +good men; they are trustworthy; they understand ranch conditions and +they know what loyalty to the home-range means. But Tripp is just a +veterinarian; simply that and nothing more. His horizon isn't very +wide. Neither is Carson's." +</P> + +<P> +"And mine?" he grinned at her. "Read me my horoscope, Miss Sanford!" +</P> + +<P> +"You have taken the trouble to be something more than just a horse +foreman," she told him quietly. "I don't know what your advantages +have been; if you haven't gone through high school, then at least you +have been ambitious enough to get books, to read, to educate yourself. +You have developed further than Carson; you have broadened more than +Tripp." +</P> + +<P> +"Thanks," he offered dryly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I'm not seeking to intrude into your private affairs, Mr. Bud +Lee!" she cried warmly at his tone. "I have no desire to do so, having +no interest in them. First of all, I want one thing clear: You said +when I first came that you'd stay a few days, long enough for me to get +a man in your place. We have both been rather too busy to think of +your leaving or my seeking a substitute. Now what? The job is yours +as long as you want it—if you'll stay. I don't want you leaving me in +the lurch. Do you want to go? Or do you want to stick?" +</P> + +<P> +What did he want? He had anticipated an interference from the girl in +his management of the duty allotted him and no such interference had +come. She left him unhampered, even as she did Tripp and Carson. He +had his interest in his horses. It was pleasant here. This cabin was +a sort of home to him. Besides, he had the idea that Quinnion and +Shorty might again be heard from—that if Trevors was backing their +play, there would be other threats offered the Blue Lake outfit from +which he had no desire to run. There was such a thing as loyalty to +the home-range, and in the half-year he had worked here it had become a +part of him. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll stick," he said quietly. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm glad of that," replied Judith. "Oh, you'll have your work cut out +for you, Bud Lee, and, that you may be the better fitted to do it, I +want you to know just what I am up against." +</P> + +<P> +She paused a moment, stirring her coffee with one of Lee's tin spoons, +gathering her thoughts. Then, speaking thoughtfully, she explained: +</P> + +<P> +"It's a gamble, with us bucking the long odds. Dad left me a third +interest, clear, valued, counting stock, at a good deal more than four +hundred thousand dollars. He left me no cash. Dad never had any cash. +Just so soon as he got his hands on it he put it to work. I knew he +had planned taking over another one-third interest, and I went on with +his plans. I mortgaged my share for two hundred thousand dollars, +which I got at five per cent. That means I have to dig up each year, +just interest, ten thousand dollars. That's a pretty big lump, you +know." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," he admitted slowly. "That's big; mighty big." +</P> + +<P> +"With the money I raised," Judith continued, "I bought out the third +owner, Timothy Gray. He let his holding go for three hundred and fifty +thousand. It was a bargain for me—if I can make a go of it. I still +owe, on the principal, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. I owe +on my mortgage two hundred thousand. Total of my indebtedness, three +hundred and fifty thousand dollars. And that's bigger, Bud Lee." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. That's bigger figures than I can quite get the hang of." +</P> + +<P> +No wonder she had been crying. Even if everything went smooth on the +Blue Lake she, too, had her work cut out for her. +</P> + +<P> +"Now," she ran on, her voice stirring him with the ringing note in it, +"I can make a go of it—if they will just let me alone! I am playing +close to the table, Lee, close! I have a little money in the bank, +enough to run along for two or three months, that's all. I said that +dad left no cash. I didn't mention his insurance." Her eyes grew +suddenly wet but she did not avert them from Lee's face, going on +quietly: "That was ten thousand dollars. Close to seven thousand had +to go for his current obligations. I have about two thousand to run +on." +</P> + +<P> +"Close hauled," grunted Lee. And to himself, he remarked as he had +remarked once before: "She's got her sand." +</P> + +<P> +Quite naturally Bud Lee thought swiftly of his horses. He had told +Trevors that he wanted to make no sale for at least six months. Given +until then—if Judith could make a go of it without forcing a +sale—he'd show her the way to at least seven or eight thousand, with a +good percentage of clear profit. +</P> + +<P> +"To begin with," Judith's voice interrupted his musings, "I am going to +have trouble with Carson. I admit that he's an exceptionally good +cattle foreman; I admit, too, that he has his limitations. He is of +the old school, and has got to learn something! Already he has his +weather-eye cocked for the lean season; he'll be coming to me in August +or September, telling me I've got to begin selling. That's the way +they all do! And the result is that beef cattle drop and the market +clogs with them. What I am going to do is make Carson start in buying +then. Oh, he'll buck like one of his own red bay steers but he'll buy!" +</P> + +<P> +"We're pretty well stocked up," Lee offered gently. "Turning the hills +over to the hogs makes a difference, too. We're going to be short of +feed long before September is over." +</P> + +<P> +"Short of range feed, yes," she retorted warmly. "But we're going to +put our trust in our silos, Lee, and make them do such work for us as +they have never done before. Then, when other folks are forced to sell +off for what they can get, we'll hold on and buy. We won't sell before +December or January, when the market is up." +</P> + +<P> +He shook his head. Though not of the old school which had produced +Carson, still he put little faith in those tall towers into which +alfalfa and Indian corn were fed to make lush fodder. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know a whole lot about silos," he admitted. +</P> + +<P> +"Neither does Carson," said Judith. "He looks at such things as silos +and milking-machines and tractors and fences even as the old Indians +must have looked at the inroads of the white men. But, do you know +where he has been these last few days?" +</P> + +<P> +"In San Francisco? Heard him say he was going to take a few days off." +</P> + +<P> +Judith laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"That's Carson for you! He wouldn't admit where he was going. I sent +him down to Davis where the State experimental farm and laboratories +are. He's going to see silo, study silo, think silo until he gets a +new idea into his head. I have ordered a big extension in our +irrigated area, I have begun the construction of two more silos. When +Carson gets back he's going to look around for some more shorthorns at +bargain prices. I have an idea it wouldn't do you any harm either, to +look over what we are doing down at the Lower End." +</P> + +<P> +Again she paused. Then, her eyes suddenly darkening, she told him +what, after all, lay top-most in her mind. +</P> + +<P> +"I have said that if I am given the chance, I can make a go of this. +It's up to you, Bud Lee, to help see that I get that chance. An +attempt was made to spread the lung-worm through my calves. Now it's +the hogs. Do you know what the latest news is from the pens? There's +cholera among them." +</P> + +<P> +"Where did it come from?" he demanded. "Tripp's been keeping the +health of our stock up right along." +</P> + +<P> +"Where did it come from?" Judith repeated after him. "That's what I +don't know. We've been so careful. But where did the calf sickness +come from? Bayne Trevors imported it." +</P> + +<P> +The inference was clear. He stared at her with frowning eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't see how he could have done it without Tripp's getting on to +it. He hasn't bought any new hogs." +</P> + +<P> +"But you understand now why I wanted to talk to you? If I win out in +the thing I have taken on my shoulders, it is going to be by a close +margin. I've thought it all out. We can't slip up in a single deal! +But, it's up to you to give me a hand. To find out for yourself such +things as where did the cholera come from! And to look out, that the +next time they don't burn us out, when the range is dry. To see that +nothing happens to your horses. To keep your two eyes wide open. To +help me find the man, working with us right now, who is double-crossing +us, who turned Shorty loose, who is watching a chance to do his knife +act again somewhere else. Do you get me, Bud Lee?" +</P> + +<P> +"I get you," replied Lee. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +From without, gay voices, calling merrily, interrupted them. Lee went +swiftly to the door while Judith finished her coffee and pulled her +broad hat a little lower to throw its shadow in her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Ahoy, there!" It was Pollock Hampton's voice. "We saw your horses +and thought we'd catch you picnicking. Got a fire going, too! Say, +that's bully. Come ahead, Marcia." +</P> + +<P> +Marcia, a long riding-habit gathered in one hand, her cheeks flushed +with her ride, her eyes bright as they rested upon the tall form in the +doorway, came on behind Hampton. As the eyes of the two girls met, a +sudden hot flush flooded Judith's cheeks. She hated herself for it; +she wondered just how red her eyes were. +</P> + +<P> +"Say, Judith," called Hampton, "I'm glad as the dickens we found you. +Sawyer, the sheriff, telephoned just now. Said to tell you he'd +located Quinnion. The funny part of it is that we made a mistake. It +wasn't Quinnion at all that tried to shoot you and Bud up the other +night." +</P> + +<P> +"How's that?" demanded Lee. "Who says it wasn't?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sawyer. Found Quinnion at a sheepman's place thirty or forty miles +north of here. The sheepman swore Quinnion had been with him two +weeks, was with him that night." +</P> + +<P> +"A sheepman <I>can</I> lie," grunted Lee. +</P> + +<P> +Judith's brief moment of confusion passed, she ushered Marcia into the +cabin. True to her promise, Miss Langworthy, though she flashed a +quick look toward Lee, did not speak to him. He found himself flushing +quite as hotly as Judith had done. +</P> + +<P> +"We've just finished our lunch," Judith was saying. "And we've left +you half of our coffee." +</P> + +<P> +"I've been simply dying to see this place!" cried Marcia impetuously. +"I told Pollock that it was a sure sign he didn't love me any more if +he wouldn't bring me. And you and—and one of the men," her eyes on +Judith's, "actually were in here, being shot at! Judith, dear, you are +just the bravest girl in the world. If I'd been here I'd have simply +died. I know I would." +</P> + +<P> +Perhaps she would. At any rate she shuddered delightfully. She found +a bullet-hole in the door and put a pink forefinger into it, giving a +second little shiver. She managed to keep her back full upon Lee. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, by the way," said Hampton, busy opening the parcel of lunch they +had brought with them, "Marcia's heard all about you, Bud. You said +you wanted to meet Lee, Marcia. Well, here he is, tall and handsome in +a devilish reckless way, looking at the dimple at the back of your +neck. Miss Langworthy, Mr. Lee. Judith, that coffee smells good!" +</P> + +<P> +"You are a naughty little boy, Pollock," said Miss Langworthy coolly. +Nevertheless she turned smiling to Lee and put out her hand to him. +"Mr. Hampton really makes quite a hero of you," she said composedly. +"I think I have seen you—from a distance, you know." +</P> + +<P> +The small whiteness of her hand was swallowed up in the lean brown of +his. +</P> + +<P> +"Hampton's a prevaricator," he said gravely, as he looked down into the +merry blue eyes turned up to him. "But he's a gentleman I have to +thank for the introduction. I am very happy to know you, Miss +Langworthy." +</P> + +<P> +"And now," cried Marcia, slipping her hand out of Lee's and going to a +chair near the table, "do tell me all about that terrible, terrible +night. But do you think we are quite safe here now, Mr. Lee?" +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +To herself Judith was saying: "Just the type to be Bud Lee's ideal +lady!" +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +When they left the cabin, an hour later, Judith challenged Hampton to a +ride and so left Marcia and Bud Lee to follow leisurely. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap16"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XVI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +POKER FACE AND A WHITE PIGEON +</H3> + + +<P> +Mrs. Simpson had made a discovery. It was epoch-marking! It was +tremendous. Nothing short of that! So, at the very least, Mrs. +Simpson was prepared to maintain stoutly in the face of possible +ridicule. +</P> + +<P> +Though, as Judith's housekeeper, she had sufficient household duties on +her plump shoulders to send a less doughty woman creeping wearily to +bed with the chickens, she found time before the dawn and long after +nightfall to keep her eye upon that Black Spanish and his recruit and +treacherous ally, Fujioki. +</P> + +<P> +One morning, very early, Mrs. Simpson, from the thick curtains of the +living-room, saw José "prowling around suspicious-like in the +courtyard!" She thrilled at the sight. She always thrilled to José. +The half-breed had gone silently, "sneaking-like," by Judith's outer +door. He had paused there, listening. He had gone back to the +courtyard, hesitating, pretending that he was looking at the roses! +Such a ruse on the part of so black-hearted a villain inspired in the +scarcely breathing Mrs. Simpson a vast disgust. As if he could fool +<I>her</I> like that, pottering around among the roses! +</P> + +<P> +She, too, sought to move silently in his wake, though under her ample +weight the veranda creaked audibly. Still, making less noise than +usual, she peered through the lilacs. She saw José at the base of the +knoll, going swiftly toward the stables. She saw another man who, +evidently, was a third of the "gang," and who, of course, had risen +early to creep out of the men's bunkhouse before the others were awake, +to meet José. Screening herself behind the lilacs, her heart throbbing +as it had not done for many a long year, she watched. +</P> + +<P> +José and the other man did meet. José stopped. The two exchanged a +few words, too low for Mrs. Simpson to hear at that distance. But she +made out that the other man had something in his hand, something white. +A pigeon! For, suddenly released, it fluttered out of the man's hands +and, circling high above Mrs. Simpson's head, flew to join the other +birds cooing on the housetop! +</P> + +<P> +"A carrier-pigeon!" gasped Mrs. Simpson. "Taking a message to the +other cutthroats!" +</P> + +<P> +From that instant there was no doubt in her mind. This fitted in too +well with her many suspicions not to be the clew she had sought long +and unceasingly. +</P> + +<P> +José went on, the man from the bunk-house went back into it, and Mrs. +Simpson fled to the house and hastened excitedly to Judith's room. +Judith, rudely awakened, came hurriedly to her door in her +dressing-gown, her eyelids heavy with sleep. When she heard, she +laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"You dear old goose!" cried Judith joyously. "I just love you to +death. You put fresh interest into life." +</P> + +<P> +Despite Mrs. Simpson's earnest protests, Judith hugged her and pushed +her out again, saying that since she was awake now she would want her +breakfast just as soon as she could get it. The housekeeper shook her +head and retreated heavily. +</P> + +<P> +"You've got to show some folks a man cutting their throats," she +muttered to herself, "before they'll believe it. It is a +carrier-pigeon and I know it. And that Black Spanish—ugh! He makes +my blood curdle, just to look at him!" +</P> + +<P> +"Carrier-pigeons!" laughed Judith, as she began a hurried dressing. +"The dear old goosie! And poor old José. She'll get something on him +yet. I wonder why she——" +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly Judith broke off. She was standing in front of a tall mirror, +still only half-dressed. As she looked into the bright face of the +smiling girl in the glass, a sudden change came. Pigeons! Doc Tripp +had said that Trevors had got them; had remarked on the incongruity of +a man like Trevors caring for little cooing birds. It was rather odd. +Carrier-pigeons—carrier—— +</P> + +<P> +Judith whipped on her dressing-gown again and, slipperless, her warm, +bare feet pat-patting upon the cold surfaces of the polished floors, +she ran to the office. +</P> + +<P> +"Send José to me," she called to Mrs. Simpson. "In the office. I want +him immediately." +</P> + +<P> +A warm glow came into Mrs. Simpson's breast. With a big kitchen poker +behind her broad back, she hastened out to call José. Judith, at the +telephone, called for Doc Tripp. +</P> + +<P> +"Come up immediately," she commanded, "prepared to make a test for +hog-cholera germs, Doc. No, I am not sure of anything, but I think I +begin to see where it came from and how. Hurry, will you?" +</P> + +<P> +To José she said abruptly: +</P> + +<P> +"Go down to the men's quarters, José. Tell Carson and Lee to come +right up." And as José turned to go, she added carelessly: "Seen any +of the men yet?" +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Si, señorita</I>," answered José. "Poky Face is up." +</P> + +<P> +"Poker Face? All right, José. The others will be about, then." +</P> + +<P> +José took little more time for his errand than for his elaborate bow. +Carson and Lee came promptly, Carson a score of steps in advance, for +Lee had tarried just long enough to wash his face and brush his hair; +Carson had not. +</P> + +<P> +"Tell me," demanded Judith, looking at her cattleman with intent +eagerness, "what do you know about Poker Face?" +</P> + +<P> +"One of the best men I've got," answered Carson heartily. +</P> + +<P> +"Square, you think?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. If I didn't think so he'd have been on his way a long time ago." +</P> + +<P> +"How long has he been here? Who took him on?" +</P> + +<P> +"Trevors hired him. About the same time he hired me." +</P> + +<P> +Bud Lee, entering then, wondered what new thing was afoot. He glanced +down and saw a bare foot peeping out from the hem of Judith's heavy red +robe; he saw the hair tumbled in a glorious brown confusion over her +shoulders. She was amazingly pretty this way. +</P> + +<P> +"I want you two men to just stick around until I send for you again," +said Judith, her eyes upon Carson alone, a little pink, naked foot +suddenly withdrawn and tucked somewhere under her in her chair. "And +keep your eyes on Poker Face. Keep him here, too, Carson. By the way, +did any of you boys come in late last night? Or early this morning?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, no," answered Carson slowly. "An' yes. None of the reg'lar +boys, but a man from down the river, looking for a job. Heard we was +short-handed. Blew in early. Just got in a few moments ago, Poker +Face said." +</P> + +<P> +Quick new interest flew into Judith's eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Keep him here, too!" she cried. "And I'll give you something to do +while you wait: bring me all the pigeons you can get your hands +on—white ones. Shoot them if you have to. And be careful you don't +rub the dust off their feet." +</P> + +<P> +Carson's eyes went swiftly to Bud Lee's. In Carson's mind there was a +quick suspicion: The strain of life on the ranch was proving too much +for a girl, after all. +</P> + +<P> +Judith, reading his thought, turned up her nose at him and, seeking to +keep her feet hidden as she walked by sagging a little at the knees, +went to the door. Turning there, she saw in Lee's eyes the hint of a +smile, a very approving, admiring smile. +</P> + +<P> +"Impudent!" she cried within herself. Looking very tiny, her knees +bent so that her robe might sweep the floor, she continued with all +possible dignity to the hallway. Once there, she ran for her room, her +gown fluttering widely about her. In her room, though she dressed +hurriedly, she still took time for a long and critical examination of +two rows of little pink toes. +</P> + +<P> +"Just the same," she said to the flushed Judith in the mirror, "they +are very nice feet—Bud Lee, I'd just like to make you squirm one of +these days. You're altogether too—too—oh, scat, Judy. What's the +matter with you?" +</P> + +<P> +In less than half an hour Doc Tripp, showing every sign of a hurried +toilet, rode into the courtyard. He came swiftly into the office, bag +in hand. Judith, waiting impatiently for him, lost no words in telling +him her suspicions. And Doc Tripp, hearing her out, swore softly and +fluently, briefly asking her pardon when he had done. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm a jackass," he said fervently. "I always knew I was a fool, but I +didn't know that I was an idiot! Why, Judy, those damned pigeons have +been sailing all over the ranch, billing and cooing and picking up and +toting cholera germs. Any fool can see it now. I might have known +something was up when Trevors bought the infernal things. It's as +simple as one, two, three. Now this other jasper, pretending to look +for a job, brings on some more of them, so that the disease will spread +the faster. Let me get my two hands on him, Judith. For the love of +God, lead me to him." +</P> + +<P> +But, instead, she led him to the dozen white pigeons which Carson +brought in. +</P> + +<P> +Tripp, all business again, improvised his laboratory, washed the +pigeons' feet, made his test, with never another curse to tell of his +progress. Judith left him and went into the courtyard, where, in a +moment, Carson came to her. +</P> + +<P> +"You better tell me what's up," he said sharply. "I know something is. +That new guy that just come in is darned hard to keep. Just as quick +as I grab a shotgun an' go to shooting pigeons he moseys out to the +corrals an' starts saddling his horse." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't let him go!" +</P> + +<P> +Carson smiled a dry, mirthless smile. +</P> + +<P> +"Bud is looking out for him right now," he explained. "Don't you worry +none about his going before we say so. But I want to know what the +play is." +</P> + +<P> +Judith told him. Carson shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"Think of that?" he muttered. "Why, a man that would do a trick like +that oughtn't to be let live two seconds. Only," and he wrinkled his +brows at her, "where does Poker Face come in? We ain't got no call to +suspicion he's in on it." +</P> + +<P> +"You watch him, just the same, Carson. We know that somebody here has +been working against us. Some one who turned Shorty loose. Maybe it +isn't Poker Face, and maybe it is." +</P> + +<P> +"He plays a crib game like a sport an' a gentleman," muttered Carson. +"He beat me seven games out'n nine last night!" And, still with that +puzzled frown in his eyes, he went to watch Poker Face and the new man. +To have one of the men for whom he was responsible suspected hurt old +Carson sorely. And Poker Face, the man with whom he delighted to play +a game of cards—it was almost as though Carson himself had come under +suspicion. +</P> + +<P> +"You're going to stick around just a little while, stranger," Bud Lee +was saying quietly to a shifty-eyed man in the corral. "Just why, I +don't know. Orders, you know." +</P> + +<P> +"Orders be damned," snarled the newcomer. "I go where I please and +when I please." +</P> + +<P> +He set a foot to his stirrups. A lean, muscular hand fell lightly upon +his shoulder and he was jerked back promptly. Lee smiled at him. And +the shifty-eyed man, though he protested sharply, remained where he was. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-202"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-202.jpg" ALT="A lean, muscular hand fell lightly upon his shoulder and he was jerked back promptly." BORDER="2" WIDTH="390" HEIGHT="613"> +<H3> +[Illustration: A lean, muscular hand fell lightly upon his shoulder <BR> +and he was jerked back promptly.] +</H3> +</CENTER> + +<P> +A thin, saturnine man whose lips never seemed to move, a man with +dead-looking eyes into which no light of emotion ever came, watched +them expressionlessly from where he stood with Carson. It was Poker +Face. +</P> + +<P> +"No," Poker Face answered, to a sharp question from the persistent +Carson. +</P> + +<P> +"Sure, are you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +At last word came from Judith. Carson and Lee were to bring both of +the suspected men to the house. Doc Tripp, wiping his hands on a +towel, his sleeves up, bestowed upon the two of them a look of +unutterable contempt and hatred. +</P> + +<P> +"You low-lived skunks!" was his greeting to them. +</P> + +<P> +"Easy, Doc," continued Judith from her desk. "That won't get us +anywhere. Who are you?" she demanded of the man standing at Lee's side. +</P> + +<P> +"Me?" demanded the man with an assumption of jauntiness. "I'm Donley, +Dick Donley, that's who I am!" +</P> + +<P> +"When did you get here?" +</P> + +<P> +"'Bout an hour ago." +</P> + +<P> +"What did you come for?" +</P> + +<P> +"Lookin' for a job." +</P> + +<P> +"Did Carson say he hadn't anything for you?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, he didn't. You're askin' a lot of questions, if you want to +know," he added with new surliness. +</P> + +<P> +"Then why are you going in such a hurry? Don't you like to see any one +shoot pigeons?" +</P> + +<P> +Donley stared back at her insolently. +</P> + +<P> +"Because I didn't fall for the crowd," he retorted bluntly. "An', if +you want to know, because I didn't hanker for the job when I found out +who was runnin' it." +</P> + +<P> +"Meaning me? A girl? That it?" +</P> + +<P> +"You guessed it." +</P> + +<P> +"Who told you that I was running the outfit?" she demanded suddenly, +her eyes hard on his. "You must have found that out pretty soon! Who +told you?" +</P> + +<P> +Donley hesitated, his eyes running from her to the other faces about +him, resting longest upon the expressionless, dead-looking eyes of +Poker Face. +</P> + +<P> +"What difference does it make who told me?" he snapped. +</P> + +<P> +"Answer me," she commanded. "Who told you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said Donley, "he did. Poker Face told me." +</P> + +<P> +"Who told you that his name was Poker Face?" Judith shot the question +at him. +</P> + +<P> +Donley moved a scuffling foot back and forth, stirring uneasily. That +he was lying, no one there doubted; that he was but a poor liar after +all was equally evident. +</P> + +<P> +"You ain't got no call to keep me here," he said at last. "I ain't +goin' to answer questions all day." +</P> + +<P> +"You'll answer my questions if you don't want me to turn you over to +Emmet Sawyer in Rocky Bend!" she told him coolly. "How did you know +this man was called Poker Face? Did you know him before?" +</P> + +<P> +Donley's eyes went again, furtive and swift, to Poker Face. But so did +all other eyes. Poker Face gave no sign. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," answered Donley then, taking refuge at last upon the solid basis +of truth. +</P> + +<P> +"Did you know this man?" Judith asked then of Poker Face, turning +suddenly on him. +</P> + +<P> +"No," said Poker Face. +</P> + +<P> +Donley, having guessed wrong, flushed and dropped his head. Then he +looked up defiantly and with a short, forced laugh. +</P> + +<P> +"Suppose I know him or don't know him," he asked with his old +insolence, "whose business is it?" +</P> + +<P> +But Judith was giving her attention to Poker Face now. +</P> + +<P> +"Where did you get that white pigeon you turned loose this morning?" +she asked crisply. +</P> + +<P> +"Caught it," was the quiet answer. +</P> + +<P> +"How?" +</P> + +<P> +"With my han's." +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"Jus' for fun." +</P> + +<P> +"Did you know that pigeons could carry hog-cholera on their feet?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. But I wouldn't have been afraid, not bein' a hawg." +</P> + +<P> +Donley tittered. Poker Face looked unconcerned. +</P> + +<P> +"Take that man Donley into the hall," Judith said to Lee. "See if he +has got any pigeon feathers sticking to him anywhere, inside his shirt, +probably. If you need any help, say so." +</P> + +<P> +Very gravely Bud Lee put a hand on Donley's shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"Come ahead, stranger," he said quietly. +</P> + +<P> +"You go to hell!" cried Donley, springing away. +</P> + +<P> +But Bud Lee's hand was on him, and though he struggled and cursed and +threatened he went with Lee into the hallway. Tripp, watching through +the open door, smiled. Donley was on his back, Lee's knees on his +chest. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll tell you one thing, stranger," Bud Lee was saying to him softly, +as his hand tore open Donley's shirt, "you open your dirty mouth to +cuss just once more in Miss Sanford's presence and I'll ruin the looks +of your face for you. Now lie still, will you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Connect me with the Bagley ranch," Judith directed the Rocky Mountain +operator. "That's right, isn't it, Doc?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," answered Tripp. "That's the nearest case of cholera." +</P> + +<P> +"Hello," said Judith when the connection had been established. "Mr. +Bagley? This is Judith Sanford, Blue Lake ranch. I've got a case of +hog-cholera here, too. I want some information." +</P> + +<P> +She asked her questions, got her answers. Triumphantly she turned to +Tripp. +</P> + +<P> +The Bagley ranch, though a hundred miles away, was the nearest +cholera-infected place of which Tripp had any knowledge. Bagley did +have a flock of pigeons; a man, a month or so ago, had bought two dozen +from him; the man wasn't Trevors. Bagley didn't know who he was. The +same man, however, had shown up three days ago and had asked for +another half-dozen of the birds. There had been three white pigeons +among them. He was a shifty-eyed chap, Bagley said, old brown suit, +hat with a rattlesnake skin around the crown. That, point for point, +spelled Donley. +</P> + +<P> +Lee returned with the shirt which he had ripped from his prisoner's +back. Adhering to the inside of it were little, downy feathers and +three or four larger feathers from a pigeon's wing. +</P> + +<P> +"I guess he rode mostly at night, at that," concluded Lee. "A great +little fat man you must have looked, stranger, with six of those +birdies in your shirt." +</P> + +<P> +Donley's face was a violet red. But a glance from Lee shut his mouth +for him. Poker Face, still looking on, gave no sign of interest. +</P> + +<P> +"Put him in the grain-house," said Judith, her eyes bright with anger. +"And see that he doesn't go Shorty's trail. Poker Face, have you +anything else to say for yourself?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," answered Poker Face. +</P> + +<P> +"Then," cried Judith hotly, "you can have your time right now! Donley, +here, I'll prosecute. He's going to pay for this morning's work. I've +got nothing on you. It's up to you to see that I don't get it! And +you can tell Shorty for me—yes, and Quinnion too, and Bayne Trevors, +if you like—that I am ready and waiting for your next play! And don't +forget that when San Quentin is full there's still room in Folsom." +</P> + +<P> +Judith telephoned Emmet Sawyer that she had a man for him. Lee and +Carson conducted an expostulating Donley to the grain-house and jailed +him wordlessly. Then Carson put a man on guard at the door, daylight +though it was. When all was done he filled his pipe slowly and turned +troubled eyes after Poker Face. +</P> + +<P> +"She made a mistake there, though," he said regretfully. "A better +cow-hand I never ask to see, Bud. An' you ought to see the game of +crib that man plays! Nope, Judy; you're wrong there." +</P> + +<P> +But Bud Lee, the man who did not approve of the sort of woman who did +man's work, said with unusual warmth: +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you fool yourself, Carson! She hasn't made one little misplay +yet!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap17"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XVII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +"ONCE A FOOL--ALWAYS A FOOL" +</H3> + + +<P> +Though, under the surface, life upon Blue Lake ranch was sufficiently +tense, the remaining days of June frivoled by as bright and bonny as +the little meadow-blues flirting with the field-flowers. +</P> + +<P> +Since from the very first the ranch had been short-handed, the hours +from dawn to dusk were filled with activity. Carson, who, true to +Judith's expectations, had brought back some new ideas from his few +days at the experimental farm—ideas not to be admitted by Carson, +however—bought a hundred young steers from a neighboring overstocked +range. In the lower corrals the new milking-machines were working +smoothly, only a few of the older cows refusing to have anything to do +with them. +</P> + +<P> +Tripp had succeeded in locating and getting back some of the men who +had worked long under Luke Sanford and whom Trevors had discharged. It +was a joy to see the familiar faces of Sunny Harper, Johnny Hodge, Bing +Kelley, Tod Bruce. The alfalfa acreage was extended, a little more +than doubled. Plans were made for an abundance of dry fodder to be fed +with the lush silage during the coming lean months. Bud Lee broke his +string of horses, and with Tommy Burkitt and one other dependable man +began perfecting their education, with an eye turned toward a +profitable sale in January. +</P> + +<P> +Quinnion, perforce, was left undisturbed upon the sheep-ranch whither +Emmet Sawyer had followed him. Against Bud Lee's word that he had had +a hand at the trouble at the old cabin were the combined oaths of two +of the sheepmen that he had been with them at the time. +</P> + +<P> +Hampton's guests, who had planned for a month at the ranch, stayed on. +But they would be leaving at the end of June. That is, Farris and +Rogers positively; the Langworthys, perhaps. The major was content +here, and to stay always and always, would be an unbounded joy—of +course, with little runs to the city for the opera season and for +shopping trips, and a great, jolly house-party now and then. +</P> + +<P> +The only fly in Marcia's ointment was Hampton himself. She confessed +as much to Judith. She liked him, oh, ever so much! But was that +love? She yearned for a man who would thrill her through and through, +and Hampton didn't always do that. Just after his heroic capture of +the terrible Shorty, Marcia was thrilled to her heart's content. But +there were other days when Hampton was just Pollock Hampton. If it +could only be arranged so that she could stay on and on, with no day of +reckoning to come, no matrimonial ventures on the horizon … +</P> + +<P> +"That's simple, my dear," Judith smiled at her. "When you get through +being Pollock Hampton's guest, you can be mine for a while." +</P> + +<P> +Hampton was now a great puzzle to Mrs. Langworthy, and even an object +of her secret displeasure. Not that that displeasure ever went to the +limit of changing Mrs. Langworthy's plans. But she longed for the +right to talk to him as a mother should. For, seeking to emulate those +whom he so unstintedly admired, Bud Lee and Carson and the rest of the +hard-handed, quick-eyed men in the service of the ranch, Hampton was no +longer the careless, frankly inefficient youth who had escorted his +guests here. He went for days at a time unshaven, having other matters +to think of; he came to the table bringing with him the aroma of the +stables. He wore a pair of trousers as cylindrical in the leg as a +stove-pipe; over them he wore a pair of cheap blue overalls, with the +proper six-inch turn-up at the bottom to show the stovepipe trousers +underneath. The overalls got soiled, then dirty, then disgracefully +blotched with wagon grease and picturesque stains, and Hampton made no +apologies for them. +</P> + +<P> +Twice he left the ranch, once to be gone overnight, intending that it +should be a mystery where he went. But, since he rode the north trail +which led to the Western Lumber camp, no one doubted that he had gone +to see Bayne Trevors, in whom he still stoutly believed. +</P> + +<P> +Between the 15th and the memorable 30th of June, Bud Lee saw little of +Judith Sanford. She was here, there, everywhere; busy, preoccupied. +Marcia he talked with twice; once when they rode together while +Hampton, racing recklessly down a rocky slope for a shot at a deer got +a fall, a sore shoulder and made his debut in certain new swear-words; +once when all of the guests, with the exception of Farris, who was +painting the portrait of the stallion, Nightshade, and the major, who +had "letters to write," came out to watch the horse-breaking. This +time, introduced to Mrs. Langworthy, Lee got for his bow a remarkably +cold stare. Others might forget, here in the open, the distinction +between people of the better class and their servants—not Mrs. +Langworthy, if you please. +</P> + +<P> +Having created his imaginary woman, Lee was ripe to fall in love with +her when she came. He had thrilled to the touch of Judith's hand that +night in the cabin; his thoughts, many and many a day, centred about +the superbly alive beauty that was Judith's. The fact disturbed him +vaguely. The thought that he was very deeply interested in her in the +good old way between man and maid, never entered his stubborn head. +She was as far removed from his ideal woman as the furthermost star in +the infinite firmament. Perhaps it was this very disquiet within him, +caused by Judith, which now turned his thoughts to Marcia. +</P> + +<P> +"That's the sort of woman," he told himself stoutly. "A man's woman; +his other self, not just a pardner; the necessary other side of him, +not just the same side in a different way." +</P> + +<P> +Marcia had little, feminine ways of helplessness which turned +flatteringly to the strength of the other sex. Judith asked no man to +aid her in mounting her horse; Marcia coquettishly slipped a daintily +slippered foot into a man's palm, rising because of his strength. +</P> + +<P> +Now, when his thoughts went to Judith, Bud Lee turned them dexterously +to Marcia, making his comparisons, shaping them to fit into his pet +theory. When, days passing, he did not see Judith, he told himself +that he was going to miss Marcia when she left. When one day he came +unexpectedly upon Judith and with lips and eyes she flashed her ready +smile at him, he felt that odd stir in his blood. What a pity that a +girl like her, who might have been anything, elected to do a man's +work! When, again unexpectedly, he came another day upon Marcia riding +with Hampton, there was no quick stirring of the pulses, and he +contented himself with the thought: "Now, that is the sort of woman. A +man's woman! His other self …" and so on. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +When Judith planned a little party to mark the departure of Marcia on +the 30th of June—it wasn't definitely decided that the Langworthys +were leaving then, but at least Farris and Rogers were—the reasons +actuating her were rather more complex than Judith herself fully +realized or would have admitted. She liked Marcia; she wanted to do at +least this much for her. Living-room, dining-room, music-room, +library—they would all be cleared of the larger pieces of furniture, +the double-doors thrown open. The string band from Rocky Bend would +come. Judith would send out invitations to the nicer people there and +to the ranches hereabout. She would have a barbecue, there would be +races and the usual holiday games, then the dance. Marcia would know +nothing of it until the last day, when her eager enthusiasm would send +her a-flutter to her dressing-room. +</P> + +<P> +Unanalyzed, it was simplicity itself, this giving a farewell party to +Marcia. Under analysis, it was a different matter. The boys at the +ranch would be invited, and of course most of them would come. Bud Lee +would come. Judith would see to that, even if he should hesitate. +</P> + +<P> +Bud Lee had always been so self-possessed, had so coolly found her +lacking, that, piqued a little, Judith longed for the opportunity to +place him in an atmosphere where a little of his calm self-possession +might be snatched from him. If she could embarrass him, if she could +see the red rise under his tanned skin, she would be giving Mr. Lee a +lesson good for his soul. +</P> + +<P> +"I've got powerful little use for an affair like that," said Lee +coolly, when she told him. "Thank you, Miss Sanford, but I don't think +I'll come." +</P> + +<P> +Judith shrugged her shoulders as though it did not in the least matter +to her. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm giving it for Marcia," she said. "Do you think it would be quite +nice to her to stay away? I am afraid that she will be hurt." +</P> + +<P> +Not Judith's words, but the look in her eyes changed Lee's intentions. +</P> + +<P> +"If it's for Miss Langworthy," he said quietly, "I'll come." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The day came and Bud Lee began to regret that he had given his promise +to go to Marcia's dance. All day he was taciturn, aloof, avoiding not +only the visitors from Rocky Bend and the other ranches, but his own +fellows as well. He took no part in the races, was missing when the +blazing trenches and smell of broiling meat told that the barbecue was +in progress. He worked with his horses as he had worked yesterday, as +he would work to-morrow. With the dusk he went, not to the men's +quarters, but to the old cabin at the Upper End. +</P> + +<P> +Again and again that day he had thought of that look in Judith's eyes +when she had asked him to come for Marcia's sake. What the devil did +she mean by it? He didn't know exactly, but he did know that in its +own vague way it irritated him. Her eyes had laughed at him, they had +teased, they had told him that Judith herself wasn't wasting a single +thought upon Mr. Bud Lee, but that she had noticed his obvious interest +in Miss Langworthy. +</P> + +<P> +"Damn it," muttered Lee. "I won't go." +</P> + +<P> +But he had said that he would go, and in little things as in big ones +he was scrupulous. He would go, just to dance with Marcia and show +Miss Judith a thing or two. He felt unreasonably like taking Miss +Judith across his knee and spanking her. And he did have a curiosity +to see just what Judith would look like in a real party-dress. +</P> + +<P> +"Poor little wild Indian," he grumbled. "She's got the making of a +wonder in her, and she doesn't even know it. What's worse, doesn't +care." +</P> + +<P> +He sat with a dead cigarette between his fingers, staring at the +wind-blown flame of his coal-oil lamp. Judith was doing this as she +did everything that she set her two hands on, thoroughly and with her +whole heart and soul. In that lay the key to her character. There was +no half-way with her. When she gave, it was open-handedly, with no +reservation; where she loved or hated, it was unreservedly; if she gave +a dance it would be a dance for the countryside to remember. +</P> + +<P> +Yesterday Hampton had wondered, grinning, what he'd look like in a +dress-suit again. Hadn't had a thing on here of late but his war togs. +Whereby he called attention to his turned-up overalls, soft shirt, +battered hat, and flapping vest with the tobacco-tag hanging out. +</P> + +<P> +Bud Lee turned down the wick of his lamp, which had been smoking, and +sat staring at it another five minutes. +</P> + +<P> +"By thunder," he said softly to himself. "I'll do it." +</P> + +<P> +He shoved the bunk away from its place in the corner, opened a +trap-door in the floor and, lamp in hand, went down into the cabin's +cellar. Here was a long pine box, hooped with tin bands for shipping, +its lid securely nailed on. He set down his lamp and with shirt-sleeve +wiped off some of the accumulation of dust and spider-web. A card with +the words, "David Burrill Lee, Rocky Bend," tacked to it made its +appearance. Lee shook his head and attacked the lid. +</P> + +<P> +"It's like digging out a dead man," he muttered. "Well, we'll bury him +again to-morrow." +</P> + +<P> +It was a box of odds and ends. Clothing, a few books, a pack of +photographs, an ornate bridle, a pair of gold-chased spurs, a couple of +hats, gloves, no end of the varied articles which might have gone +hastily into such a receptacle as this from the hurried packing in a +bachelor's apartments. +</P> + +<P> +Bud Lee, with a dress-suit and the articles it demands, even to tie and +dancing-shoes, went back into the room above. +</P> + +<P> +"Like Hampton," he mused, looking at the things in his hands, "I wonder +what it'll feel like to get back into these! I'm a fool." He laughed +shortly and set to work to improvise a flat-iron to take the worst +wrinkles out of the cloth. "Once a fool, always a fool. You can't get +away from it." +</P> + +<P> +It was settled. He was going to Marcia's party. He insisted upon +calling it in his mind, "Marcia's party." And he was wondering, as he +shaved, how Judith was going to look. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap18"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XVIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +JUDITH TRIUMPHANT +</H3> + + +<P> +As Bud Lee came through the lilacs into the courtyard, he heard the +tinkle of a distant piano and the tremolo of a violin, so faint as +hardly to be distinguished above the plash and gurgle of the fountains. +The court, bathed in soft light, seemed a corner of fairyland, the +music vanishing elfin strains of some mischievous troop putting sighs +and love dreams into a sleeping maid's breast. The night was rich with +stars, warm with summer, serene with the peace of the mountains. He +was late. They were already dancing within. +</P> + +<P> +He stood a moment, looking in at the outer edge of the flood of light +which gushed through the wide doors. Behind him Japanese lanterns +hanging from a vine-covered trellis; before him flowers, bright +chandeliers, girls' dresses like fluttering, many-colored, diaphanous +butterfly wings. He had been saying to himself: "I must hurry if I +want to dance with Marcia." And something stirring restlessly within +him shoved aside the thought of Marcia and put in its stead the old +wonder: "What sort of a Judith would he see to-night?" +</P> + +<P> +He found it difficult to form any picture of her here, among these gay, +inconsequent merry-makers. Judith to him spelled a girl upon a horse, +booted, spurred, with a scarf about her neck fluttering wildly behind +her as she rode, the superb, splendid figure of a girl of the +out-of-doors, alive with the hot pioneer blood which had been her rich +inheritance, a sort of wonderful boy-girl. Remove her flapping hat, +her boots, and spurs and riding-suit, and what was left of Judith? +</P> + +<P> +Outside were half a dozen of the boys who had not mustered courage to +set foot on the polished floors, Carson and Tommy Burkitt among them. +Tommy stared at Bud Lee and his jaw dropped in amazement. Carson took +swift stock of such clothes as he had never suspected a good horse +foreman owned, and gasped faintly: +</P> + +<P> +"The damn … lady-killer!" +</P> + +<P> +But Lee had neither eyes nor thoughts for them, nor remembrance of his +own change from working garb to that of polite society. The dance came +to a lingering end, the couples throughout the big rooms strolled up +and down, clapping their hands softly or vehemently as their natures or +degree of enthusiasm dictated, and Lee forgot Marcia and sought eagerly +for a glimpse of Judith. +</P> + +<P> +Refused a second encore, the couples stood about chatting, the hum of +lively voices bespeaking eager enjoyment. There was no early chill +upon the assembly, to be dissipated as the dance wore on; the day of +festivity outdoors had thawed the thin crust of icy strangeness which +is so natural a part of such a function as this. Already it seemed +that everybody was on the most cheerful terms with everybody else. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly Lee's eyes, still seeking Judith, found Marcia. Surrounded by +a little knot of men, each of them plainly seeking to become her happy +partner for the next dance, adorably helpless as usual, Miss Langworthy +was allowing the men to fight it out among themselves. Lee moved a +little nearer to see her better. In a pale-blue gown, fluffy as a +summer cloud, her cheeks delicately flushed, a white rose like a +snowdrop in the gold of her hair, she was flutteringly happy, reminding +him of those little meadow blues that had flown palpitatingly about him +that day in the fields. And she was obviously as much at her ease +here, in an atmosphere of music and flattery, as the tiny butterflies +in their own meadows. +</P> + +<P> +Bud Lee came in, his tall form conspicuous, and went straight to +Marcia. She saw him immediately; forget herself to stare almost as +Carson had done; smiled at him brightly; waved her fan to him. +</P> + +<P> +He took her hand and told her with his eyes how pretty she was. The +delicate tint in Marcia's cheeks deepened and warmed, her eyes grew +even brighter. +</P> + +<P> +"Flatterer!" she chided him. "Are we to talk of the moth and the star +again, Mr. Lee?" +</P> + +<P> +The knot of men about her melted away. Lee stood looking down into her +upturned eyes, measuring her gentle beauty. He had thought of her as a +little blue butterfly—she was more like a wee white moth, fluttering, +fluttering … +</P> + +<P> +The music, again from a hidden distance, set feet to tapping. Marcia +plainly hesitated, flashed a quick look from Lee to the others about +them, then whispered hurriedly: +</P> + +<P> +"It's terrible of me, but——" +</P> + +<P> +And she slipped her hand into his arm, cast another searching glance +over her shoulder for a partner who had been too tardy in finding her, +and yielded to the temptation to have this first dance with "the most +terribly fascinating man there"! Lee slipped his arm about her, felt +her sway with him, and lightly they caught the beat of the dance and +lost themselves in it. And still, again and again turning away from +Marcia, he sought Judith. +</P> + +<P> +The dance over, their talk was interrupted by an excited and rather +overdignified youth with a hurt look in his young worshipping eyes, who +stiffly reminded Miss Langworthy that she had cut his dance. She was +so contrite and helpless about it that the youth's heart was touched; +she blamed herself for her terribly stupid way of always getting things +tangled up, gave him the promise of the next dance, which she had +already given to some one else, disposed of him with charming skill, +and sighed as she turned again to Lee. +</P> + +<P> +"I haven't paid my respects to our hostess," he said quietly. "Where +is Miss Sanford?" +</P> + +<P> +"She sent her excuses," Marcia told him. "Aren't we in a draft, Mr. +Lee?" +</P> + +<P> +He moved with her away from the soft current of air, a distinct +disappointment moving him to the verge of sudden anger. What business +had Judith to stay away? +</P> + +<P> +"You mean she isn't coming at all?" he asked quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no," she told him, busy with the rose in her hair, her eyes bright +on his. "Just as the dance was beginning she had to go to the +telephone. Some ranch business, I don't know what. But she sent word +she would be here immediately—I believe," and Marcia made her remark +teasingly, though she did want to know, "that a certain mysterious +gentleman who masquerades as a horse-breaker is very much interested in +Judith." +</P> + +<P> +"What makes you say a thing like that?" he asked, startled a little. +</P> + +<P> +Marcia laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"A woman's intuition, Sir Mystery!" she informed him gayly. +</P> + +<P> +"What does the woman's intuition find to be the mysterious gentleman's +interest in a certain Miss Langworthy?" he asked lightly. +</P> + +<P> +"It tells her that he likes her; that it would be fun for him to come +and play with her; that he would be kind and courteous; but that he +considers her very much as he would a foolish little butterfly!" +</P> + +<P> +Again she startled him. He looked at her wonderingly. But before he +could frame a bantering reply, Marcia had involuntarily gripped at his +arm with a look upon her face that first was sheer bewildered +astonishment, and was crying for him to look yonder. +</P> + +<P> +Judith had come. +</P> + +<P> +Across the floor, now nearly deserted, Bud Lee and Marcia stared at +her. She was coming toward them, her dainty little slippers seeming to +kiss their own reflections in the gleaming floor. It was Judith and +not Judith. It was some strange, unknown Judith. A wonderfully +gowned, transcendently lovely Judith. A Judith who had long hidden +herself, masquerading, and who now stepped forth smiling and bright and +vividly beautiful; a Judith of bare white arms, round and soft and rich +in their tender curves; a Judith whose filmy gown floated about her +like a sun-shot mist; a Judith whose skin above the low-cut corsage was +like a baby's, whose tender mouth was a red flower, whose hair was a +shimmering mass of bronze-brown, whose eyes were Aphrodite's own, +glorious, dawn-gray; a Judith of rare maidenly charm; a glorious, +palpitant, triumphant Judith. +</P> + +<P> +It might have been just because it was fitting that they should greet +their hostess so; it might have been because the men and women who saw +this new Judith were caught suddenly in a compelling current of +admiration, that above the hum of voices rose from everywhere a quick +clapping of hands as she came through the room. The color of her +cheeks deepened, her eyes flashed a joyous acknowledgment of the +greeting, and bright and cool and self-possessed she came on to Marcia. +</P> + +<P> +"Marcia, dear," she said, taking Marcia's two hands—and Bud Lee found +that even Judith's voice had taken on a new note, deeper, richer, +gladder, fraught with the quality of low music—"forgive me for being +late. I wanted to be here every little second to see you enjoy +yourself." She put her lips closer to Marcia's ear, whispering: "You +are the prettiest thing to-night I ever saw!" +</P> + +<P> +Marcia shook her head, her eyes filled with frank wonder. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't fib, Judith, dear," she answered. And, for Marcia, she was very +grave. "I know you have a glass in your room. You wonderful, +wonderful Judith!" +</P> + +<P> +Their voices were indistinct to Bud Lee. Now at the moment when she +was so rich in the splendor of her own sweet femininity he filled his +heart with her. Judith had come in the only way Judith could come, +surrendering herself utterly to the hour. +</P> + +<P> +She turned to him, no surprise at his own costume in her happy eyes, +and gave him her cool hand. A swift tremor ran through him at the +contact, a tremor which was like that of the night in the cabin, which +he could not conceal, which Judith must notice. She said something, +but he let the words go, holding only the vibrant music of the voice. +</P> + +<P> +She had stirred him, and now he did not seek a theory for a buckler; +the sight of her, the brushing of her fingers against his, made riotous +tumult in his blood. +</P> + +<P> +The first strains of a waltz joined the lure of Judith's warm +loveliness, whispering, counselling, commanding: "Take her." Marcia +gasped and stepped back, startled by the look she saw in the eyes of +this man who, having spoken no word since Judith came, put out his arms +and took her into them. Judith flashed at him a look of quick wonder. +His face was almost stern; no hint of a smile had come into his eyes. +He merely caught her to him as though she were his, and swung her out +into the whirl of dancers. +</P> + +<P> +"You are rather—abrupt, aren't you?" said Judith coolly. +</P> + +<P> +"Am I?" he asked gravely. "I don't know. It seems to me that I have +been loitering, just loitering while——" +</P> + +<P> +He didn't attempt to finish. He held Judith in his arms while for him +the room was emptied of its gay throng, the music no longer pulsed; its +beat was in the rhythm of their bodies, swaying as one. +</P> + +<P> +The dance over, she was lost to him in the crowd of men who came +eagerly to her. His eyes followed her wherever she went. A slow anger +kindled in his heart that she should let other men talk with her, that +she should suffer another man to take her in his arms. +</P> + +<P> +A number of country dances followed. He stood by the door waiting a +little before he went again to Judith. He saw Marcia across the room +beckoning to him with her fan. There was nothing to do but to go to +her. He frowned but went, still watching for Judith. Marcia wanted +him to meet some of her friends. He shook hands with Hampton, was +introduced to Rogers. Marcia explained that Mr. Lee was the gentleman +who achieved perfect wonders in the education of his horses. She +turned to introduce Farris, the artist. But Farris broke into Marcia's +words with a sudden exclamation. +</P> + +<P> +"Dave Lee!" he cried, as if he could not believe his eyes. "You! +Here!" +</P> + +<P> +"Hello, Dick," Lee answered quietly. "Yes, I'm here. I didn't know +that you were the artist fellow Hampton had brought up with him." +</P> + +<P> +Farris's hand went out swiftly to be gripped in Lee's. Marcia, +mystified, looked from one to the other. +</P> + +<P> +"You two know each other? Why, isn't that——" +</P> + +<P> +She didn't know just what it was, so stopped, looking frankly as though +she'd like to have one of them finish her sentence for her. +</P> + +<P> +"But," muttered Farris, "I thought that you——" +</P> + +<P> +"Never mind, Dick," said Lee quickly. And to Marcia's mystified +expression: "You'll pardon us a moment, Miss Langworthy? I want to +talk a little with Mr. Farris." +</P> + +<P> +His hand on the artist's elbow, Bud Lee forced him gently away. The +two disappeared into the little room off the library where José was +placing a great bowl of punch on the table. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Que hay</I>, Bud," grinned José. "Your ol' nose smell the booze damn' +queek, no?" +</P> + +<P> +He set down his bowl and went out. Farris stared wonderingly at Lee. +</P> + +<P> +"Bud, is it?" he grunted. "Breaker of horses; hired man at a dollar a +day——?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ninety dollars a month, Dick," Lee corrected g him, with a short +laugh. "Give a fellow his true worth, old-timer." +</P> + +<P> +Farris frowned. +</P> + +<P> +"What devil's game is this!" he demanded sharply. "Isn't it enough +that you should drop out of the world with never a word, but that you +must show up now breaking horses and letting such chaps as Mrs. +Simpson's Black Spanish chum with you? Not a cursed word in five +years, and I've lain awake nights wondering. When you went to +smash——" +</P> + +<P> +"When a Lee goes to smash," said Bud briefly, "he goes to smash. +That's all there is to it." +</P> + +<P> +"But there was no sense, no use in your dropping out of sight that +way——" +</P> + +<P> +"There was," said Lee curtly, "or I shouldn't have done it. It wasn't +just that I went broke; that was a result of my own incompetence in a +bit of speculation and didn't worry me a great deal. But other things +did. There were a couple of the fellows that I thought were friends of +mine. I found out that they had knifed me; had helped pluck me to +feather their own nests. It hurt, Dick; hurt like hell. Losing the +big ranch in the South was a jolt, I'll admit; seeing those fellows +take it over and split it two ways between them, sort of knocked the +props out from under me. I believed in them, you see. After that I +just wanted to get away and sort of think things over." +</P> + +<P> +"You went to Europe?" +</P> + +<P> +"I did not. I don't know how that report got out, but if people chose +to think I had gone to take a hand in the fighting over there, I saw no +need to contradict a harmless rumor. I took a horse and beat it up +into the coast mountains. I tell you, Dick, I wanted to think! And I +found out before I was through thinking that I was sick of the old +life, that I was sick of people, the sort of people you and I knew, +that there was nothing in the world but horses that I cared the snap of +my finger about, that the only life worth living—for me—was a life in +the open. I drifted up this way. I've been living my own life in my +own way for five years. I am happier at it than I used to be. That's +all of the flat little story, Dick." +</P> + +<P> +"You might have let me know, it seems to me," said Farris a bit stiffly. +</P> + +<P> +"So I might," answered Lee thoughtfully. "I was going to in the first +place. But you'll remember that you were off somewhere travelling when +the bubble broke. When Dick Farris travels," and his grave smile came +back to him, "let no mad letter think that it can track him down. Then +I hit my stride in this sort of life; I grew away from the old news; +the years passed as years do after a man is twenty-five; and I just +didn't write. But I didn't forget, Dickie, old man," he said warmly, +and his hand rested on Farris's shoulder. "You can put it in that old +black pipe of yours and smoke it, that I didn't forget. Some day I +planned to hit town again, heeled you know, and remind you of auld lang +syne." +</P> + +<P> +"You are a fool, David Burrill Lee," said Farris with conviction. +"Look here: you can take a new start, pull yourself together, come +back—where you belong." +</P> + +<P> +But Lee shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"That's like the old Dick Farris I used to know," he said gently. "But +this is where I belong, Dick. I don't want to start over, I don't want +to come back to the sort of thing we knew. The only thing in the world +I do want is right here. And I don't see that it would do any good for +you to go stirring up any memories about the old Lee that was shot +'somewhere in France.'" +</P> + +<P> +When Farris had to go and claim a dance, Lee watched him with eyes soft +with affection. Then he, too, left the room and went back to the outer +door, to his old spot, looking for Judith. +</P> + +<P> +"The only thing I want is right here," he repeated softly. +</P> + +<P> +He watched Farris join Marcia and Judith. He noted the eager +excitement in Marcia's eyes, saw her turn impulsively to Farris. The +artist shook his head and left them, ostensibly going in search of his +partner. Marcia was speaking excitedly to Judith. Lee frowned. +</P> + +<P> +Once more that night he held Judith in his arms. He meant to make +amends for his brusque way with her before. But again the magic of her +presence was like a glorious mist, shutting them in together, shutting +all of the world out. They spoke little and the music had its will +with them. Judith did not know that she sighed as the dance ended. +She seemed moving in a dream as Lee led her through the door. They +were out in the courtyard, the stars shining softly down on them. In +the subdued light here he stood still, looking down into her +pleasure-flushed face. Again the insistent tremor shot down his blood. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Here in this tender light she looked to him the masterpiece of God +striving for the perfect in a woman's form. Her gown, gently stirred +by the warm breeze, seemed a part of her, elusive, alive, feminine. +The milk-white of bare throat and shoulder and rounded arm, the rise +and fall of her breast, the soft lure of her eyes, the tender smile +upon her lips, drew him slowly closer, closer to her. She lifted her +face a little, raising her eyes until they shone straight into his. +</P> + +<P> +"Judith," he said very quietly, very gravely, making her wonder at the +tone and the words to follow: "You have had your way with me to-night. +Do you understand all that means? And now—I am going to have my way +with you!" +</P> + +<P> +He caught her in his arms, crushed her to him, kissed her. Then he let +her go and stood, stern-faced, watching her. +</P> + +<P> +For a moment he thought that the hand at her side was rising to strike +him full in the face. But he did not move. +</P> + +<P> +Had such been Judith's intention, suddenly it changed. +</P> + +<P> +"So," she cried softly, "this is the sort of fine gentleman into which +a dress-suit has made Bud Lee, horse foreman! For so great an honor +surely any woman would thank him!" +</P> + +<P> +She made him a slow, graceful courtesy, and laughed at him. And so she +left him, her laughter floating back, taunting him. +</P> + +<P> +Lee watched her until she had gone from his sight. Then he turned and +went down the knoll, into the night. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap19"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XIX +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +BUD LEE SEEKS CROOKED CHRIS QUINNION +</H3> + + +<P> +Going down the knoll to the bunk-house, Bud Lee cursed himself at every +stride. He cursed Carson when the cattle foreman, turning to follow +him, addressed a merry remark to him concerning his "lady-killing +clothes." The words reminded him of Judith's and he didn't cherish the +remembrance. In the bunk-house Carson watched him curiously over his +old pipe as Lee began ripping off his dress-suit. +</P> + +<P> +"A feller called you up a while ago," said Carson, still bright-eyed +with interest but pretending that that interest had to do with the new +wall telephone recently installed. "Sandy Weaver, it was. Said——" +</P> + +<P> +"What did he want?" demanded Lee, swinging suddenly on Carson, his coat +balled up in his hand and hurled viciously under a bunk. +</P> + +<P> +"Wasn't I telling you?" Carson grunted. "What's eating you, Bud? You +ac' mighty suspicious, like a man that had swallered poison or else was +coming down with the yeller jaundice or else was took sudden an' +powerful bad with love. They all treats a man similar——" +</P> + +<P> +"Damn it," growled Lee irritably, "can't you tell me what Weaver said?" +</P> + +<P> +"Said, call him up, real pronto," replied Carson cheerfully. "Say, +Bud, where in heck <I>did</I> you get that outfit? By cripes, if I had a +regalia like that I'd be riding herd in 'em ev'ry Sunday! On the +square now——" +</P> + +<P> +But Lee wasn't listening to him and Carson knew it. He had gone +quickly to the telephone, had rung the one bell for "Central," and a +moment later was speaking with Sandy Weaver of the Golden Spur saloon. +Carson sucked at his pipe and kept his eyes on Lee's face. +</P> + +<P> +The ensuing conversation, only one side of which came to Carson, was +brief. Most of the talking was done by Sandy Weaver. Lee asked three +questions; the third a simple, +</P> + +<P> +"Sure of it, Sandy?" +</P> + +<P> +Then he jammed the receiver back upon its hook, and with no remark +continued his hurried dressing. When he had come in, his face had been +flushed; now it was suddenly red, the hot red of rage. His eyes, when +they met Carson's once, were stern, bright with the same quick anger. +When he had drawn on his working garb and stuffed his trousers into his +boots, he went to his bunk and tossed back the blanket. From the straw +mattress he took a heavy, old style Colt revolver. Carson, still +watching him, saw him spin the cylinder, slip a box of fresh cartridges +into his pocket and turn to the door. +</P> + +<P> +"Riding, Bud?" He got to his feet, stuffed his pipe into his pocket +and reached for his hat. "Care if I mosey along?" +</P> + +<P> +"What for?" asked Lee curtly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, hell, what's the use being a hawg," Carson grumbled deep down in +his brown throat. "If you're on your way to little ol' Rocky hunting +trouble, if they's going to be shooting-fun, why can't you let me in on +it?" +</P> + +<P> +Lee stood a moment framed in the doorway, frowning down at Carson. +Then he turned on his heel and went out, saying coolly over his +shoulder: +</P> + +<P> +"Come on if you want to. Quinnion's in town." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +As their horses' hoofs hammered the winding road for the forty miles +into Rocky Bend the two riders were for the most part silent. All of +the explanation which Lee had to give, or cared to give, was summed up +in the brief words: +</P> + +<P> +"Quinnion's in town." +</P> + +<P> +To Judith, Lee had said that night they fought together at the Upper +End that he had recognized Quinnion's voice; "I played poker with that +voice not four months ago." That he had had ample reason to remember +the man as well, he had not gone on to mention. But Carson knew. +</P> + +<P> +Carson had sat at Lee's left hand that night, across the table from +Chris Quinnion, and had seen the look of naked hatred in two pairs of +eyes when Lee had risen to his feet and coolly branded Quinnion as a +crook and a card sharp. For a little the two men had glared at each +other, their muscles corded and ready, their eyes alert and suspicious, +their hands close to their pockets. Then Quinnion had sneered in that +evil voice of his: "You got the drop on me this time. Look out for the +next." He too had risen and with Lee's eyes hard upon him had gone out +of the room. And Carson had been disappointed in a fight. But +now—now that Bud Lee in this mood was going straight to Rocky Bend and +Quinnion, Carson filled his deep lungs with a sigh of satisfaction. +Life had grown dull here of late; there wasn't a fresh scar on his +battered body. +</P> + +<P> +Though the railroad had at last slipped through it, Rocky Bend was +still a bad little town and proud of its badness. To the northeast lay +the big timber tracts into which the Western Lumber Company was tearing +its destructive way; only nine miles due west were the Rock Creek +mines, running full blast; on the other sides it was surrounded by +cattle ranges where a lusty brood of young untamed devils were +constrained to give themselves soberly to their work during the long, +dusty days. But at night, always on a Saturday evening, there came +into Rocky Bend from lumber-camps, mines, and cow outfits a crowd of +men whose blood ran red and turbulent, seeking a game of cards, a +"whirl at the wheel," a night of drinking or any other amusement which +fate might vouchsafe them. Good men and bad, they were all hard men +and quick. Otherwise they would not have come into Rocky Bend at all. +</P> + +<P> +Lee and Carson riding out of the darkness into the dim light of the +first of the straggling street-lamps, passed swiftly between the rows +of weather-boarded shacks and headed toward the Golden Spur saloon. +</P> + +<P> +Though the hour was late there were many saddle-ponies standing with +drooping heads here and there along the board sidewalks; from more than +one barroom came the gay ragtime of an automatic piano or the scrape +and scream of a fiddle. Men lounged up and down the street, smoking, +calling to one another, turning in here or there to have a drink or +watch a game. +</P> + +<P> +The two newcomers, watching each man or group of men, rode on slowly +until they came to the building on whose false front was a gigantic +spur in yellow paint. Here they dismounted, tied their horses, and +went in. Carson, with a quick eye toward preparedness for what might +lie on the cards, looked for Lee's gun. It wasn't in his pocket; it +wasn't in his waistband, ready to hand. It wasn't anywhere that Carson +could see. At the door he whispered warningly: +</P> + +<P> +"Better be ready, Bud. Ain't lost your gun, have you?" +</P> + +<P> +Lee shook his head and stepped into the room. At the long bar were +three or four men, drinking. Quinnion was not among them. There were +other men at the round tables, playing draw, solo, stud horse. One +glance showed that Quinnion was not in the room. But there were other +rooms at the rear for those desiring privacy. Lee, nodding this way +and that to friends who accosted him, made his way straight to the bar. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello, Sandy," he said quietly. +</P> + +<P> +Sandy Weaver, the bartender, looked at him curiously. A short, heavy, +blond man was Sandy Weaver, who ran a fair house and gave his attention +strictly to his own business. Save when asked by a friend to do him a +favor, such a favor as to keep an eye on another man. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello, Bud," returned Sandy, putting out a red hand. All expression +of interest had fled from his placid face. "Come in right away, eh? +Hello, Carson. Have somethin'; on me, you know." +</P> + +<P> +Lee shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"Not to-night, Sandy," he said. "Thanks just the same." +</P> + +<P> +"Me," grinned Carson, "I'll go you, Sandy. Same thing—you know." +</P> + +<P> +Sandy shoved out whiskey-bottle and glass. Then he turned grave eyes +to Lee. +</P> + +<P> +"One of these fellers can tend bar while we talk if you want, Bud," he +offered. +</P> + +<P> +"You say Quinnion has been talking?" asked Lee. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. Considerable. All afternoon an' evening, I guess. I didn't +hear him until I called you up." +</P> + +<P> +"Then," continued the man from Blue Lake ranch, "I don't see any call +for you and me to whisper, Sandy. What did he say?" +</P> + +<P> +"Said you was a liar, Bud. An' a skeerd-o-your-life damn bluff." +</P> + +<P> +A faint, shadowy smile touched Lee's eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Just joshing, Sandy. But that wasn't all, was it?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," said Sandy, wiping his bar carefully. "There was the other word, +Bud. An'—say, Billy, tell him what Quinnion had to say down to the +Jailbird." +</P> + +<P> +Lee turned his eyes to Billy Young. Young, a cattleman from the Up and +Down range, shifted his belt and looked uncomfortable. +</P> + +<P> +"Damn if I do!" he blurted out. "It ain't none of my funeral. An' if +you ask me, I don't like the sound of that kind of talk in my mouth. +Maybe I can't find my way to church of a Sunday for staggerin' with +red-eye, but I ain't ever drug a nice girl's name into a barroom." +</P> + +<P> +"So," said Lee very quietly, "that's it, is it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said Sandy Weaver slowly, "that's it, Bud. Us boys knowed ol' +Luke Sanford an' liked him. Some of us even knowed his girl. All of +us know the sort she is. When Quinnion started his talk—oh, it's a +song an' dance about you an' her all alone in some damn cabin, trying +to crawl out'n the looks of things by accusin' Quinnion of tryin' to +shoot you up!—well, folks jus' laughed at him. More recent, somebody +must have took him serious an' smashed him in the mouth. He looks like +it. But," and Sandy shrugged his thick shoulders elaborately, "if it's +up to anybody it's up to you." +</P> + +<P> +For a moment Bud Lee, standing very straight, his hat far back, his +eyes hard and cold, looked from one to another of the men about him. +In every face he saw the same thing; their contempt for a man like +Quinnion, their wordless agreement with Sandy that it "was up to Bud +Lee." Lee's face told them nothing. +</P> + +<P> +"Where is he?" he asked presently. +</P> + +<P> +"Mos' likely down to the Jailbird," said Billy, Young. "That's where +he hangs out lately." +</P> + +<P> +Lee turned and went out, Carson at his heels, all eyes following him. +In his heart was a blazing, searing rage. And that rage was not for +Quinnion alone. He thought of Judith as he had seen her that very +night, a graceful, gray-eyed slip of a girl, the sweetest little maid +in all of the world known to him—and of how he, brutal in the surge of +love for her, had swept her into his arms, crushed her to him, forced +upon her laughing lips the kiss of his own. +</P> + +<P> +"My God," he said within himself, "I was mad. It would be a good thing +if I got Quinnion to-night—and he got me. Two of a kind," he told +himself sneeringly. +</P> + +<P> +As he made his way down the ill-lighted street, his hat drawn over his +eyes now. Bud Lee for a moment lost sight of the rows of rude +shanties, the drowsing saddle-ponies, the street-lamps, and saw only +the vision of a girl. A girl clean and pure, a girl for a man to kneel +down to in worship, a girl who, as he had seen her last, was a +fairylike creature born of music and soft laughter and starlight, a +maid indescribably sweet. In the harshness of the mood which gripped +him, she seemed to him superlatively adorable; the softness of her eyes +at the moment before he had kissed her haunted him. As he strode on +seeking Quinnion, who had spoken evil of her, he carried her with him +in his heart. +</P> + +<P> +The horrible thing was that her name had already been bandied about +from a ruffian's lips. Lee winced at that even as he had winced at the +remembrance of having been brutally rough with her himself. But what +was past was past; Quinnion had talked and must talk no more. +</P> + +<P> +"He'll start something the minute he sees you," cautioned Carson, his +own revolver loose in the belt under his coat, his hard fingers like +talons gripped about the butt. "Keep your eye peeled, Bud. Better +cool off a speck before you tie into him. You're too mad, I tell you, +for straight, quick shooting." +</P> + +<P> +Lee made no answer. Side by side the two men went on. They had left +the sidewalk and walked down the middle of the rusty, rut-gouged +street. Every man they met, every figure standing in the shadows, +received their quick, measuring looks. +</P> + +<P> +"Most likely," suggested the cattle foreman, "by now he's got drunk an' +gone to sleep it off." +</P> + +<P> +But Lee knew better than that. Quinnion wasn't the sort that got +drunk. He'd drink until the alcohol stirred up all of the evil in his +ugly heart; then he'd stop, always sure of his eye and his hand. It +was far more likely that with a crowd of his own sort he was gambling +in the card-room of the Last Chance saloon, the Jailbird saloon as +"white" men called it. For there was an ill-famed hang-out at the far +end of the straggling town, just at the edge of the Italian settlement, +that of late had come to be frequented by such as Quinnion; men who +were none too well loved by the greater part of the community, men who, +like Quinnion, had served time in jail or penitentiary. Black Steve, +who was both proprietor and bartender, and who looked like a low-class +Italian, though he spoke the vernacular of the country, was the god of +the "dago" quarter, the friend of those who had gotten entangled with +the law. Only last year he had killed his man in his own saloon, then +gone clear, through the combined perjury of his crowd. +</P> + +<P> +The street grew steadily gloomier, filled with shadows. In front of +the Jailbird the only light came from within and made scant war on the +lurking darkness without. Lee's ears were greeted with the crazy whine +of an old accordion, and with men's voices lifted in laughter. He +shoved the swing door open with his shoulder, Carson pushed the other +half back, and the two stood on the threshold, their eyes swiftly +seeking Quinnion. +</P> + +<P> +As though their presence had been a command for silence, a sudden hush +fell over the Jailbird. The accordion man drew out a last gasping note +and turned black round eyes upon them. Black Steve, oily and +perspiring behind his bar, caressed a heavy black mustache and looked +at them out of cold, expressionless eyes. +</P> + +<P> +The first glance had shown Lee that Quinnion was not there. At least +not in the main room, but there were the card-rooms at the rear. He +gave no sign of having felt the hostility of the many eyes turned upon +him, but went quickly down through the room, turning neither to right +nor left. +</P> + +<P> +"Hol' on there," came the big booming voice of Steve. "What you +fellers want, huh?" +</P> + +<P> +Lee gave him no answer but strode on. Carson, at Lee's heels like a +grim old dog, showed his teeth a little. Steve, striking the bar with +a heavy hand, shouted in menacing tones: +</P> + +<P> +"Hol' on, I say! Nobody goin' to break in on a play that's running in +my card-rooms. If you fellers want anything, you ask me." +</P> + +<P> +"Go ahead, Bud," said Carson jocosely. "It's only the ol' black calf +bawling same as usual." +</P> + +<P> +But Lee needed no urging. He had heard voices beyond the closed door +in front of him, among them a certain high-pitched, snarling, +indescribably evil voice which he knew. He put his hand on the knob +and found that the door was locked. With no waste of time, he drew +back a step, lifted his foot and drove his heel smashing into the lock. +Then, throwing himself forward, driving his shoulder into the door, he +burst it off its hinges. +</P> + +<P> +At last he had found Quinnion. +</P> + +<P> +Here were half a dozen men, not playing cards, but interrupted in a +quiet talk. Standing on the far side of the table was a man who was as +evil a thing to see as was his voice to hear; his face twisted, drawn +to the left side, the left eye a mere slit of malevolence, the uneven +teeth showing in an eternal, mirthless grin, a man whose hands, when +his arms were lax as now, hung almost to his knees, a man twisted +morally, mentally, and physically. +</P> + +<P> +Bud Lee had eyes only for this man. But suddenly Carson had seen +another man, seeking to screen himself behind the great, misshapen bulk +of Quinnion, and with new eagerness was crying: +</P> + +<P> +"It's Shorty, Bud! He's mine!" +</P> + +<P> +But Shorty was no man's yet. At his back was a window; it was closed +and the shade was drawn, but to Shorty it spelled safety. Head first +he went through it, tearing the green shade down, crashing through the +glass, leaving discussion behind him. With a bellow of rage Carson +went after him, forgetful in the instant that there was another matter +on hand to-night. Shorty, consigned to Carson's care and the +grain-house, had slipped away and had laughed at him. Ever since, +Carson had been yearning for the chance to get his two hands on +Shorty's fat throat. Before the smash and tinkle of falling glass had +died away Carson, plunging as Shorty had plunged, was lost to the +bulging eyes which sought to follow him, gone head first into the +darkness without. +</P> + +<P> +Lee kept his eyes hard on Quinnion's. He moved a little, so that the +wall was at his back. His coat was unbuttoned; his left hand was in +his pocket, his arm holding back his coat a little on that side. The +right hand was lax at his side, like Quinnion's. +</P> + +<P> +He had seen the other men, though his eyes had seemed to see only one +man. One of them he knew; the others he had seen. They were the sort +to be found in Quinnion's company. They were the nucleus of what was +spoken of as Quinnion's crowd. +</P> + +<P> +"Quinnion," said Lee quietly, "you are a damned dirty-mouthed liar." +</P> + +<P> +The words came like little slaps in the face. Of the four men still in +the room with Quinnion three of them moved swiftly to one side, their +eyes on their leader's face, which showed nothing of what might lie in +his mind. +</P> + +<P> +"I have taken the trouble," went on Lee coolly, when Quinnion, leering +back at him, made no reply, "to ride forty miles to-night for a little +talk with you. You are a crook and a card-cheat. I told you that once +before. You have been telling men that I am a coward and a +four-flusher. For that I am going to run you out of town to-night. Or +kill you." +</P> + +<P> +Then Quinnion laughed at him. +</P> + +<P> +"Just for that?" he jeered. "Or because I've been tellin' a true story +about you an'——" +</P> + +<P> +He didn't get her name out. Perhaps he hadn't expected to. His eyes +had been watchful. Now, as he threw himself to one side, he whipped +out his gun, dropping to one knee, his body partly concealed by the +table. At the same second Bud Lee's right hand, no longer lax, sped to +the revolver gripped under the coat at his left arm-pit. +</P> + +<P> +It was a situation by no means new to the four walls of the Jailbird +nor to the men concerned. It was a two-man fight, with as yet no call +for the four friends of Quinnion to interfere. It would take the spit +and snarl of a revolver, the flash of flame, the acrid smell of +burning-powder to switch their sympathetic watching into actual +participation. No new situation certainly for Chris Quinnion who took +quick stock of the table with its heavy top and screened his body with +it; no new situation for Steve, the big bartender who was at the +shattered door almost as Bud Lee sent it rocking drunkenly. +</P> + +<P> +Since a fight like this in a small room may end in three seconds and +yet remain a fight for men to talk of at street corners for many a day +thereafter, it is surely a struggle baffling adequate description. For +while you speak of it, it is done; while a dock ticks, two guns may +carry hot lead, and cut in two two threads of life. +</P> + +<P> +Quinnion was down and shooting, with but ten steps or less between him +and the man whom he sought to kill; Bud Lee was standing, tall and +straight, back to wall, his first bullet ripping into the boards of the +table, sending a flying splinter to stick in Quinnion's face, close to +a squinting, slitted eye; and as the two guns spoke like one, a third +from the open barroom shattered the lamp swinging from the ceiling +between Lee and Quinnion. Steve, the bartender, had taken a hand. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-252"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-252.jpg" ALT="Quinnion was down and shooting, with but ten steps . . . between him and the man whom he sought to kill." BORDER="2" WIDTH="392" HEIGHT="590"> +<H3> +[Illustration: Quinnion was down and shooting, with but ten steps …<BR> +between him and the man whom he sought to kill.] +</H3> +</CENTER> + +<P> +The card-room was plunged in darkness so thick that Lee's frowning eyes +could no longer make out Quinnion's head above the table, so black that +to Quinnion's eyes the tall form of Lee against the wall was lost in +shadow. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap20"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XX +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE FIGHT AT THE JAILBIRD +</H3> + + +<P> +As Steve fired his shot into the lamp, Bud Lee understood just what +would be Steve's next play; the bartender had given his friends brief +respite from the deadly fire of the Blue Lake man, and now would turn +his second shot through the flimsy wall itself on the man standing +there. Lee did not hesitate now, but with one leap was across the +room, avoiding the table, seeking to come to close quarters with +Quinnion and have the thing over and done with. In the bitterness +still gnawing at his heart, he told himself again that it would be no +calamity to the world if the two men who had insulted Judith Sanford +went down together. +</P> + +<P> +Again Steve fired. His bullet ripped into the wall, tearing a hole +through the partition where a brief instant ago Lee had stood. The +light out in the barroom was extinguished. In the cardroom it was +utterly, impenetrably dark now, only a vague square of lesser darkness +telling where was the window through which Shorty had fled. +</P> + +<P> +A red flare of flame from where Quinnion crouched, and Lee stood very +still, refusing the temptation to fire back. For Quinnion's bullet had +sped wide of the mark, striking the wall a full yard to Lee's left. +Quinnion's eyes had not found him, would not find him soon if he stood +quite motionless. The fight was still to be made, Quinnion's friends +would be taking a hand now, Steve had already joined issue. There were +six of them against him and with one shot fired from his heavy Colt +there were but five left. No shot to be wasted. +</P> + +<P> +A little creaking of a floorboard, a vague, misty blur almost at his +side, and still Lee saved his fire. Quickly he lifted the big +revolver, held welded to a grip of steel, throwing it high above his +head and striking downward. There was almost no sound; just the +thudding blow as the thick barrel struck a heavy mat of hair, and with +no outcry a man went down to lie still. At the same moment the dim +square of the window showed a form slipping through; one man was +seeking safety from a quarrel not his own. And as he went, there came +again a soft thudding blow and Carson's dry voice outside, saying +calmly: +</P> + +<P> +"Shorty got away, but you don't, pardner. Give 'em hell, Bud. I'm in +the play again." +</P> + +<P> +"Two men down," grunted Lee to himself with grim satisfaction. "And +old Carson back on the job. Only two to our one now." +</P> + +<P> +The form in the window crumpled and under Carson's quick hands was +jerked out. Suddenly it was very still in the little room. Steve did +not fire a third time; Quinnion held his fire. For Lee had made no +answer and they were taking heavy chances with every shot now, chances +of shooting the wrong man. Each of the four watchful men in the narrow +apartment breathed softly. +</P> + +<P> +Once more Lee lifted his gun above his head. As he held it thus, he +put out his left hand gently, inch by inch, gropingly. Extended full +length, it touched nothing. Slowly he moved it in a semi-circle, the +gun in his right hand always ready to come crashing down. His fingers +touched the wall, then moving back assured him that no one was within +reach. Lifting a foot slowly, he took one cautious step forward, +toward the spot where he had last seen Quinnion. Again his arm, +circling through the darkness, sought to locate for him one of the men +who must be very near him now. Suddenly it brushed a man's shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +There was a sharp, muttered exclamation, and again a flare of red flame +as this man fired. But he had misjudged Bud Lee's position by a few +inches, the bullet cut through Lee's coat, and Lee's clubbed revolver +fell unerringly, smashing into the man's forehead. There was a low +moan, a revolver clattered to the floor, a body fell heavily. +</P> + +<P> +"A new situation," thought Lee. Three men down before a clock could +tick off as many minutes and not a single man shot. It was a place for +a man like Charlie Miller with his old pick-handle. +</P> + +<P> +"Bud," called Carson's voice sharply, "are you all right?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," answered Lee briefly, and as he answered moved sharply to one +side so that his voice might not draw a shot from Quinnion or the other +men. There came two spurts of flame, one from each of the corners of +the room opposite him, the reports of the two shots reverberating +loudly. But this was mere guesswork—shooting at no more definite +thing than a man's voice, and Lee having moved swiftly had little fear. +And he knew pretty well where those two men were now. +</P> + +<P> +So did Carson, who from without fired in twice through the window. +Then again it grew so silent that a clock ticking somewhere out in the +barroom was to be heard distinctly, so that again the men guarded their +breathing. +</P> + +<P> +Lee thought that he knew where Quinnion was, in the corner at his right +close to the rear wall. Not square in the corner, of course, for +having fired he was fox enough to shift his position a little. True, +no sound had told of such a movement. But Quinnion could be trusted to +make no sound at a time like this. Lee, equally silent, again set a +slow foot out, moving cautiously toward the spot where his eyes sought +Quinnion in the dark. +</P> + +<P> +He was calculating swiftly now: Quinnion had fired twice from the +screen of the table just as Steve shot out the light; he had fired +again just now, it was a fair bet that at least one of the other shots +had been his. That meant that he had fired four times. If Quinnion +still carried his old six-shooter he had but two shots at most left to +him, for there had been no time which he would risk in reloading. +</P> + +<P> +Lee swept off his hat and tossed it out before him to the spot where he +believed Quinnion was and dropped swiftly to his knee as he did so. +There was a snarl, Quinnion's evil snarl, and a shot that sped high +above his head. His hat had struck Quinnion full in the face. Then +Lee again sprang onward, again struck out with his clubbed revolver. +The blow missed Quinnion's head but caught him heavily on the shoulder +and sent him staggering back against the wall. Lee could hear the bulk +of his body crashing against the boards. And again leaping, he struck +the second time at Quinnion. This time there was no snarl, but a +falling weight and stillness. +</P> + +<P> +There was a sound of a chair violently thrown down, the scuffle of +hasty feet and in the door the faint blur of a flying figure seeking +refuge in the bar. Lee flung the crippled door shut after the fugitive +and then with his left hand struck a match, his revolver ready in his +right. +</P> + +<P> +Holding the tiny flame down toward the floor, he made out two prone +bodies. One, that of the first man he had struck down, a man whom he +knew by name as Lefty Devine, a brawler and boon companion of Quinnion. +The other Quinnion himself. Devine lay very still, clearly completely +stunned. Quinnion moved a little. +</P> + +<P> +Carson's weather-beaten face peered in at the window. +</P> + +<P> +"Better do the hot foot, Bud," he grunted softly, "while the trail's +open. Steve will be mixing in again." +</P> + +<P> +But Lee seemed in no haste now. When the match had burned out, he +dropped it and slipped fresh cartridges into his gun. That done, he +stooped, gathered up Quinnion's feebly struggling body in his arms and +carried it to the window. +</P> + +<P> +"Here," he said coolly to Carson. "Take him through." +</P> + +<P> +"What the hell do you want of him?" Carson wanted to be told. "Ain't +going to scalp him, are you, Bud?" +</P> + +<P> +"Take him out," commanded Lee with no explanation. Carson obeyed, +jerking the now complaining Quinnion out hastily and unceremoniously. +Lee followed as Steve threw open the barroom door. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a new one on me, just the same," said Carson dryly as he watched +Lee stoop and gather Quinnion up in his arms. "After a little party +like this one, I'm generally travelling on an' not stopping to pick +flowers an' gather sooveneers! You ain't got cannibal blood in you, +have you, Bud?" +</P> + +<P> +While Carson was cudgelling his brains for the answer and Steve was +making cautious examination of the card-room, Lee with his burden in +his arms passed through the darkness lying at the rear of the saloon +and out into the street. Carson followed to take care of a sortie +should Steve and the rest not have had all they wanted for one night. +He chuckled, remarking to himself that Bud Lee and Quinnion were the +very picture of a young mother and her babe in arms. +</P> + +<P> +Not until they again reached the Golden Spur did Lee's burden +completely recover consciousness. Many a man on the street looked +wonderingly after them, demanded to know "what was up," and, receiving +no answer, swung in behind Carson. +</P> + +<P> +In the Golden Spur the arrivals were greeted by a heavy silence. Sandy +Weaver forgot to set out the drinks which had just been ordered by +three men who, in their turn, forgot that they had ordered. Men at the +tables playing cards put down their hands and rose or turned +expectantly in their seats. +</P> + +<P> +Lee put Quinnion down on the floor. The man lay there a moment +blinking at the lights above him and at the faces around him. At +length his eyes came to Lee. +</P> + +<P> +"Damn you," he muttered, trying to rise, and slowly getting to his feet +with the aid of a chair, "I'll get you——" +</P> + +<P> +Then Bud Lee gave his brief explanation, cutting Quinnion's ugly snarl +in two. +</P> + +<P> +"This is Quinnion's farewell party," he said bluntly. "He is a liar +and a crook and an undesirable citizen. I have told him all that +before. He took it upon himself to say about town that I am all of +those things which he is himself. I have damn near killed him for it; +I am going to give him ten minutes to get out of town. If he doesn't +do it, I am going to kill him. And in that ten minutes he is going to +find time to eat his words." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll see you in—" began Quinnion, as something of the old bluster +came back to him. +</P> + +<P> +"Shut up!" snapped Lee. "Carson, let me have your gun." +</P> + +<P> +Carson, wondering, gave it. Lee dropped it on the floor at Quinnion's +foot. +</P> + +<P> +"Pick that gun up and we'll finish what we've begun," he said coolly to +Quinnion. "I won't shoot until you've got it in your hand and have +straightened up. Then I'll kill you. Unless first you admit that you +are the contemptible liar every one knows you are, and second, get out +of town and stay out. It's up to you, Quinnion." +</P> + +<P> +Knowing Quinnion, the men moved swiftly so that they did not stand +behind either him or Lee. Sandy Weaver, shifting a few feet along his +bar, shook his head and sighed. +</P> + +<P> +"It'll be both of them," he muttered. +</P> + +<P> +Quinnion turned his head a little, his red-rimmed eyes going from face +to face, his tongue moving back and forth between his lips. For an +instant his eyes dropped to the gun at his feet, and a little spasmodic +contraction of his body showed that he was tempted to take up the +weapon. But he hesitated, and again turned to Lee. +</P> + +<P> +"It's up to you," repeated Lee. "If you're not a coward after all, +pick it up." Lee's hands were at his sides, his own revolver in his +pocket. Quinnion was tempted. The evil lights in his eyes danced like +witch-fires. Again he hesitated; but his hesitation was brief. With +his whining, ugly laugh he lurched to the bar. +</P> + +<P> +"Gimme a drink, Sandy," he commanded. +</P> + +<P> +"Neither now nor after a while," Sandy told him briefly. "I ain't +dirtyin' my glasses that-a-way." +</P> + +<P> +"There you are," jeered Quinnion, with a sullen sort of defiance. "You +swat me over the head while I ain't lookin' an' then bring me in here +where they're all your friends. If I drop you I get all mussed up with +their bullets. No, thanks." +</P> + +<P> +"For the last time," said Lee, and his low voice was ominous, "I tell +you what to do. If you don't do it, I'll kill you just the same. +You've got your chance. Count ten seconds, Sandy." +</P> + +<P> +"One," said Sandy, watching the clock on the wall, "two, three, four, +five, six, seven——" +</P> + +<P> +"Curse you!" cried Quinnion then, a look of fear at last in his eyes. +"I'll get you for this some day, Bud Lee. Now you've got me——" +</P> + +<P> +"Keep on counting, Sandy," commanded Lee. +</P> + +<P> +"Eight," said Sandy, "nine——" +</P> + +<P> +"I lied!" snapped Quinnion. "An' I'm leavin' town for a while." +</P> + +<P> +And lurching as he walked, he made his way out of the room, his eyes on +the floor, his face a burning red. +</P> + +<P> +"Carson and I are riding back to the ranch as soon as our horses rest +up and get some grain," said Lee, his fingers slowly rolling a brown +cigarette. "We'll mosey out now, see Quinnion on his way and drop back +to make up a little game of draw for a couple of hours. Strike you +about right, Billy? And you, Watson? And you, Parker?" +</P> + +<P> +They listened to him, took the cue from him, and allowed what lay +between him and Chris Quinnion to lie in silence. But there was not a +man there but in his own fashion was saying to himself: +</P> + +<P> +"It's a good beginning. But where's the end going to be?" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap21"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XXI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +BURNING MEMORY +</H3> + + +<P> +As June had slipped by, so did July and August. On Blue Lake ranch +life flowed smoothly. Men were too busy with each day's work to sit +into the nights prophesying trouble ahead. And in truth it seemed that +if Bayne Trevors had ever actively opposed the success of the Sanford +venture he had by now accepted the role of inactivity forced upon him +by circumstance. He was with the Western Lumber Company, as director +and district superintendent, seemingly giving all his dynamic force to +the legitimate affairs of the company. +</P> + +<P> +But there were those who placed no faith in the obvious. Bud Lee kept +in touch with Rocky Bend and learned that Quinnion had not come back; +that no one knew where he had gone. Carson's man, Shorty, was sought +by Emmet Sawyer and his disappearance was like that of a pricked +bubble; it seemed that Shorty had no actual physical existence or that, +if he had, he had taken it into some other corner of the world. +Quinnion's friends had also gone from Rocky Bend, like Quinnion leaving +behind them no sign to show where they had gone. +</P> + +<P> +Knowing Quinnion as he did, and having his own conception of the +character of Bayne Trevors, Bud Lee said to himself that too great a +quiet portended strife to come. If Quinnion was the man to carry in +his breast the hate that drove him to the murder of Judith's father, +then he was the man to remember the humiliation he had suffered at +Lee's hands, to remember and to strike back when the time was ripe. +</P> + +<P> +Judith had heard of the night in Rocky Bend, a lurid and wonderfully +distorted account from Mrs. Simpson, who had received it in a letter +from her daughter. +</P> + +<P> +"So that was what Bud Lee did after he kissed me!" mused Judith. +</P> + +<P> +She sent immediately for Carson and forced from him the full story. +Dismissing Carson, she remained for a long while alone. Only one +remark had she made to the cattle foreman, and that a little aside from +the issue occupying his mind: +</P> + +<P> +"Keep your weather eye open for what's in the wind," she told him +briefly. "Behind Quinnion is Trevors, and the year isn't over yet." +</P> + +<P> +The ranch was stocked to its utmost capacity. Carson had bought +another herd of cattle; Lee had added to his string of horses. The dry +season was on them, herds were moved higher up the slopes into the +fresh pastures. Carson, converted now to the silos, was a man with one +idea and that idea ensilage. Again the alfalfa acreage was extended, +so that each head of cattle might have its daily auxiliary fodder. +Carson now agreed with Judith in the matter of holding back sales for +the high prices which would come at the heels of the lean months. +</P> + +<P> +The man Donley, who had brought to the ranch the pigeons carrying +cholera, was tried in Rocky Bend. The evidence, though circumstantial, +was strong against him, and the prosecution was pushed hard. But it +was little surprise to any one at the ranch when the trial resulted in +a hung jury. The ablest lawyer in the county had defended Donley, and +finally, late in August, secured his acquittal. The man himself did +not have ten dollars in the world; the attorney taking his case was a +high-priced lawyer. Obviously, to Judith Sanford at least, Bayne +Trevors was standing back of every play his hirelings made. +</P> + +<P> +Doc Tripp had the hog-cholera in hand. And every day, out with the +live stock whose well-being was his responsibility, he worked as he had +never worked before, watchful, eager, suspicious. "If they'll drop +cholera down on us out of the blue sky," he snapped, "I'd like to know +what they won't try." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +For the first few days following the dance Bud Lee had within his soul +room but for one emotion: he had held Judith in his arms. He had set +his lips on hers. He went hot and cold with the remembrance. Being a +man, he made his man-suppositions of the emotions that rankled in her +breast. He imagined her contempt of a man who by his strength had +forced her lips to wed his; he pictured her scorn, her growing hatred. +He told himself that he should go, rid the ranch of his presence, take +his departure without a word with her. For, already, he had fitted her +into his theory of the perfect woman, lifting her high above himself +and above the human world. It was a continued insult for him to remain +here. +</P> + +<P> +But, after careful thought, he remembered what Judith had already told +him; he was one of the men whom she could trust to do her work for her, +one of the men she most needed, a man whom she would need sorely if +Bayne Trevors were lying quiet now but to strike harder, expectedly, +later. +</P> + +<P> +Judith did not dismiss him, as at first he had been sure she would. So +he stayed on, remaining away from the ranch headquarters, sleeping when +he could in the cabin above the lake, spending his days with his +horses, avoiding her but keeping her personality in his soul, her +interests in his heart. When the winter had passed, when she had made +her sales and had the money in hand for the payments upon the +mortgages, then he would go. Whereat, no doubt, the high gods smiled. +</P> + +<P> +As time passed, there came about a subtle change in the attitude of the +outfit toward Pollock Hampton, whom they had been at the beginning +prone to accept as a "city guy." It began to appear that under his +lightness there was often a steady purpose; that if he didn't know +everything about a ranch, he was learning fast; that in his outspoken +admiration of things rough and manly and primal there were certain +lasting qualities. Whereas formerly his being thrown from a spirited +mount was almost a daily occurrence, now he rode rather well. With +tanned face and hard hands, he was, as Carson put it, "growing up." +</P> + +<P> +He came to Judith one day serious-faced, thoughtful-eyed. +</P> + +<P> +"Look here, Judith," he began abruptly, "I'm no outsider just looking +on at this game. You're the chief owner and the boss and I'm not +kicking at that any longer. Your dad raised you to this sort of thing +and you have a way of getting by with it. But, on the other hand, I'm +part owner and you've got to consider me." +</P> + +<P> +Judith smiled at him. +</P> + +<P> +"What now, Pollock?" she asked. +</P> + +<P> +"You're the boss," he repeated stoutly. "But I've got a right to be +next in authority. Under you, you know. Why, by cripes, I go around +feeling as if I had to take orders from Carson or Tripp or any other of +the foremen!" +</P> + +<P> +"'By cripes' is good!" laughed Judith. "Go ahead." +</P> + +<P> +"That's all," he insisted. "You can tell them, when you get a chance, +that I am your little old right-hand man. Suppose," he suggested +vaguely, "that you left the ranch a day or so. Or even longer, some +time. There's got to be some one here who is the head when there is +need for it." +</P> + +<P> +Judith mirthfully acquiesced. Hampton's interest was sufficiently +heavy for him to be entitled to some consideration. Besides, she had +come to experience a liking for the boy and had seen in him the change +for the better which his new life was working in him. Further, she +meant to make it her business that she did not leave the ranch for a +day or so, or an hour or so, when she should be there. Consequently, +within a week Pollock Hampton was known humorously from one end to the +other of the big ranch as the Foreman-at-Large. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Marcia Langworthy, visiting in southern California, wrote brief, sunny +notes to Hampton, intricate letters to Judith. The mystery of Bud Lee +of which she had had a glimpse when the artist, Dick Farris, and Lee +recognized each other as old friends had piqued her curiosity in a way +which allowed that young daughter of Eve no rest until she had made her +own investigations. She wrote at length, telling Judith all that she +had learned of Lee. How he had been quite the rage, my dear. Oh, +tremendously rich, with great ranch in the South, a wonderful adobe +hacienda of the old Spanish days, where, like a young king, he had +entertained lavishly. How, believing in his friends, he had lost +everything, then had dropped out of the world, content equally to allow +that world to believe him soldiering in France or dead in the trenches +and to take his wage as a common laborer. Wasn't it too romantic for +anything? +</P> + +<P> +In due course, following up her letters, Marcia herself came back to +the Blue Lake ranch, Judith's guest now. The major and Mrs. Langworthy +were visiting in the East—it seemed that they always visited +somewhere—and Marcia would stay at the ranch indefinitely. Hampton +drove into Rocky Bend for her and held the girl's breathless admiration +all the way home, handling the reins of his young team in a thoroughly +reckless, shivery manner. +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't he splendid?" cried Marcia when she slipped away with Judith to +her room. +</P> + +<P> +Under the bright approval of Marcia's eyes Hampton flushed with +pleasure. Could Mrs. Langworthy have seen them together she would have +nudged the major and whispered in his ear. +</P> + +<P> +During the two months after the dance, Bud Lee and Judith had seen +virtually nothing of each other. When routine duties or a necessary +report brought them for a few minutes into each other's society there +was a marked constraint upon them. Never had the man lost the stinging +sense of his offense against her; never had Judith condescended to be +anything but cool and brief with him. While no open reference was made +to what was past, still the memory of it must lie in each heart, and +though Lee held his eyes level with hers and drank deep of the warm +loveliness of her, he told himself angrily that he was beneath her +contempt. The chivalry within him, so great and essential a part of +the man's nature, was a wounded thing, hurt by his own act. The old +feeling of camaraderie which had sprung up between them at times was +gone now; they could no longer be "pardners" as they had been that +night in the old cabin. +</P> + +<P> +He told himself curtly that he did not regret that; that now it was +inevitable that they should be less than strangers since they could not +be more than friends. That the girl was ready to forgive him, that she +had never been as harsh with him as he was himself, that there was a +golden, delicious possibility that she should feel as he did—so mad an +idea had not come to Bud Lee, horse foreman. +</P> + +<P> +A few days after Marcia's arrival there came to the ranch a letter +which was addressed: +</P> + +<P> +Pollock Hampton, Esq.,<BR> + General Manager,<BR> + Blue Lake Ranch.<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +It was from Doan, Rockwell & Haight, big stock-buyers of Sacramento, +submitting an unsolicited order for a surprisingly large shipment of +cattle and horses. The price offered was ridiculously low, even for +this season of low figures due to the fact that many overstocked +ranches were throwing their beef-cattle and range horses on the market. +So low, in fact, that Judith's first surmise when Hampton brought it to +her was that the typist taking the company's dictation had made an +error. +</P> + +<P> +Judith tossed the note into the waste-basket. Then she retrieved it to +frown at it wonderingly, and, finally, to file it. It began by having +for her no significance worthy of speculation. It soon began to puzzle +her. Finally, it faintly disturbed her. +</P> + +<P> +Here were two points of interest. First: Doan, Rockwell & Haight was +the company to which Bayne Trevors, when general manager, had made many +a sacrifice sale. Because the Blue Lake had knocked down to them +before, did they still count confidently upon continued mismanagement? +Surely they must know that the management of the ranch had changed. +And this brought her to the second point: How did it come about that +they had addressed, not her, but Pollock Hampton? Was this just a +trifle? +</P> + +<P> +Long ago Judith had told herself that she must keep her two eyes wide +open for seeming trifles. In spite of her, though she scoffed at her +"nerves," the girl had the uneasy conviction that this offer had been +prompted by Trevors; that Trevors, for purposes of his own, had given +instructions that the letter be addressed to Hampton; that this was the +first sign of a fresh campaign directed against her from the dark; that +trouble was again beginning. +</P> + +<P> +Thoughtfully she smoothed out the letter, impaling it on her file. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap22"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XXII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +PLAYING THE GAME +</H3> + + +<P> +Pollock Hampton, Foreman-at-Large, came and went on the ranch, carrying +orders, taking always a keen interest in whatever work fell to hand, an +interest of a fresh kind, in that it was born of a growing +understanding. The men grew to like him; Bud Lee tactfully sought to +acquaint him with many ranch matters which would prove of value to him. +Carson, however, grown nervous over the new method in stock-raising +still in its experimental stage, was given to take any suggestion from +Hampton in the light of a personal affront. +</P> + +<P> +"Damn him," he growled deep in his throat when Hampton had ridden out +with word to shift one of the herds into a fresh pasture, an act on +which Carson had already decided, "some day I'll just take him between +my thum' an' finger an' anni-hilate him." +</P> + +<P> +The greater bulk of the stock had been steadily shifted higher in the +hills. The hogs grazed on the slopes at the north of the Lower End; +cattle and horses had been pushed eastward to the little valleys in the +mountains about the lake. Even the plateau, where the old cabin stood, +was now stocked with Lee's prize string of horses. Then, one day +Hampton came galloping through the herds of shorthorns, seeking Carson. +</P> + +<P> +"Crowd them down to the Lower End again," he shouted above the din. +"Cut out the scrawny ones and haze the rest into the pens." +</P> + +<P> +Carson's steel-blue eyes snapped, his teeth showed like a dog's. +</P> + +<P> +"Drunk?" he sneered. "What's eating you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Do as you're told," retorted Hampton hotly. "Those are orders from +headquarters and it's up to you to obey them. Get me?" +</P> + +<P> +"If ever I do get you, sonny," grunted Carson, "there won't be enough +of you left for the dawgs to quarrel over. Orders or no orders, I +ain't going to do no such fool thing." +</P> + +<P> +Hampton reined his horse in closer, staring frowningly at the old +cattleman. The purplish color of rage mounted in Carson's tanned +cheeks. +</P> + +<P> +"You'll do what you're told or go get your time," he announced tersely. +"We've got an order for five hundred beef cows and we're selling +immediately." +</P> + +<P> +Carson's jaw dropped. +</P> + +<P> +"What?" he demanded, not quite believing his ears. "Say that again, +will you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I said it once," retorted Hampton. "Now get busy." +</P> + +<P> +"Who are we selling to? I ain't heard about it." +</P> + +<P> +"An oversight, my dear Mr. Carson," laughed Hampton, his own anger +risen. "Quite an oversight that you were not consulted. We are +selling to Doan, Rockwell & Haight. Ever heard of them?" +</P> + +<P> +"Who says we're selling?" +</P> + +<P> +"I say so. And, if you've got to have all the news, Miss Sanford says +so." +</P> + +<P> +"She does, does she? Hm-m. First I knew of it. What figger?" +</P> + +<P> +"Really, does that concern you? If the price suits me and Miss +Sanford, who own the stock, does it in any way affect you? I don't +want to quarrel with you, Carson, and I do appreciate that you are a +good man in your way. But just because you have worked here a long +time, don't make the mistake of thinking that you own the ranch." +</P> + +<P> +With that he whirled his horse, and was gone. Carson, with puckered +brows, stared after him. +</P> + +<P> +But orders were orders, and Carson though the heart was sore, barked +out his commands to his herders to turn the cattle back toward the +lower fields. He had been converted to the new way, he had grown to +dream of the fat prices his cow brutes would fetch in the winter +market, he knew that prices now were rock-bottom low, that Doan, +Rockwell & Haight were close buyers who before now had cut the throat +of the Blue Lake ranch in sacrifice sales when Bayne Trevors ran the +outfit. +</P> + +<P> +"We're standing to lose thousan's an' thousan's of dollars," he told +himself in disgust. "All we've spent on irrigation an' fences an' +silos an' ditches, all gone to heck in a han'-basket. Not counting +thousan's of more dollars lost in selling at what we can get this time +of year. It makes me sick, damn throwin'-up sick." +</P> + +<P> +Riding down a long, winding trail, out through a patch of chaparral +into a rocky gorge, Hampton turned east again toward the higher +plateau. Taking the roundabout way which led from the far side of the +lake and along the flank of the mountain to the table-land, he came to +a scattering band of horses and Tommy Burkitt. +</P> + +<P> +"Where's Lee?" called Hampton. +</P> + +<P> +Burkitt grinned at him by way of greeting, and then pointed across the +plateau to a ravine leading to a still higher, smaller, shut-in valley. +Hampton galloped on and a quarter of an hour later came up with Lee. +The horse foreman was sitting still in his saddle, his eyes taking +stock of a fresh bit of pasture into which he planned turning his +horses a little later. It was one of a dozen small meadows on the +mountain creeks where the cañon walls widened out into an oval-shaped +valley, less than a half-mile long, where there was much rich grass. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello, Hampton," called Lee pleasantly. "What's the word?" +</P> + +<P> +The perspiration streaming down Hampton's face had in no way dampened +his ardor. +</P> + +<P> +"Big doings," he cried warmly. "We're cutting loose, Bud, at last and +piling up the shining ducats! You're to gather up a hundred of the +most likely cayuses you've got and shove them down to the Lower End. +We're selling pretty heavily to Doan, Rockwell & Haight." +</P> + +<P> +A new flicker came into Lee's eyes. Then they went hard as polished +agate. +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't quite get you, Hampton," he said softly. "You say we're +selling a hundred horses? Now?" +</P> + +<P> +Hampton nodded, understanding nothing of what lay in Lee's heart. +</P> + +<P> +"On the jump, just as fast as we can get them on the run," he said +triumphantly. "Judith wanted me to tell you." +</P> + +<P> +"I see," answered Lee slowly. +</P> + +<P> +His eyes left Hampton's flushed face and went to the distant cliffs. +It was no way of Bud's to hide his eyes from a man, and yet now he did +hide them. He did not want Hampton to see what they showed so plainly, +in spite of his attempt to master his emotion. He was hurt. Long ago +he had offended Judith, and she had waited until now to repay his rude +insult with this cool little slap in the face. She had not consulted +him, she had not mentioned a sale to him, and now she sent Hampton and +did not even come to him with a word of explanation. It was quite as +if she had said: +</P> + +<P> +"You are just a servant of mine, like the rest, Bud Lee, and I treat +you accordingly." +</P> + +<P> +Until Judith had come, there had been nothing that this man loved as he +did his work among his horses. He watched them as day after day they +grew into clean-blooded perfection; he appraised their values; he saw +personally to their education, helping each one of them individually to +become the true representative of the proudest species of animal life. +Had he turned his eye now to the herd down yonder he could have seen +the animal he had selected for a brood-mare next year, the +three-year-old destined to draw all eyes as he stepped daintily among +the best of the single-footers in Golden Gate Park, the rich red bay +gelding that he would mate for a splendid carriage team.… Oh, he +knew them all like human friends, planned the future for each, the sale +of each would be no sorrow but rather a triumph of success. And now, +to see them lumped and sold to Doan, Rockwell & Haight—even that hurt. +But most of all did Judith's treatment of him cut, cut deep. +</P> + +<P> +"You're a fool, Bud Lee," he told himself softly. "Oh, God, what a +fool!" +</P> + +<P> +"The buyers will be here the first thing to-morrow," said Hampton. +"Judith says we're to have everything ready for them." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll not keep her waiting," answered Lee quietly. And with a quick +touch of the spur he whirled his horse and left Hampton abruptly, going +straight to the plateau. +</P> + +<P> +"Round 'em up, Tommy," he said sharply. "Every damned hoof of them: +They go back to the corrals." +</P> + +<P> +Though quick questions surged up in Tommy's brain, none of them was +asked just yet, for he had seen the look on Lee's face. +</P> + +<P> +It was early in the afternoon when Hampton carried his messages to +Carson and Lee. It was after dark when Lee, his work done, his heart +still sore and heavy, came into the men's bunk-house. It was very +still, though close to a dozen men were in the room. Lee's eyes found +Carson and he guessed the reason for the silence. Carson was in a +towering rage that flamed red-hot in his eyes; under the spell of his +dominating emotion, the men sat and stared at him. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, what's wrong?" asked Lee coolly from the door. +</P> + +<P> +"Good goddlemighty!" growled Carson snappishly. "You stan' there an' +ask what's the matter. If they's anything that ain't the matter an' +you'll spell its name to me I'll put in with you. The whole outfit's +going to pot, an' I, for one, don't care how soon it goes." +</P> + +<P> +"Rather a nice way for a cattle foreman to talk about his ranch, isn't +it?" asked Lee colorlessly. +</P> + +<P> +"Cattle foreman?" sniffed Carson with further expletives. "Now will +you stan' on your two feet an' explain to me how in blue blazes a man +can be a cattle foreman when there ain't no cattle!" +</P> + +<P> +"So that's it, is it? I didn't know how close you were selling off——" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't say <I>me</I> selling! Why, I got silage to run my cow brutes all +winter, what with the dry feed in them cañons——" +</P> + +<P> +Lee didn't hear the rest. It had been his intention to come in and +smoke with the boys, and perhaps play a game of whist. Anything to +keep from thinking. But now, moving on impulse, he turned and left the +shack, going swiftly up the knoll to the ranch-house. +</P> + +<P> +Just stepping into the courtyard soft under the moon, tinkling with the +play of the fountains, stirred his heart to quicker beating. He had +not set foot here for over two months, not since that night which he +knew he should forget and yet to whose memory he clung desperately. +This was the first time in many a long week that he had gone out of his +way to seek Judith. And now words which Judith herself had spoken to +him one day were now at least a part of the cause sending him to speak +with her. She had said that he was loyal, that she needed loyal men. +He still took her wage, he was still a Blue Lake ranch-hand, he still +owed her his loyalty, though it came from a sore heart. +</P> + +<P> +If she were hard driven in some way which she had not seen fit to +confide to him, if she were forced to make this tremendous sale, if she +were mad or had at last lost her nerve, frightened at the thought of +the heavy sums of money to be raised at the end of the winter, well, +then it still could do no harm for him to speak his mind to her. +Hampton had told him the price which the horses were to bring; it was +pitifully small and Lee meant to tell her so, to tell her further that +he would guarantee an enormous gain over it if she gave him time. He +would be doing his part though she called him meddler for his pains. +Marcia Langworthy, hidden in a big chair on the veranda, watched him +approach with interest, though Lee was unconscious of her presence. He +had lifted a hand to rap at the door when she called to him, saying: +</P> + +<P> +"Good evening, Mr. Mysterious Lee. Have you forgotten me?" +</P> + +<P> +Though he had pretty well forgotten her, it was not necessary to tell +her that he had. He came toward her, putting out his hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Good evening, Miss Langworthy," he said cordially. "I haven't seen +much of you this time, have I? Two reasons, you know: busy all day and +half the night, for one thing, and for another, Hampton has monopolized +you, hasn't he?" +</P> + +<P> +Marcia laughed softly. +</P> + +<P> +"To a man your size the second reason is absurd.… Will you sit +down? You see, I am taking it for granted that you come here to see +me. Unless," and her eyes twinkled brightly up at him, "you were +surreptitiously calling on Mrs. Simpson?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'd love to talk with you," he assured her. "But, as I've just +hinted, my work here has got into the habit of running away with me +into the night. I really came up for a word with Miss Sanford." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, didn't you know?" asked Marcia. "Judith isn't here." +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't here?" He frowned. "No, I didn't know. I haven't seen much of +her lately and didn't know her plans. Where is she?" +</P> + +<P> +"In San Francisco. Her lawyers sent for her, you know. Something +about a tangle in her father's business. Funny you hadn't heard; she +left Saturday night." +</P> + +<P> +Saturday? This was Tuesday evening. Judith had been away three full +days. Lee, thinking hurriedly, thought that he saw now the explanation +of Judith's ordering a sale like this. Her lawyers had found what +Marcia called a "tangle" in Luke Sanford's affairs; there had been an +insistent call for a large sum of money to straighten it out, and +Judith had accepted the only solution. +</P> + +<P> +Still, it didn't seem like Judith to sell like this at a figure so +ridiculously low. Doan, Rockwell & Haight were not the only buyers on +the coast. Lee himself could get more for the horses if he had two +days' time to look around; the cattle were worth a great deal more than +they were being sold for, even with the market down. +</P> + +<P> +"Did she have an idea what the trouble was before she left?" he asked +finally. +</P> + +<P> +"Why," said Marcia, "I don't know. You see, she slipped out late +Saturday night after we'd all gone to bed. There was a message for her +over the telephone; she got up, dressed, saddled her own horse and rode +into Rocky Bend alone, just leaving a note for me that she might be +gone a week or two." +</P> + +<P> +Just why he experienced a sense of uneasiness even then, Lee did not +know. It was like Judith to act swiftly when need be; to go alone and +on the spur of the minute to catch her train; to slip out quietly +without disturbing her guest. +</P> + +<P> +"You have heard from her since?" he demanded abruptly. +</P> + +<P> +"Not a word," said Marcia. "She doesn't like letter-writing and so I +haven't expected to hear from her." +</P> + +<P> +Lee chatted with her for a moment, then claiming work still to be done, +turned to go back down the knoll. A new thought upon him, he once more +came to Marcia's side. +</P> + +<P> +"I expect I'd better see Hampton," he said. "Do you know where he is?" +</P> + +<P> +"Where he has been every night since Judith left," laughed Marcia. +"He's old Mr. Business Man these days. In the office." +</P> + +<P> +There Lee found him. Hampton, his hair ruffled, Judith's table +littered with market reports, and many sheets of paper covered with +untidy figures, looked up at Lee's entrance. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello, Bud," he said, reaching for cigarette and match. "Got +everything ready for to-morrow?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why didn't you tell me Miss Sanford had gone away?" was Lee's sharp +rejoinder. Hampton flushed. +</P> + +<P> +"Devil take those two eyes of yours, Bud," he said testily. "They've +got a way of boring through a man until he feels like they were +scorching the furniture behind him. Well, I'll tell you. While Judith +is away I am running this outfit. And if the men think I'm coming +straight from her with an order they obey it. If they get the notion +she isn't here, they're apt to ask questions. That's why." +</P> + +<P> +"This sale to Doan, Rockwell & Haight," said Lee quickly. "You didn't +cook that up, did you, Hampton?" +</P> + +<P> +"Lord, no!" cried Hampton. From its place on a file he took a yellow +slip of paper, tossing it to Lee. "She sent me that this morning." +</P> + +<P> +It was a Western Union telegram, saying briefly: +</P> + +<P CLASS="salutation"> +POLLOCK HAMPTON,<BR> + Blue Lake Ranch. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +Am forced to sell heavily. Sending Doan, Rockwell & Haight Wednesday +morning, one hundred horses; as many beef cattle as Carson can round +up. Accept terms made in their letter to you last week. +<BR><BR> +JUDITH SANFORD. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The date-line upon the message gave the sending point as San Francisco. +</P> + +<P> +"They wrote <I>you</I> a letter offering to buy?" said Lee thoughtfully, his +eyes rising slowly from the paper in his fingers. "How'd it happen +they didn't write to <I>her</I>?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it's a natural enough mistake, isn't it? Knowing that she and I +were both part-owners, knowing that we were both here, isn't it quite +to be expected that they would write to the man instead of to the +woman? Of course I gave her the letter as soon as I had opened it." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course," answered Lee. +</P> + +<P> +But his thoughts were not with his answer. They were with Bayne +Trevors. He knew that Trevors had long ago sold to these people; he +knew, too, that at least two of the heavy shareholders in the Western +Lumber Company were interested in Doan, Rockwell & Haight. Tom +Rockwell himself was second vice-president of the lumber company. +</P> + +<P> +"Have you had any other word from Miss Sanford?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"No." +</P> + +<P> +"Know who her lawyers are?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. I don't." +</P> + +<P> +"Anything in her papers here that would tell us?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. Her papers are in the safe yonder and it's locked and I don't +know the combination." +</P> + +<P> +"Know what hotel she is stopping at in the city?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. Look here, Bud; what are you driving at? I don't get you." +</P> + +<P> +"No?" answered Lee absently. +</P> + +<P> +What Bud Lee was thinking was: "Here are too many coincidences!" +Little things, each one in itself safe from suspicion. But when he +meditated that the offer had come from this particular firm, that it +had come just a few days before Judith's first departure from the +ranch, that it had been addressed not to her but to Hampton, so that he +must have the opportunity to read it, that she had been called suddenly +to the city, that that call had come after the house was quiet, its +occupants in bed, that no letter had come since she had left, that no +one knew where to reach her—when he passed all of these things in +review the bitterness in his heart died under them and the first +anxiety sprang up anew, grown almost into fear for her. +</P> + +<P> +"There's just one thing, Hampton," he said, his eyes hard on the boy's +face. "We don't sell a single hoof in the morning. Not a cow nor a +horse until Judith is here herself." +</P> + +<P> +Hampton, new in his role of general manager, flushed hotly, his own +eyes showing fight. +</P> + +<P> +"I like you, Lee," he said sharply, his tone that of master to man. +"And I don't want us to quarrel. But Judith wired me to sell, I've +wired the buyers an acceptance and we do sell in the morning!" +</P> + +<P> +For a full minute Bud Lee stood stone still, staring into Hampton's +face. Then, tossing the telegram to the table, he turned and went out. +His face had gone suddenly white. +</P> + +<P> +"They've got you somehow, Judith girl," he whispered through tense +lips. "But the fight is still to be made. And, by God, there's a day +of squaring accounts coming for a man named Bayne Trevors!" +</P> + +<P> +He went to the bunk-house, neither seeing Marcia nor hearing her when +she called after him, and with a word to Carson brought the irate +cattle foreman hurriedly outside. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap23"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XXIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE WRATH OF POLLOCK HAMPTON +</H3> + + +<P> +Bayne Trevors's way had ever been to play safe, the way of a coward or +a wise man. Even now, no doubt he was giving an account of himself in +legitimate endeavor at the lumber camp, putting in his appearance at +his regular hour, safe miles lying between him and that which might +occur upon the Blue Lake ranch, establishing alibis, conducting himself +like the man he wished the world to think him. But in the mind of Bud +Lee there was no question, no doubt. Bayne Trevors, or one of Bayne +Trevors's gang, was even at this instant holding Judith somewhere until +this colossal deal could be put over. Trevors or one of his gang—and +Lee's face went whiter, his hands shut tighter into hard fists, as +there came to his mind the picture of Quinnion's twisted face and evil, +red-rimmed eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Well?" snapped Carson. "What now?" +</P> + +<P> +"There's going to be no sale in the morning," said Lee, and at the new +strange tone in Lee's voice Carson jerked up his head, thrusting it +forward, peering at the other through the moon-lit night. +</P> + +<P> +"Say it again," muttered Carson. "Who said so? Miss Judith?" +</P> + +<P> +"She isn't here," replied Lee briefly. "Hasn't been here since +Saturday night." +</P> + +<P> +Now, with more cause than ever, did Carson stare at him. +</P> + +<P> +"Then what did Pollock Hampton say sell for? By cripes, if this is one +of that young hop-o'-my-thumb's jokes, I'm going up to the house an' +murder him. That's all. An' right now." +</P> + +<P> +Lee laid a hand on Carson's arm. +</P> + +<P> +"Hold on, old-timer," he said shortly. "We'll have a talk with him +after a while. Now I want to talk with you." +</P> + +<P> +Contenting himself with the coldest of brief outlines, Bud Lee told +Carson of Judith's absence and of his own suspicions. Carson, who had +listened to him gravely, at the end shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"That's a pretty bald play, Bud," he said slowly. "I don't believe +Trevors would get that coarse in his work. It doesn't look like him a +little bit." +</P> + +<P> +"Does this sale look the least little bit like Judith?" demanded Lee +sharply. "Is it her style to go over our heads this way, Carson? If +she's got to sell heavily, why pick out this particular set of buyers? +Why is the deal rushed through while she's away? I tell you there's a +nigger in the wood-pile and it's up to you and me to smoke him out. +Come up to the house with me." +</P> + +<P> +Marcia did not see them as they drew near in the moonlight. For, with +a plan shaping in his brain, Lee judged best that they should not be +seen. He and Carson passed in a wide arc about the left end of the +courtyard, around the end of the house and so to a door opening front +the office to the back of the house. This door he found unlocked and +pushed quietly open. +</P> + +<P> +Hampton lifted swift eyes, sensing something stern and ominous in this +silent approach. +</P> + +<P> +"We want to talk things over with you," began Lee. +</P> + +<P> +"If you've come to bulldoze me out of that deal in the morning," +retorted Hampton, "you might as well keep still. I'm going to sell." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know that you'd exactly call it bull-dozing," smiled Lee, +determined to be pleasant with the young fellow as long as possible. +"But you've got sense enough to listen to reason, Hampton." +</P> + +<P> +"Have I?" jeered Pollock. "Thanks." +</P> + +<P> +"If Miss Sanford wants the deal to go through," continued Lee, "why, +then, of course, through it goes. If she doesn't, there's going to be +no sale." +</P> + +<P> +"I tell you she wired me to sell; I showed you the telegram——" +</P> + +<P> +"But you didn't prove to me that she sent it. You didn't know yourself +whether it had been sent by her or Doan, Rockwell & Haight, or by Bayne +Trevors or the devil himself." He took up the telephone and said into +it, "Western Union, Rocky Bend.… That you, Benton? This is Lee +of the Blue Lake. We want to get in communication with Miss Judith +Sanford, somewhere in San Francisco. Send this message to every hotel +there, will you? And rush it: '<I>Must have word with you immediately. +Important. Telephone</I>.' Got it? Oh, sign it, Carson and—and Tripp. +Rush it, I tell you, Benton. And if you get in touch with Miss Sanford +in any way, tip us off here, will you? Thanks." +</P> + +<P> +"She might be visiting with friends," muttered Hampton, little pleased +at the thought that Lee and Carson were seeking to rob him of his newly +acquired importance. +</P> + +<P> +"Where's Mrs. Simpson?" asked Lee. +</P> + +<P> +"Gone to bed," answered Hampton. +</P> + +<P> +"And Miss Langworthy is still on the veranda. Now Hampton, Carson and +I want a look at Miss Sanford's room. Come with us, will you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm damned if I will!" cried the boy hotly. "I don't know what you +are up to, but I'm boss here and I'm giving orders, not taking them. +If there's any reason in all this, I've got the right to know what it +is." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," answered Lee thoughtfully. "You've got the right. I just don't +like the looks of affairs, Hampton. I don't believe all that I hear. +I don't believe Miss Sanford sent that wire. I don't believe she is in +San Francisco. I do believe that your friend Trevors has got hold of +her somehow, and that he is playing you for a sucker. That's our +reason in this. Now will you come with us to her room?" +</P> + +<P> +"Trevors?" said Hampton. Then he laughed. "You are like the rest, +Bud. Trevors is a gentleman, and you try to make him a crook. Such a +scheme as you imagine is absurd and ridiculous. And I won't go prying +with you into Judith's room." +</P> + +<P> +"Come on, Carson," said Lee. "If Hampton wants to stay here, let him." +</P> + +<P> +But the young fellow was on his feet, his face flushed, his eyes +excited. +</P> + +<P> +"You'll get out of this house and do it quick!" he cried sharply. "If +you think for one little minute that I'll stand for your high-handed +actions, you're mistaken." +</P> + +<P> +At a look from Lee, Carson stepped quickly forward, so that Hampton +stood between them. +</P> + +<P> +"You come with us," and now Lee no longer sought to be pleasant. "And +keep still or we'll stop your mouth with a yard of cloth. This way, +Carson." +</P> + +<P> +With right and left arms gripped, with lagging feet and furious eyes, +Hampton went between them to the door. For an instant only did he +struggle; then, with a snort of disgust, seeing the futility of making +a fool of himself, he went quietly. +</P> + +<P> +Just what he expected as a result of a visit to the girl's room, Lee +did not know. He hoped for some sign to tell him something, anything. +</P> + +<P> +Quietly the three went through the house until they came to Judith's +dainty blue-and-white bedroom. Here all had been set in order by Mrs. +Simpson. A great vase of rosebuds, brought by José this morning, +accepted by Mrs. Simpson with suspicion and searched carefully for a +lurking scorpion or a coiled rattlesnake, stood on a table by the +window. On entering the room a sort of awkward shyness fell over both +Lee and Carson. Hampton, freed now and standing alone, though under +Carson's hard eye, stared at them angrily. +</P> + +<P> +"When you get through with this foolishness," he told them stiffly, +"you can either apologize or call for your time." +</P> + +<P> +Neither answered. Carson little by little had come to share Lee's +uncertainty and anxiety; and now, like Lee, sought eagerly to find a +sign—something to tell that Judith had been lured away by Trevors or +Quinnion; or that she had been overpowered here and taken out, perhaps +through a window. +</P> + +<P> +But Judith had gone Saturday night, and Mrs. Simpson had done her work +thoroughly. It might be well to call the housekeeper and question her. +Had she found a chair overturned, a rug rumpled, a table shoved a +little from its accustomed place? But, again, it would be as well not +to start suspicion and surmise in other minds; if, after all, there +were no true cause for it. Judith <I>might</I> be in San Francisco; she +<I>might</I> have sent the order to sell. +</P> + +<P> +"Chances is we're smelling powder where there wasn't no shot," said +Carson hesitatingly. +</P> + +<P> +"Bright boy!" mocked Hampton. "You'll make a great little gumshoe +artist one of these days." +</P> + +<P> +Had Bud Lee not loved Judith as he did, with his whole heart and soul, +it well might have been that he and Carson and Hampton would have gone +out of the room knowing no more than when they had come in. But it +seemed to Lee that the room which knew Judith so intimately, was +seeking to open its dumb lips to whisper to him of danger to her. He +had come here troubled for her; he stood, looking about him frowningly, +his heart heavy, fear mounting within him. And at length he found a +sign. +</P> + +<P> +At the far end of the room, in a corner, was Judith's writing-table, on +which were several opened letters, pen and ink, a pad of paper. Lee +stepped to it. If she had been lured away after nightfall, then some +message had come to her. If that message had come by word of mouth, +there was no need seeking it; if it had been a note, fate might have +kept it here. +</P> + +<P> +Impaled on a sharp file was a sheet of note-paper. The note was brief, +typewritten, even to the signature—that of Doc Tripp. It ran: +</P> + +<P CLASS="salutation"> +DEAR JUDITH: +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +I am afraid of a new trouble. Have spotted another one of T's gang +working for us. Also have got a bullet-hole in my right hand. Nothing +serious so far. Come down right away. Don't let any one see you as I +want to spring a surprise on them. Am not even using the telephone, as +I've a notion they are watching me. Hurry. +<BR><BR> +TRIPP. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"Come back to the office," said Lee bluntly. And well in front of +Carson and Hampton, who stared wonderingly at the paper in his hand, he +went to the office telephone and called for Tripp. +</P> + +<P> +"How's your hand?" he asked when Tripp answered. +</P> + +<P> +"All right," replied Tripp. "Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"Get it hurt?" +</P> + +<P> +"No." +</P> + +<P> +"Did you write Miss Sanford a hurry-up note within the last few days?" +</P> + +<P> +"No." +</P> + +<P> +"Sure of that, Doc? Typewritten note?" +</P> + +<P> +"Of course I'm sure," snapped Tripp. "What's wrong?" +</P> + +<P> +"God knows," answered Lee shortly. "But you'd better come up here and +come on the jump. Also, keep your mouth shut until you can get a +chance to talk with me or Carson." +</P> + +<P> +He clicked up the receiver and turned terrible eyes on the two men +watching him. +</P> + +<P> +"They've got her," he said slowly. "They've got her, Carson. They've +had her since Saturday night!" +</P> + +<P> +Carson read the note. Only then did it pass into Hampton's hands. The +boy, angered at the way in which he had been ignored, insulted in his +sense of dignity by those words of Lee's to Tripp, "Talk with me or +Carson," seeing the reins of power being snatched from his hands, was +speechless with wrath. +</P> + +<P> +"You fellows have butted in all I'll stand for!" he cried at them, his +shut fists shaking. "I tell you I'm running this outfit and what I say +goes. I don't believe that Trevors or any man living would do a trick +like that. I tell you it's ridiculous. And, no matter where Judith +is, when she is not here I run the ranch. I need money; she needs +money; we've got a fair chance to sell; I've passed my word we are +going to sell; and by God, we are going to sell." +</P> + +<P> +In another mood, Hampton would not have spoken this way. In another +mood and with time for argument, Bud Lee would have expostulated with +him. Now, however, Lee said tersely: +</P> + +<P> +"Carson, it's up to you and me. Get the boys out, to the last man of +them. Turn every hoof of cattle and horses back into the Upper End. +We've got to do it to-night. Get them into the little valley above the +plateau. We can hold them there, even if they try to force our hands, +which will be like them. I take this to be Trevors's last big play. +And, by thunder, he has mighty near gotten away with it!" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you dare do it!" blazed out young Hampton. "Carson, you take +orders from me. Get out of this house and leave the stock where they +are. In the morning——" +</P> + +<P> +"Go ahead, Carson," cut in Lee's hard voice. "I'll take care of +Hampton here." +</P> + +<P> +"You will, will you?" cried Hampton. +</P> + +<P> +With one bound he was at the table, jerking open a drawer. As his hand +sought the weapon lying there, Bud Lee was on him, throwing him back. +Carson looked at them a moment, then went to the door. +</P> + +<P> +"You're right, Bud," he said calmly as he went out. +</P> + +<P> +Lee, forcing himself to show a calmness like Carson's, said gently to +Hampton: +</P> + +<P> +"Can't you see the play? It's up to you to kick in and stop it. +There's a telephone; call up the buyers in Rocky Bend. They're there +now, or at least their drivers are, if they're coming out here in the +morning. Tell them the deal is off." +</P> + +<P> +"Can't I see?" said Hampton, writhing out of Lee's hands, on his way to +the door. "You bet I can see! If you and Carson think that you can +run me——" +</P> + +<P> +Then, for good and all, Lee gave over trying to reason with Hampton. +There was too much to be done to waste time. He drew Hampton back, +forcing him against the wall. As he tried to call out, Lee's hand over +his mouth smothered his words. +</P> + +<P> +"You're coming with me," he said sharply. "Right now." +</P> + +<P> +Though he struggled, Hampton was little more than a baby in the horse +foreman's muscular grip. Tripped, with a heel behind his calf, he fell +heavily, Lee upon him. Both arms were pinioned behind him, and Lee's +neckerchief thrust into his mouth. He writhed in impotent rage. His +outcries died in his throat, the loudest of them not reaching Marcia's +ears above the creaking of her rocking-chair. Lee still held Hampton's +tied hands gripped in his own. So the two men went out the back door, +down toward the corrals. +</P> + +<P> +Seeing men hurrying from the bunk-house to the stables under Carson's +snapping orders. Lee called out for Tommy Burkitt. And in a moment, +with bulging eyes, Burkitt came running. +</P> + +<P> +"Bring out three horses, Tommy," Lee commanded, giving no explanation. +"Hurry, and keep your mouth shut." +</P> + +<P> +Burkitt obeyed Lee as he always did, silently and unquestioningly. +Very soon he returned, riding, leading two saddled horses. +</P> + +<P> +"Get into the saddle, Hampton," said Lee sternly. "There's no time for +nonsense. Get up or I'll put you up." +</P> + +<P> +"Curse you," Hampton said in smothered anger, his tone making clear the +meaning of the indistinct mutter. But he climbed into the saddle. +</P> + +<P> +"Come on, Tommy." Lee, too, was up, his hand on Hampton's reins. +"We're going up to the old cabin. You're going to ride herd on Hampton +while I do something else. I'll tell you everything when we get there." +</P> + +<P> +So they rode into the night, headed toward the narrow passes of the +Upper End, Hampton and Lee side by side, Tommy Burkitt staring after +them as he followed. No longer were Bud Lee's thoughts with his +captive, nor with the herds Carson's men were driving back to the +higher pastures. They were entirely for Judith, and they were filled +with fear. She had been gone for three full days; she was somewhere in +the clutch of Trevors or of one of his cutthroats. He thought of her, +of Quinnion's red-rimmed, evil eyes, and as he had not prayed in all +the years of his life Bud Lee prayed that night. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap24"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XXIV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A SIGNAL-FIRE? +</H3> + + +<P> +Lee left Hampton securely bound and under Tommy Burkitt's watchful eyes +in the old cabin, and rode straight back to the ranch-house. Marcia +was not yet in bed and he made his first call upon her. Marcia was +delighted, then vaguely perturbed, as he made known his errand without +giving any reason. He wanted to see the note from Judith. Marcia +brought it, wondering. He carried it with him to Judith's office and +compared it carefully with scraps of her handwriting which he found +there. The result of his study was what he had expected: the writing +of the note to Marcia was sufficiently like Judith's to pass muster to +an uncritical eye, looking, in fact, what it purported to be, a very +hasty scrawl. But Lee decided that Judith had not written it. He +slipped it into his pocket. +</P> + +<P> +Tripp was waiting for him, impatient and worried, when he came back +from the Upper End. From Tripp he learned that one of the men, a +fellow the boys called Yellow-jacket, had unexpectedly asked for his +time Saturday afternoon and had left the ranch, saying that he was sick. +</P> + +<P> +"He's the chap who brought the fake note from you," said Lee. "It's +open and shut, Doc. Another one of Trevors's men that we ought to have +fired long ago. The one thing I can't get, is why he didn't do a +finished job of it and hang around until Miss Sanford left, then get +away with the note. It would have left no evidence behind him." +</P> + +<P> +"She must have locked her door and windows when she went out," was +Tripp's solution. "And probably he didn't hang around wasting time and +taking chances." +</P> + +<P> +Tripp's boyish face had lost its youthful look. His eyes, meeting +Lee's steadily, had in them an expression like Lee's. +</P> + +<P> +"If it's Quinnion—" Tripp began. Then he stopped abruptly. +</P> + +<P> +Lee and Tripp were together in the office not above fifteen minutes. +Then Tripp left to return to the Lower End, to get the rest of the men +out, to help in the big drive of cattle and horses which must be +returned to the shut-in valleys of the Upper End. Lee went to the +bunk-house, slipped revolver and cartridges into his pockets, took a +rifle and rode again to the old cabin. +</P> + +<P> +"It's Trevors's big, last play," he told himself gravely, over and +over. "He'll be backing it up strong, playing his hand for all that +there's in it, and he'll have taken time and care to fill in his hand +so that we're bucking a royal flush. And there's only one way to beat +a royal flush, and that's with a gun. But I can't quite see the whole +play, Trevors; I can't quite see it." +</P> + +<P> +There were enough men to do the night's work without him and Tommy +Burkitt, and Lee gave no thought now to Carson, swearing in the +darkness of some shadow-filled gorge. He did not know what the +morrow's work would be for him, but he made his preparations none the +less, eager for the coming dawn. He fried many slices of bacon while +Hampton glared at him and Tommy watched him interestedly; he made a +light, compact lunch, such as best "sticks to a man's ribs," wrapped it +in heavy paper and slipped the package into the bosom of his shirt. He +completed his equipment with a fresh bag of tobacco and many matches. +He loaded his rifle, added a plentiful supply of ammunition to his +outfit from the box on the shelf. Then he went outside to be alone, to +frown at the black wall of the night, to think, to await the dawn. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm coming to you, Judith girl," he whispered over and over to +himself. "Somehow." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Dawn trembled over the mountain-tops, grew pale rose and warm pink and +glorious red in the eastern sky, and Bud Lee, throwing down his coiled +rope which had been put into service a dozen times during the night, +said shortly: +</P> + +<P> +"Here we camp, boys. I'll leave you my fried bacon, Tommy, and take +the raw with me. You're not even to light a fire. And you're to stick +here until I come for you." +</P> + +<P> +They had travelled deeper and deeper into the fastnesses of the +mountains, mounting higher and higher until now, in a nest of crags and +cliffs, on a flank of Devil's Mountain, they could look far to the +westward and catch brief glimpses of the river from Blue Lake slipping +out of the shadows. They had gone a way which Lee knew intimately, +travelling a trail which brought them again and again under broken +cliffs, where they must use hands and feet manfully, and now and then +make service of a loop of rope cast up over an outjutting crag. +</P> + +<P> +"They'll never follow us here, Tommy," he said confidently. "If they +do, you've got the drop on them and you've got a rifle. You know what +to do, Tommy, old man." +</P> + +<P> +"I know, Bud," said Tommy, his eyes shining. For never before had Bud +Lee called him that—"old man." +</P> + +<P> +Long ago the gag had been removed from Hampton's mouth. Long ago, +consequently, Hampton had said his say, had made his promises. When he +got out of this—glory to be! wouldn't he square the deal, though! Did +Lee know what kidnapping was? That there were such things as laws, +such places as prisons? +</P> + +<P> +"Here," said Lee not unkindly, "I'll loosen the rope about your wrists. +That's all the chances we're going to take with you. Come, be a sport, +my boy. You're the right sort inside; just as soon as this fracas is +over, when you know that we were right and that all this is a put-up +job on you, your friend Trevors playing you for a sucker and getting +Miss Sanford out of the way, you'll say we were right and I know it." +</P> + +<P> +"That so?" snapped Hampton. "You just start now and keep going, Bud +Lee, if you don't want to do time in the jug." +</P> + +<P> +Tommy Burkitt, staring back across the broken miles of mountain, cañon, +and forest, his eyes frowning, was muttering: +</P> + +<P> +"Look at that, Bud. What do you make of it?" +</P> + +<P> +For a little Lee did not answer. He and Tommy and Hampton, standing +among the rocks, turned their eyes together toward the hills rimming in +the northern side of Blue Lake ranch. +</P> + +<P> +"I make out," said Lee slowly, "that Trevors means business and that +Carson has got his work cut out for him this morning, Tommy." +</P> + +<P> +For the thing which had caught the boy's eyes was a blaze on the ridge, +its flames leaping and ricking at the thinning darkness, its smoke a +black smudge on the horizon, staining the glow of the dawn. And +farther along the same ridge was a second blaze, smaller with distance, +but growing as it licked at the dry brush. Still farther a third. +</P> + +<P> +"If that fire ever gets a good start," muttered Lee heavily, "it's +going to sweep the ranch. God knows where it will stop. And just how +Carson is going to fight fire with one hand and hold his stock with the +other, I don't know." +</P> + +<P> +But even then he turned his eyes away from the ranch, sweeping the +ragged jumble of mountains about him. Judith was gone. Judith needed +him and he did not dare try to estimate the soreness of her need. What +did it matter that Carson and Tripp and the rest had their problems to +face back there? There was only one thing all of the wide world that +mattered. And did not even know where she was, north, south, east, or +west! Somewhere in these mountains, no doubt. But where, when a man +might ride a hundred miles this way or that and have no sign if he +passed within calling distance of her? +</P> + +<P> +In his heart Bud Lee prayed, as he had prayed last night, asking God +that he might come to Judith. And it seemed to him, standing close to +God on the rocky heights, that his prayer had been heard and answered. +For, far off to the east, still farther in the solitude of the +mountains, rising from a rugged peak, a thin line of smoke rose into +the paling sky. +</P> + +<P> +It might be that Judith was there. It might be that she was scores of +miles from the beckoning smoke. But Lee had asked a sign and there, +like a slender finger pointing to the brightening sky, was a sign. +</P> + +<P> +He stooped swiftly for rifle and rope and packet of bacon. +</P> + +<P> +"Where you goin', Bud?" asked Tommy. +</P> + +<P> +"To Judith," answered Bud Lee gently. +</P> + +<P> +For in his heart was that faith which is born of love. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap25"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XXV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE TOOLS WHICH TREVORS USED +</H3> + + +<P> +To Judith life had changed from a pleasant game in the sunshine to a +hideous nightmare. In a few dragging hours she had come to know +incredulity, anxiety, misery, dejection, black hopelessness, and icy +terror. She had come to look through a man's eyes at that which lay in +his heart, to feel for the first time in her fearless life that the +fortitude was slipping out of her bosom, that the strength was melting +in her. +</P> + +<P> +She lay on a rude bed of fir-boughs, an utter, impenetrable blackness +like a palpable weight on her eyeballs. When it was silent about her, +and for the most part silence reigned with the oppressive gloom, she +yearned so for a little sound that she moved her foot along the rock +floor under her or snapped a dry twig between her fingers or even +listened eagerly for the coming of the terrible woman who was her +jailer. +</P> + +<P> +Gropingly, again and again she went over in her thoughts the long +journey here, seeking fruitlessly to know whether she had come north, +south, or east from the ranch-house. It was one of these three +directions, for there were no such mountains as these to the west, no +such monster cliffs, no deep cavern reaching into the bowels of the +earth The sense that, even were she freed, she had no slightest idea +where she was, which way she must go, stunned her. +</P> + +<P> +"Will I go mad after a while?" she wondered miserably. "Am I already +going mad? Oh, God, have mercy on me——" +</P> + +<P> +From the instant when, Saturday night, she had been gripped suddenly in +a man's strong arms, when another man had smothered her outcry, she had +known in her heart that Bayne Trevors was taking his desperate chance +in the game. But in the darkness she had had only the two vague blurs +of their bodies to guess at. They had been masked; her own eyes were +covered, a bandage brought tightly over them, her mouth gagged, her +hands tied behind her, her body lifted into the saddle—all in a +moment. Neither man had spoken. Then, tied in the saddle, she only +knew that she was riding, that one man rode in front of her, leading +her horse, the other following close behind. The sense of direction +which she had lost in those first five minutes she had never been given +opportunity to regain. She might, even now, be a gunshot from her own +ranch; she might be twenty miles from it. +</P> + +<P> +For the greater part of that Saturday night they had ridden; and when +trails died under them and rocks rose steeply, they walked, she and one +man. The other stayed with the horses. Not once did she hear a man's +voice; she did not know whether it was Trevors himself, or Quinnion, or +some utter stranger who forced her into this hiding. +</P> + +<P> +They had climbed cliffs, now going down into chasms, now following +roaring creeks or making their way along the spine of some rocky ridge. +The one man with her was masked, his eyes rather guessed at than seen +through the slits of his bandanna handkerchief. He had jerked the +bandage from her eyes, since blindfolded she would make such poor +progress. But still he guarded his tongue. +</P> + +<P> +"He would speak," she thought, "but that I would recognize his voice. +Trevors or Quinnion? Which?" +</P> + +<P> +Feeling the first quick spurt of hope when she saw that there was but +one man to deal with, she was aquiver to seize the first opportunity +for flight. But that hope died swiftly as she recognized that no such +opportunity was to be granted her. Once she paused, looking to a +possible leap over a low ledge and escape in a thick bit of timber. +But the two eyes through the slits in the improvised mask had been keen +and quick, a heavy hand was laid on her arm, she felt the fingers bite +into her flesh as he sought to drive into her a full comprehension of +his grim determination that she should not escape. +</P> + +<P> +It was when they had clambered high upon a mass of tumbled boulders, +topping a ridge, that Judith had seen the man's face. Docilely she had +obeyed his gestures for an hour; now, suddenly maddened at the silence +and the mask over his face, she sprang unexpectedly upon him, shoving +him from the rock on which he had stepped, snatching off his mask as +she did so. For the first time she heard his voice, cursing her coolly +as he gripped and held her. +</P> + +<P> +It was Bayne Trevors, at last come out the open, his eyes hard on hers. +</P> + +<P> +"It's just as well that you know whom you are up against," he said as +he held her with his hand heavy on her shrinking shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +Summoning all of the reckless fearlessness which was her birthright, +she laughed at him coolly, laughed as the two stood against the +sky-line, upon the barren breast of a lonesome land. +</P> + +<P> +"So you are a fool, after all, Bayne Trevors!" she jeered at him. +"Fool enough to mix first-hand in a dangerous undertaking." +</P> + +<P> +Trevors shrugged. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes?" He slipped the handkerchief into his pocket and stared at her +with a glint of anger in the blue-gray of his eyes. He lifted his +broad shoulders. "Or wise man enough to do my own work when needs be, +and when I'd have no bungling? I'm going to square with you, girl. +Square with you for meddling, for a bullet-hole in each shoulder. If +there's a fool in our little junketing party, it's a girl who thought +she could handle a man's-size job." +</P> + +<P> +They went on, over the ridge and down. Judith made no second attempt +to surprise him, for always his eyes watched her. Nor did she seek to +hold back or in any way to hamper him now. For, swiftly adjusting +herself to the new conditions, she made her first decision: Trevors did +think her a "fool of a girl," Trevors did sneer at her helplessness in +that man's way of his. Let him think her a little fool; let him hold +her in his contempt; let him grow to think her cowed and afraid and +helpless. Then, when the time came—— +</P> + +<P> +Again she had been blindfolded; seeing the look in Trevors's eyes, she +had offered no objection. Again she had followed him in a darkness +made at sunrise by a bandage across her eyes. Again, the bandage +removed, she winked at the sunlight. Again they climbed ridges, +dropped down into tiny valleys, fought their way along thunderous +ravines where the water was lashed into white foam. Again blindfolded, +again trudging on, her whole body beginning to tremble with fatigue, +the weakness of hunger upon her. And at length, out of a cañon, making +a perilous way up the steep walls of rock, they came to the mouth of +the black cavern in which she lay now, waiting for the sound of a +stirring foot. +</P> + +<P> +Only an instant had Judith stood upon the ledge outside the cave before +she was thrust into the black interior. But in that instant her eager +eyes had made out, upon a tiny bit of table-land across the chasm of +the gorge, a cabin, sending aloft a plume of smoke. +</P> + +<P> +Then, after an hour, the terrible woman had come to whom Trevors had +intrusted her, bringing food and water in her hard, blackened hands, +carrying the flickering fires of madness in her unfathomable eyes. A +lantern set on the floor made rude shadows, and out of them crept this +woman, leering at Trevors, peering at Judith, licking her thin lips, +and chuckling to herself. +</P> + +<P> +"I have brought her back to you, Ruth," he said, speaking softly, more +softly than Judith had thought the man could speak. "You will know +what to do with her. And you will not let her escape you again." +</P> + +<P> +The mad woman, for only too plainly was her reason strangely misshapen, +stood in silence, her great muscular body looming high above Judith's, +a giant of a woman, bigger than Trevors even, broad and heavy, her +forearms thick and corded, her bare throat like the bull neck of a +prize-fighter. +</P> + +<P> +"I will know, I will know," she said, her eyes filled with cunning, her +voice a strange singsong oddly at variance with the coarse bigness of +her body. "Oh, no, she will never escape from me again." +</P> + +<P> +"I will have a man on the ledge outside night and day," went on +Trevors. "But we cannot be so sure of others as we are of ourselves, +Ruth. You know that, don't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes, I know," she answered quickly. As she spoke she suddenly +shot out her long arm so that her great, bony hand fastened like a big +claw on the girl's shoulder. "I have got her again! She is mine, all +mine. Oh, I will keep her well." +</P> + +<P> +In a little while Trevors left. He had not returned. Mad Ruth, still +gripping Judith's shoulder, half led her, half thrust her farther back +in the cavern. Judith made no resistance. Always, even when terror +was uppermost she held one thought in mind: "If I can make them think +me a little fool and a weakling, my chance may come after a while." +</P> + +<P> +As the two women passed around a bend in the sinuous tunnel-like cave, +the faint rays of the lantern they had left behind them died out, and +heavy darkness shut them in. Judith could barely make out the huge +form towering over her. But Ruth, whether her eyes were like a cat's +and accustomed to this sombre place, or whether a hand on a rock wall +or a foot on the uneven floor under her told her which way to go, moved +on without hesitation. Judith estimated roughly that they had come +fifty yards from the outside ledge in front of the cave when she was +pushed down and felt the rude bed of fir-boughs under her. +</P> + +<P> +"So," grunted the woman, for the first time removing her hard hand from +the girl's shoulder, "I've got you again, my pretty. And this time you +don't play any more little tricks on your old mother." +</P> + +<P> +She was gone swiftly, all but silently, through the gloom, her form +vaguely outlined against the lantern's glimmer, to bring the food and +water which she had set down when she came in. Judith drank and ate. +</P> + +<P> +It was only little by little, in fragments which she obtained during +the slow days which followed, that she came to understand Trevors's +scheme. And the scheme was in keeping with the man; so far as it was +possible, Bayne Trevors was still playing safe. +</P> + +<P> +Mad Ruth was an odd mixture of crazed suspicion, shrewd cunning, +cruelty, and madness. Perhaps very long ago—Judith came to believe +that it had occurred at the time when she had gone mad, for God knows +what reason—Mad Ruth had had a little daughter. The girl had been +lost to her, whether through death when an infant, or some tragic +accident when a young girl, Judith never knew. But Ruth's heart had +been bound up in that baby of hers; when madness came, it centred and +turned upon the return of her child, "Who had run away from her, but +who would come back some time." Trevors, having learned of her mad +passion, had shaped it to his purpose. +</P> + +<P> +But that was not all. Judith had been brought to the cave early Sunday +morning. Sunday afternoon there came to the cave a well-dressed man +carrying a little black bag in his hand. He talked with Ruth; he took +up the lantern and came to look at Judith. +</P> + +<P> +"So I'll know you again," he laughed. Then he went away. In fragments +which through long, empty hours her busy mind pieced together, bridging +the gaps, she grasped the rest of Trevors's plan. This man was a +physician, sent here from some one of the many mining towns in the +mountains, probably from a camp twenty or thirty miles away. He, too, +was a Trevors hireling. Should Judith ever accuse Trevors of having +brought her here, there was another story to be told. And this man +would tell it: How he had been summoned here to attend a girl who had +had a fall, who had wandered delirious through the mountains until Ruth +had found her; whom he had treated here, not daring at first to move +her for fear of permanent shock to her reason; who could give them no +help to establish her identity; who had a thousand absurd fears and +fancies and accusations to make; who in her babbling had at one time +accused Bayne Trevors of having forcibly abducted her; who at another +had cried that it was a man named Carson, a man named Lee, who had +brought her here. +</P> + +<P> +Judith spent many a long hour exploring her prison, hoping to find a +way out. So far as she knew she had but one person to reckon with, Mad +Ruth. True, Trevors had said that he'd have a man on the ledge outside +day and night; Judith had never seen such a person, had never heard his +voice, and began to believe that it was a bit of bluff on Trevors's +part. But she had never again been where she could look out of the +cave's mouth, since Mad Ruth had her own pallet on the floor at the +narrowest part of the cave where it was like the neck of a monster +bottle, and always at the first sound of the girl's approach, was on +her feet to thrust her back. Clearly there was no way out of this +place of shadows except that through which she had come. +</P> + +<P> +Judith sought an explanation of her imprisonment, and after long +groping she came very near the truth: Trevors would work his will with +Hampton through Hampton's faith in him and admiration for him. And, in +her absence, Hampton was the head of Blue Lake ranch. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Sunday night, hearing Mad Ruth moving cautiously, Judith raised herself +on her elbow, listening. She was confident that the woman was moving +toward the cave's mouth; she hoped wildly that Mad Ruth was tricked +into believing her asleep and was going out. Her shoes in her hands, +her stockinged feet falling lightly, Judith moved toward the mad +woman's couch. +</P> + +<P> +Ruth was going out; was in fact even now slipping out of the narrow +throat of the cave and to the ledge. But Judith could not see her. +For a new, unexpected obstacle was in her way. Her outthrust hands +touched not rock walls but heavy wooden panels; she knew then that the +narrow neck of the cave was fitted with a heavy door and that it had +been drawn shut, fastened from without. In a sudden access of fury and +despair she beat at it with her two hands, crying out bitterly. +</P> + +<P> +It was so dark, so inky black, and as still, save for her own outcry, +as a tomb sealed and forgotten. Such darkness, smothering hope, +suddenly was filled with vague terrors; for one worn-out and nervous as +Judith was, the darkness seemed to harbor a thousand ugly things which +watched her and mocked at her despair and reached out vile hands toward +her. She called loudly, and for answer had the crazed laugh of Mad +Ruth which floated in to her from without, but which seemed to drop +down from the void above. +</P> + +<P> +"Judith, Judith," the girl whispered after the first outburst, when she +found that she was shaking pitifully. "You've got to do better than +this; I'm ashamed of you." +</P> + +<P> +She went back to her couch, where she sat down seeking to hold her +jangling nerves in check. But, despite her intention, she sat shaking, +listening, listening—praying for even the footfall of her jailer. +</P> + +<P> +When Ruth was with her she attempted in a hundred ways to gauge the +woman's warped brain, to seek some way to get the better of her, to +gain her trust and so to slip away. But she found that here was the +usual cunning born of madness, and that Ruth's one idea was to keep the +girl who had escaped her once but who must never escape again. There +were times when suspicion awakened in Ruth's mind, and she broke into +violent rage, so that her big body shook and her eyes in the +lantern-light were cruel and murderous, when Judith shrank back, and +tried to change the woman's thoughts. For more than once had Mad Ruth +cried out: +</P> + +<P> +"I'll kill you! Kill you with my own hands to keep you here. To keep +you mine, mine, mine!" +</P> + +<P> +The woman carried no weapon, but after her two hands had once gripped +the girl's shoulders, shaking her, Judith knew that Ruth needed no +weapon. Hers was a strength greater than Trevors's, greater than two +men's. If Mad Ruth saw fit to kill Judith with her two hands, she +could do it. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Sunday passed and Sunday night; Monday and Monday night. Judith knew +that she had accomplished nothing, except perhaps to make Ruth believe +that she was very much of a coward. In Ruth's mad brain that was +little enough, since this did not allay her cunning watchfulness. Then +Judith began to do something else, something actively. Just to be +occupied, was something. Her fingers selected the largest, thickest +branch from her bed of fir-boughs. It was perhaps a couple of inches +in diameter and heavy, because it was green. Silently, cautious of a +twig snapped, she began with her fingers to strip the branch, tough and +pliable. Then the limb must be cut into a length which would make it a +club to be used in a cramped space. She found a bit of stone, hard +granite, which had scaled from the walls and which had a rough edge. +With this, working many a quiet hour, she at last cut in two the +fir-bough. She lifted it in her hands, to feel the weight of it, +before she thrust it under her bed to lie hidden there against possible +need. Poor thing as it was, she felt no longer utterly defenseless. +</P> + +<P> +Once Mad Ruth, lighting the lantern, had dropped a good match. When +she had gone, Judith secured it hastily, hiding it as if it were gold. +She knew that now and then Mad Ruth went down the cliffs and to the +cabin across the chasm. Always at night and at the darkest hour. When +she heard her go, Judith rose swiftly and went to the heavy door. +Always she found it locked; her shaking at it hardly budged the heavy +timbers. But though she could not see it, she studied it with her +fingers until she had a picture of it in her mind. A picture that only +increased her hopelessness. Barehanded she could never hope to break +it down or push it aside. And above it and below, and on each side, +were the solid walls of stone. +</P> + +<P> +She no longer knew what day it was. She scarcely knew if it were day +or night. But, setting herself something to do so that she would not +go mad, mad as Mad Ruth, she secured for herself another weapon. +Another bit of stone which her groping fingers had found and hidden +with her club; a jagged, ugly rock half the size of a man's head. Some +little scraps of bread and meat, hoarded from her scanty meals, she hid +in her blouse. +</P> + +<P> +"If I could stun her, just stun her," she got into the way of +whispering to herself. "Not kill her outright—just stun her——" +</P> + +<P> +At last, seeing that she must work her own salvation with the crude +weapons given her, Judith told herself that she could wait no longer. +Another day and another and she would be weak from the confinement and +poor food and nervous, wakeful hours. She must act while the strength +was in her. And, if Trevors had spoken the truth, if there were a man +to deal with outside—well, she must shut her mind to that until she +came to it. +</P> + +<P> +Mad Ruth was gone again, and Judith stood by the thick door, her heart +beating furiously while she waited. It seemed to her eager impatience +that Ruth would never come back. Then after a long, long time she +heard a little scraping sound upon the rock ledge outside, the sound of +a quick step. And then, before she heard the snarling, ugly voice +which she had heard once and had never forgotten, she knew that this +time she had waited too long, that it was not Ruth coming. +</P> + +<P> +One man—and there might be others. She stepped back to her bed, hid +the two weapons and waited. She must make no mistakes now. +</P> + +<P> +The door was flung open. Outside it was dark, pitch-dark. But +evidently the man entering had no fear of being seen. He threw down a +bundle of dry fagots, and set fire to them. The blaze, leaping up, +casting wavering gleams to where Judith stood, showed her plainly the +twisted, ugly face of Quinnion, his red-rimmed eyes peering at her, +filled with evil light. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap26"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XXVI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +JUDITH'S PERIL +</H3> + + +<P> +"The better to see you by, my dear!" was Quinnion's word of greeting. +Judith made no answer. She drew a little farther back into the +shadows, a little closer to the things she had hidden among the +fir-branches. +</P> + +<P> +"Ho," sneered Quinnion, his mood from the first plain enough to read in +the glimpses of his face and in the added harshness of his voice. +"Timid little fawn, huh? By God, a man would say from the bluff you +put up that it was all a dream about findin' you an' the han'some Lee +in the cabin together! Stan' off all you damn please; I've come to +tame you, you little beauty of the big innocent eyes!" +</P> + +<P> +Not drunk; no, Quinnion was never drunk. But, as he came a step +closer, the heavy air of the cave grew heavier with the whiskey he +carried, whiskey enough to stimulate the evil within him, not to quench +it. +</P> + +<P> +"Stand back!" cried Judith, with a sharp intake of breath. "I want to +talk with you, Chris Quinnion." +</P> + +<P> +"So you know who I am, do you? Well, much good it'll do you." +</P> + +<P> +"I know who you are and what you are," she told him defiantly, suddenly +sick of her long hours of playing baby, knowing at the moment less fear +than hatred and loathing. "Listen to me: Bayne Trevors has come out in +the open at last; he has made his big play and is going to lose out on +it. Your one chance now is to let me go and to go yourself. Go fast +and far, Chris Quinnion. For when the law knows the sort Bayne Trevors +is and how you have worked hand and glove with him, it will know just +how much his word was worth when he swore you were with him when father +was killed! Coward and cur and murderer!" +</P> + +<P> +Quinnion laughed at her. +</P> + +<P> +"Little pussy-cat," he jeered. "You've got claws, have you? And you +spit and growl, do you? Want me to let you go back to that swaggering +lover of yours, do you? Back to Lee——" +</P> + +<P> +"That's enough, Quinnion," she said sharply. +</P> + +<P> +"Is it?" He laughed at her again, and again came on toward her, the +red-rimmed evil of his eyes driving quick fear at last into her. +"Enough? Why, curse you and curse him, I haven't begun yet! When I'm +through with you I'll go fast enough. And he can have you then an' +damn welcome to him!" +</P> + +<P> +"Stop!" cried Judith. +</P> + +<P> +His laughter did not reach her ears now, but as he kicked the fire at +his foot and the flames leaped up and showed his face, she read the +laughter in his soul; read it through the gleaming eyes, the twisted +mouth which showed the teeth at one side in a horrible leer. His long +arms thrust out before him, he came on. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, my God!" cried Judith. "My God!" +</P> + +<P> +Then suddenly she was silent. She thought that she had known the +uttermost of fear and now for the first time did she fully know what +terror was. His strength was many times her strength, his brutality +was unbounded, she was alone with him. There was no one to call to, +not even Ruth, the mad woman. +</P> + +<P> +She was shaking now, shaking so that she could barely stand. Quinnion +came on, his long arms out.… +</P> + +<P> +She felt the strength die out of her body, grew for a moment blind and +dizzy and sick. She tried again to call out to him, to plead with him. +But her voice stuck in her throat. +</P> + +<P> +He was gloating over her, a look strangely like Mad Ruth's in his eyes. +Good God! He was like Mad Ruth; the same eyes, the same long, powerful +arms, the same look of cunning! In a flash there came to her a +suspicion which was near certainty: this man was blood of Mad Ruth's +blood, bone of her bone; her son, and, like her, tainted with madness. +</P> + +<P> +He shot out a long arm, his hand barely brushing her shoulder. She +shrank back. He stood, content to pause a moment, to gloat further +over her. +</P> + +<P> +"You little beauty," he said, panting. "You little white and pink and +brown beauty!" +</P> + +<P> +Judith had shuddered when he touched her. But a strange thing had +happened to her. His touch had angered her so that she almost forgot +to be afraid, angered her so that the loathing was gone in white hot +hatred, giving her back her old strength. +</P> + +<P> +Now, though he had the brutal force of a strong man, Quinnion did not +have the swiftness of movement of an alert, desperate girl. Before he +could grasp her motive she leaped toward him and toward the bed of +boughs, found the ragged stone, and lifting it high above her head +flung it full into his face. The man staggered back, crying out in +throaty harshness, a cry of blind rage. But he did not fall, did not +pause more than a brief instant. +</P> + +<P> +A little dazed, with blood in his eyes, he lunged toward her. She had +found the club now and struck with all her might, again beating into +his face and again and again. He sought to grapple with her and she +beat him back. She saw his hand go to his hip and heard him curse her, +and she leaped in on him and, panting with the blow, struck again. He +flung up his arm. She struck once more. Taking the blow full across +the face, Quinnion reeled back, stumbled at an uneven spot in the rock +floor, balanced, almost falling.… +</P> + +<P> +Only a moment he held thus. But there was a chance to pass him in the +narrow way, and she took her chance, her heart beating wildly. And as +she shot by she struck again. +</P> + +<P> +She heard him after her, shouting curses, stumbling a little, coming +on. The door was open, thank God, the door was open! She shot +through. If she could but take time to close it! But there was no +time for that; he was almost at her heels. And outside was the ledge +and the dizzy climb down. +</P> + +<P> +If she slipped, if she fell, well, it would just be a clean death and +nothing more. Quinnion was but a few steps behind her. He had not +fired. Had he perhaps dropped his gun back there in the darkness? Or +was he so sure of taking her, alive and struggling, into his arms in +another moment? +</P> + +<P> +She was on the ledge. It was dark, pitch-dark. +</P> + +<P> +But she found a handhold, threw herself flat down and thrust her feet +out over the edge, less afraid of what lay below than what came on +behind her. She was gripping the ledge now with her hands, already +torn and bleeding, her feet swinging, touching sheer rock wall, +slipping, seeking a foothold. Quinnion was just there, above her. She +must move her hands so that he could not reach her. It seemed an +eternity that she hung there, seeking a place somewhere to set her feet. +</P> + +<P> +She found it, another, lesser ledge which she had almost missed, and +knew that this way she had clambered upward with Bayne Trevors. If she +could only find another step and another before Quinnion came upon her! +She held her club in her teeth; she must not let that go. +</P> + +<P> +Quinnion was over the ledge, following her. She heard his heavy +breathing, heard him cursing her again. She was going so slowly, so +slowly, and Quinnion would know the way better than she. Quinnion +would make better time in the dark. +</P> + +<P> +She moved along this lower ledge. At each instant she wondered if it +were to be her last, if she were going to fall, if a swift drop through +the darkness would be the end of life. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly there was scarce room in the girl's breast for hatred of Chris +Quinnion, so filled was it with the love of life. She wanted to see +the sun come up again, she wanted the sweet breath of the dawn in her +nostrils, the beauty of a sun-lit world in her eyes. She thought of +Bud Lee. +</P> + +<P> +Clinging to the rocks, hanging on desperately, taking a score of +desperate chances momentarily, she made her way on and down. She found +scant handhold and, almost falling, dropped her club, heard it strike, +strike again. Black as the night was, its gloom was less than that of +the cavern to which Judith had grown accustomed; little by little she +began to make out the broken surface of the cliffs. The chasm below +was a pool of ink; above were the little stars; in the eastern sky, low +down, was a promise of the rising moon. +</P> + +<P> +The surge of quickening hope came into her heart. Had she hurt +Quinnion more than she had guessed? For, slowly as she made her +hazardous way down, it seemed to her that Quinnion came even more +slowly. Could she but once get down into the gorge below, could she +slip along the course of the racing stream, she might run and the sound +of her steps would be lost even to her own ears in the sound of the +water; the sight of her flying body would be lost to Quinnion's eyes. +</P> + +<P> +Then she heard him laughing above her. Laughing, with a snarl and a +curse in his laugh, and something of malicious triumph. Was he so +certain of her then? +</P> + +<P> +"Ruth!" called Quinnion. "Oh, Ruth! The girl's gettin' away. Goin' +down the rocks. Head her off at the bottom." +</P> + +<P> +Judith had found, because her fate was good to her, the long slanting +crack in the wall of rock up which she had come that day with Bayne +Trevors. There was still danger of a fall, but the danger was less now +than it had been ten seconds ago. She could move more swiftly now and +confidence had begun to com to her that she could elude Quinnion. But +now, suddenly, she heard Mad Ruth's voice screaming a shrill answer to +Quinnion's shout; knew that Ruth had been in her cabin across the gorge +and was running to intercept her at the foot of the cliffs. +</P> + +<P> +Well, still there was a race to be run and the odds not entirely +uneven. Ruth must descend the other side of the cañon, get down into +the gorge, make the crossing, which, so far as Judith knew, might be +farther up or farther down stream, come to the cliffs below Judith +before Judith herself made her way down. +</P> + +<P> +Again Judith took what risks the night and the rocks offered her and +thanked God in her soul that it was given her to take a chance in the +open, to use her own muscles in her own fight, not to lie longer, +playing the part of a do-nothing. Now and then, across the void, there +floated to her a little moaning cry from the mad woman's lips. Now and +then she heard a curse from Quinnion above; often from above her, from +below her own feet, from across the chasm, dropping stones, falling +almost sheer, told of haste and death which might come from an unlucky +step. +</P> + +<P> +Fast as Judith went now, having a fair sort of cliff trail under her, +Mad Ruth went faster. The gorge measured a scant fifty feet between +them and the girl's alert senses told her that already Ruth was on a +level with her. Ruth was winning in the desperate race. She knew her +way down so perfectly, her heart was so filled with madness, that +danger was nothing to her. +</P> + +<P> +Down and down climbed Judith, caution wedded to haste, as she told +herself that she had a chance yet, that that chance must not be tossed +away in a fall, though it were but a few feet. She must have no +sprained ankle if she meant to see the sun rise to-morrow. +</P> + +<P> +The flush had brightened in the sky where the moon was so near the +ridge. The moon, too, had joined in the race; with one quick glance +toward it, Judith again discarded caution for haste. She must get down +into the floor of the cañon before the moonlight did; she must be +running before its radiance showed her out to Quinnion and Ruth. +</P> + +<P> +Her hands were cut and bleeding, her heart was beating wildly, already +her body was sore and bruised. But these things she did not know. She +only knew that Quinnion was still coming on above her, and coming more +swiftly now, quite as swiftly as she herself moved, since his feet, +too, were in the better trail; that Mad Ruth had completed the descent +across the chasm and by now must be crossing the stream upon some +fallen log or rude bridge; that one minute more, or perhaps two, would +decide her fate. +</P> + +<P> +She could see the stream, glinting palely in the starlight. It seemed +very near; its thunder filled her ears. Down she went and down, down +until at last she was not ten feet above its surface, with a strip of +gently sloping bank just under her. She stooped, took firm hold upon a +knob of boulder, prepared to swing down and drop to the bottom. And, +as she stooped, she heard a little whining moan just under her and +straightened up, tense and terrified. Mad Ruth was there before her. +Mad Ruth was waiting. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap27"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XXVII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +ALONE IN THE WILDERNESS +</H3> + + +<P> +And Quinnion was coming on. She was trapped, caught between the two of +them. She heard Quinnion laugh again; he, too, had heard Ruth. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, God help me!" whispered Judith. "God help me now!" +</P> + +<P> +There was no time to hesitate. If she stood here, Quinnion would in a +moment wrap his arms about her; if she dropped down, she would be in +the frenzied clutch of Mad Ruth. +</P> + +<P> +A second she crouched, peering down into the gloom below her, seeking +to make out the form of the mad woman. Then she did not merely drop, +but jumped, landing fair upon the waiting figure, striking with her +boots on Mad Ruth's ample shoulders. A scream of rage from Ruth, a +little, strangling cry from Judith, and the two fell together. Ruth +clutched as she went down and a hand closed over the girl's ankle. +Judith rolled, struck again with the free boot, twisted sharply and +felt the grip torn loose from her ankle. She was free. +</P> + +<P> +She jumped up and ran and knew that Ruth was running just behind her, +screaming terribly. Judith fell, and her heart grew sick within her. +But again she was up just as Ruth's hand clutched at her skirt, +clutched and was torn away as Judith ran on. Quinnion cursed from +above as she had not yet heard him curse. Ruth reviled both her and +Quinnion for having let her go. +</P> + +<P> +Judith was running swiftly and felt that she could get the better of +the heavier, older woman in a race of this sort. She stumbled and +fell, and fear again gripped her; it seemed so long before she could +rise and clamber over a fallen log and race on. But the darkness which +tricked her protected her at the same time, playing no favorites now. +Ruth, too, had fallen; Ruth, too, was frenzied at the brief delay. +</P> + +<P> +Stumbling, falling, rising, staggering back from a tree into which she +had run full tilt, bruised and torn, the girl ran on. At every free +step hope shot upward in her heart; at every fall she grew sick with +dread. +</P> + +<P> +The cañon broadened rapidly, the ground underfoot grew less broken and +littered with boulders and logs. Through tangles of brush she went +blindly, throwing herself forward, falling, rising, falling, rising +again. It was a nightmare of a race, with Ruth always just there, +almost at her heels. She turned as far away from the stream as she +could, keeping under the cliffs where there was less brush; where the +way was more open; where the shadows were thickest. +</P> + +<P> +She was outdistancing Mad Ruth. Ruth's weird voice came from a greater +distance; the woman was ten, maybe twenty, feet behind her. +</P> + +<P> +The moon at last rose pale gold above the eastern ridge. And now +Judith could thank God for it. For the cañon had widened more and +more, the banks of the river were studded with big trees, there were +wide open spaces between them through which she shot like a frightened +deer, turning this way and that, darting about a clump of little firs, +plunging into the shadows under great sky-seeking cedars, running as +she had never run before and as she knew Mad Ruth could not run. +</P> + +<P> +Free! She was free. The triumph of it danced in her blood. On she +ran and now Quinnion's voice and Ruth's were confused with the roar of +the river. On she ran and on and on, and but faintly there came to her +the sound of breaking brush somewhere behind her. Never had her blood +sung within her as it sang now; never had the dim, moonlit solitudes of +the mountains opened their sheltering arms to one more grateful to slip +into them, like a wounded child into the soothing embrace of its mother. +</P> + +<P> +Now again she turned so that her flying steps brought her close to the +water's edge. Louder and louder grew its shouting voice in her ears, +little by little drowning out the sounds of Ruth and Quinnion behind +her. Now, in all the glorious night, there was no sound to reach her +but the sound of running water and her own beating feet. She was free. +</P> + +<P> +But still she ran, summoning all of the reserve of strength and +will-power which was hers to command. The sky was brightening to the +climbing moon. She must round many a sweeping curve of the river, pass +under many a sheltering, shadowing tree before she dared slow her steps. +</P> + +<P> +When she felt that she was overtaxing herself, she dropped from the +wild pace she had set herself into a little jogging trot. When her +whole body cried out at the effort demanded of it, she slowed down to a +brisk walk. She was shot through with pain, her throat ached, she was +growing dizzy. But on she went stubbornly. It was a full hour after +the last sound of pursuit had died out after her that she flung herself +down at the water's edge to drink and bathe her arms and face in the +cold stream. And, even then, she chose a spot where the shadow of a +great pine lay like ink over the bank. +</P> + +<P> +</P> + +<P> +The moon was high in the sky, the world bright with it, when Judith +left the valley into which the cañon had widened and made her way +slowly upward along a timbered ridge to the west. Of Quinnion and Mad +Ruth she now had no fear. Their chance of coming upon her was less +than negligible. She could creep into a clump of thick-standing young +trees and, even if they should come, could watch them go past. But as +they had dropped out of her world, another matter had entered it. The +mountains had befriended her; they had opened their arms to her and +that was all that she had asked of them. They had mothered her, +drawing her into hiding against their bosom. But it was a barren, +barren breast. And already she was hungry, daring to eat but sparingly +of her handful of bread and meat. +</P> + +<P> +From this ridge, finding an open crest, she stood looking out over the +world. Mile after mile of mountain and cañon and cliff fell away on +every side. She sought eagerly for a landmark: to see yonder in the +distance Old Baldy or Copper Mountain or Three Fools' Peak, any one of +the mountains or ridges known to her. And in the end she could only +shake her head and sigh wearily and slip down where she was to fall +asleep, thanking God that she was free, asking God to lead her aright +in the morning. +</P> + +<P> +The stars watched over her, a pale, worn-out girl sleeping alone in the +heart of the wilderness; the night breezes sang through the century-old +tree-tops; and Judith, having striven to the utter-most, slept in heavy +dreamlessness. +</P> + +<P> +With the cool dawn she awoke shivering and hungry. Her hair had +tumbled about her face, and sitting up she braided it with numb, sore +fingers. She looked at her hands; they well stained with blood from +many cuts. Her skirt was torn and soiled; her stockings were in +strips; her knees were bruised. But as she rose to her feet and once +more searched the riddle of a crag-broken world, her heart was light +with thankfulness. +</P> + +<P> +Last night the one friend she had with her was the north star. To-day +she would seek to push on toward the west. In that direction she +believed the Blue Lake ranch lay, though at best it was a guess. But +going westward she could follow the course of the bigger streams, and +soon or late, if her strength held, she would come to some open valley +where men ran stock. Now, she would go down into the little meadow +lying a mile away yonder and seek to find something to eat. If she +could but dig a few wild onions, wild potatoes, they would keep her +alive. West she would go, if for no other reason than because thus she +would be setting her back squarely upon the cavern where Quinnion and +Ruth were. +</P> + +<P> +The sun rolled into a clear blue sky and warmed her. She made her way +down the long flank of the mountain and into the tiny meadow. For +upward of two hours she remained there, nibbling at roots which she dug +up with a broken stick, seeking edible growths which she knew, finding +little, but enough to keep the life in her, the heart warm in her +breast. Then she went on, over a ridge again, down into a cañon and +along the stream which rose here and flowed westward. +</P> + +<P> +By noon she was faint and sick and had to stop often to rest, her legs +shaking under her. Again she made a scant meal. She had stumbled on a +tiny field of wild potatoes and ate what she could of them, thinking +longingly of a match for a fire. The match which Ruth had dropped she +still had, but she carefully reserved it now, thinking how perhaps a +trout, caught in a pool, might save her life. +</P> + +<P> +In her already half-starved condition and with the demands constantly +put on her strength, she would grow weaker and weaker if help did not +soon come. But she was still filled with the glory of freedom. +</P> + +<P> +It was a heart-weary, trembling Judith who late that afternoon made her +way upward along another ridge, seeking anxiously to find from this +lookout some landmark which she had sought in vain last night. In her +blouse were the few roots she had brought with her from the field +discovered at noon. Lying in a little patch of dry grass, resting, she +watched the day go down and the night drift into the mountains, filling +the ravines, creeping up the slopes, rising slowly to the peak to which +she had climbed, seeping into her soul. Never had the passing of the +day seemed to her so majestic a thing, truly filled with awe. Never +until now had the solitudes seemed so vast, so utterly, stupendously +big. Never until now, as she lay staring up into the limitless sky, +having given up the world about her as unknown, had she drunk to the +lees of the cup of loneliness. +</P> + +<P> +So great was the weariness of her tired body that as she lay still, +watching the stars come out one by one, she was half-resigned to lie so +and let death come to find her. It seemed to her that there in the +rude arms of Mother Earth a human life was a matter of no greater +consequence than the down upon a moth's wing. But she rested a little +and this mood, foreign to her intrepid heart, passed, and she sat up, +again resolute, again ready to make her fight as long as life beat +through her blood. At last she took the one match from her pocket. +She scarcely dared breathe when, with dry grass and twigs piled against +a rock, her dress shielding them from the wind, she rubbed the match +softly against her boot. A sputtering flame, making the blue light of +burning sulphur, died down, creating panic in her breast, then flared, +crackled, licked at the grass. She had a fire and she knew how to use +it! +</P> + +<P> +When a log was blazing, assuring her that her fire was safe, she rose +swiftly and went in search of the tree she meant to burn. She found a +giant pine, pitch-oozing, standing in a rocky open space where there +was little danger of the fire spreading. Fagged out and eager as she +was, she had not come to the point of forgetting what a great +forest-fire meant. +</P> + +<P> +She went back to her burning log, for a blazing dry branch which she +carried swiftly to the tree. Then she piled dry grass and dead twigs, +logs as heavy as she could carry, bits of brush. The flames licked at +the tree, ran up it, seemed to fall away, sprang at it again, +hungering. Now and then a long tongue of fire went crackling high up +along the side of the tree. Judith went back to a spot where, in a +ring of boulders, there was another grassy plot, threw herself down an +lay staring at the tongues of fire which were climbing higher and +higher. +</P> + +<P> +Some one would see her beacon. A forest ranger, perhaps, whose duty it +was to ride fast and far to battle with the first spark threatening the +wooded solitudes; perhaps some crew in a logging-camp, than whom none +knew better the danger of spreading fires; perhaps some cow-boy, even +one of her own men—perhaps Quinnion and Ruth? She then would hide +among the rocks until they had come and gone. Even now, against the +sleep falling upon her, she drew farther back through the tumbled +boulders. Perhaps, Bud Lee.… +</P> + +<P> +She went to sleep beyond the circle of bright light, tired and hungry +and striving against a returning hopelessness, her young body curled up +in the nest she had found, a cheek cuddled against her arm, wondering +vaguely if some one would see her fire and come—if that some one might +be Bud Lee. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap28"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XXVIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +BACON, KISSES, AND A CONFESSION +</H3> + + +<P> +Throughout the night the tree blazed unseen. Judith's eyes were closed +in the heavy sleep of exhaustion. The flames roared and leaped high +skyward, burning branches felt crashingly, to lie smouldering on the +rocky soil, the upstanding trunk glowed, vivid against the sky-line. +</P> + +<P> +In the early morning at least two pairs of eyes found the plume of +smoke above the still burning giant pine. A man named Greene, one of +the government forest rangers, blazing a new trail over Devil's Ridge, +came out upon a height, saw it and watched it frowningly across the +miles. It called him to a hard ride, perhaps to a difficult journey on +foot after he must leave his horse. He turned promptly from the work +in hand, ran to his horse, swung up and sped back to his cabin, to +telephone to the nearest station, passing the word. Then with axe and +shovel, he began his slow way toward the beacon. +</P> + +<P> +Bud Lee, from the mountain-top where he and Burkitt had taken Hampton, +saw it. Lee judged roughly that it was separated from him by four or +five miles of broken country, impassable to a man on horseback, to be +covered laboriously foot in a matter of weary hours. +</P> + +<P> +Lee and Greene approached the signal smoke from different quarters. +Lee from the west, Greene from the northeast. They fought their way on +toward it with far different emotions in their breasts. Greene with +the desire to do a day's work and kill a forest-fire in its beginning. +Lee with the passionate hope of finding Judith. Lee reached his +journey's end first. +</P> + +<P> +As he came pantingly up the last climb he discharged his rifle again +and again, to tell her that he was coming, to put hope into her. And, +because he was a lover and a lover must be filled with dread when she +is out of his sight, he felt a growing anxiety. She had lighted the +fire last night; what might have happened to her since then? Had she +been wandering, lost all these days? If nothing else, then had she +waited here half the night and in the end had she gone on plunging deep +into some cañon hidden to him? Would he find her well? Would he find +her at all? +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly he called out, shouting mightily, and began running, though +the way was steep. He had seen Judith, he had found her. She was +standing among the scattered boulders, her back to a great rock. She +was waving to him. Her lips were moving, though he could not see that +yet, could not hear her tremulous: +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, thank God, thank God!" +</P> + +<P> +"Judith," he called, "Judith!" +</P> + +<P> +Now, near enough to see her distinctly, he saw that her face was white, +that the hand she held out was shaking, that her clothes were torn, +that she looked pitifully in need of him. But at last, when he stood +at her side, one of the old rare smiles came into Judith's tired eyes, +her lips curved, and she said quietly: +</P> + +<P> +"Good morning, Bud Lee. You were very good—to come to me." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Judith," he cried sharply. But no other word came to his lips +then. The brave little smile had gone, the whiteness of her face smote +him to the heart. And now she was shaking from head to foot, and he +knew why she had not stepped out to meet him, why she had kept her back +to the rock. He thought that she was going to fall, he saw two big +tears start from the suddenly closed eyelids, and with a little +inarticulate cry he took her into his arms. +</P> + +<P> +"If you had not come, Bud Lee," she whispered faintly, "I should have +died, I think." +</P> + +<P> +Very tenderly he gathered her up so that her little boots were swung +clear of the flinty ground and she lay quiet in his arms. He stood a +moment holding her thus, looking with eyes alternately hard and tender +into her face. He wanted to hold her thus always, to watch the glad +color come back into her cheeks, to carry her, like a baby, back across +the weary miles and home. And, oddly, perhaps, the thought came back +to him and hurt him as it had never hurt him before, that he had once +been brutal with her, that he had crushed her in his arms and forced +upon her lips his kiss. He had been brutal with Judith, when now he +could kill a man for laying a little finger on her. +</P> + +<P> +"I have been a brute with you, a brute," he muttered to himself. But +Judith heard him, her eyes fluttered open and into them came again her +glorious smile. +</P> + +<P> +"Because you kissed me that night, Bud Lee?" she asked him. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't!" he cried sharply. "Don't even remember it, Judith." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know so little of a girl, Bud Lee," she went on slowly, "to +think that a man can so easily—find her lips with his unless—unless +she wants to be kissed?" +</P> + +<P> +He almost doubted his ears; he could hardly believe that he had seen +what he had seen in Judith's eyes. They were closed now, she lay quiet +in his arms, it seemed that she had fainted, or, was asleep, so very +white and still was she. He had forgotten that he must carry her to +where he could lay her down and bring water to her, give her something +to eat. He just stood motionless, holding her to him, staring hungrily +down at her. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you going to play—I'm your baby—all day, Bud Lee?" she asked +softly. +</P> + +<P> +He carried her swiftly away from the ring of boulders and to a little +grassy, level spot where he put her down with lingering tenderness. +Judith had not been angry with him all these months! Judith had let +him kiss her because she wanted to be kissed—by him! +</P> + +<P> +He raked some coals out of the ashes, hastily set some slices of bacon +to fry, cursed himself for not having brought coffee and milk and sugar +and a steak and a flask of whiskey and enough other articles to load a +mule. He ran down into the cañon and brought water in his hat, +swearing at himself all the way up that he had not brought a cup. He +put his arm about her while she drank; kept his arm about her, kneeling +at her side, while he gave her a little, crisp slice of bacon, held his +arm there when she had finished, watching her solicitously. +</P> + +<P> +"The two nicest things in the world, Mr. Man," she said, with a second +attempt at the old Judith brightness, "are half-burnt bacon and Bud +Lee!" +</P> + +<P> +Then, because, though he had been slow to believe, he was not a fool, +and now did believe, he kissed her. And Judith's lips met his +lingeringly. Judith's two arms rose, slipped about his neck, holding +him tight to her. +</P> + +<P> +The faintest of flushes had come at last into a her cheeks. He saw it +and grew glad as he held her so that he could look into her face. But +now she laid a hand against his breast, holding him back from her. +</P> + +<P> +"That's all now," she told him, her eyes soft upon him. "Just one kiss +for each slice of bacon, Mr. Lee. But—I'm so hungry!" +</P> + +<P> +For a little there was nothing to do but for Judith to rest and get +some of her strength back. Lee made of his coat and vest a seat for +her against a rock, sat at her side, his arm about her, made her lean +against him and just be happy. Not yet would he let her tell him of +the horrors through which she had gone. And he saw no need of telling +her anything immediately of conditions as he had left them at the +ranch. Time enough for that when she was stronger, when they were near +Blue Lake. +</P> + +<P> +Greene, the forester, came at last up the mountain. He noted the +isolated tree, nodded at it approvingly, made a brief tour around the +charred circle, extinguishing a burning brand here and there. +</P> + +<P> +"What sort of a fool would want to climb way up here to start a fire, +anyway?" he grumbled. +</P> + +<P> +Then, unexpectedly, he came upon the happiest-looking man he had ever +seen, with his arms about an amazingly pretty girl. Not just the sort +of thing a lone forest ranger counts upon stumbling upon on the top of +a mountain. Greene stared in bewilderment. Bud Lee turning a flaming +red. Judith smiled. +</P> + +<P> +"Good morning, stranger," said Lee. "Fine day, isn't it?" +</P> + +<P> +Judith laughed. Greene continued to stare. Lee went a trifle redder. +</P> + +<P> +"If you two folks just started that fire for fun," grunted Greene +finally, "why, then, all I've got to say is you've got a blamed queer +idea of fun. Here I've been busting myself wide open to get to it." +</P> + +<P> +"Haven't got a flask of brandy on you, have you?" asked Lee. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I have. And what's more I'm going to take a shot at it right +now. If nobody asks you, I need it!" +</P> + +<P> +Now, Lee heard for the first time something of Judith's adventure. +For, recognizing the ranger in Greene, she told him swiftly why she had +started the fire, of her trouble with Quinnion, of the cave where +Quinnion had attacked her and of Mad Ruth. Greene's eyes lighted with +interest. He swept off his hat and came forward, suddenly apologetic +and very human, proffering his brandy, insisting with Lee upon her +taking a sip of it. +</P> + +<P> +Yes, he knew Mad Ruth, he knew where her cabin was. He could find the +cave from Judith's description. Also, he knew of Quinnion and would be +delighted to break a record getting back to his station and to White +Rock. White Rock was in the next county, but so, for that matter, was +the cave. He'd get the sheriff and would lose no time cornering +Quinnion if the man had not already slipped away. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know you two real well," said Greene, with a quick smile at +the end, "but if you don't mind, pardner," and he put out his hand to +Lee, "I'd like to congratulate you! I don't know a man that's quite as +lucky this morning as you are!" +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you," laughed Judith. She rose and shook hands too. "We're at +Blue Lake ranch for the present. Come and see us." +</P> + +<P> +"Then you're Miss Sanford?" said Greene. He laughed. "I've heard of +you more than once. Greene's my name." +</P> + +<P> +"Lee's mine," offered Lee. +</P> + +<P> +"Bud Lee, eh? Oh, you two will do! So long, friends. I'm off to look +up Quinnion." +</P> + +<P> +And, swinging his axe blithely, Greene took his departure. +</P> + +<P> +"There are other things in the world besides just cliffs to stare at," +said Judith. "And I would like a bath and a change of clothes and a +chance to brush my hair. And the bacon doesn't taste so good as it did +and I want an apple and a glass of milk." +</P> + +<P> +So at last they left the mountain-top and made their slow way down. +</P> + +<P> +As they went Lee told her something of what had happened at the ranch, +how Carson would hold off the buyers, how Tommy Burkitt was assuming +charge of Pollock Hampton. And when they came near enough to Burkitt's +and Hampton's hiding-place, Lee fired a rifle several times to get +Burkitt's attention. Finally they saw the boy, standing against the +sky upon a big rock, waving to them. From Lee's shouts, from his +gestures, chiefly from the fact that Judith was there, Burkitt +understood and freed Hampton, the two of them coming swiftly down a to +Judith and Lee. +</P> + +<P> +Hampton's face was hot with the anger which had grown overnight. He +came on stiffly, chafing his wrists. +</P> + +<P> +"These two fools," he snapped to Judith, "have made an awful mess of +things. They've queered the deal with Doan, Rockwell & Haight, they've +made themselves liable to prosecution for holding me against my will, +they've——" +</P> + +<P> +"Wait a minute, Pollock," said Judith quietly. "It's you who have made +a mistake." +</P> + +<P> +Briefly, she told him what had happened. As word after word of her +account fell upon Hampton's ears, his eyes widened, the stiffness of +his bearing fell away, the glint of anger went out of his eyes, a look +of wonder came into them. And when she had finished, Hampton did not +hesitate. He turned quickly and put out two hands, one to Lee, one to +Burkitt. +</P> + +<P> +"I was a chump, same as usual," he grunted. "Forget it if you can. I +can't." +</P> + +<P> +They went on more swiftly now, the four of them together, Judith +insisting that that last sip of brandy had put new life into her. In a +little, seeing that Judith did in fact have herself in hand, Bud Lee, +with a hidden pressure of her hand, left them, hurrying on ahead, +trying to reach Carson or some of the men in Pocket Valley and to get +horses. +</P> + +<P> +As he drew nearer the ranch Lee saw smoke rising from the north ridge. +Again he could turn his thoughts a little to what lay in front of him, +wondering what luck Carson had had in his double task of fighting fire +and holding off the buyers. +</P> + +<P> +At any rate, the Blue Lake stock had not been driven off. The bawling +of the big herds told him that before he saw the countless tossing +horns. Then, dropping down into Pocket Valley from above, he found his +own string of horses feeding quietly. Beyond, the cattle. At first he +thought that the animals had been left to their own devices. He saw no +rider anywhere. Hurrying on, he shouted loudly. After he had called +repeatedly, there floated to him from somewhere down on the lower flat +an answering yell. And presently Carson himself came riding to meet +him. +</P> + +<P> +Carson's face was smeared with blood; one bruised, battered, discolored +eye was swelling shut, but in his uninjured eye there was triumphant +gladness. +</P> + +<P> +"We got the sons-o'-guns on the run, Bud," he announced from afar. +"Killed their pesky fires out before they got a good start, crippled a +couple of 'em, counting Benny, the cook, in on the deal, chased their +deputy sheriff off with a flea in his ear, an' set tight, holding our +own." +</P> + +<P> +"Where'd you get the eye, Carson?" demanded Lee. +</P> + +<P> +Carson grinned broadly, an evil grin of a distorted, battered face. +</P> + +<P> +"You want to take a good look at ol' Poker Face," he chuckled. "He +won't cheat no more games of crib for a coon's age. I jus' nacherally +beat him all to hell, Bud." +</P> + +<P> +"Where are the rest of the men?" Lee asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Watching the fires an' seeing no more don't get started." +</P> + +<P> +Then Lee told him of Judith. Carson's good eye opened wide with +interest. Carson's bruised lips sought to form for a whistle which +managed to give them the air of a maidenly pout. +</P> + +<P> +"He had the nerve!" he muttered. "Trevors had the nerve! Bud, we +ought to make a little call on that gent." +</P> + +<P> +Then, seeing Lee's face, Carson realized that anything he might have to +remark on this score was superfluous. Lee had already thought of that. +</P> + +<P> +They roped a couple of the wandering horses, improvised hackamores from +the rope cut in two, and went to meet Judith. Carson snatched eagerly +at her hand and squeezed it and looked inexpressible things from his +one useful eye. He gave his saddled horse to her, watched her and Lee +ride on to the ranch, and sent Tommy to the old cabin for another rope, +while he rounded up some more horses in a narrow cañon for Burkitt and +Hampton. +</P> + +<P> +"You damn' fool," he said growlingly to Hampton, "look what you've +done." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course I'm a damn fool," replied Hampton, by now his old cheerful +self. "I've apologized to Judith and Lee and Burkitt. I apologize to +you. I'll tell you confidentially that I'm a sucker and a +Come-on-Charlie. I haven't got the brains of a jack-rabbit." +</P> + +<P> +Carson went away grumbling. But for the first time he felt a vague +respect for Pollock Hampton. +</P> + +<P> +"He'll be a real man some day," thought Carson, "if the fool-killer +don't pick him off first." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"You may come and see me this evening," Judith told Bud Lee as he left +her to Marcia's arms. "I'll be eating and sleeping and taking baths +until then. Thank you for the bacon—and the water—and——" +</P> + +<P> +She smiled at him from Marcia's excited embrace. Bud Lee, the blood +tingling through him, left her. +</P> + +<P> +"Before I come to you, Judith girl," he whispered to himself as he +went, "I'll have to have little talk with Bayne Trevors." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap29"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XXIX +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +LEE AND OLD MAN CARSON RIDE TOGETHER +</H3> + + +<P> +Bud Lee, riding alone toward the Western Lumber Camp, turned in his +saddle to glance back as he heard hoof-beats behind him. It was +Carson, and the old cattleman was riding hard. Lee frowned. Then for +an instant a smile softened his stern eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Good little old Carson," he muttered. +</P> + +<P> +Carson came to his side, saying merely in his dry voice: +</P> + +<P> +"Mind if I come along, Bud? You an' me have rid into one thing an' +another more'n just once." +</P> + +<P> +"This is my fight," said Lee coolly. +</P> + +<P> +"Who said it wasn't?" demanded the other querulously. "Only you ain't +got any call to be a hawg, Bud. Besides, I got a right to see if +there's a fair break, ain't I? Say, look at them cow brutes back +yonder! Don't it beat all how silage, when you use it right, shapes +'em up?" +</P> + +<P> +Few enough words were said as the miles were flung behind them; few +were needed. A swift glance showed Carson that Lee carried a revolver +in his shirt; his own gun rode plainly in evidence in front of his hip. +What little conversation rose between them was of ranch matters. They +spoke of success now with confidence. These two foremen alone could +see the money in late winter and early spring from their cattle and +horses to carry the Blue Lake venture over the rapids. Then there were +the other resources of the diversified undertaking, the hogs, the prize +stock, the olives, poultry, dairy products. And soon or late Western +Lumber would pay the price for the timber tract, soon, if they saw that +they had to pay it or lose the forests which they had so long counted +upon. Lumber values were mounting every day. +</P> + +<P> +Neither man, when it chanced that Bayne Trevors's name was casually +mentioned, suggested: "Why not go to the law?" For to them it was very +clear that, once in the courts, the man who had played safe would laugh +at them. Against Judith's oath that he had kidnapped her would stand +Trevors's word that he had done nothing of the kind, coupled with his +carefully established perjured alibi and the lying testimony of the +physician who had visited Judith in the cave. This man and that might +be rounded up, Shorty and Benny and Poker Face, and if any of them +talked—which perhaps none of them would—at most they would say that +they had no orders from anybody but Quinnion. And where was Quinnion, +who stood as a buckler between Trevors and prosecution? And what +buckler in all the world can ever stand between one man and another? +</P> + +<P> +Now and then Carson sent a quick questioning glance toward Lee's +inscrutable face; now and then he sighed, his thoughts his own. Bud +Lee, knowing his companion as he did, shrewdly guessed that Carson was +hoping that events might so befall that there would be an open, +free-for-all fight and that he might not be forced to play the restless +part of a mere onlooker. Bud Lee hoped otherwise. +</P> + +<P> +"There's two ways to get a man," said Carson meditatively, out of a +long silence. "An' both is good ways: with a gun or with your hands." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," agreed Bud quietly. +</P> + +<P> +"If it works out gun way," continued Carson, still with that +thoughtful, half-abstracted look in his eyes, "it don't hurt to +remember, Bud, that he shoots left-handed an' from the hip." +</P> + +<P> +Lee merely nodded. Carson did not look up from the bobbing ears of his +horse as he continued: +</P> + +<P> +"If it works out the other way an' it's just fists, it don't hurt to +remember how Trevors put out Scotty Webb last year in Rocky Bend. +Four-footed style, striking with his boot square in Scotty's belly." +</P> + +<P> +Trevors's name was not again referred to even in the vaguest terms. +The road in front of them, at last dropping down into the valley in +which the lumber-camp was, straightened out into a lane that ran +between stumps to the clutter of frame buildings. +</P> + +<P> +"Something doing at the office," offered Carson, as they drew near. +"Directors' meeting, likely." +</P> + +<P> +Two automobiles stood in the road ten steps from the closed door of the +unpretentious shack which bore the printed legend, "Office, Western +Lumber Company." The big red touring-car certainly belonged to Melvin, +the company's president. Carson looked curiously at Lee. +</P> + +<P> +Bud dismounted, dropped his horse's reins, shifted the revolver from +his shirt to his belt where it was at once unhidden and loosely held, +ready for a quick draw. Then he went up the three steps, Carson at his +heels, his gun also unhidden and ready. From within came voices, one +in protest, Bayne Trevors's ringing out, filled with mastery followed +by a laugh. Lee set his hand to the door. Then, only because it was +locked from within, did he knock sharply. +</P> + +<P> +"Who is it?" came the sharp inquiry. But the man who made it and who +was standing by the door, threw it open. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you want?" he demanded again. "We're busy." +</P> + +<P> +"I want to see Trevors," said Lee coolly. +</P> + +<P> +"You can't. He——" +</P> + +<P> +Lee shoved the man aside and strode on. Carson, close at Lee's heels, +his eyes glittering, stepped a little aside when once he was within the +room and took his place with his back against the wall close to the +door. +</P> + +<P> +It was a big, bare, barn-like room, furnished simply with one long +table and half a dozen chairs. Here were five men besides Bayne +Trevors. All except Trevors and the man who had opened the door were +seated; Trevors, at the far end of the room, was standing, an +oratorical arm slowly dropping to his side. +</P> + +<P> +His eyes met Lee's, ran quickly to Carson's, came back to Lee's and +rested there steadily. Beyond the slow falling of his extended arm, he +did not move. The muscles of his face hardened, the look of triumph +which just now had stood in his eyes changed slowly and in its place +came an expression that was twin to that in Bud Lee's eyes, just a look +of inscrutability with a hint of watchfulness under it, and the +hardness of agate. While a man might have drawn a deep breath into his +lungs and expelled it, neither Lee nor Trevor stirred. +</P> + +<P> +"What the devil is this?" demanded Melvin from across the table. +"Hold-up or what?" He rapped the table resoundingly. +</P> + +<P> +"Shut up!" snapped Carson. "It's just a two-man play, Melvin: Lee an' +Trevors." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," said Melvin, and sank back, making no further protest. He was no +stranger to Carson or to Bud Lee, and he sensed what might be between +Lee and a man like Trevors. Then shrugging his shoulders, he said +carelessly: "I'm not the man to get in other men's way, and you know +it, Carson. But you might tell your friend Bud Lee that Bayne Trevors +is rather a big man influentially to mix things with. I've just +resigned this morning and Trevors is our new president." +</P> + +<P> +"Thanks," returned Carson dryly. "I don't think that'll make much +difference though, Melvin. Most likely you'll have two presidents +resigning the same day." +</P> + +<P> +At last Lee spoke. +</P> + +<P> +"Trevors," he said quietly, "maybe the law can't get you. But I can. +For reasons which both you and I understand you are going to clear out +of this part of the country." +</P> + +<P> +"Am I?" asked Trevors. The look of his eyes did not alter, the poise +of his big body did not shift, his hands, both at his sides again, +might have been carved in bronze. +</P> + +<P> +Then suddenly he laughed and threw out his arms in a wide gesture and +again dropped them, saying shortly: +</P> + +<P> +"You're playing the game the way I thought you would. You've got a +gun. I am unarmed—begin your shooting and be damned to you!" +</P> + +<P> +He even stepped forward, his eyes fearlessly upon Lee's, and settled +his big frame comfortably in a chair by the table. +</P> + +<P> +"Go ahead," he concluded. "I'm ready." +</P> + +<P> +"That's as it should be!" Lee's voice was vibrant. His hard eyes +brightened. With a quick jerk he drew the revolver from his belt and +dropped it to the floor at Carson's feet. +</P> + +<P> +Carson, though he stooped for it quickly, did not shift his watchful +eyes from Trevors. For Carson had known more fights in his life than +he had years; he knew men, and looked to Trevor for just the sort of +thing Trevors did. +</P> + +<P> +As Lee stepped forward, Trevors snatched open the drawer of the table +at his side, quick as light, and whipped out the weapon which lay there. +</P> + +<P> +"Go slow, Trevors!" came old Carson's dry voice. "I've got you covered +already, two-gun style." +</P> + +<P> +Trevors, even with his finger crooking to the trigger, paused and saw +the two guns in Carson's brown hands trained unwaveringly upon him. +There was much deadly determination in Carson's eyes. Again Trevors +laughed, drawing back his empty hand. +</P> + +<P> +"You yellow dog!" grunted Bud Lee, his tone one of supreme disgust. +"You damned yellow dog!" +</P> + +<P> +Trevors shrugged. +</P> + +<P> +"You see, gentlemen—two to one, with the odds all theirs." +</P> + +<P> +"You lie!" spat out Carson. "It's one to one an' I see the game goes +square." He stepped forward, removed the weapon from the table under +Trevors's now suddenly changeful eyes, and went back to his place with +his back to the wall. +</P> + +<P> +"For God's sake!" cried the one nervous man in the room, he who had +opened the door. "This is murder!" +</P> + +<P> +Melvin smiled, a smile as cheerless as the gleam of wintry starlight on +a bit of glass. +</P> + +<P> +"Will you fight him, Trevors?" he asked. "With your hands?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," answered Trevors. "Yes." +</P> + +<P> +"Move back the table," commanded Melvin, on his feet in an instant. +"And the chairs. Get them back." +</P> + +<P> +The table was dragged to the far end of the room; the chairs were piled +upon it. +</P> + +<P> +"Now," and Melvin's watch was in his hand, his voice coming with +metallic coldness, "it's to a finish, is it? Three-minute rounds, fair +fighting, no——" +</P> + +<P> +But now at last Bayne Trevors's blood was up, his slow anger had +kindled, he was moving his feet restlessly. +</P> + +<P> +"Damn it," he shouted, "whose fight is this but mine and Lee's? If he +wants a fight, let him come and get it; a man's fight and rules and +rounds and time be damned! Am I to dance around here and sidestep and +fence just for you to look on?… Carson!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well?" said Carson. +</P> + +<P> +"Lee challenges me, doesn't he? Then I'm the man to name the sort of +fight, am I not? Is that fair?" +</P> + +<P> +"Meaning just what?" asked Carson. +</P> + +<P> +"Meaning that I am going to get him, get him any way I can! You let us +fight this out our way, any way, and no interference!" +</P> + +<P> +"Talk to Bud there," rejoined the old cattleman calmly. "It ain't my +scrap." +</P> + +<P> +"Then, Lee," snapped Trevors, "come on if you want such a fight as +you'd get if you and I were alone in the mountains, with no man to +watch, a fight where a man can use what weapons God gave him, any +weapon he can lay his mind to, his eye to, his hand to! Or," and at +last the sneer came, "do you want a pair of padded gloves and somebody +to fan you?" +</P> + +<P> +Carson shifted his glance to Bud Lee's face. Lee merely nodded. +</P> + +<P> +"Then," cried Carson sternly, "go to it! No man steps in, an' you two +can fight it out like coyotes or mountain-lions for all of me." +</P> + +<P> +"Your word there will be no interference?" asked Trevors. "For you're +just a fool and not a liar, Carson." +</P> + +<P> +"My word," was the answer. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap30"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XXX +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE FIGHT +</H3> + + +<P> +Bayne Trevors slipped out of his coat and vest, tossing them to the +pile of chairs on the table. He loosened his soft shirt-collar and was +ready. All of Bud Lee's simple preparations had been made when he +threw his broad hat aside. +</P> + +<P> +Then came the little pause which is forerunner to the first blow, when +two men measure each other, seeking each to read the other's purpose. +</P> + +<P> +"It ought to be a pretty even break," muttered Melvin, his interest +obviously that of a sporting man who would travel a thousand miles to +see a fight for a champion's belt. "Trevors has the weight by forty +pounds; Lee has the reach by a hair; both quick-footed; both hard; Lee, +maybe a little harder. Don't know. Even break. The sand will do +it—sand or luck." +</P> + +<P> +The two men drew slowly together. Their hands came up, their fists +showed glistening knuckles, their jaws were set, their feet moved +cautiously. Then suddenly Bud Lee sprang in and struck. +</P> + +<P> +Struck tentatively with his left hand that grazed Trevors's cheek and +did no harm; struck terribly with his right hand that drove through the +other man's guard and landed with the little sound of flesh on flesh on +Trevors's chest. Trevors's grunt and his return blow came together; +both men reeled back a half-pace from the impact, both hung an instant +upon an unsteady balance, both sprang forward. And as they met the +second time, they battled furiously, clinging together, striking +mercilessly, giving and taking with only the sound of scuffing +boot-heels and soft thuds and little coughing grunts breaking the +silence. Bayne Trevors gave back a stubborn step, striking right and +left as he did so; caught himself, hurled himself forward so that now +it was Bud Lee who was borne backward by the sheer weight of his +opponent. There was a gash on Lee's temple from which a thin stream of +blood trickled; Trevors's mouth was bleeding. +</P> + +<P> +"Under his guard, Trevors!" shouted Melvin, on the table now, his face +red, his eyes shining. "Under, under!" +</P> + +<P> +"Remember, Bud! Remember!" cried Carson. +</P> + +<P> +"That's it, that's it!" Melvin clapped his two big hands and came +perilously near falling from his point of vantage as Trevors's fists +drove into Lee's body and Lee went reeling back. "Give him hell! A +hundred dollars on Trevors!" +</P> + +<P> +"Take you!" called Carson without withdrawing his eyes from the two +forms reeling up and down, back and forth across the room. +</P> + +<P> +"Done!" cried Melvin. "Trevors, a hundred dollars——" +</P> + +<P> +He broke off, forgetful of his own words. The two men met again, clung +to each other in a ludicrous embrace, broke asunder, and Lee struck so +that his fist, landing fair upon Trevors's chin, hurled the bigger man +back, stumbling, falling—— +</P> + +<P> +But not fallen. For his back found the wall and saved him. As Lee +came on, rushing at him like a man gone mad, Trevors slipped aside and +struck back, for the critical moment gaining time to breathe. He spat, +wiped his bloody mouth with the back of his hand and again eluded a +rushing attack by ducking and stepping to one side. And ever, when he +sought to save his own body, he struck back, grunting audibly with the +effort. +</P> + +<P> +They fought everywhere, up and down, back and forth, until every foot +of the floor felt their heavy boots, until each of them was fighting +with all of the force that lay in him, fighting with that swelling +anger which grows at leaps and bounds when two men strive body to body, +when the hot breath of one mingles with the hot breath of the other, +when red rage looking out of one pair of eyes sees its reflection in +the other. Again and again Melvin muttered: "An even break! By God, +an even break!" And over and over did Carson's heart rise in his +breast as he saw Bud Lee drive Trevors, and over and over did his heart +sink when he saw Lee sway and reel under the sledge-hammer blows +beating at face and body. +</P> + +<P> +In the beginning there had been in Bud Lee's mind but the one thought: +This man had laid his hands upon Judith; this man must be punished and +punished by none other in God's wide world than Bud Lee. Now all cool +thought had fled, leaving just the hot desire to beat at that which +beat at him, to strike down that which strove to strike him down, to +master his enemy, to see the great, powerful body prone at his feet. +Now he was fighting for that simplest, most potent reason in the world, +just because he was fighting. And, though he knew that he had found a +man as quick and hard and strong as himself, still he told himself, +that he must fight a winning fight—there was some good reason why he +must fight a winning fight. +</P> + +<P> +His whole body was bruised and battered and sore. A glancing blow now +shot him through with pain. Trevors knew how to put his weight behind +his blows, and his weight was well over two hundred pounds. It was +like being hammered with a two-hundred-pound sledge. +</P> + +<P> +Give and take it was from the first blow, with none of the finesse of a +boxers' match, with less thought of escaping punishment than of +inflicting it. More than once had Bud Lee felt that he was falling +only to catch his balance and come back at Trevors; more than once had +Trevors gone reeling backward, smashing into the wall. Many a time did +Melvin count his money won and lost. And Carson, crouching now, tense, +eager, a little fearful, muttered constantly to himself. +</P> + +<P> +"They've both got the sand!" grunted Melvin. "Which one draws the +luck?" +</P> + +<P> +But luck stood by and did not enter into the battle that grew ever +hotter as Bud Lee's and Trevors's gorge rose higher at every blow. It +was to be simply the best man wins, and none of the six men who watched +knew from the beginning until the end who the best man was. What +tricks Trevors knew, he used, and they were met by what cunning lay in +Bud Lee; what strength, what resistance, what power to endure was each +panting body was called upon to the reserve. +</P> + +<P> +Already the spring had gone out of their steps. They came at each +other for the most part more slowly, more cautiously, but more +determined not to give over. Faces glistening with sweat, grimy with +the dust their pounding feet beat up from the floor, the roots of Lee's +hair red where with a bloody hand he had pushed it back, Trevors's lips +swollen and ugly, they fought on until the men who looked at them +wondered just where lay the limits upon which each depended. +</P> + +<P> +"Lee's tough," Carson whispered to himself. "Riding every day an' +working … Trevors has been setting in a chair.… Bud'll wear +him out.… My God! Bud, look out! Foot work.…" +</P> + +<P> +Yes, foot work, but not as Carson expected it, not the thing Bud Lee +looked for when he sensed rather than read in Trevors's eyes that a +fresh trick was coming. He was ready for a lifted boot, and, instead, +Trevors, rushing down upon him, threw grappling arms about him, +heedless of the fist smashing again into his cut lips. Trevors doubled +and twisted and got a grip about Lee's middle, at him, seeking to throw +him. +</P> + +<P> +Down they went together with no particular advantage to either man. +But as they rolled apart and Lee threw out an arm to lift himself +Trevors saw the chance he sought and mightily, brutally, cursing as he +jumped up for it, he drove the heel of his boot down upon Lee's hand on +the floor. +</P> + +<P> +From Lee's white lips burst an involuntary groan as it seemed to him +that every bone in his hand had been crushed, from Carson a choking cry +of rage, from Trevors a short laugh as he called out sharply: +</P> + +<P> +"Hands off, Carson! Our fight—any way——" +</P> + +<P> +Again on their feet, Trevors a second first and with the advantage +clearly his now rushed Lee, seeking to finish what he had begun. And +Bud Lee, his face white and drawn, looking ghastly with the blood +smears across it, moving swiftly but not swiftly enough, went down, +Trevors's weight against him, Trevors's fist beating into his side just +below the arm-pit. +</P> + +<P> +"Five hundred on Trevors!" shouted Melvin. Carson did not hear him. +</P> + +<P> +"At him, Bud, go at him!" he was crying over and over. "That's the +last dirty trick he's got. Get him, Buddie. Oh, for Gawd's sake, +Buddie, go get him!" +</P> + +<P> +Trevors was upon him again, but Lee slipped aside, even rolled over, +managed to get to his feet. Again Trevors bore down upon him, a new +leaping fire in his eyes. Again, though barely in time, Bud Lee +slipped away from him. He drew Trevors's harsh laugh after him and +Trevors's questing, eager fists. Lee put up his arm, his right arm, +guarding his face, and drew away, back and back. Carson was almost +whimpering, calling whiningly: +</P> + +<P> +"Stand up to him, Bud! Oh, go get him, Buddie!" +</P> + +<P> +Still up and down the room they went, Trevors rushing at Lee, Lee +taking what blows he must, striking out but little, seeking now only to +pull himself together, to get his head clear of daze and dizziness. +Stepping backward, he again got the wall at his shoulders, slipped to +one side, strove only to get the empty room behind him, succeeded and +let Trevors drive him, drive until again his back was to a wall. +</P> + +<P> +"Run away, will you?" panted Trevors. "I've got you, damn you. Got +you right." +</P> + +<P> +Lee didn't answer. He was thinking dully that Bayne Trevors was near +telling the truth, that Bud Lee was almost beaten—almost. That was as +far as a gentleman ever went—just to that desperate "almost beaten." +Not quite. No! not quite. Never that. +</P> + +<P> +Both men were nearly spent; Carson saw that while he cursed softly in +his corner; Melvin saw it and watched for the end, wondering just how +it would come. Trevors should swing for the point of the jaw, put all +that was in him into a final, smashing blow, beat through an +insufficient guard, do it now, quickly. For both Carson and Melvin saw +another thing, a thing which both had sensed at the outset: Bud Lee was +harder than Bayne Trevors. Lee, slipping away at every step was +getting something back which had nearly gone from him; Trevors was +breathing in noisy jerks; save for the vital fact that he now had two +hands to Bud Lee's one, Trevors was showing more signs of weariness +than Lee. +</P> + +<P> +"Bud'll get him—somehow," whispered Carson. "Good old Bud. Somehow." +</P> + +<P> +What Carson and Melvin sensed Trevors knew. He saw that Lee was having +less trouble in eluding him now, that Lee's feet were quicker, lighter +than his, that Lee was beginning to strike back viciously at him, and +when the blow landed, Trevors's big body rocked, shot through with +pain. There came to him the thought which was Melvin's, but it came in +Trevors's way: Now, quickly, before Lee was ready for it, must come the +end. So, for the third time that day Bayne Trevors, with much at +stake, resorted to "what weapons God gave him, what weapons he could +lay his mind to, his eyes to, his hands to"—his feet to. Resorting to +the old trick which came up from South American ports in disreputable +windjammers, which is known to the San Francisco waterfront, he raised +a heavy boot, striking for Lee's stomach, seeking with one low, +horrible blow to double up his already handicapped antagonist in +writhing pain on the floor. +</P> + +<P> +"An' I gave my word!" bellowed Carson, the sweat on his own tortured +brow. "Oh, my Gawd." +</P> + +<P> +But just that one brief instant too late did Bayne Trevors lift his +foot. For Bud Lee had expected this, never had forgotten it, had +prayed within his soul that the man he fought would use it. Just by +that fraction of time which has no name was he quicker than Trevors, +and he knew it. Now, as he read the sinister purpose in Trevors's +glaring eyes, as he glimpsed the raised boot as it left the floor, he +lowered his own head, averted it ever so little, stooped—and his hand +closed like locked iron about the calf of Trevors's leg. A stifled cry +from the bulkier man, a little grunt of effort from Lee, Lee straining, +heaving mightily, and Trevors went back, toppled, fought for his +slipping balance, and fell. As he went down Lee was upon him, Lee's +arm about his neck, Lee's weight flung upon him, Lee holding his body +between a powerful pair of knees which rode him as they rode daily some +struggling Blue Lake colt. +</P> + +<P> +Now Bud's left arm, defying the agony of a broken hand, was around him, +Lee's legs were about the frantically fighting body, and at last Lee's +right hand went its sure way to the thick, bared, pulsing throat. +Trevors's right arm was caught at his side, held there by the body upon +his. His left hand beat at Lee's face, struck and battered again only +to come back like a steam-driven piston to hammer again. But Bud Lee's +pain-racked body clung on, his thumb and fingers sank and sank deeper +into the corded muscles of the heaving throat, crooked like talons, +white and hard and relentless. +</P> + +<P> +Trevors's eyes were terrible, filled with hatred, red-flecked with +rage. He sought, with a great sudden heave, to roll over. But he +could not shake off the legs which were like stubborn tentacles about +him, could not free his throat of the tensing clutch. He tore at the +wrist, smote again at Lee's head, set his own hand to Lee's throat. In +an instant his hand was back at the hand worrying him, but he was +unable to drag it away. +</P> + +<P> +His face went white, flamed red, grew purplish. His eyes bulged up at +Lee's, his deep chest contracted spasmodically. Lee, summoning the +force within him, drove thumb and fingers deeper. +</P> + +<P> +"Got enough?" he panted. +</P> + +<P> +For the last time Trevors strained with him and they rolled like +death-locked mountain-lions. But still Lee's left arm was about +Trevors's neck, his legs about the tossing body, his hand at Trevors's +throat. Trevors's breath caught, failed him.… +</P> + +<P> +Then and then only did a new look come into the bulging eyes. A look +of more than fear, of utter, desperate terror. Trevors threw up his +hand weakly, then let it fall so that it struck the floor heavily, a +dead weight. +</P> + +<P> +Lee's grip at the strangling throat relaxed. But he did not move his +hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Got enough?" he panted again. +</P> + +<P> +The answer came brokenly, weakly, almost inarticulate. But it did come +and the men drawn close heard it: +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +"You'll get out of the country?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +Bud Lee drew back and rose, going to the door swiftly. He stooped for +his hat and passed out. And as Bayne Trevors got unsteadily to his +feet and sank slumping into the chair offered him, two big tears formed +in his eyes and rolled down his cheeks. The first tears in many a +year, the tears of a strong man broken for the first time in his life. +</P> + +<P> +"Sand did it!" grunted Melvin. "Just sand, Carson." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll stick aroun' an' see he moves on, Bud," Carson followed Lee to +say. "Oh, he'll go. But I'll just tell him how the boys is headed +this way by now an' it's tar an' feathers for him if he don't mosey +right along. That's something he couldn't stand right now. An', +Bud——" +</P> + +<P> +He put out his hand and locked Lee's in a grip that made the sore +fingers wince. Then, swinging upon the heel of his boot, he went back +to collect a hundred dollars from Melvin and help Bayne Trevors shape +his plans. +</P> + +<P> +But Bud Lee did not wait. He was on his horse, swaying a little, an +arm caught in a rude sling, glad to be out in the late sunlight. +</P> + +<P> +"Fog along, little horse," he was saying dully. "Fog right along. +She's waiting, little horse. Judith is waiting! Think of that. +That's right—fog right along." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap31"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXXI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +YES, JUDITH WAS WAITING . . . +</H3> + + +<P> +At the old cabin above the lake Bud Lee dismounted. His hand in its +rude sling was paining him terribly, demanding some sort of first-aid +treatment. To-morrow he could take it to a doctor; perhaps in an hour +or so he could get Tripp to look to it; just now he must do what he +could for it himself with hot water and strips torn from an old shirt. +</P> + +<P> +The hand treated first, it was slow, tedious business seeking to remove +the traces of his recent encounter with Trevors; and, though he could +wash his face and manage a change of clothes, there was nothing dapper +about the result. But at length, shaking his head at the bruised face +looking at him from his bit of mirror, he went out to his horse and +rode down the trail that led to the ranch headquarters. Judith was +waiting for him—that was vastly more important than the fact that he +had a crippled hand and a cut or so upon his face. +</P> + +<P> +Night had descended, serene with stars. He wondered if the boys were +back yet from the lumber-camp. He had met them, as Carson had +predicted he would, riding in a close-packed, silent, ominous body. He +felt assured that they would find no work for them to do at the +company's office, that Carson was right and Trevors would "be on his +way." But he stopped at the bunk-house. +</P> + +<P> +No, the boys hadn't come in yet. But there was a message for Lee, just +received by the cook. It was from Greene, the forester, brief and to +the point: +</P> + +<P> +Greene had lost no time in finding the sheriff of the adjoining county +at White Rock and in going with him to the cave. They had found +Quinnion. He was dead, the manner of his death clearly indicated. For +he lay at the foot of the cliffs straight below the cave's mouth, his +face terribly torn and scratched by a mad woman's nails, the mad woman +herself lying huddled and still close beside him. He had allowed the +escape of her captive; she had accused him after the two of them had +gone back to the cavern, had thrown herself upon him, tearing at his +face, and the two had fallen. Mother and son? Lee shuddered, hoping +within his heart that Judith had been mistaken. It was too horrible. +</P> + +<P> +But, such is youth, such is love. Bud Lee promptly forgot both Chris +Quinnion and Mad Ruth as he went through the lilacs to the house. He +remembered how Marcia had flown once to Pollock Hampton when he had +made a hero of himself, how again just to-day she had gone swiftly to +him because he had made a fool of himself and because it seemed she +loved him. In due time there was going to be a wedding at Blue Lake +ranch. A wedding! Just one? Lee hurried on. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Yes, Judith was waiting for him. She was there in the living-room, +curled up on a great couch, lifting her eyes expectantly as his step +sounded on the veranda. A wonderfully gowned, transcendently lovely +Judith; a Judith of bare white arms, round and warm and rich in their +tender curves; a Judith softly, alluringly feminine even in the eyes of +Bud Lee, no longer theorist; a Judith whose filmy gown clung +lingeringly to her like a sun-shot mist, a Judith whose tender mouth +was a red flower, whose eyes were Aphrodite's own, glorious, dawn-gray, +soft with the light shining in them, the unhidden light of love for the +man who came toward her swiftly; the Judith he had first held in his +arms and kissed. +</P> + +<P> +He came in quickly, his heart singing. The color suddenly ran up hot +and vivid in the girl's cheeks. Standing over her he put out his hand. +But she slipped her own hands behind her. +</P> + +<P> +"Good evening, Mr. Lee," said Judith brightly. "Really, you have taken +your time in making your first call. Won't you sit down?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," said Bud Lee gravely. "I'll take mine standing, please!" +</P> + +<P> +"Like a man to be shot at dawn?" cried Judith. "Dear me, Mr. Lee, that +sounds so tragic. What, pray, are you taking?" +</P> + +<P> +"A new job," said Lee. "I've come to tell you that just being horse +foreman doesn't suit me any longer. What you need and need right away +is a general manager. That's what I want to be, your general manager, +Judith. For life!" +</P> + +<P> +Judith laughed softly, happily. Her hands flew out to him like two +little homing birds, and she followed them—home. +</P> + +<P> +"You'll find your work cut out for you, Mr. Lee," she told him. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-392"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-392.jpg" ALT=""You'll find your work cut out for you."" BORDER="2" WIDTH="385" HEIGHT="596"> +<H3> +[Illustration: "You'll find your work cut out for you."] +</H3> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"It's the kind of work I want," answered Bud Lee. +</P> + +<P> +Then suddenly her arms went about his neck and tears sprang into her +eyes and she set her lips to the cut he had sought to cover with his +hair, and took his sore, swathed hand tenderly into her own two hands, +laying it against her cheek. +</P> + +<P> +"Carson telephoned me," she whispered, her lips trembling all of a +sudden. "He told me how Trevors fought … and how you fought! And +he was half crying over the telephone, he was so proud of you. And I +am proud of you! And—oh, Bud Lee, Bud Lee, I love you so!" +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +From without came the sound of the Blue Lake boys returning, Carson at +their head. Riding close together they were singing, their voices +floating through the night in an old cowboy song. Mrs. Simpson heard +and ran out into the courtyard to listen. Marcia and Pollock Hampton, +lost to all save each other in the shadows far down the veranda, +listened, and Marcia clapped her hands. The voices were to be heard +from afar, the strong voices of a score of men. The strange thing is +that neither Judith nor Bud Lee heard; that neither had the vaguest +consciousness just then that there were in all the world any other, +mortals than—Judith and Bud Lee. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + +<hr class="full" noshade> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JUDITH OF BLUE LAKE RANCH***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 18926-h.txt or 18926-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/9/2/18926">http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/9/2/18926</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL">http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL</a> + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** +</pre> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/18926-h/images/img-202.jpg b/18926-h/images/img-202.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2f121ca --- /dev/null +++ b/18926-h/images/img-202.jpg diff --git a/18926-h/images/img-252.jpg b/18926-h/images/img-252.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d4ebc03 --- /dev/null +++ b/18926-h/images/img-252.jpg diff --git a/18926-h/images/img-392.jpg b/18926-h/images/img-392.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0c140dd --- /dev/null +++ b/18926-h/images/img-392.jpg diff --git a/18926-h/images/img-front.jpg b/18926-h/images/img-front.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..95c37c1 --- /dev/null +++ b/18926-h/images/img-front.jpg diff --git a/18926.txt b/18926.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9ad1fbb --- /dev/null +++ b/18926.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9697 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Judith of Blue Lake Ranch, by Jackson +Gregory, Illustrated by W. Herbert Dunton + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Judith of Blue Lake Ranch + + +Author: Jackson Gregory + + + +Release Date: July 27, 2006 [eBook #18926] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JUDITH OF BLUE LAKE RANCH*** + + +E-text prepared by Al Haines + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 18926-h.htm or 18926-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/9/2/18926/18926-h/18926-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/9/2/18926/18926-h.zip) + + + + + +JUDITH OF BLUE LAKE RANCH + +by + +JACKSON GREGORY + +Author of +The Joyous Trouble Maker, Six Feet-Four, Etc. + +Illustrated by W. Herbert Dunton + + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: Judith's spurs answered him, and the bit . . . brought +him about, whirling . . . bucking as only . . . a devil-hearted horse +knows how to buck.] + + + + +New York +Grosset & Dunlap +Publishers +Copyright, 1919, by +Charles Scribner's Sons +Published March, 1919 +Reprinted April, 1920 +Copyright, 1917, 1918, by the Ridgeway Company + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + I. BUD LEE WANTS TO KNOW + II. JUDITH TAKES A HAND + III. AND RIDES AN OUTLAW + IV. JUDITH PUTS IT STRAIGHT + V. THE BIGNESS OF THE VENTURE + VI. YOUNG HAMPTON REGISTERS A PROTEST + VII. THE HAPPENING IN SQUAW CREEK CANON + VIII. RIFLE SHOTS FROM THE CLIFFS + IX. THE OLD TRAIL + X. UNDER FIRE + XI. IN THE OLD CABIN + XII. PARDNERS + XIII. THE CAPTURE OF SHORTY + XIV. SPRINGTIME AND A VISION + XV. JUST A GIRL, AFTER ALL + XVI. POKER FACE AND A WHITE PIGEON + XVII. "ONCE A FOOL--ALWAYS A FOOL" + XVIII. JUDITH TRIUMPHANT + XIX. BUD LEE SEEKS CROOKED CHRIS QUINNION + XX. THE FIGHT AT THE JAILBIRD + XXI. BURNING MEMORY + XXII. PLAYING THE GAME + XXIII. THE WRATH OF POLLOCK HAMPTON + XXIV. A SIGNAL-FIRE? + XXV. THE TOOLS WHICH TREVORS USED + XXVI. JUDITH'S PERIL + XXVII. ALONE IN THE WILDERNESS + XXVIII. BACON, KISSES, AND A CONFESSION + XXIX. LEE AND OLD MAN CARSON RIDE TOGETHER + XXX. THE FIGHT + XXXI. YES, JUDITH WAS WAITING + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +Judith's spurs answered him, and the bit . . . brought him about, +whirling . . . bucking as only . . . a devil-hearted horse knows how to +buck . . . . . . _Frontispiece_ + +A lean, muscular hand fell lightly upon his shoulder and he was jerked +back promptly + +Quinnion was down and shooting, with but ten steps . . . between him +and the man whom he sought to kill + +"You'll find your work cut out for you." + + + + +Judith of Blue Lake Ranch + + +I + +BUD LEE WANTS TO KNOW + +Bud Lee, horse foreman of the Blue Lake Ranch, sat upon the gate of the +home corral, builded a cigarette with slow brown fingers, and stared +across the broken fields of the upper valley to the rosy glow above the +pine-timbered ridge where the sun was coming up. His customary gravity +was unusually pronounced. + +"If a man's got the hunch an egg is bad," he mused, "is that a real +good and sufficient reason why he should go poking his finger inside +the shell? I want to know!" + +Tommy Burkitt, the youngest wage-earner of the outfit and a profound +admirer of all that taciturnity, good-humor, and quick capability which +went into the make-up of Bud Lee, approached from the ranch-house on +the knoll. "Hi, Bud!" he called. "Trevors wants you. On the jump." + +Lee watched Tommy coming on with that wide, rocking gait of a man used +to much riding and little walking. The deep gravity in the foreman's +eyes was touched with a little twinkle by way of greeting. + +Burkitt stopped at the gate, looking up at Lee. "On the jump, Trevors +said," he repeated. + +"The hell he did," said Lee pleasantly. "How old are you this morning, +Tommy?" + +Burkitt blushed. "Aw, quit it, Bud," he grinned. Involuntarily the +boy's big square hand rose to the tender growth upon lip and chin +which, like the flush in the eastern sky, was but a vague promise of a +greater glory to be. + +"A hair for each year," continued the quiet-voiced man. "Ten on one +side, nine on the other." + +"Ain't you going to do what Trevors says?" demanded Tommy. + +For a moment Lee sat still, his cigarette unlighted, his broad black +hat far back upon his close-cropped hair, his eyes serenely +contemplative upon the pink of the sky above the pines. Then he +slipped from his place and, though each single movement gave an +impression of great leisureliness, it was but a flash of time until he +stood beside Burkitt. + +"Stick around a wee bit, laddie," he said gently, a lean brown hand +resting lightly on the boy's square shoulder. "A man can't see what is +on the cards until they're tipped, but it's always a fair gamble that +between dawn and dusk I'll gather up my string of colts and crowd on. +If I do, you'll want to come along?" + +He smiled at young Burkitt's eagerness and turned away toward the +ranch-house and Bayne Trevors, thus putting an early end to an +enthusiastic acquiescence. Tommy watched the tall man moving swiftly +away through the brightening dawn. + +"They ain't no more men ever foaled like him," meditated Tommy, in an +approval so profound as to be little less than out-and-out devotion. + +And, indeed, one might ride up and down the world for many a day and +not find a man who was Bud Lee's superior in "the things that count." +As tall as most, with sufficient shoulders, a slender body, +narrow-hipped, he carried himself as perhaps his forebears walked in a +day when open forests or sheltered caverns housed them, with a lithe +gracefulness born of the perfect play of superb physical development. +His muscles, even in the slightest movement, flowed liquidly; he had +slipped from his place on the corral gate less like a man than like +some great, splendid cat. The skin of hands, face, throat, was very +dark, whether by inheritance or because of long exposure to sun and +wind, it would have been difficult to say. The eyes were dark, very +keen, and yet reminiscently grave. From under their black brows they +had the habit of appearing to be reluctantly withdrawn from some great +distance to come to rest, steady and calm, upon the man with whom he +chanced to be speaking. Such are the serene, dispassionate eyes of one +who for many months of the year goes companionless, save for what +communion he may find in the silent passes of the mountains, in the +wide sweep of the meadow-lands or in the soul of his horse. + +The gaunt, sure-footed form was lost to Tommy's eyes; Lee had passed +beyond the clump of wild lilacs whose glistening, heart-shaped leaves +screened the open court about which the ranch-house was built. A +strangely elaborate ranch-house, this one, set here so far apart from +the world of rich residences. There was a score of rooms in the great, +one-story, rambling edifice of rudely squared timbers set in +field-stone and cement, rooms now closed and locked; there were +flower-gardens still cultivated daily by Jose, the half-breed; a pretty +court with a fountain and many roses, out upon which a dozen doorways +looked; wide verandas with glimpses beyond of fireplaces and long +expanses of polished floor. For, until recently, this had been not +only the headquarters of Blue Lake Ranch, but the home as well of the +chief of its several owners. Luke Sanford, whose own efforts alone had +made him at forty-five a man to be reckoned with, had followed his +fancy here extensively and expensively, allowing himself this one +luxury of his many lean, hard years. Then, six months ago, just as his +ambitions were stepping to fresh heights, just as his hands were +filling with newer, greater endeavor, there had come the mishap in the +mountains and Sanford's tragic death. + +Lee passed silently through the courtyard, by the fountain which in the +brightening air was like a chain of silver run through invisible hands, +down the veranda bathed in the perfume of full-blown roses, and so came +to the door at the far end. The door stood open; within was the office +of Bayne Trevors, general manager. Lee entered, his hat still far back +upon his head. The sound of his boots upon the bare floor caused +Trevors to look up quickly. + +"Hello, Lee," he said quietly. "Wait a minute, will you?" + +Quite a different type from Lee, Bayne Trevors was heavy and square and +hard. His eyes were the glinting gray eyes of a man who is forceful, +dynamic, the sort of man who is a better captain than lieutenant, whose +hands are strong to grasp life by the throat and demand that she stand +and deliver. Only because of his wide and successful experience, of +his initiative, of his way of quick, decisive action mated to a marked +executive ability, had Luke Sanford chosen Bayne Trevors as his +right-hand man in so colossal a venture as the Blue Lake Ranch. Only +because of the same pushing, vigorous personality was he this morning +general manager, with the unlimited authority of a dictator over a +petty principality. + +In a moment Trevors lifted his frowning eyes from the table, turning in +his chair to confront Lee, who stood lounging in leisurely manner +against the door-jamb. + +"That young idiot wants money again," he growled, his voice as sharp +and quick as his eyes. "As if I didn't have enough to contend with +already!" + +"Meaning young Hampton, I take it?" said Lee quietly. + +Trevors nodded savagely. + +"Telegram. Caught it over the line the last thing last night. We'll +have to sell some horses this time, Lee." + +Lee's eyes narrowed imperceptibly. "I didn't plan to do any selling +for six months yet," he said, not in expostulation but merely in +explanation. "They're not ready." + +"How many three-year-olds have you got in your string in Big Meadow?" +asked Trevors crisply. + +"Counting those eleven Red Duke colts?" + +"Counting everything. How many?" + +"Seventy-three." + +The general manager's pencil wrote upon the pad in front of him "73," +then swiftly multiplied it by 50. Lee saw the result, 3,650 set down +with the dollar sign in front of it. He said nothing. + +"What would you say to fifty dollars a head for them?" asked Trevors, +whirling again in his swivel chair. "Three thousand six fifty for the +bunch?" + +"I'd say the same," answered Lee deliberately, "that I'd say to a man +that offered me two bits for Daylight or Ladybird. I just naturally +wouldn't say anything at all." + +"Who are Daylight and Ladybird?" demanded Trevors. + +"They're two of _my_ little horses," said Lee gently, "that no man's +got the money to buy." + +Trevors smiled cynically. "What are the seventy-three colts worth +then?" + +"Right now, when I'm just ready to break 'em in," said Bud Lee +thoughtfully, "the worst of that string is worth fifty dollars. I'd +say twenty of the herd ought to bring fifty dollars a head; twenty more +ought to bring sixty; ten are worth seventy-five; ten are worth an even +hundred; seven of the Red Duke stock are good for a hundred and a +quarter; the other four Red Dukes and the three Robert the Devils are +worth a hundred and fifty a head. The whole bunch, an easy fifty-seven +hundred little iron men. Which," he continued dryly, "is considerable +more than the thirty-six hundred you're talking about. And, give me +six months, and I'll boost that fifty-seven hundred. Lord, man, that +chestnut out of Black Babe by Hazard, is a real horse! Fifty +dollars----" + +He stared hard at Trevors a moment. And then, partially voicing the +thought with which he had grappled upon the corral gate, he added +meditatively: "There's something almighty peculiar about an outfit +that will listen to a man offer fifty bucks on a string like that." + +His eyes, cool and steady, met Trevors's in a long look which was +little short of a challenge. + +"Just how far does that go, Lee?" asked the manager curtly. + +"As far as you like," replied the horse foreman coolly. "Are you going +to sell those three-year-olds for thirty-six hundred?" + +"Yes," answered Trevors bluntly, "I am. What are you going to do about +it?" + +"Ask for my time, I guess," and although his voice was gentle and even +pleasant, his eyes were hard. "I'll take my own little string and move +on. + +"Curse it!" cried Trevors heatedly. "What difference does it make to +you? What business is it of yours how I sell? You draw down your +monthly pay, don't you? I raised you a notch last month without your +asking for it, didn't I?" + +"That's so," agreed the foreman equably. "It's a cinch none of the +boys have any kick coming at the wages." + +For a moment Trevors sat frowning up at Lee's inscrutable face. Then +he laughed shortly. "Look here, Bud," he said good-humoredly, an +obvious seriousness of purpose under the light tone. "I want to talk +with you before you do anything rash. Sit down." But Lee remained +standing, merely saying, "Shoot." + +"I wonder," explained Trevors, "if the boys understand just the size of +the job I've got in my hands? You know that the ranch is a +million-dollar outfit; you know that you can ride fifteen miles without +getting off the home-range; you know that we are doing a dozen +different kinds of farming and stock-raising. But you don't know just +how short the money is! There's that young idiot now, Hampton. He +holds a third interest and I've got to consider what he says, even if +he is a weak-minded, inbred pup that can't do anything but spend an +inheritance like the born fool he is. His share is mortgaged; I've +tried to pay the mortgage off. I've got to keep the interest up. +Interest alone amounts, to three thousand dollars a year. Think of +that! Then there's Luke Sanford dead and his one-third interest left +to another young fool, a girl!" + +Trevors's fist came smashing down upon his table. "A girl!" he +repeated savagely. "Worse than young Hampton, by Heaven! Every two +weeks she's writing for a report, eternally butting in, making +suggestions, hampering me until I'm sick of the job." + +"That would be Luke's girl, Judith?" + +"Yes. Two of the three owners' kids, writing me at every turn. And +the third owner, Timothy Gray, the only sensible one of the lot, has +just up and sold out his share, and I suppose I'll be hearing next that +some superannuated female in an old lady's home has inherited a fortune +and bought him out. Why, do you think I'd hold on to my job here for +ten minutes if it wasn't that my reputation is in making a go of the +thing? And now you, the best man I've got, throw me down!" + +"I don't see," said Lee slowly, after a brief pause, "just what good it +does to sell a string of real horses like they were sheep. Half of +that herd is real horse-flesh, I tell you." + +"Hampton wants money. And besides, a horse is a horse." + +"Is it?" A hard smile touched Lee's lips. "That's just where a man +makes a mistake. Some horses are cows, some are clean spirit. You can +stake your boots on that, Trevors." + +"Well," snapped Trevors, "suppose you are right. I've got to raise +three thousand dollars in a hurry. Where will I get it?" + +"Who is offering fifty dollars a head for those horses?" asked Lee +abruptly. "It might be the Big Western Lumber Company?" + +"Yes." + +"Uh-huh. Well, you can kill the rats in your own barn, Trevors. I'll +go look for a job somewhere else." + +Bayne Trevors, his lips tightly compressed, his eyes steady, a faint, +angry flush in his cheeks, checked what words were flowing to his +tongue and looked keenly at his foreman. Lee met his regard with cool +unconcern. Then, just as Trevors was about to speak, there came an +interruption. + + + + +II + +JUDITH TAKES A HAND + +The quiet of the morning was broken by the quick thud of a horse's shod +hoofs on the hard ground of the courtyard. Bud Lee in the doorway +turned to see a strange horse drawn up so that upon its four bunched +hoofs it slid to a standstill; saw a slender figure, which in the early +light he mistook for a boy, slip out of the saddle. And then, +suddenly, a girl, the spurs of her little riding-boots making jingling +music on the veranda, her riding-quirt swinging from her wrist, had +stepped by him and was looking with bright, snapping eyes from him to +Trevors. + +"I am Judith Sanford," she announced briefly, and there was a note in +her young voice which went ringing, bell-like, through the still air. +"Is one of you men Bayne Trevors?" + +A quick, shadowy smile came and went upon the lips of Bud Lee. It +struck him that she might have said in just that way: "I am the Queen +of England and I am running my own kingdom!" He looked at her with +eyes filled with open interest and curiosity, making swift appraisal of +the flush in the sun-browned cheeks, the confusion of dark, curling +hair disturbed by her furious riding, the vivid, red-blooded beauty of +her. Mouth and eyes and the very carriage of the dark head upon her +superb white throat announced boldly and triumphantly that here was no +wax-petalled lily of a lady but rather a maid whose blood, like the +blood of the father before her, was turbulent and hot and must boil +like a wild mountain-stream at opposition. Her eyes, a little darker +than Trevors's, were the eyes of fighting stock. + +Trevors, irritated already, turned hard eyes up at her from under +corrugated brows. He did not move in his chair. Nor did Lee stir +except that now he removed his hat. + +"I am Trevors," said the general manager curtly. "And, whether you are +Judith Sanford or the Queen of Siam, I am busy right now." + +"He got the queen idea, too!" was the quick thought back of Bud Lee's +fading smile. + +"You talk soft with me, Trevors!" cried the girl passionately, "if you +want to hold your job five minutes! I'll tolerate none of your high +and mighty airs!" + +Trevors laughed at her, a sneer in his laugh. "I talk the way I talk," +he answered roughly. "If people don't like the sound of it they don't +have to listen! Lee, you round up those seventy-three horses and crowd +them over the ridge to the lumber-camp. Or, if you want to quit, quit +now and I'll send a sane man." + +The hot color mounted higher in the girl's face, a new anger leaped up +in her eyes. + +"Take no orders this morning that I don't give," she said, for a moment +turning her eyes upon Lee. And to Trevors: "Busy or not busy, you take +time right now to answer my questions. I've got your reports and all +they tell me is that you are going in the hole as fast as you can. You +are spending thousands of dollars needlessly. What business have you +got selling off my young steers at a sacrifice? What in the name of +folly did you build those three miles of fence for?" + +"Go get those horses, Lee," said Trevors, ignoring her. + +Again she spoke to Lee, saying crisply: "What horses is he talking +about?" + +With his deep gravity at its deepest, Bud Lee answered: "All L-S stock. +The eleven Red Duke three-year-olds; the two Robert the Devil colts; +Brown Babe's filly, Comet----" + +"All mine, every running hoof of 'em," she said, cutting in. "What +does Trevors want you to do with them? Give them away for ten dollars +a head or cut their throats?" + +"Look here--" cried Trevors angrily, on his feet now. + +"You shut up!" commanded the girl sharply. "Lee, you answer me." + +"He's selling them fifty dollars a head," he said with a secret joy in +his heart as he glanced at Trevors's flushed face. + +"Fifty dollars!" Judith gasped. "Fifty dollars for a Red Duke colt +like Comet!" + +She stared at Lee as though she could not believe it. He merely stared +back at her, wondering just how much she knew about horse-flesh. + +Then, suddenly, she whirled again upon Trevors. + +"I came out to see if you were a crook or just a fool," she told him, +her words like a slap in his face. "No man could be so big a fool as +that! You--you crook!" + +The muscles under Bayne Trevors's jaws corded. "You've said about +enough," he shot back at her. "And even if you do own a third of this +outfit, I'll have you understand that I am the manager here and that I +do what I like." + +From her bosom she snatched a big envelope, tossing it to the table. +"Look at that," she ordered him. "You big thief! I've mortgaged my +holding for fifty thousand dollars and I've bought in Timothy Gray's +share. I swing two votes out of three now, Bayne Trevors. And the +first thing I do is run you out, you great big grafting fathead! You +_would_ chuck Luke Sanford's outfit to the dogs, would you? Get off +the ranch. You're fired!" + +"You can't do a thing like this!" snapped Trevors, after one swift +glance at the papers he had whisked out of their covering. + +"I can't, can't I?" she jeered at him. "Don't you fool yourself for +one little minute! Pack your little trunk and hammer the trail." + +"I'll do nothing of the kind. Why, I don't know even who you are! You +say that you are Judith Sanford." He shrugged his massive shoulders. +"How do I know what game you are up to? Wayward maidens," and in his +rage he sneered at her evilly, "have been known before to lie like +other people!" + +"You can't bluff me for two seconds, Bayne Trevors," she blazed at him. +"You know who I am, all right. Send for Sunny Harper," she ended +sharply. + +"Discharged three months ago," Trevors told her with a show of teeth. + +"Johnny Hodge, then," she commanded. "Or Tod Bruce or Bing Kelley. +They all know me." + +"Fired long ago, all of them," laughed Trevors, "to make room for +competent men." + +"To make room for more crooks!" she cried, her own brown hands balled +into fists scarcely less hard than Trevors's had been. Then for the +third time she turned upon Lee. "You are one of his new thieves, I +suppose?" + +"Thank you, ma'am," said Bud Lee gravely. + +"Well, answer me. Are you?" + +"No, ma'am," he told her, with no hint of a twinkle in his calm eyes. +"Leastwise, not his exactly. You see, I do all my killing and highway +robbing on my own hook. It's just a way I have." + +"Well," Judith sniffed, "I don't know. It will be a jolt to me if +there's a square man left on the ranch! Go down to the bunk-house and +tell the cook I'm here and I'm hungry as a wild-cat. Tell him and any +of the boys that are down there that I've come to stay and that Trevors +is fired. They take orders from me and no one else. And hurry, if you +know how. Goodness knows, you look as though it would take you half an +hour to turn around!" + +"Thank you, ma'am," said Bud Lee. "But you see I had just told Trevors +here he could count me out. I'm not working for the Blue Lake any +more. As I go down to the corral, shall I send up one of the boys to +take your orders?" + +There was a little smile under the last words, just as there was a +little smile in Bud Lee's heart at the thought of the boys taking +orders from a little slip of a girl. Inside he was chuckling, vastly +delighted with the comedy of the morning. + +"She's a sure-enough little wonder-bird, all right," he mused. "But, +say, what does she want to butt in on a man's-size job for, I want to +know?" + +"Lee," called Trevors, "you take orders from me or no one on this +ranch. You can go now. And just keep your mouth shut." + +Bud Lee stood there in the doorway, his hat spinning upon a brown +forefinger, his thoughts his own. He was turning to go out and down to +his horse when he saw the look in Trevors's eyes, a look of consuming +rage. The general manager's voice had been hoarse. + +"I guess," said Lee quietly, "that I'll stick around until you two get +through quarrelling. I might come in handy somehow." + +"Damn you," shouted Trevors, "get out!" + +"Cut out the swear-words, Trevors," said Lee with quiet sternness. +"There's a lady here." + +"Lady!" scoffed Trevors. He laughed contemptuously. "Where's your +lady? That?" and he levelled a scornful finger at the girl. "A +ranting tough of a female who brings a breath of the stables with her +and scolds like a fishwife. . . ." + +"Shut up!" said Lee, crossing the room with quick strides, his face +thrust forward a little. + +"You shut up!" It was Judith's voice as Judith's hand fell upon Bud +Lee's shoulder, pushing him aside. "If I couldn't take care of myself +do you think I'd be fool enough to take over a job like running the +Blue Lake? Now--" and with blazing eyes she confronted Trevors--"if +you've got any more nice little things to say, suppose you say them to +me!" + +Trevors's temper had had ample provocation and now stood naked and hot +in his hard eyes. In a blind instant he laid his tongue to a word +which would have sent Bud Lee at his throat. But Judith stood between +them and, like an echo to the word, came the resounding slap as +Judith's open palm smote Trevors's cheek. + +"You wildcat!" he cried. And his two big hands flew out, seeking her +shoulders. + +"Stand back!" called Judith. "Just because you are bigger than I am, +don't make any mistake! Stand back, I tell you!" + +Bud Lee marvelled at the swiftness with which her hand had gone into +her blouse and out again, a small-caliber revolver in the steady +fingers now. He had never known a man--himself possibly +excepted--quicker at the draw. + +But Bayne Trevors, from whose make-up cowardice had been omitted, +laughed sneeringly at her and did not stand back. His two hands out +before him, his face crimson, he came on. + +"Fool!" cried the girl. "Fool!" + +Still he came on. Lee gathered himself to spring. + +Judith fired. Once, and Trevors's right arm fell to his side. A +second time, and Trevors's left arm hung limp like the other. The +crimson was gone from his face now. It was dead white. Little beads +of sweat began to form on his brow. + +Lee turned astonished eyes to Judith. + +"Now you know who's running this outfit, don't you?" she said coolly. +"Lee, have a team hitched up to carry Trevors wherever he wants to go. +He's not hurt much; I just winged him. And then tell the cook about my +breakfast." + +But Lee stood and looked at her. He had no remark to offer. Then he +turned to go upon her bidding. As he went down to the bunk-house he +said softly under his breath: "Well, I'm damned. I most certainly am!" + + + + +III + +AND RIDES AN OUTLAW + +Wrinkled, grizzled old half-breed Jose, his hands trembling with +eagerness, stood in the smaller rose-garden culling the perfect buds, a +joyous tear running its zigzag way down each cheek. + +"_La senorita_ ees come home!" he announced triumphantly as Lee drew +near on his way to the bunk-house. "_Jesus Maria_! Een my heart it is +like the singing of leetle birdies. _Mira, senor_. My flowers +bloomin' the brighter, already--no?" + +Bud Lee paused. "So you know Miss Sanford then?" he asked. + +Jose threw out his hands and opened his night-black eyes to their most +enormous extent. "Do I know God?" he demanded. + +"Well," smiled Bud, "as to that. . . ." + +"But, senor," cried the devout Jose, "like on holy days I feel that +Dios comes to sit down in the corner of my heart, so without seeing _la +senorita_ I know she ees come home! She ees in the air like the light +of sun, like the sweetness of my roses!" + +"You've known her a long time, Joe?" + +"Seence she ees born!" and Jose, unashamed, wiped away a tear upon the +back of a leathery hand. "Senor Sanford and me, senor, we teach her +when she ees so leetle!" Jose's shaking hand was lowered until it +marked the stature of a twelve-inch pigmy. In all things must the old +fellow gain his emphasis by exaggeration which more often than not took +the form of plain lying. "Never at all unteel one year ago does she +leave us and the _rancho_. We, us two who love her, senor, learn her +to walk and to ride and to shoot and to talk. You shall hear her say, +'_Buenos dias, Jose, mi amigo_!' You shall see her kees the cheek of +old Jose." + +Again his leathery hand was put in requisition, this time to wipe clean +the cheek to be honored. "And one theeng I tell you, senor," he added +confidentially. "Her papa was a wild devil before her. Her mama ees +grow up on the ranch; and when she marry _el senor_ Sanford was like a +wild boy. And _mi senorita_, she ees the cross be tween a wild devil +and a sweet saint, senor _Madre de Dios_! I would go down to hell for +her to bring back fire to warm her leetle feet een weenter!" + +Lee went thoughtfully on his way to the bunk-house. The cook, an +importation of Bayne Trevors, a big, upstanding fellow with bare arms +covered with flour, was putting on the breakfast to which a dozen +rough-garbed men were sitting down. + +"I've got orders for you fellows," said Lee from the doorway. "The +boss of the outfit, the real owner, you know, just blew in. Up at the +house. Says you boys are to stick around to take orders straight from +headquarters. You, Benny," to the cook, "are to have a man's-size +breakfast ready in a jiffy." + +Naturally Benny led the clamor with a string of oaths. What in blazes +did the owner of the ranch have to show up for anyway?--he wanted to +know. He accepted the fact as a personal affront. Who was this +owner?--demanded Ward Hannon, the foreman of the lower ranch, where the +alfalfa-fields were. + +Bud Lee explained gravely that the newcomer was some sort of relative +of old Luke Sanford, who had recently acquired a controlling interest +in the ranch. Ward Hannon grunted contemptuously. "The Lord deliver +us!" he moaned. "Eastern jasper! One of the know-all-about-it brand, +huh, Bud? I'll bet he combs his hair in the middle and smokes +cigareets out'n a box! The putty-headed loons can't even roll their +own smokes." + +"Don't believe," hazarded Lee indifferently, "from the looks of our +visitor that--that the owner smokes anything!" + +"Listen to that!" grunted Ward Hannon. + +"Softy, huh?" + +"Well," Bud admitted slowly, "looks sort of like a girl, you know!" + +"Wouldn't that choke you?" demanded Carson, the cow foreman, a thin, +awkward little man, gray in the service of "real men." "Taking orders +off'n a fool Easterner's bad enough. But old man or young, Bud?" + +"Just a kid," was Lee's further dampening news. And as he nonchalantly +buttered his hotcakes he added carelessly: "Something of a scrapper, +though. Just put two thirty-two calibers into Trevors." + +They stared at him incredulously. Then Carson's dry cackle led the +laughter. + +"You're the biggest liar, Bud Lee," said the old man good-naturedly, "I +ever focussed my two eyes on. I'll lay an even bet there ain't nobody +showed a-tall up this morning." + +"You, Tommy," said Lee to the boy at his side, "shovel your grub down +lively and go hitch Molly and old Pie-face to the buckboard. That's +orders from headquarters," he grinned. "Trevors is to be hauled away +first thing." + +Tommy looked curiously at his superior. "On the level, Bud?" he asked +doubtingly. + +"On the level, laddie," was the quiet response. + +And young Burkitt, wondering, but doubting no longer, hastened with his +breakfast. + +The others, looking at Lee's sober face questioningly, fired a +broadside of inquiries at him. But they got no further information. + +"I've told you boys all the news," he announced positively. "Lordy! +Isn't that an earful for this time of day? The real boss is on the +job: Trevors is winged; you are to stick around for orders from +headquarters. If you want to know any more'n that, why--just go up to +the house and ask your blamed questions." + +Out of the tail of his eye he saw the swift approach of Bayne Trevors. +The general manager's face was black with rage and through that dark +wrath showed a dull red flush of shame. He walked with his two arms +lax at his sides. + +"Give me a cup of coffee, Ben," he commanded curtly, slumping into a +chair. "Hurry!" + +Benny, looking at him curiously, brought a steaming cup and offered it. +Trevors moved to lift a hand; then sank back a little farther in his +chair, his face twisting in his pain. + +"Put some milk in it," he snarled. "Then hold it to my mouth. For the +love of Heaven, hurry, man!" + +Then no man there doubted longer the mad tale Bud Lee had brought them. +Down from Trevors's sleeves, staining each hand, there had come a +broadening trickle of blood. Trevors set his teeth and waited. Benny +at last cooled the coffee and held it to his lips. Trevors drank +swiftly, draining the cup. + +"Get this coat off me," he commanded. "Curse you, don't tear my arms +off! Slit the sleeves." + +Benny's big, razor-edged butcher-knife cut away coat and shirt sleeves. +And at last, to the eager gaze of the men in the bunk-house, there +appeared the two wounds, one upon the outer right shoulder, the other +upon the left forearm. + +It was Lee who, pushing the clumsy cook aside, silently made the two +bandages from strips of Trevors's shirt. It was Lee who brought a +flask of brandy from which Trevors drank deep. + +And then came Judith. + +They stared at her as they might have done had the heavens opened and +an angel come down, or the earth split and a devil sprung up. She +looked in upon them with quick, keen eyes which sought to take every +man's measure. They returned her regard with a variety of amazed +expressions. Never since these men had come to work for Bayne Trevors +had a woman so much as ridden by the door. And to have her stand +there, composed, utterly at her ease, her air vaguely authoritative, a +vitally vivid being who might, suddenly, have taken tangible form from +the dawn, bewildered them. Bud Lee had told of the coming of the Blue +Lake owner; he had not mentioned that that owner had brought his +daughter with him. + +"I am Judith Sanford," she said in her abrupt fashion, quite as she had +made the announcement to Lee and Trevors. "This outfit belongs to me. +I have fired Trevors. You take your orders straight from me from now +on. Cookie, give me some coffee." + +She came in without ceremony and sat down at the head of the table. +Benny gasped, stood for a moment rooted to the floor, and then, +Judith's eyes hard upon him, hastily brought the coffee. From some +emotion certainly not clear to him he went a violent red. Perhaps the +emotion was just sheer embarrassment. He brought hot cakes with one +hand while with the other he buttoned his gaping shirt-collar over a +bulging, hairy chest. + +Men who had finished their breakfasts rose hastily with a marked +awkwardness and ill-concealed haste and went outside, whence their low +voices came back in a confused consultation. Men who had not finished +followed them. In an amazingly short time there were but the girl, +Lee, Trevors and the cook in the room. Then Trevors went out, Benny at +his heels. Bud Lee, moving with his usual leisureliness, was following +when Judith's cool voice said quietly: + +"You, Lee, wait a moment. I want to talk with you." + +Lee hesitated. Then he came back and waited. + +The men outside naturally grouped about the general manager. His angry +voice, lifted clearly, reached the two in the room. + +"I'm fired," said Trevors harshly. "As soon as I can get going I am +leaving for the Western Lumber camp. Every one of you boys holds his +job here because I gave it to him. Do you want to hold it now, with a +fool girl telling you what to do? Do you want men up and down the +State to laugh at you and jeer at you for a pack of softies and +imbeciles? Or do you want to roll your blankets and quit? To every +man that jumps the job here and follows me to-day I promise a job with +the Western. You fellows know the sort of boss I've been to you. You +can guess the sort of boss that chicken in there would be. Now I'm +going. It's up to you. Stick to a white man or fuss around for a +woman?" + +He had said what he had to say and, cursing when his shoulder struck a +form near him, made his way down to the stables. Burkitt was ahead of +him, going for the team. + +"Well, Lee," said Judith sharply, "where do you get off? Do you want +to stick? Or shall I count you out?" + +"I guess," said Bud very gently, "you'd better count me out." + +"You're going with that crook?" + +"No. I'm going on my own." + +"Why? You're getting good money here. If you're square I'll keep you +at the same figure." + +But Bud shook his head. + +"I'm game to play square," he said slowly. "I'll stick a week, giving +you the chance to get a man in my place. That's all." + +"What's the matter with you?" she cried hotly. "Why won't you stay +with your job? Is it because you don't want to take orders from me?" + +Then Lee lifted his grave eyes to hers and answered simply: "That's it. +I'm not saying you're not all right. But I got it figured out, there's +just two kinds of ladies. If you want to know, I don't see that you've +got any call to tie into a man's job." + +"Oh, scat!" cried the girl angrily. "You men make me tired. Two kinds +of ladies! And ten thousand kinds of men! You want me to dress like a +doll, I suppose, and keep my hands soft and white and go around like a +brainless, simpering fool! There _are_ two kinds of _ladies_, my fine +friend: the kind that can and the kind that can't! Thank God I'm none +of your precious, sighing, hothouse little fools!" + +Gulping down a last mouthful of coffee, she was on her feet and passed +swiftly out among the men. + +"You men!" she cried, and they turned sober eyes upon her, "listen to +me! You've heard that big stiff rant; now hear me! I'm here because I +belong here. My dad was Luke Sanford and he made this ranch. I was +raised here. It's two-thirds mine right now. Trevors there is a crook +and I told him so. He's been trying to sell me out, to make such a +failure of the outfit that I'd have to let it go for a comic song. He +got gay and I fired him. He tried to manhandle me and I plugged him. +And now I am going to run my own outfit! What have you got to say +about it, you grumbling old grouch with the crooked face! Put up or +shut up! I'm calling you!" + +The men turned from her to Ward Hannon, the field foreman, who had been +Trevors's right-hand man and who now was sneering openly. + +"I'm saying it's no work for a kid of a girl," grumbled Hannon. "You +run an outfit like this?" He laughed derisively. "It can't be did." + +"It can't, can't it?" cried Judith. "Tell me why, old smarty. Spit it +out lively." + +Jake Carson's shrill cackle cut through a low rumble of laughter. +"That's passing it to him straight," said the old cattleman. "What's +the word, Ward?" + +Ward Hannon shrugged his shoulders and spat impudently. "I ain't +saying nothing," he growled, "only this: I got a right to quit, ain't +I? Well, I'm quitting. Any time you ketch me working for a female +girl that can't ride a horse 'thout falling off, that can't see a pig +stuck 'thout fainting, that can't walk a mile 'thout getting laid up, +that can't. . . ." + +"Slow up there!" called Judith. "Didn't I stick a pig already this +morning, and have I keeled over yet? Didn't I ride the forty miles +from Rocky Bend last night and get here before sun-up? Listen to me, +chief kicker: If you've got a horse on the ranch I can't ride I'll quit +right now and give you my job! How's that strike you? I tell you the +word on this ranch is going to be: 'Put up or shut up!' Which is it, +Growly?" + +Again the men laughed and Hannon's face showed his anger. + +"Mean that, lady?" he demanded briefly. + +"You can just bet your eyes I mean it!" + +Hannon turned toward the stable. "All right. We'll see who's going to +put or shut up!" he jeered over his shoulder. "You ride the Prince +just two little minutes and I'll stay and work for you!" + +Bud Lee from the doorway interfered. He was a man who loved fair play +and he knew the Prince. "None of that, Ward," he called sternly. "Not +the Prince!" + +But Judith, her eyes aflame, whirled upon Lee, her voice like a whip as +she said: "Lee, you keep out of this. The sooner you learn who's +running things here the better for you." + +"Maybe so," said Lee quietly. "But don't you fool yourself you can +ride Prince. There's not a man on the job except me that can ride +him." It was not boastfully said, but with calm assurance. "He's an +outlaw, Miss Judith. He's the horse that killed Jimmy Carpenter last +spring, and Jimmy----" + +"Go ahead, Ward," ordered Judith. "You don't have to stop every time +the wind blows, do you?" + +Even Bud Lee smiled. But old Carson spoke up, saying: "Bud's right, +miss. And if Ward wants to know, he's a low-down dawg to try to turn a +trick like this. . . ." + +"Go ahead, Ward," Judith repeated. "I've got something to do to-day +besides play pussy-wants-a-corner with you boys." + +Ward went, his eyes filled with malice. Two or three of the other men +joined their voices to Bud's and Carson's, expostulating, telling of +that fearful thing, an outlaw horse. Judith maintained a scornful +silence. + +In due time Ward came back. He was leading a saddled horse, a great, +wild-eyed roan that snapped viciously as he came on, walking with the +wide, spreading stride of a horse little used to the saddle. Judith +measured him with her eyes as she had measured the men in the +bunk-house. + +"He's an ugly devil," she said, and Lee, at her side, smiled again. +But the girl had not altered her intention. She stepped closer, +looking to cinch, bit, and reins. She commanded Ward to draw the +latigo tighter, and Ward did so, dodging back as the big brute snapped +at him. + +Judith laughed. "Look out, Ward," she taunted him. "He's after your +hair!" + +Two men held the Prince. At Judith's command they shortened the +stirrups and then blinded him with a bandanna handkerchief. Then, +moving with almost incredible swiftness, she was in the saddle, the +reins firmly gripped. The Prince, a sudden trembling thrilling through +him, stood with his four feet planted. The girl leaned forward and +whipped the blind from his red-rimmed eyes. + +"There's a good boy!" said Judith coolly. "Buck a little for the lady, +Prince!" + +Slowly the great muscles of Prince's leg and shoulder and flank corded. +The trembling passed; he was like a horse carven in bluish granite. He +shook his head a little. Judith, her hand tightening upon the reins, +held his head well up, the severe bit thwarting the attempt to get his +nose down between his forelegs. + +Then suddenly, without sign of warning, the horse whirled, leaping far +out to the left, striking with hard hoofs bunched, gathering himself as +he landed, swerving with the quickness of light, plunging again to the +right. And again he stood still. Judith, sitting securely on his +rebellious back, laughed. Her laughter, cool and unafraid, sent a +strange little thrill through Bud Lee--who, with fear in his heart, was +watching her. + +"Look out for him now!" he called warningly. + +In truth the Prince had not yet begun. He had tried a trick which +would have unseated any but one who rode well. He knew that he had to +do with something more than a rank amateur. + +Now he plunged toward the corral, his purpose plain, the one desire in +his heart to crush his rider against the high fence. But Judith's +spurs answered him, and the bit, savage in his jaws, brought him about, +whirling, sidling, striking, bucking as only a strong, fearless, +devil-hearted horse knows how to buck. He doubled up under her; he +rose and fell in a quick series of short jumps which tore and jerked at +her body, which strove to tear her knees away from his sides and break +the grip of her hand on the reins. But it seemed to the men watching +that the girl knew before the horse which way he would jump, that she +knew how to sway her body with his so that she and he were not two +separate beings but just one, moving together in some mad devil's +dance. The Prince, in the midst of the vicious bucking, tried to rear, +seeking to throw himself backward; a quick, sharp blow of a loaded +quirt between his ears brought his forefeet back to earth. + +"Can she ride!" whispered Bud Lee. "I want to know!" + +Again the maddened Prince reared and again she brought him to earth. +Again he resumed the terribly tearing series of short, sharp bucks. +And still, her hair tumbling, blown about her shoulders, she rode him. + +Old Carson was muttering and pulling at his lip nervously. Out of the +corner of his mouth in a voice that was almost a whimper, he kept +cursing and saying to Ward Hannon: "You skunk! You ornery skunk! Hunt +your hole after this!" + +Suddenly, with a quick, concerted action of spur, whip, and rein, +Judith swung the Prince about so that he was headed for the open +valley, running toward the west, giving him his head only a little, +driving him. He broke into a thundering run, snorting as, with mane +and tail flying, he dashed through the men who fell away from his +furious rush. And as he ran, Judith spurred him so that his only +thought lay in running away from the menace upon his back. + +"She ain't giving him time to buck!" laughed old Carson hysterically. +"Mama! Ain't she sure enough--God! She's goin' to get a fall." + +For horse and rider had come to the wide irrigating ditch which, since +Judith Sanford had lived here, had been constructed to carry the water +of Blue Lake River down to the alfalfa-fields. She saw it when she was +too close to swerve. + +The men watching saw her lean forward in the saddle, gather her reins, +lift her whip. Then the lifted whip came down, the spurs touched the +Prince's sweating sides, the big horse leaped far and clear of the +ditch and there floated back Judith's laughter. + +Three minutes later she rode back to the bunkhouse and slipped from the +saddle. Bud Lee, going to her, had his hat in his hand. + +"Now, Ward," she said quickly, her breathing hurried, her cheeks red, +"what do you say?" + +"I said I'd stick if you rode him," muttered Ward. "And----" + +"And," cried the girl with quick passion, "I'll tell you something. +You're a great big lumbering coward! Stick with me?" She laughed +again, a new laugh, ringing with her scorn. "Here's your outlaw; I've +gentled him a bit. You ride him!" + +His fellows laughed at Ward; for the field foreman was no horseman and +the timorous way in which he had brought out this snapping, vicious +animal had testified to the fact. He drew back now, muttering. + +"Ride him!" cried Judith, her voice stinging him. "Ride him or get off +the ranch! Which is it?" + +Ward Hannon, glad of the opening, answered surlily: "Aw! think I want +to take orders off'n a woman? You're right, I'll get off'n the ranch!" + +"That's two down," said Judith. "Now, take this horse back to the +stable; I'm going up to the office. You men come there in five +minutes. If you want to stay, and are worth your salt, you can. Or +I'll give you your time. It's up to you: it's a free country. But--" +and she said it slowly, confronting them--"if you all throw me down and +leave me short-handed without giving me time to take on another set of +men, you are a pretty low-lived bunch!" + +Then, without turning, she went swiftly to the ranch-house. Old man +Carson wiped the sweat from his forehead. + +"I remember hearing about Luke Sanford's girl," he said simply. "This +is her, all right." + + + + +IV + +JUDITH PUTS IT STRAIGHT + +"Old man" Carson--so-called through lack of courtesy and because of the +sprinkling of gray through his black hair, a man of perhaps +forty-five--filled an unthinkably disreputable pipe with his own +conception of "real tobacca" and chuckled so that the second match was +required; before he was ready to say his say. + +"You just listen to me, you boys!" he said. "I worked with the Down +River outfit a year before Trevors sent me word he had a job open here +at better pay. That's only seventy-five miles, and news does +percolate, give it time. None of you fellers ever saw old Luke +Sanford?" + +"I'd been working here close to two weeks when he got killed," Bud said +as Carson's twinkling eyes went from face to face. "I got my job +straight from him, not Trevors." + +"That's so," said Carson. "Well, Bud knows the sort Luke Sanford was. +He was dead and buried when I come to the Blue Lake, but I'd saw him +twice and I'd heard of him more times than that. Quiet man that +'tended to his own business and didn't say so all-fired much 'less he +was stirred up. And then--!" He whistled his meaning. "A fighter. +All he ever got he fought for. All he ever held on to he fought for. +He bucked Western Lumber for a dozen years, first and last. And, by +cripes, he nailed their durned hides on his stable-door, too! + +"Well, I heard tell about this same Luke Sanford ten years ago and +more--about him and his little girl. From what folks said I guess +there never was a man wanted a boy-baby worse'n Luke Sanford before +Judith come. And I guess there never was a man put more stock in his +own flesh and blood than Luke did in her as soon as he got used to her +being a she. I don't know just exactly how old she was ten years ago, +women folks being so damn' tricky in the looks of their ages, but I'd +say she was eight or nine or ten or eleven years old. Anyhow, Luke had +took her in hand already." + +"Taught her to ride, huh?" asked one of the men. + +"You're shouting, Poker Face," nodded Carson with vehemence. "He sure +did! Why, that girl's rid real horses since she was the size of a pair +of boots. Luke took her everywhere he went, up in the mountains, over +the Big Ridge, down valley-ways, into town when he went off on his +yearly. And they say Luke wasn't no poky rider, either. You've rode +his string, Bud? What are those for horses, huh?" + +"I'm a little particular when it comes to a saddle-horse," Bud +admitted. "But I never asked any better than old Sanford's string." + +"You hear him!" said Carson. "Well, that Judy girl has rid horses like +them for a dozen years. And her dad--anyway, folks say so down on the +river--showed her his way to ride and his way to shoot and his way to +play cards! I guess," and he spoke with slow thoughtfulness, "that +she's a real chip off'n the old block. It's my guess number two that +she ain't just shooting off her face promiscuous when she says there's +something crooked in the deal Trevors has been handing her. And, third +bet, there's most likely going to be seven kinds of hell popping around +this end of the woods for a spell." + +"What are you doing about it, Carson?" asked the man whose unusually +vacuous expression gave him his name of Poker Face. "Stick on the job +or quit?" + +"Me?" Carson sought a match, and when he had found it, held it long in +his grimy fingers, staring at it thoughtfully. "Me stay an' let a +she-girl boss me? Well, it ain't the play a man might look to me to +make, an' I ain't saying it's the trick I'd do every day in the week. +But here there's some things to set a man scratching his head: she's a +winner, all right, an' I'm the first man to up an' say so. She's got +the sand an' she's got the savvy. Take 'em together an' they make what +you call gumption. Sure it ain't no woman's job to step in an' run an +outfit like this one; a woman ain't nacherally cut out for that sort of +thing any more'n a man is to darn socks an' drink tea with lemon in it. +Again, tipping it over so's you can look at the other side, like a fair +man ought to, what's she going to do? She lands here sudden, striking +all four feet in a mess of trouble. She grabs holt of things, seeing +they belong to her in a way, an' seeing she's fed Trevors his time. I +might go trailing my luck some other-where, if I did the first fool +thing that plopped into my nut. But playing fair, I'm going to stick +an' do my damnedest to see Luke Sanford's girl put up her scrap. Yes, +sir." + +"What did she want to fire Trevors for?" asked Benny, the cook. + +Carson, looking at him contemptuously, spoke in contemptuous answer +about the stem of his pipe. "Any man on the job can answer you that, +Cookie. It's been open an' shut the last month Trevors is either crazy +or crooked. I said, didn't I, Western Lumber's itching to get its +devil-fish legs wropped aroun' Blue Lake timber? They've busted more +than one rancher up in the mountains. Trevors is in with 'em. Any man +on the ranch that don't know that, don't want to know it!" He removed +his pipe at last, and his look upon Benny was full of meaning. "Roll +that in your dough, Cookie, an' make biscuits out'n it." + +"Go easy there, grandfather," growled Benny. + +"That's something I ain't learned," was old Carson's ready answer, +lightly given. "I've told you before, if you don't want your name +printed plain don't come around asking me to spell it." + +Benny growled an answer but did not take up the quarrel. He knew +Carson well enough to know that there was no man living readier for a +fight or abler to conduct his own part of it. Carson, smaller than +Benny, was wiry, quick-footed, hard-eyed. There was something about +him that caused a man of Benny's sort to stop and think. + + +"_Que hay_, Bud?" called a voice, and old Jose, his face shining with +his joy--Bud was certain that Judith had actually kissed the leathery +cheek and wondered how she could do it!--came down the knoll. "_La +senorita_ wants you!" + +"Haw!" gurgled Bandy O'Neil facetiously. "It's your manly beauty, Bud! +You ol' son-of-a-gun of a lady-killer!" + +Bud Lee swung about upon his heel to glare at Bandy. But suddenly +conscious of a flush creeping up hotly under his tan, he turned his +back and strode away to the house. Bandy's "haw, haw!" followed him. +Lee's face was flaming when he entered the office. + +"What do you want with me?" he said shortly, angered at Bandy, Judith +Sanford and himself. + +"Bow, wow!" retorted Judith, looking up from Trevors's table. "Whose +dog art thou? Do you want me to think you are as fierce as you look?" + +"You sent for me?" he said coolly. + +She looked up at him critically. "What's come over you, Lee? I took +you for a cool head--Heaven knows I need a few cool heads around me +right now!--and here you show up with red in your eye, barking at me." + +"Let's pass up what I look like," said Lee stiffly. "What can I do for +you. Miss Sanford?" + +"Hm," said Judith. "On your high horse, are you? All right, stay +there. What I want is some information. How long have you been on the +Blue Lake pay-roll?" + +"A little over six months," he answered colorlessly. + +"_Over_ six months?" A quick look of interest came into her eyes. +"Trevors hired you? Or dad?" + +"Your father." + +"Then"--and a sudden, swift smile came for the first time that morning +into the girl's eyes--"you're square! Thank God for one man to be sure +of." + +She had risen with a quick impetuosity and put out her hand. Lee took +it into his own, and felt it shut hard, like a man's. + +"Just how do you know I'm square?" he asked slowly. + +"Dad was human," she replied softly. "He made some mistakes. But he +never made a mistake in a horse foreman yet. He has said to me a dozen +times: 'Judy, watch the way a man treats his horse if you want to size +him up! And never put your horses into the care of a man who isn't +white, clean through.' Dad knew, Bud Lee!" + +Lee made no answer. For a little Judith, back at the long table and +looking strangely small in the big, bare room before this massive piece +of furniture, stared into vacancy with reminiscent eyes. Then, with a +little shrug of her shoulders, she turned again to the tall foreman. + +"Why did you tell Trevors this morning that you were going to quit +work?" she asked with abrupt directness. + +"Because," he answered, and by now his flush had subsided and his grave +good-humor had come back to him with his customary serenity, "I felt +like moving on." + +"Because," she insisted, "you know that there was some dirty work afoot +and did not care to be messed up in it?" + +Now here, most positively, Bud Lee said within himself, was a person to +reckon with. How did she know all that? She was just a girl, +somewhere, as old Carson put it, between eighteen and twenty-two. What +business did a kid like this have knowing so blamed much? + +"You've got your rope on the right pair of horns," he said after his +brief pause. + +"How did you know that Trevors was working the double-cross on this +deal?" she demanded. + +"I didn't know," he said stiffly. "I just guessed. The same as you. +He was spending too much money; he was getting too little to show for +it; he was selling too much stock too cheap." + +"What's the matter with you?" cried the girl, surprising him with the +heat of her words and the sudden darkening of her eyes. "Why do you +insist on being so downright stand-offish and stiff and aloof? What +have I done to you that you can't be decent? Here I am only putting +foot on my own land and you make me feel like an intruder." + +"I am answering your questions." + +"Like a half-animated trained iceberg, yes. Can't you act like a human +being? Oh, I've got your number, Bud Lee, and you are just as narrow +between the horns as the rest of the outfit. You are narrow and +prejudiced and blindly unreasonable! I know as much about ranching as +any man of you; I know more about this outfit because the best man that +ever set foot on it, and that's Luke Sanford, taught me every crook, +and bend of it; and now, just because I'm a girl and not a boy, you +stand off like I had the smallpox; just when I need loyalty and +understanding and when, the Lord knows, I've already got a double +handful of trouble, I can't count for a minute on men that have been +taking my pay for months! Get some of the mildew and cobwebs out of +your head and tell me this: What reason in the world is there why you +choose to think I haven't any business wearing my own shoes?" + +"That's sure putting it straight," said Lee slowly. + +"You just bet it's putting it straight!" she announced vigorously. +"And you'll find that it's a way I have, putting things straight. I +was trained to the business by a better man than you'll ever be, Bud +Lee." + +"Maybe so," he admitted without heat. "I'll take off my hat to Luke +Sanford for a man. And I'll take off my hat to you, if you want to +know. But, training or no training, this is no job for a lady, and +shooting up Trevors and riding the Prince isn't going to make it so. +Sure enough it's none of my butt-in what sort of thing you do. But at +the same time there's no call for me to say you're doing fine when I +don't see it that way." + +"What you're looking for," sniffed Judith contemptuously, "is a female +being extinct this one hundred years! You'd have every girl wear tails +to her gowns, and duck and dodge behind fans and faint every time she +jabbed her thumb with a pin!" + +"I can't see that a woman's place is riding bucking broncos and +rampsing around. . . ." + +"A woman's place!" she scoffed. "Her place where a blunder-headed man +puts her! How do you know what her place is? Do you suppose the blood +in a healthy-bodied, healthy-minded woman is any different from your +blood? How would you like to be told just what your place is? To be +jammed, for instance, into a little bungalow in a city; to be squeezed +into a dress-suit and told 'Stay there and look sweet'; to be commanded +not to get up a natural sweat, nor to kick over the traces with which +some woman had hitched you to the cart of convention. How'd _you_ like +it, Bud Lee?" + +Bud Lee grinned and a new look crept into his eyes. "Being Bud Lee," +he answered frankly, "I wouldn't stand it for one little tick of the +clock! If you want me to swap talk with you; all day at ninety bucks a +month, all right. I'd say there's two kinds of men, too. There's my +kind; there's the Dave Burril Lee kind. You see, he's a sort of +relation of mine, is Dave Burril Lee, and I'm not exactly proud of him. +He's the kind that wears dress-suits and sticks in a bungalow. He's +proud of his name Burril and Lee, both, because big men down South wore +'em before he did, and they were relations. He's swelled up over the +way he can dance and ride after a fox, and over the coin he's got in +the bank. Then there's Bud Lee who ducks out of that sort of a +scrap-heap and beats it for the open." + +"I get you!" broke in Judith, her eyes very bright. "And you men here, +my men, want me to be the sort of woman that your precious cousin, Dave +Burril, is a man? Is that it? Where's your logic this morning?" + +"Meaning horse sense?" he smiled. "It's in these few little words: +'What's right for a man may be dead wrong for a woman.'" + +"Oh, scat!" she cried impatiently. "What am I wasting time with you +for? You're right when you say that if I am paying you ninety dollars +a month and grub and blankets I'd better get something out of you +besides talk." She swung back to her table. "What was Trevors's +latest excuse for selling at a sacrifice?" she asked, her tone dry and +businesslike. "Why was he selling those horses at fifty dollars a +head?" + +"Told me he just had a wire last night from Young Hampton, asking for +three thousand," he explained in a similar tone, though his eyes were +twinkling at her. + +"Pollock Hampton has his nerve!" she snapped. She took up the +telephone instrument at her elbow and demanded the Western Union at +Rocky Bend. "Judith Sanford speaking," she said crisply. "Repeat the +message of last night for the general manager, Blue Lake Ranch." + +In a moment she had it. "So Trevors wasn't lying about that part of +it," she said reluctantly. And to the Western Union agent, "Take this +message: + + +POLLOCK HAMPTON, Hotel Glennlyn, San Francisco: + +Impossible send money now or for some time. Have fired Trevors. +Running outfit myself. Need every cent we can raise to pay interest on +loans, men's salaries and keep going. This is final. + +JUDITH SANFORD, _General Manager_. + + +"That may start his gray matter working," she ended as she clicked up +the receiver. "Now, Lee, will you stick with me ten days or so and +give me time to get a man in your place?" + +"Yes, I'll do that, Miss Sanford." + +"You will help me in every way you can while you are with me?" + +"When I work for a man--or a woman," he added gravely, "I don't hold +back anything." + +"All right. Then start in right now and tell me about the gang Trevors +has taken on. Are they all crooks?" + +"I wouldn't say so. I wouldn't put it that strong." + +"That little gray, quick-spoken man with the smelly pipe--he's +straight, isn't he?" + +"That would be old Carson? Yes; he's a good man. You won't find a +better." + +"Is he going to quit, too? Just because I've come?" + +Lee shook his head. "If you work him right Carson will stick right +along. Being white clean through, being broader-minded than I am"--and +the twinkle came again into his eyes--"Carson'll show you a square +deal." + +"Has he any love for Bayne Trevors?" + +"Maybe you'd better ask Carson." + +In a flash she was on her feet and had gone to the door. "Carson!" she +called loudly. "Come here, will you?" + +There was a little silence, a low sound of laughter, then Carson's +sharp voice answering: "I'm coming!" + +Judith went back to her chair. She did not speak until Carson's wiry +form slipped through the doorway. Then with the old cattleman's +shrewd, hard eyes upon her she turned from a clip full of papers she +had been looking through and spoke to him quietly: + +"You used to work for the Granite Canyon crowd, didn't you, Carson?" + +"Yes'm," he answered. + +"Cattle foreman there for several years?" + +"Yes'm." + +"Helped clean out the Roaring Creek gang didn't you, Carson?" + +Carson shifted a bit, colored under her fixed eyes, and finally +admitted: + +"Yes'm." + +"Haven't had a real first-class fight for quite a bit, have you, +Carson? Not since that gash on your jaw healed? Not since you and +Scotty Webb mixed with the Roaring Creekers?" + +Carson rubbed his jaw, flashed a quick look at Bud Lee as though for +moral support, looked still further embarrassed, and finally choked +over his brief: + +"No'm." + +Judith sat smiling brightly up at his hard features. "I've heard dad +talk about that," she said thoughtfully. "I guess I've got at least +one real man on the ranch, Carson. Oh, don't dodge like that! I'm not +going to put my arms around you and kiss you on the top of your head. +But I do love a man that loves a fair fight. . . . Lee, here, has +given me his promise to stick on the job for ten days or so, to give me +time to get some one else to look after my horses." + +"Yes'm," said Carson, fingering his pipe and looking down. + +For a few moments the girl sat still, now and then flashing a quick, +keen look from one to the other of her two foremen. Then, abruptly, +her eyes on Carson, she snapped: "You've found out, more or less +recently, haven't you, that Bayne Trevors is a crook? You've perhaps +even guessed that he's been taking money from me with one hand and from +the Western Lumber with the other?" + +"Yes'm," said Carson. "I doped it up like that." + +"Why," cried the girl, "he's fired all of the old men and Heaven knows +how many of his sort he's put in their places! Help me clean 'em out, +Carson! Where will we begin? I've chucked Trevors and Ward Hannon. +Who goes next, Carson?" + +"Benny the cook," said Carson gently. "An' I'd be obliged, ma'am, if +you'd let me go boot him off'n the ranch." + +"That's talking," she said enthusiastically. "You can attend to him. +Any one else?" + +Carson shook his head. "I got my suspicions," he said. "But that's +all I'm dead sure on." + +"The others can wait then. Now, I'm taking a gamble on you and Lee. +You have all kinds of chances to double-cross me. But I've got to take +a chance now and then. I'm going to tell you something: Trevors is +trying to sell me out to the Western Lumber people. He is one of their +crowd and has been since they bought him up six months ago. They want +our timber tract over the north ridge but they don't think they will +have to pay the price. They want the lake; they want the water-power +of Blue Lake River! They want pretty well all we've got. The ranch +outside the stock we've got running on it, is worth a clean million +dollars if it is worth a nickel. Well, the Western Lumber Company has +offered us exactly two hundred and fifty thousand! Only quarter of +what it's worth! They know we're mortgaged; they know the interest we +have to pay is heavy; they know Pollock Hampton, for one, is a spender +who knows nothing about big business; they think that I, because I'm a +girl, am a fool. It looks to them like a melon easy to cut and ripe +for the slicing." + +She paused a moment, frowning thoughtfully at the floor. Then suddenly +she lifted her eyes to Carson's, saying crisply: "Trevors took time at +the end to tell me something. That something was that he was going to +make me sell. He was excited a bit, I'll admit, or he wouldn't have +spoken quite so plainly. And he counted upon the fact of my sex, of +course, to feel confident that he could throw a scare into me. He even +threatened, if I hadn't come to my senses before the ranch was dry in +the summer, to burn me out!" + +Carson blinked at her. "How's that?" he asked. + +She told him again, coolly indifferent, it seemed to Carson. + +"The durned polecat!" whispered the cattle foreman. + +"Now then," cried Judith, "you've got your first job cut out for you. +Let Bayne Trevors or one of his gang set foot on Blue Lake land, and +I'll tell you what I think of you, Carson! Or is the job going to be +too big for you?" + +Carson smiled deprecatingly. "I'd like to see 'em try it," he said in +that soft, whispering voice which upon occasions was characteristic of +him. "I sure would, Miss Judy!" + +"That's all this morning, Carson," she said quietly. "On your way +don't forget to look in on your friend Benny." + +Carson went hastily down the knoll, his eyes bright. Judith laughed +softly. + +"I've got his number, Bud Lee! All that's needed to keep that old +mountain-lion on the job is to show him a real fight ahead! And by +golly, Mr. Man, there's going to be scrap enough from the very jump to +make Carson forget whether he's working for a woman or John W. Satan, +Esquire!" + + + + +V + +THE BIGNESS OF THE VENTURE + +"And now," said Judith Sanford to the stillness about her--she was +alone in the big ranch-house--"not being constructed of iron, I'm going +to take a snooze." + +She yawned, stretched her supple young body luxuriously, and passed +slowly through the empty rooms which, at her command, Jose had opened +to the sweet morning air. Through the great living-room, library, and +music-room, where the grand piano stood dejectedly in its mantle of +dust, she came to her own chambers at the southwest corner of the +building. Her bed was made, the sheets clean and fresh and inviting, +dressing-gown and slippers were upon the window-seat, and from her +table a vase of glorious roses sent out a welcoming perfume. + +"Good old Jose," she smiled. + +Vivid blossom that she was upon the tough, hardy stalk of her pioneer +ancestry, creature of ardent flame and passion which her blood and her +life in the open had made her, she was not devoid of the understanding +of the limit of physical endurance. Last night, through the late +moonlight and later starlight, through the thick darkness which lay +across the mountain trails before the coming of day, on into the dawn, +she had ridden the forty miles from the railroad at Rocky Bend. +Certain of treachery on the part of Bayne Trevors, she had arrived only +to find him plotting another blow at her interests. She had ridden a +mad brute of a horse whose rebellious struggle against her authority +had taxed her to the last ounce of her strength. She had shot a man in +the right shoulder and the left forearm. . . . And now, with no one to +see her, she was pale and shaking a little, suddenly faint from the +heavy beating of her own heart. She had had virtually no sleep last +night. She was glad of it. For now she would sleep, sleep. + +"I am not to be called, no matter what happens," she said to Jose who +came trotting to the tinkle of her bell. "Thank you for the roses, +Jose." + +Slipping out of her clothes, she drew the sheet up to her throat--and +tossed for a wretched hour before sleep came to her. A restless sleep, +filled with broken bits of unpleasant dreams. + +At two o'clock, swiftly dressing after a leisurely bath, she went out +into the courtyard, where she found Jose making a pretense of +gardening, whereas in truth for a matter of hours he had done little +but watch for her coming. + +"Jose," she said, as he swept off his wide hat and made her the bow +reserved for _la senorita_ and _la senorita_ alone, "you will have to +be lady's maid and errand-boy for me until I get things running right. +I am going to telephone into town this minute for a woman to do my +cooking and housekeeping and be a nuisance around generally. While I +do that, will you scare up something for me to eat and then saddle a +horse for me? And don't make a fire, either; just something cold out +of a can, you know." + +She went to the office, arranged over the wire with Mrs. Simpson of +Rocky Bend to come out on the following day, and then spent fifteen +minutes studying the pay-roll taken from the safe, which, fortunately, +Trevors had left open. As Jose came in with a big tray she was running +through a file of reports made at the month-end, two weeks ago, by +certain of the ranch foremen. + +"Put it down on the table, Jose. Thank you," and she found time for a +smile at her devoted servitor; "Now, have a horse ready, will you?" And +without waiting for Jose's answer, taking up the telephone, she asked +for the office at the Lower End, as the rich valley land of the western +portion of the ranch was commonly known. + +Briefly making herself known to the owner of the boyish voice which +answered, she asked, for "Doc" Tripp and was informed that the ranch +veterinarian was no longer with the outfit. Judith frowned. + +"Where is he?" + +"Rocky Bend, I think." + +"When did he leave us?" + +"Three days ago." + +"Why?" + +"Fired. Mr. Trevors let him go." + +"Hm!" said Judith. "Who has taken his place?" + +"Bill Crowdy is sort of acting vet, right now." + +"Thanks," she said. Clicking off, she put in a call for "Doc" Tripp in +Rocky Bend. "Get him for me as quick as you can, will you, please?" +she asked of the operator in town. + +For five minutes she munched at a sandwich and pored over the papers +before her, dealing with this or that of the many interests of the big +ranch. When at last her telephone-bell rang she found that it was +Tripp. + +"Hello, Doc," she said cordially. "I haven't seen you for so long I +almost have forgotten how you comb your hair!" Tripp laughed with her +at that; across the miles she could picture him running his big hand +through the rebellious shock. "Yes, I'm back to stay, and from the +looks of it I didn't come any too soon. Yes, Doc, we do miss him," and +her voice softened wonderfully to Tripp's mention of the man who had +been more than father to her, more than friend to him. "But we are +going to buck up and show folks that he _knew_. He would have made a +go of the thing; we are going to do it. What was the trouble with you +and Trevors?" + +Tripp explained succinctly. He and the general manager had disagreed +openly and frequently about that part of the work in which, until the +coming of Trevors, the veterinarian had been entirely unhampered. Two +months ago Trevors had reduced Tripp's wages and had threatened another +cut. + +"Just to make me quit, you know," he added. "And I would have quit if +it had been any other outfit in the world." + +"I know," she said, and she did understand. "Go on. What was the +excuse for canning you?" + +"Case of lung-worms," he told her. "Some of the calves, I don't know +just how many yet. He insisted on my treating them the old way." + +"Slaked lime? Or sulphur fumes?" she said quickly. "And you insisted +on chloroform?" + +"You've hit it!" he exclaimed wonderingly. "How'd you know?" + +"I haven't been loafing on the job the last six months," she laughed. +"I've been at the school at Davis and hobnobbing with some of the +university men at Berkeley. They're doing some great work there. Doc, +I'll want to talk to you about it. You're going down there, expenses +paid, to brush up with a course or two this year. Now, how soon can +you get back here?--Trevors? Oh, Trevors is fired. I'm running the +ranch myself. And, Doc, I need a few men like you! Can you come early +to-morrow?--To-night? You're a God-blessed brick! Yes, I'll stop that +murderous sulphur treatment if it isn't too late. Good-by." + +She lost no time in calling for Bill Crowdy, the man whom Trevors had +put into Tripp's place. + +"By the way," she said when the man with the voice which had sounded so +boyish in her ears answered again, "who are you?" + +"Ed Masters," he told her. "Electrician, you know." + +A glance at the pay-roll in front of her showed that Edward Masters, +general electrician, was a new man and was drawing eighty-five dollars +monthly. + +"What are you doing this afternoon?" she demanded sharply--"just +hanging around the office? Is that the way you earn your eighty-five +dollars?" + +"Not always. But Trevors told me to be on hand to-day to take some +orders." + +"What work?" + +"Don't know," he said frankly. "He didn't say." + +"Well," said Judith, "I'll tell you one thing, Ed Masters. If you are +one of the loaf-around kind you'd better call for your time to-night. +If there's anything for you to do, go do it. Don't wait for Trevors. +He's gone. Yes, for good. You can report to me here the first thing +in the morning. Now send me Crowdy." + +"He's down in the hospital and the hospital phone is out of order." + +"And you're an electrician, hanging around for orders! That's your +first job. Send the first man you can get your hands on to tell Crowdy +I say not to touch one of those calves with the lung-worm. And not to +do anything else but get ready to talk with me. I'll be down in half +an hour." + +She clicked up the receiver, drank a cup of lukewarm coffee, noting +subconsciously that Jose must have had a fire ready against the time of +her awakening, and again consulted the files before her. Then again +she used the telephone, ringing the Lower End office. This time it was +another voice answering her. + +"Where's Masters?" she asked. + +"Gone down to the cow hospital," was the answer. + +"Where's Johnson, the irrigation foreman?" + +"Out in the south fields." + +"And Dennings?" + +"Went to look the olives over." + +"Send out for both of them. I'm coming right down as fast as a horse +will carry me and I want to talk with them. Wait a minute--I'll tell +you when I'm through with you. Who are you, anyway?" + +"Williams, the ranch carpenter." + +"What _are_ you doing to-day? Repairs needed at the office where you +are?" + +"No. You see----" + +"You bet I see!" she cried warmly. "The first thing I see is that I've +got more men on this job than I need. If there's no work for you to +do, call tonight for your time. If you've got anything to do, go do +it." + +She clicked off again, waited a brief second and rang three for the +dairy. After she had rung several times and got no answer, she +murmured to herself: + +"There's some one too busy on the ranch to be just hanging round after +all, it seems." + +And she went out to Jose and the waiting horse. + +As she rode the five miles down to the office at the Lower End, her +thoughts were constantly charged with an appreciation of the wonders +which had been worked about her everywhere since that day, ten years +ago, when she had first come with Luke Sanford to the original Blue +Lake ranch. Then there had been only a wild cattle-range, ten thousand +acres of brush, timber, and uncultivated open spaces. Nowhere would +one find rougher, wilder stock-land in California. But Luke Sanford +had seen possibilities and had bought the whole ten thousand acres, +counting, from the first sight of it, upon acquiring as soon as might +be those other thousands of acres which now made Blue Lake ranch one of +the biggest of Western ventures. + +It was late May, and the afternoon air was sweet and warm with the +passing of spring. The girl's eager eyes travelled the length of the +sky-seeking cliff almost at the back door of the ranch-house, which +stood like some mighty barricade thrown up in that mythical day given +over to the colossal struggle of a contending race of giants, and she +found that there, alone, time had shown no change. Elsewhere, +improvements at every turn were living monuments to the tireless brain +of her father. Stock-corrals, sturdily built, out-houses spotless in +their gleaming whitewash, monster barns, fenced-off fields, bridges +across the narrow chasm of the frothing river, telephone-poles with +their wires binding into one sheaf the numerous activities of the +ranch, a broad, graded road over which she and her father had come here +the last time together in the big touring-car. + +Here the valley was only a mile across, shut in on both sides by cliff +and steep, rocky mountain, walled by cliffs at the upper end, where the +river from three-mile distant Blue Lake came down in flashing +waterfalls. + +But, as she rode, the valley widened, changed in character. At first, +wandering herds of beef-cattle, with now and then a riding cowboy +turning in his saddle to wonder at her; then a gate to be opened as she +stooped forward from her own saddle, and wide fields where the grass +stood tall and untrodden and blooded Jersey cows looked up in mild +interest; yonder a small pasture in which were five Guernseys, kept in +religious seclusion, under ideal conditions, to further certain +investigations into the ratios of five different kinds of fodder to the +amount of butter-fat produced; across a green meadow a pure-blooded +Jersey bull, whose mellow bellowings drew Judith's eyes to the clean +line of his perfect back, over which, with pawing hoofs, he was +throwing much trampled earth; in a more distant pen, accepting the +trumpeted challenge and challenging back, a beautiful specimen of +careful breeding in Ayrshire. + +The road wound on, following generally the line of the river, which +began a generous broadening, flowing more evenly through level fields. +Looking down the valley, Judith could see the whitewashed clump of +buildings where were the second office, the store and the blacksmith's +shop, the tiny cottages. And beyond, the barns, the dairy, the tall +silos standing like lookout towers, the alfalfa-fields crisscrossed +with irrigating ditches, and still farther on, the pasture-lands where +the big herd of cows was grazing. + +Here the valley was spread out until from side to side it measured +something more than four miles. The bordering mountains, like the +river, had grown into a softer mood; rolling hills scantily timbered, +rich in grass, were dotted with herds, cattle and horses, or fenced off +here and there, reserved for later pasturage. + +Across the river, to the south, Judith marked the wandering calves, +offspring of the herd; to the north, along the foothills, the subdued +green of the olive-orchards. + +"It's a big, big thing!" she whispered, and her eyes were very bright +with it all, her cheeks flushed. "Big!" + +Passing one of the great barns, she heard the trumpet call of a +stallion and, turning, saw in the corral one of those glorious brutes +which Bud Lee had spoken of to Trevors as "clean spirit." From the +instant her eyes filled to the massive beauty of him, she knew who he +was: Night Shade, sprung from the union of Mountain King and Black +Empress; regal-blooded, ebon-black from silken fetlock to flowing mane; +a splendid four-year-old destined to tread his proud way to a first +prize at the coming State fair at Sacramento, a horse many +stock-fanciers had coveted. + +She stopped and marvelled afresh at him, paid him his due of unstinted +admiration, and then spurred on to the little clump of buildings +marking the lower ranch headquarters. At the store, where a ten-by-ten +room was partitioned off to serve as office, she swung down from the +saddle and, leaving her horse with dragging reins, went in. + +"Hello, Charlie. You're still left to us, are you?" she said, as she +stepped forward to shake hands with Miller, the storekeeper and general +utility man of the settlement. "I'm glad to see you. + +"So'm I, Miss Judy," grinned Charlie, looking the part. "Howdy." + +"I wanted to see Johnson and Dennings. Are they here yet?" + +"No," answered Miller. "Johnson, the ditch man, you mean? He's +somewhere at the Upper End. Has got a crew of men up there making a +new dam or somethin' or other. Been at it purty near a week, now, I +guess. They camp up there." + +"How many men are with him?" she asked quickly. + +"About a dozen," and he looked hard at her. Judith frowned. But +instead of saying what she might be thinking, she inquired where +Dennings was. + +"Out in the olive-orchards, I guess." He paused, filled a pipe he had +neither desire nor intention of smoking, and said abruptly: "What's +this I hear about Trevors? Canned him?" + +"Yes." + +"Um!" said Miller. "Well, Miss Judy, I ain't sayin' it wasn't purty +near time he got the hooks. But, lemme tell you something. While +you're riding around this afternoon, if I was you I'd pike over to the +milking corrals." + +She looked at him sharply. + +"What is it, Charlie?" + +"You just ride over," said Miller. "It ain't more'n a step an' I'll +just shet up store an' mosey along after you." + +Vaguely uneasy because of Charlie Miller's manner, Judith galloped down +toward the four corrals where the cows were milked. From a distance +she saw that there were a number of men, ten or twelve of them, +standing in a close-packed group. She wondered what it was that had +drawn them from their work at this time of day; what that big, +bull-voiced man was saying to them. She heard the muttering rumble of +his words before the words themselves meant anything to her. A quick +glance over her shoulder showed her Charlie Miller hastening behind +her, pick-handle in hand. + +Her way carried her by a long, narrow building standing out like a +great capital E, the cow hospital. She thought of Bill Crowdy and the +sick calves as she drew near, but was passing on to the men at the milk +corrals, when the breeze, blowing lightly from the west, brought to her +nostrils a whiff of sulphur. + +A quick tide of red ran into her cheeks; that fool, Ed Masters, had not +told Crowdy to refrain from the old-fashioned, deadly treatment! +Almost before her horse had set his four feet at the command of a quick +touch upon the reins, the girl was down and hurrying into the middle +door of the three, calling out as she went: + +"Crowdy! Oh, Crowdy!" + +She came into a small whitewashed room where were a table, two chairs, +and a telephone; passed through this into the calf-yard. Here were +several compartments with doors which allowed of making them almost +air-tight. And here she was met by a stronger smell of sulphur fumes. + +"Crowdy!" she called again. "Where are you?" + +Bill Crowdy, a heavy, squat figure of a man, shifty-eyed, with hard +mouth and a nervous, restless air, came down a long hallway, smoking a +cigarette. His eyes rested with no uncertain dislike upon Judith's +eager face. + +"I'm Crowdy," he said. "Want me?" + +"I told Masters to tell you to stop the sulphur treatment for the +lung-worm calves. Hasn't he told you?" + +"Mr. Trevors said I was to give it to them," said Crowdy. "I can't be +taking orders off'n every hop-o'-my-thumb like that college kid." + +"Then Masters did tell you?" + +"Sure, he told me," said Crowdy in surly defiance. "But if I was to +listen to everything the likes of him says----" + +Judith's eyes were fairly snapping. + +"You'll listen to the likes of me, Bill Crowdy!" she cried +passionately, a small fist clinched. "You get those calves out into +some fresh air just as quick as the Lord will let you! Into a pen by +themselves. Doc Tripp will attend to them in the morning." + +"Tripp's gone." + +"He's on his way back, right now. And you're on your way off the +ranch. Understand? You can come to the office for your pay to-night." + +Crowdy shrugged his shoulders and turned away. + +"If I'm fired," he growled in that ugly voice which was so fitting a +companion to that ugly mouth of his, "I quit right now. Get some of +your other Willies to turn your calves out." + +For a moment, in the heat of her anger, Judith's quirt was lifted as +though she would strike him. Then she turned instead and ran to do her +own bidding. A moment later Miller was with her. The two of them got +the calves--there were seven of them--out of the sulphur-laden air and +into the corral. The poor brutes, coughing softly in paroxysms, some +of them frothing at the mouth, two of them falling repeatedly and +rising slowly upon trembling legs, filed by in a pitiful string. One +of the youngest lay still in the hospital, dead. + +"He would have killed them all," said Judith, her teeth set as she +looked at the living calves in the corral where, with necks thrust far +out, they fought for each breath. "And Bayne Trevors ordered a +treatment that he knows has gone into the discard! Charlie, that man +has gone further than I thought he had the nerve to go." + +"Crowdy did something else that don't look just right," said Miller, +gazing with eyes of longing after the burly, departing figure. "I saw +him do it just after Masters carried him your message. He drove three +of the sick calves--there's a dozen or more got the worms, you +know--out into the pasture with the well calves." + +Judith didn't answer. She looked at Miller a moment as though she +thought this must be some wretched jest of his. And when she read in +his eyes the earnestness in his heart, there rose within her the +question: "How far has Bayne Trevors gone?" + +"Charlie," she said finally, "I want you to close store for the rest of +the day. Get some one to help you and cut the sick calves out from the +bunch. Haze them back here into the detention corral. Tripp will +attend to them all in the morning. Now, tell me--what's wrong down at +the milk corrals? What are all of those men up to?" + +"We're going to see, me an' you," answered Miller. "I don't just know. +But I do know there's a big guy down there that come onto the ranch a +couple of hours ago an' that don't belong here. He's that guy talking. +Name of Nelson. He ain't done any talking to me, but from a word or +two I picked up from one of the milkers I got a hunch he's been sent +over by Trevors." + +Nelson, the big emissary for Trevors--for he admitted the fact openly +and pleasantly--took off his hat to Judith and said he guessed he'd be +going. And the men with whom he had been talking, including all of the +milkers and all of the other workmen upon whom Nelson could get his +meddlesome hands at short notice, all men whom Trevors had placed here, +made known in hesitant speech or awkward silence that they were going +with Nelson. There were good jobs open with the lumber company, it +seemed. Nelson even expressed the hope that the quitting of these men +wouldn't work any hardship to the Blue Lake ranch. + +Judith, her eyes flashing, asked no man of them to remain, seeing that +thus she would but humiliate herself fruitlessly, and turned away. And +yet, with the herds of cows with bursting bags soon ready for the +nightly milking, she watched the men move away, her heart bitter with +anger. + +"They've got to be milked, Charlie," was all that she said. "Who will +milk them until I can get a new crew?" + +"I'll tuck in an' help," answered Miller ruefully. "I hate it worse'n +poison, an' I can't milk more'n ten cows, workin twenty-four-hour +shifts. I'll try an' scare up some of the other boys that can milk." +But he shook his head and looked regretfully at the pick-handle. "Good +milkers is scarce as gold eggs," he muttered. "And the separator men +has quit with the rest." + +"Get Masters, the electrician, on the job. Get anybody you can. I'm +going back to the ranchhouse pretty soon and I'll try to send some one +from there." + +"Cowboys can't milk," said Miller positively. "An' besides, they +won't. But somehow we'll make out for a day or so." + +"We've got to make out!" exclaimed Judith. "We've got to beat that man +Trevors, Charlie, and do it quick. If he'll try to keep us +short-handed, if he'll spend money to do it, if he'll do a trick like +giving sulphur for lung-worm and then send infected stock out into the +herds, I don't know just where he will stop--unless we stop him." + + +In spite of her intentions, it was nearing the time of dusk when she +returned to the ranchhouse. As she came up the knoll from the barn, +she saw for the first time a thin line of bluish smoke rising from the +north ridge. Saw and understood the new menace. + +For that way had Benny, the discharged cook, gone. + + + + +VI + +YOUNG HAMPTON REGISTERS A PROTEST + +It was after eight o'clock when Tripp rode in on a sweat-wet horse. +Judith met him in the courtyard, giving him her two hands impulsively. + +"I'm so glad you've come, Doc!" she cried softly. "Oh, you don't know +how glad--yet." + +She called Jose to take Tripp's mount and then led the way into the +great living-room where deep cushions and leather chairs made for +comfort. + +"I'll give you time to draw a second breath," she told him, forcing +into her tone a lightness which she did not quite feel, even though a +surge of satisfaction had warmed her at the first thud of his horse's +hoofs. "Then we'll talk." + +She switched on the lights and turned to look at Tripp. He was the +same little old Doc Tripp, she noted. His wiry body scarcely bigger +than a boy's of fourteen, he was a man of fifty whose face, like his +body, suggested the boy with bright, eager eyes and a frank, friendly +smile. + +"Prettier than ever, eh, Judy?" Tripp cocked his head to one side and +gave his unqualified approval of the slim, supple body, and superb +carriage of this girl of the mountains, warming to the vivid, vital +beauty of the rosy face. "Been driving those cow-college boys down at +Berkeley plumb crazy, I'll bet a prize colt!" + +Judith laughed at him, watched his slight form disappear in the wide +arms of a chair which seemed fairly to smother him in its embrace. +Then from her own nook by the fireplace she opened her heart to him: + +"It's not just that Trevors has crippled me by taking all of my milkers +away; not just that he has come near doing I don't know how much harm +in having Crowdy turn those calves with the lung-worm out into the +fields with the others; not just that during the last few months, he +has lost money for us right and left; not just that Benny, the cook, +has tried to fire the range." + +"What's that last?" said Tripp quickly. "Tried to smoke you out, huh?" + +She told him briefly. How she had first seen the smoke as she came +back to the ranch-house; how she had sent Jose on the run to get some +of the other hands to see that the fire did not spread; how, a little +while ago, Carson, the cattle foreman, had come in and assured her that +the damage was negligible. + +"It was just a brush fire," said Judith. "Thank Heaven, things are +pretty green yet. Carson says it might have been lighted by Benny, +who, it seems, is one of Trevors's hirelings and not above this sort of +thing; or it might have been accidentally started by some careless +hunter. Anyway, and that's enough for me, the fire broke out close to +the trail that Benny travelled on his way to the Western Lumber camp. +But it isn't just these things which have set me to wondering, Doc. +What I want to know is this: in how many other, still undiscovered +ways, has Trevors been knifing us? And what else will he have ready to +spring on us now?" + +"Just what do you mean?" Tripp looked a her keenly. + +"This case of lung-worm, to begin with: where did it come from?" + +"Imported," said Tripp. "Trevors bought those calves, or at least four +of the sick ones, last month. Brought them in from somewhere down the +river. Smuggled 'em in, so far as I am concerned. Never gave me a +chance to look them over." He paused a second. "Specially imported, I +might say." + +"I knew it!" cried Judith. "That's the sort of thing I am afraid of. +If he has gone to the limit of introducing one disease among our +cattle, what other plagues has he brought to the ranch? Has he +imported any other outside stock?" + +"No. He's been busier selling at a sacrifice than buying, just as I +wrote you. Never another head has he bought lately--unless," and +Tripp's eyes twinkled at her, "you count pigeons!" + +"Pigeons!" repeated Judith. + +Tripp nodded. + +"Funny, isn't it," he went on lightly--"that a man like Bayne Trevors, +hard as nails and as free of sentiment as a mule, should fancy little +cooing, innocent-like pigeons? You'll hear them in the morning." + +But Judith was not to be distracted by Tripp's talk. She smiled at +him, however, to show him that she had understood and appreciated the +purpose back of his light words. + +"We're all going to have our hands full for a spell, Doc," was what she +said. "To Trevors, with a free swing here, it must have appeared +rather a simple matter to make so complete a failure as to force us, +encumbered as we are, into selling out to the highest bidder inside the +year. Especially when he counted young Pollock Hampton as a man +without business experience and Judith Sanford as a girl without +brains! But, Doc, he must have known, too, that at any time there +might occur the very thing which has happened--that he'd lose his job. +He strikes me as a rather long-headed man, doesn't he you? Now, a man +who saw ahead, figuring on this very contingency, would have more than +one trick up his sleeve. We've caught him, luckily, at the sick-calf +game, before it is too late. I think that the obvious thing for you to +do is to make certain that all the rest of the stock are in shape. +Will you begin to-morrow making a thorough investigation?" + +"Yes," he answered. "You're right there, Judith. There's nothing like +making sure." + +"He's not through with us," continued the girl thoughtfully; "you could +read that in the look of his jaw and eye when he left. Just what he +stands to make on his play, I don't know. But I do know that the +Western Lumber crowd is offering us only a quarter of what they'd be +willing to pay if they had to. That means that they could afford to +bribe Bayne Trevors pretty heavily and still save half a million on the +deal if he succeeded in the thing he has begun." + +"In his way," admitted Tripp thoughtfully, "Trevors is a big man. Big +men cost big money. And, besides, it looks to me as though he were a +heavy stockholder in the Western Lumber. He'd stand to win two ways." + +"Another thing I want you to do," Judith went on, "is to try to locate +all of dad's old men whom Trevors let go. Johnny Hodge and Kelley and +Harper and Tod Bruce. We'll need them. We've got to have men that +crooked money can't buy." + +"Aren't you magnifying things, Judith?" asked Tripp quietly. "There's +such a thing as law in this country, you know." + +But she shook her head. + +"Maybe I am seeing the dangers too big. But I don't think so. And it +will be a lot better for Blue Lake ranch if I see them that way at the +beginning. And as for the law, it costs money. I'm not sure that +Trevors or the lumber people would be averse to getting us involved in +a lot of legal intricacies. Oh, he has been careful not to leave any +definite proof behind him." + +"You hit the bell that time!" laughed Tripp, and Judith smiled with him +as there came to their ears the faint tinkle of the telephone-bell in +the office. + +Judith excused herself and hastened to answer the summons. Hastened +because she wanted to be back with Tripp as soon as might be. So, +knowing her way so well about the big house, she went quickly through +the dark hall-way without turning aside to switch on the lights and +came into the office, dimly lighted by the stars shining in through the +windows. + +"Doc!" Her voice rang out suddenly and Tripp sprang to his feet, +wondering what had put that note into her exclamation. "Doc! Come +here, quick!" + +He ran into the hall that was suddenly illuminated as at last Judith's +groping hand found the office switch. He saw Judith running ahead of +him, out of the door opening on to the veranda and down into the +courtyard. + +"What is it?" he asked sharply. + +"There was some one here," she told him quickly. "He went out that +way, I think. Look through the lilacs." + +She ran on one way, Tripp hurrying the other, wondering. They saw the +lilacs standing still in the starlight, saw the thick shadows thrown by +the columns and grape-covered trellises, heard the murmuring of the +fountain. + +"Jose, perhaps," suggested Tripp, coming at last to her side. + +"No!" cried Judith. "It wasn't. It was somebody in his stocking feet, +standing in the hallway, listening to us. I heard him run before me; I +saw him for a second, framed against the square of the window as he +slipped through and out on the veranda. Who could it have been, Doc?" + +But a close search through the shrubbery showed them nothing. It was +clear that if a man had been listening at the door he could have had +ample opportunity to slip away into the darkness. He would not be +loitering here now. + +The telephone-bell was still insistently ringing and they turned back +to the office. + +"Judy," said Tripp solicitously, "don't you go and get nerves, now." + +"You think I imagined the whole thing!" She looked at him with clear, +confident eyes. "Don't you fool yourself for one little minute, Doc +Tripp. I'm not the imagining kind--yet!" + +She snatched up the telephone instrument. + +"Hello," said Judith. "Who is it?" + +It was the telegraph operator in Rocky Bend. A message for Miss Judith +Sanford from Pollock Hampton, San Francisco. And the message ran: + + +What were you thinking of to chuck Trevors? Thoroughly excellent man. +You should have consulted me. Don't do anything more until I come. +Send conveyance to meet Saturday train. Bringing five guests with me. + +POLLOCK HAMPTON. + + +Judith turned frowning to Tripp. + +"As if I didn't have enough on my hands already," she exclaimed +bitterly, "without Hampton dragging his fool guests into the mix-up! I +could slap his face." + +"Do it!" chuckled Tripp. "Good idea!" + + + + +VII + +THE HAPPENING IN SQUAW CREEK CANON + +Busy days followed for Judith Sanford and for every man remaining upon +Blue Lake ranch. A score of men, including the milkers, Johnson, the +irrigation foreman and his crew of laborers, had quit work, going over +openly to Bayne Trevors at the Western Lumber camp. He had work there +for every man of them, and Judith was not the only one upon the ranch +who came to wonder how much money Trevors--or the lumber company--was +prepared to spend in fighting her. From the first day she found the +outfit short-handed. + +Almost her first answer to Trevors's _coup_ was to telegraph San +Francisco for a Firth milking-machine, together with an expert sent out +by the Firth Company to install and superintend its working for the +first few days. At the same time she hired from one of the Sacramento +dairies a man who was to be foreman of her own dairy industry, a +capable fellow with an intimate practical knowledge of automatic +milkers. He, with a couple of strippers paid overtime wages managed +until the dairy crew could be builded up again. Her new foreman from +the first took the greater part of this burden off her shoulders. + +Mrs. Simpson, the matron from Rocky Bend, arrived, true to her promise +and, motherly soul that she was, took a keen interest in Judith's +comforts and in caring for the big house, of which she immediately +waxed proud with an air of semiproprietorship. Jose, from the first, +bestowed upon the cheerful, bustling woman a black hatred born of his +thoroughgoing Latin jealousy. From this or that corner, appearing +unexpectedly, glaring darkly at her in a manner which ruffled her +placidity and suggested to her lively imagination terrible visions of +knives in one's back, he brought an actual thrill into Mrs. Simpson's +long days of routine. + +Busy days also for Bud Lee, who had already begun the education of a +string of colts. Busy days for Doc Tripp who, unhampered, trusted, +aided at every turn by his employer, was from dawn until dark among the +ranch live stock, all but feeling pulse and taking temperature of +horses, cows, colts, calves, hogs, and mules. He stopped the calf +sickness; effected cures in every case excepting one. And the rest of +the stock he finally gave a clean bill of health. + +Busy days for Carson. Painstakingly he estimated, to the head, the +number of cattle the pastures should be carrying, counting from long +experience upon the hard months to come from August until December; +estimating values; appearing at the week's end to suggest the purchase +of a herd of calves from the John Peters Dairy Company, to be had now +at a very attractive figure. And suggesting, almost insistently, upon +buying a certain Shorthorn bull worth twice the twelve hundred dollars +asked for him. Busy days for the foremen who had held over from the +management of Trevors or who had been taken on since. The first crop +of alfalfa, shot through with foxtails, must be cut without delay and +fed into the silos before the beards of the interloping growth could +harden. Busy days for the short-handed milking crew; busy days of +installing the new milking-machines. + +Judith and Doc Tripp had sought to find some trace of the man who, +Judith insisted, had listened at the door in the hall. They had found +nothing. So that episode, as well as Trevors himself, was shoved aside +in their minds, in the stress of activity demanding attention +everywhere. + +With Saturday came Pollock Hampton and his guests. Trevors had +misnamed him a fool, sweepingly mistaking youth, business inexperience +and a careless way, for lack of brains. Just a breezy young fellow, +likable, gay-hearted, keen for the joy of life, scarcely more than a +boy after all. One of those rare beings whose attitude toward his +fellow mortals was one of generous faith, who sought to see the best in +people, who had an outspoken admiration for efficiency in any form. He +came to the ranch prepared to like everything and everybody. + +"Look here!" he exclaimed to Judith, before she had had time for more +than a sweeping appraisal of his friends. "Why didn't you tell me you +were up to a thing like this? Great Scott, Judith, you don't know what +you are tackling, do you? It's ripping of you; you're a sheer wonder +to tie into it; you've got no end of nerve. But running a ranch like +this--why, it's a big proposition for a thunderingly big man to swing." + +"Is it?" smiled Judith. + +Beyond that, the only answer he got from this brief conference was the +timely suggestion that his chief concern for the immediate present lay +in making his guests comfortable. + +Accompanying young Hampton were "Major" Langworthy, a little short, +fat, bald gentleman, who, so far as the knowledge of his club members +went, had never been connected with any part of the army or navy, +unless one counted his congenial brigades of cocktail drinkers; Mrs. +Langworthy, his supercilious, uninteresting wife; Marcia, his languidly +graceful daughter, in whom Hampton gave certain signs of being +considerably interested; Marshal Rogers, the Oakland lawyer, and Frank +Farris, the artist. Also Marcia's maid and Hampton's Japanese valet, +Fujioki. In due course of time this representative of the Flowery +Kingdom grew to be great friends with Jose, the two forthwith suspected +by Mrs. Simpson of all sorts of dark plots and of a racial sympathy +which must be watched lest it produce "something terrible." + +Pollock Hampton, holding a third of the shares of the big venture, with +his legitimate claim upon a third of the income, was of course a factor +which must be taken into account. Judith, knowing little of him, +sought to know more, watched him when he was talking, got his views +upon many matters that came up haphazard, and found that, while she +liked him, she would have been more than glad if he had not come to +still further complicate matters for her. For it was open and shut +that his interest and enthusiasm would demand a voice. She asked +frankly how long he planned to stay? + +"I'm here for good," he answered cheerfully. His explanation followed +with a grin, quite as though he were telling her of some rare good +news: "Money's all gone, creditors are nuisances, there's no prospect +with you here of having you send me anything. What is left for me but +to stay?" + +Judith suggested a monthly allowance. Hampton laughed good-humoredly. + +"Pay me to keep me out of the way? There's nothing stirring, Judith. +Absolutely. I'm here to give a hand." + +Judith had hopes, even yet, that a couple or weeks or a month at the +most, of life as it runs forty miles from a railroad would dampen and +finally extinguish his bright enthusiasm. But swiftly those hopes +died. This was his first visit to the mountains, and for a man sick of +the city's social round, every inch of the ranch, river and cliffs and +rolling hills had its compelling interest. Perhaps the thing which +Judith overlooked was the blood of his fathers. For before Pollock +Hampton, Sr., had made his money, he and his wife had been, like Luke +Sanford, pioneers. Now something in the mountains here called vaguely +to the soul of young Hampton and made him restless and stirred his +heart. He looked up at the sheer and mighty fall of rock behind the +ranchhouse and his face glowed; he leaned over the rail of a rustic +bridge and forgot Marcia, who was with him, as he watched the beauty of +the foam-flecked water. As he stood stock-still, looking on while Bud +Lee rode a bucking bronco, his eyes were bright and eager. + +"Glory to be!" he exclaimed to the major, who had been coaxed away from +the buffet for a brief half-hour. "Watch that man ride! While I've +been learning to dance and play the piano these men have been doing +real things." + +"Let's go have something," said the major hurriedly. For it did not +fit in with his and Mrs. Langworthy's plans to have Hampton risk his +neck at such pastimes--at least not yet. + +It soon became obvious that long ago Hampton had given freely of his +admiration to Bayne Trevors. For Trevors had taken the time, his own +purpose in mind, to look in upon Hampton some months ago in San +Francisco. Further, he had created the impression which he sought to +make. An impression, by the way, not entirely erroneous. + +"A great man!" cried Hampton warmly. "The only man I know big enough +to swing a job like this." + +To himself he said that the chief good he could do at the outset was to +work to get Trevors back. With this in his mind and having had no full +account of Judith's manner of ejecting the general manager, he went +straight to her. + +"Trevors is a friend of mine," he said lightly. "I'm going to ask him +over to meet my guests. No objection, is there?" + +She looked at him keenly. + +"Do as you please," was her cool answer. "I imagine he won't care to +come." + +Launched upon his first business venture, Hampton went to the +telephone. That evening at table he surprised Judith not a little when +he said casually that Trevors had said he'd run over in a day or so, as +soon as he could find time. + +"What's that?" he asked, breaking off. + +For certainly Judith had started to speak. But now she merely shrugged +her shoulders and sat in silent thoughtfulness. + +Mrs. Langworthy had no liking to bestow upon such as Judith. The girl, +she confided every night to the major, was unladylike, unwomanly, +_outre_, horsy, unthinkable, an insult to any woman into whose presence +she came. The major agreed monosyllabically or with silent nods for +the sake of peace. Personally he was rather inclined to fancy Judith's +uncorseted figure, to admire her red-blooded beauty, and he always +touched up the ends of his mustaches in her presence. + +Judith, having early taken Mrs. Langworthy's measure, found an impish +joy in murdering the proprieties for her especial benefit. She said +"Damn" upon occasions when Mrs. Langworthy was there to hear; she rode +her horse at a gallop into the yard and right up to the veranda when +Mrs. Langworthy was there to see, swinging down as her mount jerked to +standstill, as "ladylike" about it all as a wild Comanche; at table she +talked of prize boars and sick calves and other kindred vulgar matters. + +But the major admired her; Marcia, as days went by, proved to be a +sweet-tempered, somewhat timid, but highly good-natured, affectionate +creature generously offering her good-will; and Rogers, the lawyer, and +Farris, the artist, both of the sophisticated, self-sufficient type, +were little behind the major in interest. + +During the last week of May, a rumor came to Judith's ears of which, at +first, she thought little. Carson, coming to her upon a bit of ranch +business, remarked dryly before taking his departure, that a report had +got around among his men--Poker Face had mentioned it to him--that Blue +Lake ranch was on its last legs; that it was even to be doubted, if the +men ever saw another pay-day before the whole affair went into a +receiver's hands. Judith laughed at him and told him not to worry. + +"Me?" said Carson. "I'm not the worrying kind. But idees like that +ain't good to have floating around. A man won't do more'n half work +when he's wondering all the time if he's going to get his mazuma for +it." + +But, when again the rumor came, this time telephoned up to her from the +Lower End by Doc Tripp, she frowned and wondered. And she was careful, +upon the thirtieth of May, to send Charlie Miller, the storekeeper, +into Rocky Bend for the monthly pay-roll money. She gave him her check +for one thousand dollars which, with what was in Charlie's safe at the +store and in her own here, would more than pay the monthly wages. +Charlie left for Rocky Bend in the afternoon, spending the night in +town to get the customary morning start for the ranch. The men were to +be paid at six o'clock. + +Upon this same day Pollock Hampton told Judith that Bayne Trevors was +coming to the ranch to have dinner, spend the night and the following +day. Judith made no reply beyond favoring him with a quick look of +question. She had not believed that the man would come. What next? + +The last day of May came, and true to his premise, Trevors was a guest +at the house from which, so short a time ago, he had been evicted. He +dined there that night, cool and self-confident, casually polite to +Judith, civil and courteous to the other guests, especially to Major +and Mrs. Langworthy and Marcia, leading conversations unobtrusively, +making himself liked. He watched a game of billiards, but refused to +play, saying carelessly that he had a stiff shoulder. He and Hampton +strolled out into the starlight and for some two or three hours walked +up and down, talking quietly. + +"A gentleman!" cried Mrs. Langworthy with spirit. "It just shows that +a person can do out-doors work and not sink back into the barbarian!" + +The morning after Trevors's arrival, Judith was up betimes and +breakfasted alone. Lunching early, noon found her in the office +expecting Charlie Miller. She was at work on the pay-roll book when +her telephone rang. It was Doc Tripp and there was suppressed +excitement in his voice. + +"Bad news, Judy," he began. "It sure looks as though you were getting +your share." + +"What is it, Doc?" she broke in sharply. "Tell me!" + +"It's Charlie Miller. Hurt. No, not bad. Thrown off his horse, back +in Squaw Creek canon. And--robbed." + +Quickly he told all that had happened. Miller, hastening back with the +wage money, was riding through the narrow gorge when a man had sprung +out suddenly in front of him. Miller's horse, shying, swerving +unexpectedly, had thrown him. Before he could get to his feet the bag +of gold under his coat had been torn off, his revolver wrenched away +and the highwayman, his face masked with a red bandana handkerchief, +had run into the thick timber. + +"Charlie just walked in, reeling like a drunken man," Tripp concluded. +"His fall and a rap over the head with a gun-butt have made him pretty +sick. I am sending out a posse of men from this end to try and get the +stick-up man. You'd better do the same up there." + +For a moment Judith sat staring at the telephone dully. Robbed of a +thousand dollars, and in broad daylight! A thing like this had not +occurred on the Blue Lake for a dozen years. + +"Bayne Trevors!" she gasped. For, suddenly, she thought that she +understood the significance of the rumor which had twice in a week come +to her. Perhaps, as Tripp himself had said, she was getting nerves. +Trevors himself was on the ranch right now. . . . Her two fists +clinched. Yes, Trevors was here with triple purpose: To curry favor +with Hampton against a possible need of it, to establish an alibi for +himself, to witness Judith's discomfiture, when at six o'clock she must +turn the men away with an excuse. + + + + +VIII + +RIFLE SHOTS FROM THE CLIFFS + +Thank Heaven it was just noon! Judith sprang to her feet, her eyes +bright and hard, and ran down to the men's quarters. Coming up from +the corral were Carson and Bud Lee. + +"Miller with the pay-roll money has been held up and robbed at Squaw +Creek," she told them swiftly. "Get some men together, Carson, and try +to head the robber off." + +The two men, having glanced quickly at each other, stood a moment +looking at her curiously. + +"That's on the level, is it, Miss Judith?" demanded Carson slowly. + +"Of course it's on the level!" she cried impatiently. "Oh, I know what +you're thinking. I'm going to phone immediately to the bank at Rocky +Bend and have another man sent out with more money. You can count upon +getting your pay at six o'clock!" + +"I told you, didn't I," muttered Carson, "that I wasn't worrying none +personal? But if I was you I'd sure have the money on tap!" + +With that he left her, going hastily to round up what men he could find +and get them into their saddles. Bud Lee, his eyes still on her, stood +where he was. + +"Well," demanded the girl, "aren't you going, too?" Suddenly angered +by his leisurely air, she added cuttingly: "Not afraid, are you?" + +"I was thinking," Lee answered coolly, "that the stick-up gent will +most probably figure on a play like that. If he was real wise he'd +mosey along toward Rocky Bend and pop off your second man. Two +thousand bucks a day would make a real nice little draw." + +Judith paused, frowning. There was truth in that. If Trevors really +were behind this, he would have chosen his man carefully; he would have +planned ahead. + +"If you'll do my way," continued Lee thoughtfully, "I'll have just +enough time to roll a smoke and saddle little old Climax. He's in the +stable now. You're not afraid of my double-crossing you? Even if a +smart-headed man had planned the hold-up he wouldn't figure on a play +like this. He'd think we'd have a Rocky Bender bring it out or else +wait until to-morrow." + +"It won't do," she decided quickly. "I want that money here at six +o'clock." + +"Eighty miles," mused the horse foreman. "Six hours. That's riding +right along, but do it my way and I'll gamble you my own string of +horses--and they're worth considerable more than a thousand--that I'll +be back, heeled, at six." + +Judith, quick at decisions, looked him hard in the eye, heard his plan, +and three minutes later Bud Lee, a revolver in his shirt, rode away +from the ranch-house, headed toward Rocky Bend. Judith already had +called up Tripp, and the veterinarian himself, leading the fastest +saddle-horse he could get his hands on at brief notice, was also riding +toward Rocky Bend, from the Lower End, five miles in advance of Lee at +the start. He went at a gentle trot, consulting his watch now and then. + +So Bud Lee, riding as once those hard, dare-devil riders rode who +carried across the land the mail-bag of the Pony Express, overtook Doc +Tripp and changed to a fresh horse at the end of the first fifteen +miles. He swung out of his saddle, stretched his long legs, remarked +lightly that it was a real fine day, and was gone again upon a fresh +mount with twenty-five miles between him and Rocky Bend. The clock at +the bank marked forty-three minutes after two as Lee, leaving a +sweating horse at the door on Main Street, presented his check at the +paying teller's window. The money, in a small canvas bag, was ready. + +"Hello, Bud," and "Hello, Dan'l," was the beginning and end of the +conversation which ensued. Lee did not stop to count the money. He +drew his belt up a hole as he went back to the door, found a fresh +horse there fighting its bit and all but lifting the stable-boy off his +feet, mounted and sped back along Main Street. + +Judith was to send out another man leading still another fresh horse +for him so that he could not fail to be back at the ranch-house by six +o'clock. As Bud Lee, riding hard but never without thought for the +horse which carried him, began the return trip, he drew the heavy +caliber revolver from his shirt and thrust it into his belt. When he +had left Rocky Bend half a dozen miles behind him and was hurrying on +into the outskirts of that country of rolling hills and pine forests, +his hand was never six inches from the gun-butt. + +The road wound in and out among the pines, always climbing. Lee raced +on, his eyes bright and keen, watchful and suspicious of every still +shadow or stirring branch. Coming up the two-mile-long Cuesta Grade, +he saved his horse a little. From the top of the mountain, before he +again followed a winding road back to the river's side, he saw a +horseman riding a distant ridge; the glinted upon the rider's rifle. + +"Old Carson himself," thought Lee. "Looking for the hold-up man. +Shucks! They'll never find him this trip." + +Letting his own animal out into its swinging stride as he got down to +more level going, he hammered on at his clip of fifteen miles an hour. +In the thick shade of the forest, three miles before he came to the +line fence of the Blue Lake ranch, he saw another horseman, this one Ed +Masters, the "college kid." The young fellow's flushed, eager face +passed in a blur as Lee shot by. + +Another mile, and Bud Lee was riding through a clearing, with the tall +cliffs of Squaw Creek canon looming high on his left, when suddenly and +absolutely without warning, his horse screamed, gathered itself for a +wild plunge, staggered, stood a moment trembling terribly, then with a +low moan collapsed under him. + +Lee swung out and to one side, landing clear as the big brute fell. He +did not understand. He had ridden the animal hard but certainly not +hard enough for this. And then he saw and his eyes blazed with anger. +He had heard no shot, nothing beyond the metallic pounding of the shod +hoofs on flinty road, but there from an ugly hole in the neck the +saddle-horse was pouring out its blood. + +"Smokeless powder and a Maxim silencer!" muttered Lee, his eyes taking +note of the ten thousand possible hiding-places on the cliff's. + +In his ears there was a little whine as a second bullet sang its way by +his head. Again he sought to locate the marksman, again saw nothing +but crag and precipice and brushy clump. He took time for that thing +which came so hard to him, sent a bullet from his own revolver into his +horse's brain, and then slipped out of the clearing into the shelter of +the pines. + +"Two miles left to the border line," he estimated it. "Afoot." + +Stiff from the saddle, he moved on slowly for a little. But as his +muscles responded and warmed to the effort, he broke into a trotting +run. Only a little now could he keep under cover; if he went on with +any degree of speed he must keep to the road and the open. The thought +came to him that he might lie under cover until dark. The second +thought came to him that he had assured Judith that he would be back on +time, and he forged ahead. + +For the second time that day he heard the whine of a bullet. He +thought that the shot came from the cliffs just at the head of Squaw +Creek canon. But he could not be sure. There was ample protection +there for a man hiding, tall brush in a hollow and three or four +stunted trees, wind-twisted. He'd make the climb to-morrow and see +about it. Now he'd keep right on moving. Little used to travelling +save on a horse's back he was shot through with odd little pains when +at last he came to the border-line fenced and the waiting horse. Tommy +Burkitt held it for him while Lee mounted. + +"Somebody up on the cliffs, head of the canon," panted Lee at Tommy's +amazed expression when Lee came running into sight. "Killed my horse. +Go after him, Tommy. Tell the other boys." And on he went, pounding +out the last fifteen miles, the canvas bag beating safely against his +side. + +Judith, in the courtyard, watched him ride in. She looked swiftly at +him from the watch on her wrist. Her eyes brightened. It lacked seven +minutes to six. As Bud dropped the canvas bag into her hands she +flashed at him the most wonderful, radiant smile that the long horseman +had ever seen. She gripped his lean, brown hand hard in hers. + +"Bud, you're a brick!" she cried. + +Mrs. Langworthy had just come out with Hampton, Trevors, and the major. + +Judith turned from Lee to Trevors but managed to keep half an eye on +Mrs. Langworthy. + +"You see, it's pay-day with us, Mr. Trevors," she said quietly. "And +when pay-day comes we pay our men at six o'clock in spite of hell and +high water!" + +Bud Lee, leading his horse away, turned for a word. "A man killed a +horse for me to-day," he said very gently, and his eyes rested steadily +upon Trevors. "If I ever get him, or the man who put him up to it, I'm +going to get him right." + + + + +IX + +THE OLD TRAIL + +On the Blue Lake Ranch there was more than one man ready to scoff at +the idea of a robbery like this one, frank enough to voice the +suspicion: "It's just a stall for time!" So much had last week's rumor +done for them, preparing them to expect something that would set aside +the customary monthly pay-day. But when they had seen Charlie Miller's +bruised head and heard his story; when they had sat on their horses and +looked down at the animal which had been shot under Bud Lee, they were +silent. And, besides, when long after dark they came in behind Carson +from a fruitless quest, their pay was ready for them as formerly, in +gold and silver. + +Major Langworthy imbibed an unusually large number of cocktails and +long before noon of the following day had suggested that the ranch be +put immediately under military law, hinting that a military-mustached +gentleman be appointed commanding general of the Blue Lake forces, and +forming within his own mind the picture of himself in the office, +revolver on table, cocktail at elbow, directing the manoeuvres from +this point of vantage, not to say safety. Mrs. Langworthy ruffled her +feathers and sniffed when Judith's name was mentioned. It was +perfectly clear to her that all the ruffians of the West would be quick +to take the advantage arising from the ridiculous condition of a rowdy +girl assuming men's pantaloons. + +"I am rather inclined to think, mama," said Marcia, "that you don't do +Judith justice." + +Trevors, with little to say to any one, took his departure in the +forenoon, extracting from Hampton the promise to ride over and see the +lumber-camp some day soon. + +Judith, held at the office by a lot of first-of-the-month details, did +not get away until close to eleven o'clock that morning. Then she rode +swiftly down the river, a purpose of her own in mind. At the store she +stopped for a sympathetic word with Charlie Miller who had long ago +forgotten his own hurt in his grief and anger that he had lost her +thousand dollars for her. + +"What's a thousand dollars, Charlie?" she laughed at him. "We'll lose +and make many a thousand before the year dies." + +Just below the Lower End settlement she came upon Doc Tripp. He was in +one of the quarantine hog-corrals, his sleeves rolled up, a puzzled +look of worry puckering his boyish face. + +"What's up, Doc?" asked Judith. + +"Don't know, Judy. That's what gets my mad up. Just performed an +autopsy on one of your Poland-China gilts." + +"Found it dead?" asked Judith. + +"Killed it," grunted Tripp. "Sick. Half dozen more are off their feed +and don't look right. A man's always afraid of the cholera. And," +stubbornly, "I won't believe it! There's been no chance of infection; +why, there's not an infected herd this side of the Bagley ranch, sixty +miles the other side of Rocky Bend, a clean hundred miles from here. +But, just the same, I'm taking temperatures this morning and having my +herders cut out all the dull-looking ones and break the herds up." + +"Not getting nerves? Are you, Doc?" And Judith spurred on down the +valley. + +Before she came to the spot where Bud Lee's horse had been shot she +came upon Lee himself. A rifle across his arm, he was looking up at +the cliffs of Squaw Creek canon. + +"Well, Lee," she said, "what do you make of it?" + +He showed no surprise at seeing her and answered slowly, that far-away +look in his eyes as though he were alone still and speaking simply to +Bud Lee. + +"Using smokeless powder nowadays is a handy thing for a man shooting +under cover," he said. "Then rig up your gun with a silencer and get +off at fair range, half a mile and up, with a telescope sight, and it's +real nice fun picking folks off!" + +"All of that spells preparation," suggested Judith. + +He nodded. When he offered no further remark but sat staring up at the +cliffs, Judith asked: + +"What else have you learned by coming back down here? Anything?" + +"There were two men, anyway. I'd guess, three. The one who stuck up +Charlie and then drifted while the drifting was good. Then the two +other jaspers that tried to wing me." + +"How do you know that?" + +"My horse that was shot," he explained, "got it in the left side of the +neck. Now, look at that hole in the little fir-tree yonder." + +Judith saw what he meant now. At this point Lee yesterday had heard +the second bullet singing dangerously near. It had struck the fir, and +plainly had been fired from some point off to the right of the canon. +Her eyes went swiftly, after his up the cliff walls. + +"I doped it out while I was running," he went on. "Look at the way the +trees grow here. If a man was on the cliffs shooting at me, and coming +that close to winging me, why, he'd have to be off to the right. These +big pines would shunt him off from the other side. It's open and shut +there were two of them. And darn good shots," he added dryly. + +Briefly he went on to give her the rest of the results of his two-hour +seeking for something definite. If she'd ride on a little she'd come +to the spot where his horse had been killed; she would see in the road +the signs where, at Tripp's, orders, the carcass had been dragged away. +From there, looking off to the left, up the cliffs, she would see the +spot which Lee believed had harbored one of the riflemen. High above +the canon rose the rocky pinnacle he had marked yesterday, with brush +standing tall in a little depression. + +"Indian Head," broke in Judith, gazing upward. "Bud Lee, I'll bet a +horse you're right. . . ." + +"And," said Lee, swinging from the saddle, "I'm going up there to have +a little look around." + +In an instant the girl was at his side. + +"I am going with you," she said simply. + +He looked at her curiously. Then he shrugged his shoulders. An angry +flush came to the girl's cheeks, but she went on with him. Not a word +passed between them during the entire hour required to climb the steep +side of the mountain and come under Indian Head cliffs. Here they +stood together upon a narrow ledge panting, resting. Again Judith saw +Lee glance at her curiously. He had not sought to accommodate his +swift climbing to a girl's gait and yet he had not distanced her in the +ascent. But in Lee's glance there was nothing of approval. There were +two kinds of women, as he had said, and . . . + +"Pretty steep climb from here up," he remarked bluntly. + +"For a valley man or a cobble-pounder, maybe," was Judith's curt +rejoinder. + +Thereafter they did not speak again until, after nearly another hour, +they at last came to the crest of Indian Head. And here, in the +eagerness of their search, rewarded by the signs which they found, they +forgot, both of them, to maintain their reserve. + +In the clump of brush, close to the outer fringe, behind a low, broad +boulder, a man had lain on his belly no longer ago than yesterday. +Broken twigs showed it, a small bush crushed down told of it, the marks +of his toes in some of the softer soil proclaimed it eloquently. And, +had other signs been required, there they were: two empty brass +cartridges where the automatic ejector had thrown them several feet +away. Lee picked up one of the shells. + +"Latest thing in an up-to-the-minute Savage," he told her. "That gun +is good for twice the distance he used it for. I'm in tolerable luck +to be mountain-climbing to-day, I guess!" + +While Judith visualized just what had occurred, saw the tall man--he +must have been tall for his boot toes to scratch the earth yonder while +his rifle-barrel lay for support across the boulder in front--resting +his gun and firing down into the canon--Lee was back at her side, +saying shortly: + +"What do you think? There's a plain trail up here, old as the hills, +but tip-top for speedy going." + +"And," said Judith without looking up, "it runs down into the next +saddle, to the north of that ridge, curves up again and with monuments +all along the way, runs straight to the Upper End and comes down from +the northeast to the lake." + +Lee looked at her, wondering. + +"You knew about it all the time, then?" + +"If we hadn't been on our high horses," she told him quietly, "I should +have told you about it. It's the old Indian Trail. If the man we want +turned east, then he went right on to the lake before he stopped +putting one foot in front of the other. Unless he hid out all night, +which I don't believe." + +"What makes you think he went that far?" + +"There's no other trail up here that gets anywhere. If he left this +one for a short cut he'd know, if he knows anything, that he'd have to +take a chance every ten steps of breaking his neck in the dark. Now," +and she rose swiftly, confronting him, "the thing for you to do, Bud +Lee, is to get back to your horse, take the road, make time getting to +the Upper End and see what you can see there!" + +Hurrying back to their horses, they rode to the ranch-house where +Judith, with no word of adieu, left Lee to go to the house. Lee made a +late lunch, saddled another horse, and when the bunk-house clock stood +at a quarter of four, started for the Upper End. + +"That girl's got the savvy," was his one remark to himself. + + + + +X + +UNDER FIRE + +Blue Lake, while but three miles farther eastward, flashed its jewelled +waters into the sun from a plane fully five hundred feet higher than the +tall chimneys of the ranch-house. About it stood the most precipitous +granite cliffs to be found hereabouts. They rose, sheer and majestic, +still another five hundred feet, here and there eight hundred and a +thousand. The lake, half a mile in diameter, circular like some polished +mirror presented by an ancient giant to his lady-love, was shut in +everywhere by these crags and cliffs save at the west, where the +overflowing water, going to swell the turbulent river, poured like molten +crystal through a wide gorge. The farther cliffs marked the eastern +boundary-line of the ranch. Beyond them lay a small plateau rimmed about +on three sides by still other steep precipices. + +Lee, coming to the water's edge sought to guess where the old Indian +Trail came down. And again, startling him for a second time, Judith rode +up. + +She, too, had a fresh horse; she too now carried a rifle across her arm. +Bud Lee frowned. + +"What makes you so certain, Bud Lee," was her abrupt word of greeting, +"that Bayne Trevors is back of this deal?" + +"When did I say that?" he countered. + +"Yesterday, when I told you Charlie Miller had been held up, you +intimated that a long-headed man had planned the whole thing. That means +Trevors, doesn't it?" + +"One of us," said Lee calmly, ignoring her question and looking her +straight in the eyes, "is going back. Which one?" + +"Neither!" she retorted promptly. She even smiled confidently at him. +"For I won't. And you won't." + +"Do you need to be told," he asked her coolly, "that this is no sort of +job for a girl? You'd only be in the way." + +"If you want glittering generalities," she jeered at him, "then listen to +this: A man's job, first, last, and all the time, is to be chivalrous to +a woman! And not a bumptious boor!" + +With that she spurred by him, taking the trail which led off to the right +and so under the cliffs and to the mouth of a great, ragged chasm. In +spite of him, Bud Lee grinned after her. And, seeing that she was not to +be turned back, he followed. + +They left their horses and followed the old footpath, made their way into +the chasm deeper and deeper and little by little climbed upward. The +climb was less difficult than it looked, and fifteen minutes brought them +to the upland plateau and to the door of an old cabin, made of logs, set +back in a tiny grove of cedars. + +"I haven't been here for a year," cried the girl, forgetful of the +constraint which had held them until now. "It's like getting back home +for the first time! I love it." + +"So do I," Lee said within himself. + +"Look!" exclaimed Judith. "Some one has been repairing the old cabin! +He's made a bench yonder under the big tree, too. And he has walled in +the spring with rocks, and . . . Who in the world can it be? There's +even a little garden of wild flowers!" + +Bud Lee, for no reason clear to himself, flushed. He offered no +explanation at first. Here he spent many an hour when the time was his +for idling, lying on the grass, looking out over the immensity of the +wilderness; here he came many a night to sleep under the stars, far from +the other boys, when his soul craved solitude; here upon many a Sunday, +when work was slack, did he come to smoke alone, loaf alone, read from +the few books on the cabin's shelves. + +"Maybe," he suggested at last, when it was clear that Judith was going +straight to the door, "this is where our stick-up gents hang out. Choice +place for a cutthroat to hibernate, huh?" + +"I don't believe it," answered Judith positively. "The man who made his +hermitage here has a soul!" + +Behind her back Lee smiled. + +"We've got something to do," he said hastily, "without wasting time +poking into old shacks. Where's the Indian Trail you talked about?" + +"Shack!" cried Judith indignantly. "You make me sick. Bud Lee! I'd +rather own this cabin and live here, than have a palace on Fifth Avenue!" + +She knocked at the door, knowing that silence would answer her, but +hoping to have a man, calm-eyed, gentle-voiced, a romantic hermit in all +of his picturesqueness, come to the door. + +"Going in?" asked Lee in well-simulated carelessness. + +"No," she told him freezingly. "Why should I? Would you want people +poking about into your home just because it was in the heart of the +wilderness and you weren't there to drive them out?" + +"No," answered Bud gravely. "Now that you ask me, I wouldn't! Let's go +find that trail." + +"But," continued Judith, "not being a fool, and realizing that one of the +men we want might possibly be in hiding in here, I am going to peek in." + +"Not being a fool," he repeated after her, adding gently, "and being a +girl, which means filled with curiosity." + +A disdainful shoulder gave him his answer. The door was unlocked, after +immemorial Western custom, and Judith opened it. Lee heard her little +gasp of pure delight. + +"He's a dear, the man who lives here!" she announced positively. "You +can just tell by looking at his home." + +Looking in over her shoulder, Bud Lee wondered just what in his one-room +shanty had caught her enthusiasm. He was secretly pleased that it had +done so, though that "it" was somewhat vague in his masculine mind. +There was the rock fireplace with an iron hook protruding from each side +for coffee-pot and stew-pot; a bunk with a blanket smoothed over +cedar-boughs; a shelf with a dozen books; little else, so far as he could +see or remember, to catch at Judith's delight. Yet she, looking through +woman's eyes, read in one quick "peek" the character of the dweller in +this abode. One who was content with little, who loved a clean, outdoor +life, and who was tranquilly above the pettiness of humanity. Judith +closed the door softly. + +"I'd like to look inside his books!" she confessed. "But I won't." + +The lean horse foreman chuckled. Judith sniffed at him. + +"You haven't any curiosity about such things as books," she retorted. +"To be sure, why should you have?" + +Again, leaving the cabin, she went before him. Going straight across the +plateau, she showed him where one could clamber up a steep way to the +ridge. Once up there, it was but ten minutes until, in a hollow, they +found the monument marking a trail, a stone set upon a boulder. + +It was after five o'clock. When, following the trail back and forth in +its winding along the side of the ridge, they found the signs they +sought, it was fast growing dark. But there, in a narrow defile where +loose soil had filtered down, were tracks left by a large boot. Lee went +down on his hands and knees to study them in the dusk. He got up with a +little grunt and moved down the trail. Again he found tracks, this time +more clearly defined. So dark was it now that they had lighted several +matches. + +"Two men," he announced wonderingly. "Fresh tracks, too. Made this +morning or last night, I'll bet. One coming east from Indian Head. The +other coming west from the plateau behind us. Who's _he_? Where'd he +come from?" + +"He's the second of the two men who shot at you," said Judith quickly. +"Don't I know every trail in this neck of the woods, Bud Lee? He +followed another old, worn-out trail on the south side of the ranch. +They met here just as I knew they would!" + +"What for?" Lee frowned through the darkness at her eager face. "What +would they want to get together for? If they had any sense they would +scatter and clean out of the country." + +"Unless," Judith reminded him, "they don't intend to clean out at all! +Unless they mean to stick to the cliffs and try their hands again at +their sort of game. They'll figure that we will expect them to be a long +way from here by now, won't they? Then where would they be safer than +right here in these mountains? Give me a rifle and something to eat and +I'll defy an army getting me out there. And think of it: If this is +Trevors's work, if he means business, think what two gunmen on these +heights could do to us. They could pick off a three-thousand-dollar +stallion down in the pens; they could drop more than one prize bull or +cow; and," she added sharply, "if they thought about girls as some men +think, they could take a chance on scaring Judith Sanford out of the +country." + +Lee stared at her a long time in silence. + +"I wouldn't have said," he offered finally, "that Bayne Trevors would +make quite so strong a play as that." + +"You wouldn't! Then look him in the eye! And where's his risk, if he's +picked the right men, if he sees them through, keeping the back door open +when they want to run for it? You just gamble your boots, Bud Lee, that +Bayne Trevors . . ." + +Without warning, without a sound of explosion came a wiry whine into the +still air, a little venomous ping, and a bullet sped by just over their +heads. But, through the gloom, they both saw the flash of the gun as it +spat fire and lead, and, as though one impulse commanded them, Judith's +rifle and Bud Lee's went to their shoulders and two reverberating reports +rang out in answer. + +"Lie down, damn it!" cried Bud Lee to the girl at his side, as again +there came the flash from the cliffs off to the right and as again he +answered it with his rifle. + +"Lie down yourself!" snapped Judith. And once more her rifle spoke with +his. + +For one instant, framed against the darkening sky along the cliff edge +five hundred yards away to the right, they saw the silhouette of a man, +leaping from one boulder to another, a man who looked gigantically big in +the uncertain light. They fired; he jumped again and passed out of sight. + +"Got his nerve," grunted Lee as he pumped lead at the running figure. + +As an answer there came the third flash, the bullet striking the trail in +front of them. And then the fourth flash, from a point a hundred yards +to the left of the other. + +"That's Number Two," muttered Lee. "They've got us in the open, +Judith. Let's beat it back to the cabin." + +"I'm with you," said Judith, between shots. "It's just +foolishness" . . . _bang_! . . . "sticking out here" . . . _bang_! . . . +"for them to pop us off." _Bang_! _Bang_! + +They ran then, Bud slipping in front of her, his tall body looming darkly +between her and the cliffs whence the shots came. He slid along the +sharp slope to the plateau, putting out his arms toward her. And as she +came down, Bud Lee grunted and cursed under his breath. For there had +been another flash out of the thickening night, this one from the refuge +toward which they were running. A third man was shooting from the +shelter of the cabin walls. And Lee had felt a stinging pain as though a +hot iron had scorched its way along the side of his leg. + +"Hurt much?" asked Judith quickly. Without waiting for an answer, she +pumped two shots at the flash by the cabin. + +"No," grunted Lee. "Just scared. And now what? I want to know." + + + + +XI + +IN THE OLD CABIN + +Bud Lee, in the thicker darkness lying along the edge of the plateau, +sat with his back against the rocks while he gave swift first aid to +his wound. He brought into requisition the knotted handkerchief from +about his throat, bound it tightly around the calf of his leg, and said +lightly to Judith: + +"Just a fool scratch, you know. But I've no hankering to dribble out a +lot of blood from it." + +Judith made no answer. Lee took up his rifle and turned to the spot +where she had been standing a moment ago. She was not there. + +"Gone!" he grunted, frowning into the blackness hemming him in. "Now, +what do you suppose she's up to? Fainted, most likely." + +He got up and moved along the low rock wall, seeking her. A spurt of +flame from the east corner of the cabin drew his eyes away from his +search and he pumped three quick shots in answer. + +"Little chance of hitting anything," he muttered. "Too blamed dark. +Just fool's luck that I got mine in the leg." + +Again he sought Judith, calling softly. There was no answer. Once +more came the spurt of flame from the shelter of the cabin wall. Then +fifty yards off to Lee's right, some fifty yards nearer the cabin, +another shot. + +The first suspicion that one of the men from the cliffs had made his +way down to join issue at close quarters, was gone in a clear +understanding. That was the bark of Judith's rifle; she had slipped +away from him without an instant's delay and was creeping closer and +closer to the cabin. + +"Damn the girl!" cried Lee angrily. "She'll get her fool self killed!" + +But as he ran forward to join her, he realized that she was doing the +right thing--the only thing if they did not want to lie out here all +night for the men on the cliffs to pick off in the morning light. He +knew that she could shoot; it seemed that she could do everything that +was a man's work and which a woman should know nothing about. + +A fresh thought locked his hand like steel about his gun-stock. +Suppose that Judith, in the mad thing she was attempting, should +actually succeed in it, that she should bring down the man she was +attacking? How would Bud Lee feel about it when the boys came to know? +What would Bud Lee answer when they asked what he was doing about that +time? "Nursin' a scratched leg? Mos' likely! Huh!" He could hear +old Carson's dry cackle. + +Frowning into the night, he thought that he could make out the dim blur +of Judith's form. The girl was standing erect; shooting, too, for +again the duel of red spurts of flame told where she and her quarry +stood. + +Meantime Lee ran on, changing his original purpose, swerving out from +where Judith was moving forward, turning to the left, hopeful to come +to close quarters with their assailant before she could go down under +that sharp rifle-fire or could bring down the other. For certainly, if +she kept on that way, the time would come when some one would stop hot +lead. + +Lee shifted his rifle to his left hand, taking his revolver into his +right. From the cliffs came a shot and he grunted at it +contemptuously. It could do nothing but assure those below that there +was still some one up there. + +"Three of them to our two," he estimated, "counting the two jaspers on +the cliff. Two of us to their one, counting what's down here. And +that's all that counts right this minute." + +A shot from Judith; a shot from the cabin; two shots from the cliffs. +The two shots from above brought fresh news; not only were they closer +together, but they indicated the men up yonder were coming down. Lee +hurried. + +Then, at last, his narrowed eyes made out the faint outline of that +which he sought. Close to the cabin, low down, evidently upon his +knees, was the most important factor to be considered, now. Still Lee +was too far away to be certain of a hit and he meant with all of the +grim determination in him to hit something at last. He ran on drawing +the fire away from Judith. A rifle-ball sang close to his side, +another and an other. He lost the dim shape of the kneeling man, who, +he thought, had risen from his knees and was standing, his body +tight-pressed to the cabin. + +"Why the devil doesn't he run for it?" wondered Lee. + +But evidently, be the reason what it might, the man had no intention of +running. A bullet cut through Lee's sleeve. At last Lee answered. He +ran in closer as he fired and, running, emptied his revolver, jammed it +into his waistband, clubbed his rifle . . . and realized with something +of a shock that there were but the two rifles on the cliffs to take +into consideration. That other rifle, at the cabin, was still. Out of +ammunition? Or plugged? Or playing 'possum? Which? + +"Stop shooting!" he shouted to Judith. + +"I'm coming!" she cried back to him. + +Almost at the same instant, their two rifles ready, they came to the +cabin. Between them on the ground a man lay at the corner, moving +helplessly, groping for his fallen gun, falling back. + +"Open the door," said Bud. "I'll get him inside and we'll see who he +is. Hurry, Judith; those other jaspers are working down this way as +fast as they know how." + +Judith, taking time to snatch up the fallen rifle, ran around to the +door. Lee slipped his hands under the armpits of the wounded man and +dragged him in Judith's wake. In the cabin, the door shut, Lee struck +a match and went to a little shelf where there was a candle. + +"Bill Crowdy!" gasped Judith. + +Almost before Lee saw the man's face he saw the canvas bag tied to his +belt, a bag identical with the one he himself had brought from the bank +at Rocky Bend. + +"The man that stuck up Charlie Miller," he said slowly. "And there's +your thousand bucks, or I'm a liar. I get something of their play now: +those two fellows up there were waiting to meet him and split the swag +three ways. And I've got the guess they'll be asking a look-in yet!" + +He dropped a heavy bar into its place across the door and then went to +the two small windows and fastened the heavy oaken shutters. When he +came back to Judith she was bending over the wounded man. Crowdy's +eyes were closed; he looked to be on the verge of death. The girl's +face was almost as white as Crowdy's. + +Lee knelt and with quick fingers sought the wound. There was a hole in +Crowdy's chest, high up near the throat, that was bleeding profusely. +At first that seemed the only wound. But in a second Lee had found +another. This was in the leg, and this, like Lee's, was bound tightly +with a handkerchief. + +"Got that, first rattle out of the box!" commented Lee. "See it? +That's why he stuck on the job and didn't try to run for it. Looks +like a rifle-ball had smashed the bone." + +He didn't look up. His fingers, busy with the string at Crowdy's belt, +brought away the canvas bag. There was blood on it; it was heavy and +gave forth the mellow jangle of gold. + +"You win back your thousand on to-night's play," he said, holding up +the bag to Judith, lifting his eyes to her face. + +But Judith shrank back, her eyes wide with horror. + +"I don't want it! I can never touch it!" she whispered. + +Suddenly she was shaking from head to foot, her eyes fixed in terrible +fascination upon Crowdy's face. Lee tossed the bag to the bunk across +the room, whence it fell clanking to the floor. + +"Now she's going to faint," was his thought. "Well, I won't blame her +so damn much. Poor little kid!" + +But he did not look at her again. He tore away Crowdy's shirt to +discover just how serious the wound in the chest was. The collar-bone +had been broken; the ball had ploughed its way through the upper chest, +well above the heart, and could be felt under the skin of the shoulder. +Unless Bill Crowdy bled to death, he stood an excellent chance of doing +time in the penitentiary. Lee stanched the flow of blood, made a rude +bandage, and then, lifting the body gently, carried it to the bunk. +Crowdy's lax arm, extended downward at the side of the bunk, seemed to +be reaching again for the canvas bag; the red fingers touched it with +their tips. + +"Now," said Lee, speaking bluntly, afraid that a tone of sympathy might +merely aid the girl to "shake to pieces," "we've got a chance to be on +our way before Number Two and Number Three get into the game. Let's +run for it, Judith." + +Judith went to the bench by the fireplace and sank down upon it. For a +moment she made no reply. Then she shook her head. + +"We'll stay here until morning," she said finally, her voice surprising +Lee, who had looked for a sign of weakening to accord with her sudden +pallor and visible trembling. + +"What for?" he wanted to know. "We'll have another fight on our hands +if we do. Those fellows, this deep in it, are not going to quit while +they know that there's all that money in the shack!" + +"I don't care," said Judith firmly. "I won't run from them or anybody +else I know! And, besides, Bud Lee, I am not going to give them the +chance to get Crowdy away. . . . Do you think he is going to die?" + +"No, I don't. Doc Tripp will fix him up." + +"Then here I stay, for one. When I go, Bill Crowdy goes with me! He's +going to talk, and he's going to help me send Bayne Trevors to the pen." + +Bud Lee expressed all he had to say in a silent whistle. He'd made +another mistake, that was all. Judith wasn't going to faint for him +to-night. + +"Then," he said presently, setting her the example, "slip some fresh +cartridges into your rifle and get ready for more shooting. I'll put +out the light and we'll wait for what's next." + +Judith replenished the magazine of her rifle. Lee, watching from under +the low-drawn brim of his hat, noted that her fingers were steady now. +Crowdy moved on his bunk, lifted a hand weakly, groaned, and grew +still. Presently he stirred again, asking weakly for water. + +Lee went to the water-bucket standing in a corner. It happened to be +half full. He filled a cup, and lifting Crowdy's head, held it to the +fevered lips. + +"Not exactly what you'd call fresh, is it, Crowdy?" he said lightly. +"But the spring's outside and I'm scared to go out in the dark." + +Crowdy drank thirstily and lay back, his eyes closed again. Lee +rearranged his bandage. + +"Put out the light now?" he asked Judith. + +"No," she answered. "What's the use, Bud? There are no holes in the +walls they could stick a gun-barrel through, are there?" + +No one knew better than he that there were not. + +"You see," said Judith, with a half-smile, heroically assumed, "I'm a +little afraid of the dark, too! Anyway, since we've got to spend the +night with a man in Crowdy's shape, it will be more cosey, won't it, +with the light on?" + +She even put out her hand to one of the books on the shelves which she +could reach from her bench. + +"And now," she added, "I'm sure that our hermit won't mind if we peep +into his library, will he?" + +"No," answered Lee gravely. "Most likely he'll be proud." + +Lee found time to muse that life is made of incongruities, woman of +inconsistencies. Here with a badly hurt man lying ten feet from her, +with every likelihood of the night stillness being ripped in two by a +rifle-shot, Judith sat and turned the pages of a book. It was a volume +on the breeding and care of pure-blooded horses. Odd sort of thing for +her hermit to have brought here with him! Her hand took down another +volume. Horses again; a treatise by an eminent authority upon a newly +imported line from Arabia. A third book; this, a volume of Elizabethan +lyrics. Bud Lee flushed as he watched her. She turned the pages +slowly, came back to the fly-leaf page, read the name scrawled there +and, turning swiftly to Lee, said accusingly: + +"David Burrill Lee, you are a humbug!" + +"Wrong again," grinned Lee. "A hermit, you mean! 'A man with a soul.' +. . ." + +"Scat!" answered Judith. But, under Bud Lee's teasing eyes, the color +began to come back into her cheeks. She _had_ been a wee bit +enthusiastic over her hermit, making of him a picturesque ideal. She +had visioned him, even to the calm eyes, gentle voice. A quick little +frown touched her brows as she realized that the eyes and voice which +her fancy had bestowed upon the hermit were in actuality the eyes and +voice of Bud Lee. But she had called him a dear. And Lee had been +laughing at her all the time--had not told her, would never have told +her. The thought came to her that she would like to slap Bud Lee's +face for him. And she had told Tripp she would like to slap Pollock +Hampton's. Good and hard! + + + + +XII + +PARDNERS + +From without came the low murmur of men's voices. Judith laid her book +aside and drew her rifle across her knees, her eyes bright and eager. +At infrequent intervals for perhaps three or four minutes the two +voices came indistinctly to those in the cabin. Then silence for as +long a time. And then a voice again, this time quite near the door, +calling out clearly: + +"Hey, you in there! Pitch the money out the window and we'll let you +go." + +"There's a voice," said Judith quietly, "to remember! I'll be able to +swear to it in court." + +Certainly a voice to remember, just as one remembers an unusual face +for years, though it be but a chance one seen in a crowd. A voice +markedly individual, not merely because it was somewhat high-pitched +for a man's, but rather for a quality not easily defined, which gave to +it a certain vibrant, unpleasant harshness, sounding metallic almost, +rasping, as though with the hiss of steel surfaces rubbing. Altogether +impossible to describe adequately, yet, as Judith said, not to be +forgotten. + +Judith noticed a puzzled look on Bud's face. He called out: "What did +you say out there?" + +Word for word came the command again: + +"Pitch the money out of the window and we'll let you go." + +Lee turned triumphantly to Judith. + +"I've got his tag!" he whispered to her. "I played poker with that +voice one night not four months ago in Rocky Bend!" + +"Who is he?" Judith whispered back. "With Crowdy down, if we know who +one of these men is, the rest will be easy. Who is he?" + +"A bad egg," Lee told her gravely. "He's done time in the State pen. +He's been out less than a year. Gunman, stick-up man, convicted once +already for manslaughter . . ." + +"Not Chris Quinnion, Bud Lee!" she cried excitedly. "Not Chris +Quinnion!" + +"Sh!" he commanded softly. "There's no use tipping our hand off to +him. Yes; it's crooked Chris Quinnion. You don't know him, do you?" + +He had never seen her eyes look as they looked now. They were as hard +and bright as steel; no true woman's eyes, he thought swiftly. Rather +the eyes of a man with murder in his heart. + +"Then, thank God!" whispered Judith, her voice tense. "Can you keep a +secret with me, Bud Lee? Were it not for the man calling to us now, +Luke Sanford would be here in our stead. Crooked Chris Quinnion served +his time in San Quentin because my father sent him there. And he had +not been free six months before he kept his oath and murdered my poor +old dad!" + +"Well?" came the interrupting snarl of Quinnion's voice, like the +ominous whine of an enraged animal. "What's the word?" + +"Give us five minutes to think it over," returned Lee coolly. And, +incredulous eyes on Judith's set face, he said gently: "I was on the +ranch when the accident happened. He must have driven that heavy car a +little too close to the edge of the grade. The bank just naturally +gave way." + +Judith, her lips tightly compressed, shook her head. + +"You didn't find him under the car, did you? And the blow that killed +him might have been dealt with some heavy weapon in the hands of a man +standing behind him, mightn't it? I know, Bud Lee, I know!" + +"How do you know?" he demanded intently. "You weren't here even." + +"No. I was in San Francisco. But the day before I had a letter from +father. He expected me home very soon. He was going out, he said in +his letter, to look at the road over the mountain. He wrote that the +grade was dangerous, especially at the very place where the car went +over! He wanted me to know so that in case he could not get the work +done on it before I came, I would be careful. On top of that would he +go and run his car into such danger as that? Oh, I know!" she cried +again, her hands hard upon her rifle. "I know, I tell you! From the +first I suspected. I knew that Chris Quinnion had threatened a dozen +times to 'get' father; I knew that soon or late he would try. I wrote +Emmet Sawyer, our county sheriff, and told him what I believed, asked +him to go to the spot and see what the signs told. A square man is +Emmet Sawyer and as sharp as tacks." + +"And he told you that you were mistaken?" + +"He did nothing of the kind! He reported that the tracks of the car +showed that it had kept well away from the bank, that evidently it had +stopped there, that again it had gone on, swerving so as to run close +to the edge! I know what happened: Father got out to look at the +dangerous spot and to put up the sign he had brought with him and that +was found in the road. Chris Quinnion had followed him, perhaps to +shoot him down from behind, Chris Quinnion's way! Then he saw a safer +way. He came up behind poor old dad and struck him in the head with +something, rifle-barrel or revolver. He started the car up and let it +run over the bank. He--" + +She broke off then. Bud Lee felt that he knew what she would say if +she could bring herself to go on; that she would tell how crooked Chris +Quinnion had thrown the unconscious man down over the bank to lie, +bruised and broken, by the wrecked car. + +"You've got to be almighty sure before you make a charge like that," he +reminded her. "If Quinnion had done it, why didn't Emmet Sawyer get +the dead-wood on him?" + +"Because," she whispered quickly, "a man fooled Sawyer! Yes, and +fooled me! Quinnion established an alibi. A man whose word there was +no reason to doubt said that Quinnion was with him at the time of the +murder. And that man was--Bayne Trevors!" + +"Trevors?" muttered Lee. He shook his head. "Trevors is a hard man, +Judith. And he's a scoundrel, if you want to know! But frame up a +murder deal--plan to murder Luke Sanford--No. I don't believe it!" + +"Is he the man to miss a chance that lay at his hand? The main chance +for him? The chance to hold a man like Chris Quinnion in the hollow of +his hand, to make him do his bidding, to set him just such work as he +is doing now? Answer me! Is Bayne Trevors above a deal like that?" + +Bud Lee's answer was silence. + +"And there is one other thing," went on Judith swiftly, "known to no +one but Emmet Sawyer, whom I told, and me and Chris Quinnion: In +father's letter he told me that a man had paid him some money the day +before, and that he was going to drive to Rocky Bend to bank it. +'There are some tough customers in the country,' he wrote, 'and it's +foolhardy to have too much money in our old safe.' That money, several +hundred dollars, was never banked. It was not found on his body. +Where did it go?" + +"Even that doesn't incriminate Quinnion, you know." + +"No. The rest is pure guesswork on my part. Guesswork based on what I +know. Not enough to hang Chris Quinnion, Bud Lee. But enough to make +me sure. He's working at Trevor's game right now. If we can prove +that it is Trevors's game, it will go to show how worthless his alibi +was." + +"Well?" called Quinnion, the third time. "What about it? We ain't +goin' to wait all night." + +"Tell him," whispered Judith, her hand on Lee's arm, "to come and get +it if he wants it! One of us can hold the cabin against the two of +them while the other slips out in the dark and rides back to the +ranch-house for help. If we're in luck, Bud Lee, we'll corner the +bunch of them before daylight!" + +Lee stood a moment looking down into her face, his mind filled with +uncertainties. With all his soul he wished that Judith had not come +with him to-night, that he had only himself to think of now. Quinnion, +not to be further put off, called again, the snarl of his voice rising +into ugly threat. Still Lee, thinking of Judith, hesitated. + +"It's the only way," she insisted. "If we gave them the money they'd +want Bill Crowdy next. If they got Crowdy away with them into the +mountains I am not sure that they could not hide until they got him +safe in Trevors's hands. Then we'd have the whole fight still to make, +sooner or later. It's our one bet, Lee!" + +And Bud Lee, seeing no better way ahead for them, blew out the candle, +forced Judith to stand close to the rock chimney of the fireplace, took +his station near her, and answered Quinnion, saying shortly: + +"Come ahead when you're ready. We're waiting." + +Quinnion's curse, the crack of his rifle, the flying splinters from the +cabin door, came together like one implacable menace. + +"And now, Bud Lee," cried Judith quickly, "I don't mind telling you, +not seeing the end of the string we are playing, that you are a man to +my liking!" + +"My hat's off," said Lee, with grave simplicity. "And in any old kind +of a fight a man wouldn't want a better pardner than I can reach now, +putting out my hand. He'd want--just a thoroughbred! And now, little +pardner, let's give them--fits!" + +Judith, even as Quinnion's second shot tore into the door, laughed +softly. + +"Finish it as you began it, Bud Lee! Even George Washington swore at +Monmouth, you know!" + +So Bud Lee amended his words and spoke his thought: + +"Then, pardner, let's give 'em hell!" + +Crouching in the dark, reserving their own fire while they waited for +something more definite than the bark of a rifle to shoot at, their +hand met. + + + + +XIII + +THE CAPTURE OF SHORTY + +It came about, quite as matters often do, that at the +three-mile-distant ranch headquarters it was one who knew comparatively +little of the ways of this part of the world who was first to suspect +that all was not well with Judith Sanford. To Pollock Hampton her +failure to appear at dinner was significant. + +Together with the other newcomers to the ranch from the city he had +been deeply moved by yesterday's outlawry. Drawing upon a vivid +imagination, he peopled the woods with desperate characters. When +after dinner an hour passed without bringing Judith, he began to show +signs of nervous anxiety. Without making his fears known to his +friends, he went to the office and telephoned to Doc Tripp. All that +Tripp could tell him was that he didn't know where Judith was and +didn't care; she could take care of herself. Though the veterinarian +didn't say as much, he was at the moment puzzled by the new sickness +among the hogs and his irritable concern in this matter allowed him +scant interest in other people's affairs. + +Hampton learned from Mrs. Simpson that in the afternoon Judith after a +hurried lunch had taken her rifle and ridden away. Where? Mrs. +Simpson did not know. But she grasped the opportunity to confide in +Hampton a certain suspicion which she held in connection with the +robbery and killing of Bud Lee's horse under him--a suspicion which was +growing rapidly into positive certainty. She didn't like to mention +the matter to him, since Fujioki was his servant. But had he noted +Fujioki and that other black Spanish, Jose? They had a community of +interest which must extend far beyond racial kinship; they were, even +at this very second, out in the courtyard together talking in subdued +voices. Mrs. Simpson had been raised a lady, Mr. Hampton, sir; and she +knew that in the best families one was not supposed to eavesdrop. But +at a time like this. . . . Well, she _had_ crept up behind the +lilac-bushes and they _were_ speaking guardedly about the hold-up! +Almost in whispers, with every sign of guilt---- + +"Hurried lunch?" said Hampton. "Took her rifle, did she?" + +His eyes had grown very serious as he stared down into Mrs. Simpson's +concerned face. + +"Send Jose to me," was what he said next. + +"Aren't you afraid, Mr. Hampton?" she exclaimed, picturing to herself +this pleasant young gentleman at death-grips with the sombre Jose. +However, she obeyed and called Jose whom Hampton merely sent to the +men's quarters with word for Carson and Lee to come to the house. Mrs. +Simpson, witnessing the bloodless meeting from the hallway, was a +little relieved and very much disappointed. + +Hampton strode up and down the office, the frown gathering upon his +usually smooth brows. Plainly if something had happened to Judith the +present responsibility lay upon his shoulders as next in authority. + +"Here I am," announced Carson briefly. "What is it?" + +"I am a little worried, Carson," said Hampton, "about Miss Sanford." + +"Huh?" grunted the old cattleman. + +"Judith hasn't put in an appearance and it's growing late," continued +Hampton hastily "I'm afraid----" + +"Afraid? Afraid of what? You don't think she eloped with your Jap or +stole the spoons, do you?" snapped Carson. He had been interrupted at +the crucial point in a game of cribbage with Poker Face and the +cattleman's weak spot was cribbage. He glared at Hampton belligerently. + +"Where is Lee?" questioned Hampton sharply. "I told Jose I wanted the +two of you. Why didn't he come?" + +"Dunno," answered Carson, still without interest. "I ain't seen him. +Wasn't in for supper----" + +"I tell you," cried Hampton, angry at Carson's quiet acceptance of +facts which to him were darkly significant, "he, too, was out with his +rifle to-day; I saw him myself. Now _he_ fails to show up! Don't you +see what all this points to?" + +Carson, who seldom lost his poise with one-half of his brain still +given over to the hand he meant to play with Poker Face, merely sighed +and shook his head. + +"I'm real busy down at the bunk-house, Mr. Hampton," at last came his +quiet answer, "where me an' Poker Face is figuring out something +important. As for worrying about a man like Bud Lee or a girl like +Judy, why, I just ain't going to do it a-tall. Most likely if you'll +call up the Lower End----" + +"I've done it!" Whirling in his impatient stride across the room, +Hampton came swiftly to Carson's side. "They're not there. They left +the Lower End this afternoon and came on here. Then, both armed, they +rode away again at four or five o'clock. I tell you, man, something +has happened to them." + +"Don't believe it," retorted Carson. "Not for one little half-minute, +I don't. What's to happen? Huh?" + +"You know as well as I do what sort of characters are about. The man +who robbed Charlie Miller--who shot at Bud Lee----" + +"Whoa!" grinned Carson. "Don't you go and fool yourself. That +stick-up gent is a clean hundred miles from here right now an' still +going, real lively. If any other jasper lent him a hand, why, he's on +his way, too. Not stopping to pick flowers. It's the way them kind +plays the game." + +Carson was so cheerfully certain, so amused at the thought of Bud Lee +and Judith Sanford requiring anybody's assistance, so confident +concerning the methods of outlaws, that finally Hampton sent him away, +half assured, and went himself to his friends in the living-room. Here +he found the major and Mrs. Langworthy reading and yawning. Marcia +laughed at a jest of Farris's, while Rogers sought to interest her in +himself. The every-day, homelike atmosphere had its effect in allaying +his picturesque fears. Hampton noted how her handful of days in the +country had done Marcia a world of good, putting fresh, warm color in +her rather pale cheeks, breeding a new sparkle in her eyes. She was +good to look upon. + +He let half an hour slip by in restless inactivity. For, no matter +what Carson might say or these people in here do, Judith had not yet +come in. When Marcia addressed a bright remark to him, he started and +stammered: "I _beg_ your pardon!" They laughed at him, saying that +Pollock Hampton was growing absent-minded in his old age. But their +banter failed to reach him; he was telling himself that some accident +might have befallen one or both of two persons whom he frankly admired +for their efficiency. + +By half past eight they had caught his uneasiness. At every little +sound they turned expectantly. Still no Judith. Mrs. Simpson, +comfortable woman that she was, came in, bustling with apprehension. +Mrs. Langworthy shook off for a little her listlessness and recounted +how she had watched "that girl" riding like a wild Indian toward the +Upper End. Perhaps her gun had gone off accidentally. + +"Or," she concluded with a touch of venom, "it wouldn't be above her to +run off with that long horse foreman." + +"Eh?" said the major. "Don't believe it. A fine fig--ahem. Where +should she run to? And why run at all?" + +Marcia looked a quick distress to Mr. Hampton. + +"It _is_ late," she said timidly, "Oh, Pollock! Do you think----" + +No longer to be restrained, Hampton left them and went to his room for +a rifle and cartridge-belt. He intended to slip out quietly, feeling +that he would get from Farris and Rogers only the sort of disbelief he +had gotten from Carson. Marcia met him in the hall; she had heard his +quick steps and guessed that he was going out. Now clearly, though she +was frightened, she was delighted with him. He had never thrilled her +like this before. She had never guessed that Pollock Hampton could be +so stern-faced, so purposeful. She whispered an entreaty that he be +careful, then as he went out, ran back to the others, her eyes shining. + +"Pollock is going to see what is the matter," she announced excitedly. +Whereat Mrs. Langworthy stared at her and then indicated facially her +supreme disgust. The major suggested taking something, the occasion so +plainly demanding it. + +Hampton passed swiftly through the courtyard. He saw the light of the +bunk-house gleaming brightly. On his way down the knoll he came upon +Tommy Burkitt. + +"Is it Mr. Hampton?" asked Tommy, coming close in the darkness to peer +at him. + +"Yes. What is it? Who are you?" + +"I'm Burkitt, Tommy Burkitt, you know--Bud Lee's helper. I--I am +afraid something has happened. Lee hasn't come in yet; they tried to +pick him off once already, you know----" + +"Neither has Miss Sanford come in," said Hampton quickly, sensing here +at last a fear that was fellow to his own. "They rode toward the Upper +End. You know the way, Burkitt?" + +He moved on toward the corral; Burkitt turned and came with him. + +"Sure I know the trail," muttered Tommy. "You're goin' to see what's +wrong with 'em! Miss Judy, too! My God----" + +"Bring out a couple of horses," Hampton commanded crisply. "We've lost +time enough already." + +"I'll go tell Carson an' the boys----" + +"I have already told Carson. He says it's all nonsense. Leave him +alone." + +Tommy, boy that he was, asked no further questions, but ran ahead and +brought out two horses. In a twinkling he had saddled them, and the +two riders, each with a rifle across his arm, were hurrying over the +mountain trail. + +In the blackness which lay along the upper river Hampton gave his horse +a free rein and let it follow at Tommy's heels. The roar of the +lashing water, the pounding of shod hoofs, the whining creak of +saddle-leather were the only sounds coming to them out of the night. +When, finally, they drew rein under the cliffs at the lake's edge all +was silent save for the faint distant booming of the river below them. + +"Now which way?" whispered Hampton, his voice eloquent of suppressed +excitement and eagerness. + +Tommy was shaking his head in uncertainty when suddenly from above +there came to them the sharp report of a rifle. Then, like a bundle at +firecrackers, a volley of half a dozen staccato shots. + +"Listen to that, Burkitt," muttered Hampton. "They're at it now--we're +on time----" + +Tommy slipped from the saddle wordlessly, came to Hampton's side and +tugged gently at his leg, whispering for him to get down. Leaving +their horses there, they slipped into the utter darkness of the narrow +chasm in the rocks which gave access to the plateau above. + +"Now," cautioned Tommy guardedly, as they came to the top, "keep close +to me if you don't want to take a header about a thousan' feet. Look!" +He nudged Hampton and pointed. "There are two horses across yonder; +Bud's an' Miss Judy's, most likely." + +Hampton did not see them, did not seek to see them. Something new, +vital, big, had swept suddenly into his life. He was at grips +first-hand with unmasked, pulsing forces. A tremor went through him +and he was not ashamed of it; for it was not the quaking of fear, but +the thrill in the blood of a man who, plucked from a round of social +artificialities, finds himself with the smell of burnt powder in his +nostrils and who feels a swift eagerness for what may lie just yonder +waiting for him. "They're at it now!" he whispered to Burkitt. +Men--yes, and a girl--were shooting, not at just wooden and paper +targets, but at other men! At men who shot back, and shot to kill. + +"Listen," said Burkitt. "Somebody's in the old cabin; somebody's +outside. Which is which? We got to be awful careful." + +They began a slow, cautious approach, slipping from bush to bush, from +tree to tree, standing motionless now and then to frown into the folds +of the night's curtains. Abruptly the firing ceased. They made out +vaguely the two forms of the attackers, having located them a moment +ago by the spurting flames from their guns. Then, "Got enough in +there?" came the snarling voice of Quinnion. "If you haven't, I'm +going to burn you out an' be damned to you!" + +He got an answer he little expected. For Hampton, running out into the +open, now that he knew that Bud and Judith must be in the cabin, was +firing as he came. Burkitt's rifle spoke with his. + +"Run for it, Shorty!" yelled Quinnion. "You know where. We're up +against the Blue Lake boys." + +"Bud!" shouted Tommy. "Oh, Bud!" + +"In the cabin," came Bud's ringing answer. "Give 'em hell, Tommy! +Coming!" + +With his words came the sound of the door snapping back against the +wall, the reports of Tommy's rifle and Hampton's pumping hot lead after +two racing forms. + +"They'll get away!" shouted Hampton, a sudden red rage upon him. +"Curse it! It's too dark----" + +Then Tommy gave over shooting and yelled to Lee to hold his fire. For +instead of two there were three flying forms, three fast-racing, +blurring, shadowy shapes merging with the night. Pollock Hampton, his +rifle clubbed in his hand, was running with a college sprinter's speed +after Quinnion and Shorty, calling breathlessly: + +"Look out, they'll get away!" + +Once Quinnion stopped to shoot back. The hissing lead went wide of the +pursuer and he gave over firing and settled down to good, hard running, +disappearing from Hampton's staring eyes. But Shorty was still to be +seen, running heavily. + +"Don't shoot, Bud!" cried Tommy again as two figures ran out of the +cabin. "Hampton's out there--the crazy fool----" + +"Hampton, come back!" shouted Lee, running after him. + +But Hampton was gaining on the heavy-set Shorty and had no thought of +coming back. Nor a thought of anything in all the wide world just then +but overtaking the flying figure in front of him. Shorty stumbled over +a fallen log and rose, cursing and calling: + +"Chris! Lend a hand." + +That little chance of an uprooted tree saved Hampton's life that night. +Shorty, falling, had dropped his gun and hurt his knee. For a moment +he groped wildly for the lost rifle, then ran on without it. Hampton +cleared the log, and with a yell rather befitting a victorious savage +than the young man whom Mrs. Langworthy hoped to call her son, threw +his long arms about Shorty's neck. + +"I got him!" shouted Hampton. "By glory----" + +Shorty drove a big brutal fist smashing into his captor's face. But +Hampton merely lowered his head, hiding it against Shorty's heaving +shoulder, and tightened his grip. Shorty struggled to his feet, +shaking at him, tearing at him, driving one fist after the other into +Hampton's body. But with a grimness of purpose as new to him as was +the whole of to-night's adventure Hampton held on. + +Judith and Lee and Burkitt came to them as they were falling again. +Now suddenly, with other hard hands upon him, Shorty relaxed, and +Hampton, his face bloody, his body sore, sank back. He had done a mad +thing--but triumph lay in that he had done it. + +"A man never can tell," muttered Bud Lee, with less thought of the +captive than of the captor--"never can tell." + +"I am thinking," said Judith wonderingly, "that I never quite did you +justice, Pollock Hampton!" + + + + +XIV + +SPRINGTIME AND A VISION + +Hampton's captive, known to them only as Shorty, a heavy, surly man +whose small, close-set eyes burned evilly under his pale brows, rode +that night between Hampton and Judith down to the ranch-house. He +maintained a stubborn silence after the first outburst of rage. His +hands tied behind his back, a rope run round his waist and down on each +side through a cinch-ring, he sat idly humped forward, making no +protest. + +Burkitt and Lee, despite Judith's objections because of Lee's wounded +leg, remained at the cabin with Bill Crowdy. Crowdy had lost a deal of +blood, and though he complained of little pain, was clearly in sore +need of medical attention. Judith, coming to the bunk-side just before +she left, assured him very gently that she would send Doc Tripp to him +immediately and, further, that she would telephone into Rocky Bend for +a physician. Crowdy, like Shorty, refused to talk. + +"Aw, hell," he grunted as Lee demanded what influence had brought him +with Shorty and Quinnion into this mad project, "let me alone, can't +you?" + +And Lee let him alone. He and Burkitt sat and smoked and so passed the +remaining hours of a long night. The folly of seeking Quinnion in this +thick darkness was so obvious that they gave no thought to it, +impatiently awaiting the dawn and the coming of the men whom Judith +would send. + +The events of the rest of the night and of the morrow may be briefly +told: Shorty's modest request of a glass of whiskey was granted him. +Then, his hands still bound securely by Carson, he was put in the small +grain-house, a windowless, ten-by-ten house of logs. An admirable jail +this, with its heavy padlock snapped into a deeply embedded staple and +the great hasp in place. The key safely in Judith's possession, Shorty +was left to his own thoughts while Judith, and Hampton went to the +house. + +In answer to Judith's call, Doc Tripp came without delay, left brief, +disconcerting word that without the shadow of a doubt the hogs were +stricken with cholera, and went on with his little bag to see what his +skill could do for Bill Crowdy. + +"Ought to give him sulphur fumes," grunted Tripp. But his hands were +very gentle with the wounded man for all that. + +Pollock Hampton had no thought of sleep that night; didn't so much as +go to bed. He lay on a couch in the living-room and Marcia Langworthy, +tremendously moved at the recital Judith gave of Hampton's heroism, +fluttered about him, playing nurse to her heart's delight. The major +suggested that Hampton have something and Hampton was glad to accept. +Mrs. Langworthy complacently looked into the future and to the maturity +of her own plans. In truth, good had come out of evil, and Marcia and +Hampton held hands quite unblushingly. + +Before daylight Carson, with half a dozen men, had breakfasted, saddled +and was ready to ride to the Upper End to begin the search for +Quinnion. But before he rode, Carson made the discovery that during +the night the staple and hasp on the grain-house door had been wrenched +away and that Shorty was gone, leaving behind him no sign of the way of +his going. Carson's face was a dull, brick red. Not yet had he +brought himself to accept the full significance of events. A hold-up, +such as Charlie Miller had experienced, is one thing; a continued +series of incidents like these happening upon the confines of the Blue +Lake Ranch, was quite another. Hampton, knowing nothing of conditions +in the mountains, had been quick to imagine the predicament in which he +had found Judith and Bud Lee. To Carson that had been a thing not to +be thought of. Now, only too plainly he realized that Shorty had had +an accomplice at the ranch headquarters who had come to his assistance. + +Carson blamed himself for the escape. And yet, he growled to himself, +in a mingling of shame and anger, it would have looked like plumb +foolishness to sit out in front of that heavy door all night, when he +himself had tied Shorty's hands. + +"Quinnion might have let him loose," he mused as he went slowly to the +house to tell Judith what had happened. "An' then he mightn't. If he, +didn't, then who the devil did?" + +Judith received the news sleepily and much more quietly than Carson had +expected. + +"We'll have to keep our eyes open after this, Carson," was her +criticism. Remembering the night when she had been so certain that +there had been some one listening to her talk with Tripp she added +thoughtfully: "We've got to keep an eye on our own men, Carson. Some +one of our crowd, taking my pay, is double-crossing us. Now, get your +men on the jump and we won't bother about the milk-spilling. If we are +in luck we'll get Shorty yet. And Quinnion, Carson! Don't forget +Quinnion. And we've still got Bill Crowdy; we'll get everything out of +him that he knows." + +The cattleman rode away in heavy silence, headed toward the cabin at +the Upper End, his men riding with him, an eager, watchful crowd. But +Carson had his doubts about getting Quinnion, his fears that it would +be a long time before he ever put a rope again to Shorty's thick wrists. + +During the day Emmet Sawyer, the Rocky Bend sheriff, came, and with him +Doctor Brannan. Sawyer assured Judith that he would be followed +shortly by a posse led by a deputy and that they would hunt through the +mountains until they got the outlaws. He listened to all that she had +to tell him and then looked up Bud Lee. + +"You didn't see Quinnion?" he asked. "Could you swear to him if we +ever bring him in? Just by his voice?" + +"Yes," answered Lee. "I can. But see if you can't get Crowdy to +squeal. We're shy Shorty's real name, too, you know." + +To all questions put him, Bill Crowdy answered with stubborn denial of +knowledge or not at all. He had been alone; he didn't know any man +named Quinnion; he didn't know anything about Shorty. And he hadn't +robbed Miller. That canvas bag, then, with the thousand dollars in it? +He had found it; picked it up in a gully. + +"I won't do any talking," he grunted in final word, "until I get a +lawyer to talk to. I know that much, Sawyer, if I don't know a hell of +a lot. An' you can get it out'n your head that I'm the kind to snitch +on a pal--even if I had one, which I didn't." + +Crowdy, at Doctor Brannan's orders, was taken to Rocky Bend where +Sawyer promised him a speedy trial, conviction and heavy sentence +unless he changed his mind and turned state's evidence. And--to be +done with Bill Crowdy for good and all--he never came to stand trial. +A mad attempt at escape a week later, another bullet-hole given him in +his struggle with his jailer, and with lips still stubbornly locked, he +died without "snitching on a pal." + + +Under fire in the dark cabin with life grown suddenly tense for them, +Bud Lee and Judith Sanford had touched hands lingeringly. No one who +knew them guessed it; certainly one of them, perhaps both, sought to +forget it. There had been that strange thrill which comes sometimes +when a man's hand and a woman's meet. Bud Lee grunted at the memory of +it; Judith, remembering, blushed scarlet. For, at that moment of deep, +sympathetic understanding touched with the romance which young life +will draw even from a dark night fraught with danger, there had been in +Bud Lee's heart but an acceptance, eager as it was, of a "pardner." +For the time being he thought of her--or, rather, he thought that he +thought of her, as a man would think of a companion of his own sex. He +approved of her. But he did not approve of her as a girl, as a woman. + +He had said: "There are two kinds of women." And Judith, knowing that +his ideal was an impossible but poetic She, rich in subtle feminine +graces, steeped in that vague charm of her sex like a rose in its own +perfume, had accepted his friendship during a dark hour, allowing +herself to forget that upon the morrow, if morrow came to them at all, +he would hold her in that gentle scorn of his. + +"A narrow-minded, bigoted fool!" she cried in the seclusion of her +bedroom. "I'll show you where you get off, Mr. Bud Lee! Just you +wait." + +When she and Lee met, she looked him straight in the eye with marked +coolness, oddly aloof, and Lee, lifting his hat, was stiff and +short-worded. + +In the long, quiet hours which came during the few days following the +end of a fruitless search for Quinnion and Shorty, he had ample time to +analyze his own emotion. He liked her; from the bottom of his heart he +liked her. But she was not the lady of his dreams. She rode like a +man, she shot like a man, she gave her orders like a man. She was +efficient. She was as square as a die; under fire she was a pardner +for any man. But she was not a little lady to be thought of +sentimentally. He wondered what she would look like if she shed boots +and broad hat and riding-habit and appeared before a man in an evening +gown--"all lacy and ribbony, you know." He couldn't picture her that +way; he couldn't imagine her dallying, as the lady of his dreams +dallied, in an atmosphere of rose-leaves, perhaps a volume of Tennyson +on her knee. + +"Shucks!" he grinned to himself, a trifle shame-facedly. "It's just +the springtime in the air." + + +In such a mood there appeared to Bud Lee a vision. Nothing less. He +was in the little meadow hidden from the ranch-house by gentle hills +still green with young June. He had been working Lovelady, a newly +broken saddle-mare. Standing with his back to a tree, a cigarette in +the making in his hands, his black hat far back upon his head, he +smilingly watched Lovelady as with regained freedom she galloped back +across the meadow to her herd. Then a shadow on the grass drew Lee's +eyes swiftly away from the mare and to the vision. + +Over the verdant flooring of the meadow, stepping daintily in and out +among the big golden buttercups, came one who might well have been that +lady of his dreams. A milk-white hand held up a pale-pink skirt, +disclosing the lacy flounce of a fine underskirt, pale-pink stockings +and mincing little slippers; a pink parasol cast the most delicate of +tints upon a pretty face from which big blue eyes looked out a little +timorously upon the tall horse foreman. + +He knew that this was Marcia Langworthy. He had never known until now +just how pretty she was, how like a flower. + +Marcia paused, seemed to hesitate, dodged suddenly as a noisy bumblebee +sailed down the air. Then the bee buzzed on and Marcia smiled. Still +stepping daintily she came on until, with her parasol twirling over her +shoulder, she stood in the shade with Lee. + +"You're Mr. Lee, aren't you?" asked Marcia. She was still smiling and +looked cool and fresh and very alluring. + +Lee dropped the makings of his cigarette, ground the paper into the sod +with his heel and removed his hat with a gallantry little short of +reverence. + +"Yes," he answered, his gravity touched with the hint of a responsive +smile. "Is there something I can do for you, Miss Langworthy?" + +"Oh!" cried Marcia. "So you know who I am? Yet I have never seen you, +I think." + +"The star doesn't always see the moth, you know," offered Lee, a little +intoxicated by the first "vision" of this kind he had seen in many +years. + +"Oh!" cried Marcia again, and then stopped, looking at him, frankly +puzzled. She knew little first-hand of horse foremen. But she had +seen Carson, even talked with him. And she had seen other workmen. +She would, until now, have summed them all up as illiterate, awkward, +and impossibly backward and shy. A second long, curious glance at Lee +failed to show that he was embarrassed, though in truth he had had time +to be a bit ashamed of that moth-and-star observation of his. Instead, +he appeared quite self-possessed. And he was good-looking, remarkably +good-looking. And he didn't seem illiterate; quite the contrary, +Marcia thought. In an instant she catalogued this tall, dark, +calm-eyed man as interesting. + +She twirled her parasol at him and laughed softly. A strand of blond +hair that was very becoming where it was, against her delicate cheek, +she tucked back where it evidently belonged, since there it looked even +more becoming. + +"Mr. Hampton isn't here, is he?" she asked. + +"No. Come to think of it, he did say this morning that he would be out +right after lunch to help me break Lovelady. But I haven't seen him." + +"He wanted me to stroll out here with him," Marcia explained. "And I +wouldn't. It was too hot. Didn't you find it terribly hot about an +hour ago, Mr. Lee?" + +As a matter of fact Bud Lee had been altogether too busy an hour ago +with the capers of Lovelady to note whether it was hot or cold. But he +courteously agreed with Miss Langworthy. + +"Then," she ran on brightly, "it got cool all of a sudden. Or at least +I did. And I thought that Polly had come out here, so I walked out to +surprise him. And now, he isn't here!" + +Marcia looked up at Lee helplessly, smilingly, fascinatingly. It was +quite as though she had added: "Oh, dear! What _shall_ I do?" + +Pollock Hampton had fully meant to come. But by now he had forgotten +all about Bud Lee and horses to ride and to be bucked off by. A +telegram had come from a nasty little tailor in San Francisco who had +discovered Hampton's retreat and who was devilishly insistent upon a +small matter--oh, some suits and things, you know. The whole thing +totalled scarcely seven hundred dollars. He went to find Judith, to +beg an advance against his wages or allowance or dividends or whatever +you call it. Judith was out somewhere at the Lower End, Mrs. Simpson +thought. Hampton saddled his own horse and went to find her. All this +Marcia was to learn that evening. + +After the swift passing of a few bright minutes, Marcia and Bud Lee +strolled together across the meadow to the spring. Marcia, it seemed, +was interested in everything. Lee told her much of the ways of horses, +of breaking them, of a score of little ranch matters, not without their +color. Marcia noted that he spoke rather slowly, and guessed that he +was choosing his words with particular care. + +She was delighted when they came to the bank under the willows where a +pipe sent forth a clear, cold stream of water from a shady recess in +the hillside. Here, at Lee's solicitous suggestion, she rested after +her long walk--it was nearly a half-mile to the ranch-house--disposing +her skirts fluffily about her, taking her seat upon a convenient log +from which, with his hat, Lee had swept the loose dust. + +"I'm dreadfully improper, am I not?" said Marcia. "But I am tired, and +it is hot, isn't it? Out there in the fields, I mean. Here it's just +lovely. And I do so love to hear about all the things you know which +are so wonderful to me. Isn't life narrow in the cities? Don't you +think so, Mr. Lee?" + +The breeze playing gently with the ribbons of her sunshade brought to +him the faintest of violet perfumes. He lay at her feet, obeying her +tardy command to have the smoke which she had interrupted. His eyes +were full of her. + +"I'd so love," went on Marcia dreamily, "to live always out-of-doors. +Out here I feel so sorry for the people I know in town. Here women +must grow up so sweet and pure and innocent; men must be so fine and +manly and strong!" + +And she meant it. It was perfectly clear that she spoke in utter +sincerity. For this long, summer day, no matter how she would feel +to-morrow, Marcia was in tune with the open, yearned for the life blown +clean with the air of the mountains. In the morning her mood had been +one of rebellion, for her mother had said things which both hurt and +shocked the girl. Her mother was so mercenary, so unromantic. Now, as +a bit of reaction, the rebellious spirit had grown tender; opposition +had been followed by listlessness; and into the mood of tender +listlessness there had come a man. A man whom Marcia had never noted +until now and who was an anomaly, almost a mystery. + + +Fate, in the form of old Carson, turned a herd of bellowing steers out +into the fields lying between the meadow and the ranch-house that +afternoon just as Marcia, making a late concession to propriety, was +shaking her skirts and lifting her parasol. It was scarcely to be +wondered at that the steers seemed to Marcia a great herd of +bloodthirsty beasts. Then there were her pink gown and sunshade. . . . + +"Oh, dear, oh, dear!" cried Marcia. + +So it was under Lee's protection that she went back through the meadows +and to the house. At first she was frightened by the strange noises +his led horse made, little snorts which made her jump. But in the end +she put out a timid hand and stroked the velvet nose. When finally Bud +Lee lifted his hat to her at the base of the knoll upon which the house +stood Marcia thanked him for his kindness. + +"I've been terribly unconventional, haven't I?" she smiled at him. +"But I mustn't again. Next time we meet, Mr. Lee, I am not even going +to speak to you. Unless," relenting brightly, "you come up to the +house and are properly introduced!" + +As she went through the lilacs Lee saw her wave her parasol to him. + + + + +XV + +JUST A GIRL, AFTER ALL + +Three days later Bud Lee learned that Judith Sanford was, after all, +"just a girl, you know"; that at least for once in her life she had +slipped away to be by herself and to cry. He stopped dead in his +tracks when he came unexpectedly upon her, become suddenly awkward, +embarrassed, a moment uncertain, but yielding swiftly to an impulse to +run for it. + +"Come here, Bud Lee!" commanded Judith sharply, dabbing at her eyes. +"I want to talk with you." + +He was at the Upper End where he had ridden for half a dozen young +horses which were to be taken down into the meadow for their education. +And here she was, on a bench outside the old cabin, indulging herself +in a hearty cry. + +"I--I didn't know you were here," he stammered. "I was going to make +some coffee and have lunch here. I do, sometimes. It's a real fine +day, isn't it, Miss Sanford? Nice and warm and--" His voice trailed +off indistinctly. + +"Oh, scat!" cried Judith at him, half laughing, still half crying. She +had wiped her eyes but still two big tears, untouched, trembled on her +cheeks. In spite of him Lee couldn't keep his eyes off of them. + +"I'm just crying," Judith told him then, with a sudden assumption of +cool dignity which had in it something of defiance. "I've got a right +to, if I want to, haven't I? What do you look at me like that for?" + +"Sure," he answered hastily. "It does you good to cry; I know. Great +thing. All ladies do, sometimes----" + +Judith sniffed. + +"You know all that there is to be known about '_ladies_,' don't you? +In your vast wisdom all you've got to do is lump 'em in one of your +brilliant generalities. That's the man of you!" + +"Maybe I'd better go make the coffee?" he suggested hurriedly. "It's +after twelve. And it'll do you good. A nice hot cup." + +"Maybe you had," said Judith icily. "Perhaps I can postpone my +conversation with you until the water boils." + +Lee went into the cabin without looking back. Judith, watching him, +saw that he ran his hand across his forehead. She sniffed at him +again. But when Lee had the coffee ready she had washed her face at +the spring, had tucked her tumbled hair back under her hat, and, +looking remarkably cool, came into the cabin. Lee thought of his +meeting with Marcia, of her repeated assurance that she knew she had +violated the conventions. + +"You _can_ make coffee," Judith nodded her approval as she sipped at +the black beverage, cooled a little by condensed milk. Lee was busied +with a tin containing potted meat. "Now, have you got over your shock +so that I can talk with you?" + +He smiled at her across the little oil-cloth-covered table, and +answered lightly and with his old assurance that he guessed he had +steadied his nerve. Hadn't he told her a cup of coffee would do +wonders? + +"Would it go to your head," began the girl abruptly, "if I were to tell +you that I size you up as the best man I've got on my pay-roll?" + +"I'd try to keep both feet on the ground," he said gravely, though he +wondered what was coming. + +"I'll explain," she continued, her tone impersonally businesslike. +"Next to you, I count on Doc Tripp; next to Tripp, on Carson. They are +good men; they are trustworthy; they understand ranch conditions and +they know what loyalty to the home-range means. But Tripp is just a +veterinarian; simply that and nothing more. His horizon isn't very +wide. Neither is Carson's." + +"And mine?" he grinned at her. "Read me my horoscope, Miss Sanford!" + +"You have taken the trouble to be something more than just a horse +foreman," she told him quietly. "I don't know what your advantages +have been; if you haven't gone through high school, then at least you +have been ambitious enough to get books, to read, to educate yourself. +You have developed further than Carson; you have broadened more than +Tripp." + +"Thanks," he offered dryly. + +"Oh, I'm not seeking to intrude into your private affairs, Mr. Bud +Lee!" she cried warmly at his tone. "I have no desire to do so, having +no interest in them. First of all, I want one thing clear: You said +when I first came that you'd stay a few days, long enough for me to get +a man in your place. We have both been rather too busy to think of +your leaving or my seeking a substitute. Now what? The job is yours +as long as you want it--if you'll stay. I don't want you leaving me in +the lurch. Do you want to go? Or do you want to stick?" + +What did he want? He had anticipated an interference from the girl in +his management of the duty allotted him and no such interference had +come. She left him unhampered, even as she did Tripp and Carson. He +had his interest in his horses. It was pleasant here. This cabin was +a sort of home to him. Besides, he had the idea that Quinnion and +Shorty might again be heard from--that if Trevors was backing their +play, there would be other threats offered the Blue Lake outfit from +which he had no desire to run. There was such a thing as loyalty to +the home-range, and in the half-year he had worked here it had become a +part of him. + +"I'll stick," he said quietly. + +"I'm glad of that," replied Judith. "Oh, you'll have your work cut out +for you, Bud Lee, and, that you may be the better fitted to do it, I +want you to know just what I am up against." + +She paused a moment, stirring her coffee with one of Lee's tin spoons, +gathering her thoughts. Then, speaking thoughtfully, she explained: + +"It's a gamble, with us bucking the long odds. Dad left me a third +interest, clear, valued, counting stock, at a good deal more than four +hundred thousand dollars. He left me no cash. Dad never had any cash. +Just so soon as he got his hands on it he put it to work. I knew he +had planned taking over another one-third interest, and I went on with +his plans. I mortgaged my share for two hundred thousand dollars, +which I got at five per cent. That means I have to dig up each year, +just interest, ten thousand dollars. That's a pretty big lump, you +know." + +"Yes," he admitted slowly. "That's big; mighty big." + +"With the money I raised," Judith continued, "I bought out the third +owner, Timothy Gray. He let his holding go for three hundred and fifty +thousand. It was a bargain for me--if I can make a go of it. I still +owe, on the principal, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. I owe +on my mortgage two hundred thousand. Total of my indebtedness, three +hundred and fifty thousand dollars. And that's bigger, Bud Lee." + +"Yes. That's bigger figures than I can quite get the hang of." + +No wonder she had been crying. Even if everything went smooth on the +Blue Lake she, too, had her work cut out for her. + +"Now," she ran on, her voice stirring him with the ringing note in it, +"I can make a go of it--if they will just let me alone! I am playing +close to the table, Lee, close! I have a little money in the bank, +enough to run along for two or three months, that's all. I said that +dad left no cash. I didn't mention his insurance." Her eyes grew +suddenly wet but she did not avert them from Lee's face, going on +quietly: "That was ten thousand dollars. Close to seven thousand had +to go for his current obligations. I have about two thousand to run +on." + +"Close hauled," grunted Lee. And to himself, he remarked as he had +remarked once before: "She's got her sand." + +Quite naturally Bud Lee thought swiftly of his horses. He had told +Trevors that he wanted to make no sale for at least six months. Given +until then--if Judith could make a go of it without forcing a +sale--he'd show her the way to at least seven or eight thousand, with a +good percentage of clear profit. + +"To begin with," Judith's voice interrupted his musings, "I am going to +have trouble with Carson. I admit that he's an exceptionally good +cattle foreman; I admit, too, that he has his limitations. He is of +the old school, and has got to learn something! Already he has his +weather-eye cocked for the lean season; he'll be coming to me in August +or September, telling me I've got to begin selling. That's the way +they all do! And the result is that beef cattle drop and the market +clogs with them. What I am going to do is make Carson start in buying +then. Oh, he'll buck like one of his own red bay steers but he'll buy!" + +"We're pretty well stocked up," Lee offered gently. "Turning the hills +over to the hogs makes a difference, too. We're going to be short of +feed long before September is over." + +"Short of range feed, yes," she retorted warmly. "But we're going to +put our trust in our silos, Lee, and make them do such work for us as +they have never done before. Then, when other folks are forced to sell +off for what they can get, we'll hold on and buy. We won't sell before +December or January, when the market is up." + +He shook his head. Though not of the old school which had produced +Carson, still he put little faith in those tall towers into which +alfalfa and Indian corn were fed to make lush fodder. + +"I don't know a whole lot about silos," he admitted. + +"Neither does Carson," said Judith. "He looks at such things as silos +and milking-machines and tractors and fences even as the old Indians +must have looked at the inroads of the white men. But, do you know +where he has been these last few days?" + +"In San Francisco? Heard him say he was going to take a few days off." + +Judith laughed. + +"That's Carson for you! He wouldn't admit where he was going. I sent +him down to Davis where the State experimental farm and laboratories +are. He's going to see silo, study silo, think silo until he gets a +new idea into his head. I have ordered a big extension in our +irrigated area, I have begun the construction of two more silos. When +Carson gets back he's going to look around for some more shorthorns at +bargain prices. I have an idea it wouldn't do you any harm either, to +look over what we are doing down at the Lower End." + +Again she paused. Then, her eyes suddenly darkening, she told him +what, after all, lay top-most in her mind. + +"I have said that if I am given the chance, I can make a go of this. +It's up to you, Bud Lee, to help see that I get that chance. An +attempt was made to spread the lung-worm through my calves. Now it's +the hogs. Do you know what the latest news is from the pens? There's +cholera among them." + +"Where did it come from?" he demanded. "Tripp's been keeping the +health of our stock up right along." + +"Where did it come from?" Judith repeated after him. "That's what I +don't know. We've been so careful. But where did the calf sickness +come from? Bayne Trevors imported it." + +The inference was clear. He stared at her with frowning eyes. + +"I don't see how he could have done it without Tripp's getting on to +it. He hasn't bought any new hogs." + +"But you understand now why I wanted to talk to you? If I win out in +the thing I have taken on my shoulders, it is going to be by a close +margin. I've thought it all out. We can't slip up in a single deal! +But, it's up to you to give me a hand. To find out for yourself such +things as where did the cholera come from! And to look out, that the +next time they don't burn us out, when the range is dry. To see that +nothing happens to your horses. To keep your two eyes wide open. To +help me find the man, working with us right now, who is double-crossing +us, who turned Shorty loose, who is watching a chance to do his knife +act again somewhere else. Do you get me, Bud Lee?" + +"I get you," replied Lee. + + +From without, gay voices, calling merrily, interrupted them. Lee went +swiftly to the door while Judith finished her coffee and pulled her +broad hat a little lower to throw its shadow in her eyes. + +"Ahoy, there!" It was Pollock Hampton's voice. "We saw your horses +and thought we'd catch you picnicking. Got a fire going, too! Say, +that's bully. Come ahead, Marcia." + +Marcia, a long riding-habit gathered in one hand, her cheeks flushed +with her ride, her eyes bright as they rested upon the tall form in the +doorway, came on behind Hampton. As the eyes of the two girls met, a +sudden hot flush flooded Judith's cheeks. She hated herself for it; +she wondered just how red her eyes were. + +"Say, Judith," called Hampton, "I'm glad as the dickens we found you. +Sawyer, the sheriff, telephoned just now. Said to tell you he'd +located Quinnion. The funny part of it is that we made a mistake. It +wasn't Quinnion at all that tried to shoot you and Bud up the other +night." + +"How's that?" demanded Lee. "Who says it wasn't?" + +"Sawyer. Found Quinnion at a sheepman's place thirty or forty miles +north of here. The sheepman swore Quinnion had been with him two +weeks, was with him that night." + +"A sheepman _can_ lie," grunted Lee. + +Judith's brief moment of confusion passed, she ushered Marcia into the +cabin. True to her promise, Miss Langworthy, though she flashed a +quick look toward Lee, did not speak to him. He found himself flushing +quite as hotly as Judith had done. + +"We've just finished our lunch," Judith was saying. "And we've left +you half of our coffee." + +"I've been simply dying to see this place!" cried Marcia impetuously. +"I told Pollock that it was a sure sign he didn't love me any more if +he wouldn't bring me. And you and--and one of the men," her eyes on +Judith's, "actually were in here, being shot at! Judith, dear, you are +just the bravest girl in the world. If I'd been here I'd have simply +died. I know I would." + +Perhaps she would. At any rate she shuddered delightfully. She found +a bullet-hole in the door and put a pink forefinger into it, giving a +second little shiver. She managed to keep her back full upon Lee. + +"Oh, by the way," said Hampton, busy opening the parcel of lunch they +had brought with them, "Marcia's heard all about you, Bud. You said +you wanted to meet Lee, Marcia. Well, here he is, tall and handsome in +a devilish reckless way, looking at the dimple at the back of your +neck. Miss Langworthy, Mr. Lee. Judith, that coffee smells good!" + +"You are a naughty little boy, Pollock," said Miss Langworthy coolly. +Nevertheless she turned smiling to Lee and put out her hand to him. +"Mr. Hampton really makes quite a hero of you," she said composedly. +"I think I have seen you--from a distance, you know." + +The small whiteness of her hand was swallowed up in the lean brown of +his. + +"Hampton's a prevaricator," he said gravely, as he looked down into the +merry blue eyes turned up to him. "But he's a gentleman I have to +thank for the introduction. I am very happy to know you, Miss +Langworthy." + +"And now," cried Marcia, slipping her hand out of Lee's and going to a +chair near the table, "do tell me all about that terrible, terrible +night. But do you think we are quite safe here now, Mr. Lee?" + + +To herself Judith was saying: "Just the type to be Bud Lee's ideal +lady!" + + +When they left the cabin, an hour later, Judith challenged Hampton to a +ride and so left Marcia and Bud Lee to follow leisurely. + + + + +XVI + +POKER FACE AND A WHITE PIGEON + +Mrs. Simpson had made a discovery. It was epoch-marking! It was +tremendous. Nothing short of that! So, at the very least, Mrs. +Simpson was prepared to maintain stoutly in the face of possible +ridicule. + +Though, as Judith's housekeeper, she had sufficient household duties on +her plump shoulders to send a less doughty woman creeping wearily to +bed with the chickens, she found time before the dawn and long after +nightfall to keep her eye upon that Black Spanish and his recruit and +treacherous ally, Fujioki. + +One morning, very early, Mrs. Simpson, from the thick curtains of the +living-room, saw Jose "prowling around suspicious-like in the +courtyard!" She thrilled at the sight. She always thrilled to Jose. +The half-breed had gone silently, "sneaking-like," by Judith's outer +door. He had paused there, listening. He had gone back to the +courtyard, hesitating, pretending that he was looking at the roses! +Such a ruse on the part of so black-hearted a villain inspired in the +scarcely breathing Mrs. Simpson a vast disgust. As if he could fool +_her_ like that, pottering around among the roses! + +She, too, sought to move silently in his wake, though under her ample +weight the veranda creaked audibly. Still, making less noise than +usual, she peered through the lilacs. She saw Jose at the base of the +knoll, going swiftly toward the stables. She saw another man who, +evidently, was a third of the "gang," and who, of course, had risen +early to creep out of the men's bunkhouse before the others were awake, +to meet Jose. Screening herself behind the lilacs, her heart throbbing +as it had not done for many a long year, she watched. + +Jose and the other man did meet. Jose stopped. The two exchanged a +few words, too low for Mrs. Simpson to hear at that distance. But she +made out that the other man had something in his hand, something white. +A pigeon! For, suddenly released, it fluttered out of the man's hands +and, circling high above Mrs. Simpson's head, flew to join the other +birds cooing on the housetop! + +"A carrier-pigeon!" gasped Mrs. Simpson. "Taking a message to the +other cutthroats!" + +From that instant there was no doubt in her mind. This fitted in too +well with her many suspicions not to be the clew she had sought long +and unceasingly. + +Jose went on, the man from the bunk-house went back into it, and Mrs. +Simpson fled to the house and hastened excitedly to Judith's room. +Judith, rudely awakened, came hurriedly to her door in her +dressing-gown, her eyelids heavy with sleep. When she heard, she +laughed. + +"You dear old goose!" cried Judith joyously. "I just love you to +death. You put fresh interest into life." + +Despite Mrs. Simpson's earnest protests, Judith hugged her and pushed +her out again, saying that since she was awake now she would want her +breakfast just as soon as she could get it. The housekeeper shook her +head and retreated heavily. + +"You've got to show some folks a man cutting their throats," she +muttered to herself, "before they'll believe it. It is a +carrier-pigeon and I know it. And that Black Spanish--ugh! He makes +my blood curdle, just to look at him!" + +"Carrier-pigeons!" laughed Judith, as she began a hurried dressing. +"The dear old goosie! And poor old Jose. She'll get something on him +yet. I wonder why she----" + +Suddenly Judith broke off. She was standing in front of a tall mirror, +still only half-dressed. As she looked into the bright face of the +smiling girl in the glass, a sudden change came. Pigeons! Doc Tripp +had said that Trevors had got them; had remarked on the incongruity of +a man like Trevors caring for little cooing birds. It was rather odd. +Carrier-pigeons--carrier---- + +Judith whipped on her dressing-gown again and, slipperless, her warm, +bare feet pat-patting upon the cold surfaces of the polished floors, +she ran to the office. + +"Send Jose to me," she called to Mrs. Simpson. "In the office. I want +him immediately." + +A warm glow came into Mrs. Simpson's breast. With a big kitchen poker +behind her broad back, she hastened out to call Jose. Judith, at the +telephone, called for Doc Tripp. + +"Come up immediately," she commanded, "prepared to make a test for +hog-cholera germs, Doc. No, I am not sure of anything, but I think I +begin to see where it came from and how. Hurry, will you?" + +To Jose she said abruptly: + +"Go down to the men's quarters, Jose. Tell Carson and Lee to come +right up." And as Jose turned to go, she added carelessly: "Seen any +of the men yet?" + +"_Si, senorita_," answered Jose. "Poky Face is up." + +"Poker Face? All right, Jose. The others will be about, then." + +Jose took little more time for his errand than for his elaborate bow. +Carson and Lee came promptly, Carson a score of steps in advance, for +Lee had tarried just long enough to wash his face and brush his hair; +Carson had not. + +"Tell me," demanded Judith, looking at her cattleman with intent +eagerness, "what do you know about Poker Face?" + +"One of the best men I've got," answered Carson heartily. + +"Square, you think?" + +"Yes. If I didn't think so he'd have been on his way a long time ago." + +"How long has he been here? Who took him on?" + +"Trevors hired him. About the same time he hired me." + +Bud Lee, entering then, wondered what new thing was afoot. He glanced +down and saw a bare foot peeping out from the hem of Judith's heavy red +robe; he saw the hair tumbled in a glorious brown confusion over her +shoulders. She was amazingly pretty this way. + +"I want you two men to just stick around until I send for you again," +said Judith, her eyes upon Carson alone, a little pink, naked foot +suddenly withdrawn and tucked somewhere under her in her chair. "And +keep your eyes on Poker Face. Keep him here, too, Carson. By the way, +did any of you boys come in late last night? Or early this morning?" + +"Why, no," answered Carson slowly. "An' yes. None of the reg'lar +boys, but a man from down the river, looking for a job. Heard we was +short-handed. Blew in early. Just got in a few moments ago, Poker +Face said." + +Quick new interest flew into Judith's eyes. + +"Keep him here, too!" she cried. "And I'll give you something to do +while you wait: bring me all the pigeons you can get your hands +on--white ones. Shoot them if you have to. And be careful you don't +rub the dust off their feet." + +Carson's eyes went swiftly to Bud Lee's. In Carson's mind there was a +quick suspicion: The strain of life on the ranch was proving too much +for a girl, after all. + +Judith, reading his thought, turned up her nose at him and, seeking to +keep her feet hidden as she walked by sagging a little at the knees, +went to the door. Turning there, she saw in Lee's eyes the hint of a +smile, a very approving, admiring smile. + +"Impudent!" she cried within herself. Looking very tiny, her knees +bent so that her robe might sweep the floor, she continued with all +possible dignity to the hallway. Once there, she ran for her room, her +gown fluttering widely about her. In her room, though she dressed +hurriedly, she still took time for a long and critical examination of +two rows of little pink toes. + +"Just the same," she said to the flushed Judith in the mirror, "they +are very nice feet--Bud Lee, I'd just like to make you squirm one of +these days. You're altogether too--too--oh, scat, Judy. What's the +matter with you?" + +In less than half an hour Doc Tripp, showing every sign of a hurried +toilet, rode into the courtyard. He came swiftly into the office, bag +in hand. Judith, waiting impatiently for him, lost no words in telling +him her suspicions. And Doc Tripp, hearing her out, swore softly and +fluently, briefly asking her pardon when he had done. + +"I'm a jackass," he said fervently. "I always knew I was a fool, but I +didn't know that I was an idiot! Why, Judy, those damned pigeons have +been sailing all over the ranch, billing and cooing and picking up and +toting cholera germs. Any fool can see it now. I might have known +something was up when Trevors bought the infernal things. It's as +simple as one, two, three. Now this other jasper, pretending to look +for a job, brings on some more of them, so that the disease will spread +the faster. Let me get my two hands on him, Judith. For the love of +God, lead me to him." + +But, instead, she led him to the dozen white pigeons which Carson +brought in. + +Tripp, all business again, improvised his laboratory, washed the +pigeons' feet, made his test, with never another curse to tell of his +progress. Judith left him and went into the courtyard, where, in a +moment, Carson came to her. + +"You better tell me what's up," he said sharply. "I know something is. +That new guy that just come in is darned hard to keep. Just as quick +as I grab a shotgun an' go to shooting pigeons he moseys out to the +corrals an' starts saddling his horse." + +"Don't let him go!" + +Carson smiled a dry, mirthless smile. + +"Bud is looking out for him right now," he explained. "Don't you worry +none about his going before we say so. But I want to know what the +play is." + +Judith told him. Carson shook his head. + +"Think of that?" he muttered. "Why, a man that would do a trick like +that oughtn't to be let live two seconds. Only," and he wrinkled his +brows at her, "where does Poker Face come in? We ain't got no call to +suspicion he's in on it." + +"You watch him, just the same, Carson. We know that somebody here has +been working against us. Some one who turned Shorty loose. Maybe it +isn't Poker Face, and maybe it is." + +"He plays a crib game like a sport an' a gentleman," muttered Carson. +"He beat me seven games out'n nine last night!" And, still with that +puzzled frown in his eyes, he went to watch Poker Face and the new man. +To have one of the men for whom he was responsible suspected hurt old +Carson sorely. And Poker Face, the man with whom he delighted to play +a game of cards--it was almost as though Carson himself had come under +suspicion. + +"You're going to stick around just a little while, stranger," Bud Lee +was saying quietly to a shifty-eyed man in the corral. "Just why, I +don't know. Orders, you know." + +"Orders be damned," snarled the newcomer. "I go where I please and +when I please." + +He set a foot to his stirrups. A lean, muscular hand fell lightly upon +his shoulder and he was jerked back promptly. Lee smiled at him. And +the shifty-eyed man, though he protested sharply, remained where he was. + +[Illustration: A lean, muscular hand fell lightly upon his shoulder and +he was jerked back promptly.] + +A thin, saturnine man whose lips never seemed to move, a man with +dead-looking eyes into which no light of emotion ever came, watched +them expressionlessly from where he stood with Carson. It was Poker +Face. + +"No," Poker Face answered, to a sharp question from the persistent +Carson. + +"Sure, are you?" + +"Yes." + +At last word came from Judith. Carson and Lee were to bring both of +the suspected men to the house. Doc Tripp, wiping his hands on a +towel, his sleeves up, bestowed upon the two of them a look of +unutterable contempt and hatred. + +"You low-lived skunks!" was his greeting to them. + +"Easy, Doc," continued Judith from her desk. "That won't get us +anywhere. Who are you?" she demanded of the man standing at Lee's side. + +"Me?" demanded the man with an assumption of jauntiness. "I'm Donley, +Dick Donley, that's who I am!" + +"When did you get here?" + +"'Bout an hour ago." + +"What did you come for?" + +"Lookin' for a job." + +"Did Carson say he hadn't anything for you?" + +"No, he didn't. You're askin' a lot of questions, if you want to +know," he added with new surliness. + +"Then why are you going in such a hurry? Don't you like to see any one +shoot pigeons?" + +Donley stared back at her insolently. + +"Because I didn't fall for the crowd," he retorted bluntly. "An', if +you want to know, because I didn't hanker for the job when I found out +who was runnin' it." + +"Meaning me? A girl? That it?" + +"You guessed it." + +"Who told you that I was running the outfit?" she demanded suddenly, +her eyes hard on his. "You must have found that out pretty soon! Who +told you?" + +Donley hesitated, his eyes running from her to the other faces about +him, resting longest upon the expressionless, dead-looking eyes of +Poker Face. + +"What difference does it make who told me?" he snapped. + +"Answer me," she commanded. "Who told you?" + +"Well," said Donley, "he did. Poker Face told me." + +"Who told you that his name was Poker Face?" Judith shot the question +at him. + +Donley moved a scuffling foot back and forth, stirring uneasily. That +he was lying, no one there doubted; that he was but a poor liar after +all was equally evident. + +"You ain't got no call to keep me here," he said at last. "I ain't +goin' to answer questions all day." + +"You'll answer my questions if you don't want me to turn you over to +Emmet Sawyer in Rocky Bend!" she told him coolly. "How did you know +this man was called Poker Face? Did you know him before?" + +Donley's eyes went again, furtive and swift, to Poker Face. But so did +all other eyes. Poker Face gave no sign. + +"Yes," answered Donley then, taking refuge at last upon the solid basis +of truth. + +"Did you know this man?" Judith asked then of Poker Face, turning +suddenly on him. + +"No," said Poker Face. + +Donley, having guessed wrong, flushed and dropped his head. Then he +looked up defiantly and with a short, forced laugh. + +"Suppose I know him or don't know him," he asked with his old +insolence, "whose business is it?" + +But Judith was giving her attention to Poker Face now. + +"Where did you get that white pigeon you turned loose this morning?" +she asked crisply. + +"Caught it," was the quiet answer. + +"How?" + +"With my han's." + +"Why?" + +"Jus' for fun." + +"Did you know that pigeons could carry hog-cholera on their feet?" + +"No. But I wouldn't have been afraid, not bein' a hawg." + +Donley tittered. Poker Face looked unconcerned. + +"Take that man Donley into the hall," Judith said to Lee. "See if he +has got any pigeon feathers sticking to him anywhere, inside his shirt, +probably. If you need any help, say so." + +Very gravely Bud Lee put a hand on Donley's shoulder. + +"Come ahead, stranger," he said quietly. + +"You go to hell!" cried Donley, springing away. + +But Bud Lee's hand was on him, and though he struggled and cursed and +threatened he went with Lee into the hallway. Tripp, watching through +the open door, smiled. Donley was on his back, Lee's knees on his +chest. + +"I'll tell you one thing, stranger," Bud Lee was saying to him softly, +as his hand tore open Donley's shirt, "you open your dirty mouth to +cuss just once more in Miss Sanford's presence and I'll ruin the looks +of your face for you. Now lie still, will you?" + +"Connect me with the Bagley ranch," Judith directed the Rocky Mountain +operator. "That's right, isn't it, Doc?" + +"Yes," answered Tripp. "That's the nearest case of cholera." + +"Hello," said Judith when the connection had been established. "Mr. +Bagley? This is Judith Sanford, Blue Lake ranch. I've got a case of +hog-cholera here, too. I want some information." + +She asked her questions, got her answers. Triumphantly she turned to +Tripp. + +The Bagley ranch, though a hundred miles away, was the nearest +cholera-infected place of which Tripp had any knowledge. Bagley did +have a flock of pigeons; a man, a month or so ago, had bought two dozen +from him; the man wasn't Trevors. Bagley didn't know who he was. The +same man, however, had shown up three days ago and had asked for +another half-dozen of the birds. There had been three white pigeons +among them. He was a shifty-eyed chap, Bagley said, old brown suit, +hat with a rattlesnake skin around the crown. That, point for point, +spelled Donley. + +Lee returned with the shirt which he had ripped from his prisoner's +back. Adhering to the inside of it were little, downy feathers and +three or four larger feathers from a pigeon's wing. + +"I guess he rode mostly at night, at that," concluded Lee. "A great +little fat man you must have looked, stranger, with six of those +birdies in your shirt." + +Donley's face was a violet red. But a glance from Lee shut his mouth +for him. Poker Face, still looking on, gave no sign of interest. + +"Put him in the grain-house," said Judith, her eyes bright with anger. +"And see that he doesn't go Shorty's trail. Poker Face, have you +anything else to say for yourself?" + +"No," answered Poker Face. + +"Then," cried Judith hotly, "you can have your time right now! Donley, +here, I'll prosecute. He's going to pay for this morning's work. I've +got nothing on you. It's up to you to see that I don't get it! And +you can tell Shorty for me--yes, and Quinnion too, and Bayne Trevors, +if you like--that I am ready and waiting for your next play! And don't +forget that when San Quentin is full there's still room in Folsom." + +Judith telephoned Emmet Sawyer that she had a man for him. Lee and +Carson conducted an expostulating Donley to the grain-house and jailed +him wordlessly. Then Carson put a man on guard at the door, daylight +though it was. When all was done he filled his pipe slowly and turned +troubled eyes after Poker Face. + +"She made a mistake there, though," he said regretfully. "A better +cow-hand I never ask to see, Bud. An' you ought to see the game of +crib that man plays! Nope, Judy; you're wrong there." + +But Bud Lee, the man who did not approve of the sort of woman who did +man's work, said with unusual warmth: + +"Don't you fool yourself, Carson! She hasn't made one little misplay +yet!" + + + + +XVII + +"ONCE A FOOL--ALWAYS A FOOL" + +Though, under the surface, life upon Blue Lake ranch was sufficiently +tense, the remaining days of June frivoled by as bright and bonny as +the little meadow-blues flirting with the field-flowers. + +Since from the very first the ranch had been short-handed, the hours +from dawn to dusk were filled with activity. Carson, who, true to +Judith's expectations, had brought back some new ideas from his few +days at the experimental farm--ideas not to be admitted by Carson, +however--bought a hundred young steers from a neighboring overstocked +range. In the lower corrals the new milking-machines were working +smoothly, only a few of the older cows refusing to have anything to do +with them. + +Tripp had succeeded in locating and getting back some of the men who +had worked long under Luke Sanford and whom Trevors had discharged. It +was a joy to see the familiar faces of Sunny Harper, Johnny Hodge, Bing +Kelley, Tod Bruce. The alfalfa acreage was extended, a little more +than doubled. Plans were made for an abundance of dry fodder to be fed +with the lush silage during the coming lean months. Bud Lee broke his +string of horses, and with Tommy Burkitt and one other dependable man +began perfecting their education, with an eye turned toward a +profitable sale in January. + +Quinnion, perforce, was left undisturbed upon the sheep-ranch whither +Emmet Sawyer had followed him. Against Bud Lee's word that he had had +a hand at the trouble at the old cabin were the combined oaths of two +of the sheepmen that he had been with them at the time. + +Hampton's guests, who had planned for a month at the ranch, stayed on. +But they would be leaving at the end of June. That is, Farris and +Rogers positively; the Langworthys, perhaps. The major was content +here, and to stay always and always, would be an unbounded joy--of +course, with little runs to the city for the opera season and for +shopping trips, and a great, jolly house-party now and then. + +The only fly in Marcia's ointment was Hampton himself. She confessed +as much to Judith. She liked him, oh, ever so much! But was that +love? She yearned for a man who would thrill her through and through, +and Hampton didn't always do that. Just after his heroic capture of +the terrible Shorty, Marcia was thrilled to her heart's content. But +there were other days when Hampton was just Pollock Hampton. If it +could only be arranged so that she could stay on and on, with no day of +reckoning to come, no matrimonial ventures on the horizon . . . + +"That's simple, my dear," Judith smiled at her. "When you get through +being Pollock Hampton's guest, you can be mine for a while." + +Hampton was now a great puzzle to Mrs. Langworthy, and even an object +of her secret displeasure. Not that that displeasure ever went to the +limit of changing Mrs. Langworthy's plans. But she longed for the +right to talk to him as a mother should. For, seeking to emulate those +whom he so unstintedly admired, Bud Lee and Carson and the rest of the +hard-handed, quick-eyed men in the service of the ranch, Hampton was no +longer the careless, frankly inefficient youth who had escorted his +guests here. He went for days at a time unshaven, having other matters +to think of; he came to the table bringing with him the aroma of the +stables. He wore a pair of trousers as cylindrical in the leg as a +stove-pipe; over them he wore a pair of cheap blue overalls, with the +proper six-inch turn-up at the bottom to show the stovepipe trousers +underneath. The overalls got soiled, then dirty, then disgracefully +blotched with wagon grease and picturesque stains, and Hampton made no +apologies for them. + +Twice he left the ranch, once to be gone overnight, intending that it +should be a mystery where he went. But, since he rode the north trail +which led to the Western Lumber camp, no one doubted that he had gone +to see Bayne Trevors, in whom he still stoutly believed. + +Between the 15th and the memorable 30th of June, Bud Lee saw little of +Judith Sanford. She was here, there, everywhere; busy, preoccupied. +Marcia he talked with twice; once when they rode together while +Hampton, racing recklessly down a rocky slope for a shot at a deer got +a fall, a sore shoulder and made his debut in certain new swear-words; +once when all of the guests, with the exception of Farris, who was +painting the portrait of the stallion, Nightshade, and the major, who +had "letters to write," came out to watch the horse-breaking. This +time, introduced to Mrs. Langworthy, Lee got for his bow a remarkably +cold stare. Others might forget, here in the open, the distinction +between people of the better class and their servants--not Mrs. +Langworthy, if you please. + +Having created his imaginary woman, Lee was ripe to fall in love with +her when she came. He had thrilled to the touch of Judith's hand that +night in the cabin; his thoughts, many and many a day, centred about +the superbly alive beauty that was Judith's. The fact disturbed him +vaguely. The thought that he was very deeply interested in her in the +good old way between man and maid, never entered his stubborn head. +She was as far removed from his ideal woman as the furthermost star in +the infinite firmament. Perhaps it was this very disquiet within him, +caused by Judith, which now turned his thoughts to Marcia. + +"That's the sort of woman," he told himself stoutly. "A man's woman; +his other self, not just a pardner; the necessary other side of him, +not just the same side in a different way." + +Marcia had little, feminine ways of helplessness which turned +flatteringly to the strength of the other sex. Judith asked no man to +aid her in mounting her horse; Marcia coquettishly slipped a daintily +slippered foot into a man's palm, rising because of his strength. + +Now, when his thoughts went to Judith, Bud Lee turned them dexterously +to Marcia, making his comparisons, shaping them to fit into his pet +theory. When, days passing, he did not see Judith, he told himself +that he was going to miss Marcia when she left. When one day he came +unexpectedly upon Judith and with lips and eyes she flashed her ready +smile at him, he felt that odd stir in his blood. What a pity that a +girl like her, who might have been anything, elected to do a man's +work! When, again unexpectedly, he came another day upon Marcia riding +with Hampton, there was no quick stirring of the pulses, and he +contented himself with the thought: "Now, that is the sort of woman. A +man's woman! His other self . . ." and so on. + + +When Judith planned a little party to mark the departure of Marcia on +the 30th of June--it wasn't definitely decided that the Langworthys +were leaving then, but at least Farris and Rogers were--the reasons +actuating her were rather more complex than Judith herself fully +realized or would have admitted. She liked Marcia; she wanted to do at +least this much for her. Living-room, dining-room, music-room, +library--they would all be cleared of the larger pieces of furniture, +the double-doors thrown open. The string band from Rocky Bend would +come. Judith would send out invitations to the nicer people there and +to the ranches hereabout. She would have a barbecue, there would be +races and the usual holiday games, then the dance. Marcia would know +nothing of it until the last day, when her eager enthusiasm would send +her a-flutter to her dressing-room. + +Unanalyzed, it was simplicity itself, this giving a farewell party to +Marcia. Under analysis, it was a different matter. The boys at the +ranch would be invited, and of course most of them would come. Bud Lee +would come. Judith would see to that, even if he should hesitate. + +Bud Lee had always been so self-possessed, had so coolly found her +lacking, that, piqued a little, Judith longed for the opportunity to +place him in an atmosphere where a little of his calm self-possession +might be snatched from him. If she could embarrass him, if she could +see the red rise under his tanned skin, she would be giving Mr. Lee a +lesson good for his soul. + +"I've got powerful little use for an affair like that," said Lee +coolly, when she told him. "Thank you, Miss Sanford, but I don't think +I'll come." + +Judith shrugged her shoulders as though it did not in the least matter +to her. + +"I'm giving it for Marcia," she said. "Do you think it would be quite +nice to her to stay away? I am afraid that she will be hurt." + +Not Judith's words, but the look in her eyes changed Lee's intentions. + +"If it's for Miss Langworthy," he said quietly, "I'll come." + + +The day came and Bud Lee began to regret that he had given his promise +to go to Marcia's dance. All day he was taciturn, aloof, avoiding not +only the visitors from Rocky Bend and the other ranches, but his own +fellows as well. He took no part in the races, was missing when the +blazing trenches and smell of broiling meat told that the barbecue was +in progress. He worked with his horses as he had worked yesterday, as +he would work to-morrow. With the dusk he went, not to the men's +quarters, but to the old cabin at the Upper End. + +Again and again that day he had thought of that look in Judith's eyes +when she had asked him to come for Marcia's sake. What the devil did +she mean by it? He didn't know exactly, but he did know that in its +own vague way it irritated him. Her eyes had laughed at him, they had +teased, they had told him that Judith herself wasn't wasting a single +thought upon Mr. Bud Lee, but that she had noticed his obvious interest +in Miss Langworthy. + +"Damn it," muttered Lee. "I won't go." + +But he had said that he would go, and in little things as in big ones +he was scrupulous. He would go, just to dance with Marcia and show +Miss Judith a thing or two. He felt unreasonably like taking Miss +Judith across his knee and spanking her. And he did have a curiosity +to see just what Judith would look like in a real party-dress. + +"Poor little wild Indian," he grumbled. "She's got the making of a +wonder in her, and she doesn't even know it. What's worse, doesn't +care." + +He sat with a dead cigarette between his fingers, staring at the +wind-blown flame of his coal-oil lamp. Judith was doing this as she +did everything that she set her two hands on, thoroughly and with her +whole heart and soul. In that lay the key to her character. There was +no half-way with her. When she gave, it was open-handedly, with no +reservation; where she loved or hated, it was unreservedly; if she gave +a dance it would be a dance for the countryside to remember. + +Yesterday Hampton had wondered, grinning, what he'd look like in a +dress-suit again. Hadn't had a thing on here of late but his war togs. +Whereby he called attention to his turned-up overalls, soft shirt, +battered hat, and flapping vest with the tobacco-tag hanging out. + +Bud Lee turned down the wick of his lamp, which had been smoking, and +sat staring at it another five minutes. + +"By thunder," he said softly to himself. "I'll do it." + +He shoved the bunk away from its place in the corner, opened a +trap-door in the floor and, lamp in hand, went down into the cabin's +cellar. Here was a long pine box, hooped with tin bands for shipping, +its lid securely nailed on. He set down his lamp and with shirt-sleeve +wiped off some of the accumulation of dust and spider-web. A card with +the words, "David Burrill Lee, Rocky Bend," tacked to it made its +appearance. Lee shook his head and attacked the lid. + +"It's like digging out a dead man," he muttered. "Well, we'll bury him +again to-morrow." + +It was a box of odds and ends. Clothing, a few books, a pack of +photographs, an ornate bridle, a pair of gold-chased spurs, a couple of +hats, gloves, no end of the varied articles which might have gone +hastily into such a receptacle as this from the hurried packing in a +bachelor's apartments. + +Bud Lee, with a dress-suit and the articles it demands, even to tie and +dancing-shoes, went back into the room above. + +"Like Hampton," he mused, looking at the things in his hands, "I wonder +what it'll feel like to get back into these! I'm a fool." He laughed +shortly and set to work to improvise a flat-iron to take the worst +wrinkles out of the cloth. "Once a fool, always a fool. You can't get +away from it." + +It was settled. He was going to Marcia's party. He insisted upon +calling it in his mind, "Marcia's party." And he was wondering, as he +shaved, how Judith was going to look. + + + + +XVIII + +JUDITH TRIUMPHANT + +As Bud Lee came through the lilacs into the courtyard, he heard the +tinkle of a distant piano and the tremolo of a violin, so faint as +hardly to be distinguished above the plash and gurgle of the fountains. +The court, bathed in soft light, seemed a corner of fairyland, the +music vanishing elfin strains of some mischievous troop putting sighs +and love dreams into a sleeping maid's breast. The night was rich with +stars, warm with summer, serene with the peace of the mountains. He +was late. They were already dancing within. + +He stood a moment, looking in at the outer edge of the flood of light +which gushed through the wide doors. Behind him Japanese lanterns +hanging from a vine-covered trellis; before him flowers, bright +chandeliers, girls' dresses like fluttering, many-colored, diaphanous +butterfly wings. He had been saying to himself: "I must hurry if I +want to dance with Marcia." And something stirring restlessly within +him shoved aside the thought of Marcia and put in its stead the old +wonder: "What sort of a Judith would he see to-night?" + +He found it difficult to form any picture of her here, among these gay, +inconsequent merry-makers. Judith to him spelled a girl upon a horse, +booted, spurred, with a scarf about her neck fluttering wildly behind +her as she rode, the superb, splendid figure of a girl of the +out-of-doors, alive with the hot pioneer blood which had been her rich +inheritance, a sort of wonderful boy-girl. Remove her flapping hat, +her boots, and spurs and riding-suit, and what was left of Judith? + +Outside were half a dozen of the boys who had not mustered courage to +set foot on the polished floors, Carson and Tommy Burkitt among them. +Tommy stared at Bud Lee and his jaw dropped in amazement. Carson took +swift stock of such clothes as he had never suspected a good horse +foreman owned, and gasped faintly: + +"The damn . . . lady-killer!" + +But Lee had neither eyes nor thoughts for them, nor remembrance of his +own change from working garb to that of polite society. The dance came +to a lingering end, the couples throughout the big rooms strolled up +and down, clapping their hands softly or vehemently as their natures or +degree of enthusiasm dictated, and Lee forgot Marcia and sought eagerly +for a glimpse of Judith. + +Refused a second encore, the couples stood about chatting, the hum of +lively voices bespeaking eager enjoyment. There was no early chill +upon the assembly, to be dissipated as the dance wore on; the day of +festivity outdoors had thawed the thin crust of icy strangeness which +is so natural a part of such a function as this. Already it seemed +that everybody was on the most cheerful terms with everybody else. + +Suddenly Lee's eyes, still seeking Judith, found Marcia. Surrounded by +a little knot of men, each of them plainly seeking to become her happy +partner for the next dance, adorably helpless as usual, Miss Langworthy +was allowing the men to fight it out among themselves. Lee moved a +little nearer to see her better. In a pale-blue gown, fluffy as a +summer cloud, her cheeks delicately flushed, a white rose like a +snowdrop in the gold of her hair, she was flutteringly happy, reminding +him of those little meadow blues that had flown palpitatingly about him +that day in the fields. And she was obviously as much at her ease +here, in an atmosphere of music and flattery, as the tiny butterflies +in their own meadows. + +Bud Lee came in, his tall form conspicuous, and went straight to +Marcia. She saw him immediately; forget herself to stare almost as +Carson had done; smiled at him brightly; waved her fan to him. + +He took her hand and told her with his eyes how pretty she was. The +delicate tint in Marcia's cheeks deepened and warmed, her eyes grew +even brighter. + +"Flatterer!" she chided him. "Are we to talk of the moth and the star +again, Mr. Lee?" + +The knot of men about her melted away. Lee stood looking down into her +upturned eyes, measuring her gentle beauty. He had thought of her as a +little blue butterfly--she was more like a wee white moth, fluttering, +fluttering . . . + +The music, again from a hidden distance, set feet to tapping. Marcia +plainly hesitated, flashed a quick look from Lee to the others about +them, then whispered hurriedly: + +"It's terrible of me, but----" + +And she slipped her hand into his arm, cast another searching glance +over her shoulder for a partner who had been too tardy in finding her, +and yielded to the temptation to have this first dance with "the most +terribly fascinating man there"! Lee slipped his arm about her, felt +her sway with him, and lightly they caught the beat of the dance and +lost themselves in it. And still, again and again turning away from +Marcia, he sought Judith. + +The dance over, their talk was interrupted by an excited and rather +overdignified youth with a hurt look in his young worshipping eyes, who +stiffly reminded Miss Langworthy that she had cut his dance. She was +so contrite and helpless about it that the youth's heart was touched; +she blamed herself for her terribly stupid way of always getting things +tangled up, gave him the promise of the next dance, which she had +already given to some one else, disposed of him with charming skill, +and sighed as she turned again to Lee. + +"I haven't paid my respects to our hostess," he said quietly. "Where +is Miss Sanford?" + +"She sent her excuses," Marcia told him. "Aren't we in a draft, Mr. +Lee?" + +He moved with her away from the soft current of air, a distinct +disappointment moving him to the verge of sudden anger. What business +had Judith to stay away? + +"You mean she isn't coming at all?" he asked quickly. + +"Oh, no," she told him, busy with the rose in her hair, her eyes bright +on his. "Just as the dance was beginning she had to go to the +telephone. Some ranch business, I don't know what. But she sent word +she would be here immediately--I believe," and Marcia made her remark +teasingly, though she did want to know, "that a certain mysterious +gentleman who masquerades as a horse-breaker is very much interested in +Judith." + +"What makes you say a thing like that?" he asked, startled a little. + +Marcia laughed. + +"A woman's intuition, Sir Mystery!" she informed him gayly. + +"What does the woman's intuition find to be the mysterious gentleman's +interest in a certain Miss Langworthy?" he asked lightly. + +"It tells her that he likes her; that it would be fun for him to come +and play with her; that he would be kind and courteous; but that he +considers her very much as he would a foolish little butterfly!" + +Again she startled him. He looked at her wonderingly. But before he +could frame a bantering reply, Marcia had involuntarily gripped at his +arm with a look upon her face that first was sheer bewildered +astonishment, and was crying for him to look yonder. + +Judith had come. + +Across the floor, now nearly deserted, Bud Lee and Marcia stared at +her. She was coming toward them, her dainty little slippers seeming to +kiss their own reflections in the gleaming floor. It was Judith and +not Judith. It was some strange, unknown Judith. A wonderfully +gowned, transcendently lovely Judith. A Judith who had long hidden +herself, masquerading, and who now stepped forth smiling and bright and +vividly beautiful; a Judith of bare white arms, round and soft and rich +in their tender curves; a Judith whose filmy gown floated about her +like a sun-shot mist; a Judith whose skin above the low-cut corsage was +like a baby's, whose tender mouth was a red flower, whose hair was a +shimmering mass of bronze-brown, whose eyes were Aphrodite's own, +glorious, dawn-gray; a Judith of rare maidenly charm; a glorious, +palpitant, triumphant Judith. + +It might have been just because it was fitting that they should greet +their hostess so; it might have been because the men and women who saw +this new Judith were caught suddenly in a compelling current of +admiration, that above the hum of voices rose from everywhere a quick +clapping of hands as she came through the room. The color of her +cheeks deepened, her eyes flashed a joyous acknowledgment of the +greeting, and bright and cool and self-possessed she came on to Marcia. + +"Marcia, dear," she said, taking Marcia's two hands--and Bud Lee found +that even Judith's voice had taken on a new note, deeper, richer, +gladder, fraught with the quality of low music--"forgive me for being +late. I wanted to be here every little second to see you enjoy +yourself." She put her lips closer to Marcia's ear, whispering: "You +are the prettiest thing to-night I ever saw!" + +Marcia shook her head, her eyes filled with frank wonder. + +"Don't fib, Judith, dear," she answered. And, for Marcia, she was very +grave. "I know you have a glass in your room. You wonderful, +wonderful Judith!" + +Their voices were indistinct to Bud Lee. Now at the moment when she +was so rich in the splendor of her own sweet femininity he filled his +heart with her. Judith had come in the only way Judith could come, +surrendering herself utterly to the hour. + +She turned to him, no surprise at his own costume in her happy eyes, +and gave him her cool hand. A swift tremor ran through him at the +contact, a tremor which was like that of the night in the cabin, which +he could not conceal, which Judith must notice. She said something, +but he let the words go, holding only the vibrant music of the voice. + +She had stirred him, and now he did not seek a theory for a buckler; +the sight of her, the brushing of her fingers against his, made riotous +tumult in his blood. + +The first strains of a waltz joined the lure of Judith's warm +loveliness, whispering, counselling, commanding: "Take her." Marcia +gasped and stepped back, startled by the look she saw in the eyes of +this man who, having spoken no word since Judith came, put out his arms +and took her into them. Judith flashed at him a look of quick wonder. +His face was almost stern; no hint of a smile had come into his eyes. +He merely caught her to him as though she were his, and swung her out +into the whirl of dancers. + +"You are rather--abrupt, aren't you?" said Judith coolly. + +"Am I?" he asked gravely. "I don't know. It seems to me that I have +been loitering, just loitering while----" + +He didn't attempt to finish. He held Judith in his arms while for him +the room was emptied of its gay throng, the music no longer pulsed; its +beat was in the rhythm of their bodies, swaying as one. + +The dance over, she was lost to him in the crowd of men who came +eagerly to her. His eyes followed her wherever she went. A slow anger +kindled in his heart that she should let other men talk with her, that +she should suffer another man to take her in his arms. + +A number of country dances followed. He stood by the door waiting a +little before he went again to Judith. He saw Marcia across the room +beckoning to him with her fan. There was nothing to do but to go to +her. He frowned but went, still watching for Judith. Marcia wanted +him to meet some of her friends. He shook hands with Hampton, was +introduced to Rogers. Marcia explained that Mr. Lee was the gentleman +who achieved perfect wonders in the education of his horses. She +turned to introduce Farris, the artist. But Farris broke into Marcia's +words with a sudden exclamation. + +"Dave Lee!" he cried, as if he could not believe his eyes. "You! +Here!" + +"Hello, Dick," Lee answered quietly. "Yes, I'm here. I didn't know +that you were the artist fellow Hampton had brought up with him." + +Farris's hand went out swiftly to be gripped in Lee's. Marcia, +mystified, looked from one to the other. + +"You two know each other? Why, isn't that----" + +She didn't know just what it was, so stopped, looking frankly as though +she'd like to have one of them finish her sentence for her. + +"But," muttered Farris, "I thought that you----" + +"Never mind, Dick," said Lee quickly. And to Marcia's mystified +expression: "You'll pardon us a moment, Miss Langworthy? I want to +talk a little with Mr. Farris." + +His hand on the artist's elbow, Bud Lee forced him gently away. The +two disappeared into the little room off the library where Jose was +placing a great bowl of punch on the table. + +"_Que hay_, Bud," grinned Jose. "Your ol' nose smell the booze damn' +queek, no?" + +He set down his bowl and went out. Farris stared wonderingly at Lee. + +"Bud, is it?" he grunted. "Breaker of horses; hired man at a dollar a +day----?" + +"Ninety dollars a month, Dick," Lee corrected g him, with a short +laugh. "Give a fellow his true worth, old-timer." + +Farris frowned. + +"What devil's game is this!" he demanded sharply. "Isn't it enough +that you should drop out of the world with never a word, but that you +must show up now breaking horses and letting such chaps as Mrs. +Simpson's Black Spanish chum with you? Not a cursed word in five +years, and I've lain awake nights wondering. When you went to +smash----" + +"When a Lee goes to smash," said Bud briefly, "he goes to smash. +That's all there is to it." + +"But there was no sense, no use in your dropping out of sight that +way----" + +"There was," said Lee curtly, "or I shouldn't have done it. It wasn't +just that I went broke; that was a result of my own incompetence in a +bit of speculation and didn't worry me a great deal. But other things +did. There were a couple of the fellows that I thought were friends of +mine. I found out that they had knifed me; had helped pluck me to +feather their own nests. It hurt, Dick; hurt like hell. Losing the +big ranch in the South was a jolt, I'll admit; seeing those fellows +take it over and split it two ways between them, sort of knocked the +props out from under me. I believed in them, you see. After that I +just wanted to get away and sort of think things over." + +"You went to Europe?" + +"I did not. I don't know how that report got out, but if people chose +to think I had gone to take a hand in the fighting over there, I saw no +need to contradict a harmless rumor. I took a horse and beat it up +into the coast mountains. I tell you, Dick, I wanted to think! And I +found out before I was through thinking that I was sick of the old +life, that I was sick of people, the sort of people you and I knew, +that there was nothing in the world but horses that I cared the snap of +my finger about, that the only life worth living--for me--was a life in +the open. I drifted up this way. I've been living my own life in my +own way for five years. I am happier at it than I used to be. That's +all of the flat little story, Dick." + +"You might have let me know, it seems to me," said Farris a bit stiffly. + +"So I might," answered Lee thoughtfully. "I was going to in the first +place. But you'll remember that you were off somewhere travelling when +the bubble broke. When Dick Farris travels," and his grave smile came +back to him, "let no mad letter think that it can track him down. Then +I hit my stride in this sort of life; I grew away from the old news; +the years passed as years do after a man is twenty-five; and I just +didn't write. But I didn't forget, Dickie, old man," he said warmly, +and his hand rested on Farris's shoulder. "You can put it in that old +black pipe of yours and smoke it, that I didn't forget. Some day I +planned to hit town again, heeled you know, and remind you of auld lang +syne." + +"You are a fool, David Burrill Lee," said Farris with conviction. +"Look here: you can take a new start, pull yourself together, come +back--where you belong." + +But Lee shook his head. + +"That's like the old Dick Farris I used to know," he said gently. "But +this is where I belong, Dick. I don't want to start over, I don't want +to come back to the sort of thing we knew. The only thing in the world +I do want is right here. And I don't see that it would do any good for +you to go stirring up any memories about the old Lee that was shot +'somewhere in France.'" + +When Farris had to go and claim a dance, Lee watched him with eyes soft +with affection. Then he, too, left the room and went back to the outer +door, to his old spot, looking for Judith. + +"The only thing I want is right here," he repeated softly. + +He watched Farris join Marcia and Judith. He noted the eager +excitement in Marcia's eyes, saw her turn impulsively to Farris. The +artist shook his head and left them, ostensibly going in search of his +partner. Marcia was speaking excitedly to Judith. Lee frowned. + +Once more that night he held Judith in his arms. He meant to make +amends for his brusque way with her before. But again the magic of her +presence was like a glorious mist, shutting them in together, shutting +all of the world out. They spoke little and the music had its will +with them. Judith did not know that she sighed as the dance ended. +She seemed moving in a dream as Lee led her through the door. They +were out in the courtyard, the stars shining softly down on them. In +the subdued light here he stood still, looking down into her +pleasure-flushed face. Again the insistent tremor shot down his blood. + + +Here in this tender light she looked to him the masterpiece of God +striving for the perfect in a woman's form. Her gown, gently stirred +by the warm breeze, seemed a part of her, elusive, alive, feminine. +The milk-white of bare throat and shoulder and rounded arm, the rise +and fall of her breast, the soft lure of her eyes, the tender smile +upon her lips, drew him slowly closer, closer to her. She lifted her +face a little, raising her eyes until they shone straight into his. + +"Judith," he said very quietly, very gravely, making her wonder at the +tone and the words to follow: "You have had your way with me to-night. +Do you understand all that means? And now--I am going to have my way +with you!" + +He caught her in his arms, crushed her to him, kissed her. Then he let +her go and stood, stern-faced, watching her. + +For a moment he thought that the hand at her side was rising to strike +him full in the face. But he did not move. + +Had such been Judith's intention, suddenly it changed. + +"So," she cried softly, "this is the sort of fine gentleman into which +a dress-suit has made Bud Lee, horse foreman! For so great an honor +surely any woman would thank him!" + +She made him a slow, graceful courtesy, and laughed at him. And so she +left him, her laughter floating back, taunting him. + +Lee watched her until she had gone from his sight. Then he turned and +went down the knoll, into the night. + + + + +XIX + +BUD LEE SEEKS CROOKED CHRIS QUINNION + +Going down the knoll to the bunk-house, Bud Lee cursed himself at every +stride. He cursed Carson when the cattle foreman, turning to follow +him, addressed a merry remark to him concerning his "lady-killing +clothes." The words reminded him of Judith's and he didn't cherish the +remembrance. In the bunk-house Carson watched him curiously over his +old pipe as Lee began ripping off his dress-suit. + +"A feller called you up a while ago," said Carson, still bright-eyed +with interest but pretending that that interest had to do with the new +wall telephone recently installed. "Sandy Weaver, it was. Said----" + +"What did he want?" demanded Lee, swinging suddenly on Carson, his coat +balled up in his hand and hurled viciously under a bunk. + +"Wasn't I telling you?" Carson grunted. "What's eating you, Bud? You +ac' mighty suspicious, like a man that had swallered poison or else was +coming down with the yeller jaundice or else was took sudden an' +powerful bad with love. They all treats a man similar----" + +"Damn it," growled Lee irritably, "can't you tell me what Weaver said?" + +"Said, call him up, real pronto," replied Carson cheerfully. "Say, +Bud, where in heck _did_ you get that outfit? By cripes, if I had a +regalia like that I'd be riding herd in 'em ev'ry Sunday! On the +square now----" + +But Lee wasn't listening to him and Carson knew it. He had gone +quickly to the telephone, had rung the one bell for "Central," and a +moment later was speaking with Sandy Weaver of the Golden Spur saloon. +Carson sucked at his pipe and kept his eyes on Lee's face. + +The ensuing conversation, only one side of which came to Carson, was +brief. Most of the talking was done by Sandy Weaver. Lee asked three +questions; the third a simple, + +"Sure of it, Sandy?" + +Then he jammed the receiver back upon its hook, and with no remark +continued his hurried dressing. When he had come in, his face had been +flushed; now it was suddenly red, the hot red of rage. His eyes, when +they met Carson's once, were stern, bright with the same quick anger. +When he had drawn on his working garb and stuffed his trousers into his +boots, he went to his bunk and tossed back the blanket. From the straw +mattress he took a heavy, old style Colt revolver. Carson, still +watching him, saw him spin the cylinder, slip a box of fresh cartridges +into his pocket and turn to the door. + +"Riding, Bud?" He got to his feet, stuffed his pipe into his pocket +and reached for his hat. "Care if I mosey along?" + +"What for?" asked Lee curtly. + +"Oh, hell, what's the use being a hawg," Carson grumbled deep down in +his brown throat. "If you're on your way to little ol' Rocky hunting +trouble, if they's going to be shooting-fun, why can't you let me in on +it?" + +Lee stood a moment framed in the doorway, frowning down at Carson. +Then he turned on his heel and went out, saying coolly over his +shoulder: + +"Come on if you want to. Quinnion's in town." + + +As their horses' hoofs hammered the winding road for the forty miles +into Rocky Bend the two riders were for the most part silent. All of +the explanation which Lee had to give, or cared to give, was summed up +in the brief words: + +"Quinnion's in town." + +To Judith, Lee had said that night they fought together at the Upper +End that he had recognized Quinnion's voice; "I played poker with that +voice not four months ago." That he had had ample reason to remember +the man as well, he had not gone on to mention. But Carson knew. + +Carson had sat at Lee's left hand that night, across the table from +Chris Quinnion, and had seen the look of naked hatred in two pairs of +eyes when Lee had risen to his feet and coolly branded Quinnion as a +crook and a card sharp. For a little the two men had glared at each +other, their muscles corded and ready, their eyes alert and suspicious, +their hands close to their pockets. Then Quinnion had sneered in that +evil voice of his: "You got the drop on me this time. Look out for the +next." He too had risen and with Lee's eyes hard upon him had gone out +of the room. And Carson had been disappointed in a fight. But +now--now that Bud Lee in this mood was going straight to Rocky Bend and +Quinnion, Carson filled his deep lungs with a sigh of satisfaction. +Life had grown dull here of late; there wasn't a fresh scar on his +battered body. + +Though the railroad had at last slipped through it, Rocky Bend was +still a bad little town and proud of its badness. To the northeast lay +the big timber tracts into which the Western Lumber Company was tearing +its destructive way; only nine miles due west were the Rock Creek +mines, running full blast; on the other sides it was surrounded by +cattle ranges where a lusty brood of young untamed devils were +constrained to give themselves soberly to their work during the long, +dusty days. But at night, always on a Saturday evening, there came +into Rocky Bend from lumber-camps, mines, and cow outfits a crowd of +men whose blood ran red and turbulent, seeking a game of cards, a +"whirl at the wheel," a night of drinking or any other amusement which +fate might vouchsafe them. Good men and bad, they were all hard men +and quick. Otherwise they would not have come into Rocky Bend at all. + +Lee and Carson riding out of the darkness into the dim light of the +first of the straggling street-lamps, passed swiftly between the rows +of weather-boarded shacks and headed toward the Golden Spur saloon. + +Though the hour was late there were many saddle-ponies standing with +drooping heads here and there along the board sidewalks; from more than +one barroom came the gay ragtime of an automatic piano or the scrape +and scream of a fiddle. Men lounged up and down the street, smoking, +calling to one another, turning in here or there to have a drink or +watch a game. + +The two newcomers, watching each man or group of men, rode on slowly +until they came to the building on whose false front was a gigantic +spur in yellow paint. Here they dismounted, tied their horses, and +went in. Carson, with a quick eye toward preparedness for what might +lie on the cards, looked for Lee's gun. It wasn't in his pocket; it +wasn't in his waistband, ready to hand. It wasn't anywhere that Carson +could see. At the door he whispered warningly: + +"Better be ready, Bud. Ain't lost your gun, have you?" + +Lee shook his head and stepped into the room. At the long bar were +three or four men, drinking. Quinnion was not among them. There were +other men at the round tables, playing draw, solo, stud horse. One +glance showed that Quinnion was not in the room. But there were other +rooms at the rear for those desiring privacy. Lee, nodding this way +and that to friends who accosted him, made his way straight to the bar. + +"Hello, Sandy," he said quietly. + +Sandy Weaver, the bartender, looked at him curiously. A short, heavy, +blond man was Sandy Weaver, who ran a fair house and gave his attention +strictly to his own business. Save when asked by a friend to do him a +favor, such a favor as to keep an eye on another man. + +"Hello, Bud," returned Sandy, putting out a red hand. All expression +of interest had fled from his placid face. "Come in right away, eh? +Hello, Carson. Have somethin'; on me, you know." + +Lee shook his head. + +"Not to-night, Sandy," he said. "Thanks just the same." + +"Me," grinned Carson, "I'll go you, Sandy. Same thing--you know." + +Sandy shoved out whiskey-bottle and glass. Then he turned grave eyes +to Lee. + +"One of these fellers can tend bar while we talk if you want, Bud," he +offered. + +"You say Quinnion has been talking?" asked Lee. + +"Yes. Considerable. All afternoon an' evening, I guess. I didn't +hear him until I called you up." + +"Then," continued the man from Blue Lake ranch, "I don't see any call +for you and me to whisper, Sandy. What did he say?" + +"Said you was a liar, Bud. An' a skeerd-o-your-life damn bluff." + +A faint, shadowy smile touched Lee's eyes. + +"Just joshing, Sandy. But that wasn't all, was it?" + +"No," said Sandy, wiping his bar carefully. "There was the other word, +Bud. An'--say, Billy, tell him what Quinnion had to say down to the +Jailbird." + +Lee turned his eyes to Billy Young. Young, a cattleman from the Up and +Down range, shifted his belt and looked uncomfortable. + +"Damn if I do!" he blurted out. "It ain't none of my funeral. An' if +you ask me, I don't like the sound of that kind of talk in my mouth. +Maybe I can't find my way to church of a Sunday for staggerin' with +red-eye, but I ain't ever drug a nice girl's name into a barroom." + +"So," said Lee very quietly, "that's it, is it?" + +"Yes," said Sandy Weaver slowly, "that's it, Bud. Us boys knowed ol' +Luke Sanford an' liked him. Some of us even knowed his girl. All of +us know the sort she is. When Quinnion started his talk--oh, it's a +song an' dance about you an' her all alone in some damn cabin, trying +to crawl out'n the looks of things by accusin' Quinnion of tryin' to +shoot you up!--well, folks jus' laughed at him. More recent, somebody +must have took him serious an' smashed him in the mouth. He looks like +it. But," and Sandy shrugged his thick shoulders elaborately, "if it's +up to anybody it's up to you." + +For a moment Bud Lee, standing very straight, his hat far back, his +eyes hard and cold, looked from one to another of the men about him. +In every face he saw the same thing; their contempt for a man like +Quinnion, their wordless agreement with Sandy that it "was up to Bud +Lee." Lee's face told them nothing. + +"Where is he?" he asked presently. + +"Mos' likely down to the Jailbird," said Billy, Young. "That's where +he hangs out lately." + +Lee turned and went out, Carson at his heels, all eyes following him. +In his heart was a blazing, searing rage. And that rage was not for +Quinnion alone. He thought of Judith as he had seen her that very +night, a graceful, gray-eyed slip of a girl, the sweetest little maid +in all of the world known to him--and of how he, brutal in the surge of +love for her, had swept her into his arms, crushed her to him, forced +upon her laughing lips the kiss of his own. + +"My God," he said within himself, "I was mad. It would be a good thing +if I got Quinnion to-night--and he got me. Two of a kind," he told +himself sneeringly. + +As he made his way down the ill-lighted street, his hat drawn over his +eyes now. Bud Lee for a moment lost sight of the rows of rude +shanties, the drowsing saddle-ponies, the street-lamps, and saw only +the vision of a girl. A girl clean and pure, a girl for a man to kneel +down to in worship, a girl who, as he had seen her last, was a +fairylike creature born of music and soft laughter and starlight, a +maid indescribably sweet. In the harshness of the mood which gripped +him, she seemed to him superlatively adorable; the softness of her eyes +at the moment before he had kissed her haunted him. As he strode on +seeking Quinnion, who had spoken evil of her, he carried her with him +in his heart. + +The horrible thing was that her name had already been bandied about +from a ruffian's lips. Lee winced at that even as he had winced at the +remembrance of having been brutally rough with her himself. But what +was past was past; Quinnion had talked and must talk no more. + +"He'll start something the minute he sees you," cautioned Carson, his +own revolver loose in the belt under his coat, his hard fingers like +talons gripped about the butt. "Keep your eye peeled, Bud. Better +cool off a speck before you tie into him. You're too mad, I tell you, +for straight, quick shooting." + +Lee made no answer. Side by side the two men went on. They had left +the sidewalk and walked down the middle of the rusty, rut-gouged +street. Every man they met, every figure standing in the shadows, +received their quick, measuring looks. + +"Most likely," suggested the cattle foreman, "by now he's got drunk an' +gone to sleep it off." + +But Lee knew better than that. Quinnion wasn't the sort that got +drunk. He'd drink until the alcohol stirred up all of the evil in his +ugly heart; then he'd stop, always sure of his eye and his hand. It +was far more likely that with a crowd of his own sort he was gambling +in the card-room of the Last Chance saloon, the Jailbird saloon as +"white" men called it. For there was an ill-famed hang-out at the far +end of the straggling town, just at the edge of the Italian settlement, +that of late had come to be frequented by such as Quinnion; men who +were none too well loved by the greater part of the community, men who, +like Quinnion, had served time in jail or penitentiary. Black Steve, +who was both proprietor and bartender, and who looked like a low-class +Italian, though he spoke the vernacular of the country, was the god of +the "dago" quarter, the friend of those who had gotten entangled with +the law. Only last year he had killed his man in his own saloon, then +gone clear, through the combined perjury of his crowd. + +The street grew steadily gloomier, filled with shadows. In front of +the Jailbird the only light came from within and made scant war on the +lurking darkness without. Lee's ears were greeted with the crazy whine +of an old accordion, and with men's voices lifted in laughter. He +shoved the swing door open with his shoulder, Carson pushed the other +half back, and the two stood on the threshold, their eyes swiftly +seeking Quinnion. + +As though their presence had been a command for silence, a sudden hush +fell over the Jailbird. The accordion man drew out a last gasping note +and turned black round eyes upon them. Black Steve, oily and +perspiring behind his bar, caressed a heavy black mustache and looked +at them out of cold, expressionless eyes. + +The first glance had shown Lee that Quinnion was not there. At least +not in the main room, but there were the card-rooms at the rear. He +gave no sign of having felt the hostility of the many eyes turned upon +him, but went quickly down through the room, turning neither to right +nor left. + +"Hol' on there," came the big booming voice of Steve. "What you +fellers want, huh?" + +Lee gave him no answer but strode on. Carson, at Lee's heels like a +grim old dog, showed his teeth a little. Steve, striking the bar with +a heavy hand, shouted in menacing tones: + +"Hol' on, I say! Nobody goin' to break in on a play that's running in +my card-rooms. If you fellers want anything, you ask me." + +"Go ahead, Bud," said Carson jocosely. "It's only the ol' black calf +bawling same as usual." + +But Lee needed no urging. He had heard voices beyond the closed door +in front of him, among them a certain high-pitched, snarling, +indescribably evil voice which he knew. He put his hand on the knob +and found that the door was locked. With no waste of time, he drew +back a step, lifted his foot and drove his heel smashing into the lock. +Then, throwing himself forward, driving his shoulder into the door, he +burst it off its hinges. + +At last he had found Quinnion. + +Here were half a dozen men, not playing cards, but interrupted in a +quiet talk. Standing on the far side of the table was a man who was as +evil a thing to see as was his voice to hear; his face twisted, drawn +to the left side, the left eye a mere slit of malevolence, the uneven +teeth showing in an eternal, mirthless grin, a man whose hands, when +his arms were lax as now, hung almost to his knees, a man twisted +morally, mentally, and physically. + +Bud Lee had eyes only for this man. But suddenly Carson had seen +another man, seeking to screen himself behind the great, misshapen bulk +of Quinnion, and with new eagerness was crying: + +"It's Shorty, Bud! He's mine!" + +But Shorty was no man's yet. At his back was a window; it was closed +and the shade was drawn, but to Shorty it spelled safety. Head first +he went through it, tearing the green shade down, crashing through the +glass, leaving discussion behind him. With a bellow of rage Carson +went after him, forgetful in the instant that there was another matter +on hand to-night. Shorty, consigned to Carson's care and the +grain-house, had slipped away and had laughed at him. Ever since, +Carson had been yearning for the chance to get his two hands on +Shorty's fat throat. Before the smash and tinkle of falling glass had +died away Carson, plunging as Shorty had plunged, was lost to the +bulging eyes which sought to follow him, gone head first into the +darkness without. + +Lee kept his eyes hard on Quinnion's. He moved a little, so that the +wall was at his back. His coat was unbuttoned; his left hand was in +his pocket, his arm holding back his coat a little on that side. The +right hand was lax at his side, like Quinnion's. + +He had seen the other men, though his eyes had seemed to see only one +man. One of them he knew; the others he had seen. They were the sort +to be found in Quinnion's company. They were the nucleus of what was +spoken of as Quinnion's crowd. + +"Quinnion," said Lee quietly, "you are a damned dirty-mouthed liar." + +The words came like little slaps in the face. Of the four men still in +the room with Quinnion three of them moved swiftly to one side, their +eyes on their leader's face, which showed nothing of what might lie in +his mind. + +"I have taken the trouble," went on Lee coolly, when Quinnion, leering +back at him, made no reply, "to ride forty miles to-night for a little +talk with you. You are a crook and a card-cheat. I told you that once +before. You have been telling men that I am a coward and a +four-flusher. For that I am going to run you out of town to-night. Or +kill you." + +Then Quinnion laughed at him. + +"Just for that?" he jeered. "Or because I've been tellin' a true story +about you an'----" + +He didn't get her name out. Perhaps he hadn't expected to. His eyes +had been watchful. Now, as he threw himself to one side, he whipped +out his gun, dropping to one knee, his body partly concealed by the +table. At the same second Bud Lee's right hand, no longer lax, sped to +the revolver gripped under the coat at his left arm-pit. + +It was a situation by no means new to the four walls of the Jailbird +nor to the men concerned. It was a two-man fight, with as yet no call +for the four friends of Quinnion to interfere. It would take the spit +and snarl of a revolver, the flash of flame, the acrid smell of +burning-powder to switch their sympathetic watching into actual +participation. No new situation certainly for Chris Quinnion who took +quick stock of the table with its heavy top and screened his body with +it; no new situation for Steve, the big bartender who was at the +shattered door almost as Bud Lee sent it rocking drunkenly. + +Since a fight like this in a small room may end in three seconds and +yet remain a fight for men to talk of at street corners for many a day +thereafter, it is surely a struggle baffling adequate description. For +while you speak of it, it is done; while a dock ticks, two guns may +carry hot lead, and cut in two two threads of life. + +Quinnion was down and shooting, with but ten steps or less between him +and the man whom he sought to kill; Bud Lee was standing, tall and +straight, back to wall, his first bullet ripping into the boards of the +table, sending a flying splinter to stick in Quinnion's face, close to +a squinting, slitted eye; and as the two guns spoke like one, a third +from the open barroom shattered the lamp swinging from the ceiling +between Lee and Quinnion. Steve, the bartender, had taken a hand. + +[Illustration: Quinnion was down and shooting, with but ten steps . . . +between him and the man whom he sought to kill.] + +The card-room was plunged in darkness so thick that Lee's frowning eyes +could no longer make out Quinnion's head above the table, so black that +to Quinnion's eyes the tall form of Lee against the wall was lost in +shadow. + + + + +XX + +THE FIGHT AT THE JAILBIRD + +As Steve fired his shot into the lamp, Bud Lee understood just what +would be Steve's next play; the bartender had given his friends brief +respite from the deadly fire of the Blue Lake man, and now would turn +his second shot through the flimsy wall itself on the man standing +there. Lee did not hesitate now, but with one leap was across the +room, avoiding the table, seeking to come to close quarters with +Quinnion and have the thing over and done with. In the bitterness +still gnawing at his heart, he told himself again that it would be no +calamity to the world if the two men who had insulted Judith Sanford +went down together. + +Again Steve fired. His bullet ripped into the wall, tearing a hole +through the partition where a brief instant ago Lee had stood. The +light out in the barroom was extinguished. In the cardroom it was +utterly, impenetrably dark now, only a vague square of lesser darkness +telling where was the window through which Shorty had fled. + +A red flare of flame from where Quinnion crouched, and Lee stood very +still, refusing the temptation to fire back. For Quinnion's bullet had +sped wide of the mark, striking the wall a full yard to Lee's left. +Quinnion's eyes had not found him, would not find him soon if he stood +quite motionless. The fight was still to be made, Quinnion's friends +would be taking a hand now, Steve had already joined issue. There were +six of them against him and with one shot fired from his heavy Colt +there were but five left. No shot to be wasted. + +A little creaking of a floorboard, a vague, misty blur almost at his +side, and still Lee saved his fire. Quickly he lifted the big +revolver, held welded to a grip of steel, throwing it high above his +head and striking downward. There was almost no sound; just the +thudding blow as the thick barrel struck a heavy mat of hair, and with +no outcry a man went down to lie still. At the same moment the dim +square of the window showed a form slipping through; one man was +seeking safety from a quarrel not his own. And as he went, there came +again a soft thudding blow and Carson's dry voice outside, saying +calmly: + +"Shorty got away, but you don't, pardner. Give 'em hell, Bud. I'm in +the play again." + +"Two men down," grunted Lee to himself with grim satisfaction. "And +old Carson back on the job. Only two to our one now." + +The form in the window crumpled and under Carson's quick hands was +jerked out. Suddenly it was very still in the little room. Steve did +not fire a third time; Quinnion held his fire. For Lee had made no +answer and they were taking heavy chances with every shot now, chances +of shooting the wrong man. Each of the four watchful men in the narrow +apartment breathed softly. + +Once more Lee lifted his gun above his head. As he held it thus, he +put out his left hand gently, inch by inch, gropingly. Extended full +length, it touched nothing. Slowly he moved it in a semi-circle, the +gun in his right hand always ready to come crashing down. His fingers +touched the wall, then moving back assured him that no one was within +reach. Lifting a foot slowly, he took one cautious step forward, +toward the spot where he had last seen Quinnion. Again his arm, +circling through the darkness, sought to locate for him one of the men +who must be very near him now. Suddenly it brushed a man's shoulder. + +There was a sharp, muttered exclamation, and again a flare of red flame +as this man fired. But he had misjudged Bud Lee's position by a few +inches, the bullet cut through Lee's coat, and Lee's clubbed revolver +fell unerringly, smashing into the man's forehead. There was a low +moan, a revolver clattered to the floor, a body fell heavily. + +"A new situation," thought Lee. Three men down before a clock could +tick off as many minutes and not a single man shot. It was a place for +a man like Charlie Miller with his old pick-handle. + +"Bud," called Carson's voice sharply, "are you all right?" + +"Yes," answered Lee briefly, and as he answered moved sharply to one +side so that his voice might not draw a shot from Quinnion or the other +men. There came two spurts of flame, one from each of the corners of +the room opposite him, the reports of the two shots reverberating +loudly. But this was mere guesswork--shooting at no more definite +thing than a man's voice, and Lee having moved swiftly had little fear. +And he knew pretty well where those two men were now. + +So did Carson, who from without fired in twice through the window. +Then again it grew so silent that a clock ticking somewhere out in the +barroom was to be heard distinctly, so that again the men guarded their +breathing. + +Lee thought that he knew where Quinnion was, in the corner at his right +close to the rear wall. Not square in the corner, of course, for +having fired he was fox enough to shift his position a little. True, +no sound had told of such a movement. But Quinnion could be trusted to +make no sound at a time like this. Lee, equally silent, again set a +slow foot out, moving cautiously toward the spot where his eyes sought +Quinnion in the dark. + +He was calculating swiftly now: Quinnion had fired twice from the +screen of the table just as Steve shot out the light; he had fired +again just now, it was a fair bet that at least one of the other shots +had been his. That meant that he had fired four times. If Quinnion +still carried his old six-shooter he had but two shots at most left to +him, for there had been no time which he would risk in reloading. + +Lee swept off his hat and tossed it out before him to the spot where he +believed Quinnion was and dropped swiftly to his knee as he did so. +There was a snarl, Quinnion's evil snarl, and a shot that sped high +above his head. His hat had struck Quinnion full in the face. Then +Lee again sprang onward, again struck out with his clubbed revolver. +The blow missed Quinnion's head but caught him heavily on the shoulder +and sent him staggering back against the wall. Lee could hear the bulk +of his body crashing against the boards. And again leaping, he struck +the second time at Quinnion. This time there was no snarl, but a +falling weight and stillness. + +There was a sound of a chair violently thrown down, the scuffle of +hasty feet and in the door the faint blur of a flying figure seeking +refuge in the bar. Lee flung the crippled door shut after the fugitive +and then with his left hand struck a match, his revolver ready in his +right. + +Holding the tiny flame down toward the floor, he made out two prone +bodies. One, that of the first man he had struck down, a man whom he +knew by name as Lefty Devine, a brawler and boon companion of Quinnion. +The other Quinnion himself. Devine lay very still, clearly completely +stunned. Quinnion moved a little. + +Carson's weather-beaten face peered in at the window. + +"Better do the hot foot, Bud," he grunted softly, "while the trail's +open. Steve will be mixing in again." + +But Lee seemed in no haste now. When the match had burned out, he +dropped it and slipped fresh cartridges into his gun. That done, he +stooped, gathered up Quinnion's feebly struggling body in his arms and +carried it to the window. + +"Here," he said coolly to Carson. "Take him through." + +"What the hell do you want of him?" Carson wanted to be told. "Ain't +going to scalp him, are you, Bud?" + +"Take him out," commanded Lee with no explanation. Carson obeyed, +jerking the now complaining Quinnion out hastily and unceremoniously. +Lee followed as Steve threw open the barroom door. + +"It's a new one on me, just the same," said Carson dryly as he watched +Lee stoop and gather Quinnion up in his arms. "After a little party +like this one, I'm generally travelling on an' not stopping to pick +flowers an' gather sooveneers! You ain't got cannibal blood in you, +have you, Bud?" + +While Carson was cudgelling his brains for the answer and Steve was +making cautious examination of the card-room, Lee with his burden in +his arms passed through the darkness lying at the rear of the saloon +and out into the street. Carson followed to take care of a sortie +should Steve and the rest not have had all they wanted for one night. +He chuckled, remarking to himself that Bud Lee and Quinnion were the +very picture of a young mother and her babe in arms. + +Not until they again reached the Golden Spur did Lee's burden +completely recover consciousness. Many a man on the street looked +wonderingly after them, demanded to know "what was up," and, receiving +no answer, swung in behind Carson. + +In the Golden Spur the arrivals were greeted by a heavy silence. Sandy +Weaver forgot to set out the drinks which had just been ordered by +three men who, in their turn, forgot that they had ordered. Men at the +tables playing cards put down their hands and rose or turned +expectantly in their seats. + +Lee put Quinnion down on the floor. The man lay there a moment +blinking at the lights above him and at the faces around him. At +length his eyes came to Lee. + +"Damn you," he muttered, trying to rise, and slowly getting to his feet +with the aid of a chair, "I'll get you----" + +Then Bud Lee gave his brief explanation, cutting Quinnion's ugly snarl +in two. + +"This is Quinnion's farewell party," he said bluntly. "He is a liar +and a crook and an undesirable citizen. I have told him all that +before. He took it upon himself to say about town that I am all of +those things which he is himself. I have damn near killed him for it; +I am going to give him ten minutes to get out of town. If he doesn't +do it, I am going to kill him. And in that ten minutes he is going to +find time to eat his words." + +"I'll see you in--" began Quinnion, as something of the old bluster +came back to him. + +"Shut up!" snapped Lee. "Carson, let me have your gun." + +Carson, wondering, gave it. Lee dropped it on the floor at Quinnion's +foot. + +"Pick that gun up and we'll finish what we've begun," he said coolly to +Quinnion. "I won't shoot until you've got it in your hand and have +straightened up. Then I'll kill you. Unless first you admit that you +are the contemptible liar every one knows you are, and second, get out +of town and stay out. It's up to you, Quinnion." + +Knowing Quinnion, the men moved swiftly so that they did not stand +behind either him or Lee. Sandy Weaver, shifting a few feet along his +bar, shook his head and sighed. + +"It'll be both of them," he muttered. + +Quinnion turned his head a little, his red-rimmed eyes going from face +to face, his tongue moving back and forth between his lips. For an +instant his eyes dropped to the gun at his feet, and a little spasmodic +contraction of his body showed that he was tempted to take up the +weapon. But he hesitated, and again turned to Lee. + +"It's up to you," repeated Lee. "If you're not a coward after all, +pick it up." Lee's hands were at his sides, his own revolver in his +pocket. Quinnion was tempted. The evil lights in his eyes danced like +witch-fires. Again he hesitated; but his hesitation was brief. With +his whining, ugly laugh he lurched to the bar. + +"Gimme a drink, Sandy," he commanded. + +"Neither now nor after a while," Sandy told him briefly. "I ain't +dirtyin' my glasses that-a-way." + +"There you are," jeered Quinnion, with a sullen sort of defiance. "You +swat me over the head while I ain't lookin' an' then bring me in here +where they're all your friends. If I drop you I get all mussed up with +their bullets. No, thanks." + +"For the last time," said Lee, and his low voice was ominous, "I tell +you what to do. If you don't do it, I'll kill you just the same. +You've got your chance. Count ten seconds, Sandy." + +"One," said Sandy, watching the clock on the wall, "two, three, four, +five, six, seven----" + +"Curse you!" cried Quinnion then, a look of fear at last in his eyes. +"I'll get you for this some day, Bud Lee. Now you've got me----" + +"Keep on counting, Sandy," commanded Lee. + +"Eight," said Sandy, "nine----" + +"I lied!" snapped Quinnion. "An' I'm leavin' town for a while." + +And lurching as he walked, he made his way out of the room, his eyes on +the floor, his face a burning red. + +"Carson and I are riding back to the ranch as soon as our horses rest +up and get some grain," said Lee, his fingers slowly rolling a brown +cigarette. "We'll mosey out now, see Quinnion on his way and drop back +to make up a little game of draw for a couple of hours. Strike you +about right, Billy? And you, Watson? And you, Parker?" + +They listened to him, took the cue from him, and allowed what lay +between him and Chris Quinnion to lie in silence. But there was not a +man there but in his own fashion was saying to himself: + +"It's a good beginning. But where's the end going to be?" + + + + +XXI + +BURNING MEMORY + +As June had slipped by, so did July and August. On Blue Lake ranch +life flowed smoothly. Men were too busy with each day's work to sit +into the nights prophesying trouble ahead. And in truth it seemed that +if Bayne Trevors had ever actively opposed the success of the Sanford +venture he had by now accepted the role of inactivity forced upon him +by circumstance. He was with the Western Lumber Company, as director +and district superintendent, seemingly giving all his dynamic force to +the legitimate affairs of the company. + +But there were those who placed no faith in the obvious. Bud Lee kept +in touch with Rocky Bend and learned that Quinnion had not come back; +that no one knew where he had gone. Carson's man, Shorty, was sought +by Emmet Sawyer and his disappearance was like that of a pricked +bubble; it seemed that Shorty had no actual physical existence or that, +if he had, he had taken it into some other corner of the world. +Quinnion's friends had also gone from Rocky Bend, like Quinnion leaving +behind them no sign to show where they had gone. + +Knowing Quinnion as he did, and having his own conception of the +character of Bayne Trevors, Bud Lee said to himself that too great a +quiet portended strife to come. If Quinnion was the man to carry in +his breast the hate that drove him to the murder of Judith's father, +then he was the man to remember the humiliation he had suffered at +Lee's hands, to remember and to strike back when the time was ripe. + +Judith had heard of the night in Rocky Bend, a lurid and wonderfully +distorted account from Mrs. Simpson, who had received it in a letter +from her daughter. + +"So that was what Bud Lee did after he kissed me!" mused Judith. + +She sent immediately for Carson and forced from him the full story. +Dismissing Carson, she remained for a long while alone. Only one +remark had she made to the cattle foreman, and that a little aside from +the issue occupying his mind: + +"Keep your weather eye open for what's in the wind," she told him +briefly. "Behind Quinnion is Trevors, and the year isn't over yet." + +The ranch was stocked to its utmost capacity. Carson had bought +another herd of cattle; Lee had added to his string of horses. The dry +season was on them, herds were moved higher up the slopes into the +fresh pastures. Carson, converted now to the silos, was a man with one +idea and that idea ensilage. Again the alfalfa acreage was extended, +so that each head of cattle might have its daily auxiliary fodder. +Carson now agreed with Judith in the matter of holding back sales for +the high prices which would come at the heels of the lean months. + +The man Donley, who had brought to the ranch the pigeons carrying +cholera, was tried in Rocky Bend. The evidence, though circumstantial, +was strong against him, and the prosecution was pushed hard. But it +was little surprise to any one at the ranch when the trial resulted in +a hung jury. The ablest lawyer in the county had defended Donley, and +finally, late in August, secured his acquittal. The man himself did +not have ten dollars in the world; the attorney taking his case was a +high-priced lawyer. Obviously, to Judith Sanford at least, Bayne +Trevors was standing back of every play his hirelings made. + +Doc Tripp had the hog-cholera in hand. And every day, out with the +live stock whose well-being was his responsibility, he worked as he had +never worked before, watchful, eager, suspicious. "If they'll drop +cholera down on us out of the blue sky," he snapped, "I'd like to know +what they won't try." + + +For the first few days following the dance Bud Lee had within his soul +room but for one emotion: he had held Judith in his arms. He had set +his lips on hers. He went hot and cold with the remembrance. Being a +man, he made his man-suppositions of the emotions that rankled in her +breast. He imagined her contempt of a man who by his strength had +forced her lips to wed his; he pictured her scorn, her growing hatred. +He told himself that he should go, rid the ranch of his presence, take +his departure without a word with her. For, already, he had fitted her +into his theory of the perfect woman, lifting her high above himself +and above the human world. It was a continued insult for him to remain +here. + +But, after careful thought, he remembered what Judith had already told +him; he was one of the men whom she could trust to do her work for her, +one of the men she most needed, a man whom she would need sorely if +Bayne Trevors were lying quiet now but to strike harder, expectedly, +later. + +Judith did not dismiss him, as at first he had been sure she would. So +he stayed on, remaining away from the ranch headquarters, sleeping when +he could in the cabin above the lake, spending his days with his +horses, avoiding her but keeping her personality in his soul, her +interests in his heart. When the winter had passed, when she had made +her sales and had the money in hand for the payments upon the +mortgages, then he would go. Whereat, no doubt, the high gods smiled. + +As time passed, there came about a subtle change in the attitude of the +outfit toward Pollock Hampton, whom they had been at the beginning +prone to accept as a "city guy." It began to appear that under his +lightness there was often a steady purpose; that if he didn't know +everything about a ranch, he was learning fast; that in his outspoken +admiration of things rough and manly and primal there were certain +lasting qualities. Whereas formerly his being thrown from a spirited +mount was almost a daily occurrence, now he rode rather well. With +tanned face and hard hands, he was, as Carson put it, "growing up." + +He came to Judith one day serious-faced, thoughtful-eyed. + +"Look here, Judith," he began abruptly, "I'm no outsider just looking +on at this game. You're the chief owner and the boss and I'm not +kicking at that any longer. Your dad raised you to this sort of thing +and you have a way of getting by with it. But, on the other hand, I'm +part owner and you've got to consider me." + +Judith smiled at him. + +"What now, Pollock?" she asked. + +"You're the boss," he repeated stoutly. "But I've got a right to be +next in authority. Under you, you know. Why, by cripes, I go around +feeling as if I had to take orders from Carson or Tripp or any other of +the foremen!" + +"'By cripes' is good!" laughed Judith. "Go ahead." + +"That's all," he insisted. "You can tell them, when you get a chance, +that I am your little old right-hand man. Suppose," he suggested +vaguely, "that you left the ranch a day or so. Or even longer, some +time. There's got to be some one here who is the head when there is +need for it." + +Judith mirthfully acquiesced. Hampton's interest was sufficiently +heavy for him to be entitled to some consideration. Besides, she had +come to experience a liking for the boy and had seen in him the change +for the better which his new life was working in him. Further, she +meant to make it her business that she did not leave the ranch for a +day or so, or an hour or so, when she should be there. Consequently, +within a week Pollock Hampton was known humorously from one end to the +other of the big ranch as the Foreman-at-Large. + + +Marcia Langworthy, visiting in southern California, wrote brief, sunny +notes to Hampton, intricate letters to Judith. The mystery of Bud Lee +of which she had had a glimpse when the artist, Dick Farris, and Lee +recognized each other as old friends had piqued her curiosity in a way +which allowed that young daughter of Eve no rest until she had made her +own investigations. She wrote at length, telling Judith all that she +had learned of Lee. How he had been quite the rage, my dear. Oh, +tremendously rich, with great ranch in the South, a wonderful adobe +hacienda of the old Spanish days, where, like a young king, he had +entertained lavishly. How, believing in his friends, he had lost +everything, then had dropped out of the world, content equally to allow +that world to believe him soldiering in France or dead in the trenches +and to take his wage as a common laborer. Wasn't it too romantic for +anything? + +In due course, following up her letters, Marcia herself came back to +the Blue Lake ranch, Judith's guest now. The major and Mrs. Langworthy +were visiting in the East--it seemed that they always visited +somewhere--and Marcia would stay at the ranch indefinitely. Hampton +drove into Rocky Bend for her and held the girl's breathless admiration +all the way home, handling the reins of his young team in a thoroughly +reckless, shivery manner. + +"Isn't he splendid?" cried Marcia when she slipped away with Judith to +her room. + +Under the bright approval of Marcia's eyes Hampton flushed with +pleasure. Could Mrs. Langworthy have seen them together she would have +nudged the major and whispered in his ear. + +During the two months after the dance, Bud Lee and Judith had seen +virtually nothing of each other. When routine duties or a necessary +report brought them for a few minutes into each other's society there +was a marked constraint upon them. Never had the man lost the stinging +sense of his offense against her; never had Judith condescended to be +anything but cool and brief with him. While no open reference was made +to what was past, still the memory of it must lie in each heart, and +though Lee held his eyes level with hers and drank deep of the warm +loveliness of her, he told himself angrily that he was beneath her +contempt. The chivalry within him, so great and essential a part of +the man's nature, was a wounded thing, hurt by his own act. The old +feeling of camaraderie which had sprung up between them at times was +gone now; they could no longer be "pardners" as they had been that +night in the old cabin. + +He told himself curtly that he did not regret that; that now it was +inevitable that they should be less than strangers since they could not +be more than friends. That the girl was ready to forgive him, that she +had never been as harsh with him as he was himself, that there was a +golden, delicious possibility that she should feel as he did--so mad an +idea had not come to Bud Lee, horse foreman. + +A few days after Marcia's arrival there came to the ranch a letter +which was addressed: + + Pollock Hampton, Esq., + General Manager, + Blue Lake Ranch. + + +It was from Doan, Rockwell & Haight, big stock-buyers of Sacramento, +submitting an unsolicited order for a surprisingly large shipment of +cattle and horses. The price offered was ridiculously low, even for +this season of low figures due to the fact that many overstocked +ranches were throwing their beef-cattle and range horses on the market. +So low, in fact, that Judith's first surmise when Hampton brought it to +her was that the typist taking the company's dictation had made an +error. + +Judith tossed the note into the waste-basket. Then she retrieved it to +frown at it wonderingly, and, finally, to file it. It began by having +for her no significance worthy of speculation. It soon began to puzzle +her. Finally, it faintly disturbed her. + +Here were two points of interest. First: Doan, Rockwell & Haight was +the company to which Bayne Trevors, when general manager, had made many +a sacrifice sale. Because the Blue Lake had knocked down to them +before, did they still count confidently upon continued mismanagement? +Surely they must know that the management of the ranch had changed. +And this brought her to the second point: How did it come about that +they had addressed, not her, but Pollock Hampton? Was this just a +trifle? + +Long ago Judith had told herself that she must keep her two eyes wide +open for seeming trifles. In spite of her, though she scoffed at her +"nerves," the girl had the uneasy conviction that this offer had been +prompted by Trevors; that Trevors, for purposes of his own, had given +instructions that the letter be addressed to Hampton; that this was the +first sign of a fresh campaign directed against her from the dark; that +trouble was again beginning. + +Thoughtfully she smoothed out the letter, impaling it on her file. + + + + +XXII + +PLAYING THE GAME + +Pollock Hampton, Foreman-at-Large, came and went on the ranch, carrying +orders, taking always a keen interest in whatever work fell to hand, an +interest of a fresh kind, in that it was born of a growing +understanding. The men grew to like him; Bud Lee tactfully sought to +acquaint him with many ranch matters which would prove of value to him. +Carson, however, grown nervous over the new method in stock-raising +still in its experimental stage, was given to take any suggestion from +Hampton in the light of a personal affront. + +"Damn him," he growled deep in his throat when Hampton had ridden out +with word to shift one of the herds into a fresh pasture, an act on +which Carson had already decided, "some day I'll just take him between +my thum' an' finger an' anni-hilate him." + +The greater bulk of the stock had been steadily shifted higher in the +hills. The hogs grazed on the slopes at the north of the Lower End; +cattle and horses had been pushed eastward to the little valleys in the +mountains about the lake. Even the plateau, where the old cabin stood, +was now stocked with Lee's prize string of horses. Then, one day +Hampton came galloping through the herds of shorthorns, seeking Carson. + +"Crowd them down to the Lower End again," he shouted above the din. +"Cut out the scrawny ones and haze the rest into the pens." + +Carson's steel-blue eyes snapped, his teeth showed like a dog's. + +"Drunk?" he sneered. "What's eating you?" + +"Do as you're told," retorted Hampton hotly. "Those are orders from +headquarters and it's up to you to obey them. Get me?" + +"If ever I do get you, sonny," grunted Carson, "there won't be enough +of you left for the dawgs to quarrel over. Orders or no orders, I +ain't going to do no such fool thing." + +Hampton reined his horse in closer, staring frowningly at the old +cattleman. The purplish color of rage mounted in Carson's tanned +cheeks. + +"You'll do what you're told or go get your time," he announced tersely. +"We've got an order for five hundred beef cows and we're selling +immediately." + +Carson's jaw dropped. + +"What?" he demanded, not quite believing his ears. "Say that again, +will you?" + +"I said it once," retorted Hampton. "Now get busy." + +"Who are we selling to? I ain't heard about it." + +"An oversight, my dear Mr. Carson," laughed Hampton, his own anger +risen. "Quite an oversight that you were not consulted. We are +selling to Doan, Rockwell & Haight. Ever heard of them?" + +"Who says we're selling?" + +"I say so. And, if you've got to have all the news, Miss Sanford says +so." + +"She does, does she? Hm-m. First I knew of it. What figger?" + +"Really, does that concern you? If the price suits me and Miss +Sanford, who own the stock, does it in any way affect you? I don't +want to quarrel with you, Carson, and I do appreciate that you are a +good man in your way. But just because you have worked here a long +time, don't make the mistake of thinking that you own the ranch." + +With that he whirled his horse, and was gone. Carson, with puckered +brows, stared after him. + +But orders were orders, and Carson though the heart was sore, barked +out his commands to his herders to turn the cattle back toward the +lower fields. He had been converted to the new way, he had grown to +dream of the fat prices his cow brutes would fetch in the winter +market, he knew that prices now were rock-bottom low, that Doan, +Rockwell & Haight were close buyers who before now had cut the throat +of the Blue Lake ranch in sacrifice sales when Bayne Trevors ran the +outfit. + +"We're standing to lose thousan's an' thousan's of dollars," he told +himself in disgust. "All we've spent on irrigation an' fences an' +silos an' ditches, all gone to heck in a han'-basket. Not counting +thousan's of more dollars lost in selling at what we can get this time +of year. It makes me sick, damn throwin'-up sick." + +Riding down a long, winding trail, out through a patch of chaparral +into a rocky gorge, Hampton turned east again toward the higher +plateau. Taking the roundabout way which led from the far side of the +lake and along the flank of the mountain to the table-land, he came to +a scattering band of horses and Tommy Burkitt. + +"Where's Lee?" called Hampton. + +Burkitt grinned at him by way of greeting, and then pointed across the +plateau to a ravine leading to a still higher, smaller, shut-in valley. +Hampton galloped on and a quarter of an hour later came up with Lee. +The horse foreman was sitting still in his saddle, his eyes taking +stock of a fresh bit of pasture into which he planned turning his +horses a little later. It was one of a dozen small meadows on the +mountain creeks where the canon walls widened out into an oval-shaped +valley, less than a half-mile long, where there was much rich grass. + +"Hello, Hampton," called Lee pleasantly. "What's the word?" + +The perspiration streaming down Hampton's face had in no way dampened +his ardor. + +"Big doings," he cried warmly. "We're cutting loose, Bud, at last and +piling up the shining ducats! You're to gather up a hundred of the +most likely cayuses you've got and shove them down to the Lower End. +We're selling pretty heavily to Doan, Rockwell & Haight." + +A new flicker came into Lee's eyes. Then they went hard as polished +agate. + +"I didn't quite get you, Hampton," he said softly. "You say we're +selling a hundred horses? Now?" + +Hampton nodded, understanding nothing of what lay in Lee's heart. + +"On the jump, just as fast as we can get them on the run," he said +triumphantly. "Judith wanted me to tell you." + +"I see," answered Lee slowly. + +His eyes left Hampton's flushed face and went to the distant cliffs. +It was no way of Bud's to hide his eyes from a man, and yet now he did +hide them. He did not want Hampton to see what they showed so plainly, +in spite of his attempt to master his emotion. He was hurt. Long ago +he had offended Judith, and she had waited until now to repay his rude +insult with this cool little slap in the face. She had not consulted +him, she had not mentioned a sale to him, and now she sent Hampton and +did not even come to him with a word of explanation. It was quite as +if she had said: + +"You are just a servant of mine, like the rest, Bud Lee, and I treat +you accordingly." + +Until Judith had come, there had been nothing that this man loved as he +did his work among his horses. He watched them as day after day they +grew into clean-blooded perfection; he appraised their values; he saw +personally to their education, helping each one of them individually to +become the true representative of the proudest species of animal life. +Had he turned his eye now to the herd down yonder he could have seen +the animal he had selected for a brood-mare next year, the +three-year-old destined to draw all eyes as he stepped daintily among +the best of the single-footers in Golden Gate Park, the rich red bay +gelding that he would mate for a splendid carriage team. . . . Oh, he +knew them all like human friends, planned the future for each, the sale +of each would be no sorrow but rather a triumph of success. And now, +to see them lumped and sold to Doan, Rockwell & Haight--even that hurt. +But most of all did Judith's treatment of him cut, cut deep. + +"You're a fool, Bud Lee," he told himself softly. "Oh, God, what a +fool!" + +"The buyers will be here the first thing to-morrow," said Hampton. +"Judith says we're to have everything ready for them." + +"I'll not keep her waiting," answered Lee quietly. And with a quick +touch of the spur he whirled his horse and left Hampton abruptly, going +straight to the plateau. + +"Round 'em up, Tommy," he said sharply. "Every damned hoof of them: +They go back to the corrals." + +Though quick questions surged up in Tommy's brain, none of them was +asked just yet, for he had seen the look on Lee's face. + +It was early in the afternoon when Hampton carried his messages to +Carson and Lee. It was after dark when Lee, his work done, his heart +still sore and heavy, came into the men's bunk-house. It was very +still, though close to a dozen men were in the room. Lee's eyes found +Carson and he guessed the reason for the silence. Carson was in a +towering rage that flamed red-hot in his eyes; under the spell of his +dominating emotion, the men sat and stared at him. + +"Well, what's wrong?" asked Lee coolly from the door. + +"Good goddlemighty!" growled Carson snappishly. "You stan' there an' +ask what's the matter. If they's anything that ain't the matter an' +you'll spell its name to me I'll put in with you. The whole outfit's +going to pot, an' I, for one, don't care how soon it goes." + +"Rather a nice way for a cattle foreman to talk about his ranch, isn't +it?" asked Lee colorlessly. + +"Cattle foreman?" sniffed Carson with further expletives. "Now will +you stan' on your two feet an' explain to me how in blue blazes a man +can be a cattle foreman when there ain't no cattle!" + +"So that's it, is it? I didn't know how close you were selling off----" + +"Don't say _me_ selling! Why, I got silage to run my cow brutes all +winter, what with the dry feed in them canons----" + +Lee didn't hear the rest. It had been his intention to come in and +smoke with the boys, and perhaps play a game of whist. Anything to +keep from thinking. But now, moving on impulse, he turned and left the +shack, going swiftly up the knoll to the ranch-house. + +Just stepping into the courtyard soft under the moon, tinkling with the +play of the fountains, stirred his heart to quicker beating. He had +not set foot here for over two months, not since that night which he +knew he should forget and yet to whose memory he clung desperately. +This was the first time in many a long week that he had gone out of his +way to seek Judith. And now words which Judith herself had spoken to +him one day were now at least a part of the cause sending him to speak +with her. She had said that he was loyal, that she needed loyal men. +He still took her wage, he was still a Blue Lake ranch-hand, he still +owed her his loyalty, though it came from a sore heart. + +If she were hard driven in some way which she had not seen fit to +confide to him, if she were forced to make this tremendous sale, if she +were mad or had at last lost her nerve, frightened at the thought of +the heavy sums of money to be raised at the end of the winter, well, +then it still could do no harm for him to speak his mind to her. +Hampton had told him the price which the horses were to bring; it was +pitifully small and Lee meant to tell her so, to tell her further that +he would guarantee an enormous gain over it if she gave him time. He +would be doing his part though she called him meddler for his pains. +Marcia Langworthy, hidden in a big chair on the veranda, watched him +approach with interest, though Lee was unconscious of her presence. He +had lifted a hand to rap at the door when she called to him, saying: + +"Good evening, Mr. Mysterious Lee. Have you forgotten me?" + +Though he had pretty well forgotten her, it was not necessary to tell +her that he had. He came toward her, putting out his hand. + +"Good evening, Miss Langworthy," he said cordially. "I haven't seen +much of you this time, have I? Two reasons, you know: busy all day and +half the night, for one thing, and for another, Hampton has monopolized +you, hasn't he?" + +Marcia laughed softly. + +"To a man your size the second reason is absurd. . . . Will you sit +down? You see, I am taking it for granted that you come here to see +me. Unless," and her eyes twinkled brightly up at him, "you were +surreptitiously calling on Mrs. Simpson?" + +"I'd love to talk with you," he assured her. "But, as I've just +hinted, my work here has got into the habit of running away with me +into the night. I really came up for a word with Miss Sanford." + +"Oh, didn't you know?" asked Marcia. "Judith isn't here." + +"Isn't here?" He frowned. "No, I didn't know. I haven't seen much of +her lately and didn't know her plans. Where is she?" + +"In San Francisco. Her lawyers sent for her, you know. Something +about a tangle in her father's business. Funny you hadn't heard; she +left Saturday night." + +Saturday? This was Tuesday evening. Judith had been away three full +days. Lee, thinking hurriedly, thought that he saw now the explanation +of Judith's ordering a sale like this. Her lawyers had found what +Marcia called a "tangle" in Luke Sanford's affairs; there had been an +insistent call for a large sum of money to straighten it out, and +Judith had accepted the only solution. + +Still, it didn't seem like Judith to sell like this at a figure so +ridiculously low. Doan, Rockwell & Haight were not the only buyers on +the coast. Lee himself could get more for the horses if he had two +days' time to look around; the cattle were worth a great deal more than +they were being sold for, even with the market down. + +"Did she have an idea what the trouble was before she left?" he asked +finally. + +"Why," said Marcia, "I don't know. You see, she slipped out late +Saturday night after we'd all gone to bed. There was a message for her +over the telephone; she got up, dressed, saddled her own horse and rode +into Rocky Bend alone, just leaving a note for me that she might be +gone a week or two." + +Just why he experienced a sense of uneasiness even then, Lee did not +know. It was like Judith to act swiftly when need be; to go alone and +on the spur of the minute to catch her train; to slip out quietly +without disturbing her guest. + +"You have heard from her since?" he demanded abruptly. + +"Not a word," said Marcia. "She doesn't like letter-writing and so I +haven't expected to hear from her." + +Lee chatted with her for a moment, then claiming work still to be done, +turned to go back down the knoll. A new thought upon him, he once more +came to Marcia's side. + +"I expect I'd better see Hampton," he said. "Do you know where he is?" + +"Where he has been every night since Judith left," laughed Marcia. +"He's old Mr. Business Man these days. In the office." + +There Lee found him. Hampton, his hair ruffled, Judith's table +littered with market reports, and many sheets of paper covered with +untidy figures, looked up at Lee's entrance. + +"Hello, Bud," he said, reaching for cigarette and match. "Got +everything ready for to-morrow?" + +"Why didn't you tell me Miss Sanford had gone away?" was Lee's sharp +rejoinder. Hampton flushed. + +"Devil take those two eyes of yours, Bud," he said testily. "They've +got a way of boring through a man until he feels like they were +scorching the furniture behind him. Well, I'll tell you. While Judith +is away I am running this outfit. And if the men think I'm coming +straight from her with an order they obey it. If they get the notion +she isn't here, they're apt to ask questions. That's why." + +"This sale to Doan, Rockwell & Haight," said Lee quickly. "You didn't +cook that up, did you, Hampton?" + +"Lord, no!" cried Hampton. From its place on a file he took a yellow +slip of paper, tossing it to Lee. "She sent me that this morning." + +It was a Western Union telegram, saying briefly: + +POLLOCK HAMPTON, + Blue Lake Ranch. + +Am forced to sell heavily. Sending Doan, Rockwell & Haight Wednesday +morning, one hundred horses; as many beef cattle as Carson can round +up. Accept terms made in their letter to you last week. + +JUDITH SANFORD. + + +The date-line upon the message gave the sending point as San Francisco. + +"They wrote _you_ a letter offering to buy?" said Lee thoughtfully, his +eyes rising slowly from the paper in his fingers. "How'd it happen +they didn't write to _her_?" + +"Well, it's a natural enough mistake, isn't it? Knowing that she and I +were both part-owners, knowing that we were both here, isn't it quite +to be expected that they would write to the man instead of to the +woman? Of course I gave her the letter as soon as I had opened it." + +"Of course," answered Lee. + +But his thoughts were not with his answer. They were with Bayne +Trevors. He knew that Trevors had long ago sold to these people; he +knew, too, that at least two of the heavy shareholders in the Western +Lumber Company were interested in Doan, Rockwell & Haight. Tom +Rockwell himself was second vice-president of the lumber company. + +"Have you had any other word from Miss Sanford?" he asked. + +"No." + +"Know who her lawyers are?" + +"No. I don't." + +"Anything in her papers here that would tell us?" + +"No. Her papers are in the safe yonder and it's locked and I don't +know the combination." + +"Know what hotel she is stopping at in the city?" + +"No. Look here, Bud; what are you driving at? I don't get you." + +"No?" answered Lee absently. + +What Bud Lee was thinking was: "Here are too many coincidences!" +Little things, each one in itself safe from suspicion. But when he +meditated that the offer had come from this particular firm, that it +had come just a few days before Judith's first departure from the +ranch, that it had been addressed not to her but to Hampton, so that he +must have the opportunity to read it, that she had been called suddenly +to the city, that that call had come after the house was quiet, its +occupants in bed, that no letter had come since she had left, that no +one knew where to reach her--when he passed all of these things in +review the bitterness in his heart died under them and the first +anxiety sprang up anew, grown almost into fear for her. + +"There's just one thing, Hampton," he said, his eyes hard on the boy's +face. "We don't sell a single hoof in the morning. Not a cow nor a +horse until Judith is here herself." + +Hampton, new in his role of general manager, flushed hotly, his own +eyes showing fight. + +"I like you, Lee," he said sharply, his tone that of master to man. +"And I don't want us to quarrel. But Judith wired me to sell, I've +wired the buyers an acceptance and we do sell in the morning!" + +For a full minute Bud Lee stood stone still, staring into Hampton's +face. Then, tossing the telegram to the table, he turned and went out. +His face had gone suddenly white. + +"They've got you somehow, Judith girl," he whispered through tense +lips. "But the fight is still to be made. And, by God, there's a day +of squaring accounts coming for a man named Bayne Trevors!" + +He went to the bunk-house, neither seeing Marcia nor hearing her when +she called after him, and with a word to Carson brought the irate +cattle foreman hurriedly outside. + + + + +XXIII + +THE WRATH OF POLLOCK HAMPTON + +Bayne Trevors's way had ever been to play safe, the way of a coward or +a wise man. Even now, no doubt he was giving an account of himself in +legitimate endeavor at the lumber camp, putting in his appearance at +his regular hour, safe miles lying between him and that which might +occur upon the Blue Lake ranch, establishing alibis, conducting himself +like the man he wished the world to think him. But in the mind of Bud +Lee there was no question, no doubt. Bayne Trevors, or one of Bayne +Trevors's gang, was even at this instant holding Judith somewhere until +this colossal deal could be put over. Trevors or one of his gang--and +Lee's face went whiter, his hands shut tighter into hard fists, as +there came to his mind the picture of Quinnion's twisted face and evil, +red-rimmed eyes. + +"Well?" snapped Carson. "What now?" + +"There's going to be no sale in the morning," said Lee, and at the new +strange tone in Lee's voice Carson jerked up his head, thrusting it +forward, peering at the other through the moon-lit night. + +"Say it again," muttered Carson. "Who said so? Miss Judith?" + +"She isn't here," replied Lee briefly. "Hasn't been here since +Saturday night." + +Now, with more cause than ever, did Carson stare at him. + +"Then what did Pollock Hampton say sell for? By cripes, if this is one +of that young hop-o'-my-thumb's jokes, I'm going up to the house an' +murder him. That's all. An' right now." + +Lee laid a hand on Carson's arm. + +"Hold on, old-timer," he said shortly. "We'll have a talk with him +after a while. Now I want to talk with you." + +Contenting himself with the coldest of brief outlines, Bud Lee told +Carson of Judith's absence and of his own suspicions. Carson, who had +listened to him gravely, at the end shook his head. + +"That's a pretty bald play, Bud," he said slowly. "I don't believe +Trevors would get that coarse in his work. It doesn't look like him a +little bit." + +"Does this sale look the least little bit like Judith?" demanded Lee +sharply. "Is it her style to go over our heads this way, Carson? If +she's got to sell heavily, why pick out this particular set of buyers? +Why is the deal rushed through while she's away? I tell you there's a +nigger in the wood-pile and it's up to you and me to smoke him out. +Come up to the house with me." + +Marcia did not see them as they drew near in the moonlight. For, with +a plan shaping in his brain, Lee judged best that they should not be +seen. He and Carson passed in a wide arc about the left end of the +courtyard, around the end of the house and so to a door opening front +the office to the back of the house. This door he found unlocked and +pushed quietly open. + +Hampton lifted swift eyes, sensing something stern and ominous in this +silent approach. + +"We want to talk things over with you," began Lee. + +"If you've come to bulldoze me out of that deal in the morning," +retorted Hampton, "you might as well keep still. I'm going to sell." + +"I don't know that you'd exactly call it bull-dozing," smiled Lee, +determined to be pleasant with the young fellow as long as possible. +"But you've got sense enough to listen to reason, Hampton." + +"Have I?" jeered Pollock. "Thanks." + +"If Miss Sanford wants the deal to go through," continued Lee, "why, +then, of course, through it goes. If she doesn't, there's going to be +no sale." + +"I tell you she wired me to sell; I showed you the telegram----" + +"But you didn't prove to me that she sent it. You didn't know yourself +whether it had been sent by her or Doan, Rockwell & Haight, or by Bayne +Trevors or the devil himself." He took up the telephone and said into +it, "Western Union, Rocky Bend. . . . That you, Benton? This is Lee +of the Blue Lake. We want to get in communication with Miss Judith +Sanford, somewhere in San Francisco. Send this message to every hotel +there, will you? And rush it: '_Must have word with you immediately. +Important. Telephone_.' Got it? Oh, sign it, Carson and--and Tripp. +Rush it, I tell you, Benton. And if you get in touch with Miss Sanford +in any way, tip us off here, will you? Thanks." + +"She might be visiting with friends," muttered Hampton, little pleased +at the thought that Lee and Carson were seeking to rob him of his newly +acquired importance. + +"Where's Mrs. Simpson?" asked Lee. + +"Gone to bed," answered Hampton. + +"And Miss Langworthy is still on the veranda. Now Hampton, Carson and +I want a look at Miss Sanford's room. Come with us, will you?" + +"I'm damned if I will!" cried the boy hotly. "I don't know what you +are up to, but I'm boss here and I'm giving orders, not taking them. +If there's any reason in all this, I've got the right to know what it +is." + +"Yes," answered Lee thoughtfully. "You've got the right. I just don't +like the looks of affairs, Hampton. I don't believe all that I hear. +I don't believe Miss Sanford sent that wire. I don't believe she is in +San Francisco. I do believe that your friend Trevors has got hold of +her somehow, and that he is playing you for a sucker. That's our +reason in this. Now will you come with us to her room?" + +"Trevors?" said Hampton. Then he laughed. "You are like the rest, +Bud. Trevors is a gentleman, and you try to make him a crook. Such a +scheme as you imagine is absurd and ridiculous. And I won't go prying +with you into Judith's room." + +"Come on, Carson," said Lee. "If Hampton wants to stay here, let him." + +But the young fellow was on his feet, his face flushed, his eyes +excited. + +"You'll get out of this house and do it quick!" he cried sharply. "If +you think for one little minute that I'll stand for your high-handed +actions, you're mistaken." + +At a look from Lee, Carson stepped quickly forward, so that Hampton +stood between them. + +"You come with us," and now Lee no longer sought to be pleasant. "And +keep still or we'll stop your mouth with a yard of cloth. This way, +Carson." + +With right and left arms gripped, with lagging feet and furious eyes, +Hampton went between them to the door. For an instant only did he +struggle; then, with a snort of disgust, seeing the futility of making +a fool of himself, he went quietly. + +Just what he expected as a result of a visit to the girl's room, Lee +did not know. He hoped for some sign to tell him something, anything. + +Quietly the three went through the house until they came to Judith's +dainty blue-and-white bedroom. Here all had been set in order by Mrs. +Simpson. A great vase of rosebuds, brought by Jose this morning, +accepted by Mrs. Simpson with suspicion and searched carefully for a +lurking scorpion or a coiled rattlesnake, stood on a table by the +window. On entering the room a sort of awkward shyness fell over both +Lee and Carson. Hampton, freed now and standing alone, though under +Carson's hard eye, stared at them angrily. + +"When you get through with this foolishness," he told them stiffly, +"you can either apologize or call for your time." + +Neither answered. Carson little by little had come to share Lee's +uncertainty and anxiety; and now, like Lee, sought eagerly to find a +sign--something to tell that Judith had been lured away by Trevors or +Quinnion; or that she had been overpowered here and taken out, perhaps +through a window. + +But Judith had gone Saturday night, and Mrs. Simpson had done her work +thoroughly. It might be well to call the housekeeper and question her. +Had she found a chair overturned, a rug rumpled, a table shoved a +little from its accustomed place? But, again, it would be as well not +to start suspicion and surmise in other minds; if, after all, there +were no true cause for it. Judith _might_ be in San Francisco; she +_might_ have sent the order to sell. + +"Chances is we're smelling powder where there wasn't no shot," said +Carson hesitatingly. + +"Bright boy!" mocked Hampton. "You'll make a great little gumshoe +artist one of these days." + +Had Bud Lee not loved Judith as he did, with his whole heart and soul, +it well might have been that he and Carson and Hampton would have gone +out of the room knowing no more than when they had come in. But it +seemed to Lee that the room which knew Judith so intimately, was +seeking to open its dumb lips to whisper to him of danger to her. He +had come here troubled for her; he stood, looking about him frowningly, +his heart heavy, fear mounting within him. And at length he found a +sign. + +At the far end of the room, in a corner, was Judith's writing-table, on +which were several opened letters, pen and ink, a pad of paper. Lee +stepped to it. If she had been lured away after nightfall, then some +message had come to her. If that message had come by word of mouth, +there was no need seeking it; if it had been a note, fate might have +kept it here. + +Impaled on a sharp file was a sheet of note-paper. The note was brief, +typewritten, even to the signature--that of Doc Tripp. It ran: + +DEAR JUDITH: + +I am afraid of a new trouble. Have spotted another one of T's gang +working for us. Also have got a bullet-hole in my right hand. Nothing +serious so far. Come down right away. Don't let any one see you as I +want to spring a surprise on them. Am not even using the telephone, as +I've a notion they are watching me. Hurry. + +TRIPP. + + +"Come back to the office," said Lee bluntly. And well in front of +Carson and Hampton, who stared wonderingly at the paper in his hand, he +went to the office telephone and called for Tripp. + +"How's your hand?" he asked when Tripp answered. + +"All right," replied Tripp. "Why?" + +"Get it hurt?" + +"No." + +"Did you write Miss Sanford a hurry-up note within the last few days?" + +"No." + +"Sure of that, Doc? Typewritten note?" + +"Of course I'm sure," snapped Tripp. "What's wrong?" + +"God knows," answered Lee shortly. "But you'd better come up here and +come on the jump. Also, keep your mouth shut until you can get a +chance to talk with me or Carson." + +He clicked up the receiver and turned terrible eyes on the two men +watching him. + +"They've got her," he said slowly. "They've got her, Carson. They've +had her since Saturday night!" + +Carson read the note. Only then did it pass into Hampton's hands. The +boy, angered at the way in which he had been ignored, insulted in his +sense of dignity by those words of Lee's to Tripp, "Talk with me or +Carson," seeing the reins of power being snatched from his hands, was +speechless with wrath. + +"You fellows have butted in all I'll stand for!" he cried at them, his +shut fists shaking. "I tell you I'm running this outfit and what I say +goes. I don't believe that Trevors or any man living would do a trick +like that. I tell you it's ridiculous. And, no matter where Judith +is, when she is not here I run the ranch. I need money; she needs +money; we've got a fair chance to sell; I've passed my word we are +going to sell; and by God, we are going to sell." + +In another mood, Hampton would not have spoken this way. In another +mood and with time for argument, Bud Lee would have expostulated with +him. Now, however, Lee said tersely: + +"Carson, it's up to you and me. Get the boys out, to the last man of +them. Turn every hoof of cattle and horses back into the Upper End. +We've got to do it to-night. Get them into the little valley above the +plateau. We can hold them there, even if they try to force our hands, +which will be like them. I take this to be Trevors's last big play. +And, by thunder, he has mighty near gotten away with it!" + +"Don't you dare do it!" blazed out young Hampton. "Carson, you take +orders from me. Get out of this house and leave the stock where they +are. In the morning----" + +"Go ahead, Carson," cut in Lee's hard voice. "I'll take care of +Hampton here." + +"You will, will you?" cried Hampton. + +With one bound he was at the table, jerking open a drawer. As his hand +sought the weapon lying there, Bud Lee was on him, throwing him back. +Carson looked at them a moment, then went to the door. + +"You're right, Bud," he said calmly as he went out. + +Lee, forcing himself to show a calmness like Carson's, said gently to +Hampton: + +"Can't you see the play? It's up to you to kick in and stop it. +There's a telephone; call up the buyers in Rocky Bend. They're there +now, or at least their drivers are, if they're coming out here in the +morning. Tell them the deal is off." + +"Can't I see?" said Hampton, writhing out of Lee's hands, on his way to +the door. "You bet I can see! If you and Carson think that you can +run me----" + +Then, for good and all, Lee gave over trying to reason with Hampton. +There was too much to be done to waste time. He drew Hampton back, +forcing him against the wall. As he tried to call out, Lee's hand over +his mouth smothered his words. + +"You're coming with me," he said sharply. "Right now." + +Though he struggled, Hampton was little more than a baby in the horse +foreman's muscular grip. Tripped, with a heel behind his calf, he fell +heavily, Lee upon him. Both arms were pinioned behind him, and Lee's +neckerchief thrust into his mouth. He writhed in impotent rage. His +outcries died in his throat, the loudest of them not reaching Marcia's +ears above the creaking of her rocking-chair. Lee still held Hampton's +tied hands gripped in his own. So the two men went out the back door, +down toward the corrals. + +Seeing men hurrying from the bunk-house to the stables under Carson's +snapping orders. Lee called out for Tommy Burkitt. And in a moment, +with bulging eyes, Burkitt came running. + +"Bring out three horses, Tommy," Lee commanded, giving no explanation. +"Hurry, and keep your mouth shut." + +Burkitt obeyed Lee as he always did, silently and unquestioningly. +Very soon he returned, riding, leading two saddled horses. + +"Get into the saddle, Hampton," said Lee sternly. "There's no time for +nonsense. Get up or I'll put you up." + +"Curse you," Hampton said in smothered anger, his tone making clear the +meaning of the indistinct mutter. But he climbed into the saddle. + +"Come on, Tommy." Lee, too, was up, his hand on Hampton's reins. +"We're going up to the old cabin. You're going to ride herd on Hampton +while I do something else. I'll tell you everything when we get there." + +So they rode into the night, headed toward the narrow passes of the +Upper End, Hampton and Lee side by side, Tommy Burkitt staring after +them as he followed. No longer were Bud Lee's thoughts with his +captive, nor with the herds Carson's men were driving back to the +higher pastures. They were entirely for Judith, and they were filled +with fear. She had been gone for three full days; she was somewhere in +the clutch of Trevors or of one of his cutthroats. He thought of her, +of Quinnion's red-rimmed, evil eyes, and as he had not prayed in all +the years of his life Bud Lee prayed that night. + + + + +XXIV + +A SIGNAL-FIRE? + +Lee left Hampton securely bound and under Tommy Burkitt's watchful eyes +in the old cabin, and rode straight back to the ranch-house. Marcia +was not yet in bed and he made his first call upon her. Marcia was +delighted, then vaguely perturbed, as he made known his errand without +giving any reason. He wanted to see the note from Judith. Marcia +brought it, wondering. He carried it with him to Judith's office and +compared it carefully with scraps of her handwriting which he found +there. The result of his study was what he had expected: the writing +of the note to Marcia was sufficiently like Judith's to pass muster to +an uncritical eye, looking, in fact, what it purported to be, a very +hasty scrawl. But Lee decided that Judith had not written it. He +slipped it into his pocket. + +Tripp was waiting for him, impatient and worried, when he came back +from the Upper End. From Tripp he learned that one of the men, a +fellow the boys called Yellow-jacket, had unexpectedly asked for his +time Saturday afternoon and had left the ranch, saying that he was sick. + +"He's the chap who brought the fake note from you," said Lee. "It's +open and shut, Doc. Another one of Trevors's men that we ought to have +fired long ago. The one thing I can't get, is why he didn't do a +finished job of it and hang around until Miss Sanford left, then get +away with the note. It would have left no evidence behind him." + +"She must have locked her door and windows when she went out," was +Tripp's solution. "And probably he didn't hang around wasting time and +taking chances." + +Tripp's boyish face had lost its youthful look. His eyes, meeting +Lee's steadily, had in them an expression like Lee's. + +"If it's Quinnion--" Tripp began. Then he stopped abruptly. + +Lee and Tripp were together in the office not above fifteen minutes. +Then Tripp left to return to the Lower End, to get the rest of the men +out, to help in the big drive of cattle and horses which must be +returned to the shut-in valleys of the Upper End. Lee went to the +bunk-house, slipped revolver and cartridges into his pockets, took a +rifle and rode again to the old cabin. + +"It's Trevors's big, last play," he told himself gravely, over and +over. "He'll be backing it up strong, playing his hand for all that +there's in it, and he'll have taken time and care to fill in his hand +so that we're bucking a royal flush. And there's only one way to beat +a royal flush, and that's with a gun. But I can't quite see the whole +play, Trevors; I can't quite see it." + +There were enough men to do the night's work without him and Tommy +Burkitt, and Lee gave no thought now to Carson, swearing in the +darkness of some shadow-filled gorge. He did not know what the +morrow's work would be for him, but he made his preparations none the +less, eager for the coming dawn. He fried many slices of bacon while +Hampton glared at him and Tommy watched him interestedly; he made a +light, compact lunch, such as best "sticks to a man's ribs," wrapped it +in heavy paper and slipped the package into the bosom of his shirt. He +completed his equipment with a fresh bag of tobacco and many matches. +He loaded his rifle, added a plentiful supply of ammunition to his +outfit from the box on the shelf. Then he went outside to be alone, to +frown at the black wall of the night, to think, to await the dawn. + +"I'm coming to you, Judith girl," he whispered over and over to +himself. "Somehow." + + +Dawn trembled over the mountain-tops, grew pale rose and warm pink and +glorious red in the eastern sky, and Bud Lee, throwing down his coiled +rope which had been put into service a dozen times during the night, +said shortly: + +"Here we camp, boys. I'll leave you my fried bacon, Tommy, and take +the raw with me. You're not even to light a fire. And you're to stick +here until I come for you." + +They had travelled deeper and deeper into the fastnesses of the +mountains, mounting higher and higher until now, in a nest of crags and +cliffs, on a flank of Devil's Mountain, they could look far to the +westward and catch brief glimpses of the river from Blue Lake slipping +out of the shadows. They had gone a way which Lee knew intimately, +travelling a trail which brought them again and again under broken +cliffs, where they must use hands and feet manfully, and now and then +make service of a loop of rope cast up over an outjutting crag. + +"They'll never follow us here, Tommy," he said confidently. "If they +do, you've got the drop on them and you've got a rifle. You know what +to do, Tommy, old man." + +"I know, Bud," said Tommy, his eyes shining. For never before had Bud +Lee called him that--"old man." + +Long ago the gag had been removed from Hampton's mouth. Long ago, +consequently, Hampton had said his say, had made his promises. When he +got out of this--glory to be! wouldn't he square the deal, though! Did +Lee know what kidnapping was? That there were such things as laws, +such places as prisons? + +"Here," said Lee not unkindly, "I'll loosen the rope about your wrists. +That's all the chances we're going to take with you. Come, be a sport, +my boy. You're the right sort inside; just as soon as this fracas is +over, when you know that we were right and that all this is a put-up +job on you, your friend Trevors playing you for a sucker and getting +Miss Sanford out of the way, you'll say we were right and I know it." + +"That so?" snapped Hampton. "You just start now and keep going, Bud +Lee, if you don't want to do time in the jug." + +Tommy Burkitt, staring back across the broken miles of mountain, canon, +and forest, his eyes frowning, was muttering: + +"Look at that, Bud. What do you make of it?" + +For a little Lee did not answer. He and Tommy and Hampton, standing +among the rocks, turned their eyes together toward the hills rimming in +the northern side of Blue Lake ranch. + +"I make out," said Lee slowly, "that Trevors means business and that +Carson has got his work cut out for him this morning, Tommy." + +For the thing which had caught the boy's eyes was a blaze on the ridge, +its flames leaping and ricking at the thinning darkness, its smoke a +black smudge on the horizon, staining the glow of the dawn. And +farther along the same ridge was a second blaze, smaller with distance, +but growing as it licked at the dry brush. Still farther a third. + +"If that fire ever gets a good start," muttered Lee heavily, "it's +going to sweep the ranch. God knows where it will stop. And just how +Carson is going to fight fire with one hand and hold his stock with the +other, I don't know." + +But even then he turned his eyes away from the ranch, sweeping the +ragged jumble of mountains about him. Judith was gone. Judith needed +him and he did not dare try to estimate the soreness of her need. What +did it matter that Carson and Tripp and the rest had their problems to +face back there? There was only one thing all of the wide world that +mattered. And did not even know where she was, north, south, east, or +west! Somewhere in these mountains, no doubt. But where, when a man +might ride a hundred miles this way or that and have no sign if he +passed within calling distance of her? + +In his heart Bud Lee prayed, as he had prayed last night, asking God +that he might come to Judith. And it seemed to him, standing close to +God on the rocky heights, that his prayer had been heard and answered. +For, far off to the east, still farther in the solitude of the +mountains, rising from a rugged peak, a thin line of smoke rose into +the paling sky. + +It might be that Judith was there. It might be that she was scores of +miles from the beckoning smoke. But Lee had asked a sign and there, +like a slender finger pointing to the brightening sky, was a sign. + +He stooped swiftly for rifle and rope and packet of bacon. + +"Where you goin', Bud?" asked Tommy. + +"To Judith," answered Bud Lee gently. + +For in his heart was that faith which is born of love. + + + + +XXV + +THE TOOLS WHICH TREVORS USED + +To Judith life had changed from a pleasant game in the sunshine to a +hideous nightmare. In a few dragging hours she had come to know +incredulity, anxiety, misery, dejection, black hopelessness, and icy +terror. She had come to look through a man's eyes at that which lay in +his heart, to feel for the first time in her fearless life that the +fortitude was slipping out of her bosom, that the strength was melting +in her. + +She lay on a rude bed of fir-boughs, an utter, impenetrable blackness +like a palpable weight on her eyeballs. When it was silent about her, +and for the most part silence reigned with the oppressive gloom, she +yearned so for a little sound that she moved her foot along the rock +floor under her or snapped a dry twig between her fingers or even +listened eagerly for the coming of the terrible woman who was her +jailer. + +Gropingly, again and again she went over in her thoughts the long +journey here, seeking fruitlessly to know whether she had come north, +south, or east from the ranch-house. It was one of these three +directions, for there were no such mountains as these to the west, no +such monster cliffs, no deep cavern reaching into the bowels of the +earth The sense that, even were she freed, she had no slightest idea +where she was, which way she must go, stunned her. + +"Will I go mad after a while?" she wondered miserably. "Am I already +going mad? Oh, God, have mercy on me----" + +From the instant when, Saturday night, she had been gripped suddenly in +a man's strong arms, when another man had smothered her outcry, she had +known in her heart that Bayne Trevors was taking his desperate chance +in the game. But in the darkness she had had only the two vague blurs +of their bodies to guess at. They had been masked; her own eyes were +covered, a bandage brought tightly over them, her mouth gagged, her +hands tied behind her, her body lifted into the saddle--all in a +moment. Neither man had spoken. Then, tied in the saddle, she only +knew that she was riding, that one man rode in front of her, leading +her horse, the other following close behind. The sense of direction +which she had lost in those first five minutes she had never been given +opportunity to regain. She might, even now, be a gunshot from her own +ranch; she might be twenty miles from it. + +For the greater part of that Saturday night they had ridden; and when +trails died under them and rocks rose steeply, they walked, she and one +man. The other stayed with the horses. Not once did she hear a man's +voice; she did not know whether it was Trevors himself, or Quinnion, or +some utter stranger who forced her into this hiding. + +They had climbed cliffs, now going down into chasms, now following +roaring creeks or making their way along the spine of some rocky ridge. +The one man with her was masked, his eyes rather guessed at than seen +through the slits of his bandanna handkerchief. He had jerked the +bandage from her eyes, since blindfolded she would make such poor +progress. But still he guarded his tongue. + +"He would speak," she thought, "but that I would recognize his voice. +Trevors or Quinnion? Which?" + +Feeling the first quick spurt of hope when she saw that there was but +one man to deal with, she was aquiver to seize the first opportunity +for flight. But that hope died swiftly as she recognized that no such +opportunity was to be granted her. Once she paused, looking to a +possible leap over a low ledge and escape in a thick bit of timber. +But the two eyes through the slits in the improvised mask had been keen +and quick, a heavy hand was laid on her arm, she felt the fingers bite +into her flesh as he sought to drive into her a full comprehension of +his grim determination that she should not escape. + +It was when they had clambered high upon a mass of tumbled boulders, +topping a ridge, that Judith had seen the man's face. Docilely she had +obeyed his gestures for an hour; now, suddenly maddened at the silence +and the mask over his face, she sprang unexpectedly upon him, shoving +him from the rock on which he had stepped, snatching off his mask as +she did so. For the first time she heard his voice, cursing her coolly +as he gripped and held her. + +It was Bayne Trevors, at last come out the open, his eyes hard on hers. + +"It's just as well that you know whom you are up against," he said as +he held her with his hand heavy on her shrinking shoulder. + +Summoning all of the reckless fearlessness which was her birthright, +she laughed at him coolly, laughed as the two stood against the +sky-line, upon the barren breast of a lonesome land. + +"So you are a fool, after all, Bayne Trevors!" she jeered at him. +"Fool enough to mix first-hand in a dangerous undertaking." + +Trevors shrugged. + +"Yes?" He slipped the handkerchief into his pocket and stared at her +with a glint of anger in the blue-gray of his eyes. He lifted his +broad shoulders. "Or wise man enough to do my own work when needs be, +and when I'd have no bungling? I'm going to square with you, girl. +Square with you for meddling, for a bullet-hole in each shoulder. If +there's a fool in our little junketing party, it's a girl who thought +she could handle a man's-size job." + +They went on, over the ridge and down. Judith made no second attempt +to surprise him, for always his eyes watched her. Nor did she seek to +hold back or in any way to hamper him now. For, swiftly adjusting +herself to the new conditions, she made her first decision: Trevors did +think her a "fool of a girl," Trevors did sneer at her helplessness in +that man's way of his. Let him think her a little fool; let him hold +her in his contempt; let him grow to think her cowed and afraid and +helpless. Then, when the time came---- + +Again she had been blindfolded; seeing the look in Trevors's eyes, she +had offered no objection. Again she had followed him in a darkness +made at sunrise by a bandage across her eyes. Again, the bandage +removed, she winked at the sunlight. Again they climbed ridges, +dropped down into tiny valleys, fought their way along thunderous +ravines where the water was lashed into white foam. Again blindfolded, +again trudging on, her whole body beginning to tremble with fatigue, +the weakness of hunger upon her. And at length, out of a canon, making +a perilous way up the steep walls of rock, they came to the mouth of +the black cavern in which she lay now, waiting for the sound of a +stirring foot. + +Only an instant had Judith stood upon the ledge outside the cave before +she was thrust into the black interior. But in that instant her eager +eyes had made out, upon a tiny bit of table-land across the chasm of +the gorge, a cabin, sending aloft a plume of smoke. + +Then, after an hour, the terrible woman had come to whom Trevors had +intrusted her, bringing food and water in her hard, blackened hands, +carrying the flickering fires of madness in her unfathomable eyes. A +lantern set on the floor made rude shadows, and out of them crept this +woman, leering at Trevors, peering at Judith, licking her thin lips, +and chuckling to herself. + +"I have brought her back to you, Ruth," he said, speaking softly, more +softly than Judith had thought the man could speak. "You will know +what to do with her. And you will not let her escape you again." + +The mad woman, for only too plainly was her reason strangely misshapen, +stood in silence, her great muscular body looming high above Judith's, +a giant of a woman, bigger than Trevors even, broad and heavy, her +forearms thick and corded, her bare throat like the bull neck of a +prize-fighter. + +"I will know, I will know," she said, her eyes filled with cunning, her +voice a strange singsong oddly at variance with the coarse bigness of +her body. "Oh, no, she will never escape from me again." + +"I will have a man on the ledge outside night and day," went on +Trevors. "But we cannot be so sure of others as we are of ourselves, +Ruth. You know that, don't you?" + +"Oh, yes, I know," she answered quickly. As she spoke she suddenly +shot out her long arm so that her great, bony hand fastened like a big +claw on the girl's shoulder. "I have got her again! She is mine, all +mine. Oh, I will keep her well." + +In a little while Trevors left. He had not returned. Mad Ruth, still +gripping Judith's shoulder, half led her, half thrust her farther back +in the cavern. Judith made no resistance. Always, even when terror +was uppermost she held one thought in mind: "If I can make them think +me a little fool and a weakling, my chance may come after a while." + +As the two women passed around a bend in the sinuous tunnel-like cave, +the faint rays of the lantern they had left behind them died out, and +heavy darkness shut them in. Judith could barely make out the huge +form towering over her. But Ruth, whether her eyes were like a cat's +and accustomed to this sombre place, or whether a hand on a rock wall +or a foot on the uneven floor under her told her which way to go, moved +on without hesitation. Judith estimated roughly that they had come +fifty yards from the outside ledge in front of the cave when she was +pushed down and felt the rude bed of fir-boughs under her. + +"So," grunted the woman, for the first time removing her hard hand from +the girl's shoulder, "I've got you again, my pretty. And this time you +don't play any more little tricks on your old mother." + +She was gone swiftly, all but silently, through the gloom, her form +vaguely outlined against the lantern's glimmer, to bring the food and +water which she had set down when she came in. Judith drank and ate. + +It was only little by little, in fragments which she obtained during +the slow days which followed, that she came to understand Trevors's +scheme. And the scheme was in keeping with the man; so far as it was +possible, Bayne Trevors was still playing safe. + +Mad Ruth was an odd mixture of crazed suspicion, shrewd cunning, +cruelty, and madness. Perhaps very long ago--Judith came to believe +that it had occurred at the time when she had gone mad, for God knows +what reason--Mad Ruth had had a little daughter. The girl had been +lost to her, whether through death when an infant, or some tragic +accident when a young girl, Judith never knew. But Ruth's heart had +been bound up in that baby of hers; when madness came, it centred and +turned upon the return of her child, "Who had run away from her, but +who would come back some time." Trevors, having learned of her mad +passion, had shaped it to his purpose. + +But that was not all. Judith had been brought to the cave early Sunday +morning. Sunday afternoon there came to the cave a well-dressed man +carrying a little black bag in his hand. He talked with Ruth; he took +up the lantern and came to look at Judith. + +"So I'll know you again," he laughed. Then he went away. In fragments +which through long, empty hours her busy mind pieced together, bridging +the gaps, she grasped the rest of Trevors's plan. This man was a +physician, sent here from some one of the many mining towns in the +mountains, probably from a camp twenty or thirty miles away. He, too, +was a Trevors hireling. Should Judith ever accuse Trevors of having +brought her here, there was another story to be told. And this man +would tell it: How he had been summoned here to attend a girl who had +had a fall, who had wandered delirious through the mountains until Ruth +had found her; whom he had treated here, not daring at first to move +her for fear of permanent shock to her reason; who could give them no +help to establish her identity; who had a thousand absurd fears and +fancies and accusations to make; who in her babbling had at one time +accused Bayne Trevors of having forcibly abducted her; who at another +had cried that it was a man named Carson, a man named Lee, who had +brought her here. + +Judith spent many a long hour exploring her prison, hoping to find a +way out. So far as she knew she had but one person to reckon with, Mad +Ruth. True, Trevors had said that he'd have a man on the ledge outside +day and night; Judith had never seen such a person, had never heard his +voice, and began to believe that it was a bit of bluff on Trevors's +part. But she had never again been where she could look out of the +cave's mouth, since Mad Ruth had her own pallet on the floor at the +narrowest part of the cave where it was like the neck of a monster +bottle, and always at the first sound of the girl's approach, was on +her feet to thrust her back. Clearly there was no way out of this +place of shadows except that through which she had come. + +Judith sought an explanation of her imprisonment, and after long +groping she came very near the truth: Trevors would work his will with +Hampton through Hampton's faith in him and admiration for him. And, in +her absence, Hampton was the head of Blue Lake ranch. + + +Sunday night, hearing Mad Ruth moving cautiously, Judith raised herself +on her elbow, listening. She was confident that the woman was moving +toward the cave's mouth; she hoped wildly that Mad Ruth was tricked +into believing her asleep and was going out. Her shoes in her hands, +her stockinged feet falling lightly, Judith moved toward the mad +woman's couch. + +Ruth was going out; was in fact even now slipping out of the narrow +throat of the cave and to the ledge. But Judith could not see her. +For a new, unexpected obstacle was in her way. Her outthrust hands +touched not rock walls but heavy wooden panels; she knew then that the +narrow neck of the cave was fitted with a heavy door and that it had +been drawn shut, fastened from without. In a sudden access of fury and +despair she beat at it with her two hands, crying out bitterly. + +It was so dark, so inky black, and as still, save for her own outcry, +as a tomb sealed and forgotten. Such darkness, smothering hope, +suddenly was filled with vague terrors; for one worn-out and nervous as +Judith was, the darkness seemed to harbor a thousand ugly things which +watched her and mocked at her despair and reached out vile hands toward +her. She called loudly, and for answer had the crazed laugh of Mad +Ruth which floated in to her from without, but which seemed to drop +down from the void above. + +"Judith, Judith," the girl whispered after the first outburst, when she +found that she was shaking pitifully. "You've got to do better than +this; I'm ashamed of you." + +She went back to her couch, where she sat down seeking to hold her +jangling nerves in check. But, despite her intention, she sat shaking, +listening, listening--praying for even the footfall of her jailer. + +When Ruth was with her she attempted in a hundred ways to gauge the +woman's warped brain, to seek some way to get the better of her, to +gain her trust and so to slip away. But she found that here was the +usual cunning born of madness, and that Ruth's one idea was to keep the +girl who had escaped her once but who must never escape again. There +were times when suspicion awakened in Ruth's mind, and she broke into +violent rage, so that her big body shook and her eyes in the +lantern-light were cruel and murderous, when Judith shrank back, and +tried to change the woman's thoughts. For more than once had Mad Ruth +cried out: + +"I'll kill you! Kill you with my own hands to keep you here. To keep +you mine, mine, mine!" + +The woman carried no weapon, but after her two hands had once gripped +the girl's shoulders, shaking her, Judith knew that Ruth needed no +weapon. Hers was a strength greater than Trevors's, greater than two +men's. If Mad Ruth saw fit to kill Judith with her two hands, she +could do it. + + +Sunday passed and Sunday night; Monday and Monday night. Judith knew +that she had accomplished nothing, except perhaps to make Ruth believe +that she was very much of a coward. In Ruth's mad brain that was +little enough, since this did not allay her cunning watchfulness. Then +Judith began to do something else, something actively. Just to be +occupied, was something. Her fingers selected the largest, thickest +branch from her bed of fir-boughs. It was perhaps a couple of inches +in diameter and heavy, because it was green. Silently, cautious of a +twig snapped, she began with her fingers to strip the branch, tough and +pliable. Then the limb must be cut into a length which would make it a +club to be used in a cramped space. She found a bit of stone, hard +granite, which had scaled from the walls and which had a rough edge. +With this, working many a quiet hour, she at last cut in two the +fir-bough. She lifted it in her hands, to feel the weight of it, +before she thrust it under her bed to lie hidden there against possible +need. Poor thing as it was, she felt no longer utterly defenseless. + +Once Mad Ruth, lighting the lantern, had dropped a good match. When +she had gone, Judith secured it hastily, hiding it as if it were gold. +She knew that now and then Mad Ruth went down the cliffs and to the +cabin across the chasm. Always at night and at the darkest hour. When +she heard her go, Judith rose swiftly and went to the heavy door. +Always she found it locked; her shaking at it hardly budged the heavy +timbers. But though she could not see it, she studied it with her +fingers until she had a picture of it in her mind. A picture that only +increased her hopelessness. Barehanded she could never hope to break +it down or push it aside. And above it and below, and on each side, +were the solid walls of stone. + +She no longer knew what day it was. She scarcely knew if it were day +or night. But, setting herself something to do so that she would not +go mad, mad as Mad Ruth, she secured for herself another weapon. +Another bit of stone which her groping fingers had found and hidden +with her club; a jagged, ugly rock half the size of a man's head. Some +little scraps of bread and meat, hoarded from her scanty meals, she hid +in her blouse. + +"If I could stun her, just stun her," she got into the way of +whispering to herself. "Not kill her outright--just stun her----" + +At last, seeing that she must work her own salvation with the crude +weapons given her, Judith told herself that she could wait no longer. +Another day and another and she would be weak from the confinement and +poor food and nervous, wakeful hours. She must act while the strength +was in her. And, if Trevors had spoken the truth, if there were a man +to deal with outside--well, she must shut her mind to that until she +came to it. + +Mad Ruth was gone again, and Judith stood by the thick door, her heart +beating furiously while she waited. It seemed to her eager impatience +that Ruth would never come back. Then after a long, long time she +heard a little scraping sound upon the rock ledge outside, the sound of +a quick step. And then, before she heard the snarling, ugly voice +which she had heard once and had never forgotten, she knew that this +time she had waited too long, that it was not Ruth coming. + +One man--and there might be others. She stepped back to her bed, hid +the two weapons and waited. She must make no mistakes now. + +The door was flung open. Outside it was dark, pitch-dark. But +evidently the man entering had no fear of being seen. He threw down a +bundle of dry fagots, and set fire to them. The blaze, leaping up, +casting wavering gleams to where Judith stood, showed her plainly the +twisted, ugly face of Quinnion, his red-rimmed eyes peering at her, +filled with evil light. + + + + +XXVI + +JUDITH'S PERIL + +"The better to see you by, my dear!" was Quinnion's word of greeting. +Judith made no answer. She drew a little farther back into the +shadows, a little closer to the things she had hidden among the +fir-branches. + +"Ho," sneered Quinnion, his mood from the first plain enough to read in +the glimpses of his face and in the added harshness of his voice. +"Timid little fawn, huh? By God, a man would say from the bluff you +put up that it was all a dream about findin' you an' the han'some Lee +in the cabin together! Stan' off all you damn please; I've come to +tame you, you little beauty of the big innocent eyes!" + +Not drunk; no, Quinnion was never drunk. But, as he came a step +closer, the heavy air of the cave grew heavier with the whiskey he +carried, whiskey enough to stimulate the evil within him, not to quench +it. + +"Stand back!" cried Judith, with a sharp intake of breath. "I want to +talk with you, Chris Quinnion." + +"So you know who I am, do you? Well, much good it'll do you." + +"I know who you are and what you are," she told him defiantly, suddenly +sick of her long hours of playing baby, knowing at the moment less fear +than hatred and loathing. "Listen to me: Bayne Trevors has come out in +the open at last; he has made his big play and is going to lose out on +it. Your one chance now is to let me go and to go yourself. Go fast +and far, Chris Quinnion. For when the law knows the sort Bayne Trevors +is and how you have worked hand and glove with him, it will know just +how much his word was worth when he swore you were with him when father +was killed! Coward and cur and murderer!" + +Quinnion laughed at her. + +"Little pussy-cat," he jeered. "You've got claws, have you? And you +spit and growl, do you? Want me to let you go back to that swaggering +lover of yours, do you? Back to Lee----" + +"That's enough, Quinnion," she said sharply. + +"Is it?" He laughed at her again, and again came on toward her, the +red-rimmed evil of his eyes driving quick fear at last into her. +"Enough? Why, curse you and curse him, I haven't begun yet! When I'm +through with you I'll go fast enough. And he can have you then an' +damn welcome to him!" + +"Stop!" cried Judith. + +His laughter did not reach her ears now, but as he kicked the fire at +his foot and the flames leaped up and showed his face, she read the +laughter in his soul; read it through the gleaming eyes, the twisted +mouth which showed the teeth at one side in a horrible leer. His long +arms thrust out before him, he came on. + +"Oh, my God!" cried Judith. "My God!" + +Then suddenly she was silent. She thought that she had known the +uttermost of fear and now for the first time did she fully know what +terror was. His strength was many times her strength, his brutality +was unbounded, she was alone with him. There was no one to call to, +not even Ruth, the mad woman. + +She was shaking now, shaking so that she could barely stand. Quinnion +came on, his long arms out. . . . + +She felt the strength die out of her body, grew for a moment blind and +dizzy and sick. She tried again to call out to him, to plead with him. +But her voice stuck in her throat. + +He was gloating over her, a look strangely like Mad Ruth's in his eyes. +Good God! He was like Mad Ruth; the same eyes, the same long, powerful +arms, the same look of cunning! In a flash there came to her a +suspicion which was near certainty: this man was blood of Mad Ruth's +blood, bone of her bone; her son, and, like her, tainted with madness. + +He shot out a long arm, his hand barely brushing her shoulder. She +shrank back. He stood, content to pause a moment, to gloat further +over her. + +"You little beauty," he said, panting. "You little white and pink and +brown beauty!" + +Judith had shuddered when he touched her. But a strange thing had +happened to her. His touch had angered her so that she almost forgot +to be afraid, angered her so that the loathing was gone in white hot +hatred, giving her back her old strength. + +Now, though he had the brutal force of a strong man, Quinnion did not +have the swiftness of movement of an alert, desperate girl. Before he +could grasp her motive she leaped toward him and toward the bed of +boughs, found the ragged stone, and lifting it high above her head +flung it full into his face. The man staggered back, crying out in +throaty harshness, a cry of blind rage. But he did not fall, did not +pause more than a brief instant. + +A little dazed, with blood in his eyes, he lunged toward her. She had +found the club now and struck with all her might, again beating into +his face and again and again. He sought to grapple with her and she +beat him back. She saw his hand go to his hip and heard him curse her, +and she leaped in on him and, panting with the blow, struck again. He +flung up his arm. She struck once more. Taking the blow full across +the face, Quinnion reeled back, stumbled at an uneven spot in the rock +floor, balanced, almost falling. . . . + +Only a moment he held thus. But there was a chance to pass him in the +narrow way, and she took her chance, her heart beating wildly. And as +she shot by she struck again. + +She heard him after her, shouting curses, stumbling a little, coming +on. The door was open, thank God, the door was open! She shot +through. If she could but take time to close it! But there was no +time for that; he was almost at her heels. And outside was the ledge +and the dizzy climb down. + +If she slipped, if she fell, well, it would just be a clean death and +nothing more. Quinnion was but a few steps behind her. He had not +fired. Had he perhaps dropped his gun back there in the darkness? Or +was he so sure of taking her, alive and struggling, into his arms in +another moment? + +She was on the ledge. It was dark, pitch-dark. + +But she found a handhold, threw herself flat down and thrust her feet +out over the edge, less afraid of what lay below than what came on +behind her. She was gripping the ledge now with her hands, already +torn and bleeding, her feet swinging, touching sheer rock wall, +slipping, seeking a foothold. Quinnion was just there, above her. She +must move her hands so that he could not reach her. It seemed an +eternity that she hung there, seeking a place somewhere to set her feet. + +She found it, another, lesser ledge which she had almost missed, and +knew that this way she had clambered upward with Bayne Trevors. If she +could only find another step and another before Quinnion came upon her! +She held her club in her teeth; she must not let that go. + +Quinnion was over the ledge, following her. She heard his heavy +breathing, heard him cursing her again. She was going so slowly, so +slowly, and Quinnion would know the way better than she. Quinnion +would make better time in the dark. + +She moved along this lower ledge. At each instant she wondered if it +were to be her last, if she were going to fall, if a swift drop through +the darkness would be the end of life. + +Suddenly there was scarce room in the girl's breast for hatred of Chris +Quinnion, so filled was it with the love of life. She wanted to see +the sun come up again, she wanted the sweet breath of the dawn in her +nostrils, the beauty of a sun-lit world in her eyes. She thought of +Bud Lee. + +Clinging to the rocks, hanging on desperately, taking a score of +desperate chances momentarily, she made her way on and down. She found +scant handhold and, almost falling, dropped her club, heard it strike, +strike again. Black as the night was, its gloom was less than that of +the cavern to which Judith had grown accustomed; little by little she +began to make out the broken surface of the cliffs. The chasm below +was a pool of ink; above were the little stars; in the eastern sky, low +down, was a promise of the rising moon. + +The surge of quickening hope came into her heart. Had she hurt +Quinnion more than she had guessed? For, slowly as she made her +hazardous way down, it seemed to her that Quinnion came even more +slowly. Could she but once get down into the gorge below, could she +slip along the course of the racing stream, she might run and the sound +of her steps would be lost even to her own ears in the sound of the +water; the sight of her flying body would be lost to Quinnion's eyes. + +Then she heard him laughing above her. Laughing, with a snarl and a +curse in his laugh, and something of malicious triumph. Was he so +certain of her then? + +"Ruth!" called Quinnion. "Oh, Ruth! The girl's gettin' away. Goin' +down the rocks. Head her off at the bottom." + +Judith had found, because her fate was good to her, the long slanting +crack in the wall of rock up which she had come that day with Bayne +Trevors. There was still danger of a fall, but the danger was less now +than it had been ten seconds ago. She could move more swiftly now and +confidence had begun to com to her that she could elude Quinnion. But +now, suddenly, she heard Mad Ruth's voice screaming a shrill answer to +Quinnion's shout; knew that Ruth had been in her cabin across the gorge +and was running to intercept her at the foot of the cliffs. + +Well, still there was a race to be run and the odds not entirely +uneven. Ruth must descend the other side of the canon, get down into +the gorge, make the crossing, which, so far as Judith knew, might be +farther up or farther down stream, come to the cliffs below Judith +before Judith herself made her way down. + +Again Judith took what risks the night and the rocks offered her and +thanked God in her soul that it was given her to take a chance in the +open, to use her own muscles in her own fight, not to lie longer, +playing the part of a do-nothing. Now and then, across the void, there +floated to her a little moaning cry from the mad woman's lips. Now and +then she heard a curse from Quinnion above; often from above her, from +below her own feet, from across the chasm, dropping stones, falling +almost sheer, told of haste and death which might come from an unlucky +step. + +Fast as Judith went now, having a fair sort of cliff trail under her, +Mad Ruth went faster. The gorge measured a scant fifty feet between +them and the girl's alert senses told her that already Ruth was on a +level with her. Ruth was winning in the desperate race. She knew her +way down so perfectly, her heart was so filled with madness, that +danger was nothing to her. + +Down and down climbed Judith, caution wedded to haste, as she told +herself that she had a chance yet, that that chance must not be tossed +away in a fall, though it were but a few feet. She must have no +sprained ankle if she meant to see the sun rise to-morrow. + +The flush had brightened in the sky where the moon was so near the +ridge. The moon, too, had joined in the race; with one quick glance +toward it, Judith again discarded caution for haste. She must get down +into the floor of the canon before the moonlight did; she must be +running before its radiance showed her out to Quinnion and Ruth. + +Her hands were cut and bleeding, her heart was beating wildly, already +her body was sore and bruised. But these things she did not know. She +only knew that Quinnion was still coming on above her, and coming more +swiftly now, quite as swiftly as she herself moved, since his feet, +too, were in the better trail; that Mad Ruth had completed the descent +across the chasm and by now must be crossing the stream upon some +fallen log or rude bridge; that one minute more, or perhaps two, would +decide her fate. + +She could see the stream, glinting palely in the starlight. It seemed +very near; its thunder filled her ears. Down she went and down, down +until at last she was not ten feet above its surface, with a strip of +gently sloping bank just under her. She stooped, took firm hold upon a +knob of boulder, prepared to swing down and drop to the bottom. And, +as she stooped, she heard a little whining moan just under her and +straightened up, tense and terrified. Mad Ruth was there before her. +Mad Ruth was waiting. + + + + +XXVII + +ALONE IN THE WILDERNESS + +And Quinnion was coming on. She was trapped, caught between the two of +them. She heard Quinnion laugh again; he, too, had heard Ruth. + +"Oh, God help me!" whispered Judith. "God help me now!" + +There was no time to hesitate. If she stood here, Quinnion would in a +moment wrap his arms about her; if she dropped down, she would be in +the frenzied clutch of Mad Ruth. + +A second she crouched, peering down into the gloom below her, seeking +to make out the form of the mad woman. Then she did not merely drop, +but jumped, landing fair upon the waiting figure, striking with her +boots on Mad Ruth's ample shoulders. A scream of rage from Ruth, a +little, strangling cry from Judith, and the two fell together. Ruth +clutched as she went down and a hand closed over the girl's ankle. +Judith rolled, struck again with the free boot, twisted sharply and +felt the grip torn loose from her ankle. She was free. + +She jumped up and ran and knew that Ruth was running just behind her, +screaming terribly. Judith fell, and her heart grew sick within her. +But again she was up just as Ruth's hand clutched at her skirt, +clutched and was torn away as Judith ran on. Quinnion cursed from +above as she had not yet heard him curse. Ruth reviled both her and +Quinnion for having let her go. + +Judith was running swiftly and felt that she could get the better of +the heavier, older woman in a race of this sort. She stumbled and +fell, and fear again gripped her; it seemed so long before she could +rise and clamber over a fallen log and race on. But the darkness which +tricked her protected her at the same time, playing no favorites now. +Ruth, too, had fallen; Ruth, too, was frenzied at the brief delay. + +Stumbling, falling, rising, staggering back from a tree into which she +had run full tilt, bruised and torn, the girl ran on. At every free +step hope shot upward in her heart; at every fall she grew sick with +dread. + +The canon broadened rapidly, the ground underfoot grew less broken and +littered with boulders and logs. Through tangles of brush she went +blindly, throwing herself forward, falling, rising, falling, rising +again. It was a nightmare of a race, with Ruth always just there, +almost at her heels. She turned as far away from the stream as she +could, keeping under the cliffs where there was less brush; where the +way was more open; where the shadows were thickest. + +She was outdistancing Mad Ruth. Ruth's weird voice came from a greater +distance; the woman was ten, maybe twenty, feet behind her. + +The moon at last rose pale gold above the eastern ridge. And now +Judith could thank God for it. For the canon had widened more and +more, the banks of the river were studded with big trees, there were +wide open spaces between them through which she shot like a frightened +deer, turning this way and that, darting about a clump of little firs, +plunging into the shadows under great sky-seeking cedars, running as +she had never run before and as she knew Mad Ruth could not run. + +Free! She was free. The triumph of it danced in her blood. On she +ran and now Quinnion's voice and Ruth's were confused with the roar of +the river. On she ran and on and on, and but faintly there came to her +the sound of breaking brush somewhere behind her. Never had her blood +sung within her as it sang now; never had the dim, moonlit solitudes of +the mountains opened their sheltering arms to one more grateful to slip +into them, like a wounded child into the soothing embrace of its mother. + +Now again she turned so that her flying steps brought her close to the +water's edge. Louder and louder grew its shouting voice in her ears, +little by little drowning out the sounds of Ruth and Quinnion behind +her. Now, in all the glorious night, there was no sound to reach her +but the sound of running water and her own beating feet. She was free. + +But still she ran, summoning all of the reserve of strength and +will-power which was hers to command. The sky was brightening to the +climbing moon. She must round many a sweeping curve of the river, pass +under many a sheltering, shadowing tree before she dared slow her steps. + +When she felt that she was overtaxing herself, she dropped from the +wild pace she had set herself into a little jogging trot. When her +whole body cried out at the effort demanded of it, she slowed down to a +brisk walk. She was shot through with pain, her throat ached, she was +growing dizzy. But on she went stubbornly. It was a full hour after +the last sound of pursuit had died out after her that she flung herself +down at the water's edge to drink and bathe her arms and face in the +cold stream. And, even then, she chose a spot where the shadow of a +great pine lay like ink over the bank. + + +The moon was high in the sky, the world bright with it, when Judith +left the valley into which the canon had widened and made her way +slowly upward along a timbered ridge to the west. Of Quinnion and Mad +Ruth she now had no fear. Their chance of coming upon her was less +than negligible. She could creep into a clump of thick-standing young +trees and, even if they should come, could watch them go past. But as +they had dropped out of her world, another matter had entered it. The +mountains had befriended her; they had opened their arms to her and +that was all that she had asked of them. They had mothered her, +drawing her into hiding against their bosom. But it was a barren, +barren breast. And already she was hungry, daring to eat but sparingly +of her handful of bread and meat. + +From this ridge, finding an open crest, she stood looking out over the +world. Mile after mile of mountain and canon and cliff fell away on +every side. She sought eagerly for a landmark: to see yonder in the +distance Old Baldy or Copper Mountain or Three Fools' Peak, any one of +the mountains or ridges known to her. And in the end she could only +shake her head and sigh wearily and slip down where she was to fall +asleep, thanking God that she was free, asking God to lead her aright +in the morning. + +The stars watched over her, a pale, worn-out girl sleeping alone in the +heart of the wilderness; the night breezes sang through the century-old +tree-tops; and Judith, having striven to the utter-most, slept in heavy +dreamlessness. + +With the cool dawn she awoke shivering and hungry. Her hair had +tumbled about her face, and sitting up she braided it with numb, sore +fingers. She looked at her hands; they well stained with blood from +many cuts. Her skirt was torn and soiled; her stockings were in +strips; her knees were bruised. But as she rose to her feet and once +more searched the riddle of a crag-broken world, her heart was light +with thankfulness. + +Last night the one friend she had with her was the north star. To-day +she would seek to push on toward the west. In that direction she +believed the Blue Lake ranch lay, though at best it was a guess. But +going westward she could follow the course of the bigger streams, and +soon or late, if her strength held, she would come to some open valley +where men ran stock. Now, she would go down into the little meadow +lying a mile away yonder and seek to find something to eat. If she +could but dig a few wild onions, wild potatoes, they would keep her +alive. West she would go, if for no other reason than because thus she +would be setting her back squarely upon the cavern where Quinnion and +Ruth were. + +The sun rolled into a clear blue sky and warmed her. She made her way +down the long flank of the mountain and into the tiny meadow. For +upward of two hours she remained there, nibbling at roots which she dug +up with a broken stick, seeking edible growths which she knew, finding +little, but enough to keep the life in her, the heart warm in her +breast. Then she went on, over a ridge again, down into a canon and +along the stream which rose here and flowed westward. + +By noon she was faint and sick and had to stop often to rest, her legs +shaking under her. Again she made a scant meal. She had stumbled on a +tiny field of wild potatoes and ate what she could of them, thinking +longingly of a match for a fire. The match which Ruth had dropped she +still had, but she carefully reserved it now, thinking how perhaps a +trout, caught in a pool, might save her life. + +In her already half-starved condition and with the demands constantly +put on her strength, she would grow weaker and weaker if help did not +soon come. But she was still filled with the glory of freedom. + +It was a heart-weary, trembling Judith who late that afternoon made her +way upward along another ridge, seeking anxiously to find from this +lookout some landmark which she had sought in vain last night. In her +blouse were the few roots she had brought with her from the field +discovered at noon. Lying in a little patch of dry grass, resting, she +watched the day go down and the night drift into the mountains, filling +the ravines, creeping up the slopes, rising slowly to the peak to which +she had climbed, seeping into her soul. Never had the passing of the +day seemed to her so majestic a thing, truly filled with awe. Never +until now had the solitudes seemed so vast, so utterly, stupendously +big. Never until now, as she lay staring up into the limitless sky, +having given up the world about her as unknown, had she drunk to the +lees of the cup of loneliness. + +So great was the weariness of her tired body that as she lay still, +watching the stars come out one by one, she was half-resigned to lie so +and let death come to find her. It seemed to her that there in the +rude arms of Mother Earth a human life was a matter of no greater +consequence than the down upon a moth's wing. But she rested a little +and this mood, foreign to her intrepid heart, passed, and she sat up, +again resolute, again ready to make her fight as long as life beat +through her blood. At last she took the one match from her pocket. +She scarcely dared breathe when, with dry grass and twigs piled against +a rock, her dress shielding them from the wind, she rubbed the match +softly against her boot. A sputtering flame, making the blue light of +burning sulphur, died down, creating panic in her breast, then flared, +crackled, licked at the grass. She had a fire and she knew how to use +it! + +When a log was blazing, assuring her that her fire was safe, she rose +swiftly and went in search of the tree she meant to burn. She found a +giant pine, pitch-oozing, standing in a rocky open space where there +was little danger of the fire spreading. Fagged out and eager as she +was, she had not come to the point of forgetting what a great +forest-fire meant. + +She went back to her burning log, for a blazing dry branch which she +carried swiftly to the tree. Then she piled dry grass and dead twigs, +logs as heavy as she could carry, bits of brush. The flames licked at +the tree, ran up it, seemed to fall away, sprang at it again, +hungering. Now and then a long tongue of fire went crackling high up +along the side of the tree. Judith went back to a spot where, in a +ring of boulders, there was another grassy plot, threw herself down an +lay staring at the tongues of fire which were climbing higher and +higher. + +Some one would see her beacon. A forest ranger, perhaps, whose duty it +was to ride fast and far to battle with the first spark threatening the +wooded solitudes; perhaps some crew in a logging-camp, than whom none +knew better the danger of spreading fires; perhaps some cow-boy, even +one of her own men--perhaps Quinnion and Ruth? She then would hide +among the rocks until they had come and gone. Even now, against the +sleep falling upon her, she drew farther back through the tumbled +boulders. Perhaps, Bud Lee. . . . + +She went to sleep beyond the circle of bright light, tired and hungry +and striving against a returning hopelessness, her young body curled up +in the nest she had found, a cheek cuddled against her arm, wondering +vaguely if some one would see her fire and come--if that some one might +be Bud Lee. + + + + +XXVIII + +BACON, KISSES, AND A CONFESSION + +Throughout the night the tree blazed unseen. Judith's eyes were closed +in the heavy sleep of exhaustion. The flames roared and leaped high +skyward, burning branches felt crashingly, to lie smouldering on the +rocky soil, the upstanding trunk glowed, vivid against the sky-line. + +In the early morning at least two pairs of eyes found the plume of +smoke above the still burning giant pine. A man named Greene, one of +the government forest rangers, blazing a new trail over Devil's Ridge, +came out upon a height, saw it and watched it frowningly across the +miles. It called him to a hard ride, perhaps to a difficult journey on +foot after he must leave his horse. He turned promptly from the work +in hand, ran to his horse, swung up and sped back to his cabin, to +telephone to the nearest station, passing the word. Then with axe and +shovel, he began his slow way toward the beacon. + +Bud Lee, from the mountain-top where he and Burkitt had taken Hampton, +saw it. Lee judged roughly that it was separated from him by four or +five miles of broken country, impassable to a man on horseback, to be +covered laboriously foot in a matter of weary hours. + +Lee and Greene approached the signal smoke from different quarters. +Lee from the west, Greene from the northeast. They fought their way on +toward it with far different emotions in their breasts. Greene with +the desire to do a day's work and kill a forest-fire in its beginning. +Lee with the passionate hope of finding Judith. Lee reached his +journey's end first. + +As he came pantingly up the last climb he discharged his rifle again +and again, to tell her that he was coming, to put hope into her. And, +because he was a lover and a lover must be filled with dread when she +is out of his sight, he felt a growing anxiety. She had lighted the +fire last night; what might have happened to her since then? Had she +been wandering, lost all these days? If nothing else, then had she +waited here half the night and in the end had she gone on plunging deep +into some canon hidden to him? Would he find her well? Would he find +her at all? + +Suddenly he called out, shouting mightily, and began running, though +the way was steep. He had seen Judith, he had found her. She was +standing among the scattered boulders, her back to a great rock. She +was waving to him. Her lips were moving, though he could not see that +yet, could not hear her tremulous: + +"Oh, thank God, thank God!" + +"Judith," he called, "Judith!" + +Now, near enough to see her distinctly, he saw that her face was white, +that the hand she held out was shaking, that her clothes were torn, +that she looked pitifully in need of him. But at last, when he stood +at her side, one of the old rare smiles came into Judith's tired eyes, +her lips curved, and she said quietly: + +"Good morning, Bud Lee. You were very good--to come to me." + +"Oh, Judith," he cried sharply. But no other word came to his lips +then. The brave little smile had gone, the whiteness of her face smote +him to the heart. And now she was shaking from head to foot, and he +knew why she had not stepped out to meet him, why she had kept her back +to the rock. He thought that she was going to fall, he saw two big +tears start from the suddenly closed eyelids, and with a little +inarticulate cry he took her into his arms. + +"If you had not come, Bud Lee," she whispered faintly, "I should have +died, I think." + +Very tenderly he gathered her up so that her little boots were swung +clear of the flinty ground and she lay quiet in his arms. He stood a +moment holding her thus, looking with eyes alternately hard and tender +into her face. He wanted to hold her thus always, to watch the glad +color come back into her cheeks, to carry her, like a baby, back across +the weary miles and home. And, oddly, perhaps, the thought came back +to him and hurt him as it had never hurt him before, that he had once +been brutal with her, that he had crushed her in his arms and forced +upon her lips his kiss. He had been brutal with Judith, when now he +could kill a man for laying a little finger on her. + +"I have been a brute with you, a brute," he muttered to himself. But +Judith heard him, her eyes fluttered open and into them came again her +glorious smile. + +"Because you kissed me that night, Bud Lee?" she asked him. + +"Don't!" he cried sharply. "Don't even remember it, Judith." + +"Do you know so little of a girl, Bud Lee," she went on slowly, "to +think that a man can so easily--find her lips with his unless--unless +she wants to be kissed?" + +He almost doubted his ears; he could hardly believe that he had seen +what he had seen in Judith's eyes. They were closed now, she lay quiet +in his arms, it seemed that she had fainted, or, was asleep, so very +white and still was she. He had forgotten that he must carry her to +where he could lay her down and bring water to her, give her something +to eat. He just stood motionless, holding her to him, staring hungrily +down at her. + +"Are you going to play--I'm your baby--all day, Bud Lee?" she asked +softly. + +He carried her swiftly away from the ring of boulders and to a little +grassy, level spot where he put her down with lingering tenderness. +Judith had not been angry with him all these months! Judith had let +him kiss her because she wanted to be kissed--by him! + +He raked some coals out of the ashes, hastily set some slices of bacon +to fry, cursed himself for not having brought coffee and milk and sugar +and a steak and a flask of whiskey and enough other articles to load a +mule. He ran down into the canon and brought water in his hat, +swearing at himself all the way up that he had not brought a cup. He +put his arm about her while she drank; kept his arm about her, kneeling +at her side, while he gave her a little, crisp slice of bacon, held his +arm there when she had finished, watching her solicitously. + +"The two nicest things in the world, Mr. Man," she said, with a second +attempt at the old Judith brightness, "are half-burnt bacon and Bud +Lee!" + +Then, because, though he had been slow to believe, he was not a fool, +and now did believe, he kissed her. And Judith's lips met his +lingeringly. Judith's two arms rose, slipped about his neck, holding +him tight to her. + +The faintest of flushes had come at last into a her cheeks. He saw it +and grew glad as he held her so that he could look into her face. But +now she laid a hand against his breast, holding him back from her. + +"That's all now," she told him, her eyes soft upon him. "Just one kiss +for each slice of bacon, Mr. Lee. But--I'm so hungry!" + +For a little there was nothing to do but for Judith to rest and get +some of her strength back. Lee made of his coat and vest a seat for +her against a rock, sat at her side, his arm about her, made her lean +against him and just be happy. Not yet would he let her tell him of +the horrors through which she had gone. And he saw no need of telling +her anything immediately of conditions as he had left them at the +ranch. Time enough for that when she was stronger, when they were near +Blue Lake. + +Greene, the forester, came at last up the mountain. He noted the +isolated tree, nodded at it approvingly, made a brief tour around the +charred circle, extinguishing a burning brand here and there. + +"What sort of a fool would want to climb way up here to start a fire, +anyway?" he grumbled. + +Then, unexpectedly, he came upon the happiest-looking man he had ever +seen, with his arms about an amazingly pretty girl. Not just the sort +of thing a lone forest ranger counts upon stumbling upon on the top of +a mountain. Greene stared in bewilderment. Bud Lee turning a flaming +red. Judith smiled. + +"Good morning, stranger," said Lee. "Fine day, isn't it?" + +Judith laughed. Greene continued to stare. Lee went a trifle redder. + +"If you two folks just started that fire for fun," grunted Greene +finally, "why, then, all I've got to say is you've got a blamed queer +idea of fun. Here I've been busting myself wide open to get to it." + +"Haven't got a flask of brandy on you, have you?" asked Lee. + +"Yes, I have. And what's more I'm going to take a shot at it right +now. If nobody asks you, I need it!" + +Now, Lee heard for the first time something of Judith's adventure. +For, recognizing the ranger in Greene, she told him swiftly why she had +started the fire, of her trouble with Quinnion, of the cave where +Quinnion had attacked her and of Mad Ruth. Greene's eyes lighted with +interest. He swept off his hat and came forward, suddenly apologetic +and very human, proffering his brandy, insisting with Lee upon her +taking a sip of it. + +Yes, he knew Mad Ruth, he knew where her cabin was. He could find the +cave from Judith's description. Also, he knew of Quinnion and would be +delighted to break a record getting back to his station and to White +Rock. White Rock was in the next county, but so, for that matter, was +the cave. He'd get the sheriff and would lose no time cornering +Quinnion if the man had not already slipped away. + +"I don't know you two real well," said Greene, with a quick smile at +the end, "but if you don't mind, pardner," and he put out his hand to +Lee, "I'd like to congratulate you! I don't know a man that's quite as +lucky this morning as you are!" + +"Thank you," laughed Judith. She rose and shook hands too. "We're at +Blue Lake ranch for the present. Come and see us." + +"Then you're Miss Sanford?" said Greene. He laughed. "I've heard of +you more than once. Greene's my name." + +"Lee's mine," offered Lee. + +"Bud Lee, eh? Oh, you two will do! So long, friends. I'm off to look +up Quinnion." + +And, swinging his axe blithely, Greene took his departure. + +"There are other things in the world besides just cliffs to stare at," +said Judith. "And I would like a bath and a change of clothes and a +chance to brush my hair. And the bacon doesn't taste so good as it did +and I want an apple and a glass of milk." + +So at last they left the mountain-top and made their slow way down. + +As they went Lee told her something of what had happened at the ranch, +how Carson would hold off the buyers, how Tommy Burkitt was assuming +charge of Pollock Hampton. And when they came near enough to Burkitt's +and Hampton's hiding-place, Lee fired a rifle several times to get +Burkitt's attention. Finally they saw the boy, standing against the +sky upon a big rock, waving to them. From Lee's shouts, from his +gestures, chiefly from the fact that Judith was there, Burkitt +understood and freed Hampton, the two of them coming swiftly down a to +Judith and Lee. + +Hampton's face was hot with the anger which had grown overnight. He +came on stiffly, chafing his wrists. + +"These two fools," he snapped to Judith, "have made an awful mess of +things. They've queered the deal with Doan, Rockwell & Haight, they've +made themselves liable to prosecution for holding me against my will, +they've----" + +"Wait a minute, Pollock," said Judith quietly. "It's you who have made +a mistake." + +Briefly, she told him what had happened. As word after word of her +account fell upon Hampton's ears, his eyes widened, the stiffness of +his bearing fell away, the glint of anger went out of his eyes, a look +of wonder came into them. And when she had finished, Hampton did not +hesitate. He turned quickly and put out two hands, one to Lee, one to +Burkitt. + +"I was a chump, same as usual," he grunted. "Forget it if you can. I +can't." + +They went on more swiftly now, the four of them together, Judith +insisting that that last sip of brandy had put new life into her. In a +little, seeing that Judith did in fact have herself in hand, Bud Lee, +with a hidden pressure of her hand, left them, hurrying on ahead, +trying to reach Carson or some of the men in Pocket Valley and to get +horses. + +As he drew nearer the ranch Lee saw smoke rising from the north ridge. +Again he could turn his thoughts a little to what lay in front of him, +wondering what luck Carson had had in his double task of fighting fire +and holding off the buyers. + +At any rate, the Blue Lake stock had not been driven off. The bawling +of the big herds told him that before he saw the countless tossing +horns. Then, dropping down into Pocket Valley from above, he found his +own string of horses feeding quietly. Beyond, the cattle. At first he +thought that the animals had been left to their own devices. He saw no +rider anywhere. Hurrying on, he shouted loudly. After he had called +repeatedly, there floated to him from somewhere down on the lower flat +an answering yell. And presently Carson himself came riding to meet +him. + +Carson's face was smeared with blood; one bruised, battered, discolored +eye was swelling shut, but in his uninjured eye there was triumphant +gladness. + +"We got the sons-o'-guns on the run, Bud," he announced from afar. +"Killed their pesky fires out before they got a good start, crippled a +couple of 'em, counting Benny, the cook, in on the deal, chased their +deputy sheriff off with a flea in his ear, an' set tight, holding our +own." + +"Where'd you get the eye, Carson?" demanded Lee. + +Carson grinned broadly, an evil grin of a distorted, battered face. + +"You want to take a good look at ol' Poker Face," he chuckled. "He +won't cheat no more games of crib for a coon's age. I jus' nacherally +beat him all to hell, Bud." + +"Where are the rest of the men?" Lee asked. + +"Watching the fires an' seeing no more don't get started." + +Then Lee told him of Judith. Carson's good eye opened wide with +interest. Carson's bruised lips sought to form for a whistle which +managed to give them the air of a maidenly pout. + +"He had the nerve!" he muttered. "Trevors had the nerve! Bud, we +ought to make a little call on that gent." + +Then, seeing Lee's face, Carson realized that anything he might have to +remark on this score was superfluous. Lee had already thought of that. + +They roped a couple of the wandering horses, improvised hackamores from +the rope cut in two, and went to meet Judith. Carson snatched eagerly +at her hand and squeezed it and looked inexpressible things from his +one useful eye. He gave his saddled horse to her, watched her and Lee +ride on to the ranch, and sent Tommy to the old cabin for another rope, +while he rounded up some more horses in a narrow canon for Burkitt and +Hampton. + +"You damn' fool," he said growlingly to Hampton, "look what you've +done." + +"Of course I'm a damn fool," replied Hampton, by now his old cheerful +self. "I've apologized to Judith and Lee and Burkitt. I apologize to +you. I'll tell you confidentially that I'm a sucker and a +Come-on-Charlie. I haven't got the brains of a jack-rabbit." + +Carson went away grumbling. But for the first time he felt a vague +respect for Pollock Hampton. + +"He'll be a real man some day," thought Carson, "if the fool-killer +don't pick him off first." + + +"You may come and see me this evening," Judith told Bud Lee as he left +her to Marcia's arms. "I'll be eating and sleeping and taking baths +until then. Thank you for the bacon--and the water--and----" + +She smiled at him from Marcia's excited embrace. Bud Lee, the blood +tingling through him, left her. + +"Before I come to you, Judith girl," he whispered to himself as he +went, "I'll have to have little talk with Bayne Trevors." + + + + +XXIX + +LEE AND OLD MAN CARSON RIDE TOGETHER + +Bud Lee, riding alone toward the Western Lumber Camp, turned in his +saddle to glance back as he heard hoof-beats behind him. It was +Carson, and the old cattleman was riding hard. Lee frowned. Then for +an instant a smile softened his stern eyes. + +"Good little old Carson," he muttered. + +Carson came to his side, saying merely in his dry voice: + +"Mind if I come along, Bud? You an' me have rid into one thing an' +another more'n just once." + +"This is my fight," said Lee coolly. + +"Who said it wasn't?" demanded the other querulously. "Only you ain't +got any call to be a hawg, Bud. Besides, I got a right to see if +there's a fair break, ain't I? Say, look at them cow brutes back +yonder! Don't it beat all how silage, when you use it right, shapes +'em up?" + +Few enough words were said as the miles were flung behind them; few +were needed. A swift glance showed Carson that Lee carried a revolver +in his shirt; his own gun rode plainly in evidence in front of his hip. +What little conversation rose between them was of ranch matters. They +spoke of success now with confidence. These two foremen alone could +see the money in late winter and early spring from their cattle and +horses to carry the Blue Lake venture over the rapids. Then there were +the other resources of the diversified undertaking, the hogs, the prize +stock, the olives, poultry, dairy products. And soon or late Western +Lumber would pay the price for the timber tract, soon, if they saw that +they had to pay it or lose the forests which they had so long counted +upon. Lumber values were mounting every day. + +Neither man, when it chanced that Bayne Trevors's name was casually +mentioned, suggested: "Why not go to the law?" For to them it was very +clear that, once in the courts, the man who had played safe would laugh +at them. Against Judith's oath that he had kidnapped her would stand +Trevors's word that he had done nothing of the kind, coupled with his +carefully established perjured alibi and the lying testimony of the +physician who had visited Judith in the cave. This man and that might +be rounded up, Shorty and Benny and Poker Face, and if any of them +talked--which perhaps none of them would--at most they would say that +they had no orders from anybody but Quinnion. And where was Quinnion, +who stood as a buckler between Trevors and prosecution? And what +buckler in all the world can ever stand between one man and another? + +Now and then Carson sent a quick questioning glance toward Lee's +inscrutable face; now and then he sighed, his thoughts his own. Bud +Lee, knowing his companion as he did, shrewdly guessed that Carson was +hoping that events might so befall that there would be an open, +free-for-all fight and that he might not be forced to play the restless +part of a mere onlooker. Bud Lee hoped otherwise. + +"There's two ways to get a man," said Carson meditatively, out of a +long silence. "An' both is good ways: with a gun or with your hands." + +"Yes," agreed Bud quietly. + +"If it works out gun way," continued Carson, still with that +thoughtful, half-abstracted look in his eyes, "it don't hurt to +remember, Bud, that he shoots left-handed an' from the hip." + +Lee merely nodded. Carson did not look up from the bobbing ears of his +horse as he continued: + +"If it works out the other way an' it's just fists, it don't hurt to +remember how Trevors put out Scotty Webb last year in Rocky Bend. +Four-footed style, striking with his boot square in Scotty's belly." + +Trevors's name was not again referred to even in the vaguest terms. +The road in front of them, at last dropping down into the valley in +which the lumber-camp was, straightened out into a lane that ran +between stumps to the clutter of frame buildings. + +"Something doing at the office," offered Carson, as they drew near. +"Directors' meeting, likely." + +Two automobiles stood in the road ten steps from the closed door of the +unpretentious shack which bore the printed legend, "Office, Western +Lumber Company." The big red touring-car certainly belonged to Melvin, +the company's president. Carson looked curiously at Lee. + +Bud dismounted, dropped his horse's reins, shifted the revolver from +his shirt to his belt where it was at once unhidden and loosely held, +ready for a quick draw. Then he went up the three steps, Carson at his +heels, his gun also unhidden and ready. From within came voices, one +in protest, Bayne Trevors's ringing out, filled with mastery followed +by a laugh. Lee set his hand to the door. Then, only because it was +locked from within, did he knock sharply. + +"Who is it?" came the sharp inquiry. But the man who made it and who +was standing by the door, threw it open. + +"What do you want?" he demanded again. "We're busy." + +"I want to see Trevors," said Lee coolly. + +"You can't. He----" + +Lee shoved the man aside and strode on. Carson, close at Lee's heels, +his eyes glittering, stepped a little aside when once he was within the +room and took his place with his back against the wall close to the +door. + +It was a big, bare, barn-like room, furnished simply with one long +table and half a dozen chairs. Here were five men besides Bayne +Trevors. All except Trevors and the man who had opened the door were +seated; Trevors, at the far end of the room, was standing, an +oratorical arm slowly dropping to his side. + +His eyes met Lee's, ran quickly to Carson's, came back to Lee's and +rested there steadily. Beyond the slow falling of his extended arm, he +did not move. The muscles of his face hardened, the look of triumph +which just now had stood in his eyes changed slowly and in its place +came an expression that was twin to that in Bud Lee's eyes, just a look +of inscrutability with a hint of watchfulness under it, and the +hardness of agate. While a man might have drawn a deep breath into his +lungs and expelled it, neither Lee nor Trevor stirred. + +"What the devil is this?" demanded Melvin from across the table. +"Hold-up or what?" He rapped the table resoundingly. + +"Shut up!" snapped Carson. "It's just a two-man play, Melvin: Lee an' +Trevors." + +"Oh," said Melvin, and sank back, making no further protest. He was no +stranger to Carson or to Bud Lee, and he sensed what might be between +Lee and a man like Trevors. Then shrugging his shoulders, he said +carelessly: "I'm not the man to get in other men's way, and you know +it, Carson. But you might tell your friend Bud Lee that Bayne Trevors +is rather a big man influentially to mix things with. I've just +resigned this morning and Trevors is our new president." + +"Thanks," returned Carson dryly. "I don't think that'll make much +difference though, Melvin. Most likely you'll have two presidents +resigning the same day." + +At last Lee spoke. + +"Trevors," he said quietly, "maybe the law can't get you. But I can. +For reasons which both you and I understand you are going to clear out +of this part of the country." + +"Am I?" asked Trevors. The look of his eyes did not alter, the poise +of his big body did not shift, his hands, both at his sides again, +might have been carved in bronze. + +Then suddenly he laughed and threw out his arms in a wide gesture and +again dropped them, saying shortly: + +"You're playing the game the way I thought you would. You've got a +gun. I am unarmed--begin your shooting and be damned to you!" + +He even stepped forward, his eyes fearlessly upon Lee's, and settled +his big frame comfortably in a chair by the table. + +"Go ahead," he concluded. "I'm ready." + +"That's as it should be!" Lee's voice was vibrant. His hard eyes +brightened. With a quick jerk he drew the revolver from his belt and +dropped it to the floor at Carson's feet. + +Carson, though he stooped for it quickly, did not shift his watchful +eyes from Trevors. For Carson had known more fights in his life than +he had years; he knew men, and looked to Trevor for just the sort of +thing Trevors did. + +As Lee stepped forward, Trevors snatched open the drawer of the table +at his side, quick as light, and whipped out the weapon which lay there. + +"Go slow, Trevors!" came old Carson's dry voice. "I've got you covered +already, two-gun style." + +Trevors, even with his finger crooking to the trigger, paused and saw +the two guns in Carson's brown hands trained unwaveringly upon him. +There was much deadly determination in Carson's eyes. Again Trevors +laughed, drawing back his empty hand. + +"You yellow dog!" grunted Bud Lee, his tone one of supreme disgust. +"You damned yellow dog!" + +Trevors shrugged. + +"You see, gentlemen--two to one, with the odds all theirs." + +"You lie!" spat out Carson. "It's one to one an' I see the game goes +square." He stepped forward, removed the weapon from the table under +Trevors's now suddenly changeful eyes, and went back to his place with +his back to the wall. + +"For God's sake!" cried the one nervous man in the room, he who had +opened the door. "This is murder!" + +Melvin smiled, a smile as cheerless as the gleam of wintry starlight on +a bit of glass. + +"Will you fight him, Trevors?" he asked. "With your hands?" + +"Yes," answered Trevors. "Yes." + +"Move back the table," commanded Melvin, on his feet in an instant. +"And the chairs. Get them back." + +The table was dragged to the far end of the room; the chairs were piled +upon it. + +"Now," and Melvin's watch was in his hand, his voice coming with +metallic coldness, "it's to a finish, is it? Three-minute rounds, fair +fighting, no----" + +But now at last Bayne Trevors's blood was up, his slow anger had +kindled, he was moving his feet restlessly. + +"Damn it," he shouted, "whose fight is this but mine and Lee's? If he +wants a fight, let him come and get it; a man's fight and rules and +rounds and time be damned! Am I to dance around here and sidestep and +fence just for you to look on? . . . Carson!" + +"Well?" said Carson. + +"Lee challenges me, doesn't he? Then I'm the man to name the sort of +fight, am I not? Is that fair?" + +"Meaning just what?" asked Carson. + +"Meaning that I am going to get him, get him any way I can! You let us +fight this out our way, any way, and no interference!" + +"Talk to Bud there," rejoined the old cattleman calmly. "It ain't my +scrap." + +"Then, Lee," snapped Trevors, "come on if you want such a fight as +you'd get if you and I were alone in the mountains, with no man to +watch, a fight where a man can use what weapons God gave him, any +weapon he can lay his mind to, his eye to, his hand to! Or," and at +last the sneer came, "do you want a pair of padded gloves and somebody +to fan you?" + +Carson shifted his glance to Bud Lee's face. Lee merely nodded. + +"Then," cried Carson sternly, "go to it! No man steps in, an' you two +can fight it out like coyotes or mountain-lions for all of me." + +"Your word there will be no interference?" asked Trevors. "For you're +just a fool and not a liar, Carson." + +"My word," was the answer. + + + + +XXX + +THE FIGHT + +Bayne Trevors slipped out of his coat and vest, tossing them to the +pile of chairs on the table. He loosened his soft shirt-collar and was +ready. All of Bud Lee's simple preparations had been made when he +threw his broad hat aside. + +Then came the little pause which is forerunner to the first blow, when +two men measure each other, seeking each to read the other's purpose. + +"It ought to be a pretty even break," muttered Melvin, his interest +obviously that of a sporting man who would travel a thousand miles to +see a fight for a champion's belt. "Trevors has the weight by forty +pounds; Lee has the reach by a hair; both quick-footed; both hard; Lee, +maybe a little harder. Don't know. Even break. The sand will do +it--sand or luck." + +The two men drew slowly together. Their hands came up, their fists +showed glistening knuckles, their jaws were set, their feet moved +cautiously. Then suddenly Bud Lee sprang in and struck. + +Struck tentatively with his left hand that grazed Trevors's cheek and +did no harm; struck terribly with his right hand that drove through the +other man's guard and landed with the little sound of flesh on flesh on +Trevors's chest. Trevors's grunt and his return blow came together; +both men reeled back a half-pace from the impact, both hung an instant +upon an unsteady balance, both sprang forward. And as they met the +second time, they battled furiously, clinging together, striking +mercilessly, giving and taking with only the sound of scuffing +boot-heels and soft thuds and little coughing grunts breaking the +silence. Bayne Trevors gave back a stubborn step, striking right and +left as he did so; caught himself, hurled himself forward so that now +it was Bud Lee who was borne backward by the sheer weight of his +opponent. There was a gash on Lee's temple from which a thin stream of +blood trickled; Trevors's mouth was bleeding. + +"Under his guard, Trevors!" shouted Melvin, on the table now, his face +red, his eyes shining. "Under, under!" + +"Remember, Bud! Remember!" cried Carson. + +"That's it, that's it!" Melvin clapped his two big hands and came +perilously near falling from his point of vantage as Trevors's fists +drove into Lee's body and Lee went reeling back. "Give him hell! A +hundred dollars on Trevors!" + +"Take you!" called Carson without withdrawing his eyes from the two +forms reeling up and down, back and forth across the room. + +"Done!" cried Melvin. "Trevors, a hundred dollars----" + +He broke off, forgetful of his own words. The two men met again, clung +to each other in a ludicrous embrace, broke asunder, and Lee struck so +that his fist, landing fair upon Trevors's chin, hurled the bigger man +back, stumbling, falling---- + +But not fallen. For his back found the wall and saved him. As Lee +came on, rushing at him like a man gone mad, Trevors slipped aside and +struck back, for the critical moment gaining time to breathe. He spat, +wiped his bloody mouth with the back of his hand and again eluded a +rushing attack by ducking and stepping to one side. And ever, when he +sought to save his own body, he struck back, grunting audibly with the +effort. + +They fought everywhere, up and down, back and forth, until every foot +of the floor felt their heavy boots, until each of them was fighting +with all of the force that lay in him, fighting with that swelling +anger which grows at leaps and bounds when two men strive body to body, +when the hot breath of one mingles with the hot breath of the other, +when red rage looking out of one pair of eyes sees its reflection in +the other. Again and again Melvin muttered: "An even break! By God, +an even break!" And over and over did Carson's heart rise in his +breast as he saw Bud Lee drive Trevors, and over and over did his heart +sink when he saw Lee sway and reel under the sledge-hammer blows +beating at face and body. + +In the beginning there had been in Bud Lee's mind but the one thought: +This man had laid his hands upon Judith; this man must be punished and +punished by none other in God's wide world than Bud Lee. Now all cool +thought had fled, leaving just the hot desire to beat at that which +beat at him, to strike down that which strove to strike him down, to +master his enemy, to see the great, powerful body prone at his feet. +Now he was fighting for that simplest, most potent reason in the world, +just because he was fighting. And, though he knew that he had found a +man as quick and hard and strong as himself, still he told himself, +that he must fight a winning fight--there was some good reason why he +must fight a winning fight. + +His whole body was bruised and battered and sore. A glancing blow now +shot him through with pain. Trevors knew how to put his weight behind +his blows, and his weight was well over two hundred pounds. It was +like being hammered with a two-hundred-pound sledge. + +Give and take it was from the first blow, with none of the finesse of a +boxers' match, with less thought of escaping punishment than of +inflicting it. More than once had Bud Lee felt that he was falling +only to catch his balance and come back at Trevors; more than once had +Trevors gone reeling backward, smashing into the wall. Many a time did +Melvin count his money won and lost. And Carson, crouching now, tense, +eager, a little fearful, muttered constantly to himself. + +"They've both got the sand!" grunted Melvin. "Which one draws the +luck?" + +But luck stood by and did not enter into the battle that grew ever +hotter as Bud Lee's and Trevors's gorge rose higher at every blow. It +was to be simply the best man wins, and none of the six men who watched +knew from the beginning until the end who the best man was. What +tricks Trevors knew, he used, and they were met by what cunning lay in +Bud Lee; what strength, what resistance, what power to endure was each +panting body was called upon to the reserve. + +Already the spring had gone out of their steps. They came at each +other for the most part more slowly, more cautiously, but more +determined not to give over. Faces glistening with sweat, grimy with +the dust their pounding feet beat up from the floor, the roots of Lee's +hair red where with a bloody hand he had pushed it back, Trevors's lips +swollen and ugly, they fought on until the men who looked at them +wondered just where lay the limits upon which each depended. + +"Lee's tough," Carson whispered to himself. "Riding every day an' +working . . . Trevors has been setting in a chair. . . . Bud'll wear +him out. . . . My God! Bud, look out! Foot work. . . ." + +Yes, foot work, but not as Carson expected it, not the thing Bud Lee +looked for when he sensed rather than read in Trevors's eyes that a +fresh trick was coming. He was ready for a lifted boot, and, instead, +Trevors, rushing down upon him, threw grappling arms about him, +heedless of the fist smashing again into his cut lips. Trevors doubled +and twisted and got a grip about Lee's middle, at him, seeking to throw +him. + +Down they went together with no particular advantage to either man. +But as they rolled apart and Lee threw out an arm to lift himself +Trevors saw the chance he sought and mightily, brutally, cursing as he +jumped up for it, he drove the heel of his boot down upon Lee's hand on +the floor. + +From Lee's white lips burst an involuntary groan as it seemed to him +that every bone in his hand had been crushed, from Carson a choking cry +of rage, from Trevors a short laugh as he called out sharply: + +"Hands off, Carson! Our fight--any way----" + +Again on their feet, Trevors a second first and with the advantage +clearly his now rushed Lee, seeking to finish what he had begun. And +Bud Lee, his face white and drawn, looking ghastly with the blood +smears across it, moving swiftly but not swiftly enough, went down, +Trevors's weight against him, Trevors's fist beating into his side just +below the arm-pit. + +"Five hundred on Trevors!" shouted Melvin. Carson did not hear him. + +"At him, Bud, go at him!" he was crying over and over. "That's the +last dirty trick he's got. Get him, Buddie. Oh, for Gawd's sake, +Buddie, go get him!" + +Trevors was upon him again, but Lee slipped aside, even rolled over, +managed to get to his feet. Again Trevors bore down upon him, a new +leaping fire in his eyes. Again, though barely in time, Bud Lee +slipped away from him. He drew Trevors's harsh laugh after him and +Trevors's questing, eager fists. Lee put up his arm, his right arm, +guarding his face, and drew away, back and back. Carson was almost +whimpering, calling whiningly: + +"Stand up to him, Bud! Oh, go get him, Buddie!" + +Still up and down the room they went, Trevors rushing at Lee, Lee +taking what blows he must, striking out but little, seeking now only to +pull himself together, to get his head clear of daze and dizziness. +Stepping backward, he again got the wall at his shoulders, slipped to +one side, strove only to get the empty room behind him, succeeded and +let Trevors drive him, drive until again his back was to a wall. + +"Run away, will you?" panted Trevors. "I've got you, damn you. Got +you right." + +Lee didn't answer. He was thinking dully that Bayne Trevors was near +telling the truth, that Bud Lee was almost beaten--almost. That was as +far as a gentleman ever went--just to that desperate "almost beaten." +Not quite. No! not quite. Never that. + +Both men were nearly spent; Carson saw that while he cursed softly in +his corner; Melvin saw it and watched for the end, wondering just how +it would come. Trevors should swing for the point of the jaw, put all +that was in him into a final, smashing blow, beat through an +insufficient guard, do it now, quickly. For both Carson and Melvin saw +another thing, a thing which both had sensed at the outset: Bud Lee was +harder than Bayne Trevors. Lee, slipping away at every step was +getting something back which had nearly gone from him; Trevors was +breathing in noisy jerks; save for the vital fact that he now had two +hands to Bud Lee's one, Trevors was showing more signs of weariness +than Lee. + +"Bud'll get him--somehow," whispered Carson. "Good old Bud. Somehow." + +What Carson and Melvin sensed Trevors knew. He saw that Lee was having +less trouble in eluding him now, that Lee's feet were quicker, lighter +than his, that Lee was beginning to strike back viciously at him, and +when the blow landed, Trevors's big body rocked, shot through with +pain. There came to him the thought which was Melvin's, but it came in +Trevors's way: Now, quickly, before Lee was ready for it, must come the +end. So, for the third time that day Bayne Trevors, with much at +stake, resorted to "what weapons God gave him, what weapons he could +lay his mind to, his eyes to, his hands to"--his feet to. Resorting to +the old trick which came up from South American ports in disreputable +windjammers, which is known to the San Francisco waterfront, he raised +a heavy boot, striking for Lee's stomach, seeking with one low, +horrible blow to double up his already handicapped antagonist in +writhing pain on the floor. + +"An' I gave my word!" bellowed Carson, the sweat on his own tortured +brow. "Oh, my Gawd." + +But just that one brief instant too late did Bayne Trevors lift his +foot. For Bud Lee had expected this, never had forgotten it, had +prayed within his soul that the man he fought would use it. Just by +that fraction of time which has no name was he quicker than Trevors, +and he knew it. Now, as he read the sinister purpose in Trevors's +glaring eyes, as he glimpsed the raised boot as it left the floor, he +lowered his own head, averted it ever so little, stooped--and his hand +closed like locked iron about the calf of Trevors's leg. A stifled cry +from the bulkier man, a little grunt of effort from Lee, Lee straining, +heaving mightily, and Trevors went back, toppled, fought for his +slipping balance, and fell. As he went down Lee was upon him, Lee's +arm about his neck, Lee's weight flung upon him, Lee holding his body +between a powerful pair of knees which rode him as they rode daily some +struggling Blue Lake colt. + +Now Bud's left arm, defying the agony of a broken hand, was around him, +Lee's legs were about the frantically fighting body, and at last Lee's +right hand went its sure way to the thick, bared, pulsing throat. +Trevors's right arm was caught at his side, held there by the body upon +his. His left hand beat at Lee's face, struck and battered again only +to come back like a steam-driven piston to hammer again. But Bud Lee's +pain-racked body clung on, his thumb and fingers sank and sank deeper +into the corded muscles of the heaving throat, crooked like talons, +white and hard and relentless. + +Trevors's eyes were terrible, filled with hatred, red-flecked with +rage. He sought, with a great sudden heave, to roll over. But he +could not shake off the legs which were like stubborn tentacles about +him, could not free his throat of the tensing clutch. He tore at the +wrist, smote again at Lee's head, set his own hand to Lee's throat. In +an instant his hand was back at the hand worrying him, but he was +unable to drag it away. + +His face went white, flamed red, grew purplish. His eyes bulged up at +Lee's, his deep chest contracted spasmodically. Lee, summoning the +force within him, drove thumb and fingers deeper. + +"Got enough?" he panted. + +For the last time Trevors strained with him and they rolled like +death-locked mountain-lions. But still Lee's left arm was about +Trevors's neck, his legs about the tossing body, his hand at Trevors's +throat. Trevors's breath caught, failed him. . . . + +Then and then only did a new look come into the bulging eyes. A look +of more than fear, of utter, desperate terror. Trevors threw up his +hand weakly, then let it fall so that it struck the floor heavily, a +dead weight. + +Lee's grip at the strangling throat relaxed. But he did not move his +hand. + +"Got enough?" he panted again. + +The answer came brokenly, weakly, almost inarticulate. But it did come +and the men drawn close heard it: + +"Yes." + +"You'll get out of the country?" + +"Yes." + +Bud Lee drew back and rose, going to the door swiftly. He stooped for +his hat and passed out. And as Bayne Trevors got unsteadily to his +feet and sank slumping into the chair offered him, two big tears formed +in his eyes and rolled down his cheeks. The first tears in many a +year, the tears of a strong man broken for the first time in his life. + +"Sand did it!" grunted Melvin. "Just sand, Carson." + +"I'll stick aroun' an' see he moves on, Bud," Carson followed Lee to +say. "Oh, he'll go. But I'll just tell him how the boys is headed +this way by now an' it's tar an' feathers for him if he don't mosey +right along. That's something he couldn't stand right now. An', +Bud----" + +He put out his hand and locked Lee's in a grip that made the sore +fingers wince. Then, swinging upon the heel of his boot, he went back +to collect a hundred dollars from Melvin and help Bayne Trevors shape +his plans. + +But Bud Lee did not wait. He was on his horse, swaying a little, an +arm caught in a rude sling, glad to be out in the late sunlight. + +"Fog along, little horse," he was saying dully. "Fog right along. +She's waiting, little horse. Judith is waiting! Think of that. +That's right--fog right along." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +YES, JUDITH WAS WAITING . . . + +At the old cabin above the lake Bud Lee dismounted. His hand in its +rude sling was paining him terribly, demanding some sort of first-aid +treatment. To-morrow he could take it to a doctor; perhaps in an hour +or so he could get Tripp to look to it; just now he must do what he +could for it himself with hot water and strips torn from an old shirt. + +The hand treated first, it was slow, tedious business seeking to remove +the traces of his recent encounter with Trevors; and, though he could +wash his face and manage a change of clothes, there was nothing dapper +about the result. But at length, shaking his head at the bruised face +looking at him from his bit of mirror, he went out to his horse and +rode down the trail that led to the ranch headquarters. Judith was +waiting for him--that was vastly more important than the fact that he +had a crippled hand and a cut or so upon his face. + +Night had descended, serene with stars. He wondered if the boys were +back yet from the lumber-camp. He had met them, as Carson had +predicted he would, riding in a close-packed, silent, ominous body. He +felt assured that they would find no work for them to do at the +company's office, that Carson was right and Trevors would "be on his +way." But he stopped at the bunk-house. + +No, the boys hadn't come in yet. But there was a message for Lee, just +received by the cook. It was from Greene, the forester, brief and to +the point: + +Greene had lost no time in finding the sheriff of the adjoining county +at White Rock and in going with him to the cave. They had found +Quinnion. He was dead, the manner of his death clearly indicated. For +he lay at the foot of the cliffs straight below the cave's mouth, his +face terribly torn and scratched by a mad woman's nails, the mad woman +herself lying huddled and still close beside him. He had allowed the +escape of her captive; she had accused him after the two of them had +gone back to the cavern, had thrown herself upon him, tearing at his +face, and the two had fallen. Mother and son? Lee shuddered, hoping +within his heart that Judith had been mistaken. It was too horrible. + +But, such is youth, such is love. Bud Lee promptly forgot both Chris +Quinnion and Mad Ruth as he went through the lilacs to the house. He +remembered how Marcia had flown once to Pollock Hampton when he had +made a hero of himself, how again just to-day she had gone swiftly to +him because he had made a fool of himself and because it seemed she +loved him. In due time there was going to be a wedding at Blue Lake +ranch. A wedding! Just one? Lee hurried on. + + +Yes, Judith was waiting for him. She was there in the living-room, +curled up on a great couch, lifting her eyes expectantly as his step +sounded on the veranda. A wonderfully gowned, transcendently lovely +Judith; a Judith of bare white arms, round and warm and rich in their +tender curves; a Judith softly, alluringly feminine even in the eyes of +Bud Lee, no longer theorist; a Judith whose filmy gown clung +lingeringly to her like a sun-shot mist, a Judith whose tender mouth +was a red flower, whose eyes were Aphrodite's own, glorious, dawn-gray, +soft with the light shining in them, the unhidden light of love for the +man who came toward her swiftly; the Judith he had first held in his +arms and kissed. + +He came in quickly, his heart singing. The color suddenly ran up hot +and vivid in the girl's cheeks. Standing over her he put out his hand. +But she slipped her own hands behind her. + +"Good evening, Mr. Lee," said Judith brightly. "Really, you have taken +your time in making your first call. Won't you sit down?" + +"No," said Bud Lee gravely. "I'll take mine standing, please!" + +"Like a man to be shot at dawn?" cried Judith. "Dear me, Mr. Lee, that +sounds so tragic. What, pray, are you taking?" + +"A new job," said Lee. "I've come to tell you that just being horse +foreman doesn't suit me any longer. What you need and need right away +is a general manager. That's what I want to be, your general manager, +Judith. For life!" + +Judith laughed softly, happily. Her hands flew out to him like two +little homing birds, and she followed them--home. + +"You'll find your work cut out for you, Mr. Lee," she told him. + +[Illustration: "You'll find your work cut out for you."] + +"It's the kind of work I want," answered Bud Lee. + +Then suddenly her arms went about his neck and tears sprang into her +eyes and she set her lips to the cut he had sought to cover with his +hair, and took his sore, swathed hand tenderly into her own two hands, +laying it against her cheek. + +"Carson telephoned me," she whispered, her lips trembling all of a +sudden. "He told me how Trevors fought . . . and how you fought! And +he was half crying over the telephone, he was so proud of you. And I +am proud of you! And--oh, Bud Lee, Bud Lee, I love you so!" + + +From without came the sound of the Blue Lake boys returning, Carson at +their head. Riding close together they were singing, their voices +floating through the night in an old cowboy song. Mrs. Simpson heard +and ran out into the courtyard to listen. Marcia and Pollock Hampton, +lost to all save each other in the shadows far down the veranda, +listened, and Marcia clapped her hands. The voices were to be heard +from afar, the strong voices of a score of men. The strange thing is +that neither Judith nor Bud Lee heard; that neither had the vaguest +consciousness just then that there were in all the world any other, +mortals than--Judith and Bud Lee. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JUDITH OF BLUE LAKE RANCH*** + + +******* This file should be named 18926.txt or 18926.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/9/2/18926 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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