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diff --git a/29602.txt b/29602.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..31b9560 --- /dev/null +++ b/29602.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8886 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Coyote, by James Roberts + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Coyote + A Western Story + +Author: James Roberts + +Release Date: August 3, 2009 [EBook #29602] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COYOTE *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +THE COYOTE + + + + +THE COYOTE + +A Western Story + +By JAMES ROBERTS + +CHELSEA HOUSE + +79 SEVENTH AVENUE--NEW YORK CITY + + + + +The Coyote + +Copyright, 1925, by CHELSEA HOUSE + +(Printed in the United States of America) + +All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign +languages, including the Scandinavian. + + + + +CONTENTS + + CHAPTER PAGE + I. Rewards Offered 11 + II. A Boy and a Girl 17 + III. The Law 24 + IV. "I Knew He Lied!" 32 + V. A Capture 38 + VI. The Real Low-Down 45 + VII. Where to Hide 52 + VIII. Two Queer Moves 57 + IX. Leave It to Me 65 + X. Caught in the Cellar 71 + XI. Freedom Behind Bars 77 + XII. Against His Ethics 87 + XIII. A Man and His Horse 93 + XIV. The Witness 98 + XV. The Welcome 106 + XVI. The Dixie's Boss 114 + XVII. A Commission 121 + XVIII. In the Night 129 + XIX. Quick Turns 136 + XX. Appeal to the Law 145 + XXI. A Capture 151 + XXII. A Second Capture 160 + XXIII. Quick Facts 165 + XXIV. The Show-down 170 + XXV. Filed! 175 + XXVI. The Prodigal 179 + XXVII. The Desert Code 185 + XXVIII. A Night Summons 194 + XXIX. Gunmen 201 + XXX. The Sheriff's Plight 207 + XXXI. A New Count 215 + XXXII. The Compass Fails 220 + XXXIII. Fast Work 224 + XXXIV. The Compass Wavers 230 + XXXV. Guns in the Night 235 + XXXVI. The Loot 242 + XXXVII. The Test of a Man 245 + XXXVIII. Ten Miles' Start 250 + + + + +THE COYOTE + + + + +CHAPTER I + +REWARDS OFFERED + + +The sign on the tree attracted the man's attention while he was still +far down the slope. He could see the tall pine on the crest of the +ridge above a veritable landmark in that country of stunted timber, +and the square of paper, tacked to its trunk under the lowest +branches, gleamed white against the background of vivid green. + +The air was clear, and every detail of the landscape--the red rocks, +the saffron-colored slopes, the green pines and firs and buck brush, +the white cliffs--everything within sight for miles stood out, +clean-cut in the brilliant sunshine which flooded the empty land under +a cloudless sky. + +When the man, mounted on a lean, dun-colored horse, first looked up at +a turn of the narrow trail and saw the sign, he grunted. Then he +frowned and looked back along the way he had come with a glowing light +of reflection in his gray eyes. He was a tall man, slim and muscular, +clean-shaven, his face and hands bronzed by sun and wind, and his face +open and good-natured. A shock of blond hair showed where his gray, +wide-brimmed, high-crowned hat was pushed back from his high +forehead. + +His dress, though typical of the country which he traversed, was +distinctive, or it might have been a certain natural grace that made +it seem so. He wore a light-gray, soft shirt made of French flannel, a +dark-blue silk scarf, leather chaps over olive-drab khaki trousers, +black, hand-sewed riding boots which displayed their polish despite a +coating of fine dust, silver spurs, and, strapped to his right thigh, +was a worn leather holster, natural color, from which protruded the +black butt of a six-gun. + +On the back of his saddle was tied a black slicker, the raincoat of +the open country, which bulged with a medium-sized pack done up within +it. + +One would have taken him to be thirty, perhaps a year or two more when +his face was serious; but when he smiled, that is, when he smiled +naturally, he looked little more in years than a youth who has just +attained his majority. + +When he smiled the other smile--the smile he now expressed as he +looked up the slope toward the tall pine with the white square of +paper on its trunk--one would have forgotten the smile because of the +sinister, steel-blue look in his eyes, and the direct, piercing +quality of his gaze. + +He walked his horse up the winding trail. His right foot was clear of +the stirrup, and he swung it idly. His left hand, in which he held the +reins, rested lightly on the horn of his saddle, and his right gripped +the cantle at his back. He hummed a ditty of the desert, but his gaze, +keen and alert, continually sought the open stretches of trail above +him, and at regular intervals flashed back along the way he had come. + +In time he reached the top of the ridge and pulled up his horse near +the tree bearing the poster. He dismounted and walked slowly up a +little grade to where he could the better read the legend on the +paper. + +It was printed in large letters, but recent rain had somewhat faded +it. + + FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS REWARD + This will be paid for + THE COYOTE + dead or alive, by San Jacinto County. + JUDSON BROWN, J. P., + Dry Lake. + +This man is tall and light in complexion, gray or blue eyes, good +teeth, his horse said branded CC2, keeps himself neat, dangerous with +gun, squints when mad. Bring him in and get the money. + +The man swore softly as he read the last sentence. "Bring him in an' +get the money," he said snortingly. "You'd think they was talkin' +about a locoed steer that just had to be roped an' drug, or shot an' +hauled. Bring him in an' get the money!" + +There was genuine indignation in his tone as he repeated the offensive +sentence. + +"Well, it can't be me," he said facetiously, aloud. "My name's +Rathburn--a right good name." His eyes clouded. "A right good name +till they began to tamper with it," he muttered with a frown as he lit +a cigarette he had built while perusing the placard. + +He took the stub of a lead pencil from the pocket of his shirt. For +some moments he reflected, staring at the sign on the tree trunk. Then +he laboriously printed on its lower edge: + +Five thousand dollars more from the State of Arizona if you can get +it. + +Rathburn surveyed his work with a grin, replacing the pencil in his +shirt pocket. Then he stepped back and drew his gun. He seemed on the +point of sending a half dozen bullets through the paper when he +suddenly shook his head, glanced hurriedly about him, and shoved the +weapon back into its sheath. + +He walked quickly to his horse, swung into the saddle, and started +down the trail on the western side of the ridge. + +Below him he saw a far-flung vista of rounded, yellow hills, spotted +with the green of small pines and firs. The ground was hard, dry, and +gravelly. There were boulders a-plenty, and long, sharp-edged +outcroppings of hard rock of a reddish hue. There was no sign of +habitation to be glimpsed from the trail leading down from the high +ridge which he had crossed. He continually looked about him with the +interested air of a man who is venturing into a new locality with +which he is not familiar. + +"Dry Lake!" he exclaimed, while his horse pricked up its ears at the +familiar voice. "Good name for it, if it's anywhere in _this_ country. +Hoss, I don't know when we're goin' to drink again. I didn't figure on +hittin' a desert up here." + +He rode on at a brisk jog, down and down the winding trail. Then it +led across a number of the round, low hills, ever westward. + +As the afternoon wore on, more green brightened the landscape and +patches of grass appeared. Then they came upon a small stream +trickling down from the higher slopes to northward where horse and +rider drank their fill and rested in a quiet, secluded meadow off the +trail. + +The man's face was a study as he lay back upon the grass in the cool +shade of a clump of pines. Whimsical and wistful, it was occasionally +lit by a peculiar smile which carried a hint of sadness. His eyes +half closed, dreamily. The smoke from his cigarette curled upward in a +thin spiral in the still air of the altitudes. His horse, with reins +dangling and saddle cinch loosened, cropped the grass which carpeted +the meadow. + +Finally the man arose, tightened the cinch in an absent manner, +mounted, and rode back to the trail to continue on his way. At the top +of the next ridge he halted, looking at a little ranch which lay in a +wide valley a mile or two north of the thread of trail which he could +see winding westward. The place looked poor, poverty-stricken, despite +the small field of living green south of the house and the few head of +cattle grazing along the banks of a little stream which wound through +the valley. + +For some time the rider sat his horse motionless, frowning in +indecision. Then he touched the dun lightly with his spurs, left the +trail, and struck off to the north, following the ridge. He kept his +gaze focused on the little ranch. The only sign of life which he saw +was a heavily-burdened clothesline flapping in the idle breeze which +at this point was wafted down from the mountains. + +When he was almost directly above the small house he turned his mount +down the slope and gaining the floor of the valley, rode at a gallop +for the house. His right hand now rested on his thigh near the +holstered gun. + +As he brought his horse to a stop near the front of the house a girl +appeared in the doorway. He looked at her in pleased surprise. Then +his hat swept low in a gesture of courtesy. + +"Ma'am, I've found this to be a country of scattered habitations," he +said in a musical bass. "So when I glimpsed your abode from yonder +hills I said to myself, 'Rathburn, you're most powerful hungry; maybe +you better pay a call.'" + +His eyes were glowing with an amused light, and a pleasant smile +played upon his lips. + +The girl, who had listened curiously, now laughed in welcome. "There +aren't many places between here and Dry Lake," she said; "and I guess +it would be a pretty hot ride to-day. You can water your horse--and +feed him at the barn, if you wish--and I'll get you something to eat, +if you're not particular." Her eyes danced merrily. + +"Ma'am!" he exclaimed, with mock severity, "I quit bein' particular +when I was--when I was as young as that youngster." + +A boy of ten or twelve had appeared beside the girl. + +"Young man, what're those dirt-looking spots on your face?" asked the +stranger, frowning with his eyes but smiling with his lips. + +"They _ain't_ dirt spots!" returned the boy with spirit, advancing a +step. + +"No?" said the man, feigning intense astonishment. "What _are_ they?" + +"They're freckles," answered the boy stoutly. + +"Oh--oh, _that's_ what they are," said the stranger with a delighted +laugh. "Won't they wash off?" + +"Naw. You can't fool me. You knew what they were!" + +"Well, now, maybe so," observed the man as the girl laughingly turned +inside. + +"Grub'll be ready by time you are," she called back to him. + +"I'll show you where to put your horse," said the boy as the man +looked searchingly up and down the valley. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A BOY AND A GIRL + + +When Rathburn had put up his horse, after giving him a light feed of +grain in the barn, he followed the boy to the rear of the house where +he found water, soap, and a towel on a bench, above which hung a small +mirror. + +The boy left him there, and he soon washed and combed his hair. The +girl opened the rear door for him and he walked through the little +kitchen into a small front room where a table was set for him. + +"Sure, ma'am, I didn't figure on causing you so much trouble," he said +with a smile. "I didn't expect anything but a snack, an' here you've +gone an' fixed a regular dinner--this time of day, too." + +"My experience with men in this country has taught me that when +they're hungry, they're hungry," replied the girl. "And it wasn't much +trouble. Those beans were in the oven and already warm. I just had to +make the coffee. I was expecting my brother." + +"I didn't see any men around the place," he said, beginning to eat. +"If I had I'd have made myself known to them before coming to the +house. Where is he--out with the cattle?" + +He saw her gaze was troubled. "I don't know just where he is--to-day," +she confessed. "He goes away and sometimes doesn't come back for a day +or two." She stood in the doorway. + +Rathburn noted her trim, slim figure and her wealth of chestnut hair. +She was pretty and capable. He surmised that her parents were dead, +although he could not ascribe the reason for this deduction. Evidently +the boy was a younger brother. He wondered if the older brother would +return before he finished eating. + +"How far is it to Dry Lake?" he asked casually. + +"Oh--why, didn't you come from there?" She seemed surprised. + +"No. I came from over to eastward." + +"But it's miles and miles to any place east of here, isn't it?" she +asked, puzzled. "You must have had a long ride." + +A ghost of a frown played on his brows. Then he laughed. "Yes, miss, +I've been ridin' some," he confessed. "I didn't know how far it was to +anywhere or I mightn't have come in this direction." + +She looked at him wonderingly, and again he thought he saw a troubled +look in her eyes. + +"You're going to Dry Lake?" she asked. + +"Yes," he said shortly, and a grim note crept into his voice. "It's +west of here, ain't it?" + +"About fifteen or eighteen miles," she answered. "The trail leads +there from the lower end of this valley--the same trail you came on, I +guess. Are you a cow-puncher?" + +"Don't I look like one, miss?" + +"Yes, you do and--you don't." She was confused by the quality of his +smile. But his eyes seemed to glow at her kindly, with a cheerful, +amused light--altogether honest and friendly. She lowered her gaze and +flushed despite herself. + +"My vocation, miss--you're too young an' pretty to be called ma'am, if +you'll excuse me for saying so--is a peculiar one. I've punched cows, +yes; I've prospected an' worked a bit in the mines. I've scared the +wolf from the 'Welcome' mat by standing off the boys at green-topped +tables, an' once I--I--worked on a sort of farm." He appeared +apologetic as he confessed this last. "I guess I wasn't cut out for a +farm hand, miss." + +She laughed at this. "Are you going to work in Dry Lake?" she asked, +sobering. + +"Well, now, that is a question," he returned, draining his cup of the +last of the coffee. + +"I'll get you some more," she said quickly, taking his cup. "Dry Lake +isn't a very big place, you know." + +"Just how big _is_ Dry Lake?" he asked when she returned from the +kitchen with more coffee for him. + +"Only a hundred or two. But the men from miles and miles go there +because--because there are places there where they can stand the wolf +off at the green-topped tables and--drink." The troubled look was in +her eyes again. "Sometimes the wolf catches up with them before they +get home," she added, smiling faintly. + +"It's not a safe system," he said thoughtfully. + +"But you might get work in Dry Lake," she said hopefully. "You--you +look capable. The cattlemen from back in the hills go there and +they're nearly always looking for men, I've heard. You might meet some +of them and get a job." + +He beamed upon her. "I've always heard that a woman gave a man +encouragement an' ambition, if she was a good one," he mused. "You've +almost got me thinking I'd better go straight to work." + +"Why--didn't--wasn't that your intention?" she asked wonderingly. + +His face clouded. "It ain't always so easy for me to do what I want to +do, miss," he said. "I--you see----" He broke off his speech with a +frown. "This is a queer country, miss," he said earnestly. + +"Oh, I know," she said eagerly. "I'll bet you're an--an officer!" + +Then he laughed. It was the spontaneous laugh of youth, vibrant, +compelling, mirth-inspiring. + +"Say, miss, if there's one thing I ain't tackled yet, it's being an +officer," he chuckled as he finished his repast. + +She smiled vaguely, studying him under her long, dark lashes. The boy +came into the room, holding his hands behind him, and stood with his +sturdy legs braced apart, staring at Rathburn. + +"There he is now!" Rathburn exclaimed. "Did you try to wash the +freckles off?" he queried with a wink. + +"I know who _you_ are!" said the boy. There was admiration and awe in +his wide eyes. + +Rathburn looked at him closely, his brows wrinkling. + +"Yes, I do," said the boy, nodding. "Did he tell you who he is, sis?" +he asked, looking at the girl. + +"Now, Frankie, we don't care who the man is," she reproved. "He was +hungry and he's welcome. What's the matter with you?" + +"I guess you'd be surprised if you knew as much as I do," the boy +boasted. "I guess you'd be surprised all right. I do." + +"I've been surprised more than once at things you knew," the girl said +with a laugh. + +"Yes, but I guess you'd be surprised all right if you knew who _he_ +is," cried the boy, pointing at Rathburn. + +"Come, now, young fellow, don't be getting all het up here," said +Rathburn slowly, drawing tobacco and papers from his shirt pocket. +"What do you find to do with yourself around here?" + +But the youngster was not to be diverted from his topic. "I was +lookin' at your horse," he said, his eyes shining. "That's how I know +for sure an' certain who you are." + +Rathburn gazed at the boy sternly as he touched a match to his +brown-paper cigarette. "My horse is all right, ain't he?" + +"Sure he is," said the boy eagerly. "I bet he can go some, too. He'd +have to go for you to have him, wouldn't he? You're The Coyote!" + +Rathburn continued to smile with an amused tolerance. But the girl +gave a start; her hands flew to her breast, and she stared at the man +with wide-open eyes. + +"Frankie! What are you saying?" she exclaimed. + +The boy triumphantly brought his hands from behind his back. He held +out a poster. + +"His horse has got CC2 for a brand, just like it says in this bill Ed +brought from town!" he cried. "He's The Coyote, all right. But I won't +tell," he added quickly, looking at Rathburn. + +The man avoided the girl's eyes. The boy laid the poster on the table +where she could read it again, word for word. + +"Tall--light in complexion--gray or blue eyes--good teeth--horse +branded CC2--dangerous----" + +And this man was tall and blond, with gray eyes. Five hundred dollars +reward! + +"I won't tell anybody you've been here," the boy continued. "We won't +tell, will we, sis?" He looked at the girl imploringly. + +"My brother Ed says what you want you take," said the boy, gazing at +the man in admiration. "An' he says you don't rob anybody that can't +afford it! He says the banks are insured an' you've been a friend to +more'n one that's just gettin' a start in the cattle. I won't tell +anybody you've been here, an' I won't let sis tell anybody, either!" + +Rathburn was smiling wistfully. "Always tell the truth, sonny," he +said in a low voice. "Don't forget that. I wouldn't want you to lie +for me. Any man that would want you to lie for him wouldn't be a man +a-tall, son. See?" + +"But old Brown, the judge, or the sheriff might come along an' want to +know if you'd been here!" said the boy in breathless excitement. + +"Then tell 'em the truth," said Rathburn smilingly. "Tell 'em a man +with a horse branded CC2 was here an' kidded you about your freckles, +had something to eat, an' rode away. Don't lie, sonny, no matter what +happens." + +The girl took a step toward the table. "You--_are_--The Coyote?" she +asked in a whisper. + +"My name is Rathburn, miss," he replied cheerfully. "In some ways I'm +a lot like the man described in that reward notice. An' I'm riding a +dun-colored horse branded CC2. I don't like that monicker, Coyote, or +I might 'fess up to it." + +"Then--if you're him--you're an outlaw!" she stammered. + +Rathburn's dreamy look shifted to the boy who was staring at him. + +"You'll grow up to be quite a man, son," he said in a fatherly tone. +"Those freckles mean a tough skin. A weak sort of skin tans quick an' +the toughest just sunburns. You're halfway between. That's all right +for freckles; but it don't go in life. It's best to be on one side or +the other, an' the right side's the best for most folks." + +He rose and went for his hat. Then he extracted a roll of bills from a +hip pocket and laid a five-dollar note on the table. + +"That meal was worth it," he said to the girl with a smile. + +She shook her head. "I--I couldn't take it," she said. + +"That's clean money, miss. I earned it circumventin' three of the most +ornery card sharps in Arizona." + +She continued to shake her head. "You do not understand," she +murmured. "It--it wouldn't make any difference. We couldn't take money +from a stranger who came to us--hungry. It wouldn't make any +difference who you were." + +"Aw, we need it, sis!" blurted out the boy. "The Coyote's all right. +He wouldn't lie to us." + +Rathburn laughed and, stepping to the boy, ran his fingers in his +hair. "I guess I've made a friend," he said in a wistful voice. Then +he picked up the bill on the table and stuffed it into the boy's +pocket. His eyes encountered the poster again and they clouded. He +turned away from it. + +"Miss, you'll let me thank you--sure." + +She nodded, retreating a few paces. + +"Then I'll be going," he said, stepping to the door. + +"To--to Dry Lake?" she found the voice to ask. + +"Yes. To Dry Lake." + +He left the house and in a few minutes reappeared from the direction +of the barn, riding his dun-colored horse. He did not stop, but +galloped down the valley, waving a hand in farewell which the boy +answered. + +The day was nearly spent. The sun was low in the west, sliding down +like a ball of gold toward the rim of the blue mountains. A stiff +breeze had sprung up, driving the heat before it. At the lower end of +the valley Rathburn found the trail he had left when he detoured to +the ranch. He turned westward upon it, put spurs to his horse, and +sped toward town. + +It was just as well that the girl could not see the look which came to +his face as he rode into the sunset. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE LAW + + +Night had descended when Rathburn came in sight of the little town on +the edge of the foothills. He rode slowly toward it, staring moodily +at the flickering lights between interlaced branches which waved and +weaved in the wind blowing down from the mountains. In all the +distance he had traveled from the lonely ranch where he had met the +girl and the boy he had encountered no one. He surmised that the trail +to the desert hills to eastward was not a popular one. + +As he neared the town he saw that it consisted of one main street with +buildings clustered about it, and numerous shacks scattered in the lee +of the hills. There were trees close to the eastern end of the street +which he was approaching, and when he reached these trees he +dismounted, led his horse into the shadows, and tied it. + +He walked down the main street, which was illuminated only by the +stars and the yellow gleams of light from windows on either side. + +There were several resorts, and one in particular seemed the most +popular. Rathburn glanced in through the door of this place as he +passed and saw that it consisted of a bar and numerous tables, where +games were in progress. He did not stop but continued on his way. + +Few people were on the street; none of them took any especial notice +of him. Several doors below the largest resort which he had so +casually investigated, he came to a small, one-story, white-painted +building, which, save for the door and window in its front, looked +like a huge box. + +Across the glass in the door was lettered in gold: + + JUDSON BROWN + Justice of the Peace + Notary Public + +A dim light shone within, and, peering through the window, Rathburn +saw that this light came from a lamp in a second room behind the +little front office. + +He looked up and down the street and saw but two pedestrians, both +walking up the other side of the thoroughfare with their back to him. +He tried the door stealthily, found it unlocked, and stepped quickly +inside. Three strides took him to the door of the inside room. + +A man looked up from a small table where he was engaged in writing. He +was a stout man, large of countenance, with small black eyes under +bushy brows which were black, although his hair was gray. He scowled +heavily at the intruder who failed to remove his hat, and who stood, +with feet well apart, in the doorway, a whimsical smile playing on his +lips. + +In a sweeping glance Rathburn saw that the room contained a bed, +wardrobe closet, several chairs, and other articles of furniture and +decoration of a bedroom and living room. His eyes flashed back to the +burly man sitting at the table, pen poised, coolly surveying him with +a frown. + +"Your name Jud Brown?" he asked, stepping inside the room and to the +side of the door toward the table where he could not be seen from the +street. + +"I'm _Judge_ Brown," replied the large man testily. "You should have +knocked before you came in, but now you're here, state your business +as quickly as possible." + +"That's a businesslike tone that I admire to hear, Brown," drawled +Rathburn. "You'll excuse my not callin' you judge. I'm afraid when you +find out who I am you'd think I was kiddin' you!" + +He smiled amiably while the justice glared angrily. + +"You're drunk!" flared Brown. "The best thing you can do is get out of +here--quick." + +Rathburn looked pained. "First you ask me to state my business an' now +you tell me to get out," he complained. "You might as well know that I +never touch likker," he added convincingly. + +Brown was studying him intently with a puzzled look on his face. +"Well," he said finally, with a show of irritation, "what do you +want?" + +"I want you to tell me the why an' the wherefores of this document," +said Rathburn sternly as he drew a folded piece of paper from a pocket +and spread it out on the table before the astonished gaze of the +justice. + +"That's one of a number I saw tacked on trees on the east trail out of +here," continued Rathburn, frowning. "What's it all about, Brown?" + +The pen in the hand of the justice suddenly began to waver as the hand +trembled. Then Brown dropped it, squared away his chair, and looked +grimly at his nocturnal visitor. For some moments his gaze was +concentrated on Rathburn's face. Then he slowly read the poster +offering a reward of five hundred dollars for The Coyote. He wet his +lips with his tongue. + +"So I was right!" he exclaimed. "You _were_ headed in this direction. +I'm assuming that you're The Coyote!" + +"And you're assuming what's the bare, untarnished truth," said +Rathburn. "I'm The Coyote you've offered five hundred for, an' who'll +bring another five hundred in several counties in Arizona, not to +mention five thousand that the State of Arizona has tossed into the +pot. I suppose I'm worth at least ten thousand as I stand here." + +"That would be cheap for a man of your reputation!" said the justice +bravely. "We don't want you across the line in California, Coyote. We +won't put up with your depredations, and if you murder one of our +citizens you'll hang!" + +Rathburn's chilling laugh hung upon the justice's words. "You're +side-stepping the point," he said suddenly in crisp tones that were +like the crack of a whiplash. "You're anticipating events, Jud. That's +my complaint--that's my business here with you." He brought his right +palm down upon the table smartly. + +"An' now that I'm here, Jud, you're sure goin' to listen!" + +"Don't threaten me!" cried the justice. "There are a hundred men +within call and they'd make short work of you if they got their hands +on you. Darn your ornery hide, I'm holding the winning cards in this +game!" he concluded excitedly. + +Rathburn was smiling at him; and it was not his natural smile. It gave +the justice pause as he looked up into those narrowed gray eyes, shot +with a steel-blue light. Rathburn's right hand and wrist moved with +incredible swiftness, and Brown found himself staring into the black +bore of a six-gun. Still he saw the eyes above the weapon. His face +blanched. + +"There are six winning cards in my right hand," Rathburn said slowly. +"You can start shoutin' for those hundred men you mentioned just as +soon as you want. Brown, it's you an' your kind that's made me +desperate--dangerous, like you said in that printed notice. I won't +fool with you or any other man on earth!" + +"What--what did you come here for?" stammered the justice. + +"To get away from--from back there in that cactus-bordered country of +black, lava hills where I was born an' where I belong!" said Rathburn +grimly, sliding into a chair on the opposite side of the table from +Brown. + +"Listen to me! I was driven out. I've ridden for a week with the idea +of gettin' where I wasn't known an' where I could maybe get a fresh +start, and here I find a reward notice staring me in the face from the +top of the first hill I cross after leaving Arizona. I've never been +here before; I've done nothing to molest you or your town; but you sic +the pack on me first off an' hand-running, without any reason, except +that you've _heard_ things about me, I reckon." + +Brown nodded his head as Rathburn finished. A measure of composure +returned to him. His eyes gleamed with cunning as he remembered that +his front door was unlocked and some one might by chance come in. But +he again felt troubled as he conjectured what might happen in such +event. + +"You cannot blame me," he said to Rathburn. "You've robbed, and you're +a killer----" + +"That's what you _hear_?" thundered Rathburn. "I admit several +robberies--holdups of crooked, gambling joints like you've got in this +town, an' petty-larceny bankers who robbed poor stockmen with sanction +of the law. I've killed one man who had it coming to him. But I've +shouldered the blame for every killing an' every robbery that's been +staged in the desert country for the last three years. 'The Coyote did +it,' is what they say, an' the crooks an' gunmen that turned the deal +go free. I'm talking to you, Brown, as man to man--a thing I've never +done with any mouthpiece of the law before. I'm trying to show you +how you an' your kind can make a man an outlaw an' keep him one till +somebody shoots him down. I'm sore, Brown, because I know that one of +these days I'm going to get it myself!" + +The justice saw that the man was in deadly earnest. He saw the hand +resting on the table tighten its grip upon the gun. + +"I didn't know all these things," he said hastily. "I had to judge by +what I heard--and read. Why didn't you make all this known to the +Arizona authorities?" + +Rathburn laughed harshly. "Because I'd be framed clear across the +board," he said jeeringly. "It's the law! It's as much of a crime to +rob a thieving gambler or a snake of a whisky runner or peddler as it +is to rob a home! I've had to rob to live! An' all the while there's +been the makings of one of the hardest-lookin' bad men that this +Southwest country ever saw in me. And, now that I think of it, why the +devil I've held off I don't know!" + +Brown was moved by the sincerity of the man. He saw in Rathburn's eyes +that he was speaking the gospel truth. He saw something else in those +eyes--the yearning of a homeless, friendless man, stamped with the +stigma of outlawry, rebelling against the forces which were against +him, relentlessly hunting him down. + +"You say you came here to start over?" he asked curiously. "How do I +know you won't walk right out of this office and turn a trick right +here in this very town?" + +"You don't know it, that's the devil of it!" exclaimed Rathburn. "An' +there's no use in my telling you I won't, for you wouldn't take my +word for it. You've got me pegged for a gun-fightin' bandit of first +water an' clear crystal, an' I won't try to wise you up because it +wouldn't do any good. Now that you know I'm in this country, you'll +blame the first wrong thing that happens on to me. I've got no +business here talking to you. I'm wasting my breath. You'll have to +find out from somebody besides me that I was telling you the truth, +an' I reckon that coincidence ain't in the pictures. Where's your +handcuffs?" + +The justice stared at him, startled. + +"Where's your handcuffs?" insisted Rathburn angrily. + +"In the drawer of my desk out in front," replied Brown. + +"Go an' get 'em an' bring 'em here," Rathburn commanded. "I'll keep my +drop on you under cover." + +Brown rose and went to his desk in the front room while Rathburn +watched him in the doorway with his gun held under his coat. + +When the justice returned to the inside room Rathburn moved a chair +close against one of the bedposts. He compelled Brown to sit in the +chair, put his hands around between the supports in the back, and +about the bedpost. He handcuffed him in that position. + +Drawing a bandanna handkerchief from a pocket he swiftly gagged the +justice. Then he rummaged about the room until he found a piece of +rope tied about a pack in the bottom of the wardrobe. With this he +secured Brown's ankles to the front legs of the chair. + +"There!" he said, standing back to view his handiwork. "You're pretty +well trussed up. I ain't trusting you any more than you'd trust me, +an' I don't figure on you raising any hue an' cry before I can get +along on my way." + +The eyes of the justice were rolling as he struggled in vain to +speak. + +"Never mind," said Rathburn. "I reckon I know what you want to say. +Under the circumstances, the same being so much on my side, you'd say +you believed me an' all that. But I took a chance in coming here to +tell you what I did an' I never aim to take more'n one chance in a +day. So long." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +"I KNEW HE LIED!" + + +Rathburn extinguished the light in the lamp, walked swiftly to the +front door, and outside. Closing the door softly he turned back up the +street. He sauntered along slowly, debating his next move. Evidently +the town was the last for many miles in the mountainous country east +and north. Westward he would come upon many towns as the country +became more and more densely populated toward the coast. Northwestward +he would be able to keep within the arm of the mountains and still be +in touch with civilization. But he would have to make some changes in +his attire and fix that brand on his horse. + +Instinctively his course brought him to the big resort he had noticed +upon his arrival. The entrance doors had been closed against the chill +of the night, but he could see the interior of the place through one +of the windows despite the coating of dust upon the glass. + +As he peered within he stiffened to alert attention and a light oath +escaped him. Walking swiftly from a rear door was a tall man, the +lower part of his face concealed by a black handkerchief. He held a +gun in each hand and was covering the score or more patrons of the +place who had risen from the tables, or stepped back from the bar, +with their hands held high above their heads. + +"Keep 'em there an' you'll be all right," the masked man was saying in +a loud voice which carried to Rathburn through cracks in the window +glass. "Line up down there, now--you hear me? Line up!" + +The patrons lined up, keeping their faces toward the bandit. + +"If anybody gets to acting uneasylike it'll be the signal for me to +start shootin'--understand?" came the holdup's menacing voice as he +moved around behind the bar. + +"Open both cash drawers," he ordered the servitor in the white apron. +He covered the bartender with one gun while he kept the other pointed +in the direction of the men standing in line. + +Obeying instructions, the bartender took the bills from the cash +drawers and laid them before the bandit on the bar. He then made +several piles of silver near the bills, walking to and from the +drawers of the big cash register. Continuing to do as he was told, he +stuffed the bank notes and silver into the masked man's pockets, one +gun's muzzle against his breast, the other holding the men in line at +bay. + +Rathburn heard footsteps on the walk close to him. He whirled and saw +two men about to enter the resort. "I wouldn't go in there," he said +sharply in a low voice. + +"Eh--what's that?" + +The two men paused, looking at him questioningly. + +"I wouldn't go in there," Rathburn repeated. "Come here an' take a +look." + +One of the men stepped to his side and peered curiously through the +window. + +"Bill!" he whispered excitedly. "Look here. It's a holdup!" + +The other man looked over his shoulder. He swore softly. + +"I'll bet it's The Coyote!" said the first man in an awed voice. + +"Probably is," said Rathburn sneeringly. "They say he was heading this +way." + +"Good place to stay out of--if it's _him_," declared the second man. + +Rathburn suddenly pulled back his left sleeve. "See that?" he said, +pointing to his left forearm. + +The two men stared at the bared forearm in the yellow light which +shone through the dust-stained window. They saw a scar about three +inches below the elbow. + +"Looks like a bullet made that," one of the men observed. + +"You're right," said Rathburn, letting down his shirt sleeve. "A +bullet from The Coyote's gun left that mark." + +The men looked at him wonderingly and respectfully. + +"You boys live here?" asked Rathburn. + +"Sure," was the reply. "We work in the Pine Knot Hotel an' stables. +You from the hills?" + +"Yep," answered Rathburn. "Cow-puncher an' horseshoer an' one thing +an' another. What's he doing now?" He again turned his attention to +the scene within the resort, as did the two men with him. + +The bandit was backing away from the bar toward the rear of the room, +still keeping his guns thrust out before him, menacing the men who +stood with uplifted hands. + +"You can tell your funny judge that I called!" he sang out as he +reached the rear door. "An' now, gents," he continued in an excited +voice, "it won't go well with the man that tries to get out this back +way too soon." + +As he ceased speaking his guns roared. The two large hanging +lamps, suspended from the ceiling in the center, went out to the +accompaniment of shattered glass crashing on the floor. The three +smaller lamps above the back bar next were cut to splinters by +bullets and the place was in total darkness. + +Then there was silence, save for the sound of a horse's hoofs coming +from somewhere behind the building. + +Rathburn drew back from the window as a match flared within and his +two companions moved toward the front door. He stole around the corner +of the building and started on a run for the rear. He stopped when he +heard a horse galloping toward the east end of the street behind the +buildings which lined that side. He hurried behind two buildings which +did not extend as far as the resort and hastened up the street. He did +not once look back. + +Behind him he heard shouts and men running in the street. He increased +his pace until he was running swiftly for the trees where he had left +his horse. From above he caught the dying echoes of hoofs flying on +the trail up the foothills by which he had come early that night. + +The cries down the street increased, a gun barked, and bullets whined +over his head. + +"The locoed fools!" he panted. "Didn't they hear that fellow ride +away?" + +But the shooting evidently was of a promiscuous nature, for he heard +more shots around by the rear of the place where the robbery had been +committed. No more bullets were fired in his direction as he darted +into the black shadows of the trees. + +He quickly untied his horse, mounted, rode in the shelter of the +timber to the east trail, and began the ascent, urging his horse to +its fastest walking gait up the hard trail. The fleeing bandit's +sounds of retreat no longer came to his ears, but he kept on, scanning +the open stretches of trail above in the starlight, a disparaging +smile playing upon his lips. + +Back in the little town excitement was at a high pitch. Extra lamps +had been lighted in the resort where a big crowd had gathered. Several +men ran to the office of Judson Brown, justice of the peace, while +others went in search of the constable. + +When Brown failed to answer the summons at his door, some one +discovered it was not locked, and the little group of men trooped in +to find the justice gagged and handcuffed to his bed. They lighted the +lamp and removed the gag. Then acting upon his instructions they took +a bunch of keys from his pocket and unlocked the handcuffs. + +He stood, boiling with rage, while they alternately hurled questions +at him and told him of the holdup. + +He ignored their questions as to how he came to be bound and gagged +and demanded more details of the robbery. + +"We took him to be The Coyote," said the spokesman of the group. He +had been one of the men the bandit had lined up. "He was tall, an' +blue or gray eyes, an'----" + +"A puncher from up north picked him out through the window," spoke up +one of the men who had encountered Rathburn outside the resort. "He'd +been shot in the forearm by him once--showed us the scar. The robber +was The Coyote, all right." + +"Certainly it was him!" roared Brown. "He came in here, tied me up +after pulling a gun on me, an' threatening to kill me, practically, so +he wouldn't have any trouble pulling his trick. Tried to steer me off +by saying he didn't come here to make any trouble. I knew he lied!" + +The constable came in as the justice was finishing his irate speech. + +"I'm going to lead this chase myself!" cried Brown. "I want The +Coyote, and I'm going to get him. I raise that reward to a thousand on +the spot, and I know the sheriff will back me up. Get out every man in +town that can stick on a horse, and we'll catch him if we have to comb +the hills and desert country till doomsday!" + +Already horsemen were gathering in the street outside. Feeling was +high, for Dry Lake prided itself on its record of freedom from the +molestation of outlaws. The rough element, too, was strong for a man +hunt, or anything, for that matter, promising excitement. + +A quarter of an hour later Brown, who was accepted as the leader when +emergencies involving the law arose, distributed his forces. He sent +two posses of twenty men each north and northwest. A third posse of a +dozen men started southward. Towns to the west were notified by +telephone as was the sheriff's office. The sheriff said he would be on +his way to Dry Lake in an hour. He was amazed that The Coyote should +be in his territory. He, too, wanted the outlaw, and he praised Brown +for his reward offer. + +Judson Brown himself led the posse of thirty men which took the east +trail up the foothills. It was an hour past midnight. The moon had +risen and was flooding the tumbled landscape with its cold, white +light. From different vantage points on ridges high above, two men +looked grimly down and saw the moving shadows of the man hunters as +they took the trail. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +A CAPTURE + + +Three hours after the posses scattered on their search for The Coyote, +spurred by thoughts of the reward of a thousand dollars offered by San +Jacinto county, and Judson Brown's declaration that the reward would +be increased by the thousands more which Arizona had laid upon the +fugitive's head, Rathburn smiled at the rosy dawn in supreme +satisfaction. + +He had not lost his man's trail during the early morning hours. Time +and again he had outwitted the man ahead when the latter had waited to +scan the back trail for signs of pursuit; more than once he had gained +ground when screened by timber growth close to the trail; every +stretch of dust-filled trail had been taken advantage of, while the +soft going underfoot had deadened the sound of his horse's flying +hoofs. + +The bandit had traveled fast and he had kept steadily to the eastward. +This last was what caused Rathburn to smile with satisfaction. The man +for whose crime Rathburn was suspected was heading straight for +Rathburn's own stamping ground--the far-distant desert range, which he +knew from the low horizon in the south to the white-capped peaks in +the north. To catch up with him would be but a matter of a few hours, +Rathburn reflected contentedly. + +Nor had the posse gained upon the two men ahead. Brown's men, perhaps, +did not have as excellent specimens of horseflesh as Rathburn and his +quarry rode. Nor did they possess the trail knowledge, the tricks +which Rathburn knew, and which the latter, more or less to his +surprise, found that the man ahead knew. Whatever it was that caused +that curling, sneering smile of contempt to play upon Rathburn's lips +at intervals, it was not scorn of the riding ability of the man he was +pursuing. + +Moreover, both men ahead were saving their horses' strength against a +probable spurt by the posse at daylight. It would not be a hard matter +to follow their trail by the bright light of broad day. So far as he +could determine, Rathburn did not believe the man ahead knew he was +followed by a solitary rider who was between him and the hounds of the +law. + +Under the circumstances, the bandit would expect to be pursued by a +number, Rathburn reasoned. He was ordering his pursuit on this theory, +and he did not intend to take any more time than was absolutely +necessary in catching up with the man ahead. + +Rathburn's horse had not been hard ridden the day preceding, nor for +several days before that. He had journeyed westward by easy stages, +taking his time, favoring his mount in anticipation of some unforeseen +emergency which might require hard riding. And he well knew the +extraordinary powers of speed and endurance which the animal +possessed. + +He frowned as he thought of the brand. He had not been under the +impression that the iron his horse wore was generally known to the +authorities. He would have to hole-up somewhere in the hills before +long and attend to that brand. As it was, it was a dead give-away as +to his identity. He could thank Brown for this bit of information, +anyway. + +With the dawn, Rathburn found it easier to keep on his man's trail +without being seen himself. He gained considerable until he estimated +that he was not more than a mile and a half, or two miles at most, +behind. + +The sun was up when he reached the crest of the high ridge where was +the tall pine and the sign which he had first seen the afternoon +before. + +He hesitated, debating whether to let the printed notice remain with +his penciled inscription about the Arizona reward on it, or to tear it +down. Then he saw the man he was pursuing below on the trail. He moved +swiftly out of sight down the eastern side of the ridge. But when he +came to the next vantage point he discovered that his man had +apparently seen him; for he was riding at a mad gallop on the trail +which wound eastward along the edge of the hills. + +"Now's as good a time as any, hoss!" he cried to his mount as he drove +in his spurs and dashed in swift pursuit. + +Down the winding trail plunged horse and rider. The dun slipped and +slid on the hard surface of the steep declivities and finally emerged +upon the more open path which the man ahead was following. + +Rathburn no longer made any attempt at concealment. He was after the +man ahead, and, somewhere behind, a posse was in mad pursuit. If he +were captured before he could overtake the bandit who was responsible +for the robbery, the latter would very likely escape--was certain to +make his get-away, in fact. + +Rathburn called upon his horse by voice and spur for all the speed +there was in him. He could see the fugitive ahead urging his horse to +its utmost. The race was on in earnest. Thus they came to a long +stretch of open, level trail. Here Rathburn's horse began slowly to +gain. + +The man ahead turned in his saddle, and Rathburn saw the glint of +sunlight on dull metal. He brought out his own gun. But the other did +not fire. He kept on, half-turned in the saddle, watching his pursuer +keenly. Rathburn continued to gain upon him. + +They now were less than half a mile apart, and the fugitive suddenly +turned his horse due north, straight toward the hills, and sent a +volley of shots whistling in his pursuer's direction. + +Rathburn held his fire. The bullets flew wide of their mark, and he +could see his man reloading as he rode. Rathburn now cut across, +racing for the point where he thought the other would reach the hills. +His horse rose to the emergency with a tremendous burst of speed. He +was close enough now to shoot with a reasonable certainty of scoring a +hit on his flying target. But he had no desire to kill, and he could +not be certain, at that distance, of merely wounding his quarry. He +also recoiled from the thought that he might accidently hit the +other's splendid horse. + +Just ahead a thin line of straggling pines ranged down the gradual +slope from the first low ridge of the hills for which they were +heading. Rathburn swung north and gained the shelter of this screen +just as the other rider again began firing. The trees now were between +them, and each was an equal distance from the gentle slope of the +ridge. + +Rathburn called upon his horse for a last, heartbreaking burst of +speed and the dun made good. At the beginning of the slope to the +ridge, Rathburn veered sharply to the right and burst through the +trees a scant rod or two from his man. His gun was leveled straight at +the other, who had been caught momentarily off his guard. + +"Drop it!" shouted Rathburn, racing toward him. + +The man's right hand fell to his side while he checked his horse with +his left. Rathburn rode in close to him and they came to a halt. +Rathburn's lips were curled in a smile of contempt. The other stared +at him, white-faced, his eyes wide and inquiring. The fingers of his +right hand relaxed, and the gun fell to the ground. Rathburn swung low +in the saddle and scooped it up, thrusting it into a pocket of his +coat. + +"Now beat it up over that ridge ahead," Rathburn ordered. "And be +quick about it. That posse may be close behind us." + +The other's eyes lit up with surprise. "You--you're not an officer?" +he stammered. + +"Shut up, you fool!" cried Rathburn. "You want to stay here an' talk +when there's a score or two of men after us? I'm worse than an +officer. Slope for that ridge now. Hurry!" + +The man put the steel to his horse, and they dashed up the slope, +crossed the ridge, and found themselves in a thick growth of timber +which covered a large area. + +"Pick your way into the middle of that patch of timber," snapped out +Rathburn. "An' don't forget I'll be right close behind you. Get +going--don't gape!" + +The captive's face flushed at the other's manner and the indubitable +note of contempt in his voice. But he obeyed the instructions and +pushed into the timber. + +When they had proceeded some distance Rathburn called a halt. "Ever +been in this country before?" he demanded with a sneer. + +"Yes." The other was more composed now. He studied his captor +curiously and seemed more at ease. Evidently he was heartened by the +fact that Rathburn had said he was not an officer and he believed +him. + +"I suppose you're after what I'm carrying on me," he said with a touch +of bitterness. "I guess I'd have had as much chance as I've got now +if I'd started shootin' even after you got the drop on me!" + +Rathburn laughed harshly. "You never had a chance from the start, if +you only knew it," he jeered. "Why, you upstart, you're not entitled +to any chance!" + +The other man's face darkened in swift anger. "Brave talk," he said +sneeringly. "You've got me where you want me, so you can say +anything." + +"I've got a pile to say," replied Rathburn shortly. "But this isn't +the time or place to say it. We want to be good an' away out of that +posse's path--an' quick." + +"You might as well take what you're after an' then each of us can look +out for himself," was the hot retort. + +Rathburn looked at the man quizzically. "You've got more spunk than I +thought," he mused. + +He stared at the other man closely. The bandit could not have been +more than twenty-five or twenty-six. He was tall, well-built, blond. +His hair and eyes were about the color of Rathburn's. But Rathburn +particularly noted the man's face, and whatever it was he saw there +caused him to shrug and frown deeply. + +"What's your name?" he demanded coldly. + +"Percy," sneeringly replied the other. + +"That's good enough for me," said Rathburn cheerfully. "All I need is +a name to call you by. Now, Percy, if you're acquainted with this +country in here an' can steer the way to where the posse'll be liable +to overlook us you better be leading on. I see you've ditched your +other gun somewhere--you had two." + +"So you want me to take you where you'll be safe so you can rob me, +maybe shoot me down, an' then make your get-away," the other +accused. + +Rathburn looked him straight in the eyes. "If you think I'm the kind +of a man who'd shoot another down in cold blood when he was helpless +you don't know much about human beings," he said slowly. "I have no +intention of murdering you or harming you a-tall, if you're halfway +careful. If you feel that it's against your principles to lead this +expedition to temporary safety, we can turn back toward Dry Lake. +We're going to do one thing or the other within one minute!" + +"Oh, come on," muttered the captive. He led the way through the timber +to its western edge, then turned north in the shelter of the trees +traversing a long, high, rocky ridge. + +"Our horses won't leave any tracks here," he called back. "Or maybe +you don't care whether we leave any tracks or not," he added +sarcastically. + +Rathburn spurred his horse alongside of him. "It doesn't make a bit of +difference to me," he said. "You're the one that's got to be scared of +that posse, Percy, not me. If it wasn't for one thing I'd take you +right down there to meet 'em!" + +The other looked at him both in anger and perplexity. "Suppose you'd +object to tellin' what that one thing is," he said savagely. + +"Well, it may be that I feel sorry for you," said Rathburn as if to +himself. "An' it may be that I want credit for bringing you in without +the help of any posse an' without them knowing it!" + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE REAL LOW-DOWN + + +They rode on in silence. When they reached the north end of the ridge +the man in the lead turned west on a slope studded with large boulders +and rock outcroppings. There was considerable shale here, too, and +they had to proceed cautiously in spots, both for fear of sliding down +the shale and to prevent making much noise. + +"If they follow us up here, we can hear 'em before they get to us," +said the man who called himself Percy, with a shrug and a frowning +look at his companion. + +Rathburn did not reply. + +They continued across the slope and descended into a large bowl or +pocket, guarded by huge boulders and scattering trees on the slope +above. + +"Guess it's safe to rest our horses here," said Percy. "We can hear +'em coming either way; but I don't think they'll get up here." + +However, neither he nor Rathburn knew how many men Brown had at his +command, nor did they know that the sheriff of the county, with two +deputies, had raced to Dry Lake by automobile, procured horses, and +hastened to join Brown on the east trail, which seemed the most likely +route of escape for the outlaw. + +There was a spring in the pocket surrounded by a small meadow of good +grass. The pair watered their horses, loosened their saddle-cinches, +and permitted the animals to graze with reins dangling. + +Rathburn took his slicker pack from the rear of his saddle and spread +it open on the ground. + +"Reckon it's safe to build a small fire here?" he asked cheerfully. +"I'm powerful hungry, an' I've got some emergency provisions--being +trail-broke." + +Percy, too, was hungry, as his eager look toward the pack testified. + +"I'll climb up to the top on the lower side an' keep an eye out while +you fix some grub," he volunteered. "You needn't be scared of me +jumping over the other side. There's a drop of about five hundred feet +over there." + +"Go ahead and jump if you want," said Rathburn. "Me--I'd rather live. +That's why I want to eat." + +While the other climbed to his lookout position Rathburn made a fire. +Then he took a small frying pan and coffeepot, minus its handle, from +the pack, removed the packages stuffed in them, and soon was making +coffee, frying bacon, and warming up beans. This, with some hard +biscuits and some sirup out of a bottle, constituted their meal, which +Rathburn soon had ready. + +Again he looked closely at Percy's face as the latter scrambled down +from his perch to appease his hunger. + +Suddenly he burst out laughing; but it was a belittling laugh, half +sneering, which brought the blood to the face of the captive while +Rathburn watched him closely. + +"If I had to-day's actions to do over again you mightn't be so +tickled," said the man viciously. + +"I'm laughing to think how lucky you are for a rank beginner an' +botcher!" said Rathburn as they began to eat. "You must have took a +course in outlawing from some correspondence school," he continued. + +"Maybe you could have done better," hinted the other. + +"Quite likely I could," admitted Rathburn. "In the first place I'd +have shut that back door after I came in so nobody could pot shot me +from behind. Yes, I reckon I'd have done that." + +Percy glared at him thoughtfully. + +"Then I wouldn't have let myself get in line with the front and side +windows," Rathburn taunted. "Lots of men are shot through windows. +Ever hear of such a thing?" + +His listener didn't answer. + +"An' now that I think of it," Rathburn droned on, "I'd have lined +those men up against the wall with their faces turned away from me. +That puts 'em at more of a disadvantage, an' they can't see what's +going on." + +Percy now was regarding him keenly. + +"Let's see," said Rathburn, with tantalizing slowness. "Oh, yes, +Percy. I wouldn't have taken anything from the cash drawers but the +bills. I don't like to take the time to monkey around with a lot of +silver; besides, it sort of weights one down." + +He paused long enough to let that sink in, then continued: "The thing +I'd have paid most of my attention to--excepting for keeping a +watchful eye on the men against the wall an' the windows an' +doors--would have been the safe. The big money's usually in the safe, +an' the bartender can be induced to open the safe just as easy as he +can be persuaded into opening the cash drawers. An' say, Percy, I'd +never let a bartender get as close to me as you let that fellow get to +you. He might start something, then you'd have to begin shootin' an' +that would alarm the town an' ball up the program." + +"You talk like you'd had considerable experience," observed Percy +warily. + +"Maybe so. Maybe I have. But if I have, I can say I've never pulled +anything quite so raw as the way you pulled that stunt last night down +in Dry Lake, Percy. That is the real low-down on that. You just +naturally laid yourself open to attack from all quarters." + +His captive looked at him both respectfully and sheepishly. + +"An' there's only one reason why you got away with it," said Rathburn, +his eyes narrowing. + +"Because I was lucky like you say, I suppose," sneeringly answered +Percy. + +"No!" thundered Rathburn. "You got away with it because they thought +you were The Coyote!" + +The captive started; stared at Rathburn with widened eyes. + +"That's why you got away with it," continued Rathburn in a hard voice. +"An' you thought you'd cinch it when you told 'em before you went out +that they could tell their funny judge you called!" + +Rathburn's eyes blazed with angry contempt. "Trading on somebody +else's name," he mocked. "Trying to make out you was the goods, an' I +believe they thought you was The Coyote, at that. Man, I saw the whole +dirty business." + +Percy's face went white. However, his emotion was more anger than +fear, and he was prey to an overpowering curiosity. + +"How do you know I _ain't_ The Coyote?" he asked shrewdly. + +Rathburn stared at him--stunned. Then he leaped to his feet and his +gun flashed into his hand in a movement too swift for the eye to +follow. + +"Go over there and look at the brand on my horse," he commanded. +"Remember how that printed bill read that put it in your fool head to +try an' masquerade as The Coyote, an' then read the brand on that +horse!" + +The captive rose and without a look back walked to where Rathburn's +horse was cropping the grass. The left side of the animal was toward +him and for a few moments he stood looking with bulging eyes at the +CC2 on the shoulder. Then he turned slowly. + +Rathburn's gaze burned into his, but a cool, deliberate light had come +into his eyes. + +"So you're The Coyote!" Percy said quietly. "I should have recognized +you." + +"Yes, I'm called The Coyote," said Rathburn, walking slowly toward +him. "I'm the man they think robbed that joint down in Dry Lake last +night. I'm the man they're looking for. I'm the man they want to make +pay for your bungling work. That's the way it's gone for three years, +Percy. I've been blamed for job after job that I didn't even know was +pulled off till I heard they were looking for me on account of it. But +this is one job they'll not be able to lay at my door; for I've got +the man who's responsible an' I've got him red-handed!" + +"What're you going to do about it?" asked the other coolly. + +Again Rathburn's eyes blazed with rage. "Do? Why, I'm just naturally +going to take you in all by my lonesome an' turn you over to the +sheriff with my compliments." + +Rathburn cooled down as he said this, drew tobacco and papers from his +shirt pocket, and proceeded to build a cigarette. He looked at his man +queerly. + +"Now I reckon you know why I ain't got any idea of taking that money +off you," he said. + +"They might not believe you," returned the other. + +"I know what you mean. You mean they might think I was putting up a +job on 'em an' trying to shift the blame on somebody else. It can't be +done, Percy. Listen to this: I was looking through the front window of +that place last night when you held it up. Two men that work in the +hotel down there came along an' looked in alongside of me after I +warned 'em not to go in. I showed 'em this scar on my arm." He rolled +back his left sleeve disclosing a scar on the forearm about three +inches below the elbow. + +"I told 'em that scar was made by a bullet from The Coyote's gun," +Rathburn went on, pulling down his sleeve and drawing his right hand +back to the gun he had replaced in its holster. "That scar _was_ made +by The Coyote's gun. I shot myself in the arm by accident some few +years ago. Now, here's the point: Those men will remember me an' +remember that scar. The descriptions the sheriff of that county must +have in his office will tell all about that scar. It won't be hard to +identify me by it an' by the two men that stood out there by the +window with me. So they'll know I didn't pull the robbery!" + +The other man shifted uneasily on his feet. + +"An' that ain't all, Percy," Rathburn continued. "Somebody saw me +running up the street afterward because they took a couple of shots at +me for luck. That'll dovetail with my story. I've never been known to +use two guns. An' if they want any more proof all they'll have to do +will be to stand you up in front of the men you had in line, dressed +as you are with that black handkerchief over your face. That'll settle +it. I reckon the sheriff will believe me an' give me a chance when he +hears the facts, or I may not wait for a talk with him." + +"I take it you've got me right," said the captive, compressing his +lips. "But if you're really The Coyote I've heard so much about, +you'll give me my gun an' give me a chance to run for it!" + +Rathburn's laugh jarred on his ears. "Give you a chance an' take a +chance myself on going to the gallows?" + +"The gallows!" exclaimed the other. "Oh--I see. But didn't you say you +thought the sheriff would give you a chance if he met you an' heard +your story? At that you don't have to stay around an' get taken back +to Arizona now." + +"They hang men in this State," Rathburn interrupted. + +"But--there wasn't----" The other man faltered, staring. + +"One of those shots you fired at the lamp went wild, or glanced off +something, an'----" Rathburn lifted his brows significantly. + +"Killed somebody!" cried the other. + +He staggered back just as a rattle of falling stones signified that +horsemen were in the shale on the slope to eastward. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +WHERE TO HIDE + + +For the space of several seconds Rathburn and his captive looked into +each other's eyes. Rathburn's gaze was keen, alert, fired by the quick +thinking he was doing. Stark terror showed in the other's look which +gradually changed to one of haunting fear and indecision. Then his +eyes became clear and he returned Rathburn's glance, cool and +questioning. + +"Get your horse," ordered Rathburn, running to his own mount. + +In a twinkling he had tightened his cinch, caught up the reins, and +vaulted into the saddle. His captive was at his side shortly +afterward. + +"You're still in the lead," Rathburn snapped out; "unless you want to +wait for 'em." + +The other whirled his horse, sent him flying for the western end of +the pocket, with Rathburn close behind. They went up a steep, rocky +trail, screened by boulders. When they reached the top of the west rim +they looked back and saw four horsemen on the shale slope leading to +the pocket. Brown evidently had split up his posse and was literally +combing the hills for his quarry. + +"They'll know they're on the right trail when they see the remains of +our dinner an' my pack down there," remarked Rathburn dryly. + +"But they haven't seen us yet," said Percy breathlessly. "If we can +make Sunrise Canon Trail we can lose 'em in the mountains--that is if +_you_ want to lose 'em." + +"Where's the trail?" asked Rathburn. + +"'Bout five miles west. It's the only trail goin' up into the big +mountains between here an' the other side of the Dry Lake range, an' +it's a tough one." + +Rathburn quickly sized up the country ahead. He saw low and high +ridges with towering mountains to the right, or north, of them. There +were scattering pines on the slopes and patches of timber in the wide +ravines, many of which were veritable valleys. + +"We'll run for it while they're getting in an' out of that hole," he +suddenly decided with a click of his teeth. "Their horses are in no +better shape than ours. Slope along." + +The other had dug in his spurs even before he got the order. They rode +swiftly down the steep trail from the rim of the pocket and fled +across an open space and up the slope of the first ridge. + +Rathburn looked back as they crossed it, but could see no sign of +their pursuers. His face still was troubled; his gaze kept boring into +the back of the man on the horse ahead of him. At times he muttered to +himself. + +They galloped up the hard bed of a dry arroyo and swung westward +across another rock-bound ridge, picking their way carefully among the +boulders. Rathburn's face became more and more strained as he noted +that the leader evidently knew the country they were in like a book. +Rathburn, with the experience born of years spent in the open places, +was able to keep his bearings. + +They had followed a course for some miles north of the main trail +leading east, the trail by which he had first come into the locality. +Then they had doubled back westward, some miles above that trail, of +course, and now were heading almost due north again, in the direction +of the mountains which did not appear to be far away. He surmised that +they were nearly directly north of the ranch where he had had the meal +with the girl and boy. + +At the top of the next ridge his guide pointed above them. + +"See that crack in the mountain?" he said. + +Rathburn nodded as he made out what appeared to be a gash in the steep +side of a mountain north of them. + +"That's Sunrise Canon," said the other quietly. "There's a trail up +that canyon into the heart of the mountains where they couldn't catch +us--or you, if you want to go alone--in a hundred years!" + +He stared steadily at Rathburn. + +"Mosey along, then," said Rathburn. "Let's get somewheres before our +horses drop." + +They kept along the ridge until it was cut by a canyon. Here they +descended and entered another long, narrow ravine which they +negotiated at a gallop. At its upper end they again climbed a steep +slope. Their horses were showing the strain of the hours of hard +riding. Rathburn realized that they could go but a limited distance. +But the members of the posse most assuredly must be in the same fix so +far as their mounts were concerned. + +He decided that if they could get into the canyon unseen they would be +able to rest their horses and remain secure for the night. Next +morning they could continue on up into the hills, or slip back by a +roundabout way to Dry Lake. + +His lips froze into a thin white line. He did not look at the man with +him as they paused for a few moments under the trees which covered the +top of the ridge and gazed at a long, gently sloping stretch of nearly +open country. It was covered with clumps of trees at intervals, that +reached to the dark, narrow opening in the mountains, marking the +entrance to Sunrise Canon and the trail to the fastnesses of the +higher hills. + +"You can swing off here to the left an' down a wide valley to where +there's a cut-off into Dry Lake," he heard his captive suggesting. "I +don't see any sense in all this hard ridin' an' hidin' if you're goin' +to turn me in." + +"We'll go on," growlingly replied Rathburn. + +They descended the ridge and entered the long, sloping valley, so wide +that it virtually was a plain. They made good headway, although they +favored their horses. They took advantage of the shelter provided by +the occasional clumps of pines. The afternoon was drawing to a close +with the sun dipping sharply toward the western hills when they came +in sight of the entrance to the canyon. But with the first glimpse they +checked their horses and turned into the shelter of some trees near +by. + +"Beat us to it!" exclaimed Percy. + +"Four of 'em," said Rathburn, frowning. "Brown ain't taking any +chances. He's a better man than I figured him out. An' there's more of +'em!" + +He pointed westward where two riders were barely discernible on the +crest of a ridge. They disappeared almost immediately in the timber +below. + +"We'll turn back," Rathburn decided. "We'll ride with the trees +between us an' the men up at the canyon, an' keep an eye out for the +pair to the west. You might watch that side, an' I'll look out for the +east an' south. C'mon, let's drift." + +The face of the man who called himself Percy was white and strained as +they urged their tired mounts southward. They skirted the western end +of the ridge by which they had gained the wide valley and continued +on, carefully scanning the landscape in all directions for indications +of pursuit. It was plain to them that they had been seen to leave the +east trail early that morning. Brown and his men undoubtedly knew they +had headed north, and the justice had immediately dispatched men to +guard the entrance to the canyon trail into the mountains. Then they +had begun a systematic search of the locality. + +This deduction was strengthened when Rathburn suddenly pointed toward +the east. More riders were to be seen on the slope of the valley's +side in that direction. Even as they looked, these riders, too, +disappeared from view as they dropped down behind a rise of ground. + +The sun was going down fast. Already the red banners of the sunset +were flaunted in the high western skies. The twilight would be upon +them apace--the long-lasting, purple-veiled twilight of the altitudes. +Then the night would close down with its canopy of stars. + +Rathburn looked speculatively at his companion. "We'll make a break +for that clump of trees about a quarter of a mile ahead with all our +horses have got left," he said, driving in his spurs. + +In a last mad dash which taxed every iota of strength and endurance +left in their beasts they gained the shelter of the little patch of +timber. + +"Here we'll wait," said Rathburn coolly as he dismounted. + +"What?" cried the other, staring at him incredulously. "We ain't quite +surrounded yet. We haven't seen anybody in the south. That way may be +open an' it's liable to be closed while we're stayin' here." + +"Get off your horse and unsaddle him," commanded Rathburn sternly. +"The best place to hide from a posse is in the middle of it!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +TWO QUEER MOVES + + +The captive complied with the order, looking at Rathburn in a peculiar +way--half disgusted, half contemptuous. Indeed, he turned his back on +the other, leaned against the slender trunk of a pine, and stared +steadily into the south. He appeared much worried. + +The horses welcomed the chance to rest. + +Rathburn walked slowly back and forth the width of the patch of +timber, vigilantly keeping watch. He paid no attention whatsoever to +the man leaning against the tree. For all the interest he displayed he +might have completely forgotten his very existence. In time this got +on the other's nerves. + +"I believe you lied when you said there was a man killed down there +last night," he said coolly. + +"I didn't say anybody was killed," Rathburn returned without looking +in his direction. "You assumed that part of it." + +"Then you wanted me to think so," said the other in a loud voice. "You +was tryin' to throw a scare into me!" + +Rathburn swung on his heel and stepped squarely in front of him. "I +let you think that to show you what _might_ have happened," he said. +"Such things have happened to me an' swelled the price on my head. +Now, darn you, if you talk that loud again I'll choke your wind off!" + +The words came with sinister earnestness, but they seemed to rouse +some dormant strain of extraordinary courage in the man to whom they +were addressed. + +He suddenly leaped from the tree and struck out with all the force at +his command. + +But Rathburn had anticipated the attack. He knocked the other's blow +aside and drove his right straight to the jaw. + +"There's a little souvenir to show you that I mean business, Percy," +he panted. + +Percy came back to the attack with eyes gleaming with malice. Again he +attempted to hit Rathburn, but the latter stepped aside with lightning +swiftness and drove home another blow. He followed it up with a left +and right and Percy sprawled his length on the grass. + +After a time he sat up, dazed. Rathburn was standing over him. But +although he realized fully that he was not a match for Rathburn in +physical combat, and doubtless was greatly his inferior with his gun, +his spirit was undaunted. + +"You better finish me, or drag me in," he gritted; "for I'll get you, +if I can. I don't know what your play is, but you've acted too queer +to-day for me to believe you're on the square one way or the other." + +"You want some more, Percy?" + +"My name is Lamy," growlingly replied the other, as he rose +cautiously. + +"Oh, o-h. Percy Lamy." + +"No, just Lamy. Lamy's my name, an' I ain't ashamed of it. You'd find +it out--sooner or later--anyway, I--expect." He stammered during this +speech as if he had just remembered something--remembered when it was +too late. + +Rathburn noted the frown and the confused expression in Lamy's eyes. +He turned abruptly and walked away. + +A few minutes later he came back to find Lamy sitting with his back +to a tree, staring unseeing into the deepening twilight. + +"Lamy," he said harshly, "we're going to get away from this +posse--maybe. Anyway, soon's it's dark we'll ride south. It's just +possible we can leave 'em up here in the hills." + +"Suppose I refuse to go?" + +"Then I'll have to truss you up an' tie you to your horse, an' don't +think I won't do it!" The ring of menace in Rathburn's voice convinced +the other, but he made no comment. + +When darkness had fallen they saddled their mounts and started. They +rode at a jog, keeping as much as possible in the shadow of the +timber. Rathburn noticed that the valley gradually widened; he showed +interest in his surroundings. + +Then, off to the left below them, he saw moving shadows. He called a +halt at the next clump of trees. "Lamy, are there any horses running +in here that you know of?" he asked. + +"There probably are," said Lamy sarcastically; "an' they've probably +got riders on 'em." + +"No doubt," returned Rathburn gravely. "I just saw some shadows that +looked like horses down to the left of us." + +"I expected they'd shut us off in the south," snapped out Lamy. "You +gave 'em plenty of time." + +"We just naturally had to rest our horses," observed Rathburn. "As it +is, they're not good for far, nor for any fast riding. Besides, I've +changed my mind some since this morning." + +"So? I suppose you're goin' to give me a chance?" sneeringly inquired +the other. + +He could see Rathburn's eyes in the twilight, and suddenly he shifted +in his saddle uneasily. For Rathburn's gaze had narrowed; and it shot +from his eyes steel blue with a flash of fire. His face had set in +cold, grim lines. The whole nature of the man seemed to undergo a +change. He radiated menace, contempt, cold resentment. The corners of +his mouth twisted down sharply. His voice, as he spoke now, seemed +edged like a knife. + +"Lamy, hand over that money!" + +Lamy's brows lifted in swift comprehension; a look of cunning came +into his eyes--was followed by a gleam of hope, not unmixed with +derision. He thrust his hands into his coat pockets and held out bills +and silver to Rathburn who stuffed the plunder into his own pockets. + +"That all of it?" demanded Rathburn sharply. He made no effort to +temper the tones of his voice. + +For answer Lamy dug into his trousers' pockets, under his chaps, and +produced two more rolls of bills. + +"That's the chunk," he said with a sneering inflection in his voice. +"If you want I'll stand a frisk." + +"No, I won't search you. I take it you're too sensible to lie!" + +"Thanks," replied Lamy dryly. "I suppose I'm free to go now, unless +you figure you'd be safer by killin' me off." + +Anger, swift and uncontrollable, leaped into Rathburn's eyes. Then he +laughed, softly and mirthlessly. "If I'd been minded to do for you, or +had any such idea in my head, I'd have given it to you long before +this," he said. "It's lucky for you, Lamy, that I'm pretty much the +breed you thought I was." + +"Don't pose!" retorted Lamy hotly. "You intended to get that money and +make me the goat if you could, from the start. If you'd had any idea +of turnin' me over to Brown you'd have done that little thing, too, +long before this." + +"Maybe so," Rathburn mused, staring at the other thoughtfully in the +dim light of the stars. "Maybe I will yet. You're not out of this--an' +neither am I. Those shadows down to the left are getting plainer. +What's that long dark streak over there on the right?" + +"Those are trees," answered Lamy sneeringly. + +"Let's make for 'em," ordered Rathburn. "Don't forget you're still +under orders, Lamy. An' don't overlook the fact that I'm more or less +in earnest about things in general," he added significantly. + +They rode at a tangent for the dark shadow of the trees. At the edge +of the timber ensued another long wait, with Rathburn uncommunicative, +moodily pacing restlessly back and forth. The horses had another +excellent opportunity to rest and the fagged animals took advantage of +it. + +Once or twice Rathburn thought he glimpsed a light far down the +valley, but he couldn't be sure. Neither could he be sure he saw the +moving shadows on the opposite side of the wide valley again. + +The night wore into early morning and the moon added its cold radiance +to the faint glow of the myriads of stars. Rathburn sensed the +nearness of enemies. Several times he stopped before Lamy, who sat +upon his saddle blanket with his back against a tree trunk and dozed. +Rathburn had to fight off continual drowsiness. + +For long hours he walked along the edge of the pines. He dared not +trust himself to sleep. He dared not trust Lamy to stand guard while +he obtained some rest, and he knew that when the sun came up and the +day began, he would be thoroughly awake again; for more than once he +had gone two nights without sleep. Also, he assumed that the hunt +would be less spirited during the night. Members of the posse would +themselves be drowsy, but they could spell each other and in that way +maintain their vigil and secure a few hours of rest. + +Rathburn's rage rose at frequent intervals as he thought of the +predicament he was in through no fault of his own. More than once he +glared malevolently at the sleeping Lamy; then the troubled look would +come again to his eyes and he would resume his pacing, muttering to +himself, staring into the blue veil of the night. Once he sat down and +removed his right boot and sock in the darkness; shortly afterward he +again began his pacing. + +He felt the pangs of hunger and shook his head savagely as he thought +of the scanty supply of provisions he had been compelled to leave in +the mountain pocket. + +His spirits revived as he thought of the horses. They would be fresh +in the morning; and he intended that his horse should have a grain +feed that day. Rathburn always thought of his horse first; and, +although it might seem that he taxed the animal's powers to their +utmost at times, he never went beyond a certain point. He had often +said he would surrender to his pursuers rather than kill his mount in +evading them. + +The first faint glimmer of the dawn was lighting the skies above the +ridges to the eastward when he roused Lamy. He awoke with a start, +stared sleepily at Rathburn, then got speedily to his feet. + +"You been awake all night?" he asked curiously. + +Rathburn nodded, looking at him closely. "Saddle up," he ordered. + +They rode southward at a canter in the shelter of the edge of the +timber. When the eastern skies were rosy red and fast changing to +gold with the advent of the sun they saw two things; a small ranch +house about a mile southeast of them, and two riders some distance +north. + +Rathburn reined in his mount. He looked at Lamy who met his gaze in +defiance. Then Rathburn reached into his coat pocket with his right +hand and drew out a gun. + +"Here's your shooting iron," he said, as he held the weapon out to +Lamy. + +The other stared at him in astonishment. + +"Take it!" snapped out Rathburn. "Take it, or I may change my mind!" + +Lamy took the gun wonderingly, balanced it for a moment in his hand, +and shoved it into his holster. + +Rathburn motioned toward the south and Lamy rode along at his side. +They caught another glimpse of the horsemen in the north. As they drew +opposite the ranch house, on the west or front side, they saw a woman +leave it and walk the short distance to the barn and enter. At that +moment both Rathburn and Lamy gave vent to low exclamations. They had +caught sight of riders in the south and to the east. They appeared to +be surrounded by the posse. + +Rathburn looked at Lamy soberly. However, it was Lamy who spoke first. +"You said the best place to hide from a posse was in the middle of +it," he said scornfully. "Why not leave the horses in the timber an' +run for the house? Maybe it has a cellar." + +"I reckon that would be as good a move as any," replied Rathburn, to +the other's surprise. "I'm game if you are." + +Lamy's eyes flamed with excitement as he turned his mount into the +trees. They came to what looked like a bear pit or a prospect hole. +It was partly filled with brush. + +"We can hide our saddles in there an' let the horses go," Lamy +suggested. "There's a few horses runnin' in through here, an' they may +join 'em." + +"You can do that with yours," said Rathburn grimly. "You seem to +forget that the brand on this dun is pretty well known." + +He coolly tied his horse as Lamy followed his own suggestion, hid his +saddle, and turned his mount loose. + +They moved back to the edge of the timber and waited until they could +see no one in sight about the house or in any direction in the valley. +Then they started on a run for the house. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +LEAVE IT TO ME + + +Rathburn had recognized the ranch long before they came close to it. +It was the place where he had stopped for a meal with the girl and the +freckle-faced boy two days before--the day he had gone on into Dry +Lake. He saw no sign of the girl or the boy or any one else as they +reached the front door and hurried inside. + +Out of the corner of his eye he saw Lamy look hurriedly about and step +into the kitchen. He followed him. + +Lamy grabbed part of a loaf of bread and some cold meat on a shelf +above the kitchen table. + +"There's usually a cellar under the main room in these square houses," +he said, hurrying back into the larger room. + +Rathburn stepped after him, and Lamy pulled back the rug before the +table and disclosed a trapdoor. He raised the door, held out the food +to Rathburn, and whispered: "You better get down there. Take this grub +an'----" + +"What's the matter? Isn't there room for both of us?" Rathburn put the +question in a voice which conveyed surprise. + +"I thought it might be better if we--if we didn't both hide in the +same place," whispered Lamy. "Then they'd only get one of us, an' +whichever it was they'd think he was the one they wanted, see?" He +appeared excited. + +Rathburn's eyes narrowed. His right hand darted to his gun in a flash, +and the muzzle of the weapon was pressed into Lamy's ribs. "Get down +there!" commanded Rathburn. "Get down." + +Lamy hesitated with a wild look in his eyes. The muzzle of Rathburn's +gun pressed harder against his midriff. He dropped lightly into the +cellar. Rathburn pulled the rug against the trapdoor as he followed, +then let down the door, certain that the rug would fall into place. + +The pair sat upon some gunny sacks in the little cellar until their +eyes became accustomed to the darkness; they could dimly see each +other by the faint light which came to them through some cracks in the +floor above. + +They heard steps at the rear of the house; then the pound of hoofs +from in front. Rathburn saw Lamy staring at him fixedly with a puzzled +look. He frowned at him. Rathburn still held his gun in his hand. Both +had forgotten the food which Lamy had in his lap. + +"Say," whispered Lamy. "What was your idea in givin' me back my gun?" + +He moved closer to get the reply. + +"Shut up!" said Rathburn, cocking an ear toward the trapdoor. + +The sound of footsteps now was in the kitchen. They heard horses +snorting and men dismounting at the front door. After a brief space +there were light footsteps in the room above followed by the tramp of +heavy boots. + +"Good morning, ma'am," came a deep voice. + +"Good morning," was the hesitating reply. Rathburn recognized the +voice of the girl who had fed him. + +"Ma'am, I'm Sheriff Neal of San Jacinto County," continued the deep +voice, as several feet shuffled slightly. "These men with me are +members of my posse. Maybe you know Judge Brown?" + +"I--I've seen him," answered the girl. + +Rathburn could feel Lamy's knees shaking against him in excitement. + +"I believe we've met some time," Brown put in. Rathburn thought the +justice's voice sounded tired. + +"Ma'am, we're looking for a man--or two men." It was the sheriff +speaking again. "Have you seen any one around here this morning--any +stranger, or strangers, I mean?" + +"Why, no," replied the girl with a breathless catch in her voice. "I +haven't seen any one." + +"You're sure?" + +Rathburn frowned at the sheriff's tone, although he kept his eyes on +Lamy's white face. + +He smiled as he remembered that the sheriff had mentioned two men. +This doubtless was the cause of Lamy's agitation. Nor did he think +Lamy had forgotten that he, Rathburn, had pointed out that he could +prove he didn't rob the place in Dry Lake. + +"You're sure?" the sheriff asked again. + +"Why, yes," replied the girl. "I am sure." + +"Maybe she can get us some breakfast," said Brown hopefully. + +"Can you feed five men, ma'am?" asked the sheriff in a softer tone. + +"Just sit down, and I'll get you some breakfast," said the girl. + +The two men in the little cellar could hear some of the men taking +chairs and one or two going out to look after the horses. The girl's +light footsteps retreated into the kitchen. + +Rathburn smiled mysteriously at Lamy who was shivering with a case of +nerves. + +"I can't understand who that was with him--or following him," came +Brown's voice. "Somebody must have seen him getting away and set out +on the trail while it was hot." + +"Either that or saw him beating it somewheres on the trail east of +town an' took after him on suspicion," drawled the sheriff. "'Spect +everybody around here has seen those reward notices you put out." + +"That's so," said Brown. "I had the right hunch when I got the tip +he'd left his Arizona hangout, sheriff. I figured he'd head this way. +Then he had the nerve--well, you know what happened in my office." + +The sheriff chuckled. Then he spoke angrily. "He can't pull any of his +stunts in my territory," he said growlingly. "I'll hunt him down if I +have to put every man I've got on the trail an' keep 'em there. I +figure, though," he added hopefully, "that we've got him cornered in +or around this valley. We traced 'em here, and we got sight of 'em +yesterday. We'll have 'em before night!" + +"I hope so," said Brown grimly. + +"I've given orders to shoot to kill and not to miss," thundered the +sheriff. "But I guess the rewards offered for him would kind of steady +the aim of the man that got a crack at him." + +Rathburn's face went white, and his eyes shot fire as he listened to +the sheriff's cruel laugh in which the others in the room above now +joined. + +Lamy signaled that he wished to whisper in his ear, and Rathburn bent +his head, although he kept the gun handy. + +"I'm not goin' to risk shootin' anybody if we should be found or +cornered," Lamy whispered. "I thought you ought to know----" + +"If we're cornered you leave it to me," Rathburn came back. "I have +reasons for everything I'm doing. An' don't forget that I'd rather be +grabbed for this simple trick of yours in Dry Lake than for one or +two jobs over in Arizona. If things go wrong keep your mouth +shut--don't talk! If you start talking any time I'll try to kill +you!" + +Lamy drew back from the ferocity in Rathburn's tone and manner. That +menacing message was again in Rathburn's eyes. + +"Who's that boy out there?" the sheriff called sharply. + +"Go in and say how-do-you-do," came the girl's voice from the kitchen. +"It's my brother, Frankie." + +"Come here, Frankie," said the sheriff. + +The pair below heard light footsteps on the floor above. + +"That's a fine crop of freckles you've got," said the sheriff. + +Rathburn saw Lamy put a hand to his face and make a grimace. + +"Listen, Frankie, did you see anybody around here this morning?" asked +the sheriff. + +"Who--who you looking for?" asked the boy. + +Rathburn started; his body suddenly tensed. + +"I'm looking for an outlaw they call The Coyote," returned the +sheriff. "Ever hear of him?" + +"Y-e-s. Ed brought home a notice about a reward for him." + +"That's the man we're after. Rides a dun-colored horse; tall, +light-complexioned. Seen anybody like that around here?" + +"He was here day before yesterday," said the boy truthfully. "Sis gave +him something to eat, an' he went on into town. He didn't seem like +such a bad man to me. Told me never to lie." + +"He was here? Ate here?" The sheriff's voice was excited. + +Rathburn saw Lamy's eyes widen. + +"Frankie," the sheriff said soberly, "that Coyote went into town an' +robbed a place. He's a bad, dangerous man no matter how he looks or +what he says. Have you seen anybody that looked like him since?" + +The question was followed by a deep silence. + +Rathburn alert, his eyes gleaming, heard the sheriff rise. + +"Answer me, boy. I'm the sheriff of this county!" + +"'Tain't that--'tain't that," said the boy in a tremulous voice. +"Only--I'd rather not tell, Mr. Sheriff." + +"You must answer me!" said the official sternly. "Have you seen any +one around here--yesterday or this morning?" + +"Ye-e-s." + +"When?" demanded the sheriff. "Don't lie!" + +"This--this morning," stammered the boy. + +"Where? Tell me about it, quick." + +"Two men ran across from the timber to the house," replied the boy. +"He--he said not to lie for him--but----" + +The sheriff stepped quickly to the kitchen door. "I thought you said +no one had been around here, ma'am." + +"Why--I didn't see any one," came the girl's voice. + +"I saw 'em from the pasture," the boy confessed. + +"Then they're here!" cried the sheriff. "Search the house an' the +barn!" + +In the dim, narrow cellar Rathburn was holding his gun aimed at Lamy's +heart. + +"You remember what I said about keepin' your mouth shut?" he asked in +a low voice, his steel-blue gaze boring into the other's eyes. + +Lamy gasped. Then he slowly nodded his head. + +"That's your bond!" said Rathburn, as tramping feet sounded +overhead. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +CAUGHT IN THE CELLAR + + +Rathburn rose and crouched under the trapdoor, gun in hand. Lamy +watched him, breathless, perplexed, uncertain. They heard men running; +then there were no sounds from above and a deathly stillness settled +down. + +Slowly and with infinite care Rathburn raised the trapdoor an inch or +two and listened intently. Lamy scrambled to his knees on the pile of +gunny sacks; but Rathburn swung quickly upon him. They stared at each +other in the semidarkness. + +"He said two," breathed Lamy, a curious look in his eyes. + +"Are you afraid?" mocked Rathburn. "It's me they want--don't worry. I +may make a break for it, an' if I do there's likely to be powder +burned. You can stay here an' get out when they take after me, if I +go," said Rathburn, and the sneer in his voice caused Lamy to flush +uncomfortably. + +Rathburn petted the gun in his hand. "But before I make a break I want +to tell you something that I should have told you before this, when I +had more time----" + +He bit off his speech as there came a sudden recurrence of the sounds +in the house. The trapdoor closed down. + +"Where's the cellar?" came the sheriff's authoritative voice. + +Many feet tramped upon the floor above them. Then they heard the rug +stripped back. There was an exclamation from the sheriff and the sound +of moving feet suddenly was stilled. + +"Is there any one in the cellar?" the sheriff called. + +Silence--with Lamy pressing Rathburn's knee with a hand, and Rathburn +smiling that queer, grim smile which conveyed so much, yet nothing +which was tangible. + +"Get around here, you fellows," they heard the sheriff order. + +The sound of boots and spurs attested to the quickness with which his +order was obeyed. + +Rathburn leaned down suddenly and with lightning swiftness jerked +Lamy's gun from its holster near his side. He tossed the weapon to a +corner of the dark cellar just as the sheriff's voice was heard +again. + +"Coyote, if you're down there I'm not going to take a chance fumbling +with that door. If you ain't there, then there won't be any harm in +what I'm going to do. If I don't hear anything when I finish talking +I'm going to give the signal to my men to start shooting through the +floor--and I mean it. If anybody's down there it'd be good sense to +flip up that door and crawl out hands first, an' those hands empty." + +"Sheriff, you're bluffing!" said Rathburn loudly. + +Then the sheriff spoke again in an exultant tone. "I figured it was +the best hidin' place you could find, Coyote. You're right; I was sort +of bluffing, but I might have changed my mind an' gone on through with +it. We've got you dead to rights, Coyote; you haven't got a chance. +There's seven of us now an' every man is ready to open up if you come +out of there a-shooting." + +Rathburn slipped his gun back into his holster. He raised the trapdoor +slowly until it tipped back on the floor leaving the opening into the +cellar clear. + +"Two of 'em!" he heard some one exclaim. + +He looked up to accustom his eyes to the light and saw a dozen guns +covering him. + +"Gentlemen, the landscape fairly bristles with artillery," he said +amiably. "Who's the sheriff? And--there's Jud Brown. Who let you +loose, Jud?" + +"I'm Sheriff Neal," interposed that individual, a slight, dark man +with a bristly mustache. "Come out of there--hands free." + +"For the time being, eh, sheriff? I expect you figure on fixing those +hands so they won't be free, eh? Well, all I've got to say is that I +hope you won't spend the money foolishly, sheriff." + +Rathburn leaped lightly out of the cellar. + +"Keep that other man down there covered, too," snapped out Neal. "It's +principle more than reward money that invites me, Coyote. Hand over +your gun belt an' be careful how you unbuckle it." + +"Sheriff, it would be against my code of ethics to hand over my gun. +It can't be done, sheriff; you'll have to come and get it." + +Neal hesitated, notwithstanding the fact that he had Rathburn covered +and that several other guns were covering him. Then he stepped +forward, never taking his eyes from Rathburn's, and secured the +other's weapon. + +"That's better, sheriff," said Rathburn with a queer smile. "You can +see how I have my pride an' little superstitions. No man has ever took +a gun from me but what I've got it back! Thanks, sheriff." + +Lamy had come out of the cellar. Several of the men seemed to +recognize him, but kept their silence with dubious looks in their +eyes. + +"My guide, sheriff," said Rathburn, pointing gayly at Lamy. "He was +very kind. He showed me around the country--me not being very well +acquainted around here. I had to take his gun away from him an' sort +of encourage him along with my own, but he did very nicely." + +"Just what I thought, Neal," said Brown. "This fellow took after him +an' he captured him and made him lead him. Isn't that so?" he asked of +Lamy. + +"Just a minute, Jud," Rathburn interrupted with a frown. "I can't let +the importance of this momentous occasion be transferred to a +subordinate. You must ask your questions of me, as I am the central +figure in this affair." + +The cry of a girl startled them. She came running from the kitchen +where she had fled when the sheriff announced his intention to shoot +through the floor. + +"Ed!" she cried, running to Lamy and throwing her arms about him. +"Oh--Ed!" + +"Who is he, ma'am?" asked the sheriff. "Your husband?" + +"He's my brother--Ed Lamy." + +"I can recommend him if you need a guide who knows the country, +sheriff," said Rathburn genially. "I guess he had an idea of making +trouble for me at first, but I had the drop on him an' he soon saw +reason. I had to knock him down last night when he got fresh, but he +did very well. Of course I had an advantage on my side." He nodded +toward his gun which the official still held in his hand. + +"Did he make you guide him?" Neal asked Lamy, noting his empty +holster. + +Rathburn turned so that he could look at his former captive. + +Lamy nodded. "Yes," he replied. "I didn't know what minute I was goin' +to get shot in the back." + +Rathburn's eyes glowed with an amused light. "I didn't have any idea +of shootin' him, sheriff; he was too valuable as my escort on the +tour. I wonder if the lady could spare me a cup of coffee an' a +biscuit?" + +He glimpsed the boy in the kitchen doorway behind the sheriff. "Hello, +sonny," he called cheerfully. "Did you catch those freckles from your +brother?" + +The boy gazed at him abashed. There were actually tears in the +youngster's eyes. Ed Lamy and his sister moved into the kitchen and +took the boy with them. The girl had nodded to the sheriff. + +"She'll get you something to eat," said Neal. "What have you got on +you?" He stepped to Rathburn's side. + +"Ah--the frisk. I see you are a regulation officer, sheriff." +Rathburn's tone fairly radiated politeness and good cheer. "The silver +was rather heavy. It ain't my usual style to pack much silver, +sheriff. There's more of the bills in my hip pockets. Don't suppose +there's more'n a thousand in the whole bundle." + +The sheriff put the bills and silver on the table. He investigated all +of Rathburn's pockets, returned him his tobacco, papers, and +handkerchief, but kept a box of matches. Then he felt his prisoner's +clothing to make sure that he had no weapons concealed; he also felt +his boot tops. + +He looked at Rathburn with a gloating expression when he had finished; +there was also a glint of admiration in the gaze he directed at him. + +"You size right up to the descriptions of you, Coyote," he reflected +in a pleasant voice. "Too bad you couldn't have been in a better +business. I'm glad I caught you, but I ain't any too--too--well, I +might say any too proud of it. That may be pleasant for you to hear. +But I ain't discounting your well-known ability, an' I want to warn +you that I or any of my men will shoot you in your tracks if you +start anything that looks suspiciouslike." + +Rathburn yawned. "Sheriff, your courtesy is very greatly appreciated. +I only hope we will arrive in jail or somewhere soon where I can get +some sleep. I'm all in." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +FREEDOM BEHIND BARS + + +In the early afternoon the little cavalcade rode into Dry Lake. +Rathburn was nodding in his saddle, nearly asleep. + +"We'll keep him here to-night till I can get the facts straight," he +heard Sheriff Neal say to Brown. + +They dismounted at a small square stone building with bars on the +windows. Then Rathburn was proudly led between a line of curious +spectators into jail. + +Three rooms comprised Dry Lake's jail. The front of the building, for +a depth of a third of the distance from the front to the rear, was +divided into two of these rooms; one, the larger, being the main +office, and the other, much smaller, being the constable's private +office. The balance of the building was one large room, divided into +two old-fashioned cages with iron and steel bars. The doors to these +cages were on either side of the door into the front office and there +was an aisle between the cages and the wall separating them from the +offices. + +Rathburn was taken immediately to the cage on the left of the office +door. Sheriff Neal hesitated as he stood in the cell with him, thought +for a minute, then removed the handcuffs. + +"That's right fine of you, sheriff," said Rathburn sleepily, but +cheerfully, nevertheless. + +"Oh, you'll be watched well enough," said Neal as he closed the barred +door behind him and locked Rathburn in. "You'll find somebody around +if you try to tear the place down." + +"That wasn't just what I was getting at, sheriff," said the prisoner +with a glitter in his eyes. "I meant it was right fine of you to give +me freedom behind the bars." + +Rathburn's taunting laugh rang in the official's ears as the latter +pushed the men with him into the outer office. Rathburn listened, +yawning, to the sheriff giving instructions that the prisoner be +watched constantly. + +He looked about the cage which was separated from the other cell by a +wall of sheet iron. It contained nothing except a bench and a stool. +He pushed the bench against the stone wall at the rear and reclined +upon it, using his coat for a pillow. Then he turned his face toward +the wall, shading his eyes from the light, which filtered through two +windows high in the wall beyond the bars on the left side by tipping +his hat over his face. + +Immediately he fell asleep. + +The news that The Coyote had been captured, spread rapidly through the +town and many came to the jail hoping they might be able to see the +prisoner. All of these were denied admittance, but Sheriff Neal told +the few who stated that they had been among the number the bandit had +lined up at the point of his guns, that they would be called to +identify The Coyote on the following day. He asked each if they were +sure the bandit had two guns, and the reply in each case was in the +affirmative. + +"That's funny," Neal muttered. "He only had one gun on him." + +"More'n likely the other's on his horse with his saddle," Brown +pointed out. "I believe he left his horse somewheres an' made that +fellow Lamy take him to the house thinking he could get something to +eat there, and that they wouldn't be so likely to be seen in the open +on foot. You got to remember that man's more or less clever." + +This explanation satisfied Neal, and in the minds of the men who had +been in the resort when it was held up, there was no question as to +the identity of the robber. Even if they had suspected otherwise it is +doubtful if they would have acknowledged it because they considered it +less of an ignominy to be held up by the notorious Coyote than by a +bandit of lesser reputation. + +Thus did the bonds of evidence tighten about Rathburn while he slept +through the late afternoon and the twilight. + +When he awoke a faint yellow light dimly illuminated his surroundings. +He lay thinking for several minutes. He knew night had fallen and +surmised that he had slept a full eight hours. He could tell this +because he was fully awake and alert. He turned noiselessly on his +bench and saw that the light came from a lamp burning near the door to +the outer office. + +Rathburn could hear the hum of voices, and by listening intently, +ascertained that two men were talking, one of whom was the sheriff. He +could not recognize the voice of the other speaker as a voice he had +ever heard before, and he could not hear what they were saying. + +He listened dully to the voices until he heard a horse's hoofs in +front of the jail. He turned back with his face to the wall, and his +hat tipped over his eyes, as a man entered the jail office with a +stamp of boots and jingle of spurs. + +"Hello, constable," he heard the sheriff say. "What luck?" + +"Couldn't find the hoss," came a disgruntled voice. "Looked all +afternoon an' till it got dark for him." + +"Confound it!" exclaimed Neal. "The horse must have been somewhere +aroun' close. He sure didn't walk down the valley." + +"That's probably right," said the other. "I left a couple of your men +out there to keep up searching when daylight comes. That feller Lamy +showed us about where they left the hosses--his hoss an' The +Coyote's--but they wasn't there. He said there was a bunch of wild +hosses in the valley an' that they'd probably got away an' gone with +'em. We saw the wild hosses, but we couldn't get anywhere near +'em--couldn't get near enough to see if any of 'em was wearin' saddles +or not. We had some chase while it lasted, I'll recite." + +"Did Lamy say how they came to leave their horses?" asked the sheriff +in an annoyed tone. + +"It was The Coyote's orders. Thought they'd be safer in the middle of +the posse or something like that. Made Lamy leave the hosses an' run +for the house an' made him get down in the cellar with him. Don't know +if he knew Lamy lived there or not, but reckon it wouldn't have made +any difference." + +The sheriff was pacing the floor of the office as his footfalls +attested. "I've ordered that Lamy in to-morrow. I've a lot more +questions to ask him. Well, you might as well get a few winks, +constable; Brown and the rest of 'em have hit the hay. Even the +prisoner is tired out, and that's sayin' something for as tough a bird +as he is. But I wish I had his horse. I've got to have his horse!" + +Rathburn was smiling at the wall. He heard Neal walk to the door and +look in. Receding footsteps told him that the constable was leaving. +For a time there was silence in the outer office. + +Rathburn sat up quietly and began easing off his right boot. The boot +came slowly, very slowly, as Rathburn worked at it, careful not to +make any noise. Then, just as it came free, the sheriff again strode +to the door and looked in. + +He saw Rathburn yawning, as the boot dropped on the floor. + +Rathburn looked at the sheriff sleepily as the official strode into +the aisle and peered in between the bars. He tipped the bootless foot +back on its toes as he lifted his other foot and tugged at the boot. + +"That you, sheriff?" he asked with another yawn. "The lights are so +bad I can't see good. Guess I'm a little groggy anyway. I was too +danged tired when I went to sleep to take off my boots." + +"You've got another ten hours to sleep," said Neal with a scowl. "An' +you'll have plenty of time to get rid of your saddle soreness. You'll +ride in automobiles and trains for a while an' keep in out of the hot +sun an' the wet." + +The sheriff laughed harshly at his own words. + +Rathburn let the other boot drop. "I expect I'll get something to eat +now an' then, too?" + +"Feel hungry?" asked Neal. + +"Might chaw on a biscuit before I take another nap," yawned the +prisoner. + +"I'll see if I can scare you up a bite," said the sheriff, leaving. + +Rathburn heard him say something to some one in front. Then the +sheriff went out of the building. The other man came in and looked at +Rathburn curiously. + +He was of medium build, with white hair and a face seamed and lined +and red. Rathburn instantly recognized in his jailer a man of the +desert--possibly of the border country. + +"So you're The Coyote," said the jailer in a rather high-pitched +voice. + +Rathburn winked at him. "That's what they say," he replied. + +"You size up to him, all right," observed the man of the desert. "An' +I can tell quick enough when I get a good look at you an' inspect your +left forearm. I've had your descriptions in front of my eyes on paper +an' from a dozen persons that knowed you for three years!" + +"You been trailing me?" asked Rathburn curiously. + +"I have; an' it ain't no credit to this bunch here that they got you, +for I was headed in this direction myself an' arrived 'most as soon as +you did." + +"You from Arizona?" asked Rathburn, grasping his right foot in his +left hand. + +"I'm from Arizony an' Mexico an' a few other places," was the answer. +"I've helped catch men like you before, Coyote." + +Rathburn frowned, still keeping his hand over his right foot. "I don't +like that word, Coyote," he said softly, holding the other's gaze +between the bars. "A coyote is a cowardly breed of animal, isn't it?" + +"An' a tricky one," said the jailer. "I ain't sayin' you're a coward; +but you're tricky, an' that's bad enough." + +"Maybe so," agreed Rathburn. "Ah--here's our friend, his nibs, the +sheriff. He went out to rustle me some grub. He wants to keep me fat +for hanging!" + +His laugh rang through the jail, empty save for himself and the two +officers. But the temporary jailer hesitated, looking at Rathburn's +eyes, before he turned to the sheriff. + +"Open the door and I'll take it in to him," ordered the sheriff. +"Can't get this stuff through the bars. You might keep him covered." + +The jailer's hand flew to his hip for his gun as he also brought up a +large key on a ring. He unlocked the door to the cage and held it open +while he kept his gun trained upon Rathburn. + +The sheriff entered and placed the food on the stool and a large bowl +of coffee on the floor beside it. Then he backed out, watching +Rathburn keenly as the latter sat on his bench with his right foot in +his hand. + +When the door clanged shut and the key rattled in the lock, Rathburn +let down his right foot, took two steps, and pulled the stool to the +bench. He stepped back and secured the coffee. Then he began to eat +and drink, keeping his right foot tipped on its toes, while the two +officials watched him attentively. + +"Sheriff," said Rathburn suddenly, between bites on a huge meat +sandwich, "could you let me have a stub of a lead pencil an' a sheet +of paper to write a letter on?" + +"Easy enough," answered Neal. "Course, you know all mail that goes out +of the jail is read by us before it's delivered--if it's delivered at +all." + +"I'll chance it," snapped out Rathburn. + +As the sheriff left to get the writing materials, with the jailer +following him, doubtless for a whispered confab as to what Rathburn +might be wanting to write and its possible bearing on his capture, the +prisoner hastily ran his left hand down into his right sock and with +some difficulty withdrew a peculiar-shaped leather case about ten +inches long and nearly the width of his foot. This he put within his +shirt. + +When the officials returned he had finished his repast and was +waiting for them near the bars with a smile of gratitude on his lips. + +"This may be a confession I'm going to write," he said, grinning at +Neal. "It's going to take me a long time, I reckon, but you said I had +something like ten hours for sleep, so I guess I can spare two or +three for this effort at literary composition. I figure, sheriff, that +this'll be my masterpiece." + +His look puzzled the sheriff as he took the pencil and paper through +the bars and returned to his bunk. He drew up the stool and sat upon +it. It was a little lower than the bench, so, putting his paper on the +bench, he had a fairly good makeshift desk. He began to write +steadily, and after a few minutes the sheriff and jailer retired to +the office. + +It did not take Rathburn a quarter of an hour to write what he wished +on the first of the several pieces of paper. He tore off what he had +written, doubled it again and again into a small square, took out his +sack of tobacco which he had been allowed to retain, and put it +therein with the loose tobacco. + +Then he wrote for a few minutes on the second sheet of paper. + +When the sheriff looked in later he evidently was slowly and +laboriously achieving a composition. + +Rathburn heard the sheriff go out of the front door a few minutes +later. Instantly he was alert. He drew on his boots. He surmised that +the sheriff had gone out for something to eat and, though he wasn't +sure of this, it was true. + +"Oh, jailer!" he called amiably. + +The wrinkled face of the desert trailer appeared in the office +doorway. + +Rathburn looked about from his seat on the stool. "This job ain't none +too easy, as it is," he complained. "As a writer I'm a first-rate cow +hand. Lemme take your knife to sharpen this pencil with. When I asked +the sheriff for a stub of a pencil he took me at my word." + +"Sure I'll let you have my knife," said the jailer sarcastically. "How +about my gun--want that, too?" + +"Oh, come on, old-timer," pleaded Rathburn. "The lead in this pencil's +worn clean down into the wood." + +"Hand it over here an' I'll sharpen it," said the jailer, drawing his +pocketknife. + +Rathburn walked to the bars and held out the pencil. An amiable smile +played on his lips. "You'll have to excuse me," he said contritely. "I +forgot it wasn't jail etiquette to ask for a knife. But I ain't had +much experience in jail. Now according to his nibs, the sheriff, I'm +in to get pretty well acquainted with 'em, eh?" + +He watched the jailer as he began sharpening the pencil. + +"Speaking of knives, now," he continued in a confiding tone, "I got in +a ruckus down near the border once an' some gents started after me. +One of 'em got pretty close--close enough to take some skin off my +shoulder with a bullet. He just sort of compelled me to shoot back." + +"I suppose you killed him," observed the jailer, pausing in his work +of sharpening the pencil. + +"I ain't saying," replied Rathburn. "Anyways I had a hole-up down +there for a few days, an' as luck would have it, I had to put up with +a Mexican. All that Mex would do was argue that a knife was better +than a gun. He claimed it was sure and made no noise--those were his +hardest talking points, an' I'll be danged if there isn't something in +it. + +"But what I was gettin' at is that I didn't have nothing to do, an' +that Mexican got me to practicing knife throwing. You know how slick +those fellows are at throwing a blade. Well, in the couple of weeks +that I hung aroun' there he coached me along till I could throw a +knife as good as he could. He thought it was great sport, teaching me +to throw a knife so good, that a way. + +"Since I left down there I've sort of practiced that knife-throwing +business now and then, just for fun. Anyways I thought it was just for +fun. But now I see, jailer, that it was my luck protecting me. +Anything you learn is liable to prove handy some time. _Don't move an +inch or I'll let you have it!_" + +Rathburn's hand snapped out of his shirt and up above his right +shoulder. + +The man from the desert shuddered involuntarily as he saw the yellow +light from the lamp play fitfully upon a keen, white blade. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +AGAINST HIS ETHICS + + +Rathburn's eyes held the other's as completely as would have been the +case if he were invested with a power to charm in some occult way. +Moreover, every trace of his amiable, confiding smile was gone. His +gaze was hard and cold and gleaming. His face was drawn into grim +lines. When he spoke he talked smoothly, rapidly, and with an edge to +his words which convinced his listener that he was in deadly earnest. + +"I'm not used to jails, my friend, an' I don't aim to stay here. +You're not very far away an' these bars are wide enough for me to miss +'em; but I don't think I could miss you." + +The jailer looked in horror at the gleaming knife which Rathburn held +by its hilt with the blade pointing backward. The jailer was from the +border; he knew the awful possibilities of a quick motion of the wrist +in that position, a half turn of the knife as it streaked toward its +target. He shuddered again. + +"Now just edge this way about two steps so your holster will be +against the bars," Rathburn instructed. "I can drop you where you +stand, reach through the bars an' drag you close if need be; but I'm +banking on you having some good sense." + +The jailer, without moving the hands which held the pencil and his +pocketknife, sidled up against the bars. + +Rathburn leaned forward. Keeping his right hand high and tipped back, +ready for the throw, he reached out with his left, just through the +bars, and secured the jailer's gun. + +"Now it's all off," he said quietly. "If the sheriff or anybody else +comes before I get out of here I'm just naturally going to have to +live up to the reputation for shooting that they've fastened on me. +Unlock the door." + +The jailer wet his lips with his tongue. The pencil and pocketknife +fell to the floor. Covered by his own gun, now in Rathburn's hand, he +moved to the door, brought out his key, and opened it. Still keeping +him covered, Rathburn backed to the bench, snatched up his coat, and +walked out of the cage, motioning to the jailer to precede him into +the office. + +There he slipped the gun in his holster and put on his coat. The +jailer reckoned better than to try to leap upon him while he was thus +engaged; the prisoner's speed with a six-gun was well known. + +Rathburn drew a peculiar leather case from within his shirt, put the +knife in it, and stowed it away in a pocket. Then he turned on the +jailer. + +"Maybe you think that was a mean trick--resorting to a knife," he said +pleasantly; "but all is fair in love and war and when a man's in jail. +You better sort of stand in one place while I look around a bit." + +He backed behind the desk in the big office, opened two or three +drawers, and brought out a pair of handcuffs. He moved around in front +of the jailer again. + +"Hold out your hands," he commanded. "That's it." He snapped the +handcuffs on with one hand while he kept the other on the butt of his +gun. + +"You don't seem to have much to say," he commented. + +"What's the use?" said the jailer. "I know when a man's got me dead to +rights. But I'll be on your trail again, an' if I ever get within +shootin' distance of you an' see you first, you'll never get another +chance to pull a knife." + +"Well said," Rathburn admitted. "Now we understand each other. But I +don't intend for you to ever get within shooting distance of me." + +Rathburn glanced casually about. "Now it seems to me," he resumed, +"that most of these fellows who gum up their jail breaks make a +mistake by hurrying. Suppose you just walk natural-like through that +door and into the cage I just had the foresight to leave. That's +it--right on in." + +He turned the key which the jailer had left in the lock. "Now you're +all right unless you start hollering," said Rathburn. + +He stood quietly in the doorway between the office and the cages. The +man from the desert studied him. He saw a variety of expressions flit +over Rathburn's face--anger, determination, scorn, resolve. He was +deliberately ignoring his opportunity to make his escape while +conditions were propitious; he was waiting! + +Although the jailer felt the urge to cry out in an endeavor to make +himself heard outside the jail and thus bring help, something in the +bearing of the man standing in the doorway made him keenly curious to +watch the drama which he knew must be enacted sooner or later before +his eyes, for The Coyote was certainly waiting for the sheriff. + +Rathburn now drew the jailer's gun from his own holster and toyed with +it to get its "feel" and balance. He dropped it back into the holster +and in a wink of an eyelid it was back in his hand. The man from the +desert gasped at the lightning rapidity of the draw. Time and again +the gun virtually leaped from the holster into The Coyote's hand at +his hip, ready to spit forth leaden death. The jailer drew a long +breath. The man was accustoming himself to the weapon which had come +into his possession, making sure of it. Now he again stood motionless +in the doorway, waiting--waiting---- + +Boots stamped upon the steps outside, and Rathburn drew back from the +doorway in the aisle before the cages. + +The front door opened and a man entered. + +Both the man in the cage and the man in the aisle recognized the +sheriff's step as Neal closed the door, paused for a look about the +office, and then walked toward the door leading into the jail proper. + +The jailer opened his mouth to sound a warning, but something in +Rathburn's gaze and posture held him silent. Rathburn's body was +tense; his gaze was glued to the doorway; his right hand with its +slim, brown, tapered fingers, hung above the gun at his side. + +The sheriff loomed in the doorway. Without a flicker of surprise in +his eyes he took in the situation. His lids half closed as his lips +tightened to a thin, white line. He met Rathburn's gaze and knew that +he now faced The Coyote in the role which had won him his sinister +reputation. + +"Did I mention to you that I wasn't used to jails, sheriff?" said +Rathburn evenly, his words carrying crisp and clear. "I don't fancy +'em. But I needed the sleep and the meal. Now I'm going. Do you +recollect I said no one ever took my gun from me but what I got it +back? I had to borrow this one from the gent in the cage. I'll take my +gun, sheriff--_now!_" + +Neal had watched him closely. He saw that while he was speaking The +Coyote did not for an instant relax his vigilance. The merest +resemblance of a move would precipitate gun play. + +He turned abruptly, and with Rathburn following him closely, went +into the private room off the jail office. He pointed to the other's +gun which lay upon the flat desk where many had curiously inspected +it. + +Rathburn took it in his left hand and ascertained at a glance that it +wasn't loaded. Therefore he elected to carry it in his left hand. + +"I won't take a chance on feeding it right now, sheriff," he said. +"Under the circumstances it would be right awkward. If you make up +your mind to draw I'll have to depend on a strange gun." + +Sheriff Neal's eyes glittered; his lips parted just a little. + +"Now if you'll walk back toward the cage, sheriff," Rathburn prompted. +"Correct--don't stumble." + +Neal backed slowly out of the door, through the second door into the +aisle before the cages, watching Rathburn like a cat. + +Rathburn slipped his own weapon into his left hip pocket and with his +left hand dug into his trousers pocket for the key to the cage. He +didn't take his eyes from Neal's as he brought it out and inserted it +in the lock. His right hand continued to hang above the gun he had +taken from the jailer. + +"Sheriff," he said with a cold ring in his voice, "this may seem like +an insult, but I'm goin' to ask you to unlock that cage and go in. You +can take your time if you want, but I warn you fair that if any one +should start coming up the steps outside I'll try to smoke you up." + +For answer Neal, with the glitter still in his eyes, stepped to the +cage door, unlocked it, and swung it open. + +He took a step, whirled like a flash--and the deafening report of guns +crashed and reverberated within the jail's walls. + +Neal staggered back within the cage, his gun clattering to the floor, +his right hand dropping to his side. + +"If I hadn't been up against a strange gun I wouldn't have hit your +finger, sheriff," said Rathburn mockingly. "I was shootin' at your +gun." + +He shut the cage door quickly, locked it, and stuck the key in his +pocket. Then he threw the jailer's gun in through the bars and thrust +his own weapon in its holster. + +"I want you gentlemen inside, an' armed," he said laughingly. "If the +jailer will be so good as to read what's written on the paper on the +bench, he'll learn something to his advantage. Sheriff, you an' Brown +were wrong in this, but the devil of it is you'll never know why." + +He left Neal pondering this cryptic sally, ran to the front door, +opened it, and disappeared. + +Neal clutched his injured fingers and swore freely, although there was +amazement in his eyes. He could have been killed like a rat in a trap +if The Coyote had felt the whim. + +The man from the desert stepped to the bench and read on the sheet of +paper: + +If anybody ever gets to read this they will know that what I said +about learning to throw a knife is true. I can do it. I've carried +that knife in a special case that would fit in my sock and boot for +just such an emergency as came up to-night. But I never would have +throwed it. It would be against my ethics. + +The man from the desert swore softly. Then he hurriedly picked up his +gun and fired five shots to attract attention. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +A MAN AND HIS HORSE + + +When Rathburn closed the outer door after him he plunged down the +steps and into the shadows by the wall of the jail. Few lights showed +in the town, for it was past midnight. He could see yellow beams +streaming from the windows of the resort up the street, however, as he +hesitated. + +He was mightily handicapped because he had no horse. A horse--his own +horse, he felt--was necessary for his escape, but his horse was a long +distance away. + +Rathburn stole across the street to the side on which the big resort +was situated, and slipped behind a building just as the muffled +reports came from within the jail. After a short interval, five more +shots were heard, and Rathburn grinned as he realized that the jailer +had fired the remaining bullets in his own and the sheriff's guns. + +He heard men running down the street. So he hurried up street behind +the buildings until he reached the rear of the large resort, which was +the place Lamy had held up. + +Peering through one of the rear windows he saw the room was deserted +except for the man behind the bar. Even at that distance he could hear +horses and men down the street. Doubtless they were crowding into the +jail where the sheriff would insist upon being liberated at once so he +could lead the chase and, as Rathburn had the key, this would result +in a delay until another key could be found, or Brown, who probably +had one, could be routed out. + +Rathburn thought of this as he looked through the window at the lonely +bartender who evidently could not decide whether to close up and see +what it all was about or not. But the thing which impressed Rathburn +most was the presence of a pile of sandwiches and several cans of +corned beef and sardines--emergency quick lunches for patrons--on the +back bar. Also, he saw several gunny sacks on a box in the rear of the +place almost under the window through which he was looking. + +Rathburn stepped to the door in sudden decision, threw it open, and +walked in. His gun flashed into his hand. "Quiet!" was all he said to +the stupefied bartender. + +He scooped up one of the sacks, darted behind the bar, brushed the +sandwiches and most of the cans of corned beef and sardines into it, +and then slung it over his left shoulder with his left hand. + +"The sheriff will return the money that was taken from here," he said +coolly as he walked briskly to the front door. "Play the game safe; +stay where you are!" he cautioned as he vanished through the door. + +There were no horses at the hitching rail, but he saw several down the +street in front of the jail. Men were running back and forth across +the street--after Brown, he surmised. + +Again he stole around to the rear of the resort; then he struck +straight up into the timbered slope above the town, climbing rapidly +afoot with the distant peaks and ridges as his guide. + +Some two hours after dawn he sat on the crest of a high ridge watching +a rider come up the winding trail from eastward. He had seen other +riders going in both directions from his concealment behind a screen +of cedar bushes. He had watched them with no interest other than that +exhibited by a whimsical smile. But he did not smile as he watched +this rider. His eyes became keenly alert; his face was grim. His mind +was made up. + +When the rider was nearing his ambush, Rathburn quickly scanned the +empty stretch of trail to westward, then leaped down and confronted +the horseman. + +Ed Lamy drew rein with an exclamation of surprise. + +"There's not much time, an' I don't hanker to be seen--afoot," said +Rathburn quickly. "Where's my horse?" + +"He's in a pocket on a shale slope this side of the timber on a line +from the house where you left him," replied Lamy readily. "Or you can +have mine." + +"Don't want him," said Rathburn curtly. "You going in to see the +sheriff?" + +Lamy nodded. "His orders. Say, Coyote----" + +"He'll probably meet you on the way," Rathburn interrupted with a +sneer. "You can be figurin' out what to say to him. My saddle with the +horse?" + +"It's hanging from a tree where you go into the pocket. Big limestone +cliffs there below the shale. Say, Coyote, my sister an' kid brother +was tellin' me about your visit that morning, an' I guess I +understand----" + +"We can't stand here talkin'," Rathburn broke in, pulling the tobacco +sack from his shirt pocket. He extracted a folded piece of paper. +"Here's a note I wrote you in jail before I left. Read it on the way +in when there's no one watching you. Maybe you'll learn something from +it; maybe you won't. I expect you wanted money to fix that ranch up; +but you'll get further by doing a little irrigating from up that +stream than by trying to be a bandit. You just naturally ain't cut out +for the part!" + +With these words he handed Lamy the note and bounded back up the +slope. The screen of cedar bushes closed behind him as Lamy pushed on, +looking back, wondering and confused, with heightened color in his +face. + +It was late that night when Lamy returned to the little ranch house. +Frankie had gone to bed, but his sister was waiting up for him with a +meal and hot tea ready. + +He talked to his sister in a low voice while he ate. When he had +finished he read the note for the third time; read it aloud, so his +sister could hear. + + "LAMY: I meant to take you back and give you up, for I was pretty + sore. Then I saw your resemblance to your small brother by the + freckles and eyes and I remembered he had said something about you + saying some decent things about me. I guess you thought they were + nice things, anyway. + + "Then I thought maybe you got your ideas about easy money from + the stuff you'd heard about me, and I sort of felt kind of + responsible. I thought I'd teach you a lesson by flirting with + that posse and telling you that killing story to show you what + a man is up against in this game. I guess I can't get away + from it because they won't let me. But you don't have to start. + I was going to give you a good talking to before I let you go, + but I hadn't counted on the little kid in the house. I'm glad he + told the truth. He'll remember that. I gave you back your gun + because you hit the nail on the head when you said if I was + square I'd give it to you and let you make a run for it. + + "I took the money off you so if they got us I could take the blame + and let you off. I can take the blame without hurting my + reputation, so don't worry. I'm not doing this so much for your + sake as for your kid brother and your sister. I figure you'd sort + of caught on when I heard they hadn't located my horse. That was a + good turn. Do me another by getting some sense. There's plenty of + us fellows that's quite capable to furnish the bad examples. + + "RATHBURN." + +The girl was crying softly with an arm about her brother's neck when +he finished reading. + +"What--what are you going to do, Eddie?" she sobbed. + +"I'm goin' to irrigate!" said Ed Lamy with a new note in his voice. +"I'm goin' to build a sure-enough ranch for us with this piece of +paper for a corner stone!" + +Dawn was breaking over the mountains, strewing the gleaming peaks with +warm rosettes of color. A clear sky, as deep and blue as any sea, +arched its canopy above. Virgin stands of pine and fir marched up the +steep slopes to fling their banners of green against the snow. Silver +ribbons of streams laughed in the welcome sunlight. + +In a rock-walled gulch, far above the head of Sunrise Canon, a fire +was burning, its thin smoke streamer riding on a vagrant breeze. Near +by lay a dun-colored horse on its side, tied fast. A man was squatting +by the blaze. + +"I hate to have to do this, old hoss," the man crooned; "but we've got +to change the pattern of that CC2 brand if we want to stick together, +an' I reckon we want to stick." + +He thrust the running iron deeper into the glowing coals. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE WITNESS + + +The morning was hardly two hours old, and the crisp air was stinging +sweet with the tang of pine and fir, as Rathburn rode jauntily down +the trail on the eastern slope of the divide and drew rein on the +crest of a high ridge. As he looked below he whistled softly. + +"Juniper, hoss, there's folks down there plying a nefarious trade, a +plumb dangerous trade," he mused, digging for the tobacco and brown +papers in the pocket of his shirt. "I reckon they're carrying on in +direct defiance of the law, hoss." + +The dun-colored mustang tossed his head impatiently, but his master +ignored the animal's fretful desire to be off and dallied with tobacco +and paper, fashioning a cigarette, lighting it, breathing thin smoke +as his gray eyes squinted appraisingly at the scene below. + +Winding down into the foothills, in striking contrast to the dim +trails higher up, was a well-used road. It evidently led from the +saffron-tinted dump and gray buildings of a mine which showed on the +side of a big, bald mountain to southward. At a point almost directly +below the ridge where the man and horse stood, it crossed a small +hogback and descended a steep slope between lines of jack pines, +disappearing in the timber farther down. + +The gaze of the man on the ridge was concentrated on the bit of road +which showed on the hogback and the slope beyond. A truck was +laboriously climbing the ascent. But the watcher evidently was not so +much concerned with the approach of the truck as with certain +movements which were in progress on the hogback at the head of the +grade. + +Three persons had dismounted from their horses behind the screen of +timber. One, a tall man, had donned a long, black slicker and was +tying a handkerchief about his face. + +"Juniper, hoss," said Rathburn, "what does that gent want that slicker +on for? It ain't going to rain. An' how does he reckon to see onless +maybe he's got holes cut in that there hanky?" + +A second man had made his way down the slope a short distance. He took +advantage of the timber which screened him from sight of the driver of +the oncoming truck. + +"I 'spect that's in case the truck driver should suddenly take it into +his head to slide down backwards," said the observer, speaking his +thoughts aloud in a musical, bass voice. "One in front, one behind; +now how about the kid?" + +As if in answer to his question the third member of the party, +evidently a boy, led the horses a short way up the hogback where a +good view could be obtained of the road in both directions. + +The watcher grunted in approval. "One in front to do the stick-up, one +behind to stop a retreat and get whatever it is they're after, and one +on the lookout to see there ain't any unexpected guests. Couldn't have +planned the lay any better ourselves, hoss." + +He was too far distant to interfere, even if he had had any desire to +do so, which was doubtful from his interested and tolerant manner. +Anyway it could have done no good to shout a warning, for the driver +of the truck could not have heard anything above the roar of his +machine, and the trio had gone about the preparations with dispatch. +Already the truck was climbing the last steep pitch to the top of the +hogback. + +The tall man in the black slicker and mask now quickly stepped forth +from the edge of the timber. The watcher above saw his right hand and +arm whip out level with his shoulders. There was a glint of morning +sunlight and dull metal. The truck came to a jarring stop as the +driver jammed on the brakes. Then the driver's hands went into the +air. + +Stepping from the timber at the roadside behind the truck, the second +man leaped upon the machine. The watcher grunted again as he saw that +this man was also masked. The driver was disarmed and searched, then +forced to clamber down from the truck into the road, where the man in +the slicker kept him covered while the other quickly searched about +the seat and cab of the truck. Then the second man released the brakes +and dropped nimbly from the machine which plunged backward down the +steep slope, crashed into the tree growth on one side of the road, and +overturned. + +The boy mounted and led the other two horses down the hogback in the +scanty timber to the head of the grade. There the man in the slicker +and his companion joined him, mounted, and the trio rode quickly along +the hogback in a southerly direction and disappeared on a blind rail +into the forest. + +Rathburn rolled himself another cigarette with a grin as he watched +the truck driver stand for some moments uncertainly in the road and +then start rapidly down the slope toward his disabled machine. + +"C'mon, hoss," said the erstwhile spectator, turning his dun-colored +mount again into the trail. "So far's I can make out, this is the only +way down out of these tall mountains to the east, so we might as well +get going. We ain't got no business south or west. We'll be just in +time to get blamed for what's happened down there." + +Whatever there might be in the prospect, the rider did not permit it +to have any influence on his cheerful mood. He drew in long breaths of +the stimulating air and sniffed joyously at the fragrance of the +murmuring forests which clothed the higher hills. Far below the timber +would dwindle, the ridges would flatten into round knolls and lose +their verdure; then would come the dust and lava slopes, and +beyond--the desert. + +A wistful light came into the horseman's eyes. "Home, Juniper, hoss," +he said softly. "We've just got to have cactus an' water holes an' +danged blistering heat in ours; and I don't care so much as the faded +label off an empty tomato can if it's in California, or Arizona, or +Nevada, so long as it's desert!" + +The trail he was following wound tortuously around ridges, through the +timber, into ravines and canyons; now treading close upon the bank of a +swift-running mountain stream in a narrow valley, and again seeking +the higher places where there were rocks and fallen trees and other +obstructions. An observer would have gleaned at once that the rider +was not familiar with the trail or territory he traversed. + +So it was past noon when he finally reached the hogback where the +outstanding event of the morning had taken place. The rider looked +back up toward the divide and grinned as he rested his horse just +above the scene of the holdup. + +"Don't reckon they'd have heard me if I'd hollered, or seen me if I'd +waved," he mused. "They picked out a good spot for the dirty work," he +concluded, looking about. + +Shortly afterward, as he was staring down at the tracks in the road, +he smothered an exclamation. Then he dismounted, picked up two small +objects from the dust at the point where the trio had started on +their get-away, examined them with a puzzled expression, and thrust +them into a pocket. + +"Queer," he ruminated; "mighty queer. If those silly things had been +laying there in the road before the rumpus they'd have been tracked +into the dust. But they was on _top_ of a perfectly good hoss track. +An' it don't look like there's been anybody along here since." + +He continued down the road, descending the steep slope, and came to +the overturned truck. At a glance he saw it had been used for hauling +supplies, doubtless to the mine he had glimpsed on the slope of the +high mountain to southward. Several kegs of nails, some hardware, and +some sacks of cement were scattered in the road. He remembered that +the man who had climbed on the truck had only searched the driver and +the cab. Anything he might have taken must have been in a small +package or it would have been discernible even at that long distance. + +"That outfit wasn't after no mine supplies," Rathburn reflected as he +finished his brief inspection and again mounted. "An' they wasn't +taking any chances on smoking anybody up or being followed too quick. +Pretty work all around. An' here's the committee, hoss!" + +A touring car came careening around a turn in the road and raced +toward him. He turned his horse to the side of the road and spoke to +him as the animal, plainly unfamiliar with motor cars, snorted and +shied. + +The car drew to a stop with a screeching of brakes. The horseman +raised his hands as he saw two rifles leveled at him from the rear +seat. There were five men in the car besides the driver. One of the +men, who had been sitting in the front with the driver, leaped from +the machine and strode toward the rider. + +"Calm that horse down an' climb out of that saddle," he commanded. +"If you make any motions toward that gun you're packing, it'll make +things simpler, in a way." + +The rider slipped from the saddle with a broad grin. "Right up to +form," he sang cheerfully, although he kept his hands elevated while +the other took his gun. "My hoss'll be calm enough now that that +danged thing is shut off. You must be a sheriff to be flirting with +the speed limit that way an' forgetting you've got a horn." + +"Where are you from an' where was you going?" demanded the other. + +"I'm from up in the mountains, but I'd never got where I was going if +I hadn't seen you first the way you busted around that curve," was the +cool reply. + +"Stranger," was the next comment in a tone of satisfaction. "Look +here, friend, I'm Mannix, deputy from High Point. You'll sail smoother +if you answer my questions straight." + +The deputy motioned to two men in the car. "Search him," he ordered. +Then he stood back, six-shooter in hand. + +The stranger built a cigarette while the men were going through him. +He lighted the weed and smiled quizzically while they examined the +meager contents of the slicker pack on the rear of his saddle. + +"See you're packing a black slicker," said Mannix, pointing to the +rough raincoat in which the pack was wrapped. + +"That's in case of rain," was the ready answer. + +"What's your name?" asked the deputy with a frown. + +"Rathburn." + +"Where was you heading?" + +"I was aiming in a general eastern direction," Rathburn replied in a +drawl. "Is there any law against ridin' hosses in this here part of +the country?" + +"Not at all," replied the deputy heartily. "An' there's no law against +drivin' automobiles or trucks. But there's a law against stoppin' 'em +with a gun." + +"So," said Rathburn. "You stopped because you saw my gun? An' I'm to +blame, for it? If I'd known you were touchy about guns down here I'd +have worn mine in my shirt." + +One of the other men from the car had joined the deputy. He was +looking at Rathburn keenly. Mannix turned to him. + +"Look like him?" he asked. + +The man nodded. "About the same size and height." + +"This man was drivin' a truck up here that was stopped this morning," +said the deputy sternly to Rathburn. "He says you size up to one of +the men that turned the trick--one of them that wore a black slicker +like yours." + +Rathburn nodded pleasantly. "Exactly," he said with a smile. "I happen +to be in the country an' I've got a black slicker. There you are; +everything all proved up. An' yet there was somebody once told me it +took brains to be a sheriff!" + +There was a glint in Rathburn's eyes as he uttered the last sentence. + +Instead of flying into a rage, Mannix laughed. + +"Don't kid yourself," he said grimly. "You're not the man who held up +this truck driver." + +He gave Rathburn back his gun, to the latter's surprise. Then he waved +toward Rathburn's horse. + +"Go ahead," he said, smiling. "General eastern direction, wasn't it? +This road will take you clean to the desert, if you want to go that +far. So long." + +He led the others back to the car which started off with a roar. It +passed the truck and continued on up the road. + +Rathburn sat his horse and watched the automobile out of sight. His +expression was one of deep perplexity. + +"By all the rules of the game that fellow should have held me as a +suspect," he soliloquized. "Now he don't know me from a hoss thief--or +does he?" + +He frowned and rode thoughtfully down the road in the direction from +which the automobile had come. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE WELCOME + + +The afternoon wore on as Rathburn followed the road at an easy jog. He +quickened his pace somewhat when he passed through aisles in thick +timber, and, despite his careless attitude in the saddle, he kept a +sharp lookout at all times. For Rathburn was carrying some gold and +bills in a belt under his shirt--which had been examined and returned +to him at the order of the deputy--and he had no intention of being +waylaid. Moreover, the man's natural bearing was one of constant +alertness. He rode for more than two hours without seeing any one. + +"Strange," he observed aloud. "This road is used a lot, too. Maybe the +morning's ceremonies has scared all the travelers into the brush." + +But, as he turned the next bend in the road, he saw a small cabin in a +little clearing to the right. + +Spurred by a desire to obtain some much-needed information, he turned +from the road into the clearing and rode up to the cabin. He doffed +his broad-brimmed hat in haste as he saw a girl. + +"Ma'am, I'm a stranger in these woods an' I'm looking for an honest +man or woman to guide me on my way," he said with a flashing smile. + +Instead of returning his smile with a gracious word of greeting, the +girl regarded him gravely out of glowing, dark eyes. + +"Pretty!" he thought to himself. "Limping lizards, but she's pretty!" + +"Where are you from?" the girl asked soberly. + +"From yonder mountains, an' then some," he answered with a sweeping +gesture. + +"You rode down this morning?" + +"I rode down this morning. Down from the toppermost top of the divide +with the wind singing in my whiskers an' the birds warbling in my +ears." He laughed gayly, for he appreciated her puzzled look. "I was +wondering two things," he continued solemnly. + +"What might they be?" she asked doubtfully. + +"First: Why isn't there more travel on this good road?" he said. "I +haven't seen a soul except yourself and a--a party in an automobile. +Now on a road like this----" + +"Where did you meet the automobile?" she asked in a voice which he +interpreted as eager. + +"Two hours an' some minutes back--and up. Near a truck which had had +some trouble in the road. Perhaps you heard about it? Turned over on +its side in collapse after some free-thinking gents turned their smoke +wagons toward it." + +It was plain she was interested. + +"Did--is the automobile still there?" she inquired with a breathless +catch in her voice. + +"Oh, no. After some of the passengers had had a little disrespectful +conversation with me, it went on up the road. Are they scarce around +here, ma'am--automobiles?" + +"Not exactly," she replied with a frown. "They truck ore and men and +supplies to and from the mine every day. The reason you've seen so few +people to-day is because it's Sunday." + +"Thank you," he said gallantly. "That answers my first question. You +remember, I was wondering _two_ things?" + +Her lips trembled with a smile, but her eyes flashed with suspicion. + +"You will observe, ma'am, that I am not followed by any pack horses or +heavily-laden burros," he went on gravely, although his eyes sparkled +with good humor. "Nor is there anything much to speak of in this +slicker pack on my saddle. I need some new smoking tobacco, some new +shaving soap, some new hair cut, a bath, a dinner, and a bed--after +I've put up my hoss." + +This time the girl laughed, and Rathburn was rewarded by the flashing +gleam of two rows of pearls and eyes merry with mirth. But her +reciprocating mood of cheerfulness was quickly spent. + +"You are only a mile and a half from High Point," she said hurriedly. +"You can get what you want there." + +She retreated into the doorway, and Rathburn saw that the chance +interview was at an end. + +"_Gracias_, as they say in the desert country," he said, saluting as +he turned away. "It means thanks, ma'am." + +He looked back as he touched the mustang with his steel and saw her +looking after him with a strange look in her eyes. + +"That gal looks half like she was scared, hoss," he reflected. "I +wonder, now, if she got me wrong. Dang it! Maybe she thought I was +trying to flirt with her. Well, maybe I was." + +He thrust a hand in a pocket and fingered the two objects he had +picked up in the road at the scene of the holdup. Then he pulled his +hat a bit forward over his eyes and increased his pace. The town, as +he had half expected, came suddenly into sight around a sharp bend in +the road. + +High Point consisted of some two-score structures, and only a cursory +glance was needed to ascertain that it was the source of supplies and +rendez-vous for entertainment of the several mines and all the miners +and prospectors in the neighboring hills. Several fairly good roads +and many trails led into it, and from it there was a main road of +travel to the railroad on the edge of the desert in the east. + +Before he entered the dusty, single street, lined with small buildings +flaunting false fronts, Rathburn recognized the signs of a foothill +town where the hand of authority rested but lightly. + +He rode directly to the first hotel, the only two-story structure in +town, and around to the rear where he put up his horse and left his +saddle, chaps and slicker pack in the care of the barn man. + +He received instructions as to the location of the best barber shop +and speedily wended his way there. He found Sunday was not observed in +the barber shop, nor in the resort which adjoined it. + +"Any chance to get a bath here?" he asked one of the two barbers with +a twinkle in his gray eyes. + +He expected a snort of astonishment and a sarcastic reply. + +"Sure. Want it first or after?" + +Rathburn eyed the barber suspiciously. Was the man poking fun at him? +Well, he was not a stranger to repartee. + +"First or after what?" he asked, scowling. + +"Your shave and hair cut." + +Rathburn laughed. "I'll take it first--if you have it. An' if you +have, I'll say this is a first-class barber shop." + +The barber led the way to a room in the rear of the place with a +pleased grin. + +An hour or so later Rathburn, with the lower part of his face a shade +paler than the upper half, his dark hair showing neatly under his +broad-brimmed hat, his black riding boots glistening, and a satisfied +smile on his face, sauntered out of the barber shop into the resort +next door. + +A man was lighting the hanging lamps, and Rathburn looked about +through a haze of tobacco smoke at a cluster of crowded gaming tables, +a short bar, cigar counter, and at the motley throng which jammed the +small room. + +He grinned as he read the sign over the cash register: + + +FREE DRINKS TO-MORROW + +"Swiped in broad daylight from the grand old State of Texas," he +murmured aloud to himself. + +Then he noticed a small restaurant in the rear of the place, separated +from the main room by a partition, the upper part of which was glass. + +He made his way back, passed through the door, and took a seat at the +counter which afforded him a view of the resort through the glass. He +ordered a substantial meal and, while waiting for it to be served, +studied with calculating eyes the scene in the next room. + +The men were mostly of the hills--miners constituting the majority. Of +professional gamblers there were many, and there was also a plentiful +sprinkling of that despicable species known as "boosters" whose +business it is to sit in at the games in the interest of "the house;" +to fleece the victims who occupy the few remaining seats. + +But now he saw a man who apparently was not a miner, or a prospector, +nor yet a member of the professional gambling tribe. This was a tall +man, very dark, sinewy. He wore a gun. + +At first Rathburn thought he might be a cow-puncher, for he wore +riding boots, and had something of the air and bearing of a cowman; +but he finally decided that this classification was inaccurate. An +officer at one of the mines, perhaps; a forest ranger--no, he didn't +wear the regalia of a ranger--Rathburn gave it up as his dinner was +put before him on the counter. + +He fell to his meal eagerly, for he had had nothing to eat since early +morning when he had broken camp high in the mountains to westward. +Steak and French "fries" began quickly to disappear, along with many +slices of bread and two cups of steaming coffee. Then Rathburn looked +up, and to his surprise saw that the tall, dark man was standing near +the glass, studying him intently out of scowling, black eyes. + +Rathburn looked at him coolly and steadily for a few moments and +resumed his meal. But the other was inquisitive and Rathburn sensed, +without again looking up, that he was being watched. Was this man, +then, an aide of Mannix, the deputy? He doubted it. + +He finished his meal, paid his score with an added cheery word for the +counter jumper, rose, entered the main room of the resort, and walked +directly up to the dark man who still was observing him. + +"Was you thinking I was an old acquaintance of yours?" he asked +pleasantly. + +The other's eyes narrowed, and Rathburn thought he detected a glow of +recognition and satisfaction. + +"Did you have your bath?" sneeringly inquired the man. + +Rathburn's brows lifted. Then he smiled queerly. "I sure did. Why? Did +I maybe keep you waiting? Was you next?" + +The other's eyes blazed with wrath. "Let me give you a tip, my friend; +you ain't right well acquainted in this here locality, are you?" + +Rathburn now noted that they had attracted immediate attention. The +tall, dark man, then, was a personage of importance. He noted another +thing, too--rather, he realized it by instinct as well as by certain +mannerisms. The man before him knew how to use the weapon which hung +low on his right thigh. + +"If you mean was I born here, or do I live here, I'd say no," Rathburn +drawled; "but I happen to be here at this precise time so I'd say I'm +right well acquainted with it." + +A hush had come over the place. Interested faces were turned in their +direction, and Rathburn sensed an ominous tremor of keen expectancy. +The fine wrinkles at the corners of his eyes tightened a bit. + +"This is a poor time for strangers to be hanging around," said the +dark man in a loud voice. "The Dixie Queen pay-roll has been taking +wings too often." + +The implication and the murmur from the spectators was not lost upon +Rathburn. His lips tightened into a fine, white line. + +"Whoever you are, you've got more mouth than brains!" he said crisply +in a voice which carried over the room. + +The effect of his words was electric. There was a sharp intaking of +breath from the spectators. The dark man's face froze, and his eyes +darted red. His right hand seemed to hang on the instant for the swoop +to his gun. Rathburn appeared to be smiling queerly out of his eyes. +Then came a sharp interruption. + +"Just a minute, Carlisle!" + +Rathburn recognized the voice of Mannix, and a moment later the deputy +stepped between them. + +"What's the idea?" he asked coolly. + +"This gentleman you just called Carlisle seems to have appointed +himself a reception committee to welcome me into the enterprising town +of High Point," drawled Rathburn, with a laugh. + +Mannix turned on Carlisle with a scowl, and Carlisle shrugged +impatiently, his eyes still glaring balefully at Rathburn. + +The deputy again confronted Rathburn. "Had your supper?" he asked. + +"Best steak I've had in two months," Rathburn replied cheerfully. + +"Horse taken care of?" + +"First thing." There was a note of derision in Rathburn's tone. +"Service at the hotel barn is high grade." + +Mannix's eyes hardened before he spoke again. He hesitated, but when +his words came they were clear-cut and stern. + +"Then come with me an' I'll show you where to sleep." + +"You mean in jail?" queried Rathburn. + +Mannix nodded coldly. + +"Sheriff," said Rathburn, in a peculiar tone, addressing the deputy +but looking over his shoulder directly into Carlisle's eyes; "if +there's one thing I'm noted for, it's for being a good guesser!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE DIXIE'S BOSS + + +If Mannix expected any resistance from Rathburn he soon found that +none was to materialize. The deputy, a short, rather stout man of +perhaps thirty-nine, with bronzed features, clear, brown eyes, and a +protruding jaw covered with a stubble of reddish-brown beard, was +nevertheless wary of his prisoner. He had not yet obtained Rathburn's +gun, and he recognized the unmistakable signs of a seasoned gunman in +the lounging but graceful postures of his prisoner, in the way he +moved his right hand, in the alertness of his eye. He frowned, for +Rathburn was smiling. There was a quality to that smile which was not +lost upon the doughty officer. + +"I take it you've got sense enough to come along easylike," he said, +with just a hint of doubt in his voice. + +"Yes, I've been known to show some sense, sheriff; now that's a +fact." + +"I'll have to ask you for your gun," said the deputy grimly. + +"I've never been known to hand over my gun, sheriff," drawled +Rathburn. "Now that's another fact." + +Again the tension in the room was high. Others than Mannix, and +probably Carlisle, had readily discerned in the gray-eyed stranger a +certain menacing prowess which is much respected where weapons are the +rule in unexpected emergencies. The crowd backed to the wall. + +The deputy wet his lips, and his face grew a shade paler. Then +suddenly he went for his gun, as Rathburn dropped, like a shot, to the +floor. There came the crack of Carlisle's pistol and a laugh from +Rathburn. The deputy, gun in hand, stared at Rathburn who rose quickly +to his feet. Then he thought to cover him. Rathburn raised his hands +while Carlisle returned his own smoking weapon to its holster. Mannix +turned and glared at Carlisle in perplexity. + +"I don't know what his game is, Mannix; but he could have drawn down +on you in a wink and shot you in your tracks if he'd wanted to," said +Carlisle. + +"So you were taking the play in your own hands," Mannix accused. + +The deputy looked at Rathburn angrily. Then he advanced and took the +prisoner's six-shooter from him. He brought handcuffs out of his +pockets. + +Rathburn's face went white. "If what Carlisle says is true, it doesn't +look as if I was trying to get away, does it, sheriff?" he asked +coldly. + +Mannix was thoughtful for a moment. "Well, come along," he ordered, +thrusting the steel bracelets back into his pocket. + +"I'll go with you," Carlisle volunteered. + +"That's up to you," snapped out the deputy. "I ain't asking you to." + +The trio left the place as the spectators gazed after them in wonder. +There was a hum of excited conversation as the deputy and his prisoner +and Carlisle passed through the door. + +No word was spoken on the way to the small, two-room, one-story +structure which served as a detention place for persons under arrest +until they could be transferred to the county jail in the town where +the railroad touched. Petty offenders served their sentences there, +however. + +In the little front office of the jail, Rathburn looked with interest +at some posters on the walls. One in particular claimed his +attention, and he read it twice while the deputy was getting some keys +and calling to the jailer, who evidently was on the other side of the +barred door where the few cells and the "tank" were. + +This is what Rathburn read: + + REWARD + + Two thousand dollars will be paid for the capture of the bandits + who are responsible for the robberies of Dixie Mine messengers in + the last few months. + + DIXIE MILLING & MINING CO., + George Sautee, Manager. + +Rathburn now knew exactly what Carlisle had meant when he had referred +to the Dixie pay-roll taking wings. He had, however, suspected it. The +holdup of the truck driver also was explained. Rathburn smiled. It was +a peculiar ruse for the mines manager to resort to. Could not the +pay-roll be sent to the mines under armed guard? Rathburn's eyes were +dreamy when he looked at the deputy. + +"All right, in you go," said Mannix, as the jailer unlocked the heavy, +barred door from the inside. + +He led Rathburn to one of the single cells, of which there were six on +one side of the jail room proper. + +"Maybe you'll be ready to talk in the morning," he said, as he locked +his prisoner in. + +"Morning might be too late," Rathburn observed, taking tobacco and +papers from his shirt pocket. + +"What do you mean by that?" Mannix asked sharply. + +"I might change my mind." + +"About talking, eh? Well, we'll find a way to make you change it back +again." + +"You're a grateful cuss," said Rathburn, grinning. + +Mannix scowled. It was plain he was not sure of his man, although he +was trying to convince himself that he was. + +"I don't get you," he said growlingly. + +"No? Didn't you hear that fellow Carlisle say I saved your life by not +drawing?" + +"He'd have got you if you'd tried to draw. That's what he thought you +was going to do. You saved your skin by grabbing the floor." + +Rathburn wet the paper of his cigarette and sealed the end. "I'm +wondering," he mused, as he snapped a match into flame, with a thumb +nail and lit the weed. + +"It's about time," said the deputy grimly. + +"I'm wondering," said Rathburn, in a soft voice, exhaling a thin +streamer of smoke, "if he'd have got me." + +Mannix grunted, looked at him curiously, and then turned abruptly on +his heel and left. Rathburn could not see the door, but he heard the +big key grate in the lock, and then the jail room echoed to the clang +of hard metal and the door swung shut again. + +Rathburn sat down on the bunk which was to serve as his bed. He smoked +his brown-paper cigarette slowly and with great relish while he +stared, not through the bars to where the dim light of a lamp showed, +but straight at the opposite steel wall of his cell. His eyes were +thoughtful, dreamy, his brow was puckered. + +"An' there's that," he muttered as he threw away the stub of his smoke +and began to roll another. "Somebody's been playing the Dixie Queen +for a meal ticket. That sign said 'robberies.' That means more'n one. +The truck driver was the last. Two thousand reward. An' me headed for +the desert where I belong. What stopped me? I reckon I know." + +He smiled grimly as he remembered the insolent challenge in Carlisle's +eyes and the reference to the bath. + +After a time Rathburn stretched out on the bunk, pulled his hat over +his face, and dozed. + +He sat up with a catlike movement as a persistent tapping on the bars +of his cell reached his ears. Blinking in the half light he saw +Carlisle's dark features. + +"Well, now's your chance to smoke me up good an' plenty an' get away +with it," said Rathburn cheerfully. "I'm shy my gun which the sheriff +has borrowed." + +"You figure he's just borrowed it?" sneeringly inquired Carlisle. + +Rathburn rose and surveyed his visitor. "I reckon I've got to tolerate +you," he drawled. "I can't pick my company in here." + +"I've got your number," snarlingly replied Carlisle in a low voice. + +Rathburn sauntered close to the bars, rolling a cigarette. + +"If you have, Carlisle, you've got a winning number," he said evenly. + +"Whatever your play is here, I dunno," said Carlisle; "but you won't +get away with it as easy as you did over the range in Dry Lake." + +Rathburn's eyes never flickered as he coolly lit his cigarette with a +steady hand. "You're plumb full of information, eh, Carlisle?" + +"I was over there an' heard about how you stuck up that joint an' +tried to blame it on some kid by the name of Lamy," said Carlisle, +watching Rathburn closely. + +"You sure that was the way of it?" asked Rathburn casually. + +"No," replied the other. "I know the kid stuck up the joint an' you +took the blame to keep him under cover. I don't know your reasons, but +I guess you don't want the facts known. You broke jail. They ain't +forgot _that_ over in Dry Lake. There's a reward out for you over +there, an I wouldn't be surprised if there was some money on your head +in Arizona, Coyote!" + +Rathburn's eyes were points of red between narrowed lids. + +"The Coyote!" said Carlisle in a hoarse voice of triumph. "An' the way +it looks I'm the only one hereabouts that knows it." + +"I told you you was plumb full of information," said Rathburn. + +"The Coyote has a bit of a record, they tell me," Carlisle leered. +"There's more'n one sheriff would pay a pretty price to get him safe, +eh?" + +"Just what's your idea in telling _me_ all this, Carlisle; why don't +you tell what you know to Mannix, say?" + +"Maybe I'm just teasing you along." + +"Not a chance, Carlisle. I know your breed." + +The other's face darkened, and his eyes glittered as he peered in +through the bars. + +"What's _your_ breed?" he asked sneeringly. + +"I don't have to tell you that, Carlisle. You _know_!" said Rathburn +with a taunting laugh. + +Carlisle struggled with his anger for a brief spell. Then he shrugged +his shoulders. + +"I ain't going to poke at you in a cage," he said in a more civil +tone; "an' I ain't going to tell anybody what I know. Remember that." + +"I ain't the forgetting kind," Rathburn flung after him as he walked +swiftly away. + +Again Rathburn sat on the edge of the bunk and smoked and thought. +After a time he went to sleep. The opening of his cell door woke him. +It was Mannix. + +"Come to let me out, sheriff?" inquired Rathburn sleepily. + +The deputy looked at him keenly, opened the cage, and motioned to him +to follow. Rathburn went with him out into the little office. It was +broad day. Mannix picked up a pistol from his desk and extended it to +Rathburn. + +"Here's your gun, Rathburn. You can go," he said, pressing his lips +close together. + +"Well, now, sheriff, that's right kind of you," Rathburn drawled, +concealing his astonishment. + +"Don't thank me," snapped out Mannix. "This gentleman asked me to set +you loose." + +For the first time Rathburn looked squarely at the other man in the +office--a thin man, with a cropped mustache, beady eyes, and a narrow +face. + +The man was regarding him intently, and there seemed to be an amused +expression in his eyes. He turned away from Rathburn's gaze. + +"I don't believe I've ever had the pleasure of meeting the gentleman," +said Rathburn agreeably. + +"That's George Sautee, manager of the Dixie Queen," said the deputy +with a shrug. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +A COMMISSION + + +Sautee rose and extended his hand with an affable smile. "Will you +come to breakfast with me, Mr. Rathburn?" + +Rathburn took the hand with a curious side glance at Mannix. "I'm +powerful hungry," he confessed; "an' I don't reckon I'd be showing the +best of manners if I balked at havin' breakfast with the man that got +me out of jail." + +"Quite right," admitted Sautee, winking at the deputy. "Well, perhaps +I have my reasons. All right, Rathburn, let's be going." + +They walked out of the jail, and as they progressed up the street they +were the cynosure of many wondering pairs of eyes; for the report had +spread that the stranger who had been jailed was the bandit who had +made away with the Dixie Queen pay-roll on several occasions, and that +he was a gun fighter and a killer. + +They entered a restaurant just below the hotel, and Sautee led the way +to a booth where they were assured comparative privacy. + +"Ham an' eggs," said Rathburn shortly when the waiter entered. + +Sautee smiled again. He was covertly inspecting the man across the +table from him and evidently what he saw caused him to arrive at a +satisfactory conclusion. + +He gave his order with a nod and a mild flourish of the hand, +indicating that he would take the same. + +"Oh--waiter," called Rathburn. "Four eggs with mine." + +Sautee laughed. It was a peculiar laugh in that it seemed to convey +little mirth. It was perfunctory. + +He gazed at Rathburn quizzically. "They tell me you're a gunman," he +said in a low voice. + +Rathburn's brows shot up. "They? Who's they?" + +Sautee waved a hand impatiently. "I am the manager of the Dixie Queen. +I have been around a bit, and I have eyes. I can see. I know the +signals. I witnessed the play in the Red Feather last night." + +"That ain't a bad name for the place," Rathburn mused. + +"Just what do you suppose was my object in getting you out of jail?" +Sautee asked seriously, leaning over the table and looking at Rathburn +searchingly. "You said last night you were a good guesser." + +"But I didn't say I was good at riddles," drawled Rathburn. + +Sautee leaned back. For a moment there was a gleam of admiration in +his eyes. Then they narrowed slightly. + +"The Dixie Queen has been robbed four times within the last year," he +said soberly. "That represents considerable money. Yesterday I +resorted to a ruse and sent the money up with a truck driver, but +whoever is doing this thing must have got wise somehow, for the truck +driver was held up, as you know, and the money taken." + +"Why not put an armed guard on that truck?" asked Rathburn with a +yawn. + +"I had full confidence in that ruse, and I knew the man who drove the +truck could be trusted. Besides, he didn't know what was inside the +package." + +"How much did they get?" asked Rathburn sharply. + +"Twenty-two thousand eight hundred and seventy dollars in cash." + +Rathburn stared at the mine manager and whistled softly. "What's the +sense in sending it up there at all?" he asked suddenly. "Why not pay +off down here in town?" + +Sautee sighed with an air of resignation. "That's been argued several +times," he complained. "The men demand their pay in cash. They want it +at the mine, for more than half of them have refused to come down here +for it. It is twenty-nine miles up there to the mine, and it would +take all the trucks we've got and two days to bring them down here and +take them back. Besides, if we got them down here it would be a week +before we could get half of them back up there and at work again." + +"But why won't they take checks?" Rathburn demanded. + +"It would be the same proposition," Sautee explained. "There is a +little village up there--pool room, soft-drink parlor, lunch room, +store, and all that--and the men, or a large number of them, would +want their checks cashed to make purchases and for spending money, and +the cash would have to be transported so the business places could +cash the checks. Then, there's another reason. All the mines over on +this side of the mountains, clear down into the desert, have always +paid in cash. This is an old district, and the matter of getting paid +in cash has become a tradition. That's what the company is up against. +We can refuse to do it, but all the other mines do it, and the Dixie +Queen would soon have the reputation of being the only mine in the +district that didn't pay in cash. The tradition is handed down from +the old days when men were paid in gold. There was a time when a miner +wouldn't take paper money in this country!" + +The waiter entered with the breakfast dishes and they began to eat. + +"Your mine owned by a stock company?" Rathburn inquired. + +"Certainly," replied Sautee. "All the mines here are. What mine +isn't?" + +Rathburn ignored the question. "Stockholders live aroun' here?" he +asked, between mouthfuls. + +"Oh--no, that is, not many," replied Sautee with a quick glance at his +questioner. "This district is pretty well worked out. Most of our +stockholders live in the Middle West and the East." He winked at +Rathburn. + +"Any other mines been robbed?" Rathburn persisted. + +"No, that's the funny part of it. Still--no, it _isn't_ funny. We're +working on the largest scale, and our pay-roll is, naturally, the +largest. It furnishes the biggest incentive. In addition, the Dixie +Queen is the farthest out from town, and there are many excellent +spots for a holdup between town and the mine. Oh, don't look +skeptical. I've tried trusted messengers by roundabout trails, and +guards and all that. They even held up a convoy on one occasion. I've +set traps. I've done everything. But now I've a new idea, and I +believe it'll work." + +He finished his breakfast and stared steadily at Rathburn who didn't +look up, but leisurely drank a second cup of coffee. Sautee noted the +slim, tapered right hand of the man across the table from him, the +clear, gray eyes, the unmistakable poise of a man who is absolutely +and utterly confident and sure of himself. The mine manager's eyes +glowed eagerly. + +"Yes?" asked Rathburn calmly. + +"I'm going to hire, or, rather, I'm going to _try_ to hire a man I +believe is just as tough, just as clever, just as quick with his gun +as the men who've been robbing the Dixie Queen. I'm going to hire him +to carry the money to the mine!" + +"So _that's_ why you got me out of jail," said Rathburn, drawing the +inevitable tobacco and papers from his shirt pocket. + +"Yes!" whispered Sautee eagerly. "I want you for the job!" + +"You ain't forgetting that I was suspected of that last job, are you? +That's why I went to jail, I reckon." + +"You didn't have to go to jail unless you wanted to. You didn't have +to stop in this town and invite arrest. Mannix let you go up there +yesterday because he felt sure he could get you when he wanted you +again, and he figured you'd make some break that would give him a clew +to your pals, if you had any. You went to jail because you knew he +didn't have anything on you." + +Sautee grinned in triumph. + +"How do you know I won't beat it with the money?" asked Rathburn. + +"I don't," said Sautee quickly. "But I'm taking a chance on it that +you won't. I don't care who you are, what you are now, or what you've +been; I don't care if you're an outlaw! I figure, Rathburn, that if I +come out square and trust you with this mission and depend upon you to +carry it out, that you'll play square with me. That's what I'm banking +on--your own sense of squareness. You've got it, for I can see it in +your eyes." + +"Who's Carlisle?" Rathburn asked dryly. + +Sautee frowned. "He's a--well, I guess you'd call him a sort of +adventurer. I knew him down in Arizona. He follows the camps when +they're good, and this one happens to be good right now, for we're +improving the property. That's how he happened to come up here about a +year ago. Then, when the first robbery occurred, I engaged him as a +sort of special agent. He didn't make any progress, so I let him go. +Since then he's been out and in, gambling, prospecting, anything--he's +a fast man with his gun, and he has some claims here which he is +developing on a small scale and trying to sell." + +Rathburn nodded but made no comment. + +"Will you take the job?" Sautee asked anxiously. + +"What do you want me to do?" + +"I want you to carry a sum of money to the mine. I'm not going to tell +you how much, but it will be considerable. The money which was stolen +yesterday was for the pay-off to-day. I've got to get the cash for the +men up there quick. They all know about the holdup, so there's no +grumbling--yet. But there will be if they don't have their money +pretty quick. We want to pay off to-morrow. I could go with a guard, +but to tell you the truth, Rathburn, it's got to a point where I can't +trust a soul." + +"Why not Mannix?" asked Rathburn sharply. + +Sautee shook his head; his beady, black eyes glowed, and he stroked +his chin. + +"There's another sorrowful point," he explained. "I tell you we're up +against it here, Rathburn. The Dixie Queen people and most of the +other mines are fighting the present county administration as a matter +of policy. They want certain changes, and--well, keep this to +yourself--privileges. Mannix has been instructed by the sheriff of +this county that he is not here to act as a guard for the Dixie +Queen. See?" + +Rathburn frowned and built another cigarette. + +"If you'll carry this package of money up to the Dixie Queen for me, +Rathburn, I'll pay you five hundred dollars. Then, if you want to stay +and act as our messenger right along, we'll make a deal. But I'd like +to have you do this this time--make this one trip, anyway, I mean. +They may try to stop you. If they do I don't believe they can get away +with it. I'm banking on your ability to get through, and I think the +proposition will appeal to you in a sporting way if for no other +reason. Will you do it?" Sautee's eyes were eager. + +"Yes," said Rathburn shortly, tossing away his cigarette. + +Sautee held out his hand. "Go to the hotel and engage a room," he +instructed. "Be in your room at nine o'clock to-night. Do not tell any +one of our deal. I'll get your room number from the register. I'll +bring the package of money to you between nine o'clock and midnight. +Now, Rathburn, maybe I'm mistaken in you; but I go a whole lot by what +I see in a man's eyes. You may have a hard record, but I'm staking my +faith in men on you!" + +"I'll be there," Rathburn promised. + +He left Sautee at the entrance to the restaurant and strolled around +the hotel barn to see that his horse was being taken care of properly. +He found that the barn man was indeed looking after the dun in +excellent shape. Rathburn spent a short time with his mount, petting +him and rubbing his glossy coat with his hands. Then he took his +slicker pack and started for the hotel. + +As he reached the street he saw a girl on a horse talking with a man +on the sidewalk. The girl was leaning over, and the man evidently was +delivering a harangue. He was gesticulating wildly, and Rathburn could +see that the girl was cowering. He paused on the hotel porch as the +man stepped away from the horse and looked his way. He recognized +Carlisle. + +Then the girl rode down the street and Rathburn started with surprise +as he saw she was the girl from the cabin up the road who had directed +him to town the day before. He remembered the two objects he had +picked up in the road after the holdup and felt in his pocket to make +sure they were there. Then he entered the hotel. + +"Have you a room?" he asked the clerk pleasantly. + +"Yes. More rooms than anything else to-day since the Sunday crowd's +gone." + +Rathburn wrote his name upon the register. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +IN THE NIGHT + + +Rathburn avoided the Red Feather resort during the morning. Instead of +walking about the streets or sitting in the hotel lobby or his room, +he cultivated the acquaintance of the barn man, and because he knew +horses--_all_ about horses--he soon had the man's attention and +respect. + +Although Rathburn suspected that he already had a reputation in the +town, he did not know that Carlisle was steadily adding to that +reputation through the medium of veiled hints dropped here and there +until a majority of the population was convinced that a desperate man +was in their midst, and that Mannix had permitted him to go free for +certain secret reasons. + +Thus a web of mystery and suspicion was cleverly woven about +Rathburn's movements. + +It was not until afternoon, however, that Rathburn began to realize on +his intimacy with the barn man. Then they began to talk of trails, and +for more than an hour the barn man, caught in the spell of Rathburn's +personality, divulged the secret of the trails leading to and from the +Dixie Queen. + +"The best trail, an' the straightest, if you should ever want to go up +there an' look at the mine like you say," said the barn man, "hits +into the timber behind the first cabin to the left above town." + +Rathburn nodded smilingly. It was the cabin where he had first seen +the girl. + +"It's 'bout twenty-nine miles to the mine by the road," the man +explained; "but that trail will take you there in less'n twenty. Well, +maybe twenty or twenty-one. Or you can go up the road till you get to +the big hogback--that's where they held up the truck driver +yesterday--and cut straight up the hill from the south end." + +"I guess those are the best trails from what you say," was Rathburn's +yawning comment. + +"Them's the best," the other added. "There's another trail going out +below town that follows southeast along a big ridge, but that trail's +as far as the road. When you goin' up?" + +"I dunno," replied Rathburn noncommittally. "Say, I guess I know where +that cabin is on the left side of the road going up. I stopped at a +cabin up there coming down an' asked a gal how far it was to +town----" + +"That's it," said the barn man. "That's the one. Trail starts right +back of that cabin." + +Rathburn yawned again. "Smart-lookin' gal," he observed, digging for +his tobacco and papers. "Who is she?" + +"That's Joe Carlisle's sister. Anyway, he says she is. There's been +some talk. Carlisle lives there when he ain't out in the hills or on a +gamblin' trip to some other town." + +"I see. Well, old-timer, I ain't hung on the feed bag since morning, +an' I'm going on a still hunt for some grub." + +Rathburn went to the Red Feather for his dinner. He was thoughtful +through the meal and kept an eye out for Carlisle, but didn't see him. +During the remainder of the afternoon he hung about the Red Feather +and other resorts, but did not see Carlisle. + +That evening, as he was returning to the hotel, he met Mannix. The +deputy looked at him with a scowl in which there was a mixture of +curiosity. Rathburn suddenly remembered what Sautee had said about his +company being on the outs with the county administration. If such was +the case, Rathburn reflected, how did it come that Sautee had been +able to effect his release so easily? + +He stopped as he drew alongside of the deputy. "This man Sautee," he +drawled, looking Mannix square in the eye; "he must have a good drag +with the county seat, eh?" + +The deputy's scowl deepened. "He didn't get you out by word of +mouth alone," he said sharply. "I haven't got anything on you, +Rathburn--yet." + +Rathburn smiled. "I reckon you're a sheriff after my own heart," he +said enigmatically, and moved on. + +Mannix looked back after him for a moment, then continued on his way. + +Rathburn had dinner that night at the hotel, and it was during the +course of a number of pleasantries with the waitress, who thought he +was looking for work, that he ascertained that Sautee had a little +two-room building at the lower end of the street, the front half of +which served as an office and the rear half as living quarters. + +At nine o'clock he went to his room. He lighted the oil lamp, pulled +down the window shade, sat down in a chair to one side of the door to +wait. An hour passed with no sound save occasional footfalls in the +hall and the drone of the wind in the trees outside. + +Another hour had nearly been consumed in waiting when Rathburn heard +some one coming up the stairs. The footfalls were soft, catlike. He +could hardly hear them, and it was this fact which made him instantly +alert. The footfalls now sounded in the hallway. They were nearer his +room. He rose; stepped close to the side of the door. Then came a +soft knock. + +Rathburn suddenly opened the door, and Sautee started back, blinking +his eyes. The mines manager peered about the room, then entered +swiftly. + +"You rather startled me," he accused with a forced smile. + +Rathburn closed the door softly and turned the key in the lock. + +"I'm just taking natural precautions," he explained. + +Sautee shook his head and put a finger to his lips. "Not so loud," he +warned. "These walls"--he waved a hand about--"are all ears." + +He took a package from beneath his coat and handed it to Rathburn. +"Put it in your shirt," he instructed. "Deliver it to the office at +the mine and take the bookkeeper's receipt. Then report to my office +here in town. I wish you luck, and I want you to know that I have the +utmost confidence in you." + +"You keep such large sums on hand all the time?" Rathburn asked, +putting the package in his shirt. He was mindful of the fact that a +similar sum had been stolen the day before from the truck driver. + +"There's a private bank here," answered Sautee frowningly. "He let me +have it, but he's already sent to the county seat for more cash which +will come by auto express to-morrow, probably. Anyway, the bank'll get +most of this back, so their cash won't be short long." + +Rathburn nodded. "Let's see," he suggested. "There was a little item +of five hundred between us for my serving--am I right?" + +"There is such an item," snapped out Sautee; "when you've delivered." + +"Of course," replied Rathburn. "I couldn't expect to be paid in +advance. I'm to deliver the money at the mine and report to you for +the five hundred." + +"Exactly," said Sautee. "Which way you figure on going up?" he asked +curiously. + +"Don't know much about the trails," Rathburn answered. "An' it +mightn't attract suspicion if I just struck right out on the road." + +Sautee shrugged. "Well, that's up to you," he said. "Keep your eye +peeled. I don't think any one knows I drew that money from the bank, +but I didn't think any one knew I stuck that package under the truck +driver's seat, either." + +He turned toward the door. + +"There's just one other little matter," said Rathburn softly. "You see +nobody knows anything about this deal but you an' me. Maybe it would +be best for my own protection that you scribbled something on a piece +of paper to show what our arrangement is." + +Sautee scowled again, hesitated, then smiled. He drew an envelope from +a pocket, extracted its contents, tore it open at each end, and wrote +on the blank side: + + Due Rathburn five hundred dollars when he has delivered package + intrusted to him by me at the Dixie Queen mine office. + + GEORGE SAUTEE. + +Rathburn nodded in satisfaction as he took the slip of paper and +tucked it into his shirt pocket. The wording of the note was a bit +complicated, but it bore Sautee's signature. It was at least evidence +that there _had_ been an agreement. + +"Everything set?" asked Sautee. + +"All cinched up an' ready to go," replied Rathburn. + +"How soon you going to start?" asked Sautee as he unlocked the door. + +"By midnight," Rathburn answered. + +Sautee held out his hand before he slipped out of the door and was +gone. + +Rathburn quickly busied himself with his slicker pack. He took out a +gun which he changed for the gun in his holster. Then he stuck his +regular gun into his waistband on the left. He took out the package +and examined it. It was sealed at each end. Then Rathburn did a queer +thing. He cut the string and paper near the seals and removed the +small box within. He next emptied the box of its paper-wrapped +contents and substituted the first thing of equal weight which he +could lay his hands on--a moleskin glove which was among the things in +the slicker pack. He replaced the box in its wrappings and drew from +one of his pockets a small bottle of glue. + +"First time I ever stole anything from a hotel desk," he muttered to +himself as he glued the paper back into place; "but I sure had the +proper hunch when I grabbed this." + +Next he retied the string, adding a piece from his slicker pack to +offset the shortness where it had been cut. When he had finished the +package looked exactly as it had in the first place. It would take a +close inspection to learn that it had been tampered with. The original +contents of the package he thrust into his hat and pulled the hat well +down on his head. + +Then he extinguished the light and made his way downstairs and out the +lobby into the street. He went quickly around to the barn where he +astonished the man in charge by saddling his horse and riding out +without a word of explanation other than to toss him a five-dollar +bill from the saddle. + +"See you again to-morrow--maybe," he called, grinning, as he rode into +the night. + +When Rathburn had passed behind the hotel and several other buildings +on the same side of the street and gained the road leading westward +toward the hogback, a slim shadow darted out of the trees, mounted a +horse concealed some distance behind the barn, and slipped into a worn +trail which nearly paralleled the road going west. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +QUICK TURNS + + +As he rode westward along the road at a swinging lope, Rathburn made +no apparent effort to conceal his movements. The night sky was bright +with stars, and, although the moon was not up, the road was clearly +outlined through the marching stands of timber as he swung upward past +the cabin where he had met the girl said to be Carlisle's sister. + +Rathburn could not forget the look on the girl's face when she had +asked him about the activities of the officer in the automobile. Nor +could he forget the expression in her eyes during her altercation with +Carlisle that day. + +After he had passed the cabin, Rathburn checked his pace and proceeded +more slowly up the long stretches of road to the hogback. On the +hogback he began to take advantage of the screen of timber on the +lower side of the road, and to ride more cautiously. However, to any +one who might have been watching, his movements still would have been +easily discernible, and it would have appeared that he wasn't quite +sure of himself. Twice he turned off at what he appeared to think was +the beginning of a trail, and both times he again turned back to the +road. + +Then, as he reached the south end of the hogback where the trail left +the road and cut straight across to the mine, two horsemen broke from +the timber, and Rathburn reined in his horse as the guns which covered +him glinted. + +The taller of the pair of night riders kept him covered with two guns +while the other rode in close and jerked the weapon from his holster. + +"C'mon with the package!" said this man in a hoarse voice. "We won't +take a chance on you. If you make any kind of a break you'll get it +where it'll do most good." + +There was a sneering inflection in the voice. + +Rathburn's hand, as it moved downward toward his shirt, hovered an +instant above where his good gun was stuck in his waistband, out of +sight under the skirt of his coat; then it moved to the open shirt at +his throat. He drew out the package and held it out toward the other. + +The man closed in and snatched the package, glancing at it in the dim +starlight. + +"Now back the way you came an' don't invite no shootin'!" was the +brief command. + +Rathburn whirled his horse and drove in his spurs. As he fled from the +scene a harsh laugh came to his ears from behind. Then utter silence +save for the pounding of his horse's hoofs in the hard road back down +the hogback. + +"Jog along, hoss," Rathburn crooned as he sped down the long slopes +toward town; "maybe we're peggin' things wrong, an' if it turns out +that way we've a powerful long ways to go." + +It lacked a few minutes of being two hours after midnight when he +reached the Carlisle cabin. There he reined in his horse, dismounted +in the shadow of the timber, and crept to a window. The moon had risen +and was bathing the hills in a ghostly light in which every object +stood out clear-cut and easily distinguishable. Rathburn peered into +the two front windows, but could see nothing. Then, from a side window +into which the moonlight filtered, he made out a bedroom. It was not +occupied. From the other side of the cabin he saw another bedroom, +and it, too, was unoccupied. + +"Nobody home," he muttered cheerfully as he ran for his horse. + +In another minute he was again speeding down the road toward town. He +slacked his pace as he reached the upper end of the short main street. +The street was dark save for two beams of yellow light, one of which +shone from a window of the jail office and the other from the front of +the Red Feather resort. + +He walked his horse down the street past the jail and the resort and +almost to the end of the line of buildings where he arrived before the +small, one-story, two-room structure which was Sautee's office and +abode. + +The place was dark. Rathburn dismounted and led his horse into the +dark shadow at the side of the little building. Then he went around to +the front, and, drawing his gun from his waistband, he rapped smartly +on the door with its butt and dropped it into his holster. + +There was no movement within, and Rathburn rapped again and tried the +door. It was locked. + +A match flared into flame somewhere beyond the front room. A glow of +light followed. Rathburn, looking through the front window, saw a door +open wide and made out the form of Sautee as the mines manager came +forward to the front door. + +"Who is it?" Sautee called cautiously. + +"Rathburn." + +After a moment a key turned in the lock and the door opened part way. +Rathburn pushed his way in. + +"Why--didn't you _go_?" asked Sautee in excited tones. + +"Lock the door an' come in the other room," whispered Rathburn. "I've +got something to tell you that'll knock you for a goal." + +Sautee hurriedly locked the door, and, as he turned to lead the way +into the other room, Rathburn deftly extracted the key. + +In the light from the lamp in the bedroom Sautee swung on his visitor +and looked at him keenly. The mines manager was fully dressed, and the +bed was made. It was evident that he had merely dozed on top of the +covers with his clothes on. These things Rathburn noted even as Sautee +surveyed him with a frown. + +"Well, what is it?" snapped out Sautee. + +Rathburn blinked in the light. "I--I was held up," he said sheepishly. + +The mines manager stared. First he stared into Rathburn's eyes, and +then he glanced to the gun in the holster on his thigh. + +"Couldn't have been very much afraid of you," he said sneeringly. "I +see they didn't even take your gun." + +"It all come from my not knowin' enough about the trails, I guess," +Rathburn explained lamely. "Got me on the far end of the hogback. Two +of 'em. Had their guns in my face before I knew it. Couldn't have +drawed if I wanted to. They'd have shot me out of the saddle in a +wink. All I could do was hand over the package an' beat it." + +"And they said you were a gunman," said Sautee in derision. "How do +_I_ know anybody stopped you and robbed you? Maybe you've come back +here with that story to cover up the theft of the money. I guess I +made a mistake in ever thinking of trusting a man of your caliber." + +"I was afraid of that," said Rathburn. "I was afraid if anything like +this was to happen you might think I was lying and was taking the +money myself. But I fooled 'em, Mr. Sautee," he finished in triumph. + +"What's that?" Sautee asked sharply. + +"Look here," cried Rathburn excitedly as he took off his hat and +recovered the package he had put in it before starting toward the +mine. + +He held up the package. "I was scared they might get wise an' get the +drop on me," he said. "So I opened the package an' took out what was +in it and put it in my hat. They got the original package, all right, +but it was stuffed with an old glove of mine. Here's the money. I +didn't go right on to the mine for fear they'd find out their mistake +an' pot me from the timber. This is the money you gave me, minus the +seals an' the string an' box. I wanted you to see that I was on the +square." + +Sautee's eyes were bulging. "Give me that," he gulped out. + +"Why--don't you want me to take it to the mine?" asked Rathburn in +surprise. + +"Hand that over," ordered Sautee, reaching for the package. + +Rathburn drew away. "All right, Mr. Sautee," he said in a complaining +voice. "If you don't want me to go through with the job you can back +down, I guess. We'll just make sure the money's here, though." + +Sautee leaped toward him. + +"Give me that package!" he cried angrily. "Do you hear me?" + +Rathburn warded him off, keeping the package at arm's length away. + +"Just hold your horses," he said coldly. "I reckon I know what I'm +doing. You don't trust me now, an' I ain't goin' to take any chances +with you. I'm goin' to open this an' show you that the money's there, +that's all; I'm goin' to show you that I'm giving you back what you +gave me all fair an' square." + +Sautee's face was ashen. His voice trembled as he spoke again: "Hand +it over and get out of here. I've had enough trouble with you. I'll +take your word for it." + +But Rathburn was undoing the paper wrappings. + +Again Sautee made a leap, but this time he met Rathburn's left fist +and staggered back, dropping into a chair. Rathburn looked at him +coldly. + +"Funny you're so anxious to take my word for things now, when a minute +ago you said you couldn't know but what I'd told that holdup story for +a blind so's I could get away with--_this_!" + +The wrappings fell away, revealing a wad of blank paper. + +Rathburn's face froze. Sautee stared white-faced at what the other +held in his hand. Then a peculiar glint came into his eyes and he +looked at Rathburn narrowly. + +"So that's the way of it," he said sarcastically. + +Rathburn stuffed the paper into a pocket. Then he pulled a chair in +front of the mines manager and sat down. He took out paper and tobacco +from his shirt pocket and began to fashion a cigarette. + +"It sure looks bad for me, doesn't it, Mr. Sautee?" he asked as he +snapped a match into flame. + +"I thought you were going to return the money," Sautee said +sneeringly. + +"It looks bad two ways," Rathburn went on as if he hadn't heard the +other's comment. "First, if that package the holdups got had contained +the money you could have swore it was a put-up job. I'd have had to +beat it fast. Now, when I find that the package you gave to me was +full of blank paper, you can say that I framed the holdup story and +changed the money for paper in the bargain." + +Sautee's eyes were glowing. "An' you'll have to beat it, after all," +he jeered. + +"So it would seem," mused Rathburn. "I fooled 'em, an' to all +appearances I fooled myself, although maybe I _did_ take a peep into +that package when I changed it in my room, Mr. Sautee." + +The mines manager shifted in his chair; but he stared defiantly at +Rathburn. + +"You'd have a hard time proving anything," he said grimly. + +"That's the trouble," Rathburn admitted. "I'd sort of have to depend +on you. I was thinkin' maybe you double crossed me to make 'em think +_I_ was carrying the money while you sneaked it up some other way, Mr. +Sautee." + +"You can think what you want to," said Sautee. "But you better start +moving. If I was you, I'd get as far away from this town and Mannix as +I could by daylight." + +Rathburn's manner underwent a lightning change as he threw away his +partly finished cigarette. + +"You're right," he said crisply. "It's time to start moving, Sautee." + +He rose, and his right hand moved incredibly fast. Sautee gasped as he +looked into the bore of Rathburn's gun. He could hardly realize that +Rathburn had drawn. + +"I fooled the night riders twice," explained Rathburn with a peculiar +smile. "First, when I let 'em get the wrong package, an' again when I +let 'em get the wrong gun. This gun an' I work together like clock +ticks when necessary. I'll have to ask you to fork over the money that +you drew from the bank an' that should have been in that package, +Sautee." + +Rathburn's eyes had narrowed and hardened; his words were cold and +menacing--deadly in their absolute sincerity. + +"What--what do you mean?" stammered the mines manager. + +"I take it you're not deaf," snapped out Rathburn. "Maybe you don't +know it, Sautee, but so help me, you're takin' a chance by acting like +you didn't get me." + +Sautee's thin face was twitching in a spasm of commingled rage and +fear. + +"The Coyote!" he breathed. + +"Who told you that?" demanded Rathburn on the instant. + +Sautee gripped the sides of his chair, and his face went a shade more +pallid. + +"Carlisle," he confessed in a strained voice. + +Rathburn laughed, and the mines manager shivered as he heard. + +"Now, Sautee, we'll quit beatin' around the bush," Rathburn said +through his teeth. "We'll get down to business together, or I'll begin +to search your place here. But if I have to search, I'll search alone. +There ain't so much chance of a shot bein' heard way up the street; +an' there ain't much chance of me bein' caught on that hoss of mine if +I don't want to get caught. Also, I'm beginning to feel like I was in +a hurry. Fork over that money!" + +Sautee looked just an instant longer into the eyes of the man towering +over him. Then he rose, shaking, dry-lipped, and knelt down by the +head of the bed. He lifted a piece of the carpet, opened a small +trapdoor, reached inside, and brought out a bundle of bank notes. +Rathburn took the money from him. + +Sautee still was kneeling as he heard Rathburn walk lightly to the +front door and insert the key in the lock. He tried to cry out, but +the effort resulted only in a croak in his throat. He heard the door +close softly. + +"The Coyote!" he mumbled, passing a hand across his forehead. + +The echoes of galloping hoofs came to him as he scrambled to his feet +and staggered toward the door. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +APPEAL TO THE LAW + + +For some moments Sautee stood in the darkened doorway staring up the +moonlit street. The echoes of Rathburn's flight had died away. The +town was still. Sautee did not cry out, although he had recovered a +considerable measure of his composure. He listened intently and +finally grunted with satisfaction. + +"Up the road," he muttered. "That means he is making for the pass over +the mountains." + +He walked hurriedly through his office into the living room. There he +stood for a spell beside the table on which burned the lamp. His brows +were knit into a heavy frown. He seemed debating a question in his +mind. He tapped with nervous fingers on the table top. + +"Pshaw," he said aloud, his face darkening. "He's an outlaw." + +He put on his coat and dropped an automatic pistol into a side pocket. +After another moment of hesitation he blew out the light and walked +quickly out of the place, locking the door after him. + +He hurried up the street to the jail. He found the jailer dozing in +the little front office and did not attempt to disturb him. From the +jail he hurried another short distance up the street and turned in at +a little house located some distance back from the sidewalk. He +knocked loudly on the door, and after a brief wait repeated the +performance. + +A light showed, and the front door opened. Mannix, the deputy, looked +out. + +"Let me in," said Sautee briefly. "There's been another robbery." + +Mannix swung the door wide and stepped aside. He wore an ulster over +his night clothes, and his bare feet were thrust into slippers. He +scowled at the mines manager as he shut the door. + +"More of the company's money gone?" he asked with a touch of sarcasm +in his voice. + +Sautee nodded. "Some twenty-odd thousand," he said soberly; "and I +believe the man that got it is responsible for the holdups that have +been pulled off around here." + +"Who got it?" Mannix asked quickly. + +"Rathburn," Sautee announced. + +Mannix smiled in undisgusted contempt. "Your own fault," he pointed +out. "Wouldn't give me a chance to investigate. Said you had a scheme +that would show him up one way or the other. Wouldn't let me in on it, +an' I was fool enough to let you have a try, although I don't believe +I could have held him anyhow." + +"Just it," said Sautee. "Wouldn't have done any good to keep him in +jail, and I thought I had a two-way scheme that would either show him +up, as you say, or get me an excellent messenger. I intrusted Rathburn +with a package to carry to the mines office. He's a gunman, a +desperado, probably a killer, and I thought it would appeal to him to +be put in a place of trust. If he fell down--then I figured you'd be +able to get him like you said you could." + +Mannix snorted. "After tryin' a fool scheme you want to shift the +business on _my_ shoulders, eh? Well, Sautee, you've never shown much +confidence in my ability, an' you don't have to show any now. It looks +to me as if the finishing of this play is all up to you." + +"Oh, no, it isn't," said Sautee confidently. "You'll be most mighty +glad to take out after him." + +"Suppose you wait an' see how quick I start," Mannix retorted angrily. +"What's the matter? Didn't he carry out your orders? I suppose you +gave him a bundle of money to make off with. Sautee, I believe you're +a fool!" + +The mines manager winced and then frowned. "I gave him the money to +carry to the mine," he confessed without flinching. "He came back with +a story about being held up, and when he saw that I didn't believe him +and intended to turn him back to you, he pulled a gun on me and made +his get-away. He lit out through town for the road to the hogback and +the pass over the mountains." + +Mannix laughed harshly. "You're clever, Sautee; there's no getting +away from how clever you are. Now you want me to go chasing up to the +hogback to head him off. Well, I'm tellin' you that I don't know where +he's gone, an' I ain't starting out after him at any two o'clock in +the morning. If you'd have kept your nose out of this he'd still be +all safe an' quiet in jail. That's final, so you might as well clear +out an' give me a chance to get some sleep." + +Sautee merely smiled after this speech from the disgusted deputy. + +"Since I intrusted Rathburn with that job I've found out something +about him which takes the case out of my hands entirely," he said with +a smirk. "I don't care if you don't start after him till day after +to-morrow. But if your chief--the sheriff--finds out that you didn't +hit the trail to-night he'll likely ask you for your badge!" + +"Are you threatening me?" Mannix demanded loudly. + +"No, I'm only stating facts," Sautee replied stoutly. "That man who +calls himself Rathburn is The Coyote!" + +Mannix didn't start. He appeared hardly interested. Only the keen, +penetrating quality of the steady gaze he directed at the mines +manager betrayed the fact that his faculties were aroused. + +"The Coyote hit back for Arizona after that deal he was mixed up in +over in Dry Lake, across the range," he said with conviction. + +"Oh, he did?" Sautee sneered openly. "Well, you had him in jail last +night, and you can probably get him again, if you start right out +after him." + +"What makes you think this fellow Rathburn is The Coyote?" demanded +Mannix. + +"Carlisle knows him by sight, and he told me." + +"Then why didn't you tell me?" the deputy asked sternly. + +"Because Carlisle didn't tell me until after I told him what I'd +done," Sautee evaded. "Then I didn't have the--ah--nerve, under the +circumstances, to come to you with the news. At that, I thought he +might go through with it." + +Mannix swore softly. "Giving a pay-roll messenger's job to a man who's +got a price on his head a mile long!" he exclaimed savagely. "Why +didn't Carlisle come to me?" + +Sautee shrugged. "I'm not responsible for Carlisle. Maybe he didn't +feel sure of it, and maybe he's just naturally jealous of The Coyote +and wants to bring him in himself. Carlisle is a gunman, as you know, +and a good one." + +"I know it," snapped out Mannix; "and I know both Carlisle an' you are +a pair of bunglers. I guess you wanted to show me up, but you've gone +about it in a way that won't get you anything nor hurt me, I'll see to +that." + +Sautee smiled as the deputy hurried out of the room. + +In a few minutes Mannix returned fully dressed and carrying a rifle. +The deputy's face was severe, and his eyes burned with the fire of the +man hunt. He signaled impatiently to the mine manager to follow him. +As they walked across the little porch and around to the rear of the +house where Mannix kept his car the deputy talked fast. + +"I'm goin' up to the hogback. He ain't had start enough to get up +there yet on a horse, an' I'll beat him to it. It'll be daylight in +about two hours, an' I'll be there till daylight. If you think you can +do it, get out some of the men an' cover the trails to the mine on +horses. He might try to get over that way. Then you better take your +car and go up to the mine by the road as fast as you can to tell 'em +to be on the lookout. Watch out on the hogback, for I'll be up there, +parked with my lights out." + +He had reached his small garage when he finished giving his +instructions, and Sautee, with a promise to do as he had been told as +quickly as possible, ran down the street toward the Red Feather, where +a light still shone. + +The news that The Coyote and Rathburn were one and the same, and that +he had robbed the mining company that night and was probably +responsible for the other holdups, created an immediate sensation +among the few gamblers in the resort. Sautee added to the excitement +by quoting rewards at random, and the forming of two posses to comb +the trails to the mine and beyond was under way at once. + +Sautee ran to his office and got out his small car. He stopped at the +Red Feather and took one of the men from the mine with him. He +stopped again when he reached the Carlisle cabin, pounded on the +doors, and looked in the windows. But the place was deserted, and +Sautee's features were wreathed in perplexity as he went back to his +car. + +"That's queer," he said as he climbed into his seat. + +"What's that?" asked the man beside him. + +But Sautee's answer was drowned in the roar of the motor as he sped up +the road toward the hogback and the mine. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +A CAPTURE + + +When Rathburn rode away from Sautee's quarters he galloped up the +street straight for the road which led west out of town. He pulled his +horse down to a trot when he reached the Carlisle cabin and made +another brief inspection which showed that the place was deserted. +Then he struck into the trail behind the cabin and began the ascent +toward the Dixie Queen. + +He rode slowly through the timber, depending upon his mount to keep to +the dim trail, but in the open stretches in meadows and on the crest +of ridges where the timber thinned, he made better time. On this +occasion one would not have noted an attitude of uncertainty about his +manner or movements. He had paid strict attention to the barn man's +description of this trail, and he had determined general directions +the day before. Rathburn was not a stranger to the art of following +new trails; nor was he the kind to become confused in a locality with +which he was not familiar unless he became absolutely lost. In this +instance it would be a hard matter to become lost, for the ridges rose +steadily upward toward the summits of the high mountains, the town was +in the narrow valley below, and the foothills ranged down to the +desert in the east. + +He was halfway to the mine when he saw the gleam of an automobile's +lights in the road far below. + +"Sautee got busy right quick," he said aloud. "I 'spect they're +hustlin' up to head me off at the hogback. They're figuring I'd try to +go back the way I come in." + +He smiled grimly in the soft moonlight, and his gaze turned toward the +east, where the stars glowed over the shadowy reaches of desert which +he could not see, but the very thought of which stirred something in +his soul. + +Then he pushed on up the trail toward the mine. For more than an hour +he rode, and then, when he came to the crest of a ridge just below the +Dixie Queen, he saw the lights of an automobile in the road to the +right of him. + +"Now what?" he ejaculated. "They ain't figurin' I'd come up here!" + +He sat his horse with features again wreathed in perplexity. He +scowled at the approaching gleam of light. In the direction of the +hogback he could see nothing. Nor could he see the horsemen already on +the trail below him and on the ridge trail to eastward. + +The little mine village was directly below him. The few buildings +huddled together below the big mine dump were dark. The mine +buildings, too, were dark. A faint glow showed in the east--harbinger +of the dawn. + +The left side of the automobile was toward him when it stopped in the +little street below. A man climbed out and walked around in front of +the car, and Rathburn grunted in recognition as he made out the +familiar form of Sautee, the mine manager. + +He saw Sautee and another leave the car and walk toward a building at +the lower end of the street. He could see them fairly well in the +moonlight and realized that in a comparatively short time it would be +daylight. He turned his horse down the slope. + +When he reached the rear of the few buildings which formed the mining +village, catering to the wants of the Dixie Queen workers, Rathburn +edged along to the lower end where he left his horse in the shadow of +a building directly across from the one which Sautee and his companion +had entered, and in the windows of which a light now shone. + +He stole across the street. Peering in one of the windows he saw that +the room was an office. Sautee was standing before a desk, talking to +another man. Rathburn quickly surmised that this man had accompanied +Sautee from the town. Even as he looked, Sautee finished his speech by +striking a palm with his fist, and his companion strode toward the +door. + +Rathburn darted around the side of the building into the shadow as the +man came out and hurried up a wide road toward the mine buildings +above. Then Rathburn ran around to the front of the building and +quietly opened the door. + +Sautee had seated himself at the desk, and he swung about in his chair +as he heard the door open. He looked again into the black bore of +Rathburn's gun. His eyes bulged, and this time they shone with genuine +terror. + +"It was sure in the pictures for us to meet again, Sautee," said +Rathburn easily. "Our business wasn't finished. We ain't through +yet." + +"There isn't any more money," Sautee gasped out. "There's no money up +here at all." + +"Oh, yes, there is," said Rathburn with a mirthless smile. "There's +twenty-odd thousand dollars in my right-hand coat pocket. Now I wonder +what you've got in yours. It don't stand to reason you'd start out +this time without a gun. Stand up!" + +Sautee rose. His face was ashen. He held his hands high as Rathburn +pressed his weapon against his chest and relieved him of the automatic +which he carried. Rathburn felt his other pockets and then smiled +agreeably. He tossed the automatic on the desk. + +"All right, we'll get goin'," he announced, indicating the open door. +"We'll have to hurry, for I take it you've sent for somebody from the +mine." + +"Where are we going?" asked Sautee without moving. + +"We're goin' for a little mornin' walk, if you act reasonable," +replied Rathburn. "That was my intention. But if you don't want to +go----" + +He shrugged, and as Sautee looked fixedly at him, he cocked his gun. + +Sautee hurried toward the door with Rathburn following him closely. +When they were outside Rathburn directed Sautee across the street. +When they reached Rathburn's horse Rathburn quickly mounted and +motioned to the mines manager to precede him into the timber behind +the little village. When they gained the shelter of the timber they +gradually circled around until they struck a trail which led up above +the mine. They started up this, Sautee leading the way on foot with +Rathburn following on his horse and keeping his gun trained on the +mines manager's back. + +"Don't worry," Rathburn crooned. "I won't shoot you in the back, +Sautee. That wouldn't be accordin' to my ethics. But I'd have to stop +you if you made a break to leave the present company." + +Sautee plodded on, his breath coming in gasps, the perspiration +standing out on his forehead. + +The trail joined with another well-worn path a short distance above +the mine. The eastern sky now was light, and Rathburn saw a stone +building above them. He also saw that they were on the steep slope of +the big mountain on which the Dixie Queen was located, and that there +was a rift in this mountain to the left which indicated the presence +of a pass there. + +In a few minutes they reached the stone building. It had an iron door +across which was painted the legend: + + DANGER POWDER--DYNAMITE KEEP AWAY + +Rathburn dismounted and tossed the reins over his horse's head so the +animal would stand. + +"That place looks like a natural jail," he commented. + +"It's the mine's powder house," said Sautee, wiping his wet forehead. + +"Sure," Rathburn rejoined, "that's just what it is. I expect there's +enough powder in there to blow half this mountain off." + +He walked to the door and took out his gun as he examined the +padlock. + +"What are you going to do?" asked Sautee excitedly. + +"I'm goin' to blow the lock off," said Rathburn coolly. + +"Don't do it!" cried Sautee. "There's high-percentage dynamite in +there and T N T caps that we use on road work--dozens of boxes of it. +You might set it off!" + +Rathburn looked at the quaking mine manager speculatively. "That's +right," he said finally, turning aside to grin to himself. "I guess +any little jar might start it workin'. It goes off easy, I've heard." + +"There are caps and detonators in there, too," said Sautee quickly. +"You might shoot into them some way, you never can tell. Well, it +would be as bad for you as for me." He uttered the last sentence in a +note of triumph. + +Rathburn was looking at the far-flung view below. He turned a hard +gaze on Sautee. "What difference do you suppose it would make to me if +that stuff in there goes off?" he demanded in a harsh voice. "Look +down there!" + +Sautee looked and drew in his breath with a gasp. + +In the clear light of the blossoming dawn the whole panorama of the +lower mountain country was spread out before them. To the left, under +the towering peaks of the divide, the rounded crest of the hogback was +discernible, and a black spot marked the location of Mannix's +automobile. + +"There's a car over there," said Rathburn, noting the direction of +Sautee's gaze. + +Almost directly below them a number of mounted men filed over a ridge +and again disappeared in the timber. Off to the right more horsemen +were to be seen. + +"Looks like there was a posse or two out this morning," said Rathburn +in a forbidding voice. "I reckon I ain't such a fool as not to know +who they're lookin' for, Sautee. Now maybe you can figure out why I +ain't as scared of that powder house as you are." + +"I can stop them!" cried Sautee in a shaking voice. + +"Sure," Rathburn agreed. "You can say you lied about me takin' the +money----" + +"I'll tell 'em you gave it back!" said Sautee hoarsely. "I'll tell 'em +you brought it on up to the mine and that it's in the safe. I'll +square it----" + +"But you can't square the rewards that are out for The Coyote," said +Rathburn sternly. "You've stepped into a bigger game than you +thought, Sautee, an' it's got plumb out of your hands." + +He turned on the mine manager fiercely. "Whatever happens, remember +this: Once a man gets a bad reputation in a country like this or the +country I come from, he's got it for keeps. He can't get away from it +no matter how he acts or what he does. Mine has drove me away from the +place where I belong; it's followed me here; I can't lose it; an' the +way things has been going, by glory, I don't know if I _want_ to lose +it!" + +Sautee cowered back under the fierceness in Rathburn's manner. + +"An' you can tell 'em, if you ever have a chance to talk again, that I +earned my reputation square! I ain't involved nobody else, an' I ain't +stole from any poor people, an' I never threw my gun down on a man who +didn't start for his first." + +The deadly earnestness and the note of regret in Rathburn's tone +caused Sautee to forget his uneasiness temporarily and stare at the +man in wonder. Rathburn's eyes were narrowed, his gaze was steel blue, +and his face was drawn into hard, grim lines as he looked out upon the +far-flung, glorious vista below them, broken here and there by the +movement of mounted men. + +"Maybe I--I----" Sautee faltered in his speech. His words seemed +impotent in the face of Rathburn's deadly seriousness. + +Rathburn turned abruptly to the powder house door. + +"Wait!" cried Sautee. + +The mines manager dug frantically into his pockets and drew out a +bunch of keys. + +"There are some locks on this property to which there are only two +keys," he explained nervously. "This is one of them, and I carry the +second key. Here!" + +He held out the key ring with one key extended. + +Rathburn thrust his gun back into its holster and took the keys. In a +moment he had unlocked the padlock and swung open the iron door, +exposing case after case of high explosive within the stone +structure. + +Sautee was staring at him in dire apprehension. + +Rathburn pointed toward the rift in the mountain on the left above +them. Sautee looked and saw a man and a boy riding down the trail. + +"That looks to me like the man that held me up last night," said +Rathburn. "He looks like one of the men, anyway. Maybe he's found out +he didn't get much, eh? Maybe he's coming back because he didn't have +enough to make a get-away with. Maybe he thinks he was double crossed +or something." + +Sautee's features were working in a spasm of fear and worry. Suddenly +he turned on Rathburn. + +"Why don't you get away?" he asked in eager pleading. "That trail will +take you out of the mountains and down into the desert country. You're +from the desert, aren't you? You can make it. You've made a good haul. +Go! It'll be better for me and all of us!" + +Rathburn laughed bitterly. "I can't go because I'm a worse fool than +you are," he said acridly. "Get in there. Sneaking lizards, man, can't +you see I'm tempted to put a shot into one of them boxes and blow us +both to kingdom come?" + +Sautee shrank back into the powder house, and Rathburn slammed the +door. + +As Rathburn snapped the padlock and thrust the keys into his pocket +his eyes again sought the trail to the left above him. No one was in +sight. The man and the boy had disappeared in a bend or depression in +the trail. + +But when he looked down toward the hogback he saw a car coming up the +road toward the mine. A number of horsemen had taken its place on the +hogback. + +Rathburn ran for his horse. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +A SECOND CAPTURE + + +Rathburn rode straight up the trail which led from the powder house +toward the pass over the big mountain. His eyes were gleaming with +satisfaction, but several times they clouded with doubt, and he felt +the bank notes in his coat pocket. Each time, however, he would shake +his head and push on up the trail with renewed energy. + +Looking backward and downward, he could see the posses gathering in +the street of the mine village. He sensed the excitement which had +followed the sudden disappearance of Sautee and smiled grimly. He saw +that the automobile from the hogback had reached the village. Scores +of men were clustered about it. He knew Mannix was taking personal +charge of the man hunt; but there was a chance to get away! + +He looked wistfully eastward. Somewhere off there, beyond the rolling +foothills, was the desert. He thrilled. It had been there he had made +his first mistake. Goaded by the loss of his small cattle ranch he had +taken revenge on the man who had foreclosed on him and others in a +similar predicament. He had held up the bank and restored a small +measure of the losses. Even then the profit of the unscrupulous money +lender had been enormous. + +But the law had marked Rathburn. The gunmen who were jealous of his +reputation as an expert at the draw had forced him to fall back upon +that draw to protect his life. Thus he had been driven to obtain a +living in the best way he could, and something in the dangerous, +uncertain life of the outlaw had appealed to his wild blood. + +Sautee had said the money in his pocket was a good haul. Why not? He +looked again to eastward. Over the big mountain--into the timber--a +circling back--a straight cut east---- + +He knew he could do it. He had evaded posses before--posses composed +of trained men who were accustomed to take the man trail. It would +actually be rare sport to play with the crowd below. His left hand +dropped idly into his coat pocket, and he started as he fingered what +was there. Then his brow became furrowed, and he scowled. + +"Maybe I ain't such a good guesser after all," he muttered. "Maybe I'm +just what I told Sautee--a fool." + +He caught sight of a man and a boy above him. Another instant and they +were lost to view. + +Rathburn suddenly put the spurs to his horse, and the dun surged up +the steep trail. As he rode, Rathburn took his rawhide lariat from its +place on the saddle. At a point above where the trail twisted about a +huge outcropping of rock he turned off, dismounted, and crept to the +top of the rocks. Quickly he surveyed the trail above. Then he slipped +back down to his horse, got in the saddle, and took up a position just +at the lower end of the outcropping, some little distance back from +the trail and above it. He held the lariat ready in his hands. + +He sat his horse quietly--listening. The wind had died with the dawn, +and there was no sound in the hills. The sun was mounting in the sky +to eastward. Rathburn looked out over the timbered slopes below with +wistful eyes. Suddenly his gaze became alert. The sound of horses upon +the rocky trail above the outcropping came to his ears. + +Gradually the sound became more and more distinct. He could hear the +hoofs of the horses striking against the rock of the trail. He shook +out the noose of his rope, and it sang as it whirled in the air. + +The head of a horse had hardly pushed past the rock when Rathburn's +noose went swirling downward and dropped true over its target. The man +in the saddle loosed a string of curses as he felt the rawhide lariat +tighten about his arms and chest. His horse shied, and he was dragged +from the saddle, landing on his feet, but falling instantly. + +The second horse reared back, and Rathburn's gun covered the boy in +the saddle. Rathburn, keeping tight hold on the rope hand over hand, +and retaining his gun in his right hand at the same time, ran down the +short pitch. The boy's horse became still, and while the youth stared +Rathburn trussed up the first rider and then stood off to look at +him. + +"Just takin' a mornin' ride, Carlisle?" he asked cheerfully. "Or did +you forget something? Don't make any false moves, kid. I ain't in a +playful mood." + +The boy continued to stare, but Carlisle's face was black with rage, +and curses flowed from his lips. + +"That won't get you anything," Rathburn said coolly. "You might better +be doin' some tall thinking instead of cussing. You ain't got the +cards stacked for this deal, Carlisle." + +"What's your game?" Carlisle managed to get out. + +"It's a deep one," Rathburn replied dryly. "An' it's too complicated +to tell you now. I'm goin' to give you a chance to do the thinking I +mentioned a while back. I ain't takin' your gun or your horse. The +only thing I'm takin' is a chance, an' I ain't takin' it on _your_ +account." + +For an instant Rathburn's eyes burned with fury. Then he dragged +Carlisle into the shelter of the rocks, to the side of the trail, and +tied his horse near by. Mounting, he motioned to the boy to ride down +the trail ahead of him. He looked at the big hat and the overalls the +boy wore. The youth looked wildly about and then drove the spurs into +his mount and dashed down the trail with Rathburn close behind, +calling to him to take it easy. + +Just as they reached a spot directly above the powder house the boy +reined in his horse. Rathburn saw he was looking down at the turbulent +scene in the street of the little village below the mine. Then the boy +swayed in the saddle, and Rathburn had just time to fling himself to +the ground and catch the senseless form in his arms as it toppled. + +He put his burden down on the grass beside the trail and led his horse +into the timber and tied him. Next he picked up the boy and made his +way down to the powder house. The shouts of many men came to him from +far below. He succeeded in getting out the keys and unlocking the +padlock which secured the door of the powder house. Then he opened the +door, covered the frightened mine manager with his gun, and carried +his burden in with one arm. + +"One of the accomplices," he said briefly to Sautee, as he put the lad +down and loosened the shirt at the throat. "He'll come around in a +minute." + +Sautee's eyes were popping from his head. He leaned back upon the +cases of dynamite and passed a clammy hand over his brow. + +"I've got Carlisle, too," said Rathburn. "Takin' it all around from +under it ain't a bad morning's haul." + +Sautee now stared at him with a new look in his eyes--a look in which +doubt struggled with terror. + +"I don't believe you _are_ The Coyote!" he blurted out. + +"Who do you reckon I might be, if I ain't?" Rathburn asked quietly. + +"You might be some kind of a deputy or something." + +Rathburn laughed harshly. "It just happens I'm the man some folks call +The Coyote," he said. "I don't like the name, but it was wished on me, +an' I can't seem to shake it off. If I wasn't the man you think I am +you wouldn't be in such a tight fix, Sautee." + +Rathburn's words conveyed a subtle menace which was not lost on the +mine manager. Sautee cringed and rubbed his hands in his nervous +tension. + +"What are you going to do?" he asked. + +"Listen!" exclaimed Rathburn. + +From below came the echoes of shouts and other sounds which conveyed +the intelligence that a large body of men was on the move up to the +mine and the mountain slope above. + +"They're after me," said Rathburn bitterly. "They think I stole the +pay-rolls. They can't get me, Sautee--not alive. An' if they get me +the other way I'm goin' to see to it somehow that I don't get blamed +for these jobs up here. Now, do you begin to see daylight?" + +Sautee wet his dry lips. The figure on the floor stirred. The shouts +from below sounded more distinct. + +Rathburn's gun leaped into his hand. "You better start hoping the +shootin' don't begin till we understand each other, Sautee," he said +grimly. "We've come to the show-down!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +QUICK FACTS + + +Disregarding the sounds which continued to come from below, Rathburn +stood, gun in hand, regarding Sautee with a grim countenance and a +cold look in his keen, gray eyes. + +"I saw that truck driver held up, Sautee. I was on a ridge below the +divide. I saw the tall man in the black slicker, his pardner, an' the +boy. I didn't figure it would do any good to tell Mannix I'd taken in +the show, an' I was on my way to the desert. I'd be there now if +Carlisle hadn't overstepped the mark in that Red Feather place." + +Sautee pricked up his ears. "You let them arrest you," he said. +"Why----" + +"Because I knew Mannix didn't know who I was an' didn't have anything +on me," said Rathburn quickly. "An' I got peevish at Carlisle an' +plumb suspicious when he tried to make things look bad for me right +there at the start. I began to wise up to the whole lay when you got +me out of jail." + +Sautee's face went white again. + +"Your fine explanations of why you couldn't get that money up to the +mine were thin as water, Sautee. You could get that money up there if +you wanted to, an' when you asked me to carry the package to the mine +it was a dead out-an'-out give-away. I reckon you didn't play me to +have any sense, an' I don't think you gave Carlisle credit for havin' +the brains of a jack rabbit, either." + +Rathburn laughed as the mine manager stared at mention of Carlisle's +name again. + +"Don't worry," he said contemptuously. "I know it was Carlisle who +held me up. I take it he figured that you'd actually put money in that +package. Wouldn't be surprised if it was him that you got to try that +stunt. An' he started away with the package as soon as he got it +instead of sneakin' back home to split with you. He double crossed you +an' you double crossed him an' me. Now I'm double crossing the two of +you." + +Sautee's look had changed to one of anger. He glared at Rathburn, +forgetting his predicament. + +"You'd have a fine time proving any of this nonsense," he found the +courage to say. + +"I'm not only goin' to prove what I've said so far, but I'm goin' to +prove that these robberies were a put-up job between you an' Carlisle, +with somebody helping you," said Rathburn. "I've been in the mining +game myself, Sautee, but in our country men spend their lives hunting +metal to make some bunch of stockholders rich. Maybe they get +something out of it themselves, an' maybe they don't; but they're +square, an' the men that run the mines are square 'most always. Anyway +they develop properties, an' that's more'n you're doing. You're not +doing this camp any good. You're bleeding the mine an' the company, +too." + +"And I suppose you--The Coyote--are taking a hand in this business as +a matter of principle," sneeringly replied Sautee. + +"I didn't take a hand," Rathburn pointed out sternly. "You an' +Carlisle forced a hand on me, an' I'm goin' to play it out. I've +another reason, too," he added mysteriously. + +"Did you say you had Carlisle?" Sautee asked in feigned anxiety. + +"I've got him dead to rights," replied Rathburn shortly, taking some +paper and a pencil from a pocket. + +Sautee looked at him curiously as he started to write on the paper. +"Going to write it all out and leave it?" he asked sneeringly. + +"I'm going to put it outside the powder house in a place where Mannix +or some of the others will be sure to find it," was the puzzling +answer. + +"I suppose they'll believe it quicker if it's in writing," said Sautee +bravely. + +Rathburn finished writing, folded the paper, and placed it in the +left-hand pocket of his coat. He carefully put away the pencil. His +next act caused Sautee real concern. + +Using a drill which was there for the purpose, evidently, Rathburn +broke open a box of dynamite caps and a box of dynamite. A single coil +of fuse was lying on a box. He quickly affixed the cap to a stick of +the dynamite and crimped on a two-foot length of fuse. Then he moved +the opened box of dynamite to the doorway and struck the stick with +cap and fuse attached into it. + +"There," he said, evidently greatly satisfied with his work. "That +fuse will burn about two minutes----" He paused. "That's too long," he +concluded. + +Perspiration again stood out on Sautee's forehead as he watched +Rathburn cut off a foot of the fuse. + +"That's better," said Rathburn with a queer smile. "That'll burn about +a minute. Time enough." + +Sautee stared in horrified fascination at the foot of fuse which stuck +straight out from the box of dynamite in the doorway. "What--what are +you going to do?" he gasped out. + +"Listen, Sautee," said Rathburn coolly. "When that stick of powder +explodes it'll set off the box an' the other boxes, an' instead of a +powder house here there'll be a big hole in the side of the +mountain." + +"Man--man--you're not going to do--_that_!" Sautee's words came in a +hoarse whisper. + +"I reckon that's what I'm goin' to have to do," said Rathburn as he +bent over the form on the floor of the powder house. + +The boy's eyes were open and were staring into Rathburn's. + +Rathburn lifted him to his feet, where he stood unsteadily. Again the +gun was in Rathburn's hand. + +"This party is goin' to leave us," he said to the frightened mine +manager. "I'm goin' to step just outside for a minute. It's your +chance to make a break, Sautee; but if you try it I'll send a bullet +into that cap. Maybe you heard somewhere that I can shoot tolerably +well," he concluded in his drawl. + +Sautee gripped the sides of the boxes piled behind him. + +Rathburn led the boy outside and said quickly: "Just what is this man +Carlisle to you?" + +A look of fear, remorse, dejection--all commingled and pleading--came +into the dark eyes that looked up into his. + +Rathburn didn't wait for a verbal answer. + +"Your horse is just up the trail a piece," he said hurriedly. "Get up +there--go up behind the powder house, so the men below can't see you. +Swing off into the timber to the left and get down out of here. I'll +keep their attention. Go home." + +He waited a moment until he saw that his instructions were being +carried out, then he leaped again to the doorway of the powder house. + +Sautee's face was livid, and his teeth were chattering. Rathburn took +a match from his shirt pocket. + +"Stop!" screamed Sautee. "I'll talk. You were right. It was a +frame-up. I'll tell everything--_everything_!" + +The perspiration was streaming from his face, and his voice shook with +terror. + +"You'll have a chance to talk in less than a minute," said Rathburn +calmly. + +A chorus of shouts came from the trail just below the powder house as +a number of men came into view. + +Rathburn stepped in front of the door with the match in his left hand +and his gun in his right. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE SHOW-DOWN + + +A wild chorus of yells greeted him. He had surmised that the men had +seen him coming back down the trail to the powder house with his human +burden. Now he called Sautee into view. They would most naturally +assume that it was the mine manager he had been carrying. + +"Come to the door where they can see you," he called to Sautee. + +The ring in his voice brought Sautee, white-faced and shivering, to +the doorway beside Rathburn. + +Another round of yells followed the mine manager's appearance. Then +there was a sudden stillness. Rathburn saw that the crowd was made up +mostly of miners. They paused in the wide place in the trail just +below the powder house, and Mannix pushed to the fore. + +"I want you, Coyote," he called sternly. + +"Now, don't you think I know it?" replied Rathburn in a voice which +carried to all the members of the mob. "You don't want me for robbing +this mine, Mannix; you want me for something you don't know anything +about--because I've got a record. Wait a minute!" + +He shot out the words as the mob pushed a step forward. + +"If you fellows take a couple more steps in this direction I'll put a +bullet into this box of dynamite!" + +The movement stopped instantly. Men stared up at him breathlessly, for +they realized that he meant what he said. + +Mannix's face was pale, but his eyes glowed with determination. + +"Do you think it's worth it, Coyote?" he asked. + +"Step up here, Mannix, an' listen to what this fellow has to say," was +Rathburn's reply. "Men," he called in a loud voice, "I'm lookin' to +you to give your mine boss an' your deputy sheriff a fair deal." + +There was a murmur among the men. Mannix, after a moment of +hesitation, stepped forward. + +Rathburn swung on Sautee. "Tell him!" he commanded in a voice which +stung like the crack of a whip on still air. + +"I--I had a hand in the business," said Sautee frantically. "It was +Carlisle and me. We--we framed the robberies." + +Mannix's eyes narrowed. + +"Tell him where I got that money last night," Rathburn thundered. +"Tell him, Sautee, or, so help me, I'll drill a hole through you!" + +Sautee cowered before the deadly ferocity in Rathburn's voice. "I had +it in the--office--downtown," he stammered. "There was blank paper in +that package, Mannix. Let him go--let him go, Mannix, or we'll all be +killed!" Sautee cried. + +Rathburn was looking steadily at the deputy. "Carlisle is roped an' +tied up the trail by the big rocks," he said. "Send up there for him +an' bring him down here." + +Several of the men who were mounted spurred their horses up the steep +trail. There was utter silence now among the men. Mannix, too, was +cool and collected. He had not drawn his gun. He surveyed the quaking +Sautee with a look of extreme contempt. The mine manager's nerves had +gone to pieces before Rathburn's menacing personality. All he cared +for now was his life. The black reputation he had given to Rathburn +led him to believe that the man could not be depended upon, and that +he was liable to carry out his threat and blow them all to bits. He +wet his lips with a feverish tongue. + +"Where's the money you an' Carlisle got away with?" demanded Mannix. + +"I've got all I took," whined Sautee. "I'll give it back. I don't know +what Carlisle's done with his. It was his scheme, anyway; he proposed +it when he hit this country a year ago." + +"And the other man----" suggested Mannix. + +"Mike Reynolds," cried Sautee. "But he was only in on the truck driver +deal and--last night. Let The Coyote go, Mannix----" + +Then Sautee, in a frenzy of fear, an easy prey to the seriousness of +the situation and his shattered nerves, told everything. He explained +how it had been Carlisle who proposed getting Rathburn out of jail and +making him the goat. He told of the worthless contents of the package +he had given Rathburn to carry to the mine, how they had planned to +rob him on the way and thus put him in a situation where he would have +to get out of the country. He explained how Carlisle had pointed out +that they had a club over Rathburn's head in their knowledge of his +real identity. He complained that Carlisle had intended to double +cross him, and how he had double crossed Carlisle in turn. He ended +with a whining plea for consideration at the hands of Mannix. + +The men with Carlisle came down the trail. Carlisle was astride his +own horse. His gun was in his holster. + +"We've got you, you outlaw!" he cried as he flung himself from the +saddle and strode up to Rathburn, Mannix, and Sautee. + +Rathburn's eyes had narrowed until they were slits through which his +cold, hard gaze centered upon Carlisle. His attitude had changed. Even +his posture was suddenly different. There was a long breath from the +men behind Mannix. It was a tense moment. They could see the menace in +Rathburn's manner, and they could see that Carlisle was fighting mad. + +"Ain't you a little free with your language, Carlisle?" drawled +Rathburn. + +"You know who he is?" Carlisle cried to Mannix. "He's The Coyote--an +outlaw an' a killer with a price a mile long on his head----" + +"But I ain't never sneaked any miners' pay-rolls, Carlisle," Rathburn +broke in with a sneering inflection in his voice. "What'd you do with +Mike Reynolds? He was with you last night, wasn't he?" + +Carlisle's jaw snapped shut. He swung on Rathburn with eyes darting +red. Then his gaze flashed to the cringing Sautee. + +"You--you rat----" + +Rathburn stepped before Sautee. "You haven't any quarrel with him, +Carlisle," he said evenly; "your quarrel, if you've got one, is with +me. I outguessed you, that's all. You ain't plumb clever, Carlisle. +You ought to be in a more genteel business. I just naturally figured +out the play an' made Sautee talk, that's all. I ain't the only gent +Mannix is wanting--there's _three_ of us here!" + +Carlisle's face was purple and working in spasms of rage. He realized +instantly that Rathburn had spoken the truth. + +"It was his scheme from the start!" shrilled Sautee from the +protection of Rathburn's broad shoulders. + +Then the mine manager, unable to longer stand the strain, collapsed on +the ground, groaning. + +"Underhanded!" Carlisle shot through his teeth as Mannix stepped back. +"An' I heard The Coyote was a go-getter. By guns, I believe you're +yellow!" + +"You've got a chance to try an' finish what you started in the Red +Feather the day I got here, Carlisle," said Rathburn in ringing tones. +"If you think I'm yellow--draw!" + +A second's hesitation--two figures in identical postures under the +morning sun--a vagrant breeze murmuring in the timber. + +Then two movements, quick as lightning--too fast for the eye to +follow--and the roar of guns. + +Rathburn stepped back, his weapon smoking at his hip, as Carlisle +swayed for a moment and then crumpled upon the ground. Rathburn +quickly drew the piece of paper from his left pocket and the roll of +bills from his right. He put the note with the bills and tossed the +roll to Mannix. Then he stepped back to the doorway. + +"Join your men, Mannix," he said quietly. + +Mannix thrust the money into a pocket and stood for several seconds +looking directly into Rathburn's eyes. A curious expression was on the +deputy's face, partly wonder, partly admiration, partly doubt. Then he +turned abruptly upon his heel and walked back to the gaping men. + +Sautee struggled to his feet. Rathburn motioned to him to join the +others, and he staggered down to them. + +Then Rathburn coolly lit a match and touched it to the fuse sticking +out from the box of dynamite. + +There was a wild yell of terror, and the mob tumbled down the trail as +Rathburn ran for the trail above the powder house. The men had +disappeared when he turned. His gun leaped into his hand and he +fired--once, twice, three times--the fourth shot cut the burning fuse, +and with a sharp intaking of breath, he ran for his horse, mounted, +and rode into the timber along the trail. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +FILED! + + +Rathburn picked his way slowly through the timber around to the +southeast and then directly down toward the town. It was slow going, +and the man seemed to relish this fact. His face was thoughtful, +wistful, a bit grave. He occasionally patted his horse's neck. + +"We're on our way home, old hoss," he said softly. "Seems like we just +_had_ to stop off here." + +He fingered two small objects in his coat pocket. + +"I wonder," he murmured. "I wonder if I could be mistaken." + +He turned west after a time and rode carefully until he gained a worn +trail. This he followed down toward town, and in half an hour he +dismounted in the timber behind a small cabin at the side of the road +to the hogback. + +Rathburn went to the rear door and knocked. He received no answer, but +sounds came to him through an open window. He opened the door softly +and stole inside. There was no one in the kitchen. The sounds came +from another room. He passed on into a bedroom and turned into another +bedroom where he saw a figure in overalls lying on the bed. A great +mass of dark hair covered the pillow. The form shook with sobs. + +Rathburn laid a gentle hand upon the shoulder, and the face, which was +quickly turned to him, was the face of a girl--the girl he had first +seen when coming into the town, the girl who had been sitting the +horse listening to Carlisle's tirade, the girl the barn man had said +was supposed to be Carlisle's sister. + +"They don't know you were up there," said Rathburn softly. "Your boy's +clothes fooled them, if they saw you at all. They probably thought I +was carrying Sautee down the trail, for they found Sautee up there in +the powder house with me." + +The girl sobbed again. Her eyes were red with weeping. + +"Listen, ma'am," said Rathburn gently. "I picked these up from the +road the day the truck driver was held up." He brought out two +hairpins from his coat pocket. + +"It set me to thinking, ma'am, an' was one reason why I stayed over +here to find out what was goin' on. Maybe I've done wrong, ma'am, but +I was hoping I'd be doin' you a favor. I saw the look in your eyes the +day Carlisle was talkin' to you when you was on the hoss. I know you +helped him in his holdups, dressed like a boy, but I figured you +didn't do it because you wanted to." + +"No--no--no!" sobbed the girl. + +"All right; fine, little girl. No one knows anything about it but me, +an' I'm goin' away. But, listen, girlie, just what was Carlisle to +you?" + +A spasm of weeping shook the girl. "Nothing I could help," she sobbed. +"He--I had to do as he said--because--oh, I hate him. I hate him!" + +"There, there," soothed Rathburn. "I suspected as much, girlie." + +"He made my father a bad man," sobbed the girl; "an' made me go with +him or my father would have to go--to--to go----" + +"Never mind, girlie," Rathburn interrupted softly. "I don't want to +hear the story. Just keep it to yourself an' start all over. It ain't +a bad world, girlie, an' there's more good men in it than there's bad. +Now, you can begin to live and be happy like you ought. Carlisle won't +worry you no more." + +She raised her head and looked at him out of startled eyes in which +there was a ray of hope. + +"You say--he won't--worry me----" + +"Not at all, girlie. He walked into his own trap. I'm goin', girlie. +So long, an' good luck." + +He took her hand and pressed it, and under the spell of his smile the +hope came into her welling eyes. + +"Good-by," he called from the doorway. + +She was smiling faintly through her tears when he slipped out. + + * * * * * + +Deputy Sheriff Mannix was sitting in his little office alone. It was +nearly sunset. A faint glow of crimson shot across the carpet. + +Mannix was scowling thoughtfully. On the desk before him were two +pieces of paper. One of them was a reward notice publishing the fact +that The Coyote was wanted and that five thousand dollars would be +paid by the State of Arizona for his capture, dead or alive. + +Mannix picked up the second piece of paper and again read the words +penciled upon it: + + I am taking out of this money belonging to the Dixie Queen the + five hundred dollars Sautee promised me for carrying the money to + the mine, and the two thousand dollars reward offered for the + capture of those who had been robbing the Dixie Queen. I expect + that shortly after this gets into the proper hands Sautee will be + in jail, and he will be handy to tell you this is all O. K. + +RATHBURN. + +Mannix took up the reward notice, put it with the note, and jammed the +two pieces of paper into an obscure pigeonhole in his desk. + +"Filed!" he said aloud. + +Then he rose with a peculiar smile, went out upon the little porch, +and stared toward the east where the reflection of the sunset cast a +rosy glow over the foothills leading down to the desert. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +THE PRODIGAL + + +With face upraised to the breath of air which stirred across the bare +black lava hills, Rathburn leaned forward in the saddle eagerly, while +his dun-colored horse stood patiently, seemingly in accord with his +master's mood. A merciless sun beat down from a hot, cloudless sky. + +Below, stretching in endless miles was the desert--a sinister, +forbidding land of desolate distances, marked only by slender yucca +palms, mesquite, dusty greasewood, an occasional clump of green palo +verde, the slim fingers of the ocatilla, the high "forks" of the giant +sahuara, and clumps of la cholla cactus, looking like apple orchards +in full bloom. + +Yet the man's gaze fell for a moment lovingly on each species of +cactus and desert vegetation; his look was that which dwells in the +homesick eyes of a traveler when he sees his native land from the deck +of an inbound ship. + +"Hoss, we're home!" he said aloud, while the animal pricked up its +ears. + +Then he looked off to the left, where the blue outlines of a low range +of mountains wavered in the heat like a mirage. + +"Imagination Range," he said moodily. + +He tickled the dun with his spurs and trotted along the crest of the +lava ridge. At its eastern terminus he swung down into the desert and +struck straight east in the direction of Imagination Range. The +desert's surface between the lava ridge and the higher hills of the +range to eastward was cut by dry washes and arroyos and miniature +ridges studded with giant cactus. + +On the top of one of these high rises the horseman suddenly reined in +his mount and stared into the south. "There's trouble--an' spelled +with a capital T!" he ejaculated. + +The gaze in his keen gray eyes centered upon a number of riders +speeding their horses over the tumbled section of desert below him to +his right. He made out two divisions of horsemen. One group was some +distance ahead of the other. Even as he stared down at them, its group +separated, and some rode for Imagination Range, while others hastened +toward the lava hills, or due north in his direction. The second group +halted for a brief spell, evidently for a conference, and then its +members also divided and started in swift pursuit of the men ahead. + +The watcher on the top of the rise frowned. + +"Out of here, hoss," he said sharply. "This ain't our day for +visitors." + +He pushed on eastward, increasing its pace, but losing time in +skirting the frequent bits of high ground. As he rode down into a deep +arroyo, a horseman came galloping into its lower end and raced almost +upon him before seeing him. His hand darted like lightning to his gun, +and the weapon snapped into aim at his hip. The horseman came to a +rearing halt, reins dangling, his hands held high, his eyes bulging +from their sockets. + +"Rathburn!" he exclaimed. + +"The same," said the man with the gun. "What's all the disturbance +down there?" + +"Bob Long is chasing us," the other answered with a nervous grin. + +"As I remember it," drawled Rathburn, "Bob Long is the sheriff of +Mesquite County. You boys sure ain't been misbehaving?" + +"It's worse than that," said the fugitive, staring doubtfully at his +questioner. "The stage driver's dead. Had a notion the boss was +foolin' when he told him to reach up for the bugs in the air." + +"Who does the boss happen to be in this case?" + +The man hesitated. + +"Take your time," said Rathburn sarcastically; "there's nobody after +you but the sheriff, an' he probably won't be along for a minute or +two." + +"It won't do _you_ no good for him to find us here," said the other +boldly. + +Rathburn's eyes blazed. "I reckon you're forgettin' that Bob Long +knows I travel alone," he said hotly. "He savvys I don't travel with a +crowd. I ain't found it necessary so far, an' I ain't aiming to start. +I counted eight in your gang--to hold up one stage, eh?" He concluded +with a sneer, while the other shifted nervously in his saddle and cast +a quick look back over his shoulder. There seemed no one there. + +"You needn't be lookin' around," Rathburn said coldly. "You're goin' +to stay here till you answer my question, if all the sheriffs in +Arizona come ridin' up meanwhile. Who's headin' your gang?" + +"That ain't professional," the fugitive grumbled. "You're just the +same as one of us." + +Then, seeing the look that came into Rathburn's eyes, he said hastily: +"Mike Eagen planned the lay." + +"I guessed it," said Rathburn in a tone of contempt. "Well, you better +slope while you've still got a chance." + +He motioned to the man to go, and the latter rode at a gallop up the +arroyo and out of sight. Rathburn's face wore a worried scowl, as he +slid his gun into its holster, whirled his horse, and speedily climbed +the east side of the arroyo. + +From a vantage point he caught sight again of the horsemen racing up +from the south. They were much nearer, and he could readily make out +the members of the sheriff's posse. He had had experience with posses +before. + +Striking around the crest of the high ground which formed the east +side of the arroyo, he again raced toward the range of mountains in +the east, taking advantage of every bit of cover which offered +concealment from the riders approaching at top speed from the south. + +Occasional glances made it plain that the sheriff was sending, or +personally bringing, most of his posse east in the direction of the +mountains, presumably in the hope of cutting off the outlaws from +seeking refuge in the hills. But the mountains were Rathburn's goal as +well as the goal of a majority of Mike Eagen's band, though for +totally different reasons. He refused to change his direction, +although by going north, the stout, speedy dun could doubtless +outdistance the posse before the afternoon was spent. + +Rathburn's teeth snapped shut, his jaw squared, and his eyes narrowed, +as he saw indubitable signs that he had been detected. Two of the +posse were waving their arms and dashing in his direction. At that +distance they could not identify him, but under the circumstances such +identification was unnecessary. His presence there, riding like mad, +was certain to convince the pursuers that he was one of the gang +responsible for the stage job. This was obvious. + +For good reasons, Rathburn did not want it generally known that he was +back in a country where he had spent most of his life, and where he +was branded as a desperate outlaw with a big price on his head. +Consequently, seeing that the sheriff's men were out to get him, he +abandoned all attempt at concealment, drove in his spurs, gave the dun +horse its head, and raced for the mountains. + +Other members of the posse who were farther to the east caught the +signals of the two who were in hot pursuit of Rathburn, and they +dashed north to cut him off. The outlaws had disappeared, and Rathburn +shook his head savagely, as he realized they had sought cover when +they saw the chase was directed at one man. Without having had a hand +in the holdup of the stage, he had arrived on the spot just in time to +draw the fire of the authorities. And fire it was now; for the men +behind him had begun shooting in the hope of a chance hit at the +distance. + +A scant mile separated him from his goal. He came to a level stretch +which was almost a mass of green because of the clumps of palo verde. +Here he urged the dun to its utmost, outdistanced the pair in his +rear, and gained on the men riding from the south, almost ahead of +him. He swerved a bit to the north and cut straight for a notch in the +mountains. He smiled, as he approached it, and saw a narrow defile +leading into the hills. He gained it in a final, heartbreaking burst +of speed on the part of his mount. As he dashed into the canyon, +bullets sang past him and over his head. Then a cry of amazement came +to his ears. + +"It's The Coyote!" a man was yelling. "Rathburn's back!" + +He dashed into the shelter of the defile, a grim smile playing on his +lips. He had been recognized. His face hardened. He rounded a huge +boulder, checked his horse, and dismounted. He could hear the pound of +hoofs in the entrance of the narrow canyon. A rider came into view +below. + +Rathburn leaned out from the protection of the boulder. His lips were +pressed into a fine, white line, and there was a look of haunted worry +in his eyes. His gun flashed in his hand. The rider saw him and +yelled, spurring his horse. Then Rathburn's gun swung quickly upward. +A sharp report sounded, like a crash of thunder in the narrow confines +of the canyon, and its echoes reverberated through the hills. + +The rider toppled in his saddle and fell to the floor of the canyon. +His horse came to a snorting stop, reins dangling, all four legs +braced. The hoof-beats instantly were stilled. A silence, complete and +sinister, reigned in the defile. + +Rathburn slipped his smoking gun into his holster and mounted +noiselessly. Then he walked his horse slowly up the canyon, sitting +sidewise in the saddle to keep a vigil on the trail behind. A minute +later he heard a volley of shots below, the signal to all the +scattered members of the posse to race to the entrance of the canyon. +He increased his pace, broke his gun, extracted the empty shell, and +inserted a fresh cartridge in its place. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE DESERT CODE + + +Keeping to the trail, Rathburn mounted higher and higher and spoke +continually to his horse in a crooning tone of encouragement. His face +was drawn in grim lines, his eyes were constantly alert, his very +posture in the saddle showed that his nerves were at high tension. + +He ignored dim paths which occasionally led off to the left or right +in rifts in the sheer, black walls of the narrow canyon. No sound came +to him from below. He knew the posse would have to proceed with the +utmost caution, for the sheriff and his men could not be sure that +they would not encounter him at some bend in the trail. They would be +expecting shots from every boulder; for Rathburn had let them know he +had no intention of being taken easily or alive. + +The afternoon wore on, with Rathburn steadily penetrating the very +heart of Imagination Range. Finally he swung out of the canyon trail +and took a dim path to the right. He dismounted and walked back to rub +off the scars left by his horse's shoes on the rock floor of the side +trail. Satisfied that he would leave the members of the posse confused +as to which side trail he had taken, he returned to his horse, +mounted, and proceeded up the narrow trail leading to the top of the +range to the south of the deep canyon. + +In the western sky the sun was low when he rode down the crest of the +range. The mountains were devoid of vegetation, bleak and bare and +black. The lava rock seemed to absorb the heat of the sun and throw +it in the rider's face. But Rathburn didn't appear to mind it. + +He crossed the backbone of the range and began the descent on the +eastern side. But he descended only a short distance before he swung +out of the saddle. From the slicker pack on the rear of his saddle he +took a pair of heavy leather gloves. He cut these open in the palms +with his pocketknife and then tied them about the shoes on his horse's +hind feet. The dun was only shod behind. + +Again he mounted, and this time he turned to the south and rode down a +long slope of lava rock. He grunted with satisfaction, as he looked +behind and saw that the leather prevented the shoes on his mount's +hind feet from leaving their mark. He was completely obliterating his +trail--leaving nothing for the posse to follow, if they should trace +him to the top of the range. + +He walked his horse slowly, for the dun did not like the idea of the +leather tied to its hoofs. In less than two miles the leather was worn +through upon the hard rock, and he got down and removed the remnants. +He straightened up and looked out over the vista of the desert. + +The western sky was a sea of gold. Far to southward a curl of smoke +rose upward, marking the course of a railroad and a town. Rathburn +looked long in this direction, with a dreamy, wistful light in his +eyes. Close at hand vegetation appeared upon the slopes of the hills. +His gaze darted here and there along the ridges below him, and his +parted lips and eager attitude showed unmistakably that he was +familiar with every rod of the locality in which he found himself. + +Again he climbed into the saddle and turned off to the left, entering +a canyon. For better than half a mile he proceeded down this way, then +he rode eastward again, winding in and out in a network of canyons +until he came to the rock-ribbed crest of a ridge which overlooked an +oasis in the desert hills. There was green vegetation where the water +from a spring seeped into the floor of the canyon below him. The spring +was nothing more than a huge cup in the rock which had caught the +water from the spring rains and filled. Above the spring was a small +cabin, and Rathburn saw that the cabin door was open. + +Hurriedly he rode down a trail to the right which circled around into +the canyon from its lower end. As he galloped toward the spring, a +figure appeared in the doorway of the cabin. Rathburn waved an arm and +dismounted at the spring. He led his horse to drink, as the man came +walking toward him from the cabin. He compelled the dun to drink +slowly; first a swallow, now two, then a few more; finally he drew the +horse away from the water. + +"You can have some more a little later," he said cheerfully. "Hello, +Joe Price!" + +The man walked up to him without a great show of surprise and held out +his hand. He was bareheaded, and the hair which hung down to his +shoulders was snow-white. The face was seamed and lined, burned by the +sun of three score Arizona summers, and the small, blue eyes +twinkled. + +"Hang me with a busted shoe string if it ain't Rathburn," said the old +man. "Why, boy, you're just in time for supper. Put your horse up +behind the cabin an' get in at the table. She's a big country, all +full of cactus; but the old man's got grub left!" + +Rathburn laughed, rinsed his mouth out with water he dipped from the +spring in a battered tin cup, and took a swallow before he replied. + +"Joe, there's two things I want--grub an' gaff. I know you've got +grub, or you wouldn't be here; but I don't know if you're any good at +the gaff any more." + +The old man scrutinized him. "You look some older," he said finally. +"Not much of the wild, galootin' kid left in you, I 'spect. But don't +go gettin' fresh with me, or I'll clout you one with my prospectin' +pick. Go 'long now; put up your horse an' hustle inside. If you want +to wash up, I guess you can--bein' a visitor." + +Rathburn chuckled, as he led his horse around behind the cabin, where +two burros were, and unsaddled him. Before he entered the cabin he +stood for a moment looking up the ridge down which he had come. The +old man watched him, but made no comment. As Rathburn sat down to the +table, however, he spoke. + +"I kin hear anybody comin' down that trail over the ridge, while +they're a mile away," he said simply without looking up. + +Rathburn flashed a look of admiration at the old man. + +The glow of the sunset lit the hills with crimson fire, and a light +breeze stirred with the advent of the long, colorful desert twilight. +They ate in silence, washing down the hardy food with long drafts of +strong coffee. The old man asked no questions of his friend. He knew +that in time Rathburn would talk. A man's business in that desolate +land of dreadful distances was his own, save such of it as he wanted +to tell. It was the desert code. + +Supper over, they went out to a little bench in front of the cabin. +There Joe Price lit his pipe, and Rathburn rolled a cigarette. + +For some time they smoked in silence. The purple twilight drifted +over the hills, and the breeze freshened in welcome relief to the heat +of the day. + +"Joe, I just had to come back," said Rathburn softly. "Something's +wrong with me. You wouldn't think I'd get homesick this way, after all +the trouble I've had here, would you?" + +The old man removed his pipe. "Anybody here in particular you want to +see?" he asked slowly. + +Rathburn shrugged. "You're always gettin' right down to cases first +hand off an' running," he complained. "Of course there's folks I want +to see. I want to see you, for instance." + +"I don't reckon you'd be ridin' any terrible great distance an' takin' +chances by the handful just to see me, boy," said Price. "But I ain't +tryin' to pry into your affairs. You don't have to answer any of the +fool questions I ask you--you know that. I'm an old man an' gettin' +childish." + +Rathburn laughed. "I can believe that when I find you still putterin' +around up here where there ain't even a sign of mineral," he chided. + +"There's gold right under your feet," said the old man stoutly. "I'll +have a payin' vein opened up here in less'n three months." + +"I hope so, Joe. There's nobody I'd like more to see make a big strike +than you. You were my dad's friend, an' you've been mine. I haven't +got many friends, Joe." + +"But them you've got is good ones," said Price quickly. "How long you +been away?" + +"About eight months," Rathburn replied with a frown. + +"It's hard to get away from the desert," mused the old man. "It's in +your blood. If you leave here for good you've just naturally got to +take something along with you from here--something that's a part of +the desert, you might say." + +Rathburn looked keenly at the face of his friend. But the old man was +regarding his pipe, as if he had never until that moment seen it. + +"I ran into a posse chasin' a gang that robbed a stage on the way over +here this noon," Rathburn said presently. + +Price's interest quickened, but he made no sign. "They saw you?" he +asked. + +"Couldn't help it," Rathburn grumbled. "Took after me. I had to drop +one of 'em with a bullet in the shoulder to slow 'em up in the long +canyon over on the other side." + +"Know any of the gang?" Price asked. + +"Met one. Threw down my gun on him. He told me Mike Eagen was runnin' +the works." + +Price nodded. "I reckon Mike's been pullin' quite a few stunts while +you been away." + +"An' I've been gettin' the blame for 'em more'n likely," said Rathburn +in indignation. + +Price nodded again. "Might be so," he commented. + +Rathburn looked up at him in understanding. "They'll have me mixed up +with this stage holdup," he said earnestly. "From what I gathered they +killed the driver, an' they'll say that was my part." + +"That's the trouble, boy," said the old miner. "If a fellow's handy +with his gun somebody's sure to get jealous of him an' make him draw. +If he gets his man because he has to, he's a killer. When he's known +as a killer he ain't got a chance. You _had_ to drop the two men you +dropped aroun' here, boy; but they ain't forgettin' it." + +"Bob Long was headin' that posse," said Rathburn thoughtfully. + +"An' Bob Long's a sticker when he hits out on a man's trail," said +Price. "Still, I guess you'd be safe in here for a while. There ain't +many knows this place." + +"I don't figure on stayin' here long, Joe," said Rathburn. + +"I didn't think you did," said Price. + +"I'll have to get goin'--hit for new country an' never know when I may +run up against the law in a quarter where I ain't expecting it; always +sneaking along--like the coyote. It was Mike Eagen who gave me that +name, Joe." + +Rathburn's voice was low and vibrant, and the old man felt the +menacing quality in it. + +"What's more," Rathburn went on, "I'm always remembering that he's +back here, getting away with his dirty tricks, shoving the blame off +on me, some way or other, when the chase gets too hot." + +For some time the old man was silent. When he spoke he put an arm +about Rathburn's shoulder. + +"Boy, before you get worse mixed up than you are, there's a place you +ought to visit aroun' here," he said in a fatherly tone. + +Rathburn shrugged and stared up at the night sky which was blossoming +with stars. + +"It would be a right smart risk," Price went on, "for they'd maybe +think to drop aroun' that way on a lookout for you; but I reckon +before you do much more, you better drop in at the Mallory place." + +Rathburn rose abruptly. "I guess that's what I came up here to hear +you say," he said irritably. "But I don't reckon it can be done, Joe. +I haven't any business there." + +"How do you know, boy? Maybe you ain't bein' right fair." + +"Seems to me it would look better for me to stay away." + +"They don't _have_ to see you," urged the old man. "The Mallory place +is a good fifteen miles from Hope, close up against the mountains. +Boy, don't you think you better make sure?" + +The wistful, yearning look was back in Rathburn's eyes. His right hand +rested upon the butt of his gun. The other held his forgotten +cigarette. He turned and looked into the old man's eyes. + +"Joe, you said something about takin' something from the desert if I +left it. You're right. But it can't be, Joe. This thing has killed my +chances!" + +The gun seemed to leap from its holster into his hand at his hip of +its own accord. The old miner's brows lifted in astonishment at the +draw. + +"If I was you I wouldn't be much scared who I met on the way down to +the Mallory place if I didn't meet too many of 'em at once," he said +with a smile. + +"I--I couldn't wear it--there," Rathburn faltered. + +"Well, leave it hangin' on a handy peg, boy," said the old man +cheerfully. + +Rathburn jammed the gun back into its holster and walked around to his +horse. He led the animal down to drink and then returned and saddled. + +"You goin' on to-night?" asked Price casually. + +"I'm takin' a ride," Rathburn confessed. + +"You ain't takin' my advice at the same time, are you?" asked Price, +pretending to be greatly concerned. + +Rathburn mounted and looked down upon him in the faint light of the +stars. + +"Joe Price, you're a wise old desert rat, an' I'm a young fool," he +said with a twinkle in his gray eyes. "If Bob Long happens this way +give him my regards an' tell him they got the reward notices over in +California all right, for I saw 'em stuck up over there. So long." + +The old miner called out after him and watched him ride down the canyon +and disappear in the shadows. Nor was he the only watcher; for, high +on the ridge above, another man touched his horse with his spurs and +started down the west side of the range, as Rathburn vanished. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +A NIGHT SUMMONS + + +In two hours Rathburn came to a fence about a small ranch. Cattle were +grazing on the sparse feed within the inclosure, and he saw a clump of +trees marking the site of a house. + +He rode around the fence until he came to a gate. There was a light +shining from two of the windows of the house. He passed through the +gate, and, as he approached the house from the side, he saw two +figures on the porch. He halted in the shelter of the trees, and, as +one of the figures crossed the beam of light which shone out the door, +he saw that it was a man. He obtained a fleeting look at the man's +face. He was comparatively young, not bad looking, with blue eyes and +a small, close-cropped, sandy mustache. + +Rathburn scratched his head in an effort to place the man. He seemed +vaguely familiar. Rathburn was sure he had seen him somewhere. But he +gave up the futile effort to identify him when he saw that the other +figure on the porch was that of a girl. + +Dismounting, he led his horse around to the rear and put him in a +corral near the barn. He surmised that it was about ten o'clock. As he +walked toward the front of the house, again he heard the sputtering of +a small motor car; then he saw the path of light from its headlights +go streaking across the desert in the direction of the town to +southward. The front door closed, and all was still. + +Rathburn hesitated for several moments, then he stamped up the porch +steps and knocked at the door. It was opened by a girl. She held a +lighted lamp in her hand. When she saw Rathburn standing, hat in +hand, before her, her dark eyes widened, and she nearly dropped the +lamp. He stepped forward quickly and took it from her. + +"Roger!" she exclaimed breathlessly. "You--here?" + +"I'm here, Laura," he said quietly. "I'm home on a--a visit." + +"I heard you were back," she faltered. "Mr. Doane--that is--a +gentleman from town told me he had heard you were back. But----" + +She scanned his face closely and peered beyond him into the shadows +with visible concern. + +"Roger, come in quickly," she invited, stepping back from the door. + +With a faint smile he entered and closed the door after him. He put +the lamp down on the table in what was evidently the sitting room of +the small house. He looked about him with the air of one who sees +familiar surroundings, but is embarrassed by them. + +"Some one been tellin' you the details of my arrival?" he asked with +an effort to appear casual. + +"I heard you were in some trouble, Roger." The girl continued to stare +at him with a queer expression in her fine eyes--part sorrow, part +concern, part gladness. + +"I'm not a stranger to trouble these days, Laura," he said soberly. + +There was a sob in the girl's throat, but she recovered herself at +once. + +"Have you eaten?" she asked quickly. + +"Up at Joe Price's place," he replied. "All fed and chipper." + +There was not much confidence in his tone or manner. As the girl +lowered her gaze, he looked at her hungrily; his eyes feasted on the +coils of dark hair, her long, black lashes, the curve of her cheek +and her delicate color, the full, ruby lips, and the small, quivering +chin. She was in the throes of a strong emotion. + +"I'm sorry, Laura, if--you didn't want me to come," he said +unsteadily. + +"Oh, Roger! Of course we want you to come. It's been so long since we +saw you. And you've--you've gone through so much." + +She raised her eyes, and the expression which he saw in their depths +caused him to look away and to bite his lips. + +"There's a lot of it I wish I could undo, Laura; an' there's a lot +more of it I couldn't help, an' maybe some I--I--wasn't----" He +paused. He couldn't bring himself to say anything in extenuation of +himself and his acts in the presence of this girl. It might sound as +if he were playing for her sympathy, he thought to himself. + +"Roger, I know you haven't done all the things I've heard about," she +said bravely. "And there's always a chance. You're a man. You can find +a way out. If the trails seem all twisted and tangled, you can use a +compass--your own conscience, Roger. You still have that." + +"How did you happen to mention the trails bein' all mixed up like +that?" he asked curiously. + +"Why--I don't know. Isn't that the way it seems?" + +Rathburn looked away with a frown. "You come near hittin' the nail on +the head, Laura." + +"Oh, then you _are_ beginning to think!" she said eagerly. + +"I've done nothing but think for months," Rathburn confessed. + +She looked at him searchingly. Then her eyes dropped to the black +butt of the gun in the holster strapped to his right thigh. She +shuddered slightly. + +"You came from the west, Roger?" she asked. + +"Yes," he replied shortly. "From where there's water an' timber an' +flowers an' grass--but they had my number there, just the same as +they've got it here. I'm a marked man, Laura Mallory." + +She leaned upon the table with one hand; the other she held upon her +breast. + +"Are--are they--after you, Roger?" she asked in a low, anxious tone. + +"As usual," he answered with a vague laugh. "Laura, I didn't come here +to bother you with my troubles; I come here just to see _you_." + +The girl colored. "I know, Roger. We've known each other a long +time--since we were children. You wouldn't like it for me not to show +any concern over your troubles, would you?" + +"I wish we could talk about something else," said Rathburn. "I can't +stay long." + +Laura Mallory looked worried. "May I ask where you plan to go, +Roger?" + +"I'm not sure. I only know I wanted to come back, an' I came. I hadn't +any fixed plans, an' I wasn't expecting the reception I got." His face +clouded. Then he looked straight into the girl's eyes. "I hit this +country this morning," he said steadily. "The first folks I saw was +some men ridin' in my direction up between the lava hills and the +range. Then things began to happen." + +She nodded brightly. "I believe you," she said simply. + +Rathburn smiled. "You aways did that, Laura, an' I ain't never been +much of a hand at lying." + +"Roger," she said quickly, "if they all knew you as well as I think I +know you----" + +"They wouldn't believe," he interrupted. "They call me The Coyote, +an' they'll have me live up to the name whether I want to or not," he +added bitterly. + +"But, Roger, you're forgetting what I said about the trails and the +compass." + +"No, Laura, I'm not, but there's another force besides the big +lodestone that's affectin' that compass." + +"Roger, you're thinking of an enemy!" + +He did not answer her. His face appeared grim, almost haggard, in the +yellow rays of the lamplight. + +"Roger, you once promised me anything I might ask," she said softly. + +"An' all you have to do is ask," he answered, taking a step toward +her. + +"I'm going to ask you for something, Roger," she said without looking +at him. "Maybe you'll think it's--it's too much that I ask." She +glanced up at him doubtfully. + +"What is it, Laura?" he insisted. + +"I want your gun, Roger," she whispered. + +He straightened and stared at her in startled wonder. "But, Laura--a +man in my position--why--why--where would I be at?" + +"Maybe if you gave it to me it would help you find a way out, Roger," +she pleaded earnestly. + +Rathburn looked into her eyes and thrilled. Then without a word he +unbuckled his cartridge belt which held his holstered gun, untied the +strap about his thigh and laid the belt with the weapon upon the +table. + +"Roger!" said the girl. The sob again was in her voice. She reached +out and placed a hand upon his arm. + +An elderly man appeared in the doorway from the kitchen. + +"Father, this is Roger," said the girl hurriedly. "He's back." + +"What's that? Roger, eh? You mean Rathburn is here?" + +The old man peered at the visitor from the doorway, his lean face +twitching. He stroked his gray beard in indecision. His blue eyes +looked long at Rathburn, then at the girl, and lastly at the gun and +belt on the table. + +"Well, hello, Rathburn," he said finally, advancing into the room. He +held out a hand which Rathburn grasped. + +"Did you eat yet?" asked Mallory. + +"In the hills with Joe Price," replied Rathburn. "But I'm just as much +obliged." + +"Yes, of course," Mallory muttered. "With Joe, eh? He ain't been down +in months. How is he?" + +"Looks good as a gold mine an' thinks he's found one," said Rathburn, +looking at the girl's father curiously. + +"That's what keeps him up," Mallory asserted loudly. "He'll never get +old as long as he thinks he's got a mine corralled. He ought to try +stock raisin' for a while. You look older, Rathburn--more filled out. +Are you still cutting 'em high, wide, an' handsome?" + +Rathburn's face clouded. + +"Roger's starting new, dad," the girl interposed. + +Mallory stared keenly at the younger man. He started to speak, but was +interrupted by the sound of horses outside the house. + +Rathburn whirled toward the door, took a step, and stopped in his +tracks. The girl's hands flew to the sides of her face, and her eyes +widened with apprehension. + +"I'll go see who it is," said Mallory with a quick look at Rathburn. + +He hastened out into the kitchen, and a moment later they heard the +kitchen door open. There was a murmur of voices. The girl stared at +Rathburn breathlessly, while he tapped with his slim fingers upon the +top of the table. + +Then Mallory came in. "Somebody to see you," he said to Rathburn. + +Rathburn looked once at the white-faced girl and followed her father +out into the kitchen. She heard them speak in an undertone, and then +Rathburn came back into the room. + +"I ain't much elated over my visitor," he said slowly. "I wish you +hadn't asked me what you did until--well, until this caller had come +an' gone." + +She looked straight into his eyes in an agony of dread. + +"Who is it, Roger?" she asked, wetting her lips. + +"Mike Eagen is out there," he answered calmly. + +She drew a quick breath, while he waited. Then he turned on his heel +and started for the kitchen door. + +"Roger!" she called. + +He swung about and eyed her questioningly. She pointed at the heavy +belt and gun on the table. + +"Take it," she whispered. + +He buckled on the belt and tied down the end of the holster so it +could not slip if he should draw the weapon within it. Then he made +his way into the kitchen and out of the rear door. Laura Mallory sank +into a chair, sobbing. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +GUNMEN + + +For a moment Rathburn waited at the kitchen door. He heard Mallory +going upstairs from the next room. All was still outside, save for the +stamping of several horses. Then he suddenly opened the door and +stepped out. There was no sound or movement, as he accustomed his eyes +to the dim light without. He moved across the threshold and walked +straight to a bulky figure standing beside a large horse. + +"You want to see me, Eagen?" he asked coldly. + +"Watch out there, Eagen!" came Mallory's voice in a strident tone from +a window above them. "I've got you covered with this Winchester!" + +Both Rathburn and Eagen looked up and saw Mallory leaning out of a +window over the kitchen, and the stock of a rifle was snug against his +cheek and shoulder. + +"Acts like he's scared you can't take care of yourself," said Eagen +with a sneer. "The way you ditched that posse to-day I didn't think +you needed a bodyguard." + +"I don't," Rathburn retorted. "The old man is acting on his own hook. +You was watching the sport to-day?" + +"Couldn't help it," said Eagen. "It was me an' some of the boys they +was after. You sort of helped us out by coming along an' attracting +their attention. I pegged you when I saw you ride for it, an' I knew +they wouldn't get you." + +"You mean you hid an' let me stand the gaff," said Rathburn +scornfully. "That's your style, Eagen. You're plumb afraid to come out +from under cover." + +He noted that there were three men with Eagen. They were quietly +sitting their horses some little distance behind their leader. + +Eagen muttered something, and Rathburn could see his face working with +rage. Then Eagen's coarse features underwent a change, and he grinned, +his teeth flashing white under his small, black mustache. + +"Look here, Rathburn, there's no use in you an' me being on the outs," +he said in an undertone. "We've got something in common." + +"You've made a mistake already," Rathburn interrupted sharply. "We +haven't a thing in common I know of, Eagen, unless it's a gun +apiece." + +"Maybe you think that's all we need," said Eagen hoarsely; "an' if +that's the way you feel you won't find me backin' down when you start +something. Just now I ain't forgetting that crazy fool with that rifle +up there." + +"You didn't come here for a gun play, Eagen," said Rathburn. "You +ain't plumb loco _every_ way. I take it you saw me makin' for this +place an' followed me here. What do you want?" + +"I want to talk business," said Eagen with a hopeful note in his +voice; "but you won't let me get started." + +"An' I won't have dealings with you," said Rathburn crisply. + +"That's what you think," sneered Eagen. "But you're in a tight corner, +an' we can help you out. Long said to-day, I heard just now, that he'd +put every deputy he had an' every man he could swear in as a special +on your trail, and he'd get you." + +"The thing that I can't see," drawled Rathburn, "is what that's got +to do with you. I suppose you're here as a missionary to tip me off. +Thanks." + +Eagen had calmed down. He stepped closer to Rathburn and spoke in a +low tone. + +"Here's the lay: They're after you, an' they're after us. I know +you're no stool pigeon, an' I know I ain't takin' a chance when I tell +you that we've got a big job comin' up--one that'll get us a pretty +roll. It takes nerve to pull it off, even though certain things will +make it easier. You might just as well be in on it. You can make it a +last job an' blow these parts for good. You don't have to come in, of +course; but it'll be worth your while. You've got the name, an' you +might as well have what goes with it. I'll let you head the outfit an' +shoot square all the way." + +Rathburn laughed scornfully. "When I heard you was out here, Eagen, I +guessed it was something like this that brought you here. Maybe you're +statin' facts as to this job which, you say, is coming up. But you +lied when you said you'd shoot square, Eagen. I wouldn't trust you as +far as you could throw a bull by the tail, an' there's half a dozen +other reasons why you an' me couldn't be pardners!" + +Eagen stepped back with a snarl of rage. "I don't reckon you're +entitled to what rep you've got!" he blurted hoarsely. "Right down +under the skin, Rathburn, I believe you're soft!" + +"That's puttin' it up to me all fair an' square," Rathburn replied +evenly. "I'll give it right back to you, Eagen." + +"Get that gun out of the window." + +"Mallory." + +"Right here, Rathburn, an' all set," came Mallory's voice. + +"Get that gun out of the window." + +"What's that? Don't you see there's three of 'em? You----" + +"Get that gun out of the window!" rang Rathburn's voice. + +"Let him play with it," Eagen said harshly. + +Mallory withdrew from the window, as Eagen reached for his left +stirrup and swung into the saddle. + +"I see you ain't takin' it," Rathburn called to him with a jeering +laugh. + +"An' I ain't forgettin' it?" Eagen shouted, as he drove in his spurs. + +His three companions galloped after him, and Rathburn caught sight of +a dark-skinned face, a pair of beady, black eyes, and the long, +drooping mustaches of one of the men. + +"Gomez!" he exclaimed to himself. "Eagen's takin' up with the +Mexicans." + +Mallory appeared in the kitchen door, holding a lamp above his head. +"What'd he want?" he demanded of Rathburn. + +"More'n he got," answered Rathburn shortly. Then he saw Laura Mallory +standing behind her father. + +"I mean to say he made a little proposition that I had to turn down," +he amended, with a direct glance at the girl. "An' now I've got to do +some more ridin'." + +"You leavin' to-night?" asked Mallory in surprise. "We can put you up +here, Rathburn, an' I'll keep an eye out for visitors." + +"And we'd have 'em afore mornin'," said Rathburn grimly. "Eagen will +see to it that Bob Long knows I was out here, right pronto. But I aim +to stop any posses from botherin' around your place. If there's one +thing I don't want to do, Mallory, it's make any trouble for you." + +The girl came walking toward him and touched his arm. + +"What are you going to do, Roger?" she asked in an anxious voice. + +"I'm goin' straight into Hope," Rathburn replied. + +"But, Roger," the girl faltered, "won't that mean--mean----" + +"A show-down? Maybe so. I ain't side-steppin' it." + +A world of worry showed in the girl's eyes. "Roger, why don't you go +away?" she asked hesitatingly. "Things could be worse, and maybe in +time they would become better. Folks forget, Roger." + +For a moment Rathburn's hand rested on hers, as he looked down at +her. + +"There's two ways of forgettin', girlie," he said soberly. "An' I +don't want 'em to forget me the wrong way." + +"But, Roger, promise me you won't--won't--turn your gun against a man, +Roger. It would make things so much worse. It would leave--nothing +now. Don't you see? It takes courage to avoid what seems to be the +inevitable. That terrible skill which is yours, the trick in this hand +on mine, is your worst enemy. Oh, Roger, if you'd never learned to +throw a gun!" + +"It isn't that," he told her gently. "It isn't what you think at all. +I'd rather cut off that right hand than have it raised unfairly +against a single living thing. They call me a gunman, girlie, an' I +reckon I am. But I'm not a killer. There's a difference between the +two, an' sometimes I think it's that difference that's makin' all the +trouble. I'm still tryin' to steer by that thing you call the compass, +an' that's why I've got to go to town." + +He stepped away from her, waved a farewell to Mallory, who was +watching the scene with a puzzled expression, and ran for his horse. A +minute later the ringing hoof beats of his mount were dying in the +still night. + +Laura Mallory swayed, and her father hurried to her with the lamp and +put his arm about her. + +"What's it all about, sweetie?" he asked complainingly. + +"Nothing, daddy, nothing--only I love him." + +A puff of wind blew out the light in the lamp, and father and daughter +stood with arms about each other under the dancing stars. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +THE SHERIFF'S PLIGHT + + +Riding slowly Rathburn kept well in toward the range and proceeded +cautiously. This wasn't alone a safety measure, for he wished to favor +his horse. The dun had been hard ridden in the spurt to gain the +mountains ahead of the posse. He had been rested at Price's cabin, to +be sure, and also at the Mallory ranch; but now Rathburn had a ride of +fifteen miles to the town of Hope, and he did not know how much riding +he might have to do next day. + +When a scant three miles from Hope, he halted, loosened the saddle +cinch, and rested his horse, while he himself reclined on the ground +and smoked innumerable cigarettes. He was in a thoughtful mood, +serious and somewhat puzzled. The recollection of Eagen's proposition +caused him to frown frequently. Then a wistful light would glow in his +eyes, and he thought of Laura Mallory. This would be succeeded by +another frown, and then his eyes would narrow, and the smile that men +had come to fear would tremble on his lips. + +He was again in the saddle with the first faint glimmer of the +approaching dawn. He covered the distance into Hope at a swinging lope +and rode in behind a row of neat, yellow-brick buildings which formed +the east side of one block on the short main street. + +Securing his horse behind a building midway of the rear of the block, +he entered one of the buildings through a back door. It proved to be +a combination pool room and soft-drink bar. No one was in the place +except the porter who was cleaning up. Rathburn noted that the man +showed no evidences of knowing him, although this was Rathburn's home +town. + +"Kind of early, ain't you, boss?" grinned the porter. "Maybe you're +lookin' for something to start the day with." He winked broadly. + +Rathburn nodded and walked over to the bar. + +"Just get in?" asked the porter, as he put out a bottle of white +liquor and glanced at the dust on Rathburn's clothes. + +"Just in," replied Rathburn, pouring and tossing off one drink. +"Where's everybody? Too early for 'em?" + +"Well, it's about an hour too early on the average, unless there's +been an all-night game," replied the porter, putting the bottle away, +as his customer declined a second drink. "But then there ain't very +many in town right now. Everybody's out after the reward money." + +Rathburn lifted his brows. + +"Say," exclaimed the porter eagerly, "you didn't see any men ridin' +looselike, when you was coming in, did you?" + +Rathburn shook his head. "What's all this you're tryin' to chirp into +my ear?" he asked. + +"Well, Bob Long, the sheriff, has got all his deputies out except just +the jailer--there ain't anybody much in jail now, anyway--an' all the +other men he could pin a star on, lookin' for a gang that held up the +stage from Sunshine yesterday mornin', shot the stage driver dead, an' +made off with an express package full of money. There's a big reward +out for the man that's leadin' the gang. He's called The Coyote. Used +to live here. He's a bad one." + +"Sheriff out, too?" Rathburn asked, showing great interest. + +"Sure. Come back in early last night an' got more men. They're tryin' +to surround Imagination Range, I guess. That's where this Coyote an' +his gang are supposed to be hanging out. The sheriff don't care so +much for the fellers that's with him, I guess, but he sure does want +this Coyote person. He told everybody to let the gang go if they had +to, but to get the leader." + +Rathburn looked through the front windows with a quizzical smile on +his lips. The sun was shining in the deserted street. + +"How many men has the sheriff got?" he inquired casually. + +"Most two hundred, I guess. They're scattered all over the range, an' +a lot of 'em has hit over on the other side. They think The Coyote +crossed the range an' is makin' east." + +"Well, maybe he has, an' maybe he hasn't," Rathburn observed. "The +best place to hide from a posse is in the middle of it." + +The porter looked at him, then burst into a loud laugh. "I guess you +said something that time, pardner. In the middle of it, eh?" He went +about his work, chuckling, while Rathburn walked to a front window and +stood looking out. + +A few minutes later he stepped quickly back into a corner, as a small +automobile raced up the street. He sauntered to the rear door, passed +out with a pleasant word to the porter, and when he gained the open, +hurried up behind the buildings the length of the block. There he +turned to the left and walked rapidly to a large stone building. He +went around on the east side and entered a door on the ground floor. +He found himself in a hallway, and on his left was a door, on the +glazed glass of the upper half of which was the gold lettering: +"Sheriff's Office." + +After a moment's hesitation he opened the door quickly and went in. A +man standing before an open roll-top desk turned and regarded the +early-morning visitor. He was a small man, but of wiry build. His eyes +were gray, and he wore a small, brown mustache. He had a firm chin, +and his face was well tanned. He was holding a paper in his hands, and +the paper remained as steady as a rock in his grasp. His eyes bored +straight and unflinchingly into Rathburn's. He showed no surprise, no +concern. He made no move toward the pair of guns in the holsters of +the belt which reposed on top of his desk. He spoke first. + +"Have you come to give yourself up, Rathburn?" + +"Hardly that, sheriff," replied Rathburn cheerfully. "I arrived in +town this morning after most of the population had moved to the desert +and the country aroun' Imagination. I didn't think I was goin' to be +lucky enough to catch you in till I saw you arrive in that flivver. +Are you back for more recruits?" + +The sheriff continued to hold the paper without moving. + +"When you first started to talk, Rathburn, I thought maybe bravado had +brought you here to make a grand-stand play," he said coolly. "But I +see you're not as foolhardy as some might think. I always gave you +credit for being clever." + +"Thanks, Sheriff Long," said Rathburn dryly. "There's a few +preliminaries we've got to get over, so----" + +His gun leaped into his hand and instantly covered the official. He +stepped to the end of the desk, reached over and appropriated the belt +with the two guns with his left hand. He tossed the belt and weapons +to a vacant chair. + +"Now, sheriff, I didn't come lookin' for a cell like you hinted; I +drifted in for a bit of information." + +"This is headquarters for that article, especially if it's about +yourself," said Long, dropping the paper on his desk and sitting down +in the chair before it. + +"What all have you got against me?" frowned Rathburn. + +"Nothing much," said the sheriff with biting sarcasm; "just a few +killings, highway robbery, a bank stick-up, two or three gaming houses +looted, and a stage holdup. Enough to keep you in the Big House for +ninety-nine years and then hang you." + +Rathburn nodded. "You're sure an ambitious man, sheriff. The killings +now--there was White and Moran, that you know about, an' a skunk over +in California named Carlisle, that you don't know about, I guess. I +couldn't get away from those shootings, sheriff." + +"How about Simpson and Manley?" countered the official scornfully. + +"Not on my list," said Rathburn quickly. "I heard I was given credit +for those affairs, but I wasn't a member of the party where they were +snuffed out." + +"If you can make a jury believe that, you're in the clear," said Long. +"But how about that stage driver yesterday morning?" + +Rathburn's face darkened. "I got in from the west just in time to +stumble on that gang of rats," he flared. "That's how your men came to +see me. The chase happened to come in my direction, that's all." + +"If you can prove that, you're all right again," the sheriff pointed +out. "The law will go halfway with you, Rathburn." + +"An' I probably wouldn't be able to prove it," said Rathburn bitterly. +"Those other things--the bank job an' the gamblin' stick-ups--I was +younger then, sheriff, an' no one can say that that bank sharp didn't +do me dirt." + +"If you can show a good, reasonable doubt in those other cases, +Rathburn, I know the court would show leniency if the jury found you +guilty on the counts you just mentioned," said the sheriff earnestly. +"I'm minded to believe you, so far as yesterday's work was concerned. +I have an idea or two myself, but I haven't been able to get a good +line on my man. He's too tricky. Of course I'm not going to urge you +to do anything against your will. I appreciate your position. You're a +fugitive, but you have your liberty. Perhaps you can get away clean, +though I doubt it. But there's that chance, and you've naturally got +to take it into consideration. And you're not _sure_ of anything if +you go to trial on the charges there are against you. But it would +count like sixty in your favor, Rathburn, if you'd give yourself up." + +Rathburn stared at the official speculatively. His thoughts flashed +back along the years to the time when he and Laura Mallory had played +together as children. He thought of what she had said the night before +about the compass. He shifted uneasily on his feet. + +"Funny thing, sheriff, but I had some such fool notion," he +confessed. + +"It takes nerve, Rathburn, for a man who is wanted to walk in and give +up his gun," said the sheriff quietly. + +"I was thinking of something else," said Rathburn. "An' I've got to +think some more about this that you've sort of put in my head." + +"How much time do you want, Rathburn?" asked Long. + +Rathburn scowled. "Our positions haven't changed," he said curtly. +"I'm still the man you're lookin' for. I'll have to do my thinkin' on +my own hook, I reckon." + +"Just as you say," Long said gravely. "Go over what I've told you +carefully and don't make any more false moves while you're making up +your mind. You wounded one of my men yesterday." + +"I shot high on purpose," Rathburn pointed out. "I didn't aim to be +corralled just then." + +"I know you did," was the sheriff's rejoinder. "I know you could have +killed him. I gave you credit for it." + +"You give me credit for quite a few things, sheriff," said Rathburn +whimsically. "An' now you'll have to give me credit for bein' plumb +cautious. It ain't my intention to have my thinking spell disturbed." + +His gun flashed in his hand. + +"I'll have to ask you to go inside an' occupy one of your own cells, +sheriff, while I'm wanderin' around an' debatin' the subject." + +"I know you too well, Rathburn," said the sheriff with a grim smile. +"I'm not armed, and I don't intend to obey you. If you intend to shoot +you might just as well start!" + +Rathburn gazed at him coolly for a moment; then he shoved his gun in +its holster and leaped. + +Quick as he was, Long was quicker. The sheriff was out of his chair in +a twinkling, and he made a flying tackle, grasping Rathburn about the +legs. The two fell to the floor and rolled over and over in their +struggles. + +Although Rathburn was the larger man, the sheriff seemed made of steel +wire. He twisted out of Rathburn's holds, one after another. In one +great effort he freed himself and leaped to his feet. Rathburn was up +instantly. Long drove a straight right that grazed Rathburn's jaw and +staggered him, but Rathburn blocked the next blow and succeeded in +upper-cutting his left to the sheriff's chin. + +They went into another clinch, and the sheriff got the better of the +close fighting. Rathburn's face was bleeding, where it had been cut on +a leg of the chair, when they were struggling on the floor. The feel +of trickling crimson drove him mad. He threw Long off in an amazing +burst of strength and then sent his right to the sheriff's jaw with +all the force he could put into it. + +Long dropped to the floor, and Rathburn raised him and carried him to +a door leading into the jail proper. As he drew open the door, he drew +his gun and threw it down on the astonished jailer who was dozing in +the little office outside the bars. + +"Open up!" Rathburn commanded. + +The jailer hastened to obey, as he saw the appearance of Rathburn's +face and the dangerous look in his eyes. + +Rathburn compelled him at the point of his gun to lead the way to a +cell in the rear, unlock it, and go inside. Rathburn pushed Long, who +was regaining his senses, in after him and took the jailer's keys. + +"Tell Long I'm thinkin' over what he told me," he said to the jailer, +as he locked them in. + +Then he hurried back to the entrance, locked it, and tossed the keys +in through the bars. + +He wet his handkerchief with ice water from a tank in Long's office, +wiped his face clean, and left the building. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +A NEW COUNT + + +As Rathburn wended his way to an obscure restaurant on a side street +of the little town which was the county seat of Mesquite County, his +thoughts were busy with what he had learned from the sheriff. He knew +the official had been right when he said that it would react in +Rathburn's favor if he gave himself up. Some of the counts on which he +would be indicted undoubtedly would be quashed; others he might +disprove. There was a chance that he might get off lightly; in any +event he would have to spend a number of years in prison. + +Rathburn looked up at the bright sky. At the end of the street he +could see the desert, and far beyond, the blue outlines of the +mountains. It seemed to him that the sunshine was brighter on this +deadly morning when he struggled with troubled thoughts. Having always +lived in the open, liberty meant everything to him. + +But constantly his thoughts reverted to Laura Mallory. What did she +expect of him? What would she think if he were to give himself up? Her +talk of the compass--his conscience--bothered him. Why should she say +such a thing if she didn't feel more than a friendly interest in him? +Did she care for him then? + +Rathburn laughed mirthlessly, as he entered the eating house. There +was no doubt of it--he was a fool. He continued to think, as he ate; +by the time he had finished he found himself in a bad mental state. +He wiped some moisture from his forehead, as he left the restaurant. +For a moment he felt panicky. He was wavering! + +The tenor of his thoughts caused him to abandon his caution. He turned +the corner by the State Bank of Hope and walked boldly down the +street. Few pedestrians were about. None took any special notice of +him, and none recognized him. He turned in at the resort he had +visited when he first arrived that morning. + +He started, as he entered the place. A deep frown gathered on his +face. Gomez, Eagen's Mexican henchman, was at the bar. At first +Rathburn feigned ignorance of the Mexican's presence; but Gomez smiled +at him, his white teeth glistening against his swarthy skin. + +Rathburn marveled at the audacity of the Mexican, who undoubtedly was +one of those who had held up the stage the day before, in coming +boldly into town. Then he recollected that the sheriff had mentioned +he had an idea of who was responsible for that job, but had been +unable to get a line on his man. Eagen and his gang were evidently +well covered up. If such were the case, Eagen himself might be in +town. + +It was because he thought he might learn something from Gomez that he +finally acknowledged the fellow's greeting by a nod. + +The Mexican left the bar and walked up to him. + +"We are not afraid to come in town, Mr. Coyote," he murmured. + +"Drop that name," said Rathburn sharply in an undertone. "Is Eagen +here?" + +"He is here," replied Gomez with another display of his white teeth. +"You want to see him? He is up talking with Mr. Doane." + +Doane! Rathburn remembered the name instantly as being the same which +had been spoken by Laura Mallory the night before. He remembered, too, +the man who had been there and who had driven away to town in the +little car. He surmised that this man had been Doane; and it had been +he who had brought the information of Rathburn's arrival and the +posse's pursuit to the girl. + +"You want to see him?" asked Gomez craftily. + +Rathburn had a consuming aversion for the wily Mexican. He hated the +shifty look in his eyes and his oily tongue. + +"Not yet," he answered shortly. + +"He will be here maybe," said Gomez eagerly. "It is you change your +mind?" + +Rathburn scowled. The Mexican then knew all about the proposition +Eagen had made to him the night before. Perhaps he could get more +information from him than he had suspected. + +"What job is it Eagen is planning?" he asked in a low voice. + +There were several men at the bar now, and both Rathburn and the +Mexican were keeping an eye upon them. + +"Oh, that he will have to tell you himself when you are ready," Gomez +replied. + +Rathburn snorted in keen disgust. But Gomez sidled up to him. + +"You go to the Mallory rancho last night," he whispered. "You are not +the only one there last night." His smile flashed again, as Rathburn +looked at him quickly. + +"There was another there before," he continued; "Mr. Doane. He goes +there, too. You have been away a long time, and Mr. Doane take the +advantage." + +Rathburn's eyes were narrowing, and the Mexican evidently took his +face for an encouraging sign. + +"Mr. Doane--he is not lucky at cards," continued Gomez. "He like to +play, and he play lots; but not too well. Maybe he have more luck in +love--while you are away." + +"What do you mean?" asked Rathburn through his teeth. + +"Oh, you do not know?" The Mexican raised his black brows. "While you +are away, Mr. Doane make hay while the sun shine bright. He was there +much. He was there last night before you. He tries hard to steal your +senorita before you come, and he will try to keep her now." He winked +slyly. + +Rathburn suddenly grasped him by the throat. "What are you tryin' to +say?" he asked sternly, shaking the Mexican like a rat. + +Gomez broke away, his black eyes darting fire. "You are a fool!" he +exclaimed. "You get nothing. Even your woman, she is stole right under +your eyes. Doane, he goes there, and he gets her. She fall for him +fast. Then she talks to you with sugar in her mouth, and you believe. +Bah! You think the Senorita Mallory----" + +Rathburn's open palm crashed against the Mexican's mouth. + +"Don't speak her name, you greaser!" + +Gomez staggered back under the force of the slap. His eyes were pin +points of fire. He raised his right hand to his mouth and then to the +brim of his sombrero. His breath came in hissing gasps, as the hatred +blazed in his glittering eyes. + +Rathburn's face was white under its heavy coating of tan. He saw the +few men at the bar turn and look in their direction, and he realized +instinctively that these men were gamblers and shady characters who +were probably friends of Eagen and his gang. + +"I give you my regards," cried Gomez in a frenzy of rage. "You--gringo!" + +His right hand tipped his sombrero in a lightning move, and there was +a flash in the sunlight filtering through the back windows, as +Rathburn's gun barked at his hip. + +Gomez crumpled backward to the floor, as the knife dropped from his +grasp at the beginning of the throw. + +Rathburn, still holding his smoking gun ready, walked rapidly past the +men at the bar and gained the open through the door at the rear. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +THE COMPASS FAILS + + +In the alley behind the buildings fronting on the main street, +Rathburn paused in indecision, while he shoved his gun into the +holster on his thigh. He had known by the look in Gomez's eyes that he +was going to throw a knife. Instinct had caused him to watch the +Mexican's right hand, and, in the instant when Gomez had secured the +knife from his hat and snapped back his hand for the throw, Rathburn +had drawn and fired. He knew well the dexterity of a man of Gomez's +stamp with a knife. The gun route was the only chance to protect his +life. But Rathburn realized, too, that he had shot to kill! + +He had been incensed by the Mexican's subtle insinuations--maddened by +the way he leered when he spoke Laura Mallory's name. He had virtually +been driven to it. Even now he could not see how he could have avoided +it. + +Securing his horse, Rathburn rode swiftly around a back street to a +small barn on the edge of the desert. He ordered his mount watered and +fed. He had known the man who owned this barn, but the individual who +attended to his horse was a new employee. He sat in the little front +office which also served as the quarters of the night man, while his +horse was being looked after. He had not removed his saddle. + +Rathburn's thoughts dwelt on what Gomez had said. There was no +question but that the Mexican had taken liberties in saying what he +did, but there was more than a glimmer of truth in his statements. +Rathburn had seen the man leaving Laura Mallory on the porch of the +Mallory ranch house. She had mentioned a man named Doane as having +brought word that he, Rathburn, was back in the country and in more +trouble. Now Gomez had identified this visitor as Doane, the man who +had been calling on Laura Mallory regularly. Rathburn's brows wrinkled +at the thought. But why not? What hold had he upon her? It certainly +wasn't within his rights to resent the fact that another man had found +the girl attractive. But, to his increasing torment, he found that he +_did_ resent it; he couldn't help it! + +Suddenly he remembered that Gomez had said Eagen was paying a call on +Doane. What could Eagen have to do with Doane which would warrant his +visiting him early in the morning? Rathburn recalled that Gomez had +intimated that Doane liked to play cards. Was the man then a +professional gambler? But no, Gomez had said he did not play well. + +Rathburn tried to recollect where he had seen this man Doane before. +The blond face and mustache were vaguely familiar. Again he strove to +place the man without result. + +He shrugged his shoulders, drew out his gun, and replaced the empty +shell with a fresh cartridge. He dropped the weapon back into his +holster and went outside to see about his horse. The dun still was +feeding. Rathburn contented himself with looking over his saddle and +readjusting the small slicker pack on its rear. Then he paced the +length of the barn, frowning in a thoughtful mood. + +There was only one thing he was reasonably sure of; no one around the +town knew that he was the outlaw known as The Coyote. He had not seen +anybody he knew except the sheriff, and that official was safely out +of the way for the present. Gomez had mentioned his name when they had +first met, but he had not been heard save by Rathburn. Therefore, if +they were looking for the man who had shot down Gomez, they were +merely looking for a man measuring up to his description; and Rathburn +doubted if anything would be done until the authorities had been +notified. Visitors to the sheriff's office would find Long out and +would assume that he had not returned from the chase in the hills. It +might be another hour before the sheriff's predicament was discovered. +And in that hour---- + +Rathburn caught himself up with another shrug. He was falling a prey +to his former hopeless trend of thought. Resentment was swelling +within him again, and he struggled to put it down. Perhaps it would be +safer to yield to the inclination to take a chance on the courts. + +It was after nine o'clock when he rode out of the barn. He proceeded +straight toward the main street of the town. He was struggling +with a half-formed resolve; summoning courage by shutting out all +recollections save that of Laura Mallory's apparently earnest remark +about the compass. + +Reaching the main street, he started to turn the corner at the bank +building when he suddenly checked his horse and stared at two people +walking up the opposite side of the street. Rathburn recognized the +girl immediately. She was Laura Mallory. A moment later he caught a +glimpse of the man's face, as he half turned toward Rathburn, +laughing. He had taken Laura's arm. It was Doane! + +The realization that Laura had come to town and was in the company of +Doane stunned Rathburn. More than anything else it had the effect of +convincing him that Gomez had been right when he had hinted that +Doane was successful in love. Hadn't she told him to take his gun when +Eagen had been waiting for him? Had she thought, perhaps, that there +would be gun play, and that Eagen might emerge the victor, thus +assuring her that he, Rathburn, would bother her no more? + +Rathburn's eyes narrowed, and his face froze, as he watched Laura and +Doane out of sight up the street. He knew now why he had had to come +back. There was nothing left--nothing but his dreams, his sinister +reputation, and his gun! + +He looked about in a different way from that in which he had first +surveyed the street, now showing life. His gaze encountered the bank +building. The door was open. The bank doubtless opened at nine +o'clock. He remembered that this was so. A second of indecision, then +he moved in front of the bank. He dismounted, flung the reins over the +dun's head, and entered briskly. + +Two men were behind the screens of the two cages. Rathburn approached +a window and nodded to the man behind it. Then his gun leaped into his +hand, and he covered the pair. + +"Reach high an' hard!" he commanded. "An' quick!" + +The men in the cages hesitated; but the look in Rathburn's eyes +convinced them, and they raised their hands over their heads. Rathburn +leaped to the ledge outside the window and climbed nimbly over the +wire network of the cage. Then he dropped to the floor inside. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +FAST WORK + + +Quickly and methodically Rathburn went about his work. His face was +drawn and pale, but his eyes glittered with a deadly earnestness which +was not lost upon the two men who obeyed his orders without question. +The very boldness of his intrepid undertaking must have convinced them +that here was no common bandit. He herded them back toward the vault +at the point of his gun. Then he ordered them into the vault. + +"Now then," he said crisply, "you know what I'm after. Trot it out!" + +One of the men, evidently an assistant cashier or head teller, who was +in charge, opened a compartment of the inner safe and pulled out a +drawer. Rathburn could see the packages of bills. He looked quickly +about and saw a pile of empty coin sacks on a shelf. + +"Fill two of those large sacks," he instructed the other man. + +The clerk hastened to carry out his orders and jammed package after +package of bills into one of the largest of the coin sacks. Both men +were white-faced and frightened. They did not try to delay the +proceedings. Rathburn looked dangerous; and what was more sinister, he +went about his nefarious business in a cool, calm, confident manner. +He did not look like the Rathburn who had visited Laura Mallory the +night before, nor the Rathburn who had talked with the sheriff. In +this critical moment he was in look, mood, and gesture The Coyote at +his worst--worthy of all the terrible things that had been whispered +about him. + +It may be that the bank employees suspected as much. It may be that +they didn't believe it would be possible for the outlaw to make his +get-away in broad daylight, and it was certain that they stood in +mighty fear of him. They cowered back, pale and shaking, as he calmly +took the sack, heavy with its weight of bank notes of healthy +denomination, and stepped to the entrance to the big vault. + +"When they come an' let you out," said Rathburn, "you can tell them +that the gent who helped himself to the berries in the cash box is +just beginnin' to cash in on the reputation that's been wished on +him!" + +He smiled grimly, as he swung the light, inner door of the vault shut +and clamped down the lever. He slid his gun into its holster and, +carrying the sack of loot, walked out of the door of the second cage +toward the main entrance of the bank. As he reached the door, a man +came up the steps. Rathburn recognized Doane, and his lips curled in a +snarl. It was the first time Doane had come face to face with him, but +the man started back in surprise. + +"Rathburn!" he exclaimed. + +Rathburn hesitated. His first feeling of instinctive animosity fled. +He scowled in a swift effort to place the man, and the thought that in +an indirect way Doane was partly responsible for what had come to pass +flashed through his tortured brain. This brought swift comprehension +of his immediate danger. Now that he had taken the decisive step he +would have to call upon all his resources of courage and cunning to +protect his liberty. The die had been cast! + +He hurried past Doane, swung into the saddle, and rode at a swift +pace around the corner, leaving Doane standing on the steps of the +bank, staring after him with an expression of amazement on his face. + +Rathburn knew it would be but a matter of a very few minutes before +the knowledge that the State Bank of Hope had been held up and +robbed--would be common property in the town. The very boldness of the +robbery had insured its success, for none would dream that a lone +bandit would have the nerve to come into town in broad daylight, hold +up the bank, and attempt to run for it across the open, burning spaces +of the desert. But he was not aware of the coincidence which would +make the news of the robbery known sooner than he expected. + +At the end of the side street he struck boldly across the desert, +driving in his spurs and urging the gallant dun to its top speed. In a +matter of minutes he was out of view of the town--a speck bobbing amid +the clumps of mesquite, palo verde, and cactus. He raced for the +mountains in the northwest. + +There was another element of uncertainty which entered into the +probability of quick pursuit, as he had shrewdly divined. It might be +some time before the sheriff's predicament was discovered. Meanwhile +most of the male population was scouring the vicinity of Imagination +Range looking for him, and there would be no one to lead a second +posse until the sheriff was liberated. There was nothing in sight +behind him toward town except the vista of dry desert vegetation +swimming in the heat. Rathburn rode on with a feeling of security, so +far as trouble from that quarter was concerned. + +His thoughts were in a turmoil, and he passed a shaking hand over his +damp brow. The resentment had given way to grim decision and +determination. Well, he had shown them what The Coyote could do. They +would remember that job; they could lay that at his door. The proceeds +would carry him a long way. They had given him his reputation, and he +would make the game worth the candle! + +The old fierce defiance of misguided youth was in his veins. He felt a +wild exultation seize him. Doubt and all problems were set aside. His +eyes glowed with a reckless light, as he raced on toward the blue +hills. + +Doane had known him--had called him by name. Therefore Doane knew he +was The Coyote--the outlaw with a price on his head. So much the +better. He _wanted_ them to know! + +The sun was at its zenith, as he passed above the Mallory place. He +did not once turn his head and look down upon it. His jaw was squared, +his lips pressed tight, as he guided his horse into the winding +foothills of the range. In a narrow canyon he dismounted and undid his +slicker pack. When he again tied it behind the saddle it contained the +bag which held the bank notes he had taken that morning. He pushed on +in the early afternoon. + +He now rode with more caution. The fact that he had not seen any +members of the posses which were scouring the hills, he accredited to +ignorance on their part of the fact that he had been at the Mallory +ranch the night before and had gone into town. These things they had +hardly had time to learn. More than likely they had assumed that he +had crossed the mountains, and it was possible that most of the men on +the hunt were on the east side of the range. He became more and more +convinced of this as the afternoon wore on, but he did not relax his +vigilance. His face had clouded. + +"We made a mistake, hoss," he muttered, "in not remembering to hunt up +Mike Eagen first thing." + +In the quick moves following his sudden momentous decision, he had +forgotten Eagen. This fact now bothered him. He had a score to settle +with Eagen on general principles. This did not mean that he +necessarily would have to shoot Eagen down; but he wanted Eagen to +hear straight out what he thought of him. It might be a long time +before he could gratify that desire after the events of this day. + +Slowly he proceeded, not once venturing upon a high spot until he had +investigated by crawling to a vantage point on his hands and knees. It +was sundown when he saw the first riders. Two were farther down the +slopes to westward, and several more were far to eastward. It was true +then that Long had thrown a cordon about the section of the mountains +which he had been seen to enter the day before. + +However, Rathburn's knowledge of the range and the secrets of the +mountain trails gave him a distinct advantage over the inexperienced +members of the posses. True, there were deputies and some others who +were experienced; but they were in the minority. + +Rathburn realized that the sheriff must have been released some hours +before, and that his escapade of the morning would stimulate the man +hunt. The rewards would be increased, and every able-bodied man in +Hope would doubtless join in the scramble for the reward money. He was +satisfied that Sheriff Long's order would be to "shoot on sight!" + +On the very crest of the range he paused in the shelter of the rocks. +There still was a fair chance for him to get away clean to eastward. +The sheriff had not had time to get more men over there, and by making +a break into the southeast and then cutting straight to the east, +there was a strong possibility that he would succeed in circling +around the posse and effect his escape. + +But something was drawing him to Joe Price! He did not quite +understand that it was the desire to confide in and confess to his +friend what had actuated his choice of moral trails. But the yearning +was there, and he was yielding to it. He conjectured shrewdly that +Long might not dream that he would have the temerity again to enter +the very district where he was being sought. It was his belief that +the best place to hide from a posse was in the midst of it! + +It was this confidence, almost as much as his skill in trailing, which +enabled him to gain a point above Joe Price's cabin in the early +twilight. He waited patiently until the curtain of night had fallen, +and the stars had replaced the fading banners of the sunset, before he +slipped down a steep slope and walked his horse into the canyon below +the old miner's abode. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +THE COMPASS WAVERS + + +Joe Price regarded Rathburn with a curious look in his eyes when he +beheld him in the doorway of his cabin. He stepped swiftly to the one +window, which was over the table, and dropped the burlap shade. Then +he closed the door. + +"So they've been here?" asked Rathburn. + +"What else could you expect?" replied Price testily. "They're combin' +these hills for you." He looked at Rathburn keenly, but Rathburn only +smiled. + +"That's not news to me," he said quietly; "I've percolated through +their lines twice." + +"Stay here," said Price, "and I'll look after your horse--or were you +hidin' up all day?" + +"No such luck," answered Rathburn grimly. + +The old man looked at him curiously; then he went out of the door, +closing it carefully after him. + +Rathburn found cold food, put it on the table, and sat down to eat. +When Price returned he had finished. The old miner sat down in a chair +opposite Rathburn. + +"Now, out with it," he said. "Something has happened. I can see it in +the way you look an' act. What's up?" + +Rathburn carefully rolled a brown-paper cigarette, snapped a match +into flame, and lit it before he replied. He was half smiling. + +"I held up the State Bank of Hope this mornin' an' extracted a bag of +perfectedly good bills," he announced. "Didn't bother with the counter +money. Made 'em serve me from the vault." + +Joe Price's eyelids did not even flicker. + +"Any idear what you got?" he asked. + +"Not whatsoever," replied Rathburn coolly; "but the smallest I saw on +top of the package was a fifty." + +Price nodded. "You got plenty," he said. + +Rathburn scowled. He had expected some kind of an outbreak--at least a +remonstrance from his old friend. He glanced about uneasily and then +glared defiance at Price. + +"It had to come, Joe," he asserted. "There wasn't any way out of it. +What's more, I killed that greased pard of Eagen's, Gomez." + +"How so?" queried Price. + +"Well, I'll tell _you_, Joe, but I don't expect it to go any further. +He said something about Laura Mallory an' a man named Doane, an' I +didn't like it. I slapped him. Then he went for a knife he had in his +hat." + +The old man nodded again. "I see," he said simply. "You shot him. Not +a bad riddance. How did you come to rob the bank, Rathburn?" + +Rathburn's gaze again shifted uneasily. Then he rose with a burning +look at Price, walked up and down the slanting length of the cabin, +and halted before the old miner. + +"Joe," he said in a tremulous voice, "it's the last ditch. I can't get +away from it. I thought I could tell you--an old friend--the whole +story, but I can't, Joe. That's the devil of it! There's something +wrong with me. I reckon I'm one of those fellows who just had +everything mapped out for him. I had some trouble, Joe, an' it's +started something--something I can't control. They _had_ to remember +me, an' I gave them something to remember me by!" + +"Who do you mean by 'they,' Rathburn?" asked the miner. + +"Sheriff Long an' the others," said Rathburn quickly. "There wasn't a +chance for me. Why, I was thinking of giving myself up only this +morning. Joe, it ain't in the pictures--not after I let Gomez have it. +Even after I stopped Gomez I had an idea that I could face the music. +Besides, Joe, there's more to this than you think. They call me The +Coyote, an', Joe, so help me, from now on I am!" + +"Did you stop at the Mallory place?" asked Price quietly. + +Rathburn did not reply at once. With agony in his eyes he looked at +his old friend, and suddenly he bristled: + +"I might as well never have gone there," he flung out. "I see now I +wasn't wanted. I found out as much from Gomez. He told me about +Laura's affair with that fellow Doane. But what could I expect? I +wasn't entitled to no thought from her, an' I should have known as +much. I'm just a plain fool--a worse one now than I was before." + +Joe Price's faded blue eyes glowed with comprehension. + +"You thought Laura had put you off, so you gave in an' robbed the +bank, Rathburn, an' just naturally made a mess of things when you had +a chance," said the old man stoutly. "That ain't actin' with a lick of +sense. You wasn't gettin' square with anybody, an' you wasn't doin' +that girl right by takin' the word of Gomez." + +"I saw the two of them, her an' Doane, in Hope this morning, walkin' +down the street, arm in arm, laughing--probably over me," Rathburn +replied bitterly. "I've got eyes, and I can put two an' two together. +I'm only The Coyote with her, and I'll _be_ The Coyote. She took my +gun an' then gave it back when Mike Eagen showed up, thinkin' maybe +there'd be gun play, an' I'd get mine." + +"Now you shet up!" shrilled Price. "I reckon you've lost all the +brains you ever did have? Do you think Laura would keep your gun, +knowin' there might be trouble, an' you wouldn't have any way to +protect yourself? Don't you suppose she knows you're as fast as Eagen? +She's no fool, if you are. But, if you've got to stay the fool, you +better be lightin' out with your winnings. An' you're not takin' the +bank's money, either." + +"What do you mean by that?" scowled Rathburn, who had been thoughtful +while his friend was speaking. + +"I had money in that bank, Rathburn, an' so did Mallory, an' there's a +lot more of us----" + +"I'll give you back your money," Rathburn growled. "Anyway, they're +protected by insurance, an' the insurance people can hunt me till +doomsday--I guess." He was cooling off rapidly. + +"Maybe they are," said Price, "an' maybe they ain't. But it ain't +goin' to help you none the way you're goin' to feel about it later, no +matter who loses it." + +Rathburn was pacing the room, frowning. Twice he started to speak, but +the words failed to come. Then he put a question. "Who is this man +Doane? He knew me, for I met him when I was comin' out of the bank, +an' he called me by name." + +"Doane is cashier of the bank down at Hope. He was likely just comin' +to work when you met him." + +Rathburn stared with an incredulous expression. "You're sure?" But +even as he put the question, Rathburn placed his man. + +"I'm dead certain on it," declared Price. + +Rathburn sat down heavily and took his hat in his hand. + +"That makes it different," he said dully, as if to himself. "Maybe +she's stuck on him for his money, an' maybe she's stuck on him because +he's a good guy. Maybe this thing would hurt him." + +"Oh, I don't think they'd blame him," said Price with a note of +consolation in his voice; "an' he probably wouldn't lose nothin'." + +"But she might think--it might be that she----" Rathburn swung his hat +to his head and rose. He walked toward the door, but Joe Price got in +his way. + +"Where you goin'?" he asked. + +"To the Mallory ranch!" + +"You can't get there!" said Price hoarsely, pushing him back. + +"I've got to get there!" answered Rathburn grimly, pushing the old man +aside. "I must see Laura." + +"You got here just by luck," Price pointed out. "An' there's more men +in by now. Maybe they know you're here. But wait till I get your +horse--he's hid." + +"Get him," Rathburn commanded. + +After a moment's hesitation Price went out the door, and he returned +almost instantly. He walked to the table and blew out the light. "Go +to the door an' see," he urged in an excited voice. + +Rathburn hurried out. High on the mountain above the canyon a fire was +burning. + +"It's the signal," Price whispered in his ear. + +"Joe, do me a last favor," said Rathburn in a queer voice. "Get me my +hoss before it's too late!" + +The old man obediently slipped into the shadows behind the cabin. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +GUNS IN THE NIGHT + + +When Joe Price returned, leading Rathburn's horse which he had fed and +watered, and turned over the reins, he spoke swiftly in a low voice: + +"They'll be watchin' hard for you down the canyon, boy. Bob Long's sure +to mean business this 'ere time." + +"Well, I know it," said Rathburn with a low, mirthless laugh. "I +locked him in his own jail this mornin' to get a clean chance to +decide to give myself up. Then, when the chance came--well, he surely +thinks now that I put him away to cover my tracks. I expect the boys +have got their shootin' orders." + +"Listen!" whispered Price excitedly. "Wait till I get my own horse, +an' I'll strike east across the hump. That'll start 'em after me +maybe--sure it will, Rathburn! They'll think I'm you, see, an' light +right out after me." + +Rathburn laid one hand on the old man's shoulder and put the other +over Joe's mouth. + +"Joe, you're all excited--plumb unreasonable excited. You know I +wouldn't let you do that. Now don't hand me more worries than I've +got. Be good, Joe." He patted Price's shoulder, then swung into the +saddle. + +The old miner looked up at him, his face showing strangely white in +the dim starlight, pierced by the fire on the peak. + +"I didn't tell 'em you'd been here, Roger; don't forget that!" + +"I knew that, Joe," Rathburn chuckled. "So long." + +Swiftly he rode down the little meadow below the spring into the deep +shadows of the canyon which led down a steep trail to the desert. +Presently he checked his pace until he was walking the gallant dun. He +wished to avoid as much noise as possible, and to save the horse for a +final spurt down nine miles of desert to the Mallory ranch from the +mouth of the canyon--providing he got out. + +For two reasons he had deliberately chosen this route: it was +shortest, and it offered the best going. He must save the dun's +strength. Rathburn knew the limits of his splendid mount; knew they +had almost been reached; knew there was just enough left in the horse +to make the ranch without killing him. The Coyote would surrender +before he would kill his horse to effect his escape or gain an +objective! + +Thus they slipped down the narrow canyon, with the desert stars +gleaming white above the lava hills of Imagination Range, while the +fire glowed on the peak above Joe Price's cabin. Rathburn's face was +pale under his tan; his thoughts were in a turmoil, but his lips were +pressed into a fine line that denoted an unwavering determination. Had +Sheriff Bob Long seen his face at this time he might have glimpsed +another angle of Rathburn's many-sided character--an angle which would +have given him pause. + +Rathburn looked behind, and his eyes narrowed. Two fires were burning +on the peak. + +Already the watchers were cognizant of his latest move and were +signaling to those who might be below. He wondered vaguely why they +had not surrounded Joe Price's cabin while he had been there. Then he +realized he had been there hardly long enough for his pursuers to get +there in any number. Suddenly his thoughts were broken into by a +streak of red in the canyon depths below him. He swerved close against +the rock wall, drew his gun, and, speaking to the dun, drove in his +spurs. + +A short distance below he could see the faint glow of the starlight +night and knew he was near the canyon's mouth. There were more streaks +of red, and bullets whistled past him. Then Rathburn raised his gun +and sent half its deadly contents crashing down into the trail ahead. + +There followed a few moments of quiet, broken only by the harsh, +ringing pound of his mount's hoofs. Rathburn could see open country +just ahead. Then a flash of fire came from almost under him, and the +big dun lunged into the air, half twisting, and came down upon some +object under its hoofs. The dun bounded on in great leaps, literally +flying through the air, as Rathburn thrilled with the knowledge that +the horse had knocked down the man who had sought to kill him. + +From above came sharp reports, and the blackness of the high canyon +walls was streaked with spurts of flame. Leaden death hurled itself +into the rock trail behind him. Then he was out of the canyon, riding +like mad through the white desert night toward his goal--the Mallory +ranch! + + * * * * * + +Laura Mallory stood on the porch of the little ranch house, staring +out across the dimly lit spaces of desert. A worried look appeared in +her eyes. The front door was open, and in the small sitting room her +father was reading under a shaded lamp at the table. At times the +worried look in the girl's eyes would change to one of wistfulness, +and twice the tears welled. + +Presently she straightened and listened intently, looking into the +south instead of northwest. Her ears, keen as are those of the desert +born, had caught a sound--a succession of faint sounds--in the still +night air. Gradually the sound became more and more distinct, and the +worried expression of her face increased. She hurried into the sitting +room. + +"Father, Fred Doane is coming out from town," she said breathlessly. +"Do you suppose they've got him?" + +"Maybe so, girlie," said the old man. "It was a bold business, an' +what could you expect?" + +"Oh, I don't know. I can't seem to understand. All this trouble is +coming so suddenly. Father, are you sure you heard Roger refuse to aid +that man Eagen in some shady scheme last night?" + +"Ab-so-lutely," declared Mallory. "I've been wondering, daughter, if +he didn't turn Eagen down because he had this scheme of his own." + +The purr of a motor came to them from outside, and Laura, hastily +wiping her eyes with a small handkerchief, went slowly out. + +"Laura!" cried Fred Doane, as he came up the steps, holding out his +hands. + +"What--what is it, Fred?" she faltered. "Have they caught----" + +"Not yet," said Doane briskly, as Mallory appeared in the door. "An' +they probably won't get him. He's clever, that fellow." + +The bank cashier indulged in a frown, but he was plainly nervous. + +"Then what news do you bring here?" Mallory demanded. "Did you come to +tell us he'd got away clean?" + +"Why, not--not exactly," said Doane. "I meant to tell you that, of +course, but I also want to have a little talk with Laura. Can I see +you alone, Laura, for a few minutes?" + +"Oh, _that's_ it," snorted Mallory, as he stamped back into the +house. + +"You have something to tell me you don't want father to hear?" asked +the girl in a worried voice. + +"Laura, there's something I must tell you right away," said Doane +nervously, leading her to the shadow of the far end of the porch. +There he turned and faced her, taking her hands. + +"Laura, you must have seen it for a long time. You could hardly help +but see it. I love you, Laura--I love you with all my heart, and I +want you to be my wife." + +The girl drew back in astonishment. + +"But why do you have to tell me this so suddenly?" she asked, her +color coming and going. + +"Because I want you to marry me, Laura, to-night!" he said. + +Again he reached for her hands. "Please, Laura," he pleaded. "It means +so much to me. Don't you care for me, sweetheart? I've been led to +think you did, and I intended to tell you soon, but all this +trouble--this terrible trouble to-day--has nearly driven me mad. I'm +afraid I'll go mad, Laura, if I don't have something else to think +about. Oh, Laura, marry me and help me out of this big trouble." + +"Fred!" exclaimed the girl, startled by his passion of pleading. +"Fred, I've never tried to make you think I cared for you. And +now--well, I'd have to have a long time to think it over. How would it +help you out of trouble, Fred? Tell me that." + +"By helping me forget--by helping me forget that our bank is ruined! +By saving my mind! By keeping me from going mad! By----" + +"Fred you must not talk so. That robbery has unnerved you for the time +being, that's all. You're excited and so----" + +"I'm more than excited," he declared, trying to put his hands on her +shoulders. "I'm about--about--_gone_! Laura, marry me to-night, and +we'll go somewhere--we'll go somewhere right from here, from this +ranch--go a long way and get married in the morning. Then we can stay +away for a short time till I get to be myself again." + +"No, Fred," replied the girl in convincing tones, "I can't. It would +be asking too much even if I loved you. Come inside, and I'll make you +some strong tea. You can talk to father and me and regain control of +yourself." + +There was a moment of silence. Mallory with the lamp had come to the +door at the sound of Doane's loud voice. He was looking at them. Then +out of the night came the pound of hoofs. There was no mistaking the +sound. + +Doane whirled around, as a rider came out of the sea of mesquite and +greasewood and flung himself from the saddle in front of the porch. +The bank cashier turned toward Mallory. His face was haggard. He +seemed to sway, as the rider came stamping up the steps. He darted for +the door, but had hardly got inside before the rider caught him and +made him face about. Mallory hurried in with the lamp, followed by the +girl. + +Doane was quailing before the new arrival. Both cried out, as they saw +it was Eagen who had broken out so suddenly. Eagen towered above the +shrinking Doane. + +"So you thought you'd double cross me, did you, eh?" came Eagen's +harsh voice, and he slapped Doane in the face. + +Doane went red, then white. For a moment intense hatred and anger +flashed in his eyes, but he made no move to avenge the insult. Slowly +the light in his eyes died again to fear, as he realized his +inability to cope with this man of strength. + +"Here, Eagen, you can't come into my house and act like that," said +Mallory stoutly, putting the lamp on the table. + +Laura still stood in the doorway, stunned by the rapid and extraordinary +turn of events. Eagen turned on Mallory with a snarl. + +"Shut up, you old fool! Don't butt in where you ain't wanted, an' on +something you don't know anything about." + +"I know you're in my house!" Mallory retorted sternly. + +"I'll only be here a minute," said Eagen with a sneer. "I'm goin' out +of your house, an' I'm goin' to drag this sneaking cur out with +me--out on the solid ground an' give him what's comin' to him. An' +then," he added in a terrible voice; "I'm goin' to go out an' get his +pardner--Rathburn, The Coyote--get him when the others can't come +within a mile of him!" + +"You can't take this man out of my house when he is my guest!" +thundered Mallory. + +"No?" asked Eagen contemptuously. "Well, you watch an' see! If you try +to stop me you'll stop lead!" + +He leaped forward and grasped Doane by the shoulder, jerked him +forward, and stepped backward himself. He turned, dragging his victim, +then stopped dead in his tracks with a hissing intake of breath. +Rathburn was standing quietly in the doorway. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +THE LOOT + + +In the heat of the threats and counterthreats which had been in +progress, none of the occupants of the room had heard the newest +arrival thunder up to the porch and leap from the saddle to the +steps. + +Eagen was dumfounded by Rathburn's sudden appearance. He saw that the +girl was standing now in a front corner of the room, with her hands +crossed on her breast, a look of horror in her eyes. Slowly Eagen +recovered and loosed his hold on Doane, who staggered weakly to the +table and leaned upon it. Eagen's sneer returned to his thick lips, +and his narrowed gaze traveled quickly to a sack which Rathburn held +in his left hand. Eagen's eyes shone with fury. + +"Come here to fix up the divvy!" he choked. "I knew it was a put-up +job between you an' Doane, an' I figured you'd maybe meet aroun' here +where Doane would be sure to come to try an' take this woman with +him." + +Rathburn eyed him calmly. There was something of a deadly calm in his +very posture, as he stood just within the threshold. He looked past +Eagen to Doane. Then he tossed the sack on the table. + +"Here's the money I took this morning, Doane," he said in matter-of-fact +tones. "I came here to turn it over to you." + +With bulging eyes Doane stared at him. + +Eagen laughed loudly. "That's rich! Tryin' to make me think you was +goin' to give it _all_ to him? Don't you figure, Mr. Coyote, that I +can throw my rope aroun' a simple scheme like you an' that shivering +rat over by the table cooked up? That's why you turned down my little +proposition last night. It was this same deal--only, _me_, an' Doane +there was goin' to put it over. You figured I'd cut you out of your +divvy, an' you figured right; he suspected I might double cross him, +an' maybe he was right, too. So he cooked it up with you to pull the +robbery, thinkin' you'd be more likely to go through an' give him his +end. But the pair of you figured too many points when you thought I +wouldn't catch on." + +"That was what your proposition was to be, was it?" asked Rathburn +pleasantly. "Rob the bank? Why, I didn't need a gang to rob the bank, +Eagen, an' I didn't have anybody in with me. The trouble with you is +that you've got too much imagination." + +The drawl in which Rathburn concluded his speech drove Eagen to a +frenzy. + +"You lie, Rathburn!" + +Rathburn smiled. "I might as well tell you that I intended to get away +with that money that's on the table, Eagen. That's what I took it for. +I'm making this little statement because something's liable to happen +to one, or both of us. I didn't know Doane was cashier of the bank +when I took it. I only recently learned that fact. Then I brought it +back to turn over to him, not so much on his account as on account of +Miss Mallory. I understand Doane is a very good friend of Miss +Mallory. I wouldn't want his bank hurt for that reason." + +It was Laura Mallory who cried out at this. She walked toward +Rathburn, although he did not look at her. + +"Why did you do it, Roger?" she asked in a trembling voice. + +"I can't tell you _that_, ma'am," he said. + +"But I know!" she cried. "I've guessed it. You saw Mr. Doane and me +together in Hope to-day and remembered he was at the ranch last night, +and----" + +"Don't say any more, Laura!" Rathburn commanded sternly. + +"Be still, daughter; it's best," said Mallory. + +"Neither she, nor you, nor Doane, nor all of you together can talk me +out of it!" roared Eagen. "It was a frame-up!" + +In the deadly stillness that followed, Laura Mallory shrank back from +the sight of two gunmen looking steadily into each other's eyes, their +hands ready for the lightning draw--each waiting for the merest +suggestion of the beginning of a move on the part of the other to get +his weapon into action. But the draws did not come. The pregnant +silence was broken by the thundering roll of many horses galloping +into the yard about the house. + +"There!" yelled Eagen in a voice of triumph. "There's your sweet +little posse, Coyote!" + +"I expected to see Bob Long when I came down here!" said Rathburn +coolly, looking at Laura Mallory for the first time. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +THE TEST OF A MAN + + +Several men stamped across the porch to the jingle of spur chains. +Others broke in through the back door and entered the kitchen. Sheriff +Bob Long appeared at the door, with two guns leveled. + +"You're covered from both doors and all the windows, Rathburn!" he +said sharply. + +"That's almost just what I thought, sheriff," Rathburn drawled. + +Long stepped into the room, shoving his guns into their holsters. Many +other guns were covering Rathburn. + +"What's the meaning of all this, anyway?" demanded Long with a puzzled +expression on his face. His eyes widened, as he saw the bag of money +on the table. "Is that the money that was taken from your bank this +morning Mr. Doane?" he asked sharply. + +Doane nodded weakly. The sheriff looked at Rathburn curiously. + +"You brought it back? You was up to Joe Price's place." + +"Yes, I brought it back, sheriff," said Rathburn cheerfully. + +"Well, I'll be frank and tell you, Rathburn, that if you expect +leniency after what happened this morning you might just as well give +up that idea. Any man can change his mind when he sees he can't get +away." + +"That's up to you, sheriff," replied Rathburn, taking tobacco and +papers from his shirt pocket. "As I was just tellin' our friend, Mr. +Eagen, I brought it back on purpose, an' I expected to see you when I +got here. I came near not gettin' here at that." + +"You took a long chance," scowled Long. "But it won't get you much now +at this stage of the game--especially after the way you led me to +believe this morning that you were thinking of giving yourself up." + +Eagen's laugh startled them. + +"He brought it back to give it up an' himself, too?" he jeered. "He +brought it back, sheriff, because he an' that rat of a Doane planned +this thing. Coyote got away with the money an' came back here to divvy +up with Doane. Didn't Doane make the same kind of a proposition to me? +Didn't he tell me he was short in his accounts, an' it could be +covered up if the bank was robbed, for then he could say more money +was took than really was? I'll say he did. An' I was goin' to see if +he'd go through with it, an' then I was going to wise you up so we +could get him cold." + +With knitted brows the sheriff stared at Eagen, then looked at the +white-faced Doane. + +"Tell him I'm tellin' the truth!" shouted Eagen at the shaking bank +cashier. "You can't get out of it." + +There was a tense moment. + +Doane shook his head weakly; he was a picture of guilt. + +"He got scared I wouldn't go through with the play, sheriff," Eagen +continued. "Thought maybe I'd make off with all the kale. So he framed +it with Rathburn, an' I caught 'em about to divide it here." + +"He lies!" screamed Doane. "I didn't frame it with Rathburn. I can +prove it. That man"--he pointed a shaking finger at Eagen--"has come +to me with threats and made me take securities I knew were stolen. +There's some of them in the bank now. Some of the stuff he took from +the stage driver yesterday is there! He's pulled job after job----" + +Eagen, recovering from his amazement at the man's outbreak, leaped and +drove his powerful fist against Doane's jaw, knocking him nearly the +length of the room, where he crashed with his head against the stones +of the fireplace. Eagen turned quickly. His eyes were blazing red. + +"You're the man!" he yelled wrathfully. "You're the yellow Coyote----" + +His right hand went to his gun, as there came a crashing report. He +staggered back, trying to get out the weapon which had not left his +holster. He sank down to his knees, still glaring death at the man +above him, still fumbling at his gun. Then he lurched forward on his +face. + +Rathburn flipped his smoking pistol so that its barrel landed in his +hand. Then he tendered it, butt foremost, to Sheriff Bob Long. Long +took it and threw it on the table, looking first at Rathburn, then at +the dead man on the floor. He waved toward the doors and windows. + +"You boys can draw back," he ordered. + +Mallory stepped to the fallen Doane. The man's face had set in a white +cast. He felt his heart. + +"He did for him," he said, rising. + +Laura Mallory came walking slowly up to the sheriff. Her face was +ghastly after what she had witnessed. + +"Sheriff Long," she said in a voice strangely calm, "we heard +Eagen"--she shuddered, as she mentioned the name--"ask Roger--ask Mr. +Rathburn last night to help with some job that would get them a lot +of money. It may be that--that--Fred did plan such a thing. I'm sorry +to say it, but Fred had seemed awfully nervous lately, and to-night he +came to me and asked me to run away with him--at once. He seemed +horribly afraid of something. Anyway, Roger refused to go in with +Eagen, and an examination of Fred's books will tell all." + +She hesitated. Then she spoke slowly and softly. + +"I know why Roger robbed the bank and----" + +"Stop, Laura!" cried Rathburn. + +"No," said Laura firmly; "you may be going to prison." + +He put out one hand in protest. + +Turning again to the sheriff she said: + +"Roger did go to town last night, intending to give himself up. I knew +he was going to do it by the way he looked at me. But to-day he saw me +with Mr. Doane, and maybe he's heard things for which there was no +warrant. Anyway, I know he thought I--I--was in love with Fred." + +"Laura--please!" Rathburn pleaded. + +"And to-night," said the girl in triumph, "he heard Fred was cashier +of the bank he'd robbed, and he brought the money back because he +thought the robbery would hurt Fred and in that way hurt me!" + +Rathburn turned appealingly to the sheriff. "Let's go," he urged. + +"He robbed that bank because he thought I had betrayed his trust, +Sheriff Long!" cried Laura, her eyes shining. + +"Are we going, Long?" cried Rathburn in an agony. + +The sheriff stepped to the door and called to some of his men who +entered and bore the bodies of Doane and Eagen out of the sitting +room. Then he took the money sack from the table and indicated to +Rathburn to follow him, as he went out of the door. Rathburn went +after him quickly, and the girl ran to the porch. Rathburn drew back +with a cry, as he reached the porch. Just beyond the steps a horse was +lying on its side. + +"My--my hoss!" he cried wonderingly. + +He leaped down beside the dead beast. Then he saw crimson upon the +animal's shoulder, as a little gleam of light came from the door. + +"That was why he jumped on the trail. He was hit. He carried me all +this way with a bullet in him an' then dropped! One of Long's men shot +him." + +Rathburn looked about vacantly. Then he sank down and buried his face +on the shoulder of the dun, as Sheriff Long turned away. Laura Mallory +stepped quickly to the side of the sheriff and touched his arm. + +"Is he as bad as you think, sheriff?" + +Long scowled at her in the dim light from the door, took out a thick, +black cigar, bit the end off savagely, and began to chew it. He walked +abruptly out to where some of his men were standing by their horses, +and he said something in an undertone. When he returned, Rathburn had +taken the saddle and bridle off the dead horse and was throwing the +leather on the porch. + +"Yours, dad," he called to Mallory; "I wouldn't use 'em again if I +could." Then he turned to the sheriff. "All right, Bob." + +"Come inside," said Long gruffly. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII + +TEN MILES' START + + +When they were in the sitting room the sheriff confronted Rathburn. + +"This has been a queer case for me," he said slowly, with an attempt +at harshness. "I knew Eagen was up to a lot of dirty work, but I never +could fasten anything on him till to-night. I'll get some of the rest +of the gang now. Doane showed in his face that he was guilty. Those +things don't worry me none. But _you_ are the hardest character I ever +had to handle, Rathburn!" + +"I don't figure on givin' you any more trouble, sheriff," Rathburn +assured him, smiling. + +"That's the puzzle of it!" Long exploded. "That puts it up to me. I +know you had reason for giving Gomez his, and I know this girl +wouldn't lie about the other. But--well, I don't get you a-tall, +Rathburn, and that's a fact. Something tells me I've got to give you a +chance, and if I knew what tells me this I'd wring its neck!" + +He stepped close to Rathburn and looked him straight in the eye. + +"Take one of Mallory's horses. He's got some good ones. I give you ten +miles in any direction. If you can make it--it's your candy. But +remember, Rathburn, I'm going to try to stop you!" + +He walked swiftly out of the door, leaving Rathburn staring at the +smiling girl. + +Laura stepped close to him and nodded. Rathburn shook his head. + +"I can't see where I've got the right to give Long any more +trouble." + +"But he isn't letting you go, Roger. He's putting it up to you, and he +means what he says when he declares he'll try to get you." + +"If he does, he'll probably get me," mused Rathburn. + +"But maybe he won't get _us_, Roger." + +"Us?" + +"You and I, Roger. Listen! There's a land 'way up north, Roger. I've +read about it. It's past the desert and the mountains and the +plains--in another country! And there's a river there, Roger--a river +they call Peace River. I've always loved the name. We'll go there, +Roger, you and I--and father can come later." + +She looked up at him with shining eyes and put her arms about his +neck, and she saw the unbelievable wonder in his face. The man +trembled. Then he took her and held her and kissed her, time after +time. + +"Joe Price said I could never be satisfied away from the desert unless +I took along something that was of it," he muttered hoarsely; "I +wonder----" + +"Yes, Roger, he meant me." + +"We can't make it," he said softly. "Not the two of us--but Laura, +girlie, _this_ is worth the game!" + +"Yes we can, Roger," she said eagerly. "Think! We can be married when +we've left the desert. It's not quite ten miles to Boxall Canon. We +can go up Boxall over the range and cross Death Flat." + +"I was thinking of that, sweetheart," he replied. "But no horse can +get up Boxall, an' if he did he couldn't get across Death Flat. Few +men have crossed that stretch. It's well named. I might try it alone; +but you--no, Laura. It just ain't in the pictures!" + +"We don't need horses, Roger. You've forgotten the burros. They'll +kill any horse on the desert, won't they? We can take two or three +loaded with food and water." + +"But it's miles and miles an' then some--an' it all looks alike." + +"But when we've reached the other side, Roger?" + +He drew away from her and stepped to the door. He could not see or +hear anything. When he turned and again approached her, his face was +white. He looked at Mallory, who was standing with a look of +stupefaction on his lined face. + +"Wait!" he said and stepped into another room. In a few moments he was +back, holding a money belt in his hands. He took out gold and bills +and deposited the money on the table. + +The others stared. + +"There's about six thousand there, Mallory. It's gamblin' money. Turn +it in to the bank to make or help out Doane's shortage. I've got just +twenty-five hundred left which I earned in a better way." + +"Daddy, get the burros!" cried the girl. "We're going!" + + * * * * * + +Sheriff Bob Long looked down from a ledge above a narrow, deep, +boulder-strewn, awe-inspiring canyon and drew in his breath sharply. +Below he saw two human beings and three animals. + +"I knew he'd try it," Long said wonderingly to himself. "I thought +he'd try it afoot. But the girl! And they're going to try to cross +Death Flat!" + +His look of wonder increased, and he made no move toward the weapons +in his holsters. + +"I wonder now," he mused. "Can they make it? I wonder----" + +He scowled and looked about with a frowning stare. His gaze again +shifted downward. Suddenly he shrugged and put the wrong end of his +unlighted cigar in his mouth. + +"That's the queerest cigar I ever had," he growled, as he made his way +to his horse. "It won't stay lit because it wants to be swallowed." + +He mounted and rode slowly back toward the far-reaching stretches of +desert. Once he halted and turned in his saddle for a backward look. + +"He had the makings of the worst bad man this country ever saw," he +muttered aloud. "Now, if that woman and another country--but first +they've got to get across." + + * * * * * + +On the western edge of a great, ghastly plain of white, in which a +deceiving, distant glow was mirrored in the desert dawn, two figures, +a man and a girl, stood hand in hand. Three shaggy burros, heavily +laden, stood behind them. The burros saw not the Death Flat ahead, for +they were asleep. + +And the man and the girl saw not the frightful white, as of powdered +skulls, bare, sinister, sunbaked, but a vision of a little house in a +fragrant green meadow, with golden fields on either side of a peaceful +river, and forests ranging up to distant hills. + +THE END + + + + +TO THE READER + +If you have enjoyed this book, you will be glad to know that there are +many others just as well written, just as interesting, to be had in +the Chelsea House Popular Copyright Novels. + +The stories which we will publish in this line have never appeared in +book form before, and they are without question the best value in the +way of cloth-bound books that has been offered to the reading public +in many years. + +CHELSEA HOUSE + +79 Seventh Avenue--New York City + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Coyote, by James Roberts + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COYOTE *** + +***** This file should be named 29602.txt or 29602.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/6/0/29602/ + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +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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