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diff --git a/old/60795-8.txt b/old/60795-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index aa42d27..0000000 --- a/old/60795-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4967 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Arizona Argonauts, by Henry Bedford-Jones - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Arizona Argonauts - -Author: Henry Bedford-Jones - -Release Date: November 26, 2019 [EBook #60795] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ARIZONA ARGONAUTS *** - - - - -Produced by Al Haines - - - - - - - - -[Illustration: Cover art] - - - -ARIZONA ARGONAUTS - - - - -[Frontispiece: (gunman and horse)] - - - - - ARIZONA ARGONAUTS - - - BY - - H. BEDFORD-JONES - - - - GARDEN CITY NEW YORK - GARDEN CITY PUBLISHING CO., INC. - 1924 - - - - - COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY - DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED - - - PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES - AT - THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N.Y. - - - - - CONTENTS - - CHAPTER - - I. Two Palms - II. Shipwrecked Men - III. Bill Hobbs Arrives - IV. Sandy Invests Twice - V. Clairedelune - VI. Deadoak Feels Remorse - VII. Stung! - VIII. Doctor Scudder - IX. The News Story - X. Flight - XI. The Sun Strikes - XII. Scudder Comes - XIII. Untangled - - - - -ARIZONA ARGONAUTS - - - -CHAPTER I - -TWO PALMS - -Piute Tompkins, sole owner and proprietor of what used to be the Oasis -Saloon but was now the Two Palms House, let the front feet of his chair -fall with a bang to the porch floor and deftly shot a stream of tobacco -juice at an unfortunate lizard basking in the sunny sand of Main Street. - -"That there Chinee," he observed, with added profanity, "sure has got -this here town flabbergasted!" - -"Even so," agreed Deadoak Stevens, who was wont to agree with everyone. -Deadoak was breaking the monotony of an aimless existence by roosting -on the hotel veranda. "I wisht," he added wistfully, "I wisht that I -could control myself as good as you, Piute! The way you pick off them -lizards is a caution." - -Piute waved the grateful topic aside. "That there Chinee, now," he -reverted, stroking his grizzled mustache, "is a mystery. Ain't he? He -is. Him, and that girl, and what in time they're a-doing here." - -"Even so," echoed Deadoak, as he rolled a listless cigarette. "Who -ever heard of a chink ownin' a autobile? Not me. Who ever heard of a -chink havin' a purty daughter? Not me. Who ever heard of a chink -goin' off into the sandy wastes like any other prospector? Not me. -I'm plumb beat, Piute!" - -"Uh-huh," grunted Piute Tomkins. "Pretty near time for him to be -shovin' out as per usual, too. He was askin' about the way to Morongo -Valley at breakfast, so I reckon him an' the gorl is headin' north this -mornin'." - -The two gentlemen fell silent, gazing hopefully at the listless waste -of Main Street as though waiting for some miracle to cause that desert -to blossom as the rose. At either side of the porch, rattled and -crackled in the morning breeze the brownish and unhappy-looking palms -which had given the city its present name. They were nearly ten feet -in height, those palms, and men came from miles around to gaze upon -them. It was those two palms that had started Piute Tomkins in the -orchard business, which now promised to waken the adjacent countryside -to blooming prosperity. - -At present, however, Two Palms was undeniably paralyzed by the odd -happenings going on within its borders. Contributory to this state of -petrifaction was the location and environment of the desert metropolis -itself. Lying twenty miles off the railroad spur that ended at -Meteorite, and well up into the big bend of the Colorado, in earlier -days Two Palms had been a flourishing mining community. It was now out -of the world, surrounded by red sand and marble cañons and gravel -desert and painted buttes; Arizona had gone dry, and except for Piute -Tomkins and his orchard business, the future of Two Palms would have -been an arid prospect. - -Piute Tomkins was the mayor of Two Palms and her most prominent -citizen, by virtue of owning the hotel and general store, also by -virtue of owning no mines. Everyone else in Two Palms owned -mines--chiefly prospect holes. All around the town for scores of miles -lay long abandoned mining country; the region had been thoroughly -prospected and worked over, but was still given a tryout by occasional -newcomers. The Gold Hill boom in particular had sent revivifying -tremors up through the district, several unfortunate pilgrims having -wandered in this direction for a space. - -Inspired by the rustling quivers of the brownish palms outside his -hostelry, Piute Tomkins had passed on the inspiration to other -prominent citizens. They had clubbed together, and managed to get some -wells bored out in the desert--installing mail-order pumping machinery -to the indignation of Haywire Smithers, proprietor of the hardware -emporium across the street. They then set out pear and almond trees, -and sat down to get rich. Piute Tomkins had been sitting thusly for -five years, and after another five years he expected to have money in -the bank. - -"I was wonderin' about them pears, when they come to bearin'," he -reflected to Deadoak. "What we goin' to do with 'em when we get 'em? -It's twenty miles south to Meteorite, and thirty mile west to Eldorado -on the river, an' fifty mile north to Rioville. How we goin' to get -them pears to market?" - -"They come in an' buy 'em on the trees," said Deadoak encouragingly. -It paid Deadoak to be heartening in his advice. He was the only man -thereabouts who understood the workings of cement, and during the -orchard boom he had put in a hectic six months making irrigation pipe. -He also owned several mines up north. - -"Speakin' o' that chink, now," he said, sitting up suddenly, "you say -he's headin' for Morongo Valley to-day? I bet he's heard about that -there mine o' mine--the one that stove in on Hassayamp Perkins an' -broke his neck. Sure he didn't mention it?" - -"He ain't talked mines a mite," said Piute, casting about for a lizard. -"Nope, not a mite. Haywire was tryin' to interest him in them two -holes west o' the Dead Mountains, but he plumb wouldn't interest in -nothin'. It's my opinion, private, that he's aimin' to raise garden -truck. Most like, he's heard of the irrigation projects around -here--they was wrote up in the Meteorite paper last year--and he's come -down to find the right place for garden truck. Chinks are hell on -raisin' lettuce an' stuff." - -"What in hallelujah would he do with it when he got it?" demanded -Deadoak witheringly. "Eat it? Not him. Now, the way I take it----" - -He hushed suddenly. The hotel door had opened to give egress to a -large man--a tall, widely built man, clad in khaki--and a girl, also -clad in khaki. The man moved out into the white sunlight, looking -neither to right nor left, and vanished around the side of the -building. His features, one realized, were those of a Chinaman. - -The girl, who flashed a bright "Good morning!" to the two men and then -followed, was slender and lithe, and carried over her shoulder a black -case and tripod slung in a strap. - -"Camera again," observed Deadoak, as she too disappeared. "Why in time -do they go out workin' with that picture machine? It don't look -sensible to me. Didn't you ask him?" - -"Him?" Scorn sat in Piute's tone. "Tom Lee? He don't never talk. -Don't know when I've seen a man that talked less than him. That is, in -company. Up in his own room I've heard him jabber away by the hour. -Him and the girl always speaks English----" - -"Say!" exclaimed Deadoak, excited. "I bet I got you now! You remember -that guy come out three years ago an' boarded over to Stiff Enger's -place by Skull Mountain? Lunger, he was, and his folks sent money for -his carcass when he cashed in. Stiff said that he'd stalk around by -the hour talkin' queer talk to himself and wavin' his hands at the -scenery." - -"He was an actor, wasn't he?" - -"Certain. Well, that's what this chink is--that's why he's learnin' -his parts up in his room! Then he goes out in the desert somewheres -with the girl, and she puts him through his paces and takes pictures of -him! Piute, I bet a dollar he's a movin' picture actor and they're -makin' pictures of him--that's why they always go some different place!" - -"Might be some sense to that notion," ruminated Piute Tomkins. "Still, -it don't look----" - -From behind the hotel burst forth the roar of a flivver. The car -careened into sight, the big yellow man sitting in the rear, the girl -at the wheel. It skidded into the dusty street, righted, and darted -away. At the next corner--the only corner--it turned up past Stiff -Enger's blacksmith shop and disappeared. - -"Uh-huh," commented Piute. "They're headin' for Morongo Valley, all -right, if they don't stop somewheres first. They're plumb liable to -stop, too. That ain't but a track these days; no travel atall that -way. I told the chink it was a bum road, but he just grinned and -allowed the car could make it." - -"Well, there's scenery a-plenty up Morongo way," averred Deadoak. -"That's all there is, scenery an' rattlers. Wisht they'd take a notion -to dig into that mine o' mine, they might dig up ol' Hassayamp. He had -a bag o' dust on him when she caved in, but I reckon he's all o' twenty -feet inside the hill." - -Why Tom Lee had come to Two Palms, no one knew. A most amazing -Chinaman who spoke very good English, who put up at the hotel and -seemed to have plenty of money, and whose business like himself was a -mystery. He would go for one day, or two or three into the desert, and -invariably come back empty-handed, so far as anyone could tell. - -What was even more astonishing, his daughter always drove him. At -least, Tom Lee said she was his daughter, and she seemed quite -satisfied. Everyone in Two Palms fairly gasped at the bare thought, -however; for she was actually a pretty girl and looked as white as -anyone. More so than most, perhaps, for life in Two Palms was not -conducive to lily complexions, yet the desert sun had barely given her -features a healthy sun-glow. - -A pilgrim, during some prospecting toward Eldorado, had come upon the -girl sitting in the car, one day, and had been struck dumb by sight of -her. Later, he had wandered morosely into the Two Palms, begging a -drink in charity, and murmuring something about having proposed -mattermony before the ol' man showed up and he had realized the dread -secret of her birth. Still murmuring, the pilgrim had wandered off -toward Meteorite and had been no more seen of men. - -"Still an' all," observed Deadoak, whose mind had reverted to this -incident, "I dunno but what a man _might_ do worse. She's durn pretty, -I will say, and always has a right sweet word for folks. I dunno but -what she might be glad to take up----" - -"Now, Deadoak, you look here!" Piute turned in his chair and -transfixed the other with a steely gaze. "I'm mayor o' this here town, -an' deputy sheriff, and it's my duty to uphold morality and--and such -things. Don't you go to shootin' off your mouth that-a-way, I warn -you, legal! Don't you take too much for granted. We need irrigation -pipe, and we're liable to need more, but that don't give you no license -to presume. You go to outragin' the moral feelin's of this here -community and somethin' will happen quick!" - -"I was just thinkin'," Deadoak weakly defended himself. "And Mis' -Smithers allows that she's a right smart girl, considerin' what's -behind her----" - -"Don't you think too hard," said Piute, getting up and shoving back his -chair, "or you'll have a accident! Mind me, now." - -He stamped inside the hotel, calling to Mrs. Tomkins in the kitchen -that the guests had departed and she could tidy up the rooms a bit. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -SHIPWRECKED MEN - -Sandy Mackintavers was slowly piloting his big Twin-Duplex along a -rough and rugged road. It crested the bleak mesa uplands like a -red-bellied snake. A twining, orderly road of brickish red, now and -again broken into by flat outcrops of yellow sand or white limestone -cut into its tires most pitifully. - -One who knew Arizona would have recognized that road, although Sandy -himself might have gone unrecognized. He was coated with the dust of -several bathless days, and underneath the dust, his heavy features were -drawn and knotted. Sandy had a general idea that he was in Arizona, -but did not care particularly where he was, so long as the car kept -going and he drifted westward, unknown of men. - -Six weeks previous to this momentous day, Mackintavers had been a power -in the world of mesa, ranch, and mine that centered about Albuquerque -and Socorro; the world that he had now left far behind him to the -eastward, forever. - -His wealth had been large. His unscrupulous fingers had been clutched -deep in a score of pies, sometimes leaving very dirty marks about the -edge. Mining was his specialty, although he was interested in trading -stores and other enterprises on the side. Any bank in the Southwest -would have O.K.'d the signature of Alexander Mackintavers for almost -any amount. - -Yet Sandy had few friends or none. His enemies, mainly those whom he -had cheated or bluffed or robbed, feared him deeply. He gave no love -to any man or woman. He was said to own the courts of the state and to -be above the law; the same has been said of most wealthy men, and with -about the same degree of truth. - -For, of a sudden, the world of Sandy Mackintavers had cracked and -smashed around him. Somewhere a cog slipped; he had been indicted for -bribery. That had broken the thick crust of fear which had enveloped -him, had released his enemies from the shackles of his strong -personality. Overnight, it seemed, a dozen men went into the courts -against him, backed by the evidence of those who had taken his money -and had done his dirty work. - -Sandy Mackintavers, for the first time in his life, had thrown up his -hands and quit. His magic had gone; little things done in careless -confidence now suddenly loomed up huge and threatening against him. He -faced the penitentiary, and knew it; too many of his own hirelings had -turned upon him. - -Fortunately for himself, he slipped through the bribery charge on a -technicality, and devoted himself to buying off his worst enemies. -That saved him from the courts and the penitentiary, but it brought -down upon him a horde of vultures--both men and women with whom he had -in times past dealt with after his own fashion. Now they dealt with -him, and in full measure. - -Mackintavers was broken in spirit. Before he could rally, before he -could get breath to fight, they crushed him with staggering blows on -every side. Sins ten years old rose up from the past and smote him. -He deserved all he got, of course. The vultures gathered around and -stripped him to the bones, as pitilessly as he had stripped them in -other days. His ranch, his mines, his trading stores--all of them -went, one by one. When Sandy saw the last of his wealth vanishing, -with more vultures hovering on the horizon and not a soul sticking by -him, he climbed into his big car, the last remnant of prosperous days, -and "beat it." - -At forty-eight he was beginning life over again, with most of his nerve -gone, at least temporarily, and a beggarly five hundred dollars in his -sock. He had no idea of what might happen to him next, so he buried -his wad in this first national bank and started. - -With this brief digression, we find Sandy Mackintavers at the wheel of -his big car, aimlessly crawling over the bleak mesa toward no place in -particular. In the rear of the car were heaped a camping outfit and -Sandy's personal baggage. Mackintavers knew that he was already far -away from Albuquerque and his usual haunts, and well on the way to -California; but he had no definite city of refuge in mind, unless he -were to strike down across the border into Mexico. He had a hazy -notion of selling his car somewhere, and then--well, his brain was -still too staggered to be of much value to him. He was as a man dazed, -awaiting the next blow and caring not. - -When Mackintavers observed two men on the road ahead of him, he slowed -down. He had lived thirty years in the Southwest, and he believed in -giving men a ride, even if they were tramps, as the blanket-rolls -showed. - -"Ride, boys?" he sang out, slowing down between the two men, who had -separated. - -"You bet!" - -The man to the left, a tall, rangy individual, hopped to the running -board and opened the tonneau door behind Sandy. An instant later, -Mackintavers felt something cold and round pressed into his neck, and -heard the stranger's drawling speech. - -"Sit quiet, partner, and leave both hands on the steering wheel--that's -right. Now, Willyum, investigate our catch." - -Mackintavers glanced at the other man and found him to be a rough-jawed -individual, who was nearing him with a grin. Across the haggard, -pouched features of Mackintavers flitted an ironic smile. - -"What's this--a holdup?" he inquired calmly. - -"Exactly," answered the cultivated voice behind his ear. "The owner of -so highly pedigreed a car as this one, must perforce need his loose -cash far less than Willyum and I. We are, I assure you, rank amateurs -at the holdup game; this, in fact, is our initial venture, so be -careful not to joggle this revolver. Amateurs, you know, are far more -irresponsible with a gun than are professionals." - -"You needn't be wastin' time and breath on me," said Mackintavers. "If -there was any money to be made in your business, I'd join ye myself. -Ye'll find eight dollars and eleven cents in my pockets, no more." - -"Hold, Willyum!" ejaculated the bandit in the rear. "Let us engage our -victim in pleasing discourse. Is it possible, worthy sir, that you do -not own this fine motor car?" - -"I own it until I meet someone who knows me," said Mackintavers grimly. -He had none too great a sense of humor--one contributing cause of his -downfall. But he knew that his five hundred was reasonably safe, since -the average car driver does not carry money in his sock. - -"There's something familiar about the shape of your head," observed the -bandit in reflective voice. "I cannot presume to say that we have met -socially, however. May I inquire as to your name?" - -Mackintavers hesitated. He was warned by a vague sense of familiarity -in this man's voice, yet he could not place the man or his companion. -However, he felt fairly confident that they were not former victims, -and concealment of his identity would in any case be futile. - -"My name's Mackintavers. Aiblins, now, ye've heard of me?" - -The hand holding the revolver jumped. The bandit slowly withdrew his -weapon, and made a gesture which held his companion from entering the -car to search the victim. - -"Mackintavers!" he repeated. "Why, sir, we have read great things of -you in the public prints! I am glad we had your name, for we could not -rob you--on two counts. First, there is honor among thieves; second, -you are a repentant sinner. We have read in the papers that you have -devoted your entire fortune to reimbursing those whom in past years you -have dealt with ungenerously. Sir, I congratulate you!" - -Mackintavers winced before the slightly sardonic voice. It was true -that the newspapers had pilloried him unmercifully; they had joined in -the landslide that had swept him away, and their tongues had cut into -him deeply. - -"Who the devil are you?" he rasped, with something of his old asperity. -"You talk like a fool!" - -The bandit laughed. "Mr. Mackintavers," he said gaily, "meet Willyum -Hobbs, formerly known as Bill Hobbs! At one time a famous burglar and -safecracker--I believe the technical term is 'peterman'--Willyum was -some time ago converted to the paths of rectitude. His present lapse -from virtue is due solely to hunger. Willyum, meet Mr. Mackintavers!" - -Hobbs grinned cheerfully and stuck forth his hand. He was a solemn -man, was Hobbs, a very earnest and unassuming sort. It was rather -difficult to believe him a criminal. Also, Bill Hobbs had his own -ideas about society, being a well-read man of a sort. - -"Glad to meet yuh," exclaimed Hobbs beamingly. "Say, that's on the -level, too! I mean, about us bein' empty. I gotta admit it don't look -honest to be stickin' yuh up, but gee! We had to do somethin' quick! -We been on the square until now, the doc an' me." - -"The doc!" - -Mackintavers turned about, a sudden flash in his cold eyes, to meet the -quizzical regard of the man in the tonneau. - -For a moment the two gazed silently at each other. The bandit was not -an old man, being distinctly young in comparison with either of the -other two; yet something had seared across his face an indefinable -shadow. It was a rarely fine face, beneath its stubble of reddish -beard. It was not the handsome face of a tailor's advertisement--it -was the handsome face that is chiseled by character and suffering and -achievement. - -Despite its harshness, despite the cynical eyes that sneered through -their laughter, this red-headed man was a flame of virile strength and -surging energy--tensed high, nervous, like steel in temper. The -blanket-roll across his shoulders swung like a feather. His hands, as -his bronzed face, were lean and energetic, unspeakably strong. It was -evident that this man and Willyum had come from the very antipodes of -life and environment. An overwhelming surprise lighted the broken face -of Mackintavers as he gazed. - -"The doc!" he repeated slowly. "Why--why--aiblins, now--man, ye can't -be the same!" - -"I am, Mackintavers; the same man who removed that broken appendix from -your insides two years ago in St. Louis, and a thousand dollars from -your pocketbook for the job. Quite a drop for me, eh? Quite a drop -for Douglas Murray, to be a bindle stiff, eh?" - -Mackintavers stared, as at a ghost. - -"I can't believe it!" he said. "Aiblins, now, it's some joke--some -damned nonsense! Why, you were one of the finest surgeons in the -country, a man at the top, not yet thirty----" - -Bitterness seared itself across the face of Murray. - -"That's exactly what broke me," he asserted in biting tones. - -"But I don't understand!" blurted Mackintavers. - -Willyum Hobbs made a gesture, an imploring gesture; across his homely, -earnest features flitted a look of appeal, of anxious worry. He -glanced at Murray as a dog eyes his troubled master, with love and -uneasiness. But Douglas Murray laughed jeeringly, harshly. - -"Come, Mackintavers, look alive! It was success that downed me--too -much work. I had to keep going twenty hours a day to save human lives -during the influenza epidemic. It started me working on dope. I knew -better, of course, but thought myself strong. - -"The dream book got me at last, like it gets all the fools. One day, -in the middle of an operation, I broke down. I had to have a shot -quick, and I got it. I had to do it openly, if the man on the table -were not to die; so I did it. Inside of a week, the news had spread -through the whole city. - -"It spread everywhere. I made an effort to fight, of course; did my -desperate best to conquer the dream book. In the end, I won the fight, -but by that time my nerve was gone. Everyone passing me in the street -knew that I was a dope fiend. It was whispered at me socially and -financially--from all quarters. At last I woke up to the fact that my -money and good repute were gone. I can still practise medicine--if I -have the nerve." - -"Hm!" grunted Sandy. "Why didn't you stick it out? Aiblins, now, a -man like you!" - -"Why didn't you stick it out yourself?" Murray's laugh bit like acid. -"Do you know why I stood in the top rank of surgeons? Because a great -surgeon must be like a sword; he must decide instantly, quick and true -and sharp--and he must be right. The hemming and hawing kind never -reach the top, Mackintavers. And I--well, my nerve was gone after the -publicity, and all. I was a branded man! Like yourself." - -Mackintavers shivered slightly. "You haven't lost your nerve," he -retorted, "or you would not admit it so readily." - -"Rats! I've been on the road for six months, trying to recuperate -under the open air and get away from everything. Now, Willyum! Roll a -cigarette and don't shake your head at me. You'll like Willyum, friend -Mackintavers. He has a proprietary interest in me. He believes that I -restored some of his vitality----" - -"Aw! you knows it damn well!" broke out Hobbs affectionately, and -turned to Sandy. "He found me layin' in a ditch, and he cut me open -an' took care o' me----" - -"Oh, hush your babbling!" snapped Douglas Murray. "Let's discuss more -pleasant matters. Where are you going from here, Mackintavers? You -offered us a ride, you know----" - -Sandy made a vague gesture. He could not have been recognized as the -Mackintavers of a month ago; he was pitifully broken and indecisive. - -"Anywhere," he said weakly. "Into Mexico--anywhere. You'd better hop -in. We'll go on to California, huh?" - -There was silence to his invitation. Hobbs was rolling a cigarette, -Murray produced a briar pipe and raked up some loose tobacco from his -coat pocket. He was sitting on the equipage in the tonneau of the car. -The broiling sun of Arizona drifted down upon them, insufferable and -suffocating. - -"We're not broke," said Hobbs suddenly. "We're not broke, but we gotta -get to grub quick. That's why we stopped you. This desert----" - -Mackintavers waved his hand. "I have some grub back there. And a -little money hidden. Let's go together, eh?" - -Murray lighted his pipe and glanced at Hobbs, inquiringly, his eyebrows -uplifted in a satirical questioning. Hobbs frowned in his earnest -fashion. - -"Why, Mackintavers, you and us has met up kinda queer; we're all in the -same boat, sort of. But I dunno about goin' on together. I'm tellin' -you straight, we gotta eat, but we aim to do it on the level--far's we -can." - -"You--what?" blurted Sandy. "You hold me up, and then you----" - -Douglas Murray intervened. - -"What Willyum is attempting to express," he said blithely, "is a -simple, but profound thought. He has been a burglar; he is now -reformed, and I trust is ambitious of leading an honest life. As for -me, I have no particular ambition, unless it is to win a fairly honest -place somewhere at the back of the world, and a chance to explore the -anatomy of unfortunate humans. The idea, as you will gather, is that -while we are shipwrecked men like yourself, we are essentially honest -in our endeavors. We, at least, have no illusions. If we rob, it is -from the necessity of remaining honest men at heart. You relish the -paradox, I hope! It is really excellent. - -"But how about yourself? I would not insinuate that we are better men -than you, heaven knows! However, if you are about to enter upon a -career of rapine and plunder, my dear Sandy, our ways had best separate -here----" - -Sandy Mackintavers, his head sunk upon his breast, made a gesture as if -demanding peace. He stared out at the desert road, his fingers tapping -the steering-wheel. - -"You're a queer pair!" he reflected aloud. "Aye, a queer pair. To -tell ye the truth, now, d'ye know what's broke me? It's because I've -not a friend to my name. And why not?" - -Murray spoke, with the cold, clear analysis of a vivisector. - -"Because there's been no honesty in you. Sincerity is what makes -friends." - -"Aiblins, yes. They've taken my money--they've been afraid of me; when -the pinch came, they turned on me and sank their fangs. And I've come -to know what I've missed. D'ye mind, now, I'd like fine to have a -friend or two!" - -In the voice of Mackintavers, in his sunken face, there was the tragic -wistfulness of a lost child seeking the way home. - -"I would that," he pursued slowly. "Now, I could start clear again--if -a man can ever start clear of his past. Can he? I dunno. I've always -admired ye, Murray, and the way ye handled me that time in St. Louis; -I've never forgotten it. To think that here ye are, to-day! 'Tis a -queer world. Shipwrecked men, like ye say, and we're driftin' wild. -Well, I've tried the other way, I've fought wi' the wrong weapons. If -ye say the word, Murray, I--I'll start clear again!" - -Murray knocked out his pipe and motioned to Willyum Hobbs. - -"Hop in here, Willyum; I believe the grub is underneath me. Drive on, -comrade!" - -"Where to?" demanded Sandy, wonder in his eyes. - -"Follow the road! Follow the path of ambition, to California. Let us -find a town at the back of the world, and carve out our destiny from -the desert sands!" - -The starting gears whirred. The big car gathered momentum and drew -onward along the blazing road that wound snakily across the scorched -mesa land. The shipwrecked men were on their way to nowhere. - -And Bill Hobbs burgled a can of tomatoes with gusto. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -BILL HOBBS ARRIVES - -Sandy Mackintavers had a very definite reason for guiding the -Twin-Duplex in the direction of Meteorite, at the end of the railroad -spur that runs north from the main line and the highway. - -The three partners had decided--or rather, Sandy and Douglas Murray had -decided, for the vote of Willyum was always that of Murray--not to go -on to California, and not to cross the line into Mexico. It was too -hard making a living in California, and it was too hard to keep alive -in Mexico. Their decision was to seek a one-horse town at the back -door of things, and there to seek a general recuperation of spirit. - -In order to do this with the proper degree of unconcern, it was -necessary to sell the big car and to buy a flivver that would negotiate -anything once. Meteorite was a live town and was the headquarters of a -stage line which would undoubtedly use the Twin-Duplex, so Sandy headed -north to Meteorite. - -Thus did destiny weave her gossamer net. - -"This is no place to settle down!" Douglas Murray wrinkled up his thin -nostrils at the oil tanks and the dump heap which fringed Meteorite. -They were arriving late in the afternoon. "This is an abode of -filth--a commercial metropolis!" - -"It's a good place to start from, ain't it!" quoth Willyum, gazing afar -at the blue peaks rimming the horizon. "Once we could get out in them -hills--aw, look at the colors on 'em! Wouldn't it be great to camp out -there?" - -Sandy smiled grimly at the wistful ignorance of the ex-burglar. - -"I've done it in hills like 'em," he said, "lookin' for color of -another kind, and I've been glad to drink the water out o' my radiator! -Aiblins, now, we'll find what we're looking for, beyond Meteorite. -Don't know much about this country." - -It was four o'clock when they purred into Meteorite and drew up at the -hotel--where was also the stage headquarters. The travelers were hot, -dusty, and thirsty. Directly across the street from the hotel, was a -flaring soft-drink parlor, its depths cool and inviting. - -"Good!" exclaimed Douglas Murray, as he felt the hot sand beneath his -feet. "Come on over to the liquid emporium, boys, and I'll set up the -drinks!" - -"Not me," Sandy grimaced. "That sort o' stuff gets my innards, Murray. -Besides, I'd better be seein' about business right now. Aiblins, we -might make a deal to-night and be gone to-morrow." - -"Suit yourself," Murray shrugged. "How about you, Willyum? Ice cream -or business?" - -"Me fer the cold stuff," averred Bill Hobbs. "I'm dry." - -"Come on, then. You register for us, Sandy? Thanks. We'll be back -and join you shortly." - -"Need any money?" volunteered Mackintavers. - -"Nope. Not yet. We're far from broke, thanks." - -Murray and Hobbs walked across the street, stiff-legged with much -riding, and entered the alluring portals of the refreshment palace. - -A single man leaned over the bar, slowly consuming a bottle of -near-beer and talking with the white-aproned proprietor. He was a -dusty man, a withered, sun-browned, sand-smitten specimen of desert -rat, and was palpably the owner of the two burros tethered outside the -entrance. - -"Ice cream," ordered Murray, ranging up alongside the prospector. -"Have a dish, partner?" - -"Thanks," rejoined the other, nodding assent. "Sure. As I was sayin', -Bill, it was the gosh-willingest thing I ever struck! Think o 'me -purposin' mattermony, right off the bat like that--and a good-lookin' -girl, I'm sayin'! And when she was feelin' around for the right words -to accept me, prob'ly meanin' to fish around an' make me urge her a -mite, I seen her ol' man come walkin' along. In about two shakes I -seen he was a chink." - -"Yes?" The proprietor tipped Murray a wink, and set forth the ice -cream. "What then?" - -"I faded right prompt," said the desert rat. "Right prompt! I -dunno--it kind o' dazed me fer a spell. When I got into Two Palms next -day, I was tellin' Piute Tomkins about it, and he up an' says them two -was stayin' at his hotel--the chink and the girl, which same bein' his -daughter, he allowed it was all right an' proper. I judge Piute was -soakin' them right heavy, else he wouldn't ha' stood for chinks -boardin' on him. Piute has his pride----" - -"And he got a pocketbook likewise," put in the proprietor. "I know -_him_, I do! Piute would skin his grandmother for a dime. What's the -chink doin' over to Two Palms?" - -"Damfino," rejoined the desert rat. "Piute don't know, an' if he -don't, who does?" - -"Where's Two Palms?" inquired Murray, who had been absorbing this -information with interest. "Near here?" - -"Near and far," said the proprietor. - -"Near in mileage, but far in distance, so to speak. It ain't nothin' -but a waterhole at the back door o' creation. Ain't goin' there, I -hope?" - -"Heading that way," said Murray. "What's there?" - -"Well they got a bank, or did have, unless she's broke by now; and a -hotel and a few other things. If I was you I'd go somewheres else." - -"Where?" - -"It don't matter particular--anywheres." - -Murray grinned. - -"You seem to have a down on Two Palms, partner. What's the idea?" - -"Well, they's a close corporation there, a bunch of oldtimers that's -mostly related and don't take much stock in outsiders, if you savvy. -Nothin' there but desert. Stage runs up there once a week with the -mail, which same if it wasn't contracted for wouldn't go." - -"What's this about the chink and the girl?" put in Hobbs. "Sounds -queer." - -"If you ask me, it is queer!" said the desert rat, with some profanity -to boot. - -"They come through here, I remember 'em," spoke up the proprietor, -leaning on the bar. "Darned pretty girl, too. Mebbe he's _mining_." - -"Piute said not." - -"Oh!" exclaimed Hobbs quickly. "Are there mines around Two Palms? -Gee! Say, doc, let's get us a mine!" - -"Might do anything," said Murray sardonically. "Want to find it or buy -it?" - -"Buy it!" exclaimed Hobbs with fervent intonation. "Sure, buy it! Let -Sandy do it; don't he know all about them things? Let's go on to Two -Palms an' do it!" - -Murray nodded and turned from the bar. "Well, so long!" he said in -farewell, and sauntered out into the street. Hobbs followed him. - -The desert rat gazed after them with bulging eyes; then, shoving the -remainder of his ice cream into his mouth, he drew the back of his hand -across his lips and left the place hurriedly. Disdaining to notice his -burros, he shuffled up the street to the post office, entered, and -bought a postal. Over the writing desk in the corner he bent -awkwardly, and indited a laborious message to one Deadoak Stevens, at -Two Palms. - -"There!" He gazed upon his handiwork with great satisfaction. "If -this yere intimation don't git Deadoak to work, it'll be funny! They -got the coin, them three pilgrims has--look at the car they rode up in! -I bet I done Deadoak a good turn. If I had a decent hole o' my own, -now, I'd unload on them birds!" - -Sandy Mackintavers, meantime, had fallen to work with true Scottish -thrift; when the others rejoined him in the hotel, he was displaying -the Twin-Duplex to the proprietor of the stage line. The latter -gentleman exhibited very little interest in the proposed deal, and -disclaimed any notion of buying the car; however, he crawled into her, -over her, and under her, then summoned one of his drivers from the -group of loafers on the hotel veranda and ordered him to drive the car -around and bring her back. - -In five minutes the driver returned, and violently disparaged the car -so far as stage use was concerned. - -"Well, I'll tell ye, now," said the owner, "I really ain't got much use -for her. But I got a couple o' flivvers over in the garage, last -year's model, good shape; if ye'd consider a trade and take 'em both -off'n my hands, we might talk turkey. Step in the office, gents." - -They stepped in, and presently stepped out again. Sandy had rid -himself of the big car, attaining two flivvers and five hundred cash. - -That evening he did a thing which would have mightily astonished anyone -who had known the old Mackintavers. He called the other two into his -room, and laid upon the table all his worldly wealth. - -"Now, partners," he stated, "there's all I got. Split it up and start -even." - -Murray's keen eyes swept his face, and read there a stubborn -earnestness. It was not without an effort that Sandy had achieved this -moment. - -"Aw, hell!" broke out Hobbs. "Wot kind o' guys d'you take us for, Mac?" - -"We're partners, aren't we?" affirmed Sandy. "Aiblins, now, one friend -ought to help another and----" - -"We're more than partners, Mac," said Murray quietly. "We're friends, -as you say. Is it your proposition that we throw all we have into a -common fund?" - -"Just that," said Mackintavers doggedly. "Each one of us helps the -other to get on his feet, eh?" - -"And use the common funds for that purpose? I get you." Murray puffed -a moment. "Well, Willyum, say your mind!" - -"I say, Yes!" spoke up Bill Hobbs eagerly. "Mac's playin' on the level -with us, ain't he? Well, then, meet him square. If all of us is goin' -to be pals we----" - -Murray made a gesture of assent, and reached under his armpit. - -"Willyum was a hobo when we met," he said, "and hobos go heeled, Mac. -I didn't leave St. Louis bone dry myself. Here's our contribution. -We'll each drive a flivver from here, and if I were you, I'd convert -this wad into travelers checks before we leave in the morning. They'll -be good anywhere." - -He opened a flat purse and drew out a roll of bills. Mackintavers -gasped as they fell on the table. His features slowly purpled. - -"Good gosh!" he ejaculated. "Why----" - -"Nine hundred," said Murray. "Evens up pretty well with your thousand. -You keep the bank, Sandy. Say, there's a place north of here called -Two Palms, with an interesting yarn attached regarding a chink and a -girl; smacks of mystery. Also, it's a mining country and little known. -Let's go there to-morrow!" - -"All right," said Sandy brokenly. "You--you boys now, how d'ye know I -won't beat it with your pile? What right ye got to treat me----" - -"We're friends and partners, aren't we?" cut in Hobbs. "Forget it, -Sandy--forget it! Us guys is goin' to hang together, that's all. -We're usin' your flivver, ain't we? Well, that's all right. If you -see a chance to buy a mine, buy it; we'll be partners. If doc sees a -chance to cut a guy open an' make some money, we're partners. If I see -a chance to--to--to----" - -"To crack a safe?" suggested Murray whimsically. Hobbs gave him a -glance of earnest reproach. - -"Aw! Come off o' that, Doc; well, whatever I see a chance to do, we'll -do. Right?" - -Mackintavers nodded, and raked the money together. - -A fact which the desert rat had foreseen, but which hardly appeared to -Murray as any momentous factor in the affairs of destiny, was that on -the following morning the stage went to Two Palms with the mail. - -A few hours after the stage pulled out, the two flivvers were filled -with the necessary elements and crated tins of spare gasoline; Sandy -Mackintavers piloted one in the lead, and Murray and Bill Hobbs -followed in the second. - -The road to Two Palms was good, comparatively speaking; that is, it was -a road. Before noon, Sandy paused to lower the top of his car. Bodily -discomfort meant nothing to him; and he was more used to sun than to -wearing a hole through stout imitation-leather with the top of his -head, to say nothing of the risk of breaking his neck. - -"You bob around like a cork in a washtub, Mac," observed Murray. "When -you hit that dry wash a mile back----" - -"Don't mention it!" grunted Sandy. "I forgot which way the gas -throttle worked--it's different in an automobile. Why didn't we bring -some lunch?" - -"Too much interested in Meteorite scenery," said Murray. "Willyum! -Peter a can of something--if 'peter' is the correct expression----" - -"It ain't," retorted Hobbs cheerfully, "but I will." - -A frugal luncheon disposed of, they continued the journey northward. -That eighteen miles or so to Two Palms, was longer than any fifty they -had previously experienced. - -Meteorite lay among the hills, and in order to get to the basin which -encompassed Two Palms, the road twined endlessly through the sandy -washes and graveled valleys of the bleak red hills. They encountered -the stage on its return journey, and had to back fifty feet to a -turnout, a proceeding which was nerve-racking in the extreme. - -But at length the sandy desert basin unfolded before them, and Two -Palms in all its glory. It was not unlike a score of other desert -towns they had encountered; a string of adobes and unpainted frame -structures, crouching chameleon-like upon the sand, with wagon tracks -in lieu of roads winding away to north and west. Drawing closer, the -pilgrims discerned the details of Main Street, with its hitching posts -and straggling fronts; the hotel, notable by reason of its twin palms; -the hardware store, the general store and post office, the blacksmith -shop at the corner; the long, low chain of roofless adobes where in -more prosperous days Mexican workmen had lived; the abandoned newspaper -office, the little group of men and women in the shade of the hotel -porch, watching the new arrivals. And, hardly to be observed, was the -figure of Deadoak Stevens, off to one side, with the fragments of a -small-torn postal about his feet and a look of eager secretiveness in -his eyes. Deadoak was thankful that he had grabbed that postal before -Piute, as post-master, had a chance to read it; having read, he had -promptly destroyed the secret, and meant to garner to full harvest of -these pilgrims unto himself. - -Douglas Murray failed to observe a slight raise in the road which Sandy -had negotiated with ease; his thoughts were all upon the hotel and -group of live human beings ahead, and the correct manner in which to -stop his car. Thus, he killed his engine a hundred feet from the goal. - -"Curses on the beast!" he ejaculated, and crawled out. Bill Hobbs was -ensconced in the tonneau. - -Murray cranked--and then something happened. He remembered afterward -that he had forgotten to brake the car in neutral. He remembered it -after the radiator hit him over the ear and one of the fenders gently -pushed him twenty feet distant. - -Bill Hobbs sat on top of the load, paralyzed with terror, as the car -leaped away. From the watchers on the hotel porch burst yells of -grateful delight over this break in the monotony of existence. The -flivver plunged at the nearest hitching post, blithely carried it away, -and decided to investigate the abandoned print-shop. - -When Murray sat up and wiped the sand from his eyes, he ruffled up his -red hair and stared amazedly. The flivver was there, to be sure; one -wheel had burst in the door of the printing office, the other was -wedged about the steps, and the machine was lifeless. But Bill Hobbs -had vanished. Unforeseeing the sudden halt of his equipage, he had -shot headfirst from his perch, and neatly catapulted into the open -doorway. - -Murray was the first to reach the spot, while from the hotel porch -streamed the others. - -"Willyum!" - -"Comin' right up," answered the voice of Bill Hobbs, and the latter -showed himself in the doorway, grinning. "I've busted up somebody's -place and----" - -"Don't worry about that, stranger," said Deadoak Stevens, at Murray's -elbow. "It ain't been occupied since Jack Haskins cashed in. He left -a sister back east, but she ain't seen fit to remove the remains yet. -Glad to meet ye, gents! James Cadwallader Stevens is me, but Deadoak -Stevens by preference an' example." - -"Meet Bill Hobbs, Deadoak." Murray waved his hand toward the rumpled -figure in the doorway, and turned as Sandy and the others joined him. -"And this gentleman is Sandy Mackintavers, mining expert of parts East, -who expects to settle here as Bill Hobbs has settled. I am Douglas -Murray, doctor of medicine and surgeon extraordinary----" - -Piute Tomkins hastened to rescue matters from the unseemly grasp of -Deadoak, and performed the introductions with gusto. - -"As mayor of this here municeepality, gents," he concluded, "I welcome -you to our midst. Two Palms is on the crescent curve to prosperity an' -wealth. The population is increasin' daily----" - -"Say!" broke in Bill Hobbs, wrinkling up his face earnestly. "What's -that you guys say about this here printin' office? There's machines -and stuff in here--don't nobody want it?" - -Piute waved his hand. - -"There is no printer in our midst, pilgrim. All this flourishin' place -needs is a real newspaper, but so far fate----" - -"I'm it!" exclaimed Bill Hobbs gleefully. "I believe in signs, Doc--us -guys was sure guided here! I'm goin' to take over this joint where I -landed!" - -Murray looked up at the ex-burglar. "You! Why, Willyum, I didn't know -you were a printer or----" - -"I ain't," said Willyum earnestly, "but I will be. Is it agreeable to -you guys?" - -Piute Tomkins bowed his lank figure. "Stranger, set right in the game! -Them chips are yourn." He turned to Murray, caressing his mustache -mournfully. "But, Doc, I'm right glad to welcome you to our midst, -only we don't need no internal investigator in these parts, seein' that -nobody ever dies here except by sudden accident----" - -He paused, stared over Murray's shoulder, and his grizzled jaw gaped. - -Down the street came a flivver, swaying and roaring--a dusty flivver -containing no one except the girl at the wheel. She halted the car -with a grind of brakes, and, seeming quite oblivious of the strangeness -of the' scene before her, leaned put. - -"Mr. Tomkins!" she cried, an anxious excitement in her face. "Does -anybody here know anything about medicine? My--my father has been hurt -and----" - -"Praise be to providence!" orated Piute quickly. "Miss Lee, meet Doc -Murray--Doc, meet Miss Lee! I'm sure glad the good name o' Two Palms -has been saved this-away--you'll make a livin' here yet, Doc----" - -"Get in, please!" exclaimed the girl, with a swift gesture to Murray. -"You'll have to come with me at once----" - -"With pleasure, madam." Murray bowed, recovered his battered hat, and -climbed into the flivver. The engine roared; the car crawled off, got -its second wind, and vanished around the corner of the blacksmith shop -on two wheels, Sandy and Bill Hobbs staring blankly after it. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -SANDY INVESTS TWICE - -The coming and departure of the girl was dramatic enough to leave all -of assembled Two Palms transfixed with astonishment, until Piute -Tomkins gave vent to his feelings, forgetful that Mrs. Tomkins and Mrs. -Smithers were present. The indignation of Mrs. Tomkins at the language -of her spouse quite absorbed the attention of Piute pro tem., and in -this brief interval Deadoak Stevens got in his thoughtful work. - -Sandy Mackintavers caught a murmur at his elbow and turned to find -Deadoak addressing him in lowered tones. - -"You're the mining gent, ain't you?" - -"Aiblins, now," hesitated Sandy, "ye'll not consider----" - -"Tut, tut!" exclaimed Deadoak, winking. "I understand things, pardner; -a friend o' mine over to Meteorite sent me word that two gents were on -rout here with a minin' sharp. Now, let me warn you not to give ear to -these here desert rats all around, but step over to one side with me. -I got a confidential communication----" - -"Keep it, then," said Sandy brutally, "until we get settled here! Come -up to the hotel to-night." - -"And ye won't talk mines to nobody else first?" - -"Nary a soul," returned Mackintavers. "Hey, Hobbs! You goin' to come -out o' that place?" - -Bill Hobbs scratched his head and considered his position. - -"If you guys will drag the corpse out of the way," and he gestured -toward the flivver. "I'm goin' to give this joint the once over, Mac. -Join you over to the hotel later. Gee! You ought to see this joint, -Mac! Where did Doc go to?" - -Willing hands removed the flivver from the doorway. Deadoak, being -rebuffed by Sandy, remained to scrape an acquaintance with Bill Hobbs -and elucidate the kidnapping of Murray; while Piute Tomkins, taking in -hand his guest, performed the same office to Mackintavers, en route to -the hotel. - -That evening, Deadoak sidled cautiously to Mackintavers's room, -knocked, and slid inside as the door opened. - -"Ah!" he exclaimed, breathing more freely. "Ding my dogs, but I had a -stiff time eludin' that pirootin' son of a gun, Piute Tomkins! He -suspects somethin'." - -"So do I," said Mackintavers, grimly eyeing his guest. He did not know -that Deadoak had just come from a long and involved conference with -Piute, wherein property had changed hands and other arrangements had -been made; he did not need to know all this, however, to realize that -his visitor had not come for philanthropic purposes. - -Deadoak, blissfully unconscious that he was introducing a new game and -a cold deck to the gentleman who had invented that game and patented -the cold deck, sank into a chair and blinked solemnly at the lamp. - -He produced a battered corncob pipe, filled and lighted it, then -straightened out his legs along the floor and blew a cloud of smoke. - -"If I had money," he prologued dismally, "I wouldn't ask odds o' no -man----" - -"Me the same," struck in Sandy. "Aiblins, now, I'd wager there ain't a -man in this country who couldn't develop a promising hole if he had -money. Go ahead." - -Slightly daunted by the grimly sophisticated front of his host, Deadoak -took a new pull at his pipe and began afresh. - -"It's a right queer yarn, this story I got on my mind," he observed -dreamily. "Up north of here is the Dead Mountains, and it's a good -name. If there's anything deader'n them hills, I'd admire to see it! -Ye go out the good road along to where Piute an' me has got pear -orchards an' wells. After that, it ain't no road--it's an excuse. I -don't reckon anybody has traveled that way sinct ol' Hassayamp Perkins -got stove in by the cave-in." - -"How long ago?" queried Sandy seeking facts. - -"Two year. I ain't been that-a way myself, and nobody else ain't got -right good reasons for doin' it, except that there crazy chink. He -went that-a way this mornin', and he ain't got back yet. Another hill -fell on _him_ I reckon. After ye get through the marble cañon, there -ain't only volcanic ash and rock till ye come into the basin. I been -over in Death Valley an' the Aztec Fryin' Pan, and they don't hardly -show up alongside that basin to speak of. It ain't big, however, and -from there ye go into Morongo Valley." - -"Sounds lively," commented Mackintavers without great interest. - -"It is. If ye take two steps in any direction, there comes such a -buzzin' ye can't hear a man shout at ye twenty feet away--that's how -many rattlers there is! Well, as I was sayin', Hassayamp homesteaded -Morongo Valley. It ain't but a few hundred acres, and he'd located a -spring o' water big enough for all he wanted--he didn't wash much, -Hassayamp didn't." - -The shaggy brows of Mackintavers were bent upon the speaker in a silent -but forbidding fashion that somehow discouraged the careful narrative -which Deadoak had built up in his mind--a narrative with cunning -discursions and excursions. He decided to throw it all overboard and -to reach the point at once. - -"As I was sayin', Hassayamp homesteaded that valley to keep out other -folks----" - -"'Twouldn't protect his mineral rights," shot in Sandy shrewdly. -"Mineral rights belong to the state. Did he homestead the valley an' -lease the mineral rights?" - -"I was comin' to that if ye give me time," said Deadoak plaintively. -"Yep, he done so. Reg'lar five-year lease. Now, Hassayamp was Piute -Tomkins' father-in-law by marriage, savvy? Well, when the shaft fell -in and wiped out Hassayamp, Piute fell heir to the homestead, which -same had been proved up all correct, and the mine." - -"Piute owns it now, then?" - -"He do. I'm comin' to that if ye give me time. But here's somethin' -Piute don't know! A spell before Hassayamp got stove in, he come to -town needin' money. Piute Tomkins, whose repytation for pinchin' the -eagle into a sparrer ain't laid over by no one this side o' Phoenix, -didn't have no faith in him; but I did. So Hassayamp comes to me, -quiet, and gives me samples an' eloocidates how he'd got a road up to -the mine and had rigged up a hand crusher and done other work there, -and needed money to see her through. I give him five hundred an' took -out a mortgage on the hull prop'ty." - -"Homestead and minerals?" queried Sandy casually. - -"Certain! I took in everything, you can bet!" Deadoak tapped his -pocket. - -"You got the papers to prove it, of course?" - -"Comin' to that if ye give me time. Ding my dogs, ain't you got no -patience? Well, me an' Piute don't hitch extra well. After Hassayamp -cashed in that-a way, Piute always figgered on takin' over the place, -but he never got time. I figgered on takin' it over, but never got -around to it, rightly, so let her drift. Piute don't know yet that I -got that mortgage, which same can be foreclosed any time a-tall, it -bein' two year old. So I got her sewed up plumb legal, ye see." - -"I see." Sandy's shrewd eyes narrowed. If there was anyone in the -Southwest who knew mining law down to the ground, it was Sandy -Mackintavers. "What's in the mine?" - -"Ding my dogs! I'm comin' to that now. Hassayamp got gold -there--struck a lode o' quartz that runs about twenty-five to the ton -and promises to get richer quick. Here's the samples he brung me." - -Deadoak had now reached the apex of his elaborately conceived edifice. -Producing a buckskin bag, he emptied it on the table. Specimens of -very average gold quartz littered the table. Among them were several -pieces of a reddish crystalline substance. - -"That don't look so bad," commented Sandy, fingering the quartz. He -indicated the glassy red samples. "What's that stuff?" - -"Volcanic bottle-glass, I reckon--how it come with the samples I dunno, -unless Hassayamp thought it was pretty. This here quartz, like you -say, ain't bad; I'd say it was pretty dinged good, if ye ask me!" - -Sandy's eyes glinted at the red-glass specimens, and suspicion filled -his heart. - -"Uh-huh," he grunted. "What's your proposition?" - -"Well, I don't want to sell outright. That there lode is goin' to pay -big when she's developed. Looks to me, the way them specimens shape -up, like she'd run into rotten quartz an' free gold; ye can see that -for yourself. Sooner'n sell the hull thing, I'd hang on a spell -longer. But here's my idee: You an' your pardners buy the mortgage an' -give me a one-fourth int'rest in the mine. You'll have to foreclose -the mortgage----" - -"Is it recorded?" - -"Sure--I recorded her after Hassayamp cashed in an' Piute got his -title." - -"Uh-huh." - -"Bein's you'll have to settle Piute, an' develop her an' so forth, I -ain't aimin' to stick ye none. Say, you buy the mortgage for five -hundred, go ahead an' foreclose her, keep the homestead if ye want it, -and give me one-fourth int'rest in the mine. Ain't that fair?" - -Sandy frowned thoughtfully. He knew that on this basis he was going to -be stuck somewhere--and he believed that he knew exactly where. -Deadoak was trying to unload upon him a worthless mortgage. Since that -mortgage covered the mining rights and the improvements -thereon--property of the state and not subject to mortgage--the -document was illegal. - -Mackintavers had made a fortune because he knew men, could probe into -their minds and motives, could find their weak points and utilize them. -He had lost that fortune because he had tackled the wrong man, and he -had no intention of repeating the mistake. He sized up Deadoak for -exactly what that gentleman was--a shiftless desert rat planning to -take in the innocent stranger, without any very deep or well-laid plot. -It aroused all the predatory instinct in Sandy. Forgotten were his -virtuous resolves and high aspirations. Before his mind's eye unfolded -a simple but beautifully perfect scheme by which he might grab this -property entire. - -Being tempted, he fell. He could not well be blamed, for those -red-glass samples on the table, those carelessly lumped pieces of -"volcanic bottle-glass," showed the richest ruby silver Sandy had ever -seen outside Nevada! - -Sandy had already weighed the possibility of those samples not having -come from Morongo Valley; he had decided that they had done so. He was -staking his game now upon his judgment of Deadoak Stevens, who was -palpably a weak stick. Swiftly weighing things, he decided that -Deadoak was trying to rid himself of a worthless mortgage upon an -ignorant stranger. And having so decided, he gambled. - -"Aiblins, now," he said at length, "I'll tell ye! Want to look over -the ground first, ye understand. I'll give ye ten dollars cash for -that mortgage, and my note for the balance, ninety days, includin' in -the note that the title is clear except for this mortgage, and that the -samples ye got there come from this mine in question." - -"A note?" exclaimed Deadoak in obvious dismay. "Why, I was figgerin' -cash----" - -"Well make the note thirty days, then. I ain't buyin' a mine from a -set o' samples!" - -"Oh, that's fair enough, I reckon," said Deadoak. "Sure, fair enough. -You can pick up that lode five minutes after ye get there, and match up -them samples with the outcrop! That quartz sticks out o' the surface, -Mac! If Hassayamp hadn't got ambitious to strike the rotten streak, -he'd ha' been rich now." - -"Where's the nearest State Land office?" - -"Meteorite--that's the county seat, too," replied Deadoak, entirely -unconscious that Sandy wanted that bit of information very, very badly. -"Here's the mortgage--it ain't a mortgage, it's the other thing, the -one that lets ye grab a place the minute payments ain't made, with no -legal notice or nothin'. I had a cousin oncet that cleaned up a lot o' -money over in California, usin' them things instead o' mortgages, so I -used it too." - -Deadoak handed over a much thumbed but entirely legal deed of trust, -Mackintavers inspected it carefully, then calmly jotted down the -details as to the location of the defunct Hassayamp's property. - -"Aiblins, now," he said, rising, "I'll just run down and see Piute -Tomkins' deed to that property--make sure it corresponds with this -location, and is clear otherwise. Ye don't mind, o' course?" - -Deadoak looked up in weak protest, then yielded. - -"O' course not," he said with dignity. "Bein' a stranger, it's natural -that ye should take precautions; but when ye've been here a spell, -ye'll find out that----" - -"Ain't doubtin' you," said Sandy. "Not a mite! Now, you write out -that note to suit yourself, but make it contingent upon the facts bein' -as you say. And write out a conveyance o' that mortgage to me." - -Leaving the room, Mackintavers slowly descended the stairs toward the -office, where Piute Tomkins and Haywire Smithers were engaged at their -nightly cribbage. He paused on the landing, to chuckle to himself. - -"This mine is comin' cheap!" he reflected. "Volcanic -bottle-glass--that's a good one! Aiblins, now, it's a gamble. Should -I do it to-night or wait? If Deadoak had paid the least attention to -the ruby silver--but he didn't! Not a mite. He was all afire over -selling me that mortgage. I'll do it!" - -He went on down stairs. His whole scheme of action, which promised to -work with the beautiful precision of a machine, demanded that he -conclude the deal to-night and get Bill Hobbs off to Meteorite within -the hour. Reaching the hotel doorway, he saw a bobbing light across -the street in the newspaper office. His voice lifted in a bellow. - -"Bill Hobbs! You there?" - -"Want me?" came the reply. "Is Doc back? I been lookin' over this -joint----" - -"Get over here in a hurry. I need you." - -Sandy turned to the office, where the two cribbage players were gazing -up at him. He jerked his head slightly to Piute. - -"Can I see ye a moment in private?" - -"Certain, certain!" Piute rose with almost suspicious alacrity. He -had been waiting and praying for just such an invitation. "Step into -the back office, will you?" - -When the two men were alone in the inner office, with the lamp lighted -and the door closed, Sandy Mackintavers brushed aside all preamble and -came direct to the point. He held in his hand the deed of trust, which -he had not returned to Deadoak. - -"I understand ye have a homestead in Morongo Valley. I'll offer ye a -hundred cash for it." Piute's leathery complexion changed color. - -"A hundred!" he repeated in injured accents. "Why, that there -homestead is the very pride an' joy of my heart! She sure is. I aim -to lay out pears in that there Valley next Jan'ary. Got water, she -has----" - -"Here's a mortgage on the property," and Sandy brutally tapped the -paper in his hand. "I've bought it. It's two years old. Sooner than -foreclose, I'll buy your title. Aiblins, now, ye have a price?" - -Piute looked a trifle staggered, but shook his head firmly. - -"Nope. Nothin' under a thousand takes that there place! I dunno 'bout -this mortgage--ain't heard of it----" - -"Look at it," struck in Sandy. "I'll go to law and take the place if I -want! Give ye two hundred cash, not a cent more." - -"Nope," said Piute, bristling. "I got a few rights my own self, and I -know 'em! If it's the minerals ye're after----" - -"Minerals!" exclaimed Mackintavers with scorn. "I'm done with mining. -I want a homestead." - -"Well," proposed Piute, "that's diff'rent. I'll give ye an option on -the homestead for a thousand. Ye look her over, and if she's what ye -want----" - -"Nothing doing," rejoined Sandy. "I'm offering cash down, here an' -now. And I won't listen to a thousand." - -Piute hesitated. He had not glimpsed Sandy's roll of travelers' -checks, these three pilgrims looked none too prosperous, and he began -to think that he had set the ante too high. - -"Tell ye what," he said, "I wa'n't figgerin' on selling, but cash is -diff'rent. And this here mortgage thing--well, say seven hundred!" - -Sandy thought of that ruby silver ore, and fished for his check book. - -"You show me clear title an' give me a deed, and I'll give you five -hundred. Take it or leave it! That's the last word out o' me." - -"All right," said Piute. - -Mackintavers signed up checks to that amount. Bill Hobbs arrived in -time to join Haywire Smithers in witnessing the transfer, then -accompanied Sandy to the upstairs room where Deadoak awaited them. -Hobbs was mystified, but Sandy refused explanations. - -"I brought Mr. Hobbs along," said Sandy, "as his money will be -partially concerned. Aiblins, now, if you've got the note and -conveyance made out----" - -"Here they be," said Deadoak, trembling with concealed joy. - -Mackintavers read over the papers carefully, while Deadoak explained -the situation to the bewildered Bill Hobbs. - -"Ten dollars cash--here ye are," said Mackintavers. He signed the note -and returned it with a ten-dollar bill. "When Doc Murray gets back, -we'll go out and look over the place." - -"Suits me," and Deadoak sidled to the door. "Good luck, gents! See -you later." - -Left alone, Sandy Mackintavers pressed Willyum into a chair and set -forth exactly what he had accomplished. He took up the samples of ruby -silver ore. - -"I never saw anything to beat that ore--anywhere!" he said. "And these -desert rats never heard of such a thing; all they know is gold. Can ye -run a flivver, Bill?" - -"I can't," said the bewildered Hobbs, "but I guess I can. Why?" - -"You got to run back to Meteorite to-night--right now!" - -"Gee!" breathed Willyum, his eyes bulging. "What's the rush?" - -"Shut up and listen!" roared Sandy. "Aiblins, now, ye think I'm a -fool. Well, I'm not! If a minin' lease ain't worked, it lapses; if -proper reports ain't made, it lapses; if it's mortgaged, with -improvements, it's illegal. Deadoak's deed o' trust ain't worth the -paper it's written on, and he knew it!" - -"But--but you bought it----" - -"I gave him ten dollars as a free gift. That note, now--when he comes -to collect, he'll get nothin'. But I got hold o' the mortgage to save -trouble, that's all." - -"You ain't goin' to pay the note?" - -"Not hardly!" said Sandy with a grim smile. "My property will all -belong to you an' the doc. I guess I can trust you men with it! Now, -I bought Piute's deed in order to have clear title to everything. -Savvy?" - -"Not--not yet," murmured Willyum dazedly. "Who owns the mining rights?" - -"The state! The lease has lapsed long ago, and ain't been renewed. -I'm goin' to write out a bill o' sale, givin' you an' Doc all I own, so -Deadoak will have nothin' to sue on when he presents that note. After -he's out o' the way, we'll settle things. You beat it for Meteorite -right off, and when the land office opens in the morning--be there! -Take out a mining lease on this entire Morongo Valley homestead -land--in your own name. Get it for five years, under the precious -metals clause. I'll convey the mortgage to you. Record that in your -own name and let her go. We don't need to foreclose on that worthless -paper. It simply clinches everything in our name, clear." - -"But listen! Wait till Doc comes home and----" - -"Wait for nothin'!" shouted Sandy furiously. "Aiblins, now, d'ye know -what this Deadoak scoundrel will do? He knows as well as I do that his -mortgage is illegal. About to-morrow night he'll be in Meteorite -expecting to lease mining rights on that valley, meaning to stick us -later on. Savvy that?" - -"How d'you know none of these guys ain't done it already?" asked the -worried and still bewildered Hobbs. - -"I'm gambling on their general shiftlessness. Men of that stamp, not -expecting us to arrive and not expecting me to buy the place without -seeing it, will think they have lots of time to work the double cross. -Now, ye'd better run some gas out o' my flivver and fill up your own -tank." - -"But this--this ain't on the square, is it?" protested Bill Hobbs -weakly. - -"On the square!" repeated Sandy, stifling his own doubts with a -ferocious mien. "Of course it is! I bought a worthless mortgage with -a worthless note--ain't that even?" - -Bill Hobbs declined to struggle further with the problem, and gave up. - -Meantime, Deadoak Stevens was closeted below stairs with Piute Tomkins -in the inner office. Deadoak was just pocketing two hundred and fifty -dollars. - -"Fall for it?" said Deadoak. "Piute, ding my dogs if he didn't fall -clear through the crust and he ain't stopped yet!" - -"Well, we got a good price, I'm bound to admit," said Piute -thoughtfully. "As a beginning, it's good. But I'm a bit worried over -them minin' rights, Deadoak. If we'd knowed a couple o' days ahead -that them pilgrims was on the way, we could ha' renewed the lease or -took out a new one. You got to tend to that pronto." - -"Yep," agreed Deadoak. "I'll take that cayuse o' your'n and ride over -to Meteorite in a couple o' days. Then I'll lease them mineral rights. -Might's well try to shave that note over to town, too; mebbe somebody -will know who Mac is." - -"Don't wait no couple o' days," said Piute sagely. "You light out on -that cayuse 'fore daybreak! When them pilgrims gets tired o' lookin' -for ruby silver in that there prop'ty, they'll most like go to workin' -Hassayamp's gold lode. Then we trots out the minin' lease on 'em, with -threats o' prosecution for workin' without no lease." - -"She listens good," and Deadoak nodded. "Ding my dogs, Piute, if I -ain't sure glad them pilgrims come to Two Palms to-day!" - -"I'm sure glad," corrected Piute, "that we knowed they was coming! But -I wisht we'd knowed it a few days earlier.' I didn't allow they'd bite -so quick an' sudden, without even lookin' over the place. Them ruby -silver samples was what done it." - -"Them," admitted Deadoak modestly, "and the way I played my hand." - -"Well, you get them rights, and get the lease sewed up quick!" -admonished Piute. "But don't advertise it none. Go to the newspaper -office and stick a piece in the paper about them wise men from the east -alightin' in Two Palms an' buyin' property reckless and regardless. -Say the printin' office was sold for two thousand, and Hassayamp's -homestead for five thousand, and there's a big boom comin' -this-a-way----" - -"But, Piute," protested Deadoak, "they'll know we're plumb liars, them -Meteorite folks will!" - -"They know it anyhow," and Piute Tomkins grinned as he closed his safe. - - - - -CHAPTER V - -CLAIREDELUNE - -Douglas Murray, sitting beside the unknown girl as she drove out of Two -Palms, was for a moment dazed by the face of her. With Koheleth, -Murray had sworn that all was vanity and an empty chasing after winds; -yet the very sight of this girl's face, anxious and smitten as it was -with hurried fear, for a space struck the cynicism from him. - -"You're a real physician?" she asked, her eyes not lifting from the -road ahead. - -"I am, madam; Douglas Murray, at your service. I arrived in Two Palms -about ten minutes ago, and from what I have seen of the place, I do not -wonder at your astonishment." - -"Oh--I remember now! There were automobiles there." She flashed him a -sudden, swift glance, then returned her gaze to the road. "My name is -Claire Lee. My father has been hurt--we had a puncture, and while I -was fixing it, he wandered off on the hillside. I think he fell. -After I got him back into the car, he fainted, and he looked so -terribly ill that I stopped at the first opportunity to leave him in -the shade, and managed to get him there. The road is so rough that I -thought it would hurt his leg----" - -"Very well done," said Murray quietly. He wondered what kind of a man -her father could be, to let this girl fix a puncture. "The road is -pretty bad, beyond a doubt. Was his leg broken?" - -"I don't know. I was so afraid--I thought it might have been a -rattlesnake, but he said no----" - -Something in the way she bit off her words hurriedly and anxiously, -struck Murray as out of the ordinary. He dismissed the query as he -studied her face, feeling a little in awe of its startling and -indefinable beauty. Despite its quietly poised strength, despite the -upflung chin, its every line was carven with a rarely delicate -precision. Each contour was mose exquisitely balanced. The hands and -fingers, too, revealed this same fine artistry of line. - -In her face lay character, strong and sensitive; no whit out of -drawing, as Murray would have expected to find in a girl of the desert -places. Only in her eyes lay a deeply indefinite shadow, a hint of -rebellious pride, expectant, as though ready to take up arms instantly -against some dogging trouble-maker. The sheer beauty that shone from -her clearly level blue eyes and veiled her pale, sun-golden skin, was -about her like an evanescent gossamer substance, striking her lightest -word into shiftings of lost meanings and half-sensed sweetness. - -"Clairedelune!" thought Murray. "Clairedelune--lady of the -troubadours, sweet lovehurt of the soul--dear spirit-fragrant whiteness -of the silvern moonbeam in the fairy ring! Clairedelune--embodied -ecstasy of the poet's soul, the light that never was on land or sea----" - -A sardonic curve tipped his lips as the flivver bucked and reared and -cracked his brow against its top. - -"Oh!" exclaimed the girl penitently. "I'm sorry I I always do the -wrong thing with this car. I've just learned to drive it, and it's so -different from a Twin-Duplex! I always open the throttle when I mean -to close it." - -So she had been driving a Twin-Duplex! The more Murray studied her, -the more her presence here puzzled him. Wealth and breeding--even in -the lines of the khaki dress was the one, and the other lay in her eyes. - -"You've not been long in this country?" he asked. - -"No, we came from San Francisco." She checked the words abruptly, as -though she had spoken before thought. Then, perhaps finding it -necessary to avoid abruptness, she added: "And I broke the -plate-holders when I got father into the car--just as we thought we had -succeeded! That means it must be done all over again." - -"Taking photographs, eh?" Murray laughed whimsically. "It seems to -me, Miss Lee, that you could take photographs anywhere in this country -and they'd be all the same!" - -"Oh, no indeed! We've been looking for a particular place--well, no -matter. There's where father is." - -She pointed ahead to a patch of green and brown. This was Piute's -so-called ranch--a frame shack beside the road, with a few young -Lombardy poplars sprouting into the sky, and acres of young pears -stretching symmetrically across the desert floor. The dull clank clank -of the pumping engine reverberated ceaselessly. No one lived on the -place, but Piute Tomkins came out twice a week and had the engine going -during these intervals, for irrigation purposes. - -Experiments of some kind, thought Murray; that explained it very well. -The father was a scientist engaged in work here, no doubt. - -Murray thought at first that the road ended here; then he saw that it -continued, an indefinite track winding away over the blazing, sun-white -desert surface, winding between outpost yuccas, across to the horizon -of this level expanse, as level as a billiard table, swept and -garnished by the desert winds. - -"Oh, he is conscious--and watching us!" exclaimed the girl as she -halted the car. - -Murray leaped out. In the scant shade under the poplars, beside the -road, lay the figure of a man, shoulders and head propped up by his -rolled-up coat. His open eyes were fastened upon Murray as the latter -approached. - -It was with a distinct mental shock, almost a physical shock, that -Murray realized this man was a most unmistakable Chinaman. Then, for -the first time, he remembered the tale of the desert rat in Meteorite. - -So he understood now the shadow in the girl's eyes--yet, he swore to -himself that there must be some tremendous error of providence here! -He did not look back at the girl; he gave his whole attention to the -matter in hand. He heard her voice speaking his name, and saw the man -before him make a quiet gesture of acceptance. Then Tom Lee spoke. - -"My left leg, doctor. The knee is hurt. The pain is severe." - -Murray saw now, that the strong, masterful, yellow features were beaded -with the sweat of pain. He knelt, then glanced up. - -"A knife, Miss Lee? I shall cut these trousers to avoid causing -further suffering----" - -It was Tom Lee who silently reached into his pocket and produced a -knife, which the girl took and opened, handing it to Murray. The -latter fell to work. - -For ten seconds, the slender, powerful hands of Murray busied -themselves about the injured member; a scant ten seconds, touching -lightly and deftly. Then from Tom Lee broke a low, tensioned grunt of -agony. His fingers clenched at the ground, his head fell back into the -arms of the girl. He was senseless. - -"Oh!" she cried out. "What is it--what have you done----" - -Murray rose. The old sardonic twist was in his face now as he looked -upon them. Still the clear beauty of the girl drove into his heart; -the frightened, wondering face of her was like a sweet hurt to the soul. - -"A dislocated knee," he said quietly. "I have replaced it. Perhaps we -had better lift him and place him in the car now, while he is -unconscious. A few days of repose will see him none the worse." - -"There is nothing else?" she exclaimed. "But you have not examined----" - -Murray's brows lifted. "My dear young lady," he said drily, "more than -one surgeon has been glad to stand at my operating table and learn of -my technique. In this case, I have both examined and operated; there -remains only convalescence." - -A slow flush crept into her face, as she stared at him. But she -ignored his rebuke. - -"Why--it was wonderful! A touch--only a touch----" - -Murray bowed. He had left his hat in the car, and the late afternoon -sun struck his coppery hair to red gold. - -"Thank you, Miss Lee," he said, and smiled frankly. "I value that -compliment more than many I have received in other days. And now, may -I suggest that we lift him into the car at once? I will take--or wait! -There is a house of some kind here; let us make him comfortable for the -night. You return to town in that car, and obtain some more -easy-riding conveyance. He is a large man, and would have to sit -doubled up; we could not get into town before dark, and I would like to -bandage his knee properly without delay. An hour or so might make a -difference of days in his recovery." - -"Just as you think best," she answered. "He must recover as soon as -possible----" - -"I'll look around here." - -As he sought the shack, Murray angrily shrugged his shoulders. The -discovery of the racial identity of her father had left him dazed; now -he revolted inwardly against the fact. There was nothing good in the -world after all. Beautiful as this girl was, exquisite as she was, she -was a living lie--not by her own fault, perhaps, but no less a lie. -For Murray, the world was tainted again. - -He found the shack to be a one-room affair, containing two bunks with -dubious blankets, a table, and two chairs. Behind it was a shed -containing the clanking gas-engine, upon which he promptly put a -quietus. Returning, he found Tom Lee still unconscious. - -"Let us carry him. I'll take him about the hips--you take his -shoulders." - -Although he had perforce taken for granted her ability, Murray was a -little surprised at the way in which the girl carried her share of the -burden--lightly and with ease. Strength in that fragility, he thought! - -When they had put the man in one of the bunks, Claire spoke quietly. - -"If you'll wait here, please, I'll get some stuff for bandages." - -He nodded, and sat down beside the bunk. He watched the face of Tom -Lee curiously, and to his inward astonishment found himself reckoning -it a very fine face. Here was not one of hybrid orientals who seeks -notoriety by taking unto himself a white wife; in repose, the man's -face was singularly massive, eloquent of self-repression, instinct with -a firm command. Not a handsome face in any sense, but most striking. -A man, thought Murray, who lived a stern inner life--a man who had -mastered the secret of reserve. - -"Here," said the girl's voice. Murray turned to her. She was -extending several strips of silk and one of linen; her clear eyes spoke -of anxious solicitude, but were unembarrassed. - -"He has not recovered yet?" - -"Thank you. These are excellent, Miss Lee! I'll have him fixed up in -no time. No, I don't want him to recover just yet." - -He was aware that she had again left the shack, but now he was bending -over the man's figure, intent upon his task, bandaging the injured knee -firmly and deftly. When at length he finished and sat back, he found -that the liquid black eyes of Tom Lee were open and were calmly -regarding him. - -"Broken?" demanded the yellow man laconically. - -"No; dislocated. You'll be around in a few days." - -The massive chest heaved, as though in a deep breath of relief. The -eyes flickered again to the doorway; following them, Murray saw Claire -enter, a basket in her hand. - -"Fortunately, we've some lunch left, Doctor Murray--oh!" She saw that -Tom Lee was awake, and she hastened to the bunk, pressing her lips to -the cheek of the yellow man. "I'm so glad it's nothing serious, -Father! And wasn't it wonderful to find Doctor Murray----" - -The big powerful hand of the yellow man patted her shoulder. - -"It's all right, my dear," said Tom Lee, surprising Murray again by the -perfection of his English. "No great harm done. The pictures are -safe?" - -"I broke them--getting you into the car----" - -"Never mind." The yellow face was quite impassive. "Easy enough to -get more, Claire. Why am I in this place, Doctor? And where is it?" - -Murray explained to him in a few words. "I'll stop here with you, -while Miss Lee goes in to town for a wagon or vehicle of some -sort--even a buckboard might do. There's no great hurry about it. -We're only a few miles from town, and I'd not advise moving you before -the morning." - -"Very well, Doctor," said the deep, grave voice. "Suppose that you -leave Claire with me, and you take the car into town. You'll find a -thermos of tea in the car--we had an extra one that we did not use. If -you'd not mind getting it, I think we can provide a very fair meal." - -Murray nodded and passed out to the car. Upon reaching it, he saw what -he had not previously observed--the rear of the front seat was fitted -with a large carrying bag, and in the tonneau was an open camera case, -from which had been disgorged half a dozen plate-holders, most of them -trampled and cracked. The carrying bag was unstrapped, and from it -Murray took a quart thermos bottle, then returned. - -He found the table covered with the contents of the basket--sandwiches, -tinned meat, and half a dozen odd little crocks filled with the most -amazing Chinese delicacies. Tom Lee ate nothing, but smoked a tiny -pipe of gold-mounted bamboo, which Claire filled and lighted for him. -Nor did he talk at all, save to answer a direct question, leaving the -burden of conversation to Murray and the girl. His eyes watched Murray -sharply, however; perhaps he did not fail to note that while the -red-headed medico was discreet enough to ask no questions regarding -them, he also avoided all reference to himself. - -"I expect to settle in Two Palms," said Murray suddenly, feeling that -they were wondering about him even as he was about them. "For my -health. I came here with two friends, and we may all become citizens -of the desert for a time." - -The girl's eyes went to her father, as though to seek from him -permission to speak. But Tom Lee watched Murray through his -pipe-smoke, and made no sign. - -"It is a wonderful place," and the girl sighed a little. "Savage -and----" - -"Ah!" exclaimed Murray. "You must have blankets; these nights are -cold. You can't use these horribly soiled ones in the bunks, Miss Lee." - -"There is a suitcase strapped behind the car," spoke up Tom Lee. -"Everything necessary is in it." - -Murray went out to the car and began unstrapping the suitcase he found -there. The sun had fallen behind the western buttes--purple-red peaks -that seemed to jut out of the level desert floor, solid blocks of -shadowed Tyrian now, that with the sunrise would betray the most -delicate of greens and pinks, and that with noon would gleam savagely -in the harshest and crudest of stark reds. - -And here the green pear trees, five-year trees, silvered the -sunset-reddened sand as though reflecting the pale whiteness of the sky -that would darken soon into the deep blue of the spangled night. -Murray paused and looked at it all, awed before the silence. Then came -a crunch of sand and a voice behind him. - -"It is the magic hour of the desert--this and the sunrise, yet each so -different! I wonder that artists do not try to paint such things, -instead of hills in the sun and the bald architecture of buildings! -Here is the miracle, and they see it not." - -Murray turned to the girl. "The miracle indeed, Clairedelune!" he said -softly. - -Her eyes met his, and she was laughing. - -"That," she said unexpectedly, "is what Father calls me!" - -"Oh!" said Murray, remembering suddenly. How in the name of everything -could a Chinaman pick upon such a name as that--a name of poetry, of -romance, almost of oblivion! A sudden distaste for that name seized -upon Murray. - -The girl read the sardonic thoughts in his face, and turned away. A -coldness was upon her when she spoke; as it were, a veil was drawn -between them. - -"If you'll bring the suitcase inside, please, we'll get Father fixed up -comfortably." - -Murray obeyed dumbly. - -Half an hour later, he started for Two Palms. He should have covered -the few intervening miles in no time, but one of his forward tires blew -out with a roar and left him sitting thoughtfully in the mountain -places. - -By the time complete darkness fell, he had found a spare tube and was -patching up the blown tire with fumbling fingers. Presently he got the -stubborn rubber obedient to his wishes, and for fifteen minutes labored -over a wheezing pump. - -It was nearly midnight when he came laboring into Two Palms under the -flooding moonlight, and with sighs of fervent relief brought his -vehicle to a halt beside the dark and silent frame of the hotel. - -"No, I guess I'll stick to the name," he thought, as he climbed out and -gazed at the silvern glory of the night. "Clairedelune! Shall I let a -big yellow man drive all the romance out of things? Not yet. Find the -best that remains in your life, my boy, and transmute it into precious -metal if you can; you need it! Well, it's been a strenuous day--I'm -for bed. Time enough in the morning to organize the rescue party." - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -DEADOAK FEELS REMORSE - -Haywire Smithers had at one time maintained a livery, which was now -defunct. However, he disinterred an ancient surrey, hitched up one of -Piute's horses, oiled his springs, and set forth with Murray to fetch -in Tom Lee and Claire. - -Before leaving town, however, Murray was interviewed by Sandy -Mackintavers, who laid bare the little deal in real estate. Murray -listened without comment, his keen eyes searching the heavy features of -Mackintavers. - -"I thought," he said quietly, "that you had decided to throw overboard -all the shady tricks of yesterday, Sandy?" - -Mackintavers flushed. "Shady? And what's shady about this, will ye -tell me?" - -"Giving a note that you don't expect to pay, for one thing." - -"Wasn't the paper worthless that I gave it for?" - -"No matter; it was unnecessary. That note will be met and paid, Sandy." - -"Man, ye don't understand this game!" said Sandy with earnest -conviction. "There was nothin' wrong about it; one man get ahead of -the other, that's all! Aiblins, now----" - -"Aiblins, now," and Murray smiled quickly, "we're partners, so say no -more about it. Only, after this, let me in on these little deals, Mac; -if I'd been here last night, you'd not have given that note. After -this, we'll pull together--and go slow. I'll wager that when Hobbs -gets back, you'll find that you've been neatly stung." - -"How?" - -"Lord, man, I don't know! I was merely expressing an opinion. We'll -put the deal over, however, and if Willyum holds to his notion of being -a printer, we'll give him a helping hand." - -"Right." - -So Murray went forth into the desert, and it was nearly noon when he -returned. The surrey discharged its passengers at the hotel, and Tom -Lee was carried to his room. He had a slight touch of fever and Murray -assumed prompt charge of him, installing Claire as nurse and ordering -that the injured man be kept alone and unexcited. - -Luncheon over, and his patient reported asleep, Murray discussed -immediate plans with Sandy. To go out to Morongo Valley and -investigate their purchase, was naturally the first impulse of both -men; but they had to await the return of Bill Hobbs, in order to make -sure of their position. That Hobbs himself would accompany them to -Morongo Valley, was unlikely. - -"We may get off in the morning," said Sandy. "He'll not like it there, -Doc. He's taken a notion to the printin' business, and his heart will -be back here." - -"Let him stay here, then," assented Murray, "and go in for his chosen -profession! At least, for the present. He'll get tired of playing by -himself, I imagine. Suppose we go over and get the shop cleaned up a -bit for him?" - -Sandy agreed. On the hotel porch they encountered Piute Tomkins, who -was busily engaged in hounding unfortunate lizards to a miserable fate. -Murray paused and addressed him. - -"As the mayor of this municipality and deputy sheriff, Mr. Tomkins, we -call upon your aid! Now is the time for all good men to come to the -aid of the party. Arise and shine! If you want a print-shop opened -here, let's go and open it. Our estimable partner Bill Hobbs will be -back anon, and upon his return he'll find the place cleaned up. It -will encourage him." - -"Where's he gone?" queried Piute, untangling his legs from his chair -and rising. - -"Joy-riding. Careening blithely forth upon the desert winds, his soul -unblemished by care and his tires filled with ethereal zephyrs. Comest -thou?" - -Piute looked a trifle blank, and followed. - -The shop was just as the defunct owner had left it--or rather, as -Willyum had left it the night previous. The neglect and dirt of a -twelvemonth faced them, and they attacked it valiantly. After half an -hour, however, they gave it up as a hopeless job. - -"I never seen a clean printer yet," observed Piute thoughtfully, "and -there ain't no use tryin' to improve on the Lord's handiwork, I reckon. -I'm goin' to rest a spell." - -He departed. Murray looked at Sandy, and grinned. - -"Well, the floor looks cleaner, at least! Let's take an inventory!" - -Sandy dismally shook his head and drifted away in the tracks of Piute. -But Murray, who was operating with the interests and future of Bill -Hobbs in view, continued his labors. He was enjoying himself, sating -his archæological cravings, as it were. Having rescued Bill Hobbs from -an aimless existence of more or less criminality, he felt that if Hobbs -now had leanings toward settled life in this spot, he should be aided -and encouraged thereto. Murray was not oblivious of a sense of -responsibility; besides, he had a real affection for the earnest -Willyum. - -He explored the place thoroughly. Coming in from the outside world, in -touch as he had been with the prices of things, he was astonished to -find that the shop must have been well stocked up shortly before the -demise of the late proprietor. The ink-rack was filled with tubes and -tins; a gasolene drum reposed in the corner; news print paper was -stacked high in a closet, ready cut, and there were two untouched -rolls; bond and job paper of all kinds was in abundance. - -The large foot-power job press seemed new and good, while the cutter -and other varied machines were in fair condition, type racks, -furniture, stones--all the paraphernalia of a printing establishment -were here. Murray was not so sure about the press, and with reason. -This was an ancient and much mended relic, a flat-bed hand-power -creation such as made Ben Franklin famous; an instrument such as is -keenly sought after by dilettanti print-artists who love good work, and -shunned by those who seek commercial results. - -"Looks to me as though Willyum can step right in and take hold," -thought Murray. "He can learn to set type easily enough--he'll have -to! There's a place to sleep in back, and he can rustle his own meals. -I guess Bill can manage." - -Returning to the hotel, he took a chair beside Piute and Sandy, and was -talking idly when Claire Lee appeared in the doorway. - -"Mr. Tomkins!" she exclaimed. "How can I get off some letters and -telegrams?" - -"Give 'em to me," said Piute. "Stage comes in next week." - -"Next week!" Dismay filled the girl's face. "But--but these are -important! They must go off at once!" - -Piute pulled at his mustache and frowned. - -"Sho!" he exclaimed. "If I'd knowed that this mornin', you could ha' -sent 'em by Deadoak. He took my hoss an' rode over to Meteorite." - -Mackintavers gave Murray a significant glance, followed by a wink. - -"But surely," persisted the girl, "there must be some way----" - -"There is," said Piute encouragingly. "If ye don't want to take 'em -yourself in that car, why, I reckon Shovelface Ryan would saddle up and -ride over for five dollars. He's the helper up to the blacksmith shop. -Shovelface done set off a blast too soon one time and it plumb -disorganized his talkin' and hearin' apparaytus, but if Stiff Enger is -around he can interpret for ye." - -The girl hesitated an instant, then came out into the sunlight and -walked up the street. - -"It's right queer, now----" and Piute favored his auditors with an -exposition of his own views, the views of Deadoak, the views of -Haywire, and in fact the views of Two Palms in particular and in -general, upon the subject of Tom Lee and Claire. - -Before Piute had exhausted the subject, Claire came into sight again, -returning. At the steps she thanked Piute for his suggestion. - -"Mr. Ryan is going," she said, then paused. "Father is still asleep, -Doctor Murray. Do you think he's all right?" - -"Absolutely, Miss Lee," answered Murray. "He must be kept quiet for a -few days, that's all. I'll look in on him tonight." - -She nodded and was gone. - -Conferring with Sandy, Murray decided to get one of the flivvers in -shape for the trip to Morongo Valley, and ascertained the road -carefully from Piute. That gentleman was openly curious as to the -whereabouts of Bill Hobbs, but gained no satisfaction; and presently -took his departure in somewhat of a huff. - -"Aiblins, now," said Mackintavers, "we may take for granted that Hobbs -will be back sometime tonight, so that we can start in the morning, if -his report's good. Suit ye?" - -Murray nodded. They took the car over to the hardware emporium of -Haywire Smithers, and filled her with gasolene and oil; their spare -cans were still untouched. - -Claire joined them at the supper table with word that her father had -awakened, and when his meal was finished, Murray went to visit his -patient. He found Tom Lee taciturn, the fever departed, and mentioned -that he would be gone for a few days. - -"We've invested in a mine," he explained, smilingly, "and we're anxious -to look the ground over. You'll need no attention, Mr. Lee, if you -keep quiet. Three days in bed, and you'll be able to step around with -a cane. I'll see you when I return." - -"Very well," said Tom Lee without comment. - -Murray went downstairs to find Bill Hobbs at the table, devouring -everything in sight. Piute was hanging around, so the cautious Willyum -made no reference to his trip, beyond stating the unavoidable fact that -he had been to Meteorite. And at this, Piute Tomkins could not repress -his uneasiness. - -"Gee, that road was suttinly fierce!" remarked Willyum between bites. -"I left there about noon, and had two punctures comin' over the rocks. -Say, I met a guy on horseback, too! That guy Deadwood----" - -"Deadoak!" said Piute explosively. - -"Yep, Deadoak. He give me a hand blowin' up a tire." - -Piute was looking very melancholy when the three partners left the -dining room and adjourned to their own room. - -Once in private, Bill Hobbs unbosomed himself of sundry papers. He had -carried out his business, and he merely turned over his papers to -Mackintavers with a grin. Sandy examined the documents, and nodded -grimly. - -"Good! D'ye mind, Murray, what our host said about Deadoak? Ye met -him, Hobbs. He was on his way to Meteorite, to get the mining lease!" - -"Oh!" said Bill. "Come to think of it, he did look kinda funny!" - -Murray chuckled. "Then, Sandy we own everything in sight?" - -"Everything," assented Mackintavers vigorously. "And a good job it is!" - -"All right. You look dead for sleep, Willyum, so turn in. We're off -in the morning to inspect the property. Want to go along?" - -Hobbs hesitated. - -"Well, I want to bad enough, only for that there joint across the -street----" - -"All right." Murray chuckled again. "We've cleaned up a bit for you, -so fall to work! In two or three days we'll be back, and have an -arrangement in regard to the future. If you're seriously set on -opening up a print-shop, we'll agree----" - -"As partners?" queried Willyum anxiously. - -"Sure," asserted Sandy, with one of his rare smiles. "We go -three-square in everything! Mine and homestead and newspaper--we'll be -running the country next!" - -"'Where every prospect pleases and only man is vile,'" quoth Murray, -and grinned. His grin was worthy the name, and was most reprehensible -in a man of his years and experiences. - -"You take the papers," said Mackintavers, extending them. "Don't leave -'em with Bill. 'Twouldn't be safe. A mere ex-burglar would be an -infant in arms with these natives to plunder him!" - -"I s'pose so," agreed Bill Hobbs mournfully, and bade his partners -farewell. - -At six in the morning, Murray and Sandy Mackintavers drove out along -the north road toward Morongo Valley, and vanished for a space from -human ken. At a later hour, Bill Hobbs went forth to his "joint," and -was too much absorbed to show up again at the hotel until supper. - -And, in the meantime----! - -Toward noon, Claire summoned Piute Tomkins to her father's room, with -word that Tom Lee wished to speak with him. Piute obeyed the summons. -When he entered, Tom Lee gazed at him steadily for a moment. - -"I wish to know, Mr. Tomkins," he said slowly, "who owns the valley at -which we looked the other day--Morongo Valley, I think the name is." - -"Who--who owns it?" stammered Piute. He was of a sudden acutely -mindful of a sub rosa transaction by which Deadoak had transferred that -property to him, and he to Mackintavers. "Why--d'ye mean the homestead -or the mine, now?" - -"Both," snapped Tom Lee impatiently. "All of it--all of the little -valley!" - -Piute was positively staggered. He had no certain clue from this -whether Tom Lee wanted the mine or not; chances were, he did. Murray -and Mackintavers were gone--and Bill Hobbs, he guessed shrewdly, knew -little of the matter, or at least could sign away nothing. - -"Well, I'll tell ye," said Piute, desperate. "Right queer about that -there place, it is! Ye see, the feller that homesteaded it an' worked -the mine, he got stove in under his own shaft. My father-in-law, he -was, and a right mean ol' scoundrel to boot. Well, Deadoak Stevens, he -wanted the prop'ty, on account o' Hassayamp havin' a bag o' dust on him -and meanin' to dig up the remains----" - -"Who owns the property?" cut in Tom Lee impatiently. - -"Why, Deadoak!" rejoined Piute. "At least, he done so a couple of days -ago, and I reckon still does." - -"Where is he?" - -"I dunno. Went off to Meteorite yes'day. He'll be back soon enough." - -"If you'll send him to me, Mr. Tomkins, I'll appreciate it greatly." - -"Certain, certain," and Piute backed out, pausing in the corridor to -mop his beaded brow. Tom Lee had been to Morongo Valley and had found -something. Mackintavers had been deluded into buying the property." - -"Plague take it!" said Piute. "If Deadoak was here now!" - -Late that night, Deadoak staggered into the hotel and fell upon the -neck of Piute Tomkins with tears,--metaphorically speaking. Curses -were nearer the truth. - -"He done beat us to it!" sorrowed Deadoak, rolling a cigarette while -Piute rustled him a cup of coffee in the kitchen. "He done grabbed the -minin' rights, Piute----" - -"Let it go!" exclaimed Piute energetically. "Listen here, now----" He -expounded the interview with Tom Lee. - -"That there chink has found somethin'!" he declared with vigor. "You -chase up to his room an' see if he wants to buy the place." - -"Ding my dogs, Piute! I can't sell that there place no more--she don't -belong to me!" - -"If he wants it, get an offer. If it's enough, buy it back from -Mackintavers!" - -Deadoak protested. He was saddle-galled and weary, disconsolate and -disgusted, and he had no heart for intrigue. Piute Tomkins goaded him -to it, however, and sent him despite protests to the room of Tom Lee. - -Fifteen minutes later, Deadoak stumbled downstairs to the office where -Piute awaited him. He dropped limply into a chair. - -"Well?" snapped Piute. - -"Ain't no well--nothin' but a dry hole," mourned Deadoak. "That there -chink offered--or rather, I brung him up to offer--five thousand cash -for the place. Ding my dogs! If only we hadn't acted so preceptous -with that there pilgrim! I ain't never knowed what real remorse was -until right now----" - -"Well, saddle up an' beat it to Morongo Valley pronto," exclaimed -Piute. "Buy back----" - -"Not me! I done had enough ridin' to last my mortal lifetime----" - -"You're goin', and you're goin' in the morning!" asserted Piute -emphatically. "Savvy? See what that there chink found--trail him -down! I got no use for yeller men cheatin' honest citizens out o' -their rights. You're goin', understand?" - -Deadoak assented weakly that he understood. Presently, however, he -rallied again. - -"Now, Piute, show some sense!" he pleaded. "Ain't you jest said that -the chink and this Doc Murray were out together? Well, they framed up -the deal on us, that's all; the doc got the chink to----" - -"You're a plumb fool, Deadoak," exclaimed Piute scornfully. "Why, the -deal hadn't been put through when Murray went out to 'tend to the -chink! 'Course, it might ha' been framed up since; all these here -pilgrims seem a durn sight smarter'n you'd think for. I tell ye -what----" - -"Say!" broke in Deadoak with sudden remembrance. "I met Shovelface -Ryan on his way to Meteorite--the chink girl had give him ten dollars -to take some letters over there pronto. Tellygrams too. Well, -Shovelface give me a squint at 'em, but he wouldn't let me open 'em -a-tall; he's a queer cuss, Shovelface is, in some ways! Them letters -was addressed to chinks in San Francisco, and they had photygrafts -inside--they'd been put in damp and had curled up; I could feel 'em----" - -"That proves it!" cried Piute in triumph. "That proves it, Deadoak! -This here chink done located somethin' out to that place. And by whiz, -he photygrafted it! Then he writ back to all his chink friends to let -'em in on the good thing." - -"But all this," said Deadoak thoughtfully, "ain't nothin' to me no -more. I don't own no mine in Morongo Valley! I don't own nothin' -except a note for five hundred----" - -"Well, _I_ got some money to work with," broke in Piute. "You vamose -out to that there mine and look her over! The chink an' the girl brung -back some pictures and some of 'em was broke, but I guess a few was -saved; the girl developed 'em in that closet the chink hired for a dark -room. Most likely she left 'em there. I'll have a look in there early -in the mornin', and mebbe we can get a clue. - -"Then, you chase out to the valley an' keep your eye on things. Take -some grub and a pair o' blankets, and watch what them pilgrims does, -savvy? Take them glasses o' mine, and you can lay up top o' the hill -all snug." - -"The sun lays up there, too," said Deadoak, plaintively. "It lays up -snug, and it's hotter'n hell, and brings out the rattlers an'----" - -"You never mind," cut in Piute. "You're a-goin', that's all!" - -Deadoak bowed his head in bitter assent. - -"My, but you're plumb sot in your ways, Piute!" he returned feebly. -"I'll go." - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -STUNG! - -Sandy Mackintavers was desert-wise, so far as automobile travel was -concerned. He did not travel without spare water-bags and lengths of -rolled chicken-wire, and at Meteorite he had fitted his flivver with a -running-board pump. - -After passing the marble cañon and negotiating the stretch of bad land -where volcanic ash sifted into the air and obsidian glittered under -foot, Murray steered the flivver down into the basin where all road was -lost, where the loose sifting sands were blazing with the heat of an -inferno, and where the car bogged down into the bottomless dust. Sandy -deflated the tires, and when this would no longer serve, utilized the -chicken-wire to run out of holes; by some miracle of desert sense, he -managed to hold the right direction, although the rude map furnished -them by Piute was useless to Murray. - -It was nearly evening when they arrived at the spot dignified by the -name of Morongo Valley, and the westering sun transmuted the sterile -scene into one of glorious radiance and scarlet-tinged hues. All -around stretched the peaks of the Dead Mountains, not clothed with the -glorious forests of New Mexico, but with their naked eminences now -gleaming in blue and scarlet fires of sunset, their valleys long -streamers of darker purples, their bald slopes a yellow golden glory. - -The valley itself was a box cañon, a small one, the upper end a solid -mass of greenery. There was water here--a tiny trickle, that had been -brought from the hillside to vivify the upper flat, and had given its -precious life to all the higher slopes, before it lost itself in the -farther sands. - -The road, better preserved here, led them to the shack of Hassayamp. -It was scarce worthy the name of shack--a rough erection of boards and -scraps of tin, designed only to afford shelter from the elements. -Sandy, standing beside the car and scrutinizing the hill-slopes, -pointed upward. - -"That's the mine, I'm thinkin'--that contraption o' timbers halfway up. -It seems to have caved in. We're not interested in that, however; ruby -silver is what'll make us sit up! Time for that in the morning." - -Murray viewed the interior of the shack, and declared for sleeping in -the open air. - -They were up and about by sunrise. Murray was cool and rather sardonic -in regard to the whole affair, but Mackintavers was cheerful and blithe -as any boy of a prospector on his first search for earth-gold. The -sight of that glittering silver ore, that wondrous ruby silver ore -whose arsenic had ruined many a man and whose silver content had made -thousands rich, was like a tonic in the blood of Sandy. - -By evening they had gone over the ridge wherein lay the unfortunate -Hassayamp, and had found no ruby silver vein. They had struck gold in -promising lodes, but gold was naught before the ruby silver--if they -found it. Sandy continued cheerful, and Murray was coolly complacent, -doing as Mackintavers bade him but frankly without hope of success. - -With the following morning, they took picks and labored valiantly until -shortly before noon. Then Murray descried a little group of figures -breaking its way toward them--not from the direction of Two Palms, but -from the north, from the desert of the Colorado. The group resolved -itself into two plodding, patient burros and the nondescript outline of -a desert rat. The latter greeted them as they met him at the shack. - -"Howdy, pilgrims! Seen your smoke this mornin', and sinct I was -headin' in for town anyhow, I come this way. My land, but you're in -style, ain't ye! Autobile an' all--say, is that a real autobile? I -seen one oncet, las' time I was over to Eldorado--but sho! Here I be, -forgettin' all decency! My name's George Beam, gents, though most -folks address me as Sagebrush." - -"Glad to meet you," said Sandy cordially, completing the introductions, -"and ye better sit in with us for a snack, old-timer. Any luck?" - -"Ain't kickin' none," said Sagebrush, combing the sand from his wealth -of sodden gray whiskers. His eyes followed Murray. "Say, is them real -bakin' powder biscuits ye got? Well, I never! They look real good, -too, for them kind; I allus had a notion folks ought to study -sour-dough more back in the settlements, but mebbe there's somethin' to -bakin' powder----" - -Sagebrush drifted along garrulously, glad of a chance to talk. -Presently, when the coffee had been finished and pipes were lighted, he -gazed around and grew personal. - -"This here is a good place," he observed, "if it's quartz you're after, -gents. If it don't intrude none, what ye lookin' for?" - -Mackintavers chuckled, and produced his ruby silver samples. - -"This," he answered laconically. "Know it?" - -Sagebrush took the samples, inspected them, and then began to grin -widely. - -"Ruby silver!" he ejaculated. "Ye don't mean to say--my gosh! -Pilgrims, I'm right pained to hear tell o' this, but----" - -"Huh?" queried Sandy with a grunt. "What d'ye mean?" - -"Ye didn't allow them samples come from here, did ye?" - -"Understood so," returned Sandy, frowning. "What d'ye mean, huh?" - -Sagebrush grinned again. "Why," he said, hefting the samples, "las' -time I seen these here spec'mens, they was reposin' on the desk o' -Piute Tomkins, back to Two Palms. Piute brung 'em home from Tonopah -three year ago, and was right proud of 'em, too. I reckon that there -no-account Deadoak pirated 'em from him and passed 'em off on you. -Deadoak is right smart, some ways----" - -Murray looked at the gaping Mackintavers, and rolled over with a shout -of laughter. - -"Stung, Sandy!" he cried, sitting up. "Hurray! The bad man of New -Mexico stung by a simple Arizona native--whoop! The biter got bit--oh, -Sandy, Sandy! And look at the big blisters on my perfectly good -hands----" - -Sandy growled something inarticulate, then rose to his feet. - -"I'm goin' to look at them quartz lodes," he grunted. "See ye later!" - -Sagebrush gazed after him with sober mirth. - -"Too bad ye got took in," he observed. "But I'm right glad ye take it -calm, pilgrim. If ye didn't get bit too deep, ye got a fine place -right here. Me, I like to git farther away from settlements--too many -folks around spoil the desert. But if ye like this here oasis, she -ain't bad. Say, if you're a doctor, wisht ye'd look at that there -Jenny burro o' mine. She ain't been right peart for two-three days; -kind o' down on her feed. Ye might light right on what she needed----" - -Murray assented and strolled over to the burro in the train of -Sagebrush. The whimsical irony of it struck him full; Douglas Murray, -peer of the finest surgeons in the land, giving advice upon a sick -burro! But he gave the advice, and grinned as he watched the aged -desert rat shuffle off down the valley with his animals. - -Sagebrush wended his way down the valley in patient tolerance of sun -and sand. But of a sudden he wakened to the startling fact that his -name was being called; amazedly, he peered up at the hillsides, shaded -his eyes with his hand, and descried the figure of Deadoak Stevens -approaching, carefully leading one of Piute's cayuses down the rocky -descent. - -An hour afterward, Deadoak was riding up to the shack in the valley, -with a fine appearance of just finishing the end of a toilsome journey. -A meeting with Sagebrush had afforded him a plan of campaign. He -observed Murray sitting before the shack cleaning a revolver, and -dismounted with a cheerful greeting; his cheerful expression vanished -quickly, however, when Murray pointed the revolver at him and rose, -blazing with wrath. - -"So you've come to the scene of your crime, Deadoak! Put those hands -up--that's right! And stand still--don't back away; you've nowhere to -back." - -"Wh-what's the matter?" stammered the paralyzed Deadoak. - -"The matter?" repeated Murray. "You know! You've defrauded honest -men, and now you're going to settle up. If you've any last words to -say, say 'em quick! My finger's trembling on the trigger. Tonight -you'll be reposing under that tree; we're here alone, Deadoak Stevens, -and you shall perish at the hands of the man whom you----" - -Deadoak trembled, and his jaw sagged. - -"Say!" he croaked. "I--I--honest, now, I come out here to square -things up! I heard that Mac was lookin' for ruby silver--them samples -was a mistake! Piute said he'd put 'em in with Hassayamp's stuff one -time. I rid here to----" - -"What!" Murray lowered his weapon, in genuine amazement. Deadoak -leaped at the chance. - -"Yep, that's right, Doc! _I_ didn't go to defraud nobody! If you -ain't satisfied with the deal, I'll take back the prop'ty and no hard -feelin's--that's what I rid out here to say, if ye give me a chance. -Ding my dogs, I ain't no gunman. P'int that thing another way!" - -Murray obeyed. - -"You don't mean that you'll take back the property? At the price we -paid?" - -"Certain!" assented Deadoak, fervently virtuous and hugely relieved. -"Give ye a profit, if ye feel bad. Why, Doc, we wouldn't go to -pirootin' no pilgrims--future denizens o' this here great an' glorious -Two Palms! We wouldn't have ye feel that we was anythin' but honest -an' simple natives, welcomin' you to our midst. We'll go to 'most any -length to make things good. If we'd knowed that Mac was attracted by -them ruby silver samples--which same I didn't know--we'd have run down -the thing then an' there----" - -"Hold on," interjected Murray. "Here's Mackintavers now." - -Sandy had descried the arrival of the visitor from afar, and was now -hastening toward the cabin. It was a rare thing, an unknown thing, for -Sandy Mackintavers to meet any man who had successfully bilked _him_; -he arrived upon the spot somewhat out of breath, and gazed upon Deadoak -more in sorrow than in wrath. - -Deadoak, however, hastened to avoid any trouble by apprising Sandy of -the reason which he avowed had caused his visit. - -"And now," he added, screwing up his leathery countenance into -sanctimonious lines, "I stand ready to do the right thing, gents. I'm -offerin', this bein' on behalf o' me and Piute together, what ye paid -for the prop'ty and five hundred to boot." - -"What about your mortgage?" queried Sandy shrewdly. - -"Include that in the takin' back if ye like. All I want is to do the -right thing." - -"All right," said Sandy. "Murray, let me speak with ye to one side." - -Deadoak sat down and rolled a cigarette. Taking Murray's arm, Sandy -mopped his face and walked out of earshot, then he paused. As he met -Murray's puzzled gaze, an earnest look crept into his heavy features. - -"Ye'll leave this matter to me?" he queried. "In other words, will you -be willing to let me gamble for the good o' the firm?" - -Murray smiled quizzically. "Go as far as you like, Sandy! I'll back -your play." - -"And if we go broke on it, no hard feelings?" - -Murray laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. - -"Don't be a fool! We're men and not children. Play your own game!" - -Sandy looked vastly relieved, then strode back to Deadoak. - -"Well, now, your proposition is good," he said cordially, even -genially. "I'm proud to meet a man like you, Deadoak Stevens! We -thought you and Mr. Tomkins had trimmed us, and were inclined to be -sore about it--now that we've found the mistake, we apologize." - -"Then you take me up?" queried Deadoak eagerly. - -"No." - -"Wh--what! Ye said no?" - -"Of course!" returned Sandy warmly, taking no heed of the thunderstruck -look which had clouded Deadoak's staggered features. "Would we take -advantage of ye that way? Not us! We're not that sort! We don't -whine, Deadoak; we're not kids. We'll keep what we got, and make the -best of it!" - -Deadoak's countenance was a study in futility. - -"You--d'ye mean----" he choked, then continued feebly. "Have ye found -somethin'?" - -"Maybe, we have!" Sandy beamed upon him. "Just between ourselves, -friend, I'll tell ye that we have. So--ye see?" His wink was -significant. - -"I see," agreed Deadoak mournfully. - -"'Twill make ye rejoice, no doubt," pursued Sandy, "to know that our -luck was good. We appreciate your disinterested----" - -"'Senough!" blurted Deadoak, turning. "I'll be weavin' back, I guess. -So long." - -"Won't ye wait till mornin', anyhow?" queried Sandy with concern. - -"Nope, thanks." - -Dejectedly, hopelessly, Deadoak stumbled to his cayuse, pulled himself -aboard, waved a limp hand, and rode down the valley. He was slumped in -the saddle like a man who sees no hope in the future. - -"He's mighty cheerful over something," said Murray drily, and chuckled. - -"Cheerful?" - -"Well, Sandy, suppose you elucidate? Why did you turn him down?" - -Sandy faced his friend and made a wide gesture. - -"Murray," he said earnestly, "I'm playin' a hunch. Why should that -fellow come here and make us an offer? I don't know--but there was -something behind it. We've got something that somebody wants. And -I've a notion who that somebody is." - -"Oh!" Murray gave him a keen glance. "Then you really found -something?" - -Sandy rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Come with me and I'll show you." - -Murray accompanied him past the shack, up toward the head of the -canyon. Sandy led the way to one side, where a high rocky wall formed -a solid background. Before this was a stretch of sand, perfectly -level, a hundred feet wide; this was enclosed on either hand by a low -growth of manzanita, whose grotesque, wine-red limbs curled eerily in -the sunlight. - -"Look there," said Sandy, pointing. - -On either side of this little clearing, a stake had been thrust into -the sand. About the head of either stake, had been bound a scrap of -red paper. One scrap had been torn away by the wind. On the scrap -which fluttered from the other stake, was a flaring black Chinese -ideograph. - -"Aiblins, now," said Sandy, while Murray examined the paper, "that -looks like a chink laundry-man's mark, eh? And ye said that the chink, -Tom Lee, had been out here and was comin' home when ye treated his leg. -What did he put those stakes in for?" - -"I'll bite," said Murray, gazing at the scene with a frown of -perplexity. "What?" - -"Blamed if I know," returned Sandy. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -DOCTOR SCUDDER - -Days of honest work and virtuous toil evolved a new Bill Hobbs--a grimy -individual streaked with sweat and daubed with printer's ink, yet as -absorbedly delighted in his new task as a child with a fresh toy. - -For the first time in his life, Willyum was his own boss at actual -labor. The financial aspect of his travail had not yet arisen to -trouble him. Naturally swift to comprehend things mechanical, he set -himself to learn type, and succeeded more or less. He had found enough -old job stuff set up to show him the use of the quoins, sticks, and -furniture--although these names meant nothing to him--and after various -attempts in which some type was sadly ruined, he managed to get the -hang of the job press. The flatbed was a simpler proposition. - -"Gee!" he observed, standing in his doorway one noon with a fine air of -proprietorship, and watching the dusty stage roll in from the south. -"Here's another stranger comin' to town. And the doc ain't back yet -with Sandy! Well, I guess I'd better eat an' then begin to get out the -first issue of the paper. We'll see who this stranger is, huh?" - -He walked across to the hotel, where already most of Two Palms was -assembling with avid curiosity to watch the debarkation of the new -arrival. Bill Hobbs took one square look at the stranger, then he -suddenly became inconspicuous. - -The arrival was a tall man, well dressed, his luggage expensive and -heavy. His features were very remarkable; they were features, once -seen, never to be forgotten. He seemed fairly young, virile and -energetic. When he removed his straw hat to wipe the dust from his -face, he displayed a high, narrow brow that was white with the pallor -of the city. - -Beneath this brow were straight black eyebrows like a bar across his -face. The eyes, too, were black--an intense and glittering black, -luminous as black crystal. A finely trimmed black vandyke shaded his -mouth, but accentuated the high, thin lines of his countenance. The -whole face was undeniably aristocratic, very handsome in a mesmeric -way, yet it held an indefinable hint of vulpine. The stranger's hands -were long, white, powerful. - -"I have a friend, a Mr. Lee," said the stranger to Piute Tomkins. His -voice was smooth and very self-assured, pregnant with authority. "He -has, I believe, engaged a room in advance of my coming?" - -"He ain't," returned Piute, surveying the stranger. "But come in and -eat, 'less ye want to miss dinner. I guess we can rustle a room -somehow. We're havin' a treemenjous boom right now and all the -bellhops is off to the gold rush, but I s'pose we can put ye up." - -The spectators grinned at this elaborate irony. The stranger, however, -fastened his black eyes upon Piute, and after a few seconds Piute began -to look uncomfortable. - -"Ah, you are a very facetious gentleman!" said the stranger coolly. -"May I inquire if Mr. Lee is stopping here?" - -"Yep," said Piute, reddening a trifle. "He's up in his room with a -busted leg--but ye'd better pile in to dinner 'fore seein' him. Dinner -don't last long here." - -"I hope not," said the stranger, going toward the hotel doorway, while -the crowd guffawed at the confusion of Piute Tomkins. - -Bill Hobbs, with incredulity in his eyes, slid into the hotel office -and listened unashamedly while the stranger conversed with Piute. The -conversation was largely concerned with Tom Lee, and Piute got some -information which made his eyes widen. Willyum got the same -information; and, when the stranger was gone from the office, he sidled -up to the desk and inspected the register. He saw that the stranger -had signed as "James Scudder, M.D." of San Francisco. - -"Gee!" Bill Hobbs grinned suddenly. "He ain't even usin' a alleyas, -huh? Gee! I got a real story to write up now----" - -Forgetful of dinner, he turned and put for his office across the street -in a burst of feverish energy. Once there, he seized a pencil and -began to scribble down what he had overheard, and then grabbed a stick -and turned to the nearest type-case. In another moment the butchery -was going forward merrily. - -In the meantime, Doctor Scudder finished a hasty meal and then was -taken to the room of Tom Lee. Presently he was sitting beside the -latter's bed and inquiring into the accident. - -In the adjoining room sat Claire Lee, busy with some sewing; but there -was a flutter of fear in her eyes, and from time to time her lips -trembled, as though she were fighting down some inner repulsion, some -frightful and unspeakable horror whose talons were gripping at her from -that inner room. And yet the two men, whose conversation came clearly -to her, were not speaking of her at all. - -"You wired me that you had found the place--the place which exactly -suited you," said Scudder calmly. "So I came right along." - -"Good!" said Tom Lee, who was sitting up in bed. "Good! I am eager to -get to work. Did you arrange for a contractor as I ordered?" - -The doctor nodded. - -"Yes. I stopped in Meteorite and got hold of a good man there. He's -coming over this afternoon--drives his own car--and you can go over the -plans with him to-night. Of course, you'll have to figure on expensive -work, for men and supplies will have to be shipped from Meteorite by -truck." - -Tom Lee waved his hand negligently, as though the question of expense -were one to be waived altogether. - -"That goes without saying," he responded. "But I am glad that you -came; I need you very badly. The allowance of opium that you gave me -ran out four days ago." - -Scudder laughed, and relaxed in his chair. - -"And how are you doing without it?" he inquired. "Can you get along?" - -"Not here in bed," he rejoined. "If I were outside, actively engaged, -at work upon our plans, I think that the activity would help me -tremendously. When I was busy with Claire looking up the place, I -found this to be true." - -Scudder's black eyes narrowed very slightly, as though inwardly he were -a bit astonished. But his words gave the lie to this supposition. - -"That's exactly what I calculated on," he returned easily, "and it -proves that my theories have been correct. Fortunately, I brought -along a good supply. By the way, I'm interested in this fellow who -fixed you up--did you say his name was Murray? What did he look like?" - -Tom Lee described Murray very accurately. From Scudder broke a word of -astonishment. - -"By George!" he exclaimed. "Do you know, that's very remarkable!" - -"What?" demanded Tom Lee, gazing at him with heavy-lidded calm. - -"That he should turn up here!" Scudder was animated, vigorous. - -"You know him, then?" - -"No, but I know of him. Why, that fellow was one of the greatest -surgeons in the country until a year ago! He went all to pieces in a -hurry and dropped out of sight; it was more or less hushed up, of -course, but in professional circles the truth is known. It was caused -by morphia; the poor fellow; must have been a hopeless victim." - -"He does not look it now," said Tom Lee. His features contracted -slightly. "Morphia! And that goes back to opium again. All the more -need of our getting to work without further delay, Doctor Scudder! You -will remain here for a time?" - -Scudder's eyes went for an instant to the door of the other room. - -"Yes, as long as you want me," he rejoined. "In fact, I think I'll -remain here until things shape up right, then return to San Francisco -for my things, and come back here for good. I'll want to keep an eye -on the building work." - -Silently, without a word, Tom Lee took from a table beside the bed a -little round cup of horn. Once it had contained a brownish substance, -but now it was scraped clean inside, scraped down to the very horn. -Silently, he held it out to the doctor. It was an opium _toy_. - -Scudder smiled and nodded as he took the little cup. "I'll attend to -it at once," he said, and rose. "Do you like this desert country as -much as you expected?" - -"Yes," said Tom Lee gravely. "It is wonderful; it is ideal! I like it -for itself, no less than for our purpose. I am an American; I love -this country, I am part of it--and this desert is to me like the great -wilderness of my own Shensi, the very heart of the ancient land, full -of great unguessed things and strange powers! Yes, I like this desert." - -Scudder, shrugging his shoulders as though to indicate that it was all -a matter of choice, turned away. At the door of the other room, Claire -halted him. - -"Doctor! Is it true--what you said about Doctor Murray?" - -For a moment Scudder looked into her eyes as though reading what lay -behind her eagerness, her compassionate words. Beneath his beard, his -lips tightened. - -"Yes," he said. "I'm sorry to say that's quite true, Miss Lee. Of -course, this Murray may not be the same man. I'm delighted by your -father's improvement; I think this country is going to do wonders for -him! If you'll excuse me, I'll get him a little opium now. It'll help -him greatly and put him in shape to go over things with the contractor -tonight." - -He left for his own room, which was across the hall. When the door had -closed behind him, Claire Lee stood motionless, both hands at her -breast. In her eyes was a numbed, wondering look, the look of one who -was inwardly fluttering with fear of the unknown and the intangible. -Then, as Tom Lee called her, the look vanished and she turned to the -other room. - -Tom Lee looked up at her, then held out his hand. She took it, -silently, and his strong fingers closed upon hers in a mutely -significant gesture. It was an endearment, that quiet touching of the -hands, but it was more than an endearment. From the massive -personality of the man there went out to the girl a quiet force, a -compellant for poise; a reassurance of strength and faith and love -unassailable. - -"You are not glad he has come?" asked Tom Lee, watching her eyes. - -"No," she answered simply. "I do not believe in him!" A wistful smile -came to her lips, as she touched his coarse black hair with caressing -fingers. - -"My dear," said Tom Lee gravely, "he has done great things for me; his -treatment is helping me tremendously. He is efficient, that man!" - -Claire said no more. She turned away and opened a box that lay upon -the table. From it she took a lamp, filled the bowl with peanut -oil--which is odorless--and lighted it. She laid out a bamboo opium -pipe, a needle, a set of the simple, but ingenious scales, and then -turned again as Doctor Scudder knocked and entered the room. - -Late that afternoon, two other men drifted into Two Palms. One came -from the north, and this was Deadoak Stevens. He tramped -disconsolately into the hotel and sought out Piute Tomkins, with whom -he was closeted for some time. The two men emerged from their talk -with an air of hopelessness; Piute had chewed at his ragged mustache -until it had become a wisp. - -The other arrival was the Meteorite contractor, by name Patrick -Hennesy. He greeted Piute jovially; a brawny, red-faced man, and -registered for the night. Then he inquired for Doctor Scudder, and was -directed to the latter's room. As he turned from the register, he was -frowning. - -"What's this?" he said, beckoning to Piute and pointing with one stubby -finger to the register. "Who's this guy Mackintavers? He don't go by -the front name o' Sandy, I suppose?" - -Piute assented with a trace of surprise. Patrick Hennesy broke into a -lurid oath and inquired as to the whereabouts of said Mackintavers. -When informed that Sandy was then somewhere to northward, he doubled up -one huge fist. - -"What's bitin' you?" inquired Piute with interest. "Know him, do you?" - -"Know him?" Hennesy glared for a minute, then relaxed. "Well, I used -to know him--and I sure want to see if he comes back to-night! If he -don't--then don't say nothin' about me, savvy? I'll connect with that -cuss later." - -Piute assented, not knowing just what to make of all this. He felt too -hopeless over the report of Deadoak Stevens, however, to push his -inquiries into the matter. - -Bill Hobbs, in the interim, was working feverishly through the hot -afternoon in his printing office across the street. He had already -evolved some principles of type setting, and now he was alternately -cursing and blessing the implements to his hand, as he set up a -grotesque and fearful array of words. - -Toward sunset he viewed his labors with a marvelling satisfaction. The -late proprietor had left a front-page form already in shape to receive -news articles, and Bill Hobbs hung over the stone with an admiring eye -as he studied the news article which he had supplied in part. - -"Gee!" Willyum sucked in his breath admiringly. "I'll break off for -supper, then do some more. Tomorrow I'll have her done. Gee! Ain't -she great!" - -That evening he continued his labors by lamplight. - -In the room of Tom Lee across in the hotel, Patrick Hennesy was that -evening poring over blue prints and architect's plans, discussing them -with Tom Lee and Doctor Scudder, while Claire listened and made -occasional comments. Hennesy looked completely stumped and extremely -mystified. He was unable to arrive at the purpose of the buildings -which Tom Lee wished him to erect, and the probable cost of them -staggered him. But when Tom Lee calmly extended him a check which ran -into four large figures, and told him to take it on account, he was -forced to accept matters. - -"Then I'll be back later," he said in conclusion. "I'll run out to -that place soon's you got the deed, and see just what gradin' will have -to be done, and git a shovel to work." - -Early in the morning, the contractor departed back to Meteorite, -repulsing all efforts of Piute and Deadoak to penetrate his mysterious -business with Tom Lee. - -Through the morning, Bill Hobbs slaved in his printing office. At -noon, he announced jubilantly to Piute and other citizens of Two Palms, -over the dinner table, that his forms were locked and on the press, and -that he'd run off a newspaper that afternoon that would sure make 'em -sit up some when they read it! - -At two o'clock, after some slight delays incidental to inking and other -complicated matters, the _Helngon Star_ went to press. - -"Gee!" exclaimed Willyum as he drew the first sheet away and looked it -over with humble devotion in his eyes. "Gee! Ain't that wonderful, -now?" - -He was right. It _was_ wonderful. - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -THE NEWS STORY - -The last game of cribbage had been settled, and Haywire Smithers had -departed to his own place; Mrs. Tomkins had come home from the weekly -meeting of the Two Palms Ladies' Aid and had gone up to bed; and Piute -Tomkins was locking up for the night when Murray and Sandy Mackintavers -came in from Morongo Valley--dusty, sun-bitten, and hungry. - -Piute listened sadly to their request for grub, and agreed to rustle up -some. He was no longer proud and haughty before them; he had given up -the unequal battle and had ceased to struggle. Virtue had descended -gloomily upon him, even as a mantle. - -"Step into the dinin' room, gents, and I'll discover somethin'," he -announced. - -"How's my patient?" asked Murray, pausing en route to the wash room. - -"The chink? All right. Say, I reckon ye ain't heard the news about -him?" Piute went back to his desk and procured a sheet of paper. "And -about Scudder, too. Your friend sure busted somethin' in these parts, -he sure did! Look over this here paper; it come out to-day, and I -guess Scudder ain't seen it yet. I want to be watchin' when he does -see it, that's all! Then I got a business proposal to lay before ye -whilst ye eat." - -Murray took the sheet, and an ejaculation broke from him as he saw that -it was the first issue of Willyum's paper. He hurried after Sandy, -made haste to get the sand and alkali out of his eyes and hair, and -passed into the dining room. Piute lighted a lamp, and the two friends -settled down to peruse the astounding results of Bill Hobbs's labors. - -Mere print cannot reproduce the phenomenon. Mere printers cannot set -in type all that Willyum, in his blissful ignorance, had achieved in -that primary issue of the revived Helngon Star. The date had been -unchanged. The advertisements along the sides had been untouched;, yet -Willyum had managed to fill four columns, by dint of ornaments and -other aids to progress. - -The news story touched first upon Tom Lee, and was begun with this lead: - - - - We got in our midst today tmo guys that come direct from tHe hall - oj & Fame iNtwo tHe sentrel Presinct oF Two Palms$ tHe misterY has - beeu sollved:* - - - -The article went on to say, more or less legibly, that Tom Lee was -immensely wealthy, and that he owned a string of oriental shops in the -Bay region of San Francisco. He was, in fact, a magnate pure and -simple in the antique line, and was rated many times a millionaire. - -"Aiblins, now," observed Sandy, puzzling over the page with knotted -brows, "Bill is tryin' to say somethin' about a man named Scudder, but -I ain't right sure----" - -Piute joined them, bringing in some dishes. "Scudder is a doc," he put -in, "and a friend of the Chinee. I'd say, offhand, that he's due to -raise partic'lar hell about to-morrow, when he sees that there paper!" - -Murray whistled, as he perused the paper. "Say, Sandy--listen here!" - -Willyum's remarks on Doctor Scudder were frankly illuminating about -Willyum himself: - - - - I wunst seen tHis gink iN neworLeens.?; wHen i was vagGed and hE - was iN tHe dOck two for pedLing dope & Happy dust two the nlgge*rs - & jUdje give him hEll,? for it---- - - - -Willyum's remarks, apparently, knew no shame over the fact that he had -been "vagged"; but they excoriated Doctor Scudder as a peddler of -"dream-books" and a supplier of dope. - -They went on to say that Scudder had been forced to leave New Orleans -for his own health; that he had there been a "dope" supplier to the -underworld. In language of beautiful simplicity, Willyum said that -Doctor Scudder was a top-notch crook and would murder his grandmother -for a dollar. - -Sandy broke into a roar of laughter, but Murray frowned gravely. - -"Willyum's asleep now, I imagine--well, let him rest in peace until -to-morrow! He's in bad." - -"How come?" queried Mackintavers, while Piute stood by the kitchen door -and listened hard. - -"Libel. If these things aren't true, this man Scudder can just about -rake the hair off Willyum! Confound it all, you go and put your foot -in it when I'm not around, and then Bill Hobbs goes and does the same -thing! Why, Scudder can sue for big damages----" - -"Huh!" grunted Sandy complacently. "Let him sue! You can't draw blood -out of a turnip, not even with the law to help ye. So this Tom Lee is -a rich man, is he? That's interestin'." - -Murray nodded. "Seems to be. Queer what he's doing here, Sandy! But -the girl--the girl Claire! I tell you, she's white! That's the -queerest thing of all." - -Piute came forward, bearing coffee and flapjacks, and sat down to light -his corncob. He wore a portentous and solemn air. - -"Ye don't think there's nothin' wrong, do ye?" he asked. - -"No," said Murray decisively. "Nothing. It's something we don't -understand, but it's nothing wrong. Tom Lee is no ordinary man." - -"I reckon not," said Piute drily. "He done offered five thousand for -Morongo Valley." - -The two friends quickly glanced at each other, then stared at Piute. - -"Five thousand?" repeated Sandy, incredulous. - -"Yep. Now I'm putting it straight up to you gents, layin' all cards -down, and leavin' it to you to do the right thing if ye sell to him. -He wants to see you and buy the property. I guess you'll sell at -_that_ figger, huh?" - -Murray leaned back in his chair and gazed at Sandy. - -"It's up to you, Mac," he said briefly. - -"What's he want? the minin' rights or----?" - -"The whole works," returned Piute. "Or so he allowed. All of it!" - -"No tellin' his game," quoth Sandy. "Doc, find out his object when ye -see him in the mornin', and we'll talk it over." - -Murray nodded assent, astonished and mystified by such an offer for -Morongo Valley. He was too weary to discuss it now, however, and he -wended his way to bed without further delay. - -Early in the morning he was aroused by voices, and sat up. Sandy, who -occupied a second bed in the same room, was talking with Bill Hobbs, -and the latter turned to Murray with a proud but modest grin. - -"Hello, Doc! Mac says you seen the paper last night. Kinda nifty, -ain't it?" - -"A miracle," said Murray gravely. "How you did it, I can't figure out -yet!" - -"Oh, printin' ain't so much," observed Bill loftily. "There was a few -mistakes, I seen on readin' her over, but next time she'll come through -better. But what's this Mac is tellin' me about gettin' in bad?" - -"All depends," responded Murray. "That story about Doctor -Scudder--where on earth did you get the nerve to print that, you big -boob?" - -"Why, it's true!" asserted Willyum stoutly. "I was vagged down to -N'Orleans, just like I printed it, and seen him in court bein' tried -for supplyin' dust an' hop to----" - -"Was he convicted?" demanded Murray. - -"Nope. He slid through; his pals squared the bulls, I guess." - -"Good Lord!" Murray began to dress. "Well, he can't get any money out -of you, that's some satisfaction." - -"Well, I ain't worried none," said Bill. "Leavin' all that out, how -did the paper strike you--honest, now?" - -"Great stuff, Willyum," responded Murray, whereat the earnest William -glowed delightedly. "You've hit your vocation, if you can make it pay -in these parts. You get to work learnin' how to print, and we'll look -into the business end of it. If it seems likely to pay, then we'll all -put it through together." - -"That's treatin' me white, Doc," answered Bill. - -"Well," said Murray thoughtfully, "what we'll do, I don't know yet." -He turned to Sandy and put the issue squarely up to him. - -"I'll see Tom Lee after breakfast. If there's no valid reason for -keeping the place, why not make a good profit while we can? Let him -take the whole place--unless you think there is any reason to keep it." - -The mining man stared reflectively out of the window. - -"There is and there ain't," he said slowly. "I'll be frank with ye, -Murray--that place out there attracts me! We could settle there and -make a fair livin' from the valley itself, what with the water there -and all. Aiblins, now the quartz will pay, too. It's not big, but I'm -thinking it runs big later on. Lookin' at it from the development -angle, instead o' from the prospector's viewpoint, it might be worth -keeping." - -"All right, then we'll keep it." Murray turned to the doorway. "Come -on down and let's get breakfast." - -Half an hour later, the three partners were just pushing back their -chairs from the breakfast table when they caught the sound of loud -voices coming from the hotel office. The voices drew nearer, then in -the doorway appeared the figures of Doctor Scudder and Piute. - -"That's him," and Piute pointed out Bill Hobbs. - -His face white with anger, a copy of the _Helngon Star_ clenched in his -hand, Doctor Scudder faced the amateur printer with blazing indignation. - -"This is an outrage! As sure as my name is Scudder, I'll have you -jailed for this criminal----" - -Murray stepped between the two men, in an attempt to pacify his brother -physician. - -"One moment, sir," he intervened. "Our friend here is not a printer -and has allowed himself to be carried too far through his unfortunate -ignorance of the libel laws. As a professional man myself I can -realize how you must feel; but if you will allow me to explain the -matter----" - -Murray checked himself. In the blazing black eyes of Scudder he -suddenly read a scornful anger that was now directed against himself. - -"I don't desire any explanation from a man of your character, Doctor -Murray," snapped Scudder. "I recognize you; you are the once eminent -member of a profession which you disgraced! I have exposed you to Mr. -Lee and his daughter in your true colors, as a dope fiend and one who -should have been long ago ejected from the medical fraternity----" - -It was at this point that the fist of Murray collided violently with -the countenance of his colleague. Doctor Scudder was flung backward, -caught his foot against a chair, and fell into the corner; he sat there -motionless, staring up with one hand clapped against his bruised cheek, -in his eyes an expression of dazed, but virulent enmity. - -"That'll be enough from you," said Murray, standing over him. "If you -want to argue the matter any further, get up! You don't want to, eh? -All right. I'd advise you to go mighty slow with your libel talk -against Mr. Hobbs, because if you start anything, I fancy that I would -have a pretty good case of malicious slander against you. So think it -over." - -Murray turned away and left the dining room with his friends. Outside, -he quickly hushed their indignant utterances; he was once more cool and -calm, entirely master of himself again. - -"Let the matter drop right here," he said briefly. "That fellow won't -make any more trouble; our best bet is to leave him absolutely alone. -I'll go up now and see Tom Lee." - -He ascended the stairway to the upstairs hall, and knocked at the -entrance of the two rooms occupied by the Lees. - -Claire admitted him. Beneath her radiant greeting he noticed as he had -previously noticed, the undefinable shadow that hovered in her eyes. -The shadow, he thought, had deepened since he had last seen her. - -Tom Lee was awake and expecting him. Murray returned the greeting of -the big Chinaman, then met the latter's inflexible gaze with a square -challenge. - -"I understand," he said quietly, "that your friend Doctor Scudder is -here. I presume, naturally, that you would prefer to have him in -charge of the case. He has just advised me that he has made you aware -of certain facts----" - -Tom Lee lifted his hand commandingly. - -"I am very sorry," he said, "that you and Doctor Scudder have had any -misunderstanding, as your manner would imply. He told us a little of -your story, not in any unkindly spirit, but simply because the mention -of your name drew the memory from him. I wish you to retain charge of -the case by all means. When you have looked at my leg, please sit -down; I want to speak with you." - -Murray bowed. He examined the injured knee, pronounced it to be -mending in good shape, and informed the patient that in another two -days he could walk a little. At a gesture from Tom Lee, he took the -chair beside the bed. The oriental gazed at him for a moment, then -spoke. "I know from my own experience that you are a man of great -skill. I understand from Doctor Scudder that you were at one time a -victim of morphia, but I can see very plainly that you have overcome -this danger." - -In the manner of the speaker there was a serene calm that quite swept -aside any possible search after information. Tom Lee continued, his -gaze holding that of Murray. - -"We may speak frankly, Doctor Murray. For many years I was a victim of -opium. I was born in this country, and in business affairs I have -become a rich and even powerful man; but I have never succeeded in -getting loose from the chains of the poppy. Some time ago, I came in -contact with Doctor Scudder, a man who has had great experience with -drug users. He undertook to cure me, and I believe that he is -succeeding." - -Murray listened to this confession in some astonishment. The oriental -did not speak with any symptom of shame. He seemed to face the matter -in a very blunt and straightfordward way, which was very significant of -the man's strong character. - -"I determined," pursued Tom Lee, "to devote a portion of my wealth to -helping others of my race to rid themselves of the opium habit. To -this end I have been seeking a place which will be out of the world and -remote from any accessibility to the drug. This portion of the desert, -with its climate and situation, is ideal for my purpose. I propose to -erect a sanitarium and colony at my own cost, and to maintain it myself. - -"Since meeting you, I believe that you can assist me. Doctor Scudder, -who has agreed to give my enterprise the benefit of his knowledge and -skill, is a thoroughly good physician. I shall also need a surgeon, -however, and I believe that you can fill that position admirably if you -will. After much search, the spot which I have chosen is the place -called Morongo Valley, north of here. I understand that you have -recently bought it. I will be glad to buy it back from you at any -price you may consider; and will make a flat offer of five thousand -dollars." - -Murray listened to this proposal in astounded silence. He realized -that this man was one who swept aside all small things, and who dealt -upon a large and broad scale with everything and everyone. - -Thus he was not so much surprised at the offer to use his services, as -at the outline of Tom Lee's business in this part of the country and -the philanthropic ambitions of the Chinaman. Before the man, he felt -ashamed. When he contrasted his own endeavors, and those of -Mackintavers, to scheme and obtain Morongo Valley and keep it, with the -frankly stated aims of this yellow man, he felt very small. He felt -dwarfed before the personality of Tom Lee. - -"My two friends have joined me in buying this land," he answered -slowly. He did not do his patient the injustice of considering the -offered position in the light of a bribe to sell the valley. "If we -sell to you at this figure, we shall make a profit--yet we had already -decided not to sell it. Mr. Mackintavers thinks there is gold in those -hills----" - -Tom Lee smiled. "Keep the gold, then," he said. "Listen! I have my -plans all drawn, ready for work. I have in prospect a hundred more of -my countrymen--most of them my own employees--in San Francisco, who -have consented to break with opium if I will help them. My idea is to -keep them at physical work--to use them here in the construction of my -buildings, and in reclaiming the soil--as a part of the cure. If you -and your friends wish to work a mine, I will provide the labor. Why -not? Keep the mining rights to the land if you wish." - -Murray's face cleared. "That is eminently fair," he said reflectively. -From the outer room had come a murmur of voices, and as Claire now -appeared he rose. "I'll speak with my partners about it, and let you -know. As concerns your offer of a position--may I reserve judgment -upon that for a time?" - -"There is no hurry," said Tom Lee, and looked at Claire. - -"Doctor Scudder was here but would not come in," said the girl, a faint -color in her cheeks. Murray, catching her glance, read a strange -expression in her eyes, an expression so fleeting and indefinable that -it wakened him instantly to the sense of something unusual. What had -Scudder said out there? What did the girl think of Tom Lee's proposals? - -"You have heard our conversation, Miss Lee," said Murray quickly, -turning to her with his swift disarming smile. "May I inquire whether -you think me a fit person to be associated in such a work?" - -She met his gaze squarely, although her color deepened a trifle. - -"I should be only too glad," she answered him, "to know that you would -accept!" - -He was surprised by the evident sincerity of her words. - -"Something queer about all this!" he thought to himself, when he had -taken his departure and was on his way downstairs. "Something queer -about Scudder, too--I shouldn't wonder if Willyum had told the truth -about him! And Clairedelune seems afraid of something. A white girl, -I could swear, and as good as she is beautiful. What is her origin, -then? Where is the answer to this riddle?" - -He passed across the street to the printing office, where he found -Mackintavers awaiting him. He told the two exactly what had been said, -and they held a long discussion. Bill Hobbs swore that there was -something crooked about anything with which Doctor Scudder was -connected; but Murray, more correctly, considered that Bill was -prejudiced. In the end, they decided to accept Tom Lee's offer. As -soon as Willyum was established in his printing office, Murray and -Sandy Mackintavers were to visit Morongo Valley on a more extended -prospecting trip. - -Their first business was to get Willyum settled. Ascertaining from the -subscription list of the late proprietor that there was a goodly -scattering of ranchers and homesteaders and prospectors about the -district and learning that a newspaper would be welcomed and supported -by some advertising, all three partners got down to steady work. - -Sandy and Murray canvassed the town with no little success. Two days -later, a derelict in human shape blew in from the south, having heard -that a paper was to be started in Two Palms. He was a hobo printer, a -shiftless fellow who would be worthless to any real establishment--but -to Bill Hobbs he was a providential shower of manna. Bill engaged him -on the spot as preceptor. - -During the three days which elapsed thus, Murray saw Claire Lee at -intervals. He also informed Tom Lee of the decision regarding Morongo -Valley, received a check for five thousand dollars, and made over the -deed to the land in the name of Claire, as requested. He and his -friends encountered Doctor Scudder frequently, but the encounters were -very cold and formal. - -On the third evening Patrick Hennesy arrived from Meteorite in his car, -and was at once closeted with Tom Lee. As the latter was still -confined to his room by Murray's orders, supper was served there by -Piute. Hennesy beckoned Piute aside. - -"Is that fellow Mackintavers still here?" he demanded in a grim whisper. - -Piute allowed that he was. - -"Then don't say nothin', but fix it up for me to meet him back o' the -hotel early in the morning--all alone. Will ye? I don't want no -interference." - -Piute grinned suddenly. - -"Will I?" he retorted. "Say! Them fellers--I put 'em next to a sale -for their prop'ty, all fair and square; and they didn't even so much as -slide me a ten-spot! Ain't that gratitood? I'm askin' ye--ain't it? -Well, don't you worry none, Hennesy!" - -"Ain't you a deputy sheriff?" demanded the contractor. - -"Me an' Deadoak is both depitties. Why?" - -"Tell you later," and Patrick Hennesy winked joyfully at Piute. - - - - -CHAPTER X - -FLIGHT - -Upon the following morning, Murray was at the printing establishment -watching Bill Hobbs and his human derelict swear at each other, when -Piute Tomkins beckoned him outside to the street. - -Piute stood there, ostentatiously fingered a burnished deputy's star -which adorned his sun-faded vest, twirled his melancholy mustache and -spoke. - -"Doc, the pris'ner wants to see ye." - -"Prisoner? What prisoner?" - -"Your partner, Mac." - -"Good lord!" Murray stared blankly at him. "You don't mean -he's--arrested?" - -"Certain." - -"On what charge?" - -"Assault with 'tent to kill. Him and another man been mixin' it up -consid'able back of the hotel; other man's Hennesy, the contractor from -Meteorite. Seems like Mac took after him with an ol' wagon spoke and -nigh riled him to death. I got him locked up in an extry room, so come -along." - -Murray followed, bewildered and angered. Sandy arrested! - -Piute led the way into the hotel, and to a room at the door of which -stood Deadoak Stevens on guard. A stern and implacable proponent of -justice, Deadoak was also possessed of a polished badge and an ancient -revolver, both of which he displayed with ostentation. - -"Hennesy's goin' right back to town," he informed Piute, "he wants to -see ye 'fore he pulls out." - -Piute strode away. - -Murray, meantime, entered the room, where he found Mackintavers -sitting, the picture of disconsolate despair. Sandy glanced up, then -dropped a battered countenance into his hands and groaned. - -"Hello!" said Murray cheerfully. "Hear you've been fighting. What's -the fun about?" - -"Doc, it's no use," groaned Sandy. "I'm a branded man! I thought -nobody'd know me around here--but along comes a man named Hennesy, a -man whom I'd had dealin's with in New Mexico. Fact is, I made him -leave there for his health. Now he's turned up here. I run up against -him--wham! Then we went to it, that's all." - -"I hope," said Murray, "that you hurt him worse than he hurt you?" - -"I done my best," was the gloomy response. "I sure knocked him -out--then this here deputy sheriff dropped a gun on me." - -Deadoak Stevens introduced his head inside the door, which he had -placed ajar. - -"He's goin' to Meteorite after the sheriff," he announced, "and you'll -stay right here until he gets back----" - -"Nonsense!" declared Murray. I'll bail him out and----" - -"There ain't no one here to bail him out to," said Deadoak. "You got -to wait, that's all. Ding my dogs, this here ain't no city!" - -"Don't you try to stick with me, Doc," said Mackintavers hopelessly. -"It ain't fair to you an' Hobbs. Things like this'll come croppin' up -all the while----" - -"Don't be a fool," snapped Murray, and rose. "I'll see what can be -done, Sandy. We'll take care of this fellow somehow. Did you have a -wagon-spoke in your hand?" - -"I don't know," said Sandy. "I was hittin' him with everything in -sight." - -Murray chuckled and left the room. - -He saw Piute Tomkins in the office downstairs, and speedily found that -there was no way of freeing Mackintavers until the sheriff arrived in -person. Piute flatly refused to accept bail, and there was no justice -of the peace in town--the one and only J.P. being at the moment some -score of miles away looking for a tungsten mine in the Saddleback -hills. Murray gave up the attempt in disgust. - -As he left the office, he saw that an automobile was standing at one -side of the hotel, its engine purring. Standing talking to the driver -was Doctor Scudder. Scudder stepped back, waved his hand, and the car -drove away in the direction of Meteorite. Too late to halt the driver, -Murray realized that it must be the man with whom Sandy had mixed. But -what business had the man with Doctor Scudder? - -Scudder passed him with a single flashing look, and Murray went on -across the street, where he imparted to Bill Hobbs what had happened. -They were still debating the matter, when the doorway was darkened--and -Murray looked up to see Claire Lee. - -She had already met Bill Hobbs, and had displayed much interest in his -activities. But now she responded to Willyum's greeting with only a -faint smile, and turned to Murray a gaze that was distinctly troubled. - -"Doctor Murray," she said, a trace of color in her cheeks, "will you -take me up to Morongo Valley in your car--right away?" - -Murray was taken aback by this flat request. - -"I--why, Miss Lee, what do you mean? Your father can't travel yet----" - -"It's not a question of my father," she said, biting her lip. "Here is -a note that he asked me to hand you----" - -She extended a paper, which the astounded Murray took and opened. The -note was brief: - - - - My dear Doctor Murray: - - Please do as Claire says--and don't delay or ask questions. - - TOM LEE. - - - -Murray looked from Bill Hobbs to Claire, and choked down the questions -that rose to his lips. - -"When do you want to go?" - -"Now," said the girl quietly. "I'll get my things in a few minutes." - -"How long do you want to stay?" - -"Until we hear from my father." - -"Hadn't I better see him----?" - -"No. He wants me to go at once." - -Murray scratched his red thatch, more embarrassed and put to confusion -than he cared to admit. This thing was preposterous on its face! No -reason assigned--nothing but the request to take this girl away out -there to the Morongo Valley, for an indefinite stay! - -He looked helplessly at Bill Hobbs. "Willyum, can you take care of -Sandy?" - -"Sure," asserted Willyum, wide-eyed. - -"I am at your service, Miss Lee," said Murray. - -"You--you are very good, Doctor," she said, and he thought that her lip -trembled. "I'll be ready in five minutes." - -"Very well. I'll meet you behind the hotel, at my car--it's the one -stacked with supplies in the back seat." - -She turned and left the print shop. Bill Hobbs looked at Murray -bewilderedly. - -"What's it mean, Doc?" - -"How the devil do I know?" Murray swore in puzzled disgust. - -"Looked to me like she'd been cryin', Doc." - -Murray swore again, and started for the door. - -"Come on and help me throw some things together--put one of those extra -gas cans in the back of my car, will you? Fortunately she's full up on -everything. And you'll have to get Sandy's money before the sheriff -gets it----" - -They crossed to the hotel, and while he prepared for the trip, Murray -instructed his henchman, whom he placed in charge of the mutual funds, -to explain matters to Sandy and to do whatever might be possible. - -The two men descended to the car, which was already filled with a mass -of supplies made ready by Murray and Sandy against their return to the -valley on a prolonged prospecting trip. Willyum turned over the -engine, and as he did so, Claire appeared, bearing only a small handbag. - -The anxiety in her countenance broke in a smiling greeting, and she -climbed in beside Murray. The latter shoved down on his pedal and sent -the flivver toward the street. He waved a hasty farewell to Bill -Hobbs; and as he did so, a backward glance showed him the tall figure -of Doctor Scudder, standing in the doorway of the hotel and gazing -after them. Somehow, the remembrance of that impassive, high-browed, -jet-bearded figure left a feeling of disquiet within him. - -Not until they had left Two Palms behind them, was the silence broken. -Then Murray, seeing Claire's handkerchief going to her eyes, put on the -brakes. - -"What's the matter?" he exclaimed. - -"Nothing--please go on!" The girl forced a smile. "I'll tell you -what's happened--I'll tell you what's happened----" - -Murray drove on frowning. Presently Claire spoke, her voice low. - -"You'll have to try and understand everything, Doctor Murray; I know -that you're a gentleman, and father agrees with me. He isn't an -ordinary Chinaman, you know--a coolie. Before the revolution, he went -into business. He consolidated a number of antique shops near San -Francisco into one big combine, and he's wealthy. But he has so set -his heart on doing good to other men who have the opium habit, and -helping them to break it, that whoever can approach him in the right -way can--can win his trust. Doctor Scudder has done this." - -"Ah!" said Murray. "You don't like Scudder, eh?" - -"I don't trust him!" exclaimed the girl passionately. "I think he's -been deliberately keeping Father under the influence of opium, while -pretending to cure him; a doctor can obtain the drug now, you know, and -no one else can. Well, this morning I met Doctor Scudder in the hall, -and he said something--something I resented, and when I told Father, -there was a row. I'll have to be perfectly frank about it, Doctor -Murray. - -"Doctor Scudder apologized to me and said I had misunderstood him, then -he launched a bitter attack on you and said that he meant to prove you -were not what you seemed to be at all--that you were engaged in -smuggling drugs----" - -"I?" exclaimed Murray, then laughed amusedly. "Nonsense!" - -"Well, there was a fuss," said the girl. "I hoped that Father might -begin to see Doctor Scudder as I saw him; but I don't know--it's -terribly hard to tell just what he thinks and does not think, for he -seldom says anything. When we were alone, he told me to take that note -out to you, and to have you take me to Morongo Valley at once--without -any delay." - -"And no reason given?" asked Murray, in open astonishment. - -"None," she responded. "I thought that perhaps he wanted to get you -away from Doctor Scudder, to prevent trouble; but why should I go too? -He refused absolutely to explain anything." - -Murray reflected that there might be excellent reasons for the girl -going too, but that certainly none appeared. - -"Well," he said whimsically, "since we're on our way, we might as well -go! I certainly am honored and delighted by your company, Miss Lee. I -think you're a very wonderful sort of woman, and that your father -should send you with me, like this, implies a trust which I shall try -to deserve." - -The girl glanced at him, and to his amazement he saw that a smile was -rippling in her face. - -"You've been wondering about me, I suppose? Most people do; they seem -to think that it must be terrible to acknowledge a Chinaman as one's -father, and to love him! I remember that when some of the girls came -home with me one vacation, they could not see the wealth and happiness -around me, the devoted servants such as they had never been used to, -the love and affection which had been flung about me. All they could -see was the yellow man who was their host----" - -Her voice trailed off, and suddenly Murray realized that her smile had -not been one of mirth. A quick flash of pity leaped through him. He -saw her life as it must be--always a stigma upon her, always the yellow -man whom she loved and who loved her, always the shadow that enveloped -her friendships and all that she did! - -"A year ago, Miss Lee," he said quietly, "I was among the leaders of my -profession. Through the deadly sin of heedlessness, of failure to -observe what I was doing in the effort always to do more in my -profession, I became a drug fiend. Since then, I have conquered -myself--but in the world's eyes I can never be rehabilitated. So I, -too, have learned the folly of caring what the world thinks or says. -It is the inward self that matters; nothing else." - -"Oh, but you are cynical about it!" she answered simply. "Rather, you -are trying to be cynical, and not succeeding very well. Haven't you -found that after all life is very good as it is--that in one sense the -world does not matter, but that in another sense one must regard it -very keenly? To be thought ill of, hurts, and hurts much. There is -always self-respect, and the inner guidance of one's own life to be -followed; but all the same, one must bring one's self into accord with -the things outside. - -"It does not worry me to be considered the daughter of a yellow man. I -am only sorry that people cannot know, as I know, the wonderful -character and goodness of Tom Lee. Why, if he is able to do what he -came here to do, he will be a tremendous benefactor of his own race! -Hundreds of the men who work for him are still slaves to opium, -although most of them would be glad to be free again." - -Murray followed the road mechanically. It was a poor road, merely a -track across the white-gray desert face, dodging to avoid ancient -"Joshua trees" or groups of cacti, ever following the line of least -resistance and curving endlessly. - -The road did not interest Murray; he was thinking of the girl beside -him and her situation. - -"At least," he said gravely, "I think that I can appreciate the -character of your father; and if I were you, I wouldn't worry about my -own position. You're a marvelously beautiful girl, -Clairedelune--beautiful beyond words, and with a deep fund of -personality to back it. To have your trust and confidence and -affection would be an unbounded honor to any man alive! For you to -think, perhaps, that any man who cared for you might be prejudiced -because there is Chinese blood in your----" - -"Oh!" cried out the girl suddenly. Her voice startled him, shook him. -He saw that her face had mantled with crimson. "Oh! But that isn't -so!" - -"What?" Murray turned toward her, slowed the car, stared uneasily at -her. She met his gaze with level eyes, although her bosom was heaving -tumultuously. - -"I thought you knew!" she exclaimed. "I'm only an adopted daughter, -Doctor Murray; father found me in San Francisco at the time of the -fire, and could never discover my real parents. So he adopted me----" - -"Adopted you? Would such a thing be allowed?" - -"Yes, for all the records were destroyed; besides, at that time Father -was known as a Manchu prince, and his position was highly respected. -To save trouble, Father merely took the adoption for granted; it was -never legal, perhaps, but it was never questioned. And so----" - -Murray sat in a daze, unable to find words in the astounded -comprehension that burst upon him. He could see only the one great -fact--that she was bred of no oriental race! He knew now that he must -have been prejudiced before that supposition; he had fought the -prejudice, had conquered it, but none the less he felt a surge of -relief, and a song uprose in his heart. - -Then he told himself that he was a fool to think such thoughts. What -matter to him? As to what the girl had suggested about his being a -drug smuggler, quoting Scudder, Murray never gave this another thought. -He forgot it completely. - - - - -CHAPTER XI - -THE SUN STRIKES - -More than once did Murray curse himself for a fool as he piloted the -car northward into the wastes, but he continued his course without -delay. - -The girl's story had moved him strangely, stirred him to the depths. -Still it was not clear to him why he was thus taking Claire out into -the desert--except that he was compelled thereto by the dominant will -and massive personality of Tom Lee. To tell the truth, Murray was far -from urging upon himself any logical reasoning for what he was doing; -the presence of Claire beside him was reason enough. He was joyful at -the intimacy established between them, at the friendly confidence that -had risen. It was long since Douglas Murray had craved the company of -a woman--and now he felt strangely happy and buoyant. - -They were in the marble cañon now, and repairing a tire that had blown -out. There was about them the full heat of a desert day, sickening and -insufferable. The white walls of the cañon, where was no shade or -relief from the blinding dazzle of the white sun, refracted the heat -tenfold and shimmered before their eyes in waves of smoldering fire. -All breeze was dead. The car, where the sunlight smote it, was -blistering to the touch. - -Murray got the tire repaired, and with a deep sigh of relief flung the -jack into the car. He refilled the boiled-over radiator from one of -the water canteens swinging beside the car, then climbed under the -wheel. He paused to mop his streaming face. - -"Do you think your father means to come out to Morongo Valley?" - -"I think so, with the contractor--perhaps tomorrow or today. Really, -Doctor Murray, I can't say just what he intends! When Father gives no -explanation of his actions he simply is inscrutable." - -Murray nodded and started the car forward. He could well understand -that Tom Lee, masked by oriental calm and being governed by the -unfathomable oriental mind, was, even to Claire, an absolutely unknown -quantity. - -They cleared the cañon at last. Here was not the table-flat desert, -however. From the canyon the trail debouched into a wilderness of -volcanic ash and wind-eroded pinnacles, where along the rocky portals -great smears of smoke-weed hung wavering like the wraith of long-dead -fires. - -From here, at last, back to the desert--and into one of those salt -sinks of the desert, a basin of some ancient sea, perhaps, where the -road wound precariously between stretches of sun-baked, salty earth -that none the less quivered to the touch of any object, and formed at -the bottom of the baked crust a quagmire from which was no escape. The -fiery air made the travelers gasp as each parched gust of breath smote -their lungs; and the salty, invisible dust stung their skins and choked -their throats with remorseless burning. - -And in this cockpit of hell, the blistering heat combined with the -rarefied atmosphere to blow out another tire--and to blow it out this -time beyond repair. - -"Whew!" exclaimed Murray disconsolately, viewing the damage. "Nothing -for it but to strip her and put on the other spare." - -"Can't you run on the rim?" queried Claire anxiously. - -"No chance, with this load of stuff in back, and the road we must -follow! We'd smash every spring in the car. Well, here goes!" - -There was no breeze. The far vistas of the horizon hung dancing with -heat waves, like painted scenery jerking on springs. Mountains and -mirages, all hung there and danced, a weird dance of death and -desolation. - -The unstirred air was heavy and thick with invisible dust. Sunlight -crawled and slavered white-hot brilliance over everything, pierced into -everything. His face running with blinding sweat, Murray impatiently -threw aside his hat. Presently his unruly red hair was no longer wet -and blackened; it crowned his flushed features like an aureole, crisp -and dry and very hot. - -He had the new tube and casing on, and attached the pump. Laboring -steadily, he cursed to himself at the heat--the broiling, insufferably -dry heat of that salt basin. A sudden breath of hot air caused him to -glance up, and his lips cracked in a smile. Claire was leaning from -the car and fanning him, her straw hat flapping the air down over him. - -"Thanks, Clairedelune," he croaked hoarsely. "It helps." - -"Will you have a drink? The water bottle----" - -"No, thanks. I'll finish this job first." - -The tire was beginning to harden. He bent again over the pump, driving -himself to the labor. At last it was done--done well enough, at least. -He disconnected the pump and tossed it into the car. A word from -Claire broke in upon him. - -"What's that! Something moved against the sand--oh! It's a snake!" - -He laughed unsteadily as he looked. A snake in truth--an incoherent, -feeble object that slipped across the sand and blended there, shapeless -and indistinct; a stark-blind thing, a living volute of death and -venom. Murray flung a handful of sand. The reptile lashed out -viciously at the air. - -"A rattler shedding its old skin; blind and deadly poisonous at this -season," he said. "I remember Mackintavers warned us about it--no -rattles, no sound at all!" He laughed, for his own voice astonished -him; it sounded thin and tenuous, far away, distant. - -With a distinct effort of the will, he forced himself to stoop after -the jack; disengaging it, he rose and lifted it into the tonneau, with -strange effort. Claire got out of the car in order to let him in more -easily, but he did not climb into the shadow of the top. Instead, he -held to the open door for an instant, then sank down upon the running -board. - -"I think I'll rest," he said, looking from bloodshot eyes at the figure -of the girl beside him--the slender, cool figure that seemed to defy -the sunlight. "Clairedelune--it comes from the troubadours, that -name--the softly sweet glory of the silven moonlight--the sheer beauty -that wrings the heart and soul of a man with pain and sweetness----" - -His head jerked suddenly. As though some inner instinct had wakened to -fear and danger within him, his voice broke out sharply, clearly: - -"No cold water, mind! It kills--no cold water, mind!" - -Not until his head fell back into the car doorway did Claire Lee -realize that something was actually wrong. She had thought him -babbling a bit--now, for a terrible moment, she thought him dead. - -Yet his last words abode with her, remained fixed and distinct in her -mind. No cold water! His heart was beating; he was not dead after -all. He must have realized, in that moment, what the trouble was! -Sunstroke. She realized it now, realized it with a fearful sense of -her own futility. She had no water, except the ice-cold water in the -porous waterbags beside the car! - -Hesitation and fear, but only for an instant. She seized the nearest -bag, her hands trembling in desperate haste, and jerked out the cork. -Part of that precious fluid she poured into the sands, then stumbled to -the front of the car and stooped to the petcock of the blistering -radiator. As the hot water poured into the bag, she could feel its -coldness change to a tepid warmth. Hastily she ran back to Murray and -poured the contents of the bag over his head and shoulders. - -She grew calmer, now; he was at least alive, and she had done her best! -But there was more to do. Morongo Valley lay ahead, not so far, and -she knew the road. With much effort, she lifted the unconscious body -into the front seat, where it reposed limply, and then climbed over it. -She had forgotten to crank the car, and had to go back again, out into -the sunlight. - -No word, no cry from her clenched lips. She cranked, climbed again -into the car, and closed the door that would hold Murray in place. -Then she drove, with an occasional frantic glance at the lurching, -senseless man beside her. - -She drove as fast as she dared set the car through the loose sands. -When she had driven that road first, it was trackless. Now there lay -faint markings to guide her--the tracks of her own and of Murray's car, -the shuffled traces of hooves and feet. - -No wind ever lifted in this basin, no flurry of sand ever drove across -the burning surface, down below the level of the surrounding desert. -Until the rains or a storm came, the tracks would be there undisturbed, -as the dust-marks within a pyramid of ancient Rameses. - -Soon, so soon that she scarce realized it, the blue and brown mountains -that had been trembling over the horizon were drawn into sharper and -richer colorings, and the long walls of the valley were opening out -ahead. The Dead Mountains, those--bare of men or beasts or devils! - -Morongo Valley at last--the sharp turn, with the Box Cañon opening out -ahead, rich and sweetly splendid in its touch of vivid greens! - -It was only two hundred yards in length, after that turn; yet to the -tortured girl, those two hundred yards seemed endless. She did not -pause at the shack, but drove on, toward the right-hand wall. Still -within her mind dwelt the last words uttered by Murray--"no cold water!" - -The trickle of the creek was icy cold; out of the ground and in again. -But she knew where there was a seepage of warmer water--water unfit for -drinking. She had found it while she was here with Tom Lee; it was a -little up the hillside, above and facing that natural amphitheatre -which Tom Lee had staked out as a building site. About it there was -shade, for the water had provoked green growths on the hillside--a -clump of green there against the brown. - -She knew that this was the spot, and she headed for it. Recklessly, -she drove the car at the steep hill, rocking and lurching across -gullies and rocks, until the engine died down; then in low again, -climbing a mad course, until at last a boulder blocked the wheel and -the engine died on the crash. - -There was but a little way to go. She got Murray out of the car, -somehow, and dragged him, spurred by fear that she had been too late in -getting here. Yet he still lived. - -She laid him on his back in the course of the tiny seepage of -water--and then it seemed so cold to her that new fear gripped on her -soul. She tasted it, and grimaced. It was not cold, and it was -brackish, impregnated with minerals. So slight was the flow, that it -existed for little more than the length of Murray's body. And there -was not the shade here that she had anticipated--it was too slight, too -little, here at noonday! - -That was easily remedied. A trip to the car, and she had opened -Murray's lashed bundles. A trip down the hillside to the shack -provided her with stakes. From four of these she stretched a blanket -above the recumbent man, and saw that now the congestion had died out -of his face. He was breathing more easily, too. - -Then reaction came upon her, and bodily weariness, and flooding tears. - -She rallied, however, and fell to work. By mid-afternoon she had -accomplished much. Seeing no hope of moving Murray to the shack, she -made another low canopy of blankets, preparatory to removing him from -the seepage; opened out provisions, brought up a tiny sheet-iron stove -from the shack--it would be cold with the night, bitter cold! There -were many things to be done, and her hands were unaccustomed to doing -these things; but she did them. And when they were done, she took the -hand-ax she found in the car, and sallied down past the shack in search -of firewood, for the hillside was bare. - -When she returned, and came into sight of the camp, she dropped her -burden and ran forward; for Murray was standing there in the sunlight, -one hand to his head, staring around him dazedly! - -Her cry of protest swung him about. He managed a wan smile, then -obeyed her imperative, panted orders and dropped beneath the blanket -canopy she had erected. She came up to him, breathless with effort and -fear. - -"The sun got me, eh?" murmured Murray. "Clairedelune, you're a wonder! -I don't see how you did it. Lord but I feel ill again----" - -He dropped back limply, and she burst into tears of despair and -helplessness as she knelt above him. - -Again she lashed herself to work, removed the blanket from above the -seepage, and laid it aside for a night-covering. A Californian, she -knew little about sunstroke; but she believed that now he had fallen -into a coma, which might pass into sleep, and his regular breathing -gave her some assurance. - -The afternoon dragged into evening, and the night came. Still Murray -lay senseless, breathing heavily but evenly. The sun slipped out of -sight under the western rim, and darkness clamped down until the stars -shone. - -Claire spread her blankets above the tiny shelter she had made for -Murray, and lay with her face to the south and Two Palms. What time it -was when she wakened, she did not know; she lay for a moment wondering -why she had roused, then glanced toward Murray's shelter. In the -starlight she could see that he had not moved. She could hear his -breathing, as it had been. Then--her gaze leaped to the desert floor, -where two moving stars were drawing close. - -An automobile! Hope sprang within her, drew a quick, glad cry from her -lips. She leaped up and arranged her dress with shaking fingers. Tom -Lee was coming, then, was almost here! - -Hurriedly she made shift to light a tiny blaze from the fragments of -her fire, to guide the arrivals. As the car came into the valley -below, the sound apprised her that it was a flivver, and she became -certain that Tom Lee had come. The car threaded its way up the -hillside, and ten feet from Murray's car, came to a halt. Its engine -was not shut off, and its headlights held Claire in the center of this -scene, lighting the place dimly, but efficiently. - -Two dark figures leaped from the car and came toward her. A cry broke -from Claire, and she drew back--not Tom Lee after all! Here was Piute -Tomkins, and with him a stranger whom she did not know. But her fear -vanished swiftly, and she choked down her disappointment. - -"I'm _so_ glad you came!" she exclaimed. "Doctor Murray has been -hurt--why, what's the matter?" - -She halted, blankly astounded. The stranger and Piute both produced -revolvers, and their manner was distinctly unfriendly. The stranger -now flashed the badge of a sheriff; he was a keen-eyed man, bronzed and -resolute. - -"You're under arrest, Miss Lee," he said. "So is Doctor Murray. That -him yonder?" - -"Arrest?" faltered the girl, shrinking in amazement and fear. - -"Yep, complicity," said Piute. "The doc had a lot of opium in his -room, and morphine--and you're helpin' him in his getaway! This here -is the sheriff--Hennesy sent him over a-flyin'----" - -"But--but it's impossible!" wailed the girl, anguish in her voice. -"He's ill--he's had sunstroke! And he's never had any opium----" - -The sheriff, who seemed to dislike his job, shook his head. "Sorry, -Miss Lee, but we got the goods on him. My car broke down and we had to -impress Bill Hobbs to bring us out here----" - -At this instant another figure came into the rays of light from the -car. It was Bill Hobbs. - -"What's the matter, Miss Lee?" he demanded. "Where's the doc?" - -"He's ill--he had to fix a tire and the sun made him ill," she said -weakly. "These men are trying to arrest him and me--oh, it's -ridiculous!" - -"Gee!" breathed Willyum, staring from her to the recumbent figure -beneath the blankets. Then he swung on the other two. "So that was -why you had me run you out here, huh? Tryin' to make a pinch, huh? -You kept darned quiet about it!" - -"Enough for you," snapped the sheriff. "Get busy, and help carry that -man----" - -Suddenly Bill Hobbs changed. In a moment, he became a new man. Across -his face swept an altered look; his hand leaped to his armpit, and an -automatic flickered out toward the two men. He took them completely by -surprise, covered them before their weapons could lift. - -"Put up yer mitts!" he breathed hoarsely, a wild light in his flaring -eyes. "Put 'em up, youse! So help me, if I gotta croak you----" - -The two obeyed, utterly astounded. - -"You'll do time for this," began the sheriff furiously. Bill Hobbs -flung an excited, reckless laugh at him. - -"Will I? You'll go to hell first! Now look here--the doc ain't done -nothin' at all, and you'd ought to know it! You big stool, you," Bill -cast the words venomously at Piute. "I'll cook ye for this!" - -"Hey! It wasn't me!" spoke up Piute in obvious alarm. "It was Doc -Scudder! Don't go to p'inting that there gun too reckless----" - -"Scudder, was it?" Bill Hobbs swore. "I said that gink was crooked! -So he tried to frame the doc, here, did he?" - -"Good lord!" uttered the sheriff suddenly. He had been staring hard at -Bill Hobbs; now he took a step backward, across his face flitting a -look of recognition. "It's Swifty Bill!" - -Willyum snarled at him. - -"Yah, Swifty Bill!" he jeered. "Seen me before, have ye?" - -"I've got pictures of you, my man," said the sheriff. "And word that -you're wanted in Memphis--you've been wanted there for a long time! -Those handbills have been up on my office wall for three years--why I -didn't know you before, I can't say why----" - -Bill Hobbs spat a vicious oath at him. Claire had shrunk back, -white-faced and fearful, watching the intense scene before her with -eyes that only half comprehended. - -"Know me, do you?" flung out Bill Hobbs. "And ye'll try to pinch one -o' Swifty Bill's mob, will ye? I guess not! The doc ain't done -nothin', I tell you! Youse guys ain't goin' to frame him an' get away -with it, not for a minute!" - -"See here," broke out the sheriff. "You're trying to buck the -Government, Swifty Bill, and you know what _that_ means! This man -Murray had a lot of opium and morphine in his possession, and has no -permit for it. You'd better put down that gun----" - -"I got that gat down on _you_," said Bill firmly, "and she stays like -she is." - -Suddenly he paused, then broke out anew, an impulsive eagerness -brightening in his face. - -"Say! What d'you guys say to this--leave the girl an' the doc go, and -take me with you? I'll go! How's that, now? If ye want me, all -right. If ye don't, I'll sure croak both of youse if we don't blow out -o' here!" - -Piute looked at the sheriff, but the latter scarcely hesitated. Those -three-year-old handbills on the wall of his office recurred to his -memory; Swifty Bill was implicated in a federal job back in Memphis, -and there was more credit to be gained from the capture of such a man, -than from taking in Murray. Besides, the drugs had been confiscated, -and the chances were that Murray could not be punished for merely -having them in his possession. - -"You're on!" said the sheriff quickly. - -"Then leave your guns and beat it to the car. I'll come in a minute." - -The sheriff nodded to Piute. The two men dropped their weapons and -retraced their steps. After watching them for an instant, Bill Hobbs -turned to Claire Lee, and gestured toward Murray; his eyes were -suddenly brimming with devoted affection. - -"He ain't dead, miss?" - -"No--but he's very ill----" - -"Listen! I gotta beat it with these guys, see? When we get to Two -Palms, I'll wise up your dad. I guess the doc ain't bad hurt. What's -in this dope frame-up, anyhow?" - -"I don't know--it's all some mistake," said Claire vaguely. - -"All right, then. Say, tell the doc I'm squarin' things up, will you? -Him and me's pals, see. Tell him, will you?" - -Claire nodded dumbly. So quickly had the situation evolved itself, -that she was not yet fully sensible of its significance. The meaning -of all this rapid-fire exchange of words was as yet only partially -comprehensible to her. She could only nod assent. - -Bill Hobbs turned and stumbled away to the car and the waiting -handcuffs. - - - - -CHAPTER XII - -SCUDDER COMES - -The night passed, and the day, and another night, dragging their weary -length above Morongo Valley. After the car that bore Piute, Willyum, -and the sheriff had vanished over the desert horizon, that horizon had -remained unbroken. No one had come. - -Murray slept the clock around, and wakened hungry but very weak. All -strength seemed to have fled out of him. The rare sunstroke of the -desert had smitten fiercely. When he heard Claire's narrative of what -had happened during the preceding night, his first thought was to get -back to the aid of Bill Hobbs; but when the girl inspected the car, she -pronounced the task hopeless. - -"The front axle's all crooked, and the left wheel is half twisted off," -she reported, her eyes resting upon him anxiously. "I must have done -it getting up here----" - -"No matter," said Murray, losing all energy. The least movement -appeared to drain his strength. The slightest touch of that blinding -sunlight sent his brain whirling and reeling. - -"I give up," he went on. "I'm good for nothing. Take a look around -for rattlers; you have to watch out for them this season, for they give -no warning but strike blindly;--and they're bad medicine. Lord, but -I'm helpless!" - -As he lay there, he reviewed the girl's story of the attempted arrest, -and believed that he understood it very plainly, although he did not -attempt to explain matters to Claire. She had enough to worry her, he -decided. - -He remembered that Scudder had been talking with the contractor when -Hennesy left to get the sheriff. He knew already that Scudder had -opium, for the use of Tom Lee. It would have been no hard matter for -Scudder to have planted some of the drug among his own effects, he -reflected. - -"I'll settle with you, Scudder!" he vowed to himself. - -Toward sunset they searched the horizon, but vainly. What was -happening beyond that horizon, over the rim of the world? Murray -worried, more about his friends than himself, for he was little -concerned over Scudder's enmity and attempts to disprove him in the -eyes of Tom Lee. - -But Sandy Mackintavers was in the toils, and as for Bill Hobbs--Murray -groaned at the thought. He knew that Willyum had only recently come -out of "stir" when he had picked up the ex-burglar. Now that Bill -Hobbs had deliberately sacrificed himself in order to save Murray and -Claire Lee, it meant a setback that would put him in the criminal ranks -again for good. And at this moment, when both his friends needed him -so sorely, Murray was stretched out here in the desert, helpless and -impotent--himself under the menace of a cloud! - -During that day, Murray and the girl lived long, came to know each -other deeply; not with the superficial words and phrases and acts of -civilized life, but in primitive ways and fashions. When the night -closed down again like a mantle above the desert, it drew them yet -closer together. - -"Your father will be here tomorrow at latest," said Murray reflectively. - -"He should have come long ago." Claire's eyes were filled with somber -shadows. "I'm afraid that--that Doctor Scudder has been keeping him -under the influence of opium. How I detest and fear that man! I wish -that Father could be made to see him as I see him, that he would break -with the man!" - -"I think he will, eventually," said Murray, and smiled grimly to -himself at thought of the reckoning he would have with Scudder. - -The night passed. Once, Murray wakened; it seemed to him that he -caught, in the desert silence and cold stillness, the throbbing motor -of an automobile. Yet he could see no lights, and Claire had not -wakened. He lay for a space, watching vainly, and at last fell asleep -again. - -With the morning, Murray opened his eyes to find Claire already up and -breakfast nearly ready. He tried to rise, and managed to leave his -blankets, but he was giddy and too weak to walk. With a muttered curse -at his own feebleness, he sank down again upon the sand. - -"If no one shows up here by afternoon," he declared resolutely, while -they breakfasted and discussed the situation, "I think we'd better make -an effort to get back with the car. She may run; when it comes to -flivvers, the days of miracles are by no means over----" - -At this instant, Claire sprang to her feet with a cry of joy. - -"Look--look! A car!" - -Murray twisted around, and saw a moving object upon the desert face. -From where they were upon the hillside, it was possible to see only the -stretch of the cañon floor immediately below them; a twist in the cañon -walls hid the remainder of the road from their sight, until it came out -again upon the desert basin half a mile away. It was out there, -crawling in from the low horizon, that the moving automobile appeared. - -"It's Father!" cried the girl, watching the car intently as it rapidly -drew closer to them. "It's our car! I know it because we had to put -the license plate on the right fender--oh, I'm so glad. Now -everything's all right!" - -Silence fell upon them both. They watched without further speech as -the car came in toward them, and finally vanished from sight. Five -minutes later, it appeared down below in the little valley, its -cheerful thrum reverberating upon the morning silence, echoing back -from the cañon walls. But, as Claire watched, uneasiness grew in her -eyes. - -There was but one man in the car, the driver. The flivver was halted -down by the shack, and its driver alighted. Murray glanced at the -girl, and read a swift flutter of fear in her eyes. - -"It's not Father at all--it's Doctor Scudder!" she breathed. - -"Don't worry," said Murray coolly. "I expect your father sent him -here. Ah, he's coming up! That's good." - -His calm manner exerted a quieting effect upon Claire. Toward them -from the cañon climbed Doctor Scudder. As he came closer, his cheery -"Good morning!" floated to them, and both Murray and Claire made -answer. Scudder completed the climb, panting a little, and removed his -hat to wipe his brow. - -"Where's Father?" exclaimed Claire eagerly. - -"I'm sorry to say, Miss Lee, that he's not well," returned Scudder, his -eyes taking in each detail of the scene. "Hobbs came into town -yesterday in custody of the sheriff, and told us of the situation here. -Your father hoped to be able to come himself, but early this morning he -was taken rather ill. So I came in his place." - -"Did you give him more opium?" cried the girl accusingly. Scudder's -brows lifted. - -"No, I mean that he was really ill, Miss Lee. For the past two days he -has not touched the drug, and his system is not yet inured to the -deprivation. What's this, Murray--sunstroke? I hope you'll let me do -anything in my power----" - -"Thanks," said Murray quietly. Instinct told him that the words of -Scudder were a tissue of lies, yet he knew that he was in need of the -man's skill. "I'd like to have a talk with you all alone. Miss Lee, -would you have any objection to leaving me and Doctor Scudder in -private for a few moments?" - -"Ah!" said Scudder suavely. "I was about to make the same request!" -He smiled thinly. "And I have a very good excuse, Miss Lee. The -contractor arrived yesterday to come out here with your father; but as -their trip has been temporarily delayed, your father asked if you would -take some pictures of the ground just back and above the place he had -selected as a building site. It has something to do, I believe, with -the building of a tank or a reservoir for water from the spring. -You'll find the camera in the rear of the car." - -"Very well," said Claire, with a nod of her head. - -She departed down the hillside, and Scudder gazed reflectively after -her, watching her lift the camera from his car, and then start toward -the wall of manzanita that cloaked the upper end of the valley. -Murray's voice caused him to turn. - -"Well, Scudder, we'd better have a showdown," said Murray calmly, -gazing up at the man. "The sheriff was out here, as you know, and told -about finding dope in my belongings. What made you plant the dope -there? That was a silly way to try and discredit me in the eyes of Tom -Lee." - -Scudder looked down at him and smiled. There was nothing mirthful in -the smile, however. It was a cold, hard, deadly smile, like the fixed -and drawn-back lips of a snake waiting to strike. - -"You guessed right, Murray," he said unexpectedly. "It _was_ a rather -futile thing, and I've found a much better way. I don't mind telling -you that I gave Tom Lee enough opium last night to keep him doped for a -week, so there'll be no interference." - -Murray swore. "You damned whelp!" he said, trying to raise himself, -but vainly. "If----" - -Scudder leaned forward and shoved him back in his place, with a chuckle. - -"No more fisticuffs, eh?" he sneered. "Not in condition just now, are -you? Well, I'll have you fixed up in no time! Morphia victim, weren't -you? Well, I'll pump morphia into you for about three weeks--and turn -you loose. That'll take care of you, I guess." - -From his pocket, Scudder took a hypodermic case, and a bottle of -tablets. He filled the tiny thimble-cup with water from the spring, -dropped a tablet into it, unfolded the inch-square metal stand, and set -the cup in place. Then he put the stand down, struck a match, and held -it beneath the cup. - -"Handy affair, this!" he observed. - -Murray watched him in horror which changed from incredulity to -realization that the man intended his words literally. Knowing that -Murray had been a morphia victim, he was now deliberately taking -advantage of his helplessness to inject the drug again--and with Murray -in his charge, he could put him hopelessly under the spell of the drug -once more! - -"Good God, man!" cried Murray, getting up on one elbow. "You can't -mean----" - -Scudder put out a foot and shoved him back again. - -"Lie put, will you?" he chuckled. "Wait till I get this syringe -filled, and by the time Claire comes back, you'll be past speech! And -you won't speak to her again until I'm ready to let you." - -While he spoke, Scudder filled the syringe, and adjusted a needle. -Then, the syringe in his hand, he came and stood over Murray. - -"Struggling won't do you any good," he said, and bent down. - -Murray struck at him--struck weakly and vainly. Scudder seized his -right wrist and drew it down--put it under his foot and held it there. -Then he seized Murray's left arm, gripped the wrist, and drew it up to -meet the syringe. - -"Now for happyland!" he said. "One slight prick----" - -He paused suddenly--paused and jerked himself upright, a flood of color -sweeping into his pale features as his head came up. From the clumps -of manzanita twenty feet away, had come a voice. - -"Hold on, Scudder!" - -And from that covert of twisting, grotesque, blood-red manzanita trees, -stepped Tom Lee. Murray felt something of the fright that had seized -upon Scudder, for the presence of Tom Lee seemed nothing short of an -apparition. - -"I waited for this, Scudder!" rang out the voice of the yellow man, his -eyes fastened upon the horrified gaze of Scudder. "When you gave me -all that dope last night, I guessed that you were coming here; I -discovered that you had planted the stuff in Doctor Murray's suitcase, -I had begun to penetrate your wiles and deviltry! Now it's ended." - -Tom Lee came forward. Before him, Scudder shrank. The syringe dropped -from his nerveless fingers; he stepped back from the figure of Murray, -retreated from the advancing form of Tom Lee in visible terror and -consternation. - -"You devil!" cried the oriental, a deep and surging passion filling his -voice. "I came here last night in Hennesy's car--I've been waiting for -you! I heard all your lies, heard all your plotted deviltry. You -thought you'd dispose of Murray and have Claire in your power, didn't -you?" - -There was reason for the sheer terror that filled Scudder. The face of -the advancing man had changed into a frightful mask; it had changed and -altered into the face of the great stone Buddha that watches over the -Yungmen caves--it had become a purely Asian face, filled with terrible -and deadly things, unguessed menaces. - -Murray painfully got to one elbow again and watched. The others were -oblivious of him; all their attention was fastened upon each other. -Still Scudder retreated, and still Tom Lee advanced upon him, -weaponless, yet in his advance a potent and fearful threat. Before -that threat, Scudder still retreated, his face ghastly. - -"Damn you!" he cried, his voice shrill. "What d'ye mean by all -this----?" - -"You can't get away from me," said Tom Lee impassively. "I'm going to -have a reckoning with you." - -"No, but I can stop your game!" retorted Scudder with an oath. The -mask was gone now, and he cursed luridly. "You can't run any damned -Chinese bluff on me----" - -With the words, he plucked a revolver from his pocket and fired. - -The shot echoed and reëchoed in the cañon. Tom Lee did not move. -Scudder glared up at him and made as if to lift the weapon again, then -he hurled it from him with another curse, and kicked at something on -the sand at his feet. A shrill scream broke from him. Something fell -away from his kick--an incoherent, feeble object that slipped to the -sand and blended there, shapeless and invisible; a stark-blind thing, a -living volute of death and venom--a rattler, that had struck blind, but -that had struck home! - -With that scream still on his lips, Scudder whirled about and began to -run. He fled, as though after him pursued some invisible and awful -thing. He ran blindly down the valley as though in search of -something, desperate in his extremity; he passed the automobile in -which he had come, running, stumbling through the soft sand. And so -out of sight around the twist in the cañon. - -"Let him go! It is finished." - -The words came from Tom Lee. He turned to Murray, smiling, and the -smile seemed fastened in his face. He lifted his arm, and looked at -the hand, curiously. A cry broke from Murray, for the hand was -streaming with a scarlet fluid. - -Abruptly, Tom Lee pitched forward and lay in a heap, just as Claire, -called by the shot, appeared. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - -UNTANGLED - -A flivver that bore two men, came crawling down the slope of the -desert-rim in the early morning. Near the approach to Morongo Valley, -it halted. The two men alighted to inspect a heap in the sand, from -which a carrion bird flapped heavily away. They looked at the body, -glanced at each other, then silently got into the car and continued -their journey. - -"Rattler, I judge," observed Sandy Mackintavers. "And a good job." - -The car crept up the valley to the shack, stopped, coughed, and became -silent. Murray was awaiting it, pale and weak but walking; beside him -was Claire, and joining them was Tom Lee, his right arm in a sling. - -Murray's face lighted up, and his hand shot out. - -"Willyum!" he cried delightedly. "We thought we must be dreaming when -we saw you! And Sandy too--but I thought you were behind the bars!" - -Across the earnest features of Bill Hobbs broke a rippling light of -gleeful mirth. - -"Say!" he exclaimed, while he pumped Murray's hand. "Say, I gotta hand -it to that sheriff for bein' a prize boob! I was wanted all -right--three years ago! Since then, I done the time an' got out again, -see? When the answer come to his wire, that was the sickest guy you -ever seen! But say, Doc, how are you?" - -"Fine! Coming around all right." Murray's gaze went to Sandy -Mackintavers. "What stroke of luck turned you loose, Sandy?" - -The voice of Tom Lee interposed, with a chuckle. - -"That was my doing, gentlemen," he said blandly. "The contractor, -Hennesy, preferred to withdraw all charges against Mr. Mackintavers, to -losing my contract. And, Mr. Mackintavers! I wish you'd come up the -hill here. There's something I want to show you." - -Sandy nodded and joined him, and the two men ascended toward the -seepage where Murray had lain. - -Bill Hobbs looked from the face of the girl, alight with a strange -happiness, to the incisive, quizzical eyes of Murray. He seemed to -sense a constraint, flushed slightly, and was turning away when -Murray's hand halted him. - -"Hold on there, Willyum! I'm glad, old man, very glad, that -everything's clear for you! By the way, I've an item of news for your -paper. You know what I told you about the sanitarium? Well, Mr. Lee -is going ahead with his plans, and I'm to be in charge----" - -"Say!" broke out Hobbs with sudden remembrance. "What happened to -Scudder? We seen him out yonder, and Mac laid it to a rattler." - -"Mac was right, I suppose," said Murray, thoughtfully. "Although I'm -not so sure that it wasn't the hand of Providence, Willyum. But lay it -to the rattler and play safe. He shot Tom Lee through the arm before -the rattler got him; he sure had panic, blind panic! And, by the way, -I have another item of news for you----" - -Murray glanced at Claire, who smiled happily. "Miss Lee," he pursued, -"has decided to chance being the wife of a country doctor." - -A shout from the hillside drew their attention. Tom Lee was standing -beside Claire's camp, and out of the seepage of water near by, shouting -and waving his hands, was Sandy--dirty, streaked with sand and water, -adrip with perspiration and exultancy. - -"Aiblins, now, will ye look at this!" He pointed to the seepage, a -blaze of excitement lighting his face. - -"We see it," answered Murray, laughing. "What's the matter with it?" - -"Matter with it?" shouted Sandy, waving his arm at the brow of the -hill. "Free gold, that's what! It'll take us smack into rotten -quartz, that's what!" - -A little later, Bill Hobbs, standing by his automobile, rolled a -cigarette. - -"Aw!" he muttered to himself. "Aw, gee! And now I gotta go back to -the printshop and work all alone with that old derelict--and Sandy's -gotta work all alone at the mine--aw, gee! Ain't it hell how a woman -busts up everything! I wisht I was a poor man again!" - - - - - - - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Arizona Argonauts, by Henry Bedford-Jones - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ARIZONA ARGONAUTS *** - -***** This file should be named 60795-8.txt or 60795-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/0/7/9/60795/ - -Produced by Al Haines -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. 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