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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b83c5e9 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #61329 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/61329) diff --git a/old/61329-8.txt b/old/61329-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 31c2ec2..0000000 --- a/old/61329-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,11537 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook, Timber-Wolf, by Jackson Gregory - - -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: Timber-Wolf - - -Author: Jackson Gregory - - - -Release Date: February 6, 2020 [eBook #61329] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - - -***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TIMBER-WOLF*** - - -E-text prepared by Tim Lindell, Martin Pettit, and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made -available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org) - - - -Note: Images of the original pages are available through - Internet Archive. See - https://archive.org/details/timberwolf00greg - - - - - -TIMBER-WOLF - - - * * * * * * - -BY JACKSON GREGORY - -TIMBER-WOLF -THE EVERLASTING WHISPER -DESERT VALLEY -MAN TO MAN -LADYFINGERS -THE BELLS OF SAN JUAN -JUDITH OF BLUE LAKE RANCH - -CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS - - * * * * * * - - -TIMBER-WOLF - -by - -JACKSON GREGORY - -Author of The Everlasting Whisper, -Desert Valley, etc. - - - - - - -Charles Scribner's Sons -New York :: :: :: 1923 - -Copyright, 1923, by -Charles Scribner's Sons - -Copyright, 1923, by Doubleday, Page & Company - -Printed in the United States of America - -Published August, 1923 - - -[Illustration: Logo] - - - - -TO SUE - -"AS JULIANITO WOULD SAY: 'GOOD FOR -PASS THE TIME AWAY!'" - - - - -TIMBER-WOLF - - - - -CHAPTER I - - -Big Pine, tiny human outpost set well within the rim of the great -southwestern wilderness country, was, like other aloof mountain -settlements of its type, a place of infinite and monotonous quiet -during most days of most years. Infrequently, however, for one reason -or another, and at times seemingly for no reason whatever, came days of -excitement. And, as those who knew the place said, when the denizens -of Big Pine bestirred themselves into excitement they were never -content until they skyrocketed into the seventh heaven of turbulence. -The old-timers recalled how, back in '82, a dog fight in front of the -Gallup House started a riot; in spite of the dictum that it takes only -two dogs to make a fight, the two owners present entered with fine -esprit into the thing, and before nightfall men were carrying sawed-off -shotguns and some of the oldest and wisest citizens had dug themselves -in as for a state of siege. - -This latest furore in and about Big Pine, however, had for cause an -incident which since time was young has electrified both more and less -sedate communities. True, it had begun with a fight; men, not dogs; yet -it was what chance spilled from the torn coat pocket of one of them -that transmuted slumbrous quiet into pandemonium. It was fitting that -the Gallup House, centre of local activities, was the scene of the -affair. - -A mongrel sort of a man, one Joe Nuņez, known by everybody as Mexicali -Joe, came in and demanded corn whiskey and paid for it on the spot. -That in itself was interesting; Joe seldom had money. For twenty years -he had been content to have his wife support him while he combed the -ridges, always prospecting, always begging grub-stakes, always spending -the winters telling what he would do, come spring. To-night, looking -tired and dirty, he was triumphant. He spent his silver dollars with -a flourish, and an onlooker, laughing, announced that Joe must have -stolen his wife's money. Joe resented the accusation with dignity; he -knew what he knew; he wagged his head and stared insolently and tossed -off his drink in solemn silence. Thereafter he dropped innuendoes while -he had his second drink. The man, Barny McCuin, who had badgered him in -the first place, carelessly called him a liar. Joe, who had accepted -the familiar epithet a thousand times in his life, for once bridled up -and spat back. From so small a matter grew the fight. - -Onlookers laughed and were amused, taking no serious stock in the -fracas because it appeared inevitable that in half a dozen minutes big -Barny McCuin would have Mexicali Joe whimpering and apologetic. But it -chanced that as Barny flung the smaller man about, the Mexican's coat -pocket was torn and from it spilled a handful of raw gold. Men pounced -upon the scattered bits of quartz, Barny among them; they caught it up -and stared from one another to Joe, who became suddenly quiet and tense -and alert. Then a great shout rumbled up: - -"_Gold!_" - -And that was the one word which set all Big Pine ablaze. Here, on the -fringe of a gold-mining country, which the latter years had all but -worn out, there had been made that fresh discovery which every man of -them always kept somewhere in the bottom of his mind as a possibility -for himself. - -Gallup, called "Young Gallup," simply because he was the son of "Old -Gallup," who had gone to his last rest twenty-five years ago, was a man -eminently capable of dealing swiftly with unexpected situations; he did -not know the meaning of tact, but he did understand force. This was his -house and here his word was law; he broke into the room at the first -outcry, took in everything with one flick of his black eyes, and issued -his orders. - -"Hand that stuff over," he commanded the men who still held bits of -the Mexican's specimens. "It belongs to Joe, and no man's going to be -robbed here under my nose, Mex or White." - -The look which Mexicali Joe shot at his protector had in it far more of -suspicion than of gratitude. But his grimy fingers were eager enough -in snatching back the pieces of quartz from reluctant palms. Grown -sullen, he returned to his corn whiskey, drinking slowly, and holding -his tongue. When men asked him the inevitable quick questions he either -shrugged impatiently or ignored them altogether. They looked at one -another, and an understanding sprang up on the instant between big -Barny McCuin and some of the others. Presently Barny went out, followed -by the men who had caught his glance. Young Gallup, with eyes narrowing -and growing darker, watched them go. - -"They'll get you outside, Joe," he said bluntly. "And they'll make you -open up for all you know." - -Joe shifted uneasily; in his heart he knew himself for a poor fool -caught up between the devil, which was Gallup, and the deep sea. - -Besides the proprietor and the Mexican there were now but three men -left in the room. One of them was Gallup's man, who cooked, did -chores, and, when need was, helped with the still and served drinks. At -a look from his employer he left the room. Of the others, one was old -man Parker, an ancient to be despised because feebleness made of him a -negligible quantity in any affair based upon the prowess of physical -manhood; the second was a youngster who stood in awe of Gallup and who -looked ill at ease as the hotel man stared at him. - -"Better beat it, Tim," said Gallup. "And take old Parker along." - -"But, look here, Gallup; you ain't got any right...." - -"It's my house," said Gallup. "There's going to be no crooked work here -and you know it. Joe goes clear. If he wants to talk later on, why, -then he can come out and talk with you boys outside. You know you'll -find Barny and his friends not so far away." - -Tim's self-pride, unimportant as it was, perked up at the realization -that Gallup was actually discussing a matter of import with him. He -tried to play the man. - -"You want to get him all alone!" - -Gallup sighed. - -"You make me sick," he grunted disgustedly. "Now shut up and clear out. -You, too, Parker. It's closing time anyhow." - -"I seen, didn't I?" clucked the old man, tapping nervously on the bare -floor with his peeled willow staff. "It was gold! Joe's stuck his pick -into the mother lode! Ain't I always told you young fools...." - -Gallup, patient no longer, caught him by the thin old arm and jerked -him to the door, thrusting him out and unheeding the querulous -protests. Then he swung about upon the younger man. - -"On your way, Tim," he commanded. - -There was that in his voice which discouraged argument. For Gallup, -in the full power of his strength, a big man and heavy and hard, was -suddenly flaming with anger and the two great fists were lifting from -his sides. Tim, muttering, hastened after old Parker; behind him the -oak door was slammed and the bolt shot into its socket. He broke into a -run, seeking Barny McCuin and the others. - -Gallup strode straight back to Mexicali Joe, clamping a ponderous hand -upon the shoulder which sought futilely to jerk free. - -"Spit it out, Joe," he ordered. "Where'd that come from?" - -"You let me go! I ain't workin' for you. You ain't my boss. What I got, -she's mine! Now I goin' home." - -Gallup, still holding him with one hand, probed at him with his eyes, -seeking to fathom what powers of determination and stubbornness lay -within a mongrel soul. Joe looked frightened; there were beads of sweat -on his forehead, stealing downward from under his black matted hair. -But there was in his look the glint of desperate defiance.... Gallup -called softly: - -"Hey, Ricky; come here." - -His combination cook and chore man returned through the inner door with -an alacrity which must have told his employer that he had never stirred -a step from the threshold. He, like the others, was on fire with -suddenly stimulated greed. - -"Go get Taggart," said Gallup, his eye all the time on Joe. "Slip out -the back way and go quiet. He's down at his cabin. I want him here in a -hurry." - -Ricky, though with obvious reluctance, withdrew. Once out of sight, -however, he ran as fast as he could, anxious to be back with no loss of -time. - -"Taggart?" muttered Joe. "What for? For why you send for him?" - -"Why does a man generally send for him?" countered Gallup dryly. "Know -who he is, don't you, Joe?" - -"Sure, I know! But I ain't done nothin'. I ain't no t'ief. This is -mine." - -"Thief?" Gallup having repeated the word thoughtfully, said it a second -time: "_Thief!_ I hadn't thought of that." - -"Let me go," cried Joe. With a sudden fierce jerk he broke free and -started to the door. - -But Gallup, shaking his head, was at his side like a flash. He thrust -the Mexican aside and stood with his heavy square shoulders against -the oak panel. Joe, by now trembling with fury, slipped a hand into -his shirt. But before the hastening fingers could close about the -sheath-knife which Gallup knew well enough they sought, Gallup drew -back a heavy fist and struck the Mexican full in the face. Joe went -staggering across the room and fell, his battered lips writhing back -from his teeth. Again his hand went into his shirt. Gallup ran across -the room and stood over him, one heavy boot drawn back threateningly. - -"Make one more move like that," he said coolly, "and I'll smash my boot -heel in your dirty mouth." - - -Outside, grouped expectantly in the middle of the road, Barny McCuin -and his friends, joined by old man Parker and Tim, alternately -speculated in quiet voices and watched for the door to open and Joe -to come forth. Tim, in his anger and excitement, called them crazy -fools; he warned them that Young Gallup, left alone with Joe, would -be making some deal with the Mexican and that, if they were only half -men they would come along of him and smash the door off and get in on -whatever was happening. But Tim was only a boy and talked more than -he acted; the others, knowing Young Gallup as they had cause to know -him, hesitated to grow violent at his door. Gallup, defending his own -property, would just as gladly pour a double-barrel shotgun load of -buckshot into them as he would turn up a bottle of bootleg. They were -not ready for murder and told Tim to shut up and keep his eye peeled. - -But there was not a patient man among them, and to-night was no time -for any man's patience. When they had waited as long as they could, -perhaps half an hour, they turned back to Gallup's door, Barny leading -the way and knocking loudly. In return came Gallup's voice, untroubled -and cool. - -"Locked up for the night," he said. And then, carelessly: "What do you -want, boys?" - -McCuin simulated laughter. - -"That's a good one, Gal. All we want is a chat with Joe. And...." - -"Joe's gone," returned Gallup. He came to the door and opened it, his -lamp in hand. "Went about half an hour ago; just after you boys did. -Out the back way and on the run!" He laughed. "Guess he's foxy enough -to make a circle around you dubs. Oh, come in and look if you think I'm -lying to you." - -He stepped aside and let them come in. They knew that he was lying and -they saw from his eyes that he understood that they were not fools -enough to take him at his word. Yet Joe had gone. In that Gallup had -told the truth; the lie lay in what he concealed. - -"Where did he go?" demanded Tim earnestly. - -Gallup jeered at him. "If I knew I'd tell you, wouldn't I, Timmy? Most -likely where little boys like you ought to be by now. Meaning in bed, -Timmy dear." - -In time they went away; by now, drawn close together by a common -burning desire, they were resolved into a committee with one -objective. Late as it was they searched high and low for Mexicali Joe. -They went first to his wretched cabin among the pines at the edge of -the settlement; they got his wife out of bed and fired questions at -her, receiving only blank looks of wonder; clearly she had not seen Joe -and had no inkling of his sudden importance. They went away and in turn -looked in at every likely place which Big Pine offered. But they found -no sign of Joe. In a town of less than fifty houses he had vanished -like one shadow engulfed and blotted out by another. They began to fear -that he had fled, frightened, into the mountains. - -A dozen men had seen Joe's gold. Before midnight no less than twenty -tongues had discussed the one matter of moment. Men cautioned other men -against letting too many people know; but such was the electric mood -swaying them that early the next morning the news began trickling forth -through the country surrounding Big Pine. By late afternoon word had -penetrated far up into the mountains and, following the stage road, -had gone fifty miles toward the distant railroad. And that same day it -leaked out that Mexicali Joe, who had so strangely disappeared, had -not fled at all but all the time had been in Big Pine. He had been -arrested by Sheriff Taggart and thrown into the town jail, charged with -disturbing the peace. - -Taggart himself had nothing to say. He kept Joe shut up alone and let -no one see him. - - - - -CHAPTER II - - -A normal census gave Big Pine a population of about one hundred and -twenty inhabitants, and the most normal thing which any census does -is to exaggerate. But within forty-eight hours after the tearing of -Mexicali Joe's coat pocket between nine and twelve hundred people, -variously estimated, poured into the settlement. Wood-choppers and -timber jacks and lone prospectors hurried down from the mountains; -storekeepers and ranchmen came up from far below Rocky Bend and Red -Oak; that strange medley of humanity which always rushes first in the -wake of gold news filled Big Pine to overflowing, men and even women; -all straining to one purpose back of which lay many motives. Spring was -verging on summer; nights were cold, but the air was dry; they found -rooms where they could, and when they could not they builded great -camp-fires and found what comfort they might in the edges of the pine -groves. Gallup doubled his prices and then doubled them again, and -still his house was full. There were half a dozen empty houses, ancient -disreputable shacks long in disuse; these found usurping tenants the -first day. There were some few who had had forethought and took the -time to bring tents. Almost in an hour a quiet, sleepy little mountain -town was metamorphosed into a noisy, clamorous and sleepless mining -camp. - -Among the first to arrive was a young man named Deveril. Very tall and -good-looking and gay and slender he was, making himself look taller -by the boots he wore and the way he pinched his soft hat into a peak. -Babe Deveril he was called by those who knew him, saving one only, who -called him Baby Devil and jeered at him with a pair of mocking eyes. - -Deveril had been in Big Pine before, though not for some years. Also he -had seen his share of mining camps through Arizona and New Mexico and -Nevada, and knew something of congested conditions and the hardships -which accompanied the short-sighted. Before his arrival was ten minutes -old, he had cast about him for a shelter. Already the Gallup House was -full, but not yet had the disused, tumbled-down shacks been thought of. -He found a dilapidated building which once, long ago, had been a log -cabin; it stood in the pines set well back from the place of Mexicali -Joe; it had a fireplace. Deveril preempted it coolly, neither knowing -nor caring who the owner might be; he brought his slim bed-roll here, -followed it up with frying-pan, bacon, and coffee-pot and considered -himself established. Further, being just now in funds and always -yielding to the more fastidious impulses at moments when fortune was -kind, he secured a serving-maid. Maria, the dusky daughter of Mexicali -Joe, consented gladly to come in and cook and make the bed and keep -things tidy. He gave her a couple of silver dollars and made her a bow -to bind the bargain, tossing in for fair measure a flashing smile which -left the half-breed girl thrilling and sighing. Thereafter, bending his -mind to the main issue, he sought to find out for himself how much of -fact underlay the glittering rumors which had been pouring forth from -Big Pine like rays from the sun. - -This heterogeneous mass of humanity occupying Big Pine had broken up -into numerous small groups, after the fashion of men who are so prone -to break large units down into smaller ones. Cupidity, jealousy, and -suspicion flaunted their banners on all hands; men watched one another -like so many thieves. The old inhabitants went about bristling, -resenting the presence of these outsiders who were rushing in to -steal the golden secret. Among themselves they were divided into two -antagonistic factions; there was the Gallup crowd, including Gallup and -Sheriff Taggart and the men who did their bidding; and there were those -who had heard Barny McCuin's tale and who were out to block the game of -Gallup and Taggart, or know the reason why. - -Babe Deveril, sauntering here and there, identified himself with -no group; it was his preference always to hunt singly. But he went -everywhere, his mind and ears and eyes co-ordinating in the work he -set them. He listened to rumors and sifted them and went on to newer -and always contradictory rumors. It was said that Mexicali Joe had -been killed, his body found in a ravine three miles from town; that -Gallup had spirited him off last night into the mountains; that Joe had -made his strike in the old and long-deserted mining camp of Timkin's -Bar; that his specimens had come from Lost Woman's Gulch; that Joe -had never stirred a mile from Big Pine in his latter prospecting, and -that, therefore, at any moment any one of the thousand gold seekers -might stumble upon his prospect hole. It was said that Joe's pay-dirt -would run twenty dollars to the ton, and while this was being advanced -as though by one who knew all about it, another man was saying that it -would run a thousand dollars. Deveril, when he had heard a score of -empty though colorful tales, turned at last to the Gallup House; Gallup -and Taggart knew all that was to be known, and, although they had the -trick of the shut mouth and steady eye, there was always the chance of -a sign to be read by the watchful. - -He came upon Gallup himself standing in his doorway, looking out -thoughtfully upon the road jammed tight with restless men. - -"Hello, Gallup," he said. - -Gallup regarded him briefly; again his gaze flicked away. - -"Don't remember me, eh?" queried Deveril lightly. - -"No," said Gallup, curt in his preoccupation. "I don't." - -"Must have something disturbing on your mind," suggested Deveril as -genially as though Gallup's attitude had been exactly opposite what it -was. "Haven't looked in on you for half a dozen years, but you ought -to remember." Gallup's eyes came back slowly, a frown in them, and -the other concluded: "Known as Deveril ... Babe Deveril, formerly of -Cherokee...." - -Gallup showed a quick, unmistakable sign of interest and Deveril -laughed. But Gallup's frown darkened and there came a sudden -compression to his lips. - -"I got you, Kid," he said sharply. "You said it: There is a thing or -two on my mind and I've got no time for gab. Just the same, take this -from me: A certain Bruce Standing has been sent word the town can get -along without him showing his face; and maybe, being his cousin, you'll -trail your luck along with him." - -"So you and Bruce Standing are still playing the nice little parlor -game of slap-the-wrist, are you?" Deveril jeered at him. But, still -highly good-humored, he went on: "He's no cousin of mine, Gallup. -You've got the family tree all mussed up. What fault is it of mine -if a thousand years ago Bruce Standing and I had the same murdering -old pirate for ancestor? At that, Standing descended from him in the -straight line and I am somewhat less directly related." - -Gallup snorted. - -"None of Standing's breed is wanted in my place," he said emphatically. - -Deveril, though his eyes twinkled, appeared to be musing. - -"So you sent him word to stay away? Didn't you know that he'd come, -red-hot and raging, as soon as he got your message? Oh, well, you and -my crazy kinsman fight it out to your liking; it would be a great thing -for the community if you'd both do a clean job, cutting each other's -throats.... By the way, where does Taggart fit in? How does he work it -to be hand in glove with both of you at the same time?" - -"You heard what I said just now?" - -"I did. Say, Gallup, where's Mexicali Joe? I've got some business with -him." - -Gallup, brooding, appeared not to have heard. Then, making no answer, -he turned and went back into his house and into the big main room, -where a crowd of men had foregathered. Deveril, his hat far back, -his dark eyes keen and bright, followed him, almost at his heels. -Gallup saw him out of the tail of his eye but for once gulped down -his first hot impulse; his hands were full as things were and there -were large stakes to play for, with nothing to be gained just now by a -rough-and-tumble fist fight with a man who was obviously highly capable -of taking care of himself. So he pretended to let Deveril's entrance go -unnoted and thereafter ignored him. - -For the first time in many days there were no drinks being served in -Gallup's House. With so many strangers in town, one did not know how -many federal agents might be snooping about. And, again, this was no -time for the main issue to become befogged with side issues; Gallup -did not want any unnecessary ruction on his hands. Nevertheless some -of the men drank now and then, but from pocket flasks which they had -brought in with them; flasks which for the most part came originally -from Gallup's stock but which had been sold on the street by Gallup's -man Ricky. The room was thick with heavy tobacco smoke; most of the men -remained strangely quiet, watching Gallup or Barny McCuin, who glowered -in a corner, or the sheriff who came and went among them. Deveril spent -not more than ten minutes here; once more he returned to the street and -to his passing from knot to knot of men. - -"I'll bet a hat Gallup was lying about that warning to my mad kinsman," -he told himself thoughtfully. "I don't believe he's man enough to get -rough with Bruce Standing." - -It was almost at the moment that Deveril came out of Gallup's place -that the first shock of genuine news burst along the crowded road; -Mexicali Joe had been located. He was in the stone jail, not five -hundred yards from the thickest of his seekers, and had been there -since last night, locked up by Taggart! The crowd split asunder as -cleanly as though some gigantic axe had cloven its way between the two -fragments; one group at full tilt ran to the jail, to prove to their -own senses that here at last was a word of truth; the other streamed -down to the Gallup House, seeking Taggart and an explanation. With the -latter went Babe Deveril, who meant to keep his eye on Taggart and -Gallup. - -There were three steps leading up to Gallup's side door through which -at last came Taggart, when the crowd clamored for him. He stood on the -top step, looking stolidly at the faces confronting him. He was a big -man, massive of physique, hard-eyed, strong-willed; he had been sheriff -for a dozen years and after long office as the chief representative -of the law bore in his look the stamp of that unquestioned authority -which is the unmistakable brand of the mountain sheriff. He had looked -straight into the eyes of many men in many moods and his own glance -never wavered. Never a great talker, he stood now a moment in silence, -tugging slowly at his heavy black mustache. - -"Mexicali is my man right now," he said at last. "I got him in jail." - -That was all. There was no belligerence in his tone; his look remained -untroubled. Babe Deveril, beginning to understand something of what -had happened and casting his own swift horoscope of the likely future, -wondered to what extent it was in the cards that Jim Taggart should -stand in his way. There was big game in the wind, or men like Gallup -and Taggart, who were always big-game men, would not be taking things -upon their shoulders thus. And to-day Jim Taggart was at his best; he -stood as solid and unmoved as a rock, with never a flick of the eyelid, -as he made his quiet announcement and awaited the breaking of any storm -which his words might evoke. - -There was a short lull while men murmured among themselves, and yet, -digesting Taggart's statement, impressed by his manner, hesitated to -speak the thought which was forming in dozens of brains simultaneously. -Presently, however, a man at the far edge of the crowd shouted: - -"What's he arrested for, Taggart? What did he do?" - -Before the man had gotten his ten words out, the sheriff's keen eyes -found him where his lesser form was half hidden by the bigger men in -front of him. - -"I hear you, Bill Cary," he said quietly. "And the only reason I'm -answering a regular none-of-your-business question is that all of -you other boys that have stampeded in here on a wild say-so will be -worrying your heads off until you know what's what. I pulled Joe on two -counts: First for disturbing the peace." - -An uproar of laughter boomed out at that and even Jim Taggart smiled. -But he went on evenly: - -"Of course that was a blind until I got the goods on the second count. -And I only got that a few minutes ago. This ain't any trial, exactly, -and still I guess it will save trouble if you know all about it. So -I'll let Cliff Shipton step up and testify." - -Suddenly he stepped aside and a tall, hawk-faced man who had been -holding his place at Gallup's side, just behind Taggart's massive bulk, -stepped forward. Men craned their necks and crowded closer; nearly -all of them knew Cliff Shipton. He was a Gallup man and always had -been a Gallup man; for the last two years he had been in charge of a -profitless "gold-mine" which Gallup pretended to operate at the head -of the Lost Woman's Gulch; a property which, it was generally conceded -in and about Big Pine, was merely the proverbial hole in the ground -intended for sale to a fool. - -"Last week, gents," said Shipton in his easy style, "we hit it rich out -at the Gallup Bonanza. Pocket or ledge, we're not saying which right -now. But we got the stuff. We been keeping it quiet until we got good -and ready to spring something. I had the choice specimens in a box in -my shack. That Mexican's been prowling around; I couldn't be sure until -I'd glimpsed the specimens, but I just looked 'em over. That's the -story; Mexicali, being half drunk and stupid generally, made his haul -out of my specimen box." - -As the first slow murmur, gathering volume, began, Jim Taggart threw up -his hand and shouted: - -"Now, men, go slow! I've seen a pack of gents before now get all het-up -because they was sore and disappointed. And I can read the eye-signs! -But pull off and think things over before you make a lot of howling -fools out of yourselves. If you want me any time.... Well, I'll be -right on hand!" - -He stepped back swiftly, in through the open door, and it closed after -him. - -For a little while the men remained uncertain. Jim Taggart represented -the law; further, he was no man at any time to trifle with. He had -offered them an explanation and the worst of it was that it might be -the truth. Discussions began on every hand; those who believed were in -the minority and lost voice as the other voices, becoming heated, grew -louder. Babe Deveril was turning away when a man caught at his sleeve. - -"You know those men, Taggart and Gallup and the rest. What do you make -of it? What had we ought to do?" - -Deveril shook the man off. - -"Go slow until you know what you're doing," he admonished curtly. "Then -go like hell." - -He skirted the crowd and went up to his cabin to be alone and do a bit -of thinking on his own part. - - - - -CHAPTER III - - -There was a crowd of men, tight-jammed, about the little square stone -jail as Deveril made his way toward his cabin. Every man of them was -striving for a glance through the barred slit of a window behind which -Mexicali Joe glared out at them. In the throng Deveril marked a man who -wore his deputy-sheriff's badge thrust prominently into notice and who -carried a rifle across the hollow of his arm. Deveril shrugged and went -on. - -"In jail or out, the Mex is going to keep a shut mouth," he meditated. -"He'll never spill a word now, unless Taggart gets a chance to give him -a rough-and-ready third degree. And Taggart will get no such chance -to-night." - -Through the dim dusk gathering among the pines he came to the cabin. A -light winked at him through the open door; Maria, Joe's daughter, was -getting his supper. Well, he was ready for it; blow hot, blow cold, a -man must eat. - -"Hello, Seņorita," he greeted her from the threshold. "How does it feel -to be the one and only daughter of the most distinguished gentleman in -town?" - -Maria did not understand him, but her white teeth flashed and her large -southern eyes were warm and friendly. - -"They found your papa," he told her. "He's in jail." - -"_Seguro_," responded Maria, unmoved. "That is nothing for him." - -Deveril laughed and went to wash at the bucket of water which the girl -had placed on a bench in the corner. Maria finished setting his table -with the few articles at hand, putting a black pot of red beans in -the place of honor before his plate. As he returned from washing and -smoothing his hair down, he noted the plate itself; a plain, cracked -affair of heavy crockery with a faded design in red roses. Plainly, -Maria had raided her mother's home for that. She was looking at him for -his approval and received it. At the moment she had both hands occupied -and he stooped forward and kissed her. It was lightly and carelessly -done; a gay salute to the girl's warm smouldering beauty. For beauty of -its kind she did have, that of the young half-bred animal. - -She gasped; her face, whether through indignation or pleasure, went -a dark burning red. Deveril laughed softly and sat down upon the box -which she had drawn up for his chair. - -It was only then that he saw that he had a visitor. His eyebrows shot -upward as he wondered. Another girl or young woman; in that light, as -she stood just outside his door, nothing very definite could be made of -her. - -"Could I have a word with you, Mr. Deveril?" - -He came to his feet almost at the first word, quick and lithe and -graceful. Always was Babe Deveril at his best when it was a question -of a lady. The voice accosting him was clear and cool and musically -modulated. He tried to make out her face, but was baffled by the shadow -cast by her wide hat. She was clad in a neat dark outing suit and -wore serviceable walking boots; she was slim and trim and young and -confident. Beyond that the dusk made a mystery of her. - -"A thousand!" he returned in answer. "Won't you come in?" - -"It is very pleasant outside. May I sit on your door-step?" - -"Lord love you," he assured her, "you may do anything on earth that -pleases you.... Maria, my dear, you may run home to your mama; I have -affairs of state. And I'll be delighted to see you again at breakfast -time." - -Maria put down her things and fled. Again Deveril laughed softly. - -"It was no tender scene that you interrupted," he told his visitor. "I -was merely seeking expression in a bit of rudimentary human language of -my gratitude for the loan of a cracked plate! Look at it!" He held it -aloft. - -"A gratitude which obviously springs from the heart," she returned as -lightly as he had spoken. - -She sat down on the door-step. He came toward her, meaning to have a -better look at her. - -"But you were just beginning your supper," she objected. "Please go on -with it while it is hot. Otherwise I shall most certainly leave without -talking with you as I had wished." - -"But you? There is plenty for both of us." - -She shook her head emphatically. - -"No, thank you. It's very kind, but I have eaten." - -"Then I eat, though it's putting a hungry man at an unfair advantage -to watch him at such a disgusting pastime." He poured himself a cup of -coffee, all the while trying to make out her features. He knew already -that she was pretty; one sensed a thing like that. But just how pretty, -that even Babe Deveril could not decide as long as the light was no -better and she hid in the shadows of her provoking hat. "And now, how -may I be of service?" - -Thus of the two she was the first to be given the opportunity of -clear observation. There were two candles stuck in their own grease on -the rough table, and between them his face looking out toward her was -unshadowed. A face gay and insouciant, dark and clean-cut, the face of -devil-may-care youth. It struck her that there was an evidence of the -man's character in the fact that, though she had caught him in the act -of kissing his maid of all work, he was not in the least perturbed. She -thought that it would be easy to like this man; she was not sure that -she could ever trust him. - -"I am Lynette Brooke," she said in a moment. "And I thought it possible -that, if you cared to do so, you might answer a question for me." - -"If I may be of assistance to you," he told her, cordially, watching -her narrowly, "you have but to let me know." - -"Thank you." He had inclined his head in acknowledgment of her -introduction and now her head tipped slightly toward him. "My question -has to do, naturally, with the one matter of general interest in Big -Pine to-day. You see, I have heard of you; I know that you know some of -the men here ... Sheriff Taggart and Mr. Gallup, for example. And ... -I once had the pleasure of meeting you, Mr. Deveril. Small excuse for -troubling you, I know, but when one is in earnest...." - -"I'll tell you something!" said Deveril quickly. - -"Yes?" - -"I'd give a whole lot for a good square look at you! I am no hand for -names; and I haven't been able to make out your face." - -"A whole lot?" It was a fair guess that she was smiling. "Well, then, -it's a bargain. You give me an answer to a question!" - -"Done! Any question!" - -With a sudden gesture her two hands went up to her hat. At the same -moment she jumped to her feet and came three steps into his cabin. -As she brought the hat down to her side and turned toward him, the -candle-light streamed across her face and Babe Deveril sat back on his -box and with a sudden lighting up of his eyes collected his share of -the obligation by letting his admiring glance rove across her disclosed -features. Pretty; yes, far and away more than pretty. He was startled -by an unexpected, soft loveliness; an alluring, seductive charm of -line and expression. Just now it was her mood to smile at him; and she -was one of those rare girls whose smile is sheer tenderness. He marked -the curl in her soft brown hair; the sparkle in her big gray eyes; the -curve of the lips; in another moment the red mouth would be laughing at -him. She held herself erect under his frank inspection; her chin was -up; her eyes did not waver; she challenged him with her glance to look -his fill and shape his judgment of her. - -"I think you are mistaken on one point," he told her quickly. "I never -saw you before, for I would not have forgotten." - -"The obvious remark nicely made," she laughed at him. - -He frowned. - -"Through no fault of mine. You are welcome to know that I have a memory -for pretty girls. And that you are absolutely the prettiest girl I ever -saw." - -"Thank you," she mocked him. She put her hat on again and went back to -the door-step. "Nevertheless, it is true that we have met before. Of -course," she amended hastily, "I am not going to claim any obligation -on either side because of that. But it suggested that I should come to -you now instead of taking my chances with utter strangers." - -"If you care to do me a very great favor," said Deveril, "you will tell -me when you think you and I met." - -"Certainly. I have no desire to make a mystery of so common an -occurrence. Last May you were in Carson?" - -"Yes." - -"There was a dance. You went with Mildred Darrel. When you called for -her she was out on the porch. Another girl was with her and you were -introduced." - -"After all, I was right!" he cried triumphantly. "You were in the -shadows that the vines threw all over the porch. I don't believe I even -heard your name. Most positively I did not catch a glimpse of your -face." - -She dismissed the subject with indifference. - -"At least I have made my explanation. And now may I ask my question?" -And, when he nodded: "Are they telling the truth when they say that -Mexicali Joe stole his gold from Mr. Gallup's mine?" - -He had expected something like that; all along he had felt that this -girl with the bright daring eyes and that eager confident carriage -was in Big Pine because she, equally with himself, was concerned with -the one occurrence which for the moment made the community a place of -interest to such as found no lure in the humdrum. - -"Of course, you know that anything I could say in answer would be but -one man's opinion?" - -"Yes. But knowing these men, your opinion would be of value to me." - -"Well, then, I'd gamble my boots that they're lying. And I can advance -no reasons whatever for my belief. But there's your question answered." - -"As I thought that it would be. I was sure of it before I came here. -You make me doubly sure." - -He, for the moment, was more interested in her than in Mexicali Joe and -his gold. - -"You don't belong up here in the mountains? You're a long way from your -stamping-ground, aren't you?" - -"Of course. I happened to be down in Rocky Bend when the news came and -I caught the first stage up." - -He tried to make her out. She did not look the type of woman who -followed in the wake of such news, adventuring. But then you could -never tell what a woman was inside by the outer peach-and-cream -softness of her, as Babe Deveril very well understood. - -She appeared to be plunged deep into revery. Perhaps there was -something of weariness in the droop of her shoulders; if she had come -on the early stage, she might have had a hard day of it altogether.... - -"Were you able to get a room at the Gallup House?" he asked. - -"Yes. I was one of the first, you know. As to how long I can keep my -room, I can't tell. Mr. Gallup has doubled his prices and is likely to -double them again." - -"He's that sort," conceded Deveril. "He plays a big game and all the -time has a shrewd eye for the little bets. By the way, do you feel -entirely comfortable there?" - -Her eyes drifted to a meeting with his. - -"What do you mean?" - -"There's as tough a crowd there and spread all over town as I ever saw. -Are you alone?" - -"Yes. Quite." - -"You don't mean to say that you, a young girl and not overused to -hardship, from the look of you, are up here to mix into such a -scrimmage as may be pulled off? To match your wits and your grit and -your endurance against the kind of men who go hell-raising into a new -gold strike?" - -She tilted back her head against the door-jamb and looked up, straight -into his eyes. Thus he saw her chin brought forward prominently. It -was delicately turned and joined, softly curving, a full feminine -throat; and yet it was a chin which bespoke character and stubbornness. - -"When men go rushing after gold," she said quietly, "more likely than -not they go with empty pockets if not empty stomachs. There is always a -chance, in a new mining-camp, for one who has a little money. A chance -to stake a miner, going shares; and always, of course, the chance to -stake one's own claim." - -"But you.... What do you know of such things?" - -"Not much, first-hand, perhaps. But it's in the blood!... You look a -very young man, Mr. Deveril, but you and I know that looks are not -everything; and it is quite possible that you are old enough to have -heard of Olymphe Labelle?" - -"Why," he exclaimed, "I have seen her. I was only a boy; it was twenty -years ago. That was down at Horseshoe; why, bless your soul, I fell -head over heels in love with her! I can tell you how she dressed and -how she looked. Big blue eyes; golden hair; a pink dress; a great big -picture-hat, with ribbons. I was only eight or nine years old, but -forget? Never!" - -"My father married her down in Horseshoe! That was the first time he -ever saw her and he didn't let her get away! Dick Brooke; maybe you -have heard of him, too? If so you won't ask why the daughter of Olymphe -Labelle and Dick Brooke has it in her veins to mingle with the first of -the crowd when there's word of a new strike!" - -There was scarcely a community in all Arizona or New Mexico, certainly -none within the broad scope of the great southwestern plateau country, -which had not in its time, a generation ago, paid tribute to the -gaiety and grace and beauty of Olymphe Labelle. She danced for them; -she sang; she went triumphantly from one mining town or lumber-camp -to another and men went mad over her. They packed the houses in which -she appeared; they spent their money generously to see her, and night -after night, captivated, they tossed to the stage under her pretty -high-heeled feet both raw and minted gold. Olymphe was to this country -what Lotta was to the camps of California in an earlier day. Then young -Dick Brooke, a stalwart and hot-blooded young miner, saw her and that -was the end of Olymphe's dancing career. They were married within ten -days. And from this union was sprung the superb young creature now -sitting upon an adventurer's door-step and looking straight up into his -eyes. - -"You see, it is only the thing to be expected, after all, that I should -follow the gleam!" - -She, like himself, was young and eager and unafraid and adventuresome; -and within her pulsing arteries was that pioneer blood which, trickling -down through the generations is ever prone to set recklessness seething. - - -There was a man coming up through the pines on horseback. In the gloom -all detail was wanting. But obviously he meant to come straight on -to the cabin. Deveril, seeing this intent, stepped by the girl and -a couple of paces forward. The man, sitting in a strange, sideways -fashion in the saddle, drew rein and peered at him. - -"Name of Deveril? Babe Deveril?" - -"Right, friend. What's your trouble?" - -"Offering to shake hands, to begin with. I'm Winch; Billy Winch. You -and me know each other." - -He leaned outward from the saddle, putting out his hand. But Deveril -ignored it, saying coolly: - -"Why should I shake hands with you? You and I are not friends that I -know of!" - -Billy Winch sighed, and used his hand to remove his hat and then rumple -his bristly hair. Then he laughed softly. His horse, restless and fiery -and well-fed, whirled, and for the first time Lynette Brooke made out -the reason for that strange, lopsided attitude in the saddle; the man, -a little, weazened fellow, had lost his right leg above the knee and -managed a sure seat only by throwing his weight upon his left stirrup -and thus maintaining his balance. - -"Well," said Winch good-naturedly, "_he_ said to start off by shaking -hands. Just to show as I _was_ friendly." - -"_He?_" repeated Deveril. "You mean Bruce Standing?" - -"Sure. Of course. When I just say _he_ I mean _him_." - -The girl sitting in the shadows smiled. Deveril, however, whose profile -she could watch, appeared to have no good humor left to spend upon his -caller. She marked how his voice hardened and how he bit off his words -curtly. - -"I have no business with either Bruce Standing or with you." - -"Well," said Winch cheerfully, "here's the message: You're to meet him -in half an hour or so at the Gallup House." - -For a moment Deveril was silent; then the girl heard his barely audible -muttering and knew that under his breath he was roundly cursing the -man who sent him a message like that. In another instant he flared out -hotly, forgetful of her or ignoring her: - -"You go tell your Bruce Standing that I said that he is a land hog and -a thief and a damn' fool, all rolled in one; and that I'll meet him -nowhere this side of hell." - -Billy Winch chuckled as at the rarest of all jests. - -"I got a picture of _me_ going to _him_ with a mouthful like that! On -the low-down level, Deveril, he means to be friendly, I think...." - -"Do your infernal thinking somewhere else," snapped Deveril angrily. -"Clear out or I'll throw you out!" - -"I told him most likely you'd be sassy, so he won't be disappointed, I -guess. Well, I'm travelling, so you don't have to mess your place all -up throwing me off!" He was still chuckling good-naturedly as he swung -his horse about with a light touch of the reins. Over his shoulder he -called back: "He said it was important and he'd see you at Gallup's -inside the hour!" The voice was taunting; Billy Winch threw his weight -into his one stirrup, and even the attitude, though made necessary -through his physical handicap, was vaguely irritating, so carelessly -nonchalant did it appear. His horse bolted like a shot as he gave the -signal and in a moment bore him out of sight among the shadows under -the pines. Babe Deveril, hands on hips, stood staring after him. -Then he swung about and came back to the cabin, and the girl on his -door-step, seeing his face clearly in the candle-light streaming forth, -caught her breath sharply at the outward sign she glimpsed of the rage -burning high and hot in his breast. - -"I'm of half a mind to meet him after all and break his confounded -neck!" he cried out, a passionate tremor in his voice. - -All along he had intrigued her, with his handsome face and -devil-may-care air and light gracefulness; she estimated coolly that -if, as he had said of himself, he had a memory for pretty girls it was -something more than likely that more than one pretty girl had carried -in her heart the memory of him. Now, suddenly, his good looks were -sinister; his gaiety was so utterly gone that it was next door to -impossible to imagine that he could ever be inconsequentially gay. The -innate evil in the man stood up naked and ugly. And all because some -man, a certain Bruce Standing, had sent a message commanding a meeting -at the Gallup House. - -It was not exactly the thing to do to put her question, but interest, -mounting above mere curiosity, piqued her, and, certain of an answer in -his present mood, she offered innocently: - -"It seems to me I have heard the name Bruce Standing. Just who is he?" - -Deveril glared at her and for a brief fragment of a second she was -afraid of him; it was as though, by the mere mention of the name, she -drew on herself something of the hatred he must have felt for this man -Standing. - -"You heard me read his title clear enough to his one-legged dog -Winch," he told her harshly. "He is a man who came into this country -with nothing a dozen years ago and who now rolls in the fat of his -ill-gotten gains. He's a land hog who has robbed right and left and -who has with him the devil's luck. He owns thousands of acres of land -out yonder." A wide sweep of his arm indicated the endlessly rolling -wilderness land, sombre ridges and ebony caņons, rising into stony -barren crests here, thick timbered yonder where they slumbered under -the first stars. "He operates mines; he gambles in gold and copper -and lumber ... and life, curse him! And in human souls, his own with -the rest. He runs half a dozen lumber-camps and has a thousand of the -toughest men in the world working for him at one place and another. Men -hate him for what he is, a cold-blooded highwayman. They have sent him -a warning not to show his face in Big Pine, and being of the devil's -spawn he sends me word to meet him at Gallup's! That's his way and his -nerve and his colossal conceit. May hell take him!" - -"And," suggested the girl, watchful of him as she ventured to probe at -his emotions, "on top of all of this ... your cousin?" - -"_No!_" He shouted the word at her angrily. "No cousin, thank God. -Not so closely related as that. A kinsman of a sort, yes; but if you -go back far enough to dig out the roots of things, we are all kinsmen -since Adam. I claim no relationship with Bruce Standing." - -"I should like to meet this wicked kinsman of yours," she said, as -though thoughtful and in earnest. - -"And," she added, "warned against coming into Big Pine, he will still -come openly?" - -"At least," he grunted back at her, "there is one thing I have never -denied him; he's no coward. No Gallup was ever conceived who can tell -him where to head in and get away with it. Of course he will come and -in the wide open and on the run." - -She rose to go. - -"I wish you all success in your dealings with your bold, bad kinsman. -And I do thank you for your frank answer to my question. And now ... -good night." - -"I'll walk with you ... if you will let me?" - -"Thank you, but...." - -They heard the clippety-clop of horses' hoofs, running. Not one -horse this time, but three, bearing their riders like so many -indistinguishable dark blurs through the night, sweeping on to the -cabin. A man, one of the riders, was laughing, and Lynette Brooke knew -that already here was Billy Winch returning. Babe Deveril, too, must -have recognized the voice, for he jerked his head up and stiffened -where he stood, oblivious of the fact that she had broken off with an -objecting "but," conscious only of a hated man's impertinence. - -Those three were expert riders, men who lived in the saddle. They and -their horses seemed moulded centaurs for certainty and the grace of -the habitual horseman. They came on at such a break-neck speed and so -close that the girl whipped back, thinking that they would run her and -her companion down. Then, with that quick light pluck at the reins, -they brought their horses down from a mad run to a trembling standstill. - -"He said you was to meet him ... _about now!_" - -That was Billy Winch, lopsided and cock-sure in the saddle, the chosen -messenger of his impudent, reckless chief. - -Winch flung out his arm. In the dark they could have made nothing of -the gesture had it not been for the sudden sibilant hiss of the rope, -swung by an iron wrist, cutting through the air. The noose fell with -absolute exactness; Winch was not ten steps away and the rope thrown -so unerringly settled about Babe Deveril's shoulders and with a quick -jerk grew so tight that it cut into the flesh. On the instant the two -men with Winch left their saddles and struck earth, both on the run -forward. And, while Lynette Brooke thought with horror to see sudden -death dealt, they threw themselves upon the man already fighting -against the imprisonment of thirty feet of hemp. - -She had never seen men battle as now these three battled while Billy -Winch sitting back in his saddle with his rope drawn tight, watched and -laughed and cried out in broken phrases expressing his satisfaction -with the situation. Babe Deveril, roped as he was, gave her such proof -of prowess as to make her admiration for the physical perfection of -him leap high. She, too, cried out brokenly; she wanted to see him win -against these unfair odds. But the men clung on and Billy Winch sat -laughing and tautening his rope; blows and curses and throaty growls, -the whole thing lasted not half a minute. Babe Deveril was down, -mastered by three men. - -"Well?" she heard him pant furiously. "What now? Murder or only robbery -again?" - -"Again? Robbery?" That was Winch's untroubled voice, always gay. "When -was the other time, pardner?" - -"He robbed me once of three thousand dollars. Now what?" - -"Now," said Winch coolly, loosening his rope an inch or two but still -on guard, "it's only what I said before: You are to meet him at the -Gallup House, and I'm responsible for your coming. So we're taking you." - -Deveril lay very still, two brawny men upon him. When he made no -immediate reply Winch waited patiently and knew, as the girl knew, that -a man must be given a moment in such circumstances to collect his wits. -Deveril's panting gradually gave over to more quiet breathing; he lay -flat on his back and saw the two heads bending over his own and, beyond -them, the stars. He started once to speak, but clamped his lips tight. -Still, in high tolerant patience, Billy Winch waited upon him while -Lynette Brooke, trembling from head to foot with excitement, waited in -burning impatience. - -"You got me, boys." - -She could scarcely recognize Deveril's voice; at first she thought that -it was one of the other men speaking. - -"That's sensible." That was Billy Winch. Again he loosened his rope. - -"I guess," Deveril went on quietly, "that the three of you, jumping me -like that, regular Standing sneak-style, can lead me down to Gallup's. -Or, if you care to let me up, I'll save you the trouble, and will go -without your help." - -"That's your promise?" queried Winch. - -"Yes ... damn you." - -"That's fair. Let him go, boys." - -The two men holding him down, got to their feet and went back to their -horses as if, their bit of work done, they had lost all interest, as -perhaps they had. Deveril got to his feet and cast the rope off. Winch -drew it in, coiled it, and tied it at his saddle strings. - -"Most any time now," he said casually. "He's on his way and due in a -dozen minutes. All you got to do is listen for him!" - -Deveril stood, both arms stiffening at his sides, his head lifted high, -looking straight at Winch. - -"Some fine day," he said with low-toned quiet anger, "I'll get you or -I'll get him. And it will be a great day!" - -"It sure will, Kid," laughed Winch. "_Adios_, and all best wishes." - -The three riders, all seated by now, sped away, their horses kicking -up the fine dust fragrant with fallen pine-needles. Deveril remained, -rigid and angry, looking after them. - -"You don't know," he said heavily, as the pounding hoof beats dwindled -and the scurrying blurs of figures faded, "you don't know and can't -guess...." - -And when he remained where he was, stiff, hands clinched at his sides -and face lifted to the stars, she thought that for an instant it was -given her to glimpse for the first time in her life something of the -realities working in a man's very soul. Almost she could see the hot -tears in his angry eyes. - -She was very deeply moved. Clearly here was no concern of hers; these -men, all of them including Deveril, were strangers to her and their -loves and hates had nothing to do with Lynette Brooke. But none the -less that current of men's lives ran so strong and swift that she felt -as though she were being actually and physically drawn into it. Nor, -though her eyes did not once leave the rigid figure of Deveril, did her -thoughts concern themselves exclusively with him. She felt a sudden -strange and burning interest in that other man whom she had never seen -but of whose wild nature she had heard. She resented the work of Bruce -Standing, done for him by his emissaries; she felt that she, no less -than Babe Deveril, could hate a man like that. And yet already there -had sprung up within her a strong desire to see him for herself. - -"How can it be," she wondered, "that if he is the lawbreaker you call -him, thief and worse, men allow him to go on his way?" - -He looked at her curiously. Then he laughed his short angry laugh. - -"He's a man for you to look into, girl with the daring eyes! A cruel, -merciless devil if half the tales are true and, to top off his madness, -a man who has not hate but an abiding contempt for all your gentle sex. -But you wonder why men let him roam free? In the first place, haven't -I told you that he rolls in wealth? That's one thing. Another is his -cursed craft. You wonder why I say in one breath that he stole three -thousand dollars from me and then merely growl that he remains outside -jail?" - -"I don't understand it, of course." - -"Here you go, then: Half a dozen years ago I held that Bruce Standing -and I were friends. He sent me word to come up here into his -wilderness; I was to bring whatever money I could raise and there was -the chance to double it. I came. When I met him, twenty miles off -over yonder in a cabin where he lived like a solitary old bear, we -talked things out. With all of his big ventures he was on the edge of -bankruptcy. He was grabbing money in both hands from any source and -every source. He wanted my three thousand to throw in with the rest, -the damned selfish hog that he was and is. I laughed at him and you -could have heard him growl a mile. We slept that night in his cabin. In -the middle of the night in the pitch black dark, I felt a man on top of -me in my bunk, his hands at my throat. I got a tap over the head with -something; when I woke up my money belt was gone and it was morning and -there was Bruce Standing, singing and grinning and getting breakfast -and asking me if I had had bad dreams." - -"But...." - -"The law? When he wouldn't either admit or deny? When he just laughed -and said, 'Where in this country, _my country_, will you get a jury to -convict me?' And where, by the same token, was any money left in my -pockets to do legal battle with a man intrenched as he is in his old -mountains?" - -"And he goes on prospering?" - -"I tell you he was hanging on the rim of nowhere, broke. And he used my -three thousand and God knows what other stolen funds, and now again he -is the one power across a hundred miles up here!" - -There was one other thing she meant to ask. Billy Winch had said just -now that Standing was on his way; that all they had to do was _listen_ -for him. She supposed that he had meant the clatter of a running -horse's hoofs; and yet something in Winch's tone implied something -else. No doubt Deveril understood; she was parting her lips to ask -when, across the fields of the silent night, Bruce Standing himself -answered her. A sudden thrill shot through her blood. - -As she was to learn later, there were many wonderful things about Bruce -Standing. Among them were his reckless impudence and his glorious -voice. Now, before ever she saw the man, she heard him singing, -somewhere far out, under the stars, alone with his wilderness, sending -far ahead of him into Big Pine the word of his coming. A coming which -was in defiance of the order which had gone forth and which, with his -superb assurance, he was ignoring. It was a voice as sweet and clear -and true, for the high notes and the low notes alike, as a silver -trumpet. She stopped breathing to listen. She felt her heart leap and -quicken; a tingling quivered along her nerves. Never had she heard -singing like that, wild, free, a voice to haunt and linger echoing in -the memory. - -And then, all of a sudden, she was set shivering. For the voice had -done with the song and, at the end, with a great unexpected upgathering -of sound was poured forth into a long-drawn-out call that was like -nothing on earth save the howling of a wolf. The night call throbbed -and billowed across the disturbed silences and all of a sudden was gone -and the night was again hushed and still. - -"There you have one of the two good reasons why men call him -Timber-Wolf," said Deveril with a grunt. - - -She scarcely heard. Somewhere, deep down within her, that golden -outpouring, that rush of fierceness at the end, echoed and lived on. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - - -Bruce Standing--Timber-Wolf, as he exulted in being called--was a man -of few friends and many enemies. In and about Big Pine men disliked -him wholeheartedly; many hated him so that they would have been glad -to know that he was dead. And this was chiefly because he jeered at -them and overrode them; because at every opportunity, going out of his -way to make opportunity more often than not, he thrust them aside and -trod his unobstructed path through and over them, setting his heel upon -many; because he spat upon their laws and made his own. And he, in his -turn, held them in high contempt simply because always they stood aside -for him. Those few who did not hate him were the handful of hard men -whom, in the working out of his wide, overweening ambitions, he had -drawn to him like so many feudal henchmen; they were, in their lesser -degrees, of his stamp; they belonged in their hearts to an older day -and a wider frontier; there were scores taking his pay whose blood ran -hot and lawless. - -So to-night he came riding down the winding trail from his mountains, -singing. Thus he shot his spirit across the miles ahead of him, to -invade Big Pine before his coming, to taunt before he brought his hard -eyes to mock at them. He had received his word and his warning, and -made his retort in the one way possible to him. - -The road in front of the Gallup House, leading on to the pines and -the aloof jail where Mexicali Joe glared out, was thronged. Half a -dozen bonfires had been started, and in the ruddy light men stirred -restlessly. Their talk was becoming purposeful; they gathered in -knots about men who were showing impatient signs of initiative; they -had murmured and were looking this way and that, over their shoulders, -shifting their feet as they gave increasingly free expression to their -determination. They were working themselves up to the pitch of defiance -of the law, as represented by Sheriff Jim Taggart; as yet no man cared -to be first and still they looked frequently at the deputy sheriff with -the rifle across his arm, and meant to set Mexicali Joe free. A man -broke away from one of these groups and ran back to the Gallup House, -to carry warning to Taggart. - -It was at this moment that Bruce Standing, Timber-Wolf, rode into -town. He rode alone, on a powerful red-bay gelding, silent now, a -great-bulked man sitting straight in the saddle. One saw nothing of his -face under the wide black hat. - -He had no word of greeting for any man of them; after his -characteristic coldly insolent way, he appeared to ignore them utterly. -On the instant he, rather than Mexicali Joe, became the central object -of interest. Most knew who he was and what he stood for, and wherein -his visit among them was to be regarded as worthy of interest; those -who did not know, marked the hush which greeted him, and in lowered -voices demanded the explanation which, in voices equally low, was -briefly given. They looked for him to draw rein at Gallup's and swing -down and go in. But, knowing that you could never be sure of him, they -watched to see. - -He disappointed them. That, in itself, was like him. No doubt he got -his bit of glee out of knowing that, where they had looked to him -for one thing, he had given them another. He rode on by Gallup's -without turning his head. Where a tree grew at the road-crossing -he dismounted, tying his horse. They saw that his rifle was in its -scabbard, slung to the saddle; he left it where it was, and went -forward on foot. Bigger than ever he loomed among them, appearing to -walk leisurely, yet taking the long, measured strides which carried him -along swiftly. They let him go on his way, their eyes following him -with growing interest, some of the more curious of the crowd stringing -along in his wake. And all this time no man had given him the time of -day, and he had not opened his lips. - -Meanwhile they saw him turn his head this way and that, as though he -sought something. Before he had gone fifty paces he found what he -wanted. A man was piling wood on his fire; the axe which he had used a -moment ago lay on the ground, glinting in the firelight. Bruce Standing -stooped and caught it up and went on--straight toward the jail. A -sudden shout from many voices burst out; men came running to see, now -that they understood what he meant to do. And those about the jail, -when they saw, drew back to right and left hurriedly, leaving only the -deputy with the rifle across his arm to block the way. - -Now, the axe could mean only one thing in the world, and the deputy saw -it, and saw who it was that carried it and called out a sharp, throaty -warning. Standing came on, his stride quickened. He was not a dozen -steps away, carrying his axe lightly in his right hand. The deputy -jerked his rifle up, the butt to his shoulder, shouting: - -"Stop, or...." - -The man fired, but he was not quick enough. At that distance, had his -finger touched the hair-trigger the tenth of a second sooner, he could -not have failed to kill. But he was not the man, even though armed, -to dictate to Timber-Wolf. For Standing made instant answer to that -command, "Stop!" and hurled his only weapon, a heavy wood-cutter's axe, -straight into the deputy's face. The bullet went wild; the man who had -fired it, through the rarest chance left alive, went down in a heap, -unconscious before he struck ground. For, though the axe blade had very -narrowly missed his face, the hard hickory handle had taken him full -across the eyebrows and came near being the death of him. His rifle -clattered against the rock wall of the jail. - -Bruce Standing, who had paused but the briefest moment, came on and -stepped over the fallen man, and caught up his axe again. He stooped -long enough to make out that the deputy's head was not split open; then -he swung up his axe, high above his head, and brought it crashing down -against the thick oak padlocked door. The sound of the stroke echoed -and the echoes were lost in the striking of the second blow. And, when -for the third time the axe rose and fell, flashing in the light of the -fires, the door fell. - -"Out you come, Joe." - -Standing's deep, full voice rumbled in a sort of rich, placid content. -And out like a rabbit, darted Mexicali Joe, looking pinched and starved -and frightened. - -"It is you, Seņor!" he gasped. - -"The crowd will be after you," said Standing. "And I'm not going to -worry about what happens to you after this." - -He was turning away when Joe caught his sleeve, and stood on his -tiptoes and began a rapid, excited whispering. Standing hesitated, then -laughed and shook the man off. - -"You are a good little sport, Mexico," he chuckled. "Now, on your way." - -Joe, with never another look behind him, turned and ran, disappearing -about the corner of the jail, sending back an account of himself in -the sound of his racing footfalls among the pines. - -Once again came a great shouting from the crowd in the road; they had -seen, and now that they had their hearts' desire in having Mexicali -Joe free, they saw themselves losing all hope of coming at his secret -because they were losing him. Their brief interest in Bruce Standing -was dead for the present; Joe ran like a scared cat, and they, like so -many yelping dogs, set after him. And Timber-Wolf, watching, standing -where he was with his big hands on his hips, roared with laughter. - - -Babe Deveril and the girl, Lynette Brooke, had seen much of all this. -They were at the time on their way to the Gallup House, she to her -room and he to his meeting with his lawless kinsman. Thus it happened -that Deveril's first sight of Timber-Wolf in half a dozen years, and -Lynette's first sight of him in all her life, was at a moment when he -was engaged in an episode of the type which made him stand apart as the -man he was. - -"Taggart ought to kill him for that," grunted Deveril. "And he probably -will before the night is over." - -The girl shivered as she had done just now when she saw a rifle -raised and an axe flung. And yet within her, being woman, there was -the exultation which would not stay down, and the thought: "He is -magnificent.... A brute, maybe, but surely magnificent!" And she knew -that she would never be content until she had seen his face and looked -into his eyes. Already, being woman, she was concerned with his eyes; -whether they would be large or small, set wide apart or close together. -She wanted him to be the lion, not the wild boar. - - -The remainder of the night's happenings was to come, because of the -simple arrangement of rooms at the Gallup House, within the experience -of both Deveril and Lynette. They saw Bruce Standing go down the road -and followed him. He did not once look back. When he came to his -horse, he stopped only long enough to take down his rifle. Plainly -now he meant to go direct to the Gallup House. All the while men were -streaming by him, hurrying to join in the chase after the escaping -Mexicali Joe. So, by the time he came to Gallup's door, there were not -over a score of men remaining in the house. - -The Gallup House was a long, squat building of two low stories, its -three main rooms on the ground floor facing the road. These were the -dining-room; a room given over to Gallup's office, and sufficient space -for a dozen chairs and a big sheet-iron stove--a sort of living-room -for Gallup's guests, when he had any; and, finally, a room which had in -older times been the barroom, and which, despite changing conditions, -remained in practice a barroom. At this hour both dining-room and -sitting-room were deserted, and the score or so of men, Gallup and -Taggart among them, were in the bar. Here were round tables, for it was -a big room, for games of cards or dice. - -Deveril and the girl parted at the centre door through which she -entered direct into the general living-room. They saw Bruce Standing go -to the last of the three doors and step in unhesitantly, still carrying -his rifle lightly. Deveril followed him, and saw the looks on the faces -of Taggart and Gallup and some of their following. - -"I stepped in to buy the drinks for the crowd," Timber-Wolf said -quietly, all the while his eyes flashing back and forth. "Gents, the -treats are on me." - -Jim Taggart, his hands on his hips, was eying him like a hawk, and in -Taggart's face was a dull, hot flush. Gallup, however, standing close -at Taggart's side, was the first to speak. He cried out angrily: - -"No man drinks with you in my house! Not as long as I live. And...." - -Bruce Standing drew a wallet from his pocket. - -"About twenty men here," he said, in the same slow, steady voice. "As -it's a night of celebration, we'll make it a dollar a drink. That's -twenty bucks, easy money, Young Gallup," he wound up with a sneer in -his voice. For all men knew Gallup's cupidity, which clutched at small -as well as large amounts. - -But Gallup, shaken with rage, only shouted back at him: - -"To hell with your twenty dollars! And with you, Bruce Standing!" - -"So? Well, twenty dollars isn't much, after all, is it? Gents, we drink -to-night and damn the cost! Two bones for every glass of whiskey; -that's forty of the iron men, Gallup. Call Ricky with the bottles." - -A couple of men laughed at that. Gallup, however, seeing himself -baited, roared out: - -"I tell you, _no_! And out you go. You are not wanted here." - -"Low bid loses, high bid wins," said Standing. Now he opened his wallet -and disclosed a tight pad of bills. "Three dollars for each and every -glass of imitation hootch! God, what a pirate you are, Gallup! Now, -trot it out." - -"Sixty dollars, clean-cut velvet, Gal," said a man at his elbow, -willing to drink with the devil so the drink came paid for. - -"And at last Young Gallup hesitates, his soul tempted by a row of dirty -pennies," gibed Standing. "Look, men, and you'll see that pale-yellow -soul of his snared clean out of his stingy hide. Look, Gallup! And -if you can say no this time you have established a new record for -yourself!" - -Slowly, while they watched him, he counted off ten ten-dollar -bank-notes, and, with a careless gesture, tossed them to a table. - -"That's for one round of your rotten bootleg liquor," he said -contemptuously. "Now, step out, Gallup, and show them the sort of -money-grabbing porker you are. You know you haven't got the guts to -save your own besmirched pride at the price of a hundred dollars." - -Gallup would have sold out for far less, but Timber-Wolf was not the -man to haggle over what he termed dirty pennies. He shrugged his heavy -shoulders and caught up the money, counting it carefully, stuffing it -into his pocket and growling: - -"You're not wanted here, Standing; but any time you're fool enough to -pay a hundred dollars for the privilege, I'll take the rules down for a -round of drinks! Hey, Ricky!" - -Standing only grunted at that, though his eyes flashed. - -"I come when I please and where I please, and you know it, Young -Gallup! And if you think you are the man to throw _me_ out, hop to it -and don't let a little hundred dollars hold you back! Better than that; -if you'll tie into me right now and chuck me out of doors, getting all -your hangdogs that will take a chance with you to help you, you've got -my word that I'll add a second hundred as your bonus! Or a thousand, by -heaven! And right now you'll toe the scratch or back down and shut your -mouth." - -Gallup had never before in his life been faced down like that. And with -so many men looking on! Yet in his heart, though no man had ever called -him a coward, he was afraid of Timber-Wolf; mortally afraid. There was -the look of death itself in the eyes flashing into his own. He sought -to laugh the thing off, saying, with what semblance of fine scorn he -could master: - -"_Your_ word!" - -"I am no liar," said Standing wrathfully. "And no man in all Arizona -and New Mexico ever called me liar. Do you, Young Gallup?" - -"Bruce!" called Sheriff Taggart sharply, for the first time speaking a -word. "What's the sense of trying to start a row? Drop all this foolery -and let me have a word with you." - -"That's fair enough," agreed Standing. "I've no desire to break -Gallup's neck so long as he leaves me alone. But make it snappy, as I -have another engagement." - -"I want to talk with you privately, Bruce." Taggart obviously was -angry, and yet it was equally clear that when it came to dealing with -the Timber-Wolf, Jim Taggart meant to hold himself well in hand. - -"I won't stand for corner-whisperings," Standing told him sternly. "If -it happens you've got anything for my set of ears, they're listening. -But it's right now or never." - -Taggart's black and ominous scowl deepened, and he shuffled his feet -back and forth, and in the end stamped them in his anger. But still he -held the curb line upon himself. - -"You always was a strong-headed man, Bruce, that would have things his -way. So be it. And I guess, being a man myself that stands on his own -two legs, I can say it all in one mouthful: You and me has always been -friends. Are we that yet?" - - -Now for the first time Lynette Brooke, looking in from the adjoining -room through a door just ajar, saw Timber-Wolf clearly, his face under -his big hat unhidden as he turned a little in order to look straight -at Taggart. He did not see her, and she looked her fill at him; he -gave her a start of surprise, and after that start came a surge of -admiration. He was a young, blond giant of a man, eyes very blue and -laughing and _innocent_! And wide-spaced! A man no older than Babe -Deveril, one who bore himself like some old buccaneer or Norse Viking, -before men who would have given much for the courage and the power to -fly at his bared white throat and drag the life out of him; a man who -overflowed with his superabundant vital energy, and who stamped his own -character, through sheer force of unbroken will, upon others about him; -a man who believed in himself and who was at once implacable and gay. -Heartless he looked, and yet full of the dancing joy of life. She felt -herself on the instant both strongly drawn to him and frightened; the -mad vision presented itself to her of herself in his mighty arms. And -the odd tremor which shook her body, as she whipped back with flaming -face, was compounded of thrill and shiver. He confused her; at once she -was amazed that he could be like this and convinced that the owner of -that glorious voice which she had heard pulsing out across the fields -of night could be no jot different.... While she drew back to a dim -corner of the room, she managed not to lose sight of him. - -His clear blue eyes kept on laughing; his was that silent laughter -which arises from the soul, and which mocked and insulted and was like -the cold mirth of Satan. And yet, in some vague way which she was all -at loss to plumb, and which troubled her strangely, Lynette Brooke -_knew_ that this corsair of a man was laughing because there was cold -anger in his heart and because, for some mysterious reason of his own, -he was set on holding his anger hidden. It troubled her so that, within -herself, she cried out passionately against _knowing_ through leaping -instinct anything of what might be going on within the dark caverns of -the Timber-Wolf's mind and heart. She wanted him and herself to be as -far apart as north and south; she meant them to be. And all the while -that compelling interest which he awoke within her tugged mightily and -she yielded to it in that, keeping out of his sight, she lost nothing -of the play of expressions upon his face. - -As yet she knew nothing of that one thing which Bruce Standing, -forthright exponent of untrammelled manhood, held to be his greatest -weakness; the one and only thing of which he was bitterly ashamed. A -trifle, it amounted to; and a trifle he would have accounted it in any -other strong man. Yet within his hard breast it awoke the intensest -feeling of shame. And it was a thing which invariably sprang forth -upon him and humiliated him whenever once he let his passions fly. A -laughable thing, and yet one that put tears into his bright blue eyes. -But, on guard against it, he strove to curb his anger. - -Of all this and the thing itself she knew nothing. But she felt and she -knew that the Timber-Wolf, laughing into Jim Taggart's gloomy face, -was fighting down his own anger, as a man may fight wild beasts. She -awaited, scarcely breathing, the answer he would make to that question -from Taggart: "Are we still friends?" - -"No!" shouted Standing, and laughed at him. "No, by God!" - -That was man talk! Straight, simple words--words that left little -enough to be said. But Taggart, though his face grew hotter and his -eyes seemed burning in their sockets, demanded further: - -"And why not, Bruce Standing? You and me have been pardners. You -know and I know and a thousand men know what sort of a bond and an -understanding has always, for more than a dozen years, been between -us. And now, if that is busted and wiped out, I ask you, as man to man: -'_Why?_'" - -"And as man to man," cried Timber-Wolf, his eyes brightening, "I'll -answer you, Jim Taggart. When I knew you for a man who played his -game he-man style and stood up and fought hard and took his chances, -I was for you! And I went out and shaped things up for you and made -you sheriff. And, when men got to know you and wanted no more of you -as master of law here in the mountains, I lifted you over their heads -and made you sheriff again and again. And now that you are done for -and are on your last legs, I would have done the same thing once -more. But when you got panicky, thinking that this was your last term -of office, and began to feather your dirty nest by running with the -breed of this Young Gallup and his crowd, and when I found the sort -of contemptible, hide-in-the-brush jobs you were pulling off, I got a -bellyful of you and your new kind of ways. And you double-crossed me, -thinking I wouldn't know! And on top of everything else, running neck -and neck with Gallup, you threw Mexicali Joe into jail ... knowing that -Joe, puny blackbird as he is, had been a friend of mine. For that I've -done two things, Jim Taggart: I've smashed your damned jail door off -its hinges and I've thrown you over. And there, until I'm sick of talk -about it, you've got your answer!" - -Taggart, too, and with his own ulterior reasons, kept his head cool. He -said ponderously: - -"You broke the law, Bruce, when you let Joe go. For that I could run -you in. But all Joe done was steal a pocketful of nuggets, and we got -them back. And there's bigger things than that, anyway. You and me has -been friends and so I'll go slow. But we got to have another talk. -You've got me down wrong, old-timer." - -Never had Lynette Brooke seen such utter contempt as that which now -filled Bruce Standing's eyes. But he made no answer. At this moment the -man Ricky came in with a gallon earthen jug and began to pour out the -glasses set upon a table. Here was the Timber-Wolf's hundred-dollar -treat. Standing himself waved it aside and: - -"I drink no poison in this house," he said briefly. And as he spoke he -saw for the first time Babe Deveril standing just inside the door, not -two steps behind him. - -"By the Lord, Babe, I'm glad to see you! Shake!" he shouted, thrusting -out his big hand. - -But now it was Deveril's turn to be cool and contemptuous. - -"You and I, Bruce Standing," he said in that clear, insolent voice of -his, "have gone a long way beyond the point of shaking hands." - -Standing frowned as he muttered: - -"Don't be a young ass, Babe." - -But Deveril only shook his head, retorting: - -"I have come, according to promise, for a word with you. Suppose we -make it snappy." - -"The same little Baby Devil!" Standing jeered at him, making Deveril -stiffen with that look of his eyes. "I'll give you a new dance tune -before I'm through with you. Come ahead!"--and with a suddenness which -took Lynette Brooke by surprise he struck back the door leading to the -room where she was and led the way in, Deveril at his heels. - -But, though there were three or four coal-oil lamps burning in the room -which he had just quitted, there was but one here where she was. And -because its chimney was smoky and the flame burned crookedly and she -was in a dim corner, he could make nothing of the look of her. Had she -remained perfectly still he would scarcely have noted her presence. But -now she was suddenly impatient to be gone, and went hurrying to a door -which led into a hallway, the hallway in turn leading to her room at -the back of the house. - -"A woman," growled Timber-Wolf disgustedly, getting only a glimpse of a -hastily departing figure. "It begins to look as though a man couldn't -pick him a spot in the wilderness that the female didn't crowd in." - -Lynette heard, and knew with a flash of resentment that he did not care -whether she had heard or not, and that with the last word he would -be turning to Deveril and forgetting that he had seen her. She went -slowly down the hall, three or four paces only. There she paused and -lingered; it was no such pale incentive as curiosity which held her -now, but a peculiar fascination. Two men like those two, by far the -strongest-willed and most dynamic men she had ever known, with the -business which lay between them, made her ignore and give no thought to -the convention of shut ears against the talk of others. So she stood -here in the dim hallway, poised for instant flight if need be to her -own door, a couple of yards farther on. - -"Now," said Deveril impatiently, "what is it?" - -Timber-Wolf's mood softened and the old bright laughter welled up in -his dancing blue eyes. - -"I pass it to you, Kid," he chuckled. "You've grown a man since last we -met. We'll not forget, either one of us ... will we?... that night in -my cabin?" - -"I'll not forget," returned Deveril coolly. "And some day I'll square -the count." - -"_You'll_ square the count?" The keen eyes twinkled like bits of -deep-blue glass on a frosty morning. "I was under the impression that -always you have held that I was the man to square things. Accusing me, -as you did, of so wicked a deed!" - -"It was a treacherous thing at best," muttered Deveril, his own eyes -bleak with that bitter hatred which never slept. "I didn't know then -that you were, among other things, a damned thief." - -Timber-Wolf's sudden laughter boomed out joyously, and he smote his -thigh so that the sound was sharp and loud, like a gunshot. - -"But you knew that always and always and once again always I take what -I want! I asked you for the money, and I made you a fair proposition: I -would guarantee that you doubled your dinky three thousand, and I'd see -you had interest on top of it. And you hadn't the nerve to chip in...." - -"Wasn't the fool, you mean!" - -"And so ... I went and took it! And I took from other quarters the same -way. What I wanted I took. And when they all said I was busted in two, -like a rotten stick, I fooled 'em, and laughed at the whole crowd. And -now I'm whole again--and I've got what I want. That's me, Baby Devil! A -man who goes his way and blazes his trail wide. A man you can't stop!" - -"A cursed, insufferable, conceited ass, rather than wolf," snapped -Deveril. - -And still, in the rarest of high good humor, Timber-Wolf laughed, and -his rich, deep voice went rumbling through the house. - -"You're sore, Baby Devil. And you're envious." - -"Not of you, Bruce Standing! You...." - -"Let's chop out the Sunday-school stuff, Kid!" cried Standing -impatiently. "I don't need your lecturings. Maybe I'm not what your -puling moralists call a good man, and maybe I'm not 'clean-hearted and -pure' and all that drivel. But, by God, I'm a man who's got his own -code and who sticks to it, blow high, blow low! A code that, if more -men followed it, would give us a world with more men in it and fewer -mollycoddle pups!" - -"It would appear," sneered Deveril, "that you remain well contented -with yourself!" - -"Like the rest of humanity--he, she, and it!" said Timber-Wolf equably. -"And so much for friendly chatter. Now a word whispered in your pretty -ear, since the Lord knoweth how many busybodies are straining their own -ears to listen-in on us." - -Lynette, in the hallway, stiffened and felt her face grow hot. But, -with a strange new-born stubbornness, she remained where she was. - -Timber-Wolf came a step closer to Deveril, and, lowering his voice so -that Lynette lost the words, he muttered: - -"I _am_ under obligations to you, my dear kinsman, and since there is a -tough crowd in town, any man of whom would whack you over the head for -a handful of silver, I am keeping this between us." He took his wallet -from his pocket the second time, and drew from it several bank-notes. -These he proffered to Deveril, his eyes still bright with his cold -mirth. - -"Count it and stick it in your jeans," he said softly. "There's your -three thousand. With it is another three thousand, the double of the -bet which I promised you. And with that is another two thousand, which -is a gain of ten per cent for you for six years, all rough figuring. In -all eight thousand in coin of the realm ... and I'm much obliged," he -ended mockingly, "for your generous loan!" - -Babe Deveril, taken off his feet by the unexpectedness of this, stared -at the bank-notes in the great hard palm, and from them to the grinning -face. And slowly, from a conflicting tumult of emotions, in which, -strangely enough, anger surged highest, Deveril's face went violently -red. - -"Damn you and your eternal posings!" Lynette caught those words, -clear and high. But she missed the eloquence of the shrug into which -Timber-Wolf's shoulders lifted. - -"It's up to you, Kid," said Standing, and still he kept his voice low -and quiet. The money lay in his outstretched palm. "The minute I make -my offer I consider my obligation fulfilled. If you are too proud to -take it ... well, then, the devil take you for a fool, and I'll use the -money elsewhere." - -Deveril put out his hand, selecting from the several bills. - -"My three thousand, I take," he said, "because it is mine. And the two -thousand with it, judging that fair interest, considering the risks -my money took. As for the rest--" he whipped back, and his voice, -because of the emotions near choking him, was little more than a harsh -whisper--"you can keep it and go to hell with it! I want none of your -cursed charity!" - -Timber-Wolf's thick eyebrows lifted, and a new look dawned in his eyes. - -"By thunder, Baby Devil, you've the makings of a man in you!" he -exclaimed. "You and I could be friends!" - -"Don't fool yourself. We won't be!" - -"I didn't say we would!" And Bruce Standing glared at him angrily. "I -only said we _could_. There's a difference there, Kid. I could eat -tripe, but I'm damned if I ever will!" - -As the two men eyed each other, it was impossible to conceive of any -earthly happening bringing them within the warm enclosure of man's -friendship. - -But there was money in sight, and money in the hands of Timber-Wolf -was habitually offered to fate as free money. And always, in the heart -of Babe Deveril, when there was money in his pocket and money in sight, -there was the impulse to hazard, to win or lose, and know the wild -moment of a gambler's pleasure. And so he said swiftly: - -"Just the same, I have a claim on that three thousand of yours!" - -"Yes?" And again the heavy eyebrows were lifted as Timber-Wolf's -interest was snared. - -"If it's mine, it comes to me. If it's yours, you keep it and take -three thousand from me to boot. I'll flip a coin with you!" - -"Baby Devil!" laughed Standing softly. "Oh, Baby Devil, if your mamma -could only see you now!" - -"Are you on?" demanded Deveril, in a suppressed voice. - -"On? With bells, Baby Devil! Heads or tails, and let her flicker!" - -Lynette Brooke could catch only enough of all this to set her -wondering. The two men were agreeing upon something, and all the while -jeering at each other, and, though they checked their words and subdued -their voices, anger was directing whatever they did or meant to do. - -Both men were eager and tense. For both made of life a game of hazard. -With Babe Deveril three thousand dollars, to be won or lost in the -flicker of an eyelid, was a large sum of money; to Bruce Standing, a -man of millions, it was no great thing. Yet neither of them was more -tense and eager than the other. The game was the thing. - -Automatically, perhaps subconsciously intending to have a free hand, -since his rifle was still held in his left, Bruce Standing stuffed his -spurned bank-notes into his pocket. But it was Deveril who, having -conceived the idea, was first to produce a coin; a silver dollar, and -mate to those other silver dollars which he had presented to the girl, -Maria. - -"Heads or tails, Standing?" he demanded, holding the coin ready to toss -ceilingward. - -"Throw it," said Timber-Wolf, with his characteristic grin, "and I name -it while it's in the air. For I don't know what sleight-of-hand you -may have acquired these later years, and I don't trust you, my sweet -kinsman! And shoot fast, as some one's coming." - -For both had heard the rattle of hoofs in the road outside, as some -horseman came racing up to the door. - -"Name it, then," cried Deveril, and shot the coin, spinning, upward. - -"Heads!" Timber-Wolf named it. "Always heads. My motto there, Kid!" - -The silver dollar, with such zest had it been pitched upward, struck -the ceiling and dropped to the floor, rolling. It rolled half across -the room, both men springing after it, stooping to watch and know how -fate decided matters between them. And in the end there was no decision -at all. For the coin rolled half-way into a crack between the boards -and stood thus, on edge, neither heads nor tails. - -"Flip her again," growled Bruce Standing, deep in his throat. "And step -lively!" - -Already the horse's hoofs, as its rider plucked at the reins, were -sliding outside. Deveril caught up the coin and tossed it again. And -this time, true to his word, and not trusting the other, Bruce Standing -called before the silver dollar struck the floor: - -"Tails!" - -And as the silver dollar struck and rolled and stopped, and at last lay -flat, and the two stooped over it so close that almost the black hair -of one and the reddish hair of the other brushed, they saw that it was -heads. And that Timber-Wolf, repudiating his motto, "Always heads!" had -lost three thousand dollars. And at the instant their intruder burst in -upon them from the road. - -Here, after his own strange fashion, came Billy Winch, Timber-Wolf's -one-legged retainer. An able-bodied man and agile had been Billy Winch -all of his hard life until, after a horse had fallen on him, the doctor -had cut his leg off above the knee. "You'll go on crutches the rest -of your life," they told him that day. And Billy Winch, weak and pale -and sick and haggard-eyed, muttered at them: "You're a pack of damn -liars! I'll cut my throat before I'll be a crutch-man." And he had kept -his oath. Seldom did he stir save on the back of his horse. And when -needs must that he go horseless some few steps, he went "like a man, -one-leg style, hopping!" Now, hopping on his one foot so that, with his -pinched, weazened face and small bright eyes, he resembled some uncouth -bird, he bounced into the room. - -"I got word for you, Bruce Standing!" he cried excitedly. - -"Clear out, you fool...." - -"I won't clear out! This is the real thing. Listen: A man, and it -was a man paid by Young Gallup, has just went down the road with a -double-barrel shotgun, and the dirty skunk has shot your horse, good -old Sunlight ... dead!" By now Billy Winch was whimpering; tears, -whether of rage or grief, filled his bright eyes and streamed down -his face. And all the while, to maintain his balance, he was hopping -unsteadily about, his outflung hand groping for the wall. - -And now at last Timber-Wolf's anger, a devastating, all-engulfing -rage which mastered him utterly, was unleashed. And with its release -came inevitably that one condition of which he was so terribly -ashamed. He cried out aloud, in a great, roaring voice ... and in -the fierce grip of his wrath his utterance was so affected that his -speech came enunciated in the most incongruous of fashions. For it was -Timber-Wolf's burning mortification that he, the strongest man of these -mountains, when in the clutch of his mightiest passions ... _lisped_ -like an affected school-girl! - -"Thunlight dead!" he stormed. "You thay that to me? Yeth? Then, by God, -juth ath thure as I live, I'll...." - -He cut himself short; his face, instantly red with rage, grew redder -with shame. He snapped his great jaws shut, and across the room Deveril -heard the grinding of his teeth. He swerved about, charging toward the -door, which gave entrance to the room where Gallup was. - -But a far more critical moment than Timber-Wolf knew was ticking in the -clock of his life. In the hall stood the girl, Lynette. She had heard -all of these words of Billy Winch, and she had heard Bruce Standing's -bellowed rejoinder. And she, already taut-nerved and keyed up, what -with fatigue and a strenuous night, was so struck by the absurdity of -a strong man lisping his passionate utterance, that she broke out into -uncontrollable laughter. And when Lynette Brooke's laughter caught her -unawares, it rang out as clearly as the chiming of silver bells. Now, -with nerves quivering, she was almost hysterical.... - -Timber-Wolf came to as dead a halt as though it had been a bullet -instead of the mockery of a girl's laughter which cut into his heart. -For only mockery he made of it, he who upon this one point, as upon no -other, was so sensitive. And to have a human female laugh at him! - -His rage threatened to choke him. But now, even as he had forgotten -his lost bet with Babe Deveril, so did he forget a dead horse and Young -Gallup. The entire violence of his anger was deflected, turned upon a -woman who had eavesdropped upon his ignominy and then assailed him with -the mockery of her mirth. He who held all womankind in such high scorn, -to be now a woman's laughing-stock! He, Bruce Standing, Timber-Wolf! -He snatched at the hall door, and under his attack one of the ancient -hinges broke, and the door, flung back, leaned crazily against the -wall. And all the while, though he kept his teeth so hard set that his -jaws bulged with the strain, he was muttering curses in his throat. He -burst into the dim hallway, his brain on fire. - -She heard him coming. More than that, and before, it seemed to her that -her instinct told her that he would come, bearing down upon her like a -hurricane, in such violence as would stamp her into the earth. She had -not meant to laugh at him; she did not want to laugh. And yet now all -that she could do was clap her hands over her mouth and run before him -as a blown leaf races before the storm. She sped down the hall, plunged -into her room, slammed the door after her. - -... And in the hallway she heard the pounding of his heavy boots. -Already he was at her door. Before she could shoot the bolt, he had -gripped the knob. When he flung his weight against the panel, it flew -back, and under the impact she was thrown backward, and would have -fallen had it not been that she brought up against her bed. Here she -half fell, but was erect before he had stormed across the threshold. - -"You...." - -Why had she run from him? She was not afraid of him and she was not -afraid of anything on earth. Or, at least, making a sort of religion -out of it, that was the thing which she had always told herself. Just -at hand, on the little table by the open window, was her revolver. And -she could shoot and shoot true to the mark. She had told Babe Deveril -that she could take care of herself. She stood, rigid and defiant, and -in her heart unafraid. - -On a bracketed shelf over her bed was a kerosene lamp which she had -left burning when she had gone out. She could see the working of his -lips. And he saw her. - - -Now those who knew Timber-Wolf best knew this about him--that he had -no use for womankind; that he held all of the female of the human race -to be weaklings and worse, leeches upon the strength of man, mere -outwardly glossed tricks of a scheming nature; things contemptible. -And at this moment, surely, Timber-Wolf was in no mood to revise for -the better his sweeping and deep-based opinion. But now, despite all -trumped-up reasonings, no matter how sincere, his first clear view of -this girl gave him pause. - -She was superb. Physically, if not otherwise. For the first thing, her -hair snared him. Strong men are always caught by films; a big brute -of a man who may break his triumphant way through iron bands grows -powerless under a frail wisp of a frail woman's hair. In the hall -she had held her hat in her hands; her hair, loosely upgathered and -insecurely and hastily confined, had tumbled all about her face as she -bolted into her room. He saw that first of all. And then he saw her -eyes. At the moment, already in her room with the door slammed shut -behind him and his back against it, he looked, glowering, into her -eyes. And he found them at once soft and still amazingly unafraid; -those daring eyes of Lynette Brooke, daughter of a dancing-girl and of -the dare-all miner, Brooke. Unafraid, though he who might have choked -the life out of her between finger and thumb, turned his furious face -upon her. - -He paid her tribute with a flash of his shining blue eyes. That was -for the physical beauty of her; that said, "Outwardly, girl, you are -superb!" Yet it remained that, his one weakness shaming him, she had -laughed at him. For the first time in his life a girl had laughed at -him.... - -She saw the sudden changing fires in his eyes and stepped closer to the -table on which lay that small, high-powered implement which puts the -weak on a level with the strong.... - -"By God, girl...." - -There came a sudden sharp rapping at the door against which his -broad back leaned. There was Babe Deveril, who had lunged after him. -Timber-Wolf, growling savagely, flung himself about, for the second -ignoring the girl and facing the door. Deveril, just without, heard -the bolt shot home. And then he heard the second, the sinister sound. -A revolver shot, muffled by the four walls of a room. And he heard -Timber-Wolf, whose back had been turned to Lynette Brooke and the -gun upon the table, curse deep down in his throat, and heard almost -simultaneously the scraping of the heavy boots and the crashing fall -of the big body. Deveril shook fiercely at the door. Then he turned -and ran back down the hall, meaning to go through the room he had just -quitted and on through so as to come to Lynette's room by the rear. - -But in the sitting-room Billy Winch, teetering on his one foot, grasped -him by the arm, demanding to know what had happened. Deveril savagely -shook him off, and Winch, raising the echoes with a shrilling voice, -toppled over and fell. But little time had been wasted, and yet, before -Deveril could free himself and run on, Lynette Brooke ran in upon him. -Her eyes were wild and staring; in her hand was her revolver, so lately -fired that the last wisp of smoke had not cleared from the barrel. - -"Babe Deveril," she gasped. "They are after me!" - -It was Sheriff Taggart who was after her. He was almost at her heels, -shouting: - -"Stop! In the name of the law! You are under arrest for killing Bruce -Standing...." - -Babe Deveril carried no weapon upon him. And he saw Taggart's pistols -dragging at his belt, the heavy forty-fives which, as sheriff, he was -entitled to carry openly. Taggart's hands were almost upon her. - -Deveril did the one thing. He caught at the gun in Lynette's hand -and wrenched it free, and, having no time for accurate aim, did not -fire, but hurled the revolver itself, with all of his might, full into -Taggart's face. And Taggart, as though a thunderbolt had struck him, -went down, with a steel barrel driven against his skull, near the -temple, and lay a crumpled, still heap. - -"The house is full of Taggart's friends!" Deveril cried sharply, -warning her and, at the same time, thinking for himself. - -But already she was running again. She ran out into the road; but there -the brisk-burning bonfires made night into day. She dodged back into -the shadow cast by the corner of the house, and ran about to the rear. -Deveril hesitated only an instant; men were already rushing in from the -room where they had been drinking. He followed her through the door, -and here again he paused. Men were already stooping over the sheriff; -he heard one cry out the single word, "Dead!" His brain caught fire. -The girl had killed Timber Wolf; he had killed Jim Taggart. He and she -were fugitives. He followed her again into the shadows, running to the -back of the house. - -And as he ran one thing angered him: He had won three thousand dollars -from Bruce Standing, and that three thousand dollars was at this moment -in Standing's pocket. And being Babe Deveril, who dared at least as far -as most men dare, he meant to have what fortune allowed him. - -And so, when he came to an open and lighted window, and looked in and -saw the sprawling body of Timber-Wolf, Babe Deveril unhesitatingly -threw his leg over the sill and went in. In his judgment Standing was -as good as dead, shot in the back. Well, that was no affair of his, -and certainly he was not the man to grieve. Let "Serve him right" be -his epitaph. Deveril, in a feverish haste, began to feel in the fallen -man's pockets. - -He found the bank-notes and stuffed them into his own pocket. At the -window, as he turned back to it, while he heard men hammering at the -locked door, he saw Lynette Brooke's white face. She had been watching -him. Yet even that, in the present need for haste, made no impression. -He slipped through, hearing a discordant shouting of many voices. - -"We are in for it now," he panted. "Run!" - -He caught her hand, and, holding it tight, the two raced into the -darkness under the pines. - - - - -CHAPTER V - - -Billy Winch was the first to come to the bolted door. He hopped swiftly -down the hall and beat at it with his fists. Snarling and snapping, -growling and finally whimpering, for the world like a dog, he cried out -through his fierce mutterings: - -"I'm the only man here that can save him if he ain't dead already. And -if he is dead...." - -He hurled himself bodily at the door; he jumped up at it and kicked it -with his one heavy boot and, falling, rolled over and crawled to his -foot and struck again. - -The Gallup House had become a vortex of violent excitement. It was -shouted out that two men were dead, Bruce Standing shot by the new -adventuress whom many had noted; Jim Taggart killed as he sought to put -her under arrest. Voices clashed and so did thoughts and purposes. Men -streamed out into the firelit road; they heard running feet marking -the way the two fugitives had taken, and started headlong in pursuit, -stumbling and falling in the dark, and for the first few moments -making slight headway. Others, Gallup among them, were already with -Taggart, lifting him up and bearing him off to a bed. Still others, -hearkening to the strange word that a woman had killed Bruce Standing, -were suddenly charged with the morbid curiosity to look upon this man -dead. They found their way to the lighted window through which Lynette -Brooke had escaped, and through it made their way into the room, until -the small space was thick with their jostling bodies. All the while -Billy Winch was beating at the door, yelling curses and, at last, when -he heard them within, commanding and imploring to be let in. A man, -stepping over Timber-Wolf's body, obeyed and Billy Winch hopped in. -Immediately he was down at his chief's side, squatting, after his own -awkward fashion, upon a knee and balanced by a stub of a leg. - -"He _ain't_ dead!" Billy Winch's breath was expelled in a long, -grateful sigh, which, before his lungs flattened, was choked by a -nervous giggle. "I'm here, Timber," he said softly. "You know me, old -boy!" - -"You damn little fool," was Bruce Standing's grunted answer. Yet his -voice was gentle and his eyes for one rare and fleeting instant as soft -as a lover's. - -Billy Winch, a man of resource, was now himself again, cool and past -all silly sentiment. He turned from the fallen man to the crowding -onlookers, and his eyes darkened with fury. He snatched up the rifle -which Standing had let fall, and, still kneeling, whipped it up over -his head, brandishing it like a war club. - -"Out of this, every one of you!" he shouted at them. "Give him air and -give me room to work in, else I bash your brains out!" - -Had he been less in earnest some man of them might have found occasion -to mark the absurdity of a cripple, squatting on the floor, waving a -gun over his head and ordering them about. But as things were, no man -appeared to glimpse this angle of it. One by one, with his eyes and the -eyes of Timber-Wolf glaring at them, they went hastily out through the -window. - -"Ought to get a doctor in a hurry," one of the retreating men was -suggesting. - -Billy Winch cursed him into silence. For Winch held himself as good a -physician and surgeon as any, having served in the veterinary capacity -for a score of years and having a natural aptitude for treating bad -cuts and gun wounds. Further, he loved this Timber-Wolf; and beyond, -with all his heart, Billy Winch distrusted and hated the breed of -doctors. His stump of a leg he attributed to the profound ignorance -drawn by the medical and surgical profession from their books of -theories. - -"You ain't even bad hurt, Timber," he growled, as though disappointed -and angered that he had been tricked into a show of affection and -fright. His look accused Standing of having wilfully deceived him. -"Must have been just the shock, what we call the impack, that knocked -you over.... Oh, lie still, can't you!" - -But Bruce Standing gave him no heed, and continued in his attempt to -draw himself up. While Billy Winch sat on the floor and looked up at -him, the bigger man got slowly to his feet and stood leaning against -the door. - -"Anyway, get over on the bed and lay down and I'll look you over. -You're bleeding like a stuck pig. And you're as white as a clean rag." - -Bruce Standing's face was already haggard and drawn, his mouth hard -with pain. Yet he ignored Winch's command, and walked slowly, forcing -his steps to be steady, to the one chair in the room. He sat down -upon it heavily, straddling it as though it were a horse, facing the -chair-back, and thus leaving his own back clearly proffered for Winch's -inspection. Winch got up and hopped to him, railing at him the while -for not lying down and obeying orders. - -"Help me get my coat off," commanded Timber-Wolf curtly. "Then you can -dig around and find out what we're up against." - -Men were still at the window, peering in. - -"Scatter!" commanded Winch, waving the rifle at them. "And tell our -boys to come here. Dick Ross and Charley Peters. They ain't far." - -Reluctantly the onlookers withdrew, some two or three of them to pause -in the shadows when once out of eye-shot, and look back. But from now -on Winch disregarded them. He helped the wounded man off with his coat, -yanked his shirts out from his belted waist, tore cloth freely when it -was in his way, and thus uncovered the wound. - -"_She_ did that for you? That kid of a girl?" - -"Yes, damn her," muttered Timber-Wolf angrily, as Billy Winch's -fingers, already scarlet, touched the wound. "Turned my back a second -... she ought to have shot me dead ... either a rotten shot or in an -awful hurry...." - -"Or scared to death!" Winch's contempt was enormous. "That's the kind -that does the most harm, the scared-stiffs that's always shooting the -wrong time and the wrong man." - -By now he had the shirts torn from top to bottom, and stood back, -looking appraisingly at the broad, naked back and the small hole which -a bullet had drilled. Against the great area of flesh, as white as a -girl's and smooth and clean with vigorous health, the smear of blood, -itself red with that same perfection of health, gave the wound an -appearance of ten times its real gravity. But Winch was accustomed to -blood, and knew that Bruce Standing could lose more of it than could -most men and be little the worse for the loss. He diagnosed the case -aloud, muttering thoughtfully: - -"Thirty-two caliber, to begin with; a thirty-two ain't nothing, Timber. -Now, if it had been a forty-five, at that close-up range.... Well, -you see you was standing half-way slanting; it took you under that -big shoulder muscle and drilled in and hit a rib, one of the high-up -ones, and kept on going, sort of skirting round, skating on a rib, and -popped out under your arm. Lift it a bit? That's it. A clean hole. I -tell you, either you sort of slipped and fell, or it was the impack -that knocked you over.... The boys will be here any minute, and will -scare up a bar of castile soap for me and something to make a regular -poultice, what we calls a comprest, you know; I can make one out of -most anything; remember Sam True's thoroughbred stallion that got all -cut to hell last fall, and I made him a comprest out of sawdust! You -remind me," added Winch thoughtfully, drawing off one of his hopping -paces, to take in with an admiring and practised eye the now virtually -nude torso, a white, smooth-running engine of power and endurance, -"of a wild stallion mostly as much as a man, anyhow. A good smear of -mustang liniment on that shoulder, a application, you know; and a dose -of physic and a couple days' rest and careful diet, and you'll be as -good as new...." - -"What happened in the other room?" demanded Standing, deaf to Winch's -mutterings. "After she went through the window?" - -"She came busting in where Deveril and I was, her eyes the size of two -new dish pans. I put in _new_ because they was shining like it too; I -thought she'd seen the devil. She has a gun in her hand and she yells -out, 'Save me!' or something like that. And after her, doubled-up -running, comes Jim Taggart, yelling at her: 'I got you for killing -Bruce Standing!' And then that cool-headed, hot-hearted young Baby -Devil of yours grabs the gun out of her hand and whangs Taggart over -the head with it so that he drops dead in his tracks. And I hear a man -say he is dead, too; but I don't stop to see. Don't seem natural, and -yet a man's close to mortal danger if he gets whanged with any hard -object, such as steel gun-barrels, on the head, close up to the temple; -we call it the parrytal bone, you know, and I've known men and even -horses that was killed so quick...." - -"Then what?" snapped Timber-Wolf. - -"Then both him and her beats it like the mill-tails of hell! And that -part's natural enough, him figuring he's killed the sheriff, and her -figuring she's plumb killed you. They stampeded into the brush, ducking -out toward the timber-lands where it was darkest, a bunch of hollering -fools after them." - -"And Jim Taggart?" - -The "boys" whose presence Billy Winch had requested came hurrying in -at the hall door, excitement and alarm shining in their eyes. One -glance reassured them, and while Dick Ross gave expression to his -relief in a windy sigh and sought hastily for materials to build him -a cigarette to replace that which he had dropped as he raced here, -Charley Peters stood and mopped at his forehead with an enormous dingy -blue handkerchief and grinned. Billy Winch, who had the trick of pithy -brevity when there was need of it, made his wants known sharply, and -the two men, their spurs still dragging and clanking after them, -hastened away for basin and soap and whatever else of Winch's first-aid -materials might be had at hand. In the meantime, Winch was yanking a -sheet off Lynette Brooke's bed, and ripping it into tatters for his -bandages and rags and what he termed "mops and applications." - -"It ain't necessary to probe for the bullet," he admitted, almost -regretfully. "But I might poke around in there a mite, while the -hole's good and wide open, to make sure that a piece of your shirt or -something didn't get lodged inside...." - -"I'll break your damned neck for trying it," threatened Standing. - -"Well," sighed Winch, "all I'll do then is just take a pack-needle and -put in a stitch or two. Remember when Dick Ross's horse...." - -"You'll take some warm water and soap and wash me off," said Standing -emphatically. "Then you'll make me one of your infernal compresses out -of clean cloth; and after that you'll leave me alone.... Tell me about -my horse, old Sunlight. So Gallup had him killed for me?" - -"Somebody pretty near blowed his head off with buckshot," Billy Winch -told him, and again twinkling fires of anger flickered in the little -man's eyes. "If Gallup didn't have the job done, who did? I ask you!" - -Timber-Wolf stared at the wall. Within him, too, rose scorching anger, -that resurgent bitter flood which was not lessened now because in the -first place it had leaped upon him unexpectedly, and had thus been the -cause of his humiliation. But within him there was another emotion, one -of deep grief; for he loved a good horse, no man more. And Sunlight was -his pet and his trusted friend, and had been, for many a wilderness -week, his only companion. - -"You didn't leave him suffering any, Bill?" His voice sounded cold and -impersonal and matter-of-fact. Yet Billy Winch understood and answered -softly: - -"I stopped long enough to make sure, Timber. But I didn't have to shoot -him; he just rared his head up and looked at me straight in the eye, -as man to man, so help me God, and fell back ... dead. No; he didn't -suffer much." - -Bruce Standing was silent a long time, his eyes brooding, his brows -drawn after a fashion which Billy Winch could make nothing certain -of; anger and bitterness or a sign of his own bodily pain. They heard -spurred boots in the hall, returning. Then a quick look passed between -Timber-Wolf and Billy Winch, and Timber-Wolf said hastily, dropping his -voice and speaking with a peculiar softness: - -"When you get a chance, you take the boys and see that old Sunlight is -moved out of this skunk town; he's too fine a little horse to take his -last rest here. Out on a hilltop, somewhere; looking toward the east, -Bill. And a good, deep hole and ... leave the saddle and bridle on him, -Bill." - -"I get you," returned Winch gravely. And, by way of thoughtful -acknowledgment of the justice of this thing, for Billy Winch, too, -loved a horse, he muttered: "That's fair." - -With the return of Ross and Peters, Winch gave them their orders, as a -stern and dreaded head master might issue commands to a couple of his -boys, securing unfailing and immediate obedience. For the one job of -both Ross and Peters, and the one job which had been theirs for five -or six years, was to do what they were told by Billy Winch and ask no -questions, and look sharp that they did not seek to introduce any of -their own and original ideas into the carrying out of his behests. For -this they were paid by Timber-Wolf, who used them for many things, -consigning matters of vital importance into their hands by way of Billy -Winch's brains and tongue. - -"Stand ready to hand me things when I ask for them, Dick," said Winch. -He scrubbed his own hands with soap, and let Dick pitch the water from -the basin out the window. Dick obeyed promptly, adding nothing of his -own to the simple task beyond making sure that he pitched the whole -basinful far out; far enough, in fact, to give a thorough wetting to -one of the curious who had lingered outside, watching through the -lighted window. "You, Charley," ran on Winch, "go down to where old -Sunlight is, and stick there until me and Dick come out. His saddle and -bridle ain't to be took off, and you'll have to keep your eye peeled -some regular Big Pine citizen don't snake 'em, for their silver, under -your eyes." Charley understood enough to do as he was told, and hurried -out. "Now, Dick, stand by with them rags and warm water." - -Winch went promptly to work, and, in his rough-and-ready fashion, did a -good clean job of bandaging a simple wound. A raw wound like that must -of necessity be intensely painful; yet Timber-Wolf's quiet and regular -breathing never altered once, and not so much as the breadth of a hair -did the muscular back flinch. They had just gotten the torn shirts -lapped over into place and the coat thrown over Standing's shoulders, -and his hat picked up from the floor for him, when a man walking -heavily came down the hall and stopped at the door, knocking sharply. - -"Who is it?" demanded Winch. - -"It's me, Taggart. Is Standing all right?" - -Bruce Standing himself, holding himself very erect, his head well up -and his eyes cold and hard, opened the door. - -"So the devil refused to take you, after all," he grumbled. "They had -it reported that Deveril had killed you. At that, it looks as though -he'd come close to doing a good job of it." - -For Jim Taggart's face, too, was white, and there was a broad band -about his head, stained in one spot near the left temple. - -"The same kind thought rides double," rejoined Taggart, with a sudden -flash of the eyes. "That wildcat of a girl came close to marking out -your ticket to hell." - -"Where is she now?" asked Standing eagerly. "Did they bring her back?" - -"Gone clean, for the present," answered Taggart. "If that fool of a -Babe Deveril hadn't butted in, just piling up trouble for himself, and -knocked me out while I wasn't even looking at him, I'd of had her by -the heels. And now the two of 'em, two of a kind, if you ask me, are -off into the mountains together. And I'm starting after them in ten -minutes, and will drag 'em back before to-morrow night, just as sure as -you're a foot high." - -"What have you come to sling all this at me for?" snapped Standing. - -"I wanted to see if you was dead," returned Taggart coolly. "Now I just -pinch both of 'em for assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill. -If you'd of died, it would of been murder for her." - -"At least, I'm glad you blew in, Jim Taggart. There are two things it -might be just as well to get straight. First: When you and I, a dozen -years ago, were sidekicks, prospecting together, bunking together, -grubstaking each other, taking chances a lot of the time on a quick, -hard finish to the little old game of life, we had it understood that -if I died all of my belongings went to you; and if you cashed in first, -anything you had went to me." - -Taggart nodded and said swiftly: - -"My papers stand that way to this day! I never go back...." - -"The more fool you, then," jeered Standing. "I'm done with you, and my -papers are changed already...." - -"Already?" Taggart started visibly. "Since when?" - -"Since yesterday. Nothing I own, not so much as a wart on a log of -mine, ever goes your way." - -The bitterness in Taggart's soul overspilled into his voice as he cried -out savagely: - -"Sure, there you are! That's the way it goes. Now that your luck's been -running high and you don't need me, now that my luck's been dragging -bottom, why then you're ready to pitch me over...." - -"Liar!" Timber-Wolf cut him short with the word which was like an -explosion. But he did not pause to discuss a point of view, but -continued immediately: "That's the first thing. Here's the second: -You've decided to run neck and neck with Young Gallup. So you can take -him a word from me. Tell him"--and Standing's voice, husky with his -emotions, made even Jim Taggart wonder what was coming--"that I came -into his skunk hole of a town to-night just because he had the nerve to -tell me not to. Tell him that I know that was his work that my horse -was killed just now. Tell it him that if I ever come into his skunk -hole once more in my life, it will be to pull his damned town down -about his ears." - -Taggart chose to break into contemptuous laughter. But Bruce Standing, -lost to all sense of his own pain, caught him angrily by the shoulder -and shouted into his ears: - -"And this, for the last word ever to be spoken between you and me, Jim -Taggart. That rake-hell Jezebel that shot me, _shot me and not you_! -Got that? I'm not asking you, sheriff or no sheriff, to chip in on my -affairs; I'll attend to the little hell-cat, and you keep your hands -off. And, as for Babe Deveril, since the cursed fool wants to show his -hand by cutting in with her and trying to snatch her out of my reach, -I'll attend to him at the same time. The likely thing is that they've -headed into the wilderness, my wilderness, and I'm going after them. -And you are to keep out of my way." - -With a violent shove he thrust Taggart out of his way and strode by -him, going swiftly down the hall, Dick Ross swinging along close behind -him and keeping a watchful eye upon Taggart, little Billy Winch hopping -along in the rear and spitting audacious venom at the sheriff with his -baneful eyes. In this order the three came out under the shining stars. - - - - -CHAPTER VI - - -Bruce Standing, a man of that strong, dominant, and self-centred -character which is prone to disregard the feelings of others, held -both Lynette Brooke and Babe Deveril his prey. But Jim Taggart, whose -professional business it appeared to be to bring in the girl, and -whose sore and aching head would not for many a day lose record of the -fact that it had been Babe Deveril who had forcibly put him out of the -running, had his own human purposes to serve, and set his nose to the -trail like a bloodhound. And yet, with these two bending every energy -to run them to earth, the two fugitives plunging headlong into the -friendly darkness were for the moment utterly lost to those who plunged -into the same darkness and in the same headlong style after them. - -Hand in hand, chance-caught, and running swiftly, Lynette and Deveril -were in time to escape the first of their pursuers, a crowd of men who -got in one another's way, and who were too lately from the lighted -room of the house to see clearly outside. Behind Gallup's House was -the little creek which supplied the town with its water; it wound here -across a tiny flat, an open space save for its big cottonwoods. The -two, knowing that in the first heat of the chase opening at their heels -they were running from death, sped like two winged shadows merged into -one. After a hundred yards they hurled themselves into breast-high -bushes, a thick tangle--a growth which, in such a mad rush as theirs, -was no less formidable than a rock wall. They cast quick glances -backward; a score of men--appearing, in their widely spread formation -and from their cries and the racket of scuffling boots, to be a -hundred--shut off all retreat and made hopeless any thought to turn to -right or left. - -"Down!" whispered Deveril. "Crawl for it! And quiet!" - -On hands and knees they crawled into the thicket. Already hands and -faces were scratched, but they did not feel the scratches; already -their clothes were torn in many places. In a wild scramble they went -on, squeezing through narrow spaces, lying flat, wriggling, getting to -hands and knees again. And all the while with nerves jumping at each -breaking of a twig. It was only the shouting voices and the pounding -boots behind them that drowned in their pursuers' ears the sounds they -made. - -"Still!" admonished Babe Deveril in a whisper. - -And very still they lay, side by side, panting, in the heart of the -thicket. A voice called out, not twenty paces behind them: - -"They're in there!" And another voice, louder than the first and more -insistent, they thanked their stars, boomed: - -"No, no! They skirted the brush, off to the left, beating it for the -open! After 'em, boys!" And still other voices shouted and, it would -seem, every man of them had glimpsed his own tricking shadow and had -his own wild opinion. - -Thus, for a brief enough moment, the pursuit was baffled. - -"Slow and quiet does it!" It was for the third time Babe Deveril's -whisper, his lips close to her hair. "I see an opening. Follow close." - -Lynette, still lying face down, lifted herself a little way upon her -two hands and looked after him. - -"String 'em up!" a voice was calling. It was like the voice of a devil -down in hell, full of mob malice. She shivered. "They're murdering -devils. String 'em up!" - -"Catch 'em first, you fool," called another voice. Again pounding boots -and ... far more sinister sound ... snapping brush where a man was -breaking his way straight into the thicket. - -Like some grotesque, curiously shaped snake, Babe Deveril was writhing -along, ever deeper into the brush tangle, ahead of her. She began -crawling after him. Voices everywhere. And now dogs barking. A hundred -dogs, it seemed to her taut nerves. She knew dogs; she knew how they -went into a frenzy of excited joy when it was a question of a quarry, -any quarry; she knew the unfailing certainty of the dog's scent. She -began hurrying, struggling to get to her knees again.... - -"Sh! Down!" - -She dropped down again and lay flat, scarce breathing. But once more -she saw the vague blot of Deveril's flat form wriggling on ahead of -her, almost gone now. It was so dark! She threw herself forward; she -threw her arm out and her hand brushed his boot. It was a wonderful -thing, to feel that boot. She was not alone. She began again following -him; dry, broken, and thorny twigs snared at her; they caught in her -clothes and in the laces of her boots; they tore at her skin. Yet this -time she was as silent a shadow as the shadow in front of her. On and -on and on, on endlessly through an eternity of darkness shot through -with dim star glimmerings, and pierced with horrible voices, she went. -She came out into an opening; she stood up. She was alone! And those -voices and the yelping of dogs and the scuffling of heavy, insensate, -merciless boots.... - -A hard, sudden hand caught her by the wrist. She whipped back, a scream -shaping her lips. But in time she clapped a hand over her mouth. She -was not alone; this was Babe Deveril, standing upright ... waiting for -her! She brought her hand down and clasped it, tight, over his hand. - -"Run for it again," he whispered. "Off that way ... to the right. If we -can once get among those trees...." - -Side by side, their hearts leaping, they ran. Gradually, but steadily, -the harsh noises grew fainter behind them. They gained the fringe of -trees; they splashed through the creek; they skirted a second tangle of -brush and rounded the crest of a hill. And steadily and swiftly now the -sounds of pursuit lessened behind them. - -"And now," muttered Deveril, for the first time forsaking his cautious -whisper, "if we use what brains God gave us, we are free of that hell -pack." - -"If they caught up with us?" she questioned him sharply. - -"Most likely we'd both be swinging from a cottonwood in ten minutes! -There's no sanity in that crowd; it's all mob spirit. If it is true -that both Bruce Standing and Jim Taggart are dead.... Well, then, -Lynette Brooke, this is no place for you and me to-night! Come on!..." - -"Babe Deveril," she returned, and now it was her fingers tightening -about his, "I'll never forget that you stood by me to-night!" - -Babe Deveril, being himself and no other, a man reckless and unafraid -and eminently gay, and, so God made him, full of lilting appreciation -of the fair daughters of Eve, felt even at this moment her touch, like -so much warm quicksilver trickling through him from head to foot. He -gave her, in answer, a hearty pressure of the hand and his low, guarded -laughter, saying lightly: - -"You interfere with the regular beating of a man's heart, Lynette -Brooke! But now you'll never remember to-night for any great measure -of hours, unless we step along. They'll hunt us all night. Come, -beautiful lady!" - -Even then she marvelled at him. He, like herself, was tense and on -the _qui vive_; yet she sensed his utter fearlessness. She knew that -if they caught him and put a rope about his neck and led him under a -cottonwood branch, he would pay them back to the last with his light, -ringing laughter. - -In this first wild rush they had had no time to think over what had -just happened; no time to cast ahead beyond each step deeper into -the night. Where they were going, what they were going to do--these -were issues to confront them later; now they were concerned with no -consideration other than haste and silence and each other's company. -To-night's section of destiny made of them, without any reasoning and -merely through an instinctive attraction, trail fellows. True, both -carried blurred pictures of what had occurred back there at the Gallup -House so few minutes ago, but these were but pictures, and as yet gave -rise to no logical speculation. As in a vision, she saw Timber-Wolf -sagging and falling as he strove to slew about; Deveril saw Taggart -rushing in at her heels, and then going down in a heap as a revolver -was flung in his face. Only dully at present were they concerned with -the query whether these two men were really dead. When one runs for his -life through the woods in a dark night, he has enough to do to avoid -limbs and tree trunks and keep on going. - -Big Pine occupied the heart of a little upland flat. In ten minutes -Lynette and Deveril had traversed the entire stretch of partially level -land, and felt the ground begin to pitch sharply under foot. Here was a -sudden steep slope leading down into a rugged ravine; their sensation -was that of plunging over the brink of some direful precipice, feeling -at every instant that they were about to go tumbling into an abyss. -They were forced to go more slowly, sliding on their heels, ploughing -through patches of soil, stumbling across flinty areas. - -"Down we go, as straight as we can," said Deveril. "And up on the other -side as straight as we can. Then we'll be in a bit of forest land where -the devil himself couldn't find us on a night like this.... How are you -standing the rough-stuff?" - -It was the first time that he had given any indication of realizing -that her girl's body might not be equal to the work which they were -taking upon them. Swiftly she made her answer, saying lightly, despite -her labored breathing: - -"Fine. This is nothing." - -"If I hadn't forgotten my hat ... among other things," he chuckled, -"I'd take it off to you right now, Lynette Brooke!" - -They paused and stood a moment in the gloom about the base of a big -boulder, listening. Now and then a man shouted; dogs still barked. But -the sounds were appreciably fainter, now that they had started down the -steeply pitching slope into the ravine. - -"We can get away from them to-night," she said. "But to-morrow, when it -is light?" - -"We'll see. For one thing, a chase like this always loses some of its -fine enthusiasm after the first spurt. For another, even if they did -pick us up to-morrow, they would have had time to cool off a bit; a mob -can't stay hot overnight. But give us a full night's head-start, and -I've a notion we've seen the last of them. Ready?" - -"Always ready!" - -Again they hurried on, straight down into the great cleft through the -mountains, swerving into brief détours only for upheaved piles of -boulders or for an occasional brushy tangle. In twenty minutes they -were down in the bed of the ravine, and splashing through a little -trickle of water; Lynette stooped and drank, while Deveril stood -listening; again, climbing now, they went on. The farther side of the -caņon was as steep as the one they had come down, and it was tedious -labor in the dark to make their way; at times they zigzagged one way -and another to lessen the sheerness of their path. And frequently now -they stopped and drank deep draughts of the clear mountain air. - -Silence shut down about them, ruffled only by the soft wind stirring -across the mountain ridges. It was not that they were so soon out -of ear-shot of Big Pine; rather, this sudden lull meant that their -pursuers, done with the first moments of blind excitement, were now -gathering their wits and thinking coolly ... and planning. They would -be taking to horseback soon; scouting this way and that, organizing -and throwing out their lines like a great net. By now some one man, -perhaps Young Gallup, had taken charge and was directing them. The two -fugitives, senses sharpened, understood, and again hastened on. They -had not won to any degree of security, and felt with quickened nerves -the full menace of this new, sinister silence. - -Onward and upward they labored, until at last they gained a less -steeply sloping timber belt, which stretched close under the peak of -the ridge. They walked more swiftly now; breathing was easier; there -were more and wider open spaces among the larger, more generously -spaced tree trunks. - -"We'll strike into the Buck Valley road in a minute now," said Deveril. -"Then we'll have easy going...." - -"And will leave tracks that they'll see in the morning!" - -"Of course. Any fool ought to have thought of that," he muttered, -ashamed that it had been she instead of himself who had foreseen the -danger. - -So they hearkened to the voice of caution and paralleled the road, -keeping a dozen or a score of paces to its side, and often tempted, -because of its comparative smoothness and the difficult brokenness of -the mountainside over which they elected to travel, to yield utterly to -its inviting voice. They turned back and glimpsed the twinkling lights -of Big Pine; they lost the lights as they forged on; they found them -again, grown fainter and fewer and farther away. - -"Can you go on walking this way all night?" he asked her once. - -"All night, if we have to," she told him simply. - -They tramped along in silence, their boots rising and falling -regularly. The first tenseness, since human nerves will remain taut -only so long, had passed. They had time for thought now, both before -and after. Mentally each was reviewing all that had occurred to-night -and, building theoretically upon those happenings, was casting forward -into the future. The present was a path of hazard, and surely the -future lay shut in by black shadows. Yet both of them were young, and -youth is the time of golden hopes, no matter how drearily embraced by -stony facts. And youth, in both of them, despite the difference of -sex, was of the same order: a time of wild blood; youth at its animal -best, lusty, vigorous, dauntless, devil-may-care; theirs the spirits -which leap, hearts glad and fearless. And when, after a while, now and -then they spoke again, there was youth playing up to youth in its own -inevitable fashion; confidence asserting itself and begetting more -confidence; youth wearing its outer cloakings with its own inimitable -swagger. - -They had trudged along the narrow mountain road for a full hour or more -when they heard the clattering noise of a horse's shod hoofs. - -"I knew it," said Deveril sharply. "Damn them." - -With one accord he and she withdrew hastily, slipping into the -convenient shadows thrown by a clump of trees, and peered forth through -a screen of high brush. The hurrying hoof beats came on, up-grade, -hence from the general direction of Big Pine. Two men, and riding neck -and neck, driving their horses hard. The riders drew on rapidly; were -for a fleeting moment vaguely outlined against a field of stars ... -swept on. - -They came with a rush, with a rush they were gone. But Deveril, who -since he was taller, had seen more clearly than Lynette across the -brush, turned back to her eagerly, wondering if she had seen what he -had--if she had noted that one of the men loomed unusually large in the -saddle, and how the smaller at his side rode lopsidedly. In all reason -Bruce Standing should be dead by now or, at the very least, bedridden. -But when did Timber-Wolf ever do what other men expected of him? If he -were alive and not badly hurt; if Lynette knew this, then what? Deveril -would tell her, or would not tell her, as circumstances should decide -for him. - -"Come on!" he cried sharply, certain that Lynette had not seen. "While -the night and the dark last. Let's hurry." - -On and on they went until the dragging hours seemed endless. They saw -the wheeling progress of the stars; they saw the pools of gloom in the -woods deepen and darken; they felt, like thick black padded velvet, -the silence grow deeper, until it seemed scarcely ruffled by the thin -passing of the night air. Thus they put many a weary, hard-won mile -between them and Big Pine. Hours of that monotonous lifting of boot -after boot, of stumbling and straightening and driving on; of pushing -through brush copses, of winding wearily among the bigger boles of -the forest, of sliding down steep places and climbing up others, with -always the lure of the more easy way of the road tempting and mocking. - -"We've got to find water again," said Deveril, out of a long silence. -"And we've got to dig ourselves in for a day of it. The dawn's coming." - -For already the eastern sky stood forth in contrast against west and -south and north, a palely glimmering sweep of emptiness charged with -the promise of another day. The girl, too tired for speech, agreed -with a weary nod. She could think of nothing now, neither of past nor -present nor future, save of water, a long, cool bathing of burning -mouth and throat, and after that, rest and sleep. Her whole being was -resolved into an aching desire for these two simple balms to jaded -nature. Water and then sleep. And let the coming day bring what it -chose. - -Long ago the mountain air, rare and sweet and clean, had grown cold, -but their bodies, warmed by exertion, were unaware of the chill. But -now, with fatigue working its will upon every laboring muscle, they -began to feel the cold. Lynette began shivering first; Deveril, when -they stopped a little while for one of their brief rests, began to -shiver with her. - -Water was not to be found at every step in these mountains; they -labored on another three or four miles before they found it. Then they -came to a singing brook which shot under a little log bridge, and there -they lay flat, side by side, and drank their fill. - -"And now, fair lady, to bed," said Deveril, looking at her curiously -and making nothing of her expression, since the starlight hid more -than it disclosed, and giving her as little glimpse of his own look. -"And when, I wonder, did you ever lay you down to sleep as you must -to-night?" - -But he did see that she shivered. And yet, bravely enough, she answered -him, saying: - -"Beggars must not be choosers, fair sir; and methinks we should go -down on our knees and offer up our thanks to Our Lady that we live and -breathe and have the option of choosing our sleeping places this night." - -She had caught his cue, and her readiness threw him into a mood of -light laughter; he had drunk deep, and his youthful resilience buoyed -him up, and he found life, as always, a game far away and more than -worth the candle. - -"You say truly, my fair lady," he said in mock gravity. "'Tis better to -sleep among the bushes than dangling at the end of a brief stretch of -rope." - -But with all of their lightness of speech, which, after all, was but -the symbol of youth playing up to youth, the prospect was dreary -enough, and in their hearts there was little laughter. And the cold -bit at them with its icy teeth. A fire would have been more than -welcome, a thing to cheer as well as to warm; but a fire here, on the -mountainside, would have been a visible token of brainlessness; it -would throw its warmth five feet and its betraying light as many miles. - -So, in the cold and dark they chose their sleeping place. Into a tangle -of fragrant bushes, not twenty paces from the Buck Valley road, they -crawled on hands and knees, as they had crawled into that first thicket -when pursuit yelped at their heels. Here they came by chance upon a -spot where two big pine-trees, standing close together companionably, -upreared from the very heart of the brushy tangle. Lynette could -scarcely drag her tired body here, caught and retarded by every twig -that clutched at her clothing. For the first time in her vigorous life -she came to understand the meaning of that ancient expression, "tired -to death." She felt herself drooping into unconsciousness almost -before her body slumped down upon the earth, thinly covered in fallen -leaves. - -"I am sleepy," she murmured. "Almost dead for sleep...." - -"You wonderful girl...." - -"Sh! I can't talk any more. I can't think; I can't move; I can scarcely -breathe. Whether they find us in the morning or not ... it doesn't -matter to me now.... You have been good to me; be good to me still. And -... good-night, Babe Deveril ... Gentleman!" - -He saw her, dimly, nestle down, cuddling her cheek against her arm, -drawing up her knees a little, snuggling into the very arms of mother -earth, like a baby finding its warm place against its mother's breast. -He sat down and slowly made himself a cigarette, and forgot for a -long time to light it, lost in his thoughts as he stared at her and -listened to her quiet breathing. He knew the moment that she went to -sleep. And in his heart of hearts he marvelled at her and called her -"a dead-game little sport." She, of a beauty which he in all of his -light adventurings found incomparable, had ventured with him, a man -unknown to her, into the depths of these solitudes and had never, for -a second, evinced the least fear of him. True, danger drove; and yet -danger always lay in the hands of a man, her sex's truest friend and -greatest foe. In his hands reposed her security and her undoing. And -yet, knowing all this, as she must, she lay down and sighed and went -to sleep. And her last word, ingenuous and yet packed to the brim with -human understanding, still rang in his ears. - -"It's worth it," he decided, his eyes lingering with her gracefully -abandoned figure. "The whole damn thing, and may the devil whistle -through his fingers until his fires burn cold! And she's mine, and -I'll make her mine and keep her mine until the world goes dead. And my -friend, Wilfred Deveril, if you've ever said anything in your life, -you've said it now!" - - - - -CHAPTER VII - - -Glancing sunlight, striking at him through a nest of tumbled boulders -upon the ridge, woke Babe Deveril. He sat up sharply, stiff and cold -and confused, wondering briefly at finding himself here upon the -mountainside. Lynette was already sitting up, a huddling unit of -discomfort, her arms about her upgathered knees, her hair tousled, her -clothing torn, her eyes showing him that, though she had slept, she, -too, had awaked shivering and unrested. And yet, as he gathered his -wits, she was striving to smile. - -"Good morning to you, my friend." - -He got stiffly to his feet, stretching his arms up high above his head. - -"At least, we're alive yet. That's something, Lynette." - -"It's everything!" Emulating him she sprang up, scornfully disregarding -cramped body, her triumphant youth ignoring those little pains which -shot through her as pricking reminders of last night's endeavors. "To -live, to breathe, to be alive ... it's everything!" - -"When one thinks back upon the possibilities of last night," he -answered, "the reply is 'Yes.' Good morning, and here's hoping that you -had no end of sweet dreams." - -She looked at him curiously. - -"I did dream," she said. "Did you?" - -"No. When I slept, I slept hard. And your dreams?" - -"Were all of two men. Of you and another man, Timber-Wolf, you call -him--Bruce Standing. I heard him call you 'Baby Devil'! That got into -my dreams. I thought that we three...." - -She broke off, and still her eyes, fathomless, mysterious, regarded him -strangely. - -"Well?" he demanded. "We three?" - -She shivered. And, knowing that he had seen, she exclaimed quickly: - -"That's because I'm cold! I'm near frozen. Can't we have a fire?" - -"But the dream?" he insisted. - -"Dreams are nothing by the time they're told," she answered swiftly. -"So why tell them? And the fire?" - -"No," he told her, suddenly stubborn, and resentful that he could not -have free entrance into her sleeping-life. "We went without it when we -needed it most; now the sun's up and we don't need it; since, above -everything, there's no breakfast to cook." - -"So you woke up hungry, too?" - -"Hungry? I was eating my supper when first you showed upon my horizon. -And, what with looking at you or trying to look at you, I let half of -my supper go by me! I'd give a hundred dollars right this minute for -coffee and bacon and eggs!" - -"You want a lot for a hundred dollars," she smiled back at him. Her -hands were already busy with her tumbled hair, for always was Lynette -purely feminine to her dainty finger-tips. "I'd give all of that just -for coffee alone." - -"Come," said Deveril, "Let's go. Are you ready?" - -"To move on? Somewhere, anywhere? And to search for breakfast? Yes; in -a minute." - -First, she worked her way back through the brush, down into the creek -bed, and for a little while, as she bathed her face and neck and arms, -and did the most that circumstances permitted at making her morning -toilet, she was lost to his following eyes. Slowly he rolled himself a -cigarette; that, with a man, may take the place of breakfast, serving -to blunt the edge of a gnawing appetite. Long draughts of icy cold -water served her similarly. She stamped her feet and swung her arms and -twisted her body back and forth, striving to drive the cold out and get -her blood to leaping warmly. Then, before coming back to him, she stood -for a long time looking about her. - -All the wilderness world was waking; she saw the scampering flash of a -rabbit; the little fellow came to a dead halt in a grassy open space, -and sat up with drooping forepaws and erect ears; she could fancy his -twitching nose as he investigated the morning air to inform himself as -to what scents, pleasurable, friendly, inimical, lay upon it. - -"In case he is hungry, after nibbling about half the night," she mused, -"he knows just where to go for his breakfast." - -The rabbit flapped his long ears and went about his business, whatever -it may have been, popping into the thicket. There grew in a pretty -grove both willows and wild cherry; beyond them a tall scattering of -cottonwoods; on the rising slope scrub-pines and juniper. And while -she stood there, looking down, she heard some quail calling, and saw -half a dozen sparrows busily beginning office hours, as it were, going -about their day's affairs. And one and all of these little fellows knew -just what he was about, and where to turn to a satisfying menu. When, -returning to Deveril, she confided in him something of her findings, -which would go to indicate that man was a pretty inefficient creature -when stood alongside the creatures of the wild, Deveril retorted: - -"Let them eat their fill now; before night we'll be eating them!" - -"You haven't even a gun...." - -"I could run a scared rabbit to death, I'm that starved! And now -suppose we get out of this." - -The sun was striking at the tops of the yellow pines on the distant -ridge; the light was filtering downward; shadows were thinning about -them and even in the ravine below. Walking stiffly, until their bodies -gradually grew warm with the exertion, and always keeping to the -thickest clump of trees or tallest patch of brush, they began to work -their way down into the caņon. The sun ran them a race, but theirs -was the victory; it was still half night in the great cleft among the -mountains when they slid down the last few feet and found more level -land underfoot, and the greensward of the wild-grass meadow fringing -the lower stream. The caņon creek went slithering by them, cold and -glassy-clear, whitening over the riffles, falling musically into the -pools, dimpling and ever ready to break into widening circles, a -smiling, happy stream. And in it, they knew, were trout. They stood for -a moment, catching breath after the steep descent, looking into it. - -"I wonder if you have a pin," said Deveril. - -She pondered the matter, struck immediately by the aptness of the -suggestion; he could see how she wrinkled her brows as she tried to -remember if possibly she had made use of a pin in getting dressed the -last time. - -"I've a hairpin or two left. I wonder if we could make that do?" - -"Just watch and see!" he exclaimed joyously. - -In putting her tumbled hair straight just now she had discovered two -pins, which, even when her hair had come down about her shoulders, had -happened to catch in a little snarl in the thick tresses; these she had -saved and used in making her morning toilet. Now she took her hair down -again and presented him with the two pins, gathering her hair up in two -thick, loose braids, while with curious eyes he watched her; and as -curiously, the thing done, she watched him busy himself with the pins. - -A few paces farther on, creeping forward under the willow branches, -they came to a spot where the creek banks were clear of brush along a -narrow grassy strip, which, however, was screened from the mountainside -by a growth of taller trees. Here Deveril went to work on his -improvised fish-hook. One hairpin he put carefully into his pocket; the -other he bent rudely into the required shape, making an eye in one end -by looping and twisting. The other end, that intended for the hungry -mouth of a greedy trout, he regarded long and without enthusiasm. - -"Too blunt, to begin with; next, no barb, too smooth; and, finally, the -thing bends too easily. Hairpins should be made of steel!" - -But at least two of the defects could be simply remedied up to a -certain though not entirely satisfactory point. He squatted down and, -employing two hard stones, hammered gently at the malleable wire -until he flattened out the end of it into a thin blade with sharp, -jagged edges. Then, using his pocket-knife, he managed to cut several -little slots in this thin blade, so that there resulted a series of -roughnesses which were not unlike barbs; whereas he could put no great -faith in any one of them holding very securely, at least, taken all -together, they would tend toward keeping his hook, if once taken, from -slipping out so smoothly. He re-bent his pin and suddenly looked up at -her with a flashing grin. - -He robbed one of his boots of its string; he cut the first likely -willow wand. Without stirring from his spot he dug in the moist earth -and got his worm. And then, motioning her to be very still, he crept a -few feet farther along the brook, found a pool which pleased him, hid -behind a clump of bushes and gently lowered his baited hook toward the -shadowy surface. And before the worm touched the water, a big trout saw -and leaped and struck ... and did a clean job of snatching the worm off -without having appeared to so much as touch the bent hairpin! - -Three quiet sounds came simultaneously: the splash of the falling -fish, a grunt from Deveril, a gasp from Lynette. Deveril, thinking she -was about to speak, glared at her in savage admonition for silence; -she understood and remained motionless. Slowly he crept back to the -spot where he had dug his worm, and scratched about until he had -two more. One of them went promptly to his hook, while he held the -other in reserve. Again he approached his pool, again he lowered his -bait about the bush. This time the offering barely touched the water -before the trout struck again. Now Deveril was ready for him, deftly -manoeuvring his pole; his string tautened, his wallow bent, the fat, -glistening trout swung above the racing water.... Lynette was already -wondering how they were going to cook it!... There was again a splash, -and Deveril stood staring at a silly-looking hairpin, dangling at the -end of an absurd boot-lace. For now the hairpin failed to present the -vaguest resemblance to any kind of a hook; the trout's weight had been -more than sufficient to straighten it out so that the fish slipped off. - -Gradually, moving on noiseless feet, the girl withdrew; her last -glimpse of Deveril, before she slipped out of sight among the willows, -showed her his face, grim in its set purpose. He was trying the third -time, and she believed that he would stand there without moving all day -long, if necessary. In the meantime she was done with inactivity and -watching; doing nothing when there was much to be done irked her. - -Withdrawn far enough to make her certain that no chance sound made by -her would disturb his trout, she went on through the grove and across -little grassy open spaces flooring the caņon, making her way further -up-stream. When a hundred yards above him, she turned about a tangled -thicket and came upon the creek where it flashed through shallows. All -of her life she had lived in the mountains; as a little girl, many a -day had she followed a stream like this, bickering away down the most -tempting of wild places; and more than once, lying by a tiny clear -pool, had she caught in her hands one of the quick fishes, just to set -him in a little lakelet of her own construction, where she played with -him before letting him go again. To-day ... if she could catch her fish -first! While Deveril, man-like, taking all such responsibilities upon -his own shoulders, cursed silently and achieved nothing beyond loss of -bait and loss of temper! - -Up-stream, always keeping close to the merrily musical water, she made -her slow way until she found a likely spot. At the base of a tiny -waterfall was a big smooth rock; the water from above, glassily smooth -in its well-worn channel, struck upon the rock and was divided briefly -into two streams. One of them, the lesser, poured down into a small, -rock-rimmed pool; the other, deflected sharply, sped down another -course, to rejoin its fellow a few feet below the pool. - -It was to the pool itself, half shut off from the main current, that -Lynette gave her quickened attention. She crept closer, noiseless, -peeping over. A sudden dark gleam, the quick, nervous steering of a -trout rewarded her. She stood still, making a profound study of what -lay before her; in what the rock-edged pool aided and wherein it would -present difficulties. Scarcely more than a trickle of water poured out -at the lower side; she could hastily pile up a few stones there, and -so construct a wall insurmountable to the trout if minded to escape -down-stream. Then she looked to the far side, where the water slipped -in. She could lay a few broken limbs across the rock there and build up -a rampart of stones and turf upon it, and so deflect nearly all of the -incoming water. Both these things done, she could, if need be, bail the -pool out, and so come with certainty upon whatever fish had blundered -into it. She began to hope that she would find a dozen! - -Twice, standing upon the glassy rocks, she slipped; once she got -soaking wet to her knee; another time she saved herself from a thorough -drenching in the ice-cold stream only at the cost of plunging one arm -down into it, elbow-deep. She shivered but kept steadily on. - -She heard a bird among the bushes and started, thinking that here came -Deveril; she fancied him with a string of fish in his hand, laughing at -her. Impulsively she called to him. - -The close walls of the ravine shut in her voice; the thickets muffled -it; the splash and gurgle of the tumbling water drowned it out. She -stood very still, hushed; now suddenly the silence, the loneliness, -the bigness of the wilderness closed in about her. She looked about -fearfully, half expecting to see men spring out from behind every -boulder or tree trunk. She longed suddenly to see Babe Deveril coming -up along the creek to her. She was tempted to break into a run racing -back to him. - -She caught herself up short. All this was only a foolish flurry in -her breast, conjured up by that sudden realization of loneliness when -her quickened voice died away into the whispered hush of the still -solitudes. For an instant that feeling of being alone had overpowered -her, or threatened to do so; then her only thought had been of Babe -Deveril; she could have rushed fairly into his arms, so did her -emotions drive her. Now she found time to puzzle over herself; it -struck her now, for the first time, how she had fled unquestioningly -into this wilderness with a man. A man whom she did not even know. -That hasty headlong act of hers would seem to indicate a trust of a -sort. But did she actually trust Babe Deveril, with those keen, cutting -eyes of his and the way he had of looking at a girl, and the whole of -his reckless and dare-devil personality? Lynette Brooke had not lived -in a cave all of her brief span of life; nor had she grown into slim -girlhood and the full bud of her glorious youth without more than one -look into a mirror. Vapidly vain she was not; but clear-visioned she -was, and she knew and was glad for the vital, vivid beauty which was -hers and thanked God for it. And she glimpsed, if somewhat vaguely, -that to a man like Babe Deveril, taking life lightly, there was no -lure beyond that of red lips and sparkling eyes. How far could she be -sure of him? She went back with slow steps to her trout; she was glad -that Babe Deveril had not heard and come running to her just then. But -when Deveril did come, carrying two gleaming trout, she masked her -misgivings and lifted a laughing face toward his triumphant one. - -"We eat, Lynette!" he announced gaily. - -Suddenly his eyes warmed to the picture she made, paying swift tribute -to the tousled, flushed beauty of her. His glance left her face and ran -swiftly down her form; she felt suddenly as though her wet clothing -were plastered tight to her. - -"You can finish this," she told him swiftly, "if you want to take any -more fish." - -"But, look here! Where are you going? Breakfast...." - -Her teeth were beginning to chatter. - -"I'm going to try to get dry. You can start breakfast or...." - -She fled, and called herself a fool for growing scarlet, as she knew -that she did; as though two burning rays had been directed full upon -her back, she could feel his look as she ran from him; she could not -quickly enough vanish from his keen eyes, beyond the thicket. And how -on earth she was going to get dry again until the sun stood high in the -sky, she did not in the least know. She could wring out the free water; -she could make flails of her arms and run up and down until she got -warm.... If only she had a fire; but that would be foolhardy, the smoke -arising to stand a signal for miles of their whereabouts.... - -And until this moment she had not thought of how they were to convert -freshly caught fish into an edible breakfast! How, without fire? She -began to shiver again, from head to foot now, and, confronted by her -own problem, that of getting warm and dry, she was content to leave all -other solutions to Deveril. - -When half an hour later she returned to him, she found him smoking a -cigarette and crouching over a bed of dying coals, whereon certain -tempting morsels lay; Deveril was turning them this way and that; with -the savory odor of the grilling fish there arose from the embers a -whiff of the green sage-leaves which he had plucked at the slope of -the caņon and laid first on his bed of coals. Crisp mountain-trout, -garnished with sage! And plenty of clear, cold, sparkling water to -drink thereafter! Truly a morning repast for king and queen. - -"I hope they keep us on the run for a month!" Deveril greeted her. "I -haven't had this much fun for a dozen years!" - -"But your fire?" she asked anxiously. "Aren't you afraid? The smoke?" - -"Where there's smoke, there's always fire," he told her lightly. "But -when a man's on the dodge, as we are, he can have a fire that gives out -almighty little smoke! It's all bone-dry wood, with only the handful -of sage and a few crisscross willow sticks. Look up, and see how much -smoke you can see!" - -He had built his small blaze, ringed about by some rocks, in the heart -of a small grove of trees which stood forty or fifty feet high; he had -got his fire burning with strong, clean flames, from a handful of dry -leaves and twigs; Lynette, looking up, could make out only the faintest -bluish-gray wisp of smoke against the gray-green of the leaves. She -understood; always it was inevitable that they must accept whatever -chances the moment brought them, yet it was not at all likely that -their faint plume of smoke, vanishing among the treetops, would ever -draw the glance of any human eye other than their own. - -"I'll tell you ..." began Deveril, and broke short off there, as -she and he, alert and tense once more, reminded that they were -fugitives, listened to a sudden sound disturbing their silence. A sound -unmistakable--a man at no great distance from them, but, fortunately, -upon the farther side of the stream, and thus beyond the double screen -of willows, was breaking his way through the brush. Both Deveril and -Lynette crouched low, peering through the bushes. They could only -make out that the man was coming up-stream. Once they caught a vague, -blurred glimpse of his legs, faded overalls and ragged boots. Then -they lost him entirely. They knew when he stopped and both waited -breathlessly to know if he had come upon some sign of their own trail. -But once more he went on, but now in such silence, as he crossed a -little open spot, that they could scarcely make out a sound. Had it -not been for the willows intervening, they could then have answered -their own question, "Who is it?"--a question just now of supreme -importance, of the importance of life and death. They lay lower; they -strove as never before to catch some glimpse that would tell them what -they wanted to know. The man stopped again; again went on. There was -something guarded about his movements; they felt that he must have -seen their tracks, that he was seeking in a roundabout way to come -unexpectedly upon them. And then, because there was a narrow natural -avenue through the brush, they were given one clear, though fleeting -glimpse, of him ... of his face--a face as tense and watchful as their -own had been ... the face of Mexicali Joe. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - - -A glimpse, scarcely more it was, had been given them of Mexicali Joe's -face. And at a considerable distance, at least for the reading of a -man's look. But yet they marked how the face was haggard and drawn and -furtive. Joe had no inkling of their presence. He had not seen their -wisp of smoke; there was no wind setting toward him to carry him the -smell of cooking trout. Plainly he had no desire for company other -than his own. He, no less than they, fled from all pursuit. Again he -was lost to them; he vanished, gone up-stream, beyond the thickets, -no faintest sound of his footfalls coming back to them. From him they -turned to each other, the same expression from the same flooding -thought in their eyes. - -"We're on the jump and we'll keep on the jump!" said Deveril softly. -"And at the same time, Lynette Brooke, we'll stick as close as the -Lord'll let us to Mexicali Joe's coat-tails! Don't you worry; he'll -go back as sure as shooting to his gold-mine, if only to make certain -that no one else has squatted on it. And where he drives a stake, we'll -drive ours right alongside!" - -"It's funny ... that he hasn't gotten any further ... that he should -come this way, too...." - -"No telling how long he had to lie still while the pack yelped about -his hiding-place; that he came this way means only one thing. And that -is that our luck is with us, and we're headed as straight as he is -toward his prospect hole. Ready? Let's follow him!" - -She jumped up. But before they started they gathered up, to the last -small bit, what was left of their fish; Deveril made the small bundle, -fish enwrapped in leaves, with a handkerchief about the whole. - -"If he should hear us?" she whispered. "If he should lie in waiting and -see us?" - -He chuckled. - -"In any case, we'll have it on him! He can't know that we're on the -run, too; he got away too fast for that. And even if he should know, -what would he do about it? He has no love for Taggart, anyway; and he -has no wish to get himself into the hands of that mob that he has just -ducked away from, like a rabbit dodging a pack of hounds. If he catches -us ... why, then, we catch him at the same time! Come on." - -Thus began the second lap of their journey; thus they, fleeing, -followed like shadows upon the traces of one who fled. For Mexicali -Joe would obviously keep to the bed of the caņon; if he forsook -it in order to climb up either slope to a ridge above, he must of -necessity pass through the more sparsely timbered spaces, where he -would run constantly into danger of being seen. The only danger to -their plans lay with the possibility that he might overhear sounds of -their following and might draw a little to one side and hide in some -dense copse, and so let them go by. But they had the advantage from -the beginning; they knew he was ahead, and he did not know that they -followed; so long as they, listening always, did not hear him ahead, -there was little danger of him hearing them coming after him. With -all the noise of the water, tumbling over falls and splashing along -over rocks, singing cheerily to itself at every step, there was small -likelihood of any one of the three cautious footfalls being heard.... - -There were the times, so intent were they following the Mexican, when -they forgot what was after all the main issue; forgot that they, too, -were followed. For the newer phase of the game was more zestful just -now than the other; they had neither glimpsed nor heard anything since -the passing of the two riders last night to hint that any danger of -discovery threatened them. They spoke seldom, only now and then, -pausing briefly, in lowered voices, as the speculations which had -been occupying both minds, demanded expression. Thus they were always -confronted by some new problem; at first, and for a mile or more, they -had full confidence that they had Joe straight ahead of them. But -presently they approached a fork of the caņon; it became imperative to -know if Joe had gone up the right or the left ravine. And here, where -most they wanted a glimpse of him, they had scant hope of seeing him, -so dense was the timber growth; he would keep close to the bed of the -stream, at times walking in the water so that the network of branches -from the brushy tangle on both banks would make for him a dim alleyway, -like a tunnel. They could not hope to hear him; they could not count -on finding his tracks, since none would be left upon the rocks and the -rushing water held none. - -But they were alert, ears critical of the slightest rustling, eyes -never keener. And, their good fortune holding firm, when they came to -the forking of the ways, that which they had not hoped for, a track -upon a hard rock, set them right. For here Joe, but a few score yards -ahead of them, had slipped, and had crawled up over a boulder, and -there was still the wet trace of his passing, a sign to vanish, drying, -while they looked on it. Joe had gone on into the deeper caņon, headed -in the direction which last night they had elected for their own, -driving on toward the heart of the wilderness country. - -They were no less relieved at finding what was the man's likely general -direction than at making sure that they were still almost at his heels. -For they had come to realize that, to explain Joe's presence here, -there were two directly opposing possibilities to consider: It was -imaginable that Joe would be making straight for his gold; and it was -just as reasonable that his craft might have suggested to him to head -in an opposite direction. Now that they might follow him and still be -going direct upon their own business, they were for the moment content -upon all points. - -Deveril, for the most part, went ahead; now and then he paused a -moment for the girl to come up with him. But never did he have to wait -long. He began to wonder at her; they had covered many hard miles last -night; more hard miles this morning. How long, he asked himself, as his -eyes sought to read hers, could such a slender, altogether feminine, -blush-pink girl stand up under such relentless hardship as this flight -promised to give them? And always he went on again, reassured and -admiring; her eyes remained clear, her regard straight and cool. A girl -unafraid; the true daughter of dauntless, hot-blooded parents. - -And she, watching his tall, always graceful form leading the way, found -ample time to wonder about him. She had seen him last night burst in -through a window and take the time coolly, though already the hue and -cry was breaking at his contemptuous heels, to rifle a man's pockets. -There was an indelible picture: the debonair Babe Deveril, who had -stepped unquestioningly into her fight, going down on his knees before -his fallen kinsman ... calmly bent upon robbery. For she had seen the -bank-notes in his hand. - -The sun rose high and crested all the ridges with glorious light, -and poured its golden warmth down into the steep caņons. But, now -that shadows began to shrink and the little open spaces lay revealed -in detail, fresh labor was added in that they were steadily harder -driven to keep to cover; all day long, at intervals, they were to have -glimpses of the Buck Valley road, high above upon the mountain flank, -and at each view of the road they understood that a man up there might -have caught a glimpse of them. Ten o'clock came and found them doggedly -following along the way which they held the viewless Mexicali Joe must -have taken before them. They paused and stooped to the invitation of -the creek, and thereafter ate what was left them of their grilled -trout. Having eaten, they drank again; and having drunk, they again -took up the trail.... - -"If you can stand the pace?" queried Deveril over his shoulder. And -she read in the gleam in his eyes that he was set on seeing this thing -through; on sticking close to Mexicali Joe until he came, with Joe, -upon his secret. - -"Why, of course!" she told him lightly, though already her body ached. - -It was not over an hour later when they set their feet in a trail -which they were confident Mexicali Joe had followed; from the moment -they stepped into the trail they watched for some trace of him, but -the hard, rain-washed, rocky way which only a mountaineer could have -recognized as a trail, was such as to hold scant sign, if the one who -travelled it but exercised precaution. Babe Deveril, with his small -knowledge of these mountains, held it the old short-cut trail from -Timkin's Bar, long disused, since Timkin's Bar itself had a score of -years ago died the death of short-lived mining towns. Brush grew over -it, and again and again it vanished underfoot, and they were hard beset -to grope forward to it again. Yet trail of a sort it was, and it set -them to meditating: Timkin's Bar, in the late '80's, had created a gold -furor, and then, after its short and hectic life, had been abandoned, -as an orange, sucked dry by a child, is thrown aside. Was it possible -that among the old diggings Mexicali Joe had stumbled upon a vein which -the old-timers had overlooked? - -At any rate, the trail lured them along, winding in their own general -direction; and Mexicali Joe still fled ahead. Of this latter fact they -had evidence when they came to the unmistakable sign ... to watchful -eyes ... of his recent passing: here, on the steep, ill-defined trail -he had slipped, and had caught at the branches of a wild cherry. They -saw the furrow made by his boot-heel and the scattered leaves and -broken twigs. - -Gradually the trail led them up out of the caņon-bed, snaking along -the flank of the mountain. And gradually they were entering the great -forest land of yellow pines. If not already in Timber-Wolf's country, -here was the border-line of his monster holdings: few men could draw -the line exactly between the wide-reaching acres which were his and -those contiguous acres which were a portion of the government reserve. -Standing himself had quarrelled with the government upon the matter and -what was more, after no end of litigation, had won a point or two. - -Once they diverged from the trail to climb and slide to the bottom of -the caņon for a long drink. But this and the sheer ascent took them in -their hurry only a few minutes. Again they took up the trail. It was -high noon and they were tired. But, alike disdainful of fatigue, driven -and lured, they pressed on. - -Suddenly she startled him by catching him by the arm and whispering -warningly: - -"Sh! Some one is following us!" - -In another moment, drawing back from the trail, they were hidden among -the wild cherries in a little side ravine. - -"Where?" he demanded, his voice hushed like hers, as he peered back -along the way they had come. "Who? How many of them?" - -"I didn't see," she answered. - -"What did you hear?" - -"Nothing ... I just know ... I _felt_ that some one was trailing us -just as we are trailing Mexicali Joe! I feel it now; I know!" - -"But you had something--something that you saw or heard--to tell you?" - -She shook her head. And he saw, wondering at her, that she was very -deeply in earnest as she admitted: - -"No. Nothing! But I know. I tell you, I know. Can't you feel that there -is some one back there, following us, spying on us, hiding and yet -dogging every step we take? Can't you _feel_ it?" - -She saw him shaken with silent laughter. She understood that he, a -man, was convulsed with laughter at the imaginings of her, a maid. -And yet, also, since she was quick-minded, she noted how his laughter -was _silent_! He meant her to see that he put no credence in her -suspicions; and yet, for all that, he was impressed, and he did take -care that no one, who _might_ follow them, should overhear him! - -"One doesn't feel things like that," he told her, as though positive. -But in the telling he kept his voice low, so that it was scarcely -louder than her own whisper. - -"One does," she retorted. "And you know it, Babe Deveril!" - -"But," he challenged her, "were you right, and were there a man or -several men back there tracking us, why all this caution on their -parts? What would they be waiting for, being armed themselves and -knowing us unarmed? What better place than this to take us in? Why give -us a minute's chance to slip away in the brush?" - -"I don't know." She shrugged, and again he marvelled at her; she looked -like one who had little vital concern in what any others, pursuing, -might or might not do. - -Despite his cool determination to adhere to calm reason and to discount -feminine impressionism, which he held to be fostered by a nervous -condition brought about by overexertion, Babe Deveril began to feel, -as she felt, that there was something more than imagination in her -contention. How does a man sense things which no one of his five senses -can explain to him? He could not see any reason in this abrupt change -in both their moods; and yet, none the less, it seemed to him, all of a -sudden, as though eyes were spying on him from behind every pine trunk, -and from the screen of every thicket. - -"Joe won't escape us in a hurry," he muttered. "Not in this caņon. And -we'll see this thing through. Let's sit tight and watch." - -And so, with that inexplicable sense that here in the wilderness they -were not yet free from pursuit, they crouched in the bushes and bent -every force of every sense to detect their fancied pursuers. But the -forest land, sun-smitten, a playland of light and shadow and tremulous -breeze, lay steeped in quiet about them, and they saw nothing moving -save the gently stirring leaves and occasional birds; half a dozen -sparrows briefly stayed their flight upon a shrub in flower with -pale-pink blossoms; a bevy of quail, forty strong, marched away through -the narrow roadways under the low, drooping branches, with crested -topknots bobbing; the forest land murmured and whispered and sang -softly, and seemed empty of any other human presence than their own. -And yet they waited, and at the end of their waiting, grown nervous -despite themselves, though they had had no slightest evidence that -pursuit was drawing close upon their heels, they were not able to shake -from them that _feeling_ that danger, the danger from which they fled, -was become a near-drawn menace. And all the more to be feared in that -it approached so silently, covertly, hidden and ready to strike when -their guard was down. - -"Just the same," said Deveril, deep in his own musings, "it can't be -Jim Taggart, for that's not Taggart's way, having the goods on a man, -and, besides, I fancy I put him out of the running." Then he looked at -her curiously, and added: "And it can't be Bruce Standing, since you -put him down and out and...." - -It was the first time that such a reference to the past had been made. -Now she startled him by the quick vehemence of her denial, saying: - -"I didn't shoot Bruce Standing! I tell you...." - -He looked at her steadily, and she broke off, as she saw dawning in his -eyes a look which was to be read as readily as were white stones to be -glimpsed in the bottom of a clear pool. She had made her statement, -and, whether true or false, he held it to be a lie. - -"In case they should somehow lay us by the heels," he said dryly, "you -would come a lot closer to clearing yourself by saying that you shot -him in self-defense than in denying everything. But they haven't got -their ropes over our running horns yet!... Do you still feel that we -are followed?" - -His look angered her; his words angered her still further. So to his -question she made no reply. He looked at her again curiously. She -refused to meet his eyes, coolly ignoring him. A little smile twitched -at his lips. - -"It's a poor time for good friends to fall out," he said lightly. -"I don't care the snap of my fingers who shot him, or why. He ought -to have been shot a dozen years ago. And now I'll tell you what, I -think, explains this business of some one being close behind us, if -you are right in it. The big chance is that some one has been trailing -Mexicali Joe all along; and dropped in behind us when we dropped in -behind Joe. We've been doing a first-class job of sticking to cover; -mind you, we haven't caught a second glimpse of Joe all this time, and -therefore it is as likely as not that the gent whom you _feel_ to be -trailing us hasn't caught a glimpse of us. If this is right, we've got -a bully chance right now to prove it. We lie close where we are for ten -minutes, and see if your hombre doesn't slip on by us, nosing along -after Joe." - -In silence she acquiesced. That sense of the nearness of another unseen -human being was insistent upon her. For a long time, as still as the -deep-rooted trees about them, they crouched, listening, watching. She -heard the watch ticking in Babe Deveril's pocket. She heard her own -breathing and his. She heard the brownie birds threshing among dead -leaves. Then there was the eternal whispering of the pines and the -faint murmurings from the stream far down in the caņon. At last it -would have been a relief to straining nerves if a man, or two or three -men, had stepped into sight in the trail from which she and Deveril -had withdrawn. For more certain than ever was Lynette Brooke, though -she could give neither rhyme nor reason for that certainty, that her -instincts had not tricked her. Therefore, instead of being reassured -at seeing or hearing no one, she was depressed and made anxious; -the silence became sinister, filled with vague threat; that she saw -no one was explicable to her by but the one ominous condition: that -person or those persons were watching even now, and knew where she and -Babe Deveril hid, and did not mean to stir until first their quarry -stirred. Why all this caution? She could not explain that to herself; -if some one followed, why should that some one hide? Why not step out -with gun levelled, and put an end to this grim game of hide-and-seek. - -"You see," whispered Deveril, "there is no one behind us." - -They had not moved for a full twenty minutes, and by now he began to -convict her of nervous imaginings, fancies of an overwrought girl. But -she answered him, saying with unshaken certainty: - -"I tell you, I know! Some one has been following us, and now is hiding -and waiting for us to go on." - -"Well, you are right or wrong, and in either case I don't fancy this -job of sitting so tight I feel as though I were growing roots. If you -should happen to be right, we'll know in time, I suppose. Let's go!" - -To her, in her present mood, anything was better than inaction. They -left their hiding-place, found a silent and hidden way a bit farther -down the slope, went forward a hundred yards and stepped back into the -faint trail. Their concern, each said inwardly, was to forge on and -to follow Joe; thus they pretended within themselves to ignore that -nebulous warning that they, like Joe, were followed. - -And so the day wore on, a day made up of uncertainty and vague threat. -How full the silent forest lands were of little sounds! For therein -lies the greatest of all forest-land mysteries; that silence in the -solitudes may be made audible. Uncertainty struck the key-note of their -long day. They sought to follow Mexicali Joe; they did not see him, -they did not hear him, they did not know where he was. Was he still -ahead of them, hastening on? How far ahead? A mile by now, not having -paused while they lost time? A hundred yards? Or had he turned aside? -Or had he thrown himself down flat somewhere, watching them go by? Was -he following them, or had he struck out east or west, while they went -on north? And was there some one following them? One man? Two? More? Or -none at all? Uncertainty. And as they grew tired and hungry, the great -silence oppressed them, and most of all this uncertainty of all things -began to bite in upon their nerves as acid eats into glass, etching its -own sign. - -"I'm getting jumpy," muttered Deveril, glaring at her, his eyes looking -savage and stern. "This nonsense of yours...." - -"It's not nonsense!" - -"Anyway, it's getting on my nerves! There's no sense in this sort of -thing. We're scaring ourselves like two kids in the dark. What's more, -we are allowing a pace-setter to get us to going too hard and steady a -clip; we'll be done in, the first thing we know. And we've got to begin -figuring on where the next meal comes from. What I mean is, that we've -got enough to do without wasting any more nerve force on what may or -may not follow after us." - -"Joe is still ahead of us," she reminded him; "or, at any rate, we -think that he is. He left last night in as big a hurry as we did; and -he, too, came away without gun and fishing-tackle, and didn't stop to -get Young Gallup to put him up a lunch. Then, on top of all that, Joe -knows this country better than we do." - -"I get you!" he told her quickly. "Joe's as ready for food and lodging -as we are, and Joe, unless we're wrong all along, is hiking ahead of -us. Who knows but we'll invite ourselves to dine with Seņor Joe before -the day's done!... Is that it?" - -"I don't know how it may work out.... I hadn't gotten that far yet.... -But if Joe is headed toward his secret, and if he does have a provision -cache somewhere in the mountains ... a few items in tinned goods and, -maybe, even coffee and sugar and canned milk...." - -"Let's go!" broke in Deveril, half in laughter and half in eagerness. -"You make my mouth water with your surmisings." - -Here in these steep-walled narrow gorges the shadows lengthened -swiftly after the sun had passed the zenith, and already, when now and -then they looked searchingly at what lay ahead, it was difficult to -distinguish the shadows from the substance. They must come close to Joe -if they meant to see him, and, by the same token, if a man followed -them, he was confronted by the same difficulty. So they hurried on, -walking more freely, keeping in the trail, climbing at times along the -ridge flank, frequently dipping down into the lower caņon. Babe Deveril -cut himself a green cudgel from a scrub-oak, trimming off the twigs as -he walked on. If it came to argument with Mexicali Joe, a club like -that might bring persuasion. And he fully meant that the Mexican should -show himself generous, even to the division of a last crust. Always -buoyed up by optimism, he was counting strongly on Joe's provision -cache. - -When they dropped down into the caņon again, they saw the first star. -Lynette looked up at it; it trembled in its field of deep blue. She -was faint, almost dizzy; her muscles ached; fatigue bore hard upon -her spirit; she was footsore. But, most of all, like Deveril before -her, she was concerned with imaginings of supper. She pictured bacon -and a tin of tomatoes and shoe-string potatoes sizzling in the bacon -grease ... and coffee. Whether with milk or sugar, or without both, no -longer mattered. Then she sighed wearily, and had no other physical -nor mental occupation than that which had to do with the putting of -one foot before the other, plodding on and on and on. And all the -while the shadows deepened and thickened in the caņons, and the stars -multiplied, and the little evening breeze sharpened; she began to -shiver. - -She could mark no trail underfoot; always Deveril, before her, was -breaking through a tangle, always at his heels, she kept his form in -sight; but she began to think that he had lost the way, and a new fear -gripped her. Instead of dining with Joe, they were losing him, and now, -with the utter dark already on the way, they would see no sign of him. -And in the dark they would not be able to snare a trout or anything -else that might be eaten. She got into the habit of breaking off twigs -and chewing at them.... - -And all the while Deveril was rushing on, faster and faster. It was -hard work keeping up with him. - -"We've got him! Stay with it, Lynette; we've got him!" - -It was Deveril's whisper, sharp and eager; there was Deveril himself -just ahead of her, pausing briefly. - -"Come on. As fast and as quiet as you can." - -Her heart leaped up; her life fires burned bright and warm again; the -pain went out of her. She began to run.... - -"Sh! Look! Off to the left in that little clearing." - -On the mountain slope just ahead of them she marked the clearing and, -since there, too, the shadows were darkening, she saw nothing else. She -wondered what he saw or thought that he saw. He pointed, and she, with -straining eyes, made out a shadow which moved; Joe, going up a steep, -open trail. And just ahead of Joe a dark, square-cornered blot.... - -"A house ... a cabin...." - -"A dirty dugout, most likely, and from the look of it. But, as sure -as you're born, there's Mexicali Joe's mountain headquarters. A clump -of bushes, willows, you can be sure, not ten feet from his door; -that will be his spring. And inside his shack ... a box of grub, Lady -Lynette! And if Joe doesn't have company for dinner, I'll eat your hat." - -"I haven't any," said Lynette. "But we'd probably have to eat our own -shoes. Come on; let's hurry.... What are you waiting for?" - -"I want to whet my appetite by loitering a while.... Listen, Lynette; -after all, there's no great hurry any longer. First thing, a hot supper -is what is needed, and Joe can make as good a fire as we can. You can -gamble that he won't waste any time, and that he'll cook a panful!" - -"He might have only one panful ... and he might start in on it cold...." - -"And if he has only that limited amount and it belongs to him and he -wants it, you don't mean to say that you would seek to take it away -from him? That's robbery...." - -"We'll play square with him, Babe Deveril, and give him exactly -one-third. And man may call it robbery, but God and nature won't. -Come...." - -"I'll come with you a few steps farther. And then we will possess our -souls in patience and will sit down among the bushes and will wait -until we smell coffee. And I'll tell you why." - -She looked at him, wondering. And then suddenly she guessed somewhat of -his thought, though not all of it. She had forgotten her own certainty -that some one followed them; it surged back upon her now. - -"Yes," he said, when she had spoken, "you're on the right track. We are -going to wait a few minutes to make sure. If some one was following -and wanted you and me, he could have had no object in hanging back, -spying on us. But if that same gent were following Mexicali Joe, he -would want to hang back, trusting to Joe to lead him to something worth -coming at. So, out of your _feeling_ I've built my theory: That this -gent thinks all the time he's trailing Joe, and doesn't know we are -here at all; tracks in the rocky trail wouldn't show him whether one or -a dozen had gone over it. And I get to this point: How did this gent -pick up Joe's trail in the dark? And I answer it by saying that he -could have known that Joe had a dugout up here, and so lay in wait for -him. And, that being true, by now he would be sure that Joe was going -straight to his camp, and so, at almost any moment, he would give up -his sneak-thief style of travelling and would come hurrying along. And, -if that's right, you and I can get a glimpse of this new hombre before -he does of us. It may come in handy, you know," he concluded dryly, -"to get the first swing at him if he's an ugly gent with a rifle. At -short range, and in the dark, and stepping lively, this club of mine is -way up. And, if we can take his rifle from him ... why, then into the -wilderness we go, without fear of starving. Which is a long speech for -the end of a perfect day, but I'm right!" - -So insistent was he and so utterly weary she, they drew a few lagging -steps out of the trail, and sank down in the shadows. She lay flat; -she saw the stars swimming in the deepening purple; her eyes closed; -she felt two big tears of exhaustion slip out between the closed lids. -There was a faint drumming in her ears; she no longer cared for food. - -... "Get up!" Deveril was saying curtly. "I guess we're both wrong. And -I'm going to eat, if the devil drops in to join us." - -She didn't think she had been asleep. Nor yet that she had fallen prey -to swift, all-engulfing unconsciousness. Only that she had been in a -mood of utter indifference to all earthly matters. She tried, when he -commanded the second time, to rise. He helped her. She sat up.... She -saw a little sprinkling of sparks tossed upward from Joe's chimney; -stars at first she thought them--stars wavering and blurred and -uncertain. - -"We've waited long enough," said Deveril. - -She rose wearily, making no answer. He went ahead, she followed. Her -whole body cried out for rest; this brief, altogether too brief, -lingering had stiffened her and made her sore from head to foot. She -saw that Deveril was going up the steep trail slowly; he still strove -for caution, no doubt planning to burst in unexpectedly upon Mexicali -Joe. For Joe might have a gun there in his dugout; and he might have no -great stock of provisions and be of no mind to share with others. So -she, too, strove for silence.... A strangely familiar odor was afloat -on the night air ... coffee! Joe's coffee was boiling. - -And then, at that moment of moments, jarring upon their nerves as a -sudden pistol-shot might have done, there came up to them from the -caņon they had just quitted the sharp sound made by a man breaking in -the dark through brush. And, with that sound, another; a man's voice, -a voice which both knew and yet on the instant were unable to place, -crying sharply, unguardedly: - -"Come ahead, boys. There's his dugout and we got him dead to rights!" - -"Down!" whispered Deveril. "Down! There's three or four of them...." - -She dropped in her tracks, he at her side. They were in the little -clearing; if they went back it would be to run into the arms of the -men down there; if they went ahead it was to go straight on to Joe's -dugout. If they sought to turn to right or left, they must go through -the longest arms of the clearing, and must certainly be seen. The only -shadows into which they might slip were cast by the clump of willows -grouped in a span of half a dozen yards, and not over as many steps, -from Joe's door.... - -"Into the willows!" whispered Deveril. "Quick! It's our only show." - -They crawled, wriggling forward, inching, but inching swiftly. Behind -them they heard voices, and a sudden running of heavy boots; before -them they heard a pot or pan dropped against Joe's stove, and then -Joe's excited muttering and the scuffle of Joe's boots. They scrambled -on; Deveril dragged himself, with a sudden heave, into the fringe of -the willow thicket; at his side, so close that elbow brushed elbow, -Lynette threw herself. They saw Joe come running out of his dugout; -they saw him pause a second; he could have seen them, surely, had he -looked down. But his eyes were for the caņon below, from which the -sudden voices had boomed up to him. And now came a voice again, that -first voice, shouting threateningly: - -"I got you covered, Joe! With my rifle. And I'll drop you dead if you -move! You know me, Joe ... me, Jim Taggart!" - -Still Joe hesitated ... and was lost. Up the steep slope came Jim -Taggart, and behind him Young Gallup; and after Gallup, Gallup's -man, Cliff Shipton. And every man of them carried a rifle, held in -readiness. Joe began to swear in Spanish, his voice shaken, quavering -with the fear upon him. - -Deveril put out his hand until it lay upon Lynette's arm; his fingers -gave her a quick, warning squeeze. Taggart and the others were coming -on swiftly; it was almost too much to hope that they could pass and not -see the two figures outstretched in the willows. Still, there was the -chance, slim chance as it was.... - -If only Joe, poor stupid fool, as Deveril savagely called him in his -heart, would make a bolt for it! Then there'd surely be such a drawing -of their eyes to him that they would not see a white elephant tethered -at the door! But Joe stood as if his feet had grown into the ground. -Save for his continued mutterings, as Joe poured forth his eloquent -Spanish curses, he would have appeared a man bereft of all volition. -And Taggart and Young Gallup and Shipton came on at a run. Deveril -clutched his club; he turned an inch or two to be ready. Lynette, lying -so close to him, felt his body stiffen and guessed his purpose, and -this time it was her hand closing tight upon his forearm, warning him -to hold to caution as long as there was hope. - -The three came steadily on, hastening all that they could up the steep -slope. A moment ago, when first Taggart called out, Joe might have -eluded them had he been lightning-swift and ready to take chances. But -now that he had hesitated, it was clear that his most shadowy hope of -escape was gone. He stood motionless, cursing them and his luck. - -Babe Deveril's fingers were tight, as tight as rage could weld them -about his oak stick. At that moment he could have welcomed the excuse -to leap out with the unexpectedness of a cataclysm and the rush of a -catapult, to heave his club upward and bring it down, full force, upon -Taggart's head. For now he had the added rancour in his heart that Jim -Taggart, with his following, had chosen this one moment to come up with -them, just as Babe Deveril was counting in full confidence upon the -first square meal in twenty-four hours. Taggart, less than threatening -his safety, was stealing the supper which he had counted on having from -Mexicali Joe. - -Jim Taggart began to laugh, more in malice than in mirth, and, most of -all, in an evil, gloating triumph. He came on, hurrying; he almost trod -on Lynette's boot. Instinctively she jerked away from him; yet only -because Taggart was so gloatingly bent upon his quarry he did not note -her movement, or must have supposed that he had set a stone rolling. - -"Ho!" cried Taggart. "Joe's a good kid after all, boys! He's waited for -us, and he's got us a piping-hot supper! Wonder how he guessed we were -starved like wildcats?" - -"Damn him!" Lynette heard Deveril, and her fingers gripped him with a -new agony of warning and supplication for silence. - -"What's that?" demanded Taggart, thinking that Gallup or Shipton had -spoken. - -"You robbers!" cried Joe nervously. "Already you tryin' rob me, las' -night. Now you tryin' rob me! I tell you...." - -"Shut up!" snapped Taggart. "Back into your dirty den and we'll have a -nice little talk with you." - -"I tell you...." - -Taggart was close upon him now and caught him by the shoulder, flinging -him about, shoving him through the squat door of his dugout. Slight -enough was the diversion, but both Lynette and Deveril were thankful -for it, for the two figures drew the eyes of both Gallup and Shipton -and held them. Joe reeled across the threshold; Taggart, not knowing -what weapon Joe might have lying on his bunk, sprang nimbly after him. -And Gallup and Shipton, to see everything, drew on close behind him. -They passed the willows about the spring and, stooping, went in at -Joe's door. - -Lynette and Deveril lay very still, hesitating to move hand or foot. -For both Gallup and Shipton stood on Joe's threshold, and that -threshold was a few steps only from their hiding-place. The snapping of -a twig, the crackling of a handful of dead leaves must certainly bring -swift, searching eyes upon them. - - - - -CHAPTER IX - - -"The first half chance we get," whispered Deveril, guardedly, "we've -got to sneak out of this! Lie still; I can see them without moving. -That man with the hawk face is turned this way." - -He could see neither Joe nor Taggart in the dugout. Gallup he could -see, barely across the threshold now, watching Taggart and the Mexican. -The man Shipton, evidently fagged from a hard day of it, had slumped -down on the log that served as door-step, and faced outward, save when -now and then he half turned to glance curiously at the sheriff and his -captive. - -"So we nabbed you, eh, Mexico?" gibed Taggart. "You damn little tricky -shrimp! To think you could put one across on me!" - -"Gatham you!" shrilled Joe. "You big t'ief, you try one time an' you -see! I ain't do nothin' to you; I got the right...." - -"Oh, shut up!" muttered Taggart impatiently. "Dry your palaver for -once. I'll give you chance enough to spill over when I get good and -ready." Outside Lynette and Deveril heard a sound which, in their -hunger, they were quick to read aright; Taggart, also hungry, had -stepped to the stove and had dragged a heavy iron frying-pan to him, -investigating its content. "Phew!" growled Taggart. "You infernal -garlic hound! Well, the jerked meat ought to go all right. And coffee, -huh? Come on, boys; we'll feed up, and then we'll tell Joe what's in -the wind." - -"I ain't got much grub," Joe shouted back at him. "An' I need it -mysel'. You go...." - -There was the sound of a blow and of scuffling feet, the thudding of a -body against the wall. - -"Take that," Taggart told him viciously. And, his ugly voice thick with -threat: "And thank your Dago saints I only used my fist! Next time, so -help me, I'll bash you with a rifle barrel. Say, Cliff...." - -"Say it," drawled Cliff. - -"Scare up some dry wood; the fire's near out. And, Joe, you dig up a -candle or lamp or something. I'd like a little light in this stinking -hole." - -Joe, though with infuriated mutterings, did as bid. Slowly the gaunt -form of Cliff Shipton rose from the rough-hewn log. - -"God, I'm tired," he said. And then, when no one thought to sympathize, -he demanded querulously: "Say, Mex, where's your wood-pile?" - -Gallup laughed at him. - -"Imagine the lazy hound having a wood-pile! Skirmish around, Cliff, and -pick up some dead sticks." - -Joe had found a stub of candle, and now its pale light vaguely -illuminated the dugout's interior. Since there was but the one opening, -the squat door, Deveril still saw only Gallup. Gallup by now was -sitting upon the narrow bunk at the back of the room, his rifle between -his knees, the shadow of his hat hiding his face. Shipton set his own -rifle down against the outside wall and began groping with his feet for -bits of wood. - -"It's getting awful dark for this kind of thing," he was telling -himself in his eternally complaining voice. "Ain't he got a box or a -chair or a table or something in there that'll burn?" he called. - -No one paid any attention to him and Shipton, scuffling gropingly with -his feet, widened his search. And now Lynette and Deveril scarcely -breathed. For it seemed inevitable that he was coming straight toward -the brushy-fringed spring where they lay. Deveril was now on his left -elbow, his body raised slightly, his legs drawn up under him, so -that he could readily fling himself to his feet, his oak club in his -right hand. Lynette understood and was ready, too; if Shipton came -dangerously near, she knew that it was Deveril's intent to drop him in -his tracks. Then there would remain but the one thing to do; to leap up -and run for it, run blindly, plunging into the nearest shadows, to run -on and on while men shot after them. - -Shipton came nearer. She felt Babe Deveril stir, ever so slightly. Her -only concern now was: Would he strike just at the very second that he -should? Would he strike a second too early, before it was necessary, -and thus needlessly give himself away? Would he strike just a second -too late, giving Shipton first the time to see and cry out? - -"God, I'm stiff and sore," Shipton was muttering. - -His foot struck something, and he reached down, thinking it was a bit -of wood. But it was a stone, dirt-covered, and he kicked at it and came -on. Now he was not two steps away. Again he stooped; as he stooped, -Babe Deveril raised himself an inch or two higher. But now Shipton -found a fragment of a pine log, half rotted and of little use as fuel. -But in his present mood it served him; he picked it up and turned back -to the dug-out. Lynette heard Deveril's slowly expelled breath. - -Within there was a scraping of frying-pan on stove top. They saw a tin -plate handed to Gallup on his bunk; Gallup began eating, noisy about -it; eating like a dog. Shipton went in with his log. Taggart caught -it from him, broke it up by striking it against the hard-packed dirt -floor, and began stoking the stove. A fresh gush of sparks shot up from -Joe's chimney. Shipton was demanding to be fed ... and for God's sake -give him a shot of coffee. - -"Now's our chance," whispered Deveril. "None too good, but the best -we're going to have! Ready?" - -And her whisper came back to him, "Always ready!" - -"Now," he whispered. "Off to the right; slow and quiet; if once we can -snake across this open place and into the timber over there...." - -"And now, Seņor Joe," came Taggart's voice, and they knew from the -sound that Taggart, mouth full, was eating ravenously, "we got you!" - -"Sure you got me," Joe rasped out at him, and still there remained -defiance in little Mexicali Joe. "Fine! But what you do with me? You -can't eat me, an' nobody ever yet put any bounty on my hide, an' when -you got me ... you no got nothin'. An', _cabrone_, what I got I keep -him!" - -Taggart laughed at him in Taggart's ugly style. - -"Talk big, little hombre, while you can! And now let me tell you -something: To-night, right now, inside ten minutes, you're going to -tell me just exactly where you got that stuff you spilled out of your -pocket last night. And in the morning, bright and early, you're going -to take me there!" - -"I die firs'!" - -"You'll be a long time dying! Think I'm fool enough to kill you ... -now? Know what the third degree is, Joe?" Taggart's voice was terrible -with its insinuation. "Me, when I give the third degree to any man, he -spills his guts before I'm done with him! You'll cough up everything -you know and be damn glad afterward to crawl off in the woods and die! -That's me, Joe." - -Gallup, who must have found amusement in watching Mexicali Joe's -expression, laughed. After him Cliff Shipton laughed like an echo. Joe -began cursing nervously. - -"Ready?" whispered Lynette. Taggart's threats horrified her and set her -trembling. - -"No!... Don't you see? Taggart will make him tell everything he knows, -if he has to knock his teeth out one by one and break every bone in his -body! And I'm going to hear!... You crawl ahead while there's a chance; -I can up and run for it after you if I have to." - -She was silent. There was excitement in his utterance and another -quality which sent a sudden chill to her heart. She stared at him -through the dark as at a stranger; the gold fever was rampant in his -veins, and she knew that he would lie here, never lifting hand or -voice, while Taggart tortured his captive until Joe shrieked out his -golden secret. - -Before Lynette could speak or move, Taggart's voice once more cut -harshly through the silence. - -"You wouldn't know, Joe, unless you'd been sheriff as long as me, how -many nice little ways there are of making a man hurry up about spitting -up all he knows!" Taggart was steadily cramming into his mouth the -half-cooked dried beef stew, appearing to have entirely forgotten -his dislike for garlic. "Me, I'm a man of brains and what you call -invention; I look around and see what I've got handy, and out of it I -make what I need! Now, look here. You see us boys eating hearty, and, -if I know what that look means in a man's eye, you got an appetite -yourself? Well, you don't get a scrap to eat nor a drink to drink until -you open up." - -Joe sought to laugh at him. Taggart, still stuffing, went on steadily: - -"Next, you see the stove with its hot lids? All right, pretty quick we -hold you so the palms of your hands stick to the hot lids and the skin -burns off. Oh, I know that don't hurt so much a man can't stand it; -sure not. But it does sort to set him to thinking things over in a new -fashion! And then, what next?" - -"Make him eat salt," put in Shipton with a snicker. "And don't give him -any water! Lots of salt does the trick, Jimmie." - -Taggart, a man of no subtlety, snorted at him. - -"Maybe you can tell gold when you see it, Cliff," he said briefly. "But -that's all you do know.... Listen to me, Mexico. We got our rifles, -ain't we? We stand you with your back to the wall and dare you to move! -Then we practise shooting; just to see how close we can come! We don't -hit you, us three being good shots. Anyway, we don't hit you often, and -then it's only grazes! We make a game out of it; every man takes a shot -and him that comes closest gets a dollar every time; him that draws -blood puts up two dollars in the pot. And, pretty soon.... What are you -looking so sick for, Joe? Nobody ain't hurt you yet!" - -Joe's curses were suddenly faint, for Joe's mouth and throat were dry -and he had grown limp and dizzy and sick. - -"You see, I got you, Joe. Got you dead to rights!" - -"The brute!" whispered Lynette, her own flesh set twitching. "The -horrible brute!" - -"Sh! Just listen!" - -"I don't believe he'd actually do that! He is just frightening -Joe--bluffing...." - -"You the sheriff!" cried Joe, desperate. "You the one bigges' robber in -all these mount'!" - -"Call me robber, will you, you skunk!" - -Again they heard the sound of the blow, struck fiercely by Jim Taggart, -who, as he let all men understand, was the last man to brook an insult. -And they heard Joe's slight body hurled back, so that he toppled and -fell. And, thereafter, Taggart's brutish laughter. To-night, Jim -Taggart, no matter how disgruntled he had been during so many hours, -was at last enjoying himself. For to-night he was secure in his -expectations. - -"You bleed awful easy, Joe," he jeered. "Ought to go get your teeth -straightened up, too! Cup of coffee? No? Then I'll take one; _gracias, -mi amigo!_" - -"I hope you burn in hell!" screamed Joe. - -"So?" And Taggart, swinging heavily, knocked him down again, and then -reached out for the can that held sugar and sweetened his coffee. -Shipton sniggered. - -"You're a corker, Jim!" he declared. - -"Me," acknowledged Taggart heavily, "I am what I am. But I never laid -down for a Mex breed yet, and I ain't going to." - -Joe lay where he had fallen. His body was pain-wracked, for when -Jim Taggart struck in wrath he struck mightily, being a mighty man -physically, and hard. Joe's swart skin had paled; his eyes started from -his head; he feared, and not without reason, that a third blow like -that would kill him. And he knew that Jim Taggart was no man to lie -awake because he had killed another man. - -"I got thirs'," said Joe thickly. He was sitting up, on the floor. -"Give me cup water!" - -"What did I tell you, Joe?" Taggart grinned at him. "I got you. Got you -right." - -"I burnin' up," said Joe weakly. "Maybe you killin' me. Give me drink -water." - -"I got you, Joe," said Taggart speculatively. No mockery now; just a -vast, deep satisfaction. "I half believe one good kick in the belly -would settle you and you'd tell all you know. I got a hunch...." - -"Go slow, Jim." This from the avaricious Young Gallup. "No sense -killing him, seeing you haven't found out a thing." - -"You're right, Gal. Well, give him a drink, then; half a cup of water -and let him think things over.... If he opens up then, O. K. If he -don't we'll find the way to open him up." - -"Let me go to the spring," said Joe. By now he was on his feet. "I was -jus' goin' for water when you come. The spring, she's right there. You -can see I don't run away...." - -"Go scoop him up a can of water, Cliff," said Taggart. "You sit tight, -Joe. You don't go out to-night unless we take you out to put you in a -hole!" - -"_Now!_" whispered Deveril sharply. "Now we've got to crawl for it!" - -But Cliff Shipton demurred, saying surlily: - -"I'm tired out, and I'm sore and stiff and stove-up. Let him go without -his water." - -"We were crazy for waiting so long!" complained Deveril. "Hurry!" - -In the dugout Gallup was saying slowly, after his ponderous fashion: - -"I'll go get him his water. After that, like you say, Jim, he'll -open up--wide! Or, if he don't, I'll break his jaw-bone with my boot -heel.... Where's a can?" - -Already Babe Deveril had wormed his way out of the willows and began -creeping about the edge of the tiny thicket that was farthest from -Joe's cabin. Lynette, feeling weak and sick, followed him like his own -shadow. Thus they skirted the brushy fringe of the spring. - -Then Gallup, carrying his can, came out. Deveril dropped flat and lay -motionless, his body hidden, at least to careless eyes, by the spring -willows. Lynette dropped flat just behind him. She knew that again -Deveril was ready to leap and strike, mercilessly hard, if Gallup came -too near. It was almost an even chance whether Gallup would come their -way or not.... Lynette, cold and tired and hungry and at last afraid, -shivered. - -But, almost immediately, it became obvious to both of them that Gallup -had been here before and knew his way about. He turned, as they had -hoped that he would, to the right; they heard him reach the spring and -dip his pan and fill it and turn back to the dugout, slopping water -after him. They saw him step on the threshold; already Deveril was -crawling cautiously again, and, after him, Lynette. - -It was like life in a nightmare. So tortuously slow. So great a need -for quiet, and, like jeering, mocking voices, there came so many -little sounds, loud in their ears--twigs snapping, leaves rustling, -tiny stones set rolling. At first, what with the dark and her sole -thought to be gone, Lynette failed to understand just how Deveril -was directing his course. When she did grasp, she wondered at him. -Instead of hurrying straight across the clearing toward the haven of -the timber-line, he was drawing nearer and nearer the west end of the -dugout! Now she dared not whisper to him; she could not come up with -him to catch warningly at his boot. So she followed, striving with all -her caution to overtake him. And before she could do so, she glimpsed -his purpose. - -True to type, Joe's dugout had but the one door, and the rear of the -building was a sort of timbered hole in the mountainside. Deveril -planned that if he could gain the back of the dugout he could hear -what was going on and run little danger of being detected; further, -that in that direction, did he elect to up and run for cover, he and -Lynette would have as good a chance as any to get away in the rim of -the forest. If they moved with all possible silence, and especially if -Taggart and the others within kept up their noise-making, snapping -and snarling and knocking things about, it was more than an even -break that neither Taggart nor any of his companions would come to -suspect that they were being spied upon; and when did Babe Deveril -ever ask more than the even break? Then ... there remained one other -consideration, one of exceedingly great importance in Deveril's -estimation, of which as yet Lynette had no inkling: while in hiding -down by the spring Deveril had made a discovery, or believed that he -had, and no opportunity had been given him either to speak of it or yet -to investigate. - -Clearly now was the moment when Taggart and Gallup and the complaining -Cliff Shipton concentrated every thought upon their captive; Joe showed -signs of weakening, and every man of them held that if only Joe could -be led to "open up" they would all be made rich at his expense. - -Meanwhile Gallup had given Joe his water; Joe had drunk rapidly, -gulping noisily. Taggart and Gallup and Shipton were eying him eagerly. -Joe had taken a deep breath; again he started to drink. Taggart struck -the can away from his mouth, commanding: "No more. You've got to talk -first; fast and straight and no lies! Understand?" - -"How you goin' tell if I lie?" muttered Joe, something of his -stubbornness restored. - -"Right now you tell us where the gold is. In the morning you take us to -the place. And if you make a little mistake and don't take us straight, -I'll make you sorry you were ever born!" - -Deveril and Lynette passed within a few yards of the dugout's nearest -front corner; they groped onward up the steep slope; they came in a -brief détour to the rear, where the rude timbers supporting the shed -roof were at this end embedded in the earth. Here they stopped and -lay flat and listened. And they heard Joe mumbling: "If I tell, I tell -true. But I don't think I tell. You kick me out; you steal everything; -you get rich an' me--I die poor. Maybe better I die and fool you!" - -"Listen, Joe." Gallup speaking--Gallup, who feared that Joe might be -fool enough to die with locked lips rather than be robbed of his new -fortune; Gallup, a man who could understand another man doing anything, -standing any torture, rather than lose the one golden thing in life. -"We'll make you a fair proposition, us three men. You found the gold; -all right, you got a right to a share. You can't hog it anyhow; other -men will come rushing in as soon as you drop a pick in it; they'll -stake claims all around you; more'n likely they'll cop off the very -cream of it, and you'll have just a pocket that will peter out on you. -We brought Cliff along; he knows pockets and veins and all kind of gold -signs, from stock to barrel. Now, you show sense; you take us along; -we form a company, just us four. And you get one-fourth the rake-off. -And we got the money to develop it; to make a big thing out of it. You -ain't got the money and you ain't got the business brains, and you'd -lose on it sooner or later, anyhow." - -Silence. A long silence while three men watched him and while Deveril -and Lynette listened. A long silence during which all that strangely -blended craft which flowed into Mexicali Joe's veins from a mixture of -Latin and Indian ancestry was hard at work ... though this no one could -guess now, so immobile was Joe's face, so guarded his tone when he -spoke. - -"That sound fine, Gallup! But how I know you don't cheat me? For why -you don't hit me in the head with a pick when I tell? For why you don't -take all ... everything?" - -"I'm telling you why!" cried Gallup. "Look here. Suppose we did that -and croaked you and dug a hole and stuck you in. All right. Next thing -we pop up with a new gold-mine! And there'll be men to say: 'That ore -looks like the ore Mexicali Joe showed that night down to Gallup's -house!' And they'll say: 'Where's Joe?' And they'll begin making -trouble, all kinds; they'll want to run us out. They'll have us up -for killing you. There'll be a lot of talk, and always the chance, as -long's we live, they might pin something on us. And what would we make -by that sort of work? _Only a one-quarter interest in your diggings!_ -Why, man, it ain't worth it! We got too much sense to kill any man for -the sake of a little ante like that. Sure, Joe; dead on the level, if -you play square with us, we play square with you." - -Silence again. A longer silence than before. Then, while Joe must have -appeared to hesitate, Taggart said abruptly: - -"And if you don't take our proposition and talk fast and straight, I'm -going to _make_ you talk! And then you don't get no thanks but a kick -and a get-the-hell-out! That's my way, you little greaser." - -"Give him time, Jim," pleaded Gallup. - -"All right!" cried Joe, seeming eager now. "I take the chance! You boys -just tell me 'So help me God, I play square!' and I take the chance!" - -"So help me God!" cried Young Gallup, first of all. "I play square with -you, Joe!" - -And after him, while Joe waited, both Taggart and Cliff Shipton said, -with a semblance of deep gravity: "So help me God." - -"We pardners now? Us four?" demanded Joe. And when he had had his three -immediate, emphatic assurances--Deveril misjudged him a fool--Joe -began, speaking rapidly: "_Bueno!_ Now we talk. An' in the mornin' we -start an' to-morrow I show you! I got the bigges' mine you can't beat -in all New Mexico an' Arizona an' Nevada, too! For why I care take on -three pardners? I tell you, we got the money to devil-him-up, we all -rich like hell!..." - -"Get going, Joe," growled Taggart. "Where? Down Light Ladies' Caņon, -and not more'n three or four miles from Big Pine?" - -Joe cackled his derision at Taggart's guess. - -"Me, I fool ever'body!" he said gleefully. "Me, I'm damn smart man, -Seņor Taggart! Nowhere near Light Ladies'. The other way. We go all day -to-morrow, way back up in the mountains. One long, hard day, walkin'. -Maybe day an' a half. You know where Buck Valley? All right; you know, -on other side, Big Bear Creek? An' then you know, little bit more far, -two-t'ree mile, Grub Stake Caņon? You know...." - -"By the living Lord," broke in Taggart. "That's right square in Bruce -Standing's country!" - -Again Joe cackled. - -"You know whole lot; you don't know ever'thing! Timber-Wolf's lands run -like this." (One could imagine a grimy forefinger set in a dirty palm.) -"His line, here. My mine, she's just the other side. Nobody's land; -gover'ment land." He chuckled. "An' ol' big Timber-Wolf, he goin' cry -... _boo-hoo-hoo!_ ... when he find out we got gold not mile an' half -from his line!" - - -Deveril was twitching at Lynette's sleeve. He began edging away. When -she came up with him he was standing; she rose and, together they -hurried across the clearing, and in a few moments were in the deep dark -of the embracing forest land. - -"I know that country like a map!" he told her excitedly. "We were -already headed that way, and on we go! Why, it was right up by Big -Bear Creek that I spent a night with Bruce Standing six years ago -and he robbed me of my roll!... They start in the morning; we start -to-night! We'll be there when they come; there are ten thousand places -to hide out; we'll have a place on a ridge where we can watch them. And -they'll never have the vaguest idea that any one, you and I least of -all, is ahead of them. Somehow, Lynette Brooke, our luck is with us and -this whole game is going to play into our hands." - -"If a little food would only play into them!... The smell of that -coffee ... the meat cooking...." - -"Wait! Right here, by this tree. Don't move a step, no matter what -happens. I'll be back with you in two shakes." - -She was almost too tired and faint from hunger to wonder at him. She -saw him go, and then she sank down, her back to the big yellow pine. -He went as straight as a string toward the spring; she saw him walking -swiftly, though with footfalls so guarded that she could not hear him -when he had gone ten steps. She knew that he was recklessly counting -upon a deal of quick chatter in the dugout, secure in his own bravado -that no man of the four there would at this electrically charged moment -have thought of anything but gold. He disappeared in the dark; he was -gone so long that she jumped up and stood staring in all directions; -but at last he was back at her side, chuckling, and then she knew he -had not been away ten minutes. - -"I struck it with my elbow, while we were hiding down there," he told -her triumphantly. "Mexicali Joe's real cache!" - -He had a square tin biscuit-box in his hands. She put her hand in -quickly. The box, which had been half buried in the cool earth by the -spring, was half full of tins and small packages. - -Fatigue fled out of them. Hurriedly they went up over the ridge, deeper -and deeper into the forest land. And when, in half an hour, they came -down into the dark, tree-walled bed of another ravine, they made them -their small fire and tumbled out into its light their newly acquired -treasure-trove--sardines, beans, tinned milk ... yes, coffee! - - - - -CHAPTER X - - -"So the sheriff, Jim Taggart, is not dead, after all. And you...." - -Deveril looked across their tiny fire at her, a strange expression in -his eyes, and said quietly: - -"No; he is not dead. All along I judged that unlikely. Though I slung -your gun at him hard enough, if it hit a lucky spot. It's hard to kill -a man, you know.... And, to finish your thought, I am not running wild -with a hangman's noose hanging about my neck! And you...." - -He took a certain devilish glee in concluding with an echo of her own -words. And with the added insinuation poured into them from his own. He -saw her jerk her head up defiantly. - -"I told you...." - -Again she broke off. He made no remark, but sat looking at her -intently. They had eaten and drunk their fill; there remained to them a -goodly stock of provisions; Deveril was smoking his cigarette. - -"What now?" demanded Lynette, as one tired of a subject and impatient -to look forward. - -He shrugged. - -"All troubles have slipped off my shoulders. The worst they could -do to me, if they could lay me by the heels, would be to charge me -with assault and battery! And we're in a neck of the woods where men -laugh at a charge like that, and ask the assaulted one why the devil -he didn't hit back! What now? For you I'd advise keeping right on -travelling. For if Bruce Standing is dead it's up to you to keep -on the move! As for me, I never met up with a sweeter travelling -companion, nor yet with a nervier, nor yet, by God, with a lovelier! -Say the word, Lynette Brooke, and we strike on together, over the ridge -and deeper into the wilderness, headed for the land beyond Buck Valley, -beyond Big Bear Creek. For the wild lands beyond the last holdings -of the late Timber-Wolf, to be on the ground when Mexicali Joe leads -Taggart and Gallup and Shipton to his gold!" - -She understood how Babe Deveril, as any man should be, was relieved -at knowing that the man he had stricken down was not dead; that -he, himself, was not hunted as a murderer. And yet she was vaguely -distressed and uneasy. She felt a change in him, and in his attitude -toward her.... When he awaited her reply, she made none. Again fatigue -swept over her, and with it a new stirring of uneasiness.... - -There was a drop of coffee left; she leaned forward and took it, -thinking: "He had his tobacco, and it has bolstered up his nerves." She -drank and then sat back, leaning against a tree, her face hidden from -him, while she searched his face in the dim light, searched it with a -stubborn desire to read the most hidden thought in his brain. - -"I am tired," she said after a long while. He could make nothing of her -voice, low and impersonal, and with no inflection to give it expression -beyond the brief meanings of the words themselves. "Very tired. Yet -necessity drives. And it is not safe here, so near them. I can go on -for another hour, perhaps two or three hours. That will mean ... how -far? Four or five miles; maybe six, seven?" - -Not only for one hour, not alone for just two or three hours did they -push on. But for half of that silent, starry night. A score of times -Babe Deveril said to her: "We've done our stunt; if any girl on earth -ever earned rest, you've done it." But always there was that driving -force and that allure, and another ridge just ahead, and her answer: -"Another mile.... I can do it." - -Deveril, with a lighted match cupped in his hand, looked at his watch. - -"It's long after midnight; nearly one o'clock." - -They found a sheltered spot among the tall pines; above them the -keen edge of an up-thrust ridge; just below a thick-grown clump of -underbrush; underfoot dry needles, fallen and drifted from the pines. -Again he was all courtesy and kindliness toward her, seeing her hard -pressed, judging her, despite her mask of hardihood, near collapse. So -he cut pine boughs with his knife and broke them with his hands, and of -them piled her a couch. She thanked him gently; impulsively she gave -him her hand ... though, as his caught it eagerly, she jerked it away -quickly.... He watched her lie down, snuggling her cheek against the -curve of her arm. Near by he lay down on his back, his two hands under -his head, his eyes on the stars. A curious smile twitched at his lips. - -And then, just as they were dropping off to sleep, they heard far off -a long-drawn, howling cry piercing through the great hush. Lynette -started up, her blood quickening; as she had heard Bruce Standing's -warning call that first time, so now did she think to hear it again. -Deveril leaped to his feet, no less startled. A moment later he called -softly to her, and it seemed to Lynette that he forced a tone of -lightness which did not ring true: - -"A timber wolf ... but one that runs on four legs! It won't come near." -Then, as she made no answer and he could not see her face, he asked -sharply: "What did you think it was?" - -She shivered and lay back. - -"I didn't know." - -And to herself she whispered: - -"And I don't know now!" - -Here among the uplands it was a night of piercing cold. The nearer the -dawn drew on, the icier grew the fingers of the wind which swept the -ridges and probed into the caņons. For a little while both Lynette -and Deveril slept the heavy sleep of exhaustion. But, after the first -couple of hours, neither slept beyond brief, uncomfortable dozes. They -shivered and woke and stirred; they found a growing torture in the rude -couches they slept upon, in the hard ground and stones, which seemed -always thrusting up in new places. Long before the night had begun to -thin to the first of daybreak's hint, Lynette was sitting, her back to -a tree, torn between the two impossibilities, that of remaining awake, -that of remaining asleep. Deveril got up and began stamping about, -trying to get warm and drive the cramp and soreness out of his muscles. - -"A few more days and nights like this," he grumbled, "would be enough -to kill a pair of Esquimos! We've got to find us some sort of half-way -decent shelter for another night, and we've got to arrange to take a -holiday and rest up." - -It was all that she could do to keep her teeth from chattering by -shutting them hard together; her only answer was a shivery sigh. She -could scarcely make him out, where he trod back and forth, the darkness -held so thick. She began to think so longingly of a fire that in -comparison with its cheer and warmth she felt that possible discovery -by Taggart would be a small misfortune. She could almost welcome being -put under arrest; taken back to Big Pine and jail; given a bed and -covers and one long sleep. - -"Awake?" queried Deveril. - -She nodded, as though he could see her nod through the dark. Then, with -an effort, she said an uncertain: "Y-e-s." - -"I'll tell you," he said presently, coming close to her and looking -down upon the blot in the darkness which her huddled figure made at -the base of the pine. "Taggart will be on his way soon; he'll hardly -wait for day. He'll go the straightest, quickest way to the Big Bear -country. That means he'll steer on straight into Buck Valley. If you -and I went that way, we'd have him and his crowd at our heels all day, -and never know how close they were; and I, for one, am damned sick of -that _feeling_ that somebody's creeping up on us all the time! So we -swerve out from the direct way as soon as we start; we curve off to -the north for a couple of miles; then we make a bend around toward the -upper end of what I fancy must be the Grub Stake Caņon Joe is headed -for. That way we'll always have two or three miles between our trail -and theirs; at times we'll be five or six miles off to the side. That -means, of course, that they're pretty sure to get to Joe's diggings -ahead of us; not over half a day at that. For we're well ahead of them -now. And, in any case, you can bet the last sardine we've got that -they'll be a day or two just poking around, prospecting and trying to -make sure of what they've grabbed off.... Agreed, pardner?" - -"Yes. I could even start now, just to get those few miles between our -trail and theirs. Then, when the sun was up and it was warm, we could -have a rest and an hour's sleep." - -So, walking slowly, painfully, carrying what was left of their small -stock of provisions, they started on in the dark. Up a ridge they went -and into the thinning edge of the coming dawn; they picked their way -among trees and rocks; little by little they were able to see in more -detail what lay about them. Along the ridge they tramped northward. -They were warmer now that they walked; or, rather, they were some -degrees less cold. Gradually their paces grew swifter, as some of the -stiffness went out of their bodies; gradually the shadows thinned; the -stars paled, the east asserted itself above the other points of the -compass, softly tinted. The sleeping world began to awake all about -them; birds stirred with the first drowsy twitterings. The pallid -eastern tints grew brighter; as from a wine-cup, life was spilled again -upon the mountain tops. A bird began a clear-noted, joyous singing; -all of a sudden the morning breeze seemed sweeter and softer; there -came a brilliant, flaming glory in the sky which drew their eyes; all -life forces which had been at ebb began to flow strongly once more; -the sun thrust a gleaming golden edge up into the upper world, rolling -majestically from the under world. Deveril looked into her eyes and -laughed softly; her eyes smiled back into his.... She felt as though -she had had a bad dream, but was awake now; as though last night her -nerves had tricked her into wrongly judging her companion. Doubtings -always flock in the night; joy is never more joyous than when breaking -forth with the new day. - -"It isn't so bad, after all," said Deveril. "Now, if we only had a -pack-mule and a roll of blankets and a bit of canvas.... What more -would you ask, Lynette Brooke, for a lark and a holiday to remember -pleasantly when we grew to be doddering old folks?" - -"As long as you are wishing," returned Lynette lightly, "why not place -an order with the King of Ifs for a gun and some fishing-tackle and a -frying-pan and some more coffee? And a couple of hats; an outing suit -for me." She looked down at her suit; it was torn in numerous places; -it was gummed and sticky here and there with the resin from pines; it -caught upon every bush. "Then, you know, a needle and some thread; a -dozen fresh eggs, bread, and butter...." - -"Too much soft living has spoiled you!" he laughed. - -"If so, I am in ideal training to get unspoiled in short order!" she -laughed back. - -And for all of this was the rising sun and the new, bright day -responsible; for the ancient way of youth playing up to youth. - -What was happening within both of them was a great nervous relaxation. -They knew where Taggart and Gallup were, or at least were confident -that there was no immediate danger of Taggart and Gallup overhauling -them; they knew where Mexicali Joe was and where he was going. For the -moment they were freed from that crushing sense of uncertainty welded -to menace which had borne down upon them ever since they fled from Big -Pine. And consequently joy of life sprang up as a spring leaps the -instant that the weight is plucked from it. - -"It's our lucky day!" said Deveril. - -For the sun was scarcely up when a plump young rabbit hopped square -into their path, and Deveril, with a lucky throw, killed it with a -rock. And just as they were speaking of thirst, they came to a tiny -trickle of water among the rocks; and while Lynette was boiling coffee -over a tiny blaze, Deveril was preparing grilled cottontail for -breakfast. Savory odors floating out through the woodlands. Lynette was -singing softly: - - - "_Merry it is in the good Greenwood!_" - - -They ate and rested and the sun warmed them. For a full two hours they -scarcely stirred. Then they drank again; Lynette bathed her hands and -face and arms; she set her hair in order, refashioning the two thick -braids. She shut one eye and then the other, striving to make certain -that there was not a black smudge somewhere upon her nose. They were -starting on when Deveril said soberly: - -"Shall I save the rabbit skin?" - -"Why?" she asked innocently. - -A twinkle came into his eyes. - -"A few more days of this sort of life, and My Lady Linnet is going to -require a new gown! Perhaps rabbit furs, if hunting is good, will do -it!" - -She laughed at him, and her eyes were daring as she sang, improvising -as to melody: - - - "And for vest of pall, thy fingers small, - That wont on harp to stray, - A cloak must sheer from the slaughtered deer, - To keep the cold away!" - - -"_Lynette!_" - -A flash from her gay mood had set his eyes on fire. He sprang up and -came toward her, his two hands out. But as a black cloud can run over -the face of the young moon, so did a sudden change of mood wipe the -tempting look out of her eyes and darken them. Her spirit had peeped -forth at him, merry-making; as quick as bird-flight it was gone, and -she stepped back and looked at him steadily, cool now and aloof and -dampening to a man's ardent nonsense. - -"You have a way of saying something, Babe Deveril," she told him -coolly, "which appeals to me. In your own upstanding words: 'Let's go!'" - -He laughed back at her lightly, hiding under a light cloak his own -chagrin. At that moment he had wanted her in his arms; had wanted -that as he wanted neither Mexicali Joe's gold nor any other coldly -glittering thing. Now he felt himself growing angry with her.... - -"Right. You've said it. Let's go." - -He made short work of catching up the few articles they were to carry -with them and of stamping into dead coals the few remaining glowing -embers of their fire. Then, striding ahead, he led the way. And for a -matter of a mile or more she was hard beset to keep up with him. - - -The day was filled with happenings to divert their thoughts from any -one channel. They startled, in a tiny meadow, three deer, which shot -away through a tangle of brush, leaping, plunging, shooting forward -and down a slope like great, gleaming, graceful arrows. "A man could -live like a king here, with a rifle," said Deveril longingly. They -saw a tall, thin wisp of smoke an hour before noon; it stood against -the sky to the southwest of them, at a distance of perhaps two miles. -"Taggart's noonday camp," they decided, deciding further that Taggart -must have insisted on an early start, and therefore had found his -stomach demanding lunch well before midday. Later, some two or three -hours after twelve, they heard the long, reverberating crack and rumble -and echo of a rifle-shot. "Taggart's crowd, killing a deer or bear or -rabbit," they imagined. And all along they were contented, making what -time they could through the open spaces, over the ridges, down through -tiny green valleys and up long, dreary slopes, resting frequently, -never hastening beyond their powers, secure in knowing that the Taggart -trail and the Lynette-Deveril trail, though paralleling, would have no -common point of contact before both trails ran into the country in the -vicinity of the Big Bear Creek, the rim of the Timber-Wolf country. - -"The whole thing," exulted Babe Deveril, "lies in the fact that we -know where they are and they haven't the least idea where we are! We -know where they are going, and they haven't a guess which way we are -steering...." - -"Do you know," said Lynette thoughtfully, "I don't believe that -Mexicali Joe intends for a minute to lead them to his gold!" - -Deveril looked at her in astonishment. - -"You don't! Why, couldn't you see that Taggart put the fear of the Lord -into him? That Gallup, slick as wet soap, tricked him? That...." - -She broke in impatiently, saying: - -"Yet Joe.... He seemed to me to give in to them in something too much -of a hurry ... as though he had his own wits about him, his own last -card in the hole, as dad used to say. I wonder...." - -He stared at her, puzzled. - -"When you _feel_ things," he muttered, none too pleasantly, "you get me -guessing. I don't know yet how you came to know that the Taggart bunch -was at our heels yesterday. But you did know; and you were right. As to -this other hunch of yours...." - -"You'll see," said Lynette serenely. "Joe isn't the biggest fool in -that crowd of four. You wait and see." - -"You'll give me the creeps yet," said Deveril. - -They both laughed and went on--through brushy tangles; over rocky -ridges; through spacious forests; across soft, springy meadows; up -slope, down slope; on and on and endlessly on. Once they frightened a -young bear that was tearing away as if its life depended upon it upon -an old stump; the bear snorted and went lumbering away, as Deveril -said, like a young freight-train gone mad; Lynette, as she admitted -afterward, was twice as frightened, but did not run, herself, because -the bear ran first and because she couldn't get the hang of her feet as -quickly as he could! They came upon several bands of mountain-quail, -which shot away, buzzing like overgrown bees; Deveril hurled stones -and curses at many a scampering rabbit; once she and once he caught a -glimpse of that dark gleam, come and gone in a flash, which might have -been coyote or timber-wolf.... They did not speak of Bruce Standing. -But they wondered, both of them.... - -Toward four o'clock in the afternoon they heard for the second time the -crack of a rifle-shot. Farther to the south of them this time; a hint -farther eastward; fainter than when first heard. Taggart, they held in -full confidence, was following the trail which they had mapped for him; -he was going on steadily; he was forging ahead of them. And yet they -were content that this was so. They rested more often; they relaxed -more and more. - -And before the brief reverberations of a distant rifle-shot had done -echoing through the gorges, they came to a full stop and determined to -make camp. Not for a second, all day long, had Deveril swerved from his -determination to "dig in in comfort for the night." They were, as both -were willing to admit, "done in." - -Deveril employed his pocket-knife, long ago dulled, and now whetted -after a fashion upon a rough stone, to whack off small pine and willow -and the more leafy of sage branches. He made of them a goodly heap. -Then he gathered dead limbs, fallen from the parent trees, making his -second pile. All the while Lynette kept a small dry-wood and pine-cone -fire going hotly; little smoke, little swirl of sparks to rise above -the grove in which they were encamping; plenty of heat for body warmth -and for cooking. She was preoccupied, moving about listlessly. So -this was Bruce Standing's country? She looked about her with an -ever-deepening interest; this was a fitting land for such a man. -Bigness and dominance and a certain vital freshness struck altogether -the key-note here--and suggested Timber-Wolf. If he were not dead after -all---- Well, then, he would be somewhere near now for like a wounded -animal, he would have returned to his solitudes. - -Deveril found near by a level space under the pines. Here he sought out -a scraggly tree which expressed an earth-loving soul in low-drooped -branches. Against a low arm which ran out horizontally from the trunk -he began placing his longer dead limbs, the butts in the ground, -sloping, the effect soon that of a tent. Against these a high-piled -wall of leafy branches. He stood back, judging from which direction -the wind would come. He piled more branches. Into his nostrils, filled -with the resinous incense of broken pine twigs, floated the tempting -aromas which spread out in all directions from Lynette's cooking. He -cocked his eye at the slanting sun; it was still early. He yielded to -the insistent invitation, and came down into the little cup of a meadow -to her, and she watched him coming: a picturesque figure in the forest -land, his black hair rumpled, his slender figure swinging on, his -sleeves rolled back, his eyes full of the flicker of his lively spirit. - -When Deveril was hard pressed along the trail, worn out and on the -alert for oncoming danger from any quarter, he was impersonal; a mere -ally on whom she could depend. At moments like this one, when he was -rested and relaxed, and grasped in his eager hands a bit of the swift -life flowing by, he became different. A man now--a young man--one with -quick lights in his eyes and a lilting eagerness in his voice. - -"It would be great sport," he said, "all life long ... to come home to -you and find you waiting ... with a smile and a wee cup o' tea! And...." - -He was half serious, half laughing; she made a hasty light rejoinder, -and invited him to a hot supper waiting him. - -They made a merry, frivolously light meal of it. There was plenty to -eat; water near by; there was coffee; above them the infinity of blue, -darkening skies, about them the peace and silence of the solitudes. And -within their souls security, if only for the swiftly passing moment. -They chose to be gay; they laughed often; Deveril asked her where -she had learned to quote Scott and she asked him, in obvious retort, -if he thought that she had never been to school! He sang for her, -low-voiced and musically, a Spanish love-song; she made high pretense -at missing the significance of the impassioned southern words. He, -having finished eating and having nearly finished his cigarette, lying -back upon the thick-padded pine-needles, jerked himself up, of a mood -for free translation; she, being quick of intuition, forestalled him, -crying out: "While I clean up our can dishes, if you will finish making -camp...." - -He laughed at her, but got up and went back, whistling his love-song -refrain to his house-building. She, busied over her own labors, found -time more than once to glance at him through the trees ... wondering -about him, trying to probe her own instinctive distrust of one who had -all along befriended her. - -When she joined him a few minutes later, coming up the slope slowly, -she looked tired, he thought, and listless. She sat down and watched -him finishing his labors; all of her spontaneous gaiety had fled; she -was silent and did not smile and appeared preoccupied. She sighed two -or three times, unconsciously, but her sighs did not escape him. Always -he had held her sex to be an utterly baffling, though none the less an -equally fascinating one. Now he would have given more than a little for -a clew to her thoughts ... or dreamings ... or vague preoccupation.... - -"My lady's bower!" he said lightly. "And what does my lady have to say -of it?" - -A truly bowery little shelter it was, on leaning poles in an inverted -V, with leafy boughs making thick walls, through which only slender -sun-rays slipped in a golden dust; within a high-heaped pile of -fragrant boughs, with a heap of smaller green twigs and resinous -pine-tips for her couch. - -"You are so good to me, Babe Deveril," was her grave answer. - -And not altogether did her answer please him, for a quick hint of frown -touched his eyes, though he banished it almost before she was sure of -it. Those words of hers, though they thanked him, most of all reminded -him of his goodness and gentleness with her, and thus went farther and -assured him that she still counted upon his goodness and gentleness. - -"I am afraid, Babe Deveril," she added quickly, though still her eyes -were grave and her lips unsmiling, "that I am pretty well tired out ... -all sort of let-down like, as an old miner I once knew used to say! -It's going to be sundown in a few minutes; can't we treat ourselves to -the luxury of a good blazing camp-fire, and sit by it, and get good and -warm and rested?" - -Had she spoken her true thought she would have cried out instead: - -"What troubles me, Babe Deveril, is that I am half afraid of you. -And, all of a sudden, of the wilderness. And of life and of all the -mysteries of the unknown! I am as near screaming from sheer nervousness -at this instant as I ever was in my life." - -But Deveril, who could glean of her emotions only what she allowed to -lie among her spoken words, cried heartily: - -"You just bet your sweet life we'll have a crackling, roaring fire. -Taggart and his crowd are half a dozen miles away right now and still -going; our fire down in that hollow will never cast a gleam over the -big ridge yonder and the other ridges which lie in between him and us. -Come ahead, my dear; here's for a real bonfire." - -That "my dear" escaped him; but she did not appear to have noted it. -She rose and followed him back to their dying fire. He began piling -on dead branches; they caught and crackled and shot showering sparks -aloft. He brought more fuel, laying it close by. Already the blaze had -driven her back; she sat down by a pine, her knees in her hands, her -head tipped forward so that her face was shadowed, her two curly braids -over her shoulders. - -Deveril lay near her, his hand palming his chin. - -"Tell me, pretty maiden," he said lightly, "how far to the nearest -barber shop?" - -"And tell me," she returned, looking at her fingers, "if in that same -shop they have a manicurist?" - -Having glanced at her hands, she sighed, and then began working with -her hair; there was one thing which must not be utterly neglected. She -knew that if once it became snarled, she had small hope of saving it; -no comb, no brush, no scissors to snip off a troublesome lock; only the -inevitable result of such an utter snarl that she, too, in a week of -this sort of thing, must needs seek a barber who understood bobbing a -maid's hair. And with hair such as Lynette's, glorious, bronzy, with -all the brighter glowing colors of the sunlight snared in it, any true -girl should shudder at the barber's scissors. - -All without warning a great booming voice crashed into their ears, -shattering the silence, as Bruce Standing bore down upon them from the -ridge, shouting: - -"So, now I've got you! Got both of you! Got you where I want you, by -the living God!" - - - - -CHAPTER XI - - -The one first thought, bursting into full form and expression in -Lynette's brain, with the suddenness, and the shock of an explosion, -was: "He is alive!" And in Babe Deveril's mind the thought: "Bruce -Standing at last!... And drunk with rage!" - -And Bruce Standing's one thought, as both understood somewhat as they -leaped to their feet: - -"Into my hands, of all my enemies are those two whom I hate most -delivered!" For it had been almost like a religion with him, his -certainty that he would come up with them--the girl who had laughed and -shot him; the man who had stolen her away, cheating his vengeance. - -Babe Deveril, on the alert in the first flash of comprehension, -stooped, groping among the shadows for his club, his only weapon. He -saw the sun glinting upon Bruce Standing's rifle barrel. That club of -his ... where was it? Dropped somewhere; perhaps while he was building -a leafy bower for a pretty lady; forgotten in a gush of other thoughts -... he couldn't find it. He stood straight again; his hands, clinched -and lifted, imitated clubs. The first weapons of the first men.... - -Lynette heard them shouting at each other, two men who hated each -other, two men seeing red as they looked through the spectacles which -always heady hatred wears. Men, both of them; masculinity asserting -itself triumphantly, belligerently; manhood rampant and, on the spur -of the moment, as warlike as two young bulls contending for a herd.... -She heard them cursing each other; heard such plain-spoken Anglo-Saxon -epithets hurled back and forth as at any other time would have set -her ears burning. Just now the epithets meant less than nothing to -her; they were but windy words, and a word was less, far less, than a -stout club in a man's hand or a stone to hurl. She was of a mind to -run while yet she could; but that was only the first natural reaction, -lost and forgotten instantly. She stood without moving, watching them. -An odd thing, she thought afterward, wondering, that that which at the -moment made the strongest, longest-lasting impression upon her was the -picture which Timber-Wolf, himself, created as, with the low sun at his -back, he came rushing down upon them. Just now the mountain slope had -constituted but a quiet landscape in softening tones, like a painting -in pastels, with only the sun dropping down into the pine fringe to -constitute a brighter focal point; and now, all of a sudden, it was as -though the master artist, with impulsive inspiration, had slung with -sweeping brush this new element into the picture--that of a great blond -giant of a man, young and vigorous, and at this critical hour consumed -with hatred and anger and triumphant glee. He was always one to punish -his own enemies, was Bruce Standing. And now one felt that he carried -vengeance in both big, hard, relentless hands. - -On he came, almost at a run, so eager was he. Came so close before -he stopped that Lynette saw the flash of his blue eyes--eyes which, -when she had seen them first in Big Pine had been laughing and -_innocent_--which now were the eyes of a blue-eyed devil. He was -laughing; it was a devil's laugh, she thought. For he jeered at her and -her companion. His mockery made her blood tingle; his eyes said evil -things of her. Her cheeks went hot-red under that one flashing look. - -But he was not just now concerned with her! He meant to ignore her -until he had given his mind to other matters! He was still shouting in -that wonderful, golden voice of his; to every name in a calendar not -of saints he laid his tongue as he read Babe Deveril's title clear for -him. And, name to name, Babe Deveril checked off with him, hurling back -anathema and epithet as good as came his way.... Lynette understood -that both men had forgotten her. To them, passion-gripped as they were, -it was as though she did not exist and had never existed. And yet it -was largely because of her that they were gathering themselves to fly -at each other! Man inconsistent and therefore man. Otherwise something -either higher or lower; either of a devil-order or a god-order. But -as it is ... better as it is ... something of god and devil and -altogether--man. - -And children of a sort, in their hearts. For, before a blow was struck, -they called names! So fast did the words fly, so hot and furious were -they, that she had the curious sense that their battle would end as it -began, in insults and mutterings. But when Timber-Wolf had shouted: -"Sneak and cur and coward ... a man to rifle another man's pockets, -after that other had played square and been generous with you...." And -when Deveril, his hands still lifted, while in his heart he could have -wept for a club lost, shouted back: "Cur and coward yourself ... with -a rifle against a man who has nothing ..." then she saw that the last -word had been spoken and that blows were inevitable. She drew back -swiftly, as any onlooker must give room to two big wild-wood beasts. - -"Coward? Bruce Standing a coward? Why, damn your dirty soul...." - -Bruce Standing caught his rifle by the end of the barrel; at first -Lynette, and Deveril also, thought that he meant to use it as a club. -But instead he flourished it about his head but the once, and hurled it -so far from him that it went, flashing in the sunlight, above a pine -top and fell far away somewhere down the slope. Never in all his life -had Bruce Standing had any man even think of naming him coward. As well -name sunlight darkness. For all men who knew Bruce Standing, and all -men who for the first and only time looked him square in the eyes, knew -of him that he was fearless. - -Thus with a gesture ... he abandoned wordy outpourings of wrath and -hurled himself into flesh-and-blood combat. He did not turn to right or -left for the dwindling camp-fire; he came straight through it, his two -long arms outstretched, seeking Deveril. And Babe Deveril, the moment -he saw how the rifle sped through the air and understood his kinsman's -challenge, leaped forward eagerly to the meeting with him. Their four -boots began scattering firebrands.... - -Lynette, with all her fast-beating heart, wanted to come to Babe -Deveril's aid. The one thing which mattered was that, at her hour of -need, he had stood up for her; her soul was tumultuously crying out -for the opportunity to demonstrate beyond lip-service the meaning of -gratitude. She caught up a stone, and throughout the fight held it -gripped so hard that before the end her fingers were bleeding. But -never an opportunity did she have to hurl it as long as those two -contended. - -Once it entered her thought that she must have dreamed of Bruce -Standing, shot and bleeding and senseless on the floor at the Gallup -House. For now, so few hours after, he gave no slightest hint of being -a man recently badly wounded. There was more of common sense in a -man's dying of such a wound as his than in his striking such great, -hammer-hard blows with both arms. He created within her from that -moment an odd sensation which grew with her later; the man was not of -the common mould. Something beyond and above mere flesh and blood and -the routine of human qualifications inspired him. There was something -_inevitable_ about Bruce Standing.... - -Babe Deveril fought like a young, lissome tiger.... He fought -with all of the might that lay within him, muscle and mind and -controlling spirit. When he struck a blow he put into it, with a -little coughing grunt, every last ounce of hostility which was at -his command; with every blow he longed to kill. And, as though the -two were blood-brothers, Bruce Standing fought as did Babe Deveril. -Straight, hard, merciless blow to answer blow as straight and hard and -merciless.... - -Timber-Wolf was a man to laugh at his own mine muckers when they could -not thrust a boulder aside, and to stoop and set his hands and arms -and back to the labor and pluck the thing up and hurl it above their -bewildered heads. He smote as though he carried a war-club in each -hand; he received a crashing blow full in the face, and, though the -blood came, he did not feel it; he struck back, and his great iron -fist beat through Deveril's guarding arms. No man, or at least no man -whom Bruce Standing in his wild life had ever met, could have stood up -against that blow. Babe Deveril, with the life almost jarred out of -his body, went down. And Bruce Standing, growling like an angry bear, -caught him up and lifted him high in air and flung him far away from -him, as lightly as though he flung but a fifty-pound weight. And where -Babe Deveril fell he lay still.... Lynette ran to him and knelt and put -her hands at his shoulders, thinking him dead. - -A short fight it had been, but already had the swift end come. So hard -had that blow been, so tremendous had been the crash against rock and -earth when the flung body struck, there appeared to be but a pale -flame of life, flickering wanly, in Deveril's body. Timber-Wolf came -and stood over him and over Lynette, gloating, mumbling; muttering -while his great chest heaved: "Little rat that he is! A man to take -advantage when he found me down; a man to cheat me of the she-cat that -shot me. I could crush him into the dirt with my boot heel...." - -"You great big brute!..." - -It was then that she sprang to her feet and, almost inarticulate with -her own warring emotions, grief and fear and anger and hatred, flung -the jagged stone full into his face. He was unprepared; the stone -struck him full upon the forehead; he staggered backward, stumbling, -almost falling; his hands flew to his face. He was near-stunned; -blinded. Deveril was on his elbow.... - -"Come!" she screamed wildly. "Quick! You and I...." - -"Treacherous devil-cat!" There was his thunderous voice shouting so -that she, so near him, was almost deafened. - -Bruce Standing, wiping the blood from his eyes, his two arms out before -him, came back to the attack. Deveril, on his knees, surged to his -feet; Standing struck and Deveril went down like a poorly balanced -timber falling. Lynette was groping for another stone. Suddenly she -felt upon her wrist a grip like a circlet of cutting steel. She was -whisked about; Timber-Wolf held her, drawn close, staring face into -face. His other hand was lifted slowly; suddenly she felt it caught in -her loose hair.... - -And then, inexplicable to her now and ever after, there was in her ear -the sound of Bruce Standing's laughter. The hand at her hair fell away. -It went up to his eyes, wiping them clear. And then she saw in the eyes -what she had read in the voice ... laughter. - -"Well, Deveril, what now?" - -Again Deveril was on his feet. He swayed; his face was dead-white; -it was easy to see how fiercely he bent every energy at his command -to remain upright. There was a queer look in the eyes he turned upon -Timber-Wolf. - -"I never saw a man ... like you." - -He spoke with effort; he was like a man far gone in some devastating -lung trouble; his voice was windy and vibrant and weak. - -"Baby Devil!" jeered Standing. "Oh, Baby Devil! And, when it comes to -dealing with a real man.... Why, then, less devil than baby! Ho!..." - -"I am going to kill you...." - -"God aids the righteous!" Standing told him sternly. "You go. To hell -with you and your kind." - -_God aids the righteous!_ This from the lips of Bruce Standing, -Timber-Wolf!... Lynette, her nerves like wires smitten in an electric -storm, could have burst into wild laughter.... She wrenched at her -wrist; Standing's big hand neither tightened nor relaxed, giving her -the feeling of despair which a thick steel chain would have given had -she been locked and deserted in a dungeon. - -Deveril was looking over his shoulder. In his glance ... the sun was -near setting among the pines, and they saw his face as his head jerked -about ... any one might read his thought: down there, somewhere among -the bushes, lay a rifle! - -Standing laughed at him. And Standing, dragging Lynette along with him -as easily as he might have drawn a child of six, went down the slope -first. And first he came to the fallen rifle and caught it up and -brought it back to the trampled camp-fire. - -"You're sneak enough for that, Baby Devil!" he taunted. "For that or -any other coward act. And so is this woman of yours. So I spike the -artillery. God! If the earth were only populated by men!... Now I've -got this word for your crafty ear: listen well." Instantly his voice -became as hard as flint and carried assurance that every word he was -going to say would be a word meant with all his heart and soul. And -all the while he gripped Lynette by the wrist and seemed unconscious -of that fact or that she struggled to be free. "I've given you a fair -fight, you who don't fight fair. And I've knocked the daylights out of -you. And now I'm sick of you. You can go. You can sneak off through the -timber and be out of sight inside of two minutes. Yet I'll give you -five. And at the end of that time, if you're in sight, I am going to -shoot you dead!" - -Deveril glared at him, his glance laid upon Standing's as one rapier -may clash across another. - -"Do your dirty killing and be damned to you!" said Deveril briefly. - -Timber-Wolf looked at him in surprise; he began to cast about him for -a fresh and clearer comprehension of a man whom he despised. He strove -with all his power of clean vision to see to the bottom of Deveril's -most hidden thought. - -"Now," said Standing slowly, "I am almost sorry for what I said. It -strikes into me, Kid, that you are not afraid!" - -Deveril, breathless, panting, holding himself erect only through a -great call upon his will, made no spoken answer, but again laid the -blade of his glance shiningly across that of Timber-Wolf. - -"You die just the same," said Standing coldly. "It's only because I -gave my word; that you can take in man-to-man style from me, Kid; for -once I am not ashamed to be related to you. Either you travel or, in -five minutes, you are a dead man." - -Slowly Deveril's haggard eyes roved to Lynette's face ... Lynette -chained to Bruce Standing in that crushing grip.... - -"I am going," he said. And both knew he said it in fearlessness but -also in understanding of the power which lay in a rifle bullet and the -weakness of the barricade offered to it by a human skull. And both -understood, further, that it was to Lynette that he spoke. "I am coming -back!" - -"For God's sake!" she screamed. "Go! Hurry!" - -"Hurry!" Bruce Standing, with his own word of honor in the balance -against the weight of the life of a man whom he began to respect, was -all anxiety to have his kinsman gone. - -Deveril's last word, with his last look, was for Lynette. - -"A man who doesn't know when he's beat is a fool.... But you can be -sure of this: I'll be back!" - -He went, walking crookedly at first among the knee-high bushes; then -growing straighter as he passed into the demesne of the tall, straight -pines. Not swiftly, since there was no possibility of any swift play of -muscles left within him; but steadily. - -"A man!" grunted Timber-Wolf. Whether in admiration or disgust, Lynette -could not guess from his tone. - -He had his watch in the palm of his hand; her gaze was riveted on it. -It seemed so tiny a thing in that great valley of his hand; a bauble. -Yet its even more insignificant minute-hand was assuming the office of -arbiter of human life; she knew that the moment the fifth minute was -ticked off Bruce Standing, true to his sworn word, would relinquish her -wrist just long enough to whip his rifle to his shoulder and fire ... -in case the uncertain form of Babe Deveril, going up over the ridge, -were still in sight. And she knew within her soul that just so sure as -gun butt struck shoulder and finger found trigger, so sure would Babe -Deveril toss his arms up and fall dead.... - -"Hurry, Kid ... you damn' fool ... _hurry_...." - -All the while Timber-Wolf was muttering and glaring at his watch and -clinching her wrist; all the while forgetting that he held her. And, -this also she knew, regretting that he had the job set before him of -shooting down another man. - -Lynette, her whole body atingle, every sense keyed up to its highest -stressing, knew as soon as did Bruce Standing when he was going to drop -her wrist and jerk his gun up. The five minutes were passing; still, -though at a distance far up on the ridge, seen only by glimpses now and -then under the setting sun, Babe Deveril was driving on, a man half -bereft of his sober senses, his brain reeling from savage blows and on -fire with rage and mortification; they saw him among the pines; they -lost him; they saw him again. Never once had he turned to look back. -Yet it did not seem that he hastened.... - -Timber-Wolf, growling deep down in his throat, lifted his rifle. But -Lynette, before the act, _knew_! She flung herself with sudden fury -upon his uplifted arm; she caught it, and with the weight of her body -dragged it down. He sought to fling her off; she wrapped both of her -arms about his right arm; she jerked at it so that he could have no -slightest hope of a steady aim.... - -He turned and looked down into her eyes; deep ... deep. For what seemed -to her a long, long time he stood looking down into her eyes. - -Then, with sudden anger, he thrust her aside. Without looking to see -if she had fallen or stumbled and run, he raised his rifle again. - -But just in time Babe Deveril was gone, over the ridge.... - - - - -CHAPTER XII - - -"And now that you're half scared to death, you'd like to make a man -believe that you are not afraid of the devil himself!" - -She flashed a burning look at him; chokingly she cried: - -"At least, thank God, I am not afraid of you, Bruce Standing!... Big -brute and bully and ... Yes!... Coward!" - -And yet, as never before in her life, her heart was beating wildly, -leaping against her side like an imprisoned thing struggling to break -through the walls which shut it in. His fingers were still locked about -her wrist; his grip tightened; he drew her closer in order to look -the more clearly into her eyes. Then his slow, mocking laughter smote -across her nerves like a rude hand brushing across harp-strings, making -clashing discords. - -"You begin well!" he jeered at her. "We are going to see how you end." - -"Let me go!" She jerked back; she twisted and dragged at her wrist, -trying wildly to break free. His mockery stung her into desperation. -With her one free hand she struck him across the face. - -She struck hard, with all her might, with trebled strength through her -fury. And, maddening her, he gave no sign that she had hurt him. Still -jeering at her, all that he did was drop his rifle, so that with his -other hand he could take captive the hand which had struck him. And -then it was so easy a thing for him to take both her wrists into the -grip of his one, right hand; held thus, no matter how she fought, hers -was the sensation of utter powerlessness which is a child's when an -elder person, teasing, catches its two hands in one and lets it cry and -kick.... Suddenly she grew quiet.... - -"Well?" she demanded, panting, forcing her eyes to a steady meeting -with his. "What do you intend to do with me, now you've got me? There -doesn't appear to be any one near to keep you from woman-beating!" - -"What am I going to do with you? If I knew, I'd tell you! When I do -know, I'll show you.... If I could catch you by the hair and drag you -through hell after me.... I pay all of my debts, girl! I have followed -you; I have found you; I have taken you, prying you loose from your -running mate.... You thought it fun to laugh at me once, did you? -Before I have done with you, you would give your soul for the power and -the will to laugh...." - -"It is because I laughed at you?" she asked wonderingly. - -"For what else?" he said sternly. - -"And not because of a pistol shot?" - -"Less for that than for the other. I allow it any man's privilege to -shoot at me if he doesn't like me; but no man's nor woman's privilege -to laugh." - -"How do you know it was I who shot you?... Did you see?" - -"Had I seen, I should not have held it against you; for that would have -meant that you struck in the open, any man's or woman's right! But to -shoot a man in the back.... Here; help me!" - -She was perplexed to know what he meant. He dragged her after him, a -dozen paces from the fire; still holding her two hands caught in his -one, he sat down upon a big stone. Suddenly it struck her that all this -time, since he had dropped his rifle, his left arm had been hanging -limply at his side. - -"When I let go of you," he said, very stern, "if you try to run for it -I'll catch you and drag you back. And I'm in no mood for gentleness!" -At that he let her go. He put his right hand to his shirt collar and -began unbuttoning it. - -"My wound has broken open," he said, with a grunt of disgust. "That -Baby Devil of yours didn't care where he hit a man!... Here; there's a -bandage that has slipped. And I'm losing blood again. See what you can -do." - -"Why should I?" she demanded coolly. "What is it to me whether or not -you bleed to death?" - -Fury filled his eyes and he shouted at her: - -"You, by God, drilled the cowardly hole; and you doctor it!" - -"And if I won't?" - -"Then, as I live, I'll make you! One way or another, girl, I'll make -you. That's Bruce Standing's word for you. Now hurry!" - -She cast a quick glance over her shoulder; she was on the verge -of breaking into wild, headlong flight.... But certain knowledge -restrained her; she knew that he would overtake her, that he would drag -her back and ... that he was in no mood for gentleness. Therefore, -while her whole soul rebelled, she came closer, as he commanded. - -... She had never dreamed that any man born could have a chest like -that; nor such shoulders, massive and yet beautiful as the pure-lined -expression of power; nor such skin, soft and smooth and white as a -girl's, the outward sign of another beauty, that of clean health. -Clean, hard, triumphant physical manhood.... It struck her at the time, -so that she marvelled at herself and wondered dully if she were taking -leave of her sober senses, that there was truer, finer beauty in the -body of such a man than in any girl's; that here was a true artist's -true triumph.... Physically he was splendid, superb.... In his own -image did God make man.... - -With his right hand he was working with the bandage where it was taped -about the bulge of his left breast; on the white cloth were fresh gouts -of blood. Impatiently he tore at his shirt collar; on the bandage, -where it passed about his left shoulder-blade, were red stains. - -"Wait a minute," he commanded. "In my pocket I've got some sort of -salve; some idiotic mess that Billy Winch cooked up; the Lord knows -what it is or what he made it of; iodine and soap and flaxseed and -cobwebs, most likely! But it will chink up the leak ... and it feels -good and hasn't poisoned me so far! Here, smear it on." - -... She felt as though she were dreaming all this! That wild, -uncontrollable laughter of hers which swept over her at times of taut -nerves and absurd situations, threatened to master her. She fought it -down. She touched his back. She, Lynette, administering to Timber-Wolf -... it would be better for her, far better for her, if his wound were -poisoned and he died!... Yet, as she touched his back, it was with -wondrously gentle fingers. There was a wound there; the ugly wound made -by a bullet, half healed, broken open anew under heavy blows. A little -shiver, a strange, new sort of shiver, ran through her; here she was -down to elementals, she, who with just cause and leaping instinct hated -this man, ministering to him.... - -"Smear the stuff on, I tell you. Over the wound. Enough of it to shut -out any infernal infection.... What in the devil's name is holding you? -Waiting for the sun to go down and come up again?" - -She bit her lips; he looked suddenly into her face, and could have -no clew to her thought or emotion; he could not guess whether she bit -her lip to keep from laughing or crying!... She spread over the gaping -wound a thin film of Billy Winch's pungent salve. As she touched the -wound she looked for a muscular contraction, for the flinching from -pain. He did not move; there was not so much as the involuntary quiver -of a muscle. She wondered if the man felt as other human beings did? - -... "Now a fresh piece of tape. That idiot Winch packed me off with my -pockets loaded like a drug-store shelf! That's all for this time; we'll -make a new dressing and bathe the wound in the morning. Now.... Here! -Let me look at you!" - -He crimsoned her face with that way of his. She whipped back from him -and her eyes brightened with defiance. He sat looking at her a long -time, while with slow fingers he buttoned his collar; his face showed -not so much as a flicker of expression; his eyes were keen, but gave no -clew to his thought. - -The sun was already down beyond the ridge; shadows here in the little -hollow had gathered swiftly; dark was on the way. He rose and went to -the fire, for an instant turning his back upon her as he piled on the -dead-wood which Deveril had gathered. But over his shoulder he called -to her coolly: - -"I've warned you not to try to run for it!" - -And from his tone she knew that he had easily guessed her thought; for -the impulse to attempt flight had been strong upon her the moment that -he turned. She remained where she stood; if only it were pitch-dark, if -only he went on a few paces farther away from her, if only the fringe -of trees offering refuge were a few paces nearer.... She was quick to -see the folly of making a premature dash; the wisdom in allowing him to -think that she could be looked to for obedience! Thus, later, when her -chance came and his watchfulness nodded, she'd be up and away like a -shot.... - -The fire caught the fresh fuel and crackled and blazed, sparks -showering about her where she stood. Now Standing, his face looking -ruddy in the glow, turned toward her, saying curtly: - -"Come here. I want a good look at you ... in the full light." - -"Brute and bully!" she cried, struggling with herself for an outward -semblance of calm. "You hold the high card. But the game isn't played -out between you and me yet, Bruce Standing." While speaking she came -closer, so that she too stood in the red fire glow. She held her head -up; she returned his unswerving gaze unswervingly. - -"You've got the vocabulary of a gambler's daughter," he said. "That's -what you are, eh? A gambler's girl and, in your own penny-ante way, a -gambler yourself!" - -"I am the daughter of Dick Brooke!" she told him proudly. "Dick Brooke -was a man and a miner and after that, if you like, a gambler." - -"Dick Brooke? Dick Brooke's daughter? Why, then ... the daughter also -of a dancing-girl!" - -Her face went white with anger. - -"Oh ... I hate you! Oh, I hate you! You ... you are contemptible!" - -"Aha! So that hurts!" he jeered at her. - -"It is a cruel lie. Olymphe Labelle was not a dancing-girl.... She was -an artist! And a woman among ten thousand...." - -The firelight cast its warm glow over her face. She lifted her chin -defiantly. Her hair fell in loose, rippling strands of bronze and over -her shoulders. She was very beautiful thus; no woman on whom Bruce -Standing had ever looked was half so beautiful. And haughty, like a -princess ... like a high-bred lady made captive, yet scorning to show -sign of fear.... - -"You are Lynette Brooke," he muttered; "you are the girl who laughed at -me, shaming me; you are the girl who shot me in the back! Those are the -things to remember. A treacherous cat of a woman; a gun woman! One to -go sneaking around with a revolver at hand to shoot a man in the back -with...." - -"Any woman, dealing with men like you, has need of a gun!" - -"I'll tell you this," he muttered. "I'm a fair judge of men, if not of -women. And when it's a case of a man ... why just show me a man who -carries a pocket-gun and I'll show you a cheap ragamuffin, a tin horn, -or an overgrown kid ... or a dirty coward. A man's weapon is a rifle -carried in the open; give me a good pair of boots and I'll stamp the -white livers out of a whole crowd of your little gunmen.... As for -women, gun-toting women...." He broke off with a heavy shrug. "Now, -girl, I'm hungry. The smell of your coffee has been in my nostrils a -long time. See what you can give me to eat." - -"So I am to wait on you ... to be your servant...." - -"To be my slave!" he shouted at her. "Proud, are you? So much the -better. I swore to make you pay, and you begin paying now. Yes, as my -slave as long as I like!" - -"And you call yourself a man!" - -"I call myself the best man that ever came into this wilderness -country," he told her impudently. "If you are in doubt, bring on any -other man of your choice and ask him, with your pretty smiles, if he -cares to stand up against me! Yes, a man who goes rough-shod over -everything and anything and anybody who stands in his way...." - -"Boaster!" she named him scornfully. - -He laughed loudly at that. - -"I am no boaster and in your heart you know it!... There's another -damn-fool convention for you, that business of great modesty! A man who -is sure of himself doesn't have to walk easy and talk easy, but can -tell other men what he is, and then, by glory, show 'em!" - -Still she was scornful of him ... though she could not keep out of her -thought that picture which he had made when, axe in hand, he had laid -an armed jailer in the dust, and single-handed had made a jail delivery -which hundreds of other men wanted to make and held back from ... -through lack of that unrestricted confidence which was Bruce Standing's. - -He was staring at her. - -"You, too ... for a woman ... have courage," he muttered. And then, -with a sudden arm flung out: "I'm hungry, I tell you." - -"I'd rather die...." - -"It's easy to die ... for any one who is not a coward. And I just told -you that you had courage." He came suddenly close to her. "But there -are other things that are not so easy! What if I put my two arms about -you? If I hold you tight ... and set my lips to yours ... and...." - -"You beast...." - -"But my dinner?" he jeered at her. - -She went hot and cold; she cast a quick glance toward the forest land -where the night was thickening; she cast another glance at his rifle -where it lay, a few feet from the fire. Then, her lower lip caught -between her teeth, she went to the tin can in which she and Babe -Deveril had made coffee. - -"A funny thing," said Bruce Standing, watching her; "you skipped out, -hot-foot, from Big Pine, thinking you had killed me! And your little -friend, meaning Baby Devil, skipped along, thinking he had done Jim -Taggart in! And, after all, nobody much hurt!... Glad to hear that -Taggart did not die?" - -"I knew it already," she said, just to cheat him of any satisfaction in -telling her. - -"Mexicali Joe skipped this way, too," he went on swiftly, so swiftly -that he succeeded in tricking her into saying: - -"I knew that, too!" - -Then he laughed at her, informing her: - -"Now there remains little for you to tell me. You knew Taggart was -still on his feet and you knew Joe was travelling this way, and you've -come up from the general direction of Joe's dugout! Which tells me one -thing: where you and Baby Devil got the coffee and this tinned stuff. -Now let's hear details!" - -"Oh ... I hate you!" - -"You've told me that before. And...." He burst into booming laughter. -And then, still laughter-choked, he cried: "Like a good old-time -two-handled sword is the man Bruce Standing! And yet his wit, like a -Spanish dagger, is good match for a girl's!" - -She made no reply, though her blood tingled, and though her hand, with -a will of its own, must be held back from striking him across the face -again. She brought him his coffee and thereafter food which he called -for from among the tins. - -"What do you think has happened to your gentleman friend?" he mocked -her. And when she refused to reply, he told her: "He's gone on ... -where? After Taggart? To get a rifle and come back? Planning to hide -behind a tree and pop me off while I'm not looking? That would make a -hit with you, wouldn't it? Like your own best game of shooting a man in -the back! Or has he forgotten a pair of bright eyes and warm arms and -red lips? And is he content to trail Mexicali, spying on him, trying to -get in on the new gold diggings? Which, girl?" - -"He hates you!... with cause. And he is no coward; he is as good a man, -if less brute, as you, Bruce Standing!..." - -When he spoke finally it was to say: - -"We're going to be short on provisions for a day or so, girl. Hungry?" - -Here was her first, altogether too vague clew to his intentions. -Quickly she asked: - -"Where are we going?" - -"I to keep an engagement; you to accompany me." - -He supposed that he had told her nothing. And yet she, quick-witted, -having never let slip from her mind a certain suspicion when Mexicali -Joe had too readily succumbed to Taggart, cried out: - -"To a meeting with Mexicali Joe!" - -"What makes you think that?" he asked sharply. - -She pretended to laugh at him. He ate in silence; drank his coffee; -thereafter, stuffing a pipe full of crude black tobacco, smoked -thoughtfully. All the while the fire burned lower and the darkness, -ringing them around, drew closer in. She had been on the alert, while -looking to be hopelessly bowed where she sat. Suddenly he was at her -side, his grip like a steel bracelet about her wrist. - -"About ready to jump and run for it?" he taunted her. "Not to-night, my -girl; and not to-morrow night nor yet for many a day to come. I've got -my own plans for you." - -"Are you going to take me back to Big Pine? To hand me over to the law, -with a charge of attempted murder against me?" - -"I am going to take you with me on into the wilderness. Into a country -which is absolutely the kingdom of Bruce Standing. Haven't I told you -that I have my own plans for you? I can hand you over to the cheap -degradation of a trial and conviction and jail sentence whenever I am -ready for it...." - -"You can't keep me from killing myself...." - -"But I can! I am master here, understand? And you.... By heaven, you -are nothing but my slave so long as I tolerate you!... Look here, what -I brought for you!... For I knew I'd find you!" - -He began unwinding from his big body a thin steel chain, a chain which -he had brought with him from his ranch headquarters, where it had -served as leash for a wolf-hound. With a quick movement he snapped the -end of it about her waist; there was a steel padlock scarcely bigger -than a silver half-dollar; she heard the click as he locked it. Then he -stood back from her, the other end of the slight chain in his hand ... -and laughed at her! - -"The sign of your servitude!... Proud? One way to make you pay! Will -you laugh again, girl? Will you, do you think, ever have the second -chance to shoot me in the back?... Come; we must be on our way before -daylight." - -He caught up his rifle; that, together with the end of her chain, he -held in his hand. He began putting out the fire, stamping on the living -coals. Making her follow him, he went to the creek several times for -water, which he carried in his big hat, which held so much more than -any tin can in camp. When the fire was out, he turned with her toward -the bowery shelter which Babe Deveril, working and singing, had made -for her. With his shuffling boots he kicked the culled branches into -two heaps. He wrapped the end of her chain about his wrist; she heard -the snap as he fastened it. He thrust his rifle under him. - -"I am going to sleep," he told her bluntly and cast himself down. "You -with your payment just begun, may lie awake all night ... wondering...." - -... But it was a long, long while, a weary time of darkness sprinkled -with stars before he went to sleep. She sat up on her couch of boughs, -the chain about her waist galling her.... - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - - -It may appear a strange thing that Lynette Brooke slept at all that -night. But a fatigued body, healthy and young, demanded its right, and -she did sleep and sleep well. A far stranger thing was that, after -she had sat in the dark a long time, there had at last come a queer -little smile upon her lips and into her eyes, and she had gone to sleep -smiling! - -For in the deep black silence her quick mind had been busy, never so -busy; out of tiny scraps it had constructed a mental patchwork. Nor -were all dark-hued threads weaving in and out of it; here and there the -sombre pattern had bright-hued spots. Her courage was high, her hopes -always at surging high tide; her senses keen. And, after all, Bruce -Standing was a blunt, forthright man, in no degree subtle.... - -He had given her the impression an hour ago of being entirely -brute beast. That was true. Further, she told herself with growing -conviction, that it had been his great intent to make her regard him -as brute and beast; she had angered him, she had drawn upon herself -his vengeful wrath; he meant to make her pay; and his first step had -been to make her afraid of him.... She went on to other thoughts; Bruce -Standing was the man to defy Gallup in his own lair; the man to defy -the sheriff; to hurl an axe at an armed deputy ... and yet the only man -in Big Pine to lift an angry hand against the unfair play of shutting -little Mexicali Joe up in jail! He, alone, had not sought to steal -Joe's secret; he alone was ready, against all odds, to throw the door -back and let Joe go. Not altogether that the part of the brute and -beast! - -Another thing: Bruce Standing did not lie. She _knew_ that. And he was -not a coward; he did not do petty, cowardly things.... He meant her -to believe that there was nothing too cruel and merciless for him to -inflict upon her. Yet she had struck him in the face with a stone; she -had struck him with her hands, and he had not so much as bruised the -skin of her wrists with his big hard hands!... Eager he had been to -humiliate her, calling her his slave; eagerly, as soon as he had read -her pride, he grasped at the first means of torturing it. Why that -great eagerness ... unless he, despite his threat, was casting about in -rather blind fashion for means to make her pay?... He wanted her to be -afraid of him ... and it came to her in the dark, so that she smiled, -that this was because there was little for her to fear! - -"In his rage," she told herself, and, fettered as she was, a first -gleam of triumph visited her, "he came roaring after me. And, now he -has me, he doesn't know what to do with me! To make me his unwilling -slave ... _unwilling_!... that is all that he can think of now." - -And again there was comfort in the thought: - -"If he meant to harm me, why should he have let me go to-night? An -angry man, bent upon real brute vengeance, would have struck at the -first opportunity. The opportunity was when he sent Babe Deveril away -and had me to do what he pleased with. And he only played the perfectly -silly game of making me his slave ... _unwilling_...." - -It was the thoughts which rose with the word that put the little smile -into her eyes and brought the first softening of her troubled lips.... -Several times she heard him stirring restlessly; once he awakened -her with his muttering, and she knew that he was asleep, but that -either his wound pained him or his sleep was disturbed by unwelcome -dreams--perhaps both. - -Bruce Standing woke and sat up in the early chill dawn. He looked -swiftly to where Lynette lay. She appeared to be plunged in deep, -restful sleep. She lay comfortably snuggled in among the boughs; the -curve of one arm was up about her face, so that he could not see her -eyes. Naturally he believed them shut; her breathing was low and quiet, -exactly as it should have been were she really fast asleep.... She -looked pretty and tiny and tired out, but resting. Suddenly he frowned -savagely. But he sat for a long time without stirring. - -Lynette put up her arms and stretched and yawned sleepily, and then, -like a little girl of six, put her knuckles into her eyes. Then she, -too, sat up quickly. - -"Oh," she said brightly. "Are you awake already? And making not a -bit of noise, so as to let me have my sleep out? Good morning, Mr. -Timber-Wolf!" - -She was smiling at him! Smiling with soft red lips and gay eyes! - -He frowned and with a sudden lurch was on his feet. - -"Come," he said harshly. "I want to make an early start." - -She sprang to her feet as though all eagerness, exclaiming brightly: - -"If you'll get the fire started, I'll have breakfast in a minute! There -isn't much in the larder, but you'll see what a nice breakfast I can -make of it. Then I'll dress your wound and we'll be on our way." - -"Look here," muttered Standing, swinging about to stare at her, "what -the devil are you up to?" - -"What do you mean?" she asked innocently. - -"I mean this cheap play-acting stuff ... as though you were as happy as -a bird!" - -"Why, I always believe in making the best of a bad mess, don't you?" -she retorted. "And, after all, how do you know that I'm not as happy as -a bird? I nearly always am." - -His eyes were blazing, his face flushed; she saw that she was lashing -him into rage. She began to fear that she had gone too far; for the -present she would go no farther. But meanwhile she gave him no hint of -any trepidation, but kept the clear, unconcerned look in her eyes. - -He strode away from her, toward the charred remains of last night's -fire. He held her chain in his hand; she hurried along after him, so -that not once could the links tighten; so that not once could he feel -that he was dragging an unwilling captive behind him. Her heart was -beating like mad; she was aquiver with excitement over the working out -of her scheme, yet she gave him no inkling of any kind of nervousness. - -"I don't know what you are up to and I don't care," he said abruptly. -"You are to do what you are told, girl." - -"Of course!" she said quickly. "I understand that. I am ready...." - -"I am going to take the chain off you now, simply because I don't need -it during daylight. But you're not to run away; if you try it I'll run -you down and drag you back. Do you understand? And after that I'll keep -you chained up." - -"I understand," she nodded again. And, when he had removed the chain -from her waist, all the time not looking at her while she, all the -time, stood smiling, she said a quiet "Thank you." - -"While I get some wood," he went on, "you can take some cans and go -down to the creek for water. I'll trust you that far ... and don't -you trust too much to the screen of willows to give you a chance for -a getaway! I tell you, I'd overhaul you as sure as there is a God in -heaven!" - -She caught up two cans and went down the slope toward the creek. To -keep him from guessing how, all of a sudden, her heart was fluttering -again, she sang a little song as she went. He stared after her, puzzled -and wondering. Then with a short, savage grunt, he began gathering wood. - -Was now her time? This her chance? She sang more loudly, clearly and -cheerily. She wanted to look back to see if he was watching her every -step; yet she beat down the temptation, knowing that if he did watch -and did see her turn he would know that she was overeager for flight. -She came to the creek; she passed carelessly about a little clump of -willows. Now she looked back, peering through the branches. He was -stooping, gathering wood; his back was to her! - -"_Now!_" her impulses cried within her. "_Now!_" - -She looked about her hurriedly, in all directions. There was so much -open country here; big pines, wide-spaced. If she ran down the slope -he must surely see her when she had gone fifty or a hundred yards. And -then he'd be after her! If she turned to right or left, the case was -almost the same. If it were only dark! But the sun was rising.... - -She began singing again, so that he might hear. A sudden anger blazed -up within her. With all his blunt ways, the man was not without his own -sort of shrewdness; he had known that she had no chance here to escape -him; no chance for such a head start as to give her an even break in a -race with him. - -... After ten minutes she came back to him; she carried a dripping can -in each hand; she had bathed hands and arms and face and throat; she -had combed her hair out through her fingers, making new thick braids, -with loosely curling ends. She had taken time to twist those soft ends -about her fingers. He was standing over his newly built fire; his -rifle, with the chain tossed across it, lay against a rock; he gave no -sign of noting her approach.... Yet, while they ate a hurriedly warmed -breakfast, she caught him several times looking at her curiously.... - -Her heart began again to beat happily; never was hope long departed -from the breast of Lynette Brooke. She kept telling herself, over and -over, that he was not going to be brute and beast to her. Soon or late -she would find her chance for escape from him; she would let him think -her that weakling which it was his way to regard women in general; -there would come the time when, once more free, she could laugh at -him.... And she, when he did not observe, looked curiously at him many -a time. - -When they had eaten and he had gathered up the few scraps of food and -had very carefully extinguished the last ember of their fire, he wound -the chain about his middle again, caught up the rifle and said briefly -and still without looking at her: - -"Come." - -She followed him, neither hesitating nor questioning; thus she was -gleefully sure she angered him.... She wondered what the day held in -store for her; she wondered what of good and bad lay ahead; and yet -she was now less filled with terror than with the burning zest for -life itself. Bruce Standing had told her that he was going to keep an -appointment; he had been the man to release Mexicali Joe; Mexicali Joe -had whispered something and Standing had laughed; Mexicali Joe was now -ahead of them, pretending to lead Taggart and Gallup and Cliff Shipton -to his gold! Her thoughts were busy enough and she, like her silent -companion, had small need for talk. - -She wondered about Babe Deveril; how badly hurt he had been after Bruce -Standing's mauling; what he was doing now; where he was? A hundred -times that morning, hearing bird or squirrel and once a leaping buck, -she looked to see Babe Deveril bursting back upon them.... Had he -not gone far, last night? Had he remained near their camp and was he -following them to-day?... - -They passed over a ridge and turned into a little cup of a green -valley; Standing, stalking ahead of her, went to a thicket and drew -from it a saddle and bridle and saddle blankets and a small canvas -pack. Then, standing with his hands on his hips, staring off in all -directions, he whistled shrilly. Whistled, and waited listening, and -whistled again. Lynette heard, from far off, the quick, glad _whicker_ -of a horse. And here came the horse galloping; kicking up its heels; -shaking its head with flying mane; circling, snorting, with lowered -head; at standstill for a moment, a golden sorrel with snow-white mane -and tail; a mount for even Timber-Wolf, lover of horses, to be proud to -own and ride and whistle to through the forest land.... Lynette looked -swiftly at Standing's face; he was smiling; his eyes were bright. - -He went forward and stroked his horse's satiny nose and wreathed a hand -in the mane and led the animal to the saddle, calling him softly, "Good -old Daylight." The horse nosed him; Standing laughed out loud and smote -the great shoulder with open palm.... Lynette saw with clear vision -that there was a great love between man and animal; and she thought -of another horse, Sunlight, slaughtered at Young Gallup's orders, -and of Standing's lisping rage and of her own nervous, uncontrollable -laughter.... - -There came a deep, ugly growling--a throaty, wolfish menace, almost at -her heels. She whirled about and cried out in sudden startled fright. - -"Lie down Thor!" Standing shouted sternly. "Down, sir!" - -Lynette had never seen a dog like this one, big and lean and -forbidding; as tall as a calf in her suddenly frightened eyes, wolfish -looking, with stiff bristles rising along powerful neck and back, and -eyes red-rimmed, and sharp-toothed mouth slavering. At Standing's -command the great dog, which had come upon her on such noiseless pads, -dropped to the ground as though a bullet instead of a commanding voice -had drilled its heart. But still the steady eyes filled with suspicion -and menace were fixed on her. - -"He'd tear your throat out if I gave the word," said Standing. "Now you -do what I tell you; go to him and set your hand on his head!" - -"I won't!" she cried out sharply, drawing back. The deep, throaty growl -came again; the dog's lips trembled and withdrew from the long, wolfish -teeth; the whole gaunt form was aquiver.... - -"But you will! Otherwise.... He'll not hurt you when once I tell him -not to. Go to him; put your hand on his head.... Afraid?" he jeered. - -She was afraid. Sick-afraid. And yet she gave her taunter one withering -glance and stepped swiftly, though her flesh quivered, to the dog. - -"Steady, Thor!" cried Standing sternly. "You dog, steady, sir!" - -The dog growled and the teeth were like evil, poisonous fangs. Yet -Lynette came another step toward him; she stooped; she put forward her -hand.... - -"_Thor!_" Standing's voice rang out, filled with warning. Thor began -whining. - -Lynette put her hand upon the big head. Thor trembled. Suddenly he -lay flat, belly down; the head between the outstretched fore paws. He -whined again. Standing laughed and began bridling and saddling his -horse. Thor jumped up and frisked about his master; Standing fondled -him, as he had fondled Daylight, by striking him resoundingly. - -"To play safe," he flung over his shoulder at Lynette, "better come -here." - -When she had drawn close Standing stooped and patted the dog's head. -Then, while Thor, snarling, looked on, he put out his hand and placed -it for a fleeting instant upon Lynette's shoulder. - -"Good dog," he said quietly. - -Then he caught up her hand and placed it on Thor's head, cupped under -his own. - -"Good dog," he said again. And then he told Lynette to call the dog. -She did so, saying in an uncertain voice: - -"Here, Thor!... Come here, Thor!" - -"Thor!" cried Standing commandingly. "Good dog!" - -Thor trembled, but he went to her. He allowed her to pat him. Then, -with a suddenness which startled her, he shot out a red tongue to lick -her hand. Standing burst into sudden pleased laughter. - -"Your friend ... so long as I don't set him on you!" he cried out. - -"You are a beast ... who herd with beasts!" she said, shuddering. - -He laughed again and finished drawing tight cinch and strapping latigo. -He tied his small pack at the strings behind the saddle and said -briefly: - -"Since we're in a hurry, suppose you ride while I walk alongside? We'll -make better time that way." - -She was ashamed of herself--that she should have been afraid of a dog! -Now she was Lynette again, quick and capable and confident. He was -going to lend her a hand to mount; she forestalled him and went up into -the saddle like a flash. It was in her thought to take him by surprise; -to give Daylight his head and race away out of sight among the pines.... - -But he was scarcely less quick; his hand shot out, catching Daylight's -reins; he unwound the chain from about his middle and snapped the catch -into the horse's bit.... And she began to analyze, thinking: - -"He took time to explain why he let me ride while he walked! He is less -beast and brute than he knows himself!... Less beast and brute than -... simple humbug!" And, before they had gone ten steps, he heard her -humming the air which she had sung at breakfast time. - -"Damn it," he muttered under his breath, not for her to hear. "The -little devil ... she's taking advantage of me, every advantage. She.... -Just the same ... just the same...." - -And he, too, was wondering about Babe Deveril! - -"We go this way," he said. "I'll lead; you follow." - -"I know!" cried Lynette; she could not hold the words back. "Toward -Buck Valley and Big Bear Creek ... and Mexicali Joe. And...." - -"And what?" he demanded, snatching at her chain, sensing that something -of import lay behind the abruptly checked words. - -She only laughed at him. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV - - -Another day of wilderness wandering. A cabin sighted, but so far away -that it was merely a vague dot upon a distant ridge; miner's shack -or sheepman's or wood-cutter's? Housing an occupant or deserted for -years? No smoke from the rock chimney; no sign of any human being near -it. And all view of it so soon lost!... And, afterward, no other human -habitation of any kind; no road man-made; only trees and rocks, gorges -and ridges and brush, and a winding way to be chosen between them. -With, always, Bruce Standing driving on and on, relentlessly on, ever -deeper into the wilderness. - -A day of life like a leaf torn out of the book of hell for Lynette. He -did not speak to her as they went on from dawn to noon and from noon -until afternoon shadows gathered; he did not so much as turn his eyes -full upon her own; for the most part he seemed altogether forgetful of -the fact that, besides himself, there was another of his species in all -the wide sweep of this land of mighty solitudes. For his dog, Thor, he -had a kindly though rough-spoken word now and then; for his horse a -word or a rude pat upon the shoulder or hip; for her nothing but his -utter, unruffled silence.... At times she hummed little snatches of gay -tunes, hoping to irritate him; at times she strove for an aloofness to -match his own. Countless times she looked over her shoulder, looking -for Babe Deveril. And so the day, a long day, went by until at last it -was late afternoon. - -"Here we stop," said Standing abruptly. "Get down." - -He would seem to have all advantage over her; yet she understood that -in one way, and in one way only, could she rob him of his advantage, -and that was by giving him swift and cheerful obedience. So she slipped -out of the saddle on the instant, giving him for answer only the light -gay words: - -"Oh, it is beautiful here!" ... - -It was beautiful.... He glared at her and led his horse away to -unsaddle; his big dog, Thor, had trotted along at Daylight's heels all -day and now slumped down, ears erect and suspicious, while he watched -his master and made certain of never losing sight for a second of his -master's new companion, whom he tolerated but did not trust. Lynette, -stiff from so many hours in the saddle, looked about her. They were -in the upper, brief space of a valley; above reared the mountains -steeply, rugged slopes with pines here and there, with more open -spaces and tumbled boulders. The valley itself was a pretty, pleasant -place, soft in short green grass, flower-dotted, smoothly curving down -into the more open level lands below. Yet here was no proper place to -pitch camp, especially at so early an hour when it was allowed to seek -further; it was too open, it would be unsheltered and cold; there was -no water.... - -"Come on!" - -She started and turned again toward Standing. He had slung his small -pack across his shoulders and was going on. She looked forward toward -the ridge, which he faced; it rose sheer and forbidding. And she saw -that his face was white and drawn; she wondered quickly how sorely his -wound hurt him. - -"Brute?" He could have been far more brutal to her.... He was -dead-tired, white-faced; he had fought hard last night, scorning the -advantage of an armed man against an unarmed; he had not harmed a hair -of her head! Almost ... _almost_ it lay within her to whisper "Poor -fellow!" And if only Bruce Standing could have known that!... - -He led the way. She followed, since there was nothing else to think of -doing. - -They climbed steadily upward out of this narrow green valley, finding -a steep but open way among the trees. Now and then they paused briefly -to breathe, and Lynette, looking back, saw more and more of the long, -winding valley, as it revealed itself to her from new vantage points. -Far away she caught the glint of the sunlight upon a little wandering -creek. They went on, and came to the crest of the ridge, in full -sunshine now; Standing led an unhesitating way through a natural pass, -and down on the other side, into shadows of a thick grove; through -thickets; they splashed across a creek, a thin line of clear, cool -water slipping through mountain willows, a tributary of the larger -stream in the valley below. Down here it was almost dark. But twenty -minutes later, climbing another slope where the larger timber stood -widely spaced, they came again into the full sunshine.... Lynette -began to wonder why he had left his horse so far back; how far did -the silent, tireless man mean to walk? Also, she began to welcome the -coming night with an eagerness which she was at all pains to conceal -from him; he was always ten steps ahead of her; if he walked on another -half-hour, she began to hope that they would come into a place of -shadows and clumps of trees among which she might dare make the attempt -for escape which had been denied her all day.... - -They came into a little upland flat, well watered, emerald-carpeted -with tender grass, shot through with lingering flowers and studded with -magnificent trees; it seemed the very heart of the great wilderness; -here was such glorious forest land as Lynette had never seen and did -not know existed in all the broad scope of the great Southwest mountain -country. She looked upward. Dark branches towered into the sky, the -tips still shot through with soft summer light. She heard the gush of -water--the tumble and splash and fall of water. Somewhere above, at the -upper end of the flat, where a dark ravine was an ebon-shadow-filled -gash through the hills, was a waterfall. She could not see it, but its -musical waters proclaimed it through the still air. She looked swiftly -down the other way; there it was growing dark. She glanced hurriedly at -Standing. And he, as though he had read her thought, stopped and turned -and, before she could stir, was at her side. - -After that, with never a word, they went on, deeper into this shadowy -realm of big trees. He watched her at every step. Fury filled her -heart, but with compressed lips she maintained a silence like his own. -Thor trotted along with them, now in front of his master, as though -this were a way he had travelled before and knew well, now questing far -afield, now in the rear, eying his master's captive and setting his -dog's brains to the riddle. - -Before they had walked another ten minutes, Standing threw down his -pack and said abruptly: - -"This is as far as we go." - -She sat down, her back to a tree, her face averted from him. She was -very tired and now she could have put her face into her hands and cried -from very weariness. But instead she caught her lip up between her -teeth and hid her face from him and ignored him. But in her heart she -was wondering; had he travelled all day long and then this far from the -spot where he had released his horse, just to pitch camp in a clump of -trees? Was this the spot toward which he had striven on so stubbornly -since daylight? Where was he going? Why? Old queries and doubts rushed -back upon her.... She was vaguely grateful that they were questions -which he and not she had to answer; that responsibilities were his -instead of hers. She was tired enough to lie down where she was and -cease to care what happened.... It was not as yet pitch-dark; the sun -was not down on the heights. But here, among the tall pines, in this -hollow, the shadows were thick; nothing stood out in detail to her -slowly closing eyes; here was a place of black blots, distorted glooms, -the weird formless outriders of the night.... She had not the remotest -suspicion that, where she had slumped down, she was almost at the door -of a cabin. - -Rather, it would have been surprising had she known. For surely -there was never cabin like this hermit camp of Bruce Standing's! Two -sky-scraping pines stood close together; between them was the door, -framed by their own straight trunks. Smaller trees grew about the -ancient parents; these hid the walls which to escape notice required -little enough hiding at any time; a man might have passed here within -a few yards at noonday and not noticed all this which Lynette failed -to see in the dusk. For the walls of the tiny cabin were of rough logs -from which the bark had never been stripped, walls which blended so -perfectly with the greater note struck by the woodland that they failed -to draw the eye; the chimney, of loose-piled rocks, was viewless at -this time of day behind the tree trunks and inconspicuous at any time. -And low, over the flat roof drooped the concealing branches of the -trees. Of all this Lynette glimpsed nothing until Timber-Wolf said, -looking down at her: - - - "When all the tavern is prepared within, - Why nods the drowsy worshipper outside?" - - -She had striven in one way and another since she had had her first view -of him, axe in hand, for a clew to the real Bruce Standing. Now, again, -he set her jaded faculties to work: Bruce Standing, Timber-Wolf, and -man of violence, quoting poetry to her! And at such a moment and under -such circumstances!... It is not merely the feminine soul which is -indeterminable, mystifying, intriguing into the ultimate bournes of -speculation; rather the human soul.... - -"I don't fancy guessing riddles this evening," she told him. "All -that I can think of by way of repartee is: 'What meanest thou, Sir -Tent-maker?'" - -She thought that she heard him stifle a chuckle! - -But, in this thickening gloom and through those heavy shadows which lay -across her soul in an hour of doubtings and uncertainties, she could be -certain of nothing.... He was saying merely: - -"If you're not clean done in, I'd suggest you walk three steps into my -cabin. On the other hand, if you can't make it, I'll pick you up and -carry you in!" - -At that she sprang to her feet; through the gathering dark he could -feel the burning look in her eyes. - -Then, groping mentally and physically, it was given to her to -understand. For already he stood upon the rude threshold. She followed -after him. - -She gasped, astonished, when she realized that already, in so few -steps, she had passed into the embrasure of four walls! Sturdy walls; -walls rude and unbeautiful, but rising stalwart bulwarks against -the cold of night mountain air. He, a blurred, gigantic form in the -dusk, was before her; his wolfish dog was at her heels. She heard the -scratch, she saw the blue and yellow spurt of a sulphur match. His -form suddenly loomed larger, leaped into grotesque giganticness; the -tiny room sprang waveringly out of darkness into the unreality of -half-light; he found a candle; a steady golden flame sent the shadows -racing into limbo; she looked about her wonderingly.... - -A room, bound in rough logs; a hastily, roughly hewn log set on other -logs, offering its surly service as table; a stump which obviously made -pretense at being a stool; a bunk against a wall, thick-padded with the -tips from pines; a tin cup, a tin plate, an imitation of a box against -a wall. And, hanging over a pole ... her first certainty that Bruce -Standing, though animal as she named him in her heart, was a clean -animal ... two or three blankets which, on last leaving this hut of -his, he had stretched to air.... A primitive room, and yet clean. And, -across from the narrow bunk, a deep, wide-mouthed fireplace made of big -rocks.... He himself must have made that fireplace, for what other man -could have lifted those rocks into place? - -"I'm hungry," said Standing. "As hungry as a bear." - -Already she was sitting on the edge of the bunk. She expected to hear -for his next words: "Get me my dinner." But, instead, he said, his -voice harsher than she had ever heard it before: - -"And that's why I'm cooking for myself instead of making you do it! I -don't want you to get it into your head it's because I'm getting sorry -for you...." - -She lay back, unanswering, and watched him. And presently, though not -for him to see, a little smile touched her lips and for a short instant -lighted her big gray eyes.... And in her heart she said: "He is so -obvious, with all his thinking that he is a man whom a girl cannot see -through! All day he has made me ride, while he walked! He said that -that was to make better time! And, with every opportunity to harm me, -he has not harmed a hair of my head! He has not even touched me with -his big, blundering hands!... And he looks white and sick from his -hurt...." - -He rummaged in a corner; he made a fire in his fireplace; he ripped -open a couple of cans and set coffee to boil in a battered pot as black -as an African negro. Suddenly Lynette, who had been silent a long -while, exclaimed: - -"I know now! We are still on your land. This is the very cabin where, -six years ago, you robbed Babe Deveril of three thousand dollars!" - -"No!" he said. "You have guessed wrong!" And then: "So your little -friend, Baby Devil, told you many a tale about my wickedness?" - -"He told me that one." - -"And did he tell you the sequel? How I squared with him?" - -So he wanted her to think well of him! She made herself comfortable, -leaning back against the wall. - -"Have you the vaguest inkling of the difference between right and -wrong, Bruce Standing?" she asked him impudently. - -He laughed at her--become suddenly harsh. - -"Come," he said, "it is time for food. And then, for a man who does not -break his word, blow high, blow low, to keep an appointment." - -With that conversation ceased. He drove Thor into a corner, and with a -word and a glance made the dog lie down. He boiled his coffee and set a -hurried meal; he caught up a tin plate and brought it to Lynette. She -was about to thank him when she saw how he was planning to serve a tin -platter like hers to his dog; then she could have screamed at him in -nerve-pent-up anger. - -The three--master, captive, and dog--ate their late dinners while the -candle flame, pale yellow with its bluish centre, swayed gently in the -mild draft of air through the open door. Windows there were none, -saving the one square aperture over the bunk, boarded up now. - -"What about Jim Taggart?" said Standing brusquely out of a long silence -toward the end of which the weary girl was near dozing. "What do you -know about him? Did he overhaul Mexicali Joe after all?" - -She looked at him steadily; suddenly she was glad when a pine branch in -the fireplace, full of pitch, flared up so that he must have seen her -face more clearly than he could have done by mere pale candle-light; -she wanted him to see it and read something of the defiance which she -meant to offer him. - -"So, after all, you have your engagement with Mexicali Joe? It was for -that that you set him free? That you, instead of others, might steal -his golden secret!" - -"Then you won't answer, girl? You, whom I could crush between thumb and -finger, refuse to answer me?" - -"Yes!" she cried out at him. "Yes! I am not afraid of you, Bruce -Standing!" - -"Not afraid?" He glared at her, his flashing blue eyes full of threat. -Then he laughed contemptuously, saying: "And yet, were I minded to, I -could in a second have you on your knees, begging, pleading...." - -"But you won't!" she dared fling at him. "And that is why I am not -afraid!" - -"I am not so sure!" he muttered. "Not so sure. Before morning, girl, -you may come to know what fear is!" - -She tried to toss back her fearless laughter, but at that look of his -and at that stern tone of his voice her laughter caught in her throat. - -"You've got nerve," he said grudgingly. "More nerve than I thought any -girl could have ... since it's far and away more than most men have. -But just the same there's one thing you are afraid of! I've seen it a -dozen times to-day, no matter how well you thought you hid it! You are -afraid to death of old Thor, there!" - -She shivered; she laid a quick command upon her muscles as upon her -spirit, but they failed her; she tried to tell herself and to show him -through her bearing, head up, eyes steady, that it was only fatigue and -the growing chill of the coming night that put that tremor upon her. -But he laughed at her and called his big dog to him and said heavily: - -"Watch her, Thor! Watch her!" - -Thor growled, a growl coming from deep down in the powerful throat; the -red eyes grew hot; bristles stood up along neck and back; there came -the gleam of the wolfish teeth. She shrank back against the wall. - -"I have my appointment!... In an hour I must go. I give you your choice -of coming along with me, in leash! or of staying here, with only Thor -to guard, and taking your chances with him! Which is it?" - -And she cried quickly: - -"I'll go with you!" And then, lest he should think that he had -triumphed, she added swiftly: "For I, too, am interested in Mexicali -Joe!" - -He caught down the blankets which had hung airing since last he came -here and tossed two of them to the bunk where she half lay; the third -he folded and placed on the floor, stretching out his own great bulk -upon it, his shoulders against the wall. He found his pipe, filled and -lighted it, and lay staring into the fire.... - -And she, drawing a blanket over her knees, crouched, looking into -the same dancing flames, overwhelmed for the moment by a total -sense-engulfing feeling of unreality. Could all of this which had -happened, which was still happening, be an actual experience for her, -Lynette Brooke? More did it resemble a long-drawn-out ugly dream than -actuality! To be here to-night, so far from the world, her own world, -in the heart of a gigantic wilderness, in a rude cabin; a giant of -a man who, as he had said truly, might have crushed her between his -powerful forefinger and thumb; a savage wolf of a dog watching her with -unblinking eyes; another man, somewhere, with vengeance in his heart, -following them; another man, clutching to his breast his golden secret, -not far away; ... nightmare ingredients! Did this man, Bruce Standing, -Timber-Wolf as men called him, really know where to find Mexicali -Joe? And, when he found him, would he come upon Taggart and Gallup -and that hawk-faced man whom they called Cliff Shipton? And with them -would there be Babe Deveril, who must have gone somewhere in his mad, -hungering hope to have a rifle in his hands?... Above all else, was -she the plaything of fate? Or the director of fate? Now it lay within -the scope of her power to cry out to Bruce Standing: "When you find -Mexicali Joe you will find others, no friends of yours, with him! With -them, probably, Babe Deveril! And more than one rifle ready to stand -between you and the Mexican!" ... If she kept her silence, there might -be bloodshed before morning; if she spoke her warning, she might be -doubly arming Timber-Wolf. She grew restless; so restless that Thor, -distrusting her, began growling. - -And Bruce Standing, regarding her fixedly, demanded sharply: - -"Well, what is it?" - -Well ... what should she say? Anything or nothing? If she kept her -silence, would she in after-days know herself to blame for to-night's -bloodshed in that, keeping shut lips, she allowed him to stumble upon -all Taggart's crowd. - -He was eying her sharply. She must make some answer, and so at last -she prefaced her reply by asking him: - -"You say that we are not on your land?" - -"I did not say that. I said that this is not the cabin in which I had -some years ago the pleasant experience of borrowing some money from -Babe Deveril. He has never been here; has never heard of this place. No -man other than myself, and until now no woman ever came here." - -"That narrow end of a valley we crossed this afternoon ... that was the -upper end of Buck Valley? And the creek which came next was Big Bear -Creek? And, right near us somewhere is Grub Stake Caņon?" - -"You know the country like a map!" He spoke carelessly enough and yet -was puzzled to understand how she knew; of course Deveril could have -told her something of it and yet Deveril's knowledge was restricted to -the slim gleanings of one short excursion of years ago, and he did not -believe that even Deveril had ever heard of Grub Stake Caņon. - -"And," she ran on swiftly, "you were to meet Mexicali Joe to-night at -that other cabin of yours? Is that it?" - -"Witch, are you? Picker of thoughts from men's brains?" He laughed -shortly and got to his feet. "And so you elect to go along and see what -happens? Rather than rest here with Thor to keep you company?" - -She, too, rose swiftly. - -"Yes!" - -He took up his rifle, caught her hand and extinguished the candle. - -"Down, Thor, old boy," he said as he might have spoken to a man, -without raising his voice. "Wait for me. Good dog, Thor." - -Thor whined, but Lynette heard the sound he made in lying down -obediently; heard the thumping of his tail as he whined again. Standing -began leading the way through the dark among the big trees, his fingers -about her wrist.... She wondered how far they must go; suddenly as her -great weariness bore down upon her spirit that was become the greatest -of all considerations; greater, even, than what they should find at -the end of their walk. Almost she regretted not having remained in the -cabin ... with Thor. - -Standing, despite the dark and the uneven ground underfoot, seemed to -have no difficulty in finding his way; he walked swiftly; she could -sense his eager impatience. She began wondering listlessly if he were -late to his appointment.... - -She had faint idea how far they had gone, a mile or two miles or but -half a mile, a weary time of heavily dragging footsteps, when suddenly -the silence was broken by men's voices. Far away, dimmed and all but -utterly hidden by the interval of forest, was a vague glow of light. -Standing came to a dead stop; she stumbled against him. There came, -throbbing through the night, a man's scream. Standing stiffened; she -felt a tremor run through his big body. A voice again, an evil voice in -evil laughter; a deeper voice, too far away for the words to carry any -meaning, not too far for the voice itself to be recognized by a man who -hated it. - -"Taggart and Young Gallup," Standing muttered. "They've got Joe! They'd -cut his throat for ten cents!... Look here; what do you know about all -this?" - -She answered hurriedly; that thin scream still echoed in her ears; she -remembered only too vividly Taggart's treatment of Joe at the dugout -and Taggart's threats; she shivered, saying: - -"All I know.... Jim Taggart and Gallup and another man caught up with -Joe at his cabin; they made him bring them here ... to show them his -gold ... Taggart threatened him with torture...." - -"Come! Hurry! Why in hell's name didn't you tell me?" - -Still with her hand caught in his own he turned and ran, making her run -with him, back to his own cabin. Again they heard, fainter now since -the distance was greater, that thin cry bursting from Joe's lips; she -felt the hand on her own shut down, mercilessly hard.... Running, they -returned to his hidden cabin. - -He went in with her; hurriedly he lighted the candle; the fire was -almost out. Wondering, she sank down upon the bunk. - -"Down, Thor," he commanded; he made the dog lie again across the -threshold. "Watch her, Thor!" Thor growled; the red eyes watched her. - -"Don't you move from that bunk until I get back!" Standing told her -sternly. - -He ran out of the cabin. She heard him breaking through brush, going -the shortest, straightest way down toward the spot from which voices -had come up to them. Thor growled. She looked at the dog, fascinated -with fear of him. The big head was down now, resting between the big -fore paws; the unwinking eyes were on her.... She lay back on the bunk, -staring up at the smoke-blackened rafters. - -It was very quiet. No longer could she hear the sound of Timber-Wolf's -running.... He, one man, pitting himself in blazing anger against at -least three men, ... perhaps four!... What if he were killed? Leaving -her here, under the relentless guard of Thor? She was taken with a long -fit of shivering. Thor growled. - - - - -CHAPTER XV - - -Every experience through which Lynette Brooke had gone until now -seemed suddenly dwarfed into insignificance by the present. She was -so utterly wearied out physically that muscles all over her body, -demanding their hour of relaxation and having that relaxation denied -them through the nervous stress laid upon her, quivered piteously. -Hers was that frame of mind which distorts and magnifies, whipping out -of its true semblance all actual conditions or building them up into -monstrous, grotesque shapes. She was afraid of that great, staring dog -on the threshold; more afraid of him than she had ever been of any -man, Thor's master not excepted. For here was a fear which she could -not throttle down. She would have sighed in content and have gone -to sleep, her turbulent emotions quieted, if only it had been Bruce -Standing's hard hand on the chain denying her her liberty instead of -a great dog lying across the door-step.... Enough here to make her -clinch her teeth to hold back a scream of panic-swept nerves; yet this -was not all. For still that cry, heard through the woods, rang in her -ears; still she built up in the picture which her quick fancy limned -the vision of Mexicali Joe at the mercy of merciless men; Joe, who had -lied to them, hoping to deliver them into the hands of one greater than -they; Joe, who at the end, with them demanding to see what he had to -show them, must be driven to the last extremity to fight for time.... -And, blurring everything else at times, there swept over her another -picture; that of Timber-Wolf, wounded and white-faced, stalking in that -fearless way of his among them, confronting three armed men ... or -four?... and then man-killing.... They were all wolves! She shuddered. -And Thor, watching her, filled the quiet cabin with the sound of his -low suspicious growling. - -"Thor!" she called him, hardly above a whisper. Her lips were dry. -"Good old Thor!" - -His throaty rumble of a growl, telling her of his distrust as -eloquently as it could have done had Thor the words of man at his -command, was her answer. - -"Thor!" She called him again, her voice soft, pleading, coaxing. Then -she lifted herself a few inches on her elbow; like a flash Thor was up -on his haunches, his growl became a snarl, a quick glint of his teeth -showing, a sharp-pointed gleam of menace. - -Yet Lynette held her position, steady upon her elbow; she had never -known a tenser moment. Her throat contracted with her fear; and yet she -kept telling herself stubbornly that yonder was but a dog, a thing of -only brute intelligence, while she had the human brain to oppose him -with; that, some way, she could outwit him. So she did not lie back; to -do so would, she felt, show Thor that she was afraid of him. She made -no further forward movement but she held what she had been suffered to -gain. - -And then she set herself to dominate Thor, a wolf-like dog. She spoke -to him; but first she waited until she could be sure of her voice. That -brute instinct of Thor's would know the slightest quaver of fear when -he heard it. She controlled herself and her voice; she made her tones -low and soft and gentle; she kept them firm. She told herself: "Thor is -but doing his master's bidding because he loves his master! I'll make -him love me! He distrusts.... I'll make him trust instead!" And all the -while she kept her own eyes steady upon Thor's. - -"Thor!" she said quietly. And again: "Thor. Good old Thor. Good old -dog!" - -... Thor had set her down as an enemy; his master's enemy; his master -had commanded him: "Watch her, Thor!" Thor's knowledge was not wide; -yet what he knew he did know thoroughly. And yet Thor had had no -evidence, beyond that offered by a chain, of any open enmity between -his master and this captive; master and girl had travelled all day long -together and neither had flown at the other's throat. More than that, -it had been at the master's own command this very morning that Thor had -felt her hand upon his head; a hand as light as a falling leaf. And now -she spoke to him in his master's own words, but with such a different -voice, calling him Thor, good old dog.... - -It was a soothing voice, a voice made for tender caresses. She spoke -again and again and again. And she was not afraid; Thor could see no -flickering sign of fear in her. A voice softer than had been the touch -of her hand. - -"Thor!" she called him. And his growl was scarcely more growl than -whine. For Thor, before Bruce Standing had been gone twenty minutes, -was growing uncertain. Lynette had had dogs of her own; she knew the -ways of dogs, and in this she had the advantage, since Thor knew -nothing of the ways of women nor of their guile. The dog was restless; -his eyes, upon hers, were no longer so steady. Now and then Thor shook -his head and his eyes wandered. - -"Thor," said Lynette, and now, though her voice, as before, was low and -gentle, there was the note of command in it, "lie down!" - -There was an experiment ... and it failed. Thor was on four feet in a -flash; his growl was unmistakable now; the snarling note came back into -it threateningly. She thought that he was going to fly at her throat.... - -Yet already was the lesser intelligence, though coupled with the -greater physical power, confused. - -Lynette moved slowly; she put her hands up above her head and stretched -out her arms and yawned; Thor growled, but there was little threat in -the growl; just suspicion. Again she moved slowly; close enough, in -the restricted area embraced by the cabin walls, was the table; on it -some morsels of food left from their dinner. Without rising from the -bunk, she reached the tin plate; she took it up, all the while moving -with unhastening slowness. Thor's eyes followed her straying hand; Thor -had been fed, and yet the dog's capacity for food was enormous. He -understood the meaning of her gesture; his eyes hungered. - -She dropped the plate to the floor but, before it struck, not three -feet in front of the dog, she cried out sharply, her voice ringing, her -command at last emphatic: - -"No, Thor! No! No, I tell you!" - -Had she offered the dog the food she would have but awaked within him a -new and violent distrust; he was not so easily to be tricked. But when -she tossed before him something that he was slavering for, and then -laid her command upon him to hold back, she achieved something over -him; he would have held back in any case, but now he held back at her -command. - -"Watch it, Thor!" she cried out loudly. "Watch it, sir!" - -The big dog stared at her; at the fallen morsels; back at her, plainly -at loss. And then again, more sharply, she commanded him: - -"Watch it, Thor!... Lie down, Thor!" - -And Thor, though he growled, lay down.... And his wolfish eyes now were -upon the plate and its spilled contents rather than upon her. - -"If I can but have time!" Lynette was telling herself excitedly. "If -only I can have time ... I can make that dog do what I say to do!... -God, give me time!" - - -When Bruce Standing, rushing through the forest land, came upon -them ... Taggart and the others ... they were grouped about a -despairing, hopeless Mexicali Joe. For Mexicali Joe's _amigo_, the -great Timber-Wolf, in whom next to God he put all trust, had failed -him. And Joe had come to the end of his tether, the end of lies and -excuses and empty explanations. And now Taggart, as brutal a man as -ever wore the badge of the law, was impatient, and meant to make an -end of all procrastinations. It was his intention to give Mexicali Joe -such a "third degree" as never any man had lived to experience before -to-night. Rage, chagrin, disappointment, and natural, innate brutality -spurred him on. Even Young Gallup, who was no chicken-hearted man at -best, demurred; but Taggart cursed him off and told him to hold his -tongue, and planned matters to his own liking. - -"Jim Taggart's got Injun blood in him, you know," muttered Gallup -uneasily to Cliff Shipton ... as though that might explain anything. - -Even to such as Young Gallup, a man of whose humanity little was to -be said, explanations were logical requirements. For Jim Taggart was -at his evil worst. With cruelly hard fist he had knocked the little -Mexican down; before Joe could get to his feet he booted him; when Joe -stood, tottering, Taggart knocked him down again, jarring the quivering -flame of life within him. And only at that did Jim Taggart, a man of -no imagination but of colossal brutality, count that he was beginning. -Then it was that Joe cried out; that his scream pierced through the -night's stillness; that he pleaded with Taggart, saying: - -"This time, I tell you the true! I tell you ever'thing...." - -"You're damned right you will," shouted Taggart, beside himself with -his long baffled rage. "When I get good and ready to listen. And I'm -not listening now, you Mexico pup! First you go through hell, and then -I'll know that you tell the truth! Fool with me, would you; with me, -Jim Taggart? You----" - -Then Taggart began his third degree, listening to neither Joe's -pleadings nor yet to the voice of Young Gallup. - -The four men were in Bruce Standing's old cabin; the door was wide -open, since here, so far from the world, in the dense outer fringes of -Timber-Wolf's isolated wilderness kingdom, no man of them ... saving -Joe alone, who had now given up hope ... had a thought of another human -eye to see; Shipton, at a curt word from Taggart, had piled the mouth -of the fireplace full of dead-wood, for the sole sake of light, and it -was hot in the small room. Taggart had bound the Mexican's hands behind -him, drawing the thong so tight that it cut cruelly into the flesh.... -Taggart had knocked Joe down and had booted him to his heart's content; -the swarthy face had turned a sick white. Taggart's eyes were glowing -like coals raked out from hell's own sulphurous fires; he was sure of -the outcome, sure of swift success, and yet now, in pure fiendishness, -more absorbed in his own unleashed deviltry than in the mere matter of -raw gold, which he counted securely his as soon as he was ready for it. -Whether or not Indian blood ran in his veins, elemental savagery did. - -Mexicali Joe, unable to rise, or in fear for his life if he stirred, -lay on the floor, his eyes dilated with terror, staring up into -Taggart's convulsed face. - -"I tell you the true!" he screamed. "This time, before God, I tell----" - -"Shut up, you greaser-dog!" Taggart, a man of full measure, kicked him, -and under the driving pain inflicted by that heavy boot, Joe's eyes -flickered and closed, and Joe's brain staggered upon the dizzy black -verge of unconsciousness. Taggart saw and understood and pitched a -dipperful of water in his face. Joe gasped faintly. Taggart stepped to -the fireplace, and snatched out a blazing pine branch. - -"I've put my brand on more'n one treacherous dog!" he jeered. "You'll -find my stock running across the wild places in seven States! Here's -where I plant the sign of the cross on you, Mexico! Right square -between the eyes!" - -Suddenly he thrust the burning brand toward Joe's forehead. Joe cried -out in terror: - -"For the love of God!..." His two hands were behind him, but, -galvanized, he fought the pine fagot with his whole body. He strove to -thrust it aside; he fought against his weakness to roll over; Taggart's -heavy foot was in his middle, holding him down; the burning branch in -Taggart's heavy hands was as steady as a steel rod set in concrete; -Joe's threshing panic disturbed it scarcely more than the wind would -have done.... Another scream, shrilling through the night; the smell -of burnt flesh; a red wound on Joe's forehead; Taggart's ugly laugh; -and then suddenly, from just without the open doorway, a terrible shout -from Bruce Standing, and then, in two seconds, Bruce Standing's great -bulk among them. - -"My God!" roared Standing. "_My God!_ ... You, Jim Taggart!..." - -Shipton's rifle stood in a corner; Shipton, as lithe as a cat, leaped -for it. Gallup's was in his hand; he whipped it to his shoulder. -Taggart for one instant was stupefied; then he swept high above -his head the smoke-emitting, redly glowing pine limb. Joe, weeping -hysterically, writhing on the floor, was gasping: "_Jesus Maria!_" ... -God had heard his prayers; God and Bruce Standing. - -But in to-night's game of hazard it was Timber-Wolf who chose to -shuffle, cut, and deal the cards; his rifle was in his hands; it -required but the gentlest touch of his finger to send any man of them -to his last repose. His eyes, the roving eyes of rage, were everywhere -at once. - -"I'd kill you, Taggart, and be glad of the chanth! You, too, Gallup! -Drop that gun!" - -First of them all, it was Cliff Shipton who came to the motionless halt -of shocked consternation; he lifted his hands, his face blanched; he -tried to speak, and only succeeded in making the noise of air gushing -through dry lips. Gallup stopped midway in his purpose of firing, for -Timber Wolf's rifle barrel was trained square upon his chest; at the -look in Standing's eye and the timbre of his voice, Gallup's gun fell -clattering to the floor. Taggart mouthed and cursed, and slowly let his -blazing fagot sink toward the floor. - -For every man of them knew Timber-Wolf well; and they knew that -incongruous _lisping_ which surprised him and mastered his utterance -only when his rage was of the greatest. When Timber-Wolf lisped it was -because such a fiery storm raged through his breast as to make of him a -man who would kill and kill and kill and glory in the killing. - -"And I'd have given a million dollars to thee any man of you put up a -fight!" he was saying harshly. "God, what a thet of cowardly curth! And -you, Jim Taggart, I onth had for bunk-mate and onth thought a man!" - -He reached out suddenly, and with his bare, open palm slapped Taggart's -face; and Taggart staggered backward under the blow until his thick -shoulders brought up against the wall with such a thud that the cabin -shuddered under the impact. - -"Get up, Joe!" growled Standing. "You're another yellow dog, but ... -get up and come here!" - -Joe scrambled to his feet and came hurrying. Standing kept his rifle in -his right hand. Using his left stiffly, he got out his knife and cut -the Mexican's bonds. - -"Go!" he cried savagely. "While you've got legth under you! And thith -time keep clear, or hell take you! I'm through with you ... you make me -thick!..." - -Mexicali Joe, with one last frightened look over his shoulder, fled; -they heard his running feet outside. He was jabbering unintelligibly as -he fled: "_Seņor Caballero!_ ... _Dios!_ ... those devils!..." - -Joe was gone. Bruce Standing's work was done. He looked grim and -implacable, a man of iron heated in the red-hot furnace of rage. He -yearned for Taggart to make a move; or for Gallup. Shipton, as a lesser -cur, he ignored. - -They saw how white, as white as a clean sheet of paper, his face was; -they did not fully understand why, since a man's face, when he is in a -terrible rage, may whiten, as an effect of the searing emotion; they -did not know how he had driven his wounded body all day long nor how -sore his wound was. They could not guess that even now he was holding -himself upright and towering among them through the fierce bending of -his indomitable will. That same will he bent terribly for clean-cut -articulation. - -"Taggart!" he said, and his voice rang as clear as the striking of an -iron hammer upon a resounding anvil. "I'll tempt you to be a man such -as you _once_ were, before you went yellow clean through ... and I'll -show you, your _self_, how dirty a yellow you've gone! Pick up Young -Gallup's rifle!" - -Taggart glared at him and muttered and hesitated, tugged one way -by hatred and the madness of wrath, tugged the other way by his -fear of the certainty of death. Lights, bluish lights, flickered in -Timber-Wolf's eyes. He said again: - -"Pick up that rifle! Other_wise_, in _less_ than ten _sec_onds you are -a dead man!" - -Taggart's face was red when Standing began to speak; ashen by the last -word. Nervously and in great haste he stooped and caught up the gun. - -"You've got your _chance_, Jim Taggart! Your last _chance_! To fight -it out, or say, for _these_ men to hear: 'I'm a dirty yellow dog!' If -you're game we'll fight it out. I'll give you an even break; and we'll -kill each other!" - -Taggart held the rifle, not lifted quite to his waist; his hands were -rigid upon it and did not tremble. He was not a coward; on many an -occasion, when he had borne his sheriff's badge recklessly through -violence, he had shown himself a brave man. He knew now that it lay -within his power, if he were quick and sure, to kill Bruce Standing, -whom he had come to hate, so that his hatred was like a running sore. -And he knew, too, that killing, he would be killed. If it were any man -on earth whom he confronted save Bruce Standing.... - -So he hesitated, for brave man as Jim Taggart always was, he was a man -who did not want to die. And Standing laughed at him and said: - -"You've had your chance; you still have it. Now, fight it out or tuck -your tail between your legs and do my bidding! And my bidding to you, -so that I needn't expect a bullet in the back when I leave you, is to -smash that rifle into flinders against the rock chimney. _And step -lively!_" - -The last words came sharp and sudden, and Taggart started. And then, -hesitating no longer, he whirled the rifle up by the barrel and brought -it with all his might crashing against the fireplace; the fragments -fell from his tingling fingers. And again Standing laughed at him and -again commanded him, saying: - -"There are two more rifles; do the same for each one! And remember, Jim -Taggart, every time you touch a gun you've got the even break to fight -it out; and every time you smash a gun you are saying out loud: 'I'm a -dirty yellow dog!' _Only make it snappy, Jim Taggart!_" - -One after the other, and hastily, Jim Taggart smashed the butts off -two rifles and jammed trigger and trigger-guard so that from firearms -the weapons were resolved into the estate of so much scrap-iron and -splintered wood. - -"I'll take your two toy guns, Jim," said Standing. "And remember this; -at short range the man with the revolver has the edge! When you drag -a gun out you've got your chance to come up shooting! Don't overlook -that! And remember along with it, that when you hand me a gun, butt-end -first, you are saying aloud for the world to hear: 'I'm a dirty yellow -dog!'" - -"By God...." - -"Yes, Jim Taggart, ... by God, you're a dirty dog!" - -Lingeringly Taggart drew forth the heavy side-arms dragging at his -holsters; all the while he was tempted almost beyond resistance to -avail himself of his opportunity and of that quick sure skill of his; -to shoot from the hip, as he could do with the swiftness of a flash -of the wrist; he could shoot and kill. And within his heart, knowing -Bruce Standing as he did, he knew, too, that though he shot true to a -hair line, none the less, Bruce Standing would kill him.... He gave a -gun into Standing's left hand and saw it thrust into his belt. Then -was Taggart's time to snatch out his other weapon and drill that hole -through the big body in front of him which would surely let the life -run out; now was his chance, while for an instant one of Standing's -hands was busy at his belt!... If it had been any other man in the -world there confronting him! Any man but Bruce Standing! Jim Taggart -was near weeping. But he drew out his second revolver and saw it -bestowed as its fellow had been. - -"Four times you've said it, plainer than words!" cried Standing -ringingly. "Gallup will never forget; and he'll tell the tale! Shipton -will remember and will blab! And, what's worse for the soul of a man, -Jim Taggart, you'll remember to the last day you live!... And now you -three can consider yourselves as so many mongrel curs whose back-biting -teeth I've knocked down your throats for you! I'll leave you to your -growlings and whinings!" - -He swung about and went out. He knew both Gallup and Shipton, knew -them and their habits well, and knew that neither man had the habit -of carrying a pistol. Further, their coats were off, and he had seen -that neither had a holster at his belt. So he turned his back on them -to emphasize his contempt and did not turn his head as he plunged -into the outside night and into the thick dark under the trees, going -back to his hidden cabin and Lynette and Thor. He realized that he -himself, despite a herculean physique, was near the tether's end of his -endurance; he realized that Lynette was also heavily borne down by all -that she, a girl, had gone through and that he had left her overlong -with his wolfish dog. - -What he could not know was that a revolver which had once already -shot him in the back had followed him all these miles through the -wilderness and was now lying on the bunk in the cabin he had just -quitted; he could not know how, at the Gallup House after Babe Deveril -had flung it in Taggart's face, Lynette's pistol had lain there on the -floor until Taggart had been aroused to consciousness; nor how Gallup -had picked it up, nor how Taggart had muttered: "Save it, Young. It -may come in handy for evidence in court." Gallup had stuck it into his -pocket; he had brought it with him; he had tossed it down among the -blankets.... - -Taggart stared after him with terrible eyes; Taggart remembered and, -when he dared, flung himself across the room, snatching for it among -the covers. Standing, hastening, strode on. Taggart found the weapon; -he ran out of the cabin with it in his hand; dodged to one side of -the open door to be out of way of the firelight. Standing hurried on, -he had not seen Taggart; Taggart could scarcely see him, could but -make out vaguely a blur where he heard heavy footfalls.... It was all -chance; but now no longer was Taggart himself running the desperate -chances. He fired, one shot after another, until he emptied the little -gun--four shots altogether; the hammer clicked down on the fifth, the -empty shell. - -Chance, pure chance; and yet chance is ironical and loves its own grim -jest. The first bullet, the only one of them all to find its target, -struck Timber-Wolf. And it was as though this questing bit of lead were -seeking to tread the same path blazed by its angry brother down at the -Gallup House in Big Pine. For it, like the other from the same muzzle, -struck him from behind; and it, too, struck him upon the left side, in -the outer shoulder, not half a dozen inches from the spot where he had -been shot before.... - -Standing staggered and caught his breath with a grunt; he lurched into -a tree and stood leaning against it. For a moment he was dizzied and -could not see clearly. Then, turning, he made out the cabin behind -him; the bright rectangle of the door; two dark running forms leaping -through it, gone into the gulf of the black night. He jerked up his -rifle, holding it in one hand, unsupported by the other, his shoulder, -the right, against the tree. But they were gone before he could shoot. -He waited. He heard a breaking through brush; men running. They were -running away! They did not know that they had hit him; they could not -tell, and they were afraid of his return! He lifted his voice and -shouted at them in the sudden grip of a terrible anger. He listened -to the noise they made and strove to judge their positions and began -shooting after them. He fired until the rifle clip was empty. Then, -while awkwardly, with one hand, he put in a fresh clip, he listened -again. Silence only. - -... He was strangely weak and uncertain; he had to draw his brows down -with a steely effort to clear his thoughts. They were gone ... they -would not come back ... it was too dark to look for them. And he had -left that girl overlong ... and he was shot full of pain. A surge of -anger for every surge of weakness.... - -He started on toward his hidden cabin and Lynette. He blundered into a -tree. He could feel the hot blood down his shoulder. He began using his -rifle as a man may use a cane, leaning on it heavily. - - - - -CHAPTER XVI - - -Bruce Standing came, weaving his way, like a drunken man, through the -woods. He was sick; sick and weak. He muttered to himself constantly. -Lynette was at the top of his thought and at the bottom; she dominated -his whole mind. He was used through long years to such as Jim Taggart -and their crooked ways; he was not used to such as Lynette Brooke, a -girl like a flower and yet fearless. It had been his way to hold all -women in scorn, since it had not been given unto him during the hard -years of his life to know the finer women, the true women worth while, -more than worth the while of a mere man. He had held his head high; he -had mocked and jeered at them; he had been no man to doff his hat with -the flattering elegance of a Babe Deveril for every fair face seen. -So now the one thing which in his fiery and feverish mood galled him -most was the thought of being seen by Lynette as a man borne down and -crushed and made weak and sick. For most of all he hated weaklings. - -"She laughed at me ... damn her," he muttered. And, as an afterthought: -"She shot me in the back, after the fashion of her treacherous sex!" - -He had driven himself harder all day long than any sane man, wounded, -should have thought of doing. Now the thought, working its way -uppermost through the fomenting confusion of teeming thoughts, was: -"I'll let her go. I'll be rid of her." For already, deep down in the -depths of his heart, he knew that already a girl, a girl whom he -despised and had meant to pay in full for her wickedness, had intrigued -him; she had flung her defiant fearlessness into his face; she had -kept a lifted head and straightforward eyes; and ... those eyes of -Lynette Brooke! Deep, fathomless, gray, tender, alluring, the eyes of -the one woman for each man! Almost he could have forgotten, not merely -forgiven, her greater fault of laughing at his infirmity; if only she -had not been of the species, like Jim Taggart's, to shoot a man in the -back. - -He meant to let her go free and he had his own reasons for his change -of front. Though she had laughed and galled him, though she had sunk to -a cowardly act and shot him when he was not looking, at least she was -not the coward which he had counted upon finding her; he gave credit -where credit was due. He had humiliated her sufficiently, dragging -her after him, humbling a spirit as proud as his own, making her his -handmaiden, calling her his slave. That was one thing. And another, -befogged as it was, was even clearer: In letting her go, in being -rid for all time of her and the lure of her eyes, he was protecting -himself, Bruce Standing, and none other! ... Fearless, he honored her -for that. And yet a treacherous she-animal; so he wanted no more of -her, no more of the look of her, the fragrance of her, the pressure -of her upon his own spirit. He held himself a man; a man he meant -to remain. And, for the first time in all his life he was a little -afraid.... - -And then, just at the moment when it would have been better for them -both if he had not come ... or when it was best that he should come ... -these are questions and the answers of all questions fate holds in her -lap, hidden by the films of the future ... he came staggering up to the -door of the hidden cabin. And, at the sight of her, he pulled himself -up, stiffening, as taut as a bowstring the instant that the arrow -thrills to the command to speed. - -There, in the doorway framed by the two big-boled pines she stood, -vividly outlined by the firelight from within the cabin, superbly, -gloriously feminine, her own slender soft loveliness thrown into -tremendous contrast by the figure at her side, the figure of old Thor -on whose head her hand rested as light as a fallen leaf! Her hand -on Thor's head! She and Thor standing side by side, her hand on his -head.... - -Sudden rage flared up in Timber-Wolf's heart; he gripped his rifle -in both hands, contemptuously ignoring the pains which shot through -his left shoulder; at that moment he could have thanked God for -excuse enough to shoot her dead. She had seduced the loyalty and -trustworthiness of Thor; she had done that! If a man like Standing -could not trust his dog, when that dog was old Thor, then where on this -green earth could he plant his trust? - -"Back!" he stormed at her. "Back!" - -She was poised for flight. He came at the instant of her victory over -the brute intelligence of a dog, at the moment of her high hopes, when -her heart hot in rebellion throbbed with triumph. She, too, at that -moment, could she have commanded the lightnings, would have stricken -him dead. Her hatred of him reached in a flash such heights as it had -never aspired to before. - -Back? He commanded her to turn back? Shouted his dictates at her in -that first moment when she sensed escape and freedom and victory -over him who had been victor long enough? Back? Not now; not though -he flourished his rifle, threatening her with that while he shouted -angrily at her. Briefly the sight of him had unnerved her, had created -within her an utter powerlessness to move hand or foot. But before he -could shout "Back!" the second time defiance, like a flood of fire, -broke along her veins, warming her from head to foot; she sprang out -from the area of light at the cabin door and, running more swiftly than -Bruce Standing had deemed any girl could ever run, she sped away among -the trees.... - -A moment ago he had but the one firm intention: To set her free and -be rid of her for all time. Now, not ten seconds after holding that -purpose, he was rushing after her, forgetful of everything, his wounds -and sick weariness, except his one determination to drag her back! He -was angry; in his anger, not admitting to himself the true explanation, -he felt that he must blame her for a third crime ... she had trifled -with the integrity of his dog's loyalty ... she had corrupted old -Thor's sturdy honesty.... - -She ran like a deer. The moment that she broke into headlong flight -that very act released within her a full tide of fright; it became a -panic like that of soldiers once they have thrown down their arms and -plunged into the delirium of disordered retreat. She ran as she had -never done before, even when she and Babe Deveril had fled through the -night. And Bruce Standing would never have come up with her that night -had it not been that in the dark she fell, stumbling over the low mound -left to mark the place where an ancient log had disintegrated. As she -floundered to her feet she felt his hand on her shoulder. She screamed, -she struck at him.... - -He caught her two hands as he had done once before; she could have no -inkling of the tremendous call he put upon himself, body and will; she -could hear his heavy, labored breathing, but she, too, was breathing -in gasps. She could see neither the whiteness of his face nor yet the -blood soaking his shirt. He did not speak. He was not thinking clearly. -He merely said within himself: "I got her!" That was everything. Until, -as they came again into the outward-pouring firelight in front of the -cabin door, he wondered somewhat uneasily: "What am I going to do with -her?" - -Lynette, panting and piteously shaken, dropped down on the edge of the -bunk, overborne by disaster, hopeless, her face in her hands; she was -fighting with herself against a burst of tears. Thus she did not see -Bruce Standing as he stood at the threshold, looking at her. She heard -his step; it shuffled and was uncertain, but she did not at the moment -mark this. She heard a whine from old Thor, a Thor perplexed and ill at -ease. - -... Suddenly she thought: "He hasn't moved; he hasn't spoken!" She -dropped her hands then and looked up swiftly. And, thus, she surprised -a queer look in his eyes; his own thoughts were all chaotic and yet -there was beginning to burn one steady thought among them like one -bright flame in a whirl of smoke. He had closed the door when they -came in; he had sat down upon the up-ended log which served here as a -chair; Thor's head was on the master's knee and absently Standing's -hand was stroking it. He had dropped his rifle outside when he started -to run after her; he had not stopped to look for it as they came in. -She saw that a revolver was half in and half out of his pocket.... Then -she marked, with a start, the dead-white of his face and the way his -left arm hung limp, and the red stain on his wrist and the back of his -hand where the blood had run down his sleeve. Her first thought was -of his old wound and how he was not the man to give a wound a chance -to heal, but rather would break it open again and again through his -violence. Then she recalled what, during these last few minutes she had -forgotten--the shots which she had heard a little while ago. And she -knew that, though he sat upright and stared at her with the old look -again in his eyes, he had been shot the second time. - -"I brought you back, girl," he said at last, and she knew that he was -bending a vast resource of will to keep his tone clear and steady, "not -because I mean to keep you any longer ... but just to show you that -with all the tricks of your sex you can take no step that I do not tell -you to take! Now, I've the idea that I'd like best to be alone. You can -go." - -In a flash she jumped to her feet; she would scarcely credit her ears, -and yet one look at the man told her reassuringly that he was in -earnest. - -"I don't know where you'll go," he said. "And I don't care. But I can -tell you you'll find some good men and true, men of your own kind, -since they shoot in the back, down below my other cabin; Taggart and -Gallup and Shipton.... No, your friend Baby Devil isn't there! And -Mexicali Joe has skipped out. If you like to take your chances with -those birds...." He jerked out the revolver which recently had been -Taggart's and tossed it to the bunk. "You can take that along, if you -like." - -She flushed up, her face as hot as fire, as he jeered at her, saying: -"Men of your own kind, since they shoot in the back!" ... She could -come close to an accurate guess of what had happened; since Mexicali -Joe was gone it must be that Standing had set him free; since Standing -returned with a fresh wound, it must be that Taggart or one of his -crowd had shot him in the back.... - -She had not meant to speak, but now she cried out hotly: - -"I did not shoot you! You didn't see ... if you had seen you would -know. My pistol lay on the table ... the window was open ... some one -reached in and picked it up and shot you ... I was frightened, and when -the pistol was dropped back to the table, I caught it up...." - -His eyes grew brilliant with the intensity of the look he turned upon -her.... But his brain was reeling, his weakness overpowered him ... he -was set with all the steel of his character against showing before her -the first sign of weakness.... - -"Liar!" he flung at her. "To lie about it ... that's worse than the -shot...." - -He leaned back against the wall. "You're free now," he said. "I would -to God I had never seen you!" - -For answer she flung her bright laughter back at him; defiant, angry, -bitter laughter. She caught up the heavy revolver he had thrown to her. - -"I could shoot you now ... with no one to see...." - -His own laughter, hard and ugly, answered while he found the strength -to say sternly: - -"But with me looking you straight in the eyes ... you'd lose your nerve -at that!" - -She flung the weapon down to the floor, scorning any gift of his. -Without another word, with never another glance toward him, she passed -to the door, jerked it open and went out. - -He sat staring into the fire. Thor began sniffing at the limp hand. -Standing got to his feet; the fire was dying down and a sudden shiver -of cold prompted him to pile on fresh fuel. He kicked Taggart's -revolver viciously out of his way. He was going to the fireplace, but -in doing so passed the bunk. He sat down a moment, wiping the sweat -from his forehead ... cold and sweating at the same time. He lay back, -flat on his back, and shut his eyes. He wondered vaguely how much blood -he had lost coming up through the woods from the lower cabin where he -had been shot; how much blood he had lost while he ran like a madman -after that girl.... His eyes were shut doggedly tight and yet it seemed -to his dizzied senses as though he could feel the look of her eyes, -bending over him.... Now, that was a strange thing.... Never once had -she given him a look from those eyes of hers to show a single spasm of -fear.... Fearless? She, a girl? Did fearlessness and cowardice blend, -then, that the incomprehensible result might be known as woman? For it -was the supreme stroke of cowardice to shoot a man in the back. And -yet ... she had said: "I did not shoot you!" While she spoke, he had -believed!... He lay jeering at himself.... And all the while, as in a -vision, he saw a pair of big gray eyes, soft and tender and alluring, -bending over him.... - -"There's just one thing in the world," muttered Bruce Standing aloud, -as a man may do when hard driven by perplexity and safe in solitary -isolation from other ears than his own, "that I'd give everything to -know! To know for sure!... Just one thing...." - - - - -CHAPTER XVII - - -Lynette, running like one blind out into the dark silent forest land, -her own soul storm-tossed, stopped with sudden abruptness, staring -about her, striving to see what lay before her, about her. Free! As -free as the wind, to roam where she listed. And alone! Alone with the -wilderness for the first moment since she had fled the menace yelping -at her heels in Big Pine. _Alone._ - -And walled about by the wildest and most impenetrably blackly dark -solitudes. She had but the one impulse; to flee from this man whose -fellows termed him a wolf; but the one clear thought, that she _must_ -hasten in search of the very man from whom originally she had fled, -Jim Taggart. For, since Bruce Standing had not been killed by that -shot fired in her room at the Gallup House, she, like Babe Deveril, -was no longer threatened with the most serious charge of murder. Let -Taggart place her under arrest; let him take her back into the region -of towns and stages and lamp-lit homes; let him accuse her. Suddenly it -seemed to her, wearied with endless exertion and privation and nervous -tension, that there could be no peace greater than that of being taken -back and placed in custody in Big Pine! - -Now she had to guide her but a general, a very vague, sense of -direction. It was so absolutely dark! There were stars, but they seemed -little sparks of cold distant light, blurred and almost lost beyond -the tops of the pines. Standing had led her after him, on his way to -his lower cabin, down the gentle slope. Yes; she knew the general -direction. And the distance? She had little impression of the distance -between these two aloof lairs of Timber-Wolf; half a mile or two -miles, she did not know. She would go on and on, seeking a way among -the trees; on and on and on, stumbling in the dark. Then, after a -while, she would call; call and call again, praying that Taggart and -the others were lurking somewhere within ear-shot; that they would -hear and come to her ... and place her under arrest! And she wondered, -as she had done so many a time to-day, where was Babe Deveril? Was he -near? Would he, by any chance, hear her? Would he, too, come to her? -And, then, what? - -She began hastening on; to be farther from him, though that meant to -come at every step nearer Jim Taggart and Young Gallup and that other -man with the hawk face. She could not be absolutely certain that the -direction she set her course by would ever lead her to the lower cabin; -but on one point she was assured: at every step she was getting farther -from wolf-man and wolf-dog. What a brute, what a beast he was! _And -yet_ ... _and yet_.... There swept across her, like a clean, cold wind -out of the north, a sudden appreciation of those finer qualities of -manhood which his nature and his fate had allowed to dwell on in that -anomaly, Bruce Standing. His absolute honesty, itself like a north -wind, was not to be gainsaid even by his bitterest enemy; his courage, -in any woman's eyes, was invested with sheer nobility. How he had -befriended poor little Mexicali Joe; how, to-night for the second time, -though handicapped by his wound, he had gone to Joe's relief; how he, -one against three, had had his way, like a lion among curs. Wolf or -lion?... And, finally, she abode wonderingly on that queer, distorted -chivalry which resided in the heart of him, his brutally chivalrous way -with her. For, no matter how harsh and bitter his tongue had been and -no matter how hard his eye, he had not harmed her; when his hands had -been like steel upon hers, commanding her while he jeered at her, they -had not once so much as bruised her soft skin. In no way had he harmed -her while it had been at his command, had he desired, to harm her in -all ways.... She thought of being alone with any man like Taggart or -Gallup or that hawk-faced hanger-on of theirs ... and shuddered. Even -Babe Deveril; he had looked at her last night, insinuating.... She -remembered how Bruce Standing, rushing down upon them, had thrown his -own rifle away to grapple with Deveril, man to man and no odds stolen; -she would never forget the picture of him with his axe, attacking the -jail and defying the law.... Her mind raced, her thoughts switched -into a new groove: how he had set her free just now and tossed her the -revolver.... - -And then came the most vivid picture of all, the latest one, that of -Bruce Standing glaring at her just before she ran out of the cabin. A -second time she came to a sudden stop. He had looked like a man dying! -Too proud, with that vainglorious pride of his, to have her, a girl, -watch him, a man, die. Too unyieldingly proud and defiant to have her, -a weakling, look on while he, the strongest man she had ever glimpsed, -yielded in anything, if even to death itself. What a man he was! A man -wrong-minded, maybe; a man who overrode others and bore them down; a -man who set up his own standards, such as they were, and battled for -them wholeheartedly. Even in the matter of high-handed robbery ... he -had robbed Babe Deveril of three thousand dollars, and yet voluntarily, -when he was ready to make restitution and not before, he had returned -the full amount, estimating in his own way that he had merely borrowed -it! There was the man disclosed; one who made his own laws, and yet -who abode by them as loyally and as unswervingly as a true priest may -abide by God's.... - -And he had looked like a man dying. She turned her head. The door -of his cabin was still wide open, as she had left it; light, though -failing, still gushed out. She told herself that it was only a natural -curiosity, surely her sex's most irrefutable prerogative, that made her -turn and look. She caught no sight of him; he was not striding up and -down. And he had not come outside for his fallen rifle.... - -Her breast rose and fell to a deep sigh. Of relief, perhaps; perhaps -for another emotion. Still she remained where she was, pondering. Which -way lay the path to the other cabin, where Taggart and Gallup and -the other man were? And what was Bruce Standing doing? He had named -her "Liar!" He did not believe when she had cried out passionately: -"I did not shoot you!" Darting considerations, flashing through her -consciousness. The one question was: "Was Bruce Standing mortally -wounded?" Shot in the back a second time; he had as much as told her -that. - -Babe Deveril was what the world names a ladies' man. Bruce Standing -was a man's man. And the strange part of it is that the feminine soul -is drawn to the man's man inevitably more urgently than to the ladies' -man.... - -And all the while Lynette was saying to herself: "He is a brute and a -beast and yet ... he has not harmed me once and he has set me free and -there is some good in him and ... and he may be dying! Alone." - -She had turned her head to look back; now, hesitatingly, her whole -body turned. Slowly, silently, she retraced her steps. She came closer -and closer to the hidden cabin; the light outlining the open door -grew fainter, dimmer as the fire died down; she heard no sound; she -caught no glimpse of a man within. She drew still closer; she heard -the strange whining of his dog. Even Thor she could not see until, -lingering at every step, she came close to the door. Then she saw -both, the man on his back, his lax hand on the floor; the dog whining, -distressed, licking the hand one instant and then looking wistfully -into the master's face. A face bloodlessly white, save for one smear of -blood, where a hand had sought to wipe his eyes clear of a gathering -film. - -Hesitating no longer, she stepped across the threshold. Thor looked at -her and broke into a new whining, a note of sudden joyousness in it. -Standing did not hear and did not know that she had returned; his eyes -were shut and there was the pulse as of distant seas in his ears. She -hurried to the fireplace and tossed into it the last of the wood he had -gathered; then she came swiftly to where he lay. Her heart was beating -wildly.... - -She saw that his jaw was set, hard and stubborn. She stood, uncertain, -troubled, half regretful that she had come back, hence half of a mind -to go hurriedly. But she did not stir for a long time, and then only -to come the last step closer. His eyes flew open; he looked up at her. -And, as the fire she had freshly piled blazed higher, she saw a sudden -flash of his eyes ... whether the reflection of the fire or the flash -of the spirit within him, she could not tell. - -"I thought you'd gone," he said. He sat up; it was a struggle for him -to do so, yet here was a man who made of all his life a struggle and -who thought nothing of a trifling victory over either nature itself or -his fellow man. - -"You have been cruel...." - -He mocked her with his haggard eyes. - -"That," she ran on swiftly, "is what you expected me to say to you, -Bruce Standing, that you have been cruel! And, what I came back to say -is: '_You have been good to me!_'" - -She had not meant to say anything of the kind. But when she looked into -his eyes, when she saw the clear-as-crystal soul of him, a soul as -simple as a child's and ... yes!... as clean; and when she remembered -how she had ridden all day long while he had walked, and how he had -steadfastly refused to so much as harm a hair of her head, the words -gushed forth. - -He eyed her queerly; suspicion in his look and confusion. She could -have laughed out aloud suddenly, since her whole emotional being was -aquiver; for he, Timber-Wolf, like his own wolf-dog, Thor, distrusted -her and regarded her with fierce eyes and yet ... and yet.... - -"Your wound has not been dressed since morning," she said quietly. "And -now you've got yourself another wound. I am going to help you with -them." - -His slave.... He had commanded her once to help him with his wound.... -But his slave no longer, since he himself had set her free! Yet here -she was, saying that she stood ready to help him care for his wounds. -More, already she was getting warm water, and his old piece of castile -soap ... she was rolling up her sleeves.... - -He glared at her through a mist. He could be sure of nothing, since it -_seemed_ to him that she was half smiling! A tender, wistful sort of -smile ... as if she had it in her heart to forget injuries done, to -forgive him who had done them, and to succor him now that there was -little of man-strength left in his body.... Curse her! What right had -she to forgive, to look at a man that way? He had asked nothing from -her, save that she leave him.... - -He stirred uneasily. _Had_ she smiled? In this uncertain light one -could be certain of nothing; the flickering of the wood fire, casting -quick-racing little shadows, breaking into their play with sudden -warm, rosy gleamings, made it impossible for him to know if she had -smiled, or if that semblance of a smile were but the effect of shifting -lights. He held himself rigid, his back to the wall now, his right hand -clinched on his knee. - -"When I am in need of your help ... you who shot me...." - -She came to him unafraid; she set down the can of warm water on the -floor; she began unbuttoning the neck of his shirt. He threw up his -hand, the right, hard-clinched, as though he would strike her in the -face; but he let the hand fall back to his side. She heard a great sigh. - -"I told you once," she said quietly, "that I did not shoot you. And I -am no more liar than you are, Bruce Standing." - -He cursed himself for a fool; he was tired and weak and dizzy; his mind -was the abode of confusions; he no longer knew what was fact and what -illusion. One thing alone he did know, a marvellous thing; there was -in her low voice the ring of utter honesty when she said: "I did not -shoot you!" ... Liars; all her sex, waging their weak wars from ambush, -holding their place in the world through seduction and deceit, all were -liars. And yet she troubled him, and with that voice and those eyes -she bred uncertainty on top of uncertainty in his uncertain soul. Her -steady fingers were unbuttoning his collar.... - -"Then why," he muttered, jeering and challenging, "did you run as you -did after the shot? And how, since you and I were alone in the room...." - -"The window was open! Under it was the table, my pistol where I had -dropped it on the table. You turned your back; I was going to jump out -the window and run because for the moment I was afraid! But some one, -some man, was there; I saw his hand; it caught up the pistol. It was he -who shot you in the back! And when he dropped the pistol back to the -table...." - -Again he demanded fiercely: - -"But you ran ... _why_? And with the gun in your hand! Why? _Why_, -girl, if you are not lying to me?" - -"Haven't I told you?" Suddenly she was aflame with passionate -vehemence. "I was frightened; ready to run; keyed up to run! There came -that shot, and you were hit; I thought you were killed! It flashed over -me that I would be suspected and all evidence would point to me and I -would be convicted of murder! Cowardly murder!... One does not think at -such a time; there is only the rush of instinct and impulse. I was all -ready to run; I had no time to think...." - -"But you had the revolver in your hand as you went through the window!" - -"Impulse and instinct, I tell you!" she cried. "Instinct to flee; and -to snatch at the first weapon for protection, even though it was the -weapon that had just shot you! I was a fool, maybe; and maybe by acting -as I did I saved my own life!" - -He was looking up into her face queerly; she saw the savage gathering -of his brows; with all his might he strove for clear vision and clear -thought. With a new, terrible keenness, he fixed his eyes upon her; -then he said deliberately: "Liar!" - -He saw the flash of her eyes, the angry set of her mouth; her hands -were clinched now, and for a moment it was he who believed that he -was to be struck full across the face. And thereupon his own eyes -brightened; this girl did not speak like a liar; she did not carry -herself like one; she had yet to show the first streak of yellow which -is in the warp and woof of lying souls. - -But Lynette curbed her quick temper and said only: - -"You have no right to call me that; my word is as good as your word, -Bruce Standing. Had I shot you I should not have waited for you to turn -your back. One thing I did do for which I was sorry even while I did -it, and ashamed; I laughed at you even while I sympathized with your -anger against a man who, to be little and mean, could have your horse -killed. And it was not at you that I laughed, after all ... there come -times when I can't help laughing, though there is nothing to laugh at -... it was the shock, I think ... the incongruousness, to hear you...." - -She ended there, sparing him any further reference to his lisping of -which he was so desperately ashamed; once more she began working at his -collar.... And again there came into the blue eyes of Bruce Standing a -flash as of blue fire, though he hid it from her; and a sudden great, -utterly mysterious gladness blossomed magically. For, though he did not -understand and though he would never rest until he did understand, yet -already he began to believe that this girl with the fearless look spoke -the truth! And this, because of the ring of her voice and the tip of -her head, erect on its white throat, and the flash of her own eyes, as -though the spirit of man and maid had struck fire, one from the other. - -"If you'll help me ..." said Lynette. "If you can sit a little bit -forward?... Your shirt will have to be torn or cut; I can't get to your -shoulder otherwise...." - -He put up his right hand; as he jerked vigorously there was the sound -of tearing and ripping; he thrust the cloth down from the left side and -laid bare his great chest and the powerfully muscled left shoulder and -upper arm. Lynette shuddered; he had lost so much blood! And against -the smooth perfect whiteness of his healthy skin the blood was so -emphasized. She found the new wound.... - -"Shot in the back ... twice shot in the back," she said, and again she -shivered. "And you don't know who shot you either time?" - -"I have my own idea about both," he said curtly. And had nothing to add. - -With the warm water and soap she cleansed the fresh wound and then the -older one. Then, with gentle fingers, she did as he bade her with Billy -Winch's salve, applying it generously. - -When the thing was done they looked at each other strangely; man and -maid in the wild-wood, with much lying between them, with each asking -swift unanswerable questions, with the night in the solitudes advancing. - -"It's a strange thing that you came back," said Standing. - -"Where better had I to go?" - -"I told you that Taggart and his friends were down there. You might -have found them." - -She turned from him abruptly and went back to the fireplace; he could -see only the curve of her cheek and a curl and her shoulder. - -"I have no greater liking for Sheriff Taggart than you have," she said. - -He wanted to see her face, but she was stubborn in refusing to turn. He -said curiously: - -"Your friend, Baby Devil, ought to be overhauling them before long! If -you think he decided to come this way?" - -She did not answer. He began to grow angry with her for that; for -refusing to reply when he spoke; for refusing to discuss Babe Deveril. -But he kept a shut mouth, though with the effort his jaws bulged. He -began feeling in his pocket for pipe and tobacco; he felt the need of -it.... - -He would have sworn that she had not looked and could not have seen, -but when he struggled over the difficulty of doing everything with one -hand she whirled and came forward impulsively and finished the task for -him, packing the tobacco into the black bowl of his pipe and handing -him a lighted splinter from the fire. - -He muttered something; she had gone back to her place at the fire -and did not know whether his muttering was of thanks or curses; -her attitude would have seemed to imply that either would find her -indifferent. He smoked slowly; the strong tobacco, sharp and acrid, -did him good; a man of steady nerve, he had come to a point where his -nerves needed steadying; just now he wanted silence and his pipe and -time to grope for certain readjustments. Sweeping in all his ways was -Bruce Standing; in building up, tearing down, building up again; and -always with him was the sheerest joy in building up.... And Lynette, -for the first time in many hours, experienced a moment of bright -happiness. - -He knocked out the ashes of his pipe, rapping the black bowl sharply -against his boot heel. Heavily he got to his feet. From the bunk he -dragged a blanket tossing it on the floor in a corner by the fireplace. -Obviously he was intending it for his bed.... - -"You must lie on the bunk," she cried impulsively. "You are worse hurt -than you seem to know. In any case, I give you my word I'll not use it!" - -"Why should I care what you do, girl?" he demanded, staring at her -fiercely. "The bunk is there; take it or leave it." - -Defiantly she snatched up a second blanket and folded it into the -opposite corner, sitting down on it with her feet tucked under her, -beginning swiftly to rebraid her loose hair. He turned from her to -lie down. But since he had chosen the corner which he had, and since -because of his wounds he was forced to lie on his right side, he faced -toward her. She appeared not to notice him, having brooding eyes only -for the fire; and yet she had had her clear view of his haggard face. -Thor came to lie close to his master's feet. - -There were three blankets. Lynette, only asking herself curiously what -explosion of wrath she might bring upon herself, rose and went for the -third, and, without saying anything, spread it over Standing. He looked -at her amazed. But he did not speak. Instead, after the briefest of -hesitations, he floundered to his feet, set one boot heel upon the edge -of the blanket while in his good hand he gripped a corner; with one -sudden effort he ripped the blanket fairly in two. He tramped across -the small room and dropped half by her side; he went back to his own -corner and lay down, dragging the other fragment up over his shoulders, -like a shawl.... - -Lynette was tired almost to the end of endurance; further, this night -had been no less a tax upon her than had the other nights. Now, -suddenly, she burst into that inimitable laughter of hers, sounding as -light and gay and mirthful as the laugh of a delighted child.... - -"Behold! The acme of politeness!" she cried merrily. "A perfectly good -bunk and the two travellers going to sleep on the floor!" - -He stared at her unsmilingly for a long time. - -"I haven't thanked you, girl, for what you've done for me to-night. -I am not without gratitude, but I'm no man for pretty speeches, I am -afraid. At any rate here's this: I came hunting a cowardly sneak of a -she-cat and I found a true sport. And I think I'm done with making war -on you!... Unless...." - -"Unless ... _what_?" asked Lynette. - -But he was lying back now, his eyes closed. He did not appear to have -heard. She, too, lay down with a little weary sigh. Her last thoughts -were three; they mingled and grew confused as all thoughts faded. -But before they blurred they were these: Bruce Standing had dropped -his rifle outside and had not gone out for it; Babe Deveril had not -returned for her, but no doubt was still seeking her; and Bruce -Standing was done making war on her, _unless_.... - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII - - -Lynette awoke, shivering. It was pitch-dark; the fire had burned out; -it must be very late, as she was stiff and cold. She had been dreaming -and her shivering was half a shudder of fear. Her nightmare had been -one of herself attacked and pursued hideously by wild animals; lions -which in the fashion of dreams, changed into wolves, then into savages. -She sat up, gathering her blanket about her. She heard Standing -breathing heavily; she could hear, now and then, his mutterings of -uneasy sleep. Perhaps it had been this which had awaked her? She began -listening as one, startled out of slumber, inevitably does to another's -incoherencies. It was hard to catch a word despite the cabin's hushed -silence into which every slightest sound penetrated. The sounds were -like those of a man babbling in fever. Once it seemed to her that he -had hardly more than whispered "Girl!" - -Always must the mind of one who listens thus be held under the spell of -another spirit winging its way among dreams; the moment is uncanny if -only because it brings in such close contact the commonplace of every -day and the inexplicable of dreams. In the night, in the silence, under -this queer spell, her own mind groping, she stirred uneasily. - -It flashed across Lynette that it had not been Timber-Wolf's mumbling -voice that had awakened her. That there had been something else, a new -sound from without. She listened intently, straining her ears. _There -was some one or something outside!_ She started to her feet, though -clinging to the security offered by her corner. - -The door was open; it was a mere degree less dark outside than within. -As she stared into the blackness she made out vaguely the mass of -trees. A black wall in a black night. Some one out there? Then who? -_Babe Deveril?_ - -All along she had held tenaciously to the thought that Babe Deveril -would come for her. Perhaps he had come now; perhaps he lingered -outside, not knowing positively that she was here, not knowing if -Standing were awake or asleep, not knowing if Standing were sick of his -wound or ready with rifle in hand. - -Her thoughts began to fly like stabs of lightning; briefly they made -everything clear only to plunge her whole world of thought back into -even more profound darkness. Babe Deveril? It might be! Or it might be -Mexicali Joe, lurking after his fashion. Or it might, equally well, be -Taggart with Gallup and that other man at his heels. By now she was -certain of only one thing: _There was some one out there._ - -She stood rigid for ten or fifteen minutes; Standing had become quiet -save for his heavy breathing; she strove with all senses upgathered -tensely to read the riddle of the night. Once she was sure of a sound -outside; but the mystery of a night sound is so baffling! A man's -cautious tread? Or a limb stirring gently? Or a bird among leaves, or -a rabbit? It was so easy a matter, with her senses so freshly aroused -from a nightmare of wild animals and savage pursuers, to people the -night with fantastic menaces. - -Bruce Standing was unarmed; his rifle dropped somewhere outside when -he had dashed after her. She, too, was without a weapon. He had given -her the big revolver; she had refused it; she had flung it angrily to -the floor, near the bunk. She remembered seeing it there, almost out of -sight, under the bunk.... - -If it were Babe Deveril, she had nothing to fear. If Mexicali Joe, she -had nothing to fear. If Taggart and Gallup and the other? What had she -to fear from them? Merely arrest, at most, and not so long ago she had -been eager for that! And if some prowling animal? - -"There's nothing to hurt me," she told herself, fighting to throttle -down that trepidation which had leaped upon her when she first awoke -with the wildly beating heart of one threatened in sleep. "If I -only had that revolver now ... if it chanced to be wolf or bear or -mountain-cat, one shot at it would send it scurrying. And, if a man, -there is none for me to be afraid of." - -She began, ever so slowly and guardedly, tiptoeing across the floor. -She came to the bunk; she stooped and groped, and at last her fingers -closed about the fallen revolver. She clinched it tightly and stood up, -again rigid. This time she was sure of the sound which came again; a -man's step, as guarded as her own had been, but betrayed by a little -dry twig snapping. - -Again she waited, without moving, a long time. And not another sound; -only Standing's deep breathing. Once she thought that his breathing -had changed; that he, too, was awake. But after a moment she persuaded -herself that she had imagined that; that he was still sleeping heavily. -But no further sound outside. What a cautious man, or what a cowardly, -was he out there! What did he want? - -Suddenly she thought of Thor. How was it that Thor, a dog, hence -man's superior in as many matters as he was man's inferior, a thing -of keenest senses, had given no sign? Why had not Thor stirred when -she did; why had he not heard what she heard; why was he not already -rushing out, growling, demanding to know what intruder lurked in such -stealth at his master's door? Had there been a ray of light in the -cabin she would have had her answer; for Bruce Standing was sitting up, -his arms were about Thor, one big hand was at Thor's muzzle, commanding -quiet. And when Standing commanded, Thor obeyed. - -Some girls, some men ... perhaps most girls and most men ... would have -remained in the protection of the four walls, resigned to uncertainty, -until daybreak. Of their number was not Lynette Brooke, a girl little -given to fear and greatly moved by a desire to _know_! She waited as -long as she could bear to wait. Then, holding Taggart's revolver well -before her and walking with one silent footfall distanced patiently -from the other, she gained the door and stepped outside. She was -trembling; that she could not help. But she was determined to go on. -And on she did go, cautiously, until she had gone ten steps toward the -sound which she had heard. She paused, turning in all directions, ready -to fire and ready to run.... - -"_Sh! Come here!_" - -A whisper through the dark. And one man's whisper is much like -another's. It could have been Deveril's or Taggart's or even Mexicali -Joe's. - -"Who are you?" her own whisper answered him. - -"Is Standing in there?" - -"Who are you?" she insisted. - -There was a pause, a silence; a long silence. Then: - -"Come with me ... just a few feet. So we won't be overheard." - -She found herself frowning. Was it Babe Deveril? She did not fancy -a man's whispering; she could not imagine a man like Bruce Standing -whispering at a moment like this! More like him, like any man who was -a man, to roar out what he had to say rather than whisper in the dark. -But that curiosity of hers, that inborn desire _to know_, lured her -on. But under guard. She held her weapon so that it menaced the vague -form so close to her and she whispered again, not realizing that she, -too, whispered, but because she was under the spell of the moment. - -"I'll go with you another ten steps ... count them! And I have a -revolver in my hand, aimed at the middle of your body!" - -"You're a game kid! Dead game and I don't mind saying so!" - -They had stopped; the whisper was dropped for a low-toned voice. It was -not Babe Deveril! Not Mexicali Joe. Then Taggart? - -"I want to talk to you. I take it he is in there. Asleep? So much the -better. I'm Taggart." - -"Well? What can I do for you, Mr. Taggart?" - -"That gun of yours," he said. "I don't know how used you are to guns. -Knowing who I am you can point it down!" - -"Knowing who you are," she returned coolly, "I keep it just as it is! I -have asked what I could do for you?" - -"I've seen Babe Deveril. He's told me all about everything." - -"Babe Deveril! When? Where is he?" - -Jim Taggart, had time and opportunity afforded, would have laughed at -her quickened exclamation, being an evil-thoughted individual with -restricted mental horizons. She appeared interested. He had his own -mind of her sex and it was not high, since those of her sex with whom -such as Jim Taggart consorted were not such as to give a man a high -idea of femininity. In the words which, had he spoken his thought -aloud, would have been his, Taggart estimated that "he had this dame's -number, street, and telephone." - -"I'll tell you about Babe Deveril later; and what's more, kid, I'll -give you your show to throw in with him again. Now I'm cutting things -short; you know why. I was after him for hammering me over the head -with a gun; I was on your trail for killing a man. Now, since the -man you killed ain't dead at all and since I've had a good talk with -Deveril, I'm ready to let you both go. And just to take in a man named -Standing." - -Through one of those odd tricks by which chance asserts itself at -times, Lynette made a discovery while Taggart was talking. She had -felt something underfoot--and that something turned out to be Bruce -Standing's rifle. - -... What had this lost rifle to do with matters as they stood? Why -all Jim Taggart's caution, if he were armed? But then Standing had -brought Taggart's revolver back to the cabin with him.... What part -in to-night's game was this fallen rifle to play? Her thoughts had -been withdrawn; so, standing so that for the present Taggart could not -possibly touch with his own foot that which she had stumbled on in the -dark, she made him repeat what he had said. - -Thus she caught a free instant for thought; thus also she grasped all -that he had to say and to insinuate. And at the end she answered him -with a baffling, feminine: - -"Well?" - -"I've got to talk fast!" growled Taggart. "He's in there, I know. Is he -hurt?" - -"You know that he is...." - -"I don't mean that shot at Gallup's ... that you gave him...." - -"I did not shoot him!" she cried out hotly, sick of accusation. - -Taggart sneered at her, muttering threateningly: - -"You did! For I saw you! I was right there, close by...." - - -Within the cabin Bruce Standing, sitting very tense and straight, -nearly choking his big dog into silence, grew tenser and harder. So, -Taggart claimed to have seen her.... Taggart was "_right there, close -by_...." - - -"You say you saw me!" gasped Lynette. "_You!_" - -"I tell you this is no time for palaver," said Taggart impatiently. -"What do you care, so long as I agree to let you go free? And to let -Deveril go free along with you! I guess that means something to you, -don't it? If it don't mean enough, let me show you: I can grab you -right now; me, I'm not afraid of any gun any woman ever waved! And I -can put you across for a good little vacation in jail. But I'm letting -that go by, wanting to get my hooks in one Bruce Standing, good and -deep. And I got just that! Seeing as Deveril told me what happened; -how Standing swooped down on you, how he beat Deveril up, how he put a -chain on you and dragged you away after him! If you'll step into court -and swear to that.... Why, kid, I got him! Got him right! Any jury in -this country will land on him _hard_ for doing to a woman like that. -And you can tell the other things he's done to you by now, you and him -all alone up here, him a brutal devil...." - -Illogically enough it swept over her that it was she herself, Lynette, -whom the man was insulting, and her finger trembled so upon the trigger -that all unknowing Jim Taggart stood for the instant close upon the -verge of the great final blackness. But, steadying herself, she managed -to say: - -"Babe Deveril told you that? That Bruce Standing had put a chain about -me? How did he know? That was after he had gone!" - -"But," muttered Taggart harshly, "he did not go so fast! He went up -over a ridge and he stopped and rested, and in the dark he came back a -bit and he hid and saw! Anyway, it's the truth, ain't it? And I know? -So he must have come back to see!" - -That thought became on the instant the only thought, one to rise up and -obstruct all others. Deveril had seen; he had lingered, hidden in the -forest land; he had watched her humiliation; he had known that Bruce -Standing, though armed, was a man sorely wounded ... and he had not -come to her then! - -"Where is he?" she demanded swiftly. "When did you see him? Where has -he gone?" - -"He came just as Standing, damn him, had jumped us to-night! All -unawares Standing took us ... when we were busy with other things. He -had the drop on us and he made us let the Mexico breed go. Deveril was -watching but he didn't have a gun and he couldn't step up and take a -hand, knowing his cousin for a dead shot and a man who'd rather kill -than not." - -"But now," demanded Lynette. "_Now!_ Where is he?" - -"He's a wised-up kid and I'm with him, tooth and toenail! He came up -then and he said his say ... and I let him go! And he told me to look -out for you and he hit the trail, dog-tired as he was, after Mexicali -Joe! If there's gold to be had, why Babe Deveril means to be in on it. -And me, so do I! And you, if you're on." - -Underfoot, all this time, Lynette felt Bruce Standing's rifle.... - -There are times in life for methodical thought, other times for swift -decisions, bred of impulse and instinctive urge.... - -She lived again through a certain pregnant crisis, saw in mind the -whole scene as though some master artist with sweeping, bold brush had -created the perfect vision anew for her, the struggle which had been -hers and Babe Deveril's and Bruce Standing's, when Standing, with the -sun glowing red over his head, had come rushing down on them by their -camp-fire. She saw his rifle ... the one she now felt underfoot!... go -swirling over a pine top as he hurled from him any such advantage in -fair fight as it spelled; again she watched the fight ... she saw Babe -Deveril go up over the ridge; she saw herself, striking in fury against -Standing's arm, beating the rifle down.... - -"Well?" It was Taggart who spoke the brief word now. "Which is it? Jail -for you ... or a good long spell in the pen for him?" - -... And Babe Deveril had come this close ... she had proof of that in -Taggart's knowledge of the chain! ... and had gone on, following the -golden lure of Mexicali Joe's trail! - -"Well?" said Taggart. - -"Suppose I were fool enough to refuse what you ask?" - -"Then you'd go to jail as sure as hell! It's you or him! And I guess I -know the answer." - -Then Lynette said hurriedly: - -"Step back ... a little farther from the cabin. Let me make sure that -he is asleep! There never was a man like him.... Back a few steps and -wait...." - -"There's no sense in that!" - -"If you don't I'll scream out that you're here! Then you'll never take -him; you know the man he is!" - -Taggart mistrusted, and yet, hard-driven and urged by her voice, obeyed -to the extent of drawing back a few steps. Not far, yet far enough for -Lynette to stoop and grope and find the rifle. She caught it up and -whirled and ran, ran as for her life, back to the cabin door. And she -threw the rifle inside, crying out: - -"Wake up, Bruce Standing! There's your rifle ... and here's Jim Taggart -outside, looking for you!" - - -She came bursting into the cabin and full into Bruce Standing's arms. -For he was up on his feet, both arms, despite a sore side, lifted. - -"By God!" he shouted. - -He let her go and sought the rifle. She was first to find it and put it -into his searching hand. - -"He is a contemptible coward!" she cried. "As if...." - -Standing had the rifle now, and thrust by her and rushed into the -open doorway, Thor snarling at his side; and Standing's voice, lifted -mightily, shouted: - -"Come ahead, Taggart! I'm waiting and ready for you! Come ahead!" - -Later he laughed at himself for that, and thereafter explained his -laughter to Lynette, saying: - -"He hasn't a gun on him! I cleaned him out, all but one pocket gun, and -I fancy he emptied that at me ... in the back. Come--we'll have a fire!" - -Hastily she shut the door, lest Taggart might have one shot left. -Standing set his rifle down against the wall; she heard the thud of -the stock upon the floor. Clearly he had no fear of Taggart's return. -He began gathering up bits of wood, kneeling to get a fire started. -Presently under his hands the blaze leaped up and brought detail -vividly blossoming from the dark of the room; his face, white, with the -most eager, shining eyes she had ever seen; her own face scarcely less -pale; the homely appointments of the place. He was still on his knees -at the fireplace; he threw on the last bit of wood and watched the -quick flames lick at it; he swerved about, and it seemed that his eyes, -no less than the inflammable wood, had caught fire as he cried out in -a voice which startled her and in words which set her wondering: - -"I told you, girl, I'd let you go scot-free ... _unless_! And here -I bogged down like a broken-legged steer in the quicksands! But now -... _Now_! I've got it all figured out. I don't let you go! Neither -to-night ..." and he was on his feet, towering over her--"or ever!" - -And, as quick as thought, he was at the door and had shot a bolt home -and had clicked a padlock, and, swinging about again, stood looking -down at her, his eyes filled with dancing lights. - - - - -CHAPTER XIX - - -There was no more sleep through what was left of the night, and -scarcely more of talk. Standing piled his fire high, and, unmindful -of his discarded rifle, went out for more wood; Lynette dropped down -on the blanket in her corner and named herself a silly fool. He came -back, carefully relocking his door; kept his fire blazing, and made -his coffee and smoked his pipe. And then, in that great golden voice -of his, he began singing. And, through its wild rhythm, she knew the -song for the same as that which she had heard for the first time when -he had hurled himself both into Big Pine and into her life. His voice -rose and swelled and filled the poor cabin to overflowing, and must -have filtered through chinks and cracks and spilled out through the -forest land, and for great distances through the quiet solitudes. And, -at the end, in a sudden upgathering into all that tremendous resounding -volume of sound of which his magnificent voice was capable, came that -unforgettable wolf cry. If she required any reminding, here she had -it, that she was housed in the same cabin with Timber-Wolf! A fierce -outcry, to go resounding and echoing across miles and miles of forest -lands, meant, as she was quick to realize, to carry both defiance and -challenge to his enemies. - -"You have had your choice, girl!" he shouted at her. "You could have -gone free! I gave you your freedom. But you would not go. And that was -because it was in the cards, in the fates, in the stars, if you like, -that you and I are not to part yet! The door is locked; I stand between -you and it. So, you stay here with me!" - -For the first time she was truly and deeply afraid of him. But he went -back to his place by the fire, and sat on the old stump seat, and -filled his pipe again with hard, nervous fingers and glared at the -fire. For a little he seemed to have forgotten that she was there. -And then at last, when she saw that he was going to speak again, she -forestalled him, saying swiftly: - -"I am tired and sleepy. I am going to sleep." - -He checked his speech, saving whatever he had to say to her. She lay -back on her blankets, and, though she had had no such intention, soon -drifted off to sleep. And he, with pipe grown cold, sat and glowered -over his fire, and put to himself many a question, growing fierce over -his inability to answer any one of them. But, at least, in his groping -he forgot the pain of his wounds. - -"You are not asleep," he said after a very long time. "I know that; I -can tell. You are pretending. And you are thinking, thinking hard and -fast! And so am I thinking! As I never did before now. You might as -well save yourself the labor of struggling with your problems, since I -am doing the planning for both of us right now; since everything is in -my hands and I mean to keep it there." - -She heard but gave no sign of hearing; she kept her face averted from -him so that he could not see whether her eyes were open or shut. Open -they were, and the man appeared to know it. - -"Am I wise man or fool?" he cried. "He only is wise who knows what he -knows and steers his craft by the one steady star in his sky!" - -She would not answer him when he spoke; she could not just now. She lay -still, as if asleep. He relapsed into a long silence, his eyes now on -her, now on his fire. - -"This neck o' the woods is getting all cluttered up with folks!" he -muttered abruptly, with such suddenness that he startled her. "I've a -notion to run the whole crowd in for trespassing!... Or better, girl, -you and I move on. Where there's elbow room; room to talk in. We've got -to quarry out our own blocks of stone and build up our own lives, and -we want a bit of the world to ourselves. What's more, we're going to -have it!" - -She knew, as every girl knows when that mighty moment comes ... and -her girl-heart beat hard and fast ... that after his own fashion Bruce -Standing, Timber-Wolf, was making love to her. - -"Dawn!" he said, and she understood that he spoke with himself as much -as with her. "That's all we're waiting for, the first streak of dawn. -Then we move on. Where? I know where, and no other man knows!" - -He began impatiently stalking up and down; he seemed to have forgotten -his wounds, and yet, stealing her swift glances at him, she could see -that his face had lost little of its whiteness and that his whole left -side was stiff. Again, bestowing mentally a strange epithet upon him, -she regarded the man as "inevitable." Could anything stop him or divert -his career into any channel but that of his own choosing? She _was_ -afraid of him. - -"You told me that I might go! Where I pleased, when I pleased!" - -He swung about and turned on her a face of whose expression in that -dim, flickering light she could make nothing. - -"You had your choice! You came back! Now I know something which I did -not know before." - -He began pacing up and down again, making the cabin's smallness further -dwarfed by his great strides. He fascinated her; she watched him, and -her fear, formless and nameless, grew until it seemed that it would -choke her. - -There was a boarded-up window. A thin slit of light showed. - -"We breakfast and go," he told her. - -"And if I refuse to go with you?" - -"I have my chain and my good right arm!" - -Then, as once before, tingling with anger born of foreseen humiliation, -she cried out: - -"I hate you, brute that you are!" - -"Not brute, but man," he told her sternly. "And, ever since the world -was young, men, when they were men, claimed their mates and took and -held them!" - -Again for a long time he was silent. And then, on his feet, his arms -thrown out, he cried in a strange voice: - -"I love you!" - -He made strange mad music in her soul. She tried again to cry out: -"I hate you!" She knew that still she was afraid of him, more afraid -than ever. Yet he strode up and down and looked a young valiant god, -and his golden voice found singing echoes within her soul and his wild -extravagances awoke throbbing extravagances in her.... What can one -know? What misdoubt? We are like babes in the dark. Of what can one be -sure? Of the stars above?... Our hopes are like stars.... - -"I am no poet, though next to a strong fighting man I'd rather be a -true poet than anything else God ever created! Were I a poet I'd build -a song for you, girl! A song to ring through the eternal ages; going -back to the roots of things when You and I were first You and I! It -would be a song like one of the old troubadours', telling of great -deeds and great loves only ... for you and I have never been the ones -for cowardly littlenesses! I'd make a song to hang about the world's -memory of you like a golden chain. And I'd carry on, having the poet's -soul and vision, into ten thousand lives to come; down to the end of -time when eternity is only at its beginnings!... But I am only plain -Bruce Standing, a simple fighting man, and no poet; one who at best -can but mouth the voicings of the true poets. So I can only pour all -my heart and soul, girl, into my brief poem: I love you. I have always -loved you! Always and always I shall love you!... And I'll crack any -man's skull that so much as looks at you!" - -She was not sure of his sanity; not certain that a fever, bred of his -wounds, was not burning into his marrow. _And yet_---- - -"It's dawn, I tell you! We boil our coffee, we pick up a mouthful of -food. And then we move on! And why? Because we're sure to have callers -here in another day or so, and just now I don't want other people; -I want you, girl, and only you and the rest of the world can go to -pot!... And now we go!" - - - - -CHAPTER XX - - -Lynette, in a mood to expect anything of fate, wondered vaguely where -the steep trail of adventure now led. She would not have been surprised -had Standing set his plans for some spot a hundred miles distant. But -she was surprised to arrive so soon, after only two or three hours, at -their destination. He looked at her, exulting. - -"Here is Eden!" he cried out joyously. "Remember the name, girl; -bestowed upon this spot no longer ago than this very minute! Eden! And -as far from the world as that other distant Eden. Here we stop and here -no man finds us!" - -He had led the way, upward along a rocky slope. He had brought her into -a spot which she would have named "The Land of Waterfalls!" A tiny -valley with a sparkling mountain creek cleaving like flowing crystal -through a grassy meadow; tall trees, noble patriarchs bounding it. -Steep caņon walls shutting in the timber growth; a narrow ravine above -with the water leaping, plunging, tumbling translucent green over -jagged rocks, splashing into a series of pools, turned into rainbow -spray here and there in its wild cascadings. The world all about was -murmurous with living waters, with bees, with the eternal whisperings -of the pines. - -And here began an idyl; a strange idyl. A man asserting his power as -captor; a maid made captive; two souls wide awake, questing, swung from -certainty to uncertainty, gathered up in doubt. Life grown a thing of -tremendous import. - -All morning had Standing been wracked with pain. Yet none the less did -he hold unswervingly to his purpose. Now he sat down, his back to a -tree. Thor came and lay at his feet. Lynette stood looking down upon -the two. - -"Rest," he said. "Here is your home for a time. A day? Ten days? Who -knows? Not I, girl! All that I know I have told you; here we rest and -here we take life into our hands and mould it ... as we have always -moulded it! We are at the gates; we enter or we turn to one side! We go -on or we go back. Which? When we know that, we know everything." - -He had brought with him, slung across his back, a great roll from the -hidden cabin. His rifle lay across his knees. He looked up into her -face with eyes which, though haggard, shone wonderfully. She sat down, -ten steps from him; her clasped hands were in her lap; her eyes were -veiled mysteries. - -"Taggart won't look for us here," he said. "He hasn't the brains of a -little gray seed-tick! He'll be sure we've made a big jump, forward or -back, ten times this distance. Besides, he has to go somewhere to get -himself a new set of guns! Imagine him tackling anything with an ounce -of risk in it unless he was heeled like an army corps! I begin to lose -respect for that man." - -Lynette was thinking but one thing: "She was not afraid of this man; -not afraid to be alone with him in pathless solitudes. She might choose -to be elsewhere ... yet she was safe with him. For, above all, he was a -man; and never need a true girl fear a true man." And, when she stole -a swift glance at his face, it lay in her heart to be a bit sorry for -him. Sympathy? It lies close to another eternal human emotion! He -looked like one whom fate had crushed and yet whose spirit refused to -be crushed. He looked a sick man who, scorning all the commands laid -upon the flesh, carried on. - -After a while he turned to look upon her, and for the first time she -saw a new and strange look in his eyes, a look of pleading. - -"Don't misjudge me, girl," he said heavily. "Rather than see your -little finger bruised I'd have a man drive a knife in me! I'm just -blundering along now ... blundering ... trying to see daylight. I won't -hurt you. There's nothing on earth or in Heaven so sure as that. But -don't ask me to let you go!" - -She made him no answer. She began thinking of his wounds; he gave them -such scant attention! He should be caring for them; what he should -do was to hasten to a surgeon. She wondered if still he clung to his -conviction, the natural one after all, that she had shot him? And she -wondered, as she had done so many a time before: "Who had shot him?" -Whose hand that which she had seen reach through her window and snatch -up her revolver and fire the cowardly shot? Taggart, only a few hours -ago, had said: "I saw! I was right there!" ... - -"Was it Jim Taggart who shot you in the back last night?" she demanded -suddenly. - -"Yes," he said. "At least, I think so." - -"Is he that kind of man?" - -Now his eyes were keen and hard upon hers. - -"I begin to think that he is, girl," he said shortly. "Why?" - -She shrugged and again turned away. - -He lumbered to his feet. Thor, knowing where he was going, barked and -leaped ahead. - -"Come, I'll show you where we pitch camp." - -She looked about her. Mere madness to attempt flight now; he would bear -down upon her before she had run twenty steps. And did she want to run -just now? She had her own measure of curiosity.... Was it only that?... -and she had, locked away securely in her breast, her absolute positive -knowledge that she had nothing to fear at his hands. She rose and -followed him. - -Suddenly he swerved about, confronting her, his eyes stern, his voice -hard with the emotion riding him. - -"Madman I may be," he said. "Fool, I am not, praise God! Last night I -heard; you could have chucked that rifle into Taggart's hands and could -have gone free yourself ... and by now I'd be a dead man! But, glory -be, there isn't a streak of yellow in your whole glorious being!" - -The blood ran up into her face; it made her hot throughout her whole -body. Praise, from him, to stir her like that! Her eyes flashed back -angrily, for she was angry with herself. - -"Come," he muttered. "Talk's cheap at any time. And I'm to show you -where we make our first home." - -With her teeth sharply catching up her underlip, she held her silence. -He went on some two-score paces and stopped; with a sudden gesture he -said: - -"Here I've spent, God knows how many nights, when I had to be off by -myself! No roof for us, girl, but who wants a roof with that sky above -us?" - -Here was a natural grotto which at another time would have made her -exclaim in delight: a nook, set apart, thresholded in tender grass shot -through with those tiny delicate blooms of mountain flowers. On one -side a cliff, outjutting, thrusting forward a great overhanging shelf -of rock which looked as though it must fall and yet which, obviously, -had held securely through the centuries. Three big pine-trees, two -of them leaning strangely toward the cliff, as though yearning to -lean against the sturdy rock and rest there upon its iron breast. The -whole ringed about by a dense copse of brush, thick as a wall and -rearing high above her head. Almost a cave made of cliff and growing -things, cosy and warm, with its opening fronting the stream which was -never silent. Thor ran ahead into the dusky seclusion and barked his -invitation to them to follow. A thick, dry mat, under Thor's feet, of -fallen pine-needles. - -Standing tossed his roll inside; he began, with one hand, to work with -the knotted rope. Lynette came forward swiftly, saying: - -"At least I have two hands...." - -Their hands brushed over the labor. Again the hot blood raced through -her, and again sudden anger, anger at herself, flashed through her -being. - -And a tingling, like that which shot through her, was in Bruce -Standing's veins. He caught her hand. - -"Girl!" he said huskily. - -"Don't!" she cried in alarm. - -He dropped her hand and rose swiftly to his feet. - -"You are right," he muttered. "Not yet...." - -How could this man at a touch make her heart beat like mad? She was -afraid ... she knew that she was not afraid of _him_ ... yet she was -afraid. - -"I'm sorry," he said roughly. Actually, marvelling, she saw that the -big man looked embarrassed. "Look here, girl: I've come to know you a -bit and, thinking what I think, I hold that I know you well! I'll take -my chance that you are no petty crook, that you are no coward, that you -are no liar! So...." - -"Then," she cried, jumping to her feet, all eagerness, "do you believe -me when I say that I did not shoot you?" - -His eyes met hers steadily; he answered promptly: - -"You have told me ... and I believe. _I know!_" - -A rush of gladness, an intoxication of gladness, swept over her. Her -eyes were shining, soft and bright and happy like stars. - -"But," she said, "if not I, then who?" - -"Jim Taggart," he said as unhesitatingly as he had spoken before. "Jim -told you that he saw, didn't he? That he was Johnny on the spot? Of -course he was! And we'd had our plain talk. And he figured it out, that -unless that very day I had changed my papers, I still named him in them -my old bunk-mate and friend, and that I'd not forget him with a legacy! -If I had died under that bullet, Jim Taggart would have had it doped -out that he'd stand to win about a hundred thousand dollars! And for a -tenth of that he'd crucify Christ!" - -"But...." - -"There are no buts about it! You did not do it; then Jim Taggart did. -He shot me last night, a second time and the second time in the back! -He was once a man; now he's a Gallup dog, a man gone to seed, a cur -and one for such as you and me to forget about. I hope to high heaven -I never see the man again; for the sake of what has been between Jim -Taggart and me, when both of us were younger, I'd rather let the past -bury its dead. For if he ever comes trailing his filth across my trail -again, I'll smash him into the earth." He made a wide angry gesture, -as though he would wipe an episode and a man out of his life. "But you -interrupt me; I was going to say something. Just this: I'll leave you -alone. For an hour, for a dozen hours! You want rest, you want solitude -and a chance to think. So do I. I can chain you to a tree and be sure -of you! Or I can ask you to give me your word that you'll wait here -until I come back to you ... and I already know you well enough to know -_that_ will hold you tighter than any chain that was ever forged!" - -Lynette, without hesitating, answered: - -"I do want rest and I do want to be alone. Is that to be wondered at? -Until noon I'll wait for you to come back." - -"Until high noon," he said. "And, girl, you pledge me your word on -that?" - -"Yes!" - -"Come, Thor!" He turned and left her, his great dog at his heels, going -up the narrowing caņon. - -"I'll not spy on you!" he called back, when he had gone a hundred -yards. "You'll hear me shouting to you well before I come within -eye-shot." - -And then she lost him, gone among the lesser, denser trees thick about -the creek's margins. - -She turned her back on the grotto of his choosing, and went out into -the full sunlight. She found a spot in the open, ringed about by the -majestic pines, a grassy sward with the cleaving silver line of the -creek cutting across it. For the first time in hours ... how many -endless hours? how many days?... she was alone! No man at her side, -either protecting or dominating. Her lungs filled with a deep sigh. -Alone and secure in her aloneness for a matter of several hours. - -There was a certain singing happiness, electric within her, and it -sprang, bright-winged, from her own characteristic pride. Bruce -Standing had left her to an absolute physical freedom, knowing her -bound by that intangible and unbreakable bond of her promise. He, a man -who did not break his own word knew her for a girl who did not break -hers! And he knew, at last, that it had not been her hand that had -fired that cowardly shot. - -"It was cruel ... to have laughed at him. I did not mean to laugh. -Would to God...." - -But if she had not laughed? Then what? Then how much of her adventure -would have followed? How much of it did she, after all, regret?... She -fell to wondering dreamily on Babe Deveril. Where was he? And would she -see him again? And, if she should see him.... - -A thousand riddles and, as always, no answer to the riddles which -spring from eternity. Only the merry voice of the purling creek to talk -back to her, that and the rustling whisper ebbing and flowing through -the pine tops. The stream, like a companionable human voice, called to -her insistently. She rose and went down to it and stooped to drink; she -bathed her hands and arms and face. How lonely it was here! She cast -a quick glance up-stream; long ago Standing, with his big dog at his -heels, had passed out of sight. And he had given her gage of promise -for promise given ... he would send his shouting voice ahead of him -before he came back.... - -So she bathed fearlessly, watched only by the solitudes, guarded by -their sombre depths; she plunged, with a little shivery gasp, into the -deep, cool pool below the slithering waterfall; the water slipped, -gleaming like a bejewelled film over her pure-white body, making it -rosy when she emerged, like rose petals.... She dressed in furious -haste, all ablush and yet steeped in a confident knowledge that no -eye, save the bright eye of a curious brown bird, had seen. She felt -new-born; refreshed beyond belief. She ran back up the bank and sat -down in the very spot where she had dropped first when Standing had -left her. She began, always hurrying, to comb out her hair with her -fingers. Sitting there in the open she let it sun.... - -She rested. She drank deep, thankfully, of the hour. To be alone, to be -secure in the moment, to have no danger pressing down upon her, above -all to have no mind save her own dictating to her. It was glorious -and life was good and glad and golden, infinitely worth the living. -So passed an hour. It was so quiet here; so unutterably lonely. Only -the voice of the creek and the million-tongued murmuring pines. Her -swift thoughts raced ten thousand ways. They touched upon Big Pine; on -Taggart; Mexicali Joe; a gold-mine still for men to find; Maria, the -Indian girl whom Deveril had kissed; Deveril himself; that one-legged -man who rode horseback and carried forth the word and the law of his -master; Thor, a dog; Bruce Standing. Most of all, Bruce Standing. She -wondered where he was, what doing? Caring for his own wounds? Lying on -his back, his white face turned up, his eyes shut, tight shut? And he -loved her? - -_Bruce Standing loved her, Lynette?_ Was that true? What was love? -Whence came love? For what purpose? What did it do to the hearts and -souls and bodies of men ... and girls? Was love for her? She had never -experienced it, not true, abiding love. Did Babe Deveril.... - -Another hour. Shadows slowly shifting, moving like gigantic hands of -eternal clocks. Time passing, time that answers all questions, man's -and maid's, saint's and sinner's. She stirred uneasily and sat up. She -looked at the pine tops and, beyond them, at the sun. It was almost -noon! - -Come noon.... What then? Come high noon before Bruce Standing, and she -was free! Released from her promise, all bonds snapped! Free! - -She jumped to her feet. Her eyes went questing, questing, everywhere. -To be free again; to be her own self, Lynette, untrammelled.... And she -felt awondering illogically: "Can it be that, after all, he was driving -himself beyond any man's endurance? that he is more badly hurt than -either he or I knew?" - -But he returned a full half-hour before even the most eager could name -it noon. True to his word, he sent his voice, like a glorious herald, -ahead of him. She heard him call, not the wolf cry, but a rollicking -shout. And ten minutes later he himself came, plainly in the highest -of good humors. He was still pale and looked haggard, but his eyes were -flashing and triumphant and untroubled. - -He came to her, splashing across the creek, water flying about his -boot-tops. - -"I've had a bath," he announced from afar. "And I've plastered myself -with the worst that Billy Winch can concoct, and Richard is himself -again!" He came closer, towered above her and said: "You, too, have -bathed! You look it, as fresh from the plunge as any Diana! It's good -to be _clean_, isn't it?" - -She flushed and was ashamed for it. She bit her lip and made no answer. - -"Come," he said. "We'll lunch. And now, and from now on for some -sixty years, my girl, it will be I who waits on you! The slave rôle -reversed!" and he laughed. - -"I promised to wait for you; I make no more promises!" - -"That's fair enough! I watch you then!" - -"Do you want to make me hate you?" - -"Rather, I want you to come to love me." - -"Could any girl come to love a man who treats her as you have done me?" - -"Could any girl come to love a man," he demanded earnestly, "who -thought so little of her as to let her escape him when once destiny had -brought her and him together?" - - - - -CHAPTER XXI - - -The most perfect of the summer months in this secluded mountain nook, -not inaptly named "Eden" by Standing, was a period of time measuring -itself in soft, fragrant loveliness. The days were balmy, perfect, -halcyon; gentle hours of blue cloudlessness and golden sunshine and -little breezes which scarcely ruffled the clear water in the bigger -pools; night as clear as crystal, with flaring stars like distant -torches above the yellow pine tops; nature in her gentlest mood here -among the ruggedness of the wilderness, expressing herself in the most -delightful of odors wafted through the woods, in the tenderest tiniest -blossoms of wild flowers; a time of infinite hush and infinite solitude -and peace. - -To have chafed and been unhappy here, to a spirit like either Bruce -Standing's or Lynette Brooke's, would have seemed next door to an -impossibility. Even the girl, though restrained, a prisoner of a -man's will when the bright star of her life had ever been one of -splendid independence, found it easier to smile or laugh aloud at the -sober-faced antics of Thor ... when she and Thor were alone with none -to see!... than to sigh. She knew her periods of restiveness and bitter -rebellion; they were due not to her environment, but to the thought -that another than herself was dictating to her. But for one reason or -another these periods were rarer and briefer than her other hours of a -strange sort of peacefulness. - -"It's because I've been worn out and only now am resting," she tried -to tell herself. "Recuperating from a condition of exhausted mind and -body." - -Thus four days and nights passed. There had been, during all that time, -not the slightest opportunity to escape. The first day Standing had -hurled the chain from him, as far as he could send it. But he had not -lost sight of her for more than a few minutes at a time, saving such -times that she gave him her promise that she would wait for him to come -back. He accepted her word as he expected all the world to accept his. -On other occasions, when he allowed her briefer freedoms, he had said -merely: "No chance to run for it, girl! I'd overtake you, you know, in -no time. Even if you hid, here'd be old Thor, nosing you out!" Then he -laughed, adding: "For his own sake, the renegade, as well as for his -master's! He's fallen in love with you, too." He made her bed in the -rock-and-tree grotto; he labored, one-handed, over it for hours. With -his heavy clasp knife he cut the tender tips of resinous branches; he -heaped them high; he covered all with great handfuls of fragrant grass, -thick with the tall red flowers that grew down by the creek, odorous -with the tender white blossoms which shyly lifted their little heads to -dot the grassy slopes.... He made her a bathing-pool: stiff and sore -all up and down his left side, he worked with his right hand, dragging -big boulders up out of their ancient beds, piling them in a ring about -the pool, plastering them over the top with great handfuls of that -carpet-like moss which thrived in these cool places. - -"If you'd let me go!" - -"No; not yet.... What man can read the mind of a girl? How do I know -what you would do? Where you would go? My wounds are healing; until -they heal I am only half a man. You might whisk away from me, I tell -you; and I'd have to follow and seek you, if you led me through hell -on the way to heaven; and I must be whole again. And I've got to get -everything straight...." - -Always when he left her he returned before the end of the time she -had promised to wait for him. And always he sent, as herald of his -approach, his golden voice forward to her. At times in an echoing -shout. More than once in an outburst of singing which thrilled her -strangely. What a voice the man had! And once, when he had elected to -bathe in the starlight, he sent down to her that cry which she had -heard the first time from the door of Babe Deveril's cabin in Big Pine -... the wild, fierce call of the timber-wolf which, despite her naming -herself "fool," sent a shiver into her blood.... Once this happened: -He had left her in the forenoon, accepting her word that she would not -stir until high noon. Usually he came well in advance; this time she -watched the climbing sun and the creeping shade and suddenly her heart -began its wild beating; it was almost noon and he was not here; no -sound of his coming. When he shouted to her and then came rushing into -camp, he found that she had been working frenziedly with a stick and a -stone; driving the sliver of wood like a stake into the ground.... She -started up, her face crimson. - -"Well?" he said, his hands on his hips, staring down at her. "What's -that?" - -She blurted out the explanation and then was angry with herself for -telling him. She had meant to stay until the tip end of the giant -pine's shadow fell where it marked midday; she had meant there to drive -in her stake; for him it would be a marker, an assurance from her that -she had kept her word with him, that she had waited as she had promised -to wait ... that then, scorning him, she had snatched at her rights and -had fled! - -His first impulse was toward laughter. And then, strangely quiet, he -stood looking at her and she saw a gathering mist in his eyes! - -"Girl!" he muttered. "Oh, girl!... God, I love you!" - -"I hate you...." - -... How many times had she cried out in those words! And how much of -that did she mean? In her heart, in her soul ... in the most hidden -recesses of her most hidden being? - -Thus she had hours to herself. And, therefore, had Bruce Standing hours -to himself. For he wanted them. He wanted to be away from her, where he -could not see her, could not hear that low music of her voice, could -not catch that soft lure of her eyes, could not be tempted to have -it happen that his rude hand brushed her hand.... Her hand, though -she had been all these days and nights outdoors, roughing it, seemed -to him a maddening realm of crumpled rose-leaves ... pink-and-white -rose-leaves. He left her, secure in her pledge that she would wait for -him, and threw himself down on his back and stared up through slowly -shifting branches and mused on her. He thought how like a flower she -was, the queen of flowers ... and he could have wept that he was so -big and ungentle. He thought of Babe Deveril, and cursed him for being -so slender and debonair; graceful and light of mood; gentle-voiced, -with the knack of pretty words to pretty ladies. And Babe Deveril -had befriended her; stood champion to her against him! He ground his -teeth. He leaped up and paced back and forth, forgetful of all such -insignificant nothings as trifling wounds of the flesh. He recalled -how, man to man, he had broken Babe Deveril, and he laughed out -loud.... Yet it remained that Babe Deveril had stood her friend and -protector when he had pursued them both, linking them but the closer, -with his wrath. She and Deveril had travelled together, side by side -and hand in hand, miles and other miles of the open solitudes; they -had been drawn close together, driven closer together. He, Bruce -Standing, Timber-Wolf, and Fool, had done that! And what spark had -been struck out of the flint of the adversity which he had hurled at -them?... Had they loved ... had they kissed ... was _she_ now longing -with a sick heart for the return of Babe Deveril? - -"Oh, Lord!" he cried out, his great iron fingers crooking as his arms -were thrown out. "Deliver him into these hands!" - -Lynette had no mirror. Standing began to grow a lusty young beard, as -blond as his hair, shot through with red gleams. She knew the need of -fresh clothing. When he was away she did her washing as best she could, -pounding garments against the rocks in the creek; she dried them and -hid them and donned them without his knowing ... though of course he -knew as she knew that he did his own rude washings. There was a spring -at the side of the caņon, one of the many sources which fed the stream; -a shadowed, tranquil place. Of this she made her pier-glass! She -stooped and looked down into its glassily smooth surface. It gave back -her own image; it reflected the dark green of the pines, the lighter -green of the willows. Even the subdued colors of her worn suit. She -washed her hair and groomed it; no comb, no brush, but agile fingers. -Most of all, when secure through his promise in return for her own, -did she enjoy her plunge in the pool he had made for her. The slender -whiteness of her slipped hastily down under the translucent cover of -the cool, flowing water; she was as swift in her movements as any -slim-bodied trout that darted about her, scurrying into its retreat; -the water shot a thrill through her; she emerged, dripping, charged -with all the electric currents of well-being. - -"If this were only a holiday ... instead of imprisonment!" - -She, too, thought of Babe Deveril, as was inevitable. And in many ways: -One, always recurrent, was: "Could she have been as _sure_ of Babe -Deveril as she was of Bruce Standing? As secure in her utter conviction -of safety?" And here was a question to which she found no ready answer. -Babe Deveril, leaping full-breastedly into the stream which had swept -her off her feet, had been a friend to her from the beginning; from the -beginning Bruce Standing had been a menace. - -... Best of all she loved the waterfall. It was her shower-bath. But, -more than that, it was her friend and confidante, and, beyond aught -else, a living, glimmering, varicolored thing of gossamer beauty. It -talked with her, it was at once handmaiden and musician and troubadour; -it plashed and sang and poured its cadences into quiet harmonies which -sank into her soul. It had leapt and sparkled and poured itself onward -unstintedly, unafraid, for a thousand years; for a thousand years would -it keep up its merry dancings, uncaring if only the tall pines watched -or if men and maids brought hither their loves and hates and hopes and -fears. Unstable it was always, always falling; secure was it in its -diaphanous veilings of its own merry immortality. She loved it for its -abandon, for its recklessness, for its translucent myriad beauties. -It lived; it sang and sparkled; it filled the moment with musical -murmurings and recked not of all those vague threats and shadows of a -vague future.... She sat here, quiet under the spell of its dashings -and splashings and eerie flutings ... musing, her soul drawn forth into -all those vague and troublous musings which beset the heart of youth. - -Youth? Young, too, was Bruce Standing! He hearkened to the cascading -waters; he listened to the harp-tongued whisperings of the pines.... He -had done everything wrong; he told himself that a thousand, thousand -times. Yet he told himself savagely that throughout the insanities, -the veritable madnesses of constricted human life there flowed always, -onward and sweepingly upward, the great, triumphal, eternal forces of -destiny. And, in the end ... in the end ... it all made for good. For -eternal and triumphant good. - -... After all, but the old, old story of man and maid, converging to -the one gleaming, focal point though across distances oceans-wide -removed. - -He had his point of view; Lynette Brooke had her point of view. Yet it -remains that from two widely separated peaks two eager hearts may see -the same sun rise. - -"Tell me," he said once. "What manner of man is this Babe Deveril? I -know him as a man may know a man; you know him otherwise. Tell me; what -have you found him to be?" - -Never would she have been Lynette, had she not been ever quick of -instinct ... instinct leaping, never looking, yet so certain to strike -true! She read the thought under a thought; there came a living, joyous -gloating; she cried warmly, all the while watching him: - -"A true friend and a gentleman! A man unafraid ... one like a loyal -knight of the olden time! Like one of the King Arthur's knights...." - -"Like one," he growled, deep down in his throat, angrily, "who saw -another Lynette across the four fords? That's not true, girl; else he -would not have forsaken you so long! Nor would he have given up so -easily when, in your view, I beat him down and sent him up over the -ridge!" - -"He'll come back!" - -"You think so?" - -"_I know!_" - -Chance remarks of hers ... this one above all others ... rankled. She -seemed so confident that Babe Deveril would come again, that he would -carry in his breast the memory of sweet hours with her, that he would -never rest until he, with her pleading eyes tender upon his, could -rescue her from the bondage which Bruce Standing had set upon her! So -it came about that nightly, and all night long, Bruce Standing dreamed -of Babe Deveril and of battling with him and of beating him finally -into such definite defeat as had not resulted from that other fierce -struggle before her widening eyes. - -Another day went by and another, with Bruce Standing obsessed, knowing -himself for a man who yearned with all his soul for one thing and one -thing only, a mere slip of a gray-eyed girl who made madness in his -pulses. He had his moods of fierceness; on their heels came those -other moods of tenderness. More than once he came toward her, striding -through the woods, his mind made up to set her free, asking only her -happiness. And then he saw her; and in his heated fancies he saw Babe -Deveril; and he named Deveril a man of slight manhood and swore by his -own manhood that never would he show so lax and flabby a hand as to let -this priceless girl, drop into the graceful, careless hand of any Babe -Deveril who ever lived. - -"He'd never know how to love her as I do!" That ancient cry of all true -lovers! - -But all the while there bit into him doubtings, fears, those manifold -darts flung from love's alter ego, jealousy. He stood ready to give -this girl full-handedly everything; from her he craved with that direst -of all cravings, everything.... And when he could no longer hold back -the tumult within him and demanded: "What of this Baby Devil?" putting -a sneer into his voice, always she cried out warmly: "A true friend and -a gentleman!" - - -All unexpected by both of them, the less by him than her, Billy Winch, -Timber-Wolf's one-legged retainer, rode full tilt into camp. They -were lunching; they sat under a tree in the noonday shadow like two at -picnic. He had been saying: "We're running short of rations." Then it -was that Billy Winch, anxiously spurring a big roan saddle-horse, rode -down upon them and, seeing them, began waving his hat high over his -head in sweeping, joyous circles and shouting: - -"So you're still alive! That's something!" - -"You fool! Who told you to come here!" - -Standing leaped to his feet; he was hot with anger. - -"I knew where to find you, Timber!" cried Billy Winch gleefully. -"Unless, a fair bet, the devil had claimed you and taken you down -under, I knew I'd find you here!... How's the sick wing? Been usin' my -salve? Night and morning, keepin' it clean and...." - -Billy Winch, headlong, stopping his horse with a sudden pluck of the -reins when the gaunt roan had come near setting his four flickering -hoofs in their midday fire, chose to ignore the fact that the -Timber-Wolf was not alone. - -But Standing, springing up, strode out to meet him, his mien anything -but friendly. - -"Damn you, Billy Winch," he muttered between his teeth, too low for the -wondering Lynette to hear. She, too, had sprung up and stood leaning -against the valiant pine-tree, wondering swiftly how this latest -happening, the coming of Billy Winch into the wild-wood, was to affect -her. - -Billy Winch, as gay-hearted a rascal as ever stumped on one leg or -rode a wild, half-broken horse in carelessly lopsided fashion, laughed -gleefully. - -"Ho, Timber!" he cried. "If I was a whole man, 'stead of half a one, -I'd just jump down and naturally beat you to death! Bein' what I am, -all carved to thunder, you're too much all gone to proud flesh to jerk -me out of the saddle to stomp on me! So I got the age on you! And I -asks you, Johnny Wolf, man-eater, how's tricks?" - -"By God, Winch!" Standing in upstarting wrath had the roan horse by the -bit, shoving it back with one savage hand so that it fell back on its -haunches. "Just because I've stood a lot off you...." - -"Slow does it, Timber!" cried Winch. "This is business. I've got a man -back there, just out of sight, ready to go clean crazy unless he can -have a word with you. To put a name to him ... well, then, Mexicali -Joe!" - -Now Standing, deep down within him, knew why Billy Winch had come. -Never did more faithful heart beat in human breast than that heart -thrumming away beneath Billy Winch's faded blue shirt. Winch, having -always a shrewd guess where to find his chief, when Standing took it -upon himself to disappear from headquarters, had caught at the first -excuse to come in person and make sure with his own keen eyes that all -went well with a man whom many hated and whom he, above all men, loved. - -"Hang Mexicali Joe to the first stout limb you come to!" - -Lynette, of impulses ungovernable, could have broken into laughter. For -the amazing thing was that what Bruce Standing, impatient almost to -fury, said he meant. He had suffered enough inconvenience at Mexicali -Joe's hands; he wanted nothing of the man nor of his dross of gold. - -Winch did laugh aloud. And then, keen-eyed to see the play of his -employer's expression, he grew sober and said earnestly: - -"On the level, Mr. Standing, how's the hurt comin' along? Been usin' -the salve I told you to?" - -Lynette, though he had ignored her presence or because of this very -attitude of his, could not hold back from exclaiming: - -"He has two wounds now! Another shot in the back! And he gives them -less attention than a sane man would give a cut finger!" - -"The old fool! No more sense than a rabbit! Shot again? Twice in the -back? Plugged a second time? The old fool!" - -Like a flash in his quick movements he was down from the saddle; he -left his horse with dragging reins to wait for him; over the uneven -ground he came forward rapidly, queerly, hopping like an oddly -oversized bird. He caught at Standing's shoulder, crying out: - -"Let me see them hurts! I tell you, I got to see them hurts! Shot twice -from behind? You bloody baby. Let me look at 'em. Blood poison most -likely settin' in!" - -"I could kill you ... you interfering fool...." - -But just then Billy Winch's one foot caught at a root and he came near -falling, and Standing, instead of carrying out a threat, sprang toward -him and steadied him; and Lynette saw a sincere rough affection in the -way the big arms closed about Winch's body. Friends, these two. - -"Who plugged you, Timber? And for the love of Mike, how come you to let -it happen ... _twice_? But tell me: Who plugged you the second time?" - -"Taggart," said Standing; "at least that's my bet. And," he added -hastily, "it was Taggart that shot me the first time, through the -window at Gallup's!" - -Billy Winch looked sharp incredulity; his eyes flickered away to -Lynette as he gave sign of seeing her for the first time. - -"But, man! I thought...." - -"You thought wrong! She did not shoot me. You've got my word for that, -Bill. _She did not shoot me!_" - -Winch looked perplexed. - -"Sure, Timber?" he demanded. "Dead sure?" - -"Yes," said Standing. "Taggart didn't believe I had already changed my -papers, ruling his name out. If he could have dropped me and made it -seem clear that she had done it.... See it, Bill?" - -"Well," said Winch slowly, "I guess you know or you wouldn't say so. -And Jim Taggart was a real man once. But I've seen signs of late; he's -mildewed inside, clean through. As comes of running with such as Young -Gallup." - -Suddenly he whipped off his battered hat and turned a pair of bright -and smiling, and at last warmly admiring eyes upon Lynette. - -"I beg your pardon, Miss," he said genially. - -"Now," said Standing. "About this Mexicali Joe. You go back and tell -him for me...." - -Winch interrupted quickly, saying: - -"No use, Timber. You got to see him. I tell you he's clean crazy to see -you; he'll stick on your trail until he finds you. He wants only ten -minutes; five would do it." - -Lynette was mildly surprised to see Standing so easily persuaded; but -she had no way of knowing the relationship of this man and his chief -henchman nor how Billy Winch never took it upon himself to suggest -unless he knew what he was about. - -"All right," said Standing, though he frowned as he spoke. "Go get your -man." - -Winch jerked his head about and shouted; his long, halloing call -pierced clear through the woodland silences. - -"Hi, Joe! This way, on the run! _Pronto, hombre!_" - -Joe came almost immediately, mounted on a scrawny mulish-looking horse, -breaking an impatient way through the brush. His dark face still -carried a frightened, furtive expression which had not been absent -from it for a matter of days; not since a handful of raw gold had been -spilled from his torn pocket. - -"_Seņor!_" he cried ringingly from a distance. "_Seņor Caballero!_ -I tell you, they keel me! I got no chances! For sure, they keel me, -robbers!" - -Standing answered roughly: "And what do I care? Serve you right for the -fool you are!" - -"Now, he's here," said Winch. "Look here, Timber: you can take your -time talking to him. Let me look you over. I want to see that second -bullet hole." - -"Winch, you idiot," Standing growled at him; "I got it close to a week -ago. I've tended to it myself; it's all right. I don't look like a -dying man, do I?" - -"_Seņor!_" Joe was crying, down on the ground now, tremendously excited. - -"Are you usin' my salve?" demanded Winch. "Plenty of it, night and -morning?" - -"I have been using it...." - -"And you're out of it _now_!" With a triumphant flourish Winch dipped -into a pocket and extracted a small package. "Here you are, Timber! -And this is extra special! I got all the ingredients this time; tried -it out day before yesterday on that new pinto pony you bought from -Ferguson; got cut in the wire fence down by the pasture. Say, it works -like magic...." - -Standing groaned. "Winch, some fine day I'll carve you all up with a -hand-axe, just to give you a chance to use your own filthy mess...." - -"I wouldn't have been shy a leg, would I, if that fool doctor had had a -pint of this?" - -"_Seņor!_" Joe was crying. "You got to listen; you got to hear what I -goin' tell you! My gold, my gold that I find, me, myself, all alone...." - -"What do I care for you or your gold!" cried Standing. "I don't need -it, do I? I don't ask you anything about it, do I? I don't want to know -anything about it! Go wallow in your gold and leave me alone!" - -But Joe explained, growing vehement to the point of wildness; as Winch -had put it, "he was clean crazy over the thing." How could Joe wallow -in it, much as he would like to, when always there were men like ugly -hounds on his trail? What chance had he, poor devil that he styled -himself, against such men as Jim Taggart and Young Gallup and Cliff -Shipton and Babe Deveril and Barny McCuin.... He named a score. At the -name of Babe Deveril Standing's eyes flashed and sped to a meeting -with Lynette's; into hers, too, came a quick light. Joe had caught -Standing's interest. - -"What about these men?" he asked. "What about Deveril?" - -"Him? The worst of them all!" wailed Joe. He went on, bursting with all -the things he had to tell. That night when, for a second time, like God -himself, the grand Seņor Caballero had burst into the cabin and set -him free, he had run! God, how he had run! But then he had thought of -his savior alone against so many hard, merciless men; he had come to a -sudden stop, saying to himself: "Joe, _mi amigo_, you must not desert -him!" And then, of a sudden, had that young devil Deveril burst from -the bushes upon him ... and Joe had fled again and Deveril had sought -after him. There was no shaking off this man; twice since then in the -forest Joe had barely escaped him.... Lynette had come close, was -listening breathlessly. - -"I tell you where my gold is!" cried Joe. "You take what you like, I -don't care! You give me what you like ... I know you for one fair man. -That way we save it. Any other way, they get me; they burn me with -fire; they break my teeth and my fingers; they make me tell! And they -get it all. Taggart and Gallup and Deveril and...." - -He broke off, half whimpering, cursing them with all the eloquence of -the Latin tongue. - -Clearly Standing hesitated. Then, amazing them all, but with his own -mind clear, he said bluntly: - -"Clear out! It's your game. I don't want to know anything about it." - -"_It's down in Light Ladies' Gulch!_" screamed Joe. "Not two mile from -Big Pine! I lied to them ... a big pine, with crooked roots sticking -out ... a washout.... Last year I make mistake; I think down under the -Red Cliffs. But this time I find ... four miles the other side...." - -"Why, you shrivelled-souled...." - -Then suddenly Standing caught himself up short; there came a new look -into his eyes; he shouted, catching Joe by the shoulder: - -"_Light Ladies' Caņon!_ Just across from Big Pine? Only a mile or two!" - -"As God hears me, Seņor!" - -Standing broke into sudden laughter. He clapped Joe upon the shoulder -so that the little man staggered and paled under the jovial blow. - -"With bells on! With bells, Mexico! By high Heaven.... Here, you, -Winch! On the run, back to headquarters. Take Joe with you; mount -guard over him night and day with a rifle. No man to have a word with -him. And wait for me. And, all the while, Bill Winch, _keep your mouth -shut_!" - -Winch, with one arm out as a brace against a pine, stiffened. - -"I guess I know how to take orders, Mr. Standing," he said, and his -tone sounded angry. "You don't need...." - -Him also Standing smote on the shoulder. - -"Why, God bless you, Bill Winch, you're the only man on earth I'd -trust! Those last words weren't necessary.... You're right and I -apologize for them! But now, go! Go, I tell you; I'll do anything you -say; I'll use your poison on me three times a day.... I'll eat it, if -you say so! Only hit the high spots and keep Mexicali under cover until -I come! No matter when or how long; there's your job ... old friend!" - -Billy Winch, galvanized, went hopping to his horse; he flipped after -his own fashion up into the saddle; he loosened the rifle in its -holster strapped conveniently; he called to Joe: - -"Quick does it, Mexico! We're on our way!" - -Bruce Standing watched them ride away among the trees and stood -laughing! He had succeeded in puzzling two men; most of all had he set -Lynette wondering.... - - - - -CHAPTER XXII - - -"I want a good long drink of fresh water," said Standing. "And you, -after this lunch of ours, will be thirsty. Let's go down to the creek; -down there, by the waterfall, after we've drunk, I want to talk with -you." - -He had turned to her, that flash still in his eyes, before Billy Winch -and Mexicali Joe had ridden a dozen yards out of camp. She looked at -him in silence, wondering what lay in his thoughts; what had been the -sudden, compelling, and triumphant motive to actuate him when with his -great shout of laughter he had dismissed the two men. He had Joe's -secret now; she shared it herself: The gold was far from here and very -near Big Pine; in Light Ladies' Caņon! The strange part of it was -that Taggart's first surmise, when he and his companions had trapped -Mexicali Joe at the dugout, was that it was in Light Ladies' Caņon -that he had made his strike!... How many men and at least one girl had -travelled how many wilderness miles from Big Pine, when the gold lay so -snugly close to the starting-point! How Joe had tricked his captors, -leading them so far afield! - -"If I should escape from you now," Lynette could not help crying, "what -is there to prevent me from staking the first claim? And bringing my -_friends_ ... to stake claims!" - -"If you should happen to escape me!" he laughed back at her. - -Then he stepped to the tree where his rifle stood and called to Thor as -he did always when he left the dog in camp: "Watch, Thor! Watch, sir." - -It was not always that he carried his rifle. He explained, while he -looked to her to come with him. - -"We'll talk things over; but in any case it's clear that we're getting -short of food. Maybe, while we talk, we can bring down something in the -way of provisions with a lucky shot." - -Willing enough was she to-day for talk; at least to listen to whatever -he might say. She followed, stopping only to stoop and pat old Thor's -head; already she counted the faithful brute a friend. Thor tried to -lick her hand; for already Thor, like Thor's master, had bestowed an -abiding love to the first true girl who had ever intimately entered the -life of either. Thor wanted to follow; he whined and looked anxious, -ears pricked forward, tail wagging. - -"Down, Thor," commanded Standing, if only because already he had issued -his command. "You watch camp for us; watch, Thor." - -Thor dropped down at the entrance of Lynette's grotto; for one instant -his great head lay between his forepaws; then he jerked it up again so -that he might watch them as they went through the thickets to the creek. - -Standing carried a cup with him. When they came to the waterfall -leaping down a twenty-foot rocky spillway, glassily clear, making a -pigmy thunder in the narrow-walled ravine, he rinsed and filled his -cup and gave it to Lynette. She drank. Thereafter, and with no further -rinsing, he drank. She sat upon a big rock, leaning back against -a leaning tree trunk; he sat down close enough to her to allow of -words carrying above the thunder of the falling waters and filled his -after-lunch pipe. - -"I know as much as you do of the place to find the gold!" she told him -again. "And I, though a girl, have as much interest in a fortune to be -made as any man can have. That's fair warning to you, Bruce Standing!" - -He laughed carelessly. Then he said: - -"It's neither your gold nor mine. By right of discovery, it belongs to -a little shrimp named Mexicali Joe _Alguna-Cosa_. Our hands are off, so -far as our own pockets are concerned." - -"But.... You took quick interest when you learned where it was! You -have some plan ... you commanded your friend Billy Winch to keep Joe -well guarded!" - -His eyes were twinkling; and greed does not light twinkling lights! - -"I've got gold of my own, girl! Gold enough to last me my life and you -your life and both of us together our lives! And to leave a decent -residuum after us.... But let's talk of Mexicali Joe's gold some other -time. To-day.... We have ourselves!" - -"You have yourself!" cried Lynette with sudden bitterness. "I have not -even my own personal liberty!" - -"And what if I let you go, girl? As I have a mind to do to-day? What -then? Where would you go? Where would I find you again? For find you I -must and will though 'it were ten thousand mile.'" - -"Am I to suffer your dictation during the days of actual imprisonment -at your hands, and then, for all time afterward, render you an -accounting of my actions!" - -"Why do you try to hate me so, girl?" - -"Why should I not hate you?" - -"What have I done to you? Have I done anything more than put out a hand -to stop time, to snatch time for you and me, for us to _know_!... Look -you, girl, a man, at least a man of my sort, may go a third of his -life or a fourth or a full half, and know much less than nothing of -what a true girl is! _How can he know?_ Already I have learned that you -have instincts which leap; a man gropes like a blind mole and it takes -him a long time to teach himself to see the stars ... _the star!_ Now -it's a fair bet, and no odds given or taken, that one Bruce Standing -happened to be an unruly devil, a blunt man, a man who has as a part -and parcel of his religion to shoot square and to hit hard, so long as -God lets him. I've done wrong and I've done right, and I'm doing as all -the rest of the great mass, in a state of flux, is doing; growing up -from the mud into something better. If not in this life or the next, -well then, since the mills grind with exceeding patience, in some -other life. At least I'm honest; at least, in plain English, I do my -damnedest! Take it or leave it, there's the truth. If it happens that -I'm a man of few friends.... Almost you can count 'em on Billy Winch's -one leg!... if few men love me and many men hate...." - -"Yes!" cried Lynette, and her own earnestness was caught and compelled -by his own. "Most men, many, many men, hate you!... And yet you have it -within you to make them love you!" - -"Love and hate! What have I to do with the loves and hates of men as I -know them? Shall I step to right or to left for all that? I play out my -part in the eternal game. I live my life!" - -"But you don't live your life! You miss ... everything! If you would -but be kind instead of cruel; open-hearted and generous always ... you -have in you the seeds of all that. Then men might come to know the real -_you_; you could make them love instead of hate...." - -But his eyes stabbed at her like quickened blue flames. - -"So!" he said, and his tone was one of bitter mockery. "If I choose -to pay them for the pretty, empty compliment, they will call me a -good fellow and ... love me! If I kick them they will call me villain -and hate me. And there you have the epitome of that so-called love -and hate of mankind which sickens me. I'll be eternally damned before -I prostitute my immortal soul to pitch pennies out for a peck of -treacherous hearts. For, I tell you, girl ... Only Girl ... the love -that is to be bought is to be spat upon. I'll have none of it. Even -your love, that I'd give my soul to have freely, I'd have none of if it -were to be bought." - -Lynette looked at him strangely, half pityingly. And she answered him -softly: - -"You twist things out of all reason to make, to yourself, your own acts -appear something other than they are." - -"A girl trying to turn logician?" he laughed at her, teasing. - -Little effort on his part was required to set fire to her quick -inflammable temper. - -"It's magnanimous of you to jeer at me," she retorted hotly. "Because -you have the physical strength of a beast and the beast's lack of -understanding...." - -Now his golden outburst of laughter stopped her. He shouted: - -"See! There you go! As if to preach me the final word of love and hate! -You'd hate me now, just because I tease you! If I said, with poets' -roses twining through the saying, that you were most beautiful and -no-end intellectual and beyond that of the heart of an angel, could -you not better tolerate me? And thus we come to the open pathway to -most human loves and hates; two little doors standing side by side. -For, I ask you, going back to your challenge to make men love rather -than despise me, what in the devil's name is that sort of _love_ but -transplanted self-love? A damned-fool sort of selfishness masking -like a hypocrite as something quite different.... If you loved a man -who beat you there would be something worth while in that sort of -loving; something divorced from plain selfishness and the eternal -I-want-to-get-all-I-can-out-of-everything! Now, I love you! I love you -so that my love for you comes near killing me! It gets me by the throat -at night. That's love; and there's less of self in it, I swear to you, -than there is of ... _you!_" - -"You! You talk of love. To me!" - -She broke into her light, taunting laughter. And yet he had set her -heart beating and the ancient fear ... not fear of him ... was upon -her. "You, talking of love, are like a blind man lecturing on the -colors of the rainbow! You...." - -But he had started to his feet; his eyes went suddenly toward the camp, -all sight of which they had lost on coming down into the creek bed. - -"Listen!" he cried. "What was that?" - -She had heard nothing; nothing above the splash and fall of water ... -and the beating of her own heart. - -"Listen!" he said the second time. - -"What is it?" - -He caught up his rifle and leaped across the creek. He began running, -back toward their camp. - -"It's old Thor ... there's some one...." - -And now, Lynette realized clearly, had come her first opportunity -to be free again! While Bruce Standing, because of something he had -heard above the merry-mad music of the waterfall, or had thought he -had heard, was running back to their encampment, she could run in the -opposite direction. She stood balancing, of this mind and that. What -had he heard in camp? What was happening there? As always, because -of that volatile nature of hers which was _en rapport_ with life's -pulsings, she wanted to know! And then there was a certain assurance -in her heart that after all these days the budding intention in Bruce -Standing's heart was bursting into full flower to set her free again! -She hesitated; she saw him running up the steep bank, charging back -toward camp, vanishing among the trees higher up on the slope. - -And, then, she followed him. - -... Before Lynette came, through the trees, within sight of the grotto -which Standing had given over to her, she heard a sound which brought -her, wondering, from swift haste to lingering; she stood, her breathing -stilled, listening, groping a moment blindly for an interpretation of -that sound for its explanation. Harsh it was ... terrible ... never -had she heard anything like it. At first she did not recognize it as a -sound man-made. She paused; she came a step nearer, peering through the -trees.... - -It was an inarticulate, stifled sound coming from the lips of Bruce -Standing! He was kneeling on the ground, bending forward. He had -dropped his rifle. There was something in his arms, upgathered into his -embrace, something held as a baby is held in its mother's arms.... - -Thor.... - -And those sounds from Bruce Standing's lips! There were tears in -them; his voice was shaken. He held Thor to him in a fierce agony of -sorrow.... - -Lynette came closer, tiptoeing. She heard the sounds as they seemed -to choke him, clutching like hands at his throat. And then suddenly, -before she caught her first clear view, she knew when, into that first -emotion there swept the second; when with the shock of deep grief there -mingled white-hot rage. He began to mutter again ... he was lisping ... -lisping as she had heard him do only once before ... lisping because -his one weakness had leaped out and caught him unaware. Lisping -curses.... - -She ran closer. She saw old Thor, Thor who had learned to love her -and whom she had learned to love, lying limp in Standing's arms. Thor -dead? Some one had killed him, then, and Standing, above the booming -of the waterfall, had heard? A sight, perhaps, to stir that wild, -uncontrollable laughter of Lynette! The sight of a big, strong man half -weeping over a dead dog in his arms.... Yet, when she came running -to him and dropped down on her knees and put out her quick hand and -Standing turned his face toward her ... he saw that this time there was -no laughter in her. Instead, her eyes were wet with a sudden dash of -tears. - -"He's not dead ... we won't have it that he's dead! Thor!" she cried -softly. - -She did not realize that she had put her warm, sympathetic hand on -Standing's arm before her other hand found the old dog's head. - -"Thor!... Thor!" - -Thor looked up at her; at Standing. The dog tried to stir; the faithful -tongue strove to overmaster the terrible inertia laid upon it; to -grant in last adulation the last farewell. For a stricken dog, like a -stricken man, knows after the way of all creatures which have the spark -of eternity within them, when the day's end is in doubt.... - -Standing tried to speak ... and grew silent. How she hated herself -then for that other time when he had slipped, through sorrowing rage, -into his one unmanly failing ... and she had laughed! Her tears began -running down. He saw; he jerked his head about, focussing his eyes upon -the eyes of a dog that he loved; a dog that had been faithful to him. - -"Where is he hurt? He can't be shot," cried Lynette. "We would have -heard a shot! If he is poisoned...." - -Standing had mastered himself. He said coldly. - -"Look!" - -"Who did ... _that_?" - -"If I only knew! My God, if I only knew!" - -Thor was not dead; his body jerked and quivered now and again, in -spasms. Yet he seemed to be dying. And it grew clear to Lynette, as, -at a glance, it had been clear to Standing, what had happened. Thor -had been left in charge of camp; but the one word had rung in the -faithful head: "Watch!" And then some one had come; Thor had been true -to his trust; some man had struck him down with club or a rifle barrel; -had struck and struck again. Thor's fore leg was broken; he had been -battered over the head ... bones were broken, the skull seemed crushed -... the dog stiffened; fell back.... - -"Dying," said Standing, still on his knees. He placed old Thor very -gently on the ground, striving after his own rough fashion to make -a dog's last few minutes of breathing no more tormenting than was -inevitable. - -"Thor," said Standing gently. "Good old Thor!" - -The dog tried to rouse. The old faithful head on Standing's knee -stirred ever so little. The old steadfast eyes, red-rimmed but -clear-sighted, were on Standing's. If ever a dog could have spoken.... - -Standing, with sudden thought, jumped to his feet. - -"There's a chance for him yet! There is Billy Winch, the one man on -earth to save a dying dog or horse.... Yes, or man!" - -He cupped his hands at his mouth and sent forth, piercing through the -leafy silences, that wild wolf-call which must bring Winch about in -short order ... if he was not already too far to hear it. - -"He may be too far," cried Lynette. Already she was down upon her -knees, taking his place and gathering Thor's head into her lap. -"Hurry. If you can find your horse and ride after him, surely you can -overtake him." - -"God bless you!" He began running. But before a dozen swift steps were -taken he stopped and came back to her, muttering: "But the man who did -this for Thor? He'll not be far away; I can't leave you...." - -"I am not afraid of a man like him," said Lynette. "A coward, or he -would not have done this.... Leave me your rifle and hurry!" - -"You'll wait for me, no matter what happens?" - -"Of course I'll wait. Now, _hurry_!" - -He placed his rifle at her side and with never a backward look was away -again on a run, breaking through breast-high brush; splashing once -again across the creek, calling to Winch as he ran.... He would be back -with her almost immediately.... - -So he plowed through the thickets; plunged down a slope, sped up a -slope, raced over a ridge. And, now with what breath was left in his -lungs, he began to send out his whistled call. That summons, which his -horse, if still lingering in these upland meadows, would welcome with -quick response. - -Lynette stooped and laid her cheek against the grizzled old face of -Thor. And then, with a sudden access of emotion, she burst into fresh -tears.... Thor tried to wag his tail.... Lynette, like Standing before -her, felt that the dog was dying. - -"Thor!" she whispered. "Can't you hold on? Can't you carry on? He will -bring Billy Winch and Billy Winch will help us...." - -Then there burst upon her a surprise which moved her immeasurably. -There, almost at her side, stood Babe Deveril! A moment ago she was -alone in the wilderness with a dying dog; now Babe Deveril stood close -to her. With Thor's head still held in her lap she looked up into his -face. She saw that it was tense, the muscles drawn, the eyes hard and -bright. - -"Lynette!" he cried softly. "Lynette! I've followed you half around the -world! And now.... Come quick! We go free and the world is ours!" - -She sat, staring up at him, still bewildered. - -"You!" she whispered. "And ... then it was you ... who did this?" - -He caught her meaning; he glanced down at the thick green club in his -hands. - -"I came to do what I could for you. That ugly brute stood up against -me. I had no gun; I knew Standing was armed. I thought that maybe he -had left his rifle in camp." - -"What did Thor do to you that you should have done this to him?" - -"Thor? That dog? He showed teeth and ... Look here, Lynette Brooke; -now's your one chance. I've gone through hell to come to you...." - -"Tell me," she cried. "When did you come?..." - -Deveril was as tense as a finely drawn steel wire. Again she marked -that hard glint in his dark eyes. - -"It is up to you to do the telling!" he shot back at her. "I stood back -there in the trees; I saw that damned henchman of his and Mexicali Joe -come up to you! Joe, I've been following for days! I had no rifle; no -weapon of any kind and both Standing and Winch were armed. But I could -watch! Joe was terribly excited; I saw his waving arms. I heard him -yelling...." - -"Yes," said Lynette. "And then?" - -"And then?" exclaimed Deveril. "What then? You know what we came for, -don't you? You as well as I?" - -"Yes! I know...." - -He caught at her hand. - -"Come! On the run. Before that madman gets back. We'll clean up on the -whole crowd of them!" - -But she jerked her hand away. - -"There are certain things I don't understand.... Did you see the other -night when he took Mexicali Joe out of their hands?" - -"I saw; yes. It happened that I had just overhauled them at that -minute! I could have cried for rage! He had a rifle, damn him, and was -aching to use it! They laid down before him like pups...." - -"_And you?_" - -"What could I do, with a rotten stick in my hands!" - -She looked up at him curiously. - -"And, to-day?" - -"To-day?" His hands hardened in his grip upon his club. "To-day, I tell -you, I followed them into your camp and I saw. Mexicali Joe...." - -"You are after Mexicali Joe's gold, Babe Deveril?" - -"As you are! That brought us both into Big Pine in the beginning and -then into the rest of it." - -"And you were ... afraid to come into camp while Bruce Standing was -still here?" - -He laughed at her, the old light laughter of debonair Babe Deveril. - -"Afraid? Call it that if you like." He shrugged carelessly. "Yet, with -an oak club against a man with a modern rifle...." - -"Do you remember the last time? How he threw his rifle away?" - -Deveril flushed hotly. - -"Some day," he muttered, "when it's an even break...." - -"What do you want with me, Babe Deveril?" - -He stared at her. - -"Want with you? I want you to come, to be free from this Timber-Wolf. -Is he coming back soon?" - -"I think so." - -"Then hurry. Lynette...." - -"Well?" - -"Are you coming?" - -She stooped over Thor. - -"No," she said quietly. - -"_What!_ After all this.... You're not coming?" - -"No!" - -"But.... Then why?" he demanded with a sudden flare of anger. - -"For one thing," she told him without looking up, "because I told him -that I would wait for him. For another...." - -"And that is?..." - -She only shook her head, brown hair tumbling about her hidden face. - -"I'll stay with old Thor," she said. - -She had him cast away among the lost isles of bewilderment. - -"But you'll tell me.... You and I have been friends; we've stood side -by side...." He broke off to demand: "You'll tell me about Mexicali -Joe's gold?" - -"Gold?" she said. "Is gold the greatest thing in life?" - -"But you know?" - -"Yes! I know." - -"Then listen: Taggart and Gallup and Shipton and a thousand other men -are going crazy to find out! You and I can turn the whole trick if luck -is good.... Why, we'll quit millionaires, Lynette!" - -A shudder shot through the tortured body of old Thor. Lynette's long -lashes lifted, wet with her tears. - -"There are things ... beyond millions...." - -"I don't get you to-day!" - -"Why did you kill this dog? What good did it do you? What harm had he -ever done you?" - -"He was in my way. I thought, I told you, that a rifle might have been -left behind. And ... it's Standing's dog, anyway! And, beyond that, no -matter how you look at it, only a dog...." - -"I think," said Lynette, and there was no music in her voice now and -no warmth in the eyes which she lifted briefly to his, "that you had -better go! Had you come, without rifle, upon Bruce Standing, at least -he would have thrown his rifle away to fight with you! You know that. -And ... and I am not going to go with you, having given my promise. And -I'll warn you of this: If he comes back and finds you here and knows -you for the man who killed Thor.... He will kill you!" - -Never in all his daredevil life had Babe Deveril made pretense at -striking the angelic attitude. Now, in a rush of feeling, he grew black -with anger and there came a look into his eyes which put the hottest -flush of all her life into Lynette's cheeks, as he cried out: - -"Tamed you, has he? So Timber-Wolf has taken a mate after the fashion -of wolves! And I, fool that I was, let you slip through my fingers!" - -She did not answer him. Had she answered she could have said: "You -could have returned to fight with him; man to man and him wounded! -Later, when he snatched Mexicali Joe from them, you could have fought -with him. You could have followed him here, seeking me; and you -followed Joe, seeking gold. You could have fought with him to-day; and -instead you held back and spied and killed his dog and waited for him -to go!..." So Lynette, stooping low over Thor's battered head, made no -answer. - -... She knew that Babe Deveril was no coward. She would always remember -how he had hurled that gun into Taggart's face and himself into her -adventures, reckless and unafraid. Yet Babe Deveril was no such man as -Bruce Standing; rather was he like a Jim Taggart, and Taggart was no -coward. But it remained that both these men, Deveril and Taggart, were -afraid to come to grips with that other man, whose fellows named him -Timber-Wolf. And he, the Timber-Wolf, was not afraid of life and all -that it bore; and was not afraid of sombre death, in which he did not -believe; was not afraid of God, in whom he trusted. - -"You've thrown in with him!" Deveril cried it out angrily; his hands -were hard upon his club. "Here, I've given days and days trying to see -you through, and you've kicked in with him against me! He's had his -will with you and he's made you his woman and...." - -"You'd better go!" - -She was trembling. A spasm shook her, not unlike that which convulsed -Thor. - -"You won't come with me then? You'll stick with him? After he put a -chain on you!" - -"At least he did not stand back and see another man put a chain on me!" - -"Is that my answer?" - -"Yes!" she cried in sudden fury. "And now ... _go!_" - -"I'll go, all right," said Deveril. And began to laugh. All that old -light laughter of his, gay and untroubled, which so many a time had -made dancing echoes in the souls of those who heard, bubbled up again. -He looked, as he had done when first she saw him, a slender, darkly -handsome and utterly care-free incarnation of debonair insolence. Still -striking the right note, he shrugged his shoulders and tossed his club -away as he said insolently: - -"What need of all this heavy artillery ... since the Queen of my Heart -says Nay? I'll travel light after this!" - -He turned away. But at the second step he stopped and swung about and -told her: - -"I have a guess where Billy Winch will be taking Mexicali Joe! And I'll -be in on the final settlement. If you, with a rush of blood to the -head, throw in with Standing, I'll play the game out! And what will you -have left to trade to me for the pile I'm going to make out of this?... -For I heard, too, when Mexicali yelled out! And I'm throwing in with -Taggart and Gallup, headed straight for Light Ladies' Gulch!" - -Lynette, unable to see anything in all the wide world clearly, could -only stoop her head over the stricken dog. Her arms tightened about -Thor.... If only Billy Winch would come in time, if only Billy Winch -would save that flickering little fire of life ... then, though she -hated all the rest of the world she'd love Billy Winch.... - - - - -CHAPTER XXIII - - -Bruce Standing running, breaking a straight path through the brush, -came swiftly into the little upper valley. When in answer to his -whistling his horse came trotting up to him, he did not tarry to -saddle; he had picked up his bridle on his way and now mounted and -struck off bareback through the woods with no second's delay. - -"Get into it, Daylight!" he muttered. "We're riding for old Thor -to-day!" - -From a distance Billy Winch, hurrying homeward, heard that long call -he knew so well. He pulled his horse down from a steady canter and -turned, calling to Mexicali Joe to come back with him. Once within -sight Standing waved and shouted again; Winch and Joe sensed urgency -and dipped their spurs, riding back to a meeting with him. Winch stared -and frowned while his employer made his curt explanation; Mexicali Joe -gasped. But neither man had a word to say; Standing laid his brief -command upon them and the three turned back, riding hard, into the -mountains. - -Again Standing called, when near enough to camp to hope that his voice -would carry above the noise of the tumbling waterfalls; this time to -Lynette, to tell her of their coming. He rode ahead; again and again he -shouted to her; he leaned out to right and left from his horse's back, -seeking a glimpse of her through the trees. And yet, when they were -almost in the camp, there still came no answer to his shoutings and he -caught no glimpse of her.... Suddenly, to his fancies, the woods seemed -strangely hushed--and empty. - -"She's gone," said Winch carelessly. - -"No!" said Standing with such brusque emphasis that Winch looked at him -wonderingly. "She said she'd wait for us, Bill." - -But when they drew closer, so close that the various familiar camp -objects were revealed, and still there was no response and no sight of -her, Winch muttered: - -"Just the same, gone or not gone, she ain't here, Timber." - -"I tell you, man," snapped Standing, "she said she would wait. And what -she says she will do, she will do!" - -Now the three dismounted in the heart of the camp and still there was -no sign of Lynette. - -"Anyhow," said Winch, "it's a dog and not a girl we come looking for. -Thor'll be here ... if he's alive yet." - -"He will be right where I left him." Standing led the way among the -big trees, an arm about Billy Winch, hopping at his side the last few -steps; they saw him looking in all directions and understood that while -he led them toward Thor he was seeking the girl. But they found only -the dog lying where he had been struck down; Thor barely able to lift -his bloody head, his sight dim, but his dog's intelligence telling -him that his master had come back to him; Thor whining weakly. Winch -squatted down at the dog's side, become upon the instant an impressive -diagnostician. - -Standing stood a moment over the two, looking down upon them. Then he -turned away, leaving Thor in the skilful hands of Winch and hurrying -down to the creek, seeking Lynette. It was possible, he told himself, -that she had gone down for a drink; that so near the waterfall she had -not heard him calling. So he called again as he went on and looked -everywhere for her. - -But she was not down by the creek and she did not answer him from the -woods. He came back, up into camp, perplexed. Winch was still bending -over Thor; he was snapping out brusque orders to Joe for hot water and -soap; Standing heard Mexicali Joe's mutterings: - -"_Por Dios_, I no understan'. Somebody hurt one dog an' we wait, an' -we look for one girl ... an' all the time I got one meelion dollar -gol'-mine down yonder...." - -"Shut up," Winch grunted at him. And, seeing Standing coming back: -"Say, Timber, we better take this dog home with us right away. We can -make a sling of that canvas of yours, tying either end to our saddle -horns, making a sort of stretcher; some blankets in it and old Thor on -top of 'em. And I'll tell you this: if we get him home alive, and I -think we will, I'll keep the life in him." - -Thor was whining piteously; Winch shook his head; if only he had his -instruments, his antiseptics, and a bottle of chloroform! For here he -foresaw such an operation as did not come his way every day. - -"Diagnosin' off-hand," Winch was telling the uninterested Joe, "I'd -say here's the two important facts: first, old Thor has been beat -unmerciful; his head's been whanged bad, but I don't believe the -skull's fractured; his left fore leg is busted and he may have a -cracked rib. Second and most important, after all that the old devil is -alive." - -Bruce Standing, still seeking Lynette, more than satisfied to have Thor -in Billy Winch's capable hands, turned toward the grotto which he had -set apart for Lynette. And thus upon his first discovery. There was a -piece of paper tied with a bit of string so that it fluttered gently -from a low limb where it was inevitable that it must be seen. He caught -it down eagerly. On the scrap of paper were a few pencilled words, -written in a girlish-looking hand. At one sweeping glance he read: - - - "I have gone back to Babe Deveril. - - LYNETTE." - - -He stood staring incredulously at the thing in his hand. Here was a -shock which for a moment confused him; here was something beyond -credence. Lynette gone ... to Deveril? For that first second his -brain groped blindly rather than functioned normally. Lynette gone to -Babe Deveril ... that cursed Baby Devil! A handsome, graceful, and -altogether irresistible young devil of a fellow to fill any girl's eye, -to stir vague romantic longings in her heart. So she had gone to him? -He had the proof of it in his hand; a word from her, signed with her -name. A cruel, chill, heartless message of seven meagre words.... And -she had broken her word; she had promised to wait for his return and -she had not waited. She had left a dying dog to die alone and had gone -to her lover ... and she carried with her the key to Mexicali Joe's -golden secret ... to turn it over to Deveril! - -"What's eating you, Timber?" shouted Winch. "Gone to sleep or what?" - -Standing tossed the scrap of paper away. And then suddenly he laughed -and both Winch and Joe were startled. Bill Winch had heard that laugh -once before and knew vaguely the sort of emotion which prompted it: -Standing's soul was suddenly steeped in rage ... and anguish.... - -"We'll be on our way pretty quick, Timber," said Winch. "We'll ride -slow and you can pick us up in no time. And ... if you've got anything -on your chest, any of your own private rat-killing to do, why, me and -Mexicali will make out fine as far as headquarters, and once there I'll -see old Thor through." - -Standing only nodded at him curtly and went hurriedly to his horse. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIV - - -Timber-Wolf, his purposes crystallizing, did not attempt to rejoin -Winch and Mexicali Joe. By the time he had ridden to the spot where -his saddle was hidden and had thrown it upon Daylight's back, drawing -his cinch savagely, he had begun to get his proper perspective. He -knew that he could trust Billy Winch in all things; that Winch, with -all of that persevering patience which the occasion demanded and that -veterinary skill and love for animals which marked him, would do all -that any man could to get Thor home and to care for him. And now, for -Bruce Standing, beyond the stricken dog lay other considerations: There -remained Lynette and Babe Deveril! He ground his teeth in savage rage -and from Daylight's first leap under him rode hard. - -Long before the early sun rose he was back at his own headquarters, -a man grim and hard and purposeful. Rough garbed and still booted -he strode through his study and into his larger office; and in this -environment the man's magnificent virility was strikingly accentuated. -Here was his wilderness home, a place of elegance and of palpitant -centres of numerous large activities; not a dozen miles from Big Pine -and yet, in all appearances, set apart from Young Gallup's crude town -as far as the ends of earth. He stood in a great, hard-wooded room of -orderly tables and desks and telephones and electric push-buttons. He -set an impatient thumb upon a button; at the same moment his other hand -caught up a telephone instrument. While the push-button still sent -its urgent message he caught a response from his telephone. Into the -receiver he called sharply: - -"Bristow? In a hurry, Standing speaking: Give me the stables; get Billy -Winch!" - -All the while that insistent thumb of his upon the button! There came -bursting into the big room, half dressed and clutching at his clothes, -a young man whose eyes were still heavy with sleep. - -"You, Graham," Standing commanded him. "Get busy on our long-distance -wire. My lawyers.... Get Ben Brewster! It's the hurry of a lifetime!" - -Young Graham, with suspenders dragging, flew to the switchboard. -Meantime came a response from the inter-phone connecting him with the -stables. - -"Billy Winch?" he called. - -"No, sir, Mr. Standing," said a voice. "This is Dick Ross. Bill, he got -in late and was up all night nearly, working over a bad case that come -in. Shall I...." - -"That case," Standing told him abruptly, "was my dog, Thor. Find out -who was left in charge when Bill went to sleep; call me right away and -give me a report on Thor." With that he rang off. - -All the while his secretary, Graham, had been plugging away -at his switchboard. Standing, pacing up and down, heard his -"Hello--hello--hello." - -Within three minutes the stable telephone rang sharply. Standing caught -it up. It was Dick Ross again, reporting: - -"Bill didn't go off the case until three o'clock this morning. Had to -operate again at about two; taking out a little piece of skull bone. He -left Charley Peters in charge then; Charley's on the job now." - -"Thor's alive then?" - -"Yes, sir." - -"Fine! I'll be out in a few minutes to see him. Bill's got him in the -'hospital'?" - -"Sure, Mr. Standing. Thor couldn't be gettin' better care if he was -King of England." - -Standing rang off and came back to Graham from whose eyes now all -heaviness of sleep had fled, leaving them keen and quick. Hardly more -than a youngster, this Graham, and yet Timber-Wolf's confidential -secretary, trained by Standing himself to Standing's ways. - -"I've got Mr. Brewster's home on the wire," said Graham looking up. -"He's not up yet but they're calling him...." - -Standing took the instrument. - -"I'll hold it for him. Now, Graham, order breakfast served here for you -and me; plenty of extra coffee for the boys I'll be having in.... Get -Al Blake on our wire to Red Creek Mine.... Arrange to have Bill Winch -show up here as soon as he's awake; he's to bring Ross and Peters with -him.... And Mexicali Joe; make sure that Joe didn't see any one to talk -with last night. I want Joe here with Winch.... Hello! Hello! Is this -Ben Brewster?" - -He heard his lawyer's voice over the wire; then, somewhere over the -long line something went wrong; Brewster was gone again. An operator at -the end of Standing's own private part of the line, seventy-five miles -away, was saying: - -"Just a minute, Mr. Standing ... I'll get him for you...." - -"Thanks, Henry," said Standing. And while he waited for the promised -service which was to link him with a man nearly two hundred miles away, -he was working hastily with pencil and pad. Graham was already carrying -out his string of orders, getting dressed with one hand meantime. - -"Brewster?" Standing spoke again into the telephone. "I've got -something big and urgent on. Can you come up right away? Take a car -to Placer Hill. I'll have a man meet you there with a saddle-horse, -and you'll have to ride the last twenty miles in. We're forming a new -mining company; I want to shoot it through one-two-three! Bring what -papers we'll want; that will be all the baggage you need to stop for. -Graham will have all particulars ready for you. Thanks, Ben. So long. - -"Graham!" - -Graham swung about expectantly. - -"Get the stables. A couple of the best horses...." "I've already got -them," said Graham.... It was for such reasons that Graham, though a -youngster, could hold so difficult position as private secretary to -Bruce Standing, Timber-Wolf. - -Al Blake was Standing's mining expert, general superintendent of all -his mining interests and the one source to which he applied for advice -on all mining matters. He was the highest salaried man on the extensive -pay-roll and the shrewdest. In a few minutes Graham announced that he -had the Red Creek Mine on the wire and that Blake was coming. - -"I want you here on the jump, Al," said Standing. "And I need forty of -our best men; scare up as many as you can at your diggings; I can fill -the number down here. Just _good_ men, understand? Men you know; men -who at a pinch will fight like hell; every man with a rifle." - -"Sounds like St. Ives!" grunted Blake, wide awake by now. "All right. -I'm on my way in ten minutes." - -Standing began pacing up and down again, his eyes frowning. He needed -Billy Winch right now; needed him the worst way. For here was work -to be done of the sort which invariably he placed in Winch's capable -hands. But Winch had had a night of it and Standing was not the man to -overlook that fact as long as he could put his hand on another man who -would do.... - -"Have Dick Ross up, on the run," he told Graham. - -Breakfast came, served on big massive trays by the Japanese servant. -Almost at the same moment, and literally on the run, Dick Ross came in. - -"Scare up ten good men for me, Ross. With rifles, all ready to ride. -I'll have breakfast ready for them here." Graham caught the alert eye -of the Japanese who set down his trays hurriedly and with a quick nod -raced off to the kitchen. Standing looked sternly at Ross and said -curtly: "I'm handing you a job that would usually go to Winch, Ross, -but he's asleep...." - -"He was just getting up again, Mr. Standing. Said he wanted to see for -himself how Thor was pulling along...." - -"Then," said Standing, "hop back and tell Winch what I said. He can -tell you the men to pick ... or, if he's busy working with Thor he can -leave it to you. Of course I want you to be of the number; Peters also -if Winch doesn't need him; Winch, too, if he says the word...." - -Standing and Graham ate standing up. Men summoned began coming in. Each -of them was given brief clean-cut orders and allowed brief time to gulp -a hot breakfast. Billy Winch came first, bringing with him Mexicali Joe. - -"He's going to be all right, _I think_," said Winch by way of greeting, -and Standing understood that he was reporting on Thor. "I never saw -man or animal worse shot-all-to-hell, either. I got him in bed now, -strapped down; he's conscious this morning and had a fair night, all -things considered. There's nothing more to be done right away, just be -kept quiet...." - -"I was coming out in a minute...." - -"I can't have folks running in on him, Timber," said Winch, with a slow -shake of the head, mumbling over a mouthful of ham and egg. "But if -you'd just run in on him one second, to sort of let him know you was -with him, you know, and then beat it, it might do him good." - -"Can you leave for two or three hours? To go down with Al Blake and -some of the boys to stake a string of mining claims down in Light -Ladies' Gulch?" - -"That's why the rifles?" said Winch. "Sure, I can go, leaving Charley -Peters with full instructions. But I'll have to be back in, say, four -hours at latest." - -Standing turned to Mexicali Joe. - -"Joe," he said, "how many friends have you got that we can put on the -pay-roll for a few days at twenty-five dollars a day? To stake claims -down in the Gulch?" - -"_Jesus Maria!_" gasped Joe. "Twenty-five dollars a day? For each man? -There would be one meelion men, Seņor Caballero...." - -"Take him in tow, Graham! Get a list of names from him, men to be -reached in an hour's ride. As many as you can get, twenty or thirty or -forty. And get them here ... quick." - -Al Blake arrived from the Red Creek Mine. Stringing along after him -came a dozen men of his choosing; big, uncouth, unshaved, rough-looking -customers to the last man of them and yet ... as Standing and Blake -agreed ... _all good men!_ Good to carry out orders; to put up a fight -against odds; to hang on and fight to the last ditch. Graham saw to it -that every man Jack of them was fed and had his cigar from the Chief's -private stock. The men grouped outside and looked at one another, -but for the greater part wasted little breath in speculations and -questionings, each realizing that his fellows knew as little as himself. - -It was a busy morning for Bruce Standing. Yet three times he found the -time ... rather he made it ... to go out to the "hospital" to stand -over old Thor and speak softly to him. Thor lay upon a white-enamelled -bed; his bed was softened for him by many downy pillows; at the bedside -sat Charley Peters, his face as grave, his eye as watchful, as could -have been had it been Timber-Wolf himself who lay there. And when -Standing came in Thor heard his step and tried to move; tried to lift -his poor battered head. But at the master's low voice, "Down, Thor! -Down, sir ... good old dog!" Thor lay back and his tired sigh was like -the sigh of a man. Standing's big hand rested gently upon the old -fellow ... then Standing went out, walking softly and Thor lay still a -very long while, waiting for him to come again.... - -Al Blake left within fifteen minutes of his arrival, a little army of -armed men at his back. With him, on the fastest horse in Standing's -stables, rode a man whose sole responsibility was to race back with -word of conditions. Fully Standing counted on hearing that already at -least two claims had been staked. But he was not ready to see Lynette -again so soon; he was not ready yet to see Babe Deveril. Never for a -single instant since seeing that bit of paper hung to a tree with a -girl's mockery upon it, had he doubted that this girl, whom he had -thought that he loved, had cast in with the Baby Devil, the two racing -side by side to steal Mexicali Joe's gold. He had said to Al Blake: - -"Put them off ... but don't hurt either of them. Leave them to me." - -Attorney Ben Brewster, a man much shaken, arrived in record time. He -could scarcely speak a word until Graham poured out for him a generous -glass of whiskey. Then he glared at Standing as though he would highly -enjoy killing him. - -"You've got a fee to pay this trip," he groaned, "that will make you -sit up and stretch your eyes! Good God, man...." - -"Give him another drink, Graham," said Standing. "He's a lawyer and -there's no danger of such getting drunk!... Curse your fees, Brewster. -What do I care so you make an iron-clad job of it." - -"And the job?" - -Graham saw that he had a cigar. - -"Something crooked!" muttered Brewster. "I'll bet a hat!" - -"Otherwise," jeered Standing, "why send for you!... Now shut up, Ben, -and get that infected brain of yours working. Here's the tale." - -Ben Brewster, a man who knew his business ... and his client ... went -into action. That day he took in businesslike shape all possible steps -toward forming a new corporation, The Mexicali Joe Gold Mining Company. - -"Lord, what a fool name!" he growled. - -"Never mind the name," retorted Standing. - -During the day many other men came in; among them no less than -seventeen swarthy men of Mexicali Joe's breed. Brewster took -signatures, and the men, showing their glistening white teeth, knew -nothing of what was happening save that each man of them was to draw -twenty-five dollars a day for driving a stake and sitting snug over it, -rifle in hand and cigarette in mouth! Brewster got other signatures -going down to Light Ladies' Gulch and among the men there. In all, he -signed names of about sixty men. The Mexicali Joe Gold Mining Company -was born. And the greater part of the stock, and the magnificently -shining title of president was invested in ... Mexicali Joe! Suddenly, -though all day he had been a man as dark-browed as a thunder-storm, -Standing burst out into that golden laughter of his. Not a single share -in his name; all immediate expenses to be paid by him, and they were to -be heavy; and yet he counted himself the man to draw a full ninety-nine -per cent of the dividends of sheer triumph! For it was to be a cold -shut-out to Taggart and Gallup and Shipton and all Big Pine! And, most -of all, for Babe Deveril and that girl! For early had come back the -report from Al Blake: "Neither of them here; no claims staked!" - -Standing could only estimate that the girl had misunderstood; that, -hearing Joe's description of the place, she had not grasped the true -sense of his words. He lingered over the picture of her and Deveril, -hastening, driving their stakes somewhere else! - -When Mexicali Joe came to understand, after much eloquence from Graham, -how matters stood ... how he swaggered! This, a day in a lifetime, was -Mexicali Joe's day. - -"_Me, I'm President!_" - -President of a gold-mining company! Mexicali Joe! And of a real mine; -for Al Blake had sent back the curt word: "He's got it; he's got a mine -that I'd advise you to buy in for a hundred thousand while you can. It -may run to anything. The best thing I've seen up here anywhere!" - -Mexicali Joe on the high-road to become a millionaire ... through the -efforts of Bruce Standing. - -To be sure, Joe, a man very profoundly bewildered, more dumfounded even -than elated, took never a single step and said never a single word -without going first to his friend "Seņor Caballero." Before the end of -that glorious day Joe was dead-drunk; didn't know "whether he was afoot -or horseback." But in his crafty Latin way, he kept his mouth shut. - -And then Bruce Standing, with an eye not to further wealth, but toward -the confounding of all hopes of such as Young Gallup and Jim Taggart -and Babe Deveril ... _and a certain girl_ ... sprang his coup. With -Ben Brewster guarding his rear in every advance, he "swallowed whole," -as Brewster put it, every bit of available land above and below and on -every side of Joe's claims. He recked neither of present difficulties -and expenses nor of lawsuits to come. He wanted the land ... and he got -it! And he issued his proclamation: - -"There's a _town_ there, on Light Ladies' Gulch. You don't see it? It's -there!... _Graham, get busy!_ A contractor; lumber; building materials; -carpenters! We build a town as big as Big Pine and we build it faster -than ever a town grew before! A store, blacksmith shop, hotel. Shacks -of all sorts. _Graham!_" - -Graham, like a man with an electric current shot through him, jumped -out of his chair. - -"Send a man on the run to Big Pine with a message for Young Gallup! And -the message is this: '_Bruce Standing promised to pull your damned town -down about your ears ... and the pulling has begun!_'" - -"Yes, Mr. Standing," said Graham. And sent a man on a running horse. - -And then took swift dictation. Standing made a budget of fifty thousand -dollars, as a "starter." Even Graham wondered what impulses were -rioting in his mad heart! - -"We want scrapers and ploughs, a crew of road-makers! We build a new -road ... _on this side of Light Ladies' Gulch_! Got the idea, Graham? -We cut Big Pine out. We go by them, giving a shorter road to the -outside, a better road. We boycott Gallup's dinky town! Keep in mind -we'll double that first fifty thousand any time we need to. Get this -word around: 'Any man who buys a nickel's worth of tobacco in Big -Pine can't buy anything, even if he has his pockets full of clinking -gold, in our town! No man, once seen setting his foot down in Gallup's -town, is going to be tolerated two minutes in our town.' Get the idea, -Graham?" - -"Yes, Mr. Standing!" - -Standing smote him then so mightily upon the shoulder that Graham, a -small man, went pale, shot through with pain. - -"Raise your own salary, Graham. _And earn it now!_" - - - - -CHAPTER XXV - - -What Bruce Standing could not know was that those few words signed -_Lynette_ and saying with such cruel curtness: "I have gone back to -Babe Deveril," had been written not by Lynette, but by Deveril himself. -Nor could he know that Lynette had not gone freely but under the harsh -coercion of four men. - -Deveril, when Lynette refused to go with him, had hurried away -through the woods, his heart burning with jealous rage. Was the hated -Timber-Wolf to win again, not only in the game for gold but in another -game which was coming to be the one greatest consideration in Babe -Deveril's life? - -"Not while I live!" he muttered to himself over and over. And once out -of sight of Lynette who still sat bowed over the dog he had struck -down, he broke into a run. Jim Taggart and Gallup and Cliff Shipton -were not so far away that he could not hope to reach them and to bring -them back before Standing returned. - -Thus, not over fifteen minutes before Bruce Standing came back, -bringing Billy Winch and Mexicali Joe with him, Deveril had appeared -before Lynette a second time. And now she leaped to her feet, seeing -who his companions were and reading at one quick glance what lay -unhidden in their faces. Greed was there and savage gloating and -mercilessness; she knew that at least three of those men would stamp -her into the ground under their heavy boots if thus they might walk -over her body through the golden gates of Mexicali Joe's secret. - -"You're arrested!" cried Taggart. "Come, get a move on. We clear out of -this on the run!" - -"It was you who shot him, not I! And I'll not go with you. In a minute -he'll be back...." - -Taggart was of no mind for delay and talk; he caught her roughly by the -arm. Her eyes went swiftly to Deveril's; of his look she could make -nothing. He shrugged and said only: - -"Taggart's sheriff; he'll take you along, anyway. You might as well go -without a fuss." - -Gallup, his face ugly with the emotions swaying him, was at her other -side. She looked to the hawk-faced man and then away with a shudder. -Then, trying to jerk away, she screamed out: - -"Help! Bruce...." - -Taggart's big hairy hand was over her mouth. - -"Come along," he commanded angrily. "Get a move on." - -Half dragging her the first few steps they led her out of camp, down -into the caņon and across among the trees. She gave over struggling; -they watched her so that she could not call again; Taggart threatened -to stuff his dirty bandana handkerchief into her mouth. Deveril alone -held back for a little; she did not know what he was doing; did not see -him as he wrote in a hand which he strove to give a girlish semblance -those few words to which he signed her name. She scarcely marked his -delay; she was trying now to think fast and logically. - -These men were brutes, all of them; she had had ample evidence of that -already and had that evidence been lacking the information was there -emblazoned in their faces. Even Babe Deveril, in whom once she had -trusted, began to show the brutal lining of his insolent character. And -yet need she be afraid of any of them just now? If she openly thwarted -them, yes. They would show no mercy to a girl. But at the moment their -thoughts were set not upon her undoing, but upon Mexicali Joe's gold. -And she knew where it was and they knew that she knew.... Taggart was -speaking, growling into her ear: - -"We followed Mexicali; we saw him come up here; Deveril followed him -into camp. He told where his gold was. And you heard it all!" - -"Well?" said Lynette, striving with herself for calmness. She was -thinking: "If only I can have a little time. He will come for me.... If -only I can have a little time." - -"What do you mean by that?" demanded Taggart. "The whole earth ain't -Joe's because he picked up a nugget or two. Anybody's got a right to -stake a claim; I got a right and so has the boys ... and so have you." - -"Suppose," offered Lynette as coolly as she could, "that I refused to -tell?" - -There came a look into Taggart's hard eyes which answered her more -eloquently than any words from the man could have done, which put -certain knowledge and icy fear into her. - -Always, when nervous or frightened, Lynette's laughter came easily to -her and now without awaiting any other answer from this man she began -laughing in such a fashion as to perplex him and bring a dragging frown -across his brows. - -"Are you going to tell us?" he asked. - -"If I do," she temporized, "do I have the chance to drive the first -stakes?" - -"By God, yes! And say, little one, you're a peach into the bargain." - -She did not appear to hear; she was thinking over and over: "Bruce -Standing will come after us as soon as he finds I am gone. I must gain -a little time, that is all." - -If only she could make them think that the gold was somewhere near by -so that Standing must readily find them. But now Deveril had rejoined -them and she recalled how he had heard something, though not all, of -Joe's triumphant announcement. For Joe had shouted out at the top of -his voice, to catch and hold Timber-Wolf's attention: "Light Ladies' -Gulch!" Deveril had heard that; and Light Ladies' Gulch was many miles -away, down toward Big Pine.... - -Deveril was looking at her with eyes which were bright and hard and -told no tales of the man's thoughts. - -"This lovely and altogether too charming young woman," Deveril said -lightly, his eyes still upon her, though his words were for the others, -"has a mind of her own. It would be as well to hear what she has to say -and learn what she intends to do." - -"Will you try to lie to us?" demanded Taggart. "Or will you tell us the -truth?" - -She, too, strove for lightness, saying: - -"Think that out for yourself, Mr. Taggart. Bruce Standing knows where -the gold is now; both you and I know the sort of man he is and we can -imagine that if he drives the first stake he will see to it that he -takes the whole thing. Do you really think that after I came into this -country for gold myself I am going to miss my one chance now?" She -puzzled them again with her laughter and said: "Not that it would not -be a simple matter to trick you, were I minded to let my own chances go -for the sake of spoiling yours; Mexicali Joe fooled you so easily." - -"Yet you yelled for Standing just now...." - -"After you came rushing upon me as if you meant to tear me to pieces, -frightening the wits out of me." - -"Well, then, tell us." - -"If I told you now, then what? You'd desert me in a minute; you would -race on ahead; when I caught up with you there would be nothing left." - -Deveril's eyes flashed and he said quickly: - -"And give you the chance to send us to the wrong place, were you so -minded, so that you could slip off alone and be first at the other -spot! Very clever, Miss Lynette, but that won't work. You go with us." - -And all the while she was trying so hard to think; and all the while -listening so eagerly for a certain glorious, golden voice shouting -after her. Deveril had heard part of Joe's exclamation.... - -"It is in Light Ladies' Gulch," she said quietly. - -"Yes!" Here was Young Gallup speaking, his covetous soul aflame. "We -know that; Deveril heard. But Light Ladies' Gulch is forty miles long. -Where abouts in the gulch?" - -She told herself that she would die before she led them aright. And yet -she realized to the full the danger to herself if she tricked them as -Joe had done and they discovered her trickery before Standing came. Yet -most of all was she confident that he would come and swiftly.... Joe's -words still rang in her memory; he had told first of the Red Cliffs, -how he had found color there last year; how he had made prospect -holes; how his real mine lay removed three or four miles. Still she -temporized, saying: - -"Bruce Standing and Billy Winch and Joe have horses. We are on foot. -Tell me how we can hope to come to the spot first?" - -"We'll have horses ourselves in a jiffy," said Taggart. "Stepping -lively, we're not more than a couple of hours from a cattle outfit over -the ridge. We'll get all the horses we want and we'll ride like hell!" - -"You know where the Red Cliffs are? At the foot of the cliffs I'll show -you Joe's prospect holes...." - -The pale-eyed, hawk-faced Cliff Shipton spoke for the first time. - -"Not half a dozen miles out of Big Pine! I told you last year, -Gallup...." - -Deveril, the keenest of them all, the one who knew her best, suspected -her from the beginning. His eyes never once left her face. - -"How do we know," he said quietly, "that there's any gold there? That -Joe's gold is not somewhere else?" - -"You will have to make your own decision," she told him as coolly as -she could. "If you think that I am mistaken or that I am trying to play -with you as Joe did, you are free to go where you please." - -Taggart began cursing; his grip tightened on her arm so that he hurt -her terribly as he shouted at her: - -"I'll give you one word of warning, little one! If you put up a game -on us now, you cut your own throat. In the first place I'll make it my -business that if we get shut out, you get shut out along with us. And -in the second place when I'm through with you no other man in the world -will have any use for you. Got that?" - -She knew what he had done to Mexicali Joe; she could guess what other -unthinkable things he would have done. And she knew that if now she -tricked Jim Taggart and he found her out ... _before Bruce Standing -came_ ... she could only pray to die. - -And yet at this, the supreme test in her life, she held steady to a -swiftly taken purpose. She would not put the game into these men's -hands. And she held steadfastly to her certainty, knowing the man, -that Bruce Standing would come. Therefore, though her face went a -little pale, and her mouth was so dry that she did not dare speak, she -shrugged her shoulders. - -"Come, then," said Taggart. "Enough palaver. We're on our way." - -And of them all, only Babe Deveril was still distrustful. - - -And thus Lynette, accepting her own grave risk with clear-eyed -comprehension and yet with unswerving determination, led these four men -to a spot where she knew that they would not find that gold for which -every man of them had striven so doggedly; thus it was she who made it -possible for Bruce Standing to be before all others and to triumph and -strike the death-blow to Big Pine and to begin that relentless campaign -which was to end in humbling his ancient enemy, Young Gallup. Yet there -was little exultation in Lynette's heart, but a growing fear, when, -after hours of furious haste, she and the four men came at last into -Light Ladies' Gulch and to the base of the towering red cliffs. - -Cliff Shipton knew more of gold-mining than any of the others and -Lynette watched him narrowly as he went up and down under the high -cliffs. And she knew that she in turn was watched; in the first -excitement of coming to the long-sought spot she had hoped that she -might escape. But both Taggart and Deveril followed her at every step -with their eyes. - -Desperately she clung to her assurance that Bruce Standing would come -for her. He had said that he would come "though it were ten thousand -mile." He might have difficulties in finding her; she might have to -wait a little while, an hour or two, or three hours. But it remained -that he was a man to surmount obstacles insurmountable to other men; a -man to pin faith upon. Yet time passed and he did not come. - -They found indications of Mexicali Joe's labors, rock ledges at which -he had chipped and hammered, prospect holes lower on the steep slope. -And Cliff Shipton acknowledged that "the signs were all right." But -they did not find the gold and they did not find anything to show that -Joe or another had worked here recently. - -"All this work," said Shipton, staring and frowning, "was done a year -ago." - -"He'd be crafty enough," muttered Gallup, "to hide his real signs. We -got to look around every clump of brush and in every gully where maybe -he's covered things up.... You're sure," and he whipped about upon -Lynette, "that you got straight all he said?" - -"I'm sure," said Lynette. And she was afraid that the men would hear -the beating of her heart. - -"I am going up to the top of the cliffs again and see what I can see," -she said. - -"If there's gold anywhere it's down here," said Shipton. "There's -nothing on the top." - -"Just the same I'm going!" - -"Where the horses are?" jeered Taggart. "By God, if you have...." - -"If you think I am trying to run away you can follow and watch me. I am -going!" - -She turned. Deveril was watching her with keen, shrewd eyes. Taggart -took a quick stride toward her, his hand lifted to drag her back. -Deveril stepped before him, saying coolly: - -"I'll go up with her, Taggart. And I guess you know how I stand on -this, don't you?" - -"All right," conceded the sheriff. "Only keep your eye peeled. I'm -getting leery." - -It was a long climb to the cliff tops and neither Lynette nor Deveril -at her heels spoke during the climb. They were silent when at last -they stood side by side near the tethered horses. Deveril's eyes were -upon her pale face; her own eyes ran swiftly, eagerly across the deep -caņon to the wooded lands beyond. She prayed with the fervor of growing -despair for the sight of a certain young blond giant of a man racing -headlong to her relief. - -"Well?" said Deveril presently in a tone so strange, so vibrant with -suppressed emotion that he made her start and drew her wondering eyes -swiftly. "What are you looking for now?" - -"Why do you talk like that ... what is the matter?" - -His bitter laughter set her nerves quivering. - -"Is the gold here, Lynette? Or is it some miles away, with Bruce -Standing already sinking his claws into it, Standing style?" - -Again her eyes left him, returning across the gorge to the farther -wooded lands. Over there was a road, the road into which she and Babe -Deveril had turned briefly that night, a thousand years ago, when -they had fled from Big Pine in the dark; a road which led to Bruce -Standing's headquarters. From the top of the cliffs she caught a -glimpse of the road, winding among the trees; her eyes were fixedly -upon it; her lips were moving softly, though the words were not for -Babe Deveril's ears. - -"Lynette," he said in that strangely tense and quiet voice, "if you -have been fool enough to try to put something over on this crowd.... -Can't you guess how you'd fare in Jim Taggart's hands?" - -She was not looking at him; she did not appear to mark his words. He -saw a sudden change in her expression; she started and the blood rushed -back into her cheeks and her eyes brightened. He looked where she was -looking. Far across the caņon, rising up among the trees, was a cloud -of dust. Some one was riding there, riding furiously.... - -Together they watched, waiting for that _some one_ to appear in the one -spot where the winding road could be glimpsed through the trees. And in -a moment they saw not one man only, but a dozen or a score of men, men -stooping in their saddles and riding hard, veiled in the rising dust -puffing up under their horses' flying feet. Now and then came a pale -glint of the sun striking upon the rifles which, to the last man, they -carried. They came into view with a rush, were gone with a rush. The -great cloud of dust rose and thinned and disappeared. - -"That road will bring them down into Light Ladies' Gulch where it makes -the wide loop about three miles from here," said Deveril. "Have you an -idea who they are, Lynette?" - -"No," she said, her lips dry; "I don't understand." - -"I think that I do understand," he told her, with a flash of anger. -"Those are Standing's men and they are riding, armed, like the -mill-tails of hell. Listen to me while you've got the chance! That's -not the first bunch of men who have ridden over there like that to-day. -Two hours ago, when you went down the cliffs with the others and I -stopped up here, I saw the same sort of thing happening. If you're so -innocent," he sneered at her, "I'll read you the riddle. I've told you -those are Standing's men; then why the devil are they riding like that -and in such numbers? They're going straight down into the Gulch where -the gold is while you hold us back, up here. And Standing is paying off -an old grudge and jamming more gold into his bulging pockets.... And -you've got some men to reckon with in ten minutes who'll make you sorry -that you were ever born a girl!" - -"No!" she cried hoarsely. "No. I won't believe it...." - - -He failed to catch just what she was thinking. She refused to believe -that Bruce Standing, instead of coming to her had raced instead to -Mexicali Joe's gold; that instead of scattering his men across fifty -miles of country seeking her, he was massing them at a new gold-mine. -Bruce Standing was not like that! She cried it passionately within her -spirit. She had stood loyally by him; she had, at all costs, kept her -word to him ... she had come to believe in his love for her and to long -for his return.... - -"If you saw men before ... if you thought the thing that you think now -... why didn't you rush on after them? It's not true!" - -"I didn't rush after them," he returned curtly, "because I'd be a fool -for my pains and would only give that wolf-devil another chance to -laugh in my face. For if he's got this lead on us ... why, then, the -game is his." - -"But I won't believe...." - -"If you will watch you will see. I'll bet a thousand dollars he has a -hundred men down there already and that they'll be riding by all day; -they'll be staking claims which he will buy back from them at the price -of a day's work; he'll work a clean shut-out for Gallup and Taggart. -That's what he'd give his right hand to do. You watch a minute." - -They watched. Once Taggart shouted up to them. - -"Down in a minute, Taggart." Deveril called back. - -Before long Lynette saw another cloud of dust; this time three or four -men rode into sight and sped away after the others; before the dust -had cleared another two or three men rode by. And at last Lynette felt -despair in her heart, rising into her throat, choking her. For she -understood that in her hour of direst need Bruce Standing had failed -her. - -"Taggart will be wanting you in a minute," said Deveril. He spoke -casually; he appeared calm and untroubled; he took out tobacco and -papers and began rolling a cigarette. But Lynette saw that the man was -atremble with rage. "Before you go down to him, tell me: did you know -what you were doing when you brought us to the wrong place?" - -"_Yes!_" It was scarcely above a whisper, yet she strove with all -her might to make it defiant. She was afraid and yet she fought with -herself, seeking to hide her fear from him. - -He shrugged elaborately, as though the matter were of no great interest -and no longer concerned him. - -"Then your blood be on your own head," he said carelessly. "I, for one, -will not raise my hand against you; what Taggart does to you concerns -only you and Taggart." - -"Babe Deveril!" - -She called to him with a new voice; she was afraid and no longer strove -to hide her fear. Until now she had carried on, head high, in full -confidence; confidence in a man. And that man, like Babe Deveril before -him, had thought first of gold instead of her. Bruce Standing had -spoken of love and had turned aside for gold; with both hands full of -the yellow stuff he thought only of more to be had, and not of her. - -"Babe Deveril! Listen to me! I have been a fool ... oh, such a fool! I -knew so little of the real world and of men, and I thought that I knew -it all. My mother had me raised in a convent, thinking thus to protect -me against all the hardships she had endured; but she did not take into -consideration that her blood and Dick Brooke's blood was my blood! This -was all a glorious adventure to me; I thought ... I thought I could do -anything; I was not afraid of men, not of you nor of Bruce Standing nor -of any man. Now I am afraid ... of Jim Taggart! You helped me to run -from him once; help me again. Now. Let me have one of the horses ... -let me go...." - -All the while he stood looking at her curiously. Toward the end there -was a look in his eyes which hinted at a sudden spiritual conflagration -within. - -"You're not used to this sort of thing?" And when she shook her head -vehemently, he added sternly: "And you are not Bruce Standing's? And -have never been?" - -"No, no!" she cried wildly, drawing back from him. "You don't think -that...." - -Now he came to her and caught her two hands fiercely. - -"Lynette!" he said eagerly. "Lynette, I love you! To-day you have stood -between me and a fortune, and I tell you ... I love you! Since first -you came to the door of my cabin I have loved you, you girl with the -daring eyes!" - -"Don't!" she pleaded. "Let me go. Can't you see...." - -"Tell me, Lynette," he said sternly, still holding her hands tight in -his, "is there any chance for me? I had never thought to marry; but -now I'd rather have you mine than have all the gold that ever came out -of the earth. Tell me and tell me the truth; we know each other rather -well for so few days, Lynette. So tell me; tell me, Lynette." - -Again she shook her head. - -"Let me go," she pleaded. "Let me have a horse and go. Before they come -up for me...." - -"Then there's no chance, ever, for me?" - -"Neither for you nor for any other man.... I have had enough of all -men.... Let me go, Babe Deveril!" - -Still he held her, his hands hardening on her, as he demanded: - -"And what of Bruce Standing?" - -"I don't know ... I can't understand men ... I thought there never was -another man like him, a hard man who could be tender, a man who ... I -don't know; I want to go." - -"Go?" There came a sudden gleam into his eyes. "And where? Back to -Bruce Standing maybe?" - -"No! Anywhere on earth but back to him. To the stage which will be -leaving Big Pine in a little while; back to a land where trains run, -trains which can take me a thousand miles away. Oh, Babe Deveril...." - -Taggart's voice rose up to them, sounding savage. - -"What in hell's name are you doing up there?" - -Then Deveril released her hands. - -"Go to the horses," he commanded. "Untie all four. I'll ride with you -to the stage ... and we'll take the other horses along!" - -She had scarcely hoped for this; for an instant she stood staring at -him, half afraid that he was jeering at her. Then she ran to the horses -and began wildly untying their ropes. Deveril, smoking his cigarette, -appeared on the edge of the cliff for Taggart to see, and called down -carelessly: - -"What's all the excitement, Taggart?" - -"Keep your eye on that girl. Shipton thinks she's fooled us. I want her -down here." - -Deveril laughed at him and turned away. Once out of Taggart's sight he -ran. Lynette already was in the saddle; he mounted and took from her -the tie ropes of the other horses. - -"On our way," he said crisply. "They'll be after us like bees out of a -jostled hive." - - -They did not ride into Big Pine, but into the road two or three miles -below where the stage would pass. Deveril hailed the stage when it came -and the driver took Lynette on as his solitary passenger. At the last -minute she caught Babe Deveril's hand in both of hers. - -"There is good and bad in you, Babe Deveril, as I suppose there is in -all of us. But you have been good to me! I will never forget how you -have stood my friend twice; I will always remember that you were _a -man_; a man who never did little, mean things. And I shall always thank -God for that memory. And now, good-by, Babe Deveril and good luck go -with you!" - -"And Standing?" he demanded at the end. "You are done with him, too?" - -Suddenly she looked wearier than he had ever seen her even during their -days and nights together in the mountains. She looked a poor little -broken-hearted girl; there was a quick gathering of tears in her eyes, -which she strove to smile away. But despite the smile, the tears ran -down. She waved her hand; the stage driver cracked his long whip.... -Deveril stood in the dusty road, his hat in his hand, staring down a -winding roadway. A clatter of hoofs, a rattle of wheels, a mist of dust -... and Lynette was gone. - - - - -CHAPTER XXVI - - -Deveril went back to his horse, mounting listlessly like a very -tired man. The spring had gone out of his step and something of the -elasticity out of that ever-young spirit which had always been his no -matter from what quarter blew the variable winds of chance. Lynette -was gone and he could not hold back his thoughts from winging back -along the trail he and she had trod together; there had been the time, -and now he knew it, when all things were possible; the time before -Bruce Standing came into her life, when Babe Deveril, had he then -understood both himself and her, might have won a thing more golden -than any man's mere gold. In his blindness he had judged her the light -adventuress which she seemed; now that it was given him to understand -that in Lynette Brooke he had found a pure-hearted girl whose inherited -adventuresome blood had led her into tangled paths, he understood that -in her there had come that one girl who comes once to all men ... and -that she had passed on and out of his life. - -He caught up the reins of the horse she had left behind. His face grew -grim; he still had Jim Taggart to deal with and, therefore, it was as -well to take this horse and the others back to Big Pine and leave them -there for Taggart. For the first thing which would suggest itself to -the enraged sheriff would be to press a charge against him of horse -stealing, and in this country horse thieves were treated with no gentle -consideration. - -"I'll leave the horses there ... and go." - -Where? It did not matter. There was nothing left for him in these -mountains; Bruce Standing had the gold and the girl was on the stage. - -But in his bleak broodings there remained one gleam of gloating -satisfaction: he had tricked Standing out of the girl! That Lynette -already loved his kinsman or at the least stood upon the very brink -of giving her heart unreservedly into his keeping, Deveril's keen -eyes, the eyes of jealous love, had been quick to read. It did not -once suggest itself to him that Standing could by any possibility have -failed to love Lynette. The two had been for days together, alone in -the mountains; why should Standing have kept her and have been gentle -with her, as he must have been, save for the one reason that he loved -her? Further, what man could have lived so long with Lynette of the -daring eyes and not love her? And he, Babe Deveril, had stolen her away -from Bruce Standing, had tricked him with a pencil scrawl, had lost -Lynette to him for all time. The stage carrying her away now was as -inevitable an instrument in the hand of fate as death itself. - -He turned back for the other horses which he had tethered by the -roadside and led them on toward Big Pine. - -"What the devil is love, anyway?" he muttered once. - -It was not for a man such as Babe Deveril to know clearly; for love is -winged with unselfishness and self-sacrifice. And yet, after his own -fashion, he loved her and would love her always, though other pretty -faces came and went and he laughed into other eyes. She was lost to -him; there was the one great certainty like a rock wall across his -path. And she had said at the parting ... her last words to him were to -ring in his memory for many a long day ... that there was both good and -bad in him; and she chose to remember the good! He tried to laugh at -that; what did he care for good and bad? He, a man who went his way and -made reckoning to none? - -And she had said that she knew him for _a man_; one who, whatever else -he might have done, had never stooped to a mean, contemptible act; she -thought of him and would always think of him as a man who, though he -struck unrighteous blows, dealt them in the open, man-style.... And yet -... the one deed of a significance so profound that it had directed the -currents of three lives, that writing of seven words, that signing of -her name under them.... - -"I am glad that I did that!" he triumphed. And gladdest of all, in his -heart, was he that Lynette did not know ... would never know. - -Thus Babe Deveril, riding with drooping head, found certain living -fires among the ashes of dead hopes: A row to come with Taggart? He -could look forward to it with fierce eagerness. Standing and Lynette -separated; vindictive satisfaction there. He'd got his knife in -Standing's heart at last! He'd like to wait a year or a dozen until -some time Lynette forgot and another man came despite her sweeping -avowal and she married; he would like then to come back to Bruce -Standing and tell him the fool he had been and how it had been none -other than Baby Devil who had knifed him. - -... And yet, all the while, Lynette's farewell words were in his mind. -And he saw before him, wherever he looked, her face as he had seen it -last, her eyes blurred with her tears. And he fought stubbornly with -himself against the insistent admission: It was Babe Deveril and none -other who, saying that he loved her, had put those tears there. Good -and bad? What the devil had he to do with sticking those labelling tags -upon what he or others did? - - -Bruce Standing was still in his office. He was a man who had won -another victory and yet one who had the taste of despair in his mouth. -Gallup's town was doomed; it was one of those little mountain towns -which had already outlived its period of usefulness and now with a man -like Timber-Wolf waging merciless war against it, Big Pine had its back -broken almost at the first savage blow struck. But Standing strode up -and down restlessly like a man broken by defeat rather than one whose -standards went flying on triumphantly; he knew that a new rival town, -his own town, was springing into being in a few hours; he had the brief -satisfaction of knowing that he was keeping an ancient promise and -striking a body blow from which there would be no recovery, making Big -Pine take the count and drop out of all men's consideration; he knew, -from having seen it many times, that pitiful spectacle which a dead and -deserted town presents; so, briefly, just as his kinsman was doing at -the same moment, he extracted what satisfaction he could from the hour. -He even had word sent to Gallup: "I am killing your town very much as -a man may kill an ugly snake. I shall see to it that goods are sold -cheaper here than at your store; there will be a better hotel here, -with a better shorter road leading to it. And I will build cabins as -fast as they are called for, to house deserters from your dying town. -And I will see to it that men from my town never set foot in your town. -This from me, Young Gallup: 'For the last time I have set foot upon -your dung heap. I'm through with you and the world is through with you. -You're dead and buried.'" - -During the day, word came to him that several men and one girl had been -seen hastily occupied at the foot of the Red Cliffs; the girl Lynette; -one of the men, Deveril. And it seemed very clear to Standing that -Lynette had led Deveril and the others in hot haste to the Red Cliffs -only because she had misunderstood Mexicali Joe's directions, confused -by his mention of these cliffs where he had prospected last year. - -"I'll go get them." Standing told himself a score of times. "Just as -soon as I know how to handle them. When I know how I can hurt him most -and her...." - -Mexicali Joe swelled about the landscape all day like a bursting -balloon, a man swept up in a moment from a condition of less than -mediocrity to one, as Mexicali regarded it, of monumental magnificence -and the highest degree of earthly joy. Graham could not keep him out -of Standing's office; the second time he came in Timber-Wolf lifted -him upon his boot hurling him out through the door and promising him -seven kinds of ugly death if he ever came back. Whereupon Mexicali Joe, -shaking his head, went away without grumbling; for in the sky of his -adoration stood just two: God and Bruce Standing. - -Graham was still laughing, when another man rode up to the door, and -Graham on the instant became alert and concerned. He hastened to -Standing, saying quickly: - -"Mr. Deveril to see you. He has ridden his horse nearly to death. And I -don't like the look on his face." - -"Show him in!" shouted Standing. "You fool ... don't you know he's the -one man in the world...." - -Graham hurried out. Deveril, his face pale and hard, his eyes burning -as though the man were fever-ridden, came into the room. The door -closed after him. - -"Well?" snapped Standing. - -"Not so well, thanks," retorted Deveril with an attempt at his -characteristic inconsequential insolence. "Here's hoping the same to -you ... damn you!" - -"If you've got anything to say, get it done with," commanded Standing -angrily. - -"I'll say it," Deveril muttered. "But first I'll say this, though I -fancy it goes without saying: there is no man on earth I hate as I hate -you. As far as you and I are concerned I'd rather see you dead than -any other sight I'll ever see. And now, in spite of all that, I've come -to do you a good turn." - -Standing scoffed at him, crying out: "I want none of your good turns; I -am satisfied to have your hate." - -Deveril, with eyes which puzzled Timber-Wolf, was staring at him -curiously. - -"Tell me, Bruce Standing," he demanded, "do you love her?" - -"Love her?" cried Standing. "Rather I hate the ground she walks on! -She is your kind, Baby Devil; not mine." And he laughed his scorn of -her. But now there was no chiming of golden bells in that great volume -of laughter but rather a sinister ring like the angry clash of iron. -All the while Babe Deveril looked him straight in the eye ... and -understood! - -"For once _you lie_! You love her and what is more ... and worse!... -she loves you! And that is why...." - -"_Loves me?_ Are you drunk, man, or crazy? Loves me and leaves me for -you; leads you and your crowd to the Gulch, trying to stake on Joe's -claim, trying to...." - -"She did not leave you for me! I took Taggart and Gallup to her, and -Taggart put her under arrest ... for shooting you! And she did not lead -us to the spot where she knew Joe's claim was; she made fools of us and -led us to the Red Cliffs, miles away!" - -Standing's face was suddenly as tense as Deveril's, almost as white. - -"She left a note; saying that she was going back to you...." - -Deveril strode by him to a table on which lay some letter paper and -wrote slowly and with great care, laboring over each letter: - - - I am going back to Babe Deveril. - - LYNETTE. - - -And then he threw the pencil down and stood looking at Standing. And he -saw an expression of bewilderment, and then one of amazement wiping it -out, and then a great light leaping into Standing's eyes. - -"You made her go! You dragged her away! And you wrote that!" - -Deveril turned toward the door. - -"I have told you that she loves you. So it is for her happiness, -much as I hate you, that I have told you.... She, thinking that you -preferred gold to her, has just gone out on the down stage...." - -"By the Lord, man," and now Standing's voice rang out joyously, clear -and golden once more, "you've done a wonderful thing to-day! I wonder -if I could have done what you are doing? By thunder, Babe Deveril, you -should be killed for the thing you did ... but you've wiped it out. -After this ... need there be hatred between us?" - -He put out his hand. Deveril drew back and went out through the door. -His horse, wet with sweat and flecked with foam, was waiting for him. -As he set foot into the stirrup he called back in a voice which rang -queerly in Standing's ears: - -"She doesn't know I wrote that. Unless it's necessary ... You see, I'd -like her to think as well...." He didn't finish, but rode away. And as -long as he was in sight he sat very erect in the saddle and sent back -for any listening ears a light and lively whistled tune. - - -The stage, carrying its one passenger came rocking and clattering about -the last bend in the grade where the road crosses that other road which -comes down from the mountains farther to the east, from the region -of Bruce Standing's holdings. The girl's figure drooped listlessly; -her eyes were dry and tired and blank with utter hopelessness. Long -ago the garrulous driver had given over trying to talk with her. Now -she was stooping forward, so that she saw nothing in all the dreary -world but the dusty dashboard before her ... and in her fancy, moving -across this like pictures on a screen, the images of faces ... Bruce -Standing's face when he had chained her; when he had cried out that he -loved her.... - -The driver slammed on his brakes, muttering; the wheels dragged; the -stage came to an abrupt halt. She looked up, without interest. And -there in the road, so close to the wheel that she could have put out a -hand and touched him, was Bruce Standing. - -"Lynette!" he called to her. - -She saw that he had a rifle in his hand; that a buckboard with a -restive span of colts was at the side of the road. The driver was -cursing; he understood that Standing, taking no chances, had meant to -stop him in any case. - -"What's this?" he demanded. "Hold up?" - -Standing ignored him. His arms were out; there was the gladdest look in -his eyes Lynette had ever seen in any man's; when he called to her he -sent a thrill like a shiver through her. He had come for her; he wanted -her.... - -"No!" she cried, remembering. "No! Drive on!" - -"You bet your sweet life I'll drive on!" the driver burst out. And to -Standing: "Stand aside." - -Then Standing put his hands out suddenly, dropping his rifle in the -road, and caught Lynette to him, lifting her out of her seat despite -her efforts to cling to the stage, and took up his rifle again, saying -sternly to the stage-driver: - -"Now drive on!" - -"No!" screamed Lynette, struggling against the one hand restraining -her ... and against herself! "He can't do this ... don't let him...." - -But in the end she knew how it would be. The stage-driver was no man to -stand out against Bruce Standing ... she wondered if anywhere on earth -there lived a man to gainsay him when that light was in his eyes and -that tone vibrated in his voice. - -"He's got the drop on me ... he'd drop me dead soon as not.... I'll go, -Miss; but I'll send back word...." And Lynette and Bruce Standing, in -the gathering dusk, were alone again in the quiet lands at the bases of -the mountains. - -"Girl ... I did not know how I loved you until to-day!" - -She whipped away from him, her eyes scornful. - -"Love! You talk of love! And you leave me in the hands of those men -while you go looking for gold!" - -"No," he said, "it wasn't that. I thought that you had no further use -for me; that you loved Deveril; that you had gone back to him; that you -were trying to lead him and the rest to Joe's gold; that...." - -There was now no sign of weariness in a pair of gray eyes which flashed -in hot anger. - -"What right had you to think that of me?" she challenged him. "That I -was a liar, breaking a promise I had made; and worse than a liar, to -betray a confidence? What right have you to think a thing like that, -Bruce Standing ... and talk to me of love!" - -He could have told her; he could have quoted to her that message which -had been left behind, signed with her name. But, after all, in the end -he had Babe Deveril to think of, a man who had shown himself a man, who -had done his part for love of her, whose one reward if Bruce Standing -himself were a man, must lie in the meagre consolation that Lynette -held him above so petty an act as that one which he had committed. So -for a moment Standing was silent; and then he could only say earnestly: - -"I am sorry, Lynette. I wronged you and I was a fool and worse. But -there were reasons why I thought that.... And after all we have -misunderstood each other; that is all. Joe's gold is still Joe's gold; -I have made it safe for him and not one cent of it is mine or will ever -be mine...." - -"Nor do I believe that!" she cried. "Nor any other thing you may ever -tell me!" - -"That, at least, I can make you believe." He was very stern-faced now -and began wondering if Deveril had been mad when he had told him that -Lynette loved him. How could Deveril know that? There was little enough -of the light of love in her eyes now. And yet.... - -"Are you willing to come back to headquarters with me?" he asked -gently. "There, at least, you can learn that I have told you the truth -about Mexicali Joe's gold. No matter how things go, girl, I don't want -you to think of me that I did a trick like that ... forgetting you to -go money-grabbing...." - -"You can make me come," she said bitterly. "You have put a chain on me -before now. But you can never make me love you, Bruce Standing." - -Now she saw in his face a look which stirred her to the depths; a look -of profound sadness. - -"No," he said, "I'll never put chain on you again, girl; I'll never -lift my hand to make you do anything on earth; I would rather die than -force you to anything. But I shall go on loving you always. And now," -and for the first time she heard him pleading! "is it so great a thing -that I ask? If you will not love me, at least I want you to think as -well of me as you can. That is only justice, girl; and you are very -just. If you will only come with me and learn from Mexicali Joe himself -that I have touched and shall touch no single ounce of his gold." - -She knew that he was speaking truth; and yet she could not admit it -to him ... since she would not admit it to herself! And she wanted to -believe, and yet told herself that she would never believe. She was -glad that he was not dragging her back with him as she had been so -certain that he would ... and she did not know that she was not sorry. - -"Will you do that one thing? I shall not try to hold you...." - -"Yes," she said stiffly. And then she laughed nervously, saying in a -hard, suppressed voice: "What choice have I, after all? The stage has -gone and I have to go somewhere and find a stage again or a horse...." - -"No. That is not necessary. If you will not come with me freely, I will -take you now where you wish; to overtake the stage." - -And thus, when already it was hard enough for her, he unwittingly made -it harder. She wanted to go ... she did not want to go ... most of all -she did not want him to know what she wanted or did not want. She cried -out quickly: - -"Let us go then! I don't believe you! And, if you dare let me talk -alone with Mexicali Joe, I shall know you for what you are!" - - -Lynette was in Bruce Standing's study. He had gone for Mexicali Joe. -She looked about her, seeing on all hands as she had seen during their -racing drive, an expression of the man himself. Here was a vital centre -of enormous activities; Standing was its very heart. The biggest man -she had ever known or dreamed of knowing; one who did big things; -one who was himself untrammelled by the dictates and conventions of -others. And in her heart she did believe every word that he spoke; and -thus she knew that he, this man among men, loved her!... And she loved -him! She knew that; she had known it ... how long? Perhaps with clear -definiteness for the first time while she spoke of him with Deveril, -yearning for his coming; certainly when she had started at the sight of -him at the stage wheel. So she held at last that it was for no selfish -mercenary gain that he had been so long coming to her, but rather -because he had lost faith in her, thinking ill of her. That was what -hurt; that was what held her back from his arms, since she would not -admit that he could love her truly and misdoubt her at the same time. -For certainly where one loved as she herself could love, one gave all, -even unto the last dregs of loyal, confident faith. How confident all -day she had been that he would come to her! - -Lynette, restless, walked up and down, back and forth through the big -rooms, waiting. Her wandering eyes were everywhere ... upon only one -of the shining table tops was a scrap of paper. In her abstraction she -glanced at it. Her own name! Written as though signed to a note. - -In a flash her quickened fancies pictured much of all that had -happened: Deveril to-day had told Standing she was going out on the -stage; Deveril had told Standing all that had happened ... because -Deveril, too, loved her and knew that she loved his kinsman. She -recalled now how Deveril had stopped a little while in camp after -Taggart had dragged her away. So Deveril had left this note behind? And -Standing knew now; he had said there were reasons why he had been so -sure she had gone to Deveril. She understood how now it would be with -him; Deveril had told him everything and he, accepting a rich, free -gift from the hand of a man he hated was not the man in turn to speak -ill of one who had striven to make restitution, though by speaking -the truth he might gain everything! These were men, these two; and to -be loved by two such men was like having the tribute of kings.... She -heard Standing at the door, bringing Mexicali Joe. There was a little -fire in the fireplace; she ran to it and dropped the paper into the -flames behind the big log. The door opened to Standing's hand. At his -heels she saw Mexicali Joe. - -"No!" she cried, and he saw and marvelled at the new, shining look in -her eyes; a look which made him stop, his heart leaping as he cried out -wonderingly: - -"Girl! oh, girl ... at last?" - -"Don't bring Joe in! I don't want to talk with him; I want your word, -just yours alone, on everything!" - -Now it was Mexicali Joe who was set wondering. For Standing, with a -sudden vigorous sweep of his arm, slammed the door in Joe's perplexed -face and came with swift eager strides to Lynette. - -"It is I who have been of little faith and disloyal," she said softly. -"I was ungrateful enough to forget how you were big enough to take my -unproven word that it was not I who shot you, a thing I could never -prove! And yet I asked proof of you! I should have known all the time -that ... 'though it were ten thousand mile....'" - -She was smiling now and yet her eyes were wet. She lifted them to his -that he might look down into them, through them into her heart. - -"Let me say this ... first ..." she ran on hastily. "Babe Deveril saved -me the second time to-day from Taggart. And he told you where to find -me. I think that he has made amends." - -"He wiped his slate clean," said Standing heartily. "Henceforth I am -no enemy of his. But it is not of Deveril now that we must talk. Girl, -can't you see...." - -"Am I blind?" laughed Lynette happily. - - - -***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TIMBER-WOLF*** - - -******* This file should be named 61329-8.txt or 61329-8.zip ******* - - -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: -http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/6/1/3/2/61329 - - -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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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it -under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this -eBook or online at <a -href="http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. 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.</p> -<p>Title: Timber-Wolf</p> -<p>Author: Jackson Gregory</p> -<p>Release Date: February 6, 2020 [eBook #61329]</p> -<p>Language: English</p> -<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> -<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TIMBER-WOLF***</p> -<p> </p> -<h4 class="pgx" title="credit">E-text prepared by Tim Lindell, Martin Pettit,<br /> - and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> - (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net">http://www.pgdp.net</a>)<br /> - from page images generously made available by<br /> - Internet Archive<br /> - (<a href="https://archive.org">https://archive.org</a>)</h4> -<p> </p> -<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;margin: 0 auto;" cellpadding="10"> - <tr> - <td valign="top"> - Note: - </td> - <td> - Images of the original pages are available through - Internet Archive. See - <a href="https://archive.org/details/timberwolf00greg"> - https://archive.org/details/timberwolf00greg</a> - </td> - </tr> -</table> -<p> </p> -<hr class="pgx" /> -<p> </p> -<p> </p> -<p> </p> - -<div class="center"><a name="cover.jpg" id="cover.jpg"></a><img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="cover" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<div class="box"> -<p class="center">BY JACKSON GREGORY</p> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<p>TIMBER-WOLF<br /> -THE EVERLASTING WHISPER<br /> -DESERT VALLEY<br /> -MAN TO MAN<br /> -LADYFINGERS<br /> -THE BELLS OF SAN JUAN<br /> -JUDITH OF BLUE LAKE RANCH</p> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<p class="center">CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS</p></div> - -<hr /> - -<p class="bold2">TIMBER-WOLF</p> - -<hr /> - -<h1>TIMBER-WOLF</h1> - -<p class="bold space-above">BY</p> - -<p class="bold2">JACKSON GREGORY</p> - -<p class="bold"><i>Author of</i> <span class="smaller">THE EVERLASTING WHISPER</span>,<br /> -<span class="smaller">DESERT VALLEY</span>, <i>etc.</i></p> - -<p class="bold space-above">CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS<br />NEW YORK :: :: :: 1923</p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1923, by</span><br />CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS<br /> -———<br /><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1923, by Doubleday, Page & Company</span><br /> -———<br />Printed in the United States of America<br /> -———<br />Published August, 1923</p> - -<div class="center space-above"><img src="images/logo.jpg" alt="logo" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p class="center">TO SUE</p> - -<p class="center">"AS JULIANITO WOULD SAY: 'GOOD FOR<br />PASS THE TIME AWAY!'"</p> - -<hr /> - -<h2><span>CONTENTS</span></h2> - -<table summary="CONTENTS"> - <tr> - <td></td> - <td><span class="smaller">PAGE</span></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER I</td> - <td><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER II</td> - <td><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER III</td> - <td><a href="#Page_18">18</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER IV</td> - <td><a href="#Page_37">37</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER V</td> - <td><a href="#Page_63">63</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER VI</td> - <td><a href="#Page_74">74</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER VII</td> - <td><a href="#Page_87">87</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER VIII</td> - <td><a href="#Page_99">99</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER IX</td> - <td><a href="#Page_119">119</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER X</td> - <td><a href="#Page_134">134</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER XI</td> - <td><a href="#Page_150">150</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER XII</td> - <td><a href="#Page_161">161</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER XIII</td> - <td><a href="#Page_173">173</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER XIV</td> - <td><a href="#Page_183">183</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER XV</td> - <td><a href="#Page_197">197</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER XVI</td> - <td><a href="#Page_211">211</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER XVII</td> - <td><a href="#Page_219">219</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER XVIII</td> - <td><a href="#Page_232">232</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER XIX</td> - <td><a href="#Page_243">243</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER XX</td> - <td><a href="#Page_248">248</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER XXI</td> - <td><a href="#Page_258">258</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER XXII</td> - <td><a href="#Page_274">274</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER XXIII</td> - <td><a href="#Page_290">290</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER XXIV</td> - <td><a href="#Page_294">294</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER XXV</td> - <td><a href="#Page_305">305</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER XXVI</td> - <td><a href="#Page_320">320</a></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> - -<p class="bold2">TIMBER-WOLF</p> - -<h2>CHAPTER I</h2> - -<p>Big Pine, tiny human outpost set well within the rim of the great -southwestern wilderness country, was, like other aloof mountain -settlements of its type, a place of infinite and monotonous quiet -during most days of most years. Infrequently, however, for one reason -or another, and at times seemingly for no reason whatever, came days of -excitement. And, as those who knew the place said, when the denizens -of Big Pine bestirred themselves into excitement they were never -content until they skyrocketed into the seventh heaven of turbulence. -The old-timers recalled how, back in '82, a dog fight in front of the -Gallup House started a riot; in spite of the dictum that it takes only -two dogs to make a fight, the two owners present entered with fine -esprit into the thing, and before nightfall men were carrying sawed-off -shotguns and some of the oldest and wisest citizens had dug themselves -in as for a state of siege.</p> - -<p>This latest furore in and about Big Pine, however, had for cause an -incident which since time was young has electrified both more and less -sedate communities. True, it had begun with a fight; men, not dogs; yet -it was what chance spilled from the torn coat pocket of one of them -that transmuted slumbrous quiet into pandemonium. It was fitting that -the Gallup House, centre of local activities, was the scene of the -affair.</p> - -<p>A mongrel sort of a man, one Joe Nuņez, known by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> everybody as Mexicali -Joe, came in and demanded corn whiskey and paid for it on the spot. -That in itself was interesting; Joe seldom had money. For twenty years -he had been content to have his wife support him while he combed the -ridges, always prospecting, always begging grub-stakes, always spending -the winters telling what he would do, come spring. To-night, looking -tired and dirty, he was triumphant. He spent his silver dollars with -a flourish, and an onlooker, laughing, announced that Joe must have -stolen his wife's money. Joe resented the accusation with dignity; he -knew what he knew; he wagged his head and stared insolently and tossed -off his drink in solemn silence. Thereafter he dropped innuendoes while -he had his second drink. The man, Barny McCuin, who had badgered him in -the first place, carelessly called him a liar. Joe, who had accepted -the familiar epithet a thousand times in his life, for once bridled up -and spat back. From so small a matter grew the fight.</p> - -<p>Onlookers laughed and were amused, taking no serious stock in the -fracas because it appeared inevitable that in half a dozen minutes big -Barny McCuin would have Mexicali Joe whimpering and apologetic. But it -chanced that as Barny flung the smaller man about, the Mexican's coat -pocket was torn and from it spilled a handful of raw gold. Men pounced -upon the scattered bits of quartz, Barny among them; they caught it up -and stared from one another to Joe, who became suddenly quiet and tense -and alert. Then a great shout rumbled up:</p> - -<p>"<i>Gold!</i>"</p> - -<p>And that was the one word which set all Big Pine ablaze. Here, on the -fringe of a gold-mining country, which the latter years had all but -worn out, there had been made that fresh discovery which every man of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> -them always kept somewhere in the bottom of his mind as a possibility -for himself.</p> - -<p>Gallup, called "Young Gallup," simply because he was the son of "Old -Gallup," who had gone to his last rest twenty-five years ago, was a man -eminently capable of dealing swiftly with unexpected situations; he did -not know the meaning of tact, but he did understand force. This was his -house and here his word was law; he broke into the room at the first -outcry, took in everything with one flick of his black eyes, and issued -his orders.</p> - -<p>"Hand that stuff over," he commanded the men who still held bits of -the Mexican's specimens. "It belongs to Joe, and no man's going to be -robbed here under my nose, Mex or White."</p> - -<p>The look which Mexicali Joe shot at his protector had in it far more of -suspicion than of gratitude. But his grimy fingers were eager enough -in snatching back the pieces of quartz from reluctant palms. Grown -sullen, he returned to his corn whiskey, drinking slowly, and holding -his tongue. When men asked him the inevitable quick questions he either -shrugged impatiently or ignored them altogether. They looked at one -another, and an understanding sprang up on the instant between big -Barny McCuin and some of the others. Presently Barny went out, followed -by the men who had caught his glance. Young Gallup, with eyes narrowing -and growing darker, watched them go.</p> - -<p>"They'll get you outside, Joe," he said bluntly. "And they'll make you -open up for all you know."</p> - -<p>Joe shifted uneasily; in his heart he knew himself for a poor fool -caught up between the devil, which was Gallup, and the deep sea.</p> - -<p>Besides the proprietor and the Mexican there were now but three men -left in the room. One of them was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> Gallup's man, who cooked, did -chores, and, when need was, helped with the still and served drinks. At -a look from his employer he left the room. Of the others, one was old -man Parker, an ancient to be despised because feebleness made of him a -negligible quantity in any affair based upon the prowess of physical -manhood; the second was a youngster who stood in awe of Gallup and who -looked ill at ease as the hotel man stared at him.</p> - -<p>"Better beat it, Tim," said Gallup. "And take old Parker along."</p> - -<p>"But, look here, Gallup; you ain't got any right...."</p> - -<p>"It's my house," said Gallup. "There's going to be no crooked work here -and you know it. Joe goes clear. If he wants to talk later on, why, -then he can come out and talk with you boys outside. You know you'll -find Barny and his friends not so far away."</p> - -<p>Tim's self-pride, unimportant as it was, perked up at the realization -that Gallup was actually discussing a matter of import with him. He -tried to play the man.</p> - -<p>"You want to get him all alone!"</p> - -<p>Gallup sighed.</p> - -<p>"You make me sick," he grunted disgustedly. "Now shut up and clear out. -You, too, Parker. It's closing time anyhow."</p> - -<p>"I seen, didn't I?" clucked the old man, tapping nervously on the bare -floor with his peeled willow staff. "It was gold! Joe's stuck his pick -into the mother lode! Ain't I always told you young fools...."</p> - -<p>Gallup, patient no longer, caught him by the thin old arm and jerked -him to the door, thrusting him out and unheeding the querulous -protests. Then he swung about upon the younger man.</p> - -<p>"On your way, Tim," he commanded.</p> - -<p>There was that in his voice which discouraged <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>argument. For Gallup, -in the full power of his strength, a big man and heavy and hard, was -suddenly flaming with anger and the two great fists were lifting from -his sides. Tim, muttering, hastened after old Parker; behind him the -oak door was slammed and the bolt shot into its socket. He broke into a -run, seeking Barny McCuin and the others.</p> - -<p>Gallup strode straight back to Mexicali Joe, clamping a ponderous hand -upon the shoulder which sought futilely to jerk free.</p> - -<p>"Spit it out, Joe," he ordered. "Where'd that come from?"</p> - -<p>"You let me go! I ain't workin' for you. You ain't my boss. What I got, -she's mine! Now I goin' home."</p> - -<p>Gallup, still holding him with one hand, probed at him with his eyes, -seeking to fathom what powers of determination and stubbornness lay -within a mongrel soul. Joe looked frightened; there were beads of sweat -on his forehead, stealing downward from under his black matted hair. -But there was in his look the glint of desperate defiance.... Gallup -called softly:</p> - -<p>"Hey, Ricky; come here."</p> - -<p>His combination cook and chore man returned through the inner door with -an alacrity which must have told his employer that he had never stirred -a step from the threshold. He, like the others, was on fire with -suddenly stimulated greed.</p> - -<p>"Go get Taggart," said Gallup, his eye all the time on Joe. "Slip out -the back way and go quiet. He's down at his cabin. I want him here in a -hurry."</p> - -<p>Ricky, though with obvious reluctance, withdrew. Once out of sight, -however, he ran as fast as he could, anxious to be back with no loss of -time.</p> - -<p>"Taggart?" muttered Joe. "What for? For why you send for him?"</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span></p> - -<p>"Why does a man generally send for him?" countered Gallup dryly. "Know -who he is, don't you, Joe?"</p> - -<p>"Sure, I know! But I ain't done nothin'. I ain't no t'ief. This is -mine."</p> - -<p>"Thief?" Gallup having repeated the word thoughtfully, said it a second -time: "<i>Thief!</i> I hadn't thought of that."</p> - -<p>"Let me go," cried Joe. With a sudden fierce jerk he broke free and -started to the door.</p> - -<p>But Gallup, shaking his head, was at his side like a flash. He thrust -the Mexican aside and stood with his heavy square shoulders against -the oak panel. Joe, by now trembling with fury, slipped a hand into -his shirt. But before the hastening fingers could close about the -sheath-knife which Gallup knew well enough they sought, Gallup drew -back a heavy fist and struck the Mexican full in the face. Joe went -staggering across the room and fell, his battered lips writhing back -from his teeth. Again his hand went into his shirt. Gallup ran across -the room and stood over him, one heavy boot drawn back threateningly.</p> - -<p>"Make one more move like that," he said coolly, "and I'll smash my boot -heel in your dirty mouth."</p> - -<p class="space-above">Outside, grouped expectantly in the middle of the road, Barny McCuin -and his friends, joined by old man Parker and Tim, alternately -speculated in quiet voices and watched for the door to open and Joe -to come forth. Tim, in his anger and excitement, called them crazy -fools; he warned them that Young Gallup, left alone with Joe, would -be making some deal with the Mexican and that, if they were only half -men they would come along of him and smash the door off and get in on -whatever was happening. But Tim was only a boy and talked more than -he acted; the others, knowing Young<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> Gallup as they had cause to know -him, hesitated to grow violent at his door. Gallup, defending his own -property, would just as gladly pour a double-barrel shotgun load of -buckshot into them as he would turn up a bottle of bootleg. They were -not ready for murder and told Tim to shut up and keep his eye peeled.</p> - -<p>But there was not a patient man among them, and to-night was no time -for any man's patience. When they had waited as long as they could, -perhaps half an hour, they turned back to Gallup's door, Barny leading -the way and knocking loudly. In return came Gallup's voice, untroubled -and cool.</p> - -<p>"Locked up for the night," he said. And then, carelessly: "What do you -want, boys?"</p> - -<p>McCuin simulated laughter.</p> - -<p>"That's a good one, Gal. All we want is a chat with Joe. And...."</p> - -<p>"Joe's gone," returned Gallup. He came to the door and opened it, his -lamp in hand. "Went about half an hour ago; just after you boys did. -Out the back way and on the run!" He laughed. "Guess he's foxy enough -to make a circle around you dubs. Oh, come in and look if you think I'm -lying to you."</p> - -<p>He stepped aside and let them come in. They knew that he was lying and -they saw from his eyes that he understood that they were not fools -enough to take him at his word. Yet Joe had gone. In that Gallup had -told the truth; the lie lay in what he concealed.</p> - -<p>"Where did he go?" demanded Tim earnestly.</p> - -<p>Gallup jeered at him. "If I knew I'd tell you, wouldn't I, Timmy? Most -likely where little boys like you ought to be by now. Meaning in bed, -Timmy dear."</p> - -<p>In time they went away; by now, drawn close together by a common -burning desire, they were resolved into a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> committee with one -objective. Late as it was they searched high and low for Mexicali Joe. -They went first to his wretched cabin among the pines at the edge of -the settlement; they got his wife out of bed and fired questions at -her, receiving only blank looks of wonder; clearly she had not seen Joe -and had no inkling of his sudden importance. They went away and in turn -looked in at every likely place which Big Pine offered. But they found -no sign of Joe. In a town of less than fifty houses he had vanished -like one shadow engulfed and blotted out by another. They began to fear -that he had fled, frightened, into the mountains.</p> - -<p>A dozen men had seen Joe's gold. Before midnight no less than twenty -tongues had discussed the one matter of moment. Men cautioned other men -against letting too many people know; but such was the electric mood -swaying them that early the next morning the news began trickling forth -through the country surrounding Big Pine. By late afternoon word had -penetrated far up into the mountains and, following the stage road, -had gone fifty miles toward the distant railroad. And that same day it -leaked out that Mexicali Joe, who had so strangely disappeared, had -not fled at all but all the time had been in Big Pine. He had been -arrested by Sheriff Taggart and thrown into the town jail, charged with -disturbing the peace.</p> - -<p>Taggart himself had nothing to say. He kept Joe shut up alone and let -no one see him.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER II</h2> - -<p>A normal census gave Big Pine a population of about one hundred and -twenty inhabitants, and the most normal thing which any census does -is to exaggerate. But within forty-eight hours after the tearing of -Mexicali Joe's coat pocket between nine and twelve hundred people, -variously estimated, poured into the settlement. Wood-choppers and -timber jacks and lone prospectors hurried down from the mountains; -storekeepers and ranchmen came up from far below Rocky Bend and Red -Oak; that strange medley of humanity which always rushes first in the -wake of gold news filled Big Pine to overflowing, men and even women; -all straining to one purpose back of which lay many motives. Spring was -verging on summer; nights were cold, but the air was dry; they found -rooms where they could, and when they could not they builded great -camp-fires and found what comfort they might in the edges of the pine -groves. Gallup doubled his prices and then doubled them again, and -still his house was full. There were half a dozen empty houses, ancient -disreputable shacks long in disuse; these found usurping tenants the -first day. There were some few who had had forethought and took the -time to bring tents. Almost in an hour a quiet, sleepy little mountain -town was metamorphosed into a noisy, clamorous and sleepless mining -camp.</p> - -<p>Among the first to arrive was a young man named Deveril. Very tall and -good-looking and gay and slender he was, making himself look taller -by the boots he wore and the way he pinched his soft hat into a peak. -Babe Deveril he was called by those who knew him, saving<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> one only, who -called him Baby Devil and jeered at him with a pair of mocking eyes.</p> - -<p>Deveril had been in Big Pine before, though not for some years. Also he -had seen his share of mining camps through Arizona and New Mexico and -Nevada, and knew something of congested conditions and the hardships -which accompanied the short-sighted. Before his arrival was ten minutes -old, he had cast about him for a shelter. Already the Gallup House was -full, but not yet had the disused, tumbled-down shacks been thought of. -He found a dilapidated building which once, long ago, had been a log -cabin; it stood in the pines set well back from the place of Mexicali -Joe; it had a fireplace. Deveril preempted it coolly, neither knowing -nor caring who the owner might be; he brought his slim bed-roll here, -followed it up with frying-pan, bacon, and coffee-pot and considered -himself established. Further, being just now in funds and always -yielding to the more fastidious impulses at moments when fortune was -kind, he secured a serving-maid. Maria, the dusky daughter of Mexicali -Joe, consented gladly to come in and cook and make the bed and keep -things tidy. He gave her a couple of silver dollars and made her a bow -to bind the bargain, tossing in for fair measure a flashing smile which -left the half-breed girl thrilling and sighing. Thereafter, bending his -mind to the main issue, he sought to find out for himself how much of -fact underlay the glittering rumors which had been pouring forth from -Big Pine like rays from the sun.</p> - -<p>This heterogeneous mass of humanity occupying Big Pine had broken up -into numerous small groups, after the fashion of men who are so prone -to break large units down into smaller ones. Cupidity, jealousy, and -suspicion flaunted their banners on all hands; men watched one another -like so many thieves. The old<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> inhabitants went about bristling, -resenting the presence of these outsiders who were rushing in to -steal the golden secret. Among themselves they were divided into two -antagonistic factions; there was the Gallup crowd, including Gallup and -Sheriff Taggart and the men who did their bidding; and there were those -who had heard Barny McCuin's tale and who were out to block the game of -Gallup and Taggart, or know the reason why.</p> - -<p>Babe Deveril, sauntering here and there, identified himself with -no group; it was his preference always to hunt singly. But he went -everywhere, his mind and ears and eyes co-ordinating in the work he -set them. He listened to rumors and sifted them and went on to newer -and always contradictory rumors. It was said that Mexicali Joe had -been killed, his body found in a ravine three miles from town; that -Gallup had spirited him off last night into the mountains; that Joe had -made his strike in the old and long-deserted mining camp of Timkin's -Bar; that his specimens had come from Lost Woman's Gulch; that Joe -had never stirred a mile from Big Pine in his latter prospecting, and -that, therefore, at any moment any one of the thousand gold seekers -might stumble upon his prospect hole. It was said that Joe's pay-dirt -would run twenty dollars to the ton, and while this was being advanced -as though by one who knew all about it, another man was saying that it -would run a thousand dollars. Deveril, when he had heard a score of -empty though colorful tales, turned at last to the Gallup House; Gallup -and Taggart knew all that was to be known, and, although they had the -trick of the shut mouth and steady eye, there was always the chance of -a sign to be read by the watchful.</p> - -<p>He came upon Gallup himself standing in his doorway, looking out -thoughtfully upon the road jammed tight with restless men.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span></p> - -<p>"Hello, Gallup," he said.</p> - -<p>Gallup regarded him briefly; again his gaze flicked away.</p> - -<p>"Don't remember me, eh?" queried Deveril lightly.</p> - -<p>"No," said Gallup, curt in his preoccupation. "I don't."</p> - -<p>"Must have something disturbing on your mind," suggested Deveril as -genially as though Gallup's attitude had been exactly opposite what it -was. "Haven't looked in on you for half a dozen years, but you ought -to remember." Gallup's eyes came back slowly, a frown in them, and -the other concluded: "Known as Deveril ... Babe Deveril, formerly of -Cherokee...."</p> - -<p>Gallup showed a quick, unmistakable sign of interest and Deveril -laughed. But Gallup's frown darkened and there came a sudden -compression to his lips.</p> - -<p>"I got you, Kid," he said sharply. "You said it: There is a thing or -two on my mind and I've got no time for gab. Just the same, take this -from me: A certain Bruce Standing has been sent word the town can get -along without him showing his face; and maybe, being his cousin, you'll -trail your luck along with him."</p> - -<p>"So you and Bruce Standing are still playing the nice little parlor -game of slap-the-wrist, are you?" Deveril jeered at him. But, still -highly good-humored, he went on: "He's no cousin of mine, Gallup. -You've got the family tree all mussed up. What fault is it of mine -if a thousand years ago Bruce Standing and I had the same murdering -old pirate for ancestor? At that, Standing descended from him in the -straight line and I am somewhat less directly related."</p> - -<p>Gallup snorted.</p> - -<p>"None of Standing's breed is wanted in my place," he said emphatically.</p> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p> - -<p>Deveril, though his eyes twinkled, appeared to be musing.</p> - -<p>"So you sent him word to stay away? Didn't you know that he'd come, -red-hot and raging, as soon as he got your message? Oh, well, you and -my crazy kinsman fight it out to your liking; it would be a great thing -for the community if you'd both do a clean job, cutting each other's -throats.... By the way, where does Taggart fit in? How does he work it -to be hand in glove with both of you at the same time?"</p> - -<p>"You heard what I said just now?"</p> - -<p>"I did. Say, Gallup, where's Mexicali Joe? I've got some business with -him."</p> - -<p>Gallup, brooding, appeared not to have heard. Then, making no answer, -he turned and went back into his house and into the big main room, -where a crowd of men had foregathered. Deveril, his hat far back, -his dark eyes keen and bright, followed him, almost at his heels. -Gallup saw him out of the tail of his eye but for once gulped down -his first hot impulse; his hands were full as things were and there -were large stakes to play for, with nothing to be gained just now by a -rough-and-tumble fist fight with a man who was obviously highly capable -of taking care of himself. So he pretended to let Deveril's entrance go -unnoted and thereafter ignored him.</p> - -<p>For the first time in many days there were no drinks being served in -Gallup's House. With so many strangers in town, one did not know how -many federal agents might be snooping about. And, again, this was no -time for the main issue to become befogged with side issues; Gallup -did not want any unnecessary ruction on his hands. Nevertheless some -of the men drank now and then, but from pocket flasks which they had -brought in with them; flasks which for the most part came originally -from Gallup's stock but which had been sold on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> street by Gallup's -man Ricky. The room was thick with heavy tobacco smoke; most of the men -remained strangely quiet, watching Gallup or Barny McCuin, who glowered -in a corner, or the sheriff who came and went among them. Deveril spent -not more than ten minutes here; once more he returned to the street and -to his passing from knot to knot of men.</p> - -<p>"I'll bet a hat Gallup was lying about that warning to my mad kinsman," -he told himself thoughtfully. "I don't believe he's man enough to get -rough with Bruce Standing."</p> - -<p>It was almost at the moment that Deveril came out of Gallup's place -that the first shock of genuine news burst along the crowded road; -Mexicali Joe had been located. He was in the stone jail, not five -hundred yards from the thickest of his seekers, and had been there -since last night, locked up by Taggart! The crowd split asunder as -cleanly as though some gigantic axe had cloven its way between the two -fragments; one group at full tilt ran to the jail, to prove to their -own senses that here at last was a word of truth; the other streamed -down to the Gallup House, seeking Taggart and an explanation. With the -latter went Babe Deveril, who meant to keep his eye on Taggart and -Gallup.</p> - -<p>There were three steps leading up to Gallup's side door through which -at last came Taggart, when the crowd clamored for him. He stood on the -top step, looking stolidly at the faces confronting him. He was a big -man, massive of physique, hard-eyed, strong-willed; he had been sheriff -for a dozen years and after long office as the chief representative -of the law bore in his look the stamp of that unquestioned authority -which is the unmistakable brand of the mountain sheriff. He had looked -straight into the eyes of many men in many moods and his own glance -never wavered.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> Never a great talker, he stood now a moment in silence, -tugging slowly at his heavy black mustache.</p> - -<p>"Mexicali is my man right now," he said at last. "I got him in jail."</p> - -<p>That was all. There was no belligerence in his tone; his look remained -untroubled. Babe Deveril, beginning to understand something of what -had happened and casting his own swift horoscope of the likely future, -wondered to what extent it was in the cards that Jim Taggart should -stand in his way. There was big game in the wind, or men like Gallup -and Taggart, who were always big-game men, would not be taking things -upon their shoulders thus. And to-day Jim Taggart was at his best; he -stood as solid and unmoved as a rock, with never a flick of the eyelid, -as he made his quiet announcement and awaited the breaking of any storm -which his words might evoke.</p> - -<p>There was a short lull while men murmured among themselves, and yet, -digesting Taggart's statement, impressed by his manner, hesitated to -speak the thought which was forming in dozens of brains simultaneously. -Presently, however, a man at the far edge of the crowd shouted:</p> - -<p>"What's he arrested for, Taggart? What did he do?"</p> - -<p>Before the man had gotten his ten words out, the sheriff's keen eyes -found him where his lesser form was half hidden by the bigger men in -front of him.</p> - -<p>"I hear you, Bill Cary," he said quietly. "And the only reason I'm -answering a regular none-of-your-business question is that all of -you other boys that have stampeded in here on a wild say-so will be -worrying your heads off until you know what's what. I pulled Joe on two -counts: First for disturbing the peace."</p> - -<p>An uproar of laughter boomed out at that and even Jim Taggart smiled. -But he went on evenly:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p> - -<p>"Of course that was a blind until I got the goods on the second count. -And I only got that a few minutes ago. This ain't any trial, exactly, -and still I guess it will save trouble if you know all about it. So -I'll let Cliff Shipton step up and testify."</p> - -<p>Suddenly he stepped aside and a tall, hawk-faced man who had been -holding his place at Gallup's side, just behind Taggart's massive bulk, -stepped forward. Men craned their necks and crowded closer; nearly -all of them knew Cliff Shipton. He was a Gallup man and always had -been a Gallup man; for the last two years he had been in charge of a -profitless "gold-mine" which Gallup pretended to operate at the head -of the Lost Woman's Gulch; a property which, it was generally conceded -in and about Big Pine, was merely the proverbial hole in the ground -intended for sale to a fool.</p> - -<p>"Last week, gents," said Shipton in his easy style, "we hit it rich out -at the Gallup Bonanza. Pocket or ledge, we're not saying which right -now. But we got the stuff. We been keeping it quiet until we got good -and ready to spring something. I had the choice specimens in a box in -my shack. That Mexican's been prowling around; I couldn't be sure until -I'd glimpsed the specimens, but I just looked 'em over. That's the -story; Mexicali, being half drunk and stupid generally, made his haul -out of my specimen box."</p> - -<p>As the first slow murmur, gathering volume, began, Jim Taggart threw up -his hand and shouted:</p> - -<p>"Now, men, go slow! I've seen a pack of gents before now get all het-up -because they was sore and disappointed. And I can read the eye-signs! -But pull off and think things over before you make a lot of howling -fools out of yourselves. If you want me any time.... Well, I'll be -right on hand!"</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p> - -<p>He stepped back swiftly, in through the open door, and it closed after -him.</p> - -<p>For a little while the men remained uncertain. Jim Taggart represented -the law; further, he was no man at any time to trifle with. He had -offered them an explanation and the worst of it was that it might be -the truth. Discussions began on every hand; those who believed were in -the minority and lost voice as the other voices, becoming heated, grew -louder. Babe Deveril was turning away when a man caught at his sleeve.</p> - -<p>"You know those men, Taggart and Gallup and the rest. What do you make -of it? What had we ought to do?"</p> - -<p>Deveril shook the man off.</p> - -<p>"Go slow until you know what you're doing," he admonished curtly. "Then -go like hell."</p> - -<p>He skirted the crowd and went up to his cabin to be alone and do a bit -of thinking on his own part.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER III</h2> - -<p>There was a crowd of men, tight-jammed, about the little square stone -jail as Deveril made his way toward his cabin. Every man of them was -striving for a glance through the barred slit of a window behind which -Mexicali Joe glared out at them. In the throng Deveril marked a man who -wore his deputy-sheriff's badge thrust prominently into notice and who -carried a rifle across the hollow of his arm. Deveril shrugged and went -on.</p> - -<p>"In jail or out, the Mex is going to keep a shut mouth," he meditated. -"He'll never spill a word now, unless Taggart gets a chance to give him -a rough-and-ready third degree. And Taggart will get no such chance -to-night."</p> - -<p>Through the dim dusk gathering among the pines he came to the cabin. A -light winked at him through the open door; Maria, Joe's daughter, was -getting his supper. Well, he was ready for it; blow hot, blow cold, a -man must eat.</p> - -<p>"Hello, Seņorita," he greeted her from the threshold. "How does it feel -to be the one and only daughter of the most distinguished gentleman in -town?"</p> - -<p>Maria did not understand him, but her white teeth flashed and her large -southern eyes were warm and friendly.</p> - -<p>"They found your papa," he told her. "He's in jail."</p> - -<p>"<i>Seguro</i>," responded Maria, unmoved. "That is nothing for him."</p> - -<p>Deveril laughed and went to wash at the bucket of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> water which the girl -had placed on a bench in the corner. Maria finished setting his table -with the few articles at hand, putting a black pot of red beans in -the place of honor before his plate. As he returned from washing and -smoothing his hair down, he noted the plate itself; a plain, cracked -affair of heavy crockery with a faded design in red roses. Plainly, -Maria had raided her mother's home for that. She was looking at him for -his approval and received it. At the moment she had both hands occupied -and he stooped forward and kissed her. It was lightly and carelessly -done; a gay salute to the girl's warm smouldering beauty. For beauty of -its kind she did have, that of the young half-bred animal.</p> - -<p>She gasped; her face, whether through indignation or pleasure, went -a dark burning red. Deveril laughed softly and sat down upon the box -which she had drawn up for his chair.</p> - -<p>It was only then that he saw that he had a visitor. His eyebrows shot -upward as he wondered. Another girl or young woman; in that light, as -she stood just outside his door, nothing very definite could be made of -her.</p> - -<p>"Could I have a word with you, Mr. Deveril?"</p> - -<p>He came to his feet almost at the first word, quick and lithe and -graceful. Always was Babe Deveril at his best when it was a question -of a lady. The voice accosting him was clear and cool and musically -modulated. He tried to make out her face, but was baffled by the shadow -cast by her wide hat. She was clad in a neat dark outing suit and -wore serviceable walking boots; she was slim and trim and young and -confident. Beyond that the dusk made a mystery of her.</p> - -<p>"A thousand!" he returned in answer. "Won't you come in?"</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p> - -<p>"It is very pleasant outside. May I sit on your door-step?"</p> - -<p>"Lord love you," he assured her, "you may do anything on earth that -pleases you.... Maria, my dear, you may run home to your mama; I have -affairs of state. And I'll be delighted to see you again at breakfast -time."</p> - -<p>Maria put down her things and fled. Again Deveril laughed softly.</p> - -<p>"It was no tender scene that you interrupted," he told his visitor. "I -was merely seeking expression in a bit of rudimentary human language of -my gratitude for the loan of a cracked plate! Look at it!" He held it -aloft.</p> - -<p>"A gratitude which obviously springs from the heart," she returned as -lightly as he had spoken.</p> - -<p>She sat down on the door-step. He came toward her, meaning to have a -better look at her.</p> - -<p>"But you were just beginning your supper," she objected. "Please go on -with it while it is hot. Otherwise I shall most certainly leave without -talking with you as I had wished."</p> - -<p>"But you? There is plenty for both of us."</p> - -<p>She shook her head emphatically.</p> - -<p>"No, thank you. It's very kind, but I have eaten."</p> - -<p>"Then I eat, though it's putting a hungry man at an unfair advantage -to watch him at such a disgusting pastime." He poured himself a cup of -coffee, all the while trying to make out her features. He knew already -that she was pretty; one sensed a thing like that. But just how pretty, -that even Babe Deveril could not decide as long as the light was no -better and she hid in the shadows of her provoking hat. "And now, how -may I be of service?"</p> - -<p>Thus of the two she was the first to be given the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>opportunity of -clear observation. There were two candles stuck in their own grease on -the rough table, and between them his face looking out toward her was -unshadowed. A face gay and insouciant, dark and clean-cut, the face of -devil-may-care youth. It struck her that there was an evidence of the -man's character in the fact that, though she had caught him in the act -of kissing his maid of all work, he was not in the least perturbed. She -thought that it would be easy to like this man; she was not sure that -she could ever trust him.</p> - -<p>"I am Lynette Brooke," she said in a moment. "And I thought it possible -that, if you cared to do so, you might answer a question for me."</p> - -<p>"If I may be of assistance to you," he told her, cordially, watching -her narrowly, "you have but to let me know."</p> - -<p>"Thank you." He had inclined his head in acknowledgment of her -introduction and now her head tipped slightly toward him. "My question -has to do, naturally, with the one matter of general interest in Big -Pine to-day. You see, I have heard of you; I know that you know some of -the men here ... Sheriff Taggart and Mr. Gallup, for example. And ... -I once had the pleasure of meeting you, Mr. Deveril. Small excuse for -troubling you, I know, but when one is in earnest...."</p> - -<p>"I'll tell you something!" said Deveril quickly.</p> - -<p>"Yes?"</p> - -<p>"I'd give a whole lot for a good square look at you! I am no hand for -names; and I haven't been able to make out your face."</p> - -<p>"A whole lot?" It was a fair guess that she was smiling. "Well, then, -it's a bargain. You give me an answer to a question!"</p> - -<p>"Done! Any question!"</p> - -<p>With a sudden gesture her two hands went up to her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> hat. At the same -moment she jumped to her feet and came three steps into his cabin. -As she brought the hat down to her side and turned toward him, the -candle-light streamed across her face and Babe Deveril sat back on his -box and with a sudden lighting up of his eyes collected his share of -the obligation by letting his admiring glance rove across her disclosed -features. Pretty; yes, far and away more than pretty. He was startled -by an unexpected, soft loveliness; an alluring, seductive charm of -line and expression. Just now it was her mood to smile at him; and she -was one of those rare girls whose smile is sheer tenderness. He marked -the curl in her soft brown hair; the sparkle in her big gray eyes; the -curve of the lips; in another moment the red mouth would be laughing at -him. She held herself erect under his frank inspection; her chin was -up; her eyes did not waver; she challenged him with her glance to look -his fill and shape his judgment of her.</p> - -<p>"I think you are mistaken on one point," he told her quickly. "I never -saw you before, for I would not have forgotten."</p> - -<p>"The obvious remark nicely made," she laughed at him.</p> - -<p>He frowned.</p> - -<p>"Through no fault of mine. You are welcome to know that I have a memory -for pretty girls. And that you are absolutely the prettiest girl I ever -saw."</p> - -<p>"Thank you," she mocked him. She put her hat on again and went back to -the door-step. "Nevertheless, it is true that we have met before. Of -course," she amended hastily, "I am not going to claim any obligation -on either side because of that. But it suggested that I should come to -you now instead of taking my chances with utter strangers."</p> - -<p>"If you care to do me a very great favor," said Deveril, "you will tell -me when you think you and I met."</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p> - -<p>"Certainly. I have no desire to make a mystery of so common an -occurrence. Last May you were in Carson?"</p> - -<p>"Yes."</p> - -<p>"There was a dance. You went with Mildred Darrel. When you called for -her she was out on the porch. Another girl was with her and you were -introduced."</p> - -<p>"After all, I was right!" he cried triumphantly. "You were in the -shadows that the vines threw all over the porch. I don't believe I even -heard your name. Most positively I did not catch a glimpse of your -face."</p> - -<p>She dismissed the subject with indifference.</p> - -<p>"At least I have made my explanation. And now may I ask my question?" -And, when he nodded: "Are they telling the truth when they say that -Mexicali Joe stole his gold from Mr. Gallup's mine?"</p> - -<p>He had expected something like that; all along he had felt that this -girl with the bright daring eyes and that eager confident carriage -was in Big Pine because she, equally with himself, was concerned with -the one occurrence which for the moment made the community a place of -interest to such as found no lure in the humdrum.</p> - -<p>"Of course, you know that anything I could say in answer would be but -one man's opinion?"</p> - -<p>"Yes. But knowing these men, your opinion would be of value to me."</p> - -<p>"Well, then, I'd gamble my boots that they're lying. And I can advance -no reasons whatever for my belief. But there's your question answered."</p> - -<p>"As I thought that it would be. I was sure of it before I came here. -You make me doubly sure."</p> - -<p>He, for the moment, was more interested in her than in Mexicali Joe and -his gold.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p> - -<p>"You don't belong up here in the mountains? You're a long way from your -stamping-ground, aren't you?"</p> - -<p>"Of course. I happened to be down in Rocky Bend when the news came and -I caught the first stage up."</p> - -<p>He tried to make her out. She did not look the type of woman who -followed in the wake of such news, adventuring. But then you could -never tell what a woman was inside by the outer peach-and-cream -softness of her, as Babe Deveril very well understood.</p> - -<p>She appeared to be plunged deep into revery. Perhaps there was -something of weariness in the droop of her shoulders; if she had come -on the early stage, she might have had a hard day of it altogether....</p> - -<p>"Were you able to get a room at the Gallup House?" he asked.</p> - -<p>"Yes. I was one of the first, you know. As to how long I can keep my -room, I can't tell. Mr. Gallup has doubled his prices and is likely to -double them again."</p> - -<p>"He's that sort," conceded Deveril. "He plays a big game and all the -time has a shrewd eye for the little bets. By the way, do you feel -entirely comfortable there?"</p> - -<p>Her eyes drifted to a meeting with his.</p> - -<p>"What do you mean?"</p> - -<p>"There's as tough a crowd there and spread all over town as I ever saw. -Are you alone?"</p> - -<p>"Yes. Quite."</p> - -<p>"You don't mean to say that you, a young girl and not overused to -hardship, from the look of you, are up here to mix into such a -scrimmage as may be pulled off? To match your wits and your grit and -your endurance against the kind of men who go hell-raising into a new -gold strike?"</p> - -<p>She tilted back her head against the door-jamb and looked up, straight -into his eyes. Thus he saw her chin<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> brought forward prominently. It -was delicately turned and joined, softly curving, a full feminine -throat; and yet it was a chin which bespoke character and stubbornness.</p> - -<p>"When men go rushing after gold," she said quietly, "more likely than -not they go with empty pockets if not empty stomachs. There is always a -chance, in a new mining-camp, for one who has a little money. A chance -to stake a miner, going shares; and always, of course, the chance to -stake one's own claim."</p> - -<p>"But you.... What do you know of such things?"</p> - -<p>"Not much, first-hand, perhaps. But it's in the blood!... You look a -very young man, Mr. Deveril, but you and I know that looks are not -everything; and it is quite possible that you are old enough to have -heard of Olymphe Labelle?"</p> - -<p>"Why," he exclaimed, "I have seen her. I was only a boy; it was twenty -years ago. That was down at Horseshoe; why, bless your soul, I fell -head over heels in love with her! I can tell you how she dressed and -how she looked. Big blue eyes; golden hair; a pink dress; a great big -picture-hat, with ribbons. I was only eight or nine years old, but -forget? Never!"</p> - -<p>"My father married her down in Horseshoe! That was the first time he -ever saw her and he didn't let her get away! Dick Brooke; maybe you -have heard of him, too? If so you won't ask why the daughter of Olymphe -Labelle and Dick Brooke has it in her veins to mingle with the first of -the crowd when there's word of a new strike!"</p> - -<p>There was scarcely a community in all Arizona or New Mexico, certainly -none within the broad scope of the great southwestern plateau country, -which had not in its time, a generation ago, paid tribute to the -gaiety and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> grace and beauty of Olymphe Labelle. She danced for them; -she sang; she went triumphantly from one mining town or lumber-camp -to another and men went mad over her. They packed the houses in which -she appeared; they spent their money generously to see her, and night -after night, captivated, they tossed to the stage under her pretty -high-heeled feet both raw and minted gold. Olymphe was to this country -what Lotta was to the camps of California in an earlier day. Then young -Dick Brooke, a stalwart and hot-blooded young miner, saw her and that -was the end of Olymphe's dancing career. They were married within ten -days. And from this union was sprung the superb young creature now -sitting upon an adventurer's door-step and looking straight up into his -eyes.</p> - -<p>"You see, it is only the thing to be expected, after all, that I should -follow the gleam!"</p> - -<p>She, like himself, was young and eager and unafraid and adventuresome; -and within her pulsing arteries was that pioneer blood which, trickling -down through the generations is ever prone to set recklessness seething.</p> - -<p class="space-above">There was a man coming up through the pines on horseback. In the gloom -all detail was wanting. But obviously he meant to come straight on -to the cabin. Deveril, seeing this intent, stepped by the girl and -a couple of paces forward. The man, sitting in a strange, sideways -fashion in the saddle, drew rein and peered at him.</p> - -<p>"Name of Deveril? Babe Deveril?"</p> - -<p>"Right, friend. What's your trouble?"</p> - -<p>"Offering to shake hands, to begin with. I'm Winch; Billy Winch. You -and me know each other."</p> - -<p>He leaned outward from the saddle, putting out his hand. But Deveril -ignored it, saying coolly:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p> - -<p>"Why should I shake hands with you? You and I are not friends that I -know of!"</p> - -<p>Billy Winch sighed, and used his hand to remove his hat and then rumple -his bristly hair. Then he laughed softly. His horse, restless and fiery -and well-fed, whirled, and for the first time Lynette Brooke made out -the reason for that strange, lopsided attitude in the saddle; the man, -a little, weazened fellow, had lost his right leg above the knee and -managed a sure seat only by throwing his weight upon his left stirrup -and thus maintaining his balance.</p> - -<p>"Well," said Winch good-naturedly, "<i>he</i> said to start off by shaking -hands. Just to show as I <i>was</i> friendly."</p> - -<p>"<i>He?</i>" repeated Deveril. "You mean Bruce Standing?"</p> - -<p>"Sure. Of course. When I just say <i>he</i> I mean <i>him</i>."</p> - -<p>The girl sitting in the shadows smiled. Deveril, however, whose profile -she could watch, appeared to have no good humor left to spend upon his -caller. She marked how his voice hardened and how he bit off his words -curtly.</p> - -<p>"I have no business with either Bruce Standing or with you."</p> - -<p>"Well," said Winch cheerfully, "here's the message: You're to meet him -in half an hour or so at the Gallup House."</p> - -<p>For a moment Deveril was silent; then the girl heard his barely audible -muttering and knew that under his breath he was roundly cursing the -man who sent him a message like that. In another instant he flared out -hotly, forgetful of her or ignoring her:</p> - -<p>"You go tell your Bruce Standing that I said that he is a land hog and -a thief and a damn' fool, all rolled in one; and that I'll meet him -nowhere this side of hell."</p> - -<p>Billy Winch chuckled as at the rarest of all jests.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p> - -<p>"I got a picture of <i>me</i> going to <i>him</i> with a mouthful like that! On -the low-down level, Deveril, he means to be friendly, I think...."</p> - -<p>"Do your infernal thinking somewhere else," snapped Deveril angrily. -"Clear out or I'll throw you out!"</p> - -<p>"I told him most likely you'd be sassy, so he won't be disappointed, I -guess. Well, I'm travelling, so you don't have to mess your place all -up throwing me off!" He was still chuckling good-naturedly as he swung -his horse about with a light touch of the reins. Over his shoulder he -called back: "He said it was important and he'd see you at Gallup's -inside the hour!" The voice was taunting; Billy Winch threw his weight -into his one stirrup, and even the attitude, though made necessary -through his physical handicap, was vaguely irritating, so carelessly -nonchalant did it appear. His horse bolted like a shot as he gave the -signal and in a moment bore him out of sight among the shadows under -the pines. Babe Deveril, hands on hips, stood staring after him. -Then he swung about and came back to the cabin, and the girl on his -door-step, seeing his face clearly in the candle-light streaming forth, -caught her breath sharply at the outward sign she glimpsed of the rage -burning high and hot in his breast.</p> - -<p>"I'm of half a mind to meet him after all and break his confounded -neck!" he cried out, a passionate tremor in his voice.</p> - -<p>All along he had intrigued her, with his handsome face and -devil-may-care air and light gracefulness; she estimated coolly that -if, as he had said of himself, he had a memory for pretty girls it was -something more than likely that more than one pretty girl had carried -in her heart the memory of him. Now, suddenly, his good looks were -sinister; his gaiety was so utterly gone that it was next door to -impossible to imagine that he could<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> ever be inconsequentially gay. The -innate evil in the man stood up naked and ugly. And all because some -man, a certain Bruce Standing, had sent a message commanding a meeting -at the Gallup House.</p> - -<p>It was not exactly the thing to do to put her question, but interest, -mounting above mere curiosity, piqued her, and, certain of an answer in -his present mood, she offered innocently:</p> - -<p>"It seems to me I have heard the name Bruce Standing. Just who is he?"</p> - -<p>Deveril glared at her and for a brief fragment of a second she was -afraid of him; it was as though, by the mere mention of the name, she -drew on herself something of the hatred he must have felt for this man -Standing.</p> - -<p>"You heard me read his title clear enough to his one-legged dog -Winch," he told her harshly. "He is a man who came into this country -with nothing a dozen years ago and who now rolls in the fat of his -ill-gotten gains. He's a land hog who has robbed right and left and -who has with him the devil's luck. He owns thousands of acres of land -out yonder." A wide sweep of his arm indicated the endlessly rolling -wilderness land, sombre ridges and ebony caņons, rising into stony -barren crests here, thick timbered yonder where they slumbered under -the first stars. "He operates mines; he gambles in gold and copper -and lumber ... and life, curse him! And in human souls, his own with -the rest. He runs half a dozen lumber-camps and has a thousand of the -toughest men in the world working for him at one place and another. Men -hate him for what he is, a cold-blooded highwayman. They have sent him -a warning not to show his face in Big Pine, and being of the devil's -spawn he sends me word to meet him at Gallup's! That's his way and his -nerve and his colossal conceit. May hell take him!"</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p> - -<p>"And," suggested the girl, watchful of him as she ventured to probe at -his emotions, "on top of all of this ... your cousin?"</p> - -<p>"<i>No!</i>" He shouted the word at her angrily. "No cousin, thank God. -Not so closely related as that. A kinsman of a sort, yes; but if you -go back far enough to dig out the roots of things, we are all kinsmen -since Adam. I claim no relationship with Bruce Standing."</p> - -<p>"I should like to meet this wicked kinsman of yours," she said, as -though thoughtful and in earnest.</p> - -<p>"And," she added, "warned against coming into Big Pine, he will still -come openly?"</p> - -<p>"At least," he grunted back at her, "there is one thing I have never -denied him; he's no coward. No Gallup was ever conceived who can tell -him where to head in and get away with it. Of course he will come and -in the wide open and on the run."</p> - -<p>She rose to go.</p> - -<p>"I wish you all success in your dealings with your bold, bad kinsman. -And I do thank you for your frank answer to my question. And now ... -good night."</p> - -<p>"I'll walk with you ... if you will let me?"</p> - -<p>"Thank you, but...."</p> - -<p>They heard the clippety-clop of horses' hoofs, running. Not one -horse this time, but three, bearing their riders like so many -indistinguishable dark blurs through the night, sweeping on to the -cabin. A man, one of the riders, was laughing, and Lynette Brooke knew -that already here was Billy Winch returning. Babe Deveril, too, must -have recognized the voice, for he jerked his head up and stiffened -where he stood, oblivious of the fact that she had broken off with an -objecting "but," conscious only of a hated man's impertinence.</p> - -<p>Those three were expert riders, men who lived in the saddle. They and -their horses seemed moulded <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>centaurs for certainty and the grace of -the habitual horseman. They came on at such a break-neck speed and so -close that the girl whipped back, thinking that they would run her and -her companion down. Then, with that quick light pluck at the reins, -they brought their horses down from a mad run to a trembling standstill.</p> - -<p>"He said you was to meet him ... <i>about now!</i>"</p> - -<p>That was Billy Winch, lopsided and cock-sure in the saddle, the chosen -messenger of his impudent, reckless chief.</p> - -<p>Winch flung out his arm. In the dark they could have made nothing of -the gesture had it not been for the sudden sibilant hiss of the rope, -swung by an iron wrist, cutting through the air. The noose fell with -absolute exactness; Winch was not ten steps away and the rope thrown -so unerringly settled about Babe Deveril's shoulders and with a quick -jerk grew so tight that it cut into the flesh. On the instant the two -men with Winch left their saddles and struck earth, both on the run -forward. And, while Lynette Brooke thought with horror to see sudden -death dealt, they threw themselves upon the man already fighting -against the imprisonment of thirty feet of hemp.</p> - -<p>She had never seen men battle as now these three battled while Billy -Winch sitting back in his saddle with his rope drawn tight, watched and -laughed and cried out in broken phrases expressing his satisfaction -with the situation. Babe Deveril, roped as he was, gave her such proof -of prowess as to make her admiration for the physical perfection of -him leap high. She, too, cried out brokenly; she wanted to see him win -against these unfair odds. But the men clung on and Billy Winch sat -laughing and tautening his rope; blows and curses and throaty growls, -the whole thing lasted not half a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> minute. Babe Deveril was down, -mastered by three men.</p> - -<p>"Well?" she heard him pant furiously. "What now? Murder or only robbery -again?"</p> - -<p>"Again? Robbery?" That was Winch's untroubled voice, always gay. "When -was the other time, pardner?"</p> - -<p>"He robbed me once of three thousand dollars. Now what?"</p> - -<p>"Now," said Winch coolly, loosening his rope an inch or two but still -on guard, "it's only what I said before: You are to meet him at the -Gallup House, and I'm responsible for your coming. So we're taking you."</p> - -<p>Deveril lay very still, two brawny men upon him. When he made no -immediate reply Winch waited patiently and knew, as the girl knew, that -a man must be given a moment in such circumstances to collect his wits. -Deveril's panting gradually gave over to more quiet breathing; he lay -flat on his back and saw the two heads bending over his own and, beyond -them, the stars. He started once to speak, but clamped his lips tight. -Still, in high tolerant patience, Billy Winch waited upon him while -Lynette Brooke, trembling from head to foot with excitement, waited in -burning impatience.</p> - -<p>"You got me, boys."</p> - -<p>She could scarcely recognize Deveril's voice; at first she thought that -it was one of the other men speaking.</p> - -<p>"That's sensible." That was Billy Winch. Again he loosened his rope.</p> - -<p>"I guess," Deveril went on quietly, "that the three of you, jumping me -like that, regular Standing sneak-style, can lead me down to Gallup's. -Or, if you care to let me up, I'll save you the trouble, and will go -without your help."</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p> - -<p>"That's your promise?" queried Winch.</p> - -<p>"Yes ... damn you."</p> - -<p>"That's fair. Let him go, boys."</p> - -<p>The two men holding him down, got to their feet and went back to their -horses as if, their bit of work done, they had lost all interest, as -perhaps they had. Deveril got to his feet and cast the rope off. Winch -drew it in, coiled it, and tied it at his saddle strings.</p> - -<p>"Most any time now," he said casually. "He's on his way and due in a -dozen minutes. All you got to do is listen for him!"</p> - -<p>Deveril stood, both arms stiffening at his sides, his head lifted high, -looking straight at Winch.</p> - -<p>"Some fine day," he said with low-toned quiet anger, "I'll get you or -I'll get him. And it will be a great day!"</p> - -<p>"It sure will, Kid," laughed Winch. "<i>Adios</i>, and all best wishes."</p> - -<p>The three riders, all seated by now, sped away, their horses kicking -up the fine dust fragrant with fallen pine-needles. Deveril remained, -rigid and angry, looking after them.</p> - -<p>"You don't know," he said heavily, as the pounding hoof beats dwindled -and the scurrying blurs of figures faded, "you don't know and can't -guess...."</p> - -<p>And when he remained where he was, stiff, hands clinched at his sides -and face lifted to the stars, she thought that for an instant it was -given her to glimpse for the first time in her life something of the -realities working in a man's very soul. Almost she could see the hot -tears in his angry eyes.</p> - -<p>She was very deeply moved. Clearly here was no concern of hers; these -men, all of them including Deveril, were strangers to her and their -loves and hates had nothing to do with Lynette Brooke. But none the -less that current of men's lives ran so strong and swift that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> she felt -as though she were being actually and physically drawn into it. Nor, -though her eyes did not once leave the rigid figure of Deveril, did her -thoughts concern themselves exclusively with him. She felt a sudden -strange and burning interest in that other man whom she had never seen -but of whose wild nature she had heard. She resented the work of Bruce -Standing, done for him by his emissaries; she felt that she, no less -than Babe Deveril, could hate a man like that. And yet already there -had sprung up within her a strong desire to see him for herself.</p> - -<p>"How can it be," she wondered, "that if he is the lawbreaker you call -him, thief and worse, men allow him to go on his way?"</p> - -<p>He looked at her curiously. Then he laughed his short angry laugh.</p> - -<p>"He's a man for you to look into, girl with the daring eyes! A cruel, -merciless devil if half the tales are true and, to top off his madness, -a man who has not hate but an abiding contempt for all your gentle sex. -But you wonder why men let him roam free? In the first place, haven't -I told you that he rolls in wealth? That's one thing. Another is his -cursed craft. You wonder why I say in one breath that he stole three -thousand dollars from me and then merely growl that he remains outside -jail?"</p> - -<p>"I don't understand it, of course."</p> - -<p>"Here you go, then: Half a dozen years ago I held that Bruce Standing -and I were friends. He sent me word to come up here into his -wilderness; I was to bring whatever money I could raise and there was -the chance to double it. I came. When I met him, twenty miles off -over yonder in a cabin where he lived like a solitary old bear, we -talked things out. With all of his big ventures he was on the edge of -bankruptcy. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> was grabbing money in both hands from any source and -every source. He wanted my three thousand to throw in with the rest, -the damned selfish hog that he was and is. I laughed at him and you -could have heard him growl a mile. We slept that night in his cabin. In -the middle of the night in the pitch black dark, I felt a man on top of -me in my bunk, his hands at my throat. I got a tap over the head with -something; when I woke up my money belt was gone and it was morning and -there was Bruce Standing, singing and grinning and getting breakfast -and asking me if I had had bad dreams."</p> - -<p>"But...."</p> - -<p>"The law? When he wouldn't either admit or deny? When he just laughed -and said, 'Where in this country, <i>my country</i>, will you get a jury to -convict me?' And where, by the same token, was any money left in my -pockets to do legal battle with a man intrenched as he is in his old -mountains?"</p> - -<p>"And he goes on prospering?"</p> - -<p>"I tell you he was hanging on the rim of nowhere, broke. And he used my -three thousand and God knows what other stolen funds, and now again he -is the one power across a hundred miles up here!"</p> - -<p>There was one other thing she meant to ask. Billy Winch had said just -now that Standing was on his way; that all they had to do was <i>listen</i> -for him. She supposed that he had meant the clatter of a running -horse's hoofs; and yet something in Winch's tone implied something -else. No doubt Deveril understood; she was parting her lips to ask -when, across the fields of the silent night, Bruce Standing himself -answered her. A sudden thrill shot through her blood.</p> - -<p>As she was to learn later, there were many wonderful things about Bruce -Standing. Among them were his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> reckless impudence and his glorious -voice. Now, before ever she saw the man, she heard him singing, -somewhere far out, under the stars, alone with his wilderness, sending -far ahead of him into Big Pine the word of his coming. A coming which -was in defiance of the order which had gone forth and which, with his -superb assurance, he was ignoring. It was a voice as sweet and clear -and true, for the high notes and the low notes alike, as a silver -trumpet. She stopped breathing to listen. She felt her heart leap and -quicken; a tingling quivered along her nerves. Never had she heard -singing like that, wild, free, a voice to haunt and linger echoing in -the memory.</p> - -<p>And then, all of a sudden, she was set shivering. For the voice had -done with the song and, at the end, with a great unexpected upgathering -of sound was poured forth into a long-drawn-out call that was like -nothing on earth save the howling of a wolf. The night call throbbed -and billowed across the disturbed silences and all of a sudden was gone -and the night was again hushed and still.</p> - -<p>"There you have one of the two good reasons why men call him -Timber-Wolf," said Deveril with a grunt.</p> - -<p class="space-above">She scarcely heard. Somewhere, deep down within her, that golden -outpouring, that rush of fierceness at the end, echoed and lived on.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2> - -<p>Bruce Standing—Timber-Wolf, as he exulted in being called—was a man -of few friends and many enemies. In and about Big Pine men disliked -him wholeheartedly; many hated him so that they would have been glad -to know that he was dead. And this was chiefly because he jeered at -them and overrode them; because at every opportunity, going out of his -way to make opportunity more often than not, he thrust them aside and -trod his unobstructed path through and over them, setting his heel upon -many; because he spat upon their laws and made his own. And he, in his -turn, held them in high contempt simply because always they stood aside -for him. Those few who did not hate him were the handful of hard men -whom, in the working out of his wide, overweening ambitions, he had -drawn to him like so many feudal henchmen; they were, in their lesser -degrees, of his stamp; they belonged in their hearts to an older day -and a wider frontier; there were scores taking his pay whose blood ran -hot and lawless.</p> - -<p>So to-night he came riding down the winding trail from his mountains, -singing. Thus he shot his spirit across the miles ahead of him, to -invade Big Pine before his coming, to taunt before he brought his hard -eyes to mock at them. He had received his word and his warning, and -made his retort in the one way possible to him.</p> - -<p>The road in front of the Gallup House, leading on to the pines and -the aloof jail where Mexicali Joe glared out, was thronged. Half a -dozen bonfires had been started, and in the ruddy light men stirred -restlessly.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> Their talk was becoming purposeful; they gathered in -knots about men who were showing impatient signs of initiative; they -had murmured and were looking this way and that, over their shoulders, -shifting their feet as they gave increasingly free expression to their -determination. They were working themselves up to the pitch of defiance -of the law, as represented by Sheriff Jim Taggart; as yet no man cared -to be first and still they looked frequently at the deputy sheriff with -the rifle across his arm, and meant to set Mexicali Joe free. A man -broke away from one of these groups and ran back to the Gallup House, -to carry warning to Taggart.</p> - -<p>It was at this moment that Bruce Standing, Timber-Wolf, rode into -town. He rode alone, on a powerful red-bay gelding, silent now, a -great-bulked man sitting straight in the saddle. One saw nothing of his -face under the wide black hat.</p> - -<p>He had no word of greeting for any man of them; after his -characteristic coldly insolent way, he appeared to ignore them utterly. -On the instant he, rather than Mexicali Joe, became the central object -of interest. Most knew who he was and what he stood for, and wherein -his visit among them was to be regarded as worthy of interest; those -who did not know, marked the hush which greeted him, and in lowered -voices demanded the explanation which, in voices equally low, was -briefly given. They looked for him to draw rein at Gallup's and swing -down and go in. But, knowing that you could never be sure of him, they -watched to see.</p> - -<p>He disappointed them. That, in itself, was like him. No doubt he got -his bit of glee out of knowing that, where they had looked to him -for one thing, he had given them another. He rode on by Gallup's -without turning his head. Where a tree grew at the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>road-crossing -he dismounted, tying his horse. They saw that his rifle was in its -scabbard, slung to the saddle; he left it where it was, and went -forward on foot. Bigger than ever he loomed among them, appearing to -walk leisurely, yet taking the long, measured strides which carried him -along swiftly. They let him go on his way, their eyes following him -with growing interest, some of the more curious of the crowd stringing -along in his wake. And all this time no man had given him the time of -day, and he had not opened his lips.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile they saw him turn his head this way and that, as though he -sought something. Before he had gone fifty paces he found what he -wanted. A man was piling wood on his fire; the axe which he had used a -moment ago lay on the ground, glinting in the firelight. Bruce Standing -stooped and caught it up and went on—straight toward the jail. A -sudden shout from many voices burst out; men came running to see, now -that they understood what he meant to do. And those about the jail, -when they saw, drew back to right and left hurriedly, leaving only the -deputy with the rifle across his arm to block the way.</p> - -<p>Now, the axe could mean only one thing in the world, and the deputy saw -it, and saw who it was that carried it and called out a sharp, throaty -warning. Standing came on, his stride quickened. He was not a dozen -steps away, carrying his axe lightly in his right hand. The deputy -jerked his rifle up, the butt to his shoulder, shouting:</p> - -<p>"Stop, or...."</p> - -<p>The man fired, but he was not quick enough. At that distance, had his -finger touched the hair-trigger the tenth of a second sooner, he could -not have failed to kill. But he was not the man, even though armed, -to dictate to Timber-Wolf. For Standing made instant answer to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> that -command, "Stop!" and hurled his only weapon, a heavy wood-cutter's axe, -straight into the deputy's face. The bullet went wild; the man who had -fired it, through the rarest chance left alive, went down in a heap, -unconscious before he struck ground. For, though the axe blade had very -narrowly missed his face, the hard hickory handle had taken him full -across the eyebrows and came near being the death of him. His rifle -clattered against the rock wall of the jail.</p> - -<p>Bruce Standing, who had paused but the briefest moment, came on and -stepped over the fallen man, and caught up his axe again. He stooped -long enough to make out that the deputy's head was not split open; then -he swung up his axe, high above his head, and brought it crashing down -against the thick oak padlocked door. The sound of the stroke echoed -and the echoes were lost in the striking of the second blow. And, when -for the third time the axe rose and fell, flashing in the light of the -fires, the door fell.</p> - -<p>"Out you come, Joe."</p> - -<p>Standing's deep, full voice rumbled in a sort of rich, placid content. -And out like a rabbit, darted Mexicali Joe, looking pinched and starved -and frightened.</p> - -<p>"It is you, Seņor!" he gasped.</p> - -<p>"The crowd will be after you," said Standing. "And I'm not going to -worry about what happens to you after this."</p> - -<p>He was turning away when Joe caught his sleeve, and stood on his -tiptoes and began a rapid, excited whispering. Standing hesitated, then -laughed and shook the man off.</p> - -<p>"You are a good little sport, Mexico," he chuckled. "Now, on your way."</p> - -<p>Joe, with never another look behind him, turned and ran, disappearing -about the corner of the jail, sending<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> back an account of himself in -the sound of his racing footfalls among the pines.</p> - -<p>Once again came a great shouting from the crowd in the road; they had -seen, and now that they had their hearts' desire in having Mexicali -Joe free, they saw themselves losing all hope of coming at his secret -because they were losing him. Their brief interest in Bruce Standing -was dead for the present; Joe ran like a scared cat, and they, like so -many yelping dogs, set after him. And Timber-Wolf, watching, standing -where he was with his big hands on his hips, roared with laughter.</p> - -<p class="space-above">Babe Deveril and the girl, Lynette Brooke, had seen much of all this. -They were at the time on their way to the Gallup House, she to her -room and he to his meeting with his lawless kinsman. Thus it happened -that Deveril's first sight of Timber-Wolf in half a dozen years, and -Lynette's first sight of him in all her life, was at a moment when he -was engaged in an episode of the type which made him stand apart as the -man he was.</p> - -<p>"Taggart ought to kill him for that," grunted Deveril. "And he probably -will before the night is over."</p> - -<p>The girl shivered as she had done just now when she saw a rifle -raised and an axe flung. And yet within her, being woman, there was -the exultation which would not stay down, and the thought: "He is -magnificent.... A brute, maybe, but surely magnificent!" And she knew -that she would never be content until she had seen his face and looked -into his eyes. Already, being woman, she was concerned with his eyes; -whether they would be large or small, set wide apart or close together. -She wanted him to be the lion, not the wild boar.</p> - -<p class="space-above">The remainder of the night's happenings was to come, because of the -simple arrangement of rooms at the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> Gallup House, within the experience -of both Deveril and Lynette. They saw Bruce Standing go down the road -and followed him. He did not once look back. When he came to his -horse, he stopped only long enough to take down his rifle. Plainly -now he meant to go direct to the Gallup House. All the while men were -streaming by him, hurrying to join in the chase after the escaping -Mexicali Joe. So, by the time he came to Gallup's door, there were not -over a score of men remaining in the house.</p> - -<p>The Gallup House was a long, squat building of two low stories, its -three main rooms on the ground floor facing the road. These were the -dining-room; a room given over to Gallup's office, and sufficient space -for a dozen chairs and a big sheet-iron stove—a sort of living-room -for Gallup's guests, when he had any; and, finally, a room which had in -older times been the barroom, and which, despite changing conditions, -remained in practice a barroom. At this hour both dining-room and -sitting-room were deserted, and the score or so of men, Gallup and -Taggart among them, were in the bar. Here were round tables, for it was -a big room, for games of cards or dice.</p> - -<p>Deveril and the girl parted at the centre door through which she -entered direct into the general living-room. They saw Bruce Standing go -to the last of the three doors and step in unhesitantly, still carrying -his rifle lightly. Deveril followed him, and saw the looks on the faces -of Taggart and Gallup and some of their following.</p> - -<p>"I stepped in to buy the drinks for the crowd," Timber-Wolf said -quietly, all the while his eyes flashing back and forth. "Gents, the -treats are on me."</p> - -<p>Jim Taggart, his hands on his hips, was eying him like a hawk, and in -Taggart's face was a dull, hot flush.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> Gallup, however, standing close -at Taggart's side, was the first to speak. He cried out angrily:</p> - -<p>"No man drinks with you in my house! Not as long as I live. And...."</p> - -<p>Bruce Standing drew a wallet from his pocket.</p> - -<p>"About twenty men here," he said, in the same slow, steady voice. "As -it's a night of celebration, we'll make it a dollar a drink. That's -twenty bucks, easy money, Young Gallup," he wound up with a sneer in -his voice. For all men knew Gallup's cupidity, which clutched at small -as well as large amounts.</p> - -<p>But Gallup, shaken with rage, only shouted back at him:</p> - -<p>"To hell with your twenty dollars! And with you, Bruce Standing!"</p> - -<p>"So? Well, twenty dollars isn't much, after all, is it? Gents, we drink -to-night and damn the cost! Two bones for every glass of whiskey; -that's forty of the iron men, Gallup. Call Ricky with the bottles."</p> - -<p>A couple of men laughed at that. Gallup, however, seeing himself -baited, roared out:</p> - -<p>"I tell you, <i>no</i>! And out you go. You are not wanted here."</p> - -<p>"Low bid loses, high bid wins," said Standing. Now he opened his wallet -and disclosed a tight pad of bills. "Three dollars for each and every -glass of imitation hootch! God, what a pirate you are, Gallup! Now, -trot it out."</p> - -<p>"Sixty dollars, clean-cut velvet, Gal," said a man at his elbow, -willing to drink with the devil so the drink came paid for.</p> - -<p>"And at last Young Gallup hesitates, his soul tempted by a row of dirty -pennies," gibed Standing. "Look, men, and you'll see that pale-yellow -soul of his snared clean out of his stingy hide. Look, Gallup! And -if<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> you can say no this time you have established a new record for -yourself!"</p> - -<p>Slowly, while they watched him, he counted off ten ten-dollar -bank-notes, and, with a careless gesture, tossed them to a table.</p> - -<p>"That's for one round of your rotten bootleg liquor," he said -contemptuously. "Now, step out, Gallup, and show them the sort of -money-grabbing porker you are. You know you haven't got the guts to -save your own besmirched pride at the price of a hundred dollars."</p> - -<p>Gallup would have sold out for far less, but Timber-Wolf was not the -man to haggle over what he termed dirty pennies. He shrugged his heavy -shoulders and caught up the money, counting it carefully, stuffing it -into his pocket and growling:</p> - -<p>"You're not wanted here, Standing; but any time you're fool enough to -pay a hundred dollars for the privilege, I'll take the rules down for a -round of drinks! Hey, Ricky!"</p> - -<p>Standing only grunted at that, though his eyes flashed.</p> - -<p>"I come when I please and where I please, and you know it, Young -Gallup! And if you think you are the man to throw <i>me</i> out, hop to it -and don't let a little hundred dollars hold you back! Better than that; -if you'll tie into me right now and chuck me out of doors, getting all -your hangdogs that will take a chance with you to help you, you've got -my word that I'll add a second hundred as your bonus! Or a thousand, by -heaven! And right now you'll toe the scratch or back down and shut your -mouth."</p> - -<p>Gallup had never before in his life been faced down like that. And with -so many men looking on! Yet in his heart, though no man had ever called -him a coward, he was afraid of Timber-Wolf; mortally afraid. There was -the look of death itself in the eyes flashing into his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> own. He sought -to laugh the thing off, saying, with what semblance of fine scorn he -could master:</p> - -<p>"<i>Your</i> word!"</p> - -<p>"I am no liar," said Standing wrathfully. "And no man in all Arizona -and New Mexico ever called me liar. Do you, Young Gallup?"</p> - -<p>"Bruce!" called Sheriff Taggart sharply, for the first time speaking a -word. "What's the sense of trying to start a row? Drop all this foolery -and let me have a word with you."</p> - -<p>"That's fair enough," agreed Standing. "I've no desire to break -Gallup's neck so long as he leaves me alone. But make it snappy, as I -have another engagement."</p> - -<p>"I want to talk with you privately, Bruce." Taggart obviously was -angry, and yet it was equally clear that when it came to dealing with -the Timber-Wolf, Jim Taggart meant to hold himself well in hand.</p> - -<p>"I won't stand for corner-whisperings," Standing told him sternly. "If -it happens you've got anything for my set of ears, they're listening. -But it's right now or never."</p> - -<p>Taggart's black and ominous scowl deepened, and he shuffled his feet -back and forth, and in the end stamped them in his anger. But still he -held the curb line upon himself.</p> - -<p>"You always was a strong-headed man, Bruce, that would have things his -way. So be it. And I guess, being a man myself that stands on his own -two legs, I can say it all in one mouthful: You and me has always been -friends. Are we that yet?"</p> - -<p class="space-above">Now for the first time Lynette Brooke, looking in from the adjoining -room through a door just ajar, saw Timber-Wolf clearly, his face under -his big hat unhidden as he turned a little in order to look straight -at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> Taggart. He did not see her, and she looked her fill at him; he -gave her a start of surprise, and after that start came a surge of -admiration. He was a young, blond giant of a man, eyes very blue and -laughing and <i>innocent</i>! And wide-spaced! A man no older than Babe -Deveril, one who bore himself like some old buccaneer or Norse Viking, -before men who would have given much for the courage and the power to -fly at his bared white throat and drag the life out of him; a man who -overflowed with his superabundant vital energy, and who stamped his own -character, through sheer force of unbroken will, upon others about him; -a man who believed in himself and who was at once implacable and gay. -Heartless he looked, and yet full of the dancing joy of life. She felt -herself on the instant both strongly drawn to him and frightened; the -mad vision presented itself to her of herself in his mighty arms. And -the odd tremor which shook her body, as she whipped back with flaming -face, was compounded of thrill and shiver. He confused her; at once she -was amazed that he could be like this and convinced that the owner of -that glorious voice which she had heard pulsing out across the fields -of night could be no jot different.... While she drew back to a dim -corner of the room, she managed not to lose sight of him.</p> - -<p>His clear blue eyes kept on laughing; his was that silent laughter -which arises from the soul, and which mocked and insulted and was like -the cold mirth of Satan. And yet, in some vague way which she was all -at loss to plumb, and which troubled her strangely, Lynette Brooke -<i>knew</i> that this corsair of a man was laughing because there was cold -anger in his heart and because, for some mysterious reason of his own, -he was set on holding his anger hidden. It troubled her so that, within -herself, she cried out passionately against<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> <i>knowing</i> through leaping -instinct anything of what might be going on within the dark caverns of -the Timber-Wolf's mind and heart. She wanted him and herself to be as -far apart as north and south; she meant them to be. And all the while -that compelling interest which he awoke within her tugged mightily and -she yielded to it in that, keeping out of his sight, she lost nothing -of the play of expressions upon his face.</p> - -<p>As yet she knew nothing of that one thing which Bruce Standing, -forthright exponent of untrammelled manhood, held to be his greatest -weakness; the one and only thing of which he was bitterly ashamed. A -trifle, it amounted to; and a trifle he would have accounted it in any -other strong man. Yet within his hard breast it awoke the intensest -feeling of shame. And it was a thing which invariably sprang forth -upon him and humiliated him whenever once he let his passions fly. A -laughable thing, and yet one that put tears into his bright blue eyes. -But, on guard against it, he strove to curb his anger.</p> - -<p>Of all this and the thing itself she knew nothing. But she felt and she -knew that the Timber-Wolf, laughing into Jim Taggart's gloomy face, -was fighting down his own anger, as a man may fight wild beasts. She -awaited, scarcely breathing, the answer he would make to that question -from Taggart: "Are we still friends?"</p> - -<p>"No!" shouted Standing, and laughed at him. "No, by God!"</p> - -<p>That was man talk! Straight, simple words—words that left little -enough to be said. But Taggart, though his face grew hotter and his -eyes seemed burning in their sockets, demanded further:</p> - -<p>"And why not, Bruce Standing? You and me have been pardners. You -know and I know and a thousand men know what sort of a bond and an -understanding has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> always, for more than a dozen years, been between -us. And now, if that is busted and wiped out, I ask you, as man to man: -'<i>Why?</i>'"</p> - -<p>"And as man to man," cried Timber-Wolf, his eyes brightening, "I'll -answer you, Jim Taggart. When I knew you for a man who played his -game he-man style and stood up and fought hard and took his chances, -I was for you! And I went out and shaped things up for you and made -you sheriff. And, when men got to know you and wanted no more of you -as master of law here in the mountains, I lifted you over their heads -and made you sheriff again and again. And now that you are done for -and are on your last legs, I would have done the same thing once -more. But when you got panicky, thinking that this was your last term -of office, and began to feather your dirty nest by running with the -breed of this Young Gallup and his crowd, and when I found the sort -of contemptible, hide-in-the-brush jobs you were pulling off, I got a -bellyful of you and your new kind of ways. And you double-crossed me, -thinking I wouldn't know! And on top of everything else, running neck -and neck with Gallup, you threw Mexicali Joe into jail ... knowing that -Joe, puny blackbird as he is, had been a friend of mine. For that I've -done two things, Jim Taggart: I've smashed your damned jail door off -its hinges and I've thrown you over. And there, until I'm sick of talk -about it, you've got your answer!"</p> - -<p>Taggart, too, and with his own ulterior reasons, kept his head cool. He -said ponderously:</p> - -<p>"You broke the law, Bruce, when you let Joe go. For that I could run -you in. But all Joe done was steal a pocketful of nuggets, and we got -them back. And there's bigger things than that, anyway. You and me has -been friends and so I'll go slow. But we got to have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> another talk. -You've got me down wrong, old-timer."</p> - -<p>Never had Lynette Brooke seen such utter contempt as that which now -filled Bruce Standing's eyes. But he made no answer. At this moment the -man Ricky came in with a gallon earthen jug and began to pour out the -glasses set upon a table. Here was the Timber-Wolf's hundred-dollar -treat. Standing himself waved it aside and:</p> - -<p>"I drink no poison in this house," he said briefly. And as he spoke he -saw for the first time Babe Deveril standing just inside the door, not -two steps behind him.</p> - -<p>"By the Lord, Babe, I'm glad to see you! Shake!" he shouted, thrusting -out his big hand.</p> - -<p>But now it was Deveril's turn to be cool and contemptuous.</p> - -<p>"You and I, Bruce Standing," he said in that clear, insolent voice of -his, "have gone a long way beyond the point of shaking hands."</p> - -<p>Standing frowned as he muttered:</p> - -<p>"Don't be a young ass, Babe."</p> - -<p>But Deveril only shook his head, retorting:</p> - -<p>"I have come, according to promise, for a word with you. Suppose we -make it snappy."</p> - -<p>"The same little Baby Devil!" Standing jeered at him, making Deveril -stiffen with that look of his eyes. "I'll give you a new dance tune -before I'm through with you. Come ahead!"—and with a suddenness which -took Lynette Brooke by surprise he struck back the door leading to the -room where she was and led the way in, Deveril at his heels.</p> - -<p>But, though there were three or four coal-oil lamps burning in the room -which he had just quitted, there was but one here where she was. And -because its chimney was smoky and the flame burned crookedly and she -was in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> a dim corner, he could make nothing of the look of her. Had she -remained perfectly still he would scarcely have noted her presence. But -now she was suddenly impatient to be gone, and went hurrying to a door -which led into a hallway, the hallway in turn leading to her room at -the back of the house.</p> - -<p>"A woman," growled Timber-Wolf disgustedly, getting only a glimpse of a -hastily departing figure. "It begins to look as though a man couldn't -pick him a spot in the wilderness that the female didn't crowd in."</p> - -<p>Lynette heard, and knew with a flash of resentment that he did not care -whether she had heard or not, and that with the last word he would -be turning to Deveril and forgetting that he had seen her. She went -slowly down the hall, three or four paces only. There she paused and -lingered; it was no such pale incentive as curiosity which held her -now, but a peculiar fascination. Two men like those two, by far the -strongest-willed and most dynamic men she had ever known, with the -business which lay between them, made her ignore and give no thought to -the convention of shut ears against the talk of others. So she stood -here in the dim hallway, poised for instant flight if need be to her -own door, a couple of yards farther on.</p> - -<p>"Now," said Deveril impatiently, "what is it?"</p> - -<p>Timber-Wolf's mood softened and the old bright laughter welled up in -his dancing blue eyes.</p> - -<p>"I pass it to you, Kid," he chuckled. "You've grown a man since last we -met. We'll not forget, either one of us ... will we?... that night in -my cabin?"</p> - -<p>"I'll not forget," returned Deveril coolly. "And some day I'll square -the count."</p> - -<p>"<i>You'll</i> square the count?" The keen eyes twinkled like bits of -deep-blue glass on a frosty morning. "I was under the impression that -always you have held that I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> was the man to square things. Accusing me, -as you did, of so wicked a deed!"</p> - -<p>"It was a treacherous thing at best," muttered Deveril, his own eyes -bleak with that bitter hatred which never slept. "I didn't know then -that you were, among other things, a damned thief."</p> - -<p>Timber-Wolf's sudden laughter boomed out joyously, and he smote his -thigh so that the sound was sharp and loud, like a gunshot.</p> - -<p>"But you knew that always and always and once again always I take what -I want! I asked you for the money, and I made you a fair proposition: I -would guarantee that you doubled your dinky three thousand, and I'd see -you had interest on top of it. And you hadn't the nerve to chip in...."</p> - -<p>"Wasn't the fool, you mean!"</p> - -<p>"And so ... I went and took it! And I took from other quarters the same -way. What I wanted I took. And when they all said I was busted in two, -like a rotten stick, I fooled 'em, and laughed at the whole crowd. And -now I'm whole again—and I've got what I want. That's me, Baby Devil! A -man who goes his way and blazes his trail wide. A man you can't stop!"</p> - -<p>"A cursed, insufferable, conceited ass, rather than wolf," snapped -Deveril.</p> - -<p>And still, in the rarest of high good humor, Timber-Wolf laughed, and -his rich, deep voice went rumbling through the house.</p> - -<p>"You're sore, Baby Devil. And you're envious."</p> - -<p>"Not of you, Bruce Standing! You...."</p> - -<p>"Let's chop out the Sunday-school stuff, Kid!" cried Standing -impatiently. "I don't need your lecturings. Maybe I'm not what your -puling moralists call a good man, and maybe I'm not 'clean-hearted and -pure' and all that drivel. But, by God, I'm a man who's got his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> own -code and who sticks to it, blow high, blow low! A code that, if more -men followed it, would give us a world with more men in it and fewer -mollycoddle pups!"</p> - -<p>"It would appear," sneered Deveril, "that you remain well contented -with yourself!"</p> - -<p>"Like the rest of humanity—he, she, and it!" said Timber-Wolf equably. -"And so much for friendly chatter. Now a word whispered in your pretty -ear, since the Lord knoweth how many busybodies are straining their own -ears to listen-in on us."</p> - -<p>Lynette, in the hallway, stiffened and felt her face grow hot. But, -with a strange new-born stubbornness, she remained where she was.</p> - -<p>Timber-Wolf came a step closer to Deveril, and, lowering his voice so -that Lynette lost the words, he muttered:</p> - -<p>"I <i>am</i> under obligations to you, my dear kinsman, and since there is a -tough crowd in town, any man of whom would whack you over the head for -a handful of silver, I am keeping this between us." He took his wallet -from his pocket the second time, and drew from it several bank-notes. -These he proffered to Deveril, his eyes still bright with his cold -mirth.</p> - -<p>"Count it and stick it in your jeans," he said softly. "There's your -three thousand. With it is another three thousand, the double of the -bet which I promised you. And with that is another two thousand, which -is a gain of ten per cent for you for six years, all rough figuring. In -all eight thousand in coin of the realm ... and I'm much obliged," he -ended mockingly, "for your generous loan!"</p> - -<p>Babe Deveril, taken off his feet by the unexpectedness of this, stared -at the bank-notes in the great hard palm, and from them to the grinning -face. And slowly, from a conflicting tumult of emotions, in which, -strangely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> enough, anger surged highest, Deveril's face went violently -red.</p> - -<p>"Damn you and your eternal posings!" Lynette caught those words, -clear and high. But she missed the eloquence of the shrug into which -Timber-Wolf's shoulders lifted.</p> - -<p>"It's up to you, Kid," said Standing, and still he kept his voice low -and quiet. The money lay in his outstretched palm. "The minute I make -my offer I consider my obligation fulfilled. If you are too proud to -take it ... well, then, the devil take you for a fool, and I'll use the -money elsewhere."</p> - -<p>Deveril put out his hand, selecting from the several bills.</p> - -<p>"My three thousand, I take," he said, "because it is mine. And the two -thousand with it, judging that fair interest, considering the risks -my money took. As for the rest—" he whipped back, and his voice, -because of the emotions near choking him, was little more than a harsh -whisper—"you can keep it and go to hell with it! I want none of your -cursed charity!"</p> - -<p>Timber-Wolf's thick eyebrows lifted, and a new look dawned in his eyes.</p> - -<p>"By thunder, Baby Devil, you've the makings of a man in you!" he -exclaimed. "You and I could be friends!"</p> - -<p>"Don't fool yourself. We won't be!"</p> - -<p>"I didn't say we would!" And Bruce Standing glared at him angrily. "I -only said we <i>could</i>. There's a difference there, Kid. I could eat -tripe, but I'm damned if I ever will!"</p> - -<p>As the two men eyed each other, it was impossible to conceive of any -earthly happening bringing them within the warm enclosure of man's -friendship.</p> - -<p>But there was money in sight, and money in the hands<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> of Timber-Wolf -was habitually offered to fate as free money. And always, in the heart -of Babe Deveril, when there was money in his pocket and money in sight, -there was the impulse to hazard, to win or lose, and know the wild -moment of a gambler's pleasure. And so he said swiftly:</p> - -<p>"Just the same, I have a claim on that three thousand of yours!"</p> - -<p>"Yes?" And again the heavy eyebrows were lifted as Timber-Wolf's -interest was snared.</p> - -<p>"If it's mine, it comes to me. If it's yours, you keep it and take -three thousand from me to boot. I'll flip a coin with you!"</p> - -<p>"Baby Devil!" laughed Standing softly. "Oh, Baby Devil, if your mamma -could only see you now!"</p> - -<p>"Are you on?" demanded Deveril, in a suppressed voice.</p> - -<p>"On? With bells, Baby Devil! Heads or tails, and let her flicker!"</p> - -<p>Lynette Brooke could catch only enough of all this to set her -wondering. The two men were agreeing upon something, and all the while -jeering at each other, and, though they checked their words and subdued -their voices, anger was directing whatever they did or meant to do.</p> - -<p>Both men were eager and tense. For both made of life a game of hazard. -With Babe Deveril three thousand dollars, to be won or lost in the -flicker of an eyelid, was a large sum of money; to Bruce Standing, a -man of millions, it was no great thing. Yet neither of them was more -tense and eager than the other. The game was the thing.</p> - -<p>Automatically, perhaps subconsciously intending to have a free hand, -since his rifle was still held in his left, Bruce Standing stuffed his -spurned bank-notes into his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> pocket. But it was Deveril who, having -conceived the idea, was first to produce a coin; a silver dollar, and -mate to those other silver dollars which he had presented to the girl, -Maria.</p> - -<p>"Heads or tails, Standing?" he demanded, holding the coin ready to toss -ceilingward.</p> - -<p>"Throw it," said Timber-Wolf, with his characteristic grin, "and I name -it while it's in the air. For I don't know what sleight-of-hand you -may have acquired these later years, and I don't trust you, my sweet -kinsman! And shoot fast, as some one's coming."</p> - -<p>For both had heard the rattle of hoofs in the road outside, as some -horseman came racing up to the door.</p> - -<p>"Name it, then," cried Deveril, and shot the coin, spinning, upward.</p> - -<p>"Heads!" Timber-Wolf named it. "Always heads. My motto there, Kid!"</p> - -<p>The silver dollar, with such zest had it been pitched upward, struck -the ceiling and dropped to the floor, rolling. It rolled half across -the room, both men springing after it, stooping to watch and know how -fate decided matters between them. And in the end there was no decision -at all. For the coin rolled half-way into a crack between the boards -and stood thus, on edge, neither heads nor tails.</p> - -<p>"Flip her again," growled Bruce Standing, deep in his throat. "And step -lively!"</p> - -<p>Already the horse's hoofs, as its rider plucked at the reins, were -sliding outside. Deveril caught up the coin and tossed it again. And -this time, true to his word, and not trusting the other, Bruce Standing -called before the silver dollar struck the floor:</p> - -<p>"Tails!"</p> - -<p>And as the silver dollar struck and rolled and stopped, and at last lay -flat, and the two stooped over it so close<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> that almost the black hair -of one and the reddish hair of the other brushed, they saw that it was -heads. And that Timber-Wolf, repudiating his motto, "Always heads!" had -lost three thousand dollars. And at the instant their intruder burst in -upon them from the road.</p> - -<p>Here, after his own strange fashion, came Billy Winch, Timber-Wolf's -one-legged retainer. An able-bodied man and agile had been Billy Winch -all of his hard life until, after a horse had fallen on him, the doctor -had cut his leg off above the knee. "You'll go on crutches the rest -of your life," they told him that day. And Billy Winch, weak and pale -and sick and haggard-eyed, muttered at them: "You're a pack of damn -liars! I'll cut my throat before I'll be a crutch-man." And he had kept -his oath. Seldom did he stir save on the back of his horse. And when -needs must that he go horseless some few steps, he went "like a man, -one-leg style, hopping!" Now, hopping on his one foot so that, with his -pinched, weazened face and small bright eyes, he resembled some uncouth -bird, he bounced into the room.</p> - -<p>"I got word for you, Bruce Standing!" he cried excitedly.</p> - -<p>"Clear out, you fool...."</p> - -<p>"I won't clear out! This is the real thing. Listen: A man, and it -was a man paid by Young Gallup, has just went down the road with a -double-barrel shotgun, and the dirty skunk has shot your horse, good -old Sunlight ... dead!" By now Billy Winch was whimpering; tears, -whether of rage or grief, filled his bright eyes and streamed down -his face. And all the while, to maintain his balance, he was hopping -unsteadily about, his outflung hand groping for the wall.</p> - -<p>And now at last Timber-Wolf's anger, a devastating, all-engulfing -rage which mastered him utterly, was unleashed. And with its release -came inevitably that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> one condition of which he was so terribly -ashamed. He cried out aloud, in a great, roaring voice ... and in -the fierce grip of his wrath his utterance was so affected that his -speech came enunciated in the most incongruous of fashions. For it was -Timber-Wolf's burning mortification that he, the strongest man of these -mountains, when in the clutch of his mightiest passions ... <i>lisped</i> -like an affected school-girl!</p> - -<p>"Thunlight dead!" he stormed. "You thay that to me? Yeth? Then, by God, -juth ath thure as I live, I'll...."</p> - -<p>He cut himself short; his face, instantly red with rage, grew redder -with shame. He snapped his great jaws shut, and across the room Deveril -heard the grinding of his teeth. He swerved about, charging toward the -door, which gave entrance to the room where Gallup was.</p> - -<p>But a far more critical moment than Timber-Wolf knew was ticking in the -clock of his life. In the hall stood the girl, Lynette. She had heard -all of these words of Billy Winch, and she had heard Bruce Standing's -bellowed rejoinder. And she, already taut-nerved and keyed up, what -with fatigue and a strenuous night, was so struck by the absurdity of -a strong man lisping his passionate utterance, that she broke out into -uncontrollable laughter. And when Lynette Brooke's laughter caught her -unawares, it rang out as clearly as the chiming of silver bells. Now, -with nerves quivering, she was almost hysterical....</p> - -<p>Timber-Wolf came to as dead a halt as though it had been a bullet -instead of the mockery of a girl's laughter which cut into his heart. -For only mockery he made of it, he who upon this one point, as upon no -other, was so sensitive. And to have a human female laugh at him!</p> - -<p>His rage threatened to choke him. But now, even<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> as he had forgotten -his lost bet with Babe Deveril, so did he forget a dead horse and Young -Gallup. The entire violence of his anger was deflected, turned upon a -woman who had eavesdropped upon his ignominy and then assailed him with -the mockery of her mirth. He who held all womankind in such high scorn, -to be now a woman's laughing-stock! He, Bruce Standing, Timber-Wolf! -He snatched at the hall door, and under his attack one of the ancient -hinges broke, and the door, flung back, leaned crazily against the -wall. And all the while, though he kept his teeth so hard set that his -jaws bulged with the strain, he was muttering curses in his throat. He -burst into the dim hallway, his brain on fire.</p> - -<p>She heard him coming. More than that, and before, it seemed to her that -her instinct told her that he would come, bearing down upon her like a -hurricane, in such violence as would stamp her into the earth. She had -not meant to laugh at him; she did not want to laugh. And yet now all -that she could do was clap her hands over her mouth and run before him -as a blown leaf races before the storm. She sped down the hall, plunged -into her room, slammed the door after her.</p> - -<p>... And in the hallway she heard the pounding of his heavy boots. -Already he was at her door. Before she could shoot the bolt, he had -gripped the knob. When he flung his weight against the panel, it flew -back, and under the impact she was thrown backward, and would have -fallen had it not been that she brought up against her bed. Here she -half fell, but was erect before he had stormed across the threshold.</p> - -<p>"You...."</p> - -<p>Why had she run from him? She was not afraid of him and she was not -afraid of anything on earth. Or, at least, making a sort of religion -out of it, that was the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> thing which she had always told herself. Just -at hand, on the little table by the open window, was her revolver. And -she could shoot and shoot true to the mark. She had told Babe Deveril -that she could take care of herself. She stood, rigid and defiant, and -in her heart unafraid.</p> - -<p>On a bracketed shelf over her bed was a kerosene lamp which she had -left burning when she had gone out. She could see the working of his -lips. And he saw her.</p> - -<p class="space-above">Now those who knew Timber-Wolf best knew this about him—that he had -no use for womankind; that he held all of the female of the human race -to be weaklings and worse, leeches upon the strength of man, mere -outwardly glossed tricks of a scheming nature; things contemptible. -And at this moment, surely, Timber-Wolf was in no mood to revise for -the better his sweeping and deep-based opinion. But now, despite all -trumped-up reasonings, no matter how sincere, his first clear view of -this girl gave him pause.</p> - -<p>She was superb. Physically, if not otherwise. For the first thing, her -hair snared him. Strong men are always caught by films; a big brute -of a man who may break his triumphant way through iron bands grows -powerless under a frail wisp of a frail woman's hair. In the hall -she had held her hat in her hands; her hair, loosely upgathered and -insecurely and hastily confined, had tumbled all about her face as she -bolted into her room. He saw that first of all. And then he saw her -eyes. At the moment, already in her room with the door slammed shut -behind him and his back against it, he looked, glowering, into her -eyes. And he found them at once soft and still amazingly unafraid; -those daring eyes of Lynette Brooke, daughter of a dancing-girl and of -the dare-all miner, Brooke. Unafraid, though<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> he who might have choked -the life out of her between finger and thumb, turned his furious face -upon her.</p> - -<p>He paid her tribute with a flash of his shining blue eyes. That was -for the physical beauty of her; that said, "Outwardly, girl, you are -superb!" Yet it remained that, his one weakness shaming him, she had -laughed at him. For the first time in his life a girl had laughed at -him....</p> - -<p>She saw the sudden changing fires in his eyes and stepped closer to the -table on which lay that small, high-powered implement which puts the -weak on a level with the strong....</p> - -<p>"By God, girl...."</p> - -<p>There came a sudden sharp rapping at the door against which his -broad back leaned. There was Babe Deveril, who had lunged after him. -Timber-Wolf, growling savagely, flung himself about, for the second -ignoring the girl and facing the door. Deveril, just without, heard -the bolt shot home. And then he heard the second, the sinister sound. -A revolver shot, muffled by the four walls of a room. And he heard -Timber-Wolf, whose back had been turned to Lynette Brooke and the -gun upon the table, curse deep down in his throat, and heard almost -simultaneously the scraping of the heavy boots and the crashing fall -of the big body. Deveril shook fiercely at the door. Then he turned -and ran back down the hall, meaning to go through the room he had just -quitted and on through so as to come to Lynette's room by the rear.</p> - -<p>But in the sitting-room Billy Winch, teetering on his one foot, grasped -him by the arm, demanding to know what had happened. Deveril savagely -shook him off, and Winch, raising the echoes with a shrilling voice, -toppled over and fell. But little time had been wasted, and yet, before -Deveril could free himself and run on,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> Lynette Brooke ran in upon him. -Her eyes were wild and staring; in her hand was her revolver, so lately -fired that the last wisp of smoke had not cleared from the barrel.</p> - -<p>"Babe Deveril," she gasped. "They are after me!"</p> - -<p>It was Sheriff Taggart who was after her. He was almost at her heels, -shouting:</p> - -<p>"Stop! In the name of the law! You are under arrest for killing Bruce -Standing...."</p> - -<p>Babe Deveril carried no weapon upon him. And he saw Taggart's pistols -dragging at his belt, the heavy forty-fives which, as sheriff, he was -entitled to carry openly. Taggart's hands were almost upon her.</p> - -<p>Deveril did the one thing. He caught at the gun in Lynette's hand -and wrenched it free, and, having no time for accurate aim, did not -fire, but hurled the revolver itself, with all of his might, full into -Taggart's face. And Taggart, as though a thunderbolt had struck him, -went down, with a steel barrel driven against his skull, near the -temple, and lay a crumpled, still heap.</p> - -<p>"The house is full of Taggart's friends!" Deveril cried sharply, -warning her and, at the same time, thinking for himself.</p> - -<p>But already she was running again. She ran out into the road; but there -the brisk-burning bonfires made night into day. She dodged back into -the shadow cast by the corner of the house, and ran about to the rear. -Deveril hesitated only an instant; men were already rushing in from the -room where they had been drinking. He followed her through the door, -and here again he paused. Men were already stooping over the sheriff; -he heard one cry out the single word, "Dead!" His brain caught fire. -The girl had killed Timber Wolf; he had killed Jim Taggart. He and she -were fugitives.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> He followed her again into the shadows, running to the -back of the house.</p> - -<p>And as he ran one thing angered him: He had won three thousand dollars -from Bruce Standing, and that three thousand dollars was at this moment -in Standing's pocket. And being Babe Deveril, who dared at least as far -as most men dare, he meant to have what fortune allowed him.</p> - -<p>And so, when he came to an open and lighted window, and looked in and -saw the sprawling body of Timber-Wolf, Babe Deveril unhesitatingly -threw his leg over the sill and went in. In his judgment Standing was -as good as dead, shot in the back. Well, that was no affair of his, -and certainly he was not the man to grieve. Let "Serve him right" be -his epitaph. Deveril, in a feverish haste, began to feel in the fallen -man's pockets.</p> - -<p>He found the bank-notes and stuffed them into his own pocket. At the -window, as he turned back to it, while he heard men hammering at the -locked door, he saw Lynette Brooke's white face. She had been watching -him. Yet even that, in the present need for haste, made no impression. -He slipped through, hearing a discordant shouting of many voices.</p> - -<p>"We are in for it now," he panted. "Run!"</p> - -<p>He caught her hand, and, holding it tight, the two raced into the -darkness under the pines.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER V</h2> - -<p>Billy Winch was the first to come to the bolted door. He hopped swiftly -down the hall and beat at it with his fists. Snarling and snapping, -growling and finally whimpering, for the world like a dog, he cried out -through his fierce mutterings:</p> - -<p>"I'm the only man here that can save him if he ain't dead already. And -if he is dead...."</p> - -<p>He hurled himself bodily at the door; he jumped up at it and kicked it -with his one heavy boot and, falling, rolled over and crawled to his -foot and struck again.</p> - -<p>The Gallup House had become a vortex of violent excitement. It was -shouted out that two men were dead, Bruce Standing shot by the new -adventuress whom many had noted; Jim Taggart killed as he sought to put -her under arrest. Voices clashed and so did thoughts and purposes. Men -streamed out into the firelit road; they heard running feet marking -the way the two fugitives had taken, and started headlong in pursuit, -stumbling and falling in the dark, and for the first few moments -making slight headway. Others, Gallup among them, were already with -Taggart, lifting him up and bearing him off to a bed. Still others, -hearkening to the strange word that a woman had killed Bruce Standing, -were suddenly charged with the morbid curiosity to look upon this man -dead. They found their way to the lighted window through which Lynette -Brooke had escaped, and through it made their way into the room, until -the small space was thick with their jostling bodies. All the while -Billy Winch was beating at the door, yelling curses and, at last, when -he heard them within, commanding and imploring to be let in. A man, -stepping over<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> Timber-Wolf's body, obeyed and Billy Winch hopped in. -Immediately he was down at his chief's side, squatting, after his own -awkward fashion, upon a knee and balanced by a stub of a leg.</p> - -<p>"He <i>ain't</i> dead!" Billy Winch's breath was expelled in a long, -grateful sigh, which, before his lungs flattened, was choked by a -nervous giggle. "I'm here, Timber," he said softly. "You know me, old -boy!"</p> - -<p>"You damn little fool," was Bruce Standing's grunted answer. Yet his -voice was gentle and his eyes for one rare and fleeting instant as soft -as a lover's.</p> - -<p>Billy Winch, a man of resource, was now himself again, cool and past -all silly sentiment. He turned from the fallen man to the crowding -onlookers, and his eyes darkened with fury. He snatched up the rifle -which Standing had let fall, and, still kneeling, whipped it up over -his head, brandishing it like a war club.</p> - -<p>"Out of this, every one of you!" he shouted at them. "Give him air and -give me room to work in, else I bash your brains out!"</p> - -<p>Had he been less in earnest some man of them might have found occasion -to mark the absurdity of a cripple, squatting on the floor, waving a -gun over his head and ordering them about. But as things were, no man -appeared to glimpse this angle of it. One by one, with his eyes and the -eyes of Timber-Wolf glaring at them, they went hastily out through the -window.</p> - -<p>"Ought to get a doctor in a hurry," one of the retreating men was -suggesting.</p> - -<p>Billy Winch cursed him into silence. For Winch held himself as good a -physician and surgeon as any, having served in the veterinary capacity -for a score of years and having a natural aptitude for treating bad -cuts and gun wounds. Further, he loved this Timber-Wolf; and beyond, -with all his heart, Billy Winch distrusted and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> hated the breed of -doctors. His stump of a leg he attributed to the profound ignorance -drawn by the medical and surgical profession from their books of -theories.</p> - -<p>"You ain't even bad hurt, Timber," he growled, as though disappointed -and angered that he had been tricked into a show of affection and -fright. His look accused Standing of having wilfully deceived him. -"Must have been just the shock, what we call the impack, that knocked -you over.... Oh, lie still, can't you!"</p> - -<p>But Bruce Standing gave him no heed, and continued in his attempt to -draw himself up. While Billy Winch sat on the floor and looked up at -him, the bigger man got slowly to his feet and stood leaning against -the door.</p> - -<p>"Anyway, get over on the bed and lay down and I'll look you over. -You're bleeding like a stuck pig. And you're as white as a clean rag."</p> - -<p>Bruce Standing's face was already haggard and drawn, his mouth hard -with pain. Yet he ignored Winch's command, and walked slowly, forcing -his steps to be steady, to the one chair in the room. He sat down -upon it heavily, straddling it as though it were a horse, facing the -chair-back, and thus leaving his own back clearly proffered for Winch's -inspection. Winch got up and hopped to him, railing at him the while -for not lying down and obeying orders.</p> - -<p>"Help me get my coat off," commanded Timber-Wolf curtly. "Then you can -dig around and find out what we're up against."</p> - -<p>Men were still at the window, peering in.</p> - -<p>"Scatter!" commanded Winch, waving the rifle at them. "And tell our -boys to come here. Dick Ross and Charley Peters. They ain't far."</p> - -<p>Reluctantly the onlookers withdrew, some two or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> three of them to pause -in the shadows when once out of eye-shot, and look back. But from now -on Winch disregarded them. He helped the wounded man off with his coat, -yanked his shirts out from his belted waist, tore cloth freely when it -was in his way, and thus uncovered the wound.</p> - -<p>"<i>She</i> did that for you? That kid of a girl?"</p> - -<p>"Yes, damn her," muttered Timber-Wolf angrily, as Billy Winch's -fingers, already scarlet, touched the wound. "Turned my back a second -... she ought to have shot me dead ... either a rotten shot or in an -awful hurry...."</p> - -<p>"Or scared to death!" Winch's contempt was enormous. "That's the kind -that does the most harm, the scared-stiffs that's always shooting the -wrong time and the wrong man."</p> - -<p>By now he had the shirts torn from top to bottom, and stood back, -looking appraisingly at the broad, naked back and the small hole which -a bullet had drilled. Against the great area of flesh, as white as a -girl's and smooth and clean with vigorous health, the smear of blood, -itself red with that same perfection of health, gave the wound an -appearance of ten times its real gravity. But Winch was accustomed to -blood, and knew that Bruce Standing could lose more of it than could -most men and be little the worse for the loss. He diagnosed the case -aloud, muttering thoughtfully:</p> - -<p>"Thirty-two caliber, to begin with; a thirty-two ain't nothing, Timber. -Now, if it had been a forty-five, at that close-up range.... Well, -you see you was standing half-way slanting; it took you under that -big shoulder muscle and drilled in and hit a rib, one of the high-up -ones, and kept on going, sort of skirting round, skating on a rib, and -popped out under your arm. Lift it a bit? That's it. A clean hole. I -tell you, either you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> sort of slipped and fell, or it was the impack -that knocked you over.... The boys will be here any minute, and will -scare up a bar of castile soap for me and something to make a regular -poultice, what we calls a comprest, you know; I can make one out of -most anything; remember Sam True's thoroughbred stallion that got all -cut to hell last fall, and I made him a comprest out of sawdust! You -remind me," added Winch thoughtfully, drawing off one of his hopping -paces, to take in with an admiring and practised eye the now virtually -nude torso, a white, smooth-running engine of power and endurance, -"of a wild stallion mostly as much as a man, anyhow. A good smear of -mustang liniment on that shoulder, a application, you know; and a dose -of physic and a couple days' rest and careful diet, and you'll be as -good as new...."</p> - -<p>"What happened in the other room?" demanded Standing, deaf to Winch's -mutterings. "After she went through the window?"</p> - -<p>"She came busting in where Deveril and I was, her eyes the size of two -new dish pans. I put in <i>new</i> because they was shining like it too; I -thought she'd seen the devil. She has a gun in her hand and she yells -out, 'Save me!' or something like that. And after her, doubled-up -running, comes Jim Taggart, yelling at her: 'I got you for killing -Bruce Standing!' And then that cool-headed, hot-hearted young Baby -Devil of yours grabs the gun out of her hand and whangs Taggart over -the head with it so that he drops dead in his tracks. And I hear a man -say he is dead, too; but I don't stop to see. Don't seem natural, and -yet a man's close to mortal danger if he gets whanged with any hard -object, such as steel gun-barrels, on the head, close up to the temple; -we call it the parrytal bone, you know, and I've known men and even -horses that was killed so quick...."</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p> - -<p>"Then what?" snapped Timber-Wolf.</p> - -<p>"Then both him and her beats it like the mill-tails of hell! And that -part's natural enough, him figuring he's killed the sheriff, and her -figuring she's plumb killed you. They stampeded into the brush, ducking -out toward the timber-lands where it was darkest, a bunch of hollering -fools after them."</p> - -<p>"And Jim Taggart?"</p> - -<p>The "boys" whose presence Billy Winch had requested came hurrying in -at the hall door, excitement and alarm shining in their eyes. One -glance reassured them, and while Dick Ross gave expression to his -relief in a windy sigh and sought hastily for materials to build him -a cigarette to replace that which he had dropped as he raced here, -Charley Peters stood and mopped at his forehead with an enormous dingy -blue handkerchief and grinned. Billy Winch, who had the trick of pithy -brevity when there was need of it, made his wants known sharply, and -the two men, their spurs still dragging and clanking after them, -hastened away for basin and soap and whatever else of Winch's first-aid -materials might be had at hand. In the meantime, Winch was yanking a -sheet off Lynette Brooke's bed, and ripping it into tatters for his -bandages and rags and what he termed "mops and applications."</p> - -<p>"It ain't necessary to probe for the bullet," he admitted, almost -regretfully. "But I might poke around in there a mite, while the -hole's good and wide open, to make sure that a piece of your shirt or -something didn't get lodged inside...."</p> - -<p>"I'll break your damned neck for trying it," threatened Standing.</p> - -<p>"Well," sighed Winch, "all I'll do then is just take a pack-needle and -put in a stitch or two. Remember when Dick Ross's horse...."</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p> - -<p>"You'll take some warm water and soap and wash me off," said Standing -emphatically. "Then you'll make me one of your infernal compresses out -of clean cloth; and after that you'll leave me alone.... Tell me about -my horse, old Sunlight. So Gallup had him killed for me?"</p> - -<p>"Somebody pretty near blowed his head off with buckshot," Billy Winch -told him, and again twinkling fires of anger flickered in the little -man's eyes. "If Gallup didn't have the job done, who did? I ask you!"</p> - -<p>Timber-Wolf stared at the wall. Within him, too, rose scorching anger, -that resurgent bitter flood which was not lessened now because in the -first place it had leaped upon him unexpectedly, and had thus been the -cause of his humiliation. But within him there was another emotion, one -of deep grief; for he loved a good horse, no man more. And Sunlight was -his pet and his trusted friend, and had been, for many a wilderness -week, his only companion.</p> - -<p>"You didn't leave him suffering any, Bill?" His voice sounded cold and -impersonal and matter-of-fact. Yet Billy Winch understood and answered -softly:</p> - -<p>"I stopped long enough to make sure, Timber. But I didn't have to shoot -him; he just rared his head up and looked at me straight in the eye, -as man to man, so help me God, and fell back ... dead. No; he didn't -suffer much."</p> - -<p>Bruce Standing was silent a long time, his eyes brooding, his brows -drawn after a fashion which Billy Winch could make nothing certain -of; anger and bitterness or a sign of his own bodily pain. They heard -spurred boots in the hall, returning. Then a quick look passed between -Timber-Wolf and Billy Winch, and Timber-Wolf said hastily, dropping his -voice and speaking with a peculiar softness:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p> - -<p>"When you get a chance, you take the boys and see that old Sunlight is -moved out of this skunk town; he's too fine a little horse to take his -last rest here. Out on a hilltop, somewhere; looking toward the east, -Bill. And a good, deep hole and ... leave the saddle and bridle on him, -Bill."</p> - -<p>"I get you," returned Winch gravely. And, by way of thoughtful -acknowledgment of the justice of this thing, for Billy Winch, too, -loved a horse, he muttered: "That's fair."</p> - -<p>With the return of Ross and Peters, Winch gave them their orders, as a -stern and dreaded head master might issue commands to a couple of his -boys, securing unfailing and immediate obedience. For the one job of -both Ross and Peters, and the one job which had been theirs for five -or six years, was to do what they were told by Billy Winch and ask no -questions, and look sharp that they did not seek to introduce any of -their own and original ideas into the carrying out of his behests. For -this they were paid by Timber-Wolf, who used them for many things, -consigning matters of vital importance into their hands by way of Billy -Winch's brains and tongue.</p> - -<p>"Stand ready to hand me things when I ask for them, Dick," said Winch. -He scrubbed his own hands with soap, and let Dick pitch the water from -the basin out the window. Dick obeyed promptly, adding nothing of his -own to the simple task beyond making sure that he pitched the whole -basinful far out; far enough, in fact, to give a thorough wetting to -one of the curious who had lingered outside, watching through the -lighted window. "You, Charley," ran on Winch, "go down to where old -Sunlight is, and stick there until me and Dick come out. His saddle and -bridle ain't to be took off, and you'll have to keep your eye peeled -some regular<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> Big Pine citizen don't snake 'em, for their silver, under -your eyes." Charley understood enough to do as he was told, and hurried -out. "Now, Dick, stand by with them rags and warm water."</p> - -<p>Winch went promptly to work, and, in his rough-and-ready fashion, did a -good clean job of bandaging a simple wound. A raw wound like that must -of necessity be intensely painful; yet Timber-Wolf's quiet and regular -breathing never altered once, and not so much as the breadth of a hair -did the muscular back flinch. They had just gotten the torn shirts -lapped over into place and the coat thrown over Standing's shoulders, -and his hat picked up from the floor for him, when a man walking -heavily came down the hall and stopped at the door, knocking sharply.</p> - -<p>"Who is it?" demanded Winch.</p> - -<p>"It's me, Taggart. Is Standing all right?"</p> - -<p>Bruce Standing himself, holding himself very erect, his head well up -and his eyes cold and hard, opened the door.</p> - -<p>"So the devil refused to take you, after all," he grumbled. "They had -it reported that Deveril had killed you. At that, it looks as though -he'd come close to doing a good job of it."</p> - -<p>For Jim Taggart's face, too, was white, and there was a broad band -about his head, stained in one spot near the left temple.</p> - -<p>"The same kind thought rides double," rejoined Taggart, with a sudden -flash of the eyes. "That wildcat of a girl came close to marking out -your ticket to hell."</p> - -<p>"Where is she now?" asked Standing eagerly. "Did they bring her back?"</p> - -<p>"Gone clean, for the present," answered Taggart. "If that fool of a -Babe Deveril hadn't butted in, just piling up trouble for himself, and -knocked me out while<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> I wasn't even looking at him, I'd of had her by -the heels. And now the two of 'em, two of a kind, if you ask me, are -off into the mountains together. And I'm starting after them in ten -minutes, and will drag 'em back before to-morrow night, just as sure as -you're a foot high."</p> - -<p>"What have you come to sling all this at me for?" snapped Standing.</p> - -<p>"I wanted to see if you was dead," returned Taggart coolly. "Now I just -pinch both of 'em for assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill. -If you'd of died, it would of been murder for her."</p> - -<p>"At least, I'm glad you blew in, Jim Taggart. There are two things it -might be just as well to get straight. First: When you and I, a dozen -years ago, were sidekicks, prospecting together, bunking together, -grubstaking each other, taking chances a lot of the time on a quick, -hard finish to the little old game of life, we had it understood that -if I died all of my belongings went to you; and if you cashed in first, -anything you had went to me."</p> - -<p>Taggart nodded and said swiftly:</p> - -<p>"My papers stand that way to this day! I never go back...."</p> - -<p>"The more fool you, then," jeered Standing. "I'm done with you, and my -papers are changed already...."</p> - -<p>"Already?" Taggart started visibly. "Since when?"</p> - -<p>"Since yesterday. Nothing I own, not so much as a wart on a log of -mine, ever goes your way."</p> - -<p>The bitterness in Taggart's soul overspilled into his voice as he cried -out savagely:</p> - -<p>"Sure, there you are! That's the way it goes. Now that your luck's been -running high and you don't need me, now that my luck's been dragging -bottom, why then you're ready to pitch me over...."</p> - -<p>"Liar!" Timber-Wolf cut him short with the word<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> which was like an -explosion. But he did not pause to discuss a point of view, but -continued immediately: "That's the first thing. Here's the second: -You've decided to run neck and neck with Young Gallup. So you can take -him a word from me. Tell him"—and Standing's voice, husky with his -emotions, made even Jim Taggart wonder what was coming—"that I came -into his skunk hole of a town to-night just because he had the nerve to -tell me not to. Tell him that I know that was his work that my horse -was killed just now. Tell it him that if I ever come into his skunk -hole once more in my life, it will be to pull his damned town down -about his ears."</p> - -<p>Taggart chose to break into contemptuous laughter. But Bruce Standing, -lost to all sense of his own pain, caught him angrily by the shoulder -and shouted into his ears:</p> - -<p>"And this, for the last word ever to be spoken between you and me, Jim -Taggart. That rake-hell Jezebel that shot me, <i>shot me and not you</i>! -Got that? I'm not asking you, sheriff or no sheriff, to chip in on my -affairs; I'll attend to the little hell-cat, and you keep your hands -off. And, as for Babe Deveril, since the cursed fool wants to show his -hand by cutting in with her and trying to snatch her out of my reach, -I'll attend to him at the same time. The likely thing is that they've -headed into the wilderness, my wilderness, and I'm going after them. -And you are to keep out of my way."</p> - -<p>With a violent shove he thrust Taggart out of his way and strode by -him, going swiftly down the hall, Dick Ross swinging along close behind -him and keeping a watchful eye upon Taggart, little Billy Winch hopping -along in the rear and spitting audacious venom at the sheriff with his -baneful eyes. In this order the three came out under the shining stars.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2> - -<p>Bruce Standing, a man of that strong, dominant, and self-centred -character which is prone to disregard the feelings of others, held -both Lynette Brooke and Babe Deveril his prey. But Jim Taggart, whose -professional business it appeared to be to bring in the girl, and -whose sore and aching head would not for many a day lose record of the -fact that it had been Babe Deveril who had forcibly put him out of the -running, had his own human purposes to serve, and set his nose to the -trail like a bloodhound. And yet, with these two bending every energy -to run them to earth, the two fugitives plunging headlong into the -friendly darkness were for the moment utterly lost to those who plunged -into the same darkness and in the same headlong style after them.</p> - -<p>Hand in hand, chance-caught, and running swiftly, Lynette and Deveril -were in time to escape the first of their pursuers, a crowd of men who -got in one another's way, and who were too lately from the lighted -room of the house to see clearly outside. Behind Gallup's House was -the little creek which supplied the town with its water; it wound here -across a tiny flat, an open space save for its big cottonwoods. The -two, knowing that in the first heat of the chase opening at their heels -they were running from death, sped like two winged shadows merged into -one. After a hundred yards they hurled themselves into breast-high -bushes, a thick tangle—a growth which, in such a mad rush as theirs, -was no less formidable than a rock wall. They cast quick glances -backward; a score of men—appearing, in their widely spread formation -and from their cries and the racket of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> scuffling boots, to be a -hundred—shut off all retreat and made hopeless any thought to turn to -right or left.</p> - -<p>"Down!" whispered Deveril. "Crawl for it! And quiet!"</p> - -<p>On hands and knees they crawled into the thicket. Already hands and -faces were scratched, but they did not feel the scratches; already -their clothes were torn in many places. In a wild scramble they went -on, squeezing through narrow spaces, lying flat, wriggling, getting to -hands and knees again. And all the while with nerves jumping at each -breaking of a twig. It was only the shouting voices and the pounding -boots behind them that drowned in their pursuers' ears the sounds they -made.</p> - -<p>"Still!" admonished Babe Deveril in a whisper.</p> - -<p>And very still they lay, side by side, panting, in the heart of the -thicket. A voice called out, not twenty paces behind them:</p> - -<p>"They're in there!" And another voice, louder than the first and more -insistent, they thanked their stars, boomed:</p> - -<p>"No, no! They skirted the brush, off to the left, beating it for the -open! After 'em, boys!" And still other voices shouted and, it would -seem, every man of them had glimpsed his own tricking shadow and had -his own wild opinion.</p> - -<p>Thus, for a brief enough moment, the pursuit was baffled.</p> - -<p>"Slow and quiet does it!" It was for the third time Babe Deveril's -whisper, his lips close to her hair. "I see an opening. Follow close."</p> - -<p>Lynette, still lying face down, lifted herself a little way upon her -two hands and looked after him.</p> - -<p>"String 'em up!" a voice was calling. It was like the voice of a devil -down in hell, full of mob malice. She<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> shivered. "They're murdering -devils. String 'em up!"</p> - -<p>"Catch 'em first, you fool," called another voice. Again pounding boots -and ... far more sinister sound ... snapping brush where a man was -breaking his way straight into the thicket.</p> - -<p>Like some grotesque, curiously shaped snake, Babe Deveril was writhing -along, ever deeper into the brush tangle, ahead of her. She began -crawling after him. Voices everywhere. And now dogs barking. A hundred -dogs, it seemed to her taut nerves. She knew dogs; she knew how they -went into a frenzy of excited joy when it was a question of a quarry, -any quarry; she knew the unfailing certainty of the dog's scent. She -began hurrying, struggling to get to her knees again....</p> - -<p>"Sh! Down!"</p> - -<p>She dropped down again and lay flat, scarce breathing. But once more -she saw the vague blot of Deveril's flat form wriggling on ahead of -her, almost gone now. It was so dark! She threw herself forward; she -threw her arm out and her hand brushed his boot. It was a wonderful -thing, to feel that boot. She was not alone. She began again following -him; dry, broken, and thorny twigs snared at her; they caught in her -clothes and in the laces of her boots; they tore at her skin. Yet this -time she was as silent a shadow as the shadow in front of her. On and -on and on, on endlessly through an eternity of darkness shot through -with dim star glimmerings, and pierced with horrible voices, she went. -She came out into an opening; she stood up. She was alone! And those -voices and the yelping of dogs and the scuffling of heavy, insensate, -merciless boots....</p> - -<p>A hard, sudden hand caught her by the wrist. She whipped back, a scream -shaping her lips. But in time she clapped a hand over her mouth. She -was not alone; this was Babe Deveril, standing upright ... waiting <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>for -her! She brought her hand down and clasped it, tight, over his hand.</p> - -<p>"Run for it again," he whispered. "Off that way ... to the right. If we -can once get among those trees...."</p> - -<p>Side by side, their hearts leaping, they ran. Gradually, but steadily, -the harsh noises grew fainter behind them. They gained the fringe of -trees; they splashed through the creek; they skirted a second tangle of -brush and rounded the crest of a hill. And steadily and swiftly now the -sounds of pursuit lessened behind them.</p> - -<p>"And now," muttered Deveril, for the first time forsaking his cautious -whisper, "if we use what brains God gave us, we are free of that hell -pack."</p> - -<p>"If they caught up with us?" she questioned him sharply.</p> - -<p>"Most likely we'd both be swinging from a cottonwood in ten minutes! -There's no sanity in that crowd; it's all mob spirit. If it is true -that both Bruce Standing and Jim Taggart are dead.... Well, then, -Lynette Brooke, this is no place for you and me to-night! Come on!..."</p> - -<p>"Babe Deveril," she returned, and now it was her fingers tightening -about his, "I'll never forget that you stood by me to-night!"</p> - -<p>Babe Deveril, being himself and no other, a man reckless and unafraid -and eminently gay, and, so God made him, full of lilting appreciation -of the fair daughters of Eve, felt even at this moment her touch, like -so much warm quicksilver trickling through him from head to foot. He -gave her, in answer, a hearty pressure of the hand and his low, guarded -laughter, saying lightly:</p> - -<p>"You interfere with the regular beating of a man's heart, Lynette -Brooke! But now you'll never remember to-night for any great measure -of hours, unless we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> step along. They'll hunt us all night. Come, -beautiful lady!"</p> - -<p>Even then she marvelled at him. He, like herself, was tense and on -the <i>qui vive</i>; yet she sensed his utter fearlessness. She knew that -if they caught him and put a rope about his neck and led him under a -cottonwood branch, he would pay them back to the last with his light, -ringing laughter.</p> - -<p>In this first wild rush they had had no time to think over what had -just happened; no time to cast ahead beyond each step deeper into -the night. Where they were going, what they were going to do—these -were issues to confront them later; now they were concerned with no -consideration other than haste and silence and each other's company. -To-night's section of destiny made of them, without any reasoning and -merely through an instinctive attraction, trail fellows. True, both -carried blurred pictures of what had occurred back there at the Gallup -House so few minutes ago, but these were but pictures, and as yet gave -rise to no logical speculation. As in a vision, she saw Timber-Wolf -sagging and falling as he strove to slew about; Deveril saw Taggart -rushing in at her heels, and then going down in a heap as a revolver -was flung in his face. Only dully at present were they concerned with -the query whether these two men were really dead. When one runs for his -life through the woods in a dark night, he has enough to do to avoid -limbs and tree trunks and keep on going.</p> - -<p>Big Pine occupied the heart of a little upland flat. In ten minutes -Lynette and Deveril had traversed the entire stretch of partially level -land, and felt the ground begin to pitch sharply under foot. Here was a -sudden steep slope leading down into a rugged ravine; their sensation -was that of plunging over the brink of some direful precipice, feeling -at every instant that they were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> about to go tumbling into an abyss. -They were forced to go more slowly, sliding on their heels, ploughing -through patches of soil, stumbling across flinty areas.</p> - -<p>"Down we go, as straight as we can," said Deveril. "And up on the other -side as straight as we can. Then we'll be in a bit of forest land where -the devil himself couldn't find us on a night like this.... How are you -standing the rough-stuff?"</p> - -<p>It was the first time that he had given any indication of realizing -that her girl's body might not be equal to the work which they were -taking upon them. Swiftly she made her answer, saying lightly, despite -her labored breathing:</p> - -<p>"Fine. This is nothing."</p> - -<p>"If I hadn't forgotten my hat ... among other things," he chuckled, -"I'd take it off to you right now, Lynette Brooke!"</p> - -<p>They paused and stood a moment in the gloom about the base of a big -boulder, listening. Now and then a man shouted; dogs still barked. But -the sounds were appreciably fainter, now that they had started down the -steeply pitching slope into the ravine.</p> - -<p>"We can get away from them to-night," she said. "But to-morrow, when it -is light?"</p> - -<p>"We'll see. For one thing, a chase like this always loses some of its -fine enthusiasm after the first spurt. For another, even if they did -pick us up to-morrow, they would have had time to cool off a bit; a mob -can't stay hot overnight. But give us a full night's head-start, and -I've a notion we've seen the last of them. Ready?"</p> - -<p>"Always ready!"</p> - -<p>Again they hurried on, straight down into the great cleft through the -mountains, swerving into brief détours only for upheaved piles of -boulders or for an occasional brushy tangle. In twenty minutes they -were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> down in the bed of the ravine, and splashing through a little -trickle of water; Lynette stooped and drank, while Deveril stood -listening; again, climbing now, they went on. The farther side of the -caņon was as steep as the one they had come down, and it was tedious -labor in the dark to make their way; at times they zigzagged one way -and another to lessen the sheerness of their path. And frequently now -they stopped and drank deep draughts of the clear mountain air.</p> - -<p>Silence shut down about them, ruffled only by the soft wind stirring -across the mountain ridges. It was not that they were so soon out -of ear-shot of Big Pine; rather, this sudden lull meant that their -pursuers, done with the first moments of blind excitement, were now -gathering their wits and thinking coolly ... and planning. They would -be taking to horseback soon; scouting this way and that, organizing -and throwing out their lines like a great net. By now some one man, -perhaps Young Gallup, had taken charge and was directing them. The two -fugitives, senses sharpened, understood, and again hastened on. They -had not won to any degree of security, and felt with quickened nerves -the full menace of this new, sinister silence.</p> - -<p>Onward and upward they labored, until at last they gained a less -steeply sloping timber belt, which stretched close under the peak of -the ridge. They walked more swiftly now; breathing was easier; there -were more and wider open spaces among the larger, more generously -spaced tree trunks.</p> - -<p>"We'll strike into the Buck Valley road in a minute now," said Deveril. -"Then we'll have easy going...."</p> - -<p>"And will leave tracks that they'll see in the morning!"</p> - -<p>"Of course. Any fool ought to have thought of that," he muttered, -ashamed that it had been she instead of himself who had foreseen the -danger.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p> - -<p>So they hearkened to the voice of caution and paralleled the road, -keeping a dozen or a score of paces to its side, and often tempted, -because of its comparative smoothness and the difficult brokenness of -the mountainside over which they elected to travel, to yield utterly to -its inviting voice. They turned back and glimpsed the twinkling lights -of Big Pine; they lost the lights as they forged on; they found them -again, grown fainter and fewer and farther away.</p> - -<p>"Can you go on walking this way all night?" he asked her once.</p> - -<p>"All night, if we have to," she told him simply.</p> - -<p>They tramped along in silence, their boots rising and falling -regularly. The first tenseness, since human nerves will remain taut -only so long, had passed. They had time for thought now, both before -and after. Mentally each was reviewing all that had occurred to-night -and, building theoretically upon those happenings, was casting forward -into the future. The present was a path of hazard, and surely the -future lay shut in by black shadows. Yet both of them were young, and -youth is the time of golden hopes, no matter how drearily embraced by -stony facts. And youth, in both of them, despite the difference of -sex, was of the same order: a time of wild blood; youth at its animal -best, lusty, vigorous, dauntless, devil-may-care; theirs the spirits -which leap, hearts glad and fearless. And when, after a while, now and -then they spoke again, there was youth playing up to youth in its own -inevitable fashion; confidence asserting itself and begetting more -confidence; youth wearing its outer cloakings with its own inimitable -swagger.</p> - -<p>They had trudged along the narrow mountain road for a full hour or more -when they heard the clattering noise of a horse's shod hoofs.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span></p> - -<p>"I knew it," said Deveril sharply. "Damn them."</p> - -<p>With one accord he and she withdrew hastily, slipping into the -convenient shadows thrown by a clump of trees, and peered forth through -a screen of high brush. The hurrying hoof beats came on, up-grade, -hence from the general direction of Big Pine. Two men, and riding neck -and neck, driving their horses hard. The riders drew on rapidly; were -for a fleeting moment vaguely outlined against a field of stars ... -swept on.</p> - -<p>They came with a rush, with a rush they were gone. But Deveril, who -since he was taller, had seen more clearly than Lynette across the -brush, turned back to her eagerly, wondering if she had seen what he -had—if she had noted that one of the men loomed unusually large in the -saddle, and how the smaller at his side rode lopsidedly. In all reason -Bruce Standing should be dead by now or, at the very least, bedridden. -But when did Timber-Wolf ever do what other men expected of him? If he -were alive and not badly hurt; if Lynette knew this, then what? Deveril -would tell her, or would not tell her, as circumstances should decide -for him.</p> - -<p>"Come on!" he cried sharply, certain that Lynette had not seen. "While -the night and the dark last. Let's hurry."</p> - -<p>On and on they went until the dragging hours seemed endless. They saw -the wheeling progress of the stars; they saw the pools of gloom in the -woods deepen and darken; they felt, like thick black padded velvet, -the silence grow deeper, until it seemed scarcely ruffled by the thin -passing of the night air. Thus they put many a weary, hard-won mile -between them and Big Pine. Hours of that monotonous lifting of boot -after boot, of stumbling and straightening and driving on; of pushing -through brush copses, of winding wearily among the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>bigger boles of -the forest, of sliding down steep places and climbing up others, with -always the lure of the more easy way of the road tempting and mocking.</p> - -<p>"We've got to find water again," said Deveril, out of a long silence. -"And we've got to dig ourselves in for a day of it. The dawn's coming."</p> - -<p>For already the eastern sky stood forth in contrast against west and -south and north, a palely glimmering sweep of emptiness charged with -the promise of another day. The girl, too tired for speech, agreed -with a weary nod. She could think of nothing now, neither of past nor -present nor future, save of water, a long, cool bathing of burning -mouth and throat, and after that, rest and sleep. Her whole being was -resolved into an aching desire for these two simple balms to jaded -nature. Water and then sleep. And let the coming day bring what it -chose.</p> - -<p>Long ago the mountain air, rare and sweet and clean, had grown cold, -but their bodies, warmed by exertion, were unaware of the chill. But -now, with fatigue working its will upon every laboring muscle, they -began to feel the cold. Lynette began shivering first; Deveril, when -they stopped a little while for one of their brief rests, began to -shiver with her.</p> - -<p>Water was not to be found at every step in these mountains; they -labored on another three or four miles before they found it. Then they -came to a singing brook which shot under a little log bridge, and there -they lay flat, side by side, and drank their fill.</p> - -<p>"And now, fair lady, to bed," said Deveril, looking at her curiously -and making nothing of her expression, since the starlight hid more -than it disclosed, and giving her as little glimpse of his own look. -"And when, I wonder, did you ever lay you down to sleep as you must -to-night?"</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p> - -<p>But he did see that she shivered. And yet, bravely enough, she answered -him, saying:</p> - -<p>"Beggars must not be choosers, fair sir; and methinks we should go -down on our knees and offer up our thanks to Our Lady that we live and -breathe and have the option of choosing our sleeping places this night."</p> - -<p>She had caught his cue, and her readiness threw him into a mood of -light laughter; he had drunk deep, and his youthful resilience buoyed -him up, and he found life, as always, a game far away and more than -worth the candle.</p> - -<p>"You say truly, my fair lady," he said in mock gravity. "'Tis better to -sleep among the bushes than dangling at the end of a brief stretch of -rope."</p> - -<p>But with all of their lightness of speech, which, after all, was but -the symbol of youth playing up to youth, the prospect was dreary -enough, and in their hearts there was little laughter. And the cold -bit at them with its icy teeth. A fire would have been more than -welcome, a thing to cheer as well as to warm; but a fire here, on the -mountainside, would have been a visible token of brainlessness; it -would throw its warmth five feet and its betraying light as many miles.</p> - -<p>So, in the cold and dark they chose their sleeping place. Into a tangle -of fragrant bushes, not twenty paces from the Buck Valley road, they -crawled on hands and knees, as they had crawled into that first thicket -when pursuit yelped at their heels. Here they came by chance upon a -spot where two big pine-trees, standing close together companionably, -upreared from the very heart of the brushy tangle. Lynette could -scarcely drag her tired body here, caught and retarded by every twig -that clutched at her clothing. For the first time in her vigorous life -she came to understand the meaning of that ancient expression, "tired -to death."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> She felt herself drooping into unconsciousness almost -before her body slumped down upon the earth, thinly covered in fallen -leaves.</p> - -<p>"I am sleepy," she murmured. "Almost dead for sleep...."</p> - -<p>"You wonderful girl...."</p> - -<p>"Sh! I can't talk any more. I can't think; I can't move; I can scarcely -breathe. Whether they find us in the morning or not ... it doesn't -matter to me now.... You have been good to me; be good to me still. And -... good-night, Babe Deveril ... Gentleman!"</p> - -<p>He saw her, dimly, nestle down, cuddling her cheek against her arm, -drawing up her knees a little, snuggling into the very arms of mother -earth, like a baby finding its warm place against its mother's breast. -He sat down and slowly made himself a cigarette, and forgot for a -long time to light it, lost in his thoughts as he stared at her and -listened to her quiet breathing. He knew the moment that she went to -sleep. And in his heart of hearts he marvelled at her and called her -"a dead-game little sport." She, of a beauty which he in all of his -light adventurings found incomparable, had ventured with him, a man -unknown to her, into the depths of these solitudes and had never, for -a second, evinced the least fear of him. True, danger drove; and yet -danger always lay in the hands of a man, her sex's truest friend and -greatest foe. In his hands reposed her security and her undoing. And -yet, knowing all this, as she must, she lay down and sighed and went -to sleep. And her last word, ingenuous and yet packed to the brim with -human understanding, still rang in his ears.</p> - -<p>"It's worth it," he decided, his eyes lingering with her gracefully -abandoned figure. "The whole damn thing, and may the devil whistle -through his fingers until<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> his fires burn cold! And she's mine, and -I'll make her mine and keep her mine until the world goes dead. And my -friend, Wilfred Deveril, if you've ever said anything in your life, -you've said it now!"</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2> - -<p>Glancing sunlight, striking at him through a nest of tumbled boulders -upon the ridge, woke Babe Deveril. He sat up sharply, stiff and cold -and confused, wondering briefly at finding himself here upon the -mountainside. Lynette was already sitting up, a huddling unit of -discomfort, her arms about her upgathered knees, her hair tousled, her -clothing torn, her eyes showing him that, though she had slept, she, -too, had awaked shivering and unrested. And yet, as he gathered his -wits, she was striving to smile.</p> - -<p>"Good morning to you, my friend."</p> - -<p>He got stiffly to his feet, stretching his arms up high above his head.</p> - -<p>"At least, we're alive yet. That's something, Lynette."</p> - -<p>"It's everything!" Emulating him she sprang up, scornfully disregarding -cramped body, her triumphant youth ignoring those little pains which -shot through her as pricking reminders of last night's endeavors. "To -live, to breathe, to be alive ... it's everything!"</p> - -<p>"When one thinks back upon the possibilities of last night," he -answered, "the reply is 'Yes.' Good morning, and here's hoping that you -had no end of sweet dreams."</p> - -<p>She looked at him curiously.</p> - -<p>"I did dream," she said. "Did you?"</p> - -<p>"No. When I slept, I slept hard. And your dreams?"</p> - -<p>"Were all of two men. Of you and another man, Timber-Wolf, you call -him—Bruce Standing. I heard him call you 'Baby Devil'! That got into -my dreams. I thought that we three...."</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p> - -<p>She broke off, and still her eyes, fathomless, mysterious, regarded him -strangely.</p> - -<p>"Well?" he demanded. "We three?"</p> - -<p>She shivered. And, knowing that he had seen, she exclaimed quickly:</p> - -<p>"That's because I'm cold! I'm near frozen. Can't we have a fire?"</p> - -<p>"But the dream?" he insisted.</p> - -<p>"Dreams are nothing by the time they're told," she answered swiftly. -"So why tell them? And the fire?"</p> - -<p>"No," he told her, suddenly stubborn, and resentful that he could not -have free entrance into her sleeping-life. "We went without it when we -needed it most; now the sun's up and we don't need it; since, above -everything, there's no breakfast to cook."</p> - -<p>"So you woke up hungry, too?"</p> - -<p>"Hungry? I was eating my supper when first you showed upon my horizon. -And, what with looking at you or trying to look at you, I let half of -my supper go by me! I'd give a hundred dollars right this minute for -coffee and bacon and eggs!"</p> - -<p>"You want a lot for a hundred dollars," she smiled back at him. Her -hands were already busy with her tumbled hair, for always was Lynette -purely feminine to her dainty finger-tips. "I'd give all of that just -for coffee alone."</p> - -<p>"Come," said Deveril, "Let's go. Are you ready?"</p> - -<p>"To move on? Somewhere, anywhere? And to search for breakfast? Yes; in -a minute."</p> - -<p>First, she worked her way back through the brush, down into the creek -bed, and for a little while, as she bathed her face and neck and arms, -and did the most that circumstances permitted at making her morning -toilet, she was lost to his following eyes. Slowly he rolled himself a -cigarette; that, with a man, may take<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> the place of breakfast, serving -to blunt the edge of a gnawing appetite. Long draughts of icy cold -water served her similarly. She stamped her feet and swung her arms and -twisted her body back and forth, striving to drive the cold out and get -her blood to leaping warmly. Then, before coming back to him, she stood -for a long time looking about her.</p> - -<p>All the wilderness world was waking; she saw the scampering flash of a -rabbit; the little fellow came to a dead halt in a grassy open space, -and sat up with drooping forepaws and erect ears; she could fancy his -twitching nose as he investigated the morning air to inform himself as -to what scents, pleasurable, friendly, inimical, lay upon it.</p> - -<p>"In case he is hungry, after nibbling about half the night," she mused, -"he knows just where to go for his breakfast."</p> - -<p>The rabbit flapped his long ears and went about his business, whatever -it may have been, popping into the thicket. There grew in a pretty -grove both willows and wild cherry; beyond them a tall scattering of -cottonwoods; on the rising slope scrub-pines and juniper. And while -she stood there, looking down, she heard some quail calling, and saw -half a dozen sparrows busily beginning office hours, as it were, going -about their day's affairs. And one and all of these little fellows knew -just what he was about, and where to turn to a satisfying menu. When, -returning to Deveril, she confided in him something of her findings, -which would go to indicate that man was a pretty inefficient creature -when stood alongside the creatures of the wild, Deveril retorted:</p> - -<p>"Let them eat their fill now; before night we'll be eating them!"</p> - -<p>"You haven't even a gun...."</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p> - -<p>"I could run a scared rabbit to death, I'm that starved! And now -suppose we get out of this."</p> - -<p>The sun was striking at the tops of the yellow pines on the distant -ridge; the light was filtering downward; shadows were thinning about -them and even in the ravine below. Walking stiffly, until their bodies -gradually grew warm with the exertion, and always keeping to the -thickest clump of trees or tallest patch of brush, they began to work -their way down into the caņon. The sun ran them a race, but theirs -was the victory; it was still half night in the great cleft among the -mountains when they slid down the last few feet and found more level -land underfoot, and the greensward of the wild-grass meadow fringing -the lower stream. The caņon creek went slithering by them, cold and -glassy-clear, whitening over the riffles, falling musically into the -pools, dimpling and ever ready to break into widening circles, a -smiling, happy stream. And in it, they knew, were trout. They stood for -a moment, catching breath after the steep descent, looking into it.</p> - -<p>"I wonder if you have a pin," said Deveril.</p> - -<p>She pondered the matter, struck immediately by the aptness of the -suggestion; he could see how she wrinkled her brows as she tried to -remember if possibly she had made use of a pin in getting dressed the -last time.</p> - -<p>"I've a hairpin or two left. I wonder if we could make that do?"</p> - -<p>"Just watch and see!" he exclaimed joyously.</p> - -<p>In putting her tumbled hair straight just now she had discovered two -pins, which, even when her hair had come down about her shoulders, had -happened to catch in a little snarl in the thick tresses; these she had -saved and used in making her morning toilet. Now she took her hair down -again and presented him with the two pins, gathering her hair up in two -thick, loose braids, while<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> with curious eyes he watched her; and as -curiously, the thing done, she watched him busy himself with the pins.</p> - -<p>A few paces farther on, creeping forward under the willow branches, -they came to a spot where the creek banks were clear of brush along a -narrow grassy strip, which, however, was screened from the mountainside -by a growth of taller trees. Here Deveril went to work on his -improvised fish-hook. One hairpin he put carefully into his pocket; the -other he bent rudely into the required shape, making an eye in one end -by looping and twisting. The other end, that intended for the hungry -mouth of a greedy trout, he regarded long and without enthusiasm.</p> - -<p>"Too blunt, to begin with; next, no barb, too smooth; and, finally, the -thing bends too easily. Hairpins should be made of steel!"</p> - -<p>But at least two of the defects could be simply remedied up to a -certain though not entirely satisfactory point. He squatted down and, -employing two hard stones, hammered gently at the malleable wire -until he flattened out the end of it into a thin blade with sharp, -jagged edges. Then, using his pocket-knife, he managed to cut several -little slots in this thin blade, so that there resulted a series of -roughnesses which were not unlike barbs; whereas he could put no great -faith in any one of them holding very securely, at least, taken all -together, they would tend toward keeping his hook, if once taken, from -slipping out so smoothly. He re-bent his pin and suddenly looked up at -her with a flashing grin.</p> - -<p>He robbed one of his boots of its string; he cut the first likely -willow wand. Without stirring from his spot he dug in the moist earth -and got his worm. And then, motioning her to be very still, he crept a -few feet farther along the brook, found a pool which pleased him, hid -behind a clump of bushes and gently lowered his baited<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> hook toward the -shadowy surface. And before the worm touched the water, a big trout saw -and leaped and struck ... and did a clean job of snatching the worm off -without having appeared to so much as touch the bent hairpin!</p> - -<p>Three quiet sounds came simultaneously: the splash of the falling -fish, a grunt from Deveril, a gasp from Lynette. Deveril, thinking she -was about to speak, glared at her in savage admonition for silence; -she understood and remained motionless. Slowly he crept back to the -spot where he had dug his worm, and scratched about until he had -two more. One of them went promptly to his hook, while he held the -other in reserve. Again he approached his pool, again he lowered his -bait about the bush. This time the offering barely touched the water -before the trout struck again. Now Deveril was ready for him, deftly -manœuvring his pole; his string tautened, his wallow bent, the fat, -glistening trout swung above the racing water.... Lynette was already -wondering how they were going to cook it!... There was again a splash, -and Deveril stood staring at a silly-looking hairpin, dangling at the -end of an absurd boot-lace. For now the hairpin failed to present the -vaguest resemblance to any kind of a hook; the trout's weight had been -more than sufficient to straighten it out so that the fish slipped off.</p> - -<p>Gradually, moving on noiseless feet, the girl withdrew; her last -glimpse of Deveril, before she slipped out of sight among the willows, -showed her his face, grim in its set purpose. He was trying the third -time, and she believed that he would stand there without moving all day -long, if necessary. In the meantime she was done with inactivity and -watching; doing nothing when there was much to be done irked her.</p> - -<p>Withdrawn far enough to make her certain that no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> chance sound made by -her would disturb his trout, she went on through the grove and across -little grassy open spaces flooring the caņon, making her way further -up-stream. When a hundred yards above him, she turned about a tangled -thicket and came upon the creek where it flashed through shallows. All -of her life she had lived in the mountains; as a little girl, many a -day had she followed a stream like this, bickering away down the most -tempting of wild places; and more than once, lying by a tiny clear -pool, had she caught in her hands one of the quick fishes, just to set -him in a little lakelet of her own construction, where she played with -him before letting him go again. To-day ... if she could catch her fish -first! While Deveril, man-like, taking all such responsibilities upon -his own shoulders, cursed silently and achieved nothing beyond loss of -bait and loss of temper!</p> - -<p>Up-stream, always keeping close to the merrily musical water, she made -her slow way until she found a likely spot. At the base of a tiny -waterfall was a big smooth rock; the water from above, glassily smooth -in its well-worn channel, struck upon the rock and was divided briefly -into two streams. One of them, the lesser, poured down into a small, -rock-rimmed pool; the other, deflected sharply, sped down another -course, to rejoin its fellow a few feet below the pool.</p> - -<p>It was to the pool itself, half shut off from the main current, that -Lynette gave her quickened attention. She crept closer, noiseless, -peeping over. A sudden dark gleam, the quick, nervous steering of a -trout rewarded her. She stood still, making a profound study of what -lay before her; in what the rock-edged pool aided and wherein it would -present difficulties. Scarcely more than a trickle of water poured out -at the lower side; she could hastily pile up a few stones there, and -so construct a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> wall insurmountable to the trout if minded to escape -down-stream. Then she looked to the far side, where the water slipped -in. She could lay a few broken limbs across the rock there and build up -a rampart of stones and turf upon it, and so deflect nearly all of the -incoming water. Both these things done, she could, if need be, bail the -pool out, and so come with certainty upon whatever fish had blundered -into it. She began to hope that she would find a dozen!</p> - -<p>Twice, standing upon the glassy rocks, she slipped; once she got -soaking wet to her knee; another time she saved herself from a thorough -drenching in the ice-cold stream only at the cost of plunging one arm -down into it, elbow-deep. She shivered but kept steadily on.</p> - -<p>She heard a bird among the bushes and started, thinking that here came -Deveril; she fancied him with a string of fish in his hand, laughing at -her. Impulsively she called to him.</p> - -<p>The close walls of the ravine shut in her voice; the thickets muffled -it; the splash and gurgle of the tumbling water drowned it out. She -stood very still, hushed; now suddenly the silence, the loneliness, -the bigness of the wilderness closed in about her. She looked about -fearfully, half expecting to see men spring out from behind every -boulder or tree trunk. She longed suddenly to see Babe Deveril coming -up along the creek to her. She was tempted to break into a run racing -back to him.</p> - -<p>She caught herself up short. All this was only a foolish flurry in -her breast, conjured up by that sudden realization of loneliness when -her quickened voice died away into the whispered hush of the still -solitudes. For an instant that feeling of being alone had overpowered -her, or threatened to do so; then her only thought had been of Babe -Deveril; she could have rushed fairly into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> his arms, so did her -emotions drive her. Now she found time to puzzle over herself; it -struck her now, for the first time, how she had fled unquestioningly -into this wilderness with a man. A man whom she did not even know. -That hasty headlong act of hers would seem to indicate a trust of a -sort. But did she actually trust Babe Deveril, with those keen, cutting -eyes of his and the way he had of looking at a girl, and the whole of -his reckless and dare-devil personality? Lynette Brooke had not lived -in a cave all of her brief span of life; nor had she grown into slim -girlhood and the full bud of her glorious youth without more than one -look into a mirror. Vapidly vain she was not; but clear-visioned she -was, and she knew and was glad for the vital, vivid beauty which was -hers and thanked God for it. And she glimpsed, if somewhat vaguely, -that to a man like Babe Deveril, taking life lightly, there was no -lure beyond that of red lips and sparkling eyes. How far could she be -sure of him? She went back with slow steps to her trout; she was glad -that Babe Deveril had not heard and come running to her just then. But -when Deveril did come, carrying two gleaming trout, she masked her -misgivings and lifted a laughing face toward his triumphant one.</p> - -<p>"We eat, Lynette!" he announced gaily.</p> - -<p>Suddenly his eyes warmed to the picture she made, paying swift tribute -to the tousled, flushed beauty of her. His glance left her face and ran -swiftly down her form; she felt suddenly as though her wet clothing -were plastered tight to her.</p> - -<p>"You can finish this," she told him swiftly, "if you want to take any -more fish."</p> - -<p>"But, look here! Where are you going? Breakfast...."</p> - -<p>Her teeth were beginning to chatter.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p> - -<p>"I'm going to try to get dry. You can start breakfast or...."</p> - -<p>She fled, and called herself a fool for growing scarlet, as she knew -that she did; as though two burning rays had been directed full upon -her back, she could feel his look as she ran from him; she could not -quickly enough vanish from his keen eyes, beyond the thicket. And how -on earth she was going to get dry again until the sun stood high in the -sky, she did not in the least know. She could wring out the free water; -she could make flails of her arms and run up and down until she got -warm.... If only she had a fire; but that would be foolhardy, the smoke -arising to stand a signal for miles of their whereabouts....</p> - -<p>And until this moment she had not thought of how they were to convert -freshly caught fish into an edible breakfast! How, without fire? She -began to shiver again, from head to foot now, and, confronted by her -own problem, that of getting warm and dry, she was content to leave all -other solutions to Deveril.</p> - -<p>When half an hour later she returned to him, she found him smoking a -cigarette and crouching over a bed of dying coals, whereon certain -tempting morsels lay; Deveril was turning them this way and that; with -the savory odor of the grilling fish there arose from the embers a -whiff of the green sage-leaves which he had plucked at the slope of -the caņon and laid first on his bed of coals. Crisp mountain-trout, -garnished with sage! And plenty of clear, cold, sparkling water to -drink thereafter! Truly a morning repast for king and queen.</p> - -<p>"I hope they keep us on the run for a month!" Deveril greeted her. "I -haven't had this much fun for a dozen years!"</p> - -<p>"But your fire?" she asked anxiously. "Aren't you afraid? The smoke?"</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p> - -<p>"Where there's smoke, there's always fire," he told her lightly. "But -when a man's on the dodge, as we are, he can have a fire that gives out -almighty little smoke! It's all bone-dry wood, with only the handful -of sage and a few crisscross willow sticks. Look up, and see how much -smoke you can see!"</p> - -<p>He had built his small blaze, ringed about by some rocks, in the heart -of a small grove of trees which stood forty or fifty feet high; he had -got his fire burning with strong, clean flames, from a handful of dry -leaves and twigs; Lynette, looking up, could make out only the faintest -bluish-gray wisp of smoke against the gray-green of the leaves. She -understood; always it was inevitable that they must accept whatever -chances the moment brought them, yet it was not at all likely that -their faint plume of smoke, vanishing among the treetops, would ever -draw the glance of any human eye other than their own.</p> - -<p>"I'll tell you ..." began Deveril, and broke short off there, as -she and he, alert and tense once more, reminded that they were -fugitives, listened to a sudden sound disturbing their silence. A sound -unmistakable—a man at no great distance from them, but, fortunately, -upon the farther side of the stream, and thus beyond the double screen -of willows, was breaking his way through the brush. Both Deveril and -Lynette crouched low, peering through the bushes. They could only -make out that the man was coming up-stream. Once they caught a vague, -blurred glimpse of his legs, faded overalls and ragged boots. Then -they lost him entirely. They knew when he stopped and both waited -breathlessly to know if he had come upon some sign of their own trail. -But once more he went on, but now in such silence, as he crossed a -little open spot, that they could scarcely make out a sound. Had it -not been for the willows <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>intervening, they could then have answered -their own question, "Who is it?"—a question just now of supreme -importance, of the importance of life and death. They lay lower; they -strove as never before to catch some glimpse that would tell them what -they wanted to know. The man stopped again; again went on. There was -something guarded about his movements; they felt that he must have -seen their tracks, that he was seeking in a roundabout way to come -unexpectedly upon them. And then, because there was a narrow natural -avenue through the brush, they were given one clear, though fleeting -glimpse, of him ... of his face—a face as tense and watchful as their -own had been ... the face of Mexicali Joe.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2> - -<p>A glimpse, scarcely more it was, had been given them of Mexicali Joe's -face. And at a considerable distance, at least for the reading of a -man's look. But yet they marked how the face was haggard and drawn and -furtive. Joe had no inkling of their presence. He had not seen their -wisp of smoke; there was no wind setting toward him to carry him the -smell of cooking trout. Plainly he had no desire for company other -than his own. He, no less than they, fled from all pursuit. Again he -was lost to them; he vanished, gone up-stream, beyond the thickets, -no faintest sound of his footfalls coming back to them. From him they -turned to each other, the same expression from the same flooding -thought in their eyes.</p> - -<p>"We're on the jump and we'll keep on the jump!" said Deveril softly. -"And at the same time, Lynette Brooke, we'll stick as close as the -Lord'll let us to Mexicali Joe's coat-tails! Don't you worry; he'll -go back as sure as shooting to his gold-mine, if only to make certain -that no one else has squatted on it. And where he drives a stake, we'll -drive ours right alongside!"</p> - -<p>"It's funny ... that he hasn't gotten any further ... that he should -come this way, too...."</p> - -<p>"No telling how long he had to lie still while the pack yelped about -his hiding-place; that he came this way means only one thing. And that -is that our luck is with us, and we're headed as straight as he is -toward his prospect hole. Ready? Let's follow him!"</p> - -<p>She jumped up. But before they started they gathered up, to the last -small bit, what was left of their fish;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> Deveril made the small bundle, -fish enwrapped in leaves, with a handkerchief about the whole.</p> - -<p>"If he should hear us?" she whispered. "If he should lie in waiting and -see us?"</p> - -<p>He chuckled.</p> - -<p>"In any case, we'll have it on him! He can't know that we're on the -run, too; he got away too fast for that. And even if he should know, -what would he do about it? He has no love for Taggart, anyway; and he -has no wish to get himself into the hands of that mob that he has just -ducked away from, like a rabbit dodging a pack of hounds. If he catches -us ... why, then, we catch him at the same time! Come on."</p> - -<p>Thus began the second lap of their journey; thus they, fleeing, -followed like shadows upon the traces of one who fled. For Mexicali -Joe would obviously keep to the bed of the caņon; if he forsook -it in order to climb up either slope to a ridge above, he must of -necessity pass through the more sparsely timbered spaces, where he -would run constantly into danger of being seen. The only danger to -their plans lay with the possibility that he might overhear sounds of -their following and might draw a little to one side and hide in some -dense copse, and so let them go by. But they had the advantage from -the beginning; they knew he was ahead, and he did not know that they -followed; so long as they, listening always, did not hear him ahead, -there was little danger of him hearing them coming after him. With -all the noise of the water, tumbling over falls and splashing along -over rocks, singing cheerily to itself at every step, there was small -likelihood of any one of the three cautious footfalls being heard....</p> - -<p>There were the times, so intent were they following the Mexican, when -they forgot what was after all the main issue; forgot that they, too, -were followed. For the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> newer phase of the game was more zestful just -now than the other; they had neither glimpsed nor heard anything since -the passing of the two riders last night to hint that any danger of -discovery threatened them. They spoke seldom, only now and then, -pausing briefly, in lowered voices, as the speculations which had -been occupying both minds, demanded expression. Thus they were always -confronted by some new problem; at first, and for a mile or more, they -had full confidence that they had Joe straight ahead of them. But -presently they approached a fork of the caņon; it became imperative to -know if Joe had gone up the right or the left ravine. And here, where -most they wanted a glimpse of him, they had scant hope of seeing him, -so dense was the timber growth; he would keep close to the bed of the -stream, at times walking in the water so that the network of branches -from the brushy tangle on both banks would make for him a dim alleyway, -like a tunnel. They could not hope to hear him; they could not count -on finding his tracks, since none would be left upon the rocks and the -rushing water held none.</p> - -<p>But they were alert, ears critical of the slightest rustling, eyes -never keener. And, their good fortune holding firm, when they came to -the forking of the ways, that which they had not hoped for, a track -upon a hard rock, set them right. For here Joe, but a few score yards -ahead of them, had slipped, and had crawled up over a boulder, and -there was still the wet trace of his passing, a sign to vanish, drying, -while they looked on it. Joe had gone on into the deeper caņon, headed -in the direction which last night they had elected for their own, -driving on toward the heart of the wilderness country.</p> - -<p>They were no less relieved at finding what was the man's likely general -direction than at making sure that they were still almost at his heels. -For they had come<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> to realize that, to explain Joe's presence here, -there were two directly opposing possibilities to consider: It was -imaginable that Joe would be making straight for his gold; and it was -just as reasonable that his craft might have suggested to him to head -in an opposite direction. Now that they might follow him and still be -going direct upon their own business, they were for the moment content -upon all points.</p> - -<p>Deveril, for the most part, went ahead; now and then he paused a -moment for the girl to come up with him. But never did he have to wait -long. He began to wonder at her; they had covered many hard miles last -night; more hard miles this morning. How long, he asked himself, as his -eyes sought to read hers, could such a slender, altogether feminine, -blush-pink girl stand up under such relentless hardship as this flight -promised to give them? And always he went on again, reassured and -admiring; her eyes remained clear, her regard straight and cool. A girl -unafraid; the true daughter of dauntless, hot-blooded parents.</p> - -<p>And she, watching his tall, always graceful form leading the way, found -ample time to wonder about him. She had seen him last night burst in -through a window and take the time coolly, though already the hue and -cry was breaking at his contemptuous heels, to rifle a man's pockets. -There was an indelible picture: the debonair Babe Deveril, who had -stepped unquestioningly into her fight, going down on his knees before -his fallen kinsman ... calmly bent upon robbery. For she had seen the -bank-notes in his hand.</p> - -<p>The sun rose high and crested all the ridges with glorious light, -and poured its golden warmth down into the steep caņons. But, now -that shadows began to shrink and the little open spaces lay revealed -in detail, fresh labor was added in that they were steadily harder<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> -driven to keep to cover; all day long, at intervals, they were to have -glimpses of the Buck Valley road, high above upon the mountain flank, -and at each view of the road they understood that a man up there might -have caught a glimpse of them. Ten o'clock came and found them doggedly -following along the way which they held the viewless Mexicali Joe must -have taken before them. They paused and stooped to the invitation of -the creek, and thereafter ate what was left them of their grilled -trout. Having eaten, they drank again; and having drunk, they again -took up the trail....</p> - -<p>"If you can stand the pace?" queried Deveril over his shoulder. And -she read in the gleam in his eyes that he was set on seeing this thing -through; on sticking close to Mexicali Joe until he came, with Joe, -upon his secret.</p> - -<p>"Why, of course!" she told him lightly, though already her body ached.</p> - -<p>It was not over an hour later when they set their feet in a trail -which they were confident Mexicali Joe had followed; from the moment -they stepped into the trail they watched for some trace of him, but -the hard, rain-washed, rocky way which only a mountaineer could have -recognized as a trail, was such as to hold scant sign, if the one who -travelled it but exercised precaution. Babe Deveril, with his small -knowledge of these mountains, held it the old short-cut trail from -Timkin's Bar, long disused, since Timkin's Bar itself had a score of -years ago died the death of short-lived mining towns. Brush grew over -it, and again and again it vanished underfoot, and they were hard beset -to grope forward to it again. Yet trail of a sort it was, and it set -them to meditating: Timkin's Bar, in the late '80's, had created a gold -furor, and then, after its short and hectic life, had been abandoned, -as an orange, sucked dry by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> a child, is thrown aside. Was it possible -that among the old diggings Mexicali Joe had stumbled upon a vein which -the old-timers had overlooked?</p> - -<p>At any rate, the trail lured them along, winding in their own general -direction; and Mexicali Joe still fled ahead. Of this latter fact they -had evidence when they came to the unmistakable sign ... to watchful -eyes ... of his recent passing: here, on the steep, ill-defined trail -he had slipped, and had caught at the branches of a wild cherry. They -saw the furrow made by his boot-heel and the scattered leaves and -broken twigs.</p> - -<p>Gradually the trail led them up out of the caņon-bed, snaking along -the flank of the mountain. And gradually they were entering the great -forest land of yellow pines. If not already in Timber-Wolf's country, -here was the border-line of his monster holdings: few men could draw -the line exactly between the wide-reaching acres which were his and -those contiguous acres which were a portion of the government reserve. -Standing himself had quarrelled with the government upon the matter and -what was more, after no end of litigation, had won a point or two.</p> - -<p>Once they diverged from the trail to climb and slide to the bottom of -the caņon for a long drink. But this and the sheer ascent took them in -their hurry only a few minutes. Again they took up the trail. It was -high noon and they were tired. But, alike disdainful of fatigue, driven -and lured, they pressed on.</p> - -<p>Suddenly she startled him by catching him by the arm and whispering -warningly:</p> - -<p>"Sh! Some one is following us!"</p> - -<p>In another moment, drawing back from the trail, they were hidden among -the wild cherries in a little side ravine.</p> - -<p>"Where?" he demanded, his voice hushed like hers,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> as he peered back -along the way they had come. "Who? How many of them?"</p> - -<p>"I didn't see," she answered.</p> - -<p>"What did you hear?"</p> - -<p>"Nothing ... I just know ... I <i>felt</i> that some one was trailing us -just as we are trailing Mexicali Joe! I feel it now; I know!"</p> - -<p>"But you had something—something that you saw or heard—to tell you?"</p> - -<p>She shook her head. And he saw, wondering at her, that she was very -deeply in earnest as she admitted:</p> - -<p>"No. Nothing! But I know. I tell you, I know. Can't you feel that there -is some one back there, following us, spying on us, hiding and yet -dogging every step we take? Can't you <i>feel</i> it?"</p> - -<p>She saw him shaken with silent laughter. She understood that he, a -man, was convulsed with laughter at the imaginings of her, a maid. -And yet, also, since she was quick-minded, she noted how his laughter -was <i>silent</i>! He meant her to see that he put no credence in her -suspicions; and yet, for all that, he was impressed, and he did take -care that no one, who <i>might</i> follow them, should overhear him!</p> - -<p>"One doesn't feel things like that," he told her, as though positive. -But in the telling he kept his voice low, so that it was scarcely -louder than her own whisper.</p> - -<p>"One does," she retorted. "And you know it, Babe Deveril!"</p> - -<p>"But," he challenged her, "were you right, and were there a man or -several men back there tracking us, why all this caution on their -parts? What would they be waiting for, being armed themselves and -knowing us unarmed? What better place than this to take us in? Why give -us a minute's chance to slip away in the brush?"</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p> - -<p>"I don't know." She shrugged, and again he marvelled at her; she looked -like one who had little vital concern in what any others, pursuing, -might or might not do.</p> - -<p>Despite his cool determination to adhere to calm reason and to discount -feminine impressionism, which he held to be fostered by a nervous -condition brought about by overexertion, Babe Deveril began to feel, -as she felt, that there was something more than imagination in her -contention. How does a man sense things which no one of his five senses -can explain to him? He could not see any reason in this abrupt change -in both their moods; and yet, none the less, it seemed to him, all of a -sudden, as though eyes were spying on him from behind every pine trunk, -and from the screen of every thicket.</p> - -<p>"Joe won't escape us in a hurry," he muttered. "Not in this caņon. And -we'll see this thing through. Let's sit tight and watch."</p> - -<p>And so, with that inexplicable sense that here in the wilderness they -were not yet free from pursuit, they crouched in the bushes and bent -every force of every sense to detect their fancied pursuers. But the -forest land, sun-smitten, a playland of light and shadow and tremulous -breeze, lay steeped in quiet about them, and they saw nothing moving -save the gently stirring leaves and occasional birds; half a dozen -sparrows briefly stayed their flight upon a shrub in flower with -pale-pink blossoms; a bevy of quail, forty strong, marched away through -the narrow roadways under the low, drooping branches, with crested -topknots bobbing; the forest land murmured and whispered and sang -softly, and seemed empty of any other human presence than their own. -And yet they waited, and at the end of their waiting, grown nervous -despite themselves, though they had had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> no slightest evidence that -pursuit was drawing close upon their heels, they were not able to shake -from them that <i>feeling</i> that danger, the danger from which they fled, -was become a near-drawn menace. And all the more to be feared in that -it approached so silently, covertly, hidden and ready to strike when -their guard was down.</p> - -<p>"Just the same," said Deveril, deep in his own musings, "it can't be -Jim Taggart, for that's not Taggart's way, having the goods on a man, -and, besides, I fancy I put him out of the running." Then he looked at -her curiously, and added: "And it can't be Bruce Standing, since you -put him down and out and...."</p> - -<p>It was the first time that such a reference to the past had been made. -Now she startled him by the quick vehemence of her denial, saying:</p> - -<p>"I didn't shoot Bruce Standing! I tell you...."</p> - -<p>He looked at her steadily, and she broke off, as she saw dawning in his -eyes a look which was to be read as readily as were white stones to be -glimpsed in the bottom of a clear pool. She had made her statement, -and, whether true or false, he held it to be a lie.</p> - -<p>"In case they should somehow lay us by the heels," he said dryly, "you -would come a lot closer to clearing yourself by saying that you shot -him in self-defense than in denying everything. But they haven't got -their ropes over our running horns yet!... Do you still feel that we -are followed?"</p> - -<p>His look angered her; his words angered her still further. So to his -question she made no reply. He looked at her again curiously. She -refused to meet his eyes, coolly ignoring him. A little smile twitched -at his lips.</p> - -<p>"It's a poor time for good friends to fall out," he said lightly. -"I don't care the snap of my fingers who shot him, or why. He ought -to have been shot a dozen years<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> ago. And now I'll tell you what, I -think, explains this business of some one being close behind us, if -you are right in it. The big chance is that some one has been trailing -Mexicali Joe all along; and dropped in behind us when we dropped in -behind Joe. We've been doing a first-class job of sticking to cover; -mind you, we haven't caught a second glimpse of Joe all this time, and -therefore it is as likely as not that the gent whom you <i>feel</i> to be -trailing us hasn't caught a glimpse of us. If this is right, we've got -a bully chance right now to prove it. We lie close where we are for ten -minutes, and see if your hombre doesn't slip on by us, nosing along -after Joe."</p> - -<p>In silence she acquiesced. That sense of the nearness of another unseen -human being was insistent upon her. For a long time, as still as the -deep-rooted trees about them, they crouched, listening, watching. She -heard the watch ticking in Babe Deveril's pocket. She heard her own -breathing and his. She heard the brownie birds threshing among dead -leaves. Then there was the eternal whispering of the pines and the -faint murmurings from the stream far down in the caņon. At last it -would have been a relief to straining nerves if a man, or two or three -men, had stepped into sight in the trail from which she and Deveril -had withdrawn. For more certain than ever was Lynette Brooke, though -she could give neither rhyme nor reason for that certainty, that her -instincts had not tricked her. Therefore, instead of being reassured -at seeing or hearing no one, she was depressed and made anxious; -the silence became sinister, filled with vague threat; that she saw -no one was explicable to her by but the one ominous condition: that -person or those persons were watching even now, and knew where she and -Babe Deveril hid, and did not mean to stir until first their quarry -stirred.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> Why all this caution? She could not explain that to herself; -if some one followed, why should that some one hide? Why not step out -with gun levelled, and put an end to this grim game of hide-and-seek.</p> - -<p>"You see," whispered Deveril, "there is no one behind us."</p> - -<p>They had not moved for a full twenty minutes, and by now he began to -convict her of nervous imaginings, fancies of an overwrought girl. But -she answered him, saying with unshaken certainty:</p> - -<p>"I tell you, I know! Some one has been following us, and now is hiding -and waiting for us to go on."</p> - -<p>"Well, you are right or wrong, and in either case I don't fancy this -job of sitting so tight I feel as though I were growing roots. If you -should happen to be right, we'll know in time, I suppose. Let's go!"</p> - -<p>To her, in her present mood, anything was better than inaction. They -left their hiding-place, found a silent and hidden way a bit farther -down the slope, went forward a hundred yards and stepped back into the -faint trail. Their concern, each said inwardly, was to forge on and -to follow Joe; thus they pretended within themselves to ignore that -nebulous warning that they, like Joe, were followed.</p> - -<p>And so the day wore on, a day made up of uncertainty and vague threat. -How full the silent forest lands were of little sounds! For therein -lies the greatest of all forest-land mysteries; that silence in the -solitudes may be made audible. Uncertainty struck the key-note of their -long day. They sought to follow Mexicali Joe; they did not see him, -they did not hear him, they did not know where he was. Was he still -ahead of them, hastening on? How far ahead? A mile by now, not having -paused while they lost time? A hundred yards? Or had he turned aside? -Or had he thrown himself<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> down flat somewhere, watching them go by? Was -he following them, or had he struck out east or west, while they went -on north? And was there some one following them? One man? Two? More? Or -none at all? Uncertainty. And as they grew tired and hungry, the great -silence oppressed them, and most of all this uncertainty of all things -began to bite in upon their nerves as acid eats into glass, etching its -own sign.</p> - -<p>"I'm getting jumpy," muttered Deveril, glaring at her, his eyes looking -savage and stern. "This nonsense of yours...."</p> - -<p>"It's not nonsense!"</p> - -<p>"Anyway, it's getting on my nerves! There's no sense in this sort of -thing. We're scaring ourselves like two kids in the dark. What's more, -we are allowing a pace-setter to get us to going too hard and steady a -clip; we'll be done in, the first thing we know. And we've got to begin -figuring on where the next meal comes from. What I mean is, that we've -got enough to do without wasting any more nerve force on what may or -may not follow after us."</p> - -<p>"Joe is still ahead of us," she reminded him; "or, at any rate, we -think that he is. He left last night in as big a hurry as we did; and -he, too, came away without gun and fishing-tackle, and didn't stop to -get Young Gallup to put him up a lunch. Then, on top of all that, Joe -knows this country better than we do."</p> - -<p>"I get you!" he told her quickly. "Joe's as ready for food and lodging -as we are, and Joe, unless we're wrong all along, is hiking ahead of -us. Who knows but we'll invite ourselves to dine with Seņor Joe before -the day's done!... Is that it?"</p> - -<p>"I don't know how it may work out.... I hadn't gotten that far yet.... -But if Joe is headed toward his secret, and if he does have a provision -cache <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>somewhere in the mountains ... a few items in tinned goods and, -maybe, even coffee and sugar and canned milk...."</p> - -<p>"Let's go!" broke in Deveril, half in laughter and half in eagerness. -"You make my mouth water with your surmisings."</p> - -<p>Here in these steep-walled narrow gorges the shadows lengthened -swiftly after the sun had passed the zenith, and already, when now and -then they looked searchingly at what lay ahead, it was difficult to -distinguish the shadows from the substance. They must come close to Joe -if they meant to see him, and, by the same token, if a man followed -them, he was confronted by the same difficulty. So they hurried on, -walking more freely, keeping in the trail, climbing at times along the -ridge flank, frequently dipping down into the lower caņon. Babe Deveril -cut himself a green cudgel from a scrub-oak, trimming off the twigs as -he walked on. If it came to argument with Mexicali Joe, a club like -that might bring persuasion. And he fully meant that the Mexican should -show himself generous, even to the division of a last crust. Always -buoyed up by optimism, he was counting strongly on Joe's provision -cache.</p> - -<p>When they dropped down into the caņon again, they saw the first star. -Lynette looked up at it; it trembled in its field of deep blue. She -was faint, almost dizzy; her muscles ached; fatigue bore hard upon -her spirit; she was footsore. But, most of all, like Deveril before -her, she was concerned with imaginings of supper. She pictured bacon -and a tin of tomatoes and shoe-string potatoes sizzling in the bacon -grease ... and coffee. Whether with milk or sugar, or without both, no -longer mattered. Then she sighed wearily, and had no other physical -nor mental occupation than that which had to do with the putting of -one foot before the other, plodding on and on and on. And all the -while the shadows<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> deepened and thickened in the caņons, and the stars -multiplied, and the little evening breeze sharpened; she began to -shiver.</p> - -<p>She could mark no trail underfoot; always Deveril, before her, was -breaking through a tangle, always at his heels, she kept his form in -sight; but she began to think that he had lost the way, and a new fear -gripped her. Instead of dining with Joe, they were losing him, and now, -with the utter dark already on the way, they would see no sign of him. -And in the dark they would not be able to snare a trout or anything -else that might be eaten. She got into the habit of breaking off twigs -and chewing at them....</p> - -<p>And all the while Deveril was rushing on, faster and faster. It was -hard work keeping up with him.</p> - -<p>"We've got him! Stay with it, Lynette; we've got him!"</p> - -<p>It was Deveril's whisper, sharp and eager; there was Deveril himself -just ahead of her, pausing briefly.</p> - -<p>"Come on. As fast and as quiet as you can."</p> - -<p>Her heart leaped up; her life fires burned bright and warm again; the -pain went out of her. She began to run....</p> - -<p>"Sh! Look! Off to the left in that little clearing."</p> - -<p>On the mountain slope just ahead of them she marked the clearing and, -since there, too, the shadows were darkening, she saw nothing else. She -wondered what he saw or thought that he saw. He pointed, and she, with -straining eyes, made out a shadow which moved; Joe, going up a steep, -open trail. And just ahead of Joe a dark, square-cornered blot....</p> - -<p>"A house ... a cabin...."</p> - -<p>"A dirty dugout, most likely, and from the look of it. But, as sure -as you're born, there's Mexicali Joe's mountain headquarters. A clump -of bushes, willows,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> you can be sure, not ten feet from his door; -that will be his spring. And inside his shack ... a box of grub, Lady -Lynette! And if Joe doesn't have company for dinner, I'll eat your hat."</p> - -<p>"I haven't any," said Lynette. "But we'd probably have to eat our own -shoes. Come on; let's hurry.... What are you waiting for?"</p> - -<p>"I want to whet my appetite by loitering a while.... Listen, Lynette; -after all, there's no great hurry any longer. First thing, a hot supper -is what is needed, and Joe can make as good a fire as we can. You can -gamble that he won't waste any time, and that he'll cook a panful!"</p> - -<p>"He might have only one panful ... and he might start in on it cold...."</p> - -<p>"And if he has only that limited amount and it belongs to him and he -wants it, you don't mean to say that you would seek to take it away -from him? That's robbery...."</p> - -<p>"We'll play square with him, Babe Deveril, and give him exactly -one-third. And man may call it robbery, but God and nature won't. -Come...."</p> - -<p>"I'll come with you a few steps farther. And then we will possess our -souls in patience and will sit down among the bushes and will wait -until we smell coffee. And I'll tell you why."</p> - -<p>She looked at him, wondering. And then suddenly she guessed somewhat of -his thought, though not all of it. She had forgotten her own certainty -that some one followed them; it surged back upon her now.</p> - -<p>"Yes," he said, when she had spoken, "you're on the right track. We are -going to wait a few minutes to make sure. If some one was following -and wanted you and me, he could have had no object in hanging back, -spying on us. But if that same gent were following Mexicali Joe, he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> -would want to hang back, trusting to Joe to lead him to something worth -coming at. So, out of your <i>feeling</i> I've built my theory: That this -gent thinks all the time he's trailing Joe, and doesn't know we are -here at all; tracks in the rocky trail wouldn't show him whether one or -a dozen had gone over it. And I get to this point: How did this gent -pick up Joe's trail in the dark? And I answer it by saying that he -could have known that Joe had a dugout up here, and so lay in wait for -him. And, that being true, by now he would be sure that Joe was going -straight to his camp, and so, at almost any moment, he would give up -his sneak-thief style of travelling and would come hurrying along. And, -if that's right, you and I can get a glimpse of this new hombre before -he does of us. It may come in handy, you know," he concluded dryly, -"to get the first swing at him if he's an ugly gent with a rifle. At -short range, and in the dark, and stepping lively, this club of mine is -way up. And, if we can take his rifle from him ... why, then into the -wilderness we go, without fear of starving. Which is a long speech for -the end of a perfect day, but I'm right!"</p> - -<p>So insistent was he and so utterly weary she, they drew a few lagging -steps out of the trail, and sank down in the shadows. She lay flat; -she saw the stars swimming in the deepening purple; her eyes closed; -she felt two big tears of exhaustion slip out between the closed lids. -There was a faint drumming in her ears; she no longer cared for food.</p> - -<p>... "Get up!" Deveril was saying curtly. "I guess we're both wrong. And -I'm going to eat, if the devil drops in to join us."</p> - -<p>She didn't think she had been asleep. Nor yet that she had fallen prey -to swift, all-engulfing unconsciousness. Only that she had been in a -mood of utter <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>indifference to all earthly matters. She tried, when he -commanded the second time, to rise. He helped her. She sat up.... She -saw a little sprinkling of sparks tossed upward from Joe's chimney; -stars at first she thought them—stars wavering and blurred and -uncertain.</p> - -<p>"We've waited long enough," said Deveril.</p> - -<p>She rose wearily, making no answer. He went ahead, she followed. Her -whole body cried out for rest; this brief, altogether too brief, -lingering had stiffened her and made her sore from head to foot. She -saw that Deveril was going up the steep trail slowly; he still strove -for caution, no doubt planning to burst in unexpectedly upon Mexicali -Joe. For Joe might have a gun there in his dugout; and he might have no -great stock of provisions and be of no mind to share with others. So -she, too, strove for silence.... A strangely familiar odor was afloat -on the night air ... coffee! Joe's coffee was boiling.</p> - -<p>And then, at that moment of moments, jarring upon their nerves as a -sudden pistol-shot might have done, there came up to them from the -caņon they had just quitted the sharp sound made by a man breaking in -the dark through brush. And, with that sound, another; a man's voice, -a voice which both knew and yet on the instant were unable to place, -crying sharply, unguardedly:</p> - -<p>"Come ahead, boys. There's his dugout and we got him dead to rights!"</p> - -<p>"Down!" whispered Deveril. "Down! There's three or four of them...."</p> - -<p>She dropped in her tracks, he at her side. They were in the little -clearing; if they went back it would be to run into the arms of the -men down there; if they went ahead it was to go straight on to Joe's -dugout. If they sought to turn to right or left, they must go through -the longest arms of the clearing, and must certainly be seen.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> The only -shadows into which they might slip were cast by the clump of willows -grouped in a span of half a dozen yards, and not over as many steps, -from Joe's door....</p> - -<p>"Into the willows!" whispered Deveril. "Quick! It's our only show."</p> - -<p>They crawled, wriggling forward, inching, but inching swiftly. Behind -them they heard voices, and a sudden running of heavy boots; before -them they heard a pot or pan dropped against Joe's stove, and then -Joe's excited muttering and the scuffle of Joe's boots. They scrambled -on; Deveril dragged himself, with a sudden heave, into the fringe of -the willow thicket; at his side, so close that elbow brushed elbow, -Lynette threw herself. They saw Joe come running out of his dugout; -they saw him pause a second; he could have seen them, surely, had he -looked down. But his eyes were for the caņon below, from which the -sudden voices had boomed up to him. And now came a voice again, that -first voice, shouting threateningly:</p> - -<p>"I got you covered, Joe! With my rifle. And I'll drop you dead if you -move! You know me, Joe ... me, Jim Taggart!"</p> - -<p>Still Joe hesitated ... and was lost. Up the steep slope came Jim -Taggart, and behind him Young Gallup; and after Gallup, Gallup's -man, Cliff Shipton. And every man of them carried a rifle, held in -readiness. Joe began to swear in Spanish, his voice shaken, quavering -with the fear upon him.</p> - -<p>Deveril put out his hand until it lay upon Lynette's arm; his fingers -gave her a quick, warning squeeze. Taggart and the others were coming -on swiftly; it was almost too much to hope that they could pass and not -see the two figures outstretched in the willows. Still, there was the -chance, slim chance as it was....</p> - -<p>If only Joe, poor stupid fool, as Deveril savagely called<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> him in his -heart, would make a bolt for it! Then there'd surely be such a drawing -of their eyes to him that they would not see a white elephant tethered -at the door! But Joe stood as if his feet had grown into the ground. -Save for his continued mutterings, as Joe poured forth his eloquent -Spanish curses, he would have appeared a man bereft of all volition. -And Taggart and Young Gallup and Shipton came on at a run. Deveril -clutched his club; he turned an inch or two to be ready. Lynette, lying -so close to him, felt his body stiffen and guessed his purpose, and -this time it was her hand closing tight upon his forearm, warning him -to hold to caution as long as there was hope.</p> - -<p>The three came steadily on, hastening all that they could up the steep -slope. A moment ago, when first Taggart called out, Joe might have -eluded them had he been lightning-swift and ready to take chances. But -now that he had hesitated, it was clear that his most shadowy hope of -escape was gone. He stood motionless, cursing them and his luck.</p> - -<p>Babe Deveril's fingers were tight, as tight as rage could weld them -about his oak stick. At that moment he could have welcomed the excuse -to leap out with the unexpectedness of a cataclysm and the rush of a -catapult, to heave his club upward and bring it down, full force, upon -Taggart's head. For now he had the added rancour in his heart that Jim -Taggart, with his following, had chosen this one moment to come up with -them, just as Babe Deveril was counting in full confidence upon the -first square meal in twenty-four hours. Taggart, less than threatening -his safety, was stealing the supper which he had counted on having from -Mexicali Joe.</p> - -<p>Jim Taggart began to laugh, more in malice than in mirth, and, most of -all, in an evil, gloating triumph. He came on, hurrying; he almost trod -on Lynette's boot. Instinctively she jerked away from him; yet only -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>because Taggart was so gloatingly bent upon his quarry he did not note -her movement, or must have supposed that he had set a stone rolling.</p> - -<p>"Ho!" cried Taggart. "Joe's a good kid after all, boys! He's waited for -us, and he's got us a piping-hot supper! Wonder how he guessed we were -starved like wildcats?"</p> - -<p>"Damn him!" Lynette heard Deveril, and her fingers gripped him with a -new agony of warning and supplication for silence.</p> - -<p>"What's that?" demanded Taggart, thinking that Gallup or Shipton had -spoken.</p> - -<p>"You robbers!" cried Joe nervously. "Already you tryin' rob me, las' -night. Now you tryin' rob me! I tell you...."</p> - -<p>"Shut up!" snapped Taggart. "Back into your dirty den and we'll have a -nice little talk with you."</p> - -<p>"I tell you...."</p> - -<p>Taggart was close upon him now and caught him by the shoulder, flinging -him about, shoving him through the squat door of his dugout. Slight -enough was the diversion, but both Lynette and Deveril were thankful -for it, for the two figures drew the eyes of both Gallup and Shipton -and held them. Joe reeled across the threshold; Taggart, not knowing -what weapon Joe might have lying on his bunk, sprang nimbly after him. -And Gallup and Shipton, to see everything, drew on close behind him. -They passed the willows about the spring and, stooping, went in at -Joe's door.</p> - -<p>Lynette and Deveril lay very still, hesitating to move hand or foot. -For both Gallup and Shipton stood on Joe's threshold, and that -threshold was a few steps only from their hiding-place. The snapping of -a twig, the crackling of a handful of dead leaves must certainly bring -swift, searching eyes upon them.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2> - -<p>"The first half chance we get," whispered Deveril, guardedly, "we've -got to sneak out of this! Lie still; I can see them without moving. -That man with the hawk face is turned this way."</p> - -<p>He could see neither Joe nor Taggart in the dugout. Gallup he could -see, barely across the threshold now, watching Taggart and the Mexican. -The man Shipton, evidently fagged from a hard day of it, had slumped -down on the log that served as door-step, and faced outward, save when -now and then he half turned to glance curiously at the sheriff and his -captive.</p> - -<p>"So we nabbed you, eh, Mexico?" gibed Taggart. "You damn little tricky -shrimp! To think you could put one across on me!"</p> - -<p>"Gatham you!" shrilled Joe. "You big t'ief, you try one time an' you -see! I ain't do nothin' to you; I got the right...."</p> - -<p>"Oh, shut up!" muttered Taggart impatiently. "Dry your palaver for -once. I'll give you chance enough to spill over when I get good and -ready." Outside Lynette and Deveril heard a sound which, in their -hunger, they were quick to read aright; Taggart, also hungry, had -stepped to the stove and had dragged a heavy iron frying-pan to him, -investigating its content. "Phew!" growled Taggart. "You infernal -garlic hound! Well, the jerked meat ought to go all right. And coffee, -huh? Come on, boys; we'll feed up, and then we'll tell Joe what's in -the wind."</p> - -<p>"I ain't got much grub," Joe shouted back at him. "An' I need it -mysel'. You go...."</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p> - -<p>There was the sound of a blow and of scuffling feet, the thudding of a -body against the wall.</p> - -<p>"Take that," Taggart told him viciously. And, his ugly voice thick with -threat: "And thank your Dago saints I only used my fist! Next time, so -help me, I'll bash you with a rifle barrel. Say, Cliff...."</p> - -<p>"Say it," drawled Cliff.</p> - -<p>"Scare up some dry wood; the fire's near out. And, Joe, you dig up a -candle or lamp or something. I'd like a little light in this stinking -hole."</p> - -<p>Joe, though with infuriated mutterings, did as bid. Slowly the gaunt -form of Cliff Shipton rose from the rough-hewn log.</p> - -<p>"God, I'm tired," he said. And then, when no one thought to sympathize, -he demanded querulously: "Say, Mex, where's your wood-pile?"</p> - -<p>Gallup laughed at him.</p> - -<p>"Imagine the lazy hound having a wood-pile! Skirmish around, Cliff, and -pick up some dead sticks."</p> - -<p>Joe had found a stub of candle, and now its pale light vaguely -illuminated the dugout's interior. Since there was but the one opening, -the squat door, Deveril still saw only Gallup. Gallup by now was -sitting upon the narrow bunk at the back of the room, his rifle between -his knees, the shadow of his hat hiding his face. Shipton set his own -rifle down against the outside wall and began groping with his feet for -bits of wood.</p> - -<p>"It's getting awful dark for this kind of thing," he was telling -himself in his eternally complaining voice. "Ain't he got a box or a -chair or a table or something in there that'll burn?" he called.</p> - -<p>No one paid any attention to him and Shipton, scuffling gropingly with -his feet, widened his search. And now Lynette and Deveril scarcely -breathed. For it seemed inevitable that he was coming straight toward<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> -the brushy-fringed spring where they lay. Deveril was now on his left -elbow, his body raised slightly, his legs drawn up under him, so -that he could readily fling himself to his feet, his oak club in his -right hand. Lynette understood and was ready, too; if Shipton came -dangerously near, she knew that it was Deveril's intent to drop him in -his tracks. Then there would remain but the one thing to do; to leap up -and run for it, run blindly, plunging into the nearest shadows, to run -on and on while men shot after them.</p> - -<p>Shipton came nearer. She felt Babe Deveril stir, ever so slightly. Her -only concern now was: Would he strike just at the very second that he -should? Would he strike a second too early, before it was necessary, -and thus needlessly give himself away? Would he strike just a second -too late, giving Shipton first the time to see and cry out?</p> - -<p>"God, I'm stiff and sore," Shipton was muttering.</p> - -<p>His foot struck something, and he reached down, thinking it was a bit -of wood. But it was a stone, dirt-covered, and he kicked at it and came -on. Now he was not two steps away. Again he stooped; as he stooped, -Babe Deveril raised himself an inch or two higher. But now Shipton -found a fragment of a pine log, half rotted and of little use as fuel. -But in his present mood it served him; he picked it up and turned back -to the dug-out. Lynette heard Deveril's slowly expelled breath.</p> - -<p>Within there was a scraping of frying-pan on stove top. They saw a tin -plate handed to Gallup on his bunk; Gallup began eating, noisy about -it; eating like a dog. Shipton went in with his log. Taggart caught -it from him, broke it up by striking it against the hard-packed dirt -floor, and began stoking the stove. A fresh gush of sparks shot up from -Joe's chimney. Shipton<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> was demanding to be fed ... and for God's sake -give him a shot of coffee.</p> - -<p>"Now's our chance," whispered Deveril. "None too good, but the best -we're going to have! Ready?"</p> - -<p>And her whisper came back to him, "Always ready!"</p> - -<p>"Now," he whispered. "Off to the right; slow and quiet; if once we can -snake across this open place and into the timber over there...."</p> - -<p>"And now, Seņor Joe," came Taggart's voice, and they knew from the -sound that Taggart, mouth full, was eating ravenously, "we got you!"</p> - -<p>"Sure you got me," Joe rasped out at him, and still there remained -defiance in little Mexicali Joe. "Fine! But what you do with me? You -can't eat me, an' nobody ever yet put any bounty on my hide, an' when -you got me ... you no got nothin'. An', <i>cabrone</i>, what I got I keep -him!"</p> - -<p>Taggart laughed at him in Taggart's ugly style.</p> - -<p>"Talk big, little hombre, while you can! And now let me tell you -something: To-night, right now, inside ten minutes, you're going to -tell me just exactly where you got that stuff you spilled out of your -pocket last night. And in the morning, bright and early, you're going -to take me there!"</p> - -<p>"I die firs'!"</p> - -<p>"You'll be a long time dying! Think I'm fool enough to kill you ... -now? Know what the third degree is, Joe?" Taggart's voice was terrible -with its insinuation. "Me, when I give the third degree to any man, he -spills his guts before I'm done with him! You'll cough up everything -you know and be damn glad afterward to crawl off in the woods and die! -That's me, Joe."</p> - -<p>Gallup, who must have found amusement in watching Mexicali Joe's -expression, laughed. After him Cliff<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> Shipton laughed like an echo. Joe -began cursing nervously.</p> - -<p>"Ready?" whispered Lynette. Taggart's threats horrified her and set her -trembling.</p> - -<p>"No!... Don't you see? Taggart will make him tell everything he knows, -if he has to knock his teeth out one by one and break every bone in his -body! And I'm going to hear!... You crawl ahead while there's a chance; -I can up and run for it after you if I have to."</p> - -<p>She was silent. There was excitement in his utterance and another -quality which sent a sudden chill to her heart. She stared at him -through the dark as at a stranger; the gold fever was rampant in his -veins, and she knew that he would lie here, never lifting hand or -voice, while Taggart tortured his captive until Joe shrieked out his -golden secret.</p> - -<p>Before Lynette could speak or move, Taggart's voice once more cut -harshly through the silence.</p> - -<p>"You wouldn't know, Joe, unless you'd been sheriff as long as me, how -many nice little ways there are of making a man hurry up about spitting -up all he knows!" Taggart was steadily cramming into his mouth the -half-cooked dried beef stew, appearing to have entirely forgotten -his dislike for garlic. "Me, I'm a man of brains and what you call -invention; I look around and see what I've got handy, and out of it I -make what I need! Now, look here. You see us boys eating hearty, and, -if I know what that look means in a man's eye, you got an appetite -yourself? Well, you don't get a scrap to eat nor a drink to drink until -you open up."</p> - -<p>Joe sought to laugh at him. Taggart, still stuffing, went on steadily:</p> - -<p>"Next, you see the stove with its hot lids? All right, pretty quick we -hold you so the palms of your hands stick to the hot lids and the skin -burns off. Oh, I know<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> that don't hurt so much a man can't stand it; -sure not. But it does sort to set him to thinking things over in a new -fashion! And then, what next?"</p> - -<p>"Make him eat salt," put in Shipton with a snicker. "And don't give him -any water! Lots of salt does the trick, Jimmie."</p> - -<p>Taggart, a man of no subtlety, snorted at him.</p> - -<p>"Maybe you can tell gold when you see it, Cliff," he said briefly. "But -that's all you do know.... Listen to me, Mexico. We got our rifles, -ain't we? We stand you with your back to the wall and dare you to move! -Then we practise shooting; just to see how close we can come! We don't -hit you, us three being good shots. Anyway, we don't hit you often, and -then it's only grazes! We make a game out of it; every man takes a shot -and him that comes closest gets a dollar every time; him that draws -blood puts up two dollars in the pot. And, pretty soon.... What are you -looking so sick for, Joe? Nobody ain't hurt you yet!"</p> - -<p>Joe's curses were suddenly faint, for Joe's mouth and throat were dry -and he had grown limp and dizzy and sick.</p> - -<p>"You see, I got you, Joe. Got you dead to rights!"</p> - -<p>"The brute!" whispered Lynette, her own flesh set twitching. "The -horrible brute!"</p> - -<p>"Sh! Just listen!"</p> - -<p>"I don't believe he'd actually do that! He is just frightening -Joe—bluffing...."</p> - -<p>"You the sheriff!" cried Joe, desperate. "You the one bigges' robber in -all these mount'!"</p> - -<p>"Call me robber, will you, you skunk!"</p> - -<p>Again they heard the sound of the blow, struck fiercely by Jim Taggart, -who, as he let all men understand, was the last man to brook an insult. -And they heard Joe's slight body hurled back, so that he toppled and -fell. And, thereafter, Taggart's brutish laughter. To-night,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> Jim -Taggart, no matter how disgruntled he had been during so many hours, -was at last enjoying himself. For to-night he was secure in his -expectations.</p> - -<p>"You bleed awful easy, Joe," he jeered. "Ought to go get your teeth -straightened up, too! Cup of coffee? No? Then I'll take one; <i>gracias, -mi amigo!</i>"</p> - -<p>"I hope you burn in hell!" screamed Joe.</p> - -<p>"So?" And Taggart, swinging heavily, knocked him down again, and then -reached out for the can that held sugar and sweetened his coffee. -Shipton sniggered.</p> - -<p>"You're a corker, Jim!" he declared.</p> - -<p>"Me," acknowledged Taggart heavily, "I am what I am. But I never laid -down for a Mex breed yet, and I ain't going to."</p> - -<p>Joe lay where he had fallen. His body was pain-wracked, for when -Jim Taggart struck in wrath he struck mightily, being a mighty man -physically, and hard. Joe's swart skin had paled; his eyes started from -his head; he feared, and not without reason, that a third blow like -that would kill him. And he knew that Jim Taggart was no man to lie -awake because he had killed another man.</p> - -<p>"I got thirs'," said Joe thickly. He was sitting up, on the floor. -"Give me cup water!"</p> - -<p>"What did I tell you, Joe?" Taggart grinned at him. "I got you. Got you -right."</p> - -<p>"I burnin' up," said Joe weakly. "Maybe you killin' me. Give me drink -water."</p> - -<p>"I got you, Joe," said Taggart speculatively. No mockery now; just a -vast, deep satisfaction. "I half believe one good kick in the belly -would settle you and you'd tell all you know. I got a hunch...."</p> - -<p>"Go slow, Jim." This from the avaricious Young Gallup. "No sense -killing him, seeing you haven't found out a thing."</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span></p> - -<p>"You're right, Gal. Well, give him a drink, then; half a cup of water -and let him think things over.... If he opens up then, O. K. If he -don't we'll find the way to open him up."</p> - -<p>"Let me go to the spring," said Joe. By now he was on his feet. "I was -jus' goin' for water when you come. The spring, she's right there. You -can see I don't run away...."</p> - -<p>"Go scoop him up a can of water, Cliff," said Taggart. "You sit tight, -Joe. You don't go out to-night unless we take you out to put you in a -hole!"</p> - -<p>"<i>Now!</i>" whispered Deveril sharply. "Now we've got to crawl for it!"</p> - -<p>But Cliff Shipton demurred, saying surlily:</p> - -<p>"I'm tired out, and I'm sore and stiff and stove-up. Let him go without -his water."</p> - -<p>"We were crazy for waiting so long!" complained Deveril. "Hurry!"</p> - -<p>In the dugout Gallup was saying slowly, after his ponderous fashion:</p> - -<p>"I'll go get him his water. After that, like you say, Jim, he'll -open up—wide! Or, if he don't, I'll break his jaw-bone with my boot -heel.... Where's a can?"</p> - -<p>Already Babe Deveril had wormed his way out of the willows and began -creeping about the edge of the tiny thicket that was farthest from -Joe's cabin. Lynette, feeling weak and sick, followed him like his own -shadow. Thus they skirted the brushy fringe of the spring.</p> - -<p>Then Gallup, carrying his can, came out. Deveril dropped flat and lay -motionless, his body hidden, at least to careless eyes, by the spring -willows. Lynette dropped flat just behind him. She knew that again -Deveril was ready to leap and strike, mercilessly hard, if Gallup came -too near. It was almost an even chance whether Gallup would come their -way or not....<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> Lynette, cold and tired and hungry and at last afraid, -shivered.</p> - -<p>But, almost immediately, it became obvious to both of them that Gallup -had been here before and knew his way about. He turned, as they had -hoped that he would, to the right; they heard him reach the spring and -dip his pan and fill it and turn back to the dugout, slopping water -after him. They saw him step on the threshold; already Deveril was -crawling cautiously again, and, after him, Lynette.</p> - -<p>It was like life in a nightmare. So tortuously slow. So great a need -for quiet, and, like jeering, mocking voices, there came so many -little sounds, loud in their ears—twigs snapping, leaves rustling, -tiny stones set rolling. At first, what with the dark and her sole -thought to be gone, Lynette failed to understand just how Deveril -was directing his course. When she did grasp, she wondered at him. -Instead of hurrying straight across the clearing toward the haven of -the timber-line, he was drawing nearer and nearer the west end of the -dugout! Now she dared not whisper to him; she could not come up with -him to catch warningly at his boot. So she followed, striving with all -her caution to overtake him. And before she could do so, she glimpsed -his purpose.</p> - -<p>True to type, Joe's dugout had but the one door, and the rear of the -building was a sort of timbered hole in the mountainside. Deveril -planned that if he could gain the back of the dugout he could hear -what was going on and run little danger of being detected; further, -that in that direction, did he elect to up and run for cover, he and -Lynette would have as good a chance as any to get away in the rim of -the forest. If they moved with all possible silence, and especially if -Taggart and the others within kept up their noise-making, snapping<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> -and snarling and knocking things about, it was more than an even -break that neither Taggart nor any of his companions would come to -suspect that they were being spied upon; and when did Babe Deveril -ever ask more than the even break? Then ... there remained one other -consideration, one of exceedingly great importance in Deveril's -estimation, of which as yet Lynette had no inkling: while in hiding -down by the spring Deveril had made a discovery, or believed that he -had, and no opportunity had been given him either to speak of it or yet -to investigate.</p> - -<p>Clearly now was the moment when Taggart and Gallup and the complaining -Cliff Shipton concentrated every thought upon their captive; Joe showed -signs of weakening, and every man of them held that if only Joe could -be led to "open up" they would all be made rich at his expense.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile Gallup had given Joe his water; Joe had drunk rapidly, -gulping noisily. Taggart and Gallup and Shipton were eying him eagerly. -Joe had taken a deep breath; again he started to drink. Taggart struck -the can away from his mouth, commanding: "No more. You've got to talk -first; fast and straight and no lies! Understand?"</p> - -<p>"How you goin' tell if I lie?" muttered Joe, something of his -stubbornness restored.</p> - -<p>"Right now you tell us where the gold is. In the morning you take us to -the place. And if you make a little mistake and don't take us straight, -I'll make you sorry you were ever born!"</p> - -<p>Deveril and Lynette passed within a few yards of the dugout's nearest -front corner; they groped onward up the steep slope; they came in a -brief détour to the rear, where the rude timbers supporting the shed -roof were at this end embedded in the earth. Here they stopped<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> and -lay flat and listened. And they heard Joe mumbling: "If I tell, I tell -true. But I don't think I tell. You kick me out; you steal everything; -you get rich an' me—I die poor. Maybe better I die and fool you!"</p> - -<p>"Listen, Joe." Gallup speaking—Gallup, who feared that Joe might be -fool enough to die with locked lips rather than be robbed of his new -fortune; Gallup, a man who could understand another man doing anything, -standing any torture, rather than lose the one golden thing in life. -"We'll make you a fair proposition, us three men. You found the gold; -all right, you got a right to a share. You can't hog it anyhow; other -men will come rushing in as soon as you drop a pick in it; they'll -stake claims all around you; more'n likely they'll cop off the very -cream of it, and you'll have just a pocket that will peter out on you. -We brought Cliff along; he knows pockets and veins and all kind of gold -signs, from stock to barrel. Now, you show sense; you take us along; -we form a company, just us four. And you get one-fourth the rake-off. -And we got the money to develop it; to make a big thing out of it. You -ain't got the money and you ain't got the business brains, and you'd -lose on it sooner or later, anyhow."</p> - -<p>Silence. A long silence while three men watched him and while Deveril -and Lynette listened. A long silence during which all that strangely -blended craft which flowed into Mexicali Joe's veins from a mixture of -Latin and Indian ancestry was hard at work ... though this no one could -guess now, so immobile was Joe's face, so guarded his tone when he -spoke.</p> - -<p>"That sound fine, Gallup! But how I know you don't cheat me? For why -you don't hit me in the head with a pick when I tell? For why you don't -take all ... everything?"</p> - -<p>"I'm telling you why!" cried Gallup. "Look here.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> Suppose we did that -and croaked you and dug a hole and stuck you in. All right. Next thing -we pop up with a new gold-mine! And there'll be men to say: 'That ore -looks like the ore Mexicali Joe showed that night down to Gallup's -house!' And they'll say: 'Where's Joe?' And they'll begin making -trouble, all kinds; they'll want to run us out. They'll have us up -for killing you. There'll be a lot of talk, and always the chance, as -long's we live, they might pin something on us. And what would we make -by that sort of work? <i>Only a one-quarter interest in your diggings!</i> -Why, man, it ain't worth it! We got too much sense to kill any man for -the sake of a little ante like that. Sure, Joe; dead on the level, if -you play square with us, we play square with you."</p> - -<p>Silence again. A longer silence than before. Then, while Joe must have -appeared to hesitate, Taggart said abruptly:</p> - -<p>"And if you don't take our proposition and talk fast and straight, I'm -going to <i>make</i> you talk! And then you don't get no thanks but a kick -and a get-the-hell-out! That's my way, you little greaser."</p> - -<p>"Give him time, Jim," pleaded Gallup.</p> - -<p>"All right!" cried Joe, seeming eager now. "I take the chance! You boys -just tell me 'So help me God, I play square!' and I take the chance!"</p> - -<p>"So help me God!" cried Young Gallup, first of all. "I play square with -you, Joe!"</p> - -<p>And after him, while Joe waited, both Taggart and Cliff Shipton said, -with a semblance of deep gravity: "So help me God."</p> - -<p>"We pardners now? Us four?" demanded Joe. And when he had had his three -immediate, emphatic assurances—Deveril misjudged him a fool—Joe -began, speaking rapidly: "<i>Bueno!</i> Now we talk. An' in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> mornin' we -start an' to-morrow I show you! I got the bigges' mine you can't beat -in all New Mexico an' Arizona an' Nevada, too! For why I care take on -three pardners? I tell you, we got the money to devil-him-up, we all -rich like hell!..."</p> - -<p>"Get going, Joe," growled Taggart. "Where? Down Light Ladies' Caņon, -and not more'n three or four miles from Big Pine?"</p> - -<p>Joe cackled his derision at Taggart's guess.</p> - -<p>"Me, I fool ever'body!" he said gleefully. "Me, I'm damn smart man, -Seņor Taggart! Nowhere near Light Ladies'. The other way. We go all day -to-morrow, way back up in the mountains. One long, hard day, walkin'. -Maybe day an' a half. You know where Buck Valley? All right; you know, -on other side, Big Bear Creek? An' then you know, little bit more far, -two-t'ree mile, Grub Stake Caņon? You know...."</p> - -<p>"By the living Lord," broke in Taggart. "That's right square in Bruce -Standing's country!"</p> - -<p>Again Joe cackled.</p> - -<p>"You know whole lot; you don't know ever'thing! Timber-Wolf's lands run -like this." (One could imagine a grimy forefinger set in a dirty palm.) -"His line, here. My mine, she's just the other side. Nobody's land; -gover'ment land." He chuckled. "An' ol' big Timber-Wolf, he goin' cry -... <i>boo-hoo-hoo!</i> ... when he find out we got gold not mile an' half -from his line!"</p> - -<p class="space-above">Deveril was twitching at Lynette's sleeve. He began edging away. When -she came up with him he was standing; she rose and, together they -hurried across the clearing, and in a few moments were in the deep dark -of the embracing forest land.</p> - -<p>"I know that country like a map!" he told her excitedly. "We were -already headed that way, and on we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> go! Why, it was right up by Big -Bear Creek that I spent a night with Bruce Standing six years ago -and he robbed me of my roll!... They start in the morning; we start -to-night! We'll be there when they come; there are ten thousand places -to hide out; we'll have a place on a ridge where we can watch them. And -they'll never have the vaguest idea that any one, you and I least of -all, is ahead of them. Somehow, Lynette Brooke, our luck is with us and -this whole game is going to play into our hands."</p> - -<p>"If a little food would only play into them!... The smell of that -coffee ... the meat cooking...."</p> - -<p>"Wait! Right here, by this tree. Don't move a step, no matter what -happens. I'll be back with you in two shakes."</p> - -<p>She was almost too tired and faint from hunger to wonder at him. She -saw him go, and then she sank down, her back to the big yellow pine. -He went as straight as a string toward the spring; she saw him walking -swiftly, though with footfalls so guarded that she could not hear him -when he had gone ten steps. She knew that he was recklessly counting -upon a deal of quick chatter in the dugout, secure in his own bravado -that no man of the four there would at this electrically charged moment -have thought of anything but gold. He disappeared in the dark; he was -gone so long that she jumped up and stood staring in all directions; -but at last he was back at her side, chuckling, and then she knew he -had not been away ten minutes.</p> - -<p>"I struck it with my elbow, while we were hiding down there," he told -her triumphantly. "Mexicali Joe's real cache!"</p> - -<p>He had a square tin biscuit-box in his hands. She put her hand in -quickly. The box, which had been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> half buried in the cool earth by the -spring, was half full of tins and small packages.</p> - -<p>Fatigue fled out of them. Hurriedly they went up over the ridge, deeper -and deeper into the forest land. And when, in half an hour, they came -down into the dark, tree-walled bed of another ravine, they made them -their small fire and tumbled out into its light their newly acquired -treasure-trove—sardines, beans, tinned milk ... yes, coffee!</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER X</h2> - -<p>"So the sheriff, Jim Taggart, is not dead, after all. And you...."</p> - -<p>Deveril looked across their tiny fire at her, a strange expression in -his eyes, and said quietly:</p> - -<p>"No; he is not dead. All along I judged that unlikely. Though I slung -your gun at him hard enough, if it hit a lucky spot. It's hard to kill -a man, you know.... And, to finish your thought, I am not running wild -with a hangman's noose hanging about my neck! And you...."</p> - -<p>He took a certain devilish glee in concluding with an echo of her own -words. And with the added insinuation poured into them from his own. He -saw her jerk her head up defiantly.</p> - -<p>"I told you...."</p> - -<p>Again she broke off. He made no remark, but sat looking at her -intently. They had eaten and drunk their fill; there remained to them a -goodly stock of provisions; Deveril was smoking his cigarette.</p> - -<p>"What now?" demanded Lynette, as one tired of a subject and impatient -to look forward.</p> - -<p>He shrugged.</p> - -<p>"All troubles have slipped off my shoulders. The worst they could -do to me, if they could lay me by the heels, would be to charge me -with assault and battery! And we're in a neck of the woods where men -laugh at a charge like that, and ask the assaulted one why the devil -he didn't hit back! What now? For you I'd advise keeping right on -travelling. For if Bruce <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>Standing is dead it's up to you to keep -on the move! As for me, I never met up with a sweeter travelling -companion, nor yet with a nervier, nor yet, by God, with a lovelier! -Say the word, Lynette Brooke, and we strike on together, over the ridge -and deeper into the wilderness, headed for the land beyond Buck Valley, -beyond Big Bear Creek. For the wild lands beyond the last holdings -of the late Timber-Wolf, to be on the ground when Mexicali Joe leads -Taggart and Gallup and Shipton to his gold!"</p> - -<p>She understood how Babe Deveril, as any man should be, was relieved -at knowing that the man he had stricken down was not dead; that -he, himself, was not hunted as a murderer. And yet she was vaguely -distressed and uneasy. She felt a change in him, and in his attitude -toward her.... When he awaited her reply, she made none. Again fatigue -swept over her, and with it a new stirring of uneasiness....</p> - -<p>There was a drop of coffee left; she leaned forward and took it, -thinking: "He had his tobacco, and it has bolstered up his nerves." She -drank and then sat back, leaning against a tree, her face hidden from -him, while she searched his face in the dim light, searched it with a -stubborn desire to read the most hidden thought in his brain.</p> - -<p>"I am tired," she said after a long while. He could make nothing of her -voice, low and impersonal, and with no inflection to give it expression -beyond the brief meanings of the words themselves. "Very tired. Yet -necessity drives. And it is not safe here, so near them. I can go on -for another hour, perhaps two or three hours. That will mean ... how -far? Four or five miles; maybe six, seven?"</p> - -<p>Not only for one hour, not alone for just two or three hours did they -push on. But for half of that silent,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> starry night. A score of times -Babe Deveril said to her: "We've done our stunt; if any girl on earth -ever earned rest, you've done it." But always there was that driving -force and that allure, and another ridge just ahead, and her answer: -"Another mile.... I can do it."</p> - -<p>Deveril, with a lighted match cupped in his hand, looked at his watch.</p> - -<p>"It's long after midnight; nearly one o'clock."</p> - -<p>They found a sheltered spot among the tall pines; above them the -keen edge of an up-thrust ridge; just below a thick-grown clump of -underbrush; underfoot dry needles, fallen and drifted from the pines. -Again he was all courtesy and kindliness toward her, seeing her hard -pressed, judging her, despite her mask of hardihood, near collapse. So -he cut pine boughs with his knife and broke them with his hands, and of -them piled her a couch. She thanked him gently; impulsively she gave -him her hand ... though, as his caught it eagerly, she jerked it away -quickly.... He watched her lie down, snuggling her cheek against the -curve of her arm. Near by he lay down on his back, his two hands under -his head, his eyes on the stars. A curious smile twitched at his lips.</p> - -<p>And then, just as they were dropping off to sleep, they heard far off -a long-drawn, howling cry piercing through the great hush. Lynette -started up, her blood quickening; as she had heard Bruce Standing's -warning call that first time, so now did she think to hear it again. -Deveril leaped to his feet, no less startled. A moment later he called -softly to her, and it seemed to Lynette that he forced a tone of -lightness which did not ring true:</p> - -<p>"A timber wolf ... but one that runs on four legs! It won't come near." -Then, as she made no answer<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> and he could not see her face, he asked -sharply: "What did you think it was?"</p> - -<p>She shivered and lay back.</p> - -<p>"I didn't know."</p> - -<p>And to herself she whispered:</p> - -<p>"And I don't know now!"</p> - -<p>Here among the uplands it was a night of piercing cold. The nearer the -dawn drew on, the icier grew the fingers of the wind which swept the -ridges and probed into the caņons. For a little while both Lynette -and Deveril slept the heavy sleep of exhaustion. But, after the first -couple of hours, neither slept beyond brief, uncomfortable dozes. They -shivered and woke and stirred; they found a growing torture in the rude -couches they slept upon, in the hard ground and stones, which seemed -always thrusting up in new places. Long before the night had begun to -thin to the first of daybreak's hint, Lynette was sitting, her back to -a tree, torn between the two impossibilities, that of remaining awake, -that of remaining asleep. Deveril got up and began stamping about, -trying to get warm and drive the cramp and soreness out of his muscles.</p> - -<p>"A few more days and nights like this," he grumbled, "would be enough -to kill a pair of Esquimos! We've got to find us some sort of half-way -decent shelter for another night, and we've got to arrange to take a -holiday and rest up."</p> - -<p>It was all that she could do to keep her teeth from chattering by -shutting them hard together; her only answer was a shivery sigh. She -could scarcely make him out, where he trod back and forth, the darkness -held so thick. She began to think so longingly of a fire that in -comparison with its cheer and warmth she felt that possible discovery -by Taggart would be a small misfortune. She could almost welcome being -put under<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> arrest; taken back to Big Pine and jail; given a bed and -covers and one long sleep.</p> - -<p>"Awake?" queried Deveril.</p> - -<p>She nodded, as though he could see her nod through the dark. Then, with -an effort, she said an uncertain: "Y-e-s."</p> - -<p>"I'll tell you," he said presently, coming close to her and looking -down upon the blot in the darkness which her huddled figure made at -the base of the pine. "Taggart will be on his way soon; he'll hardly -wait for day. He'll go the straightest, quickest way to the Big Bear -country. That means he'll steer on straight into Buck Valley. If you -and I went that way, we'd have him and his crowd at our heels all day, -and never know how close they were; and I, for one, am damned sick of -that <i>feeling</i> that somebody's creeping up on us all the time! So we -swerve out from the direct way as soon as we start; we curve off to -the north for a couple of miles; then we make a bend around toward the -upper end of what I fancy must be the Grub Stake Caņon Joe is headed -for. That way we'll always have two or three miles between our trail -and theirs; at times we'll be five or six miles off to the side. That -means, of course, that they're pretty sure to get to Joe's diggings -ahead of us; not over half a day at that. For we're well ahead of them -now. And, in any case, you can bet the last sardine we've got that -they'll be a day or two just poking around, prospecting and trying to -make sure of what they've grabbed off.... Agreed, pardner?"</p> - -<p>"Yes. I could even start now, just to get those few miles between our -trail and theirs. Then, when the sun was up and it was warm, we could -have a rest and an hour's sleep."</p> - -<p>So, walking slowly, painfully, carrying what was left of their small -stock of provisions, they started on in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> dark. Up a ridge they went -and into the thinning edge of the coming dawn; they picked their way -among trees and rocks; little by little they were able to see in more -detail what lay about them. Along the ridge they tramped northward. -They were warmer now that they walked; or, rather, they were some -degrees less cold. Gradually their paces grew swifter, as some of the -stiffness went out of their bodies; gradually the shadows thinned; the -stars paled, the east asserted itself above the other points of the -compass, softly tinted. The sleeping world began to awake all about -them; birds stirred with the first drowsy twitterings. The pallid -eastern tints grew brighter; as from a wine-cup, life was spilled again -upon the mountain tops. A bird began a clear-noted, joyous singing; -all of a sudden the morning breeze seemed sweeter and softer; there -came a brilliant, flaming glory in the sky which drew their eyes; all -life forces which had been at ebb began to flow strongly once more; -the sun thrust a gleaming golden edge up into the upper world, rolling -majestically from the under world. Deveril looked into her eyes and -laughed softly; her eyes smiled back into his.... She felt as though -she had had a bad dream, but was awake now; as though last night her -nerves had tricked her into wrongly judging her companion. Doubtings -always flock in the night; joy is never more joyous than when breaking -forth with the new day.</p> - -<p>"It isn't so bad, after all," said Deveril. "Now, if we only had a -pack-mule and a roll of blankets and a bit of canvas.... What more -would you ask, Lynette Brooke, for a lark and a holiday to remember -pleasantly when we grew to be doddering old folks?"</p> - -<p>"As long as you are wishing," returned Lynette lightly, "why not place -an order with the King of Ifs for a gun and some fishing-tackle and a -frying-pan and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> some more coffee? And a couple of hats; an outing suit -for me." She looked down at her suit; it was torn in numerous places; -it was gummed and sticky here and there with the resin from pines; it -caught upon every bush. "Then, you know, a needle and some thread; a -dozen fresh eggs, bread, and butter...."</p> - -<p>"Too much soft living has spoiled you!" he laughed.</p> - -<p>"If so, I am in ideal training to get unspoiled in short order!" she -laughed back.</p> - -<p>And for all of this was the rising sun and the new, bright day -responsible; for the ancient way of youth playing up to youth.</p> - -<p>What was happening within both of them was a great nervous relaxation. -They knew where Taggart and Gallup were, or at least were confident -that there was no immediate danger of Taggart and Gallup overhauling -them; they knew where Mexicali Joe was and where he was going. For the -moment they were freed from that crushing sense of uncertainty welded -to menace which had borne down upon them ever since they fled from Big -Pine. And consequently joy of life sprang up as a spring leaps the -instant that the weight is plucked from it.</p> - -<p>"It's our lucky day!" said Deveril.</p> - -<p>For the sun was scarcely up when a plump young rabbit hopped square -into their path, and Deveril, with a lucky throw, killed it with a -rock. And just as they were speaking of thirst, they came to a tiny -trickle of water among the rocks; and while Lynette was boiling coffee -over a tiny blaze, Deveril was preparing grilled cottontail for -breakfast. Savory odors floating out through the woodlands. Lynette was -singing softly:</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>"<i>Merry it is in the good Greenwood!</i>"</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>They ate and rested and the sun warmed them. For<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> a full two hours they -scarcely stirred. Then they drank again; Lynette bathed her hands and -face and arms; she set her hair in order, refashioning the two thick -braids. She shut one eye and then the other, striving to make certain -that there was not a black smudge somewhere upon her nose. They were -starting on when Deveril said soberly:</p> - -<p>"Shall I save the rabbit skin?"</p> - -<p>"Why?" she asked innocently.</p> - -<p>A twinkle came into his eyes.</p> - -<p>"A few more days of this sort of life, and My Lady Linnet is going to -require a new gown! Perhaps rabbit furs, if hunting is good, will do -it!"</p> - -<p>She laughed at him, and her eyes were daring as she sang, improvising -as to melody:</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>"And for vest of pall, thy fingers small,</div> -<div class="i1">That wont on harp to stray,</div> -<div>A cloak must sheer from the slaughtered deer,</div> -<div class="i1">To keep the cold away!"</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>"<i>Lynette!</i>"</p> - -<p>A flash from her gay mood had set his eyes on fire. He sprang up and -came toward her, his two hands out. But as a black cloud can run over -the face of the young moon, so did a sudden change of mood wipe the -tempting look out of her eyes and darken them. Her spirit had peeped -forth at him, merry-making; as quick as bird-flight it was gone, and -she stepped back and looked at him steadily, cool now and aloof and -dampening to a man's ardent nonsense.</p> - -<p>"You have a way of saying something, Babe Deveril," she told him -coolly, "which appeals to me. In your own upstanding words: 'Let's go!'"</p> - -<p>He laughed back at her lightly, hiding under a light cloak his own -chagrin. At that moment he had wanted her in his arms; had wanted -that as he wanted neither<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> Mexicali Joe's gold nor any other coldly -glittering thing. Now he felt himself growing angry with her....</p> - -<p>"Right. You've said it. Let's go."</p> - -<p>He made short work of catching up the few articles they were to carry -with them and of stamping into dead coals the few remaining glowing -embers of their fire. Then, striding ahead, he led the way. And for a -matter of a mile or more she was hard beset to keep up with him.</p> - -<p class="space-above">The day was filled with happenings to divert their thoughts from any -one channel. They startled, in a tiny meadow, three deer, which shot -away through a tangle of brush, leaping, plunging, shooting forward -and down a slope like great, gleaming, graceful arrows. "A man could -live like a king here, with a rifle," said Deveril longingly. They -saw a tall, thin wisp of smoke an hour before noon; it stood against -the sky to the southwest of them, at a distance of perhaps two miles. -"Taggart's noonday camp," they decided, deciding further that Taggart -must have insisted on an early start, and therefore had found his -stomach demanding lunch well before midday. Later, some two or three -hours after twelve, they heard the long, reverberating crack and rumble -and echo of a rifle-shot. "Taggart's crowd, killing a deer or bear or -rabbit," they imagined. And all along they were contented, making what -time they could through the open spaces, over the ridges, down through -tiny green valleys and up long, dreary slopes, resting frequently, -never hastening beyond their powers, secure in knowing that the Taggart -trail and the Lynette-Deveril trail, though paralleling, would have no -common point of contact before both trails ran into the country in the -vicinity of the Big Bear Creek, the rim of the Timber-Wolf country.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span></p> - -<p>"The whole thing," exulted Babe Deveril, "lies in the fact that we -know where they are and they haven't the least idea where we are! We -know where they are going, and they haven't a guess which way we are -steering...."</p> - -<p>"Do you know," said Lynette thoughtfully, "I don't believe that -Mexicali Joe intends for a minute to lead them to his gold!"</p> - -<p>Deveril looked at her in astonishment.</p> - -<p>"You don't! Why, couldn't you see that Taggart put the fear of the Lord -into him? That Gallup, slick as wet soap, tricked him? That...."</p> - -<p>She broke in impatiently, saying:</p> - -<p>"Yet Joe.... He seemed to me to give in to them in something too much -of a hurry ... as though he had his own wits about him, his own last -card in the hole, as dad used to say. I wonder...."</p> - -<p>He stared at her, puzzled.</p> - -<p>"When you <i>feel</i> things," he muttered, none too pleasantly, "you get me -guessing. I don't know yet how you came to know that the Taggart bunch -was at our heels yesterday. But you did know; and you were right. As to -this other hunch of yours...."</p> - -<p>"You'll see," said Lynette serenely. "Joe isn't the biggest fool in -that crowd of four. You wait and see."</p> - -<p>"You'll give me the creeps yet," said Deveril.</p> - -<p>They both laughed and went on—through brushy tangles; over rocky -ridges; through spacious forests; across soft, springy meadows; up -slope, down slope; on and on and endlessly on. Once they frightened a -young bear that was tearing away as if its life depended upon it upon -an old stump; the bear snorted and went lumbering away, as Deveril -said, like a young freight-train gone mad; Lynette, as she admitted -afterward, was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> twice as frightened, but did not run, herself, because -the bear ran first and because she couldn't get the hang of her feet as -quickly as he could! They came upon several bands of mountain-quail, -which shot away, buzzing like overgrown bees; Deveril hurled stones -and curses at many a scampering rabbit; once she and once he caught a -glimpse of that dark gleam, come and gone in a flash, which might have -been coyote or timber-wolf.... They did not speak of Bruce Standing. -But they wondered, both of them....</p> - -<p>Toward four o'clock in the afternoon they heard for the second time the -crack of a rifle-shot. Farther to the south of them this time; a hint -farther eastward; fainter than when first heard. Taggart, they held in -full confidence, was following the trail which they had mapped for him; -he was going on steadily; he was forging ahead of them. And yet they -were content that this was so. They rested more often; they relaxed -more and more.</p> - -<p>And before the brief reverberations of a distant rifle-shot had done -echoing through the gorges, they came to a full stop and determined to -make camp. Not for a second, all day long, had Deveril swerved from his -determination to "dig in in comfort for the night." They were, as both -were willing to admit, "done in."</p> - -<p>Deveril employed his pocket-knife, long ago dulled, and now whetted -after a fashion upon a rough stone, to whack off small pine and willow -and the more leafy of sage branches. He made of them a goodly heap. -Then he gathered dead limbs, fallen from the parent trees, making his -second pile. All the while Lynette kept a small dry-wood and pine-cone -fire going hotly; little smoke, little swirl of sparks to rise above -the grove in which they were encamping; plenty of heat for body warmth -and for cooking. She was preoccupied, moving<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> about listlessly. So -this was Bruce Standing's country? She looked about her with an -ever-deepening interest; this was a fitting land for such a man. -Bigness and dominance and a certain vital freshness struck altogether -the key-note here—and suggested Timber-Wolf. If he were not dead after -all—— Well, then, he would be somewhere near now for like a wounded -animal, he would have returned to his solitudes.</p> - -<p>Deveril found near by a level space under the pines. Here he sought out -a scraggly tree which expressed an earth-loving soul in low-drooped -branches. Against a low arm which ran out horizontally from the trunk -he began placing his longer dead limbs, the butts in the ground, -sloping, the effect soon that of a tent. Against these a high-piled -wall of leafy branches. He stood back, judging from which direction -the wind would come. He piled more branches. Into his nostrils, filled -with the resinous incense of broken pine twigs, floated the tempting -aromas which spread out in all directions from Lynette's cooking. He -cocked his eye at the slanting sun; it was still early. He yielded to -the insistent invitation, and came down into the little cup of a meadow -to her, and she watched him coming: a picturesque figure in the forest -land, his black hair rumpled, his slender figure swinging on, his -sleeves rolled back, his eyes full of the flicker of his lively spirit.</p> - -<p>When Deveril was hard pressed along the trail, worn out and on the -alert for oncoming danger from any quarter, he was impersonal; a mere -ally on whom she could depend. At moments like this one, when he was -rested and relaxed, and grasped in his eager hands a bit of the swift -life flowing by, he became different. A man now—a young man—one with -quick lights in his eyes and a lilting eagerness in his voice.</p> - -<p>"It would be great sport," he said, "all life long ... <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>to come home to -you and find you waiting ... with a smile and a wee cup o' tea! And...."</p> - -<p>He was half serious, half laughing; she made a hasty light rejoinder, -and invited him to a hot supper waiting him.</p> - -<p>They made a merry, frivolously light meal of it. There was plenty to -eat; water near by; there was coffee; above them the infinity of blue, -darkening skies, about them the peace and silence of the solitudes. And -within their souls security, if only for the swiftly passing moment. -They chose to be gay; they laughed often; Deveril asked her where -she had learned to quote Scott and she asked him, in obvious retort, -if he thought that she had never been to school! He sang for her, -low-voiced and musically, a Spanish love-song; she made high pretense -at missing the significance of the impassioned southern words. He, -having finished eating and having nearly finished his cigarette, lying -back upon the thick-padded pine-needles, jerked himself up, of a mood -for free translation; she, being quick of intuition, forestalled him, -crying out: "While I clean up our can dishes, if you will finish making -camp...."</p> - -<p>He laughed at her, but got up and went back, whistling his love-song -refrain to his house-building. She, busied over her own labors, found -time more than once to glance at him through the trees ... wondering -about him, trying to probe her own instinctive distrust of one who had -all along befriended her.</p> - -<p>When she joined him a few minutes later, coming up the slope slowly, -she looked tired, he thought, and listless. She sat down and watched -him finishing his labors; all of her spontaneous gaiety had fled; she -was silent and did not smile and appeared preoccupied. She sighed two -or three times, unconsciously, but her sighs did not escape him. Always -he had held her sex to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> an utterly baffling, though none the less an -equally fascinating one. Now he would have given more than a little for -a clew to her thoughts ... or dreamings ... or vague preoccupation....</p> - -<p>"My lady's bower!" he said lightly. "And what does my lady have to say -of it?"</p> - -<p>A truly bowery little shelter it was, on leaning poles in an inverted -V, with leafy boughs making thick walls, through which only slender -sun-rays slipped in a golden dust; within a high-heaped pile of -fragrant boughs, with a heap of smaller green twigs and resinous -pine-tips for her couch.</p> - -<p>"You are so good to me, Babe Deveril," was her grave answer.</p> - -<p>And not altogether did her answer please him, for a quick hint of frown -touched his eyes, though he banished it almost before she was sure of -it. Those words of hers, though they thanked him, most of all reminded -him of his goodness and gentleness with her, and thus went farther and -assured him that she still counted upon his goodness and gentleness.</p> - -<p>"I am afraid, Babe Deveril," she added quickly, though still her eyes -were grave and her lips unsmiling, "that I am pretty well tired out ... -all sort of let-down like, as an old miner I once knew used to say! -It's going to be sundown in a few minutes; can't we treat ourselves to -the luxury of a good blazing camp-fire, and sit by it, and get good and -warm and rested?"</p> - -<p>Had she spoken her true thought she would have cried out instead:</p> - -<p>"What troubles me, Babe Deveril, is that I am half afraid of you. -And, all of a sudden, of the wilderness. And of life and of all the -mysteries of the unknown! I am as near screaming from sheer nervousness -at this instant as I ever was in my life."</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span></p> - -<p>But Deveril, who could glean of her emotions only what she allowed to -lie among her spoken words, cried heartily:</p> - -<p>"You just bet your sweet life we'll have a crackling, roaring fire. -Taggart and his crowd are half a dozen miles away right now and still -going; our fire down in that hollow will never cast a gleam over the -big ridge yonder and the other ridges which lie in between him and us. -Come ahead, my dear; here's for a real bonfire."</p> - -<p>That "my dear" escaped him; but she did not appear to have noted it. -She rose and followed him back to their dying fire. He began piling -on dead branches; they caught and crackled and shot showering sparks -aloft. He brought more fuel, laying it close by. Already the blaze had -driven her back; she sat down by a pine, her knees in her hands, her -head tipped forward so that her face was shadowed, her two curly braids -over her shoulders.</p> - -<p>Deveril lay near her, his hand palming his chin.</p> - -<p>"Tell me, pretty maiden," he said lightly, "how far to the nearest -barber shop?"</p> - -<p>"And tell me," she returned, looking at her fingers, "if in that same -shop they have a manicurist?"</p> - -<p>Having glanced at her hands, she sighed, and then began working with -her hair; there was one thing which must not be utterly neglected. She -knew that if once it became snarled, she had small hope of saving it; -no comb, no brush, no scissors to snip off a troublesome lock; only the -inevitable result of such an utter snarl that she, too, in a week of -this sort of thing, must needs seek a barber who understood bobbing a -maid's hair. And with hair such as Lynette's, glorious, bronzy, with -all the brighter glowing colors of the sunlight snared in it, any true -girl should shudder at the barber's scissors.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p> - -<p>All without warning a great booming voice crashed into their ears, -shattering the silence, as Bruce Standing bore down upon them from the -ridge, shouting:</p> - -<p>"So, now I've got you! Got both of you! Got you where I want you, by -the living God!"</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2> - -<p>The one first thought, bursting into full form and expression in -Lynette's brain, with the suddenness, and the shock of an explosion, -was: "He is alive!" And in Babe Deveril's mind the thought: "Bruce -Standing at last!... And drunk with rage!"</p> - -<p>And Bruce Standing's one thought, as both understood somewhat as they -leaped to their feet:</p> - -<p>"Into my hands, of all my enemies are those two whom I hate most -delivered!" For it had been almost like a religion with him, his -certainty that he would come up with them—the girl who had laughed and -shot him; the man who had stolen her away, cheating his vengeance.</p> - -<p>Babe Deveril, on the alert in the first flash of comprehension, -stooped, groping among the shadows for his club, his only weapon. He -saw the sun glinting upon Bruce Standing's rifle barrel. That club of -his ... where was it? Dropped somewhere; perhaps while he was building -a leafy bower for a pretty lady; forgotten in a gush of other thoughts -... he couldn't find it. He stood straight again; his hands, clinched -and lifted, imitated clubs. The first weapons of the first men....</p> - -<p>Lynette heard them shouting at each other, two men who hated each -other, two men seeing red as they looked through the spectacles which -always heady hatred wears. Men, both of them; masculinity asserting -itself triumphantly, belligerently; manhood rampant and, on the spur -of the moment, as warlike as two young bulls contending for a herd.... -She heard them cursing each other; heard such plain-spoken Anglo-Saxon -epithets<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> hurled back and forth as at any other time would have set -her ears burning. Just now the epithets meant less than nothing to -her; they were but windy words, and a word was less, far less, than a -stout club in a man's hand or a stone to hurl. She was of a mind to -run while yet she could; but that was only the first natural reaction, -lost and forgotten instantly. She stood without moving, watching them. -An odd thing, she thought afterward, wondering, that that which at the -moment made the strongest, longest-lasting impression upon her was the -picture which Timber-Wolf, himself, created as, with the low sun at his -back, he came rushing down upon them. Just now the mountain slope had -constituted but a quiet landscape in softening tones, like a painting -in pastels, with only the sun dropping down into the pine fringe to -constitute a brighter focal point; and now, all of a sudden, it was as -though the master artist, with impulsive inspiration, had slung with -sweeping brush this new element into the picture—that of a great blond -giant of a man, young and vigorous, and at this critical hour consumed -with hatred and anger and triumphant glee. He was always one to punish -his own enemies, was Bruce Standing. And now one felt that he carried -vengeance in both big, hard, relentless hands.</p> - -<p>On he came, almost at a run, so eager was he. Came so close before -he stopped that Lynette saw the flash of his blue eyes—eyes which, -when she had seen them first in Big Pine had been laughing and -<i>innocent</i>—which now were the eyes of a blue-eyed devil. He was -laughing; it was a devil's laugh, she thought. For he jeered at her and -her companion. His mockery made her blood tingle; his eyes said evil -things of her. Her cheeks went hot-red under that one flashing look.</p> - -<p>But he was not just now concerned with her! He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> meant to ignore her -until he had given his mind to other matters! He was still shouting in -that wonderful, golden voice of his; to every name in a calendar not -of saints he laid his tongue as he read Babe Deveril's title clear for -him. And, name to name, Babe Deveril checked off with him, hurling back -anathema and epithet as good as came his way.... Lynette understood -that both men had forgotten her. To them, passion-gripped as they were, -it was as though she did not exist and had never existed. And yet it -was largely because of her that they were gathering themselves to fly -at each other! Man inconsistent and therefore man. Otherwise something -either higher or lower; either of a devil-order or a god-order. But -as it is ... better as it is ... something of god and devil and -altogether—man.</p> - -<p>And children of a sort, in their hearts. For, before a blow was struck, -they called names! So fast did the words fly, so hot and furious were -they, that she had the curious sense that their battle would end as it -began, in insults and mutterings. But when Timber-Wolf had shouted: -"Sneak and cur and coward ... a man to rifle another man's pockets, -after that other had played square and been generous with you...." And -when Deveril, his hands still lifted, while in his heart he could have -wept for a club lost, shouted back: "Cur and coward yourself ... with -a rifle against a man who has nothing ..." then she saw that the last -word had been spoken and that blows were inevitable. She drew back -swiftly, as any onlooker must give room to two big wild-wood beasts.</p> - -<p>"Coward? Bruce Standing a coward? Why, damn your dirty soul...."</p> - -<p>Bruce Standing caught his rifle by the end of the barrel; at first -Lynette, and Deveril also, thought that he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> meant to use it as a club. -But instead he flourished it about his head but the once, and hurled it -so far from him that it went, flashing in the sunlight, above a pine -top and fell far away somewhere down the slope. Never in all his life -had Bruce Standing had any man even think of naming him coward. As well -name sunlight darkness. For all men who knew Bruce Standing, and all -men who for the first and only time looked him square in the eyes, knew -of him that he was fearless.</p> - -<p>Thus with a gesture ... he abandoned wordy outpourings of wrath and -hurled himself into flesh-and-blood combat. He did not turn to right or -left for the dwindling camp-fire; he came straight through it, his two -long arms outstretched, seeking Deveril. And Babe Deveril, the moment -he saw how the rifle sped through the air and understood his kinsman's -challenge, leaped forward eagerly to the meeting with him. Their four -boots began scattering firebrands....</p> - -<p>Lynette, with all her fast-beating heart, wanted to come to Babe -Deveril's aid. The one thing which mattered was that, at her hour of -need, he had stood up for her; her soul was tumultuously crying out -for the opportunity to demonstrate beyond lip-service the meaning of -gratitude. She caught up a stone, and throughout the fight held it -gripped so hard that before the end her fingers were bleeding. But -never an opportunity did she have to hurl it as long as those two -contended.</p> - -<p>Once it entered her thought that she must have dreamed of Bruce -Standing, shot and bleeding and senseless on the floor at the Gallup -House. For now, so few hours after, he gave no slightest hint of being -a man recently badly wounded. There was more of common sense in a -man's dying of such a wound as his than in his striking such great, -hammer-hard blows with both arms. He created within her from that -moment an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> odd sensation which grew with her later; the man was not of -the common mould. Something beyond and above mere flesh and blood and -the routine of human qualifications inspired him. There was something -<i>inevitable</i> about Bruce Standing....</p> - -<p>Babe Deveril fought like a young, lissome tiger.... He fought -with all of the might that lay within him, muscle and mind and -controlling spirit. When he struck a blow he put into it, with a -little coughing grunt, every last ounce of hostility which was at -his command; with every blow he longed to kill. And, as though the -two were blood-brothers, Bruce Standing fought as did Babe Deveril. -Straight, hard, merciless blow to answer blow as straight and hard and -merciless....</p> - -<p>Timber-Wolf was a man to laugh at his own mine muckers when they could -not thrust a boulder aside, and to stoop and set his hands and arms -and back to the labor and pluck the thing up and hurl it above their -bewildered heads. He smote as though he carried a war-club in each -hand; he received a crashing blow full in the face, and, though the -blood came, he did not feel it; he struck back, and his great iron -fist beat through Deveril's guarding arms. No man, or at least no man -whom Bruce Standing in his wild life had ever met, could have stood up -against that blow. Babe Deveril, with the life almost jarred out of -his body, went down. And Bruce Standing, growling like an angry bear, -caught him up and lifted him high in air and flung him far away from -him, as lightly as though he flung but a fifty-pound weight. And where -Babe Deveril fell he lay still.... Lynette ran to him and knelt and put -her hands at his shoulders, thinking him dead.</p> - -<p>A short fight it had been, but already had the swift end come. So hard -had that blow been, so tremendous had been the crash against rock and -earth when the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> flung body struck, there appeared to be but a pale -flame of life, flickering wanly, in Deveril's body. Timber-Wolf came -and stood over him and over Lynette, gloating, mumbling; muttering -while his great chest heaved: "Little rat that he is! A man to take -advantage when he found me down; a man to cheat me of the she-cat that -shot me. I could crush him into the dirt with my boot heel...."</p> - -<p>"You great big brute!..."</p> - -<p>It was then that she sprang to her feet and, almost inarticulate with -her own warring emotions, grief and fear and anger and hatred, flung -the jagged stone full into his face. He was unprepared; the stone -struck him full upon the forehead; he staggered backward, stumbling, -almost falling; his hands flew to his face. He was near-stunned; -blinded. Deveril was on his elbow....</p> - -<p>"Come!" she screamed wildly. "Quick! You and I...."</p> - -<p>"Treacherous devil-cat!" There was his thunderous voice shouting so -that she, so near him, was almost deafened.</p> - -<p>Bruce Standing, wiping the blood from his eyes, his two arms out before -him, came back to the attack. Deveril, on his knees, surged to his -feet; Standing struck and Deveril went down like a poorly balanced -timber falling. Lynette was groping for another stone. Suddenly she -felt upon her wrist a grip like a circlet of cutting steel. She was -whisked about; Timber-Wolf held her, drawn close, staring face into -face. His other hand was lifted slowly; suddenly she felt it caught in -her loose hair....</p> - -<p>And then, inexplicable to her now and ever after, there was in her ear -the sound of Bruce Standing's laughter. The hand at her hair fell away. -It went up to his eyes, wiping them clear. And then she saw in the eyes -what she had read in the voice ... laughter.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span></p> - -<p>"Well, Deveril, what now?"</p> - -<p>Again Deveril was on his feet. He swayed; his face was dead-white; -it was easy to see how fiercely he bent every energy at his command -to remain upright. There was a queer look in the eyes he turned upon -Timber-Wolf.</p> - -<p>"I never saw a man ... like you."</p> - -<p>He spoke with effort; he was like a man far gone in some devastating -lung trouble; his voice was windy and vibrant and weak.</p> - -<p>"Baby Devil!" jeered Standing. "Oh, Baby Devil! And, when it comes to -dealing with a real man.... Why, then, less devil than baby! Ho!..."</p> - -<p>"I am going to kill you...."</p> - -<p>"God aids the righteous!" Standing told him sternly. "You go. To hell -with you and your kind."</p> - -<p><i>God aids the righteous!</i> This from the lips of Bruce Standing, -Timber-Wolf!... Lynette, her nerves like wires smitten in an electric -storm, could have burst into wild laughter.... She wrenched at her -wrist; Standing's big hand neither tightened nor relaxed, giving her -the feeling of despair which a thick steel chain would have given had -she been locked and deserted in a dungeon.</p> - -<p>Deveril was looking over his shoulder. In his glance ... the sun was -near setting among the pines, and they saw his face as his head jerked -about ... any one might read his thought: down there, somewhere among -the bushes, lay a rifle!</p> - -<p>Standing laughed at him. And Standing, dragging Lynette along with him -as easily as he might have drawn a child of six, went down the slope -first. And first he came to the fallen rifle and caught it up and -brought it back to the trampled camp-fire.</p> - -<p>"You're sneak enough for that, Baby Devil!" he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> taunted. "For that or -any other coward act. And so is this woman of yours. So I spike the -artillery. God! If the earth were only populated by men!... Now I've -got this word for your crafty ear: listen well." Instantly his voice -became as hard as flint and carried assurance that every word he was -going to say would be a word meant with all his heart and soul. And -all the while he gripped Lynette by the wrist and seemed unconscious -of that fact or that she struggled to be free. "I've given you a fair -fight, you who don't fight fair. And I've knocked the daylights out of -you. And now I'm sick of you. You can go. You can sneak off through the -timber and be out of sight inside of two minutes. Yet I'll give you -five. And at the end of that time, if you're in sight, I am going to -shoot you dead!"</p> - -<p>Deveril glared at him, his glance laid upon Standing's as one rapier -may clash across another.</p> - -<p>"Do your dirty killing and be damned to you!" said Deveril briefly.</p> - -<p>Timber-Wolf looked at him in surprise; he began to cast about him for -a fresh and clearer comprehension of a man whom he despised. He strove -with all his power of clean vision to see to the bottom of Deveril's -most hidden thought.</p> - -<p>"Now," said Standing slowly, "I am almost sorry for what I said. It -strikes into me, Kid, that you are not afraid!"</p> - -<p>Deveril, breathless, panting, holding himself erect only through a -great call upon his will, made no spoken answer, but again laid the -blade of his glance shiningly across that of Timber-Wolf.</p> - -<p>"You die just the same," said Standing coldly. "It's only because I -gave my word; that you can take in man-to-man style from me, Kid; for -once I am not ashamed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> to be related to you. Either you travel or, in -five minutes, you are a dead man."</p> - -<p>Slowly Deveril's haggard eyes roved to Lynette's face ... Lynette -chained to Bruce Standing in that crushing grip....</p> - -<p>"I am going," he said. And both knew he said it in fearlessness but -also in understanding of the power which lay in a rifle bullet and the -weakness of the barricade offered to it by a human skull. And both -understood, further, that it was to Lynette that he spoke. "I am coming -back!"</p> - -<p>"For God's sake!" she screamed. "Go! Hurry!"</p> - -<p>"Hurry!" Bruce Standing, with his own word of honor in the balance -against the weight of the life of a man whom he began to respect, was -all anxiety to have his kinsman gone.</p> - -<p>Deveril's last word, with his last look, was for Lynette.</p> - -<p>"A man who doesn't know when he's beat is a fool.... But you can be -sure of this: I'll be back!"</p> - -<p>He went, walking crookedly at first among the knee-high bushes; then -growing straighter as he passed into the demesne of the tall, straight -pines. Not swiftly, since there was no possibility of any swift play of -muscles left within him; but steadily.</p> - -<p>"A man!" grunted Timber-Wolf. Whether in admiration or disgust, Lynette -could not guess from his tone.</p> - -<p>He had his watch in the palm of his hand; her gaze was riveted on it. -It seemed so tiny a thing in that great valley of his hand; a bauble. -Yet its even more insignificant minute-hand was assuming the office of -arbiter of human life; she knew that the moment the fifth minute was -ticked off Bruce Standing, true to his sworn word, would relinquish her -wrist just long enough<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> to whip his rifle to his shoulder and fire ... -in case the uncertain form of Babe Deveril, going up over the ridge, -were still in sight. And she knew within her soul that just so sure as -gun butt struck shoulder and finger found trigger, so sure would Babe -Deveril toss his arms up and fall dead....</p> - -<p>"Hurry, Kid ... you damn' fool ... <i>hurry</i>...."</p> - -<p>All the while Timber-Wolf was muttering and glaring at his watch and -clinching her wrist; all the while forgetting that he held her. And, -this also she knew, regretting that he had the job set before him of -shooting down another man.</p> - -<p>Lynette, her whole body atingle, every sense keyed up to its highest -stressing, knew as soon as did Bruce Standing when he was going to drop -her wrist and jerk his gun up. The five minutes were passing; still, -though at a distance far up on the ridge, seen only by glimpses now and -then under the setting sun, Babe Deveril was driving on, a man half -bereft of his sober senses, his brain reeling from savage blows and on -fire with rage and mortification; they saw him among the pines; they -lost him; they saw him again. Never once had he turned to look back. -Yet it did not seem that he hastened....</p> - -<p>Timber-Wolf, growling deep down in his throat, lifted his rifle. But -Lynette, before the act, <i>knew</i>! She flung herself with sudden fury -upon his uplifted arm; she caught it, and with the weight of her body -dragged it down. He sought to fling her off; she wrapped both of her -arms about his right arm; she jerked at it so that he could have no -slightest hope of a steady aim....</p> - -<p>He turned and looked down into her eyes; deep ... deep. For what seemed -to her a long, long time he stood looking down into her eyes.</p> - -<p>Then, with sudden anger, he thrust her aside. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>Without looking to see -if she had fallen or stumbled and run, he raised his rifle again.</p> - -<p>But just in time Babe Deveril was gone, over the ridge....</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XII</h2> - -<p>"And now that you're half scared to death, you'd like to make a man -believe that you are not afraid of the devil himself!"</p> - -<p>She flashed a burning look at him; chokingly she cried:</p> - -<p>"At least, thank God, I am not afraid of you, Bruce Standing!... Big -brute and bully and ... Yes!... Coward!"</p> - -<p>And yet, as never before in her life, her heart was beating wildly, -leaping against her side like an imprisoned thing struggling to break -through the walls which shut it in. His fingers were still locked about -her wrist; his grip tightened; he drew her closer in order to look -the more clearly into her eyes. Then his slow, mocking laughter smote -across her nerves like a rude hand brushing across harp-strings, making -clashing discords.</p> - -<p>"You begin well!" he jeered at her. "We are going to see how you end."</p> - -<p>"Let me go!" She jerked back; she twisted and dragged at her wrist, -trying wildly to break free. His mockery stung her into desperation. -With her one free hand she struck him across the face.</p> - -<p>She struck hard, with all her might, with trebled strength through her -fury. And, maddening her, he gave no sign that she had hurt him. Still -jeering at her, all that he did was drop his rifle, so that with his -other hand he could take captive the hand which had struck him. And -then it was so easy a thing for him to take both her wrists into the -grip of his one, right hand; held thus, no matter how she fought, hers -was the sensation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> of utter powerlessness which is a child's when an -elder person, teasing, catches its two hands in one and lets it cry and -kick.... Suddenly she grew quiet....</p> - -<p>"Well?" she demanded, panting, forcing her eyes to a steady meeting -with his. "What do you intend to do with me, now you've got me? There -doesn't appear to be any one near to keep you from woman-beating!"</p> - -<p>"What am I going to do with you? If I knew, I'd tell you! When I do -know, I'll show you.... If I could catch you by the hair and drag you -through hell after me.... I pay all of my debts, girl! I have followed -you; I have found you; I have taken you, prying you loose from your -running mate.... You thought it fun to laugh at me once, did you? -Before I have done with you, you would give your soul for the power and -the will to laugh...."</p> - -<p>"It is because I laughed at you?" she asked wonderingly.</p> - -<p>"For what else?" he said sternly.</p> - -<p>"And not because of a pistol shot?"</p> - -<p>"Less for that than for the other. I allow it any man's privilege to -shoot at me if he doesn't like me; but no man's nor woman's privilege -to laugh."</p> - -<p>"How do you know it was I who shot you?... Did you see?"</p> - -<p>"Had I seen, I should not have held it against you; for that would have -meant that you struck in the open, any man's or woman's right! But to -shoot a man in the back.... Here; help me!"</p> - -<p>She was perplexed to know what he meant. He dragged her after him, a -dozen paces from the fire; still holding her two hands caught in his -one, he sat down upon a big stone. Suddenly it struck her that all this -time, since he had dropped his rifle, his left arm had been hanging -limply at his side.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span></p> - -<p>"When I let go of you," he said, very stern, "if you try to run for it -I'll catch you and drag you back. And I'm in no mood for gentleness!" -At that he let her go. He put his right hand to his shirt collar and -began unbuttoning it.</p> - -<p>"My wound has broken open," he said, with a grunt of disgust. "That -Baby Devil of yours didn't care where he hit a man!... Here; there's a -bandage that has slipped. And I'm losing blood again. See what you can -do."</p> - -<p>"Why should I?" she demanded coolly. "What is it to me whether or not -you bleed to death?"</p> - -<p>Fury filled his eyes and he shouted at her:</p> - -<p>"You, by God, drilled the cowardly hole; and you doctor it!"</p> - -<p>"And if I won't?"</p> - -<p>"Then, as I live, I'll make you! One way or another, girl, I'll make -you. That's Bruce Standing's word for you. Now hurry!"</p> - -<p>She cast a quick glance over her shoulder; she was on the verge -of breaking into wild, headlong flight.... But certain knowledge -restrained her; she knew that he would overtake her, that he would drag -her back and ... that he was in no mood for gentleness. Therefore, -while her whole soul rebelled, she came closer, as he commanded.</p> - -<p>... She had never dreamed that any man born could have a chest like -that; nor such shoulders, massive and yet beautiful as the pure-lined -expression of power; nor such skin, soft and smooth and white as a -girl's, the outward sign of another beauty, that of clean health. -Clean, hard, triumphant physical manhood.... It struck her at the time, -so that she marvelled at herself and wondered dully if she were taking -leave of her sober senses, that there was truer, finer beauty in the -body of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> such a man than in any girl's; that here was a true artist's -true triumph.... Physically he was splendid, superb.... In his own -image did God make man....</p> - -<p>With his right hand he was working with the bandage where it was taped -about the bulge of his left breast; on the white cloth were fresh gouts -of blood. Impatiently he tore at his shirt collar; on the bandage, -where it passed about his left shoulder-blade, were red stains.</p> - -<p>"Wait a minute," he commanded. "In my pocket I've got some sort of -salve; some idiotic mess that Billy Winch cooked up; the Lord knows -what it is or what he made it of; iodine and soap and flaxseed and -cobwebs, most likely! But it will chink up the leak ... and it feels -good and hasn't poisoned me so far! Here, smear it on."</p> - -<p>... She felt as though she were dreaming all this! That wild, -uncontrollable laughter of hers which swept over her at times of taut -nerves and absurd situations, threatened to master her. She fought it -down. She touched his back. She, Lynette, administering to Timber-Wolf -... it would be better for her, far better for her, if his wound were -poisoned and he died!... Yet, as she touched his back, it was with -wondrously gentle fingers. There was a wound there; the ugly wound made -by a bullet, half healed, broken open anew under heavy blows. A little -shiver, a strange, new sort of shiver, ran through her; here she was -down to elementals, she, who with just cause and leaping instinct hated -this man, ministering to him....</p> - -<p>"Smear the stuff on, I tell you. Over the wound. Enough of it to shut -out any infernal infection.... What in the devil's name is holding you? -Waiting for the sun to go down and come up again?"</p> - -<p>She bit her lips; he looked suddenly into her face, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> could have -no clew to her thought or emotion; he could not guess whether she bit -her lip to keep from laughing or crying!... She spread over the gaping -wound a thin film of Billy Winch's pungent salve. As she touched the -wound she looked for a muscular contraction, for the flinching from -pain. He did not move; there was not so much as the involuntary quiver -of a muscle. She wondered if the man felt as other human beings did?</p> - -<p>... "Now a fresh piece of tape. That idiot Winch packed me off with my -pockets loaded like a drug-store shelf! That's all for this time; we'll -make a new dressing and bathe the wound in the morning. Now.... Here! -Let me look at you!"</p> - -<p>He crimsoned her face with that way of his. She whipped back from him -and her eyes brightened with defiance. He sat looking at her a long -time, while with slow fingers he buttoned his collar; his face showed -not so much as a flicker of expression; his eyes were keen, but gave no -clew to his thought.</p> - -<p>The sun was already down beyond the ridge; shadows here in the little -hollow had gathered swiftly; dark was on the way. He rose and went to -the fire, for an instant turning his back upon her as he piled on the -dead-wood which Deveril had gathered. But over his shoulder he called -to her coolly:</p> - -<p>"I've warned you not to try to run for it!"</p> - -<p>And from his tone she knew that he had easily guessed her thought; for -the impulse to attempt flight had been strong upon her the moment that -he turned. She remained where she stood; if only it were pitch-dark, if -only he went on a few paces farther away from her, if only the fringe -of trees offering refuge were a few paces nearer.... She was quick to -see the folly of making a premature dash; the wisdom in allowing him to -think that she could be looked to for obedience! Thus, later,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> when her -chance came and his watchfulness nodded, she'd be up and away like a -shot....</p> - -<p>The fire caught the fresh fuel and crackled and blazed, sparks -showering about her where she stood. Now Standing, his face looking -ruddy in the glow, turned toward her, saying curtly:</p> - -<p>"Come here. I want a good look at you ... in the full light."</p> - -<p>"Brute and bully!" she cried, struggling with herself for an outward -semblance of calm. "You hold the high card. But the game isn't played -out between you and me yet, Bruce Standing." While speaking she came -closer, so that she too stood in the red fire glow. She held her head -up; she returned his unswerving gaze unswervingly.</p> - -<p>"You've got the vocabulary of a gambler's daughter," he said. "That's -what you are, eh? A gambler's girl and, in your own penny-ante way, a -gambler yourself!"</p> - -<p>"I am the daughter of Dick Brooke!" she told him proudly. "Dick Brooke -was a man and a miner and after that, if you like, a gambler."</p> - -<p>"Dick Brooke? Dick Brooke's daughter? Why, then ... the daughter also -of a dancing-girl!"</p> - -<p>Her face went white with anger.</p> - -<p>"Oh ... I hate you! Oh, I hate you! You ... you are contemptible!"</p> - -<p>"Aha! So that hurts!" he jeered at her.</p> - -<p>"It is a cruel lie. Olymphe Labelle was not a dancing-girl.... She was -an artist! And a woman among ten thousand...."</p> - -<p>The firelight cast its warm glow over her face. She lifted her chin -defiantly. Her hair fell in loose, rippling strands of bronze and over -her shoulders. She was very beautiful thus; no woman on whom Bruce -Standing had ever looked was half so beautiful. And haughty, like a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> -princess ... like a high-bred lady made captive, yet scorning to show -sign of fear....</p> - -<p>"You are Lynette Brooke," he muttered; "you are the girl who laughed at -me, shaming me; you are the girl who shot me in the back! Those are the -things to remember. A treacherous cat of a woman; a gun woman! One to -go sneaking around with a revolver at hand to shoot a man in the back -with...."</p> - -<p>"Any woman, dealing with men like you, has need of a gun!"</p> - -<p>"I'll tell you this," he muttered. "I'm a fair judge of men, if not of -women. And when it's a case of a man ... why just show me a man who -carries a pocket-gun and I'll show you a cheap ragamuffin, a tin horn, -or an overgrown kid ... or a dirty coward. A man's weapon is a rifle -carried in the open; give me a good pair of boots and I'll stamp the -white livers out of a whole crowd of your little gunmen.... As for -women, gun-toting women...." He broke off with a heavy shrug. "Now, -girl, I'm hungry. The smell of your coffee has been in my nostrils a -long time. See what you can give me to eat."</p> - -<p>"So I am to wait on you ... to be your servant...."</p> - -<p>"To be my slave!" he shouted at her. "Proud, are you? So much the -better. I swore to make you pay, and you begin paying now. Yes, as my -slave as long as I like!"</p> - -<p>"And you call yourself a man!"</p> - -<p>"I call myself the best man that ever came into this wilderness -country," he told her impudently. "If you are in doubt, bring on any -other man of your choice and ask him, with your pretty smiles, if he -cares to stand up against me! Yes, a man who goes rough-shod over -everything and anything and anybody who stands in his way...."</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span></p> - -<p>"Boaster!" she named him scornfully.</p> - -<p>He laughed loudly at that.</p> - -<p>"I am no boaster and in your heart you know it!... There's another -damn-fool convention for you, that business of great modesty! A man who -is sure of himself doesn't have to walk easy and talk easy, but can -tell other men what he is, and then, by glory, show 'em!"</p> - -<p>Still she was scornful of him ... though she could not keep out of her -thought that picture which he had made when, axe in hand, he had laid -an armed jailer in the dust, and single-handed had made a jail delivery -which hundreds of other men wanted to make and held back from ... -through lack of that unrestricted confidence which was Bruce Standing's.</p> - -<p>He was staring at her.</p> - -<p>"You, too ... for a woman ... have courage," he muttered. And then, -with a sudden arm flung out: "I'm hungry, I tell you."</p> - -<p>"I'd rather die...."</p> - -<p>"It's easy to die ... for any one who is not a coward. And I just told -you that you had courage." He came suddenly close to her. "But there -are other things that are not so easy! What if I put my two arms about -you? If I hold you tight ... and set my lips to yours ... and...."</p> - -<p>"You beast...."</p> - -<p>"But my dinner?" he jeered at her.</p> - -<p>She went hot and cold; she cast a quick glance toward the forest land -where the night was thickening; she cast another glance at his rifle -where it lay, a few feet from the fire. Then, her lower lip caught -between her teeth, she went to the tin can in which she and Babe -Deveril had made coffee.</p> - -<p>"A funny thing," said Bruce Standing, watching her; "you skipped out, -hot-foot, from Big Pine, thinking you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> had killed me! And your little -friend, meaning Baby Devil, skipped along, thinking he had done Jim -Taggart in! And, after all, nobody much hurt!... Glad to hear that -Taggart did not die?"</p> - -<p>"I knew it already," she said, just to cheat him of any satisfaction in -telling her.</p> - -<p>"Mexicali Joe skipped this way, too," he went on swiftly, so swiftly -that he succeeded in tricking her into saying:</p> - -<p>"I knew that, too!"</p> - -<p>Then he laughed at her, informing her:</p> - -<p>"Now there remains little for you to tell me. You knew Taggart was -still on his feet and you knew Joe was travelling this way, and you've -come up from the general direction of Joe's dugout! Which tells me one -thing: where you and Baby Devil got the coffee and this tinned stuff. -Now let's hear details!"</p> - -<p>"Oh ... I hate you!"</p> - -<p>"You've told me that before. And...." He burst into booming laughter. -And then, still laughter-choked, he cried: "Like a good old-time -two-handled sword is the man Bruce Standing! And yet his wit, like a -Spanish dagger, is good match for a girl's!"</p> - -<p>She made no reply, though her blood tingled, and though her hand, with -a will of its own, must be held back from striking him across the face -again. She brought him his coffee and thereafter food which he called -for from among the tins.</p> - -<p>"What do you think has happened to your gentleman friend?" he mocked -her. And when she refused to reply, he told her: "He's gone on ... -where? After Taggart? To get a rifle and come back? Planning to hide -behind a tree and pop me off while I'm not looking? That would make a -hit with you, wouldn't it? Like your own best game of shooting a man in -the back!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> Or has he forgotten a pair of bright eyes and warm arms and -red lips? And is he content to trail Mexicali, spying on him, trying to -get in on the new gold diggings? Which, girl?"</p> - -<p>"He hates you!... with cause. And he is no coward; he is as good a man, -if less brute, as you, Bruce Standing!..."</p> - -<p>When he spoke finally it was to say:</p> - -<p>"We're going to be short on provisions for a day or so, girl. Hungry?"</p> - -<p>Here was her first, altogether too vague clew to his intentions. -Quickly she asked:</p> - -<p>"Where are we going?"</p> - -<p>"I to keep an engagement; you to accompany me."</p> - -<p>He supposed that he had told her nothing. And yet she, quick-witted, -having never let slip from her mind a certain suspicion when Mexicali -Joe had too readily succumbed to Taggart, cried out:</p> - -<p>"To a meeting with Mexicali Joe!"</p> - -<p>"What makes you think that?" he asked sharply.</p> - -<p>She pretended to laugh at him. He ate in silence; drank his coffee; -thereafter, stuffing a pipe full of crude black tobacco, smoked -thoughtfully. All the while the fire burned lower and the darkness, -ringing them around, drew closer in. She had been on the alert, while -looking to be hopelessly bowed where she sat. Suddenly he was at her -side, his grip like a steel bracelet about her wrist.</p> - -<p>"About ready to jump and run for it?" he taunted her. "Not to-night, my -girl; and not to-morrow night nor yet for many a day to come. I've got -my own plans for you."</p> - -<p>"Are you going to take me back to Big Pine? To hand me over to the law, -with a charge of attempted murder against me?"</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span></p> - -<p>"I am going to take you with me on into the wilderness. Into a country -which is absolutely the kingdom of Bruce Standing. Haven't I told you -that I have my own plans for you? I can hand you over to the cheap -degradation of a trial and conviction and jail sentence whenever I am -ready for it...."</p> - -<p>"You can't keep me from killing myself...."</p> - -<p>"But I can! I am master here, understand? And you.... By heaven, you -are nothing but my slave so long as I tolerate you!... Look here, what -I brought for you!... For I knew I'd find you!"</p> - -<p>He began unwinding from his big body a thin steel chain, a chain which -he had brought with him from his ranch headquarters, where it had -served as leash for a wolf-hound. With a quick movement he snapped the -end of it about her waist; there was a steel padlock scarcely bigger -than a silver half-dollar; she heard the click as he locked it. Then he -stood back from her, the other end of the slight chain in his hand ... -and laughed at her!</p> - -<p>"The sign of your servitude!... Proud? One way to make you pay! Will -you laugh again, girl? Will you, do you think, ever have the second -chance to shoot me in the back?... Come; we must be on our way before -daylight."</p> - -<p>He caught up his rifle; that, together with the end of her chain, he -held in his hand. He began putting out the fire, stamping on the living -coals. Making her follow him, he went to the creek several times for -water, which he carried in his big hat, which held so much more than -any tin can in camp. When the fire was out, he turned with her toward -the bowery shelter which Babe Deveril, working and singing, had made -for her. With his shuffling boots he kicked the culled branches into -two heaps. He wrapped the end of her chain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> about his wrist; she heard -the snap as he fastened it. He thrust his rifle under him.</p> - -<p>"I am going to sleep," he told her bluntly and cast himself down. "You -with your payment just begun, may lie awake all night ... wondering...."</p> - -<p>... But it was a long, long while, a weary time of darkness sprinkled -with stars before he went to sleep. She sat up on her couch of boughs, -the chain about her waist galling her....</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XIII</h2> - -<p>It may appear a strange thing that Lynette Brooke slept at all that -night. But a fatigued body, healthy and young, demanded its right, and -she did sleep and sleep well. A far stranger thing was that, after -she had sat in the dark a long time, there had at last come a queer -little smile upon her lips and into her eyes, and she had gone to sleep -smiling!</p> - -<p>For in the deep black silence her quick mind had been busy, never so -busy; out of tiny scraps it had constructed a mental patchwork. Nor -were all dark-hued threads weaving in and out of it; here and there the -sombre pattern had bright-hued spots. Her courage was high, her hopes -always at surging high tide; her senses keen. And, after all, Bruce -Standing was a blunt, forthright man, in no degree subtle....</p> - -<p>He had given her the impression an hour ago of being entirely -brute beast. That was true. Further, she told herself with growing -conviction, that it had been his great intent to make her regard him -as brute and beast; she had angered him, she had drawn upon herself -his vengeful wrath; he meant to make her pay; and his first step had -been to make her afraid of him.... She went on to other thoughts; Bruce -Standing was the man to defy Gallup in his own lair; the man to defy -the sheriff; to hurl an axe at an armed deputy ... and yet the only man -in Big Pine to lift an angry hand against the unfair play of shutting -little Mexicali Joe up in jail! He, alone, had not sought to steal -Joe's secret; he alone was ready, against all odds, to throw<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> the door -back and let Joe go. Not altogether that the part of the brute and -beast!</p> - -<p>Another thing: Bruce Standing did not lie. She <i>knew</i> that. And he was -not a coward; he did not do petty, cowardly things.... He meant her -to believe that there was nothing too cruel and merciless for him to -inflict upon her. Yet she had struck him in the face with a stone; she -had struck him with her hands, and he had not so much as bruised the -skin of her wrists with his big hard hands!... Eager he had been to -humiliate her, calling her his slave; eagerly, as soon as he had read -her pride, he grasped at the first means of torturing it. Why that -great eagerness ... unless he, despite his threat, was casting about in -rather blind fashion for means to make her pay?... He wanted her to be -afraid of him ... and it came to her in the dark, so that she smiled, -that this was because there was little for her to fear!</p> - -<p>"In his rage," she told herself, and, fettered as she was, a first -gleam of triumph visited her, "he came roaring after me. And, now he -has me, he doesn't know what to do with me! To make me his unwilling -slave ... <i>unwilling</i>!... that is all that he can think of now."</p> - -<p>And again there was comfort in the thought:</p> - -<p>"If he meant to harm me, why should he have let me go to-night? An -angry man, bent upon real brute vengeance, would have struck at the -first opportunity. The opportunity was when he sent Babe Deveril away -and had me to do what he pleased with. And he only played the perfectly -silly game of making me his slave ... <i>unwilling</i>...."</p> - -<p>It was the thoughts which rose with the word that put the little smile -into her eyes and brought the first softening of her troubled lips.... -Several times she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> heard him stirring restlessly; once he awakened -her with his muttering, and she knew that he was asleep, but that -either his wound pained him or his sleep was disturbed by unwelcome -dreams—perhaps both.</p> - -<p>Bruce Standing woke and sat up in the early chill dawn. He looked -swiftly to where Lynette lay. She appeared to be plunged in deep, -restful sleep. She lay comfortably snuggled in among the boughs; the -curve of one arm was up about her face, so that he could not see her -eyes. Naturally he believed them shut; her breathing was low and quiet, -exactly as it should have been were she really fast asleep.... She -looked pretty and tiny and tired out, but resting. Suddenly he frowned -savagely. But he sat for a long time without stirring.</p> - -<p>Lynette put up her arms and stretched and yawned sleepily, and then, -like a little girl of six, put her knuckles into her eyes. Then she, -too, sat up quickly.</p> - -<p>"Oh," she said brightly. "Are you awake already? And making not a -bit of noise, so as to let me have my sleep out? Good morning, Mr. -Timber-Wolf!"</p> - -<p>She was smiling at him! Smiling with soft red lips and gay eyes!</p> - -<p>He frowned and with a sudden lurch was on his feet.</p> - -<p>"Come," he said harshly. "I want to make an early start."</p> - -<p>She sprang to her feet as though all eagerness, exclaiming brightly:</p> - -<p>"If you'll get the fire started, I'll have breakfast in a minute! There -isn't much in the larder, but you'll see what a nice breakfast I can -make of it. Then I'll dress your wound and we'll be on our way."</p> - -<p>"Look here," muttered Standing, swinging about to stare at her, "what -the devil are you up to?"</p> - -<p>"What do you mean?" she asked innocently.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span></p> - -<p>"I mean this cheap play-acting stuff ... as though you were as happy as -a bird!"</p> - -<p>"Why, I always believe in making the best of a bad mess, don't you?" -she retorted. "And, after all, how do you know that I'm not as happy as -a bird? I nearly always am."</p> - -<p>His eyes were blazing, his face flushed; she saw that she was lashing -him into rage. She began to fear that she had gone too far; for the -present she would go no farther. But meanwhile she gave him no hint of -any trepidation, but kept the clear, unconcerned look in her eyes.</p> - -<p>He strode away from her, toward the charred remains of last night's -fire. He held her chain in his hand; she hurried along after him, so -that not once could the links tighten; so that not once could he feel -that he was dragging an unwilling captive behind him. Her heart was -beating like mad; she was aquiver with excitement over the working out -of her scheme, yet she gave him no inkling of any kind of nervousness.</p> - -<p>"I don't know what you are up to and I don't care," he said abruptly. -"You are to do what you are told, girl."</p> - -<p>"Of course!" she said quickly. "I understand that. I am ready...."</p> - -<p>"I am going to take the chain off you now, simply because I don't need -it during daylight. But you're not to run away; if you try it I'll run -you down and drag you back. Do you understand? And after that I'll keep -you chained up."</p> - -<p>"I understand," she nodded again. And, when he had removed the chain -from her waist, all the time not looking at her while she, all the -time, stood smiling, she said a quiet "Thank you."</p> - -<p>"While I get some wood," he went on, "you can take<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> some cans and go -down to the creek for water. I'll trust you that far ... and don't -you trust too much to the screen of willows to give you a chance for -a getaway! I tell you, I'd overhaul you as sure as there is a God in -heaven!"</p> - -<p>She caught up two cans and went down the slope toward the creek. To -keep him from guessing how, all of a sudden, her heart was fluttering -again, she sang a little song as she went. He stared after her, puzzled -and wondering. Then with a short, savage grunt, he began gathering wood.</p> - -<p>Was now her time? This her chance? She sang more loudly, clearly and -cheerily. She wanted to look back to see if he was watching her every -step; yet she beat down the temptation, knowing that if he did watch -and did see her turn he would know that she was overeager for flight. -She came to the creek; she passed carelessly about a little clump of -willows. Now she looked back, peering through the branches. He was -stooping, gathering wood; his back was to her!</p> - -<p>"<i>Now!</i>" her impulses cried within her. "<i>Now!</i>"</p> - -<p>She looked about her hurriedly, in all directions. There was so much -open country here; big pines, wide-spaced. If she ran down the slope -he must surely see her when she had gone fifty or a hundred yards. And -then he'd be after her! If she turned to right or left, the case was -almost the same. If it were only dark! But the sun was rising....</p> - -<p>She began singing again, so that he might hear. A sudden anger blazed -up within her. With all his blunt ways, the man was not without his own -sort of shrewdness; he had known that she had no chance here to escape -him; no chance for such a head start as to give her an even break in a -race with him.</p> - -<p>... After ten minutes she came back to him; she <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>carried a dripping can -in each hand; she had bathed hands and arms and face and throat; she -had combed her hair out through her fingers, making new thick braids, -with loosely curling ends. She had taken time to twist those soft ends -about her fingers. He was standing over his newly built fire; his -rifle, with the chain tossed across it, lay against a rock; he gave no -sign of noting her approach.... Yet, while they ate a hurriedly warmed -breakfast, she caught him several times looking at her curiously....</p> - -<p>Her heart began again to beat happily; never was hope long departed -from the breast of Lynette Brooke. She kept telling herself, over and -over, that he was not going to be brute and beast to her. Soon or late -she would find her chance for escape from him; she would let him think -her that weakling which it was his way to regard women in general; -there would come the time when, once more free, she could laugh at -him.... And she, when he did not observe, looked curiously at him many -a time.</p> - -<p>When they had eaten and he had gathered up the few scraps of food and -had very carefully extinguished the last ember of their fire, he wound -the chain about his middle again, caught up the rifle and said briefly -and still without looking at her:</p> - -<p>"Come."</p> - -<p>She followed him, neither hesitating nor questioning; thus she was -gleefully sure she angered him.... She wondered what the day held in -store for her; she wondered what of good and bad lay ahead; and yet -she was now less filled with terror than with the burning zest for -life itself. Bruce Standing had told her that he was going to keep an -appointment; he had been the man to release Mexicali Joe; Mexicali Joe -had whispered something and Standing had laughed; Mexicali Joe was now<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> -ahead of them, pretending to lead Taggart and Gallup and Cliff Shipton -to his gold! Her thoughts were busy enough and she, like her silent -companion, had small need for talk.</p> - -<p>She wondered about Babe Deveril; how badly hurt he had been after Bruce -Standing's mauling; what he was doing now; where he was? A hundred -times that morning, hearing bird or squirrel and once a leaping buck, -she looked to see Babe Deveril bursting back upon them.... Had he -not gone far, last night? Had he remained near their camp and was he -following them to-day?...</p> - -<p>They passed over a ridge and turned into a little cup of a green -valley; Standing, stalking ahead of her, went to a thicket and drew -from it a saddle and bridle and saddle blankets and a small canvas -pack. Then, standing with his hands on his hips, staring off in all -directions, he whistled shrilly. Whistled, and waited listening, and -whistled again. Lynette heard, from far off, the quick, glad <i>whicker</i> -of a horse. And here came the horse galloping; kicking up its heels; -shaking its head with flying mane; circling, snorting, with lowered -head; at standstill for a moment, a golden sorrel with snow-white mane -and tail; a mount for even Timber-Wolf, lover of horses, to be proud to -own and ride and whistle to through the forest land.... Lynette looked -swiftly at Standing's face; he was smiling; his eyes were bright.</p> - -<p>He went forward and stroked his horse's satiny nose and wreathed a hand -in the mane and led the animal to the saddle, calling him softly, "Good -old Daylight." The horse nosed him; Standing laughed out loud and smote -the great shoulder with open palm.... Lynette saw with clear vision -that there was a great love between man and animal; and she thought -of another horse, Sunlight, slaughtered at Young Gallup's orders,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> -and of Standing's lisping rage and of her own nervous, uncontrollable -laughter....</p> - -<p>There came a deep, ugly growling—a throaty, wolfish menace, almost at -her heels. She whirled about and cried out in sudden startled fright.</p> - -<p>"Lie down Thor!" Standing shouted sternly. "Down, sir!"</p> - -<p>Lynette had never seen a dog like this one, big and lean and -forbidding; as tall as a calf in her suddenly frightened eyes, wolfish -looking, with stiff bristles rising along powerful neck and back, and -eyes red-rimmed, and sharp-toothed mouth slavering. At Standing's -command the great dog, which had come upon her on such noiseless pads, -dropped to the ground as though a bullet instead of a commanding voice -had drilled its heart. But still the steady eyes filled with suspicion -and menace were fixed on her.</p> - -<p>"He'd tear your throat out if I gave the word," said Standing. "Now you -do what I tell you; go to him and set your hand on his head!"</p> - -<p>"I won't!" she cried out sharply, drawing back. The deep, throaty growl -came again; the dog's lips trembled and withdrew from the long, wolfish -teeth; the whole gaunt form was aquiver....</p> - -<p>"But you will! Otherwise.... He'll not hurt you when once I tell him -not to. Go to him; put your hand on his head.... Afraid?" he jeered.</p> - -<p>She was afraid. Sick-afraid. And yet she gave her taunter one withering -glance and stepped swiftly, though her flesh quivered, to the dog.</p> - -<p>"Steady, Thor!" cried Standing sternly. "You dog, steady, sir!"</p> - -<p>The dog growled and the teeth were like evil, poisonous fangs. Yet -Lynette came another step toward him; she stooped; she put forward her -hand....</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span></p> - -<p>"<i>Thor!</i>" Standing's voice rang out, filled with warning. Thor began -whining.</p> - -<p>Lynette put her hand upon the big head. Thor trembled. Suddenly he -lay flat, belly down; the head between the outstretched fore paws. He -whined again. Standing laughed and began bridling and saddling his -horse. Thor jumped up and frisked about his master; Standing fondled -him, as he had fondled Daylight, by striking him resoundingly.</p> - -<p>"To play safe," he flung over his shoulder at Lynette, "better come -here."</p> - -<p>When she had drawn close Standing stooped and patted the dog's head. -Then, while Thor, snarling, looked on, he put out his hand and placed -it for a fleeting instant upon Lynette's shoulder.</p> - -<p>"Good dog," he said quietly.</p> - -<p>Then he caught up her hand and placed it on Thor's head, cupped under -his own.</p> - -<p>"Good dog," he said again. And then he told Lynette to call the dog. -She did so, saying in an uncertain voice:</p> - -<p>"Here, Thor!... Come here, Thor!"</p> - -<p>"Thor!" cried Standing commandingly. "Good dog!"</p> - -<p>Thor trembled, but he went to her. He allowed her to pat him. Then, -with a suddenness which startled her, he shot out a red tongue to lick -her hand. Standing burst into sudden pleased laughter.</p> - -<p>"Your friend ... so long as I don't set him on you!" he cried out.</p> - -<p>"You are a beast ... who herd with beasts!" she said, shuddering.</p> - -<p>He laughed again and finished drawing tight cinch and strapping latigo. -He tied his small pack at the strings behind the saddle and said -briefly:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span></p> - -<p>"Since we're in a hurry, suppose you ride while I walk alongside? We'll -make better time that way."</p> - -<p>She was ashamed of herself—that she should have been afraid of a dog! -Now she was Lynette again, quick and capable and confident. He was -going to lend her a hand to mount; she forestalled him and went up into -the saddle like a flash. It was in her thought to take him by surprise; -to give Daylight his head and race away out of sight among the pines....</p> - -<p>But he was scarcely less quick; his hand shot out, catching Daylight's -reins; he unwound the chain from about his middle and snapped the catch -into the horse's bit.... And she began to analyze, thinking:</p> - -<p>"He took time to explain why he let me ride while he walked! He is less -beast and brute than he knows himself!... Less beast and brute than -... simple humbug!" And, before they had gone ten steps, he heard her -humming the air which she had sung at breakfast time.</p> - -<p>"Damn it," he muttered under his breath, not for her to hear. "The -little devil ... she's taking advantage of me, every advantage. She.... -Just the same ... just the same...."</p> - -<p>And he, too, was wondering about Babe Deveril!</p> - -<p>"We go this way," he said. "I'll lead; you follow."</p> - -<p>"I know!" cried Lynette; she could not hold the words back. "Toward -Buck Valley and Big Bear Creek ... and Mexicali Joe. And...."</p> - -<p>"And what?" he demanded, snatching at her chain, sensing that something -of import lay behind the abruptly checked words.</p> - -<p>She only laughed at him.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XIV</h2> - -<p>Another day of wilderness wandering. A cabin sighted, but so far away -that it was merely a vague dot upon a distant ridge; miner's shack -or sheepman's or wood-cutter's? Housing an occupant or deserted for -years? No smoke from the rock chimney; no sign of any human being near -it. And all view of it so soon lost!... And, afterward, no other human -habitation of any kind; no road man-made; only trees and rocks, gorges -and ridges and brush, and a winding way to be chosen between them. -With, always, Bruce Standing driving on and on, relentlessly on, ever -deeper into the wilderness.</p> - -<p>A day of life like a leaf torn out of the book of hell for Lynette. He -did not speak to her as they went on from dawn to noon and from noon -until afternoon shadows gathered; he did not so much as turn his eyes -full upon her own; for the most part he seemed altogether forgetful of -the fact that, besides himself, there was another of his species in all -the wide sweep of this land of mighty solitudes. For his dog, Thor, he -had a kindly though rough-spoken word now and then; for his horse a -word or a rude pat upon the shoulder or hip; for her nothing but his -utter, unruffled silence.... At times she hummed little snatches of gay -tunes, hoping to irritate him; at times she strove for an aloofness to -match his own. Countless times she looked over her shoulder, looking -for Babe Deveril. And so the day, a long day, went by until at last it -was late afternoon.</p> - -<p>"Here we stop," said Standing abruptly. "Get down."</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span></p> - -<p>He would seem to have all advantage over her; yet she understood that -in one way, and in one way only, could she rob him of his advantage, -and that was by giving him swift and cheerful obedience. So she slipped -out of the saddle on the instant, giving him for answer only the light -gay words:</p> - -<p>"Oh, it is beautiful here!" ...</p> - -<p>It was beautiful.... He glared at her and led his horse away to -unsaddle; his big dog, Thor, had trotted along at Daylight's heels all -day and now slumped down, ears erect and suspicious, while he watched -his master and made certain of never losing sight for a second of his -master's new companion, whom he tolerated but did not trust. Lynette, -stiff from so many hours in the saddle, looked about her. They were -in the upper, brief space of a valley; above reared the mountains -steeply, rugged slopes with pines here and there, with more open -spaces and tumbled boulders. The valley itself was a pretty, pleasant -place, soft in short green grass, flower-dotted, smoothly curving down -into the more open level lands below. Yet here was no proper place to -pitch camp, especially at so early an hour when it was allowed to seek -further; it was too open, it would be unsheltered and cold; there was -no water....</p> - -<p>"Come on!"</p> - -<p>She started and turned again toward Standing. He had slung his small -pack across his shoulders and was going on. She looked forward toward -the ridge, which he faced; it rose sheer and forbidding. And she saw -that his face was white and drawn; she wondered quickly how sorely his -wound hurt him.</p> - -<p>"Brute?" He could have been far more brutal to her.... He was -dead-tired, white-faced; he had fought hard last night, scorning the -advantage of an armed man against an unarmed; he had not harmed a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> hair -of her head! Almost ... <i>almost</i> it lay within her to whisper "Poor -fellow!" And if only Bruce Standing could have known that!...</p> - -<p>He led the way. She followed, since there was nothing else to think of -doing.</p> - -<p>They climbed steadily upward out of this narrow green valley, finding -a steep but open way among the trees. Now and then they paused briefly -to breathe, and Lynette, looking back, saw more and more of the long, -winding valley, as it revealed itself to her from new vantage points. -Far away she caught the glint of the sunlight upon a little wandering -creek. They went on, and came to the crest of the ridge, in full -sunshine now; Standing led an unhesitating way through a natural pass, -and down on the other side, into shadows of a thick grove; through -thickets; they splashed across a creek, a thin line of clear, cool -water slipping through mountain willows, a tributary of the larger -stream in the valley below. Down here it was almost dark. But twenty -minutes later, climbing another slope where the larger timber stood -widely spaced, they came again into the full sunshine.... Lynette -began to wonder why he had left his horse so far back; how far did -the silent, tireless man mean to walk? Also, she began to welcome the -coming night with an eagerness which she was at all pains to conceal -from him; he was always ten steps ahead of her; if he walked on another -half-hour, she began to hope that they would come into a place of -shadows and clumps of trees among which she might dare make the attempt -for escape which had been denied her all day....</p> - -<p>They came into a little upland flat, well watered, emerald-carpeted -with tender grass, shot through with lingering flowers and studded with -magnificent trees; it seemed the very heart of the great wilderness; -here was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> such glorious forest land as Lynette had never seen and did -not know existed in all the broad scope of the great Southwest mountain -country. She looked upward. Dark branches towered into the sky, the -tips still shot through with soft summer light. She heard the gush of -water—the tumble and splash and fall of water. Somewhere above, at the -upper end of the flat, where a dark ravine was an ebon-shadow-filled -gash through the hills, was a waterfall. She could not see it, but its -musical waters proclaimed it through the still air. She looked swiftly -down the other way; there it was growing dark. She glanced hurriedly at -Standing. And he, as though he had read her thought, stopped and turned -and, before she could stir, was at her side.</p> - -<p>After that, with never a word, they went on, deeper into this shadowy -realm of big trees. He watched her at every step. Fury filled her -heart, but with compressed lips she maintained a silence like his own. -Thor trotted along with them, now in front of his master, as though -this were a way he had travelled before and knew well, now questing far -afield, now in the rear, eying his master's captive and setting his -dog's brains to the riddle.</p> - -<p>Before they had walked another ten minutes, Standing threw down his -pack and said abruptly:</p> - -<p>"This is as far as we go."</p> - -<p>She sat down, her back to a tree, her face averted from him. She was -very tired and now she could have put her face into her hands and cried -from very weariness. But instead she caught her lip up between her -teeth and hid her face from him and ignored him. But in her heart she -was wondering; had he travelled all day long and then this far from the -spot where he had released his horse, just to pitch camp in a clump of -trees? Was this the spot toward which he had striven on so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> stubbornly -since daylight? Where was he going? Why? Old queries and doubts rushed -back upon her.... She was vaguely grateful that they were questions -which he and not she had to answer; that responsibilities were his -instead of hers. She was tired enough to lie down where she was and -cease to care what happened.... It was not as yet pitch-dark; the sun -was not down on the heights. But here, among the tall pines, in this -hollow, the shadows were thick; nothing stood out in detail to her -slowly closing eyes; here was a place of black blots, distorted glooms, -the weird formless outriders of the night.... She had not the remotest -suspicion that, where she had slumped down, she was almost at the door -of a cabin.</p> - -<p>Rather, it would have been surprising had she known. For surely -there was never cabin like this hermit camp of Bruce Standing's! Two -sky-scraping pines stood close together; between them was the door, -framed by their own straight trunks. Smaller trees grew about the -ancient parents; these hid the walls which to escape notice required -little enough hiding at any time; a man might have passed here within -a few yards at noonday and not noticed all this which Lynette failed -to see in the dusk. For the walls of the tiny cabin were of rough logs -from which the bark had never been stripped, walls which blended so -perfectly with the greater note struck by the woodland that they failed -to draw the eye; the chimney, of loose-piled rocks, was viewless at -this time of day behind the tree trunks and inconspicuous at any time. -And low, over the flat roof drooped the concealing branches of the -trees. Of all this Lynette glimpsed nothing until Timber-Wolf said, -looking down at her:</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>"When all the tavern is prepared within,</div> -<div>Why nods the drowsy worshipper outside?"</div> -</div></div></div> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span></p> -<p>She had striven in one way and another since she had had her first view -of him, axe in hand, for a clew to the real Bruce Standing. Now, again, -he set her jaded faculties to work: Bruce Standing, Timber-Wolf, and -man of violence, quoting poetry to her! And at such a moment and under -such circumstances!... It is not merely the feminine soul which is -indeterminable, mystifying, intriguing into the ultimate bournes of -speculation; rather the human soul....</p> - -<p>"I don't fancy guessing riddles this evening," she told him. "All -that I can think of by way of repartee is: 'What meanest thou, Sir -Tent-maker?'"</p> - -<p>She thought that she heard him stifle a chuckle!</p> - -<p>But, in this thickening gloom and through those heavy shadows which lay -across her soul in an hour of doubtings and uncertainties, she could be -certain of nothing.... He was saying merely:</p> - -<p>"If you're not clean done in, I'd suggest you walk three steps into my -cabin. On the other hand, if you can't make it, I'll pick you up and -carry you in!"</p> - -<p>At that she sprang to her feet; through the gathering dark he could -feel the burning look in her eyes.</p> - -<p>Then, groping mentally and physically, it was given to her to -understand. For already he stood upon the rude threshold. She followed -after him.</p> - -<p>She gasped, astonished, when she realized that already, in so few -steps, she had passed into the embrasure of four walls! Sturdy walls; -walls rude and unbeautiful, but rising stalwart bulwarks against -the cold of night mountain air. He, a blurred, gigantic form in the -dusk, was before her; his wolfish dog was at her heels. She heard the -scratch, she saw the blue and yellow spurt of a sulphur match. His -form suddenly loomed larger, leaped into grotesque giganticness; the -tiny room sprang waveringly out of darkness into the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> unreality of -half-light; he found a candle; a steady golden flame sent the shadows -racing into limbo; she looked about her wonderingly....</p> - -<p>A room, bound in rough logs; a hastily, roughly hewn log set on other -logs, offering its surly service as table; a stump which obviously made -pretense at being a stool; a bunk against a wall, thick-padded with the -tips from pines; a tin cup, a tin plate, an imitation of a box against -a wall. And, hanging over a pole ... her first certainty that Bruce -Standing, though animal as she named him in her heart, was a clean -animal ... two or three blankets which, on last leaving this hut of -his, he had stretched to air.... A primitive room, and yet clean. And, -across from the narrow bunk, a deep, wide-mouthed fireplace made of big -rocks.... He himself must have made that fireplace, for what other man -could have lifted those rocks into place?</p> - -<p>"I'm hungry," said Standing. "As hungry as a bear."</p> - -<p>Already she was sitting on the edge of the bunk. She expected to hear -for his next words: "Get me my dinner." But, instead, he said, his -voice harsher than she had ever heard it before:</p> - -<p>"And that's why I'm cooking for myself instead of making you do it! I -don't want you to get it into your head it's because I'm getting sorry -for you...."</p> - -<p>She lay back, unanswering, and watched him. And presently, though not -for him to see, a little smile touched her lips and for a short instant -lighted her big gray eyes.... And in her heart she said: "He is so -obvious, with all his thinking that he is a man whom a girl cannot see -through! All day he has made me ride, while he walked! He said that -that was to make better time! And, with every opportunity to harm me, -he has not harmed a hair of my head! He has not even<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> touched me with -his big, blundering hands!... And he looks white and sick from his -hurt...."</p> - -<p>He rummaged in a corner; he made a fire in his fireplace; he ripped -open a couple of cans and set coffee to boil in a battered pot as black -as an African negro. Suddenly Lynette, who had been silent a long -while, exclaimed:</p> - -<p>"I know now! We are still on your land. This is the very cabin where, -six years ago, you robbed Babe Deveril of three thousand dollars!"</p> - -<p>"No!" he said. "You have guessed wrong!" And then: "So your little -friend, Baby Devil, told you many a tale about my wickedness?"</p> - -<p>"He told me that one."</p> - -<p>"And did he tell you the sequel? How I squared with him?"</p> - -<p>So he wanted her to think well of him! She made herself comfortable, -leaning back against the wall.</p> - -<p>"Have you the vaguest inkling of the difference between right and -wrong, Bruce Standing?" she asked him impudently.</p> - -<p>He laughed at her—become suddenly harsh.</p> - -<p>"Come," he said, "it is time for food. And then, for a man who does not -break his word, blow high, blow low, to keep an appointment."</p> - -<p>With that conversation ceased. He drove Thor into a corner, and with a -word and a glance made the dog lie down. He boiled his coffee and set a -hurried meal; he caught up a tin plate and brought it to Lynette. She -was about to thank him when she saw how he was planning to serve a tin -platter like hers to his dog; then she could have screamed at him in -nerve-pent-up anger.</p> - -<p>The three—master, captive, and dog—ate their late dinners while the -candle flame, pale yellow with its bluish centre, swayed gently in the -mild draft of air<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> through the open door. Windows there were none, -saving the one square aperture over the bunk, boarded up now.</p> - -<p>"What about Jim Taggart?" said Standing brusquely out of a long silence -toward the end of which the weary girl was near dozing. "What do you -know about him? Did he overhaul Mexicali Joe after all?"</p> - -<p>She looked at him steadily; suddenly she was glad when a pine branch in -the fireplace, full of pitch, flared up so that he must have seen her -face more clearly than he could have done by mere pale candle-light; -she wanted him to see it and read something of the defiance which she -meant to offer him.</p> - -<p>"So, after all, you have your engagement with Mexicali Joe? It was for -that that you set him free? That you, instead of others, might steal -his golden secret!"</p> - -<p>"Then you won't answer, girl? You, whom I could crush between thumb and -finger, refuse to answer me?"</p> - -<p>"Yes!" she cried out at him. "Yes! I am not afraid of you, Bruce -Standing!"</p> - -<p>"Not afraid?" He glared at her, his flashing blue eyes full of threat. -Then he laughed contemptuously, saying: "And yet, were I minded to, I -could in a second have you on your knees, begging, pleading...."</p> - -<p>"But you won't!" she dared fling at him. "And that is why I am not -afraid!"</p> - -<p>"I am not so sure!" he muttered. "Not so sure. Before morning, girl, -you may come to know what fear is!"</p> - -<p>She tried to toss back her fearless laughter, but at that look of his -and at that stern tone of his voice her laughter caught in her throat.</p> - -<p>"You've got nerve," he said grudgingly. "More nerve than I thought any -girl could have ... since it's far and away more than most men have. -But just the same there's one thing you are afraid of! I've seen it a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> -dozen times to-day, no matter how well you thought you hid it! You are -afraid to death of old Thor, there!"</p> - -<p>She shivered; she laid a quick command upon her muscles as upon her -spirit, but they failed her; she tried to tell herself and to show him -through her bearing, head up, eyes steady, that it was only fatigue and -the growing chill of the coming night that put that tremor upon her. -But he laughed at her and called his big dog to him and said heavily:</p> - -<p>"Watch her, Thor! Watch her!"</p> - -<p>Thor growled, a growl coming from deep down in the powerful throat; the -red eyes grew hot; bristles stood up along neck and back; there came -the gleam of the wolfish teeth. She shrank back against the wall.</p> - -<p>"I have my appointment!... In an hour I must go. I give you your choice -of coming along with me, in leash! or of staying here, with only Thor -to guard, and taking your chances with him! Which is it?"</p> - -<p>And she cried quickly:</p> - -<p>"I'll go with you!" And then, lest he should think that he had -triumphed, she added swiftly: "For I, too, am interested in Mexicali -Joe!"</p> - -<p>He caught down the blankets which had hung airing since last he came -here and tossed two of them to the bunk where she half lay; the third -he folded and placed on the floor, stretching out his own great bulk -upon it, his shoulders against the wall. He found his pipe, filled and -lighted it, and lay staring into the fire....</p> - -<p>And she, drawing a blanket over her knees, crouched, looking into -the same dancing flames, overwhelmed for the moment by a total -sense-engulfing feeling of unreality. Could all of this which had -happened, which was still happening, be an actual experience for her, -Lynette Brooke? More did it resemble a long-drawn-out <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>ugly dream than -actuality! To be here to-night, so far from the world, her own world, -in the heart of a gigantic wilderness, in a rude cabin; a giant of -a man who, as he had said truly, might have crushed her between his -powerful forefinger and thumb; a savage wolf of a dog watching her with -unblinking eyes; another man, somewhere, with vengeance in his heart, -following them; another man, clutching to his breast his golden secret, -not far away; ... nightmare ingredients! Did this man, Bruce Standing, -Timber-Wolf as men called him, really know where to find Mexicali -Joe? And, when he found him, would he come upon Taggart and Gallup -and that hawk-faced man whom they called Cliff Shipton? And with them -would there be Babe Deveril, who must have gone somewhere in his mad, -hungering hope to have a rifle in his hands?... Above all else, was -she the plaything of fate? Or the director of fate? Now it lay within -the scope of her power to cry out to Bruce Standing: "When you find -Mexicali Joe you will find others, no friends of yours, with him! With -them, probably, Babe Deveril! And more than one rifle ready to stand -between you and the Mexican!" ... If she kept her silence, there might -be bloodshed before morning; if she spoke her warning, she might be -doubly arming Timber-Wolf. She grew restless; so restless that Thor, -distrusting her, began growling.</p> - -<p>And Bruce Standing, regarding her fixedly, demanded sharply:</p> - -<p>"Well, what is it?"</p> - -<p>Well ... what should she say? Anything or nothing? If she kept her -silence, would she in after-days know herself to blame for to-night's -bloodshed in that, keeping shut lips, she allowed him to stumble upon -all Taggart's crowd.</p> - -<p>He was eying her sharply. She must make some <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span>answer, and so at last -she prefaced her reply by asking him:</p> - -<p>"You say that we are not on your land?"</p> - -<p>"I did not say that. I said that this is not the cabin in which I had -some years ago the pleasant experience of borrowing some money from -Babe Deveril. He has never been here; has never heard of this place. No -man other than myself, and until now no woman ever came here."</p> - -<p>"That narrow end of a valley we crossed this afternoon ... that was the -upper end of Buck Valley? And the creek which came next was Big Bear -Creek? And, right near us somewhere is Grub Stake Caņon?"</p> - -<p>"You know the country like a map!" He spoke carelessly enough and yet -was puzzled to understand how she knew; of course Deveril could have -told her something of it and yet Deveril's knowledge was restricted to -the slim gleanings of one short excursion of years ago, and he did not -believe that even Deveril had ever heard of Grub Stake Caņon.</p> - -<p>"And," she ran on swiftly, "you were to meet Mexicali Joe to-night at -that other cabin of yours? Is that it?"</p> - -<p>"Witch, are you? Picker of thoughts from men's brains?" He laughed -shortly and got to his feet. "And so you elect to go along and see what -happens? Rather than rest here with Thor to keep you company?"</p> - -<p>She, too, rose swiftly.</p> - -<p>"Yes!"</p> - -<p>He took up his rifle, caught her hand and extinguished the candle.</p> - -<p>"Down, Thor, old boy," he said as he might have spoken to a man, -without raising his voice. "Wait for me. Good dog, Thor."</p> - -<p>Thor whined, but Lynette heard the sound he made in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> lying down -obediently; heard the thumping of his tail as he whined again. Standing -began leading the way through the dark among the big trees, his fingers -about her wrist.... She wondered how far they must go; suddenly as her -great weariness bore down upon her spirit that was become the greatest -of all considerations; greater, even, than what they should find at -the end of their walk. Almost she regretted not having remained in the -cabin ... with Thor.</p> - -<p>Standing, despite the dark and the uneven ground underfoot, seemed to -have no difficulty in finding his way; he walked swiftly; she could -sense his eager impatience. She began wondering listlessly if he were -late to his appointment....</p> - -<p>She had faint idea how far they had gone, a mile or two miles or but -half a mile, a weary time of heavily dragging footsteps, when suddenly -the silence was broken by men's voices. Far away, dimmed and all but -utterly hidden by the interval of forest, was a vague glow of light. -Standing came to a dead stop; she stumbled against him. There came, -throbbing through the night, a man's scream. Standing stiffened; she -felt a tremor run through his big body. A voice again, an evil voice in -evil laughter; a deeper voice, too far away for the words to carry any -meaning, not too far for the voice itself to be recognized by a man who -hated it.</p> - -<p>"Taggart and Young Gallup," Standing muttered. "They've got Joe! They'd -cut his throat for ten cents!... Look here; what do you know about all -this?"</p> - -<p>She answered hurriedly; that thin scream still echoed in her ears; she -remembered only too vividly Taggart's treatment of Joe at the dugout -and Taggart's threats; she shivered, saying:</p> - -<p>"All I know.... Jim Taggart and Gallup and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>another man caught up with -Joe at his cabin; they made him bring them here ... to show them his -gold ... Taggart threatened him with torture...."</p> - -<p>"Come! Hurry! Why in hell's name didn't you tell me?"</p> - -<p>Still with her hand caught in his own he turned and ran, making her run -with him, back to his own cabin. Again they heard, fainter now since -the distance was greater, that thin cry bursting from Joe's lips; she -felt the hand on her own shut down, mercilessly hard.... Running, they -returned to his hidden cabin.</p> - -<p>He went in with her; hurriedly he lighted the candle; the fire was -almost out. Wondering, she sank down upon the bunk.</p> - -<p>"Down, Thor," he commanded; he made the dog lie again across the -threshold. "Watch her, Thor!" Thor growled; the red eyes watched her.</p> - -<p>"Don't you move from that bunk until I get back!" Standing told her -sternly.</p> - -<p>He ran out of the cabin. She heard him breaking through brush, going -the shortest, straightest way down toward the spot from which voices -had come up to them. Thor growled. She looked at the dog, fascinated -with fear of him. The big head was down now, resting between the big -fore paws; the unwinking eyes were on her.... She lay back on the bunk, -staring up at the smoke-blackened rafters.</p> - -<p>It was very quiet. No longer could she hear the sound of Timber-Wolf's -running.... He, one man, pitting himself in blazing anger against at -least three men, ... perhaps four!... What if he were killed? Leaving -her here, under the relentless guard of Thor? She was taken with a long -fit of shivering. Thor growled.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XV</h2> - -<p>Every experience through which Lynette Brooke had gone until now -seemed suddenly dwarfed into insignificance by the present. She was -so utterly wearied out physically that muscles all over her body, -demanding their hour of relaxation and having that relaxation denied -them through the nervous stress laid upon her, quivered piteously. -Hers was that frame of mind which distorts and magnifies, whipping out -of its true semblance all actual conditions or building them up into -monstrous, grotesque shapes. She was afraid of that great, staring dog -on the threshold; more afraid of him than she had ever been of any -man, Thor's master not excepted. For here was a fear which she could -not throttle down. She would have sighed in content and have gone -to sleep, her turbulent emotions quieted, if only it had been Bruce -Standing's hard hand on the chain denying her her liberty instead of -a great dog lying across the door-step.... Enough here to make her -clinch her teeth to hold back a scream of panic-swept nerves; yet this -was not all. For still that cry, heard through the woods, rang in her -ears; still she built up in the picture which her quick fancy limned -the vision of Mexicali Joe at the mercy of merciless men; Joe, who had -lied to them, hoping to deliver them into the hands of one greater than -they; Joe, who at the end, with them demanding to see what he had to -show them, must be driven to the last extremity to fight for time.... -And, blurring everything else at times, there swept over her another -picture; that of Timber-Wolf, wounded and white-faced, stalking in that -fearless way of his among them, confronting three armed men ... or -four?... and then man-killing.... They were all wolves! She <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span>shuddered. -And Thor, watching her, filled the quiet cabin with the sound of his -low suspicious growling.</p> - -<p>"Thor!" she called him, hardly above a whisper. Her lips were dry. -"Good old Thor!"</p> - -<p>His throaty rumble of a growl, telling her of his distrust as -eloquently as it could have done had Thor the words of man at his -command, was her answer.</p> - -<p>"Thor!" She called him again, her voice soft, pleading, coaxing. Then -she lifted herself a few inches on her elbow; like a flash Thor was up -on his haunches, his growl became a snarl, a quick glint of his teeth -showing, a sharp-pointed gleam of menace.</p> - -<p>Yet Lynette held her position, steady upon her elbow; she had never -known a tenser moment. Her throat contracted with her fear; and yet she -kept telling herself stubbornly that yonder was but a dog, a thing of -only brute intelligence, while she had the human brain to oppose him -with; that, some way, she could outwit him. So she did not lie back; to -do so would, she felt, show Thor that she was afraid of him. She made -no further forward movement but she held what she had been suffered to -gain.</p> - -<p>And then she set herself to dominate Thor, a wolf-like dog. She spoke -to him; but first she waited until she could be sure of her voice. That -brute instinct of Thor's would know the slightest quaver of fear when -he heard it. She controlled herself and her voice; she made her tones -low and soft and gentle; she kept them firm. She told herself: "Thor is -but doing his master's bidding because he loves his master! I'll make -him love me! He distrusts.... I'll make him trust instead!" And all the -while she kept her own eyes steady upon Thor's.</p> - -<p>"Thor!" she said quietly. And again: "Thor. Good old Thor. Good old -dog!"</p> - -<p>... Thor had set her down as an enemy; his master's <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>enemy; his master -had commanded him: "Watch her, Thor!" Thor's knowledge was not wide; -yet what he knew he did know thoroughly. And yet Thor had had no -evidence, beyond that offered by a chain, of any open enmity between -his master and this captive; master and girl had travelled all day long -together and neither had flown at the other's throat. More than that, -it had been at the master's own command this very morning that Thor had -felt her hand upon his head; a hand as light as a falling leaf. And now -she spoke to him in his master's own words, but with such a different -voice, calling him Thor, good old dog....</p> - -<p>It was a soothing voice, a voice made for tender caresses. She spoke -again and again and again. And she was not afraid; Thor could see no -flickering sign of fear in her. A voice softer than had been the touch -of her hand.</p> - -<p>"Thor!" she called him. And his growl was scarcely more growl than -whine. For Thor, before Bruce Standing had been gone twenty minutes, -was growing uncertain. Lynette had had dogs of her own; she knew the -ways of dogs, and in this she had the advantage, since Thor knew -nothing of the ways of women nor of their guile. The dog was restless; -his eyes, upon hers, were no longer so steady. Now and then Thor shook -his head and his eyes wandered.</p> - -<p>"Thor," said Lynette, and now, though her voice, as before, was low and -gentle, there was the note of command in it, "lie down!"</p> - -<p>There was an experiment ... and it failed. Thor was on four feet in a -flash; his growl was unmistakable now; the snarling note came back into -it threateningly. She thought that he was going to fly at her throat....</p> - -<p>Yet already was the lesser intelligence, though coupled with the -greater physical power, confused.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span></p> - -<p>Lynette moved slowly; she put her hands up above her head and stretched -out her arms and yawned; Thor growled, but there was little threat in -the growl; just suspicion. Again she moved slowly; close enough, in -the restricted area embraced by the cabin walls, was the table; on it -some morsels of food left from their dinner. Without rising from the -bunk, she reached the tin plate; she took it up, all the while moving -with unhastening slowness. Thor's eyes followed her straying hand; Thor -had been fed, and yet the dog's capacity for food was enormous. He -understood the meaning of her gesture; his eyes hungered.</p> - -<p>She dropped the plate to the floor but, before it struck, not three -feet in front of the dog, she cried out sharply, her voice ringing, her -command at last emphatic:</p> - -<p>"No, Thor! No! No, I tell you!"</p> - -<p>Had she offered the dog the food she would have but awaked within him a -new and violent distrust; he was not so easily to be tricked. But when -she tossed before him something that he was slavering for, and then -laid her command upon him to hold back, she achieved something over -him; he would have held back in any case, but now he held back at her -command.</p> - -<p>"Watch it, Thor!" she cried out loudly. "Watch it, sir!"</p> - -<p>The big dog stared at her; at the fallen morsels; back at her, plainly -at loss. And then again, more sharply, she commanded him:</p> - -<p>"Watch it, Thor!... Lie down, Thor!"</p> - -<p>And Thor, though he growled, lay down.... And his wolfish eyes now were -upon the plate and its spilled contents rather than upon her.</p> - -<p>"If I can but have time!" Lynette was telling herself excitedly. "If -only I can have time ... I can make <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>that dog do what I say to do!... -God, give me time!"</p> - -<p class="space-above">When Bruce Standing, rushing through the forest land, came upon -them ... Taggart and the others ... they were grouped about a -despairing, hopeless Mexicali Joe. For Mexicali Joe's <i>amigo</i>, the -great Timber-Wolf, in whom next to God he put all trust, had failed -him. And Joe had come to the end of his tether, the end of lies and -excuses and empty explanations. And now Taggart, as brutal a man as -ever wore the badge of the law, was impatient, and meant to make an -end of all procrastinations. It was his intention to give Mexicali Joe -such a "third degree" as never any man had lived to experience before -to-night. Rage, chagrin, disappointment, and natural, innate brutality -spurred him on. Even Young Gallup, who was no chicken-hearted man at -best, demurred; but Taggart cursed him off and told him to hold his -tongue, and planned matters to his own liking.</p> - -<p>"Jim Taggart's got Injun blood in him, you know," muttered Gallup -uneasily to Cliff Shipton ... as though that might explain anything.</p> - -<p>Even to such as Young Gallup, a man of whose humanity little was to -be said, explanations were logical requirements. For Jim Taggart was -at his evil worst. With cruelly hard fist he had knocked the little -Mexican down; before Joe could get to his feet he booted him; when Joe -stood, tottering, Taggart knocked him down again, jarring the quivering -flame of life within him. And only at that did Jim Taggart, a man of -no imagination but of colossal brutality, count that he was beginning. -Then it was that Joe cried out; that his scream pierced through the -night's stillness; that he pleaded with Taggart, saying:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span></p> - -<p>"This time, I tell you the true! I tell you ever'thing...."</p> - -<p>"You're damned right you will," shouted Taggart, beside himself with -his long baffled rage. "When I get good and ready to listen. And I'm -not listening now, you Mexico pup! First you go through hell, and then -I'll know that you tell the truth! Fool with me, would you; with me, -Jim Taggart? You——"</p> - -<p>Then Taggart began his third degree, listening to neither Joe's -pleadings nor yet to the voice of Young Gallup.</p> - -<p>The four men were in Bruce Standing's old cabin; the door was wide -open, since here, so far from the world, in the dense outer fringes of -Timber-Wolf's isolated wilderness kingdom, no man of them ... saving -Joe alone, who had now given up hope ... had a thought of another human -eye to see; Shipton, at a curt word from Taggart, had piled the mouth -of the fireplace full of dead-wood, for the sole sake of light, and it -was hot in the small room. Taggart had bound the Mexican's hands behind -him, drawing the thong so tight that it cut cruelly into the flesh.... -Taggart had knocked Joe down and had booted him to his heart's content; -the swarthy face had turned a sick white. Taggart's eyes were glowing -like coals raked out from hell's own sulphurous fires; he was sure of -the outcome, sure of swift success, and yet now, in pure fiendishness, -more absorbed in his own unleashed deviltry than in the mere matter of -raw gold, which he counted securely his as soon as he was ready for it. -Whether or not Indian blood ran in his veins, elemental savagery did.</p> - -<p>Mexicali Joe, unable to rise, or in fear for his life if he stirred, -lay on the floor, his eyes dilated with terror, staring up into -Taggart's convulsed face.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span></p> - -<p>"I tell you the true!" he screamed. "This time, before God, I tell——"</p> - -<p>"Shut up, you greaser-dog!" Taggart, a man of full measure, kicked him, -and under the driving pain inflicted by that heavy boot, Joe's eyes -flickered and closed, and Joe's brain staggered upon the dizzy black -verge of unconsciousness. Taggart saw and understood and pitched a -dipperful of water in his face. Joe gasped faintly. Taggart stepped to -the fireplace, and snatched out a blazing pine branch.</p> - -<p>"I've put my brand on more'n one treacherous dog!" he jeered. "You'll -find my stock running across the wild places in seven States! Here's -where I plant the sign of the cross on you, Mexico! Right square -between the eyes!"</p> - -<p>Suddenly he thrust the burning brand toward Joe's forehead. Joe cried -out in terror:</p> - -<p>"For the love of God!..." His two hands were behind him, but, -galvanized, he fought the pine fagot with his whole body. He strove to -thrust it aside; he fought against his weakness to roll over; Taggart's -heavy foot was in his middle, holding him down; the burning branch in -Taggart's heavy hands was as steady as a steel rod set in concrete; -Joe's threshing panic disturbed it scarcely more than the wind would -have done.... Another scream, shrilling through the night; the smell -of burnt flesh; a red wound on Joe's forehead; Taggart's ugly laugh; -and then suddenly, from just without the open doorway, a terrible shout -from Bruce Standing, and then, in two seconds, Bruce Standing's great -bulk among them.</p> - -<p>"My God!" roared Standing. "<i>My God!</i> ... You, Jim Taggart!..."</p> - -<p>Shipton's rifle stood in a corner; Shipton, as lithe as a cat, leaped -for it. Gallup's was in his hand; he whipped<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> it to his shoulder. -Taggart for one instant was stupefied; then he swept high above -his head the smoke-emitting, redly glowing pine limb. Joe, weeping -hysterically, writhing on the floor, was gasping: "<i>Jesus Maria!</i>" ... -God had heard his prayers; God and Bruce Standing.</p> - -<p>But in to-night's game of hazard it was Timber-Wolf who chose to -shuffle, cut, and deal the cards; his rifle was in his hands; it -required but the gentlest touch of his finger to send any man of them -to his last repose. His eyes, the roving eyes of rage, were everywhere -at once.</p> - -<p>"I'd kill you, Taggart, and be glad of the chanth! You, too, Gallup! -Drop that gun!"</p> - -<p>First of them all, it was Cliff Shipton who came to the motionless halt -of shocked consternation; he lifted his hands, his face blanched; he -tried to speak, and only succeeded in making the noise of air gushing -through dry lips. Gallup stopped midway in his purpose of firing, for -Timber Wolf's rifle barrel was trained square upon his chest; at the -look in Standing's eye and the timbre of his voice, Gallup's gun fell -clattering to the floor. Taggart mouthed and cursed, and slowly let his -blazing fagot sink toward the floor.</p> - -<p>For every man of them knew Timber-Wolf well; and they knew that -incongruous <i>lisping</i> which surprised him and mastered his utterance -only when his rage was of the greatest. When Timber-Wolf lisped it was -because such a fiery storm raged through his breast as to make of him a -man who would kill and kill and kill and glory in the killing.</p> - -<p>"And I'd have given a million dollars to thee any man of you put up a -fight!" he was saying harshly. "God, what a thet of cowardly curth! And -you, Jim Taggart, I onth had for bunk-mate and onth thought a man!"</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span></p> - -<p>He reached out suddenly, and with his bare, open palm slapped Taggart's -face; and Taggart staggered backward under the blow until his thick -shoulders brought up against the wall with such a thud that the cabin -shuddered under the impact.</p> - -<p>"Get up, Joe!" growled Standing. "You're another yellow dog, but ... -get up and come here!"</p> - -<p>Joe scrambled to his feet and came hurrying. Standing kept his rifle in -his right hand. Using his left stiffly, he got out his knife and cut -the Mexican's bonds.</p> - -<p>"Go!" he cried savagely. "While you've got legth under you! And thith -time keep clear, or hell take you! I'm through with you ... you make me -thick!..."</p> - -<p>Mexicali Joe, with one last frightened look over his shoulder, fled; -they heard his running feet outside. He was jabbering unintelligibly as -he fled: "<i>Seņor Caballero!</i> ... <i>Dios!</i> ... those devils!..."</p> - -<p>Joe was gone. Bruce Standing's work was done. He looked grim and -implacable, a man of iron heated in the red-hot furnace of rage. He -yearned for Taggart to make a move; or for Gallup. Shipton, as a lesser -cur, he ignored.</p> - -<p>They saw how white, as white as a clean sheet of paper, his face was; -they did not fully understand why, since a man's face, when he is in a -terrible rage, may whiten, as an effect of the searing emotion; they -did not know how he had driven his wounded body all day long nor how -sore his wound was. They could not guess that even now he was holding -himself upright and towering among them through the fierce bending of -his indomitable will. That same will he bent terribly for clean-cut -articulation.</p> - -<p>"Taggart!" he said, and his voice rang as clear as the striking of an -iron hammer upon a resounding anvil. "I'll tempt you to be a man such -as you <i>once</i> were, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span>before you went yellow clean through ... and I'll -show you, your <i>self</i>, how dirty a yellow you've gone! Pick up Young -Gallup's rifle!"</p> - -<p>Taggart glared at him and muttered and hesitated, tugged one way -by hatred and the madness of wrath, tugged the other way by his -fear of the certainty of death. Lights, bluish lights, flickered in -Timber-Wolf's eyes. He said again:</p> - -<p>"Pick up that rifle! Other<i>wise</i>, in <i>less</i> than ten <i>sec</i>onds you are -a dead man!"</p> - -<p>Taggart's face was red when Standing began to speak; ashen by the last -word. Nervously and in great haste he stooped and caught up the gun.</p> - -<p>"You've got your <i>chance</i>, Jim Taggart! Your last <i>chance</i>! To fight -it out, or say, for <i>these</i> men to hear: 'I'm a dirty yellow dog!' If -you're game we'll fight it out. I'll give you an even break; and we'll -kill each other!"</p> - -<p>Taggart held the rifle, not lifted quite to his waist; his hands were -rigid upon it and did not tremble. He was not a coward; on many an -occasion, when he had borne his sheriff's badge recklessly through -violence, he had shown himself a brave man. He knew now that it lay -within his power, if he were quick and sure, to kill Bruce Standing, -whom he had come to hate, so that his hatred was like a running sore. -And he knew, too, that killing, he would be killed. If it were any man -on earth whom he confronted save Bruce Standing....</p> - -<p>So he hesitated, for brave man as Jim Taggart always was, he was a man -who did not want to die. And Standing laughed at him and said:</p> - -<p>"You've had your chance; you still have it. Now, fight it out or tuck -your tail between your legs and do my bidding! And my bidding to you, -so that I needn't expect a bullet in the back when I leave you, is to -smash<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> that rifle into flinders against the rock chimney. <i>And step -lively!</i>"</p> - -<p>The last words came sharp and sudden, and Taggart started. And then, -hesitating no longer, he whirled the rifle up by the barrel and brought -it with all his might crashing against the fireplace; the fragments -fell from his tingling fingers. And again Standing laughed at him and -again commanded him, saying:</p> - -<p>"There are two more rifles; do the same for each one! And remember, Jim -Taggart, every time you touch a gun you've got the even break to fight -it out; and every time you smash a gun you are saying out loud: 'I'm a -dirty yellow dog!' <i>Only make it snappy, Jim Taggart!</i>"</p> - -<p>One after the other, and hastily, Jim Taggart smashed the butts off -two rifles and jammed trigger and trigger-guard so that from firearms -the weapons were resolved into the estate of so much scrap-iron and -splintered wood.</p> - -<p>"I'll take your two toy guns, Jim," said Standing. "And remember this; -at short range the man with the revolver has the edge! When you drag -a gun out you've got your chance to come up shooting! Don't overlook -that! And remember along with it, that when you hand me a gun, butt-end -first, you are saying aloud for the world to hear: 'I'm a dirty yellow -dog!'"</p> - -<p>"By God...."</p> - -<p>"Yes, Jim Taggart, ... by God, you're a dirty dog!"</p> - -<p>Lingeringly Taggart drew forth the heavy side-arms dragging at his -holsters; all the while he was tempted almost beyond resistance to -avail himself of his opportunity and of that quick sure skill of his; -to shoot from the hip, as he could do with the swiftness of a flash -of the wrist; he could shoot and kill. And within his heart, knowing -Bruce Standing as he did, he knew, too, that though he shot true to a -hair line, none the less, Bruce Standing would kill him.... He gave a -gun<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> into Standing's left hand and saw it thrust into his belt. Then -was Taggart's time to snatch out his other weapon and drill that hole -through the big body in front of him which would surely let the life -run out; now was his chance, while for an instant one of Standing's -hands was busy at his belt!... If it had been any other man in the -world there confronting him! Any man but Bruce Standing! Jim Taggart -was near weeping. But he drew out his second revolver and saw it -bestowed as its fellow had been.</p> - -<p>"Four times you've said it, plainer than words!" cried Standing -ringingly. "Gallup will never forget; and he'll tell the tale! Shipton -will remember and will blab! And, what's worse for the soul of a man, -Jim Taggart, you'll remember to the last day you live!... And now you -three can consider yourselves as so many mongrel curs whose back-biting -teeth I've knocked down your throats for you! I'll leave you to your -growlings and whinings!"</p> - -<p>He swung about and went out. He knew both Gallup and Shipton, knew -them and their habits well, and knew that neither man had the habit -of carrying a pistol. Further, their coats were off, and he had seen -that neither had a holster at his belt. So he turned his back on them -to emphasize his contempt and did not turn his head as he plunged -into the outside night and into the thick dark under the trees, going -back to his hidden cabin and Lynette and Thor. He realized that he -himself, despite a herculean physique, was near the tether's end of his -endurance; he realized that Lynette was also heavily borne down by all -that she, a girl, had gone through and that he had left her overlong -with his wolfish dog.</p> - -<p>What he could not know was that a revolver which had once already -shot him in the back had followed him all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> these miles through the -wilderness and was now lying on the bunk in the cabin he had just -quitted; he could not know how, at the Gallup House after Babe Deveril -had flung it in Taggart's face, Lynette's pistol had lain there on the -floor until Taggart had been aroused to consciousness; nor how Gallup -had picked it up, nor how Taggart had muttered: "Save it, Young. It -may come in handy for evidence in court." Gallup had stuck it into his -pocket; he had brought it with him; he had tossed it down among the -blankets....</p> - -<p>Taggart stared after him with terrible eyes; Taggart remembered and, -when he dared, flung himself across the room, snatching for it among -the covers. Standing, hastening, strode on. Taggart found the weapon; -he ran out of the cabin with it in his hand; dodged to one side of -the open door to be out of way of the firelight. Standing hurried on, -he had not seen Taggart; Taggart could scarcely see him, could but -make out vaguely a blur where he heard heavy footfalls.... It was all -chance; but now no longer was Taggart himself running the desperate -chances. He fired, one shot after another, until he emptied the little -gun—four shots altogether; the hammer clicked down on the fifth, the -empty shell.</p> - -<p>Chance, pure chance; and yet chance is ironical and loves its own grim -jest. The first bullet, the only one of them all to find its target, -struck Timber-Wolf. And it was as though this questing bit of lead were -seeking to tread the same path blazed by its angry brother down at the -Gallup House in Big Pine. For it, like the other from the same muzzle, -struck him from behind; and it, too, struck him upon the left side, in -the outer shoulder, not half a dozen inches from the spot where he had -been shot before....</p> - -<p>Standing staggered and caught his breath with a grunt; he lurched into -a tree and stood leaning against<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> it. For a moment he was dizzied and -could not see clearly. Then, turning, he made out the cabin behind -him; the bright rectangle of the door; two dark running forms leaping -through it, gone into the gulf of the black night. He jerked up his -rifle, holding it in one hand, unsupported by the other, his shoulder, -the right, against the tree. But they were gone before he could shoot. -He waited. He heard a breaking through brush; men running. They were -running away! They did not know that they had hit him; they could not -tell, and they were afraid of his return! He lifted his voice and -shouted at them in the sudden grip of a terrible anger. He listened -to the noise they made and strove to judge their positions and began -shooting after them. He fired until the rifle clip was empty. Then, -while awkwardly, with one hand, he put in a fresh clip, he listened -again. Silence only.</p> - -<p>... He was strangely weak and uncertain; he had to draw his brows down -with a steely effort to clear his thoughts. They were gone ... they -would not come back ... it was too dark to look for them. And he had -left that girl overlong ... and he was shot full of pain. A surge of -anger for every surge of weakness....</p> - -<p>He started on toward his hidden cabin and Lynette. He blundered into a -tree. He could feel the hot blood down his shoulder. He began using his -rifle as a man may use a cane, leaning on it heavily.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XVI</h2> - -<p>Bruce Standing came, weaving his way, like a drunken man, through the -woods. He was sick; sick and weak. He muttered to himself constantly. -Lynette was at the top of his thought and at the bottom; she dominated -his whole mind. He was used through long years to such as Jim Taggart -and their crooked ways; he was not used to such as Lynette Brooke, a -girl like a flower and yet fearless. It had been his way to hold all -women in scorn, since it had not been given unto him during the hard -years of his life to know the finer women, the true women worth while, -more than worth the while of a mere man. He had held his head high; he -had mocked and jeered at them; he had been no man to doff his hat with -the flattering elegance of a Babe Deveril for every fair face seen. -So now the one thing which in his fiery and feverish mood galled him -most was the thought of being seen by Lynette as a man borne down and -crushed and made weak and sick. For most of all he hated weaklings.</p> - -<p>"She laughed at me ... damn her," he muttered. And, as an afterthought: -"She shot me in the back, after the fashion of her treacherous sex!"</p> - -<p>He had driven himself harder all day long than any sane man, wounded, -should have thought of doing. Now the thought, working its way -uppermost through the fomenting confusion of teeming thoughts, was: -"I'll let her go. I'll be rid of her." For already, deep down in the -depths of his heart, he knew that already a girl, a girl whom he -despised and had meant to pay in full for her wickedness, had intrigued -him; she had flung<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> her defiant fearlessness into his face; she had -kept a lifted head and straightforward eyes; and ... those eyes of -Lynette Brooke! Deep, fathomless, gray, tender, alluring, the eyes of -the one woman for each man! Almost he could have forgotten, not merely -forgiven, her greater fault of laughing at his infirmity; if only she -had not been of the species, like Jim Taggart's, to shoot a man in the -back.</p> - -<p>He meant to let her go free and he had his own reasons for his change -of front. Though she had laughed and galled him, though she had sunk to -a cowardly act and shot him when he was not looking, at least she was -not the coward which he had counted upon finding her; he gave credit -where credit was due. He had humiliated her sufficiently, dragging -her after him, humbling a spirit as proud as his own, making her his -handmaiden, calling her his slave. That was one thing. And another, -befogged as it was, was even clearer: In letting her go, in being -rid for all time of her and the lure of her eyes, he was protecting -himself, Bruce Standing, and none other! ... Fearless, he honored her -for that. And yet a treacherous she-animal; so he wanted no more of -her, no more of the look of her, the fragrance of her, the pressure -of her upon his own spirit. He held himself a man; a man he meant -to remain. And, for the first time in all his life he was a little -afraid....</p> - -<p>And then, just at the moment when it would have been better for them -both if he had not come ... or when it was best that he should come ... -these are questions and the answers of all questions fate holds in her -lap, hidden by the films of the future ... he came staggering up to the -door of the hidden cabin. And, at the sight of her, he pulled himself -up, stiffening, as taut as a bowstring the instant that the arrow -thrills to the command to speed.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span></p> - -<p>There, in the doorway framed by the two big-boled pines she stood, -vividly outlined by the firelight from within the cabin, superbly, -gloriously feminine, her own slender soft loveliness thrown into -tremendous contrast by the figure at her side, the figure of old Thor -on whose head her hand rested as light as a fallen leaf! Her hand -on Thor's head! She and Thor standing side by side, her hand on his -head....</p> - -<p>Sudden rage flared up in Timber-Wolf's heart; he gripped his rifle -in both hands, contemptuously ignoring the pains which shot through -his left shoulder; at that moment he could have thanked God for -excuse enough to shoot her dead. She had seduced the loyalty and -trustworthiness of Thor; she had done that! If a man like Standing -could not trust his dog, when that dog was old Thor, then where on this -green earth could he plant his trust?</p> - -<p>"Back!" he stormed at her. "Back!"</p> - -<p>She was poised for flight. He came at the instant of her victory over -the brute intelligence of a dog, at the moment of her high hopes, when -her heart hot in rebellion throbbed with triumph. She, too, at that -moment, could she have commanded the lightnings, would have stricken -him dead. Her hatred of him reached in a flash such heights as it had -never aspired to before.</p> - -<p>Back? He commanded her to turn back? Shouted his dictates at her in -that first moment when she sensed escape and freedom and victory -over him who had been victor long enough? Back? Not now; not though -he flourished his rifle, threatening her with that while he shouted -angrily at her. Briefly the sight of him had unnerved her, had created -within her an utter powerlessness to move hand or foot. But before he -could shout "Back!" the second time defiance, like a flood of fire, -broke along her veins, warming her from head to foot;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> she sprang out -from the area of light at the cabin door and, running more swiftly than -Bruce Standing had deemed any girl could ever run, she sped away among -the trees....</p> - -<p>A moment ago he had but the one firm intention: To set her free and -be rid of her for all time. Now, not ten seconds after holding that -purpose, he was rushing after her, forgetful of everything, his wounds -and sick weariness, except his one determination to drag her back! He -was angry; in his anger, not admitting to himself the true explanation, -he felt that he must blame her for a third crime ... she had trifled -with the integrity of his dog's loyalty ... she had corrupted old -Thor's sturdy honesty....</p> - -<p>She ran like a deer. The moment that she broke into headlong flight -that very act released within her a full tide of fright; it became a -panic like that of soldiers once they have thrown down their arms and -plunged into the delirium of disordered retreat. She ran as she had -never done before, even when she and Babe Deveril had fled through the -night. And Bruce Standing would never have come up with her that night -had it not been that in the dark she fell, stumbling over the low mound -left to mark the place where an ancient log had disintegrated. As she -floundered to her feet she felt his hand on her shoulder. She screamed, -she struck at him....</p> - -<p>He caught her two hands as he had done once before; she could have no -inkling of the tremendous call he put upon himself, body and will; she -could hear his heavy, labored breathing, but she, too, was breathing -in gasps. She could see neither the whiteness of his face nor yet the -blood soaking his shirt. He did not speak. He was not thinking clearly. -He merely said within himself: "I got her!" That was everything. Until, -as they came again into the outward-pouring firelight in front of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> the -cabin door, he wondered somewhat uneasily: "What am I going to do with -her?"</p> - -<p>Lynette, panting and piteously shaken, dropped down on the edge of the -bunk, overborne by disaster, hopeless, her face in her hands; she was -fighting with herself against a burst of tears. Thus she did not see -Bruce Standing as he stood at the threshold, looking at her. She heard -his step; it shuffled and was uncertain, but she did not at the moment -mark this. She heard a whine from old Thor, a Thor perplexed and ill at -ease.</p> - -<p>... Suddenly she thought: "He hasn't moved; he hasn't spoken!" She -dropped her hands then and looked up swiftly. And, thus, she surprised -a queer look in his eyes; his own thoughts were all chaotic and yet -there was beginning to burn one steady thought among them like one -bright flame in a whirl of smoke. He had closed the door when they -came in; he had sat down upon the up-ended log which served here as a -chair; Thor's head was on the master's knee and absently Standing's -hand was stroking it. He had dropped his rifle outside when he started -to run after her; he had not stopped to look for it as they came in. -She saw that a revolver was half in and half out of his pocket.... Then -she marked, with a start, the dead-white of his face and the way his -left arm hung limp, and the red stain on his wrist and the back of his -hand where the blood had run down his sleeve. Her first thought was -of his old wound and how he was not the man to give a wound a chance -to heal, but rather would break it open again and again through his -violence. Then she recalled what, during these last few minutes she had -forgotten—the shots which she had heard a little while ago. And she -knew that, though he sat upright and stared at her with the old look -again in his eyes, he had been shot the second time.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span></p> - -<p>"I brought you back, girl," he said at last, and she knew that he was -bending a vast resource of will to keep his tone clear and steady, "not -because I mean to keep you any longer ... but just to show you that -with all the tricks of your sex you can take no step that I do not tell -you to take! Now, I've the idea that I'd like best to be alone. You can -go."</p> - -<p>In a flash she jumped to her feet; she would scarcely credit her ears, -and yet one look at the man told her reassuringly that he was in -earnest.</p> - -<p>"I don't know where you'll go," he said. "And I don't care. But I can -tell you you'll find some good men and true, men of your own kind, -since they shoot in the back, down below my other cabin; Taggart and -Gallup and Shipton.... No, your friend Baby Devil isn't there! And -Mexicali Joe has skipped out. If you like to take your chances with -those birds...." He jerked out the revolver which recently had been -Taggart's and tossed it to the bunk. "You can take that along, if you -like."</p> - -<p>She flushed up, her face as hot as fire, as he jeered at her, saying: -"Men of your own kind, since they shoot in the back!" ... She could -come close to an accurate guess of what had happened; since Mexicali -Joe was gone it must be that Standing had set him free; since Standing -returned with a fresh wound, it must be that Taggart or one of his -crowd had shot him in the back....</p> - -<p>She had not meant to speak, but now she cried out hotly:</p> - -<p>"I did not shoot you! You didn't see ... if you had seen you would -know. My pistol lay on the table ... the window was open ... some one -reached in and picked it up and shot you ... I was frightened, and when -the pistol was dropped back to the table, I caught it up...."</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span></p> - -<p>His eyes grew brilliant with the intensity of the look he turned upon -her.... But his brain was reeling, his weakness overpowered him ... he -was set with all the steel of his character against showing before her -the first sign of weakness....</p> - -<p>"Liar!" he flung at her. "To lie about it ... that's worse than the -shot...."</p> - -<p>He leaned back against the wall. "You're free now," he said. "I would -to God I had never seen you!"</p> - -<p>For answer she flung her bright laughter back at him; defiant, angry, -bitter laughter. She caught up the heavy revolver he had thrown to her.</p> - -<p>"I could shoot you now ... with no one to see...."</p> - -<p>His own laughter, hard and ugly, answered while he found the strength -to say sternly:</p> - -<p>"But with me looking you straight in the eyes ... you'd lose your nerve -at that!"</p> - -<p>She flung the weapon down to the floor, scorning any gift of his. -Without another word, with never another glance toward him, she passed -to the door, jerked it open and went out.</p> - -<p>He sat staring into the fire. Thor began sniffing at the limp hand. -Standing got to his feet; the fire was dying down and a sudden shiver -of cold prompted him to pile on fresh fuel. He kicked Taggart's -revolver viciously out of his way. He was going to the fireplace, but -in doing so passed the bunk. He sat down a moment, wiping the sweat -from his forehead ... cold and sweating at the same time. He lay back, -flat on his back, and shut his eyes. He wondered vaguely how much blood -he had lost coming up through the woods from the lower cabin where he -had been shot; how much blood he had lost while he ran like a madman -after that girl.... His eyes were shut doggedly tight and yet it seemed -to his dizzied senses as though he could feel<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> the look of her eyes, -bending over him.... Now, that was a strange thing.... Never once had -she given him a look from those eyes of hers to show a single spasm of -fear.... Fearless? She, a girl? Did fearlessness and cowardice blend, -then, that the incomprehensible result might be known as woman? For it -was the supreme stroke of cowardice to shoot a man in the back. And -yet ... she had said: "I did not shoot you!" While she spoke, he had -believed!... He lay jeering at himself.... And all the while, as in a -vision, he saw a pair of big gray eyes, soft and tender and alluring, -bending over him....</p> - -<p>"There's just one thing in the world," muttered Bruce Standing aloud, -as a man may do when hard driven by perplexity and safe in solitary -isolation from other ears than his own, "that I'd give everything to -know! To know for sure!... Just one thing...."</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XVII</h2> - -<p>Lynette, running like one blind out into the dark silent forest land, -her own soul storm-tossed, stopped with sudden abruptness, staring -about her, striving to see what lay before her, about her. Free! As -free as the wind, to roam where she listed. And alone! Alone with the -wilderness for the first moment since she had fled the menace yelping -at her heels in Big Pine. <i>Alone.</i></p> - -<p>And walled about by the wildest and most impenetrably blackly dark -solitudes. She had but the one impulse; to flee from this man whose -fellows termed him a wolf; but the one clear thought, that she <i>must</i> -hasten in search of the very man from whom originally she had fled, -Jim Taggart. For, since Bruce Standing had not been killed by that -shot fired in her room at the Gallup House, she, like Babe Deveril, -was no longer threatened with the most serious charge of murder. Let -Taggart place her under arrest; let him take her back into the region -of towns and stages and lamp-lit homes; let him accuse her. Suddenly it -seemed to her, wearied with endless exertion and privation and nervous -tension, that there could be no peace greater than that of being taken -back and placed in custody in Big Pine!</p> - -<p>Now she had to guide her but a general, a very vague, sense of -direction. It was so absolutely dark! There were stars, but they seemed -little sparks of cold distant light, blurred and almost lost beyond -the tops of the pines. Standing had led her after him, on his way to -his lower cabin, down the gentle slope. Yes; she knew the general -direction. And the distance? She had little impression of the distance -between these two aloof<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> lairs of Timber-Wolf; half a mile or two -miles, she did not know. She would go on and on, seeking a way among -the trees; on and on and on, stumbling in the dark. Then, after a -while, she would call; call and call again, praying that Taggart and -the others were lurking somewhere within ear-shot; that they would -hear and come to her ... and place her under arrest! And she wondered, -as she had done so many a time to-day, where was Babe Deveril? Was he -near? Would he, by any chance, hear her? Would he, too, come to her? -And, then, what?</p> - -<p>She began hastening on; to be farther from him, though that meant to -come at every step nearer Jim Taggart and Young Gallup and that other -man with the hawk face. She could not be absolutely certain that the -direction she set her course by would ever lead her to the lower cabin; -but on one point she was assured: at every step she was getting farther -from wolf-man and wolf-dog. What a brute, what a beast he was! <i>And -yet</i> ... <i>and yet</i>.... There swept across her, like a clean, cold wind -out of the north, a sudden appreciation of those finer qualities of -manhood which his nature and his fate had allowed to dwell on in that -anomaly, Bruce Standing. His absolute honesty, itself like a north -wind, was not to be gainsaid even by his bitterest enemy; his courage, -in any woman's eyes, was invested with sheer nobility. How he had -befriended poor little Mexicali Joe; how, to-night for the second time, -though handicapped by his wound, he had gone to Joe's relief; how he, -one against three, had had his way, like a lion among curs. Wolf or -lion?... And, finally, she abode wonderingly on that queer, distorted -chivalry which resided in the heart of him, his brutally chivalrous way -with her. For, no matter how harsh and bitter his tongue had been and -no matter how hard his eye, he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> had not harmed her; when his hands had -been like steel upon hers, commanding her while he jeered at her, they -had not once so much as bruised her soft skin. In no way had he harmed -her while it had been at his command, had he desired, to harm her in -all ways.... She thought of being alone with any man like Taggart or -Gallup or that hawk-faced hanger-on of theirs ... and shuddered. Even -Babe Deveril; he had looked at her last night, insinuating.... She -remembered how Bruce Standing, rushing down upon them, had thrown his -own rifle away to grapple with Deveril, man to man and no odds stolen; -she would never forget the picture of him with his axe, attacking the -jail and defying the law.... Her mind raced, her thoughts switched -into a new groove: how he had set her free just now and tossed her the -revolver....</p> - -<p>And then came the most vivid picture of all, the latest one, that of -Bruce Standing glaring at her just before she ran out of the cabin. A -second time she came to a sudden stop. He had looked like a man dying! -Too proud, with that vainglorious pride of his, to have her, a girl, -watch him, a man, die. Too unyieldingly proud and defiant to have her, -a weakling, look on while he, the strongest man she had ever glimpsed, -yielded in anything, if even to death itself. What a man he was! A man -wrong-minded, maybe; a man who overrode others and bore them down; a -man who set up his own standards, such as they were, and battled for -them wholeheartedly. Even in the matter of high-handed robbery ... he -had robbed Babe Deveril of three thousand dollars, and yet voluntarily, -when he was ready to make restitution and not before, he had returned -the full amount, estimating in his own way that he had merely borrowed -it! There was the man disclosed; one who made his own laws, and yet -who abode by them as <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span>loyally and as unswervingly as a true priest may -abide by God's....</p> - -<p>And he had looked like a man dying. She turned her head. The door -of his cabin was still wide open, as she had left it; light, though -failing, still gushed out. She told herself that it was only a natural -curiosity, surely her sex's most irrefutable prerogative, that made her -turn and look. She caught no sight of him; he was not striding up and -down. And he had not come outside for his fallen rifle....</p> - -<p>Her breast rose and fell to a deep sigh. Of relief, perhaps; perhaps -for another emotion. Still she remained where she was, pondering. Which -way lay the path to the other cabin, where Taggart and Gallup and -the other man were? And what was Bruce Standing doing? He had named -her "Liar!" He did not believe when she had cried out passionately: -"I did not shoot you!" Darting considerations, flashing through her -consciousness. The one question was: "Was Bruce Standing mortally -wounded?" Shot in the back a second time; he had as much as told her -that.</p> - -<p>Babe Deveril was what the world names a ladies' man. Bruce Standing -was a man's man. And the strange part of it is that the feminine soul -is drawn to the man's man inevitably more urgently than to the ladies' -man....</p> - -<p>And all the while Lynette was saying to herself: "He is a brute and a -beast and yet ... he has not harmed me once and he has set me free and -there is some good in him and ... and he may be dying! Alone."</p> - -<p>She had turned her head to look back; now, hesitatingly, her whole -body turned. Slowly, silently, she retraced her steps. She came closer -and closer to the hidden cabin; the light outlining the open door -grew fainter, dimmer as the fire died down; she heard no sound; she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> -caught no glimpse of a man within. She drew still closer; she heard -the strange whining of his dog. Even Thor she could not see until, -lingering at every step, she came close to the door. Then she saw -both, the man on his back, his lax hand on the floor; the dog whining, -distressed, licking the hand one instant and then looking wistfully -into the master's face. A face bloodlessly white, save for one smear of -blood, where a hand had sought to wipe his eyes clear of a gathering -film.</p> - -<p>Hesitating no longer, she stepped across the threshold. Thor looked at -her and broke into a new whining, a note of sudden joyousness in it. -Standing did not hear and did not know that she had returned; his eyes -were shut and there was the pulse as of distant seas in his ears. She -hurried to the fireplace and tossed into it the last of the wood he had -gathered; then she came swiftly to where he lay. Her heart was beating -wildly....</p> - -<p>She saw that his jaw was set, hard and stubborn. She stood, uncertain, -troubled, half regretful that she had come back, hence half of a mind -to go hurriedly. But she did not stir for a long time, and then only -to come the last step closer. His eyes flew open; he looked up at her. -And, as the fire she had freshly piled blazed higher, she saw a sudden -flash of his eyes ... whether the reflection of the fire or the flash -of the spirit within him, she could not tell.</p> - -<p>"I thought you'd gone," he said. He sat up; it was a struggle for him -to do so, yet here was a man who made of all his life a struggle and -who thought nothing of a trifling victory over either nature itself or -his fellow man.</p> - -<p>"You have been cruel...."</p> - -<p>He mocked her with his haggard eyes.</p> - -<p>"That," she ran on swiftly, "is what you expected me to say to you, -Bruce Standing, that you have been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> cruel! And, what I came back to say -is: '<i>You have been good to me!</i>'"</p> - -<p>She had not meant to say anything of the kind. But when she looked into -his eyes, when she saw the clear-as-crystal soul of him, a soul as -simple as a child's and ... yes!... as clean; and when she remembered -how she had ridden all day long while he had walked, and how he had -steadfastly refused to so much as harm a hair of her head, the words -gushed forth.</p> - -<p>He eyed her queerly; suspicion in his look and confusion. She could -have laughed out aloud suddenly, since her whole emotional being was -aquiver; for he, Timber-Wolf, like his own wolf-dog, Thor, distrusted -her and regarded her with fierce eyes and yet ... and yet....</p> - -<p>"Your wound has not been dressed since morning," she said quietly. "And -now you've got yourself another wound. I am going to help you with -them."</p> - -<p>His slave.... He had commanded her once to help him with his wound.... -But his slave no longer, since he himself had set her free! Yet here -she was, saying that she stood ready to help him care for his wounds. -More, already she was getting warm water, and his old piece of castile -soap ... she was rolling up her sleeves....</p> - -<p>He glared at her through a mist. He could be sure of nothing, since it -<i>seemed</i> to him that she was half smiling! A tender, wistful sort of -smile ... as if she had it in her heart to forget injuries done, to -forgive him who had done them, and to succor him now that there was -little of man-strength left in his body.... Curse her! What right had -she to forgive, to look at a man that way? He had asked nothing from -her, save that she leave him....</p> - -<p>He stirred uneasily. <i>Had</i> she smiled? In this <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span>uncertain light one -could be certain of nothing; the flickering of the wood fire, casting -quick-racing little shadows, breaking into their play with sudden -warm, rosy gleamings, made it impossible for him to know if she had -smiled, or if that semblance of a smile were but the effect of shifting -lights. He held himself rigid, his back to the wall now, his right hand -clinched on his knee.</p> - -<p>"When I am in need of your help ... you who shot me...."</p> - -<p>She came to him unafraid; she set down the can of warm water on the -floor; she began unbuttoning the neck of his shirt. He threw up his -hand, the right, hard-clinched, as though he would strike her in the -face; but he let the hand fall back to his side. She heard a great sigh.</p> - -<p>"I told you once," she said quietly, "that I did not shoot you. And I -am no more liar than you are, Bruce Standing."</p> - -<p>He cursed himself for a fool; he was tired and weak and dizzy; his mind -was the abode of confusions; he no longer knew what was fact and what -illusion. One thing alone he did know, a marvellous thing; there was -in her low voice the ring of utter honesty when she said: "I did not -shoot you!" ... Liars; all her sex, waging their weak wars from ambush, -holding their place in the world through seduction and deceit, all were -liars. And yet she troubled him, and with that voice and those eyes -she bred uncertainty on top of uncertainty in his uncertain soul. Her -steady fingers were unbuttoning his collar....</p> - -<p>"Then why," he muttered, jeering and challenging, "did you run as you -did after the shot? And how, since you and I were alone in the room...."</p> - -<p>"The window was open! Under it was the table, my pistol where I had -dropped it on the table. You turned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> your back; I was going to jump out -the window and run because for the moment I was afraid! But some one, -some man, was there; I saw his hand; it caught up the pistol. It was he -who shot you in the back! And when he dropped the pistol back to the -table...."</p> - -<p>Again he demanded fiercely:</p> - -<p>"But you ran ... <i>why</i>? And with the gun in your hand! Why? <i>Why</i>, -girl, if you are not lying to me?"</p> - -<p>"Haven't I told you?" Suddenly she was aflame with passionate -vehemence. "I was frightened; ready to run; keyed up to run! There came -that shot, and you were hit; I thought you were killed! It flashed over -me that I would be suspected and all evidence would point to me and I -would be convicted of murder! Cowardly murder!... One does not think at -such a time; there is only the rush of instinct and impulse. I was all -ready to run; I had no time to think...."</p> - -<p>"But you had the revolver in your hand as you went through the window!"</p> - -<p>"Impulse and instinct, I tell you!" she cried. "Instinct to flee; and -to snatch at the first weapon for protection, even though it was the -weapon that had just shot you! I was a fool, maybe; and maybe by acting -as I did I saved my own life!"</p> - -<p>He was looking up into her face queerly; she saw the savage gathering -of his brows; with all his might he strove for clear vision and clear -thought. With a new, terrible keenness, he fixed his eyes upon her; -then he said deliberately: "Liar!"</p> - -<p>He saw the flash of her eyes, the angry set of her mouth; her hands -were clinched now, and for a moment it was he who believed that he -was to be struck full across the face. And thereupon his own eyes -brightened; this girl did not speak like a liar; she did not carry<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> -herself like one; she had yet to show the first streak of yellow which -is in the warp and woof of lying souls.</p> - -<p>But Lynette curbed her quick temper and said only:</p> - -<p>"You have no right to call me that; my word is as good as your word, -Bruce Standing. Had I shot you I should not have waited for you to turn -your back. One thing I did do for which I was sorry even while I did -it, and ashamed; I laughed at you even while I sympathized with your -anger against a man who, to be little and mean, could have your horse -killed. And it was not at you that I laughed, after all ... there come -times when I can't help laughing, though there is nothing to laugh at -... it was the shock, I think ... the incongruousness, to hear you...."</p> - -<p>She ended there, sparing him any further reference to his lisping of -which he was so desperately ashamed; once more she began working at his -collar.... And again there came into the blue eyes of Bruce Standing a -flash as of blue fire, though he hid it from her; and a sudden great, -utterly mysterious gladness blossomed magically. For, though he did not -understand and though he would never rest until he did understand, yet -already he began to believe that this girl with the fearless look spoke -the truth! And this, because of the ring of her voice and the tip of -her head, erect on its white throat, and the flash of her own eyes, as -though the spirit of man and maid had struck fire, one from the other.</p> - -<p>"If you'll help me ..." said Lynette. "If you can sit a little bit -forward?... Your shirt will have to be torn or cut; I can't get to your -shoulder otherwise...."</p> - -<p>He put up his right hand; as he jerked vigorously there was the sound -of tearing and ripping; he thrust the cloth down from the left side and -laid bare his great chest and the powerfully muscled left shoulder and -upper arm. Lynette shuddered; he had lost so much blood!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> And against -the smooth perfect whiteness of his healthy skin the blood was so -emphasized. She found the new wound....</p> - -<p>"Shot in the back ... twice shot in the back," she said, and again she -shivered. "And you don't know who shot you either time?"</p> - -<p>"I have my own idea about both," he said curtly. And had nothing to add.</p> - -<p>With the warm water and soap she cleansed the fresh wound and then the -older one. Then, with gentle fingers, she did as he bade her with Billy -Winch's salve, applying it generously.</p> - -<p>When the thing was done they looked at each other strangely; man and -maid in the wild-wood, with much lying between them, with each asking -swift unanswerable questions, with the night in the solitudes advancing.</p> - -<p>"It's a strange thing that you came back," said Standing.</p> - -<p>"Where better had I to go?"</p> - -<p>"I told you that Taggart and his friends were down there. You might -have found them."</p> - -<p>She turned from him abruptly and went back to the fireplace; he could -see only the curve of her cheek and a curl and her shoulder.</p> - -<p>"I have no greater liking for Sheriff Taggart than you have," she said.</p> - -<p>He wanted to see her face, but she was stubborn in refusing to turn. He -said curiously:</p> - -<p>"Your friend, Baby Devil, ought to be overhauling them before long! If -you think he decided to come this way?"</p> - -<p>She did not answer. He began to grow angry with her for that; for -refusing to reply when he spoke; for refusing to discuss Babe Deveril. -But he kept a shut mouth, though with the effort his jaws bulged. He -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>began feeling in his pocket for pipe and tobacco; he felt the need of -it....</p> - -<p>He would have sworn that she had not looked and could not have seen, -but when he struggled over the difficulty of doing everything with one -hand she whirled and came forward impulsively and finished the task for -him, packing the tobacco into the black bowl of his pipe and handing -him a lighted splinter from the fire.</p> - -<p>He muttered something; she had gone back to her place at the fire -and did not know whether his muttering was of thanks or curses; -her attitude would have seemed to imply that either would find her -indifferent. He smoked slowly; the strong tobacco, sharp and acrid, -did him good; a man of steady nerve, he had come to a point where his -nerves needed steadying; just now he wanted silence and his pipe and -time to grope for certain readjustments. Sweeping in all his ways was -Bruce Standing; in building up, tearing down, building up again; and -always with him was the sheerest joy in building up.... And Lynette, -for the first time in many hours, experienced a moment of bright -happiness.</p> - -<p>He knocked out the ashes of his pipe, rapping the black bowl sharply -against his boot heel. Heavily he got to his feet. From the bunk he -dragged a blanket tossing it on the floor in a corner by the fireplace. -Obviously he was intending it for his bed....</p> - -<p>"You must lie on the bunk," she cried impulsively. "You are worse hurt -than you seem to know. In any case, I give you my word I'll not use it!"</p> - -<p>"Why should I care what you do, girl?" he demanded, staring at her -fiercely. "The bunk is there; take it or leave it."</p> - -<p>Defiantly she snatched up a second blanket and folded it into the -opposite corner, sitting down on it with her feet tucked under her, -beginning swiftly to rebraid her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> loose hair. He turned from her to -lie down. But since he had chosen the corner which he had, and since -because of his wounds he was forced to lie on his right side, he faced -toward her. She appeared not to notice him, having brooding eyes only -for the fire; and yet she had had her clear view of his haggard face. -Thor came to lie close to his master's feet.</p> - -<p>There were three blankets. Lynette, only asking herself curiously what -explosion of wrath she might bring upon herself, rose and went for the -third, and, without saying anything, spread it over Standing. He looked -at her amazed. But he did not speak. Instead, after the briefest of -hesitations, he floundered to his feet, set one boot heel upon the edge -of the blanket while in his good hand he gripped a corner; with one -sudden effort he ripped the blanket fairly in two. He tramped across -the small room and dropped half by her side; he went back to his own -corner and lay down, dragging the other fragment up over his shoulders, -like a shawl....</p> - -<p>Lynette was tired almost to the end of endurance; further, this night -had been no less a tax upon her than had the other nights. Now, -suddenly, she burst into that inimitable laughter of hers, sounding as -light and gay and mirthful as the laugh of a delighted child....</p> - -<p>"Behold! The acme of politeness!" she cried merrily. "A perfectly good -bunk and the two travellers going to sleep on the floor!"</p> - -<p>He stared at her unsmilingly for a long time.</p> - -<p>"I haven't thanked you, girl, for what you've done for me to-night. -I am not without gratitude, but I'm no man for pretty speeches, I am -afraid. At any rate here's this: I came hunting a cowardly sneak of a -she-cat and I found a true sport. And I think I'm done with making war -on you!... Unless...."</p> - -<p>"Unless ... <i>what</i>?" asked Lynette.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span></p> - -<p>But he was lying back now, his eyes closed. He did not appear to have -heard. She, too, lay down with a little weary sigh. Her last thoughts -were three; they mingled and grew confused as all thoughts faded. -But before they blurred they were these: Bruce Standing had dropped -his rifle outside and had not gone out for it; Babe Deveril had not -returned for her, but no doubt was still seeking her; and Bruce -Standing was done making war on her, <i>unless</i>....</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> - -<p>Lynette awoke, shivering. It was pitch-dark; the fire had burned out; -it must be very late, as she was stiff and cold. She had been dreaming -and her shivering was half a shudder of fear. Her nightmare had been -one of herself attacked and pursued hideously by wild animals; lions -which in the fashion of dreams, changed into wolves, then into savages. -She sat up, gathering her blanket about her. She heard Standing -breathing heavily; she could hear, now and then, his mutterings of -uneasy sleep. Perhaps it had been this which had awaked her? She began -listening as one, startled out of slumber, inevitably does to another's -incoherencies. It was hard to catch a word despite the cabin's hushed -silence into which every slightest sound penetrated. The sounds were -like those of a man babbling in fever. Once it seemed to her that he -had hardly more than whispered "Girl!"</p> - -<p>Always must the mind of one who listens thus be held under the spell of -another spirit winging its way among dreams; the moment is uncanny if -only because it brings in such close contact the commonplace of every -day and the inexplicable of dreams. In the night, in the silence, under -this queer spell, her own mind groping, she stirred uneasily.</p> - -<p>It flashed across Lynette that it had not been Timber-Wolf's mumbling -voice that had awakened her. That there had been something else, a new -sound from without. She listened intently, straining her ears. <i>There -was some one or something outside!</i> She started to her feet, though -clinging to the security offered by her corner.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span></p> - -<p>The door was open; it was a mere degree less dark outside than within. -As she stared into the blackness she made out vaguely the mass of -trees. A black wall in a black night. Some one out there? Then who? -<i>Babe Deveril?</i></p> - -<p>All along she had held tenaciously to the thought that Babe Deveril -would come for her. Perhaps he had come now; perhaps he lingered -outside, not knowing positively that she was here, not knowing if -Standing were awake or asleep, not knowing if Standing were sick of his -wound or ready with rifle in hand.</p> - -<p>Her thoughts began to fly like stabs of lightning; briefly they made -everything clear only to plunge her whole world of thought back into -even more profound darkness. Babe Deveril? It might be! Or it might be -Mexicali Joe, lurking after his fashion. Or it might, equally well, be -Taggart with Gallup and that other man at his heels. By now she was -certain of only one thing: <i>There was some one out there.</i></p> - -<p>She stood rigid for ten or fifteen minutes; Standing had become quiet -save for his heavy breathing; she strove with all senses upgathered -tensely to read the riddle of the night. Once she was sure of a sound -outside; but the mystery of a night sound is so baffling! A man's -cautious tread? Or a limb stirring gently? Or a bird among leaves, or -a rabbit? It was so easy a matter, with her senses so freshly aroused -from a nightmare of wild animals and savage pursuers, to people the -night with fantastic menaces.</p> - -<p>Bruce Standing was unarmed; his rifle dropped somewhere outside when -he had dashed after her. She, too, was without a weapon. He had given -her the big revolver; she had refused it; she had flung it angrily to -the floor, near the bunk. She remembered seeing it there, almost out of -sight, under the bunk....</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span></p> - -<p>If it were Babe Deveril, she had nothing to fear. If Mexicali Joe, she -had nothing to fear. If Taggart and Gallup and the other? What had she -to fear from them? Merely arrest, at most, and not so long ago she had -been eager for that! And if some prowling animal?</p> - -<p>"There's nothing to hurt me," she told herself, fighting to throttle -down that trepidation which had leaped upon her when she first awoke -with the wildly beating heart of one threatened in sleep. "If I -only had that revolver now ... if it chanced to be wolf or bear or -mountain-cat, one shot at it would send it scurrying. And, if a man, -there is none for me to be afraid of."</p> - -<p>She began, ever so slowly and guardedly, tiptoeing across the floor. -She came to the bunk; she stooped and groped, and at last her fingers -closed about the fallen revolver. She clinched it tightly and stood up, -again rigid. This time she was sure of the sound which came again; a -man's step, as guarded as her own had been, but betrayed by a little -dry twig snapping.</p> - -<p>Again she waited, without moving, a long time. And not another sound; -only Standing's deep breathing. Once she thought that his breathing -had changed; that he, too, was awake. But after a moment she persuaded -herself that she had imagined that; that he was still sleeping heavily. -But no further sound outside. What a cautious man, or what a cowardly, -was he out there! What did he want?</p> - -<p>Suddenly she thought of Thor. How was it that Thor, a dog, hence -man's superior in as many matters as he was man's inferior, a thing -of keenest senses, had given no sign? Why had not Thor stirred when -she did; why had he not heard what she heard; why was he not already -rushing out, growling, demanding to know what intruder lurked in such -stealth at his master's door?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> Had there been a ray of light in the -cabin she would have had her answer; for Bruce Standing was sitting up, -his arms were about Thor, one big hand was at Thor's muzzle, commanding -quiet. And when Standing commanded, Thor obeyed.</p> - -<p>Some girls, some men ... perhaps most girls and most men ... would have -remained in the protection of the four walls, resigned to uncertainty, -until daybreak. Of their number was not Lynette Brooke, a girl little -given to fear and greatly moved by a desire to <i>know</i>! She waited as -long as she could bear to wait. Then, holding Taggart's revolver well -before her and walking with one silent footfall distanced patiently -from the other, she gained the door and stepped outside. She was -trembling; that she could not help. But she was determined to go on. -And on she did go, cautiously, until she had gone ten steps toward the -sound which she had heard. She paused, turning in all directions, ready -to fire and ready to run....</p> - -<p>"<i>Sh! Come here!</i>"</p> - -<p>A whisper through the dark. And one man's whisper is much like -another's. It could have been Deveril's or Taggart's or even Mexicali -Joe's.</p> - -<p>"Who are you?" her own whisper answered him.</p> - -<p>"Is Standing in there?"</p> - -<p>"Who are you?" she insisted.</p> - -<p>There was a pause, a silence; a long silence. Then:</p> - -<p>"Come with me ... just a few feet. So we won't be overheard."</p> - -<p>She found herself frowning. Was it Babe Deveril? She did not fancy -a man's whispering; she could not imagine a man like Bruce Standing -whispering at a moment like this! More like him, like any man who was -a man, to roar out what he had to say rather than whisper in the dark. -But that curiosity of hers, that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> inborn desire <i>to know</i>, lured her -on. But under guard. She held her weapon so that it menaced the vague -form so close to her and she whispered again, not realizing that she, -too, whispered, but because she was under the spell of the moment.</p> - -<p>"I'll go with you another ten steps ... count them! And I have a -revolver in my hand, aimed at the middle of your body!"</p> - -<p>"You're a game kid! Dead game and I don't mind saying so!"</p> - -<p>They had stopped; the whisper was dropped for a low-toned voice. It was -not Babe Deveril! Not Mexicali Joe. Then Taggart?</p> - -<p>"I want to talk to you. I take it he is in there. Asleep? So much the -better. I'm Taggart."</p> - -<p>"Well? What can I do for you, Mr. Taggart?"</p> - -<p>"That gun of yours," he said. "I don't know how used you are to guns. -Knowing who I am you can point it down!"</p> - -<p>"Knowing who you are," she returned coolly, "I keep it just as it is! I -have asked what I could do for you?"</p> - -<p>"I've seen Babe Deveril. He's told me all about everything."</p> - -<p>"Babe Deveril! When? Where is he?"</p> - -<p>Jim Taggart, had time and opportunity afforded, would have laughed at -her quickened exclamation, being an evil-thoughted individual with -restricted mental horizons. She appeared interested. He had his own -mind of her sex and it was not high, since those of her sex with whom -such as Jim Taggart consorted were not such as to give a man a high -idea of femininity. In the words which, had he spoken his thought -aloud, would have been his, Taggart estimated that "he had this dame's -number, street, and telephone."</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span></p> - -<p>"I'll tell you about Babe Deveril later; and what's more, kid, I'll -give you your show to throw in with him again. Now I'm cutting things -short; you know why. I was after him for hammering me over the head -with a gun; I was on your trail for killing a man. Now, since the -man you killed ain't dead at all and since I've had a good talk with -Deveril, I'm ready to let you both go. And just to take in a man named -Standing."</p> - -<p>Through one of those odd tricks by which chance asserts itself at -times, Lynette made a discovery while Taggart was talking. She had -felt something underfoot—and that something turned out to be Bruce -Standing's rifle.</p> - -<p>... What had this lost rifle to do with matters as they stood? Why -all Jim Taggart's caution, if he were armed? But then Standing had -brought Taggart's revolver back to the cabin with him.... What part -in to-night's game was this fallen rifle to play? Her thoughts had -been withdrawn; so, standing so that for the present Taggart could not -possibly touch with his own foot that which she had stumbled on in the -dark, she made him repeat what he had said.</p> - -<p>Thus she caught a free instant for thought; thus also she grasped all -that he had to say and to insinuate. And at the end she answered him -with a baffling, feminine:</p> - -<p>"Well?"</p> - -<p>"I've got to talk fast!" growled Taggart. "He's in there, I know. Is he -hurt?"</p> - -<p>"You know that he is...."</p> - -<p>"I don't mean that shot at Gallup's ... that you gave him...."</p> - -<p>"I did not shoot him!" she cried out hotly, sick of accusation.</p> - -<p>Taggart sneered at her, muttering threateningly:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span></p> - -<p>"You did! For I saw you! I was right there, close by...."</p> - -<p class="space-above">Within the cabin Bruce Standing, sitting very tense and straight, -nearly choking his big dog into silence, grew tenser and harder. So, -Taggart claimed to have seen her.... Taggart was "<i>right there, close -by</i>...."</p> - -<p class="space-above">"You say you saw me!" gasped Lynette. "<i>You!</i>"</p> - -<p>"I tell you this is no time for palaver," said Taggart impatiently. -"What do you care, so long as I agree to let you go free? And to let -Deveril go free along with you! I guess that means something to you, -don't it? If it don't mean enough, let me show you: I can grab you -right now; me, I'm not afraid of any gun any woman ever waved! And I -can put you across for a good little vacation in jail. But I'm letting -that go by, wanting to get my hooks in one Bruce Standing, good and -deep. And I got just that! Seeing as Deveril told me what happened; -how Standing swooped down on you, how he beat Deveril up, how he put a -chain on you and dragged you away after him! If you'll step into court -and swear to that.... Why, kid, I got him! Got him right! Any jury in -this country will land on him <i>hard</i> for doing to a woman like that. -And you can tell the other things he's done to you by now, you and him -all alone up here, him a brutal devil...."</p> - -<p>Illogically enough it swept over her that it was she herself, Lynette, -whom the man was insulting, and her finger trembled so upon the trigger -that all unknowing Jim Taggart stood for the instant close upon the -verge of the great final blackness. But, steadying herself, she managed -to say:</p> - -<p>"Babe Deveril told you that? That Bruce Standing had put a chain about -me? How did he know? That was after he had gone!"</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span></p> - -<p>"But," muttered Taggart harshly, "he did not go so fast! He went up -over a ridge and he stopped and rested, and in the dark he came back a -bit and he hid and saw! Anyway, it's the truth, ain't it? And I know? -So he must have come back to see!"</p> - -<p>That thought became on the instant the only thought, one to rise up and -obstruct all others. Deveril had seen; he had lingered, hidden in the -forest land; he had watched her humiliation; he had known that Bruce -Standing, though armed, was a man sorely wounded ... and he had not -come to her then!</p> - -<p>"Where is he?" she demanded swiftly. "When did you see him? Where has -he gone?"</p> - -<p>"He came just as Standing, damn him, had jumped us to-night! All -unawares Standing took us ... when we were busy with other things. He -had the drop on us and he made us let the Mexico breed go. Deveril was -watching but he didn't have a gun and he couldn't step up and take a -hand, knowing his cousin for a dead shot and a man who'd rather kill -than not."</p> - -<p>"But now," demanded Lynette. "<i>Now!</i> Where is he?"</p> - -<p>"He's a wised-up kid and I'm with him, tooth and toenail! He came up -then and he said his say ... and I let him go! And he told me to look -out for you and he hit the trail, dog-tired as he was, after Mexicali -Joe! If there's gold to be had, why Babe Deveril means to be in on it. -And me, so do I! And you, if you're on."</p> - -<p>Underfoot, all this time, Lynette felt Bruce Standing's rifle....</p> - -<p>There are times in life for methodical thought, other times for swift -decisions, bred of impulse and instinctive urge....</p> - -<p>She lived again through a certain pregnant crisis, saw in mind the -whole scene as though some master<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> artist with sweeping, bold brush had -created the perfect vision anew for her, the struggle which had been -hers and Babe Deveril's and Bruce Standing's, when Standing, with the -sun glowing red over his head, had come rushing down on them by their -camp-fire. She saw his rifle ... the one she now felt underfoot!... go -swirling over a pine top as he hurled from him any such advantage in -fair fight as it spelled; again she watched the fight ... she saw Babe -Deveril go up over the ridge; she saw herself, striking in fury against -Standing's arm, beating the rifle down....</p> - -<p>"Well?" It was Taggart who spoke the brief word now. "Which is it? Jail -for you ... or a good long spell in the pen for him?"</p> - -<p>... And Babe Deveril had come this close ... she had proof of that in -Taggart's knowledge of the chain! ... and had gone on, following the -golden lure of Mexicali Joe's trail!</p> - -<p>"Well?" said Taggart.</p> - -<p>"Suppose I were fool enough to refuse what you ask?"</p> - -<p>"Then you'd go to jail as sure as hell! It's you or him! And I guess I -know the answer."</p> - -<p>Then Lynette said hurriedly:</p> - -<p>"Step back ... a little farther from the cabin. Let me make sure that -he is asleep! There never was a man like him.... Back a few steps and -wait...."</p> - -<p>"There's no sense in that!"</p> - -<p>"If you don't I'll scream out that you're here! Then you'll never take -him; you know the man he is!"</p> - -<p>Taggart mistrusted, and yet, hard-driven and urged by her voice, obeyed -to the extent of drawing back a few steps. Not far, yet far enough for -Lynette to stoop and grope and find the rifle. She caught it up and -whirled and ran, ran as for her life, back to the cabin door. And she -threw the rifle inside, crying out:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span></p> - -<p>"Wake up, Bruce Standing! There's your rifle ... and here's Jim Taggart -outside, looking for you!"</p> - -<p class="space-above">She came bursting into the cabin and full into Bruce Standing's arms. -For he was up on his feet, both arms, despite a sore side, lifted.</p> - -<p>"By God!" he shouted.</p> - -<p>He let her go and sought the rifle. She was first to find it and put it -into his searching hand.</p> - -<p>"He is a contemptible coward!" she cried. "As if...."</p> - -<p>Standing had the rifle now, and thrust by her and rushed into the -open doorway, Thor snarling at his side; and Standing's voice, lifted -mightily, shouted:</p> - -<p>"Come ahead, Taggart! I'm waiting and ready for you! Come ahead!"</p> - -<p>Later he laughed at himself for that, and thereafter explained his -laughter to Lynette, saying:</p> - -<p>"He hasn't a gun on him! I cleaned him out, all but one pocket gun, and -I fancy he emptied that at me ... in the back. Come—we'll have a fire!"</p> - -<p>Hastily she shut the door, lest Taggart might have one shot left. -Standing set his rifle down against the wall; she heard the thud of -the stock upon the floor. Clearly he had no fear of Taggart's return. -He began gathering up bits of wood, kneeling to get a fire started. -Presently under his hands the blaze leaped up and brought detail -vividly blossoming from the dark of the room; his face, white, with the -most eager, shining eyes she had ever seen; her own face scarcely less -pale; the homely appointments of the place. He was still on his knees -at the fireplace; he threw on the last bit of wood and watched the -quick flames lick at it; he swerved about, and it seemed that his eyes, -no less than the inflammable wood, had caught fire as he cried out in -a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> voice which startled her and in words which set her wondering:</p> - -<p>"I told you, girl, I'd let you go scot-free ... <i>unless</i>! And here -I bogged down like a broken-legged steer in the quicksands! But now -... <i>Now</i>! I've got it all figured out. I don't let you go! Neither -to-night ..." and he was on his feet, towering over her—"or ever!"</p> - -<p>And, as quick as thought, he was at the door and had shot a bolt home -and had clicked a padlock, and, swinging about again, stood looking -down at her, his eyes filled with dancing lights.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XIX</h2> - -<p>There was no more sleep through what was left of the night, and -scarcely more of talk. Standing piled his fire high, and, unmindful -of his discarded rifle, went out for more wood; Lynette dropped down -on the blanket in her corner and named herself a silly fool. He came -back, carefully relocking his door; kept his fire blazing, and made -his coffee and smoked his pipe. And then, in that great golden voice -of his, he began singing. And, through its wild rhythm, she knew the -song for the same as that which she had heard for the first time when -he had hurled himself both into Big Pine and into her life. His voice -rose and swelled and filled the poor cabin to overflowing, and must -have filtered through chinks and cracks and spilled out through the -forest land, and for great distances through the quiet solitudes. And, -at the end, in a sudden upgathering into all that tremendous resounding -volume of sound of which his magnificent voice was capable, came that -unforgettable wolf cry. If she required any reminding, here she had -it, that she was housed in the same cabin with Timber-Wolf! A fierce -outcry, to go resounding and echoing across miles and miles of forest -lands, meant, as she was quick to realize, to carry both defiance and -challenge to his enemies.</p> - -<p>"You have had your choice, girl!" he shouted at her. "You could have -gone free! I gave you your freedom. But you would not go. And that was -because it was in the cards, in the fates, in the stars, if you like, -that you and I are not to part yet! The door is locked; I stand between -you and it. So, you stay here with me!"</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span></p> - -<p>For the first time she was truly and deeply afraid of him. But he went -back to his place by the fire, and sat on the old stump seat, and -filled his pipe again with hard, nervous fingers and glared at the -fire. For a little he seemed to have forgotten that she was there. -And then at last, when she saw that he was going to speak again, she -forestalled him, saying swiftly:</p> - -<p>"I am tired and sleepy. I am going to sleep."</p> - -<p>He checked his speech, saving whatever he had to say to her. She lay -back on her blankets, and, though she had had no such intention, soon -drifted off to sleep. And he, with pipe grown cold, sat and glowered -over his fire, and put to himself many a question, growing fierce over -his inability to answer any one of them. But, at least, in his groping -he forgot the pain of his wounds.</p> - -<p>"You are not asleep," he said after a very long time. "I know that; I -can tell. You are pretending. And you are thinking, thinking hard and -fast! And so am I thinking! As I never did before now. You might as -well save yourself the labor of struggling with your problems, since I -am doing the planning for both of us right now; since everything is in -my hands and I mean to keep it there."</p> - -<p>She heard but gave no sign of hearing; she kept her face averted from -him so that he could not see whether her eyes were open or shut. Open -they were, and the man appeared to know it.</p> - -<p>"Am I wise man or fool?" he cried. "He only is wise who knows what he -knows and steers his craft by the one steady star in his sky!"</p> - -<p>She would not answer him when he spoke; she could not just now. She lay -still, as if asleep. He relapsed into a long silence, his eyes now on -her, now on his fire.</p> - -<p>"This neck o' the woods is getting all cluttered up with folks!" he -muttered abruptly, with such <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span>suddenness that he startled her. "I've a -notion to run the whole crowd in for trespassing!... Or better, girl, -you and I move on. Where there's elbow room; room to talk in. We've got -to quarry out our own blocks of stone and build up our own lives, and -we want a bit of the world to ourselves. What's more, we're going to -have it!"</p> - -<p>She knew, as every girl knows when that mighty moment comes ... and -her girl-heart beat hard and fast ... that after his own fashion Bruce -Standing, Timber-Wolf, was making love to her.</p> - -<p>"Dawn!" he said, and she understood that he spoke with himself as much -as with her. "That's all we're waiting for, the first streak of dawn. -Then we move on. Where? I know where, and no other man knows!"</p> - -<p>He began impatiently stalking up and down; he seemed to have forgotten -his wounds, and yet, stealing her swift glances at him, she could see -that his face had lost little of its whiteness and that his whole left -side was stiff. Again, bestowing mentally a strange epithet upon him, -she regarded the man as "inevitable." Could anything stop him or divert -his career into any channel but that of his own choosing? She <i>was</i> -afraid of him.</p> - -<p>"You told me that I might go! Where I pleased, when I pleased!"</p> - -<p>He swung about and turned on her a face of whose expression in that -dim, flickering light she could make nothing.</p> - -<p>"You had your choice! You came back! Now I know something which I did -not know before."</p> - -<p>He began pacing up and down again, making the cabin's smallness further -dwarfed by his great strides. He fascinated her; she watched him, and -her fear, formless and nameless, grew until it seemed that it would -choke her.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span></p> - -<p>There was a boarded-up window. A thin slit of light showed.</p> - -<p>"We breakfast and go," he told her.</p> - -<p>"And if I refuse to go with you?"</p> - -<p>"I have my chain and my good right arm!"</p> - -<p>Then, as once before, tingling with anger born of foreseen humiliation, -she cried out:</p> - -<p>"I hate you, brute that you are!"</p> - -<p>"Not brute, but man," he told her sternly. "And, ever since the world -was young, men, when they were men, claimed their mates and took and -held them!"</p> - -<p>Again for a long time he was silent. And then, on his feet, his arms -thrown out, he cried in a strange voice:</p> - -<p>"I love you!"</p> - -<p>He made strange mad music in her soul. She tried again to cry out: -"I hate you!" She knew that still she was afraid of him, more afraid -than ever. Yet he strode up and down and looked a young valiant god, -and his golden voice found singing echoes within her soul and his wild -extravagances awoke throbbing extravagances in her.... What can one -know? What misdoubt? We are like babes in the dark. Of what can one be -sure? Of the stars above?... Our hopes are like stars....</p> - -<p>"I am no poet, though next to a strong fighting man I'd rather be a -true poet than anything else God ever created! Were I a poet I'd build -a song for you, girl! A song to ring through the eternal ages; going -back to the roots of things when You and I were first You and I! It -would be a song like one of the old troubadours', telling of great -deeds and great loves only ... for you and I have never been the ones -for cowardly littlenesses! I'd make a song to hang about the world's -memory of you like a golden chain. And I'd carry on, having the poet's -soul and vision, into ten thousand lives to come;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> down to the end of -time when eternity is only at its beginnings!... But I am only plain -Bruce Standing, a simple fighting man, and no poet; one who at best -can but mouth the voicings of the true poets. So I can only pour all -my heart and soul, girl, into my brief poem: I love you. I have always -loved you! Always and always I shall love you!... And I'll crack any -man's skull that so much as looks at you!"</p> - -<p>She was not sure of his sanity; not certain that a fever, bred of his -wounds, was not burning into his marrow. <i>And yet</i>——</p> - -<p>"It's dawn, I tell you! We boil our coffee, we pick up a mouthful of -food. And then we move on! And why? Because we're sure to have callers -here in another day or so, and just now I don't want other people; -I want you, girl, and only you and the rest of the world can go to -pot!... And now we go!"</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XX</h2> - -<p>Lynette, in a mood to expect anything of fate, wondered vaguely where -the steep trail of adventure now led. She would not have been surprised -had Standing set his plans for some spot a hundred miles distant. But -she was surprised to arrive so soon, after only two or three hours, at -their destination. He looked at her, exulting.</p> - -<p>"Here is Eden!" he cried out joyously. "Remember the name, girl; -bestowed upon this spot no longer ago than this very minute! Eden! And -as far from the world as that other distant Eden. Here we stop and here -no man finds us!"</p> - -<p>He had led the way, upward along a rocky slope. He had brought her into -a spot which she would have named "The Land of Waterfalls!" A tiny -valley with a sparkling mountain creek cleaving like flowing crystal -through a grassy meadow; tall trees, noble patriarchs bounding it. -Steep caņon walls shutting in the timber growth; a narrow ravine above -with the water leaping, plunging, tumbling translucent green over -jagged rocks, splashing into a series of pools, turned into rainbow -spray here and there in its wild cascadings. The world all about was -murmurous with living waters, with bees, with the eternal whisperings -of the pines.</p> - -<p>And here began an idyl; a strange idyl. A man asserting his power as -captor; a maid made captive; two souls wide awake, questing, swung from -certainty to uncertainty, gathered up in doubt. Life grown a thing of -tremendous import.</p> - -<p>All morning had Standing been wracked with pain. Yet none the less did -he hold unswervingly to his <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>purpose. Now he sat down, his back to a -tree. Thor came and lay at his feet. Lynette stood looking down upon -the two.</p> - -<p>"Rest," he said. "Here is your home for a time. A day? Ten days? Who -knows? Not I, girl! All that I know I have told you; here we rest and -here we take life into our hands and mould it ... as we have always -moulded it! We are at the gates; we enter or we turn to one side! We go -on or we go back. Which? When we know that, we know everything."</p> - -<p>He had brought with him, slung across his back, a great roll from the -hidden cabin. His rifle lay across his knees. He looked up into her -face with eyes which, though haggard, shone wonderfully. She sat down, -ten steps from him; her clasped hands were in her lap; her eyes were -veiled mysteries.</p> - -<p>"Taggart won't look for us here," he said. "He hasn't the brains of a -little gray seed-tick! He'll be sure we've made a big jump, forward or -back, ten times this distance. Besides, he has to go somewhere to get -himself a new set of guns! Imagine him tackling anything with an ounce -of risk in it unless he was heeled like an army corps! I begin to lose -respect for that man."</p> - -<p>Lynette was thinking but one thing: "She was not afraid of this man; -not afraid to be alone with him in pathless solitudes. She might choose -to be elsewhere ... yet she was safe with him. For, above all, he was a -man; and never need a true girl fear a true man." And, when she stole -a swift glance at his face, it lay in her heart to be a bit sorry for -him. Sympathy? It lies close to another eternal human emotion! He -looked like one whom fate had crushed and yet whose spirit refused to -be crushed. He looked a sick man who, scorning all the commands laid -upon the flesh, carried on.</p> - -<p>After a while he turned to look upon her, and for the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> first time she -saw a new and strange look in his eyes, a look of pleading.</p> - -<p>"Don't misjudge me, girl," he said heavily. "Rather than see your -little finger bruised I'd have a man drive a knife in me! I'm just -blundering along now ... blundering ... trying to see daylight. I won't -hurt you. There's nothing on earth or in Heaven so sure as that. But -don't ask me to let you go!"</p> - -<p>She made him no answer. She began thinking of his wounds; he gave them -such scant attention! He should be caring for them; what he should -do was to hasten to a surgeon. She wondered if still he clung to his -conviction, the natural one after all, that she had shot him? And she -wondered, as she had done so many a time before: "Who had shot him?" -Whose hand that which she had seen reach through her window and snatch -up her revolver and fire the cowardly shot? Taggart, only a few hours -ago, had said: "I saw! I was right there!" ...</p> - -<p>"Was it Jim Taggart who shot you in the back last night?" she demanded -suddenly.</p> - -<p>"Yes," he said. "At least, I think so."</p> - -<p>"Is he that kind of man?"</p> - -<p>Now his eyes were keen and hard upon hers.</p> - -<p>"I begin to think that he is, girl," he said shortly. "Why?"</p> - -<p>She shrugged and again turned away.</p> - -<p>He lumbered to his feet. Thor, knowing where he was going, barked and -leaped ahead.</p> - -<p>"Come, I'll show you where we pitch camp."</p> - -<p>She looked about her. Mere madness to attempt flight now; he would bear -down upon her before she had run twenty steps. And did she want to run -just now? She had her own measure of curiosity.... Was it only that?... -and she had, locked away securely in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> her breast, her absolute positive -knowledge that she had nothing to fear at his hands. She rose and -followed him.</p> - -<p>Suddenly he swerved about, confronting her, his eyes stern, his voice -hard with the emotion riding him.</p> - -<p>"Madman I may be," he said. "Fool, I am not, praise God! Last night I -heard; you could have chucked that rifle into Taggart's hands and could -have gone free yourself ... and by now I'd be a dead man! But, glory -be, there isn't a streak of yellow in your whole glorious being!"</p> - -<p>The blood ran up into her face; it made her hot throughout her whole -body. Praise, from him, to stir her like that! Her eyes flashed back -angrily, for she was angry with herself.</p> - -<p>"Come," he muttered. "Talk's cheap at any time. And I'm to show you -where we make our first home."</p> - -<p>With her teeth sharply catching up her underlip, she held her silence. -He went on some two-score paces and stopped; with a sudden gesture he -said:</p> - -<p>"Here I've spent, God knows how many nights, when I had to be off by -myself! No roof for us, girl, but who wants a roof with that sky above -us?"</p> - -<p>Here was a natural grotto which at another time would have made her -exclaim in delight: a nook, set apart, thresholded in tender grass shot -through with those tiny delicate blooms of mountain flowers. On one -side a cliff, outjutting, thrusting forward a great overhanging shelf -of rock which looked as though it must fall and yet which, obviously, -had held securely through the centuries. Three big pine-trees, two -of them leaning strangely toward the cliff, as though yearning to -lean against the sturdy rock and rest there upon its iron breast. The -whole ringed about by a dense copse of brush, thick as a wall and -rearing high above her head. Almost a cave<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> made of cliff and growing -things, cosy and warm, with its opening fronting the stream which was -never silent. Thor ran ahead into the dusky seclusion and barked his -invitation to them to follow. A thick, dry mat, under Thor's feet, of -fallen pine-needles.</p> - -<p>Standing tossed his roll inside; he began, with one hand, to work with -the knotted rope. Lynette came forward swiftly, saying:</p> - -<p>"At least I have two hands...."</p> - -<p>Their hands brushed over the labor. Again the hot blood raced through -her, and again sudden anger, anger at herself, flashed through her -being.</p> - -<p>And a tingling, like that which shot through her, was in Bruce -Standing's veins. He caught her hand.</p> - -<p>"Girl!" he said huskily.</p> - -<p>"Don't!" she cried in alarm.</p> - -<p>He dropped her hand and rose swiftly to his feet.</p> - -<p>"You are right," he muttered. "Not yet...."</p> - -<p>How could this man at a touch make her heart beat like mad? She was -afraid ... she knew that she was not afraid of <i>him</i> ... yet she was -afraid.</p> - -<p>"I'm sorry," he said roughly. Actually, marvelling, she saw that the -big man looked embarrassed. "Look here, girl: I've come to know you a -bit and, thinking what I think, I hold that I know you well! I'll take -my chance that you are no petty crook, that you are no coward, that you -are no liar! So...."</p> - -<p>"Then," she cried, jumping to her feet, all eagerness, "do you believe -me when I say that I did not shoot you?"</p> - -<p>His eyes met hers steadily; he answered promptly:</p> - -<p>"You have told me ... and I believe. <i>I know!</i>"</p> - -<p>A rush of gladness, an intoxication of gladness, swept over her. Her -eyes were shining, soft and bright and happy like stars.</p> - -<p>"But," she said, "if not I, then who?"</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span></p> - -<p>"Jim Taggart," he said as unhesitatingly as he had spoken before. "Jim -told you that he saw, didn't he? That he was Johnny on the spot? Of -course he was! And we'd had our plain talk. And he figured it out, that -unless that very day I had changed my papers, I still named him in them -my old bunk-mate and friend, and that I'd not forget him with a legacy! -If I had died under that bullet, Jim Taggart would have had it doped -out that he'd stand to win about a hundred thousand dollars! And for a -tenth of that he'd crucify Christ!"</p> - -<p>"But...."</p> - -<p>"There are no buts about it! You did not do it; then Jim Taggart did. -He shot me last night, a second time and the second time in the back! -He was once a man; now he's a Gallup dog, a man gone to seed, a cur -and one for such as you and me to forget about. I hope to high heaven -I never see the man again; for the sake of what has been between Jim -Taggart and me, when both of us were younger, I'd rather let the past -bury its dead. For if he ever comes trailing his filth across my trail -again, I'll smash him into the earth." He made a wide angry gesture, -as though he would wipe an episode and a man out of his life. "But you -interrupt me; I was going to say something. Just this: I'll leave you -alone. For an hour, for a dozen hours! You want rest, you want solitude -and a chance to think. So do I. I can chain you to a tree and be sure -of you! Or I can ask you to give me your word that you'll wait here -until I come back to you ... and I already know you well enough to know -<i>that</i> will hold you tighter than any chain that was ever forged!"</p> - -<p>Lynette, without hesitating, answered:</p> - -<p>"I do want rest and I do want to be alone. Is that to be wondered at? -Until noon I'll wait for you to come back."</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span></p> - -<p>"Until high noon," he said. "And, girl, you pledge me your word on -that?"</p> - -<p>"Yes!"</p> - -<p>"Come, Thor!" He turned and left her, his great dog at his heels, going -up the narrowing caņon.</p> - -<p>"I'll not spy on you!" he called back, when he had gone a hundred -yards. "You'll hear me shouting to you well before I come within -eye-shot."</p> - -<p>And then she lost him, gone among the lesser, denser trees thick about -the creek's margins.</p> - -<p>She turned her back on the grotto of his choosing, and went out into -the full sunlight. She found a spot in the open, ringed about by the -majestic pines, a grassy sward with the cleaving silver line of the -creek cutting across it. For the first time in hours ... how many -endless hours? how many days?... she was alone! No man at her side, -either protecting or dominating. Her lungs filled with a deep sigh. -Alone and secure in her aloneness for a matter of several hours.</p> - -<p>There was a certain singing happiness, electric within her, and it -sprang, bright-winged, from her own characteristic pride. Bruce -Standing had left her to an absolute physical freedom, knowing her -bound by that intangible and unbreakable bond of her promise. He, a man -who did not break his own word knew her for a girl who did not break -hers! And he knew, at last, that it had not been her hand that had -fired that cowardly shot.</p> - -<p>"It was cruel ... to have laughed at him. I did not mean to laugh. -Would to God...."</p> - -<p>But if she had not laughed? Then what? Then how much of her adventure -would have followed? How much of it did she, after all, regret?... She -fell to wondering dreamily on Babe Deveril. Where was he? And would she -see him again? And, if she should see him....</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span></p> - -<p>A thousand riddles and, as always, no answer to the riddles which -spring from eternity. Only the merry voice of the purling creek to talk -back to her, that and the rustling whisper ebbing and flowing through -the pine tops. The stream, like a companionable human voice, called to -her insistently. She rose and went down to it and stooped to drink; she -bathed her hands and arms and face. How lonely it was here! She cast -a quick glance up-stream; long ago Standing, with his big dog at his -heels, had passed out of sight. And he had given her gage of promise -for promise given ... he would send his shouting voice ahead of him -before he came back....</p> - -<p>So she bathed fearlessly, watched only by the solitudes, guarded by -their sombre depths; she plunged, with a little shivery gasp, into the -deep, cool pool below the slithering waterfall; the water slipped, -gleaming like a bejewelled film over her pure-white body, making it -rosy when she emerged, like rose petals.... She dressed in furious -haste, all ablush and yet steeped in a confident knowledge that no -eye, save the bright eye of a curious brown bird, had seen. She felt -new-born; refreshed beyond belief. She ran back up the bank and sat -down in the very spot where she had dropped first when Standing had -left her. She began, always hurrying, to comb out her hair with her -fingers. Sitting there in the open she let it sun....</p> - -<p>She rested. She drank deep, thankfully, of the hour. To be alone, to be -secure in the moment, to have no danger pressing down upon her, above -all to have no mind save her own dictating to her. It was glorious -and life was good and glad and golden, infinitely worth the living. -So passed an hour. It was so quiet here; so unutterably lonely. Only -the voice of the creek and the million-tongued murmuring pines. Her -swift<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> thoughts raced ten thousand ways. They touched upon Big Pine; on -Taggart; Mexicali Joe; a gold-mine still for men to find; Maria, the -Indian girl whom Deveril had kissed; Deveril himself; that one-legged -man who rode horseback and carried forth the word and the law of his -master; Thor, a dog; Bruce Standing. Most of all, Bruce Standing. She -wondered where he was, what doing? Caring for his own wounds? Lying on -his back, his white face turned up, his eyes shut, tight shut? And he -loved her?</p> - -<p><i>Bruce Standing loved her, Lynette?</i> Was that true? What was love? -Whence came love? For what purpose? What did it do to the hearts and -souls and bodies of men ... and girls? Was love for her? She had never -experienced it, not true, abiding love. Did Babe Deveril....</p> - -<p>Another hour. Shadows slowly shifting, moving like gigantic hands of -eternal clocks. Time passing, time that answers all questions, man's -and maid's, saint's and sinner's. She stirred uneasily and sat up. She -looked at the pine tops and, beyond them, at the sun. It was almost -noon!</p> - -<p>Come noon.... What then? Come high noon before Bruce Standing, and she -was free! Released from her promise, all bonds snapped! Free!</p> - -<p>She jumped to her feet. Her eyes went questing, questing, everywhere. -To be free again; to be her own self, Lynette, untrammelled.... And she -felt awondering illogically: "Can it be that, after all, he was driving -himself beyond any man's endurance? that he is more badly hurt than -either he or I knew?"</p> - -<p>But he returned a full half-hour before even the most eager could name -it noon. True to his word, he sent his voice, like a glorious herald, -ahead of him. She heard him call, not the wolf cry, but a rollicking -shout.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> And ten minutes later he himself came, plainly in the highest -of good humors. He was still pale and looked haggard, but his eyes were -flashing and triumphant and untroubled.</p> - -<p>He came to her, splashing across the creek, water flying about his -boot-tops.</p> - -<p>"I've had a bath," he announced from afar. "And I've plastered myself -with the worst that Billy Winch can concoct, and Richard is himself -again!" He came closer, towered above her and said: "You, too, have -bathed! You look it, as fresh from the plunge as any Diana! It's good -to be <i>clean</i>, isn't it?"</p> - -<p>She flushed and was ashamed for it. She bit her lip and made no answer.</p> - -<p>"Come," he said. "We'll lunch. And now, and from now on for some -sixty years, my girl, it will be I who waits on you! The slave rôle -reversed!" and he laughed.</p> - -<p>"I promised to wait for you; I make no more promises!"</p> - -<p>"That's fair enough! I watch you then!"</p> - -<p>"Do you want to make me hate you?"</p> - -<p>"Rather, I want you to come to love me."</p> - -<p>"Could any girl come to love a man who treats her as you have done me?"</p> - -<p>"Could any girl come to love a man," he demanded earnestly, "who -thought so little of her as to let her escape him when once destiny had -brought her and him together?"</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XXI</h2> - -<p>The most perfect of the summer months in this secluded mountain nook, -not inaptly named "Eden" by Standing, was a period of time measuring -itself in soft, fragrant loveliness. The days were balmy, perfect, -halcyon; gentle hours of blue cloudlessness and golden sunshine and -little breezes which scarcely ruffled the clear water in the bigger -pools; night as clear as crystal, with flaring stars like distant -torches above the yellow pine tops; nature in her gentlest mood here -among the ruggedness of the wilderness, expressing herself in the most -delightful of odors wafted through the woods, in the tenderest tiniest -blossoms of wild flowers; a time of infinite hush and infinite solitude -and peace.</p> - -<p>To have chafed and been unhappy here, to a spirit like either Bruce -Standing's or Lynette Brooke's, would have seemed next door to an -impossibility. Even the girl, though restrained, a prisoner of a -man's will when the bright star of her life had ever been one of -splendid independence, found it easier to smile or laugh aloud at the -sober-faced antics of Thor ... when she and Thor were alone with none -to see!... than to sigh. She knew her periods of restiveness and bitter -rebellion; they were due not to her environment, but to the thought -that another than herself was dictating to her. But for one reason or -another these periods were rarer and briefer than her other hours of a -strange sort of peacefulness.</p> - -<p>"It's because I've been worn out and only now am resting," she tried -to tell herself. "Recuperating from a condition of exhausted mind and -body."</p> - -<p>Thus four days and nights passed. There had been, during all that time, -not the slightest opportunity to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> escape. The first day Standing had -hurled the chain from him, as far as he could send it. But he had not -lost sight of her for more than a few minutes at a time, saving such -times that she gave him her promise that she would wait for him to come -back. He accepted her word as he expected all the world to accept his. -On other occasions, when he allowed her briefer freedoms, he had said -merely: "No chance to run for it, girl! I'd overtake you, you know, in -no time. Even if you hid, here'd be old Thor, nosing you out!" Then he -laughed, adding: "For his own sake, the renegade, as well as for his -master's! He's fallen in love with you, too." He made her bed in the -rock-and-tree grotto; he labored, one-handed, over it for hours. With -his heavy clasp knife he cut the tender tips of resinous branches; he -heaped them high; he covered all with great handfuls of fragrant grass, -thick with the tall red flowers that grew down by the creek, odorous -with the tender white blossoms which shyly lifted their little heads to -dot the grassy slopes.... He made her a bathing-pool: stiff and sore -all up and down his left side, he worked with his right hand, dragging -big boulders up out of their ancient beds, piling them in a ring about -the pool, plastering them over the top with great handfuls of that -carpet-like moss which thrived in these cool places.</p> - -<p>"If you'd let me go!"</p> - -<p>"No; not yet.... What man can read the mind of a girl? How do I know -what you would do? Where you would go? My wounds are healing; until -they heal I am only half a man. You might whisk away from me, I tell -you; and I'd have to follow and seek you, if you led me through hell -on the way to heaven; and I must be whole again. And I've got to get -everything straight...."</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span></p> - -<p>Always when he left her he returned before the end of the time she -had promised to wait for him. And always he sent, as herald of his -approach, his golden voice forward to her. At times in an echoing -shout. More than once in an outburst of singing which thrilled her -strangely. What a voice the man had! And once, when he had elected to -bathe in the starlight, he sent down to her that cry which she had -heard the first time from the door of Babe Deveril's cabin in Big Pine -... the wild, fierce call of the timber-wolf which, despite her naming -herself "fool," sent a shiver into her blood.... Once this happened: -He had left her in the forenoon, accepting her word that she would not -stir until high noon. Usually he came well in advance; this time she -watched the climbing sun and the creeping shade and suddenly her heart -began its wild beating; it was almost noon and he was not here; no -sound of his coming. When he shouted to her and then came rushing into -camp, he found that she had been working frenziedly with a stick and a -stone; driving the sliver of wood like a stake into the ground.... She -started up, her face crimson.</p> - -<p>"Well?" he said, his hands on his hips, staring down at her. "What's -that?"</p> - -<p>She blurted out the explanation and then was angry with herself for -telling him. She had meant to stay until the tip end of the giant -pine's shadow fell where it marked midday; she had meant there to drive -in her stake; for him it would be a marker, an assurance from her that -she had kept her word with him, that she had waited as she had promised -to wait ... that then, scorning him, she had snatched at her rights and -had fled!</p> - -<p>His first impulse was toward laughter. And then, strangely quiet, he -stood looking at her and she saw a gathering mist in his eyes!</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span></p> - -<p>"Girl!" he muttered. "Oh, girl!... God, I love you!"</p> - -<p>"I hate you...."</p> - -<p>... How many times had she cried out in those words! And how much of -that did she mean? In her heart, in her soul ... in the most hidden -recesses of her most hidden being?</p> - -<p>Thus she had hours to herself. And, therefore, had Bruce Standing hours -to himself. For he wanted them. He wanted to be away from her, where he -could not see her, could not hear that low music of her voice, could -not catch that soft lure of her eyes, could not be tempted to have -it happen that his rude hand brushed her hand.... Her hand, though -she had been all these days and nights outdoors, roughing it, seemed -to him a maddening realm of crumpled rose-leaves ... pink-and-white -rose-leaves. He left her, secure in her pledge that she would wait for -him, and threw himself down on his back and stared up through slowly -shifting branches and mused on her. He thought how like a flower she -was, the queen of flowers ... and he could have wept that he was so -big and ungentle. He thought of Babe Deveril, and cursed him for being -so slender and debonair; graceful and light of mood; gentle-voiced, -with the knack of pretty words to pretty ladies. And Babe Deveril -had befriended her; stood champion to her against him! He ground his -teeth. He leaped up and paced back and forth, forgetful of all such -insignificant nothings as trifling wounds of the flesh. He recalled -how, man to man, he had broken Babe Deveril, and he laughed out -loud.... Yet it remained that Babe Deveril had stood her friend and -protector when he had pursued them both, linking them but the closer, -with his wrath. She and Deveril had travelled together, side by side -and hand in hand, miles and other miles of the open <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span>solitudes; they -had been drawn close together, driven closer together. He, Bruce -Standing, Timber-Wolf, and Fool, had done that! And what spark had -been struck out of the flint of the adversity which he had hurled at -them?... Had they loved ... had they kissed ... was <i>she</i> now longing -with a sick heart for the return of Babe Deveril?</p> - -<p>"Oh, Lord!" he cried out, his great iron fingers crooking as his arms -were thrown out. "Deliver him into these hands!"</p> - -<p>Lynette had no mirror. Standing began to grow a lusty young beard, as -blond as his hair, shot through with red gleams. She knew the need of -fresh clothing. When he was away she did her washing as best she could, -pounding garments against the rocks in the creek; she dried them and -hid them and donned them without his knowing ... though of course he -knew as she knew that he did his own rude washings. There was a spring -at the side of the caņon, one of the many sources which fed the stream; -a shadowed, tranquil place. Of this she made her pier-glass! She -stooped and looked down into its glassily smooth surface. It gave back -her own image; it reflected the dark green of the pines, the lighter -green of the willows. Even the subdued colors of her worn suit. She -washed her hair and groomed it; no comb, no brush, but agile fingers. -Most of all, when secure through his promise in return for her own, -did she enjoy her plunge in the pool he had made for her. The slender -whiteness of her slipped hastily down under the translucent cover of -the cool, flowing water; she was as swift in her movements as any -slim-bodied trout that darted about her, scurrying into its retreat; -the water shot a thrill through her; she emerged, dripping, charged -with all the electric currents of well-being.</p> - -<p>"If this were only a holiday ... instead of imprisonment!"</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span></p> - -<p>She, too, thought of Babe Deveril, as was inevitable. And in many ways: -One, always recurrent, was: "Could she have been as <i>sure</i> of Babe -Deveril as she was of Bruce Standing? As secure in her utter conviction -of safety?" And here was a question to which she found no ready answer. -Babe Deveril, leaping full-breastedly into the stream which had swept -her off her feet, had been a friend to her from the beginning; from the -beginning Bruce Standing had been a menace.</p> - -<p>... Best of all she loved the waterfall. It was her shower-bath. But, -more than that, it was her friend and confidante, and, beyond aught -else, a living, glimmering, varicolored thing of gossamer beauty. It -talked with her, it was at once handmaiden and musician and troubadour; -it plashed and sang and poured its cadences into quiet harmonies which -sank into her soul. It had leapt and sparkled and poured itself onward -unstintedly, unafraid, for a thousand years; for a thousand years would -it keep up its merry dancings, uncaring if only the tall pines watched -or if men and maids brought hither their loves and hates and hopes and -fears. Unstable it was always, always falling; secure was it in its -diaphanous veilings of its own merry immortality. She loved it for its -abandon, for its recklessness, for its translucent myriad beauties. -It lived; it sang and sparkled; it filled the moment with musical -murmurings and recked not of all those vague threats and shadows of a -vague future.... She sat here, quiet under the spell of its dashings -and splashings and eerie flutings ... musing, her soul drawn forth into -all those vague and troublous musings which beset the heart of youth.</p> - -<p>Youth? Young, too, was Bruce Standing! He hearkened to the cascading -waters; he listened to the harp-tongued whisperings of the pines.... He -had done everything wrong; he told himself that a thousand, thousand -times. Yet he told himself savagely that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> throughout the insanities, -the veritable madnesses of constricted human life there flowed always, -onward and sweepingly upward, the great, triumphal, eternal forces of -destiny. And, in the end ... in the end ... it all made for good. For -eternal and triumphant good.</p> - -<p>... After all, but the old, old story of man and maid, converging to -the one gleaming, focal point though across distances oceans-wide -removed.</p> - -<p>He had his point of view; Lynette Brooke had her point of view. Yet it -remains that from two widely separated peaks two eager hearts may see -the same sun rise.</p> - -<p>"Tell me," he said once. "What manner of man is this Babe Deveril? I -know him as a man may know a man; you know him otherwise. Tell me; what -have you found him to be?"</p> - -<p>Never would she have been Lynette, had she not been ever quick of -instinct ... instinct leaping, never looking, yet so certain to strike -true! She read the thought under a thought; there came a living, joyous -gloating; she cried warmly, all the while watching him:</p> - -<p>"A true friend and a gentleman! A man unafraid ... one like a loyal -knight of the olden time! Like one of the King Arthur's knights...."</p> - -<p>"Like one," he growled, deep down in his throat, angrily, "who saw -another Lynette across the four fords? That's not true, girl; else he -would not have forsaken you so long! Nor would he have given up so -easily when, in your view, I beat him down and sent him up over the -ridge!"</p> - -<p>"He'll come back!"</p> - -<p>"You think so?"</p> - -<p>"<i>I know!</i>"</p> - -<p>Chance remarks of hers ... this one above all others ... rankled. She -seemed so confident that Babe Deveril would come again, that he would -carry in his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> breast the memory of sweet hours with her, that he would -never rest until he, with her pleading eyes tender upon his, could -rescue her from the bondage which Bruce Standing had set upon her! So -it came about that nightly, and all night long, Bruce Standing dreamed -of Babe Deveril and of battling with him and of beating him finally -into such definite defeat as had not resulted from that other fierce -struggle before her widening eyes.</p> - -<p>Another day went by and another, with Bruce Standing obsessed, knowing -himself for a man who yearned with all his soul for one thing and one -thing only, a mere slip of a gray-eyed girl who made madness in his -pulses. He had his moods of fierceness; on their heels came those -other moods of tenderness. More than once he came toward her, striding -through the woods, his mind made up to set her free, asking only her -happiness. And then he saw her; and in his heated fancies he saw Babe -Deveril; and he named Deveril a man of slight manhood and swore by his -own manhood that never would he show so lax and flabby a hand as to let -this priceless girl, drop into the graceful, careless hand of any Babe -Deveril who ever lived.</p> - -<p>"He'd never know how to love her as I do!" That ancient cry of all true -lovers!</p> - -<p>But all the while there bit into him doubtings, fears, those manifold -darts flung from love's alter ego, jealousy. He stood ready to give -this girl full-handedly everything; from her he craved with that direst -of all cravings, everything.... And when he could no longer hold back -the tumult within him and demanded: "What of this Baby Devil?" putting -a sneer into his voice, always she cried out warmly: "A true friend and -a gentleman!"</p> - -<p class="space-above">All unexpected by both of them, the less by him than her, Billy Winch, -Timber-Wolf's one-legged retainer,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> rode full tilt into camp. They -were lunching; they sat under a tree in the noonday shadow like two at -picnic. He had been saying: "We're running short of rations." Then it -was that Billy Winch, anxiously spurring a big roan saddle-horse, rode -down upon them and, seeing them, began waving his hat high over his -head in sweeping, joyous circles and shouting:</p> - -<p>"So you're still alive! That's something!"</p> - -<p>"You fool! Who told you to come here!"</p> - -<p>Standing leaped to his feet; he was hot with anger.</p> - -<p>"I knew where to find you, Timber!" cried Billy Winch gleefully. -"Unless, a fair bet, the devil had claimed you and taken you down -under, I knew I'd find you here!... How's the sick wing? Been usin' my -salve? Night and morning, keepin' it clean and...."</p> - -<p>Billy Winch, headlong, stopping his horse with a sudden pluck of the -reins when the gaunt roan had come near setting his four flickering -hoofs in their midday fire, chose to ignore the fact that the -Timber-Wolf was not alone.</p> - -<p>But Standing, springing up, strode out to meet him, his mien anything -but friendly.</p> - -<p>"Damn you, Billy Winch," he muttered between his teeth, too low for the -wondering Lynette to hear. She, too, had sprung up and stood leaning -against the valiant pine-tree, wondering swiftly how this latest -happening, the coming of Billy Winch into the wild-wood, was to affect -her.</p> - -<p>Billy Winch, as gay-hearted a rascal as ever stumped on one leg or -rode a wild, half-broken horse in carelessly lopsided fashion, laughed -gleefully.</p> - -<p>"Ho, Timber!" he cried. "If I was a whole man, 'stead of half a one, -I'd just jump down and naturally beat you to death! Bein' what I am, -all carved to thunder, you're too much all gone to proud flesh to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> jerk -me out of the saddle to stomp on me! So I got the age on you! And I -asks you, Johnny Wolf, man-eater, how's tricks?"</p> - -<p>"By God, Winch!" Standing in upstarting wrath had the roan horse by the -bit, shoving it back with one savage hand so that it fell back on its -haunches. "Just because I've stood a lot off you...."</p> - -<p>"Slow does it, Timber!" cried Winch. "This is business. I've got a man -back there, just out of sight, ready to go clean crazy unless he can -have a word with you. To put a name to him ... well, then, Mexicali -Joe!"</p> - -<p>Now Standing, deep down within him, knew why Billy Winch had come. -Never did more faithful heart beat in human breast than that heart -thrumming away beneath Billy Winch's faded blue shirt. Winch, having -always a shrewd guess where to find his chief, when Standing took it -upon himself to disappear from headquarters, had caught at the first -excuse to come in person and make sure with his own keen eyes that all -went well with a man whom many hated and whom he, above all men, loved.</p> - -<p>"Hang Mexicali Joe to the first stout limb you come to!"</p> - -<p>Lynette, of impulses ungovernable, could have broken into laughter. For -the amazing thing was that what Bruce Standing, impatient almost to -fury, said he meant. He had suffered enough inconvenience at Mexicali -Joe's hands; he wanted nothing of the man nor of his dross of gold.</p> - -<p>Winch did laugh aloud. And then, keen-eyed to see the play of his -employer's expression, he grew sober and said earnestly:</p> - -<p>"On the level, Mr. Standing, how's the hurt comin' along? Been usin' -the salve I told you to?"</p> - -<p>Lynette, though he had ignored her presence or <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span>because of this very -attitude of his, could not hold back from exclaiming:</p> - -<p>"He has two wounds now! Another shot in the back! And he gives them -less attention than a sane man would give a cut finger!"</p> - -<p>"The old fool! No more sense than a rabbit! Shot again? Twice in the -back? Plugged a second time? The old fool!"</p> - -<p>Like a flash in his quick movements he was down from the saddle; he -left his horse with dragging reins to wait for him; over the uneven -ground he came forward rapidly, queerly, hopping like an oddly -oversized bird. He caught at Standing's shoulder, crying out:</p> - -<p>"Let me see them hurts! I tell you, I got to see them hurts! Shot twice -from behind? You bloody baby. Let me look at 'em. Blood poison most -likely settin' in!"</p> - -<p>"I could kill you ... you interfering fool...."</p> - -<p>But just then Billy Winch's one foot caught at a root and he came near -falling, and Standing, instead of carrying out a threat, sprang toward -him and steadied him; and Lynette saw a sincere rough affection in the -way the big arms closed about Winch's body. Friends, these two.</p> - -<p>"Who plugged you, Timber? And for the love of Mike, how come you to let -it happen ... <i>twice</i>? But tell me: Who plugged you the second time?"</p> - -<p>"Taggart," said Standing; "at least that's my bet. And," he added -hastily, "it was Taggart that shot me the first time, through the -window at Gallup's!"</p> - -<p>Billy Winch looked sharp incredulity; his eyes flickered away to -Lynette as he gave sign of seeing her for the first time.</p> - -<p>"But, man! I thought...."</p> - -<p>"You thought wrong! She did not shoot me. You've got my word for that, -Bill. <i>She did not shoot me!</i>"</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span></p> - -<p>Winch looked perplexed.</p> - -<p>"Sure, Timber?" he demanded. "Dead sure?"</p> - -<p>"Yes," said Standing. "Taggart didn't believe I had already changed my -papers, ruling his name out. If he could have dropped me and made it -seem clear that she had done it.... See it, Bill?"</p> - -<p>"Well," said Winch slowly, "I guess you know or you wouldn't say so. -And Jim Taggart was a real man once. But I've seen signs of late; he's -mildewed inside, clean through. As comes of running with such as Young -Gallup."</p> - -<p>Suddenly he whipped off his battered hat and turned a pair of bright -and smiling, and at last warmly admiring eyes upon Lynette.</p> - -<p>"I beg your pardon, Miss," he said genially.</p> - -<p>"Now," said Standing. "About this Mexicali Joe. You go back and tell -him for me...."</p> - -<p>Winch interrupted quickly, saying:</p> - -<p>"No use, Timber. You got to see him. I tell you he's clean crazy to see -you; he'll stick on your trail until he finds you. He wants only ten -minutes; five would do it."</p> - -<p>Lynette was mildly surprised to see Standing so easily persuaded; but -she had no way of knowing the relationship of this man and his chief -henchman nor how Billy Winch never took it upon himself to suggest -unless he knew what he was about.</p> - -<p>"All right," said Standing, though he frowned as he spoke. "Go get your -man."</p> - -<p>Winch jerked his head about and shouted; his long, halloing call -pierced clear through the woodland silences.</p> - -<p>"Hi, Joe! This way, on the run! <i>Pronto, hombre!</i>"</p> - -<p>Joe came almost immediately, mounted on a scrawny mulish-looking horse, -breaking an impatient way through the brush. His dark face still -carried a frightened, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span>furtive expression which had not been absent -from it for a matter of days; not since a handful of raw gold had been -spilled from his torn pocket.</p> - -<p>"<i>Seņor!</i>" he cried ringingly from a distance. "<i>Seņor Caballero!</i> -I tell you, they keel me! I got no chances! For sure, they keel me, -robbers!"</p> - -<p>Standing answered roughly: "And what do I care? Serve you right for the -fool you are!"</p> - -<p>"Now, he's here," said Winch. "Look here, Timber: you can take your -time talking to him. Let me look you over. I want to see that second -bullet hole."</p> - -<p>"Winch, you idiot," Standing growled at him; "I got it close to a week -ago. I've tended to it myself; it's all right. I don't look like a -dying man, do I?"</p> - -<p>"<i>Seņor!</i>" Joe was crying, down on the ground now, tremendously excited.</p> - -<p>"Are you usin' my salve?" demanded Winch. "Plenty of it, night and -morning?"</p> - -<p>"I have been using it...."</p> - -<p>"And you're out of it <i>now</i>!" With a triumphant flourish Winch dipped -into a pocket and extracted a small package. "Here you are, Timber! -And this is extra special! I got all the ingredients this time; tried -it out day before yesterday on that new pinto pony you bought from -Ferguson; got cut in the wire fence down by the pasture. Say, it works -like magic...."</p> - -<p>Standing groaned. "Winch, some fine day I'll carve you all up with a -hand-axe, just to give you a chance to use your own filthy mess...."</p> - -<p>"I wouldn't have been shy a leg, would I, if that fool doctor had had a -pint of this?"</p> - -<p>"<i>Seņor!</i>" Joe was crying. "You got to listen; you got to hear what I -goin' tell you! My gold, my gold that I find, me, myself, all alone...."</p> - -<p>"What do I care for you or your gold!" cried <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span>Standing. "I don't need -it, do I? I don't ask you anything about it, do I? I don't want to know -anything about it! Go wallow in your gold and leave me alone!"</p> - -<p>But Joe explained, growing vehement to the point of wildness; as Winch -had put it, "he was clean crazy over the thing." How could Joe wallow -in it, much as he would like to, when always there were men like ugly -hounds on his trail? What chance had he, poor devil that he styled -himself, against such men as Jim Taggart and Young Gallup and Cliff -Shipton and Babe Deveril and Barny McCuin.... He named a score. At the -name of Babe Deveril Standing's eyes flashed and sped to a meeting -with Lynette's; into hers, too, came a quick light. Joe had caught -Standing's interest.</p> - -<p>"What about these men?" he asked. "What about Deveril?"</p> - -<p>"Him? The worst of them all!" wailed Joe. He went on, bursting with all -the things he had to tell. That night when, for a second time, like God -himself, the grand Seņor Caballero had burst into the cabin and set -him free, he had run! God, how he had run! But then he had thought of -his savior alone against so many hard, merciless men; he had come to a -sudden stop, saying to himself: "Joe, <i>mi amigo</i>, you must not desert -him!" And then, of a sudden, had that young devil Deveril burst from -the bushes upon him ... and Joe had fled again and Deveril had sought -after him. There was no shaking off this man; twice since then in the -forest Joe had barely escaped him.... Lynette had come close, was -listening breathlessly.</p> - -<p>"I tell you where my gold is!" cried Joe. "You take what you like, I -don't care! You give me what you like ... I know you for one fair man. -That way we save it. Any other way, they get me; they burn me with -fire; they break my teeth and my fingers; they make<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> me tell! And they -get it all. Taggart and Gallup and Deveril and...."</p> - -<p>He broke off, half whimpering, cursing them with all the eloquence of -the Latin tongue.</p> - -<p>Clearly Standing hesitated. Then, amazing them all, but with his own -mind clear, he said bluntly:</p> - -<p>"Clear out! It's your game. I don't want to know anything about it."</p> - -<p>"<i>It's down in Light Ladies' Gulch!</i>" screamed Joe. "Not two mile from -Big Pine! I lied to them ... a big pine, with crooked roots sticking -out ... a washout.... Last year I make mistake; I think down under the -Red Cliffs. But this time I find ... four miles the other side...."</p> - -<p>"Why, you shrivelled-souled...."</p> - -<p>Then suddenly Standing caught himself up short; there came a new look -into his eyes; he shouted, catching Joe by the shoulder:</p> - -<p>"<i>Light Ladies' Caņon!</i> Just across from Big Pine? Only a mile or two!"</p> - -<p>"As God hears me, Seņor!"</p> - -<p>Standing broke into sudden laughter. He clapped Joe upon the shoulder -so that the little man staggered and paled under the jovial blow.</p> - -<p>"With bells on! With bells, Mexico! By high Heaven.... Here, you, -Winch! On the run, back to headquarters. Take Joe with you; mount -guard over him night and day with a rifle. No man to have a word with -him. And wait for me. And, all the while, Bill Winch, <i>keep your mouth -shut</i>!"</p> - -<p>Winch, with one arm out as a brace against a pine, stiffened.</p> - -<p>"I guess I know how to take orders, Mr. Standing," he said, and his -tone sounded angry. "You don't need...."</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span></p> - -<p>Him also Standing smote on the shoulder.</p> - -<p>"Why, God bless you, Bill Winch, you're the only man on earth I'd -trust! Those last words weren't necessary.... You're right and I -apologize for them! But now, go! Go, I tell you; I'll do anything you -say; I'll use your poison on me three times a day.... I'll eat it, if -you say so! Only hit the high spots and keep Mexicali under cover until -I come! No matter when or how long; there's your job ... old friend!"</p> - -<p>Billy Winch, galvanized, went hopping to his horse; he flipped after -his own fashion up into the saddle; he loosened the rifle in its -holster strapped conveniently; he called to Joe:</p> - -<p>"Quick does it, Mexico! We're on our way!"</p> - -<p>Bruce Standing watched them ride away among the trees and stood -laughing! He had succeeded in puzzling two men; most of all had he set -Lynette wondering....</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XXII</h2> - -<p>"I want a good long drink of fresh water," said Standing. "And you, -after this lunch of ours, will be thirsty. Let's go down to the creek; -down there, by the waterfall, after we've drunk, I want to talk with -you."</p> - -<p>He had turned to her, that flash still in his eyes, before Billy Winch -and Mexicali Joe had ridden a dozen yards out of camp. She looked at -him in silence, wondering what lay in his thoughts; what had been the -sudden, compelling, and triumphant motive to actuate him when with his -great shout of laughter he had dismissed the two men. He had Joe's -secret now; she shared it herself: The gold was far from here and very -near Big Pine; in Light Ladies' Caņon! The strange part of it was -that Taggart's first surmise, when he and his companions had trapped -Mexicali Joe at the dugout, was that it was in Light Ladies' Caņon -that he had made his strike!... How many men and at least one girl had -travelled how many wilderness miles from Big Pine, when the gold lay so -snugly close to the starting-point! How Joe had tricked his captors, -leading them so far afield!</p> - -<p>"If I should escape from you now," Lynette could not help crying, "what -is there to prevent me from staking the first claim? And bringing my -<i>friends</i> ... to stake claims!"</p> - -<p>"If you should happen to escape me!" he laughed back at her.</p> - -<p>Then he stepped to the tree where his rifle stood and called to Thor as -he did always when he left the dog in camp: "Watch, Thor! Watch, sir."</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span></p> - -<p>It was not always that he carried his rifle. He explained, while he -looked to her to come with him.</p> - -<p>"We'll talk things over; but in any case it's clear that we're getting -short of food. Maybe, while we talk, we can bring down something in the -way of provisions with a lucky shot."</p> - -<p>Willing enough was she to-day for talk; at least to listen to whatever -he might say. She followed, stopping only to stoop and pat old Thor's -head; already she counted the faithful brute a friend. Thor tried to -lick her hand; for already Thor, like Thor's master, had bestowed an -abiding love to the first true girl who had ever intimately entered the -life of either. Thor wanted to follow; he whined and looked anxious, -ears pricked forward, tail wagging.</p> - -<p>"Down, Thor," commanded Standing, if only because already he had issued -his command. "You watch camp for us; watch, Thor."</p> - -<p>Thor dropped down at the entrance of Lynette's grotto; for one instant -his great head lay between his forepaws; then he jerked it up again so -that he might watch them as they went through the thickets to the creek.</p> - -<p>Standing carried a cup with him. When they came to the waterfall -leaping down a twenty-foot rocky spillway, glassily clear, making a -pigmy thunder in the narrow-walled ravine, he rinsed and filled his -cup and gave it to Lynette. She drank. Thereafter, and with no further -rinsing, he drank. She sat upon a big rock, leaning back against -a leaning tree trunk; he sat down close enough to her to allow of -words carrying above the thunder of the falling waters and filled his -after-lunch pipe.</p> - -<p>"I know as much as you do of the place to find the gold!" she told him -again. "And I, though a girl, have as much interest in a fortune to be -made as any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> man can have. That's fair warning to you, Bruce Standing!"</p> - -<p>He laughed carelessly. Then he said:</p> - -<p>"It's neither your gold nor mine. By right of discovery, it belongs to -a little shrimp named Mexicali Joe <i>Alguna-Cosa</i>. Our hands are off, so -far as our own pockets are concerned."</p> - -<p>"But.... You took quick interest when you learned where it was! You -have some plan ... you commanded your friend Billy Winch to keep Joe -well guarded!"</p> - -<p>His eyes were twinkling; and greed does not light twinkling lights!</p> - -<p>"I've got gold of my own, girl! Gold enough to last me my life and you -your life and both of us together our lives! And to leave a decent -residuum after us.... But let's talk of Mexicali Joe's gold some other -time. To-day.... We have ourselves!"</p> - -<p>"You have yourself!" cried Lynette with sudden bitterness. "I have not -even my own personal liberty!"</p> - -<p>"And what if I let you go, girl? As I have a mind to do to-day? What -then? Where would you go? Where would I find you again? For find you I -must and will though 'it were ten thousand mile.'"</p> - -<p>"Am I to suffer your dictation during the days of actual imprisonment -at your hands, and then, for all time afterward, render you an -accounting of my actions!"</p> - -<p>"Why do you try to hate me so, girl?"</p> - -<p>"Why should I not hate you?"</p> - -<p>"What have I done to you? Have I done anything more than put out a hand -to stop time, to snatch time for you and me, for us to <i>know</i>!... Look -you, girl, a man, at least a man of my sort, may go a third of his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> -life or a fourth or a full half, and know much less than nothing of -what a true girl is! <i>How can he know?</i> Already I have learned that you -have instincts which leap; a man gropes like a blind mole and it takes -him a long time to teach himself to see the stars ... <i>the star!</i> Now -it's a fair bet, and no odds given or taken, that one Bruce Standing -happened to be an unruly devil, a blunt man, a man who has as a part -and parcel of his religion to shoot square and to hit hard, so long as -God lets him. I've done wrong and I've done right, and I'm doing as all -the rest of the great mass, in a state of flux, is doing; growing up -from the mud into something better. If not in this life or the next, -well then, since the mills grind with exceeding patience, in some -other life. At least I'm honest; at least, in plain English, I do my -damnedest! Take it or leave it, there's the truth. If it happens that -I'm a man of few friends.... Almost you can count 'em on Billy Winch's -one leg!... if few men love me and many men hate...."</p> - -<p>"Yes!" cried Lynette, and her own earnestness was caught and compelled -by his own. "Most men, many, many men, hate you!... And yet you have it -within you to make them love you!"</p> - -<p>"Love and hate! What have I to do with the loves and hates of men as I -know them? Shall I step to right or to left for all that? I play out my -part in the eternal game. I live my life!"</p> - -<p>"But you don't live your life! You miss ... everything! If you would -but be kind instead of cruel; open-hearted and generous always ... you -have in you the seeds of all that. Then men might come to know the real -<i>you</i>; you could make them love instead of hate...."</p> - -<p>But his eyes stabbed at her like quickened blue flames.</p> - -<p>"So!" he said, and his tone was one of bitter mockery. "If I choose -to pay them for the pretty, empty <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span>compliment, they will call me a -good fellow and ... love me! If I kick them they will call me villain -and hate me. And there you have the epitome of that so-called love -and hate of mankind which sickens me. I'll be eternally damned before -I prostitute my immortal soul to pitch pennies out for a peck of -treacherous hearts. For, I tell you, girl ... Only Girl ... the love -that is to be bought is to be spat upon. I'll have none of it. Even -your love, that I'd give my soul to have freely, I'd have none of if it -were to be bought."</p> - -<p>Lynette looked at him strangely, half pityingly. And she answered him -softly:</p> - -<p>"You twist things out of all reason to make, to yourself, your own acts -appear something other than they are."</p> - -<p>"A girl trying to turn logician?" he laughed at her, teasing.</p> - -<p>Little effort on his part was required to set fire to her quick -inflammable temper.</p> - -<p>"It's magnanimous of you to jeer at me," she retorted hotly. "Because -you have the physical strength of a beast and the beast's lack of -understanding...."</p> - -<p>Now his golden outburst of laughter stopped her. He shouted:</p> - -<p>"See! There you go! As if to preach me the final word of love and hate! -You'd hate me now, just because I tease you! If I said, with poets' -roses twining through the saying, that you were most beautiful and -no-end intellectual and beyond that of the heart of an angel, could -you not better tolerate me? And thus we come to the open pathway to -most human loves and hates; two little doors standing side by side. -For, I ask you, going back to your challenge to make men love rather -than despise me, what in the devil's name is that sort of <i>love</i> but -transplanted self-love? A damned-fool<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> sort of selfishness masking -like a hypocrite as something quite different.... If you loved a man -who beat you there would be something worth while in that sort of -loving; something divorced from plain selfishness and the eternal -I-want-to-get-all-I-can-out-of-everything! Now, I love you! I love you -so that my love for you comes near killing me! It gets me by the throat -at night. That's love; and there's less of self in it, I swear to you, -than there is of ... <i>you!</i>"</p> - -<p>"You! You talk of love. To me!"</p> - -<p>She broke into her light, taunting laughter. And yet he had set her -heart beating and the ancient fear ... not fear of him ... was upon -her. "You, talking of love, are like a blind man lecturing on the -colors of the rainbow! You...."</p> - -<p>But he had started to his feet; his eyes went suddenly toward the camp, -all sight of which they had lost on coming down into the creek bed.</p> - -<p>"Listen!" he cried. "What was that?"</p> - -<p>She had heard nothing; nothing above the splash and fall of water ... -and the beating of her own heart.</p> - -<p>"Listen!" he said the second time.</p> - -<p>"What is it?"</p> - -<p>He caught up his rifle and leaped across the creek. He began running, -back toward their camp.</p> - -<p>"It's old Thor ... there's some one...."</p> - -<p>And now, Lynette realized clearly, had come her first opportunity -to be free again! While Bruce Standing, because of something he had -heard above the merry-mad music of the waterfall, or had thought he -had heard, was running back to their encampment, she could run in the -opposite direction. She stood balancing, of this mind and that. What -had he heard in camp? What was happening there? As always, because -of that volatile nature of hers which was <i>en rapport</i> with life's -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span>pulsings, she wanted to know! And then there was a certain assurance -in her heart that after all these days the budding intention in Bruce -Standing's heart was bursting into full flower to set her free again! -She hesitated; she saw him running up the steep bank, charging back -toward camp, vanishing among the trees higher up on the slope.</p> - -<p>And, then, she followed him.</p> - -<p>... Before Lynette came, through the trees, within sight of the grotto -which Standing had given over to her, she heard a sound which brought -her, wondering, from swift haste to lingering; she stood, her breathing -stilled, listening, groping a moment blindly for an interpretation of -that sound for its explanation. Harsh it was ... terrible ... never -had she heard anything like it. At first she did not recognize it as a -sound man-made. She paused; she came a step nearer, peering through the -trees....</p> - -<p>It was an inarticulate, stifled sound coming from the lips of Bruce -Standing! He was kneeling on the ground, bending forward. He had -dropped his rifle. There was something in his arms, upgathered into his -embrace, something held as a baby is held in its mother's arms....</p> - -<p>Thor....</p> - -<p>And those sounds from Bruce Standing's lips! There were tears in -them; his voice was shaken. He held Thor to him in a fierce agony of -sorrow....</p> - -<p>Lynette came closer, tiptoeing. She heard the sounds as they seemed -to choke him, clutching like hands at his throat. And then suddenly, -before she caught her first clear view, she knew when, into that first -emotion there swept the second; when with the shock of deep grief there -mingled white-hot rage. He began to mutter again ... he was lisping ... -lisping as she had heard him do only once before ... lisping because -his <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span>one weakness had leaped out and caught him unaware. Lisping -curses....</p> - -<p>She ran closer. She saw old Thor, Thor who had learned to love her -and whom she had learned to love, lying limp in Standing's arms. Thor -dead? Some one had killed him, then, and Standing, above the booming -of the waterfall, had heard? A sight, perhaps, to stir that wild, -uncontrollable laughter of Lynette! The sight of a big, strong man half -weeping over a dead dog in his arms.... Yet, when she came running -to him and dropped down on her knees and put out her quick hand and -Standing turned his face toward her ... he saw that this time there was -no laughter in her. Instead, her eyes were wet with a sudden dash of -tears.</p> - -<p>"He's not dead ... we won't have it that he's dead! Thor!" she cried -softly.</p> - -<p>She did not realize that she had put her warm, sympathetic hand on -Standing's arm before her other hand found the old dog's head.</p> - -<p>"Thor!... Thor!"</p> - -<p>Thor looked up at her; at Standing. The dog tried to stir; the faithful -tongue strove to overmaster the terrible inertia laid upon it; to -grant in last adulation the last farewell. For a stricken dog, like a -stricken man, knows after the way of all creatures which have the spark -of eternity within them, when the day's end is in doubt....</p> - -<p>Standing tried to speak ... and grew silent. How she hated herself -then for that other time when he had slipped, through sorrowing rage, -into his one unmanly failing ... and she had laughed! Her tears began -running down. He saw; he jerked his head about, focussing his eyes upon -the eyes of a dog that he loved; a dog that had been faithful to him.</p> - -<p>"Where is he hurt? He can't be shot," cried Lynette. "We would have -heard a shot! If he is poisoned...."</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span></p> - -<p>Standing had mastered himself. He said coldly.</p> - -<p>"Look!"</p> - -<p>"Who did ... <i>that</i>?"</p> - -<p>"If I only knew! My God, if I only knew!"</p> - -<p>Thor was not dead; his body jerked and quivered now and again, in -spasms. Yet he seemed to be dying. And it grew clear to Lynette, as, -at a glance, it had been clear to Standing, what had happened. Thor -had been left in charge of camp; but the one word had rung in the -faithful head: "Watch!" And then some one had come; Thor had been true -to his trust; some man had struck him down with club or a rifle barrel; -had struck and struck again. Thor's fore leg was broken; he had been -battered over the head ... bones were broken, the skull seemed crushed -... the dog stiffened; fell back....</p> - -<p>"Dying," said Standing, still on his knees. He placed old Thor very -gently on the ground, striving after his own rough fashion to make -a dog's last few minutes of breathing no more tormenting than was -inevitable.</p> - -<p>"Thor," said Standing gently. "Good old Thor!"</p> - -<p>The dog tried to rouse. The old faithful head on Standing's knee -stirred ever so little. The old steadfast eyes, red-rimmed but -clear-sighted, were on Standing's. If ever a dog could have spoken....</p> - -<p>Standing, with sudden thought, jumped to his feet.</p> - -<p>"There's a chance for him yet! There is Billy Winch, the one man on -earth to save a dying dog or horse.... Yes, or man!"</p> - -<p>He cupped his hands at his mouth and sent forth, piercing through the -leafy silences, that wild wolf-call which must bring Winch about in -short order ... if he was not already too far to hear it.</p> - -<p>"He may be too far," cried Lynette. Already she was down upon her -knees, taking his place and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span>gathering Thor's head into her lap. -"Hurry. If you can find your horse and ride after him, surely you can -overtake him."</p> - -<p>"God bless you!" He began running. But before a dozen swift steps were -taken he stopped and came back to her, muttering: "But the man who did -this for Thor? He'll not be far away; I can't leave you...."</p> - -<p>"I am not afraid of a man like him," said Lynette. "A coward, or he -would not have done this.... Leave me your rifle and hurry!"</p> - -<p>"You'll wait for me, no matter what happens?"</p> - -<p>"Of course I'll wait. Now, <i>hurry</i>!"</p> - -<p>He placed his rifle at her side and with never a backward look was away -again on a run, breaking through breast-high brush; splashing once -again across the creek, calling to Winch as he ran.... He would be back -with her almost immediately....</p> - -<p>So he plowed through the thickets; plunged down a slope, sped up a -slope, raced over a ridge. And, now with what breath was left in his -lungs, he began to send out his whistled call. That summons, which his -horse, if still lingering in these upland meadows, would welcome with -quick response.</p> - -<p>Lynette stooped and laid her cheek against the grizzled old face of -Thor. And then, with a sudden access of emotion, she burst into fresh -tears.... Thor tried to wag his tail.... Lynette, like Standing before -her, felt that the dog was dying.</p> - -<p>"Thor!" she whispered. "Can't you hold on? Can't you carry on? He will -bring Billy Winch and Billy Winch will help us...."</p> - -<p>Then there burst upon her a surprise which moved her immeasurably. -There, almost at her side, stood Babe Deveril! A moment ago she was -alone in the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span>wilderness with a dying dog; now Babe Deveril stood close -to her. With Thor's head still held in her lap she looked up into his -face. She saw that it was tense, the muscles drawn, the eyes hard and -bright.</p> - -<p>"Lynette!" he cried softly. "Lynette! I've followed you half around the -world! And now.... Come quick! We go free and the world is ours!"</p> - -<p>She sat, staring up at him, still bewildered.</p> - -<p>"You!" she whispered. "And ... then it was you ... who did this?"</p> - -<p>He caught her meaning; he glanced down at the thick green club in his -hands.</p> - -<p>"I came to do what I could for you. That ugly brute stood up against -me. I had no gun; I knew Standing was armed. I thought that maybe he -had left his rifle in camp."</p> - -<p>"What did Thor do to you that you should have done this to him?"</p> - -<p>"Thor? That dog? He showed teeth and ... Look here, Lynette Brooke; -now's your one chance. I've gone through hell to come to you...."</p> - -<p>"Tell me," she cried. "When did you come?..."</p> - -<p>Deveril was as tense as a finely drawn steel wire. Again she marked -that hard glint in his dark eyes.</p> - -<p>"It is up to you to do the telling!" he shot back at her. "I stood back -there in the trees; I saw that damned henchman of his and Mexicali Joe -come up to you! Joe, I've been following for days! I had no rifle; no -weapon of any kind and both Standing and Winch were armed. But I could -watch! Joe was terribly excited; I saw his waving arms. I heard him -yelling...."</p> - -<p>"Yes," said Lynette. "And then?"</p> - -<p>"And then?" exclaimed Deveril. "What then? You know what we came for, -don't you? You as well as I?"</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span></p> - -<p>"Yes! I know...."</p> - -<p>He caught at her hand.</p> - -<p>"Come! On the run. Before that madman gets back. We'll clean up on the -whole crowd of them!"</p> - -<p>But she jerked her hand away.</p> - -<p>"There are certain things I don't understand.... Did you see the other -night when he took Mexicali Joe out of their hands?"</p> - -<p>"I saw; yes. It happened that I had just overhauled them at that -minute! I could have cried for rage! He had a rifle, damn him, and was -aching to use it! They laid down before him like pups...."</p> - -<p>"<i>And you?</i>"</p> - -<p>"What could I do, with a rotten stick in my hands!"</p> - -<p>She looked up at him curiously.</p> - -<p>"And, to-day?"</p> - -<p>"To-day?" His hands hardened in his grip upon his club. "To-day, I tell -you, I followed them into your camp and I saw. Mexicali Joe...."</p> - -<p>"You are after Mexicali Joe's gold, Babe Deveril?"</p> - -<p>"As you are! That brought us both into Big Pine in the beginning and -then into the rest of it."</p> - -<p>"And you were ... afraid to come into camp while Bruce Standing was -still here?"</p> - -<p>He laughed at her, the old light laughter of debonair Babe Deveril.</p> - -<p>"Afraid? Call it that if you like." He shrugged carelessly. "Yet, with -an oak club against a man with a modern rifle...."</p> - -<p>"Do you remember the last time? How he threw his rifle away?"</p> - -<p>Deveril flushed hotly.</p> - -<p>"Some day," he muttered, "when it's an even break...."</p> - -<p>"What do you want with me, Babe Deveril?"</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span></p> - -<p>He stared at her.</p> - -<p>"Want with you? I want you to come, to be free from this Timber-Wolf. -Is he coming back soon?"</p> - -<p>"I think so."</p> - -<p>"Then hurry. Lynette...."</p> - -<p>"Well?"</p> - -<p>"Are you coming?"</p> - -<p>She stooped over Thor.</p> - -<p>"No," she said quietly.</p> - -<p>"<i>What!</i> After all this.... You're not coming?"</p> - -<p>"No!"</p> - -<p>"But.... Then why?" he demanded with a sudden flare of anger.</p> - -<p>"For one thing," she told him without looking up, "because I told him -that I would wait for him. For another...."</p> - -<p>"And that is?..."</p> - -<p>She only shook her head, brown hair tumbling about her hidden face.</p> - -<p>"I'll stay with old Thor," she said.</p> - -<p>She had him cast away among the lost isles of bewilderment.</p> - -<p>"But you'll tell me.... You and I have been friends; we've stood side -by side...." He broke off to demand: "You'll tell me about Mexicali -Joe's gold?"</p> - -<p>"Gold?" she said. "Is gold the greatest thing in life?"</p> - -<p>"But you know?"</p> - -<p>"Yes! I know."</p> - -<p>"Then listen: Taggart and Gallup and Shipton and a thousand other men -are going crazy to find out! You and I can turn the whole trick if luck -is good.... Why, we'll quit millionaires, Lynette!"</p> - -<p>A shudder shot through the tortured body of old Thor. Lynette's long -lashes lifted, wet with her tears.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span></p> - -<p>"There are things ... beyond millions...."</p> - -<p>"I don't get you to-day!"</p> - -<p>"Why did you kill this dog? What good did it do you? What harm had he -ever done you?"</p> - -<p>"He was in my way. I thought, I told you, that a rifle might have been -left behind. And ... it's Standing's dog, anyway! And, beyond that, no -matter how you look at it, only a dog...."</p> - -<p>"I think," said Lynette, and there was no music in her voice now and -no warmth in the eyes which she lifted briefly to his, "that you had -better go! Had you come, without rifle, upon Bruce Standing, at least -he would have thrown his rifle away to fight with you! You know that. -And ... and I am not going to go with you, having given my promise. And -I'll warn you of this: If he comes back and finds you here and knows -you for the man who killed Thor.... He will kill you!"</p> - -<p>Never in all his daredevil life had Babe Deveril made pretense at -striking the angelic attitude. Now, in a rush of feeling, he grew black -with anger and there came a look into his eyes which put the hottest -flush of all her life into Lynette's cheeks, as he cried out:</p> - -<p>"Tamed you, has he? So Timber-Wolf has taken a mate after the fashion -of wolves! And I, fool that I was, let you slip through my fingers!"</p> - -<p>She did not answer him. Had she answered she could have said: "You -could have returned to fight with him; man to man and him wounded! -Later, when he snatched Mexicali Joe from them, you could have fought -with him. You could have followed him here, seeking me; and you -followed Joe, seeking gold. You could have fought with him to-day; and -instead you held back and spied and killed his dog and waited for him -to go!..." So Lynette, stooping low over Thor's battered head, made no -answer.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span></p> - -<p>... She knew that Babe Deveril was no coward. She would always remember -how he had hurled that gun into Taggart's face and himself into her -adventures, reckless and unafraid. Yet Babe Deveril was no such man as -Bruce Standing; rather was he like a Jim Taggart, and Taggart was no -coward. But it remained that both these men, Deveril and Taggart, were -afraid to come to grips with that other man, whose fellows named him -Timber-Wolf. And he, the Timber-Wolf, was not afraid of life and all -that it bore; and was not afraid of sombre death, in which he did not -believe; was not afraid of God, in whom he trusted.</p> - -<p>"You've thrown in with him!" Deveril cried it out angrily; his hands -were hard upon his club. "Here, I've given days and days trying to see -you through, and you've kicked in with him against me! He's had his -will with you and he's made you his woman and...."</p> - -<p>"You'd better go!"</p> - -<p>She was trembling. A spasm shook her, not unlike that which convulsed -Thor.</p> - -<p>"You won't come with me then? You'll stick with him? After he put a -chain on you!"</p> - -<p>"At least he did not stand back and see another man put a chain on me!"</p> - -<p>"Is that my answer?"</p> - -<p>"Yes!" she cried in sudden fury. "And now ... <i>go!</i>"</p> - -<p>"I'll go, all right," said Deveril. And began to laugh. All that old -light laughter of his, gay and untroubled, which so many a time had -made dancing echoes in the souls of those who heard, bubbled up again. -He looked, as he had done when first she saw him, a slender, darkly -handsome and utterly care-free incarnation of debonair insolence. Still -striking the right note, he shrugged his shoulders and tossed his club -away as he said insolently:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span></p> - -<p>"What need of all this heavy artillery ... since the Queen of my Heart -says Nay? I'll travel light after this!"</p> - -<p>He turned away. But at the second step he stopped and swung about and -told her:</p> - -<p>"I have a guess where Billy Winch will be taking Mexicali Joe! And I'll -be in on the final settlement. If you, with a rush of blood to the -head, throw in with Standing, I'll play the game out! And what will you -have left to trade to me for the pile I'm going to make out of this?... -For I heard, too, when Mexicali yelled out! And I'm throwing in with -Taggart and Gallup, headed straight for Light Ladies' Gulch!"</p> - -<p>Lynette, unable to see anything in all the wide world clearly, could -only stoop her head over the stricken dog. Her arms tightened about -Thor.... If only Billy Winch would come in time, if only Billy Winch -would save that flickering little fire of life ... then, though she -hated all the rest of the world she'd love Billy Winch....</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XXIII</h2> - -<p>Bruce Standing running, breaking a straight path through the brush, -came swiftly into the little upper valley. When in answer to his -whistling his horse came trotting up to him, he did not tarry to -saddle; he had picked up his bridle on his way and now mounted and -struck off bareback through the woods with no second's delay.</p> - -<p>"Get into it, Daylight!" he muttered. "We're riding for old Thor -to-day!"</p> - -<p>From a distance Billy Winch, hurrying homeward, heard that long call -he knew so well. He pulled his horse down from a steady canter and -turned, calling to Mexicali Joe to come back with him. Once within -sight Standing waved and shouted again; Winch and Joe sensed urgency -and dipped their spurs, riding back to a meeting with him. Winch stared -and frowned while his employer made his curt explanation; Mexicali Joe -gasped. But neither man had a word to say; Standing laid his brief -command upon them and the three turned back, riding hard, into the -mountains.</p> - -<p>Again Standing called, when near enough to camp to hope that his voice -would carry above the noise of the tumbling waterfalls; this time to -Lynette, to tell her of their coming. He rode ahead; again and again he -shouted to her; he leaned out to right and left from his horse's back, -seeking a glimpse of her through the trees. And yet, when they were -almost in the camp, there still came no answer to his shoutings and he -caught no glimpse of her.... Suddenly, to his fancies, the woods seemed -strangely hushed—and empty.</p> - -<p>"She's gone," said Winch carelessly.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span></p> - -<p>"No!" said Standing with such brusque emphasis that Winch looked at him -wonderingly. "She said she'd wait for us, Bill."</p> - -<p>But when they drew closer, so close that the various familiar camp -objects were revealed, and still there was no response and no sight of -her, Winch muttered:</p> - -<p>"Just the same, gone or not gone, she ain't here, Timber."</p> - -<p>"I tell you, man," snapped Standing, "she said she would wait. And what -she says she will do, she will do!"</p> - -<p>Now the three dismounted in the heart of the camp and still there was -no sign of Lynette.</p> - -<p>"Anyhow," said Winch, "it's a dog and not a girl we come looking for. -Thor'll be here ... if he's alive yet."</p> - -<p>"He will be right where I left him." Standing led the way among the -big trees, an arm about Billy Winch, hopping at his side the last few -steps; they saw him looking in all directions and understood that while -he led them toward Thor he was seeking the girl. But they found only -the dog lying where he had been struck down; Thor barely able to lift -his bloody head, his sight dim, but his dog's intelligence telling -him that his master had come back to him; Thor whining weakly. Winch -squatted down at the dog's side, become upon the instant an impressive -diagnostician.</p> - -<p>Standing stood a moment over the two, looking down upon them. Then he -turned away, leaving Thor in the skilful hands of Winch and hurrying -down to the creek, seeking Lynette. It was possible, he told himself, -that she had gone down for a drink; that so near the waterfall she had -not heard him calling. So he called again as he went on and looked -everywhere for her.</p> - -<p>But she was not down by the creek and she did not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> answer him from the -woods. He came back, up into camp, perplexed. Winch was still bending -over Thor; he was snapping out brusque orders to Joe for hot water and -soap; Standing heard Mexicali Joe's mutterings:</p> - -<p>"<i>Por Dios</i>, I no understan'. Somebody hurt one dog an' we wait, an' -we look for one girl ... an' all the time I got one meelion dollar -gol'-mine down yonder...."</p> - -<p>"Shut up," Winch grunted at him. And, seeing Standing coming back: -"Say, Timber, we better take this dog home with us right away. We can -make a sling of that canvas of yours, tying either end to our saddle -horns, making a sort of stretcher; some blankets in it and old Thor on -top of 'em. And I'll tell you this: if we get him home alive, and I -think we will, I'll keep the life in him."</p> - -<p>Thor was whining piteously; Winch shook his head; if only he had his -instruments, his antiseptics, and a bottle of chloroform! For here he -foresaw such an operation as did not come his way every day.</p> - -<p>"Diagnosin' off-hand," Winch was telling the uninterested Joe, "I'd -say here's the two important facts: first, old Thor has been beat -unmerciful; his head's been whanged bad, but I don't believe the -skull's fractured; his left fore leg is busted and he may have a -cracked rib. Second and most important, after all that the old devil is -alive."</p> - -<p>Bruce Standing, still seeking Lynette, more than satisfied to have Thor -in Billy Winch's capable hands, turned toward the grotto which he had -set apart for Lynette. And thus upon his first discovery. There was a -piece of paper tied with a bit of string so that it fluttered gently -from a low limb where it was inevitable that it must be seen. He caught -it down eagerly. On the scrap of paper were a few pencilled words, -written in a girlish-looking hand. At one sweeping glance he read:</p> - -<blockquote><p>"I have gone back to Babe Deveril.<br /> -<span class="s15"> </span><span class="smcap">Lynette.</span>"</p></blockquote> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span></p> -<p>He stood staring incredulously at the thing in his hand. Here was a -shock which for a moment confused him; here was something beyond -credence. Lynette gone ... to Deveril? For that first second his -brain groped blindly rather than functioned normally. Lynette gone to -Babe Deveril ... that cursed Baby Devil! A handsome, graceful, and -altogether irresistible young devil of a fellow to fill any girl's eye, -to stir vague romantic longings in her heart. So she had gone to him? -He had the proof of it in his hand; a word from her, signed with her -name. A cruel, chill, heartless message of seven meagre words.... And -she had broken her word; she had promised to wait for his return and -she had not waited. She had left a dying dog to die alone and had gone -to her lover ... and she carried with her the key to Mexicali Joe's -golden secret ... to turn it over to Deveril!</p> - -<p>"What's eating you, Timber?" shouted Winch. "Gone to sleep or what?"</p> - -<p>Standing tossed the scrap of paper away. And then suddenly he laughed -and both Winch and Joe were startled. Bill Winch had heard that laugh -once before and knew vaguely the sort of emotion which prompted it: -Standing's soul was suddenly steeped in rage ... and anguish....</p> - -<p>"We'll be on our way pretty quick, Timber," said Winch. "We'll ride -slow and you can pick us up in no time. And ... if you've got anything -on your chest, any of your own private rat-killing to do, why, me and -Mexicali will make out fine as far as headquarters, and once there I'll -see old Thor through."</p> - -<p>Standing only nodded at him curtly and went hurriedly to his horse.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XXIV</h2> - -<p>Timber-Wolf, his purposes crystallizing, did not attempt to rejoin -Winch and Mexicali Joe. By the time he had ridden to the spot where -his saddle was hidden and had thrown it upon Daylight's back, drawing -his cinch savagely, he had begun to get his proper perspective. He -knew that he could trust Billy Winch in all things; that Winch, with -all of that persevering patience which the occasion demanded and that -veterinary skill and love for animals which marked him, would do all -that any man could to get Thor home and to care for him. And now, for -Bruce Standing, beyond the stricken dog lay other considerations: There -remained Lynette and Babe Deveril! He ground his teeth in savage rage -and from Daylight's first leap under him rode hard.</p> - -<p>Long before the early sun rose he was back at his own headquarters, -a man grim and hard and purposeful. Rough garbed and still booted -he strode through his study and into his larger office; and in this -environment the man's magnificent virility was strikingly accentuated. -Here was his wilderness home, a place of elegance and of palpitant -centres of numerous large activities; not a dozen miles from Big Pine -and yet, in all appearances, set apart from Young Gallup's crude town -as far as the ends of earth. He stood in a great, hard-wooded room of -orderly tables and desks and telephones and electric push-buttons. He -set an impatient thumb upon a button; at the same moment his other hand -caught up a telephone instrument. While the push-button still sent -its urgent message he caught a response from his telephone. Into the -receiver he called sharply:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span></p> - -<p>"Bristow? In a hurry, Standing speaking: Give me the stables; get Billy -Winch!"</p> - -<p>All the while that insistent thumb of his upon the button! There came -bursting into the big room, half dressed and clutching at his clothes, -a young man whose eyes were still heavy with sleep.</p> - -<p>"You, Graham," Standing commanded him. "Get busy on our long-distance -wire. My lawyers.... Get Ben Brewster! It's the hurry of a lifetime!"</p> - -<p>Young Graham, with suspenders dragging, flew to the switchboard. -Meantime came a response from the inter-phone connecting him with the -stables.</p> - -<p>"Billy Winch?" he called.</p> - -<p>"No, sir, Mr. Standing," said a voice. "This is Dick Ross. Bill, he got -in late and was up all night nearly, working over a bad case that come -in. Shall I...."</p> - -<p>"That case," Standing told him abruptly, "was my dog, Thor. Find out -who was left in charge when Bill went to sleep; call me right away and -give me a report on Thor." With that he rang off.</p> - -<p>All the while his secretary, Graham, had been plugging away -at his switchboard. Standing, pacing up and down, heard his -"Hello—hello—hello."</p> - -<p>Within three minutes the stable telephone rang sharply. Standing caught -it up. It was Dick Ross again, reporting:</p> - -<p>"Bill didn't go off the case until three o'clock this morning. Had to -operate again at about two; taking out a little piece of skull bone. He -left Charley Peters in charge then; Charley's on the job now."</p> - -<p>"Thor's alive then?"</p> - -<p>"Yes, sir."</p> - -<p>"Fine! I'll be out in a few minutes to see him. Bill's got him in the -'hospital'?"</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span></p> - -<p>"Sure, Mr. Standing. Thor couldn't be gettin' better care if he was -King of England."</p> - -<p>Standing rang off and came back to Graham from whose eyes now all -heaviness of sleep had fled, leaving them keen and quick. Hardly more -than a youngster, this Graham, and yet Timber-Wolf's confidential -secretary, trained by Standing himself to Standing's ways.</p> - -<p>"I've got Mr. Brewster's home on the wire," said Graham looking up. -"He's not up yet but they're calling him...."</p> - -<p>Standing took the instrument.</p> - -<p>"I'll hold it for him. Now, Graham, order breakfast served here for you -and me; plenty of extra coffee for the boys I'll be having in.... Get -Al Blake on our wire to Red Creek Mine.... Arrange to have Bill Winch -show up here as soon as he's awake; he's to bring Ross and Peters with -him.... And Mexicali Joe; make sure that Joe didn't see any one to talk -with last night. I want Joe here with Winch.... Hello! Hello! Is this -Ben Brewster?"</p> - -<p>He heard his lawyer's voice over the wire; then, somewhere over the -long line something went wrong; Brewster was gone again. An operator at -the end of Standing's own private part of the line, seventy-five miles -away, was saying:</p> - -<p>"Just a minute, Mr. Standing ... I'll get him for you...."</p> - -<p>"Thanks, Henry," said Standing. And while he waited for the promised -service which was to link him with a man nearly two hundred miles away, -he was working hastily with pencil and pad. Graham was already carrying -out his string of orders, getting dressed with one hand meantime.</p> - -<p>"Brewster?" Standing spoke again into the telephone. "I've got -something big and urgent on. Can<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> you come up right away? Take a car -to Placer Hill. I'll have a man meet you there with a saddle-horse, -and you'll have to ride the last twenty miles in. We're forming a new -mining company; I want to shoot it through one-two-three! Bring what -papers we'll want; that will be all the baggage you need to stop for. -Graham will have all particulars ready for you. Thanks, Ben. So long.</p> - -<p>"Graham!"</p> - -<p>Graham swung about expectantly.</p> - -<p>"Get the stables. A couple of the best horses...." "I've already got -them," said Graham.... It was for such reasons that Graham, though a -youngster, could hold so difficult position as private secretary to -Bruce Standing, Timber-Wolf.</p> - -<p>Al Blake was Standing's mining expert, general superintendent of all -his mining interests and the one source to which he applied for advice -on all mining matters. He was the highest salaried man on the extensive -pay-roll and the shrewdest. In a few minutes Graham announced that he -had the Red Creek Mine on the wire and that Blake was coming.</p> - -<p>"I want you here on the jump, Al," said Standing. "And I need forty of -our best men; scare up as many as you can at your diggings; I can fill -the number down here. Just <i>good</i> men, understand? Men you know; men -who at a pinch will fight like hell; every man with a rifle."</p> - -<p>"Sounds like St. Ives!" grunted Blake, wide awake by now. "All right. -I'm on my way in ten minutes."</p> - -<p>Standing began pacing up and down again, his eyes frowning. He needed -Billy Winch right now; needed him the worst way. For here was work -to be done of the sort which invariably he placed in Winch's capable -hands. But Winch had had a night of it and Standing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> was not the man to -overlook that fact as long as he could put his hand on another man who -would do....</p> - -<p>"Have Dick Ross up, on the run," he told Graham.</p> - -<p>Breakfast came, served on big massive trays by the Japanese servant. -Almost at the same moment, and literally on the run, Dick Ross came in.</p> - -<p>"Scare up ten good men for me, Ross. With rifles, all ready to ride. -I'll have breakfast ready for them here." Graham caught the alert eye -of the Japanese who set down his trays hurriedly and with a quick nod -raced off to the kitchen. Standing looked sternly at Ross and said -curtly: "I'm handing you a job that would usually go to Winch, Ross, -but he's asleep...."</p> - -<p>"He was just getting up again, Mr. Standing. Said he wanted to see for -himself how Thor was pulling along...."</p> - -<p>"Then," said Standing, "hop back and tell Winch what I said. He can -tell you the men to pick ... or, if he's busy working with Thor he can -leave it to you. Of course I want you to be of the number; Peters also -if Winch doesn't need him; Winch, too, if he says the word...."</p> - -<p>Standing and Graham ate standing up. Men summoned began coming in. Each -of them was given brief clean-cut orders and allowed brief time to gulp -a hot breakfast. Billy Winch came first, bringing with him Mexicali Joe.</p> - -<p>"He's going to be all right, <i>I think</i>," said Winch by way of greeting, -and Standing understood that he was reporting on Thor. "I never saw -man or animal worse shot-all-to-hell, either. I got him in bed now, -strapped down; he's conscious this morning and had a fair night, all -things considered. There's nothing more to be done right away, just be -kept quiet...."</p> - -<p>"I was coming out in a minute...."</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span></p> - -<p>"I can't have folks running in on him, Timber," said Winch, with a slow -shake of the head, mumbling over a mouthful of ham and egg. "But if -you'd just run in on him one second, to sort of let him know you was -with him, you know, and then beat it, it might do him good."</p> - -<p>"Can you leave for two or three hours? To go down with Al Blake and -some of the boys to stake a string of mining claims down in Light -Ladies' Gulch?"</p> - -<p>"That's why the rifles?" said Winch. "Sure, I can go, leaving Charley -Peters with full instructions. But I'll have to be back in, say, four -hours at latest."</p> - -<p>Standing turned to Mexicali Joe.</p> - -<p>"Joe," he said, "how many friends have you got that we can put on the -pay-roll for a few days at twenty-five dollars a day? To stake claims -down in the Gulch?"</p> - -<p>"<i>Jesus Maria!</i>" gasped Joe. "Twenty-five dollars a day? For each man? -There would be one meelion men, Seņor Caballero...."</p> - -<p>"Take him in tow, Graham! Get a list of names from him, men to be -reached in an hour's ride. As many as you can get, twenty or thirty or -forty. And get them here ... quick."</p> - -<p>Al Blake arrived from the Red Creek Mine. Stringing along after him -came a dozen men of his choosing; big, uncouth, unshaved, rough-looking -customers to the last man of them and yet ... as Standing and Blake -agreed ... <i>all good men!</i> Good to carry out orders; to put up a fight -against odds; to hang on and fight to the last ditch. Graham saw to it -that every man Jack of them was fed and had his cigar from the Chief's -private stock. The men grouped outside and looked at one another, -but for the greater part wasted little breath in speculations and -questionings, each realizing that his fellows knew as little as himself.</p> - -<p>It was a busy morning for Bruce Standing. Yet three<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> times he found the -time ... rather he made it ... to go out to the "hospital" to stand -over old Thor and speak softly to him. Thor lay upon a white-enamelled -bed; his bed was softened for him by many downy pillows; at the bedside -sat Charley Peters, his face as grave, his eye as watchful, as could -have been had it been Timber-Wolf himself who lay there. And when -Standing came in Thor heard his step and tried to move; tried to lift -his poor battered head. But at the master's low voice, "Down, Thor! -Down, sir ... good old dog!" Thor lay back and his tired sigh was like -the sigh of a man. Standing's big hand rested gently upon the old -fellow ... then Standing went out, walking softly and Thor lay still a -very long while, waiting for him to come again....</p> - -<p>Al Blake left within fifteen minutes of his arrival, a little army of -armed men at his back. With him, on the fastest horse in Standing's -stables, rode a man whose sole responsibility was to race back with -word of conditions. Fully Standing counted on hearing that already at -least two claims had been staked. But he was not ready to see Lynette -again so soon; he was not ready yet to see Babe Deveril. Never for a -single instant since seeing that bit of paper hung to a tree with a -girl's mockery upon it, had he doubted that this girl, whom he had -thought that he loved, had cast in with the Baby Devil, the two racing -side by side to steal Mexicali Joe's gold. He had said to Al Blake:</p> - -<p>"Put them off ... but don't hurt either of them. Leave them to me."</p> - -<p>Attorney Ben Brewster, a man much shaken, arrived in record time. He -could scarcely speak a word until Graham poured out for him a generous -glass of whiskey. Then he glared at Standing as though he would highly -enjoy killing him.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span></p> - -<p>"You've got a fee to pay this trip," he groaned, "that will make you -sit up and stretch your eyes! Good God, man...."</p> - -<p>"Give him another drink, Graham," said Standing. "He's a lawyer and -there's no danger of such getting drunk!... Curse your fees, Brewster. -What do I care so you make an iron-clad job of it."</p> - -<p>"And the job?"</p> - -<p>Graham saw that he had a cigar.</p> - -<p>"Something crooked!" muttered Brewster. "I'll bet a hat!"</p> - -<p>"Otherwise," jeered Standing, "why send for you!... Now shut up, Ben, -and get that infected brain of yours working. Here's the tale."</p> - -<p>Ben Brewster, a man who knew his business ... and his client ... went -into action. That day he took in businesslike shape all possible steps -toward forming a new corporation, The Mexicali Joe Gold Mining Company.</p> - -<p>"Lord, what a fool name!" he growled.</p> - -<p>"Never mind the name," retorted Standing.</p> - -<p>During the day many other men came in; among them no less than -seventeen swarthy men of Mexicali Joe's breed. Brewster took -signatures, and the men, showing their glistening white teeth, knew -nothing of what was happening save that each man of them was to draw -twenty-five dollars a day for driving a stake and sitting snug over it, -rifle in hand and cigarette in mouth! Brewster got other signatures -going down to Light Ladies' Gulch and among the men there. In all, he -signed names of about sixty men. The Mexicali Joe Gold Mining Company -was born. And the greater part of the stock, and the magnificently -shining title of president was invested in ... Mexicali Joe! Suddenly, -though all day he had been a man as dark-browed as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> a thunder-storm, -Standing burst out into that golden laughter of his. Not a single share -in his name; all immediate expenses to be paid by him, and they were to -be heavy; and yet he counted himself the man to draw a full ninety-nine -per cent of the dividends of sheer triumph! For it was to be a cold -shut-out to Taggart and Gallup and Shipton and all Big Pine! And, most -of all, for Babe Deveril and that girl! For early had come back the -report from Al Blake: "Neither of them here; no claims staked!"</p> - -<p>Standing could only estimate that the girl had misunderstood; that, -hearing Joe's description of the place, she had not grasped the true -sense of his words. He lingered over the picture of her and Deveril, -hastening, driving their stakes somewhere else!</p> - -<p>When Mexicali Joe came to understand, after much eloquence from Graham, -how matters stood ... how he swaggered! This, a day in a lifetime, was -Mexicali Joe's day.</p> - -<p>"<i>Me, I'm President!</i>"</p> - -<p>President of a gold-mining company! Mexicali Joe! And of a real mine; -for Al Blake had sent back the curt word: "He's got it; he's got a mine -that I'd advise you to buy in for a hundred thousand while you can. It -may run to anything. The best thing I've seen up here anywhere!"</p> - -<p>Mexicali Joe on the high-road to become a millionaire ... through the -efforts of Bruce Standing.</p> - -<p>To be sure, Joe, a man very profoundly bewildered, more dumfounded even -than elated, took never a single step and said never a single word -without going first to his friend "Seņor Caballero." Before the end of -that glorious day Joe was dead-drunk; didn't know "whether he was afoot -or horseback." But in his crafty Latin way, he kept his mouth shut.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span></p> - -<p>And then Bruce Standing, with an eye not to further wealth, but toward -the confounding of all hopes of such as Young Gallup and Jim Taggart -and Babe Deveril ... <i>and a certain girl</i> ... sprang his coup. With -Ben Brewster guarding his rear in every advance, he "swallowed whole," -as Brewster put it, every bit of available land above and below and on -every side of Joe's claims. He recked neither of present difficulties -and expenses nor of lawsuits to come. He wanted the land ... and he got -it! And he issued his proclamation:</p> - -<p>"There's a <i>town</i> there, on Light Ladies' Gulch. You don't see it? It's -there!... <i>Graham, get busy!</i> A contractor; lumber; building materials; -carpenters! We build a town as big as Big Pine and we build it faster -than ever a town grew before! A store, blacksmith shop, hotel. Shacks -of all sorts. <i>Graham!</i>"</p> - -<p>Graham, like a man with an electric current shot through him, jumped -out of his chair.</p> - -<p>"Send a man on the run to Big Pine with a message for Young Gallup! And -the message is this: '<i>Bruce Standing promised to pull your damned town -down about your ears ... and the pulling has begun!</i>'"</p> - -<p>"Yes, Mr. Standing," said Graham. And sent a man on a running horse.</p> - -<p>And then took swift dictation. Standing made a budget of fifty thousand -dollars, as a "starter." Even Graham wondered what impulses were -rioting in his mad heart!</p> - -<p>"We want scrapers and ploughs, a crew of road-makers! We build a new -road ... <i>on this side of Light Ladies' Gulch</i>! Got the idea, Graham? -We cut Big Pine out. We go by them, giving a shorter road to the -outside, a better road. We boycott Gallup's dinky town! Keep in mind -we'll double that first fifty thousand any time we need to. Get this -word around: 'Any man who buys<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> a nickel's worth of tobacco in Big -Pine can't buy anything, even if he has his pockets full of clinking -gold, in our town! No man, once seen setting his foot down in Gallup's -town, is going to be tolerated two minutes in our town.' Get the idea, -Graham?"</p> - -<p>"Yes, Mr. Standing!"</p> - -<p>Standing smote him then so mightily upon the shoulder that Graham, a -small man, went pale, shot through with pain.</p> - -<p>"Raise your own salary, Graham. <i>And earn it now!</i>"</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XXV</h2> - -<p>What Bruce Standing could not know was that those few words signed -<i>Lynette</i> and saying with such cruel curtness: "I have gone back to -Babe Deveril," had been written not by Lynette, but by Deveril himself. -Nor could he know that Lynette had not gone freely but under the harsh -coercion of four men.</p> - -<p>Deveril, when Lynette refused to go with him, had hurried away -through the woods, his heart burning with jealous rage. Was the hated -Timber-Wolf to win again, not only in the game for gold but in another -game which was coming to be the one greatest consideration in Babe -Deveril's life?</p> - -<p>"Not while I live!" he muttered to himself over and over. And once out -of sight of Lynette who still sat bowed over the dog he had struck -down, he broke into a run. Jim Taggart and Gallup and Cliff Shipton -were not so far away that he could not hope to reach them and to bring -them back before Standing returned.</p> - -<p>Thus, not over fifteen minutes before Bruce Standing came back, -bringing Billy Winch and Mexicali Joe with him, Deveril had appeared -before Lynette a second time. And now she leaped to her feet, seeing -who his companions were and reading at one quick glance what lay -unhidden in their faces. Greed was there and savage gloating and -mercilessness; she knew that at least three of those men would stamp -her into the ground under their heavy boots if thus they might walk -over her body through the golden gates of Mexicali Joe's secret.</p> - -<p>"You're arrested!" cried Taggart. "Come, get a move on. We clear out of -this on the run!"</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span></p> - -<p>"It was you who shot him, not I! And I'll not go with you. In a minute -he'll be back...."</p> - -<p>Taggart was of no mind for delay and talk; he caught her roughly by the -arm. Her eyes went swiftly to Deveril's; of his look she could make -nothing. He shrugged and said only:</p> - -<p>"Taggart's sheriff; he'll take you along, anyway. You might as well go -without a fuss."</p> - -<p>Gallup, his face ugly with the emotions swaying him, was at her other -side. She looked to the hawk-faced man and then away with a shudder. -Then, trying to jerk away, she screamed out:</p> - -<p>"Help! Bruce...."</p> - -<p>Taggart's big hairy hand was over her mouth.</p> - -<p>"Come along," he commanded angrily. "Get a move on."</p> - -<p>Half dragging her the first few steps they led her out of camp, down -into the caņon and across among the trees. She gave over struggling; -they watched her so that she could not call again; Taggart threatened -to stuff his dirty bandana handkerchief into her mouth. Deveril alone -held back for a little; she did not know what he was doing; did not see -him as he wrote in a hand which he strove to give a girlish semblance -those few words to which he signed her name. She scarcely marked his -delay; she was trying now to think fast and logically.</p> - -<p>These men were brutes, all of them; she had had ample evidence of that -already and had that evidence been lacking the information was there -emblazoned in their faces. Even Babe Deveril, in whom once she had -trusted, began to show the brutal lining of his insolent character. And -yet need she be afraid of any of them just now? If she openly thwarted -them, yes. They would show no mercy to a girl. But at the moment<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> their -thoughts were set not upon her undoing, but upon Mexicali Joe's gold. -And she knew where it was and they knew that she knew.... Taggart was -speaking, growling into her ear:</p> - -<p>"We followed Mexicali; we saw him come up here; Deveril followed him -into camp. He told where his gold was. And you heard it all!"</p> - -<p>"Well?" said Lynette, striving with herself for calmness. She was -thinking: "If only I can have a little time. He will come for me.... If -only I can have a little time."</p> - -<p>"What do you mean by that?" demanded Taggart. "The whole earth ain't -Joe's because he picked up a nugget or two. Anybody's got a right to -stake a claim; I got a right and so has the boys ... and so have you."</p> - -<p>"Suppose," offered Lynette as coolly as she could, "that I refused to -tell?"</p> - -<p>There came a look into Taggart's hard eyes which answered her more -eloquently than any words from the man could have done, which put -certain knowledge and icy fear into her.</p> - -<p>Always, when nervous or frightened, Lynette's laughter came easily to -her and now without awaiting any other answer from this man she began -laughing in such a fashion as to perplex him and bring a dragging frown -across his brows.</p> - -<p>"Are you going to tell us?" he asked.</p> - -<p>"If I do," she temporized, "do I have the chance to drive the first -stakes?"</p> - -<p>"By God, yes! And say, little one, you're a peach into the bargain."</p> - -<p>She did not appear to hear; she was thinking over and over: "Bruce -Standing will come after us as soon as he finds I am gone. I must gain -a little time, that is all."</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span></p> - -<p>If only she could make them think that the gold was somewhere near by -so that Standing must readily find them. But now Deveril had rejoined -them and she recalled how he had heard something, though not all, of -Joe's triumphant announcement. For Joe had shouted out at the top of -his voice, to catch and hold Timber-Wolf's attention: "Light Ladies' -Gulch!" Deveril had heard that; and Light Ladies' Gulch was many miles -away, down toward Big Pine....</p> - -<p>Deveril was looking at her with eyes which were bright and hard and -told no tales of the man's thoughts.</p> - -<p>"This lovely and altogether too charming young woman," Deveril said -lightly, his eyes still upon her, though his words were for the others, -"has a mind of her own. It would be as well to hear what she has to say -and learn what she intends to do."</p> - -<p>"Will you try to lie to us?" demanded Taggart. "Or will you tell us the -truth?"</p> - -<p>She, too, strove for lightness, saying:</p> - -<p>"Think that out for yourself, Mr. Taggart. Bruce Standing knows where -the gold is now; both you and I know the sort of man he is and we can -imagine that if he drives the first stake he will see to it that he -takes the whole thing. Do you really think that after I came into this -country for gold myself I am going to miss my one chance now?" She -puzzled them again with her laughter and said: "Not that it would not -be a simple matter to trick you, were I minded to let my own chances go -for the sake of spoiling yours; Mexicali Joe fooled you so easily."</p> - -<p>"Yet you yelled for Standing just now...."</p> - -<p>"After you came rushing upon me as if you meant to tear me to pieces, -frightening the wits out of me."</p> - -<p>"Well, then, tell us."</p> - -<p>"If I told you now, then what? You'd desert me in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> a minute; you would -race on ahead; when I caught up with you there would be nothing left."</p> - -<p>Deveril's eyes flashed and he said quickly:</p> - -<p>"And give you the chance to send us to the wrong place, were you so -minded, so that you could slip off alone and be first at the other -spot! Very clever, Miss Lynette, but that won't work. You go with us."</p> - -<p>And all the while she was trying so hard to think; and all the while -listening so eagerly for a certain glorious, golden voice shouting -after her. Deveril had heard part of Joe's exclamation....</p> - -<p>"It is in Light Ladies' Gulch," she said quietly.</p> - -<p>"Yes!" Here was Young Gallup speaking, his covetous soul aflame. "We -know that; Deveril heard. But Light Ladies' Gulch is forty miles long. -Where abouts in the gulch?"</p> - -<p>She told herself that she would die before she led them aright. And yet -she realized to the full the danger to herself if she tricked them as -Joe had done and they discovered her trickery before Standing came. Yet -most of all was she confident that he would come and swiftly.... Joe's -words still rang in her memory; he had told first of the Red Cliffs, -how he had found color there last year; how he had made prospect -holes; how his real mine lay removed three or four miles. Still she -temporized, saying:</p> - -<p>"Bruce Standing and Billy Winch and Joe have horses. We are on foot. -Tell me how we can hope to come to the spot first?"</p> - -<p>"We'll have horses ourselves in a jiffy," said Taggart. "Stepping -lively, we're not more than a couple of hours from a cattle outfit over -the ridge. We'll get all the horses we want and we'll ride like hell!"</p> - -<p>"You know where the Red Cliffs are? At the foot of the cliffs I'll show -you Joe's prospect holes...."</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span></p> - -<p>The pale-eyed, hawk-faced Cliff Shipton spoke for the first time.</p> - -<p>"Not half a dozen miles out of Big Pine! I told you last year, -Gallup...."</p> - -<p>Deveril, the keenest of them all, the one who knew her best, suspected -her from the beginning. His eyes never once left her face.</p> - -<p>"How do we know," he said quietly, "that there's any gold there? That -Joe's gold is not somewhere else?"</p> - -<p>"You will have to make your own decision," she told him as coolly as -she could. "If you think that I am mistaken or that I am trying to play -with you as Joe did, you are free to go where you please."</p> - -<p>Taggart began cursing; his grip tightened on her arm so that he hurt -her terribly as he shouted at her:</p> - -<p>"I'll give you one word of warning, little one! If you put up a game -on us now, you cut your own throat. In the first place I'll make it my -business that if we get shut out, you get shut out along with us. And -in the second place when I'm through with you no other man in the world -will have any use for you. Got that?"</p> - -<p>She knew what he had done to Mexicali Joe; she could guess what other -unthinkable things he would have done. And she knew that if now she -tricked Jim Taggart and he found her out ... <i>before Bruce Standing -came</i> ... she could only pray to die.</p> - -<p>And yet at this, the supreme test in her life, she held steady to a -swiftly taken purpose. She would not put the game into these men's -hands. And she held steadfastly to her certainty, knowing the man, -that Bruce Standing would come. Therefore, though her face went a -little pale, and her mouth was so dry that she did not dare speak, she -shrugged her shoulders.</p> - -<p>"Come, then," said Taggart. "Enough palaver. We're on our way."</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span></p> - -<p>And of them all, only Babe Deveril was still distrustful.</p> - -<p class="space-above">And thus Lynette, accepting her own grave risk with clear-eyed -comprehension and yet with unswerving determination, led these four men -to a spot where she knew that they would not find that gold for which -every man of them had striven so doggedly; thus it was she who made it -possible for Bruce Standing to be before all others and to triumph and -strike the death-blow to Big Pine and to begin that relentless campaign -which was to end in humbling his ancient enemy, Young Gallup. Yet there -was little exultation in Lynette's heart, but a growing fear, when, -after hours of furious haste, she and the four men came at last into -Light Ladies' Gulch and to the base of the towering red cliffs.</p> - -<p>Cliff Shipton knew more of gold-mining than any of the others and -Lynette watched him narrowly as he went up and down under the high -cliffs. And she knew that she in turn was watched; in the first -excitement of coming to the long-sought spot she had hoped that she -might escape. But both Taggart and Deveril followed her at every step -with their eyes.</p> - -<p>Desperately she clung to her assurance that Bruce Standing would come -for her. He had said that he would come "though it were ten thousand -mile." He might have difficulties in finding her; she might have to -wait a little while, an hour or two, or three hours. But it remained -that he was a man to surmount obstacles insurmountable to other men; a -man to pin faith upon. Yet time passed and he did not come.</p> - -<p>They found indications of Mexicali Joe's labors, rock ledges at which -he had chipped and hammered, prospect holes lower on the steep slope. -And Cliff Shipton acknowledged that "the signs were all right." But -they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span> did not find the gold and they did not find anything to show that -Joe or another had worked here recently.</p> - -<p>"All this work," said Shipton, staring and frowning, "was done a year -ago."</p> - -<p>"He'd be crafty enough," muttered Gallup, "to hide his real signs. We -got to look around every clump of brush and in every gully where maybe -he's covered things up.... You're sure," and he whipped about upon -Lynette, "that you got straight all he said?"</p> - -<p>"I'm sure," said Lynette. And she was afraid that the men would hear -the beating of her heart.</p> - -<p>"I am going up to the top of the cliffs again and see what I can see," -she said.</p> - -<p>"If there's gold anywhere it's down here," said Shipton. "There's -nothing on the top."</p> - -<p>"Just the same I'm going!"</p> - -<p>"Where the horses are?" jeered Taggart. "By God, if you have...."</p> - -<p>"If you think I am trying to run away you can follow and watch me. I am -going!"</p> - -<p>She turned. Deveril was watching her with keen, shrewd eyes. Taggart -took a quick stride toward her, his hand lifted to drag her back. -Deveril stepped before him, saying coolly:</p> - -<p>"I'll go up with her, Taggart. And I guess you know how I stand on -this, don't you?"</p> - -<p>"All right," conceded the sheriff. "Only keep your eye peeled. I'm -getting leery."</p> - -<p>It was a long climb to the cliff tops and neither Lynette nor Deveril -at her heels spoke during the climb. They were silent when at last -they stood side by side near the tethered horses. Deveril's eyes were -upon her pale face; her own eyes ran swiftly, eagerly across the deep -caņon to the wooded lands beyond. She prayed with the fervor of growing -despair for the sight of a certain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> young blond giant of a man racing -headlong to her relief.</p> - -<p>"Well?" said Deveril presently in a tone so strange, so vibrant with -suppressed emotion that he made her start and drew her wondering eyes -swiftly. "What are you looking for now?"</p> - -<p>"Why do you talk like that ... what is the matter?"</p> - -<p>His bitter laughter set her nerves quivering.</p> - -<p>"Is the gold here, Lynette? Or is it some miles away, with Bruce -Standing already sinking his claws into it, Standing style?"</p> - -<p>Again her eyes left him, returning across the gorge to the farther -wooded lands. Over there was a road, the road into which she and Babe -Deveril had turned briefly that night, a thousand years ago, when -they had fled from Big Pine in the dark; a road which led to Bruce -Standing's headquarters. From the top of the cliffs she caught a -glimpse of the road, winding among the trees; her eyes were fixedly -upon it; her lips were moving softly, though the words were not for -Babe Deveril's ears.</p> - -<p>"Lynette," he said in that strangely tense and quiet voice, "if you -have been fool enough to try to put something over on this crowd.... -Can't you guess how you'd fare in Jim Taggart's hands?"</p> - -<p>She was not looking at him; she did not appear to mark his words. He -saw a sudden change in her expression; she started and the blood rushed -back into her cheeks and her eyes brightened. He looked where she was -looking. Far across the caņon, rising up among the trees, was a cloud -of dust. Some one was riding there, riding furiously....</p> - -<p>Together they watched, waiting for that <i>some one</i> to appear in the one -spot where the winding road could be glimpsed through the trees. And in -a moment they saw not one man only, but a dozen or a score of men,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span> men -stooping in their saddles and riding hard, veiled in the rising dust -puffing up under their horses' flying feet. Now and then came a pale -glint of the sun striking upon the rifles which, to the last man, they -carried. They came into view with a rush, were gone with a rush. The -great cloud of dust rose and thinned and disappeared.</p> - -<p>"That road will bring them down into Light Ladies' Gulch where it makes -the wide loop about three miles from here," said Deveril. "Have you an -idea who they are, Lynette?"</p> - -<p>"No," she said, her lips dry; "I don't understand."</p> - -<p>"I think that I do understand," he told her, with a flash of anger. -"Those are Standing's men and they are riding, armed, like the -mill-tails of hell. Listen to me while you've got the chance! That's -not the first bunch of men who have ridden over there like that to-day. -Two hours ago, when you went down the cliffs with the others and I -stopped up here, I saw the same sort of thing happening. If you're so -innocent," he sneered at her, "I'll read you the riddle. I've told you -those are Standing's men; then why the devil are they riding like that -and in such numbers? They're going straight down into the Gulch where -the gold is while you hold us back, up here. And Standing is paying off -an old grudge and jamming more gold into his bulging pockets.... And -you've got some men to reckon with in ten minutes who'll make you sorry -that you were ever born a girl!"</p> - -<p>"No!" she cried hoarsely. "No. I won't believe it...."</p> - -<p class="space-above">He failed to catch just what she was thinking. She refused to believe -that Bruce Standing, instead of coming to her had raced instead to -Mexicali Joe's gold; that instead of scattering his men across fifty -miles of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span>country seeking her, he was massing them at a new gold-mine. -Bruce Standing was not like that! She cried it passionately within her -spirit. She had stood loyally by him; she had, at all costs, kept her -word to him ... she had come to believe in his love for her and to long -for his return....</p> - -<p>"If you saw men before ... if you thought the thing that you think now -... why didn't you rush on after them? It's not true!"</p> - -<p>"I didn't rush after them," he returned curtly, "because I'd be a fool -for my pains and would only give that wolf-devil another chance to -laugh in my face. For if he's got this lead on us ... why, then, the -game is his."</p> - -<p>"But I won't believe...."</p> - -<p>"If you will watch you will see. I'll bet a thousand dollars he has a -hundred men down there already and that they'll be riding by all day; -they'll be staking claims which he will buy back from them at the price -of a day's work; he'll work a clean shut-out for Gallup and Taggart. -That's what he'd give his right hand to do. You watch a minute."</p> - -<p>They watched. Once Taggart shouted up to them.</p> - -<p>"Down in a minute, Taggart." Deveril called back.</p> - -<p>Before long Lynette saw another cloud of dust; this time three or four -men rode into sight and sped away after the others; before the dust -had cleared another two or three men rode by. And at last Lynette felt -despair in her heart, rising into her throat, choking her. For she -understood that in her hour of direst need Bruce Standing had failed -her.</p> - -<p>"Taggart will be wanting you in a minute," said Deveril. He spoke -casually; he appeared calm and untroubled; he took out tobacco and -papers and began rolling a cigarette. But Lynette saw that the man was -atremble with rage. "Before you go down to him, tell<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> me: did you know -what you were doing when you brought us to the wrong place?"</p> - -<p>"<i>Yes!</i>" It was scarcely above a whisper, yet she strove with all -her might to make it defiant. She was afraid and yet she fought with -herself, seeking to hide her fear from him.</p> - -<p>He shrugged elaborately, as though the matter were of no great interest -and no longer concerned him.</p> - -<p>"Then your blood be on your own head," he said carelessly. "I, for one, -will not raise my hand against you; what Taggart does to you concerns -only you and Taggart."</p> - -<p>"Babe Deveril!"</p> - -<p>She called to him with a new voice; she was afraid and no longer strove -to hide her fear. Until now she had carried on, head high, in full -confidence; confidence in a man. And that man, like Babe Deveril before -him, had thought first of gold instead of her. Bruce Standing had -spoken of love and had turned aside for gold; with both hands full of -the yellow stuff he thought only of more to be had, and not of her.</p> - -<p>"Babe Deveril! Listen to me! I have been a fool ... oh, such a fool! I -knew so little of the real world and of men, and I thought that I knew -it all. My mother had me raised in a convent, thinking thus to protect -me against all the hardships she had endured; but she did not take into -consideration that her blood and Dick Brooke's blood was my blood! This -was all a glorious adventure to me; I thought ... I thought I could do -anything; I was not afraid of men, not of you nor of Bruce Standing nor -of any man. Now I am afraid ... of Jim Taggart! You helped me to run -from him once; help me again. Now. Let me have one of the horses ... -let me go...."</p> - -<p>All the while he stood looking at her curiously.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span> Toward the end there -was a look in his eyes which hinted at a sudden spiritual conflagration -within.</p> - -<p>"You're not used to this sort of thing?" And when she shook her head -vehemently, he added sternly: "And you are not Bruce Standing's? And -have never been?"</p> - -<p>"No, no!" she cried wildly, drawing back from him. "You don't think -that...."</p> - -<p>Now he came to her and caught her two hands fiercely.</p> - -<p>"Lynette!" he said eagerly. "Lynette, I love you! To-day you have stood -between me and a fortune, and I tell you ... I love you! Since first -you came to the door of my cabin I have loved you, you girl with the -daring eyes!"</p> - -<p>"Don't!" she pleaded. "Let me go. Can't you see...."</p> - -<p>"Tell me, Lynette," he said sternly, still holding her hands tight in -his, "is there any chance for me? I had never thought to marry; but -now I'd rather have you mine than have all the gold that ever came out -of the earth. Tell me and tell me the truth; we know each other rather -well for so few days, Lynette. So tell me; tell me, Lynette."</p> - -<p>Again she shook her head.</p> - -<p>"Let me go," she pleaded. "Let me have a horse and go. Before they come -up for me...."</p> - -<p>"Then there's no chance, ever, for me?"</p> - -<p>"Neither for you nor for any other man.... I have had enough of all -men.... Let me go, Babe Deveril!"</p> - -<p>Still he held her, his hands hardening on her, as he demanded:</p> - -<p>"And what of Bruce Standing?"</p> - -<p>"I don't know ... I can't understand men ... I thought there never was -another man like him, a hard<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> man who could be tender, a man who ... I -don't know; I want to go."</p> - -<p>"Go?" There came a sudden gleam into his eyes. "And where? Back to -Bruce Standing maybe?"</p> - -<p>"No! Anywhere on earth but back to him. To the stage which will be -leaving Big Pine in a little while; back to a land where trains run, -trains which can take me a thousand miles away. Oh, Babe Deveril...."</p> - -<p>Taggart's voice rose up to them, sounding savage.</p> - -<p>"What in hell's name are you doing up there?"</p> - -<p>Then Deveril released her hands.</p> - -<p>"Go to the horses," he commanded. "Untie all four. I'll ride with you -to the stage ... and we'll take the other horses along!"</p> - -<p>She had scarcely hoped for this; for an instant she stood staring at -him, half afraid that he was jeering at her. Then she ran to the horses -and began wildly untying their ropes. Deveril, smoking his cigarette, -appeared on the edge of the cliff for Taggart to see, and called down -carelessly:</p> - -<p>"What's all the excitement, Taggart?"</p> - -<p>"Keep your eye on that girl. Shipton thinks she's fooled us. I want her -down here."</p> - -<p>Deveril laughed at him and turned away. Once out of Taggart's sight he -ran. Lynette already was in the saddle; he mounted and took from her -the tie ropes of the other horses.</p> - -<p>"On our way," he said crisply. "They'll be after us like bees out of a -jostled hive."</p> - -<p class="space-above">They did not ride into Big Pine, but into the road two or three miles -below where the stage would pass. Deveril hailed the stage when it came -and the driver took Lynette on as his solitary passenger. At the last -minute she caught Babe Deveril's hand in both of hers.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span></p> - -<p>"There is good and bad in you, Babe Deveril, as I suppose there is in -all of us. But you have been good to me! I will never forget how you -have stood my friend twice; I will always remember that you were <i>a -man</i>; a man who never did little, mean things. And I shall always thank -God for that memory. And now, good-by, Babe Deveril and good luck go -with you!"</p> - -<p>"And Standing?" he demanded at the end. "You are done with him, too?"</p> - -<p>Suddenly she looked wearier than he had ever seen her even during their -days and nights together in the mountains. She looked a poor little -broken-hearted girl; there was a quick gathering of tears in her eyes, -which she strove to smile away. But despite the smile, the tears ran -down. She waved her hand; the stage driver cracked his long whip.... -Deveril stood in the dusty road, his hat in his hand, staring down a -winding roadway. A clatter of hoofs, a rattle of wheels, a mist of dust -... and Lynette was gone.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XXVI</h2> - -<p>Deveril went back to his horse, mounting listlessly like a very -tired man. The spring had gone out of his step and something of the -elasticity out of that ever-young spirit which had always been his no -matter from what quarter blew the variable winds of chance. Lynette -was gone and he could not hold back his thoughts from winging back -along the trail he and she had trod together; there had been the time, -and now he knew it, when all things were possible; the time before -Bruce Standing came into her life, when Babe Deveril, had he then -understood both himself and her, might have won a thing more golden -than any man's mere gold. In his blindness he had judged her the light -adventuress which she seemed; now that it was given him to understand -that in Lynette Brooke he had found a pure-hearted girl whose inherited -adventuresome blood had led her into tangled paths, he understood that -in her there had come that one girl who comes once to all men ... and -that she had passed on and out of his life.</p> - -<p>He caught up the reins of the horse she had left behind. His face grew -grim; he still had Jim Taggart to deal with and, therefore, it was as -well to take this horse and the others back to Big Pine and leave them -there for Taggart. For the first thing which would suggest itself to -the enraged sheriff would be to press a charge against him of horse -stealing, and in this country horse thieves were treated with no gentle -consideration.</p> - -<p>"I'll leave the horses there ... and go."</p> - -<p>Where? It did not matter. There was nothing left for him in these -mountains; Bruce Standing had the gold and the girl was on the stage.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span></p> - -<p>But in his bleak broodings there remained one gleam of gloating -satisfaction: he had tricked Standing out of the girl! That Lynette -already loved his kinsman or at the least stood upon the very brink -of giving her heart unreservedly into his keeping, Deveril's keen -eyes, the eyes of jealous love, had been quick to read. It did not -once suggest itself to him that Standing could by any possibility have -failed to love Lynette. The two had been for days together, alone in -the mountains; why should Standing have kept her and have been gentle -with her, as he must have been, save for the one reason that he loved -her? Further, what man could have lived so long with Lynette of the -daring eyes and not love her? And he, Babe Deveril, had stolen her away -from Bruce Standing, had tricked him with a pencil scrawl, had lost -Lynette to him for all time. The stage carrying her away now was as -inevitable an instrument in the hand of fate as death itself.</p> - -<p>He turned back for the other horses which he had tethered by the -roadside and led them on toward Big Pine.</p> - -<p>"What the devil is love, anyway?" he muttered once.</p> - -<p>It was not for a man such as Babe Deveril to know clearly; for love is -winged with unselfishness and self-sacrifice. And yet, after his own -fashion, he loved her and would love her always, though other pretty -faces came and went and he laughed into other eyes. She was lost to -him; there was the one great certainty like a rock wall across his -path. And she had said at the parting ... her last words to him were to -ring in his memory for many a long day ... that there was both good and -bad in him; and she chose to remember the good! He tried to laugh at -that; what did he care for good and bad? He, a man who went his way and -made reckoning to none?</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span></p> - -<p>And she had said that she knew him for <i>a man</i>; one who, whatever else -he might have done, had never stooped to a mean, contemptible act; she -thought of him and would always think of him as a man who, though he -struck unrighteous blows, dealt them in the open, man-style.... And yet -... the one deed of a significance so profound that it had directed the -currents of three lives, that writing of seven words, that signing of -her name under them....</p> - -<p>"I am glad that I did that!" he triumphed. And gladdest of all, in his -heart, was he that Lynette did not know ... would never know.</p> - -<p>Thus Babe Deveril, riding with drooping head, found certain living -fires among the ashes of dead hopes: A row to come with Taggart? He -could look forward to it with fierce eagerness. Standing and Lynette -separated; vindictive satisfaction there. He'd got his knife in -Standing's heart at last! He'd like to wait a year or a dozen until -some time Lynette forgot and another man came despite her sweeping -avowal and she married; he would like then to come back to Bruce -Standing and tell him the fool he had been and how it had been none -other than Baby Devil who had knifed him.</p> - -<p>... And yet, all the while, Lynette's farewell words were in his mind. -And he saw before him, wherever he looked, her face as he had seen it -last, her eyes blurred with her tears. And he fought stubbornly with -himself against the insistent admission: It was Babe Deveril and none -other who, saying that he loved her, had put those tears there. Good -and bad? What the devil had he to do with sticking those labelling tags -upon what he or others did?</p> - -<p class="space-above">Bruce Standing was still in his office. He was a man who had won -another victory and yet one who had the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span> taste of despair in his mouth. -Gallup's town was doomed; it was one of those little mountain towns -which had already outlived its period of usefulness and now with a man -like Timber-Wolf waging merciless war against it, Big Pine had its back -broken almost at the first savage blow struck. But Standing strode up -and down restlessly like a man broken by defeat rather than one whose -standards went flying on triumphantly; he knew that a new rival town, -his own town, was springing into being in a few hours; he had the brief -satisfaction of knowing that he was keeping an ancient promise and -striking a body blow from which there would be no recovery, making Big -Pine take the count and drop out of all men's consideration; he knew, -from having seen it many times, that pitiful spectacle which a dead and -deserted town presents; so, briefly, just as his kinsman was doing at -the same moment, he extracted what satisfaction he could from the hour. -He even had word sent to Gallup: "I am killing your town very much as -a man may kill an ugly snake. I shall see to it that goods are sold -cheaper here than at your store; there will be a better hotel here, -with a better shorter road leading to it. And I will build cabins as -fast as they are called for, to house deserters from your dying town. -And I will see to it that men from my town never set foot in your town. -This from me, Young Gallup: 'For the last time I have set foot upon -your dung heap. I'm through with you and the world is through with you. -You're dead and buried.'"</p> - -<p>During the day, word came to him that several men and one girl had been -seen hastily occupied at the foot of the Red Cliffs; the girl Lynette; -one of the men, Deveril. And it seemed very clear to Standing that -Lynette had led Deveril and the others in hot haste to the Red Cliffs -only because she had misunderstood<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span> Mexicali Joe's directions, confused -by his mention of these cliffs where he had prospected last year.</p> - -<p>"I'll go get them." Standing told himself a score of times. "Just as -soon as I know how to handle them. When I know how I can hurt him most -and her...."</p> - -<p>Mexicali Joe swelled about the landscape all day like a bursting -balloon, a man swept up in a moment from a condition of less than -mediocrity to one, as Mexicali regarded it, of monumental magnificence -and the highest degree of earthly joy. Graham could not keep him out -of Standing's office; the second time he came in Timber-Wolf lifted -him upon his boot hurling him out through the door and promising him -seven kinds of ugly death if he ever came back. Whereupon Mexicali Joe, -shaking his head, went away without grumbling; for in the sky of his -adoration stood just two: God and Bruce Standing.</p> - -<p>Graham was still laughing, when another man rode up to the door, and -Graham on the instant became alert and concerned. He hastened to -Standing, saying quickly:</p> - -<p>"Mr. Deveril to see you. He has ridden his horse nearly to death. And I -don't like the look on his face."</p> - -<p>"Show him in!" shouted Standing. "You fool ... don't you know he's the -one man in the world...."</p> - -<p>Graham hurried out. Deveril, his face pale and hard, his eyes burning -as though the man were fever-ridden, came into the room. The door -closed after him.</p> - -<p>"Well?" snapped Standing.</p> - -<p>"Not so well, thanks," retorted Deveril with an attempt at his -characteristic inconsequential insolence. "Here's hoping the same to -you ... damn you!"</p> - -<p>"If you've got anything to say, get it done with," commanded Standing -angrily.</p> - -<p>"I'll say it," Deveril muttered. "But first I'll say this, though I -fancy it goes without saying: there is no man on earth I hate as I hate -you. As far as you and I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span> are concerned I'd rather see you dead than -any other sight I'll ever see. And now, in spite of all that, I've come -to do you a good turn."</p> - -<p>Standing scoffed at him, crying out: "I want none of your good turns; I -am satisfied to have your hate."</p> - -<p>Deveril, with eyes which puzzled Timber-Wolf, was staring at him -curiously.</p> - -<p>"Tell me, Bruce Standing," he demanded, "do you love her?"</p> - -<p>"Love her?" cried Standing. "Rather I hate the ground she walks on! -She is your kind, Baby Devil; not mine." And he laughed his scorn of -her. But now there was no chiming of golden bells in that great volume -of laughter but rather a sinister ring like the angry clash of iron. -All the while Babe Deveril looked him straight in the eye ... and -understood!</p> - -<p>"For once <i>you lie</i>! You love her and what is more ... and worse!... -she loves you! And that is why...."</p> - -<p>"<i>Loves me?</i> Are you drunk, man, or crazy? Loves me and leaves me for -you; leads you and your crowd to the Gulch, trying to stake on Joe's -claim, trying to...."</p> - -<p>"She did not leave you for me! I took Taggart and Gallup to her, and -Taggart put her under arrest ... for shooting you! And she did not lead -us to the spot where she knew Joe's claim was; she made fools of us and -led us to the Red Cliffs, miles away!"</p> - -<p>Standing's face was suddenly as tense as Deveril's, almost as white.</p> - -<p>"She left a note; saying that she was going back to you...."</p> - -<p>Deveril strode by him to a table on which lay some letter paper and -wrote slowly and with great care, laboring over each letter:</p> - -<blockquote><p>I am going back to Babe Deveril.<br /> -<span class="s15"> </span><span class="smcap">Lynette.</span></p></blockquote> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span></p> -<p>And then he threw the pencil down and stood looking at Standing. And he -saw an expression of bewilderment, and then one of amazement wiping it -out, and then a great light leaping into Standing's eyes.</p> - -<p>"You made her go! You dragged her away! And you wrote that!"</p> - -<p>Deveril turned toward the door.</p> - -<p>"I have told you that she loves you. So it is for her happiness, -much as I hate you, that I have told you.... She, thinking that you -preferred gold to her, has just gone out on the down stage...."</p> - -<p>"By the Lord, man," and now Standing's voice rang out joyously, clear -and golden once more, "you've done a wonderful thing to-day! I wonder -if I could have done what you are doing? By thunder, Babe Deveril, you -should be killed for the thing you did ... but you've wiped it out. -After this ... need there be hatred between us?"</p> - -<p>He put out his hand. Deveril drew back and went out through the door. -His horse, wet with sweat and flecked with foam, was waiting for him. -As he set foot into the stirrup he called back in a voice which rang -queerly in Standing's ears:</p> - -<p>"She doesn't know I wrote that. Unless it's necessary ... You see, I'd -like her to think as well...." He didn't finish, but rode away. And as -long as he was in sight he sat very erect in the saddle and sent back -for any listening ears a light and lively whistled tune.</p> - -<p class="space-above">The stage, carrying its one passenger came rocking and clattering about -the last bend in the grade where the road crosses that other road which -comes down from the mountains farther to the east, from the region -of Bruce Standing's holdings. The girl's figure drooped listlessly; -her eyes were dry and tired and blank with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span> utter hopelessness. Long -ago the garrulous driver had given over trying to talk with her. Now -she was stooping forward, so that she saw nothing in all the dreary -world but the dusty dashboard before her ... and in her fancy, moving -across this like pictures on a screen, the images of faces ... Bruce -Standing's face when he had chained her; when he had cried out that he -loved her....</p> - -<p>The driver slammed on his brakes, muttering; the wheels dragged; the -stage came to an abrupt halt. She looked up, without interest. And -there in the road, so close to the wheel that she could have put out a -hand and touched him, was Bruce Standing.</p> - -<p>"Lynette!" he called to her.</p> - -<p>She saw that he had a rifle in his hand; that a buckboard with a -restive span of colts was at the side of the road. The driver was -cursing; he understood that Standing, taking no chances, had meant to -stop him in any case.</p> - -<p>"What's this?" he demanded. "Hold up?"</p> - -<p>Standing ignored him. His arms were out; there was the gladdest look in -his eyes Lynette had ever seen in any man's; when he called to her he -sent a thrill like a shiver through her. He had come for her; he wanted -her....</p> - -<p>"No!" she cried, remembering. "No! Drive on!"</p> - -<p>"You bet your sweet life I'll drive on!" the driver burst out. And to -Standing: "Stand aside."</p> - -<p>Then Standing put his hands out suddenly, dropping his rifle in the -road, and caught Lynette to him, lifting her out of her seat despite -her efforts to cling to the stage, and took up his rifle again, saying -sternly to the stage-driver:</p> - -<p>"Now drive on!"</p> - -<p>"No!" screamed Lynette, struggling against the one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span> hand restraining -her ... and against herself! "He can't do this ... don't let him...."</p> - -<p>But in the end she knew how it would be. The stage-driver was no man to -stand out against Bruce Standing ... she wondered if anywhere on earth -there lived a man to gainsay him when that light was in his eyes and -that tone vibrated in his voice.</p> - -<p>"He's got the drop on me ... he'd drop me dead soon as not.... I'll go, -Miss; but I'll send back word...." And Lynette and Bruce Standing, in -the gathering dusk, were alone again in the quiet lands at the bases of -the mountains.</p> - -<p>"Girl ... I did not know how I loved you until to-day!"</p> - -<p>She whipped away from him, her eyes scornful.</p> - -<p>"Love! You talk of love! And you leave me in the hands of those men -while you go looking for gold!"</p> - -<p>"No," he said, "it wasn't that. I thought that you had no further use -for me; that you loved Deveril; that you had gone back to him; that you -were trying to lead him and the rest to Joe's gold; that...."</p> - -<p>There was now no sign of weariness in a pair of gray eyes which flashed -in hot anger.</p> - -<p>"What right had you to think that of me?" she challenged him. "That I -was a liar, breaking a promise I had made; and worse than a liar, to -betray a confidence? What right have you to think a thing like that, -Bruce Standing ... and talk to me of love!"</p> - -<p>He could have told her; he could have quoted to her that message which -had been left behind, signed with her name. But, after all, in the end -he had Babe Deveril to think of, a man who had shown himself a man, who -had done his part for love of her, whose one reward if Bruce Standing -himself were a man, must lie in the meagre consolation that Lynette -held him above so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span> petty an act as that one which he had committed. So -for a moment Standing was silent; and then he could only say earnestly:</p> - -<p>"I am sorry, Lynette. I wronged you and I was a fool and worse. But -there were reasons why I thought that.... And after all we have -misunderstood each other; that is all. Joe's gold is still Joe's gold; -I have made it safe for him and not one cent of it is mine or will ever -be mine...."</p> - -<p>"Nor do I believe that!" she cried. "Nor any other thing you may ever -tell me!"</p> - -<p>"That, at least, I can make you believe." He was very stern-faced now -and began wondering if Deveril had been mad when he had told him that -Lynette loved him. How could Deveril know that? There was little enough -of the light of love in her eyes now. And yet....</p> - -<p>"Are you willing to come back to headquarters with me?" he asked -gently. "There, at least, you can learn that I have told you the truth -about Mexicali Joe's gold. No matter how things go, girl, I don't want -you to think of me that I did a trick like that ... forgetting you to -go money-grabbing...."</p> - -<p>"You can make me come," she said bitterly. "You have put a chain on me -before now. But you can never make me love you, Bruce Standing."</p> - -<p>Now she saw in his face a look which stirred her to the depths; a look -of profound sadness.</p> - -<p>"No," he said, "I'll never put chain on you again, girl; I'll never -lift my hand to make you do anything on earth; I would rather die than -force you to anything. But I shall go on loving you always. And now," -and for the first time she heard him pleading! "is it so great a thing -that I ask? If you will not love me, at least I want you to think as -well of me as you can. That is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span> only justice, girl; and you are very -just. If you will only come with me and learn from Mexicali Joe himself -that I have touched and shall touch no single ounce of his gold."</p> - -<p>She knew that he was speaking truth; and yet she could not admit it -to him ... since she would not admit it to herself! And she wanted to -believe, and yet told herself that she would never believe. She was -glad that he was not dragging her back with him as she had been so -certain that he would ... and she did not know that she was not sorry.</p> - -<p>"Will you do that one thing? I shall not try to hold you...."</p> - -<p>"Yes," she said stiffly. And then she laughed nervously, saying in a -hard, suppressed voice: "What choice have I, after all? The stage has -gone and I have to go somewhere and find a stage again or a horse...."</p> - -<p>"No. That is not necessary. If you will not come with me freely, I will -take you now where you wish; to overtake the stage."</p> - -<p>And thus, when already it was hard enough for her, he unwittingly made -it harder. She wanted to go ... she did not want to go ... most of all -she did not want him to know what she wanted or did not want. She cried -out quickly:</p> - -<p>"Let us go then! I don't believe you! And, if you dare let me talk -alone with Mexicali Joe, I shall know you for what you are!"</p> - -<p class="space-above">Lynette was in Bruce Standing's study. He had gone for Mexicali Joe. -She looked about her, seeing on all hands as she had seen during their -racing drive, an expression of the man himself. Here was a vital centre -of enormous activities; Standing was its very heart. The biggest man -she had ever known or dreamed of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span> knowing; one who did big things; -one who was himself untrammelled by the dictates and conventions of -others. And in her heart she did believe every word that he spoke; and -thus she knew that he, this man among men, loved her!... And she loved -him! She knew that; she had known it ... how long? Perhaps with clear -definiteness for the first time while she spoke of him with Deveril, -yearning for his coming; certainly when she had started at the sight of -him at the stage wheel. So she held at last that it was for no selfish -mercenary gain that he had been so long coming to her, but rather -because he had lost faith in her, thinking ill of her. That was what -hurt; that was what held her back from his arms, since she would not -admit that he could love her truly and misdoubt her at the same time. -For certainly where one loved as she herself could love, one gave all, -even unto the last dregs of loyal, confident faith. How confident all -day she had been that he would come to her!</p> - -<p>Lynette, restless, walked up and down, back and forth through the big -rooms, waiting. Her wandering eyes were everywhere ... upon only one -of the shining table tops was a scrap of paper. In her abstraction she -glanced at it. Her own name! Written as though signed to a note.</p> - -<p>In a flash her quickened fancies pictured much of all that had -happened: Deveril to-day had told Standing she was going out on the -stage; Deveril had told Standing all that had happened ... because -Deveril, too, loved her and knew that she loved his kinsman. She -recalled now how Deveril had stopped a little while in camp after -Taggart had dragged her away. So Deveril had left this note behind? And -Standing knew now; he had said there were reasons why he had been so -sure she had gone to Deveril. She understood how now<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span> it would be with -him; Deveril had told him everything and he, accepting a rich, free -gift from the hand of a man he hated was not the man in turn to speak -ill of one who had striven to make restitution, though by speaking -the truth he might gain everything! These were men, these two; and to -be loved by two such men was like having the tribute of kings.... She -heard Standing at the door, bringing Mexicali Joe. There was a little -fire in the fireplace; she ran to it and dropped the paper into the -flames behind the big log. The door opened to Standing's hand. At his -heels she saw Mexicali Joe.</p> - -<p>"No!" she cried, and he saw and marvelled at the new, shining look in -her eyes; a look which made him stop, his heart leaping as he cried out -wonderingly:</p> - -<p>"Girl! oh, girl ... at last?"</p> - -<p>"Don't bring Joe in! I don't want to talk with him; I want your word, -just yours alone, on everything!"</p> - -<p>Now it was Mexicali Joe who was set wondering. For Standing, with a -sudden vigorous sweep of his arm, slammed the door in Joe's perplexed -face and came with swift eager strides to Lynette.</p> - -<p>"It is I who have been of little faith and disloyal," she said softly. -"I was ungrateful enough to forget how you were big enough to take my -unproven word that it was not I who shot you, a thing I could never -prove! And yet I asked proof of you! I should have known all the time -that ... 'though it were ten thousand mile....'"</p> - -<p>She was smiling now and yet her eyes were wet. She lifted them to his -that he might look down into them, through them into her heart.</p> - -<p>"Let me say this ... first ..." she ran on hastily. "Babe Deveril saved -me the second time to-day from Taggart. And he told you where to find -me. I think that he has made amends."</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span></p> - -<p>"He wiped his slate clean," said Standing heartily. "Henceforth I am -no enemy of his. But it is not of Deveril now that we must talk. Girl, -can't you see...."</p> - -<p>"Am I blind?" laughed Lynette happily.</p> - -<p> </p> -<hr /> -<p> </p> - -<div class="mynote"><p class="center">Transcriber's Note:<br /><br /> -A Table of Contents has been added.<br /></p></div> - - -<p> </p> -<p> </p> -<hr class="pgx" /> -<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TIMBER-WOLF***</p> -<p>******* This file should be named 61329-h.htm or 61329-h.zip *******</p> -<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> -<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/6/1/3/2/61329">http://www.gutenberg.org/6/1/3/2/61329</a></p> -<p> -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed.</p> - -<p>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. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. 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: Timber-Wolf - - -Author: Jackson Gregory - - - -Release Date: February 6, 2020 [eBook #61329] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) - - -***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TIMBER-WOLF*** - - -E-text prepared by Tim Lindell, Martin Pettit, and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made -available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org) - - - -Note: Images of the original pages are available through - Internet Archive. See - https://archive.org/details/timberwolf00greg - - - - - -TIMBER-WOLF - - - * * * * * * - -BY JACKSON GREGORY - -TIMBER-WOLF -THE EVERLASTING WHISPER -DESERT VALLEY -MAN TO MAN -LADYFINGERS -THE BELLS OF SAN JUAN -JUDITH OF BLUE LAKE RANCH - -CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS - - * * * * * * - - -TIMBER-WOLF - -by - -JACKSON GREGORY - -Author of The Everlasting Whisper, -Desert Valley, etc. - - - - - - -Charles Scribner's Sons -New York :: :: :: 1923 - -Copyright, 1923, by -Charles Scribner's Sons - -Copyright, 1923, by Doubleday, Page & Company - -Printed in the United States of America - -Published August, 1923 - - -[Illustration: Logo] - - - - -TO SUE - -"AS JULIANITO WOULD SAY: 'GOOD FOR -PASS THE TIME AWAY!'" - - - - -TIMBER-WOLF - - - - -CHAPTER I - - -Big Pine, tiny human outpost set well within the rim of the great -southwestern wilderness country, was, like other aloof mountain -settlements of its type, a place of infinite and monotonous quiet -during most days of most years. Infrequently, however, for one reason -or another, and at times seemingly for no reason whatever, came days of -excitement. And, as those who knew the place said, when the denizens -of Big Pine bestirred themselves into excitement they were never -content until they skyrocketed into the seventh heaven of turbulence. -The old-timers recalled how, back in '82, a dog fight in front of the -Gallup House started a riot; in spite of the dictum that it takes only -two dogs to make a fight, the two owners present entered with fine -esprit into the thing, and before nightfall men were carrying sawed-off -shotguns and some of the oldest and wisest citizens had dug themselves -in as for a state of siege. - -This latest furore in and about Big Pine, however, had for cause an -incident which since time was young has electrified both more and less -sedate communities. True, it had begun with a fight; men, not dogs; yet -it was what chance spilled from the torn coat pocket of one of them -that transmuted slumbrous quiet into pandemonium. It was fitting that -the Gallup House, centre of local activities, was the scene of the -affair. - -A mongrel sort of a man, one Joe Nunez, known by everybody as Mexicali -Joe, came in and demanded corn whiskey and paid for it on the spot. -That in itself was interesting; Joe seldom had money. For twenty years -he had been content to have his wife support him while he combed the -ridges, always prospecting, always begging grub-stakes, always spending -the winters telling what he would do, come spring. To-night, looking -tired and dirty, he was triumphant. He spent his silver dollars with -a flourish, and an onlooker, laughing, announced that Joe must have -stolen his wife's money. Joe resented the accusation with dignity; he -knew what he knew; he wagged his head and stared insolently and tossed -off his drink in solemn silence. Thereafter he dropped innuendoes while -he had his second drink. The man, Barny McCuin, who had badgered him in -the first place, carelessly called him a liar. Joe, who had accepted -the familiar epithet a thousand times in his life, for once bridled up -and spat back. From so small a matter grew the fight. - -Onlookers laughed and were amused, taking no serious stock in the -fracas because it appeared inevitable that in half a dozen minutes big -Barny McCuin would have Mexicali Joe whimpering and apologetic. But it -chanced that as Barny flung the smaller man about, the Mexican's coat -pocket was torn and from it spilled a handful of raw gold. Men pounced -upon the scattered bits of quartz, Barny among them; they caught it up -and stared from one another to Joe, who became suddenly quiet and tense -and alert. Then a great shout rumbled up: - -"_Gold!_" - -And that was the one word which set all Big Pine ablaze. Here, on the -fringe of a gold-mining country, which the latter years had all but -worn out, there had been made that fresh discovery which every man of -them always kept somewhere in the bottom of his mind as a possibility -for himself. - -Gallup, called "Young Gallup," simply because he was the son of "Old -Gallup," who had gone to his last rest twenty-five years ago, was a man -eminently capable of dealing swiftly with unexpected situations; he did -not know the meaning of tact, but he did understand force. This was his -house and here his word was law; he broke into the room at the first -outcry, took in everything with one flick of his black eyes, and issued -his orders. - -"Hand that stuff over," he commanded the men who still held bits of -the Mexican's specimens. "It belongs to Joe, and no man's going to be -robbed here under my nose, Mex or White." - -The look which Mexicali Joe shot at his protector had in it far more of -suspicion than of gratitude. But his grimy fingers were eager enough -in snatching back the pieces of quartz from reluctant palms. Grown -sullen, he returned to his corn whiskey, drinking slowly, and holding -his tongue. When men asked him the inevitable quick questions he either -shrugged impatiently or ignored them altogether. They looked at one -another, and an understanding sprang up on the instant between big -Barny McCuin and some of the others. Presently Barny went out, followed -by the men who had caught his glance. Young Gallup, with eyes narrowing -and growing darker, watched them go. - -"They'll get you outside, Joe," he said bluntly. "And they'll make you -open up for all you know." - -Joe shifted uneasily; in his heart he knew himself for a poor fool -caught up between the devil, which was Gallup, and the deep sea. - -Besides the proprietor and the Mexican there were now but three men -left in the room. One of them was Gallup's man, who cooked, did -chores, and, when need was, helped with the still and served drinks. At -a look from his employer he left the room. Of the others, one was old -man Parker, an ancient to be despised because feebleness made of him a -negligible quantity in any affair based upon the prowess of physical -manhood; the second was a youngster who stood in awe of Gallup and who -looked ill at ease as the hotel man stared at him. - -"Better beat it, Tim," said Gallup. "And take old Parker along." - -"But, look here, Gallup; you ain't got any right...." - -"It's my house," said Gallup. "There's going to be no crooked work here -and you know it. Joe goes clear. If he wants to talk later on, why, -then he can come out and talk with you boys outside. You know you'll -find Barny and his friends not so far away." - -Tim's self-pride, unimportant as it was, perked up at the realization -that Gallup was actually discussing a matter of import with him. He -tried to play the man. - -"You want to get him all alone!" - -Gallup sighed. - -"You make me sick," he grunted disgustedly. "Now shut up and clear out. -You, too, Parker. It's closing time anyhow." - -"I seen, didn't I?" clucked the old man, tapping nervously on the bare -floor with his peeled willow staff. "It was gold! Joe's stuck his pick -into the mother lode! Ain't I always told you young fools...." - -Gallup, patient no longer, caught him by the thin old arm and jerked -him to the door, thrusting him out and unheeding the querulous -protests. Then he swung about upon the younger man. - -"On your way, Tim," he commanded. - -There was that in his voice which discouraged argument. For Gallup, -in the full power of his strength, a big man and heavy and hard, was -suddenly flaming with anger and the two great fists were lifting from -his sides. Tim, muttering, hastened after old Parker; behind him the -oak door was slammed and the bolt shot into its socket. He broke into a -run, seeking Barny McCuin and the others. - -Gallup strode straight back to Mexicali Joe, clamping a ponderous hand -upon the shoulder which sought futilely to jerk free. - -"Spit it out, Joe," he ordered. "Where'd that come from?" - -"You let me go! I ain't workin' for you. You ain't my boss. What I got, -she's mine! Now I goin' home." - -Gallup, still holding him with one hand, probed at him with his eyes, -seeking to fathom what powers of determination and stubbornness lay -within a mongrel soul. Joe looked frightened; there were beads of sweat -on his forehead, stealing downward from under his black matted hair. -But there was in his look the glint of desperate defiance.... Gallup -called softly: - -"Hey, Ricky; come here." - -His combination cook and chore man returned through the inner door with -an alacrity which must have told his employer that he had never stirred -a step from the threshold. He, like the others, was on fire with -suddenly stimulated greed. - -"Go get Taggart," said Gallup, his eye all the time on Joe. "Slip out -the back way and go quiet. He's down at his cabin. I want him here in a -hurry." - -Ricky, though with obvious reluctance, withdrew. Once out of sight, -however, he ran as fast as he could, anxious to be back with no loss of -time. - -"Taggart?" muttered Joe. "What for? For why you send for him?" - -"Why does a man generally send for him?" countered Gallup dryly. "Know -who he is, don't you, Joe?" - -"Sure, I know! But I ain't done nothin'. I ain't no t'ief. This is -mine." - -"Thief?" Gallup having repeated the word thoughtfully, said it a second -time: "_Thief!_ I hadn't thought of that." - -"Let me go," cried Joe. With a sudden fierce jerk he broke free and -started to the door. - -But Gallup, shaking his head, was at his side like a flash. He thrust -the Mexican aside and stood with his heavy square shoulders against -the oak panel. Joe, by now trembling with fury, slipped a hand into -his shirt. But before the hastening fingers could close about the -sheath-knife which Gallup knew well enough they sought, Gallup drew -back a heavy fist and struck the Mexican full in the face. Joe went -staggering across the room and fell, his battered lips writhing back -from his teeth. Again his hand went into his shirt. Gallup ran across -the room and stood over him, one heavy boot drawn back threateningly. - -"Make one more move like that," he said coolly, "and I'll smash my boot -heel in your dirty mouth." - - -Outside, grouped expectantly in the middle of the road, Barny McCuin -and his friends, joined by old man Parker and Tim, alternately -speculated in quiet voices and watched for the door to open and Joe -to come forth. Tim, in his anger and excitement, called them crazy -fools; he warned them that Young Gallup, left alone with Joe, would -be making some deal with the Mexican and that, if they were only half -men they would come along of him and smash the door off and get in on -whatever was happening. But Tim was only a boy and talked more than -he acted; the others, knowing Young Gallup as they had cause to know -him, hesitated to grow violent at his door. Gallup, defending his own -property, would just as gladly pour a double-barrel shotgun load of -buckshot into them as he would turn up a bottle of bootleg. They were -not ready for murder and told Tim to shut up and keep his eye peeled. - -But there was not a patient man among them, and to-night was no time -for any man's patience. When they had waited as long as they could, -perhaps half an hour, they turned back to Gallup's door, Barny leading -the way and knocking loudly. In return came Gallup's voice, untroubled -and cool. - -"Locked up for the night," he said. And then, carelessly: "What do you -want, boys?" - -McCuin simulated laughter. - -"That's a good one, Gal. All we want is a chat with Joe. And...." - -"Joe's gone," returned Gallup. He came to the door and opened it, his -lamp in hand. "Went about half an hour ago; just after you boys did. -Out the back way and on the run!" He laughed. "Guess he's foxy enough -to make a circle around you dubs. Oh, come in and look if you think I'm -lying to you." - -He stepped aside and let them come in. They knew that he was lying and -they saw from his eyes that he understood that they were not fools -enough to take him at his word. Yet Joe had gone. In that Gallup had -told the truth; the lie lay in what he concealed. - -"Where did he go?" demanded Tim earnestly. - -Gallup jeered at him. "If I knew I'd tell you, wouldn't I, Timmy? Most -likely where little boys like you ought to be by now. Meaning in bed, -Timmy dear." - -In time they went away; by now, drawn close together by a common -burning desire, they were resolved into a committee with one -objective. Late as it was they searched high and low for Mexicali Joe. -They went first to his wretched cabin among the pines at the edge of -the settlement; they got his wife out of bed and fired questions at -her, receiving only blank looks of wonder; clearly she had not seen Joe -and had no inkling of his sudden importance. They went away and in turn -looked in at every likely place which Big Pine offered. But they found -no sign of Joe. In a town of less than fifty houses he had vanished -like one shadow engulfed and blotted out by another. They began to fear -that he had fled, frightened, into the mountains. - -A dozen men had seen Joe's gold. Before midnight no less than twenty -tongues had discussed the one matter of moment. Men cautioned other men -against letting too many people know; but such was the electric mood -swaying them that early the next morning the news began trickling forth -through the country surrounding Big Pine. By late afternoon word had -penetrated far up into the mountains and, following the stage road, -had gone fifty miles toward the distant railroad. And that same day it -leaked out that Mexicali Joe, who had so strangely disappeared, had -not fled at all but all the time had been in Big Pine. He had been -arrested by Sheriff Taggart and thrown into the town jail, charged with -disturbing the peace. - -Taggart himself had nothing to say. He kept Joe shut up alone and let -no one see him. - - - - -CHAPTER II - - -A normal census gave Big Pine a population of about one hundred and -twenty inhabitants, and the most normal thing which any census does -is to exaggerate. But within forty-eight hours after the tearing of -Mexicali Joe's coat pocket between nine and twelve hundred people, -variously estimated, poured into the settlement. Wood-choppers and -timber jacks and lone prospectors hurried down from the mountains; -storekeepers and ranchmen came up from far below Rocky Bend and Red -Oak; that strange medley of humanity which always rushes first in the -wake of gold news filled Big Pine to overflowing, men and even women; -all straining to one purpose back of which lay many motives. Spring was -verging on summer; nights were cold, but the air was dry; they found -rooms where they could, and when they could not they builded great -camp-fires and found what comfort they might in the edges of the pine -groves. Gallup doubled his prices and then doubled them again, and -still his house was full. There were half a dozen empty houses, ancient -disreputable shacks long in disuse; these found usurping tenants the -first day. There were some few who had had forethought and took the -time to bring tents. Almost in an hour a quiet, sleepy little mountain -town was metamorphosed into a noisy, clamorous and sleepless mining -camp. - -Among the first to arrive was a young man named Deveril. Very tall and -good-looking and gay and slender he was, making himself look taller -by the boots he wore and the way he pinched his soft hat into a peak. -Babe Deveril he was called by those who knew him, saving one only, who -called him Baby Devil and jeered at him with a pair of mocking eyes. - -Deveril had been in Big Pine before, though not for some years. Also he -had seen his share of mining camps through Arizona and New Mexico and -Nevada, and knew something of congested conditions and the hardships -which accompanied the short-sighted. Before his arrival was ten minutes -old, he had cast about him for a shelter. Already the Gallup House was -full, but not yet had the disused, tumbled-down shacks been thought of. -He found a dilapidated building which once, long ago, had been a log -cabin; it stood in the pines set well back from the place of Mexicali -Joe; it had a fireplace. Deveril preempted it coolly, neither knowing -nor caring who the owner might be; he brought his slim bed-roll here, -followed it up with frying-pan, bacon, and coffee-pot and considered -himself established. Further, being just now in funds and always -yielding to the more fastidious impulses at moments when fortune was -kind, he secured a serving-maid. Maria, the dusky daughter of Mexicali -Joe, consented gladly to come in and cook and make the bed and keep -things tidy. He gave her a couple of silver dollars and made her a bow -to bind the bargain, tossing in for fair measure a flashing smile which -left the half-breed girl thrilling and sighing. Thereafter, bending his -mind to the main issue, he sought to find out for himself how much of -fact underlay the glittering rumors which had been pouring forth from -Big Pine like rays from the sun. - -This heterogeneous mass of humanity occupying Big Pine had broken up -into numerous small groups, after the fashion of men who are so prone -to break large units down into smaller ones. Cupidity, jealousy, and -suspicion flaunted their banners on all hands; men watched one another -like so many thieves. The old inhabitants went about bristling, -resenting the presence of these outsiders who were rushing in to -steal the golden secret. Among themselves they were divided into two -antagonistic factions; there was the Gallup crowd, including Gallup and -Sheriff Taggart and the men who did their bidding; and there were those -who had heard Barny McCuin's tale and who were out to block the game of -Gallup and Taggart, or know the reason why. - -Babe Deveril, sauntering here and there, identified himself with -no group; it was his preference always to hunt singly. But he went -everywhere, his mind and ears and eyes co-ordinating in the work he -set them. He listened to rumors and sifted them and went on to newer -and always contradictory rumors. It was said that Mexicali Joe had -been killed, his body found in a ravine three miles from town; that -Gallup had spirited him off last night into the mountains; that Joe had -made his strike in the old and long-deserted mining camp of Timkin's -Bar; that his specimens had come from Lost Woman's Gulch; that Joe -had never stirred a mile from Big Pine in his latter prospecting, and -that, therefore, at any moment any one of the thousand gold seekers -might stumble upon his prospect hole. It was said that Joe's pay-dirt -would run twenty dollars to the ton, and while this was being advanced -as though by one who knew all about it, another man was saying that it -would run a thousand dollars. Deveril, when he had heard a score of -empty though colorful tales, turned at last to the Gallup House; Gallup -and Taggart knew all that was to be known, and, although they had the -trick of the shut mouth and steady eye, there was always the chance of -a sign to be read by the watchful. - -He came upon Gallup himself standing in his doorway, looking out -thoughtfully upon the road jammed tight with restless men. - -"Hello, Gallup," he said. - -Gallup regarded him briefly; again his gaze flicked away. - -"Don't remember me, eh?" queried Deveril lightly. - -"No," said Gallup, curt in his preoccupation. "I don't." - -"Must have something disturbing on your mind," suggested Deveril as -genially as though Gallup's attitude had been exactly opposite what it -was. "Haven't looked in on you for half a dozen years, but you ought -to remember." Gallup's eyes came back slowly, a frown in them, and -the other concluded: "Known as Deveril ... Babe Deveril, formerly of -Cherokee...." - -Gallup showed a quick, unmistakable sign of interest and Deveril -laughed. But Gallup's frown darkened and there came a sudden -compression to his lips. - -"I got you, Kid," he said sharply. "You said it: There is a thing or -two on my mind and I've got no time for gab. Just the same, take this -from me: A certain Bruce Standing has been sent word the town can get -along without him showing his face; and maybe, being his cousin, you'll -trail your luck along with him." - -"So you and Bruce Standing are still playing the nice little parlor -game of slap-the-wrist, are you?" Deveril jeered at him. But, still -highly good-humored, he went on: "He's no cousin of mine, Gallup. -You've got the family tree all mussed up. What fault is it of mine -if a thousand years ago Bruce Standing and I had the same murdering -old pirate for ancestor? At that, Standing descended from him in the -straight line and I am somewhat less directly related." - -Gallup snorted. - -"None of Standing's breed is wanted in my place," he said emphatically. - -Deveril, though his eyes twinkled, appeared to be musing. - -"So you sent him word to stay away? Didn't you know that he'd come, -red-hot and raging, as soon as he got your message? Oh, well, you and -my crazy kinsman fight it out to your liking; it would be a great thing -for the community if you'd both do a clean job, cutting each other's -throats.... By the way, where does Taggart fit in? How does he work it -to be hand in glove with both of you at the same time?" - -"You heard what I said just now?" - -"I did. Say, Gallup, where's Mexicali Joe? I've got some business with -him." - -Gallup, brooding, appeared not to have heard. Then, making no answer, -he turned and went back into his house and into the big main room, -where a crowd of men had foregathered. Deveril, his hat far back, -his dark eyes keen and bright, followed him, almost at his heels. -Gallup saw him out of the tail of his eye but for once gulped down -his first hot impulse; his hands were full as things were and there -were large stakes to play for, with nothing to be gained just now by a -rough-and-tumble fist fight with a man who was obviously highly capable -of taking care of himself. So he pretended to let Deveril's entrance go -unnoted and thereafter ignored him. - -For the first time in many days there were no drinks being served in -Gallup's House. With so many strangers in town, one did not know how -many federal agents might be snooping about. And, again, this was no -time for the main issue to become befogged with side issues; Gallup -did not want any unnecessary ruction on his hands. Nevertheless some -of the men drank now and then, but from pocket flasks which they had -brought in with them; flasks which for the most part came originally -from Gallup's stock but which had been sold on the street by Gallup's -man Ricky. The room was thick with heavy tobacco smoke; most of the men -remained strangely quiet, watching Gallup or Barny McCuin, who glowered -in a corner, or the sheriff who came and went among them. Deveril spent -not more than ten minutes here; once more he returned to the street and -to his passing from knot to knot of men. - -"I'll bet a hat Gallup was lying about that warning to my mad kinsman," -he told himself thoughtfully. "I don't believe he's man enough to get -rough with Bruce Standing." - -It was almost at the moment that Deveril came out of Gallup's place -that the first shock of genuine news burst along the crowded road; -Mexicali Joe had been located. He was in the stone jail, not five -hundred yards from the thickest of his seekers, and had been there -since last night, locked up by Taggart! The crowd split asunder as -cleanly as though some gigantic axe had cloven its way between the two -fragments; one group at full tilt ran to the jail, to prove to their -own senses that here at last was a word of truth; the other streamed -down to the Gallup House, seeking Taggart and an explanation. With the -latter went Babe Deveril, who meant to keep his eye on Taggart and -Gallup. - -There were three steps leading up to Gallup's side door through which -at last came Taggart, when the crowd clamored for him. He stood on the -top step, looking stolidly at the faces confronting him. He was a big -man, massive of physique, hard-eyed, strong-willed; he had been sheriff -for a dozen years and after long office as the chief representative -of the law bore in his look the stamp of that unquestioned authority -which is the unmistakable brand of the mountain sheriff. He had looked -straight into the eyes of many men in many moods and his own glance -never wavered. Never a great talker, he stood now a moment in silence, -tugging slowly at his heavy black mustache. - -"Mexicali is my man right now," he said at last. "I got him in jail." - -That was all. There was no belligerence in his tone; his look remained -untroubled. Babe Deveril, beginning to understand something of what -had happened and casting his own swift horoscope of the likely future, -wondered to what extent it was in the cards that Jim Taggart should -stand in his way. There was big game in the wind, or men like Gallup -and Taggart, who were always big-game men, would not be taking things -upon their shoulders thus. And to-day Jim Taggart was at his best; he -stood as solid and unmoved as a rock, with never a flick of the eyelid, -as he made his quiet announcement and awaited the breaking of any storm -which his words might evoke. - -There was a short lull while men murmured among themselves, and yet, -digesting Taggart's statement, impressed by his manner, hesitated to -speak the thought which was forming in dozens of brains simultaneously. -Presently, however, a man at the far edge of the crowd shouted: - -"What's he arrested for, Taggart? What did he do?" - -Before the man had gotten his ten words out, the sheriff's keen eyes -found him where his lesser form was half hidden by the bigger men in -front of him. - -"I hear you, Bill Cary," he said quietly. "And the only reason I'm -answering a regular none-of-your-business question is that all of -you other boys that have stampeded in here on a wild say-so will be -worrying your heads off until you know what's what. I pulled Joe on two -counts: First for disturbing the peace." - -An uproar of laughter boomed out at that and even Jim Taggart smiled. -But he went on evenly: - -"Of course that was a blind until I got the goods on the second count. -And I only got that a few minutes ago. This ain't any trial, exactly, -and still I guess it will save trouble if you know all about it. So -I'll let Cliff Shipton step up and testify." - -Suddenly he stepped aside and a tall, hawk-faced man who had been -holding his place at Gallup's side, just behind Taggart's massive bulk, -stepped forward. Men craned their necks and crowded closer; nearly -all of them knew Cliff Shipton. He was a Gallup man and always had -been a Gallup man; for the last two years he had been in charge of a -profitless "gold-mine" which Gallup pretended to operate at the head -of the Lost Woman's Gulch; a property which, it was generally conceded -in and about Big Pine, was merely the proverbial hole in the ground -intended for sale to a fool. - -"Last week, gents," said Shipton in his easy style, "we hit it rich out -at the Gallup Bonanza. Pocket or ledge, we're not saying which right -now. But we got the stuff. We been keeping it quiet until we got good -and ready to spring something. I had the choice specimens in a box in -my shack. That Mexican's been prowling around; I couldn't be sure until -I'd glimpsed the specimens, but I just looked 'em over. That's the -story; Mexicali, being half drunk and stupid generally, made his haul -out of my specimen box." - -As the first slow murmur, gathering volume, began, Jim Taggart threw up -his hand and shouted: - -"Now, men, go slow! I've seen a pack of gents before now get all het-up -because they was sore and disappointed. And I can read the eye-signs! -But pull off and think things over before you make a lot of howling -fools out of yourselves. If you want me any time.... Well, I'll be -right on hand!" - -He stepped back swiftly, in through the open door, and it closed after -him. - -For a little while the men remained uncertain. Jim Taggart represented -the law; further, he was no man at any time to trifle with. He had -offered them an explanation and the worst of it was that it might be -the truth. Discussions began on every hand; those who believed were in -the minority and lost voice as the other voices, becoming heated, grew -louder. Babe Deveril was turning away when a man caught at his sleeve. - -"You know those men, Taggart and Gallup and the rest. What do you make -of it? What had we ought to do?" - -Deveril shook the man off. - -"Go slow until you know what you're doing," he admonished curtly. "Then -go like hell." - -He skirted the crowd and went up to his cabin to be alone and do a bit -of thinking on his own part. - - - - -CHAPTER III - - -There was a crowd of men, tight-jammed, about the little square stone -jail as Deveril made his way toward his cabin. Every man of them was -striving for a glance through the barred slit of a window behind which -Mexicali Joe glared out at them. In the throng Deveril marked a man who -wore his deputy-sheriff's badge thrust prominently into notice and who -carried a rifle across the hollow of his arm. Deveril shrugged and went -on. - -"In jail or out, the Mex is going to keep a shut mouth," he meditated. -"He'll never spill a word now, unless Taggart gets a chance to give him -a rough-and-ready third degree. And Taggart will get no such chance -to-night." - -Through the dim dusk gathering among the pines he came to the cabin. A -light winked at him through the open door; Maria, Joe's daughter, was -getting his supper. Well, he was ready for it; blow hot, blow cold, a -man must eat. - -"Hello, Senorita," he greeted her from the threshold. "How does it feel -to be the one and only daughter of the most distinguished gentleman in -town?" - -Maria did not understand him, but her white teeth flashed and her large -southern eyes were warm and friendly. - -"They found your papa," he told her. "He's in jail." - -"_Seguro_," responded Maria, unmoved. "That is nothing for him." - -Deveril laughed and went to wash at the bucket of water which the girl -had placed on a bench in the corner. Maria finished setting his table -with the few articles at hand, putting a black pot of red beans in -the place of honor before his plate. As he returned from washing and -smoothing his hair down, he noted the plate itself; a plain, cracked -affair of heavy crockery with a faded design in red roses. Plainly, -Maria had raided her mother's home for that. She was looking at him for -his approval and received it. At the moment she had both hands occupied -and he stooped forward and kissed her. It was lightly and carelessly -done; a gay salute to the girl's warm smouldering beauty. For beauty of -its kind she did have, that of the young half-bred animal. - -She gasped; her face, whether through indignation or pleasure, went -a dark burning red. Deveril laughed softly and sat down upon the box -which she had drawn up for his chair. - -It was only then that he saw that he had a visitor. His eyebrows shot -upward as he wondered. Another girl or young woman; in that light, as -she stood just outside his door, nothing very definite could be made of -her. - -"Could I have a word with you, Mr. Deveril?" - -He came to his feet almost at the first word, quick and lithe and -graceful. Always was Babe Deveril at his best when it was a question -of a lady. The voice accosting him was clear and cool and musically -modulated. He tried to make out her face, but was baffled by the shadow -cast by her wide hat. She was clad in a neat dark outing suit and -wore serviceable walking boots; she was slim and trim and young and -confident. Beyond that the dusk made a mystery of her. - -"A thousand!" he returned in answer. "Won't you come in?" - -"It is very pleasant outside. May I sit on your door-step?" - -"Lord love you," he assured her, "you may do anything on earth that -pleases you.... Maria, my dear, you may run home to your mama; I have -affairs of state. And I'll be delighted to see you again at breakfast -time." - -Maria put down her things and fled. Again Deveril laughed softly. - -"It was no tender scene that you interrupted," he told his visitor. "I -was merely seeking expression in a bit of rudimentary human language of -my gratitude for the loan of a cracked plate! Look at it!" He held it -aloft. - -"A gratitude which obviously springs from the heart," she returned as -lightly as he had spoken. - -She sat down on the door-step. He came toward her, meaning to have a -better look at her. - -"But you were just beginning your supper," she objected. "Please go on -with it while it is hot. Otherwise I shall most certainly leave without -talking with you as I had wished." - -"But you? There is plenty for both of us." - -She shook her head emphatically. - -"No, thank you. It's very kind, but I have eaten." - -"Then I eat, though it's putting a hungry man at an unfair advantage -to watch him at such a disgusting pastime." He poured himself a cup of -coffee, all the while trying to make out her features. He knew already -that she was pretty; one sensed a thing like that. But just how pretty, -that even Babe Deveril could not decide as long as the light was no -better and she hid in the shadows of her provoking hat. "And now, how -may I be of service?" - -Thus of the two she was the first to be given the opportunity of -clear observation. There were two candles stuck in their own grease on -the rough table, and between them his face looking out toward her was -unshadowed. A face gay and insouciant, dark and clean-cut, the face of -devil-may-care youth. It struck her that there was an evidence of the -man's character in the fact that, though she had caught him in the act -of kissing his maid of all work, he was not in the least perturbed. She -thought that it would be easy to like this man; she was not sure that -she could ever trust him. - -"I am Lynette Brooke," she said in a moment. "And I thought it possible -that, if you cared to do so, you might answer a question for me." - -"If I may be of assistance to you," he told her, cordially, watching -her narrowly, "you have but to let me know." - -"Thank you." He had inclined his head in acknowledgment of her -introduction and now her head tipped slightly toward him. "My question -has to do, naturally, with the one matter of general interest in Big -Pine to-day. You see, I have heard of you; I know that you know some of -the men here ... Sheriff Taggart and Mr. Gallup, for example. And ... -I once had the pleasure of meeting you, Mr. Deveril. Small excuse for -troubling you, I know, but when one is in earnest...." - -"I'll tell you something!" said Deveril quickly. - -"Yes?" - -"I'd give a whole lot for a good square look at you! I am no hand for -names; and I haven't been able to make out your face." - -"A whole lot?" It was a fair guess that she was smiling. "Well, then, -it's a bargain. You give me an answer to a question!" - -"Done! Any question!" - -With a sudden gesture her two hands went up to her hat. At the same -moment she jumped to her feet and came three steps into his cabin. -As she brought the hat down to her side and turned toward him, the -candle-light streamed across her face and Babe Deveril sat back on his -box and with a sudden lighting up of his eyes collected his share of -the obligation by letting his admiring glance rove across her disclosed -features. Pretty; yes, far and away more than pretty. He was startled -by an unexpected, soft loveliness; an alluring, seductive charm of -line and expression. Just now it was her mood to smile at him; and she -was one of those rare girls whose smile is sheer tenderness. He marked -the curl in her soft brown hair; the sparkle in her big gray eyes; the -curve of the lips; in another moment the red mouth would be laughing at -him. She held herself erect under his frank inspection; her chin was -up; her eyes did not waver; she challenged him with her glance to look -his fill and shape his judgment of her. - -"I think you are mistaken on one point," he told her quickly. "I never -saw you before, for I would not have forgotten." - -"The obvious remark nicely made," she laughed at him. - -He frowned. - -"Through no fault of mine. You are welcome to know that I have a memory -for pretty girls. And that you are absolutely the prettiest girl I ever -saw." - -"Thank you," she mocked him. She put her hat on again and went back to -the door-step. "Nevertheless, it is true that we have met before. Of -course," she amended hastily, "I am not going to claim any obligation -on either side because of that. But it suggested that I should come to -you now instead of taking my chances with utter strangers." - -"If you care to do me a very great favor," said Deveril, "you will tell -me when you think you and I met." - -"Certainly. I have no desire to make a mystery of so common an -occurrence. Last May you were in Carson?" - -"Yes." - -"There was a dance. You went with Mildred Darrel. When you called for -her she was out on the porch. Another girl was with her and you were -introduced." - -"After all, I was right!" he cried triumphantly. "You were in the -shadows that the vines threw all over the porch. I don't believe I even -heard your name. Most positively I did not catch a glimpse of your -face." - -She dismissed the subject with indifference. - -"At least I have made my explanation. And now may I ask my question?" -And, when he nodded: "Are they telling the truth when they say that -Mexicali Joe stole his gold from Mr. Gallup's mine?" - -He had expected something like that; all along he had felt that this -girl with the bright daring eyes and that eager confident carriage -was in Big Pine because she, equally with himself, was concerned with -the one occurrence which for the moment made the community a place of -interest to such as found no lure in the humdrum. - -"Of course, you know that anything I could say in answer would be but -one man's opinion?" - -"Yes. But knowing these men, your opinion would be of value to me." - -"Well, then, I'd gamble my boots that they're lying. And I can advance -no reasons whatever for my belief. But there's your question answered." - -"As I thought that it would be. I was sure of it before I came here. -You make me doubly sure." - -He, for the moment, was more interested in her than in Mexicali Joe and -his gold. - -"You don't belong up here in the mountains? You're a long way from your -stamping-ground, aren't you?" - -"Of course. I happened to be down in Rocky Bend when the news came and -I caught the first stage up." - -He tried to make her out. She did not look the type of woman who -followed in the wake of such news, adventuring. But then you could -never tell what a woman was inside by the outer peach-and-cream -softness of her, as Babe Deveril very well understood. - -She appeared to be plunged deep into revery. Perhaps there was -something of weariness in the droop of her shoulders; if she had come -on the early stage, she might have had a hard day of it altogether.... - -"Were you able to get a room at the Gallup House?" he asked. - -"Yes. I was one of the first, you know. As to how long I can keep my -room, I can't tell. Mr. Gallup has doubled his prices and is likely to -double them again." - -"He's that sort," conceded Deveril. "He plays a big game and all the -time has a shrewd eye for the little bets. By the way, do you feel -entirely comfortable there?" - -Her eyes drifted to a meeting with his. - -"What do you mean?" - -"There's as tough a crowd there and spread all over town as I ever saw. -Are you alone?" - -"Yes. Quite." - -"You don't mean to say that you, a young girl and not overused to -hardship, from the look of you, are up here to mix into such a -scrimmage as may be pulled off? To match your wits and your grit and -your endurance against the kind of men who go hell-raising into a new -gold strike?" - -She tilted back her head against the door-jamb and looked up, straight -into his eyes. Thus he saw her chin brought forward prominently. It -was delicately turned and joined, softly curving, a full feminine -throat; and yet it was a chin which bespoke character and stubbornness. - -"When men go rushing after gold," she said quietly, "more likely than -not they go with empty pockets if not empty stomachs. There is always a -chance, in a new mining-camp, for one who has a little money. A chance -to stake a miner, going shares; and always, of course, the chance to -stake one's own claim." - -"But you.... What do you know of such things?" - -"Not much, first-hand, perhaps. But it's in the blood!... You look a -very young man, Mr. Deveril, but you and I know that looks are not -everything; and it is quite possible that you are old enough to have -heard of Olymphe Labelle?" - -"Why," he exclaimed, "I have seen her. I was only a boy; it was twenty -years ago. That was down at Horseshoe; why, bless your soul, I fell -head over heels in love with her! I can tell you how she dressed and -how she looked. Big blue eyes; golden hair; a pink dress; a great big -picture-hat, with ribbons. I was only eight or nine years old, but -forget? Never!" - -"My father married her down in Horseshoe! That was the first time he -ever saw her and he didn't let her get away! Dick Brooke; maybe you -have heard of him, too? If so you won't ask why the daughter of Olymphe -Labelle and Dick Brooke has it in her veins to mingle with the first of -the crowd when there's word of a new strike!" - -There was scarcely a community in all Arizona or New Mexico, certainly -none within the broad scope of the great southwestern plateau country, -which had not in its time, a generation ago, paid tribute to the -gaiety and grace and beauty of Olymphe Labelle. She danced for them; -she sang; she went triumphantly from one mining town or lumber-camp -to another and men went mad over her. They packed the houses in which -she appeared; they spent their money generously to see her, and night -after night, captivated, they tossed to the stage under her pretty -high-heeled feet both raw and minted gold. Olymphe was to this country -what Lotta was to the camps of California in an earlier day. Then young -Dick Brooke, a stalwart and hot-blooded young miner, saw her and that -was the end of Olymphe's dancing career. They were married within ten -days. And from this union was sprung the superb young creature now -sitting upon an adventurer's door-step and looking straight up into his -eyes. - -"You see, it is only the thing to be expected, after all, that I should -follow the gleam!" - -She, like himself, was young and eager and unafraid and adventuresome; -and within her pulsing arteries was that pioneer blood which, trickling -down through the generations is ever prone to set recklessness seething. - - -There was a man coming up through the pines on horseback. In the gloom -all detail was wanting. But obviously he meant to come straight on -to the cabin. Deveril, seeing this intent, stepped by the girl and -a couple of paces forward. The man, sitting in a strange, sideways -fashion in the saddle, drew rein and peered at him. - -"Name of Deveril? Babe Deveril?" - -"Right, friend. What's your trouble?" - -"Offering to shake hands, to begin with. I'm Winch; Billy Winch. You -and me know each other." - -He leaned outward from the saddle, putting out his hand. But Deveril -ignored it, saying coolly: - -"Why should I shake hands with you? You and I are not friends that I -know of!" - -Billy Winch sighed, and used his hand to remove his hat and then rumple -his bristly hair. Then he laughed softly. His horse, restless and fiery -and well-fed, whirled, and for the first time Lynette Brooke made out -the reason for that strange, lopsided attitude in the saddle; the man, -a little, weazened fellow, had lost his right leg above the knee and -managed a sure seat only by throwing his weight upon his left stirrup -and thus maintaining his balance. - -"Well," said Winch good-naturedly, "_he_ said to start off by shaking -hands. Just to show as I _was_ friendly." - -"_He?_" repeated Deveril. "You mean Bruce Standing?" - -"Sure. Of course. When I just say _he_ I mean _him_." - -The girl sitting in the shadows smiled. Deveril, however, whose profile -she could watch, appeared to have no good humor left to spend upon his -caller. She marked how his voice hardened and how he bit off his words -curtly. - -"I have no business with either Bruce Standing or with you." - -"Well," said Winch cheerfully, "here's the message: You're to meet him -in half an hour or so at the Gallup House." - -For a moment Deveril was silent; then the girl heard his barely audible -muttering and knew that under his breath he was roundly cursing the -man who sent him a message like that. In another instant he flared out -hotly, forgetful of her or ignoring her: - -"You go tell your Bruce Standing that I said that he is a land hog and -a thief and a damn' fool, all rolled in one; and that I'll meet him -nowhere this side of hell." - -Billy Winch chuckled as at the rarest of all jests. - -"I got a picture of _me_ going to _him_ with a mouthful like that! On -the low-down level, Deveril, he means to be friendly, I think...." - -"Do your infernal thinking somewhere else," snapped Deveril angrily. -"Clear out or I'll throw you out!" - -"I told him most likely you'd be sassy, so he won't be disappointed, I -guess. Well, I'm travelling, so you don't have to mess your place all -up throwing me off!" He was still chuckling good-naturedly as he swung -his horse about with a light touch of the reins. Over his shoulder he -called back: "He said it was important and he'd see you at Gallup's -inside the hour!" The voice was taunting; Billy Winch threw his weight -into his one stirrup, and even the attitude, though made necessary -through his physical handicap, was vaguely irritating, so carelessly -nonchalant did it appear. His horse bolted like a shot as he gave the -signal and in a moment bore him out of sight among the shadows under -the pines. Babe Deveril, hands on hips, stood staring after him. -Then he swung about and came back to the cabin, and the girl on his -door-step, seeing his face clearly in the candle-light streaming forth, -caught her breath sharply at the outward sign she glimpsed of the rage -burning high and hot in his breast. - -"I'm of half a mind to meet him after all and break his confounded -neck!" he cried out, a passionate tremor in his voice. - -All along he had intrigued her, with his handsome face and -devil-may-care air and light gracefulness; she estimated coolly that -if, as he had said of himself, he had a memory for pretty girls it was -something more than likely that more than one pretty girl had carried -in her heart the memory of him. Now, suddenly, his good looks were -sinister; his gaiety was so utterly gone that it was next door to -impossible to imagine that he could ever be inconsequentially gay. The -innate evil in the man stood up naked and ugly. And all because some -man, a certain Bruce Standing, had sent a message commanding a meeting -at the Gallup House. - -It was not exactly the thing to do to put her question, but interest, -mounting above mere curiosity, piqued her, and, certain of an answer in -his present mood, she offered innocently: - -"It seems to me I have heard the name Bruce Standing. Just who is he?" - -Deveril glared at her and for a brief fragment of a second she was -afraid of him; it was as though, by the mere mention of the name, she -drew on herself something of the hatred he must have felt for this man -Standing. - -"You heard me read his title clear enough to his one-legged dog -Winch," he told her harshly. "He is a man who came into this country -with nothing a dozen years ago and who now rolls in the fat of his -ill-gotten gains. He's a land hog who has robbed right and left and -who has with him the devil's luck. He owns thousands of acres of land -out yonder." A wide sweep of his arm indicated the endlessly rolling -wilderness land, sombre ridges and ebony canyons, rising into stony -barren crests here, thick timbered yonder where they slumbered under -the first stars. "He operates mines; he gambles in gold and copper -and lumber ... and life, curse him! And in human souls, his own with -the rest. He runs half a dozen lumber-camps and has a thousand of the -toughest men in the world working for him at one place and another. Men -hate him for what he is, a cold-blooded highwayman. They have sent him -a warning not to show his face in Big Pine, and being of the devil's -spawn he sends me word to meet him at Gallup's! That's his way and his -nerve and his colossal conceit. May hell take him!" - -"And," suggested the girl, watchful of him as she ventured to probe at -his emotions, "on top of all of this ... your cousin?" - -"_No!_" He shouted the word at her angrily. "No cousin, thank God. -Not so closely related as that. A kinsman of a sort, yes; but if you -go back far enough to dig out the roots of things, we are all kinsmen -since Adam. I claim no relationship with Bruce Standing." - -"I should like to meet this wicked kinsman of yours," she said, as -though thoughtful and in earnest. - -"And," she added, "warned against coming into Big Pine, he will still -come openly?" - -"At least," he grunted back at her, "there is one thing I have never -denied him; he's no coward. No Gallup was ever conceived who can tell -him where to head in and get away with it. Of course he will come and -in the wide open and on the run." - -She rose to go. - -"I wish you all success in your dealings with your bold, bad kinsman. -And I do thank you for your frank answer to my question. And now ... -good night." - -"I'll walk with you ... if you will let me?" - -"Thank you, but...." - -They heard the clippety-clop of horses' hoofs, running. Not one -horse this time, but three, bearing their riders like so many -indistinguishable dark blurs through the night, sweeping on to the -cabin. A man, one of the riders, was laughing, and Lynette Brooke knew -that already here was Billy Winch returning. Babe Deveril, too, must -have recognized the voice, for he jerked his head up and stiffened -where he stood, oblivious of the fact that she had broken off with an -objecting "but," conscious only of a hated man's impertinence. - -Those three were expert riders, men who lived in the saddle. They and -their horses seemed moulded centaurs for certainty and the grace of -the habitual horseman. They came on at such a break-neck speed and so -close that the girl whipped back, thinking that they would run her and -her companion down. Then, with that quick light pluck at the reins, -they brought their horses down from a mad run to a trembling standstill. - -"He said you was to meet him ... _about now!_" - -That was Billy Winch, lopsided and cock-sure in the saddle, the chosen -messenger of his impudent, reckless chief. - -Winch flung out his arm. In the dark they could have made nothing of -the gesture had it not been for the sudden sibilant hiss of the rope, -swung by an iron wrist, cutting through the air. The noose fell with -absolute exactness; Winch was not ten steps away and the rope thrown -so unerringly settled about Babe Deveril's shoulders and with a quick -jerk grew so tight that it cut into the flesh. On the instant the two -men with Winch left their saddles and struck earth, both on the run -forward. And, while Lynette Brooke thought with horror to see sudden -death dealt, they threw themselves upon the man already fighting -against the imprisonment of thirty feet of hemp. - -She had never seen men battle as now these three battled while Billy -Winch sitting back in his saddle with his rope drawn tight, watched and -laughed and cried out in broken phrases expressing his satisfaction -with the situation. Babe Deveril, roped as he was, gave her such proof -of prowess as to make her admiration for the physical perfection of -him leap high. She, too, cried out brokenly; she wanted to see him win -against these unfair odds. But the men clung on and Billy Winch sat -laughing and tautening his rope; blows and curses and throaty growls, -the whole thing lasted not half a minute. Babe Deveril was down, -mastered by three men. - -"Well?" she heard him pant furiously. "What now? Murder or only robbery -again?" - -"Again? Robbery?" That was Winch's untroubled voice, always gay. "When -was the other time, pardner?" - -"He robbed me once of three thousand dollars. Now what?" - -"Now," said Winch coolly, loosening his rope an inch or two but still -on guard, "it's only what I said before: You are to meet him at the -Gallup House, and I'm responsible for your coming. So we're taking you." - -Deveril lay very still, two brawny men upon him. When he made no -immediate reply Winch waited patiently and knew, as the girl knew, that -a man must be given a moment in such circumstances to collect his wits. -Deveril's panting gradually gave over to more quiet breathing; he lay -flat on his back and saw the two heads bending over his own and, beyond -them, the stars. He started once to speak, but clamped his lips tight. -Still, in high tolerant patience, Billy Winch waited upon him while -Lynette Brooke, trembling from head to foot with excitement, waited in -burning impatience. - -"You got me, boys." - -She could scarcely recognize Deveril's voice; at first she thought that -it was one of the other men speaking. - -"That's sensible." That was Billy Winch. Again he loosened his rope. - -"I guess," Deveril went on quietly, "that the three of you, jumping me -like that, regular Standing sneak-style, can lead me down to Gallup's. -Or, if you care to let me up, I'll save you the trouble, and will go -without your help." - -"That's your promise?" queried Winch. - -"Yes ... damn you." - -"That's fair. Let him go, boys." - -The two men holding him down, got to their feet and went back to their -horses as if, their bit of work done, they had lost all interest, as -perhaps they had. Deveril got to his feet and cast the rope off. Winch -drew it in, coiled it, and tied it at his saddle strings. - -"Most any time now," he said casually. "He's on his way and due in a -dozen minutes. All you got to do is listen for him!" - -Deveril stood, both arms stiffening at his sides, his head lifted high, -looking straight at Winch. - -"Some fine day," he said with low-toned quiet anger, "I'll get you or -I'll get him. And it will be a great day!" - -"It sure will, Kid," laughed Winch. "_Adios_, and all best wishes." - -The three riders, all seated by now, sped away, their horses kicking -up the fine dust fragrant with fallen pine-needles. Deveril remained, -rigid and angry, looking after them. - -"You don't know," he said heavily, as the pounding hoof beats dwindled -and the scurrying blurs of figures faded, "you don't know and can't -guess...." - -And when he remained where he was, stiff, hands clinched at his sides -and face lifted to the stars, she thought that for an instant it was -given her to glimpse for the first time in her life something of the -realities working in a man's very soul. Almost she could see the hot -tears in his angry eyes. - -She was very deeply moved. Clearly here was no concern of hers; these -men, all of them including Deveril, were strangers to her and their -loves and hates had nothing to do with Lynette Brooke. But none the -less that current of men's lives ran so strong and swift that she felt -as though she were being actually and physically drawn into it. Nor, -though her eyes did not once leave the rigid figure of Deveril, did her -thoughts concern themselves exclusively with him. She felt a sudden -strange and burning interest in that other man whom she had never seen -but of whose wild nature she had heard. She resented the work of Bruce -Standing, done for him by his emissaries; she felt that she, no less -than Babe Deveril, could hate a man like that. And yet already there -had sprung up within her a strong desire to see him for herself. - -"How can it be," she wondered, "that if he is the lawbreaker you call -him, thief and worse, men allow him to go on his way?" - -He looked at her curiously. Then he laughed his short angry laugh. - -"He's a man for you to look into, girl with the daring eyes! A cruel, -merciless devil if half the tales are true and, to top off his madness, -a man who has not hate but an abiding contempt for all your gentle sex. -But you wonder why men let him roam free? In the first place, haven't -I told you that he rolls in wealth? That's one thing. Another is his -cursed craft. You wonder why I say in one breath that he stole three -thousand dollars from me and then merely growl that he remains outside -jail?" - -"I don't understand it, of course." - -"Here you go, then: Half a dozen years ago I held that Bruce Standing -and I were friends. He sent me word to come up here into his -wilderness; I was to bring whatever money I could raise and there was -the chance to double it. I came. When I met him, twenty miles off -over yonder in a cabin where he lived like a solitary old bear, we -talked things out. With all of his big ventures he was on the edge of -bankruptcy. He was grabbing money in both hands from any source and -every source. He wanted my three thousand to throw in with the rest, -the damned selfish hog that he was and is. I laughed at him and you -could have heard him growl a mile. We slept that night in his cabin. In -the middle of the night in the pitch black dark, I felt a man on top of -me in my bunk, his hands at my throat. I got a tap over the head with -something; when I woke up my money belt was gone and it was morning and -there was Bruce Standing, singing and grinning and getting breakfast -and asking me if I had had bad dreams." - -"But...." - -"The law? When he wouldn't either admit or deny? When he just laughed -and said, 'Where in this country, _my country_, will you get a jury to -convict me?' And where, by the same token, was any money left in my -pockets to do legal battle with a man intrenched as he is in his old -mountains?" - -"And he goes on prospering?" - -"I tell you he was hanging on the rim of nowhere, broke. And he used my -three thousand and God knows what other stolen funds, and now again he -is the one power across a hundred miles up here!" - -There was one other thing she meant to ask. Billy Winch had said just -now that Standing was on his way; that all they had to do was _listen_ -for him. She supposed that he had meant the clatter of a running -horse's hoofs; and yet something in Winch's tone implied something -else. No doubt Deveril understood; she was parting her lips to ask -when, across the fields of the silent night, Bruce Standing himself -answered her. A sudden thrill shot through her blood. - -As she was to learn later, there were many wonderful things about Bruce -Standing. Among them were his reckless impudence and his glorious -voice. Now, before ever she saw the man, she heard him singing, -somewhere far out, under the stars, alone with his wilderness, sending -far ahead of him into Big Pine the word of his coming. A coming which -was in defiance of the order which had gone forth and which, with his -superb assurance, he was ignoring. It was a voice as sweet and clear -and true, for the high notes and the low notes alike, as a silver -trumpet. She stopped breathing to listen. She felt her heart leap and -quicken; a tingling quivered along her nerves. Never had she heard -singing like that, wild, free, a voice to haunt and linger echoing in -the memory. - -And then, all of a sudden, she was set shivering. For the voice had -done with the song and, at the end, with a great unexpected upgathering -of sound was poured forth into a long-drawn-out call that was like -nothing on earth save the howling of a wolf. The night call throbbed -and billowed across the disturbed silences and all of a sudden was gone -and the night was again hushed and still. - -"There you have one of the two good reasons why men call him -Timber-Wolf," said Deveril with a grunt. - - -She scarcely heard. Somewhere, deep down within her, that golden -outpouring, that rush of fierceness at the end, echoed and lived on. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - - -Bruce Standing--Timber-Wolf, as he exulted in being called--was a man -of few friends and many enemies. In and about Big Pine men disliked -him wholeheartedly; many hated him so that they would have been glad -to know that he was dead. And this was chiefly because he jeered at -them and overrode them; because at every opportunity, going out of his -way to make opportunity more often than not, he thrust them aside and -trod his unobstructed path through and over them, setting his heel upon -many; because he spat upon their laws and made his own. And he, in his -turn, held them in high contempt simply because always they stood aside -for him. Those few who did not hate him were the handful of hard men -whom, in the working out of his wide, overweening ambitions, he had -drawn to him like so many feudal henchmen; they were, in their lesser -degrees, of his stamp; they belonged in their hearts to an older day -and a wider frontier; there were scores taking his pay whose blood ran -hot and lawless. - -So to-night he came riding down the winding trail from his mountains, -singing. Thus he shot his spirit across the miles ahead of him, to -invade Big Pine before his coming, to taunt before he brought his hard -eyes to mock at them. He had received his word and his warning, and -made his retort in the one way possible to him. - -The road in front of the Gallup House, leading on to the pines and -the aloof jail where Mexicali Joe glared out, was thronged. Half a -dozen bonfires had been started, and in the ruddy light men stirred -restlessly. Their talk was becoming purposeful; they gathered in -knots about men who were showing impatient signs of initiative; they -had murmured and were looking this way and that, over their shoulders, -shifting their feet as they gave increasingly free expression to their -determination. They were working themselves up to the pitch of defiance -of the law, as represented by Sheriff Jim Taggart; as yet no man cared -to be first and still they looked frequently at the deputy sheriff with -the rifle across his arm, and meant to set Mexicali Joe free. A man -broke away from one of these groups and ran back to the Gallup House, -to carry warning to Taggart. - -It was at this moment that Bruce Standing, Timber-Wolf, rode into -town. He rode alone, on a powerful red-bay gelding, silent now, a -great-bulked man sitting straight in the saddle. One saw nothing of his -face under the wide black hat. - -He had no word of greeting for any man of them; after his -characteristic coldly insolent way, he appeared to ignore them utterly. -On the instant he, rather than Mexicali Joe, became the central object -of interest. Most knew who he was and what he stood for, and wherein -his visit among them was to be regarded as worthy of interest; those -who did not know, marked the hush which greeted him, and in lowered -voices demanded the explanation which, in voices equally low, was -briefly given. They looked for him to draw rein at Gallup's and swing -down and go in. But, knowing that you could never be sure of him, they -watched to see. - -He disappointed them. That, in itself, was like him. No doubt he got -his bit of glee out of knowing that, where they had looked to him -for one thing, he had given them another. He rode on by Gallup's -without turning his head. Where a tree grew at the road-crossing -he dismounted, tying his horse. They saw that his rifle was in its -scabbard, slung to the saddle; he left it where it was, and went -forward on foot. Bigger than ever he loomed among them, appearing to -walk leisurely, yet taking the long, measured strides which carried him -along swiftly. They let him go on his way, their eyes following him -with growing interest, some of the more curious of the crowd stringing -along in his wake. And all this time no man had given him the time of -day, and he had not opened his lips. - -Meanwhile they saw him turn his head this way and that, as though he -sought something. Before he had gone fifty paces he found what he -wanted. A man was piling wood on his fire; the axe which he had used a -moment ago lay on the ground, glinting in the firelight. Bruce Standing -stooped and caught it up and went on--straight toward the jail. A -sudden shout from many voices burst out; men came running to see, now -that they understood what he meant to do. And those about the jail, -when they saw, drew back to right and left hurriedly, leaving only the -deputy with the rifle across his arm to block the way. - -Now, the axe could mean only one thing in the world, and the deputy saw -it, and saw who it was that carried it and called out a sharp, throaty -warning. Standing came on, his stride quickened. He was not a dozen -steps away, carrying his axe lightly in his right hand. The deputy -jerked his rifle up, the butt to his shoulder, shouting: - -"Stop, or...." - -The man fired, but he was not quick enough. At that distance, had his -finger touched the hair-trigger the tenth of a second sooner, he could -not have failed to kill. But he was not the man, even though armed, -to dictate to Timber-Wolf. For Standing made instant answer to that -command, "Stop!" and hurled his only weapon, a heavy wood-cutter's axe, -straight into the deputy's face. The bullet went wild; the man who had -fired it, through the rarest chance left alive, went down in a heap, -unconscious before he struck ground. For, though the axe blade had very -narrowly missed his face, the hard hickory handle had taken him full -across the eyebrows and came near being the death of him. His rifle -clattered against the rock wall of the jail. - -Bruce Standing, who had paused but the briefest moment, came on and -stepped over the fallen man, and caught up his axe again. He stooped -long enough to make out that the deputy's head was not split open; then -he swung up his axe, high above his head, and brought it crashing down -against the thick oak padlocked door. The sound of the stroke echoed -and the echoes were lost in the striking of the second blow. And, when -for the third time the axe rose and fell, flashing in the light of the -fires, the door fell. - -"Out you come, Joe." - -Standing's deep, full voice rumbled in a sort of rich, placid content. -And out like a rabbit, darted Mexicali Joe, looking pinched and starved -and frightened. - -"It is you, Senor!" he gasped. - -"The crowd will be after you," said Standing. "And I'm not going to -worry about what happens to you after this." - -He was turning away when Joe caught his sleeve, and stood on his -tiptoes and began a rapid, excited whispering. Standing hesitated, then -laughed and shook the man off. - -"You are a good little sport, Mexico," he chuckled. "Now, on your way." - -Joe, with never another look behind him, turned and ran, disappearing -about the corner of the jail, sending back an account of himself in -the sound of his racing footfalls among the pines. - -Once again came a great shouting from the crowd in the road; they had -seen, and now that they had their hearts' desire in having Mexicali -Joe free, they saw themselves losing all hope of coming at his secret -because they were losing him. Their brief interest in Bruce Standing -was dead for the present; Joe ran like a scared cat, and they, like so -many yelping dogs, set after him. And Timber-Wolf, watching, standing -where he was with his big hands on his hips, roared with laughter. - - -Babe Deveril and the girl, Lynette Brooke, had seen much of all this. -They were at the time on their way to the Gallup House, she to her -room and he to his meeting with his lawless kinsman. Thus it happened -that Deveril's first sight of Timber-Wolf in half a dozen years, and -Lynette's first sight of him in all her life, was at a moment when he -was engaged in an episode of the type which made him stand apart as the -man he was. - -"Taggart ought to kill him for that," grunted Deveril. "And he probably -will before the night is over." - -The girl shivered as she had done just now when she saw a rifle -raised and an axe flung. And yet within her, being woman, there was -the exultation which would not stay down, and the thought: "He is -magnificent.... A brute, maybe, but surely magnificent!" And she knew -that she would never be content until she had seen his face and looked -into his eyes. Already, being woman, she was concerned with his eyes; -whether they would be large or small, set wide apart or close together. -She wanted him to be the lion, not the wild boar. - - -The remainder of the night's happenings was to come, because of the -simple arrangement of rooms at the Gallup House, within the experience -of both Deveril and Lynette. They saw Bruce Standing go down the road -and followed him. He did not once look back. When he came to his -horse, he stopped only long enough to take down his rifle. Plainly -now he meant to go direct to the Gallup House. All the while men were -streaming by him, hurrying to join in the chase after the escaping -Mexicali Joe. So, by the time he came to Gallup's door, there were not -over a score of men remaining in the house. - -The Gallup House was a long, squat building of two low stories, its -three main rooms on the ground floor facing the road. These were the -dining-room; a room given over to Gallup's office, and sufficient space -for a dozen chairs and a big sheet-iron stove--a sort of living-room -for Gallup's guests, when he had any; and, finally, a room which had in -older times been the barroom, and which, despite changing conditions, -remained in practice a barroom. At this hour both dining-room and -sitting-room were deserted, and the score or so of men, Gallup and -Taggart among them, were in the bar. Here were round tables, for it was -a big room, for games of cards or dice. - -Deveril and the girl parted at the centre door through which she -entered direct into the general living-room. They saw Bruce Standing go -to the last of the three doors and step in unhesitantly, still carrying -his rifle lightly. Deveril followed him, and saw the looks on the faces -of Taggart and Gallup and some of their following. - -"I stepped in to buy the drinks for the crowd," Timber-Wolf said -quietly, all the while his eyes flashing back and forth. "Gents, the -treats are on me." - -Jim Taggart, his hands on his hips, was eying him like a hawk, and in -Taggart's face was a dull, hot flush. Gallup, however, standing close -at Taggart's side, was the first to speak. He cried out angrily: - -"No man drinks with you in my house! Not as long as I live. And...." - -Bruce Standing drew a wallet from his pocket. - -"About twenty men here," he said, in the same slow, steady voice. "As -it's a night of celebration, we'll make it a dollar a drink. That's -twenty bucks, easy money, Young Gallup," he wound up with a sneer in -his voice. For all men knew Gallup's cupidity, which clutched at small -as well as large amounts. - -But Gallup, shaken with rage, only shouted back at him: - -"To hell with your twenty dollars! And with you, Bruce Standing!" - -"So? Well, twenty dollars isn't much, after all, is it? Gents, we drink -to-night and damn the cost! Two bones for every glass of whiskey; -that's forty of the iron men, Gallup. Call Ricky with the bottles." - -A couple of men laughed at that. Gallup, however, seeing himself -baited, roared out: - -"I tell you, _no_! And out you go. You are not wanted here." - -"Low bid loses, high bid wins," said Standing. Now he opened his wallet -and disclosed a tight pad of bills. "Three dollars for each and every -glass of imitation hootch! God, what a pirate you are, Gallup! Now, -trot it out." - -"Sixty dollars, clean-cut velvet, Gal," said a man at his elbow, -willing to drink with the devil so the drink came paid for. - -"And at last Young Gallup hesitates, his soul tempted by a row of dirty -pennies," gibed Standing. "Look, men, and you'll see that pale-yellow -soul of his snared clean out of his stingy hide. Look, Gallup! And -if you can say no this time you have established a new record for -yourself!" - -Slowly, while they watched him, he counted off ten ten-dollar -bank-notes, and, with a careless gesture, tossed them to a table. - -"That's for one round of your rotten bootleg liquor," he said -contemptuously. "Now, step out, Gallup, and show them the sort of -money-grabbing porker you are. You know you haven't got the guts to -save your own besmirched pride at the price of a hundred dollars." - -Gallup would have sold out for far less, but Timber-Wolf was not the -man to haggle over what he termed dirty pennies. He shrugged his heavy -shoulders and caught up the money, counting it carefully, stuffing it -into his pocket and growling: - -"You're not wanted here, Standing; but any time you're fool enough to -pay a hundred dollars for the privilege, I'll take the rules down for a -round of drinks! Hey, Ricky!" - -Standing only grunted at that, though his eyes flashed. - -"I come when I please and where I please, and you know it, Young -Gallup! And if you think you are the man to throw _me_ out, hop to it -and don't let a little hundred dollars hold you back! Better than that; -if you'll tie into me right now and chuck me out of doors, getting all -your hangdogs that will take a chance with you to help you, you've got -my word that I'll add a second hundred as your bonus! Or a thousand, by -heaven! And right now you'll toe the scratch or back down and shut your -mouth." - -Gallup had never before in his life been faced down like that. And with -so many men looking on! Yet in his heart, though no man had ever called -him a coward, he was afraid of Timber-Wolf; mortally afraid. There was -the look of death itself in the eyes flashing into his own. He sought -to laugh the thing off, saying, with what semblance of fine scorn he -could master: - -"_Your_ word!" - -"I am no liar," said Standing wrathfully. "And no man in all Arizona -and New Mexico ever called me liar. Do you, Young Gallup?" - -"Bruce!" called Sheriff Taggart sharply, for the first time speaking a -word. "What's the sense of trying to start a row? Drop all this foolery -and let me have a word with you." - -"That's fair enough," agreed Standing. "I've no desire to break -Gallup's neck so long as he leaves me alone. But make it snappy, as I -have another engagement." - -"I want to talk with you privately, Bruce." Taggart obviously was -angry, and yet it was equally clear that when it came to dealing with -the Timber-Wolf, Jim Taggart meant to hold himself well in hand. - -"I won't stand for corner-whisperings," Standing told him sternly. "If -it happens you've got anything for my set of ears, they're listening. -But it's right now or never." - -Taggart's black and ominous scowl deepened, and he shuffled his feet -back and forth, and in the end stamped them in his anger. But still he -held the curb line upon himself. - -"You always was a strong-headed man, Bruce, that would have things his -way. So be it. And I guess, being a man myself that stands on his own -two legs, I can say it all in one mouthful: You and me has always been -friends. Are we that yet?" - - -Now for the first time Lynette Brooke, looking in from the adjoining -room through a door just ajar, saw Timber-Wolf clearly, his face under -his big hat unhidden as he turned a little in order to look straight -at Taggart. He did not see her, and she looked her fill at him; he -gave her a start of surprise, and after that start came a surge of -admiration. He was a young, blond giant of a man, eyes very blue and -laughing and _innocent_! And wide-spaced! A man no older than Babe -Deveril, one who bore himself like some old buccaneer or Norse Viking, -before men who would have given much for the courage and the power to -fly at his bared white throat and drag the life out of him; a man who -overflowed with his superabundant vital energy, and who stamped his own -character, through sheer force of unbroken will, upon others about him; -a man who believed in himself and who was at once implacable and gay. -Heartless he looked, and yet full of the dancing joy of life. She felt -herself on the instant both strongly drawn to him and frightened; the -mad vision presented itself to her of herself in his mighty arms. And -the odd tremor which shook her body, as she whipped back with flaming -face, was compounded of thrill and shiver. He confused her; at once she -was amazed that he could be like this and convinced that the owner of -that glorious voice which she had heard pulsing out across the fields -of night could be no jot different.... While she drew back to a dim -corner of the room, she managed not to lose sight of him. - -His clear blue eyes kept on laughing; his was that silent laughter -which arises from the soul, and which mocked and insulted and was like -the cold mirth of Satan. And yet, in some vague way which she was all -at loss to plumb, and which troubled her strangely, Lynette Brooke -_knew_ that this corsair of a man was laughing because there was cold -anger in his heart and because, for some mysterious reason of his own, -he was set on holding his anger hidden. It troubled her so that, within -herself, she cried out passionately against _knowing_ through leaping -instinct anything of what might be going on within the dark caverns of -the Timber-Wolf's mind and heart. She wanted him and herself to be as -far apart as north and south; she meant them to be. And all the while -that compelling interest which he awoke within her tugged mightily and -she yielded to it in that, keeping out of his sight, she lost nothing -of the play of expressions upon his face. - -As yet she knew nothing of that one thing which Bruce Standing, -forthright exponent of untrammelled manhood, held to be his greatest -weakness; the one and only thing of which he was bitterly ashamed. A -trifle, it amounted to; and a trifle he would have accounted it in any -other strong man. Yet within his hard breast it awoke the intensest -feeling of shame. And it was a thing which invariably sprang forth -upon him and humiliated him whenever once he let his passions fly. A -laughable thing, and yet one that put tears into his bright blue eyes. -But, on guard against it, he strove to curb his anger. - -Of all this and the thing itself she knew nothing. But she felt and she -knew that the Timber-Wolf, laughing into Jim Taggart's gloomy face, -was fighting down his own anger, as a man may fight wild beasts. She -awaited, scarcely breathing, the answer he would make to that question -from Taggart: "Are we still friends?" - -"No!" shouted Standing, and laughed at him. "No, by God!" - -That was man talk! Straight, simple words--words that left little -enough to be said. But Taggart, though his face grew hotter and his -eyes seemed burning in their sockets, demanded further: - -"And why not, Bruce Standing? You and me have been pardners. You -know and I know and a thousand men know what sort of a bond and an -understanding has always, for more than a dozen years, been between -us. And now, if that is busted and wiped out, I ask you, as man to man: -'_Why?_'" - -"And as man to man," cried Timber-Wolf, his eyes brightening, "I'll -answer you, Jim Taggart. When I knew you for a man who played his -game he-man style and stood up and fought hard and took his chances, -I was for you! And I went out and shaped things up for you and made -you sheriff. And, when men got to know you and wanted no more of you -as master of law here in the mountains, I lifted you over their heads -and made you sheriff again and again. And now that you are done for -and are on your last legs, I would have done the same thing once -more. But when you got panicky, thinking that this was your last term -of office, and began to feather your dirty nest by running with the -breed of this Young Gallup and his crowd, and when I found the sort -of contemptible, hide-in-the-brush jobs you were pulling off, I got a -bellyful of you and your new kind of ways. And you double-crossed me, -thinking I wouldn't know! And on top of everything else, running neck -and neck with Gallup, you threw Mexicali Joe into jail ... knowing that -Joe, puny blackbird as he is, had been a friend of mine. For that I've -done two things, Jim Taggart: I've smashed your damned jail door off -its hinges and I've thrown you over. And there, until I'm sick of talk -about it, you've got your answer!" - -Taggart, too, and with his own ulterior reasons, kept his head cool. He -said ponderously: - -"You broke the law, Bruce, when you let Joe go. For that I could run -you in. But all Joe done was steal a pocketful of nuggets, and we got -them back. And there's bigger things than that, anyway. You and me has -been friends and so I'll go slow. But we got to have another talk. -You've got me down wrong, old-timer." - -Never had Lynette Brooke seen such utter contempt as that which now -filled Bruce Standing's eyes. But he made no answer. At this moment the -man Ricky came in with a gallon earthen jug and began to pour out the -glasses set upon a table. Here was the Timber-Wolf's hundred-dollar -treat. Standing himself waved it aside and: - -"I drink no poison in this house," he said briefly. And as he spoke he -saw for the first time Babe Deveril standing just inside the door, not -two steps behind him. - -"By the Lord, Babe, I'm glad to see you! Shake!" he shouted, thrusting -out his big hand. - -But now it was Deveril's turn to be cool and contemptuous. - -"You and I, Bruce Standing," he said in that clear, insolent voice of -his, "have gone a long way beyond the point of shaking hands." - -Standing frowned as he muttered: - -"Don't be a young ass, Babe." - -But Deveril only shook his head, retorting: - -"I have come, according to promise, for a word with you. Suppose we -make it snappy." - -"The same little Baby Devil!" Standing jeered at him, making Deveril -stiffen with that look of his eyes. "I'll give you a new dance tune -before I'm through with you. Come ahead!"--and with a suddenness which -took Lynette Brooke by surprise he struck back the door leading to the -room where she was and led the way in, Deveril at his heels. - -But, though there were three or four coal-oil lamps burning in the room -which he had just quitted, there was but one here where she was. And -because its chimney was smoky and the flame burned crookedly and she -was in a dim corner, he could make nothing of the look of her. Had she -remained perfectly still he would scarcely have noted her presence. But -now she was suddenly impatient to be gone, and went hurrying to a door -which led into a hallway, the hallway in turn leading to her room at -the back of the house. - -"A woman," growled Timber-Wolf disgustedly, getting only a glimpse of a -hastily departing figure. "It begins to look as though a man couldn't -pick him a spot in the wilderness that the female didn't crowd in." - -Lynette heard, and knew with a flash of resentment that he did not care -whether she had heard or not, and that with the last word he would -be turning to Deveril and forgetting that he had seen her. She went -slowly down the hall, three or four paces only. There she paused and -lingered; it was no such pale incentive as curiosity which held her -now, but a peculiar fascination. Two men like those two, by far the -strongest-willed and most dynamic men she had ever known, with the -business which lay between them, made her ignore and give no thought to -the convention of shut ears against the talk of others. So she stood -here in the dim hallway, poised for instant flight if need be to her -own door, a couple of yards farther on. - -"Now," said Deveril impatiently, "what is it?" - -Timber-Wolf's mood softened and the old bright laughter welled up in -his dancing blue eyes. - -"I pass it to you, Kid," he chuckled. "You've grown a man since last we -met. We'll not forget, either one of us ... will we?... that night in -my cabin?" - -"I'll not forget," returned Deveril coolly. "And some day I'll square -the count." - -"_You'll_ square the count?" The keen eyes twinkled like bits of -deep-blue glass on a frosty morning. "I was under the impression that -always you have held that I was the man to square things. Accusing me, -as you did, of so wicked a deed!" - -"It was a treacherous thing at best," muttered Deveril, his own eyes -bleak with that bitter hatred which never slept. "I didn't know then -that you were, among other things, a damned thief." - -Timber-Wolf's sudden laughter boomed out joyously, and he smote his -thigh so that the sound was sharp and loud, like a gunshot. - -"But you knew that always and always and once again always I take what -I want! I asked you for the money, and I made you a fair proposition: I -would guarantee that you doubled your dinky three thousand, and I'd see -you had interest on top of it. And you hadn't the nerve to chip in...." - -"Wasn't the fool, you mean!" - -"And so ... I went and took it! And I took from other quarters the same -way. What I wanted I took. And when they all said I was busted in two, -like a rotten stick, I fooled 'em, and laughed at the whole crowd. And -now I'm whole again--and I've got what I want. That's me, Baby Devil! A -man who goes his way and blazes his trail wide. A man you can't stop!" - -"A cursed, insufferable, conceited ass, rather than wolf," snapped -Deveril. - -And still, in the rarest of high good humor, Timber-Wolf laughed, and -his rich, deep voice went rumbling through the house. - -"You're sore, Baby Devil. And you're envious." - -"Not of you, Bruce Standing! You...." - -"Let's chop out the Sunday-school stuff, Kid!" cried Standing -impatiently. "I don't need your lecturings. Maybe I'm not what your -puling moralists call a good man, and maybe I'm not 'clean-hearted and -pure' and all that drivel. But, by God, I'm a man who's got his own -code and who sticks to it, blow high, blow low! A code that, if more -men followed it, would give us a world with more men in it and fewer -mollycoddle pups!" - -"It would appear," sneered Deveril, "that you remain well contented -with yourself!" - -"Like the rest of humanity--he, she, and it!" said Timber-Wolf equably. -"And so much for friendly chatter. Now a word whispered in your pretty -ear, since the Lord knoweth how many busybodies are straining their own -ears to listen-in on us." - -Lynette, in the hallway, stiffened and felt her face grow hot. But, -with a strange new-born stubbornness, she remained where she was. - -Timber-Wolf came a step closer to Deveril, and, lowering his voice so -that Lynette lost the words, he muttered: - -"I _am_ under obligations to you, my dear kinsman, and since there is a -tough crowd in town, any man of whom would whack you over the head for -a handful of silver, I am keeping this between us." He took his wallet -from his pocket the second time, and drew from it several bank-notes. -These he proffered to Deveril, his eyes still bright with his cold -mirth. - -"Count it and stick it in your jeans," he said softly. "There's your -three thousand. With it is another three thousand, the double of the -bet which I promised you. And with that is another two thousand, which -is a gain of ten per cent for you for six years, all rough figuring. In -all eight thousand in coin of the realm ... and I'm much obliged," he -ended mockingly, "for your generous loan!" - -Babe Deveril, taken off his feet by the unexpectedness of this, stared -at the bank-notes in the great hard palm, and from them to the grinning -face. And slowly, from a conflicting tumult of emotions, in which, -strangely enough, anger surged highest, Deveril's face went violently -red. - -"Damn you and your eternal posings!" Lynette caught those words, -clear and high. But she missed the eloquence of the shrug into which -Timber-Wolf's shoulders lifted. - -"It's up to you, Kid," said Standing, and still he kept his voice low -and quiet. The money lay in his outstretched palm. "The minute I make -my offer I consider my obligation fulfilled. If you are too proud to -take it ... well, then, the devil take you for a fool, and I'll use the -money elsewhere." - -Deveril put out his hand, selecting from the several bills. - -"My three thousand, I take," he said, "because it is mine. And the two -thousand with it, judging that fair interest, considering the risks -my money took. As for the rest--" he whipped back, and his voice, -because of the emotions near choking him, was little more than a harsh -whisper--"you can keep it and go to hell with it! I want none of your -cursed charity!" - -Timber-Wolf's thick eyebrows lifted, and a new look dawned in his eyes. - -"By thunder, Baby Devil, you've the makings of a man in you!" he -exclaimed. "You and I could be friends!" - -"Don't fool yourself. We won't be!" - -"I didn't say we would!" And Bruce Standing glared at him angrily. "I -only said we _could_. There's a difference there, Kid. I could eat -tripe, but I'm damned if I ever will!" - -As the two men eyed each other, it was impossible to conceive of any -earthly happening bringing them within the warm enclosure of man's -friendship. - -But there was money in sight, and money in the hands of Timber-Wolf -was habitually offered to fate as free money. And always, in the heart -of Babe Deveril, when there was money in his pocket and money in sight, -there was the impulse to hazard, to win or lose, and know the wild -moment of a gambler's pleasure. And so he said swiftly: - -"Just the same, I have a claim on that three thousand of yours!" - -"Yes?" And again the heavy eyebrows were lifted as Timber-Wolf's -interest was snared. - -"If it's mine, it comes to me. If it's yours, you keep it and take -three thousand from me to boot. I'll flip a coin with you!" - -"Baby Devil!" laughed Standing softly. "Oh, Baby Devil, if your mamma -could only see you now!" - -"Are you on?" demanded Deveril, in a suppressed voice. - -"On? With bells, Baby Devil! Heads or tails, and let her flicker!" - -Lynette Brooke could catch only enough of all this to set her -wondering. The two men were agreeing upon something, and all the while -jeering at each other, and, though they checked their words and subdued -their voices, anger was directing whatever they did or meant to do. - -Both men were eager and tense. For both made of life a game of hazard. -With Babe Deveril three thousand dollars, to be won or lost in the -flicker of an eyelid, was a large sum of money; to Bruce Standing, a -man of millions, it was no great thing. Yet neither of them was more -tense and eager than the other. The game was the thing. - -Automatically, perhaps subconsciously intending to have a free hand, -since his rifle was still held in his left, Bruce Standing stuffed his -spurned bank-notes into his pocket. But it was Deveril who, having -conceived the idea, was first to produce a coin; a silver dollar, and -mate to those other silver dollars which he had presented to the girl, -Maria. - -"Heads or tails, Standing?" he demanded, holding the coin ready to toss -ceilingward. - -"Throw it," said Timber-Wolf, with his characteristic grin, "and I name -it while it's in the air. For I don't know what sleight-of-hand you -may have acquired these later years, and I don't trust you, my sweet -kinsman! And shoot fast, as some one's coming." - -For both had heard the rattle of hoofs in the road outside, as some -horseman came racing up to the door. - -"Name it, then," cried Deveril, and shot the coin, spinning, upward. - -"Heads!" Timber-Wolf named it. "Always heads. My motto there, Kid!" - -The silver dollar, with such zest had it been pitched upward, struck -the ceiling and dropped to the floor, rolling. It rolled half across -the room, both men springing after it, stooping to watch and know how -fate decided matters between them. And in the end there was no decision -at all. For the coin rolled half-way into a crack between the boards -and stood thus, on edge, neither heads nor tails. - -"Flip her again," growled Bruce Standing, deep in his throat. "And step -lively!" - -Already the horse's hoofs, as its rider plucked at the reins, were -sliding outside. Deveril caught up the coin and tossed it again. And -this time, true to his word, and not trusting the other, Bruce Standing -called before the silver dollar struck the floor: - -"Tails!" - -And as the silver dollar struck and rolled and stopped, and at last lay -flat, and the two stooped over it so close that almost the black hair -of one and the reddish hair of the other brushed, they saw that it was -heads. And that Timber-Wolf, repudiating his motto, "Always heads!" had -lost three thousand dollars. And at the instant their intruder burst in -upon them from the road. - -Here, after his own strange fashion, came Billy Winch, Timber-Wolf's -one-legged retainer. An able-bodied man and agile had been Billy Winch -all of his hard life until, after a horse had fallen on him, the doctor -had cut his leg off above the knee. "You'll go on crutches the rest -of your life," they told him that day. And Billy Winch, weak and pale -and sick and haggard-eyed, muttered at them: "You're a pack of damn -liars! I'll cut my throat before I'll be a crutch-man." And he had kept -his oath. Seldom did he stir save on the back of his horse. And when -needs must that he go horseless some few steps, he went "like a man, -one-leg style, hopping!" Now, hopping on his one foot so that, with his -pinched, weazened face and small bright eyes, he resembled some uncouth -bird, he bounced into the room. - -"I got word for you, Bruce Standing!" he cried excitedly. - -"Clear out, you fool...." - -"I won't clear out! This is the real thing. Listen: A man, and it -was a man paid by Young Gallup, has just went down the road with a -double-barrel shotgun, and the dirty skunk has shot your horse, good -old Sunlight ... dead!" By now Billy Winch was whimpering; tears, -whether of rage or grief, filled his bright eyes and streamed down -his face. And all the while, to maintain his balance, he was hopping -unsteadily about, his outflung hand groping for the wall. - -And now at last Timber-Wolf's anger, a devastating, all-engulfing -rage which mastered him utterly, was unleashed. And with its release -came inevitably that one condition of which he was so terribly -ashamed. He cried out aloud, in a great, roaring voice ... and in -the fierce grip of his wrath his utterance was so affected that his -speech came enunciated in the most incongruous of fashions. For it was -Timber-Wolf's burning mortification that he, the strongest man of these -mountains, when in the clutch of his mightiest passions ... _lisped_ -like an affected school-girl! - -"Thunlight dead!" he stormed. "You thay that to me? Yeth? Then, by God, -juth ath thure as I live, I'll...." - -He cut himself short; his face, instantly red with rage, grew redder -with shame. He snapped his great jaws shut, and across the room Deveril -heard the grinding of his teeth. He swerved about, charging toward the -door, which gave entrance to the room where Gallup was. - -But a far more critical moment than Timber-Wolf knew was ticking in the -clock of his life. In the hall stood the girl, Lynette. She had heard -all of these words of Billy Winch, and she had heard Bruce Standing's -bellowed rejoinder. And she, already taut-nerved and keyed up, what -with fatigue and a strenuous night, was so struck by the absurdity of -a strong man lisping his passionate utterance, that she broke out into -uncontrollable laughter. And when Lynette Brooke's laughter caught her -unawares, it rang out as clearly as the chiming of silver bells. Now, -with nerves quivering, she was almost hysterical.... - -Timber-Wolf came to as dead a halt as though it had been a bullet -instead of the mockery of a girl's laughter which cut into his heart. -For only mockery he made of it, he who upon this one point, as upon no -other, was so sensitive. And to have a human female laugh at him! - -His rage threatened to choke him. But now, even as he had forgotten -his lost bet with Babe Deveril, so did he forget a dead horse and Young -Gallup. The entire violence of his anger was deflected, turned upon a -woman who had eavesdropped upon his ignominy and then assailed him with -the mockery of her mirth. He who held all womankind in such high scorn, -to be now a woman's laughing-stock! He, Bruce Standing, Timber-Wolf! -He snatched at the hall door, and under his attack one of the ancient -hinges broke, and the door, flung back, leaned crazily against the -wall. And all the while, though he kept his teeth so hard set that his -jaws bulged with the strain, he was muttering curses in his throat. He -burst into the dim hallway, his brain on fire. - -She heard him coming. More than that, and before, it seemed to her that -her instinct told her that he would come, bearing down upon her like a -hurricane, in such violence as would stamp her into the earth. She had -not meant to laugh at him; she did not want to laugh. And yet now all -that she could do was clap her hands over her mouth and run before him -as a blown leaf races before the storm. She sped down the hall, plunged -into her room, slammed the door after her. - -... And in the hallway she heard the pounding of his heavy boots. -Already he was at her door. Before she could shoot the bolt, he had -gripped the knob. When he flung his weight against the panel, it flew -back, and under the impact she was thrown backward, and would have -fallen had it not been that she brought up against her bed. Here she -half fell, but was erect before he had stormed across the threshold. - -"You...." - -Why had she run from him? She was not afraid of him and she was not -afraid of anything on earth. Or, at least, making a sort of religion -out of it, that was the thing which she had always told herself. Just -at hand, on the little table by the open window, was her revolver. And -she could shoot and shoot true to the mark. She had told Babe Deveril -that she could take care of herself. She stood, rigid and defiant, and -in her heart unafraid. - -On a bracketed shelf over her bed was a kerosene lamp which she had -left burning when she had gone out. She could see the working of his -lips. And he saw her. - - -Now those who knew Timber-Wolf best knew this about him--that he had -no use for womankind; that he held all of the female of the human race -to be weaklings and worse, leeches upon the strength of man, mere -outwardly glossed tricks of a scheming nature; things contemptible. -And at this moment, surely, Timber-Wolf was in no mood to revise for -the better his sweeping and deep-based opinion. But now, despite all -trumped-up reasonings, no matter how sincere, his first clear view of -this girl gave him pause. - -She was superb. Physically, if not otherwise. For the first thing, her -hair snared him. Strong men are always caught by films; a big brute -of a man who may break his triumphant way through iron bands grows -powerless under a frail wisp of a frail woman's hair. In the hall -she had held her hat in her hands; her hair, loosely upgathered and -insecurely and hastily confined, had tumbled all about her face as she -bolted into her room. He saw that first of all. And then he saw her -eyes. At the moment, already in her room with the door slammed shut -behind him and his back against it, he looked, glowering, into her -eyes. And he found them at once soft and still amazingly unafraid; -those daring eyes of Lynette Brooke, daughter of a dancing-girl and of -the dare-all miner, Brooke. Unafraid, though he who might have choked -the life out of her between finger and thumb, turned his furious face -upon her. - -He paid her tribute with a flash of his shining blue eyes. That was -for the physical beauty of her; that said, "Outwardly, girl, you are -superb!" Yet it remained that, his one weakness shaming him, she had -laughed at him. For the first time in his life a girl had laughed at -him.... - -She saw the sudden changing fires in his eyes and stepped closer to the -table on which lay that small, high-powered implement which puts the -weak on a level with the strong.... - -"By God, girl...." - -There came a sudden sharp rapping at the door against which his -broad back leaned. There was Babe Deveril, who had lunged after him. -Timber-Wolf, growling savagely, flung himself about, for the second -ignoring the girl and facing the door. Deveril, just without, heard -the bolt shot home. And then he heard the second, the sinister sound. -A revolver shot, muffled by the four walls of a room. And he heard -Timber-Wolf, whose back had been turned to Lynette Brooke and the -gun upon the table, curse deep down in his throat, and heard almost -simultaneously the scraping of the heavy boots and the crashing fall -of the big body. Deveril shook fiercely at the door. Then he turned -and ran back down the hall, meaning to go through the room he had just -quitted and on through so as to come to Lynette's room by the rear. - -But in the sitting-room Billy Winch, teetering on his one foot, grasped -him by the arm, demanding to know what had happened. Deveril savagely -shook him off, and Winch, raising the echoes with a shrilling voice, -toppled over and fell. But little time had been wasted, and yet, before -Deveril could free himself and run on, Lynette Brooke ran in upon him. -Her eyes were wild and staring; in her hand was her revolver, so lately -fired that the last wisp of smoke had not cleared from the barrel. - -"Babe Deveril," she gasped. "They are after me!" - -It was Sheriff Taggart who was after her. He was almost at her heels, -shouting: - -"Stop! In the name of the law! You are under arrest for killing Bruce -Standing...." - -Babe Deveril carried no weapon upon him. And he saw Taggart's pistols -dragging at his belt, the heavy forty-fives which, as sheriff, he was -entitled to carry openly. Taggart's hands were almost upon her. - -Deveril did the one thing. He caught at the gun in Lynette's hand -and wrenched it free, and, having no time for accurate aim, did not -fire, but hurled the revolver itself, with all of his might, full into -Taggart's face. And Taggart, as though a thunderbolt had struck him, -went down, with a steel barrel driven against his skull, near the -temple, and lay a crumpled, still heap. - -"The house is full of Taggart's friends!" Deveril cried sharply, -warning her and, at the same time, thinking for himself. - -But already she was running again. She ran out into the road; but there -the brisk-burning bonfires made night into day. She dodged back into -the shadow cast by the corner of the house, and ran about to the rear. -Deveril hesitated only an instant; men were already rushing in from the -room where they had been drinking. He followed her through the door, -and here again he paused. Men were already stooping over the sheriff; -he heard one cry out the single word, "Dead!" His brain caught fire. -The girl had killed Timber Wolf; he had killed Jim Taggart. He and she -were fugitives. He followed her again into the shadows, running to the -back of the house. - -And as he ran one thing angered him: He had won three thousand dollars -from Bruce Standing, and that three thousand dollars was at this moment -in Standing's pocket. And being Babe Deveril, who dared at least as far -as most men dare, he meant to have what fortune allowed him. - -And so, when he came to an open and lighted window, and looked in and -saw the sprawling body of Timber-Wolf, Babe Deveril unhesitatingly -threw his leg over the sill and went in. In his judgment Standing was -as good as dead, shot in the back. Well, that was no affair of his, -and certainly he was not the man to grieve. Let "Serve him right" be -his epitaph. Deveril, in a feverish haste, began to feel in the fallen -man's pockets. - -He found the bank-notes and stuffed them into his own pocket. At the -window, as he turned back to it, while he heard men hammering at the -locked door, he saw Lynette Brooke's white face. She had been watching -him. Yet even that, in the present need for haste, made no impression. -He slipped through, hearing a discordant shouting of many voices. - -"We are in for it now," he panted. "Run!" - -He caught her hand, and, holding it tight, the two raced into the -darkness under the pines. - - - - -CHAPTER V - - -Billy Winch was the first to come to the bolted door. He hopped swiftly -down the hall and beat at it with his fists. Snarling and snapping, -growling and finally whimpering, for the world like a dog, he cried out -through his fierce mutterings: - -"I'm the only man here that can save him if he ain't dead already. And -if he is dead...." - -He hurled himself bodily at the door; he jumped up at it and kicked it -with his one heavy boot and, falling, rolled over and crawled to his -foot and struck again. - -The Gallup House had become a vortex of violent excitement. It was -shouted out that two men were dead, Bruce Standing shot by the new -adventuress whom many had noted; Jim Taggart killed as he sought to put -her under arrest. Voices clashed and so did thoughts and purposes. Men -streamed out into the firelit road; they heard running feet marking -the way the two fugitives had taken, and started headlong in pursuit, -stumbling and falling in the dark, and for the first few moments -making slight headway. Others, Gallup among them, were already with -Taggart, lifting him up and bearing him off to a bed. Still others, -hearkening to the strange word that a woman had killed Bruce Standing, -were suddenly charged with the morbid curiosity to look upon this man -dead. They found their way to the lighted window through which Lynette -Brooke had escaped, and through it made their way into the room, until -the small space was thick with their jostling bodies. All the while -Billy Winch was beating at the door, yelling curses and, at last, when -he heard them within, commanding and imploring to be let in. A man, -stepping over Timber-Wolf's body, obeyed and Billy Winch hopped in. -Immediately he was down at his chief's side, squatting, after his own -awkward fashion, upon a knee and balanced by a stub of a leg. - -"He _ain't_ dead!" Billy Winch's breath was expelled in a long, -grateful sigh, which, before his lungs flattened, was choked by a -nervous giggle. "I'm here, Timber," he said softly. "You know me, old -boy!" - -"You damn little fool," was Bruce Standing's grunted answer. Yet his -voice was gentle and his eyes for one rare and fleeting instant as soft -as a lover's. - -Billy Winch, a man of resource, was now himself again, cool and past -all silly sentiment. He turned from the fallen man to the crowding -onlookers, and his eyes darkened with fury. He snatched up the rifle -which Standing had let fall, and, still kneeling, whipped it up over -his head, brandishing it like a war club. - -"Out of this, every one of you!" he shouted at them. "Give him air and -give me room to work in, else I bash your brains out!" - -Had he been less in earnest some man of them might have found occasion -to mark the absurdity of a cripple, squatting on the floor, waving a -gun over his head and ordering them about. But as things were, no man -appeared to glimpse this angle of it. One by one, with his eyes and the -eyes of Timber-Wolf glaring at them, they went hastily out through the -window. - -"Ought to get a doctor in a hurry," one of the retreating men was -suggesting. - -Billy Winch cursed him into silence. For Winch held himself as good a -physician and surgeon as any, having served in the veterinary capacity -for a score of years and having a natural aptitude for treating bad -cuts and gun wounds. Further, he loved this Timber-Wolf; and beyond, -with all his heart, Billy Winch distrusted and hated the breed of -doctors. His stump of a leg he attributed to the profound ignorance -drawn by the medical and surgical profession from their books of -theories. - -"You ain't even bad hurt, Timber," he growled, as though disappointed -and angered that he had been tricked into a show of affection and -fright. His look accused Standing of having wilfully deceived him. -"Must have been just the shock, what we call the impack, that knocked -you over.... Oh, lie still, can't you!" - -But Bruce Standing gave him no heed, and continued in his attempt to -draw himself up. While Billy Winch sat on the floor and looked up at -him, the bigger man got slowly to his feet and stood leaning against -the door. - -"Anyway, get over on the bed and lay down and I'll look you over. -You're bleeding like a stuck pig. And you're as white as a clean rag." - -Bruce Standing's face was already haggard and drawn, his mouth hard -with pain. Yet he ignored Winch's command, and walked slowly, forcing -his steps to be steady, to the one chair in the room. He sat down -upon it heavily, straddling it as though it were a horse, facing the -chair-back, and thus leaving his own back clearly proffered for Winch's -inspection. Winch got up and hopped to him, railing at him the while -for not lying down and obeying orders. - -"Help me get my coat off," commanded Timber-Wolf curtly. "Then you can -dig around and find out what we're up against." - -Men were still at the window, peering in. - -"Scatter!" commanded Winch, waving the rifle at them. "And tell our -boys to come here. Dick Ross and Charley Peters. They ain't far." - -Reluctantly the onlookers withdrew, some two or three of them to pause -in the shadows when once out of eye-shot, and look back. But from now -on Winch disregarded them. He helped the wounded man off with his coat, -yanked his shirts out from his belted waist, tore cloth freely when it -was in his way, and thus uncovered the wound. - -"_She_ did that for you? That kid of a girl?" - -"Yes, damn her," muttered Timber-Wolf angrily, as Billy Winch's -fingers, already scarlet, touched the wound. "Turned my back a second -... she ought to have shot me dead ... either a rotten shot or in an -awful hurry...." - -"Or scared to death!" Winch's contempt was enormous. "That's the kind -that does the most harm, the scared-stiffs that's always shooting the -wrong time and the wrong man." - -By now he had the shirts torn from top to bottom, and stood back, -looking appraisingly at the broad, naked back and the small hole which -a bullet had drilled. Against the great area of flesh, as white as a -girl's and smooth and clean with vigorous health, the smear of blood, -itself red with that same perfection of health, gave the wound an -appearance of ten times its real gravity. But Winch was accustomed to -blood, and knew that Bruce Standing could lose more of it than could -most men and be little the worse for the loss. He diagnosed the case -aloud, muttering thoughtfully: - -"Thirty-two caliber, to begin with; a thirty-two ain't nothing, Timber. -Now, if it had been a forty-five, at that close-up range.... Well, -you see you was standing half-way slanting; it took you under that -big shoulder muscle and drilled in and hit a rib, one of the high-up -ones, and kept on going, sort of skirting round, skating on a rib, and -popped out under your arm. Lift it a bit? That's it. A clean hole. I -tell you, either you sort of slipped and fell, or it was the impack -that knocked you over.... The boys will be here any minute, and will -scare up a bar of castile soap for me and something to make a regular -poultice, what we calls a comprest, you know; I can make one out of -most anything; remember Sam True's thoroughbred stallion that got all -cut to hell last fall, and I made him a comprest out of sawdust! You -remind me," added Winch thoughtfully, drawing off one of his hopping -paces, to take in with an admiring and practised eye the now virtually -nude torso, a white, smooth-running engine of power and endurance, -"of a wild stallion mostly as much as a man, anyhow. A good smear of -mustang liniment on that shoulder, a application, you know; and a dose -of physic and a couple days' rest and careful diet, and you'll be as -good as new...." - -"What happened in the other room?" demanded Standing, deaf to Winch's -mutterings. "After she went through the window?" - -"She came busting in where Deveril and I was, her eyes the size of two -new dish pans. I put in _new_ because they was shining like it too; I -thought she'd seen the devil. She has a gun in her hand and she yells -out, 'Save me!' or something like that. And after her, doubled-up -running, comes Jim Taggart, yelling at her: 'I got you for killing -Bruce Standing!' And then that cool-headed, hot-hearted young Baby -Devil of yours grabs the gun out of her hand and whangs Taggart over -the head with it so that he drops dead in his tracks. And I hear a man -say he is dead, too; but I don't stop to see. Don't seem natural, and -yet a man's close to mortal danger if he gets whanged with any hard -object, such as steel gun-barrels, on the head, close up to the temple; -we call it the parrytal bone, you know, and I've known men and even -horses that was killed so quick...." - -"Then what?" snapped Timber-Wolf. - -"Then both him and her beats it like the mill-tails of hell! And that -part's natural enough, him figuring he's killed the sheriff, and her -figuring she's plumb killed you. They stampeded into the brush, ducking -out toward the timber-lands where it was darkest, a bunch of hollering -fools after them." - -"And Jim Taggart?" - -The "boys" whose presence Billy Winch had requested came hurrying in -at the hall door, excitement and alarm shining in their eyes. One -glance reassured them, and while Dick Ross gave expression to his -relief in a windy sigh and sought hastily for materials to build him -a cigarette to replace that which he had dropped as he raced here, -Charley Peters stood and mopped at his forehead with an enormous dingy -blue handkerchief and grinned. Billy Winch, who had the trick of pithy -brevity when there was need of it, made his wants known sharply, and -the two men, their spurs still dragging and clanking after them, -hastened away for basin and soap and whatever else of Winch's first-aid -materials might be had at hand. In the meantime, Winch was yanking a -sheet off Lynette Brooke's bed, and ripping it into tatters for his -bandages and rags and what he termed "mops and applications." - -"It ain't necessary to probe for the bullet," he admitted, almost -regretfully. "But I might poke around in there a mite, while the -hole's good and wide open, to make sure that a piece of your shirt or -something didn't get lodged inside...." - -"I'll break your damned neck for trying it," threatened Standing. - -"Well," sighed Winch, "all I'll do then is just take a pack-needle and -put in a stitch or two. Remember when Dick Ross's horse...." - -"You'll take some warm water and soap and wash me off," said Standing -emphatically. "Then you'll make me one of your infernal compresses out -of clean cloth; and after that you'll leave me alone.... Tell me about -my horse, old Sunlight. So Gallup had him killed for me?" - -"Somebody pretty near blowed his head off with buckshot," Billy Winch -told him, and again twinkling fires of anger flickered in the little -man's eyes. "If Gallup didn't have the job done, who did? I ask you!" - -Timber-Wolf stared at the wall. Within him, too, rose scorching anger, -that resurgent bitter flood which was not lessened now because in the -first place it had leaped upon him unexpectedly, and had thus been the -cause of his humiliation. But within him there was another emotion, one -of deep grief; for he loved a good horse, no man more. And Sunlight was -his pet and his trusted friend, and had been, for many a wilderness -week, his only companion. - -"You didn't leave him suffering any, Bill?" His voice sounded cold and -impersonal and matter-of-fact. Yet Billy Winch understood and answered -softly: - -"I stopped long enough to make sure, Timber. But I didn't have to shoot -him; he just rared his head up and looked at me straight in the eye, -as man to man, so help me God, and fell back ... dead. No; he didn't -suffer much." - -Bruce Standing was silent a long time, his eyes brooding, his brows -drawn after a fashion which Billy Winch could make nothing certain -of; anger and bitterness or a sign of his own bodily pain. They heard -spurred boots in the hall, returning. Then a quick look passed between -Timber-Wolf and Billy Winch, and Timber-Wolf said hastily, dropping his -voice and speaking with a peculiar softness: - -"When you get a chance, you take the boys and see that old Sunlight is -moved out of this skunk town; he's too fine a little horse to take his -last rest here. Out on a hilltop, somewhere; looking toward the east, -Bill. And a good, deep hole and ... leave the saddle and bridle on him, -Bill." - -"I get you," returned Winch gravely. And, by way of thoughtful -acknowledgment of the justice of this thing, for Billy Winch, too, -loved a horse, he muttered: "That's fair." - -With the return of Ross and Peters, Winch gave them their orders, as a -stern and dreaded head master might issue commands to a couple of his -boys, securing unfailing and immediate obedience. For the one job of -both Ross and Peters, and the one job which had been theirs for five -or six years, was to do what they were told by Billy Winch and ask no -questions, and look sharp that they did not seek to introduce any of -their own and original ideas into the carrying out of his behests. For -this they were paid by Timber-Wolf, who used them for many things, -consigning matters of vital importance into their hands by way of Billy -Winch's brains and tongue. - -"Stand ready to hand me things when I ask for them, Dick," said Winch. -He scrubbed his own hands with soap, and let Dick pitch the water from -the basin out the window. Dick obeyed promptly, adding nothing of his -own to the simple task beyond making sure that he pitched the whole -basinful far out; far enough, in fact, to give a thorough wetting to -one of the curious who had lingered outside, watching through the -lighted window. "You, Charley," ran on Winch, "go down to where old -Sunlight is, and stick there until me and Dick come out. His saddle and -bridle ain't to be took off, and you'll have to keep your eye peeled -some regular Big Pine citizen don't snake 'em, for their silver, under -your eyes." Charley understood enough to do as he was told, and hurried -out. "Now, Dick, stand by with them rags and warm water." - -Winch went promptly to work, and, in his rough-and-ready fashion, did a -good clean job of bandaging a simple wound. A raw wound like that must -of necessity be intensely painful; yet Timber-Wolf's quiet and regular -breathing never altered once, and not so much as the breadth of a hair -did the muscular back flinch. They had just gotten the torn shirts -lapped over into place and the coat thrown over Standing's shoulders, -and his hat picked up from the floor for him, when a man walking -heavily came down the hall and stopped at the door, knocking sharply. - -"Who is it?" demanded Winch. - -"It's me, Taggart. Is Standing all right?" - -Bruce Standing himself, holding himself very erect, his head well up -and his eyes cold and hard, opened the door. - -"So the devil refused to take you, after all," he grumbled. "They had -it reported that Deveril had killed you. At that, it looks as though -he'd come close to doing a good job of it." - -For Jim Taggart's face, too, was white, and there was a broad band -about his head, stained in one spot near the left temple. - -"The same kind thought rides double," rejoined Taggart, with a sudden -flash of the eyes. "That wildcat of a girl came close to marking out -your ticket to hell." - -"Where is she now?" asked Standing eagerly. "Did they bring her back?" - -"Gone clean, for the present," answered Taggart. "If that fool of a -Babe Deveril hadn't butted in, just piling up trouble for himself, and -knocked me out while I wasn't even looking at him, I'd of had her by -the heels. And now the two of 'em, two of a kind, if you ask me, are -off into the mountains together. And I'm starting after them in ten -minutes, and will drag 'em back before to-morrow night, just as sure as -you're a foot high." - -"What have you come to sling all this at me for?" snapped Standing. - -"I wanted to see if you was dead," returned Taggart coolly. "Now I just -pinch both of 'em for assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill. -If you'd of died, it would of been murder for her." - -"At least, I'm glad you blew in, Jim Taggart. There are two things it -might be just as well to get straight. First: When you and I, a dozen -years ago, were sidekicks, prospecting together, bunking together, -grubstaking each other, taking chances a lot of the time on a quick, -hard finish to the little old game of life, we had it understood that -if I died all of my belongings went to you; and if you cashed in first, -anything you had went to me." - -Taggart nodded and said swiftly: - -"My papers stand that way to this day! I never go back...." - -"The more fool you, then," jeered Standing. "I'm done with you, and my -papers are changed already...." - -"Already?" Taggart started visibly. "Since when?" - -"Since yesterday. Nothing I own, not so much as a wart on a log of -mine, ever goes your way." - -The bitterness in Taggart's soul overspilled into his voice as he cried -out savagely: - -"Sure, there you are! That's the way it goes. Now that your luck's been -running high and you don't need me, now that my luck's been dragging -bottom, why then you're ready to pitch me over...." - -"Liar!" Timber-Wolf cut him short with the word which was like an -explosion. But he did not pause to discuss a point of view, but -continued immediately: "That's the first thing. Here's the second: -You've decided to run neck and neck with Young Gallup. So you can take -him a word from me. Tell him"--and Standing's voice, husky with his -emotions, made even Jim Taggart wonder what was coming--"that I came -into his skunk hole of a town to-night just because he had the nerve to -tell me not to. Tell him that I know that was his work that my horse -was killed just now. Tell it him that if I ever come into his skunk -hole once more in my life, it will be to pull his damned town down -about his ears." - -Taggart chose to break into contemptuous laughter. But Bruce Standing, -lost to all sense of his own pain, caught him angrily by the shoulder -and shouted into his ears: - -"And this, for the last word ever to be spoken between you and me, Jim -Taggart. That rake-hell Jezebel that shot me, _shot me and not you_! -Got that? I'm not asking you, sheriff or no sheriff, to chip in on my -affairs; I'll attend to the little hell-cat, and you keep your hands -off. And, as for Babe Deveril, since the cursed fool wants to show his -hand by cutting in with her and trying to snatch her out of my reach, -I'll attend to him at the same time. The likely thing is that they've -headed into the wilderness, my wilderness, and I'm going after them. -And you are to keep out of my way." - -With a violent shove he thrust Taggart out of his way and strode by -him, going swiftly down the hall, Dick Ross swinging along close behind -him and keeping a watchful eye upon Taggart, little Billy Winch hopping -along in the rear and spitting audacious venom at the sheriff with his -baneful eyes. In this order the three came out under the shining stars. - - - - -CHAPTER VI - - -Bruce Standing, a man of that strong, dominant, and self-centred -character which is prone to disregard the feelings of others, held -both Lynette Brooke and Babe Deveril his prey. But Jim Taggart, whose -professional business it appeared to be to bring in the girl, and -whose sore and aching head would not for many a day lose record of the -fact that it had been Babe Deveril who had forcibly put him out of the -running, had his own human purposes to serve, and set his nose to the -trail like a bloodhound. And yet, with these two bending every energy -to run them to earth, the two fugitives plunging headlong into the -friendly darkness were for the moment utterly lost to those who plunged -into the same darkness and in the same headlong style after them. - -Hand in hand, chance-caught, and running swiftly, Lynette and Deveril -were in time to escape the first of their pursuers, a crowd of men who -got in one another's way, and who were too lately from the lighted -room of the house to see clearly outside. Behind Gallup's House was -the little creek which supplied the town with its water; it wound here -across a tiny flat, an open space save for its big cottonwoods. The -two, knowing that in the first heat of the chase opening at their heels -they were running from death, sped like two winged shadows merged into -one. After a hundred yards they hurled themselves into breast-high -bushes, a thick tangle--a growth which, in such a mad rush as theirs, -was no less formidable than a rock wall. They cast quick glances -backward; a score of men--appearing, in their widely spread formation -and from their cries and the racket of scuffling boots, to be a -hundred--shut off all retreat and made hopeless any thought to turn to -right or left. - -"Down!" whispered Deveril. "Crawl for it! And quiet!" - -On hands and knees they crawled into the thicket. Already hands and -faces were scratched, but they did not feel the scratches; already -their clothes were torn in many places. In a wild scramble they went -on, squeezing through narrow spaces, lying flat, wriggling, getting to -hands and knees again. And all the while with nerves jumping at each -breaking of a twig. It was only the shouting voices and the pounding -boots behind them that drowned in their pursuers' ears the sounds they -made. - -"Still!" admonished Babe Deveril in a whisper. - -And very still they lay, side by side, panting, in the heart of the -thicket. A voice called out, not twenty paces behind them: - -"They're in there!" And another voice, louder than the first and more -insistent, they thanked their stars, boomed: - -"No, no! They skirted the brush, off to the left, beating it for the -open! After 'em, boys!" And still other voices shouted and, it would -seem, every man of them had glimpsed his own tricking shadow and had -his own wild opinion. - -Thus, for a brief enough moment, the pursuit was baffled. - -"Slow and quiet does it!" It was for the third time Babe Deveril's -whisper, his lips close to her hair. "I see an opening. Follow close." - -Lynette, still lying face down, lifted herself a little way upon her -two hands and looked after him. - -"String 'em up!" a voice was calling. It was like the voice of a devil -down in hell, full of mob malice. She shivered. "They're murdering -devils. String 'em up!" - -"Catch 'em first, you fool," called another voice. Again pounding boots -and ... far more sinister sound ... snapping brush where a man was -breaking his way straight into the thicket. - -Like some grotesque, curiously shaped snake, Babe Deveril was writhing -along, ever deeper into the brush tangle, ahead of her. She began -crawling after him. Voices everywhere. And now dogs barking. A hundred -dogs, it seemed to her taut nerves. She knew dogs; she knew how they -went into a frenzy of excited joy when it was a question of a quarry, -any quarry; she knew the unfailing certainty of the dog's scent. She -began hurrying, struggling to get to her knees again.... - -"Sh! Down!" - -She dropped down again and lay flat, scarce breathing. But once more -she saw the vague blot of Deveril's flat form wriggling on ahead of -her, almost gone now. It was so dark! She threw herself forward; she -threw her arm out and her hand brushed his boot. It was a wonderful -thing, to feel that boot. She was not alone. She began again following -him; dry, broken, and thorny twigs snared at her; they caught in her -clothes and in the laces of her boots; they tore at her skin. Yet this -time she was as silent a shadow as the shadow in front of her. On and -on and on, on endlessly through an eternity of darkness shot through -with dim star glimmerings, and pierced with horrible voices, she went. -She came out into an opening; she stood up. She was alone! And those -voices and the yelping of dogs and the scuffling of heavy, insensate, -merciless boots.... - -A hard, sudden hand caught her by the wrist. She whipped back, a scream -shaping her lips. But in time she clapped a hand over her mouth. She -was not alone; this was Babe Deveril, standing upright ... waiting for -her! She brought her hand down and clasped it, tight, over his hand. - -"Run for it again," he whispered. "Off that way ... to the right. If we -can once get among those trees...." - -Side by side, their hearts leaping, they ran. Gradually, but steadily, -the harsh noises grew fainter behind them. They gained the fringe of -trees; they splashed through the creek; they skirted a second tangle of -brush and rounded the crest of a hill. And steadily and swiftly now the -sounds of pursuit lessened behind them. - -"And now," muttered Deveril, for the first time forsaking his cautious -whisper, "if we use what brains God gave us, we are free of that hell -pack." - -"If they caught up with us?" she questioned him sharply. - -"Most likely we'd both be swinging from a cottonwood in ten minutes! -There's no sanity in that crowd; it's all mob spirit. If it is true -that both Bruce Standing and Jim Taggart are dead.... Well, then, -Lynette Brooke, this is no place for you and me to-night! Come on!..." - -"Babe Deveril," she returned, and now it was her fingers tightening -about his, "I'll never forget that you stood by me to-night!" - -Babe Deveril, being himself and no other, a man reckless and unafraid -and eminently gay, and, so God made him, full of lilting appreciation -of the fair daughters of Eve, felt even at this moment her touch, like -so much warm quicksilver trickling through him from head to foot. He -gave her, in answer, a hearty pressure of the hand and his low, guarded -laughter, saying lightly: - -"You interfere with the regular beating of a man's heart, Lynette -Brooke! But now you'll never remember to-night for any great measure -of hours, unless we step along. They'll hunt us all night. Come, -beautiful lady!" - -Even then she marvelled at him. He, like herself, was tense and on -the _qui vive_; yet she sensed his utter fearlessness. She knew that -if they caught him and put a rope about his neck and led him under a -cottonwood branch, he would pay them back to the last with his light, -ringing laughter. - -In this first wild rush they had had no time to think over what had -just happened; no time to cast ahead beyond each step deeper into -the night. Where they were going, what they were going to do--these -were issues to confront them later; now they were concerned with no -consideration other than haste and silence and each other's company. -To-night's section of destiny made of them, without any reasoning and -merely through an instinctive attraction, trail fellows. True, both -carried blurred pictures of what had occurred back there at the Gallup -House so few minutes ago, but these were but pictures, and as yet gave -rise to no logical speculation. As in a vision, she saw Timber-Wolf -sagging and falling as he strove to slew about; Deveril saw Taggart -rushing in at her heels, and then going down in a heap as a revolver -was flung in his face. Only dully at present were they concerned with -the query whether these two men were really dead. When one runs for his -life through the woods in a dark night, he has enough to do to avoid -limbs and tree trunks and keep on going. - -Big Pine occupied the heart of a little upland flat. In ten minutes -Lynette and Deveril had traversed the entire stretch of partially level -land, and felt the ground begin to pitch sharply under foot. Here was a -sudden steep slope leading down into a rugged ravine; their sensation -was that of plunging over the brink of some direful precipice, feeling -at every instant that they were about to go tumbling into an abyss. -They were forced to go more slowly, sliding on their heels, ploughing -through patches of soil, stumbling across flinty areas. - -"Down we go, as straight as we can," said Deveril. "And up on the other -side as straight as we can. Then we'll be in a bit of forest land where -the devil himself couldn't find us on a night like this.... How are you -standing the rough-stuff?" - -It was the first time that he had given any indication of realizing -that her girl's body might not be equal to the work which they were -taking upon them. Swiftly she made her answer, saying lightly, despite -her labored breathing: - -"Fine. This is nothing." - -"If I hadn't forgotten my hat ... among other things," he chuckled, -"I'd take it off to you right now, Lynette Brooke!" - -They paused and stood a moment in the gloom about the base of a big -boulder, listening. Now and then a man shouted; dogs still barked. But -the sounds were appreciably fainter, now that they had started down the -steeply pitching slope into the ravine. - -"We can get away from them to-night," she said. "But to-morrow, when it -is light?" - -"We'll see. For one thing, a chase like this always loses some of its -fine enthusiasm after the first spurt. For another, even if they did -pick us up to-morrow, they would have had time to cool off a bit; a mob -can't stay hot overnight. But give us a full night's head-start, and -I've a notion we've seen the last of them. Ready?" - -"Always ready!" - -Again they hurried on, straight down into the great cleft through the -mountains, swerving into brief detours only for upheaved piles of -boulders or for an occasional brushy tangle. In twenty minutes they -were down in the bed of the ravine, and splashing through a little -trickle of water; Lynette stooped and drank, while Deveril stood -listening; again, climbing now, they went on. The farther side of the -canyon was as steep as the one they had come down, and it was tedious -labor in the dark to make their way; at times they zigzagged one way -and another to lessen the sheerness of their path. And frequently now -they stopped and drank deep draughts of the clear mountain air. - -Silence shut down about them, ruffled only by the soft wind stirring -across the mountain ridges. It was not that they were so soon out -of ear-shot of Big Pine; rather, this sudden lull meant that their -pursuers, done with the first moments of blind excitement, were now -gathering their wits and thinking coolly ... and planning. They would -be taking to horseback soon; scouting this way and that, organizing -and throwing out their lines like a great net. By now some one man, -perhaps Young Gallup, had taken charge and was directing them. The two -fugitives, senses sharpened, understood, and again hastened on. They -had not won to any degree of security, and felt with quickened nerves -the full menace of this new, sinister silence. - -Onward and upward they labored, until at last they gained a less -steeply sloping timber belt, which stretched close under the peak of -the ridge. They walked more swiftly now; breathing was easier; there -were more and wider open spaces among the larger, more generously -spaced tree trunks. - -"We'll strike into the Buck Valley road in a minute now," said Deveril. -"Then we'll have easy going...." - -"And will leave tracks that they'll see in the morning!" - -"Of course. Any fool ought to have thought of that," he muttered, -ashamed that it had been she instead of himself who had foreseen the -danger. - -So they hearkened to the voice of caution and paralleled the road, -keeping a dozen or a score of paces to its side, and often tempted, -because of its comparative smoothness and the difficult brokenness of -the mountainside over which they elected to travel, to yield utterly to -its inviting voice. They turned back and glimpsed the twinkling lights -of Big Pine; they lost the lights as they forged on; they found them -again, grown fainter and fewer and farther away. - -"Can you go on walking this way all night?" he asked her once. - -"All night, if we have to," she told him simply. - -They tramped along in silence, their boots rising and falling -regularly. The first tenseness, since human nerves will remain taut -only so long, had passed. They had time for thought now, both before -and after. Mentally each was reviewing all that had occurred to-night -and, building theoretically upon those happenings, was casting forward -into the future. The present was a path of hazard, and surely the -future lay shut in by black shadows. Yet both of them were young, and -youth is the time of golden hopes, no matter how drearily embraced by -stony facts. And youth, in both of them, despite the difference of -sex, was of the same order: a time of wild blood; youth at its animal -best, lusty, vigorous, dauntless, devil-may-care; theirs the spirits -which leap, hearts glad and fearless. And when, after a while, now and -then they spoke again, there was youth playing up to youth in its own -inevitable fashion; confidence asserting itself and begetting more -confidence; youth wearing its outer cloakings with its own inimitable -swagger. - -They had trudged along the narrow mountain road for a full hour or more -when they heard the clattering noise of a horse's shod hoofs. - -"I knew it," said Deveril sharply. "Damn them." - -With one accord he and she withdrew hastily, slipping into the -convenient shadows thrown by a clump of trees, and peered forth through -a screen of high brush. The hurrying hoof beats came on, up-grade, -hence from the general direction of Big Pine. Two men, and riding neck -and neck, driving their horses hard. The riders drew on rapidly; were -for a fleeting moment vaguely outlined against a field of stars ... -swept on. - -They came with a rush, with a rush they were gone. But Deveril, who -since he was taller, had seen more clearly than Lynette across the -brush, turned back to her eagerly, wondering if she had seen what he -had--if she had noted that one of the men loomed unusually large in the -saddle, and how the smaller at his side rode lopsidedly. In all reason -Bruce Standing should be dead by now or, at the very least, bedridden. -But when did Timber-Wolf ever do what other men expected of him? If he -were alive and not badly hurt; if Lynette knew this, then what? Deveril -would tell her, or would not tell her, as circumstances should decide -for him. - -"Come on!" he cried sharply, certain that Lynette had not seen. "While -the night and the dark last. Let's hurry." - -On and on they went until the dragging hours seemed endless. They saw -the wheeling progress of the stars; they saw the pools of gloom in the -woods deepen and darken; they felt, like thick black padded velvet, -the silence grow deeper, until it seemed scarcely ruffled by the thin -passing of the night air. Thus they put many a weary, hard-won mile -between them and Big Pine. Hours of that monotonous lifting of boot -after boot, of stumbling and straightening and driving on; of pushing -through brush copses, of winding wearily among the bigger boles of -the forest, of sliding down steep places and climbing up others, with -always the lure of the more easy way of the road tempting and mocking. - -"We've got to find water again," said Deveril, out of a long silence. -"And we've got to dig ourselves in for a day of it. The dawn's coming." - -For already the eastern sky stood forth in contrast against west and -south and north, a palely glimmering sweep of emptiness charged with -the promise of another day. The girl, too tired for speech, agreed -with a weary nod. She could think of nothing now, neither of past nor -present nor future, save of water, a long, cool bathing of burning -mouth and throat, and after that, rest and sleep. Her whole being was -resolved into an aching desire for these two simple balms to jaded -nature. Water and then sleep. And let the coming day bring what it -chose. - -Long ago the mountain air, rare and sweet and clean, had grown cold, -but their bodies, warmed by exertion, were unaware of the chill. But -now, with fatigue working its will upon every laboring muscle, they -began to feel the cold. Lynette began shivering first; Deveril, when -they stopped a little while for one of their brief rests, began to -shiver with her. - -Water was not to be found at every step in these mountains; they -labored on another three or four miles before they found it. Then they -came to a singing brook which shot under a little log bridge, and there -they lay flat, side by side, and drank their fill. - -"And now, fair lady, to bed," said Deveril, looking at her curiously -and making nothing of her expression, since the starlight hid more -than it disclosed, and giving her as little glimpse of his own look. -"And when, I wonder, did you ever lay you down to sleep as you must -to-night?" - -But he did see that she shivered. And yet, bravely enough, she answered -him, saying: - -"Beggars must not be choosers, fair sir; and methinks we should go -down on our knees and offer up our thanks to Our Lady that we live and -breathe and have the option of choosing our sleeping places this night." - -She had caught his cue, and her readiness threw him into a mood of -light laughter; he had drunk deep, and his youthful resilience buoyed -him up, and he found life, as always, a game far away and more than -worth the candle. - -"You say truly, my fair lady," he said in mock gravity. "'Tis better to -sleep among the bushes than dangling at the end of a brief stretch of -rope." - -But with all of their lightness of speech, which, after all, was but -the symbol of youth playing up to youth, the prospect was dreary -enough, and in their hearts there was little laughter. And the cold -bit at them with its icy teeth. A fire would have been more than -welcome, a thing to cheer as well as to warm; but a fire here, on the -mountainside, would have been a visible token of brainlessness; it -would throw its warmth five feet and its betraying light as many miles. - -So, in the cold and dark they chose their sleeping place. Into a tangle -of fragrant bushes, not twenty paces from the Buck Valley road, they -crawled on hands and knees, as they had crawled into that first thicket -when pursuit yelped at their heels. Here they came by chance upon a -spot where two big pine-trees, standing close together companionably, -upreared from the very heart of the brushy tangle. Lynette could -scarcely drag her tired body here, caught and retarded by every twig -that clutched at her clothing. For the first time in her vigorous life -she came to understand the meaning of that ancient expression, "tired -to death." She felt herself drooping into unconsciousness almost -before her body slumped down upon the earth, thinly covered in fallen -leaves. - -"I am sleepy," she murmured. "Almost dead for sleep...." - -"You wonderful girl...." - -"Sh! I can't talk any more. I can't think; I can't move; I can scarcely -breathe. Whether they find us in the morning or not ... it doesn't -matter to me now.... You have been good to me; be good to me still. And -... good-night, Babe Deveril ... Gentleman!" - -He saw her, dimly, nestle down, cuddling her cheek against her arm, -drawing up her knees a little, snuggling into the very arms of mother -earth, like a baby finding its warm place against its mother's breast. -He sat down and slowly made himself a cigarette, and forgot for a -long time to light it, lost in his thoughts as he stared at her and -listened to her quiet breathing. He knew the moment that she went to -sleep. And in his heart of hearts he marvelled at her and called her -"a dead-game little sport." She, of a beauty which he in all of his -light adventurings found incomparable, had ventured with him, a man -unknown to her, into the depths of these solitudes and had never, for -a second, evinced the least fear of him. True, danger drove; and yet -danger always lay in the hands of a man, her sex's truest friend and -greatest foe. In his hands reposed her security and her undoing. And -yet, knowing all this, as she must, she lay down and sighed and went -to sleep. And her last word, ingenuous and yet packed to the brim with -human understanding, still rang in his ears. - -"It's worth it," he decided, his eyes lingering with her gracefully -abandoned figure. "The whole damn thing, and may the devil whistle -through his fingers until his fires burn cold! And she's mine, and -I'll make her mine and keep her mine until the world goes dead. And my -friend, Wilfred Deveril, if you've ever said anything in your life, -you've said it now!" - - - - -CHAPTER VII - - -Glancing sunlight, striking at him through a nest of tumbled boulders -upon the ridge, woke Babe Deveril. He sat up sharply, stiff and cold -and confused, wondering briefly at finding himself here upon the -mountainside. Lynette was already sitting up, a huddling unit of -discomfort, her arms about her upgathered knees, her hair tousled, her -clothing torn, her eyes showing him that, though she had slept, she, -too, had awaked shivering and unrested. And yet, as he gathered his -wits, she was striving to smile. - -"Good morning to you, my friend." - -He got stiffly to his feet, stretching his arms up high above his head. - -"At least, we're alive yet. That's something, Lynette." - -"It's everything!" Emulating him she sprang up, scornfully disregarding -cramped body, her triumphant youth ignoring those little pains which -shot through her as pricking reminders of last night's endeavors. "To -live, to breathe, to be alive ... it's everything!" - -"When one thinks back upon the possibilities of last night," he -answered, "the reply is 'Yes.' Good morning, and here's hoping that you -had no end of sweet dreams." - -She looked at him curiously. - -"I did dream," she said. "Did you?" - -"No. When I slept, I slept hard. And your dreams?" - -"Were all of two men. Of you and another man, Timber-Wolf, you call -him--Bruce Standing. I heard him call you 'Baby Devil'! That got into -my dreams. I thought that we three...." - -She broke off, and still her eyes, fathomless, mysterious, regarded him -strangely. - -"Well?" he demanded. "We three?" - -She shivered. And, knowing that he had seen, she exclaimed quickly: - -"That's because I'm cold! I'm near frozen. Can't we have a fire?" - -"But the dream?" he insisted. - -"Dreams are nothing by the time they're told," she answered swiftly. -"So why tell them? And the fire?" - -"No," he told her, suddenly stubborn, and resentful that he could not -have free entrance into her sleeping-life. "We went without it when we -needed it most; now the sun's up and we don't need it; since, above -everything, there's no breakfast to cook." - -"So you woke up hungry, too?" - -"Hungry? I was eating my supper when first you showed upon my horizon. -And, what with looking at you or trying to look at you, I let half of -my supper go by me! I'd give a hundred dollars right this minute for -coffee and bacon and eggs!" - -"You want a lot for a hundred dollars," she smiled back at him. Her -hands were already busy with her tumbled hair, for always was Lynette -purely feminine to her dainty finger-tips. "I'd give all of that just -for coffee alone." - -"Come," said Deveril, "Let's go. Are you ready?" - -"To move on? Somewhere, anywhere? And to search for breakfast? Yes; in -a minute." - -First, she worked her way back through the brush, down into the creek -bed, and for a little while, as she bathed her face and neck and arms, -and did the most that circumstances permitted at making her morning -toilet, she was lost to his following eyes. Slowly he rolled himself a -cigarette; that, with a man, may take the place of breakfast, serving -to blunt the edge of a gnawing appetite. Long draughts of icy cold -water served her similarly. She stamped her feet and swung her arms and -twisted her body back and forth, striving to drive the cold out and get -her blood to leaping warmly. Then, before coming back to him, she stood -for a long time looking about her. - -All the wilderness world was waking; she saw the scampering flash of a -rabbit; the little fellow came to a dead halt in a grassy open space, -and sat up with drooping forepaws and erect ears; she could fancy his -twitching nose as he investigated the morning air to inform himself as -to what scents, pleasurable, friendly, inimical, lay upon it. - -"In case he is hungry, after nibbling about half the night," she mused, -"he knows just where to go for his breakfast." - -The rabbit flapped his long ears and went about his business, whatever -it may have been, popping into the thicket. There grew in a pretty -grove both willows and wild cherry; beyond them a tall scattering of -cottonwoods; on the rising slope scrub-pines and juniper. And while -she stood there, looking down, she heard some quail calling, and saw -half a dozen sparrows busily beginning office hours, as it were, going -about their day's affairs. And one and all of these little fellows knew -just what he was about, and where to turn to a satisfying menu. When, -returning to Deveril, she confided in him something of her findings, -which would go to indicate that man was a pretty inefficient creature -when stood alongside the creatures of the wild, Deveril retorted: - -"Let them eat their fill now; before night we'll be eating them!" - -"You haven't even a gun...." - -"I could run a scared rabbit to death, I'm that starved! And now -suppose we get out of this." - -The sun was striking at the tops of the yellow pines on the distant -ridge; the light was filtering downward; shadows were thinning about -them and even in the ravine below. Walking stiffly, until their bodies -gradually grew warm with the exertion, and always keeping to the -thickest clump of trees or tallest patch of brush, they began to work -their way down into the canyon. The sun ran them a race, but theirs -was the victory; it was still half night in the great cleft among the -mountains when they slid down the last few feet and found more level -land underfoot, and the greensward of the wild-grass meadow fringing -the lower stream. The canyon creek went slithering by them, cold and -glassy-clear, whitening over the riffles, falling musically into the -pools, dimpling and ever ready to break into widening circles, a -smiling, happy stream. And in it, they knew, were trout. They stood for -a moment, catching breath after the steep descent, looking into it. - -"I wonder if you have a pin," said Deveril. - -She pondered the matter, struck immediately by the aptness of the -suggestion; he could see how she wrinkled her brows as she tried to -remember if possibly she had made use of a pin in getting dressed the -last time. - -"I've a hairpin or two left. I wonder if we could make that do?" - -"Just watch and see!" he exclaimed joyously. - -In putting her tumbled hair straight just now she had discovered two -pins, which, even when her hair had come down about her shoulders, had -happened to catch in a little snarl in the thick tresses; these she had -saved and used in making her morning toilet. Now she took her hair down -again and presented him with the two pins, gathering her hair up in two -thick, loose braids, while with curious eyes he watched her; and as -curiously, the thing done, she watched him busy himself with the pins. - -A few paces farther on, creeping forward under the willow branches, -they came to a spot where the creek banks were clear of brush along a -narrow grassy strip, which, however, was screened from the mountainside -by a growth of taller trees. Here Deveril went to work on his -improvised fish-hook. One hairpin he put carefully into his pocket; the -other he bent rudely into the required shape, making an eye in one end -by looping and twisting. The other end, that intended for the hungry -mouth of a greedy trout, he regarded long and without enthusiasm. - -"Too blunt, to begin with; next, no barb, too smooth; and, finally, the -thing bends too easily. Hairpins should be made of steel!" - -But at least two of the defects could be simply remedied up to a -certain though not entirely satisfactory point. He squatted down and, -employing two hard stones, hammered gently at the malleable wire -until he flattened out the end of it into a thin blade with sharp, -jagged edges. Then, using his pocket-knife, he managed to cut several -little slots in this thin blade, so that there resulted a series of -roughnesses which were not unlike barbs; whereas he could put no great -faith in any one of them holding very securely, at least, taken all -together, they would tend toward keeping his hook, if once taken, from -slipping out so smoothly. He re-bent his pin and suddenly looked up at -her with a flashing grin. - -He robbed one of his boots of its string; he cut the first likely -willow wand. Without stirring from his spot he dug in the moist earth -and got his worm. And then, motioning her to be very still, he crept a -few feet farther along the brook, found a pool which pleased him, hid -behind a clump of bushes and gently lowered his baited hook toward the -shadowy surface. And before the worm touched the water, a big trout saw -and leaped and struck ... and did a clean job of snatching the worm off -without having appeared to so much as touch the bent hairpin! - -Three quiet sounds came simultaneously: the splash of the falling -fish, a grunt from Deveril, a gasp from Lynette. Deveril, thinking she -was about to speak, glared at her in savage admonition for silence; -she understood and remained motionless. Slowly he crept back to the -spot where he had dug his worm, and scratched about until he had -two more. One of them went promptly to his hook, while he held the -other in reserve. Again he approached his pool, again he lowered his -bait about the bush. This time the offering barely touched the water -before the trout struck again. Now Deveril was ready for him, deftly -manoeuvring his pole; his string tautened, his wallow bent, the fat, -glistening trout swung above the racing water.... Lynette was already -wondering how they were going to cook it!... There was again a splash, -and Deveril stood staring at a silly-looking hairpin, dangling at the -end of an absurd boot-lace. For now the hairpin failed to present the -vaguest resemblance to any kind of a hook; the trout's weight had been -more than sufficient to straighten it out so that the fish slipped off. - -Gradually, moving on noiseless feet, the girl withdrew; her last -glimpse of Deveril, before she slipped out of sight among the willows, -showed her his face, grim in its set purpose. He was trying the third -time, and she believed that he would stand there without moving all day -long, if necessary. In the meantime she was done with inactivity and -watching; doing nothing when there was much to be done irked her. - -Withdrawn far enough to make her certain that no chance sound made by -her would disturb his trout, she went on through the grove and across -little grassy open spaces flooring the canyon, making her way further -up-stream. When a hundred yards above him, she turned about a tangled -thicket and came upon the creek where it flashed through shallows. All -of her life she had lived in the mountains; as a little girl, many a -day had she followed a stream like this, bickering away down the most -tempting of wild places; and more than once, lying by a tiny clear -pool, had she caught in her hands one of the quick fishes, just to set -him in a little lakelet of her own construction, where she played with -him before letting him go again. To-day ... if she could catch her fish -first! While Deveril, man-like, taking all such responsibilities upon -his own shoulders, cursed silently and achieved nothing beyond loss of -bait and loss of temper! - -Up-stream, always keeping close to the merrily musical water, she made -her slow way until she found a likely spot. At the base of a tiny -waterfall was a big smooth rock; the water from above, glassily smooth -in its well-worn channel, struck upon the rock and was divided briefly -into two streams. One of them, the lesser, poured down into a small, -rock-rimmed pool; the other, deflected sharply, sped down another -course, to rejoin its fellow a few feet below the pool. - -It was to the pool itself, half shut off from the main current, that -Lynette gave her quickened attention. She crept closer, noiseless, -peeping over. A sudden dark gleam, the quick, nervous steering of a -trout rewarded her. She stood still, making a profound study of what -lay before her; in what the rock-edged pool aided and wherein it would -present difficulties. Scarcely more than a trickle of water poured out -at the lower side; she could hastily pile up a few stones there, and -so construct a wall insurmountable to the trout if minded to escape -down-stream. Then she looked to the far side, where the water slipped -in. She could lay a few broken limbs across the rock there and build up -a rampart of stones and turf upon it, and so deflect nearly all of the -incoming water. Both these things done, she could, if need be, bail the -pool out, and so come with certainty upon whatever fish had blundered -into it. She began to hope that she would find a dozen! - -Twice, standing upon the glassy rocks, she slipped; once she got -soaking wet to her knee; another time she saved herself from a thorough -drenching in the ice-cold stream only at the cost of plunging one arm -down into it, elbow-deep. She shivered but kept steadily on. - -She heard a bird among the bushes and started, thinking that here came -Deveril; she fancied him with a string of fish in his hand, laughing at -her. Impulsively she called to him. - -The close walls of the ravine shut in her voice; the thickets muffled -it; the splash and gurgle of the tumbling water drowned it out. She -stood very still, hushed; now suddenly the silence, the loneliness, -the bigness of the wilderness closed in about her. She looked about -fearfully, half expecting to see men spring out from behind every -boulder or tree trunk. She longed suddenly to see Babe Deveril coming -up along the creek to her. She was tempted to break into a run racing -back to him. - -She caught herself up short. All this was only a foolish flurry in -her breast, conjured up by that sudden realization of loneliness when -her quickened voice died away into the whispered hush of the still -solitudes. For an instant that feeling of being alone had overpowered -her, or threatened to do so; then her only thought had been of Babe -Deveril; she could have rushed fairly into his arms, so did her -emotions drive her. Now she found time to puzzle over herself; it -struck her now, for the first time, how she had fled unquestioningly -into this wilderness with a man. A man whom she did not even know. -That hasty headlong act of hers would seem to indicate a trust of a -sort. But did she actually trust Babe Deveril, with those keen, cutting -eyes of his and the way he had of looking at a girl, and the whole of -his reckless and dare-devil personality? Lynette Brooke had not lived -in a cave all of her brief span of life; nor had she grown into slim -girlhood and the full bud of her glorious youth without more than one -look into a mirror. Vapidly vain she was not; but clear-visioned she -was, and she knew and was glad for the vital, vivid beauty which was -hers and thanked God for it. And she glimpsed, if somewhat vaguely, -that to a man like Babe Deveril, taking life lightly, there was no -lure beyond that of red lips and sparkling eyes. How far could she be -sure of him? She went back with slow steps to her trout; she was glad -that Babe Deveril had not heard and come running to her just then. But -when Deveril did come, carrying two gleaming trout, she masked her -misgivings and lifted a laughing face toward his triumphant one. - -"We eat, Lynette!" he announced gaily. - -Suddenly his eyes warmed to the picture she made, paying swift tribute -to the tousled, flushed beauty of her. His glance left her face and ran -swiftly down her form; she felt suddenly as though her wet clothing -were plastered tight to her. - -"You can finish this," she told him swiftly, "if you want to take any -more fish." - -"But, look here! Where are you going? Breakfast...." - -Her teeth were beginning to chatter. - -"I'm going to try to get dry. You can start breakfast or...." - -She fled, and called herself a fool for growing scarlet, as she knew -that she did; as though two burning rays had been directed full upon -her back, she could feel his look as she ran from him; she could not -quickly enough vanish from his keen eyes, beyond the thicket. And how -on earth she was going to get dry again until the sun stood high in the -sky, she did not in the least know. She could wring out the free water; -she could make flails of her arms and run up and down until she got -warm.... If only she had a fire; but that would be foolhardy, the smoke -arising to stand a signal for miles of their whereabouts.... - -And until this moment she had not thought of how they were to convert -freshly caught fish into an edible breakfast! How, without fire? She -began to shiver again, from head to foot now, and, confronted by her -own problem, that of getting warm and dry, she was content to leave all -other solutions to Deveril. - -When half an hour later she returned to him, she found him smoking a -cigarette and crouching over a bed of dying coals, whereon certain -tempting morsels lay; Deveril was turning them this way and that; with -the savory odor of the grilling fish there arose from the embers a -whiff of the green sage-leaves which he had plucked at the slope of -the canyon and laid first on his bed of coals. Crisp mountain-trout, -garnished with sage! And plenty of clear, cold, sparkling water to -drink thereafter! Truly a morning repast for king and queen. - -"I hope they keep us on the run for a month!" Deveril greeted her. "I -haven't had this much fun for a dozen years!" - -"But your fire?" she asked anxiously. "Aren't you afraid? The smoke?" - -"Where there's smoke, there's always fire," he told her lightly. "But -when a man's on the dodge, as we are, he can have a fire that gives out -almighty little smoke! It's all bone-dry wood, with only the handful -of sage and a few crisscross willow sticks. Look up, and see how much -smoke you can see!" - -He had built his small blaze, ringed about by some rocks, in the heart -of a small grove of trees which stood forty or fifty feet high; he had -got his fire burning with strong, clean flames, from a handful of dry -leaves and twigs; Lynette, looking up, could make out only the faintest -bluish-gray wisp of smoke against the gray-green of the leaves. She -understood; always it was inevitable that they must accept whatever -chances the moment brought them, yet it was not at all likely that -their faint plume of smoke, vanishing among the treetops, would ever -draw the glance of any human eye other than their own. - -"I'll tell you ..." began Deveril, and broke short off there, as -she and he, alert and tense once more, reminded that they were -fugitives, listened to a sudden sound disturbing their silence. A sound -unmistakable--a man at no great distance from them, but, fortunately, -upon the farther side of the stream, and thus beyond the double screen -of willows, was breaking his way through the brush. Both Deveril and -Lynette crouched low, peering through the bushes. They could only -make out that the man was coming up-stream. Once they caught a vague, -blurred glimpse of his legs, faded overalls and ragged boots. Then -they lost him entirely. They knew when he stopped and both waited -breathlessly to know if he had come upon some sign of their own trail. -But once more he went on, but now in such silence, as he crossed a -little open spot, that they could scarcely make out a sound. Had it -not been for the willows intervening, they could then have answered -their own question, "Who is it?"--a question just now of supreme -importance, of the importance of life and death. They lay lower; they -strove as never before to catch some glimpse that would tell them what -they wanted to know. The man stopped again; again went on. There was -something guarded about his movements; they felt that he must have -seen their tracks, that he was seeking in a roundabout way to come -unexpectedly upon them. And then, because there was a narrow natural -avenue through the brush, they were given one clear, though fleeting -glimpse, of him ... of his face--a face as tense and watchful as their -own had been ... the face of Mexicali Joe. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - - -A glimpse, scarcely more it was, had been given them of Mexicali Joe's -face. And at a considerable distance, at least for the reading of a -man's look. But yet they marked how the face was haggard and drawn and -furtive. Joe had no inkling of their presence. He had not seen their -wisp of smoke; there was no wind setting toward him to carry him the -smell of cooking trout. Plainly he had no desire for company other -than his own. He, no less than they, fled from all pursuit. Again he -was lost to them; he vanished, gone up-stream, beyond the thickets, -no faintest sound of his footfalls coming back to them. From him they -turned to each other, the same expression from the same flooding -thought in their eyes. - -"We're on the jump and we'll keep on the jump!" said Deveril softly. -"And at the same time, Lynette Brooke, we'll stick as close as the -Lord'll let us to Mexicali Joe's coat-tails! Don't you worry; he'll -go back as sure as shooting to his gold-mine, if only to make certain -that no one else has squatted on it. And where he drives a stake, we'll -drive ours right alongside!" - -"It's funny ... that he hasn't gotten any further ... that he should -come this way, too...." - -"No telling how long he had to lie still while the pack yelped about -his hiding-place; that he came this way means only one thing. And that -is that our luck is with us, and we're headed as straight as he is -toward his prospect hole. Ready? Let's follow him!" - -She jumped up. But before they started they gathered up, to the last -small bit, what was left of their fish; Deveril made the small bundle, -fish enwrapped in leaves, with a handkerchief about the whole. - -"If he should hear us?" she whispered. "If he should lie in waiting and -see us?" - -He chuckled. - -"In any case, we'll have it on him! He can't know that we're on the -run, too; he got away too fast for that. And even if he should know, -what would he do about it? He has no love for Taggart, anyway; and he -has no wish to get himself into the hands of that mob that he has just -ducked away from, like a rabbit dodging a pack of hounds. If he catches -us ... why, then, we catch him at the same time! Come on." - -Thus began the second lap of their journey; thus they, fleeing, -followed like shadows upon the traces of one who fled. For Mexicali -Joe would obviously keep to the bed of the canyon; if he forsook -it in order to climb up either slope to a ridge above, he must of -necessity pass through the more sparsely timbered spaces, where he -would run constantly into danger of being seen. The only danger to -their plans lay with the possibility that he might overhear sounds of -their following and might draw a little to one side and hide in some -dense copse, and so let them go by. But they had the advantage from -the beginning; they knew he was ahead, and he did not know that they -followed; so long as they, listening always, did not hear him ahead, -there was little danger of him hearing them coming after him. With -all the noise of the water, tumbling over falls and splashing along -over rocks, singing cheerily to itself at every step, there was small -likelihood of any one of the three cautious footfalls being heard.... - -There were the times, so intent were they following the Mexican, when -they forgot what was after all the main issue; forgot that they, too, -were followed. For the newer phase of the game was more zestful just -now than the other; they had neither glimpsed nor heard anything since -the passing of the two riders last night to hint that any danger of -discovery threatened them. They spoke seldom, only now and then, -pausing briefly, in lowered voices, as the speculations which had -been occupying both minds, demanded expression. Thus they were always -confronted by some new problem; at first, and for a mile or more, they -had full confidence that they had Joe straight ahead of them. But -presently they approached a fork of the canyon; it became imperative to -know if Joe had gone up the right or the left ravine. And here, where -most they wanted a glimpse of him, they had scant hope of seeing him, -so dense was the timber growth; he would keep close to the bed of the -stream, at times walking in the water so that the network of branches -from the brushy tangle on both banks would make for him a dim alleyway, -like a tunnel. They could not hope to hear him; they could not count -on finding his tracks, since none would be left upon the rocks and the -rushing water held none. - -But they were alert, ears critical of the slightest rustling, eyes -never keener. And, their good fortune holding firm, when they came to -the forking of the ways, that which they had not hoped for, a track -upon a hard rock, set them right. For here Joe, but a few score yards -ahead of them, had slipped, and had crawled up over a boulder, and -there was still the wet trace of his passing, a sign to vanish, drying, -while they looked on it. Joe had gone on into the deeper canyon, headed -in the direction which last night they had elected for their own, -driving on toward the heart of the wilderness country. - -They were no less relieved at finding what was the man's likely general -direction than at making sure that they were still almost at his heels. -For they had come to realize that, to explain Joe's presence here, -there were two directly opposing possibilities to consider: It was -imaginable that Joe would be making straight for his gold; and it was -just as reasonable that his craft might have suggested to him to head -in an opposite direction. Now that they might follow him and still be -going direct upon their own business, they were for the moment content -upon all points. - -Deveril, for the most part, went ahead; now and then he paused a -moment for the girl to come up with him. But never did he have to wait -long. He began to wonder at her; they had covered many hard miles last -night; more hard miles this morning. How long, he asked himself, as his -eyes sought to read hers, could such a slender, altogether feminine, -blush-pink girl stand up under such relentless hardship as this flight -promised to give them? And always he went on again, reassured and -admiring; her eyes remained clear, her regard straight and cool. A girl -unafraid; the true daughter of dauntless, hot-blooded parents. - -And she, watching his tall, always graceful form leading the way, found -ample time to wonder about him. She had seen him last night burst in -through a window and take the time coolly, though already the hue and -cry was breaking at his contemptuous heels, to rifle a man's pockets. -There was an indelible picture: the debonair Babe Deveril, who had -stepped unquestioningly into her fight, going down on his knees before -his fallen kinsman ... calmly bent upon robbery. For she had seen the -bank-notes in his hand. - -The sun rose high and crested all the ridges with glorious light, -and poured its golden warmth down into the steep canyons. But, now -that shadows began to shrink and the little open spaces lay revealed -in detail, fresh labor was added in that they were steadily harder -driven to keep to cover; all day long, at intervals, they were to have -glimpses of the Buck Valley road, high above upon the mountain flank, -and at each view of the road they understood that a man up there might -have caught a glimpse of them. Ten o'clock came and found them doggedly -following along the way which they held the viewless Mexicali Joe must -have taken before them. They paused and stooped to the invitation of -the creek, and thereafter ate what was left them of their grilled -trout. Having eaten, they drank again; and having drunk, they again -took up the trail.... - -"If you can stand the pace?" queried Deveril over his shoulder. And -she read in the gleam in his eyes that he was set on seeing this thing -through; on sticking close to Mexicali Joe until he came, with Joe, -upon his secret. - -"Why, of course!" she told him lightly, though already her body ached. - -It was not over an hour later when they set their feet in a trail -which they were confident Mexicali Joe had followed; from the moment -they stepped into the trail they watched for some trace of him, but -the hard, rain-washed, rocky way which only a mountaineer could have -recognized as a trail, was such as to hold scant sign, if the one who -travelled it but exercised precaution. Babe Deveril, with his small -knowledge of these mountains, held it the old short-cut trail from -Timkin's Bar, long disused, since Timkin's Bar itself had a score of -years ago died the death of short-lived mining towns. Brush grew over -it, and again and again it vanished underfoot, and they were hard beset -to grope forward to it again. Yet trail of a sort it was, and it set -them to meditating: Timkin's Bar, in the late '80's, had created a gold -furor, and then, after its short and hectic life, had been abandoned, -as an orange, sucked dry by a child, is thrown aside. Was it possible -that among the old diggings Mexicali Joe had stumbled upon a vein which -the old-timers had overlooked? - -At any rate, the trail lured them along, winding in their own general -direction; and Mexicali Joe still fled ahead. Of this latter fact they -had evidence when they came to the unmistakable sign ... to watchful -eyes ... of his recent passing: here, on the steep, ill-defined trail -he had slipped, and had caught at the branches of a wild cherry. They -saw the furrow made by his boot-heel and the scattered leaves and -broken twigs. - -Gradually the trail led them up out of the canyon-bed, snaking along -the flank of the mountain. And gradually they were entering the great -forest land of yellow pines. If not already in Timber-Wolf's country, -here was the border-line of his monster holdings: few men could draw -the line exactly between the wide-reaching acres which were his and -those contiguous acres which were a portion of the government reserve. -Standing himself had quarrelled with the government upon the matter and -what was more, after no end of litigation, had won a point or two. - -Once they diverged from the trail to climb and slide to the bottom of -the canyon for a long drink. But this and the sheer ascent took them in -their hurry only a few minutes. Again they took up the trail. It was -high noon and they were tired. But, alike disdainful of fatigue, driven -and lured, they pressed on. - -Suddenly she startled him by catching him by the arm and whispering -warningly: - -"Sh! Some one is following us!" - -In another moment, drawing back from the trail, they were hidden among -the wild cherries in a little side ravine. - -"Where?" he demanded, his voice hushed like hers, as he peered back -along the way they had come. "Who? How many of them?" - -"I didn't see," she answered. - -"What did you hear?" - -"Nothing ... I just know ... I _felt_ that some one was trailing us -just as we are trailing Mexicali Joe! I feel it now; I know!" - -"But you had something--something that you saw or heard--to tell you?" - -She shook her head. And he saw, wondering at her, that she was very -deeply in earnest as she admitted: - -"No. Nothing! But I know. I tell you, I know. Can't you feel that there -is some one back there, following us, spying on us, hiding and yet -dogging every step we take? Can't you _feel_ it?" - -She saw him shaken with silent laughter. She understood that he, a -man, was convulsed with laughter at the imaginings of her, a maid. -And yet, also, since she was quick-minded, she noted how his laughter -was _silent_! He meant her to see that he put no credence in her -suspicions; and yet, for all that, he was impressed, and he did take -care that no one, who _might_ follow them, should overhear him! - -"One doesn't feel things like that," he told her, as though positive. -But in the telling he kept his voice low, so that it was scarcely -louder than her own whisper. - -"One does," she retorted. "And you know it, Babe Deveril!" - -"But," he challenged her, "were you right, and were there a man or -several men back there tracking us, why all this caution on their -parts? What would they be waiting for, being armed themselves and -knowing us unarmed? What better place than this to take us in? Why give -us a minute's chance to slip away in the brush?" - -"I don't know." She shrugged, and again he marvelled at her; she looked -like one who had little vital concern in what any others, pursuing, -might or might not do. - -Despite his cool determination to adhere to calm reason and to discount -feminine impressionism, which he held to be fostered by a nervous -condition brought about by overexertion, Babe Deveril began to feel, -as she felt, that there was something more than imagination in her -contention. How does a man sense things which no one of his five senses -can explain to him? He could not see any reason in this abrupt change -in both their moods; and yet, none the less, it seemed to him, all of a -sudden, as though eyes were spying on him from behind every pine trunk, -and from the screen of every thicket. - -"Joe won't escape us in a hurry," he muttered. "Not in this canyon. And -we'll see this thing through. Let's sit tight and watch." - -And so, with that inexplicable sense that here in the wilderness they -were not yet free from pursuit, they crouched in the bushes and bent -every force of every sense to detect their fancied pursuers. But the -forest land, sun-smitten, a playland of light and shadow and tremulous -breeze, lay steeped in quiet about them, and they saw nothing moving -save the gently stirring leaves and occasional birds; half a dozen -sparrows briefly stayed their flight upon a shrub in flower with -pale-pink blossoms; a bevy of quail, forty strong, marched away through -the narrow roadways under the low, drooping branches, with crested -topknots bobbing; the forest land murmured and whispered and sang -softly, and seemed empty of any other human presence than their own. -And yet they waited, and at the end of their waiting, grown nervous -despite themselves, though they had had no slightest evidence that -pursuit was drawing close upon their heels, they were not able to shake -from them that _feeling_ that danger, the danger from which they fled, -was become a near-drawn menace. And all the more to be feared in that -it approached so silently, covertly, hidden and ready to strike when -their guard was down. - -"Just the same," said Deveril, deep in his own musings, "it can't be -Jim Taggart, for that's not Taggart's way, having the goods on a man, -and, besides, I fancy I put him out of the running." Then he looked at -her curiously, and added: "And it can't be Bruce Standing, since you -put him down and out and...." - -It was the first time that such a reference to the past had been made. -Now she startled him by the quick vehemence of her denial, saying: - -"I didn't shoot Bruce Standing! I tell you...." - -He looked at her steadily, and she broke off, as she saw dawning in his -eyes a look which was to be read as readily as were white stones to be -glimpsed in the bottom of a clear pool. She had made her statement, -and, whether true or false, he held it to be a lie. - -"In case they should somehow lay us by the heels," he said dryly, "you -would come a lot closer to clearing yourself by saying that you shot -him in self-defense than in denying everything. But they haven't got -their ropes over our running horns yet!... Do you still feel that we -are followed?" - -His look angered her; his words angered her still further. So to his -question she made no reply. He looked at her again curiously. She -refused to meet his eyes, coolly ignoring him. A little smile twitched -at his lips. - -"It's a poor time for good friends to fall out," he said lightly. -"I don't care the snap of my fingers who shot him, or why. He ought -to have been shot a dozen years ago. And now I'll tell you what, I -think, explains this business of some one being close behind us, if -you are right in it. The big chance is that some one has been trailing -Mexicali Joe all along; and dropped in behind us when we dropped in -behind Joe. We've been doing a first-class job of sticking to cover; -mind you, we haven't caught a second glimpse of Joe all this time, and -therefore it is as likely as not that the gent whom you _feel_ to be -trailing us hasn't caught a glimpse of us. If this is right, we've got -a bully chance right now to prove it. We lie close where we are for ten -minutes, and see if your hombre doesn't slip on by us, nosing along -after Joe." - -In silence she acquiesced. That sense of the nearness of another unseen -human being was insistent upon her. For a long time, as still as the -deep-rooted trees about them, they crouched, listening, watching. She -heard the watch ticking in Babe Deveril's pocket. She heard her own -breathing and his. She heard the brownie birds threshing among dead -leaves. Then there was the eternal whispering of the pines and the -faint murmurings from the stream far down in the canyon. At last it -would have been a relief to straining nerves if a man, or two or three -men, had stepped into sight in the trail from which she and Deveril -had withdrawn. For more certain than ever was Lynette Brooke, though -she could give neither rhyme nor reason for that certainty, that her -instincts had not tricked her. Therefore, instead of being reassured -at seeing or hearing no one, she was depressed and made anxious; -the silence became sinister, filled with vague threat; that she saw -no one was explicable to her by but the one ominous condition: that -person or those persons were watching even now, and knew where she and -Babe Deveril hid, and did not mean to stir until first their quarry -stirred. Why all this caution? She could not explain that to herself; -if some one followed, why should that some one hide? Why not step out -with gun levelled, and put an end to this grim game of hide-and-seek. - -"You see," whispered Deveril, "there is no one behind us." - -They had not moved for a full twenty minutes, and by now he began to -convict her of nervous imaginings, fancies of an overwrought girl. But -she answered him, saying with unshaken certainty: - -"I tell you, I know! Some one has been following us, and now is hiding -and waiting for us to go on." - -"Well, you are right or wrong, and in either case I don't fancy this -job of sitting so tight I feel as though I were growing roots. If you -should happen to be right, we'll know in time, I suppose. Let's go!" - -To her, in her present mood, anything was better than inaction. They -left their hiding-place, found a silent and hidden way a bit farther -down the slope, went forward a hundred yards and stepped back into the -faint trail. Their concern, each said inwardly, was to forge on and -to follow Joe; thus they pretended within themselves to ignore that -nebulous warning that they, like Joe, were followed. - -And so the day wore on, a day made up of uncertainty and vague threat. -How full the silent forest lands were of little sounds! For therein -lies the greatest of all forest-land mysteries; that silence in the -solitudes may be made audible. Uncertainty struck the key-note of their -long day. They sought to follow Mexicali Joe; they did not see him, -they did not hear him, they did not know where he was. Was he still -ahead of them, hastening on? How far ahead? A mile by now, not having -paused while they lost time? A hundred yards? Or had he turned aside? -Or had he thrown himself down flat somewhere, watching them go by? Was -he following them, or had he struck out east or west, while they went -on north? And was there some one following them? One man? Two? More? Or -none at all? Uncertainty. And as they grew tired and hungry, the great -silence oppressed them, and most of all this uncertainty of all things -began to bite in upon their nerves as acid eats into glass, etching its -own sign. - -"I'm getting jumpy," muttered Deveril, glaring at her, his eyes looking -savage and stern. "This nonsense of yours...." - -"It's not nonsense!" - -"Anyway, it's getting on my nerves! There's no sense in this sort of -thing. We're scaring ourselves like two kids in the dark. What's more, -we are allowing a pace-setter to get us to going too hard and steady a -clip; we'll be done in, the first thing we know. And we've got to begin -figuring on where the next meal comes from. What I mean is, that we've -got enough to do without wasting any more nerve force on what may or -may not follow after us." - -"Joe is still ahead of us," she reminded him; "or, at any rate, we -think that he is. He left last night in as big a hurry as we did; and -he, too, came away without gun and fishing-tackle, and didn't stop to -get Young Gallup to put him up a lunch. Then, on top of all that, Joe -knows this country better than we do." - -"I get you!" he told her quickly. "Joe's as ready for food and lodging -as we are, and Joe, unless we're wrong all along, is hiking ahead of -us. Who knows but we'll invite ourselves to dine with Senor Joe before -the day's done!... Is that it?" - -"I don't know how it may work out.... I hadn't gotten that far yet.... -But if Joe is headed toward his secret, and if he does have a provision -cache somewhere in the mountains ... a few items in tinned goods and, -maybe, even coffee and sugar and canned milk...." - -"Let's go!" broke in Deveril, half in laughter and half in eagerness. -"You make my mouth water with your surmisings." - -Here in these steep-walled narrow gorges the shadows lengthened -swiftly after the sun had passed the zenith, and already, when now and -then they looked searchingly at what lay ahead, it was difficult to -distinguish the shadows from the substance. They must come close to Joe -if they meant to see him, and, by the same token, if a man followed -them, he was confronted by the same difficulty. So they hurried on, -walking more freely, keeping in the trail, climbing at times along the -ridge flank, frequently dipping down into the lower canyon. Babe Deveril -cut himself a green cudgel from a scrub-oak, trimming off the twigs as -he walked on. If it came to argument with Mexicali Joe, a club like -that might bring persuasion. And he fully meant that the Mexican should -show himself generous, even to the division of a last crust. Always -buoyed up by optimism, he was counting strongly on Joe's provision -cache. - -When they dropped down into the canyon again, they saw the first star. -Lynette looked up at it; it trembled in its field of deep blue. She -was faint, almost dizzy; her muscles ached; fatigue bore hard upon -her spirit; she was footsore. But, most of all, like Deveril before -her, she was concerned with imaginings of supper. She pictured bacon -and a tin of tomatoes and shoe-string potatoes sizzling in the bacon -grease ... and coffee. Whether with milk or sugar, or without both, no -longer mattered. Then she sighed wearily, and had no other physical -nor mental occupation than that which had to do with the putting of -one foot before the other, plodding on and on and on. And all the -while the shadows deepened and thickened in the canyons, and the stars -multiplied, and the little evening breeze sharpened; she began to -shiver. - -She could mark no trail underfoot; always Deveril, before her, was -breaking through a tangle, always at his heels, she kept his form in -sight; but she began to think that he had lost the way, and a new fear -gripped her. Instead of dining with Joe, they were losing him, and now, -with the utter dark already on the way, they would see no sign of him. -And in the dark they would not be able to snare a trout or anything -else that might be eaten. She got into the habit of breaking off twigs -and chewing at them.... - -And all the while Deveril was rushing on, faster and faster. It was -hard work keeping up with him. - -"We've got him! Stay with it, Lynette; we've got him!" - -It was Deveril's whisper, sharp and eager; there was Deveril himself -just ahead of her, pausing briefly. - -"Come on. As fast and as quiet as you can." - -Her heart leaped up; her life fires burned bright and warm again; the -pain went out of her. She began to run.... - -"Sh! Look! Off to the left in that little clearing." - -On the mountain slope just ahead of them she marked the clearing and, -since there, too, the shadows were darkening, she saw nothing else. She -wondered what he saw or thought that he saw. He pointed, and she, with -straining eyes, made out a shadow which moved; Joe, going up a steep, -open trail. And just ahead of Joe a dark, square-cornered blot.... - -"A house ... a cabin...." - -"A dirty dugout, most likely, and from the look of it. But, as sure -as you're born, there's Mexicali Joe's mountain headquarters. A clump -of bushes, willows, you can be sure, not ten feet from his door; -that will be his spring. And inside his shack ... a box of grub, Lady -Lynette! And if Joe doesn't have company for dinner, I'll eat your hat." - -"I haven't any," said Lynette. "But we'd probably have to eat our own -shoes. Come on; let's hurry.... What are you waiting for?" - -"I want to whet my appetite by loitering a while.... Listen, Lynette; -after all, there's no great hurry any longer. First thing, a hot supper -is what is needed, and Joe can make as good a fire as we can. You can -gamble that he won't waste any time, and that he'll cook a panful!" - -"He might have only one panful ... and he might start in on it cold...." - -"And if he has only that limited amount and it belongs to him and he -wants it, you don't mean to say that you would seek to take it away -from him? That's robbery...." - -"We'll play square with him, Babe Deveril, and give him exactly -one-third. And man may call it robbery, but God and nature won't. -Come...." - -"I'll come with you a few steps farther. And then we will possess our -souls in patience and will sit down among the bushes and will wait -until we smell coffee. And I'll tell you why." - -She looked at him, wondering. And then suddenly she guessed somewhat of -his thought, though not all of it. She had forgotten her own certainty -that some one followed them; it surged back upon her now. - -"Yes," he said, when she had spoken, "you're on the right track. We are -going to wait a few minutes to make sure. If some one was following -and wanted you and me, he could have had no object in hanging back, -spying on us. But if that same gent were following Mexicali Joe, he -would want to hang back, trusting to Joe to lead him to something worth -coming at. So, out of your _feeling_ I've built my theory: That this -gent thinks all the time he's trailing Joe, and doesn't know we are -here at all; tracks in the rocky trail wouldn't show him whether one or -a dozen had gone over it. And I get to this point: How did this gent -pick up Joe's trail in the dark? And I answer it by saying that he -could have known that Joe had a dugout up here, and so lay in wait for -him. And, that being true, by now he would be sure that Joe was going -straight to his camp, and so, at almost any moment, he would give up -his sneak-thief style of travelling and would come hurrying along. And, -if that's right, you and I can get a glimpse of this new hombre before -he does of us. It may come in handy, you know," he concluded dryly, -"to get the first swing at him if he's an ugly gent with a rifle. At -short range, and in the dark, and stepping lively, this club of mine is -way up. And, if we can take his rifle from him ... why, then into the -wilderness we go, without fear of starving. Which is a long speech for -the end of a perfect day, but I'm right!" - -So insistent was he and so utterly weary she, they drew a few lagging -steps out of the trail, and sank down in the shadows. She lay flat; -she saw the stars swimming in the deepening purple; her eyes closed; -she felt two big tears of exhaustion slip out between the closed lids. -There was a faint drumming in her ears; she no longer cared for food. - -... "Get up!" Deveril was saying curtly. "I guess we're both wrong. And -I'm going to eat, if the devil drops in to join us." - -She didn't think she had been asleep. Nor yet that she had fallen prey -to swift, all-engulfing unconsciousness. Only that she had been in a -mood of utter indifference to all earthly matters. She tried, when he -commanded the second time, to rise. He helped her. She sat up.... She -saw a little sprinkling of sparks tossed upward from Joe's chimney; -stars at first she thought them--stars wavering and blurred and -uncertain. - -"We've waited long enough," said Deveril. - -She rose wearily, making no answer. He went ahead, she followed. Her -whole body cried out for rest; this brief, altogether too brief, -lingering had stiffened her and made her sore from head to foot. She -saw that Deveril was going up the steep trail slowly; he still strove -for caution, no doubt planning to burst in unexpectedly upon Mexicali -Joe. For Joe might have a gun there in his dugout; and he might have no -great stock of provisions and be of no mind to share with others. So -she, too, strove for silence.... A strangely familiar odor was afloat -on the night air ... coffee! Joe's coffee was boiling. - -And then, at that moment of moments, jarring upon their nerves as a -sudden pistol-shot might have done, there came up to them from the -canyon they had just quitted the sharp sound made by a man breaking in -the dark through brush. And, with that sound, another; a man's voice, -a voice which both knew and yet on the instant were unable to place, -crying sharply, unguardedly: - -"Come ahead, boys. There's his dugout and we got him dead to rights!" - -"Down!" whispered Deveril. "Down! There's three or four of them...." - -She dropped in her tracks, he at her side. They were in the little -clearing; if they went back it would be to run into the arms of the -men down there; if they went ahead it was to go straight on to Joe's -dugout. If they sought to turn to right or left, they must go through -the longest arms of the clearing, and must certainly be seen. The only -shadows into which they might slip were cast by the clump of willows -grouped in a span of half a dozen yards, and not over as many steps, -from Joe's door.... - -"Into the willows!" whispered Deveril. "Quick! It's our only show." - -They crawled, wriggling forward, inching, but inching swiftly. Behind -them they heard voices, and a sudden running of heavy boots; before -them they heard a pot or pan dropped against Joe's stove, and then -Joe's excited muttering and the scuffle of Joe's boots. They scrambled -on; Deveril dragged himself, with a sudden heave, into the fringe of -the willow thicket; at his side, so close that elbow brushed elbow, -Lynette threw herself. They saw Joe come running out of his dugout; -they saw him pause a second; he could have seen them, surely, had he -looked down. But his eyes were for the canyon below, from which the -sudden voices had boomed up to him. And now came a voice again, that -first voice, shouting threateningly: - -"I got you covered, Joe! With my rifle. And I'll drop you dead if you -move! You know me, Joe ... me, Jim Taggart!" - -Still Joe hesitated ... and was lost. Up the steep slope came Jim -Taggart, and behind him Young Gallup; and after Gallup, Gallup's -man, Cliff Shipton. And every man of them carried a rifle, held in -readiness. Joe began to swear in Spanish, his voice shaken, quavering -with the fear upon him. - -Deveril put out his hand until it lay upon Lynette's arm; his fingers -gave her a quick, warning squeeze. Taggart and the others were coming -on swiftly; it was almost too much to hope that they could pass and not -see the two figures outstretched in the willows. Still, there was the -chance, slim chance as it was.... - -If only Joe, poor stupid fool, as Deveril savagely called him in his -heart, would make a bolt for it! Then there'd surely be such a drawing -of their eyes to him that they would not see a white elephant tethered -at the door! But Joe stood as if his feet had grown into the ground. -Save for his continued mutterings, as Joe poured forth his eloquent -Spanish curses, he would have appeared a man bereft of all volition. -And Taggart and Young Gallup and Shipton came on at a run. Deveril -clutched his club; he turned an inch or two to be ready. Lynette, lying -so close to him, felt his body stiffen and guessed his purpose, and -this time it was her hand closing tight upon his forearm, warning him -to hold to caution as long as there was hope. - -The three came steadily on, hastening all that they could up the steep -slope. A moment ago, when first Taggart called out, Joe might have -eluded them had he been lightning-swift and ready to take chances. But -now that he had hesitated, it was clear that his most shadowy hope of -escape was gone. He stood motionless, cursing them and his luck. - -Babe Deveril's fingers were tight, as tight as rage could weld them -about his oak stick. At that moment he could have welcomed the excuse -to leap out with the unexpectedness of a cataclysm and the rush of a -catapult, to heave his club upward and bring it down, full force, upon -Taggart's head. For now he had the added rancour in his heart that Jim -Taggart, with his following, had chosen this one moment to come up with -them, just as Babe Deveril was counting in full confidence upon the -first square meal in twenty-four hours. Taggart, less than threatening -his safety, was stealing the supper which he had counted on having from -Mexicali Joe. - -Jim Taggart began to laugh, more in malice than in mirth, and, most of -all, in an evil, gloating triumph. He came on, hurrying; he almost trod -on Lynette's boot. Instinctively she jerked away from him; yet only -because Taggart was so gloatingly bent upon his quarry he did not note -her movement, or must have supposed that he had set a stone rolling. - -"Ho!" cried Taggart. "Joe's a good kid after all, boys! He's waited for -us, and he's got us a piping-hot supper! Wonder how he guessed we were -starved like wildcats?" - -"Damn him!" Lynette heard Deveril, and her fingers gripped him with a -new agony of warning and supplication for silence. - -"What's that?" demanded Taggart, thinking that Gallup or Shipton had -spoken. - -"You robbers!" cried Joe nervously. "Already you tryin' rob me, las' -night. Now you tryin' rob me! I tell you...." - -"Shut up!" snapped Taggart. "Back into your dirty den and we'll have a -nice little talk with you." - -"I tell you...." - -Taggart was close upon him now and caught him by the shoulder, flinging -him about, shoving him through the squat door of his dugout. Slight -enough was the diversion, but both Lynette and Deveril were thankful -for it, for the two figures drew the eyes of both Gallup and Shipton -and held them. Joe reeled across the threshold; Taggart, not knowing -what weapon Joe might have lying on his bunk, sprang nimbly after him. -And Gallup and Shipton, to see everything, drew on close behind him. -They passed the willows about the spring and, stooping, went in at -Joe's door. - -Lynette and Deveril lay very still, hesitating to move hand or foot. -For both Gallup and Shipton stood on Joe's threshold, and that -threshold was a few steps only from their hiding-place. The snapping of -a twig, the crackling of a handful of dead leaves must certainly bring -swift, searching eyes upon them. - - - - -CHAPTER IX - - -"The first half chance we get," whispered Deveril, guardedly, "we've -got to sneak out of this! Lie still; I can see them without moving. -That man with the hawk face is turned this way." - -He could see neither Joe nor Taggart in the dugout. Gallup he could -see, barely across the threshold now, watching Taggart and the Mexican. -The man Shipton, evidently fagged from a hard day of it, had slumped -down on the log that served as door-step, and faced outward, save when -now and then he half turned to glance curiously at the sheriff and his -captive. - -"So we nabbed you, eh, Mexico?" gibed Taggart. "You damn little tricky -shrimp! To think you could put one across on me!" - -"Gatham you!" shrilled Joe. "You big t'ief, you try one time an' you -see! I ain't do nothin' to you; I got the right...." - -"Oh, shut up!" muttered Taggart impatiently. "Dry your palaver for -once. I'll give you chance enough to spill over when I get good and -ready." Outside Lynette and Deveril heard a sound which, in their -hunger, they were quick to read aright; Taggart, also hungry, had -stepped to the stove and had dragged a heavy iron frying-pan to him, -investigating its content. "Phew!" growled Taggart. "You infernal -garlic hound! Well, the jerked meat ought to go all right. And coffee, -huh? Come on, boys; we'll feed up, and then we'll tell Joe what's in -the wind." - -"I ain't got much grub," Joe shouted back at him. "An' I need it -mysel'. You go...." - -There was the sound of a blow and of scuffling feet, the thudding of a -body against the wall. - -"Take that," Taggart told him viciously. And, his ugly voice thick with -threat: "And thank your Dago saints I only used my fist! Next time, so -help me, I'll bash you with a rifle barrel. Say, Cliff...." - -"Say it," drawled Cliff. - -"Scare up some dry wood; the fire's near out. And, Joe, you dig up a -candle or lamp or something. I'd like a little light in this stinking -hole." - -Joe, though with infuriated mutterings, did as bid. Slowly the gaunt -form of Cliff Shipton rose from the rough-hewn log. - -"God, I'm tired," he said. And then, when no one thought to sympathize, -he demanded querulously: "Say, Mex, where's your wood-pile?" - -Gallup laughed at him. - -"Imagine the lazy hound having a wood-pile! Skirmish around, Cliff, and -pick up some dead sticks." - -Joe had found a stub of candle, and now its pale light vaguely -illuminated the dugout's interior. Since there was but the one opening, -the squat door, Deveril still saw only Gallup. Gallup by now was -sitting upon the narrow bunk at the back of the room, his rifle between -his knees, the shadow of his hat hiding his face. Shipton set his own -rifle down against the outside wall and began groping with his feet for -bits of wood. - -"It's getting awful dark for this kind of thing," he was telling -himself in his eternally complaining voice. "Ain't he got a box or a -chair or a table or something in there that'll burn?" he called. - -No one paid any attention to him and Shipton, scuffling gropingly with -his feet, widened his search. And now Lynette and Deveril scarcely -breathed. For it seemed inevitable that he was coming straight toward -the brushy-fringed spring where they lay. Deveril was now on his left -elbow, his body raised slightly, his legs drawn up under him, so -that he could readily fling himself to his feet, his oak club in his -right hand. Lynette understood and was ready, too; if Shipton came -dangerously near, she knew that it was Deveril's intent to drop him in -his tracks. Then there would remain but the one thing to do; to leap up -and run for it, run blindly, plunging into the nearest shadows, to run -on and on while men shot after them. - -Shipton came nearer. She felt Babe Deveril stir, ever so slightly. Her -only concern now was: Would he strike just at the very second that he -should? Would he strike a second too early, before it was necessary, -and thus needlessly give himself away? Would he strike just a second -too late, giving Shipton first the time to see and cry out? - -"God, I'm stiff and sore," Shipton was muttering. - -His foot struck something, and he reached down, thinking it was a bit -of wood. But it was a stone, dirt-covered, and he kicked at it and came -on. Now he was not two steps away. Again he stooped; as he stooped, -Babe Deveril raised himself an inch or two higher. But now Shipton -found a fragment of a pine log, half rotted and of little use as fuel. -But in his present mood it served him; he picked it up and turned back -to the dug-out. Lynette heard Deveril's slowly expelled breath. - -Within there was a scraping of frying-pan on stove top. They saw a tin -plate handed to Gallup on his bunk; Gallup began eating, noisy about -it; eating like a dog. Shipton went in with his log. Taggart caught -it from him, broke it up by striking it against the hard-packed dirt -floor, and began stoking the stove. A fresh gush of sparks shot up from -Joe's chimney. Shipton was demanding to be fed ... and for God's sake -give him a shot of coffee. - -"Now's our chance," whispered Deveril. "None too good, but the best -we're going to have! Ready?" - -And her whisper came back to him, "Always ready!" - -"Now," he whispered. "Off to the right; slow and quiet; if once we can -snake across this open place and into the timber over there...." - -"And now, Senor Joe," came Taggart's voice, and they knew from the -sound that Taggart, mouth full, was eating ravenously, "we got you!" - -"Sure you got me," Joe rasped out at him, and still there remained -defiance in little Mexicali Joe. "Fine! But what you do with me? You -can't eat me, an' nobody ever yet put any bounty on my hide, an' when -you got me ... you no got nothin'. An', _cabrone_, what I got I keep -him!" - -Taggart laughed at him in Taggart's ugly style. - -"Talk big, little hombre, while you can! And now let me tell you -something: To-night, right now, inside ten minutes, you're going to -tell me just exactly where you got that stuff you spilled out of your -pocket last night. And in the morning, bright and early, you're going -to take me there!" - -"I die firs'!" - -"You'll be a long time dying! Think I'm fool enough to kill you ... -now? Know what the third degree is, Joe?" Taggart's voice was terrible -with its insinuation. "Me, when I give the third degree to any man, he -spills his guts before I'm done with him! You'll cough up everything -you know and be damn glad afterward to crawl off in the woods and die! -That's me, Joe." - -Gallup, who must have found amusement in watching Mexicali Joe's -expression, laughed. After him Cliff Shipton laughed like an echo. Joe -began cursing nervously. - -"Ready?" whispered Lynette. Taggart's threats horrified her and set her -trembling. - -"No!... Don't you see? Taggart will make him tell everything he knows, -if he has to knock his teeth out one by one and break every bone in his -body! And I'm going to hear!... You crawl ahead while there's a chance; -I can up and run for it after you if I have to." - -She was silent. There was excitement in his utterance and another -quality which sent a sudden chill to her heart. She stared at him -through the dark as at a stranger; the gold fever was rampant in his -veins, and she knew that he would lie here, never lifting hand or -voice, while Taggart tortured his captive until Joe shrieked out his -golden secret. - -Before Lynette could speak or move, Taggart's voice once more cut -harshly through the silence. - -"You wouldn't know, Joe, unless you'd been sheriff as long as me, how -many nice little ways there are of making a man hurry up about spitting -up all he knows!" Taggart was steadily cramming into his mouth the -half-cooked dried beef stew, appearing to have entirely forgotten -his dislike for garlic. "Me, I'm a man of brains and what you call -invention; I look around and see what I've got handy, and out of it I -make what I need! Now, look here. You see us boys eating hearty, and, -if I know what that look means in a man's eye, you got an appetite -yourself? Well, you don't get a scrap to eat nor a drink to drink until -you open up." - -Joe sought to laugh at him. Taggart, still stuffing, went on steadily: - -"Next, you see the stove with its hot lids? All right, pretty quick we -hold you so the palms of your hands stick to the hot lids and the skin -burns off. Oh, I know that don't hurt so much a man can't stand it; -sure not. But it does sort to set him to thinking things over in a new -fashion! And then, what next?" - -"Make him eat salt," put in Shipton with a snicker. "And don't give him -any water! Lots of salt does the trick, Jimmie." - -Taggart, a man of no subtlety, snorted at him. - -"Maybe you can tell gold when you see it, Cliff," he said briefly. "But -that's all you do know.... Listen to me, Mexico. We got our rifles, -ain't we? We stand you with your back to the wall and dare you to move! -Then we practise shooting; just to see how close we can come! We don't -hit you, us three being good shots. Anyway, we don't hit you often, and -then it's only grazes! We make a game out of it; every man takes a shot -and him that comes closest gets a dollar every time; him that draws -blood puts up two dollars in the pot. And, pretty soon.... What are you -looking so sick for, Joe? Nobody ain't hurt you yet!" - -Joe's curses were suddenly faint, for Joe's mouth and throat were dry -and he had grown limp and dizzy and sick. - -"You see, I got you, Joe. Got you dead to rights!" - -"The brute!" whispered Lynette, her own flesh set twitching. "The -horrible brute!" - -"Sh! Just listen!" - -"I don't believe he'd actually do that! He is just frightening -Joe--bluffing...." - -"You the sheriff!" cried Joe, desperate. "You the one bigges' robber in -all these mount'!" - -"Call me robber, will you, you skunk!" - -Again they heard the sound of the blow, struck fiercely by Jim Taggart, -who, as he let all men understand, was the last man to brook an insult. -And they heard Joe's slight body hurled back, so that he toppled and -fell. And, thereafter, Taggart's brutish laughter. To-night, Jim -Taggart, no matter how disgruntled he had been during so many hours, -was at last enjoying himself. For to-night he was secure in his -expectations. - -"You bleed awful easy, Joe," he jeered. "Ought to go get your teeth -straightened up, too! Cup of coffee? No? Then I'll take one; _gracias, -mi amigo!_" - -"I hope you burn in hell!" screamed Joe. - -"So?" And Taggart, swinging heavily, knocked him down again, and then -reached out for the can that held sugar and sweetened his coffee. -Shipton sniggered. - -"You're a corker, Jim!" he declared. - -"Me," acknowledged Taggart heavily, "I am what I am. But I never laid -down for a Mex breed yet, and I ain't going to." - -Joe lay where he had fallen. His body was pain-wracked, for when -Jim Taggart struck in wrath he struck mightily, being a mighty man -physically, and hard. Joe's swart skin had paled; his eyes started from -his head; he feared, and not without reason, that a third blow like -that would kill him. And he knew that Jim Taggart was no man to lie -awake because he had killed another man. - -"I got thirs'," said Joe thickly. He was sitting up, on the floor. -"Give me cup water!" - -"What did I tell you, Joe?" Taggart grinned at him. "I got you. Got you -right." - -"I burnin' up," said Joe weakly. "Maybe you killin' me. Give me drink -water." - -"I got you, Joe," said Taggart speculatively. No mockery now; just a -vast, deep satisfaction. "I half believe one good kick in the belly -would settle you and you'd tell all you know. I got a hunch...." - -"Go slow, Jim." This from the avaricious Young Gallup. "No sense -killing him, seeing you haven't found out a thing." - -"You're right, Gal. Well, give him a drink, then; half a cup of water -and let him think things over.... If he opens up then, O. K. If he -don't we'll find the way to open him up." - -"Let me go to the spring," said Joe. By now he was on his feet. "I was -jus' goin' for water when you come. The spring, she's right there. You -can see I don't run away...." - -"Go scoop him up a can of water, Cliff," said Taggart. "You sit tight, -Joe. You don't go out to-night unless we take you out to put you in a -hole!" - -"_Now!_" whispered Deveril sharply. "Now we've got to crawl for it!" - -But Cliff Shipton demurred, saying surlily: - -"I'm tired out, and I'm sore and stiff and stove-up. Let him go without -his water." - -"We were crazy for waiting so long!" complained Deveril. "Hurry!" - -In the dugout Gallup was saying slowly, after his ponderous fashion: - -"I'll go get him his water. After that, like you say, Jim, he'll -open up--wide! Or, if he don't, I'll break his jaw-bone with my boot -heel.... Where's a can?" - -Already Babe Deveril had wormed his way out of the willows and began -creeping about the edge of the tiny thicket that was farthest from -Joe's cabin. Lynette, feeling weak and sick, followed him like his own -shadow. Thus they skirted the brushy fringe of the spring. - -Then Gallup, carrying his can, came out. Deveril dropped flat and lay -motionless, his body hidden, at least to careless eyes, by the spring -willows. Lynette dropped flat just behind him. She knew that again -Deveril was ready to leap and strike, mercilessly hard, if Gallup came -too near. It was almost an even chance whether Gallup would come their -way or not.... Lynette, cold and tired and hungry and at last afraid, -shivered. - -But, almost immediately, it became obvious to both of them that Gallup -had been here before and knew his way about. He turned, as they had -hoped that he would, to the right; they heard him reach the spring and -dip his pan and fill it and turn back to the dugout, slopping water -after him. They saw him step on the threshold; already Deveril was -crawling cautiously again, and, after him, Lynette. - -It was like life in a nightmare. So tortuously slow. So great a need -for quiet, and, like jeering, mocking voices, there came so many -little sounds, loud in their ears--twigs snapping, leaves rustling, -tiny stones set rolling. At first, what with the dark and her sole -thought to be gone, Lynette failed to understand just how Deveril -was directing his course. When she did grasp, she wondered at him. -Instead of hurrying straight across the clearing toward the haven of -the timber-line, he was drawing nearer and nearer the west end of the -dugout! Now she dared not whisper to him; she could not come up with -him to catch warningly at his boot. So she followed, striving with all -her caution to overtake him. And before she could do so, she glimpsed -his purpose. - -True to type, Joe's dugout had but the one door, and the rear of the -building was a sort of timbered hole in the mountainside. Deveril -planned that if he could gain the back of the dugout he could hear -what was going on and run little danger of being detected; further, -that in that direction, did he elect to up and run for cover, he and -Lynette would have as good a chance as any to get away in the rim of -the forest. If they moved with all possible silence, and especially if -Taggart and the others within kept up their noise-making, snapping -and snarling and knocking things about, it was more than an even -break that neither Taggart nor any of his companions would come to -suspect that they were being spied upon; and when did Babe Deveril -ever ask more than the even break? Then ... there remained one other -consideration, one of exceedingly great importance in Deveril's -estimation, of which as yet Lynette had no inkling: while in hiding -down by the spring Deveril had made a discovery, or believed that he -had, and no opportunity had been given him either to speak of it or yet -to investigate. - -Clearly now was the moment when Taggart and Gallup and the complaining -Cliff Shipton concentrated every thought upon their captive; Joe showed -signs of weakening, and every man of them held that if only Joe could -be led to "open up" they would all be made rich at his expense. - -Meanwhile Gallup had given Joe his water; Joe had drunk rapidly, -gulping noisily. Taggart and Gallup and Shipton were eying him eagerly. -Joe had taken a deep breath; again he started to drink. Taggart struck -the can away from his mouth, commanding: "No more. You've got to talk -first; fast and straight and no lies! Understand?" - -"How you goin' tell if I lie?" muttered Joe, something of his -stubbornness restored. - -"Right now you tell us where the gold is. In the morning you take us to -the place. And if you make a little mistake and don't take us straight, -I'll make you sorry you were ever born!" - -Deveril and Lynette passed within a few yards of the dugout's nearest -front corner; they groped onward up the steep slope; they came in a -brief detour to the rear, where the rude timbers supporting the shed -roof were at this end embedded in the earth. Here they stopped and -lay flat and listened. And they heard Joe mumbling: "If I tell, I tell -true. But I don't think I tell. You kick me out; you steal everything; -you get rich an' me--I die poor. Maybe better I die and fool you!" - -"Listen, Joe." Gallup speaking--Gallup, who feared that Joe might be -fool enough to die with locked lips rather than be robbed of his new -fortune; Gallup, a man who could understand another man doing anything, -standing any torture, rather than lose the one golden thing in life. -"We'll make you a fair proposition, us three men. You found the gold; -all right, you got a right to a share. You can't hog it anyhow; other -men will come rushing in as soon as you drop a pick in it; they'll -stake claims all around you; more'n likely they'll cop off the very -cream of it, and you'll have just a pocket that will peter out on you. -We brought Cliff along; he knows pockets and veins and all kind of gold -signs, from stock to barrel. Now, you show sense; you take us along; -we form a company, just us four. And you get one-fourth the rake-off. -And we got the money to develop it; to make a big thing out of it. You -ain't got the money and you ain't got the business brains, and you'd -lose on it sooner or later, anyhow." - -Silence. A long silence while three men watched him and while Deveril -and Lynette listened. A long silence during which all that strangely -blended craft which flowed into Mexicali Joe's veins from a mixture of -Latin and Indian ancestry was hard at work ... though this no one could -guess now, so immobile was Joe's face, so guarded his tone when he -spoke. - -"That sound fine, Gallup! But how I know you don't cheat me? For why -you don't hit me in the head with a pick when I tell? For why you don't -take all ... everything?" - -"I'm telling you why!" cried Gallup. "Look here. Suppose we did that -and croaked you and dug a hole and stuck you in. All right. Next thing -we pop up with a new gold-mine! And there'll be men to say: 'That ore -looks like the ore Mexicali Joe showed that night down to Gallup's -house!' And they'll say: 'Where's Joe?' And they'll begin making -trouble, all kinds; they'll want to run us out. They'll have us up -for killing you. There'll be a lot of talk, and always the chance, as -long's we live, they might pin something on us. And what would we make -by that sort of work? _Only a one-quarter interest in your diggings!_ -Why, man, it ain't worth it! We got too much sense to kill any man for -the sake of a little ante like that. Sure, Joe; dead on the level, if -you play square with us, we play square with you." - -Silence again. A longer silence than before. Then, while Joe must have -appeared to hesitate, Taggart said abruptly: - -"And if you don't take our proposition and talk fast and straight, I'm -going to _make_ you talk! And then you don't get no thanks but a kick -and a get-the-hell-out! That's my way, you little greaser." - -"Give him time, Jim," pleaded Gallup. - -"All right!" cried Joe, seeming eager now. "I take the chance! You boys -just tell me 'So help me God, I play square!' and I take the chance!" - -"So help me God!" cried Young Gallup, first of all. "I play square with -you, Joe!" - -And after him, while Joe waited, both Taggart and Cliff Shipton said, -with a semblance of deep gravity: "So help me God." - -"We pardners now? Us four?" demanded Joe. And when he had had his three -immediate, emphatic assurances--Deveril misjudged him a fool--Joe -began, speaking rapidly: "_Bueno!_ Now we talk. An' in the mornin' we -start an' to-morrow I show you! I got the bigges' mine you can't beat -in all New Mexico an' Arizona an' Nevada, too! For why I care take on -three pardners? I tell you, we got the money to devil-him-up, we all -rich like hell!..." - -"Get going, Joe," growled Taggart. "Where? Down Light Ladies' Canyon, -and not more'n three or four miles from Big Pine?" - -Joe cackled his derision at Taggart's guess. - -"Me, I fool ever'body!" he said gleefully. "Me, I'm damn smart man, -Senor Taggart! Nowhere near Light Ladies'. The other way. We go all day -to-morrow, way back up in the mountains. One long, hard day, walkin'. -Maybe day an' a half. You know where Buck Valley? All right; you know, -on other side, Big Bear Creek? An' then you know, little bit more far, -two-t'ree mile, Grub Stake Canyon? You know...." - -"By the living Lord," broke in Taggart. "That's right square in Bruce -Standing's country!" - -Again Joe cackled. - -"You know whole lot; you don't know ever'thing! Timber-Wolf's lands run -like this." (One could imagine a grimy forefinger set in a dirty palm.) -"His line, here. My mine, she's just the other side. Nobody's land; -gover'ment land." He chuckled. "An' ol' big Timber-Wolf, he goin' cry -... _boo-hoo-hoo!_ ... when he find out we got gold not mile an' half -from his line!" - - -Deveril was twitching at Lynette's sleeve. He began edging away. When -she came up with him he was standing; she rose and, together they -hurried across the clearing, and in a few moments were in the deep dark -of the embracing forest land. - -"I know that country like a map!" he told her excitedly. "We were -already headed that way, and on we go! Why, it was right up by Big -Bear Creek that I spent a night with Bruce Standing six years ago -and he robbed me of my roll!... They start in the morning; we start -to-night! We'll be there when they come; there are ten thousand places -to hide out; we'll have a place on a ridge where we can watch them. And -they'll never have the vaguest idea that any one, you and I least of -all, is ahead of them. Somehow, Lynette Brooke, our luck is with us and -this whole game is going to play into our hands." - -"If a little food would only play into them!... The smell of that -coffee ... the meat cooking...." - -"Wait! Right here, by this tree. Don't move a step, no matter what -happens. I'll be back with you in two shakes." - -She was almost too tired and faint from hunger to wonder at him. She -saw him go, and then she sank down, her back to the big yellow pine. -He went as straight as a string toward the spring; she saw him walking -swiftly, though with footfalls so guarded that she could not hear him -when he had gone ten steps. She knew that he was recklessly counting -upon a deal of quick chatter in the dugout, secure in his own bravado -that no man of the four there would at this electrically charged moment -have thought of anything but gold. He disappeared in the dark; he was -gone so long that she jumped up and stood staring in all directions; -but at last he was back at her side, chuckling, and then she knew he -had not been away ten minutes. - -"I struck it with my elbow, while we were hiding down there," he told -her triumphantly. "Mexicali Joe's real cache!" - -He had a square tin biscuit-box in his hands. She put her hand in -quickly. The box, which had been half buried in the cool earth by the -spring, was half full of tins and small packages. - -Fatigue fled out of them. Hurriedly they went up over the ridge, deeper -and deeper into the forest land. And when, in half an hour, they came -down into the dark, tree-walled bed of another ravine, they made them -their small fire and tumbled out into its light their newly acquired -treasure-trove--sardines, beans, tinned milk ... yes, coffee! - - - - -CHAPTER X - - -"So the sheriff, Jim Taggart, is not dead, after all. And you...." - -Deveril looked across their tiny fire at her, a strange expression in -his eyes, and said quietly: - -"No; he is not dead. All along I judged that unlikely. Though I slung -your gun at him hard enough, if it hit a lucky spot. It's hard to kill -a man, you know.... And, to finish your thought, I am not running wild -with a hangman's noose hanging about my neck! And you...." - -He took a certain devilish glee in concluding with an echo of her own -words. And with the added insinuation poured into them from his own. He -saw her jerk her head up defiantly. - -"I told you...." - -Again she broke off. He made no remark, but sat looking at her -intently. They had eaten and drunk their fill; there remained to them a -goodly stock of provisions; Deveril was smoking his cigarette. - -"What now?" demanded Lynette, as one tired of a subject and impatient -to look forward. - -He shrugged. - -"All troubles have slipped off my shoulders. The worst they could -do to me, if they could lay me by the heels, would be to charge me -with assault and battery! And we're in a neck of the woods where men -laugh at a charge like that, and ask the assaulted one why the devil -he didn't hit back! What now? For you I'd advise keeping right on -travelling. For if Bruce Standing is dead it's up to you to keep -on the move! As for me, I never met up with a sweeter travelling -companion, nor yet with a nervier, nor yet, by God, with a lovelier! -Say the word, Lynette Brooke, and we strike on together, over the ridge -and deeper into the wilderness, headed for the land beyond Buck Valley, -beyond Big Bear Creek. For the wild lands beyond the last holdings -of the late Timber-Wolf, to be on the ground when Mexicali Joe leads -Taggart and Gallup and Shipton to his gold!" - -She understood how Babe Deveril, as any man should be, was relieved -at knowing that the man he had stricken down was not dead; that -he, himself, was not hunted as a murderer. And yet she was vaguely -distressed and uneasy. She felt a change in him, and in his attitude -toward her.... When he awaited her reply, she made none. Again fatigue -swept over her, and with it a new stirring of uneasiness.... - -There was a drop of coffee left; she leaned forward and took it, -thinking: "He had his tobacco, and it has bolstered up his nerves." She -drank and then sat back, leaning against a tree, her face hidden from -him, while she searched his face in the dim light, searched it with a -stubborn desire to read the most hidden thought in his brain. - -"I am tired," she said after a long while. He could make nothing of her -voice, low and impersonal, and with no inflection to give it expression -beyond the brief meanings of the words themselves. "Very tired. Yet -necessity drives. And it is not safe here, so near them. I can go on -for another hour, perhaps two or three hours. That will mean ... how -far? Four or five miles; maybe six, seven?" - -Not only for one hour, not alone for just two or three hours did they -push on. But for half of that silent, starry night. A score of times -Babe Deveril said to her: "We've done our stunt; if any girl on earth -ever earned rest, you've done it." But always there was that driving -force and that allure, and another ridge just ahead, and her answer: -"Another mile.... I can do it." - -Deveril, with a lighted match cupped in his hand, looked at his watch. - -"It's long after midnight; nearly one o'clock." - -They found a sheltered spot among the tall pines; above them the -keen edge of an up-thrust ridge; just below a thick-grown clump of -underbrush; underfoot dry needles, fallen and drifted from the pines. -Again he was all courtesy and kindliness toward her, seeing her hard -pressed, judging her, despite her mask of hardihood, near collapse. So -he cut pine boughs with his knife and broke them with his hands, and of -them piled her a couch. She thanked him gently; impulsively she gave -him her hand ... though, as his caught it eagerly, she jerked it away -quickly.... He watched her lie down, snuggling her cheek against the -curve of her arm. Near by he lay down on his back, his two hands under -his head, his eyes on the stars. A curious smile twitched at his lips. - -And then, just as they were dropping off to sleep, they heard far off -a long-drawn, howling cry piercing through the great hush. Lynette -started up, her blood quickening; as she had heard Bruce Standing's -warning call that first time, so now did she think to hear it again. -Deveril leaped to his feet, no less startled. A moment later he called -softly to her, and it seemed to Lynette that he forced a tone of -lightness which did not ring true: - -"A timber wolf ... but one that runs on four legs! It won't come near." -Then, as she made no answer and he could not see her face, he asked -sharply: "What did you think it was?" - -She shivered and lay back. - -"I didn't know." - -And to herself she whispered: - -"And I don't know now!" - -Here among the uplands it was a night of piercing cold. The nearer the -dawn drew on, the icier grew the fingers of the wind which swept the -ridges and probed into the canyons. For a little while both Lynette -and Deveril slept the heavy sleep of exhaustion. But, after the first -couple of hours, neither slept beyond brief, uncomfortable dozes. They -shivered and woke and stirred; they found a growing torture in the rude -couches they slept upon, in the hard ground and stones, which seemed -always thrusting up in new places. Long before the night had begun to -thin to the first of daybreak's hint, Lynette was sitting, her back to -a tree, torn between the two impossibilities, that of remaining awake, -that of remaining asleep. Deveril got up and began stamping about, -trying to get warm and drive the cramp and soreness out of his muscles. - -"A few more days and nights like this," he grumbled, "would be enough -to kill a pair of Esquimos! We've got to find us some sort of half-way -decent shelter for another night, and we've got to arrange to take a -holiday and rest up." - -It was all that she could do to keep her teeth from chattering by -shutting them hard together; her only answer was a shivery sigh. She -could scarcely make him out, where he trod back and forth, the darkness -held so thick. She began to think so longingly of a fire that in -comparison with its cheer and warmth she felt that possible discovery -by Taggart would be a small misfortune. She could almost welcome being -put under arrest; taken back to Big Pine and jail; given a bed and -covers and one long sleep. - -"Awake?" queried Deveril. - -She nodded, as though he could see her nod through the dark. Then, with -an effort, she said an uncertain: "Y-e-s." - -"I'll tell you," he said presently, coming close to her and looking -down upon the blot in the darkness which her huddled figure made at -the base of the pine. "Taggart will be on his way soon; he'll hardly -wait for day. He'll go the straightest, quickest way to the Big Bear -country. That means he'll steer on straight into Buck Valley. If you -and I went that way, we'd have him and his crowd at our heels all day, -and never know how close they were; and I, for one, am damned sick of -that _feeling_ that somebody's creeping up on us all the time! So we -swerve out from the direct way as soon as we start; we curve off to -the north for a couple of miles; then we make a bend around toward the -upper end of what I fancy must be the Grub Stake Canyon Joe is headed -for. That way we'll always have two or three miles between our trail -and theirs; at times we'll be five or six miles off to the side. That -means, of course, that they're pretty sure to get to Joe's diggings -ahead of us; not over half a day at that. For we're well ahead of them -now. And, in any case, you can bet the last sardine we've got that -they'll be a day or two just poking around, prospecting and trying to -make sure of what they've grabbed off.... Agreed, pardner?" - -"Yes. I could even start now, just to get those few miles between our -trail and theirs. Then, when the sun was up and it was warm, we could -have a rest and an hour's sleep." - -So, walking slowly, painfully, carrying what was left of their small -stock of provisions, they started on in the dark. Up a ridge they went -and into the thinning edge of the coming dawn; they picked their way -among trees and rocks; little by little they were able to see in more -detail what lay about them. Along the ridge they tramped northward. -They were warmer now that they walked; or, rather, they were some -degrees less cold. Gradually their paces grew swifter, as some of the -stiffness went out of their bodies; gradually the shadows thinned; the -stars paled, the east asserted itself above the other points of the -compass, softly tinted. The sleeping world began to awake all about -them; birds stirred with the first drowsy twitterings. The pallid -eastern tints grew brighter; as from a wine-cup, life was spilled again -upon the mountain tops. A bird began a clear-noted, joyous singing; -all of a sudden the morning breeze seemed sweeter and softer; there -came a brilliant, flaming glory in the sky which drew their eyes; all -life forces which had been at ebb began to flow strongly once more; -the sun thrust a gleaming golden edge up into the upper world, rolling -majestically from the under world. Deveril looked into her eyes and -laughed softly; her eyes smiled back into his.... She felt as though -she had had a bad dream, but was awake now; as though last night her -nerves had tricked her into wrongly judging her companion. Doubtings -always flock in the night; joy is never more joyous than when breaking -forth with the new day. - -"It isn't so bad, after all," said Deveril. "Now, if we only had a -pack-mule and a roll of blankets and a bit of canvas.... What more -would you ask, Lynette Brooke, for a lark and a holiday to remember -pleasantly when we grew to be doddering old folks?" - -"As long as you are wishing," returned Lynette lightly, "why not place -an order with the King of Ifs for a gun and some fishing-tackle and a -frying-pan and some more coffee? And a couple of hats; an outing suit -for me." She looked down at her suit; it was torn in numerous places; -it was gummed and sticky here and there with the resin from pines; it -caught upon every bush. "Then, you know, a needle and some thread; a -dozen fresh eggs, bread, and butter...." - -"Too much soft living has spoiled you!" he laughed. - -"If so, I am in ideal training to get unspoiled in short order!" she -laughed back. - -And for all of this was the rising sun and the new, bright day -responsible; for the ancient way of youth playing up to youth. - -What was happening within both of them was a great nervous relaxation. -They knew where Taggart and Gallup were, or at least were confident -that there was no immediate danger of Taggart and Gallup overhauling -them; they knew where Mexicali Joe was and where he was going. For the -moment they were freed from that crushing sense of uncertainty welded -to menace which had borne down upon them ever since they fled from Big -Pine. And consequently joy of life sprang up as a spring leaps the -instant that the weight is plucked from it. - -"It's our lucky day!" said Deveril. - -For the sun was scarcely up when a plump young rabbit hopped square -into their path, and Deveril, with a lucky throw, killed it with a -rock. And just as they were speaking of thirst, they came to a tiny -trickle of water among the rocks; and while Lynette was boiling coffee -over a tiny blaze, Deveril was preparing grilled cottontail for -breakfast. Savory odors floating out through the woodlands. Lynette was -singing softly: - - - "_Merry it is in the good Greenwood!_" - - -They ate and rested and the sun warmed them. For a full two hours they -scarcely stirred. Then they drank again; Lynette bathed her hands and -face and arms; she set her hair in order, refashioning the two thick -braids. She shut one eye and then the other, striving to make certain -that there was not a black smudge somewhere upon her nose. They were -starting on when Deveril said soberly: - -"Shall I save the rabbit skin?" - -"Why?" she asked innocently. - -A twinkle came into his eyes. - -"A few more days of this sort of life, and My Lady Linnet is going to -require a new gown! Perhaps rabbit furs, if hunting is good, will do -it!" - -She laughed at him, and her eyes were daring as she sang, improvising -as to melody: - - - "And for vest of pall, thy fingers small, - That wont on harp to stray, - A cloak must sheer from the slaughtered deer, - To keep the cold away!" - - -"_Lynette!_" - -A flash from her gay mood had set his eyes on fire. He sprang up and -came toward her, his two hands out. But as a black cloud can run over -the face of the young moon, so did a sudden change of mood wipe the -tempting look out of her eyes and darken them. Her spirit had peeped -forth at him, merry-making; as quick as bird-flight it was gone, and -she stepped back and looked at him steadily, cool now and aloof and -dampening to a man's ardent nonsense. - -"You have a way of saying something, Babe Deveril," she told him -coolly, "which appeals to me. In your own upstanding words: 'Let's go!'" - -He laughed back at her lightly, hiding under a light cloak his own -chagrin. At that moment he had wanted her in his arms; had wanted -that as he wanted neither Mexicali Joe's gold nor any other coldly -glittering thing. Now he felt himself growing angry with her.... - -"Right. You've said it. Let's go." - -He made short work of catching up the few articles they were to carry -with them and of stamping into dead coals the few remaining glowing -embers of their fire. Then, striding ahead, he led the way. And for a -matter of a mile or more she was hard beset to keep up with him. - - -The day was filled with happenings to divert their thoughts from any -one channel. They startled, in a tiny meadow, three deer, which shot -away through a tangle of brush, leaping, plunging, shooting forward -and down a slope like great, gleaming, graceful arrows. "A man could -live like a king here, with a rifle," said Deveril longingly. They -saw a tall, thin wisp of smoke an hour before noon; it stood against -the sky to the southwest of them, at a distance of perhaps two miles. -"Taggart's noonday camp," they decided, deciding further that Taggart -must have insisted on an early start, and therefore had found his -stomach demanding lunch well before midday. Later, some two or three -hours after twelve, they heard the long, reverberating crack and rumble -and echo of a rifle-shot. "Taggart's crowd, killing a deer or bear or -rabbit," they imagined. And all along they were contented, making what -time they could through the open spaces, over the ridges, down through -tiny green valleys and up long, dreary slopes, resting frequently, -never hastening beyond their powers, secure in knowing that the Taggart -trail and the Lynette-Deveril trail, though paralleling, would have no -common point of contact before both trails ran into the country in the -vicinity of the Big Bear Creek, the rim of the Timber-Wolf country. - -"The whole thing," exulted Babe Deveril, "lies in the fact that we -know where they are and they haven't the least idea where we are! We -know where they are going, and they haven't a guess which way we are -steering...." - -"Do you know," said Lynette thoughtfully, "I don't believe that -Mexicali Joe intends for a minute to lead them to his gold!" - -Deveril looked at her in astonishment. - -"You don't! Why, couldn't you see that Taggart put the fear of the Lord -into him? That Gallup, slick as wet soap, tricked him? That...." - -She broke in impatiently, saying: - -"Yet Joe.... He seemed to me to give in to them in something too much -of a hurry ... as though he had his own wits about him, his own last -card in the hole, as dad used to say. I wonder...." - -He stared at her, puzzled. - -"When you _feel_ things," he muttered, none too pleasantly, "you get me -guessing. I don't know yet how you came to know that the Taggart bunch -was at our heels yesterday. But you did know; and you were right. As to -this other hunch of yours...." - -"You'll see," said Lynette serenely. "Joe isn't the biggest fool in -that crowd of four. You wait and see." - -"You'll give me the creeps yet," said Deveril. - -They both laughed and went on--through brushy tangles; over rocky -ridges; through spacious forests; across soft, springy meadows; up -slope, down slope; on and on and endlessly on. Once they frightened a -young bear that was tearing away as if its life depended upon it upon -an old stump; the bear snorted and went lumbering away, as Deveril -said, like a young freight-train gone mad; Lynette, as she admitted -afterward, was twice as frightened, but did not run, herself, because -the bear ran first and because she couldn't get the hang of her feet as -quickly as he could! They came upon several bands of mountain-quail, -which shot away, buzzing like overgrown bees; Deveril hurled stones -and curses at many a scampering rabbit; once she and once he caught a -glimpse of that dark gleam, come and gone in a flash, which might have -been coyote or timber-wolf.... They did not speak of Bruce Standing. -But they wondered, both of them.... - -Toward four o'clock in the afternoon they heard for the second time the -crack of a rifle-shot. Farther to the south of them this time; a hint -farther eastward; fainter than when first heard. Taggart, they held in -full confidence, was following the trail which they had mapped for him; -he was going on steadily; he was forging ahead of them. And yet they -were content that this was so. They rested more often; they relaxed -more and more. - -And before the brief reverberations of a distant rifle-shot had done -echoing through the gorges, they came to a full stop and determined to -make camp. Not for a second, all day long, had Deveril swerved from his -determination to "dig in in comfort for the night." They were, as both -were willing to admit, "done in." - -Deveril employed his pocket-knife, long ago dulled, and now whetted -after a fashion upon a rough stone, to whack off small pine and willow -and the more leafy of sage branches. He made of them a goodly heap. -Then he gathered dead limbs, fallen from the parent trees, making his -second pile. All the while Lynette kept a small dry-wood and pine-cone -fire going hotly; little smoke, little swirl of sparks to rise above -the grove in which they were encamping; plenty of heat for body warmth -and for cooking. She was preoccupied, moving about listlessly. So -this was Bruce Standing's country? She looked about her with an -ever-deepening interest; this was a fitting land for such a man. -Bigness and dominance and a certain vital freshness struck altogether -the key-note here--and suggested Timber-Wolf. If he were not dead after -all---- Well, then, he would be somewhere near now for like a wounded -animal, he would have returned to his solitudes. - -Deveril found near by a level space under the pines. Here he sought out -a scraggly tree which expressed an earth-loving soul in low-drooped -branches. Against a low arm which ran out horizontally from the trunk -he began placing his longer dead limbs, the butts in the ground, -sloping, the effect soon that of a tent. Against these a high-piled -wall of leafy branches. He stood back, judging from which direction -the wind would come. He piled more branches. Into his nostrils, filled -with the resinous incense of broken pine twigs, floated the tempting -aromas which spread out in all directions from Lynette's cooking. He -cocked his eye at the slanting sun; it was still early. He yielded to -the insistent invitation, and came down into the little cup of a meadow -to her, and she watched him coming: a picturesque figure in the forest -land, his black hair rumpled, his slender figure swinging on, his -sleeves rolled back, his eyes full of the flicker of his lively spirit. - -When Deveril was hard pressed along the trail, worn out and on the -alert for oncoming danger from any quarter, he was impersonal; a mere -ally on whom she could depend. At moments like this one, when he was -rested and relaxed, and grasped in his eager hands a bit of the swift -life flowing by, he became different. A man now--a young man--one with -quick lights in his eyes and a lilting eagerness in his voice. - -"It would be great sport," he said, "all life long ... to come home to -you and find you waiting ... with a smile and a wee cup o' tea! And...." - -He was half serious, half laughing; she made a hasty light rejoinder, -and invited him to a hot supper waiting him. - -They made a merry, frivolously light meal of it. There was plenty to -eat; water near by; there was coffee; above them the infinity of blue, -darkening skies, about them the peace and silence of the solitudes. And -within their souls security, if only for the swiftly passing moment. -They chose to be gay; they laughed often; Deveril asked her where -she had learned to quote Scott and she asked him, in obvious retort, -if he thought that she had never been to school! He sang for her, -low-voiced and musically, a Spanish love-song; she made high pretense -at missing the significance of the impassioned southern words. He, -having finished eating and having nearly finished his cigarette, lying -back upon the thick-padded pine-needles, jerked himself up, of a mood -for free translation; she, being quick of intuition, forestalled him, -crying out: "While I clean up our can dishes, if you will finish making -camp...." - -He laughed at her, but got up and went back, whistling his love-song -refrain to his house-building. She, busied over her own labors, found -time more than once to glance at him through the trees ... wondering -about him, trying to probe her own instinctive distrust of one who had -all along befriended her. - -When she joined him a few minutes later, coming up the slope slowly, -she looked tired, he thought, and listless. She sat down and watched -him finishing his labors; all of her spontaneous gaiety had fled; she -was silent and did not smile and appeared preoccupied. She sighed two -or three times, unconsciously, but her sighs did not escape him. Always -he had held her sex to be an utterly baffling, though none the less an -equally fascinating one. Now he would have given more than a little for -a clew to her thoughts ... or dreamings ... or vague preoccupation.... - -"My lady's bower!" he said lightly. "And what does my lady have to say -of it?" - -A truly bowery little shelter it was, on leaning poles in an inverted -V, with leafy boughs making thick walls, through which only slender -sun-rays slipped in a golden dust; within a high-heaped pile of -fragrant boughs, with a heap of smaller green twigs and resinous -pine-tips for her couch. - -"You are so good to me, Babe Deveril," was her grave answer. - -And not altogether did her answer please him, for a quick hint of frown -touched his eyes, though he banished it almost before she was sure of -it. Those words of hers, though they thanked him, most of all reminded -him of his goodness and gentleness with her, and thus went farther and -assured him that she still counted upon his goodness and gentleness. - -"I am afraid, Babe Deveril," she added quickly, though still her eyes -were grave and her lips unsmiling, "that I am pretty well tired out ... -all sort of let-down like, as an old miner I once knew used to say! -It's going to be sundown in a few minutes; can't we treat ourselves to -the luxury of a good blazing camp-fire, and sit by it, and get good and -warm and rested?" - -Had she spoken her true thought she would have cried out instead: - -"What troubles me, Babe Deveril, is that I am half afraid of you. -And, all of a sudden, of the wilderness. And of life and of all the -mysteries of the unknown! I am as near screaming from sheer nervousness -at this instant as I ever was in my life." - -But Deveril, who could glean of her emotions only what she allowed to -lie among her spoken words, cried heartily: - -"You just bet your sweet life we'll have a crackling, roaring fire. -Taggart and his crowd are half a dozen miles away right now and still -going; our fire down in that hollow will never cast a gleam over the -big ridge yonder and the other ridges which lie in between him and us. -Come ahead, my dear; here's for a real bonfire." - -That "my dear" escaped him; but she did not appear to have noted it. -She rose and followed him back to their dying fire. He began piling -on dead branches; they caught and crackled and shot showering sparks -aloft. He brought more fuel, laying it close by. Already the blaze had -driven her back; she sat down by a pine, her knees in her hands, her -head tipped forward so that her face was shadowed, her two curly braids -over her shoulders. - -Deveril lay near her, his hand palming his chin. - -"Tell me, pretty maiden," he said lightly, "how far to the nearest -barber shop?" - -"And tell me," she returned, looking at her fingers, "if in that same -shop they have a manicurist?" - -Having glanced at her hands, she sighed, and then began working with -her hair; there was one thing which must not be utterly neglected. She -knew that if once it became snarled, she had small hope of saving it; -no comb, no brush, no scissors to snip off a troublesome lock; only the -inevitable result of such an utter snarl that she, too, in a week of -this sort of thing, must needs seek a barber who understood bobbing a -maid's hair. And with hair such as Lynette's, glorious, bronzy, with -all the brighter glowing colors of the sunlight snared in it, any true -girl should shudder at the barber's scissors. - -All without warning a great booming voice crashed into their ears, -shattering the silence, as Bruce Standing bore down upon them from the -ridge, shouting: - -"So, now I've got you! Got both of you! Got you where I want you, by -the living God!" - - - - -CHAPTER XI - - -The one first thought, bursting into full form and expression in -Lynette's brain, with the suddenness, and the shock of an explosion, -was: "He is alive!" And in Babe Deveril's mind the thought: "Bruce -Standing at last!... And drunk with rage!" - -And Bruce Standing's one thought, as both understood somewhat as they -leaped to their feet: - -"Into my hands, of all my enemies are those two whom I hate most -delivered!" For it had been almost like a religion with him, his -certainty that he would come up with them--the girl who had laughed and -shot him; the man who had stolen her away, cheating his vengeance. - -Babe Deveril, on the alert in the first flash of comprehension, -stooped, groping among the shadows for his club, his only weapon. He -saw the sun glinting upon Bruce Standing's rifle barrel. That club of -his ... where was it? Dropped somewhere; perhaps while he was building -a leafy bower for a pretty lady; forgotten in a gush of other thoughts -... he couldn't find it. He stood straight again; his hands, clinched -and lifted, imitated clubs. The first weapons of the first men.... - -Lynette heard them shouting at each other, two men who hated each -other, two men seeing red as they looked through the spectacles which -always heady hatred wears. Men, both of them; masculinity asserting -itself triumphantly, belligerently; manhood rampant and, on the spur -of the moment, as warlike as two young bulls contending for a herd.... -She heard them cursing each other; heard such plain-spoken Anglo-Saxon -epithets hurled back and forth as at any other time would have set -her ears burning. Just now the epithets meant less than nothing to -her; they were but windy words, and a word was less, far less, than a -stout club in a man's hand or a stone to hurl. She was of a mind to -run while yet she could; but that was only the first natural reaction, -lost and forgotten instantly. She stood without moving, watching them. -An odd thing, she thought afterward, wondering, that that which at the -moment made the strongest, longest-lasting impression upon her was the -picture which Timber-Wolf, himself, created as, with the low sun at his -back, he came rushing down upon them. Just now the mountain slope had -constituted but a quiet landscape in softening tones, like a painting -in pastels, with only the sun dropping down into the pine fringe to -constitute a brighter focal point; and now, all of a sudden, it was as -though the master artist, with impulsive inspiration, had slung with -sweeping brush this new element into the picture--that of a great blond -giant of a man, young and vigorous, and at this critical hour consumed -with hatred and anger and triumphant glee. He was always one to punish -his own enemies, was Bruce Standing. And now one felt that he carried -vengeance in both big, hard, relentless hands. - -On he came, almost at a run, so eager was he. Came so close before -he stopped that Lynette saw the flash of his blue eyes--eyes which, -when she had seen them first in Big Pine had been laughing and -_innocent_--which now were the eyes of a blue-eyed devil. He was -laughing; it was a devil's laugh, she thought. For he jeered at her and -her companion. His mockery made her blood tingle; his eyes said evil -things of her. Her cheeks went hot-red under that one flashing look. - -But he was not just now concerned with her! He meant to ignore her -until he had given his mind to other matters! He was still shouting in -that wonderful, golden voice of his; to every name in a calendar not -of saints he laid his tongue as he read Babe Deveril's title clear for -him. And, name to name, Babe Deveril checked off with him, hurling back -anathema and epithet as good as came his way.... Lynette understood -that both men had forgotten her. To them, passion-gripped as they were, -it was as though she did not exist and had never existed. And yet it -was largely because of her that they were gathering themselves to fly -at each other! Man inconsistent and therefore man. Otherwise something -either higher or lower; either of a devil-order or a god-order. But -as it is ... better as it is ... something of god and devil and -altogether--man. - -And children of a sort, in their hearts. For, before a blow was struck, -they called names! So fast did the words fly, so hot and furious were -they, that she had the curious sense that their battle would end as it -began, in insults and mutterings. But when Timber-Wolf had shouted: -"Sneak and cur and coward ... a man to rifle another man's pockets, -after that other had played square and been generous with you...." And -when Deveril, his hands still lifted, while in his heart he could have -wept for a club lost, shouted back: "Cur and coward yourself ... with -a rifle against a man who has nothing ..." then she saw that the last -word had been spoken and that blows were inevitable. She drew back -swiftly, as any onlooker must give room to two big wild-wood beasts. - -"Coward? Bruce Standing a coward? Why, damn your dirty soul...." - -Bruce Standing caught his rifle by the end of the barrel; at first -Lynette, and Deveril also, thought that he meant to use it as a club. -But instead he flourished it about his head but the once, and hurled it -so far from him that it went, flashing in the sunlight, above a pine -top and fell far away somewhere down the slope. Never in all his life -had Bruce Standing had any man even think of naming him coward. As well -name sunlight darkness. For all men who knew Bruce Standing, and all -men who for the first and only time looked him square in the eyes, knew -of him that he was fearless. - -Thus with a gesture ... he abandoned wordy outpourings of wrath and -hurled himself into flesh-and-blood combat. He did not turn to right or -left for the dwindling camp-fire; he came straight through it, his two -long arms outstretched, seeking Deveril. And Babe Deveril, the moment -he saw how the rifle sped through the air and understood his kinsman's -challenge, leaped forward eagerly to the meeting with him. Their four -boots began scattering firebrands.... - -Lynette, with all her fast-beating heart, wanted to come to Babe -Deveril's aid. The one thing which mattered was that, at her hour of -need, he had stood up for her; her soul was tumultuously crying out -for the opportunity to demonstrate beyond lip-service the meaning of -gratitude. She caught up a stone, and throughout the fight held it -gripped so hard that before the end her fingers were bleeding. But -never an opportunity did she have to hurl it as long as those two -contended. - -Once it entered her thought that she must have dreamed of Bruce -Standing, shot and bleeding and senseless on the floor at the Gallup -House. For now, so few hours after, he gave no slightest hint of being -a man recently badly wounded. There was more of common sense in a -man's dying of such a wound as his than in his striking such great, -hammer-hard blows with both arms. He created within her from that -moment an odd sensation which grew with her later; the man was not of -the common mould. Something beyond and above mere flesh and blood and -the routine of human qualifications inspired him. There was something -_inevitable_ about Bruce Standing.... - -Babe Deveril fought like a young, lissome tiger.... He fought -with all of the might that lay within him, muscle and mind and -controlling spirit. When he struck a blow he put into it, with a -little coughing grunt, every last ounce of hostility which was at -his command; with every blow he longed to kill. And, as though the -two were blood-brothers, Bruce Standing fought as did Babe Deveril. -Straight, hard, merciless blow to answer blow as straight and hard and -merciless.... - -Timber-Wolf was a man to laugh at his own mine muckers when they could -not thrust a boulder aside, and to stoop and set his hands and arms -and back to the labor and pluck the thing up and hurl it above their -bewildered heads. He smote as though he carried a war-club in each -hand; he received a crashing blow full in the face, and, though the -blood came, he did not feel it; he struck back, and his great iron -fist beat through Deveril's guarding arms. No man, or at least no man -whom Bruce Standing in his wild life had ever met, could have stood up -against that blow. Babe Deveril, with the life almost jarred out of -his body, went down. And Bruce Standing, growling like an angry bear, -caught him up and lifted him high in air and flung him far away from -him, as lightly as though he flung but a fifty-pound weight. And where -Babe Deveril fell he lay still.... Lynette ran to him and knelt and put -her hands at his shoulders, thinking him dead. - -A short fight it had been, but already had the swift end come. So hard -had that blow been, so tremendous had been the crash against rock and -earth when the flung body struck, there appeared to be but a pale -flame of life, flickering wanly, in Deveril's body. Timber-Wolf came -and stood over him and over Lynette, gloating, mumbling; muttering -while his great chest heaved: "Little rat that he is! A man to take -advantage when he found me down; a man to cheat me of the she-cat that -shot me. I could crush him into the dirt with my boot heel...." - -"You great big brute!..." - -It was then that she sprang to her feet and, almost inarticulate with -her own warring emotions, grief and fear and anger and hatred, flung -the jagged stone full into his face. He was unprepared; the stone -struck him full upon the forehead; he staggered backward, stumbling, -almost falling; his hands flew to his face. He was near-stunned; -blinded. Deveril was on his elbow.... - -"Come!" she screamed wildly. "Quick! You and I...." - -"Treacherous devil-cat!" There was his thunderous voice shouting so -that she, so near him, was almost deafened. - -Bruce Standing, wiping the blood from his eyes, his two arms out before -him, came back to the attack. Deveril, on his knees, surged to his -feet; Standing struck and Deveril went down like a poorly balanced -timber falling. Lynette was groping for another stone. Suddenly she -felt upon her wrist a grip like a circlet of cutting steel. She was -whisked about; Timber-Wolf held her, drawn close, staring face into -face. His other hand was lifted slowly; suddenly she felt it caught in -her loose hair.... - -And then, inexplicable to her now and ever after, there was in her ear -the sound of Bruce Standing's laughter. The hand at her hair fell away. -It went up to his eyes, wiping them clear. And then she saw in the eyes -what she had read in the voice ... laughter. - -"Well, Deveril, what now?" - -Again Deveril was on his feet. He swayed; his face was dead-white; -it was easy to see how fiercely he bent every energy at his command -to remain upright. There was a queer look in the eyes he turned upon -Timber-Wolf. - -"I never saw a man ... like you." - -He spoke with effort; he was like a man far gone in some devastating -lung trouble; his voice was windy and vibrant and weak. - -"Baby Devil!" jeered Standing. "Oh, Baby Devil! And, when it comes to -dealing with a real man.... Why, then, less devil than baby! Ho!..." - -"I am going to kill you...." - -"God aids the righteous!" Standing told him sternly. "You go. To hell -with you and your kind." - -_God aids the righteous!_ This from the lips of Bruce Standing, -Timber-Wolf!... Lynette, her nerves like wires smitten in an electric -storm, could have burst into wild laughter.... She wrenched at her -wrist; Standing's big hand neither tightened nor relaxed, giving her -the feeling of despair which a thick steel chain would have given had -she been locked and deserted in a dungeon. - -Deveril was looking over his shoulder. In his glance ... the sun was -near setting among the pines, and they saw his face as his head jerked -about ... any one might read his thought: down there, somewhere among -the bushes, lay a rifle! - -Standing laughed at him. And Standing, dragging Lynette along with him -as easily as he might have drawn a child of six, went down the slope -first. And first he came to the fallen rifle and caught it up and -brought it back to the trampled camp-fire. - -"You're sneak enough for that, Baby Devil!" he taunted. "For that or -any other coward act. And so is this woman of yours. So I spike the -artillery. God! If the earth were only populated by men!... Now I've -got this word for your crafty ear: listen well." Instantly his voice -became as hard as flint and carried assurance that every word he was -going to say would be a word meant with all his heart and soul. And -all the while he gripped Lynette by the wrist and seemed unconscious -of that fact or that she struggled to be free. "I've given you a fair -fight, you who don't fight fair. And I've knocked the daylights out of -you. And now I'm sick of you. You can go. You can sneak off through the -timber and be out of sight inside of two minutes. Yet I'll give you -five. And at the end of that time, if you're in sight, I am going to -shoot you dead!" - -Deveril glared at him, his glance laid upon Standing's as one rapier -may clash across another. - -"Do your dirty killing and be damned to you!" said Deveril briefly. - -Timber-Wolf looked at him in surprise; he began to cast about him for -a fresh and clearer comprehension of a man whom he despised. He strove -with all his power of clean vision to see to the bottom of Deveril's -most hidden thought. - -"Now," said Standing slowly, "I am almost sorry for what I said. It -strikes into me, Kid, that you are not afraid!" - -Deveril, breathless, panting, holding himself erect only through a -great call upon his will, made no spoken answer, but again laid the -blade of his glance shiningly across that of Timber-Wolf. - -"You die just the same," said Standing coldly. "It's only because I -gave my word; that you can take in man-to-man style from me, Kid; for -once I am not ashamed to be related to you. Either you travel or, in -five minutes, you are a dead man." - -Slowly Deveril's haggard eyes roved to Lynette's face ... Lynette -chained to Bruce Standing in that crushing grip.... - -"I am going," he said. And both knew he said it in fearlessness but -also in understanding of the power which lay in a rifle bullet and the -weakness of the barricade offered to it by a human skull. And both -understood, further, that it was to Lynette that he spoke. "I am coming -back!" - -"For God's sake!" she screamed. "Go! Hurry!" - -"Hurry!" Bruce Standing, with his own word of honor in the balance -against the weight of the life of a man whom he began to respect, was -all anxiety to have his kinsman gone. - -Deveril's last word, with his last look, was for Lynette. - -"A man who doesn't know when he's beat is a fool.... But you can be -sure of this: I'll be back!" - -He went, walking crookedly at first among the knee-high bushes; then -growing straighter as he passed into the demesne of the tall, straight -pines. Not swiftly, since there was no possibility of any swift play of -muscles left within him; but steadily. - -"A man!" grunted Timber-Wolf. Whether in admiration or disgust, Lynette -could not guess from his tone. - -He had his watch in the palm of his hand; her gaze was riveted on it. -It seemed so tiny a thing in that great valley of his hand; a bauble. -Yet its even more insignificant minute-hand was assuming the office of -arbiter of human life; she knew that the moment the fifth minute was -ticked off Bruce Standing, true to his sworn word, would relinquish her -wrist just long enough to whip his rifle to his shoulder and fire ... -in case the uncertain form of Babe Deveril, going up over the ridge, -were still in sight. And she knew within her soul that just so sure as -gun butt struck shoulder and finger found trigger, so sure would Babe -Deveril toss his arms up and fall dead.... - -"Hurry, Kid ... you damn' fool ... _hurry_...." - -All the while Timber-Wolf was muttering and glaring at his watch and -clinching her wrist; all the while forgetting that he held her. And, -this also she knew, regretting that he had the job set before him of -shooting down another man. - -Lynette, her whole body atingle, every sense keyed up to its highest -stressing, knew as soon as did Bruce Standing when he was going to drop -her wrist and jerk his gun up. The five minutes were passing; still, -though at a distance far up on the ridge, seen only by glimpses now and -then under the setting sun, Babe Deveril was driving on, a man half -bereft of his sober senses, his brain reeling from savage blows and on -fire with rage and mortification; they saw him among the pines; they -lost him; they saw him again. Never once had he turned to look back. -Yet it did not seem that he hastened.... - -Timber-Wolf, growling deep down in his throat, lifted his rifle. But -Lynette, before the act, _knew_! She flung herself with sudden fury -upon his uplifted arm; she caught it, and with the weight of her body -dragged it down. He sought to fling her off; she wrapped both of her -arms about his right arm; she jerked at it so that he could have no -slightest hope of a steady aim.... - -He turned and looked down into her eyes; deep ... deep. For what seemed -to her a long, long time he stood looking down into her eyes. - -Then, with sudden anger, he thrust her aside. Without looking to see -if she had fallen or stumbled and run, he raised his rifle again. - -But just in time Babe Deveril was gone, over the ridge.... - - - - -CHAPTER XII - - -"And now that you're half scared to death, you'd like to make a man -believe that you are not afraid of the devil himself!" - -She flashed a burning look at him; chokingly she cried: - -"At least, thank God, I am not afraid of you, Bruce Standing!... Big -brute and bully and ... Yes!... Coward!" - -And yet, as never before in her life, her heart was beating wildly, -leaping against her side like an imprisoned thing struggling to break -through the walls which shut it in. His fingers were still locked about -her wrist; his grip tightened; he drew her closer in order to look -the more clearly into her eyes. Then his slow, mocking laughter smote -across her nerves like a rude hand brushing across harp-strings, making -clashing discords. - -"You begin well!" he jeered at her. "We are going to see how you end." - -"Let me go!" She jerked back; she twisted and dragged at her wrist, -trying wildly to break free. His mockery stung her into desperation. -With her one free hand she struck him across the face. - -She struck hard, with all her might, with trebled strength through her -fury. And, maddening her, he gave no sign that she had hurt him. Still -jeering at her, all that he did was drop his rifle, so that with his -other hand he could take captive the hand which had struck him. And -then it was so easy a thing for him to take both her wrists into the -grip of his one, right hand; held thus, no matter how she fought, hers -was the sensation of utter powerlessness which is a child's when an -elder person, teasing, catches its two hands in one and lets it cry and -kick.... Suddenly she grew quiet.... - -"Well?" she demanded, panting, forcing her eyes to a steady meeting -with his. "What do you intend to do with me, now you've got me? There -doesn't appear to be any one near to keep you from woman-beating!" - -"What am I going to do with you? If I knew, I'd tell you! When I do -know, I'll show you.... If I could catch you by the hair and drag you -through hell after me.... I pay all of my debts, girl! I have followed -you; I have found you; I have taken you, prying you loose from your -running mate.... You thought it fun to laugh at me once, did you? -Before I have done with you, you would give your soul for the power and -the will to laugh...." - -"It is because I laughed at you?" she asked wonderingly. - -"For what else?" he said sternly. - -"And not because of a pistol shot?" - -"Less for that than for the other. I allow it any man's privilege to -shoot at me if he doesn't like me; but no man's nor woman's privilege -to laugh." - -"How do you know it was I who shot you?... Did you see?" - -"Had I seen, I should not have held it against you; for that would have -meant that you struck in the open, any man's or woman's right! But to -shoot a man in the back.... Here; help me!" - -She was perplexed to know what he meant. He dragged her after him, a -dozen paces from the fire; still holding her two hands caught in his -one, he sat down upon a big stone. Suddenly it struck her that all this -time, since he had dropped his rifle, his left arm had been hanging -limply at his side. - -"When I let go of you," he said, very stern, "if you try to run for it -I'll catch you and drag you back. And I'm in no mood for gentleness!" -At that he let her go. He put his right hand to his shirt collar and -began unbuttoning it. - -"My wound has broken open," he said, with a grunt of disgust. "That -Baby Devil of yours didn't care where he hit a man!... Here; there's a -bandage that has slipped. And I'm losing blood again. See what you can -do." - -"Why should I?" she demanded coolly. "What is it to me whether or not -you bleed to death?" - -Fury filled his eyes and he shouted at her: - -"You, by God, drilled the cowardly hole; and you doctor it!" - -"And if I won't?" - -"Then, as I live, I'll make you! One way or another, girl, I'll make -you. That's Bruce Standing's word for you. Now hurry!" - -She cast a quick glance over her shoulder; she was on the verge -of breaking into wild, headlong flight.... But certain knowledge -restrained her; she knew that he would overtake her, that he would drag -her back and ... that he was in no mood for gentleness. Therefore, -while her whole soul rebelled, she came closer, as he commanded. - -... She had never dreamed that any man born could have a chest like -that; nor such shoulders, massive and yet beautiful as the pure-lined -expression of power; nor such skin, soft and smooth and white as a -girl's, the outward sign of another beauty, that of clean health. -Clean, hard, triumphant physical manhood.... It struck her at the time, -so that she marvelled at herself and wondered dully if she were taking -leave of her sober senses, that there was truer, finer beauty in the -body of such a man than in any girl's; that here was a true artist's -true triumph.... Physically he was splendid, superb.... In his own -image did God make man.... - -With his right hand he was working with the bandage where it was taped -about the bulge of his left breast; on the white cloth were fresh gouts -of blood. Impatiently he tore at his shirt collar; on the bandage, -where it passed about his left shoulder-blade, were red stains. - -"Wait a minute," he commanded. "In my pocket I've got some sort of -salve; some idiotic mess that Billy Winch cooked up; the Lord knows -what it is or what he made it of; iodine and soap and flaxseed and -cobwebs, most likely! But it will chink up the leak ... and it feels -good and hasn't poisoned me so far! Here, smear it on." - -... She felt as though she were dreaming all this! That wild, -uncontrollable laughter of hers which swept over her at times of taut -nerves and absurd situations, threatened to master her. She fought it -down. She touched his back. She, Lynette, administering to Timber-Wolf -... it would be better for her, far better for her, if his wound were -poisoned and he died!... Yet, as she touched his back, it was with -wondrously gentle fingers. There was a wound there; the ugly wound made -by a bullet, half healed, broken open anew under heavy blows. A little -shiver, a strange, new sort of shiver, ran through her; here she was -down to elementals, she, who with just cause and leaping instinct hated -this man, ministering to him.... - -"Smear the stuff on, I tell you. Over the wound. Enough of it to shut -out any infernal infection.... What in the devil's name is holding you? -Waiting for the sun to go down and come up again?" - -She bit her lips; he looked suddenly into her face, and could have -no clew to her thought or emotion; he could not guess whether she bit -her lip to keep from laughing or crying!... She spread over the gaping -wound a thin film of Billy Winch's pungent salve. As she touched the -wound she looked for a muscular contraction, for the flinching from -pain. He did not move; there was not so much as the involuntary quiver -of a muscle. She wondered if the man felt as other human beings did? - -... "Now a fresh piece of tape. That idiot Winch packed me off with my -pockets loaded like a drug-store shelf! That's all for this time; we'll -make a new dressing and bathe the wound in the morning. Now.... Here! -Let me look at you!" - -He crimsoned her face with that way of his. She whipped back from him -and her eyes brightened with defiance. He sat looking at her a long -time, while with slow fingers he buttoned his collar; his face showed -not so much as a flicker of expression; his eyes were keen, but gave no -clew to his thought. - -The sun was already down beyond the ridge; shadows here in the little -hollow had gathered swiftly; dark was on the way. He rose and went to -the fire, for an instant turning his back upon her as he piled on the -dead-wood which Deveril had gathered. But over his shoulder he called -to her coolly: - -"I've warned you not to try to run for it!" - -And from his tone she knew that he had easily guessed her thought; for -the impulse to attempt flight had been strong upon her the moment that -he turned. She remained where she stood; if only it were pitch-dark, if -only he went on a few paces farther away from her, if only the fringe -of trees offering refuge were a few paces nearer.... She was quick to -see the folly of making a premature dash; the wisdom in allowing him to -think that she could be looked to for obedience! Thus, later, when her -chance came and his watchfulness nodded, she'd be up and away like a -shot.... - -The fire caught the fresh fuel and crackled and blazed, sparks -showering about her where she stood. Now Standing, his face looking -ruddy in the glow, turned toward her, saying curtly: - -"Come here. I want a good look at you ... in the full light." - -"Brute and bully!" she cried, struggling with herself for an outward -semblance of calm. "You hold the high card. But the game isn't played -out between you and me yet, Bruce Standing." While speaking she came -closer, so that she too stood in the red fire glow. She held her head -up; she returned his unswerving gaze unswervingly. - -"You've got the vocabulary of a gambler's daughter," he said. "That's -what you are, eh? A gambler's girl and, in your own penny-ante way, a -gambler yourself!" - -"I am the daughter of Dick Brooke!" she told him proudly. "Dick Brooke -was a man and a miner and after that, if you like, a gambler." - -"Dick Brooke? Dick Brooke's daughter? Why, then ... the daughter also -of a dancing-girl!" - -Her face went white with anger. - -"Oh ... I hate you! Oh, I hate you! You ... you are contemptible!" - -"Aha! So that hurts!" he jeered at her. - -"It is a cruel lie. Olymphe Labelle was not a dancing-girl.... She was -an artist! And a woman among ten thousand...." - -The firelight cast its warm glow over her face. She lifted her chin -defiantly. Her hair fell in loose, rippling strands of bronze and over -her shoulders. She was very beautiful thus; no woman on whom Bruce -Standing had ever looked was half so beautiful. And haughty, like a -princess ... like a high-bred lady made captive, yet scorning to show -sign of fear.... - -"You are Lynette Brooke," he muttered; "you are the girl who laughed at -me, shaming me; you are the girl who shot me in the back! Those are the -things to remember. A treacherous cat of a woman; a gun woman! One to -go sneaking around with a revolver at hand to shoot a man in the back -with...." - -"Any woman, dealing with men like you, has need of a gun!" - -"I'll tell you this," he muttered. "I'm a fair judge of men, if not of -women. And when it's a case of a man ... why just show me a man who -carries a pocket-gun and I'll show you a cheap ragamuffin, a tin horn, -or an overgrown kid ... or a dirty coward. A man's weapon is a rifle -carried in the open; give me a good pair of boots and I'll stamp the -white livers out of a whole crowd of your little gunmen.... As for -women, gun-toting women...." He broke off with a heavy shrug. "Now, -girl, I'm hungry. The smell of your coffee has been in my nostrils a -long time. See what you can give me to eat." - -"So I am to wait on you ... to be your servant...." - -"To be my slave!" he shouted at her. "Proud, are you? So much the -better. I swore to make you pay, and you begin paying now. Yes, as my -slave as long as I like!" - -"And you call yourself a man!" - -"I call myself the best man that ever came into this wilderness -country," he told her impudently. "If you are in doubt, bring on any -other man of your choice and ask him, with your pretty smiles, if he -cares to stand up against me! Yes, a man who goes rough-shod over -everything and anything and anybody who stands in his way...." - -"Boaster!" she named him scornfully. - -He laughed loudly at that. - -"I am no boaster and in your heart you know it!... There's another -damn-fool convention for you, that business of great modesty! A man who -is sure of himself doesn't have to walk easy and talk easy, but can -tell other men what he is, and then, by glory, show 'em!" - -Still she was scornful of him ... though she could not keep out of her -thought that picture which he had made when, axe in hand, he had laid -an armed jailer in the dust, and single-handed had made a jail delivery -which hundreds of other men wanted to make and held back from ... -through lack of that unrestricted confidence which was Bruce Standing's. - -He was staring at her. - -"You, too ... for a woman ... have courage," he muttered. And then, -with a sudden arm flung out: "I'm hungry, I tell you." - -"I'd rather die...." - -"It's easy to die ... for any one who is not a coward. And I just told -you that you had courage." He came suddenly close to her. "But there -are other things that are not so easy! What if I put my two arms about -you? If I hold you tight ... and set my lips to yours ... and...." - -"You beast...." - -"But my dinner?" he jeered at her. - -She went hot and cold; she cast a quick glance toward the forest land -where the night was thickening; she cast another glance at his rifle -where it lay, a few feet from the fire. Then, her lower lip caught -between her teeth, she went to the tin can in which she and Babe -Deveril had made coffee. - -"A funny thing," said Bruce Standing, watching her; "you skipped out, -hot-foot, from Big Pine, thinking you had killed me! And your little -friend, meaning Baby Devil, skipped along, thinking he had done Jim -Taggart in! And, after all, nobody much hurt!... Glad to hear that -Taggart did not die?" - -"I knew it already," she said, just to cheat him of any satisfaction in -telling her. - -"Mexicali Joe skipped this way, too," he went on swiftly, so swiftly -that he succeeded in tricking her into saying: - -"I knew that, too!" - -Then he laughed at her, informing her: - -"Now there remains little for you to tell me. You knew Taggart was -still on his feet and you knew Joe was travelling this way, and you've -come up from the general direction of Joe's dugout! Which tells me one -thing: where you and Baby Devil got the coffee and this tinned stuff. -Now let's hear details!" - -"Oh ... I hate you!" - -"You've told me that before. And...." He burst into booming laughter. -And then, still laughter-choked, he cried: "Like a good old-time -two-handled sword is the man Bruce Standing! And yet his wit, like a -Spanish dagger, is good match for a girl's!" - -She made no reply, though her blood tingled, and though her hand, with -a will of its own, must be held back from striking him across the face -again. She brought him his coffee and thereafter food which he called -for from among the tins. - -"What do you think has happened to your gentleman friend?" he mocked -her. And when she refused to reply, he told her: "He's gone on ... -where? After Taggart? To get a rifle and come back? Planning to hide -behind a tree and pop me off while I'm not looking? That would make a -hit with you, wouldn't it? Like your own best game of shooting a man in -the back! Or has he forgotten a pair of bright eyes and warm arms and -red lips? And is he content to trail Mexicali, spying on him, trying to -get in on the new gold diggings? Which, girl?" - -"He hates you!... with cause. And he is no coward; he is as good a man, -if less brute, as you, Bruce Standing!..." - -When he spoke finally it was to say: - -"We're going to be short on provisions for a day or so, girl. Hungry?" - -Here was her first, altogether too vague clew to his intentions. -Quickly she asked: - -"Where are we going?" - -"I to keep an engagement; you to accompany me." - -He supposed that he had told her nothing. And yet she, quick-witted, -having never let slip from her mind a certain suspicion when Mexicali -Joe had too readily succumbed to Taggart, cried out: - -"To a meeting with Mexicali Joe!" - -"What makes you think that?" he asked sharply. - -She pretended to laugh at him. He ate in silence; drank his coffee; -thereafter, stuffing a pipe full of crude black tobacco, smoked -thoughtfully. All the while the fire burned lower and the darkness, -ringing them around, drew closer in. She had been on the alert, while -looking to be hopelessly bowed where she sat. Suddenly he was at her -side, his grip like a steel bracelet about her wrist. - -"About ready to jump and run for it?" he taunted her. "Not to-night, my -girl; and not to-morrow night nor yet for many a day to come. I've got -my own plans for you." - -"Are you going to take me back to Big Pine? To hand me over to the law, -with a charge of attempted murder against me?" - -"I am going to take you with me on into the wilderness. Into a country -which is absolutely the kingdom of Bruce Standing. Haven't I told you -that I have my own plans for you? I can hand you over to the cheap -degradation of a trial and conviction and jail sentence whenever I am -ready for it...." - -"You can't keep me from killing myself...." - -"But I can! I am master here, understand? And you.... By heaven, you -are nothing but my slave so long as I tolerate you!... Look here, what -I brought for you!... For I knew I'd find you!" - -He began unwinding from his big body a thin steel chain, a chain which -he had brought with him from his ranch headquarters, where it had -served as leash for a wolf-hound. With a quick movement he snapped the -end of it about her waist; there was a steel padlock scarcely bigger -than a silver half-dollar; she heard the click as he locked it. Then he -stood back from her, the other end of the slight chain in his hand ... -and laughed at her! - -"The sign of your servitude!... Proud? One way to make you pay! Will -you laugh again, girl? Will you, do you think, ever have the second -chance to shoot me in the back?... Come; we must be on our way before -daylight." - -He caught up his rifle; that, together with the end of her chain, he -held in his hand. He began putting out the fire, stamping on the living -coals. Making her follow him, he went to the creek several times for -water, which he carried in his big hat, which held so much more than -any tin can in camp. When the fire was out, he turned with her toward -the bowery shelter which Babe Deveril, working and singing, had made -for her. With his shuffling boots he kicked the culled branches into -two heaps. He wrapped the end of her chain about his wrist; she heard -the snap as he fastened it. He thrust his rifle under him. - -"I am going to sleep," he told her bluntly and cast himself down. "You -with your payment just begun, may lie awake all night ... wondering...." - -... But it was a long, long while, a weary time of darkness sprinkled -with stars before he went to sleep. She sat up on her couch of boughs, -the chain about her waist galling her.... - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - - -It may appear a strange thing that Lynette Brooke slept at all that -night. But a fatigued body, healthy and young, demanded its right, and -she did sleep and sleep well. A far stranger thing was that, after -she had sat in the dark a long time, there had at last come a queer -little smile upon her lips and into her eyes, and she had gone to sleep -smiling! - -For in the deep black silence her quick mind had been busy, never so -busy; out of tiny scraps it had constructed a mental patchwork. Nor -were all dark-hued threads weaving in and out of it; here and there the -sombre pattern had bright-hued spots. Her courage was high, her hopes -always at surging high tide; her senses keen. And, after all, Bruce -Standing was a blunt, forthright man, in no degree subtle.... - -He had given her the impression an hour ago of being entirely -brute beast. That was true. Further, she told herself with growing -conviction, that it had been his great intent to make her regard him -as brute and beast; she had angered him, she had drawn upon herself -his vengeful wrath; he meant to make her pay; and his first step had -been to make her afraid of him.... She went on to other thoughts; Bruce -Standing was the man to defy Gallup in his own lair; the man to defy -the sheriff; to hurl an axe at an armed deputy ... and yet the only man -in Big Pine to lift an angry hand against the unfair play of shutting -little Mexicali Joe up in jail! He, alone, had not sought to steal -Joe's secret; he alone was ready, against all odds, to throw the door -back and let Joe go. Not altogether that the part of the brute and -beast! - -Another thing: Bruce Standing did not lie. She _knew_ that. And he was -not a coward; he did not do petty, cowardly things.... He meant her -to believe that there was nothing too cruel and merciless for him to -inflict upon her. Yet she had struck him in the face with a stone; she -had struck him with her hands, and he had not so much as bruised the -skin of her wrists with his big hard hands!... Eager he had been to -humiliate her, calling her his slave; eagerly, as soon as he had read -her pride, he grasped at the first means of torturing it. Why that -great eagerness ... unless he, despite his threat, was casting about in -rather blind fashion for means to make her pay?... He wanted her to be -afraid of him ... and it came to her in the dark, so that she smiled, -that this was because there was little for her to fear! - -"In his rage," she told herself, and, fettered as she was, a first -gleam of triumph visited her, "he came roaring after me. And, now he -has me, he doesn't know what to do with me! To make me his unwilling -slave ... _unwilling_!... that is all that he can think of now." - -And again there was comfort in the thought: - -"If he meant to harm me, why should he have let me go to-night? An -angry man, bent upon real brute vengeance, would have struck at the -first opportunity. The opportunity was when he sent Babe Deveril away -and had me to do what he pleased with. And he only played the perfectly -silly game of making me his slave ... _unwilling_...." - -It was the thoughts which rose with the word that put the little smile -into her eyes and brought the first softening of her troubled lips.... -Several times she heard him stirring restlessly; once he awakened -her with his muttering, and she knew that he was asleep, but that -either his wound pained him or his sleep was disturbed by unwelcome -dreams--perhaps both. - -Bruce Standing woke and sat up in the early chill dawn. He looked -swiftly to where Lynette lay. She appeared to be plunged in deep, -restful sleep. She lay comfortably snuggled in among the boughs; the -curve of one arm was up about her face, so that he could not see her -eyes. Naturally he believed them shut; her breathing was low and quiet, -exactly as it should have been were she really fast asleep.... She -looked pretty and tiny and tired out, but resting. Suddenly he frowned -savagely. But he sat for a long time without stirring. - -Lynette put up her arms and stretched and yawned sleepily, and then, -like a little girl of six, put her knuckles into her eyes. Then she, -too, sat up quickly. - -"Oh," she said brightly. "Are you awake already? And making not a -bit of noise, so as to let me have my sleep out? Good morning, Mr. -Timber-Wolf!" - -She was smiling at him! Smiling with soft red lips and gay eyes! - -He frowned and with a sudden lurch was on his feet. - -"Come," he said harshly. "I want to make an early start." - -She sprang to her feet as though all eagerness, exclaiming brightly: - -"If you'll get the fire started, I'll have breakfast in a minute! There -isn't much in the larder, but you'll see what a nice breakfast I can -make of it. Then I'll dress your wound and we'll be on our way." - -"Look here," muttered Standing, swinging about to stare at her, "what -the devil are you up to?" - -"What do you mean?" she asked innocently. - -"I mean this cheap play-acting stuff ... as though you were as happy as -a bird!" - -"Why, I always believe in making the best of a bad mess, don't you?" -she retorted. "And, after all, how do you know that I'm not as happy as -a bird? I nearly always am." - -His eyes were blazing, his face flushed; she saw that she was lashing -him into rage. She began to fear that she had gone too far; for the -present she would go no farther. But meanwhile she gave him no hint of -any trepidation, but kept the clear, unconcerned look in her eyes. - -He strode away from her, toward the charred remains of last night's -fire. He held her chain in his hand; she hurried along after him, so -that not once could the links tighten; so that not once could he feel -that he was dragging an unwilling captive behind him. Her heart was -beating like mad; she was aquiver with excitement over the working out -of her scheme, yet she gave him no inkling of any kind of nervousness. - -"I don't know what you are up to and I don't care," he said abruptly. -"You are to do what you are told, girl." - -"Of course!" she said quickly. "I understand that. I am ready...." - -"I am going to take the chain off you now, simply because I don't need -it during daylight. But you're not to run away; if you try it I'll run -you down and drag you back. Do you understand? And after that I'll keep -you chained up." - -"I understand," she nodded again. And, when he had removed the chain -from her waist, all the time not looking at her while she, all the -time, stood smiling, she said a quiet "Thank you." - -"While I get some wood," he went on, "you can take some cans and go -down to the creek for water. I'll trust you that far ... and don't -you trust too much to the screen of willows to give you a chance for -a getaway! I tell you, I'd overhaul you as sure as there is a God in -heaven!" - -She caught up two cans and went down the slope toward the creek. To -keep him from guessing how, all of a sudden, her heart was fluttering -again, she sang a little song as she went. He stared after her, puzzled -and wondering. Then with a short, savage grunt, he began gathering wood. - -Was now her time? This her chance? She sang more loudly, clearly and -cheerily. She wanted to look back to see if he was watching her every -step; yet she beat down the temptation, knowing that if he did watch -and did see her turn he would know that she was overeager for flight. -She came to the creek; she passed carelessly about a little clump of -willows. Now she looked back, peering through the branches. He was -stooping, gathering wood; his back was to her! - -"_Now!_" her impulses cried within her. "_Now!_" - -She looked about her hurriedly, in all directions. There was so much -open country here; big pines, wide-spaced. If she ran down the slope -he must surely see her when she had gone fifty or a hundred yards. And -then he'd be after her! If she turned to right or left, the case was -almost the same. If it were only dark! But the sun was rising.... - -She began singing again, so that he might hear. A sudden anger blazed -up within her. With all his blunt ways, the man was not without his own -sort of shrewdness; he had known that she had no chance here to escape -him; no chance for such a head start as to give her an even break in a -race with him. - -... After ten minutes she came back to him; she carried a dripping can -in each hand; she had bathed hands and arms and face and throat; she -had combed her hair out through her fingers, making new thick braids, -with loosely curling ends. She had taken time to twist those soft ends -about her fingers. He was standing over his newly built fire; his -rifle, with the chain tossed across it, lay against a rock; he gave no -sign of noting her approach.... Yet, while they ate a hurriedly warmed -breakfast, she caught him several times looking at her curiously.... - -Her heart began again to beat happily; never was hope long departed -from the breast of Lynette Brooke. She kept telling herself, over and -over, that he was not going to be brute and beast to her. Soon or late -she would find her chance for escape from him; she would let him think -her that weakling which it was his way to regard women in general; -there would come the time when, once more free, she could laugh at -him.... And she, when he did not observe, looked curiously at him many -a time. - -When they had eaten and he had gathered up the few scraps of food and -had very carefully extinguished the last ember of their fire, he wound -the chain about his middle again, caught up the rifle and said briefly -and still without looking at her: - -"Come." - -She followed him, neither hesitating nor questioning; thus she was -gleefully sure she angered him.... She wondered what the day held in -store for her; she wondered what of good and bad lay ahead; and yet -she was now less filled with terror than with the burning zest for -life itself. Bruce Standing had told her that he was going to keep an -appointment; he had been the man to release Mexicali Joe; Mexicali Joe -had whispered something and Standing had laughed; Mexicali Joe was now -ahead of them, pretending to lead Taggart and Gallup and Cliff Shipton -to his gold! Her thoughts were busy enough and she, like her silent -companion, had small need for talk. - -She wondered about Babe Deveril; how badly hurt he had been after Bruce -Standing's mauling; what he was doing now; where he was? A hundred -times that morning, hearing bird or squirrel and once a leaping buck, -she looked to see Babe Deveril bursting back upon them.... Had he -not gone far, last night? Had he remained near their camp and was he -following them to-day?... - -They passed over a ridge and turned into a little cup of a green -valley; Standing, stalking ahead of her, went to a thicket and drew -from it a saddle and bridle and saddle blankets and a small canvas -pack. Then, standing with his hands on his hips, staring off in all -directions, he whistled shrilly. Whistled, and waited listening, and -whistled again. Lynette heard, from far off, the quick, glad _whicker_ -of a horse. And here came the horse galloping; kicking up its heels; -shaking its head with flying mane; circling, snorting, with lowered -head; at standstill for a moment, a golden sorrel with snow-white mane -and tail; a mount for even Timber-Wolf, lover of horses, to be proud to -own and ride and whistle to through the forest land.... Lynette looked -swiftly at Standing's face; he was smiling; his eyes were bright. - -He went forward and stroked his horse's satiny nose and wreathed a hand -in the mane and led the animal to the saddle, calling him softly, "Good -old Daylight." The horse nosed him; Standing laughed out loud and smote -the great shoulder with open palm.... Lynette saw with clear vision -that there was a great love between man and animal; and she thought -of another horse, Sunlight, slaughtered at Young Gallup's orders, -and of Standing's lisping rage and of her own nervous, uncontrollable -laughter.... - -There came a deep, ugly growling--a throaty, wolfish menace, almost at -her heels. She whirled about and cried out in sudden startled fright. - -"Lie down Thor!" Standing shouted sternly. "Down, sir!" - -Lynette had never seen a dog like this one, big and lean and -forbidding; as tall as a calf in her suddenly frightened eyes, wolfish -looking, with stiff bristles rising along powerful neck and back, and -eyes red-rimmed, and sharp-toothed mouth slavering. At Standing's -command the great dog, which had come upon her on such noiseless pads, -dropped to the ground as though a bullet instead of a commanding voice -had drilled its heart. But still the steady eyes filled with suspicion -and menace were fixed on her. - -"He'd tear your throat out if I gave the word," said Standing. "Now you -do what I tell you; go to him and set your hand on his head!" - -"I won't!" she cried out sharply, drawing back. The deep, throaty growl -came again; the dog's lips trembled and withdrew from the long, wolfish -teeth; the whole gaunt form was aquiver.... - -"But you will! Otherwise.... He'll not hurt you when once I tell him -not to. Go to him; put your hand on his head.... Afraid?" he jeered. - -She was afraid. Sick-afraid. And yet she gave her taunter one withering -glance and stepped swiftly, though her flesh quivered, to the dog. - -"Steady, Thor!" cried Standing sternly. "You dog, steady, sir!" - -The dog growled and the teeth were like evil, poisonous fangs. Yet -Lynette came another step toward him; she stooped; she put forward her -hand.... - -"_Thor!_" Standing's voice rang out, filled with warning. Thor began -whining. - -Lynette put her hand upon the big head. Thor trembled. Suddenly he -lay flat, belly down; the head between the outstretched fore paws. He -whined again. Standing laughed and began bridling and saddling his -horse. Thor jumped up and frisked about his master; Standing fondled -him, as he had fondled Daylight, by striking him resoundingly. - -"To play safe," he flung over his shoulder at Lynette, "better come -here." - -When she had drawn close Standing stooped and patted the dog's head. -Then, while Thor, snarling, looked on, he put out his hand and placed -it for a fleeting instant upon Lynette's shoulder. - -"Good dog," he said quietly. - -Then he caught up her hand and placed it on Thor's head, cupped under -his own. - -"Good dog," he said again. And then he told Lynette to call the dog. -She did so, saying in an uncertain voice: - -"Here, Thor!... Come here, Thor!" - -"Thor!" cried Standing commandingly. "Good dog!" - -Thor trembled, but he went to her. He allowed her to pat him. Then, -with a suddenness which startled her, he shot out a red tongue to lick -her hand. Standing burst into sudden pleased laughter. - -"Your friend ... so long as I don't set him on you!" he cried out. - -"You are a beast ... who herd with beasts!" she said, shuddering. - -He laughed again and finished drawing tight cinch and strapping latigo. -He tied his small pack at the strings behind the saddle and said -briefly: - -"Since we're in a hurry, suppose you ride while I walk alongside? We'll -make better time that way." - -She was ashamed of herself--that she should have been afraid of a dog! -Now she was Lynette again, quick and capable and confident. He was -going to lend her a hand to mount; she forestalled him and went up into -the saddle like a flash. It was in her thought to take him by surprise; -to give Daylight his head and race away out of sight among the pines.... - -But he was scarcely less quick; his hand shot out, catching Daylight's -reins; he unwound the chain from about his middle and snapped the catch -into the horse's bit.... And she began to analyze, thinking: - -"He took time to explain why he let me ride while he walked! He is less -beast and brute than he knows himself!... Less beast and brute than -... simple humbug!" And, before they had gone ten steps, he heard her -humming the air which she had sung at breakfast time. - -"Damn it," he muttered under his breath, not for her to hear. "The -little devil ... she's taking advantage of me, every advantage. She.... -Just the same ... just the same...." - -And he, too, was wondering about Babe Deveril! - -"We go this way," he said. "I'll lead; you follow." - -"I know!" cried Lynette; she could not hold the words back. "Toward -Buck Valley and Big Bear Creek ... and Mexicali Joe. And...." - -"And what?" he demanded, snatching at her chain, sensing that something -of import lay behind the abruptly checked words. - -She only laughed at him. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV - - -Another day of wilderness wandering. A cabin sighted, but so far away -that it was merely a vague dot upon a distant ridge; miner's shack -or sheepman's or wood-cutter's? Housing an occupant or deserted for -years? No smoke from the rock chimney; no sign of any human being near -it. And all view of it so soon lost!... And, afterward, no other human -habitation of any kind; no road man-made; only trees and rocks, gorges -and ridges and brush, and a winding way to be chosen between them. -With, always, Bruce Standing driving on and on, relentlessly on, ever -deeper into the wilderness. - -A day of life like a leaf torn out of the book of hell for Lynette. He -did not speak to her as they went on from dawn to noon and from noon -until afternoon shadows gathered; he did not so much as turn his eyes -full upon her own; for the most part he seemed altogether forgetful of -the fact that, besides himself, there was another of his species in all -the wide sweep of this land of mighty solitudes. For his dog, Thor, he -had a kindly though rough-spoken word now and then; for his horse a -word or a rude pat upon the shoulder or hip; for her nothing but his -utter, unruffled silence.... At times she hummed little snatches of gay -tunes, hoping to irritate him; at times she strove for an aloofness to -match his own. Countless times she looked over her shoulder, looking -for Babe Deveril. And so the day, a long day, went by until at last it -was late afternoon. - -"Here we stop," said Standing abruptly. "Get down." - -He would seem to have all advantage over her; yet she understood that -in one way, and in one way only, could she rob him of his advantage, -and that was by giving him swift and cheerful obedience. So she slipped -out of the saddle on the instant, giving him for answer only the light -gay words: - -"Oh, it is beautiful here!" ... - -It was beautiful.... He glared at her and led his horse away to -unsaddle; his big dog, Thor, had trotted along at Daylight's heels all -day and now slumped down, ears erect and suspicious, while he watched -his master and made certain of never losing sight for a second of his -master's new companion, whom he tolerated but did not trust. Lynette, -stiff from so many hours in the saddle, looked about her. They were -in the upper, brief space of a valley; above reared the mountains -steeply, rugged slopes with pines here and there, with more open -spaces and tumbled boulders. The valley itself was a pretty, pleasant -place, soft in short green grass, flower-dotted, smoothly curving down -into the more open level lands below. Yet here was no proper place to -pitch camp, especially at so early an hour when it was allowed to seek -further; it was too open, it would be unsheltered and cold; there was -no water.... - -"Come on!" - -She started and turned again toward Standing. He had slung his small -pack across his shoulders and was going on. She looked forward toward -the ridge, which he faced; it rose sheer and forbidding. And she saw -that his face was white and drawn; she wondered quickly how sorely his -wound hurt him. - -"Brute?" He could have been far more brutal to her.... He was -dead-tired, white-faced; he had fought hard last night, scorning the -advantage of an armed man against an unarmed; he had not harmed a hair -of her head! Almost ... _almost_ it lay within her to whisper "Poor -fellow!" And if only Bruce Standing could have known that!... - -He led the way. She followed, since there was nothing else to think of -doing. - -They climbed steadily upward out of this narrow green valley, finding -a steep but open way among the trees. Now and then they paused briefly -to breathe, and Lynette, looking back, saw more and more of the long, -winding valley, as it revealed itself to her from new vantage points. -Far away she caught the glint of the sunlight upon a little wandering -creek. They went on, and came to the crest of the ridge, in full -sunshine now; Standing led an unhesitating way through a natural pass, -and down on the other side, into shadows of a thick grove; through -thickets; they splashed across a creek, a thin line of clear, cool -water slipping through mountain willows, a tributary of the larger -stream in the valley below. Down here it was almost dark. But twenty -minutes later, climbing another slope where the larger timber stood -widely spaced, they came again into the full sunshine.... Lynette -began to wonder why he had left his horse so far back; how far did -the silent, tireless man mean to walk? Also, she began to welcome the -coming night with an eagerness which she was at all pains to conceal -from him; he was always ten steps ahead of her; if he walked on another -half-hour, she began to hope that they would come into a place of -shadows and clumps of trees among which she might dare make the attempt -for escape which had been denied her all day.... - -They came into a little upland flat, well watered, emerald-carpeted -with tender grass, shot through with lingering flowers and studded with -magnificent trees; it seemed the very heart of the great wilderness; -here was such glorious forest land as Lynette had never seen and did -not know existed in all the broad scope of the great Southwest mountain -country. She looked upward. Dark branches towered into the sky, the -tips still shot through with soft summer light. She heard the gush of -water--the tumble and splash and fall of water. Somewhere above, at the -upper end of the flat, where a dark ravine was an ebon-shadow-filled -gash through the hills, was a waterfall. She could not see it, but its -musical waters proclaimed it through the still air. She looked swiftly -down the other way; there it was growing dark. She glanced hurriedly at -Standing. And he, as though he had read her thought, stopped and turned -and, before she could stir, was at her side. - -After that, with never a word, they went on, deeper into this shadowy -realm of big trees. He watched her at every step. Fury filled her -heart, but with compressed lips she maintained a silence like his own. -Thor trotted along with them, now in front of his master, as though -this were a way he had travelled before and knew well, now questing far -afield, now in the rear, eying his master's captive and setting his -dog's brains to the riddle. - -Before they had walked another ten minutes, Standing threw down his -pack and said abruptly: - -"This is as far as we go." - -She sat down, her back to a tree, her face averted from him. She was -very tired and now she could have put her face into her hands and cried -from very weariness. But instead she caught her lip up between her -teeth and hid her face from him and ignored him. But in her heart she -was wondering; had he travelled all day long and then this far from the -spot where he had released his horse, just to pitch camp in a clump of -trees? Was this the spot toward which he had striven on so stubbornly -since daylight? Where was he going? Why? Old queries and doubts rushed -back upon her.... She was vaguely grateful that they were questions -which he and not she had to answer; that responsibilities were his -instead of hers. She was tired enough to lie down where she was and -cease to care what happened.... It was not as yet pitch-dark; the sun -was not down on the heights. But here, among the tall pines, in this -hollow, the shadows were thick; nothing stood out in detail to her -slowly closing eyes; here was a place of black blots, distorted glooms, -the weird formless outriders of the night.... She had not the remotest -suspicion that, where she had slumped down, she was almost at the door -of a cabin. - -Rather, it would have been surprising had she known. For surely -there was never cabin like this hermit camp of Bruce Standing's! Two -sky-scraping pines stood close together; between them was the door, -framed by their own straight trunks. Smaller trees grew about the -ancient parents; these hid the walls which to escape notice required -little enough hiding at any time; a man might have passed here within -a few yards at noonday and not noticed all this which Lynette failed -to see in the dusk. For the walls of the tiny cabin were of rough logs -from which the bark had never been stripped, walls which blended so -perfectly with the greater note struck by the woodland that they failed -to draw the eye; the chimney, of loose-piled rocks, was viewless at -this time of day behind the tree trunks and inconspicuous at any time. -And low, over the flat roof drooped the concealing branches of the -trees. Of all this Lynette glimpsed nothing until Timber-Wolf said, -looking down at her: - - - "When all the tavern is prepared within, - Why nods the drowsy worshipper outside?" - - -She had striven in one way and another since she had had her first view -of him, axe in hand, for a clew to the real Bruce Standing. Now, again, -he set her jaded faculties to work: Bruce Standing, Timber-Wolf, and -man of violence, quoting poetry to her! And at such a moment and under -such circumstances!... It is not merely the feminine soul which is -indeterminable, mystifying, intriguing into the ultimate bournes of -speculation; rather the human soul.... - -"I don't fancy guessing riddles this evening," she told him. "All -that I can think of by way of repartee is: 'What meanest thou, Sir -Tent-maker?'" - -She thought that she heard him stifle a chuckle! - -But, in this thickening gloom and through those heavy shadows which lay -across her soul in an hour of doubtings and uncertainties, she could be -certain of nothing.... He was saying merely: - -"If you're not clean done in, I'd suggest you walk three steps into my -cabin. On the other hand, if you can't make it, I'll pick you up and -carry you in!" - -At that she sprang to her feet; through the gathering dark he could -feel the burning look in her eyes. - -Then, groping mentally and physically, it was given to her to -understand. For already he stood upon the rude threshold. She followed -after him. - -She gasped, astonished, when she realized that already, in so few -steps, she had passed into the embrasure of four walls! Sturdy walls; -walls rude and unbeautiful, but rising stalwart bulwarks against -the cold of night mountain air. He, a blurred, gigantic form in the -dusk, was before her; his wolfish dog was at her heels. She heard the -scratch, she saw the blue and yellow spurt of a sulphur match. His -form suddenly loomed larger, leaped into grotesque giganticness; the -tiny room sprang waveringly out of darkness into the unreality of -half-light; he found a candle; a steady golden flame sent the shadows -racing into limbo; she looked about her wonderingly.... - -A room, bound in rough logs; a hastily, roughly hewn log set on other -logs, offering its surly service as table; a stump which obviously made -pretense at being a stool; a bunk against a wall, thick-padded with the -tips from pines; a tin cup, a tin plate, an imitation of a box against -a wall. And, hanging over a pole ... her first certainty that Bruce -Standing, though animal as she named him in her heart, was a clean -animal ... two or three blankets which, on last leaving this hut of -his, he had stretched to air.... A primitive room, and yet clean. And, -across from the narrow bunk, a deep, wide-mouthed fireplace made of big -rocks.... He himself must have made that fireplace, for what other man -could have lifted those rocks into place? - -"I'm hungry," said Standing. "As hungry as a bear." - -Already she was sitting on the edge of the bunk. She expected to hear -for his next words: "Get me my dinner." But, instead, he said, his -voice harsher than she had ever heard it before: - -"And that's why I'm cooking for myself instead of making you do it! I -don't want you to get it into your head it's because I'm getting sorry -for you...." - -She lay back, unanswering, and watched him. And presently, though not -for him to see, a little smile touched her lips and for a short instant -lighted her big gray eyes.... And in her heart she said: "He is so -obvious, with all his thinking that he is a man whom a girl cannot see -through! All day he has made me ride, while he walked! He said that -that was to make better time! And, with every opportunity to harm me, -he has not harmed a hair of my head! He has not even touched me with -his big, blundering hands!... And he looks white and sick from his -hurt...." - -He rummaged in a corner; he made a fire in his fireplace; he ripped -open a couple of cans and set coffee to boil in a battered pot as black -as an African negro. Suddenly Lynette, who had been silent a long -while, exclaimed: - -"I know now! We are still on your land. This is the very cabin where, -six years ago, you robbed Babe Deveril of three thousand dollars!" - -"No!" he said. "You have guessed wrong!" And then: "So your little -friend, Baby Devil, told you many a tale about my wickedness?" - -"He told me that one." - -"And did he tell you the sequel? How I squared with him?" - -So he wanted her to think well of him! She made herself comfortable, -leaning back against the wall. - -"Have you the vaguest inkling of the difference between right and -wrong, Bruce Standing?" she asked him impudently. - -He laughed at her--become suddenly harsh. - -"Come," he said, "it is time for food. And then, for a man who does not -break his word, blow high, blow low, to keep an appointment." - -With that conversation ceased. He drove Thor into a corner, and with a -word and a glance made the dog lie down. He boiled his coffee and set a -hurried meal; he caught up a tin plate and brought it to Lynette. She -was about to thank him when she saw how he was planning to serve a tin -platter like hers to his dog; then she could have screamed at him in -nerve-pent-up anger. - -The three--master, captive, and dog--ate their late dinners while the -candle flame, pale yellow with its bluish centre, swayed gently in the -mild draft of air through the open door. Windows there were none, -saving the one square aperture over the bunk, boarded up now. - -"What about Jim Taggart?" said Standing brusquely out of a long silence -toward the end of which the weary girl was near dozing. "What do you -know about him? Did he overhaul Mexicali Joe after all?" - -She looked at him steadily; suddenly she was glad when a pine branch in -the fireplace, full of pitch, flared up so that he must have seen her -face more clearly than he could have done by mere pale candle-light; -she wanted him to see it and read something of the defiance which she -meant to offer him. - -"So, after all, you have your engagement with Mexicali Joe? It was for -that that you set him free? That you, instead of others, might steal -his golden secret!" - -"Then you won't answer, girl? You, whom I could crush between thumb and -finger, refuse to answer me?" - -"Yes!" she cried out at him. "Yes! I am not afraid of you, Bruce -Standing!" - -"Not afraid?" He glared at her, his flashing blue eyes full of threat. -Then he laughed contemptuously, saying: "And yet, were I minded to, I -could in a second have you on your knees, begging, pleading...." - -"But you won't!" she dared fling at him. "And that is why I am not -afraid!" - -"I am not so sure!" he muttered. "Not so sure. Before morning, girl, -you may come to know what fear is!" - -She tried to toss back her fearless laughter, but at that look of his -and at that stern tone of his voice her laughter caught in her throat. - -"You've got nerve," he said grudgingly. "More nerve than I thought any -girl could have ... since it's far and away more than most men have. -But just the same there's one thing you are afraid of! I've seen it a -dozen times to-day, no matter how well you thought you hid it! You are -afraid to death of old Thor, there!" - -She shivered; she laid a quick command upon her muscles as upon her -spirit, but they failed her; she tried to tell herself and to show him -through her bearing, head up, eyes steady, that it was only fatigue and -the growing chill of the coming night that put that tremor upon her. -But he laughed at her and called his big dog to him and said heavily: - -"Watch her, Thor! Watch her!" - -Thor growled, a growl coming from deep down in the powerful throat; the -red eyes grew hot; bristles stood up along neck and back; there came -the gleam of the wolfish teeth. She shrank back against the wall. - -"I have my appointment!... In an hour I must go. I give you your choice -of coming along with me, in leash! or of staying here, with only Thor -to guard, and taking your chances with him! Which is it?" - -And she cried quickly: - -"I'll go with you!" And then, lest he should think that he had -triumphed, she added swiftly: "For I, too, am interested in Mexicali -Joe!" - -He caught down the blankets which had hung airing since last he came -here and tossed two of them to the bunk where she half lay; the third -he folded and placed on the floor, stretching out his own great bulk -upon it, his shoulders against the wall. He found his pipe, filled and -lighted it, and lay staring into the fire.... - -And she, drawing a blanket over her knees, crouched, looking into -the same dancing flames, overwhelmed for the moment by a total -sense-engulfing feeling of unreality. Could all of this which had -happened, which was still happening, be an actual experience for her, -Lynette Brooke? More did it resemble a long-drawn-out ugly dream than -actuality! To be here to-night, so far from the world, her own world, -in the heart of a gigantic wilderness, in a rude cabin; a giant of -a man who, as he had said truly, might have crushed her between his -powerful forefinger and thumb; a savage wolf of a dog watching her with -unblinking eyes; another man, somewhere, with vengeance in his heart, -following them; another man, clutching to his breast his golden secret, -not far away; ... nightmare ingredients! Did this man, Bruce Standing, -Timber-Wolf as men called him, really know where to find Mexicali -Joe? And, when he found him, would he come upon Taggart and Gallup -and that hawk-faced man whom they called Cliff Shipton? And with them -would there be Babe Deveril, who must have gone somewhere in his mad, -hungering hope to have a rifle in his hands?... Above all else, was -she the plaything of fate? Or the director of fate? Now it lay within -the scope of her power to cry out to Bruce Standing: "When you find -Mexicali Joe you will find others, no friends of yours, with him! With -them, probably, Babe Deveril! And more than one rifle ready to stand -between you and the Mexican!" ... If she kept her silence, there might -be bloodshed before morning; if she spoke her warning, she might be -doubly arming Timber-Wolf. She grew restless; so restless that Thor, -distrusting her, began growling. - -And Bruce Standing, regarding her fixedly, demanded sharply: - -"Well, what is it?" - -Well ... what should she say? Anything or nothing? If she kept her -silence, would she in after-days know herself to blame for to-night's -bloodshed in that, keeping shut lips, she allowed him to stumble upon -all Taggart's crowd. - -He was eying her sharply. She must make some answer, and so at last -she prefaced her reply by asking him: - -"You say that we are not on your land?" - -"I did not say that. I said that this is not the cabin in which I had -some years ago the pleasant experience of borrowing some money from -Babe Deveril. He has never been here; has never heard of this place. No -man other than myself, and until now no woman ever came here." - -"That narrow end of a valley we crossed this afternoon ... that was the -upper end of Buck Valley? And the creek which came next was Big Bear -Creek? And, right near us somewhere is Grub Stake Canyon?" - -"You know the country like a map!" He spoke carelessly enough and yet -was puzzled to understand how she knew; of course Deveril could have -told her something of it and yet Deveril's knowledge was restricted to -the slim gleanings of one short excursion of years ago, and he did not -believe that even Deveril had ever heard of Grub Stake Canyon. - -"And," she ran on swiftly, "you were to meet Mexicali Joe to-night at -that other cabin of yours? Is that it?" - -"Witch, are you? Picker of thoughts from men's brains?" He laughed -shortly and got to his feet. "And so you elect to go along and see what -happens? Rather than rest here with Thor to keep you company?" - -She, too, rose swiftly. - -"Yes!" - -He took up his rifle, caught her hand and extinguished the candle. - -"Down, Thor, old boy," he said as he might have spoken to a man, -without raising his voice. "Wait for me. Good dog, Thor." - -Thor whined, but Lynette heard the sound he made in lying down -obediently; heard the thumping of his tail as he whined again. Standing -began leading the way through the dark among the big trees, his fingers -about her wrist.... She wondered how far they must go; suddenly as her -great weariness bore down upon her spirit that was become the greatest -of all considerations; greater, even, than what they should find at -the end of their walk. Almost she regretted not having remained in the -cabin ... with Thor. - -Standing, despite the dark and the uneven ground underfoot, seemed to -have no difficulty in finding his way; he walked swiftly; she could -sense his eager impatience. She began wondering listlessly if he were -late to his appointment.... - -She had faint idea how far they had gone, a mile or two miles or but -half a mile, a weary time of heavily dragging footsteps, when suddenly -the silence was broken by men's voices. Far away, dimmed and all but -utterly hidden by the interval of forest, was a vague glow of light. -Standing came to a dead stop; she stumbled against him. There came, -throbbing through the night, a man's scream. Standing stiffened; she -felt a tremor run through his big body. A voice again, an evil voice in -evil laughter; a deeper voice, too far away for the words to carry any -meaning, not too far for the voice itself to be recognized by a man who -hated it. - -"Taggart and Young Gallup," Standing muttered. "They've got Joe! They'd -cut his throat for ten cents!... Look here; what do you know about all -this?" - -She answered hurriedly; that thin scream still echoed in her ears; she -remembered only too vividly Taggart's treatment of Joe at the dugout -and Taggart's threats; she shivered, saying: - -"All I know.... Jim Taggart and Gallup and another man caught up with -Joe at his cabin; they made him bring them here ... to show them his -gold ... Taggart threatened him with torture...." - -"Come! Hurry! Why in hell's name didn't you tell me?" - -Still with her hand caught in his own he turned and ran, making her run -with him, back to his own cabin. Again they heard, fainter now since -the distance was greater, that thin cry bursting from Joe's lips; she -felt the hand on her own shut down, mercilessly hard.... Running, they -returned to his hidden cabin. - -He went in with her; hurriedly he lighted the candle; the fire was -almost out. Wondering, she sank down upon the bunk. - -"Down, Thor," he commanded; he made the dog lie again across the -threshold. "Watch her, Thor!" Thor growled; the red eyes watched her. - -"Don't you move from that bunk until I get back!" Standing told her -sternly. - -He ran out of the cabin. She heard him breaking through brush, going -the shortest, straightest way down toward the spot from which voices -had come up to them. Thor growled. She looked at the dog, fascinated -with fear of him. The big head was down now, resting between the big -fore paws; the unwinking eyes were on her.... She lay back on the bunk, -staring up at the smoke-blackened rafters. - -It was very quiet. No longer could she hear the sound of Timber-Wolf's -running.... He, one man, pitting himself in blazing anger against at -least three men, ... perhaps four!... What if he were killed? Leaving -her here, under the relentless guard of Thor? She was taken with a long -fit of shivering. Thor growled. - - - - -CHAPTER XV - - -Every experience through which Lynette Brooke had gone until now -seemed suddenly dwarfed into insignificance by the present. She was -so utterly wearied out physically that muscles all over her body, -demanding their hour of relaxation and having that relaxation denied -them through the nervous stress laid upon her, quivered piteously. -Hers was that frame of mind which distorts and magnifies, whipping out -of its true semblance all actual conditions or building them up into -monstrous, grotesque shapes. She was afraid of that great, staring dog -on the threshold; more afraid of him than she had ever been of any -man, Thor's master not excepted. For here was a fear which she could -not throttle down. She would have sighed in content and have gone -to sleep, her turbulent emotions quieted, if only it had been Bruce -Standing's hard hand on the chain denying her her liberty instead of -a great dog lying across the door-step.... Enough here to make her -clinch her teeth to hold back a scream of panic-swept nerves; yet this -was not all. For still that cry, heard through the woods, rang in her -ears; still she built up in the picture which her quick fancy limned -the vision of Mexicali Joe at the mercy of merciless men; Joe, who had -lied to them, hoping to deliver them into the hands of one greater than -they; Joe, who at the end, with them demanding to see what he had to -show them, must be driven to the last extremity to fight for time.... -And, blurring everything else at times, there swept over her another -picture; that of Timber-Wolf, wounded and white-faced, stalking in that -fearless way of his among them, confronting three armed men ... or -four?... and then man-killing.... They were all wolves! She shuddered. -And Thor, watching her, filled the quiet cabin with the sound of his -low suspicious growling. - -"Thor!" she called him, hardly above a whisper. Her lips were dry. -"Good old Thor!" - -His throaty rumble of a growl, telling her of his distrust as -eloquently as it could have done had Thor the words of man at his -command, was her answer. - -"Thor!" She called him again, her voice soft, pleading, coaxing. Then -she lifted herself a few inches on her elbow; like a flash Thor was up -on his haunches, his growl became a snarl, a quick glint of his teeth -showing, a sharp-pointed gleam of menace. - -Yet Lynette held her position, steady upon her elbow; she had never -known a tenser moment. Her throat contracted with her fear; and yet she -kept telling herself stubbornly that yonder was but a dog, a thing of -only brute intelligence, while she had the human brain to oppose him -with; that, some way, she could outwit him. So she did not lie back; to -do so would, she felt, show Thor that she was afraid of him. She made -no further forward movement but she held what she had been suffered to -gain. - -And then she set herself to dominate Thor, a wolf-like dog. She spoke -to him; but first she waited until she could be sure of her voice. That -brute instinct of Thor's would know the slightest quaver of fear when -he heard it. She controlled herself and her voice; she made her tones -low and soft and gentle; she kept them firm. She told herself: "Thor is -but doing his master's bidding because he loves his master! I'll make -him love me! He distrusts.... I'll make him trust instead!" And all the -while she kept her own eyes steady upon Thor's. - -"Thor!" she said quietly. And again: "Thor. Good old Thor. Good old -dog!" - -... Thor had set her down as an enemy; his master's enemy; his master -had commanded him: "Watch her, Thor!" Thor's knowledge was not wide; -yet what he knew he did know thoroughly. And yet Thor had had no -evidence, beyond that offered by a chain, of any open enmity between -his master and this captive; master and girl had travelled all day long -together and neither had flown at the other's throat. More than that, -it had been at the master's own command this very morning that Thor had -felt her hand upon his head; a hand as light as a falling leaf. And now -she spoke to him in his master's own words, but with such a different -voice, calling him Thor, good old dog.... - -It was a soothing voice, a voice made for tender caresses. She spoke -again and again and again. And she was not afraid; Thor could see no -flickering sign of fear in her. A voice softer than had been the touch -of her hand. - -"Thor!" she called him. And his growl was scarcely more growl than -whine. For Thor, before Bruce Standing had been gone twenty minutes, -was growing uncertain. Lynette had had dogs of her own; she knew the -ways of dogs, and in this she had the advantage, since Thor knew -nothing of the ways of women nor of their guile. The dog was restless; -his eyes, upon hers, were no longer so steady. Now and then Thor shook -his head and his eyes wandered. - -"Thor," said Lynette, and now, though her voice, as before, was low and -gentle, there was the note of command in it, "lie down!" - -There was an experiment ... and it failed. Thor was on four feet in a -flash; his growl was unmistakable now; the snarling note came back into -it threateningly. She thought that he was going to fly at her throat.... - -Yet already was the lesser intelligence, though coupled with the -greater physical power, confused. - -Lynette moved slowly; she put her hands up above her head and stretched -out her arms and yawned; Thor growled, but there was little threat in -the growl; just suspicion. Again she moved slowly; close enough, in -the restricted area embraced by the cabin walls, was the table; on it -some morsels of food left from their dinner. Without rising from the -bunk, she reached the tin plate; she took it up, all the while moving -with unhastening slowness. Thor's eyes followed her straying hand; Thor -had been fed, and yet the dog's capacity for food was enormous. He -understood the meaning of her gesture; his eyes hungered. - -She dropped the plate to the floor but, before it struck, not three -feet in front of the dog, she cried out sharply, her voice ringing, her -command at last emphatic: - -"No, Thor! No! No, I tell you!" - -Had she offered the dog the food she would have but awaked within him a -new and violent distrust; he was not so easily to be tricked. But when -she tossed before him something that he was slavering for, and then -laid her command upon him to hold back, she achieved something over -him; he would have held back in any case, but now he held back at her -command. - -"Watch it, Thor!" she cried out loudly. "Watch it, sir!" - -The big dog stared at her; at the fallen morsels; back at her, plainly -at loss. And then again, more sharply, she commanded him: - -"Watch it, Thor!... Lie down, Thor!" - -And Thor, though he growled, lay down.... And his wolfish eyes now were -upon the plate and its spilled contents rather than upon her. - -"If I can but have time!" Lynette was telling herself excitedly. "If -only I can have time ... I can make that dog do what I say to do!... -God, give me time!" - - -When Bruce Standing, rushing through the forest land, came upon -them ... Taggart and the others ... they were grouped about a -despairing, hopeless Mexicali Joe. For Mexicali Joe's _amigo_, the -great Timber-Wolf, in whom next to God he put all trust, had failed -him. And Joe had come to the end of his tether, the end of lies and -excuses and empty explanations. And now Taggart, as brutal a man as -ever wore the badge of the law, was impatient, and meant to make an -end of all procrastinations. It was his intention to give Mexicali Joe -such a "third degree" as never any man had lived to experience before -to-night. Rage, chagrin, disappointment, and natural, innate brutality -spurred him on. Even Young Gallup, who was no chicken-hearted man at -best, demurred; but Taggart cursed him off and told him to hold his -tongue, and planned matters to his own liking. - -"Jim Taggart's got Injun blood in him, you know," muttered Gallup -uneasily to Cliff Shipton ... as though that might explain anything. - -Even to such as Young Gallup, a man of whose humanity little was to -be said, explanations were logical requirements. For Jim Taggart was -at his evil worst. With cruelly hard fist he had knocked the little -Mexican down; before Joe could get to his feet he booted him; when Joe -stood, tottering, Taggart knocked him down again, jarring the quivering -flame of life within him. And only at that did Jim Taggart, a man of -no imagination but of colossal brutality, count that he was beginning. -Then it was that Joe cried out; that his scream pierced through the -night's stillness; that he pleaded with Taggart, saying: - -"This time, I tell you the true! I tell you ever'thing...." - -"You're damned right you will," shouted Taggart, beside himself with -his long baffled rage. "When I get good and ready to listen. And I'm -not listening now, you Mexico pup! First you go through hell, and then -I'll know that you tell the truth! Fool with me, would you; with me, -Jim Taggart? You----" - -Then Taggart began his third degree, listening to neither Joe's -pleadings nor yet to the voice of Young Gallup. - -The four men were in Bruce Standing's old cabin; the door was wide -open, since here, so far from the world, in the dense outer fringes of -Timber-Wolf's isolated wilderness kingdom, no man of them ... saving -Joe alone, who had now given up hope ... had a thought of another human -eye to see; Shipton, at a curt word from Taggart, had piled the mouth -of the fireplace full of dead-wood, for the sole sake of light, and it -was hot in the small room. Taggart had bound the Mexican's hands behind -him, drawing the thong so tight that it cut cruelly into the flesh.... -Taggart had knocked Joe down and had booted him to his heart's content; -the swarthy face had turned a sick white. Taggart's eyes were glowing -like coals raked out from hell's own sulphurous fires; he was sure of -the outcome, sure of swift success, and yet now, in pure fiendishness, -more absorbed in his own unleashed deviltry than in the mere matter of -raw gold, which he counted securely his as soon as he was ready for it. -Whether or not Indian blood ran in his veins, elemental savagery did. - -Mexicali Joe, unable to rise, or in fear for his life if he stirred, -lay on the floor, his eyes dilated with terror, staring up into -Taggart's convulsed face. - -"I tell you the true!" he screamed. "This time, before God, I tell----" - -"Shut up, you greaser-dog!" Taggart, a man of full measure, kicked him, -and under the driving pain inflicted by that heavy boot, Joe's eyes -flickered and closed, and Joe's brain staggered upon the dizzy black -verge of unconsciousness. Taggart saw and understood and pitched a -dipperful of water in his face. Joe gasped faintly. Taggart stepped to -the fireplace, and snatched out a blazing pine branch. - -"I've put my brand on more'n one treacherous dog!" he jeered. "You'll -find my stock running across the wild places in seven States! Here's -where I plant the sign of the cross on you, Mexico! Right square -between the eyes!" - -Suddenly he thrust the burning brand toward Joe's forehead. Joe cried -out in terror: - -"For the love of God!..." His two hands were behind him, but, -galvanized, he fought the pine fagot with his whole body. He strove to -thrust it aside; he fought against his weakness to roll over; Taggart's -heavy foot was in his middle, holding him down; the burning branch in -Taggart's heavy hands was as steady as a steel rod set in concrete; -Joe's threshing panic disturbed it scarcely more than the wind would -have done.... Another scream, shrilling through the night; the smell -of burnt flesh; a red wound on Joe's forehead; Taggart's ugly laugh; -and then suddenly, from just without the open doorway, a terrible shout -from Bruce Standing, and then, in two seconds, Bruce Standing's great -bulk among them. - -"My God!" roared Standing. "_My God!_ ... You, Jim Taggart!..." - -Shipton's rifle stood in a corner; Shipton, as lithe as a cat, leaped -for it. Gallup's was in his hand; he whipped it to his shoulder. -Taggart for one instant was stupefied; then he swept high above -his head the smoke-emitting, redly glowing pine limb. Joe, weeping -hysterically, writhing on the floor, was gasping: "_Jesus Maria!_" ... -God had heard his prayers; God and Bruce Standing. - -But in to-night's game of hazard it was Timber-Wolf who chose to -shuffle, cut, and deal the cards; his rifle was in his hands; it -required but the gentlest touch of his finger to send any man of them -to his last repose. His eyes, the roving eyes of rage, were everywhere -at once. - -"I'd kill you, Taggart, and be glad of the chanth! You, too, Gallup! -Drop that gun!" - -First of them all, it was Cliff Shipton who came to the motionless halt -of shocked consternation; he lifted his hands, his face blanched; he -tried to speak, and only succeeded in making the noise of air gushing -through dry lips. Gallup stopped midway in his purpose of firing, for -Timber Wolf's rifle barrel was trained square upon his chest; at the -look in Standing's eye and the timbre of his voice, Gallup's gun fell -clattering to the floor. Taggart mouthed and cursed, and slowly let his -blazing fagot sink toward the floor. - -For every man of them knew Timber-Wolf well; and they knew that -incongruous _lisping_ which surprised him and mastered his utterance -only when his rage was of the greatest. When Timber-Wolf lisped it was -because such a fiery storm raged through his breast as to make of him a -man who would kill and kill and kill and glory in the killing. - -"And I'd have given a million dollars to thee any man of you put up a -fight!" he was saying harshly. "God, what a thet of cowardly curth! And -you, Jim Taggart, I onth had for bunk-mate and onth thought a man!" - -He reached out suddenly, and with his bare, open palm slapped Taggart's -face; and Taggart staggered backward under the blow until his thick -shoulders brought up against the wall with such a thud that the cabin -shuddered under the impact. - -"Get up, Joe!" growled Standing. "You're another yellow dog, but ... -get up and come here!" - -Joe scrambled to his feet and came hurrying. Standing kept his rifle in -his right hand. Using his left stiffly, he got out his knife and cut -the Mexican's bonds. - -"Go!" he cried savagely. "While you've got legth under you! And thith -time keep clear, or hell take you! I'm through with you ... you make me -thick!..." - -Mexicali Joe, with one last frightened look over his shoulder, fled; -they heard his running feet outside. He was jabbering unintelligibly as -he fled: "_Senor Caballero!_ ... _Dios!_ ... those devils!..." - -Joe was gone. Bruce Standing's work was done. He looked grim and -implacable, a man of iron heated in the red-hot furnace of rage. He -yearned for Taggart to make a move; or for Gallup. Shipton, as a lesser -cur, he ignored. - -They saw how white, as white as a clean sheet of paper, his face was; -they did not fully understand why, since a man's face, when he is in a -terrible rage, may whiten, as an effect of the searing emotion; they -did not know how he had driven his wounded body all day long nor how -sore his wound was. They could not guess that even now he was holding -himself upright and towering among them through the fierce bending of -his indomitable will. That same will he bent terribly for clean-cut -articulation. - -"Taggart!" he said, and his voice rang as clear as the striking of an -iron hammer upon a resounding anvil. "I'll tempt you to be a man such -as you _once_ were, before you went yellow clean through ... and I'll -show you, your _self_, how dirty a yellow you've gone! Pick up Young -Gallup's rifle!" - -Taggart glared at him and muttered and hesitated, tugged one way -by hatred and the madness of wrath, tugged the other way by his -fear of the certainty of death. Lights, bluish lights, flickered in -Timber-Wolf's eyes. He said again: - -"Pick up that rifle! Other_wise_, in _less_ than ten _sec_onds you are -a dead man!" - -Taggart's face was red when Standing began to speak; ashen by the last -word. Nervously and in great haste he stooped and caught up the gun. - -"You've got your _chance_, Jim Taggart! Your last _chance_! To fight -it out, or say, for _these_ men to hear: 'I'm a dirty yellow dog!' If -you're game we'll fight it out. I'll give you an even break; and we'll -kill each other!" - -Taggart held the rifle, not lifted quite to his waist; his hands were -rigid upon it and did not tremble. He was not a coward; on many an -occasion, when he had borne his sheriff's badge recklessly through -violence, he had shown himself a brave man. He knew now that it lay -within his power, if he were quick and sure, to kill Bruce Standing, -whom he had come to hate, so that his hatred was like a running sore. -And he knew, too, that killing, he would be killed. If it were any man -on earth whom he confronted save Bruce Standing.... - -So he hesitated, for brave man as Jim Taggart always was, he was a man -who did not want to die. And Standing laughed at him and said: - -"You've had your chance; you still have it. Now, fight it out or tuck -your tail between your legs and do my bidding! And my bidding to you, -so that I needn't expect a bullet in the back when I leave you, is to -smash that rifle into flinders against the rock chimney. _And step -lively!_" - -The last words came sharp and sudden, and Taggart started. And then, -hesitating no longer, he whirled the rifle up by the barrel and brought -it with all his might crashing against the fireplace; the fragments -fell from his tingling fingers. And again Standing laughed at him and -again commanded him, saying: - -"There are two more rifles; do the same for each one! And remember, Jim -Taggart, every time you touch a gun you've got the even break to fight -it out; and every time you smash a gun you are saying out loud: 'I'm a -dirty yellow dog!' _Only make it snappy, Jim Taggart!_" - -One after the other, and hastily, Jim Taggart smashed the butts off -two rifles and jammed trigger and trigger-guard so that from firearms -the weapons were resolved into the estate of so much scrap-iron and -splintered wood. - -"I'll take your two toy guns, Jim," said Standing. "And remember this; -at short range the man with the revolver has the edge! When you drag -a gun out you've got your chance to come up shooting! Don't overlook -that! And remember along with it, that when you hand me a gun, butt-end -first, you are saying aloud for the world to hear: 'I'm a dirty yellow -dog!'" - -"By God...." - -"Yes, Jim Taggart, ... by God, you're a dirty dog!" - -Lingeringly Taggart drew forth the heavy side-arms dragging at his -holsters; all the while he was tempted almost beyond resistance to -avail himself of his opportunity and of that quick sure skill of his; -to shoot from the hip, as he could do with the swiftness of a flash -of the wrist; he could shoot and kill. And within his heart, knowing -Bruce Standing as he did, he knew, too, that though he shot true to a -hair line, none the less, Bruce Standing would kill him.... He gave a -gun into Standing's left hand and saw it thrust into his belt. Then -was Taggart's time to snatch out his other weapon and drill that hole -through the big body in front of him which would surely let the life -run out; now was his chance, while for an instant one of Standing's -hands was busy at his belt!... If it had been any other man in the -world there confronting him! Any man but Bruce Standing! Jim Taggart -was near weeping. But he drew out his second revolver and saw it -bestowed as its fellow had been. - -"Four times you've said it, plainer than words!" cried Standing -ringingly. "Gallup will never forget; and he'll tell the tale! Shipton -will remember and will blab! And, what's worse for the soul of a man, -Jim Taggart, you'll remember to the last day you live!... And now you -three can consider yourselves as so many mongrel curs whose back-biting -teeth I've knocked down your throats for you! I'll leave you to your -growlings and whinings!" - -He swung about and went out. He knew both Gallup and Shipton, knew -them and their habits well, and knew that neither man had the habit -of carrying a pistol. Further, their coats were off, and he had seen -that neither had a holster at his belt. So he turned his back on them -to emphasize his contempt and did not turn his head as he plunged -into the outside night and into the thick dark under the trees, going -back to his hidden cabin and Lynette and Thor. He realized that he -himself, despite a herculean physique, was near the tether's end of his -endurance; he realized that Lynette was also heavily borne down by all -that she, a girl, had gone through and that he had left her overlong -with his wolfish dog. - -What he could not know was that a revolver which had once already -shot him in the back had followed him all these miles through the -wilderness and was now lying on the bunk in the cabin he had just -quitted; he could not know how, at the Gallup House after Babe Deveril -had flung it in Taggart's face, Lynette's pistol had lain there on the -floor until Taggart had been aroused to consciousness; nor how Gallup -had picked it up, nor how Taggart had muttered: "Save it, Young. It -may come in handy for evidence in court." Gallup had stuck it into his -pocket; he had brought it with him; he had tossed it down among the -blankets.... - -Taggart stared after him with terrible eyes; Taggart remembered and, -when he dared, flung himself across the room, snatching for it among -the covers. Standing, hastening, strode on. Taggart found the weapon; -he ran out of the cabin with it in his hand; dodged to one side of -the open door to be out of way of the firelight. Standing hurried on, -he had not seen Taggart; Taggart could scarcely see him, could but -make out vaguely a blur where he heard heavy footfalls.... It was all -chance; but now no longer was Taggart himself running the desperate -chances. He fired, one shot after another, until he emptied the little -gun--four shots altogether; the hammer clicked down on the fifth, the -empty shell. - -Chance, pure chance; and yet chance is ironical and loves its own grim -jest. The first bullet, the only one of them all to find its target, -struck Timber-Wolf. And it was as though this questing bit of lead were -seeking to tread the same path blazed by its angry brother down at the -Gallup House in Big Pine. For it, like the other from the same muzzle, -struck him from behind; and it, too, struck him upon the left side, in -the outer shoulder, not half a dozen inches from the spot where he had -been shot before.... - -Standing staggered and caught his breath with a grunt; he lurched into -a tree and stood leaning against it. For a moment he was dizzied and -could not see clearly. Then, turning, he made out the cabin behind -him; the bright rectangle of the door; two dark running forms leaping -through it, gone into the gulf of the black night. He jerked up his -rifle, holding it in one hand, unsupported by the other, his shoulder, -the right, against the tree. But they were gone before he could shoot. -He waited. He heard a breaking through brush; men running. They were -running away! They did not know that they had hit him; they could not -tell, and they were afraid of his return! He lifted his voice and -shouted at them in the sudden grip of a terrible anger. He listened -to the noise they made and strove to judge their positions and began -shooting after them. He fired until the rifle clip was empty. Then, -while awkwardly, with one hand, he put in a fresh clip, he listened -again. Silence only. - -... He was strangely weak and uncertain; he had to draw his brows down -with a steely effort to clear his thoughts. They were gone ... they -would not come back ... it was too dark to look for them. And he had -left that girl overlong ... and he was shot full of pain. A surge of -anger for every surge of weakness.... - -He started on toward his hidden cabin and Lynette. He blundered into a -tree. He could feel the hot blood down his shoulder. He began using his -rifle as a man may use a cane, leaning on it heavily. - - - - -CHAPTER XVI - - -Bruce Standing came, weaving his way, like a drunken man, through the -woods. He was sick; sick and weak. He muttered to himself constantly. -Lynette was at the top of his thought and at the bottom; she dominated -his whole mind. He was used through long years to such as Jim Taggart -and their crooked ways; he was not used to such as Lynette Brooke, a -girl like a flower and yet fearless. It had been his way to hold all -women in scorn, since it had not been given unto him during the hard -years of his life to know the finer women, the true women worth while, -more than worth the while of a mere man. He had held his head high; he -had mocked and jeered at them; he had been no man to doff his hat with -the flattering elegance of a Babe Deveril for every fair face seen. -So now the one thing which in his fiery and feverish mood galled him -most was the thought of being seen by Lynette as a man borne down and -crushed and made weak and sick. For most of all he hated weaklings. - -"She laughed at me ... damn her," he muttered. And, as an afterthought: -"She shot me in the back, after the fashion of her treacherous sex!" - -He had driven himself harder all day long than any sane man, wounded, -should have thought of doing. Now the thought, working its way -uppermost through the fomenting confusion of teeming thoughts, was: -"I'll let her go. I'll be rid of her." For already, deep down in the -depths of his heart, he knew that already a girl, a girl whom he -despised and had meant to pay in full for her wickedness, had intrigued -him; she had flung her defiant fearlessness into his face; she had -kept a lifted head and straightforward eyes; and ... those eyes of -Lynette Brooke! Deep, fathomless, gray, tender, alluring, the eyes of -the one woman for each man! Almost he could have forgotten, not merely -forgiven, her greater fault of laughing at his infirmity; if only she -had not been of the species, like Jim Taggart's, to shoot a man in the -back. - -He meant to let her go free and he had his own reasons for his change -of front. Though she had laughed and galled him, though she had sunk to -a cowardly act and shot him when he was not looking, at least she was -not the coward which he had counted upon finding her; he gave credit -where credit was due. He had humiliated her sufficiently, dragging -her after him, humbling a spirit as proud as his own, making her his -handmaiden, calling her his slave. That was one thing. And another, -befogged as it was, was even clearer: In letting her go, in being -rid for all time of her and the lure of her eyes, he was protecting -himself, Bruce Standing, and none other! ... Fearless, he honored her -for that. And yet a treacherous she-animal; so he wanted no more of -her, no more of the look of her, the fragrance of her, the pressure -of her upon his own spirit. He held himself a man; a man he meant -to remain. And, for the first time in all his life he was a little -afraid.... - -And then, just at the moment when it would have been better for them -both if he had not come ... or when it was best that he should come ... -these are questions and the answers of all questions fate holds in her -lap, hidden by the films of the future ... he came staggering up to the -door of the hidden cabin. And, at the sight of her, he pulled himself -up, stiffening, as taut as a bowstring the instant that the arrow -thrills to the command to speed. - -There, in the doorway framed by the two big-boled pines she stood, -vividly outlined by the firelight from within the cabin, superbly, -gloriously feminine, her own slender soft loveliness thrown into -tremendous contrast by the figure at her side, the figure of old Thor -on whose head her hand rested as light as a fallen leaf! Her hand -on Thor's head! She and Thor standing side by side, her hand on his -head.... - -Sudden rage flared up in Timber-Wolf's heart; he gripped his rifle -in both hands, contemptuously ignoring the pains which shot through -his left shoulder; at that moment he could have thanked God for -excuse enough to shoot her dead. She had seduced the loyalty and -trustworthiness of Thor; she had done that! If a man like Standing -could not trust his dog, when that dog was old Thor, then where on this -green earth could he plant his trust? - -"Back!" he stormed at her. "Back!" - -She was poised for flight. He came at the instant of her victory over -the brute intelligence of a dog, at the moment of her high hopes, when -her heart hot in rebellion throbbed with triumph. She, too, at that -moment, could she have commanded the lightnings, would have stricken -him dead. Her hatred of him reached in a flash such heights as it had -never aspired to before. - -Back? He commanded her to turn back? Shouted his dictates at her in -that first moment when she sensed escape and freedom and victory -over him who had been victor long enough? Back? Not now; not though -he flourished his rifle, threatening her with that while he shouted -angrily at her. Briefly the sight of him had unnerved her, had created -within her an utter powerlessness to move hand or foot. But before he -could shout "Back!" the second time defiance, like a flood of fire, -broke along her veins, warming her from head to foot; she sprang out -from the area of light at the cabin door and, running more swiftly than -Bruce Standing had deemed any girl could ever run, she sped away among -the trees.... - -A moment ago he had but the one firm intention: To set her free and -be rid of her for all time. Now, not ten seconds after holding that -purpose, he was rushing after her, forgetful of everything, his wounds -and sick weariness, except his one determination to drag her back! He -was angry; in his anger, not admitting to himself the true explanation, -he felt that he must blame her for a third crime ... she had trifled -with the integrity of his dog's loyalty ... she had corrupted old -Thor's sturdy honesty.... - -She ran like a deer. The moment that she broke into headlong flight -that very act released within her a full tide of fright; it became a -panic like that of soldiers once they have thrown down their arms and -plunged into the delirium of disordered retreat. She ran as she had -never done before, even when she and Babe Deveril had fled through the -night. And Bruce Standing would never have come up with her that night -had it not been that in the dark she fell, stumbling over the low mound -left to mark the place where an ancient log had disintegrated. As she -floundered to her feet she felt his hand on her shoulder. She screamed, -she struck at him.... - -He caught her two hands as he had done once before; she could have no -inkling of the tremendous call he put upon himself, body and will; she -could hear his heavy, labored breathing, but she, too, was breathing -in gasps. She could see neither the whiteness of his face nor yet the -blood soaking his shirt. He did not speak. He was not thinking clearly. -He merely said within himself: "I got her!" That was everything. Until, -as they came again into the outward-pouring firelight in front of the -cabin door, he wondered somewhat uneasily: "What am I going to do with -her?" - -Lynette, panting and piteously shaken, dropped down on the edge of the -bunk, overborne by disaster, hopeless, her face in her hands; she was -fighting with herself against a burst of tears. Thus she did not see -Bruce Standing as he stood at the threshold, looking at her. She heard -his step; it shuffled and was uncertain, but she did not at the moment -mark this. She heard a whine from old Thor, a Thor perplexed and ill at -ease. - -... Suddenly she thought: "He hasn't moved; he hasn't spoken!" She -dropped her hands then and looked up swiftly. And, thus, she surprised -a queer look in his eyes; his own thoughts were all chaotic and yet -there was beginning to burn one steady thought among them like one -bright flame in a whirl of smoke. He had closed the door when they -came in; he had sat down upon the up-ended log which served here as a -chair; Thor's head was on the master's knee and absently Standing's -hand was stroking it. He had dropped his rifle outside when he started -to run after her; he had not stopped to look for it as they came in. -She saw that a revolver was half in and half out of his pocket.... Then -she marked, with a start, the dead-white of his face and the way his -left arm hung limp, and the red stain on his wrist and the back of his -hand where the blood had run down his sleeve. Her first thought was -of his old wound and how he was not the man to give a wound a chance -to heal, but rather would break it open again and again through his -violence. Then she recalled what, during these last few minutes she had -forgotten--the shots which she had heard a little while ago. And she -knew that, though he sat upright and stared at her with the old look -again in his eyes, he had been shot the second time. - -"I brought you back, girl," he said at last, and she knew that he was -bending a vast resource of will to keep his tone clear and steady, "not -because I mean to keep you any longer ... but just to show you that -with all the tricks of your sex you can take no step that I do not tell -you to take! Now, I've the idea that I'd like best to be alone. You can -go." - -In a flash she jumped to her feet; she would scarcely credit her ears, -and yet one look at the man told her reassuringly that he was in -earnest. - -"I don't know where you'll go," he said. "And I don't care. But I can -tell you you'll find some good men and true, men of your own kind, -since they shoot in the back, down below my other cabin; Taggart and -Gallup and Shipton.... No, your friend Baby Devil isn't there! And -Mexicali Joe has skipped out. If you like to take your chances with -those birds...." He jerked out the revolver which recently had been -Taggart's and tossed it to the bunk. "You can take that along, if you -like." - -She flushed up, her face as hot as fire, as he jeered at her, saying: -"Men of your own kind, since they shoot in the back!" ... She could -come close to an accurate guess of what had happened; since Mexicali -Joe was gone it must be that Standing had set him free; since Standing -returned with a fresh wound, it must be that Taggart or one of his -crowd had shot him in the back.... - -She had not meant to speak, but now she cried out hotly: - -"I did not shoot you! You didn't see ... if you had seen you would -know. My pistol lay on the table ... the window was open ... some one -reached in and picked it up and shot you ... I was frightened, and when -the pistol was dropped back to the table, I caught it up...." - -His eyes grew brilliant with the intensity of the look he turned upon -her.... But his brain was reeling, his weakness overpowered him ... he -was set with all the steel of his character against showing before her -the first sign of weakness.... - -"Liar!" he flung at her. "To lie about it ... that's worse than the -shot...." - -He leaned back against the wall. "You're free now," he said. "I would -to God I had never seen you!" - -For answer she flung her bright laughter back at him; defiant, angry, -bitter laughter. She caught up the heavy revolver he had thrown to her. - -"I could shoot you now ... with no one to see...." - -His own laughter, hard and ugly, answered while he found the strength -to say sternly: - -"But with me looking you straight in the eyes ... you'd lose your nerve -at that!" - -She flung the weapon down to the floor, scorning any gift of his. -Without another word, with never another glance toward him, she passed -to the door, jerked it open and went out. - -He sat staring into the fire. Thor began sniffing at the limp hand. -Standing got to his feet; the fire was dying down and a sudden shiver -of cold prompted him to pile on fresh fuel. He kicked Taggart's -revolver viciously out of his way. He was going to the fireplace, but -in doing so passed the bunk. He sat down a moment, wiping the sweat -from his forehead ... cold and sweating at the same time. He lay back, -flat on his back, and shut his eyes. He wondered vaguely how much blood -he had lost coming up through the woods from the lower cabin where he -had been shot; how much blood he had lost while he ran like a madman -after that girl.... His eyes were shut doggedly tight and yet it seemed -to his dizzied senses as though he could feel the look of her eyes, -bending over him.... Now, that was a strange thing.... Never once had -she given him a look from those eyes of hers to show a single spasm of -fear.... Fearless? She, a girl? Did fearlessness and cowardice blend, -then, that the incomprehensible result might be known as woman? For it -was the supreme stroke of cowardice to shoot a man in the back. And -yet ... she had said: "I did not shoot you!" While she spoke, he had -believed!... He lay jeering at himself.... And all the while, as in a -vision, he saw a pair of big gray eyes, soft and tender and alluring, -bending over him.... - -"There's just one thing in the world," muttered Bruce Standing aloud, -as a man may do when hard driven by perplexity and safe in solitary -isolation from other ears than his own, "that I'd give everything to -know! To know for sure!... Just one thing...." - - - - -CHAPTER XVII - - -Lynette, running like one blind out into the dark silent forest land, -her own soul storm-tossed, stopped with sudden abruptness, staring -about her, striving to see what lay before her, about her. Free! As -free as the wind, to roam where she listed. And alone! Alone with the -wilderness for the first moment since she had fled the menace yelping -at her heels in Big Pine. _Alone._ - -And walled about by the wildest and most impenetrably blackly dark -solitudes. She had but the one impulse; to flee from this man whose -fellows termed him a wolf; but the one clear thought, that she _must_ -hasten in search of the very man from whom originally she had fled, -Jim Taggart. For, since Bruce Standing had not been killed by that -shot fired in her room at the Gallup House, she, like Babe Deveril, -was no longer threatened with the most serious charge of murder. Let -Taggart place her under arrest; let him take her back into the region -of towns and stages and lamp-lit homes; let him accuse her. Suddenly it -seemed to her, wearied with endless exertion and privation and nervous -tension, that there could be no peace greater than that of being taken -back and placed in custody in Big Pine! - -Now she had to guide her but a general, a very vague, sense of -direction. It was so absolutely dark! There were stars, but they seemed -little sparks of cold distant light, blurred and almost lost beyond -the tops of the pines. Standing had led her after him, on his way to -his lower cabin, down the gentle slope. Yes; she knew the general -direction. And the distance? She had little impression of the distance -between these two aloof lairs of Timber-Wolf; half a mile or two -miles, she did not know. She would go on and on, seeking a way among -the trees; on and on and on, stumbling in the dark. Then, after a -while, she would call; call and call again, praying that Taggart and -the others were lurking somewhere within ear-shot; that they would -hear and come to her ... and place her under arrest! And she wondered, -as she had done so many a time to-day, where was Babe Deveril? Was he -near? Would he, by any chance, hear her? Would he, too, come to her? -And, then, what? - -She began hastening on; to be farther from him, though that meant to -come at every step nearer Jim Taggart and Young Gallup and that other -man with the hawk face. She could not be absolutely certain that the -direction she set her course by would ever lead her to the lower cabin; -but on one point she was assured: at every step she was getting farther -from wolf-man and wolf-dog. What a brute, what a beast he was! _And -yet_ ... _and yet_.... There swept across her, like a clean, cold wind -out of the north, a sudden appreciation of those finer qualities of -manhood which his nature and his fate had allowed to dwell on in that -anomaly, Bruce Standing. His absolute honesty, itself like a north -wind, was not to be gainsaid even by his bitterest enemy; his courage, -in any woman's eyes, was invested with sheer nobility. How he had -befriended poor little Mexicali Joe; how, to-night for the second time, -though handicapped by his wound, he had gone to Joe's relief; how he, -one against three, had had his way, like a lion among curs. Wolf or -lion?... And, finally, she abode wonderingly on that queer, distorted -chivalry which resided in the heart of him, his brutally chivalrous way -with her. For, no matter how harsh and bitter his tongue had been and -no matter how hard his eye, he had not harmed her; when his hands had -been like steel upon hers, commanding her while he jeered at her, they -had not once so much as bruised her soft skin. In no way had he harmed -her while it had been at his command, had he desired, to harm her in -all ways.... She thought of being alone with any man like Taggart or -Gallup or that hawk-faced hanger-on of theirs ... and shuddered. Even -Babe Deveril; he had looked at her last night, insinuating.... She -remembered how Bruce Standing, rushing down upon them, had thrown his -own rifle away to grapple with Deveril, man to man and no odds stolen; -she would never forget the picture of him with his axe, attacking the -jail and defying the law.... Her mind raced, her thoughts switched -into a new groove: how he had set her free just now and tossed her the -revolver.... - -And then came the most vivid picture of all, the latest one, that of -Bruce Standing glaring at her just before she ran out of the cabin. A -second time she came to a sudden stop. He had looked like a man dying! -Too proud, with that vainglorious pride of his, to have her, a girl, -watch him, a man, die. Too unyieldingly proud and defiant to have her, -a weakling, look on while he, the strongest man she had ever glimpsed, -yielded in anything, if even to death itself. What a man he was! A man -wrong-minded, maybe; a man who overrode others and bore them down; a -man who set up his own standards, such as they were, and battled for -them wholeheartedly. Even in the matter of high-handed robbery ... he -had robbed Babe Deveril of three thousand dollars, and yet voluntarily, -when he was ready to make restitution and not before, he had returned -the full amount, estimating in his own way that he had merely borrowed -it! There was the man disclosed; one who made his own laws, and yet -who abode by them as loyally and as unswervingly as a true priest may -abide by God's.... - -And he had looked like a man dying. She turned her head. The door -of his cabin was still wide open, as she had left it; light, though -failing, still gushed out. She told herself that it was only a natural -curiosity, surely her sex's most irrefutable prerogative, that made her -turn and look. She caught no sight of him; he was not striding up and -down. And he had not come outside for his fallen rifle.... - -Her breast rose and fell to a deep sigh. Of relief, perhaps; perhaps -for another emotion. Still she remained where she was, pondering. Which -way lay the path to the other cabin, where Taggart and Gallup and -the other man were? And what was Bruce Standing doing? He had named -her "Liar!" He did not believe when she had cried out passionately: -"I did not shoot you!" Darting considerations, flashing through her -consciousness. The one question was: "Was Bruce Standing mortally -wounded?" Shot in the back a second time; he had as much as told her -that. - -Babe Deveril was what the world names a ladies' man. Bruce Standing -was a man's man. And the strange part of it is that the feminine soul -is drawn to the man's man inevitably more urgently than to the ladies' -man.... - -And all the while Lynette was saying to herself: "He is a brute and a -beast and yet ... he has not harmed me once and he has set me free and -there is some good in him and ... and he may be dying! Alone." - -She had turned her head to look back; now, hesitatingly, her whole -body turned. Slowly, silently, she retraced her steps. She came closer -and closer to the hidden cabin; the light outlining the open door -grew fainter, dimmer as the fire died down; she heard no sound; she -caught no glimpse of a man within. She drew still closer; she heard -the strange whining of his dog. Even Thor she could not see until, -lingering at every step, she came close to the door. Then she saw -both, the man on his back, his lax hand on the floor; the dog whining, -distressed, licking the hand one instant and then looking wistfully -into the master's face. A face bloodlessly white, save for one smear of -blood, where a hand had sought to wipe his eyes clear of a gathering -film. - -Hesitating no longer, she stepped across the threshold. Thor looked at -her and broke into a new whining, a note of sudden joyousness in it. -Standing did not hear and did not know that she had returned; his eyes -were shut and there was the pulse as of distant seas in his ears. She -hurried to the fireplace and tossed into it the last of the wood he had -gathered; then she came swiftly to where he lay. Her heart was beating -wildly.... - -She saw that his jaw was set, hard and stubborn. She stood, uncertain, -troubled, half regretful that she had come back, hence half of a mind -to go hurriedly. But she did not stir for a long time, and then only -to come the last step closer. His eyes flew open; he looked up at her. -And, as the fire she had freshly piled blazed higher, she saw a sudden -flash of his eyes ... whether the reflection of the fire or the flash -of the spirit within him, she could not tell. - -"I thought you'd gone," he said. He sat up; it was a struggle for him -to do so, yet here was a man who made of all his life a struggle and -who thought nothing of a trifling victory over either nature itself or -his fellow man. - -"You have been cruel...." - -He mocked her with his haggard eyes. - -"That," she ran on swiftly, "is what you expected me to say to you, -Bruce Standing, that you have been cruel! And, what I came back to say -is: '_You have been good to me!_'" - -She had not meant to say anything of the kind. But when she looked into -his eyes, when she saw the clear-as-crystal soul of him, a soul as -simple as a child's and ... yes!... as clean; and when she remembered -how she had ridden all day long while he had walked, and how he had -steadfastly refused to so much as harm a hair of her head, the words -gushed forth. - -He eyed her queerly; suspicion in his look and confusion. She could -have laughed out aloud suddenly, since her whole emotional being was -aquiver; for he, Timber-Wolf, like his own wolf-dog, Thor, distrusted -her and regarded her with fierce eyes and yet ... and yet.... - -"Your wound has not been dressed since morning," she said quietly. "And -now you've got yourself another wound. I am going to help you with -them." - -His slave.... He had commanded her once to help him with his wound.... -But his slave no longer, since he himself had set her free! Yet here -she was, saying that she stood ready to help him care for his wounds. -More, already she was getting warm water, and his old piece of castile -soap ... she was rolling up her sleeves.... - -He glared at her through a mist. He could be sure of nothing, since it -_seemed_ to him that she was half smiling! A tender, wistful sort of -smile ... as if she had it in her heart to forget injuries done, to -forgive him who had done them, and to succor him now that there was -little of man-strength left in his body.... Curse her! What right had -she to forgive, to look at a man that way? He had asked nothing from -her, save that she leave him.... - -He stirred uneasily. _Had_ she smiled? In this uncertain light one -could be certain of nothing; the flickering of the wood fire, casting -quick-racing little shadows, breaking into their play with sudden -warm, rosy gleamings, made it impossible for him to know if she had -smiled, or if that semblance of a smile were but the effect of shifting -lights. He held himself rigid, his back to the wall now, his right hand -clinched on his knee. - -"When I am in need of your help ... you who shot me...." - -She came to him unafraid; she set down the can of warm water on the -floor; she began unbuttoning the neck of his shirt. He threw up his -hand, the right, hard-clinched, as though he would strike her in the -face; but he let the hand fall back to his side. She heard a great sigh. - -"I told you once," she said quietly, "that I did not shoot you. And I -am no more liar than you are, Bruce Standing." - -He cursed himself for a fool; he was tired and weak and dizzy; his mind -was the abode of confusions; he no longer knew what was fact and what -illusion. One thing alone he did know, a marvellous thing; there was -in her low voice the ring of utter honesty when she said: "I did not -shoot you!" ... Liars; all her sex, waging their weak wars from ambush, -holding their place in the world through seduction and deceit, all were -liars. And yet she troubled him, and with that voice and those eyes -she bred uncertainty on top of uncertainty in his uncertain soul. Her -steady fingers were unbuttoning his collar.... - -"Then why," he muttered, jeering and challenging, "did you run as you -did after the shot? And how, since you and I were alone in the room...." - -"The window was open! Under it was the table, my pistol where I had -dropped it on the table. You turned your back; I was going to jump out -the window and run because for the moment I was afraid! But some one, -some man, was there; I saw his hand; it caught up the pistol. It was he -who shot you in the back! And when he dropped the pistol back to the -table...." - -Again he demanded fiercely: - -"But you ran ... _why_? And with the gun in your hand! Why? _Why_, -girl, if you are not lying to me?" - -"Haven't I told you?" Suddenly she was aflame with passionate -vehemence. "I was frightened; ready to run; keyed up to run! There came -that shot, and you were hit; I thought you were killed! It flashed over -me that I would be suspected and all evidence would point to me and I -would be convicted of murder! Cowardly murder!... One does not think at -such a time; there is only the rush of instinct and impulse. I was all -ready to run; I had no time to think...." - -"But you had the revolver in your hand as you went through the window!" - -"Impulse and instinct, I tell you!" she cried. "Instinct to flee; and -to snatch at the first weapon for protection, even though it was the -weapon that had just shot you! I was a fool, maybe; and maybe by acting -as I did I saved my own life!" - -He was looking up into her face queerly; she saw the savage gathering -of his brows; with all his might he strove for clear vision and clear -thought. With a new, terrible keenness, he fixed his eyes upon her; -then he said deliberately: "Liar!" - -He saw the flash of her eyes, the angry set of her mouth; her hands -were clinched now, and for a moment it was he who believed that he -was to be struck full across the face. And thereupon his own eyes -brightened; this girl did not speak like a liar; she did not carry -herself like one; she had yet to show the first streak of yellow which -is in the warp and woof of lying souls. - -But Lynette curbed her quick temper and said only: - -"You have no right to call me that; my word is as good as your word, -Bruce Standing. Had I shot you I should not have waited for you to turn -your back. One thing I did do for which I was sorry even while I did -it, and ashamed; I laughed at you even while I sympathized with your -anger against a man who, to be little and mean, could have your horse -killed. And it was not at you that I laughed, after all ... there come -times when I can't help laughing, though there is nothing to laugh at -... it was the shock, I think ... the incongruousness, to hear you...." - -She ended there, sparing him any further reference to his lisping of -which he was so desperately ashamed; once more she began working at his -collar.... And again there came into the blue eyes of Bruce Standing a -flash as of blue fire, though he hid it from her; and a sudden great, -utterly mysterious gladness blossomed magically. For, though he did not -understand and though he would never rest until he did understand, yet -already he began to believe that this girl with the fearless look spoke -the truth! And this, because of the ring of her voice and the tip of -her head, erect on its white throat, and the flash of her own eyes, as -though the spirit of man and maid had struck fire, one from the other. - -"If you'll help me ..." said Lynette. "If you can sit a little bit -forward?... Your shirt will have to be torn or cut; I can't get to your -shoulder otherwise...." - -He put up his right hand; as he jerked vigorously there was the sound -of tearing and ripping; he thrust the cloth down from the left side and -laid bare his great chest and the powerfully muscled left shoulder and -upper arm. Lynette shuddered; he had lost so much blood! And against -the smooth perfect whiteness of his healthy skin the blood was so -emphasized. She found the new wound.... - -"Shot in the back ... twice shot in the back," she said, and again she -shivered. "And you don't know who shot you either time?" - -"I have my own idea about both," he said curtly. And had nothing to add. - -With the warm water and soap she cleansed the fresh wound and then the -older one. Then, with gentle fingers, she did as he bade her with Billy -Winch's salve, applying it generously. - -When the thing was done they looked at each other strangely; man and -maid in the wild-wood, with much lying between them, with each asking -swift unanswerable questions, with the night in the solitudes advancing. - -"It's a strange thing that you came back," said Standing. - -"Where better had I to go?" - -"I told you that Taggart and his friends were down there. You might -have found them." - -She turned from him abruptly and went back to the fireplace; he could -see only the curve of her cheek and a curl and her shoulder. - -"I have no greater liking for Sheriff Taggart than you have," she said. - -He wanted to see her face, but she was stubborn in refusing to turn. He -said curiously: - -"Your friend, Baby Devil, ought to be overhauling them before long! If -you think he decided to come this way?" - -She did not answer. He began to grow angry with her for that; for -refusing to reply when he spoke; for refusing to discuss Babe Deveril. -But he kept a shut mouth, though with the effort his jaws bulged. He -began feeling in his pocket for pipe and tobacco; he felt the need of -it.... - -He would have sworn that she had not looked and could not have seen, -but when he struggled over the difficulty of doing everything with one -hand she whirled and came forward impulsively and finished the task for -him, packing the tobacco into the black bowl of his pipe and handing -him a lighted splinter from the fire. - -He muttered something; she had gone back to her place at the fire -and did not know whether his muttering was of thanks or curses; -her attitude would have seemed to imply that either would find her -indifferent. He smoked slowly; the strong tobacco, sharp and acrid, -did him good; a man of steady nerve, he had come to a point where his -nerves needed steadying; just now he wanted silence and his pipe and -time to grope for certain readjustments. Sweeping in all his ways was -Bruce Standing; in building up, tearing down, building up again; and -always with him was the sheerest joy in building up.... And Lynette, -for the first time in many hours, experienced a moment of bright -happiness. - -He knocked out the ashes of his pipe, rapping the black bowl sharply -against his boot heel. Heavily he got to his feet. From the bunk he -dragged a blanket tossing it on the floor in a corner by the fireplace. -Obviously he was intending it for his bed.... - -"You must lie on the bunk," she cried impulsively. "You are worse hurt -than you seem to know. In any case, I give you my word I'll not use it!" - -"Why should I care what you do, girl?" he demanded, staring at her -fiercely. "The bunk is there; take it or leave it." - -Defiantly she snatched up a second blanket and folded it into the -opposite corner, sitting down on it with her feet tucked under her, -beginning swiftly to rebraid her loose hair. He turned from her to -lie down. But since he had chosen the corner which he had, and since -because of his wounds he was forced to lie on his right side, he faced -toward her. She appeared not to notice him, having brooding eyes only -for the fire; and yet she had had her clear view of his haggard face. -Thor came to lie close to his master's feet. - -There were three blankets. Lynette, only asking herself curiously what -explosion of wrath she might bring upon herself, rose and went for the -third, and, without saying anything, spread it over Standing. He looked -at her amazed. But he did not speak. Instead, after the briefest of -hesitations, he floundered to his feet, set one boot heel upon the edge -of the blanket while in his good hand he gripped a corner; with one -sudden effort he ripped the blanket fairly in two. He tramped across -the small room and dropped half by her side; he went back to his own -corner and lay down, dragging the other fragment up over his shoulders, -like a shawl.... - -Lynette was tired almost to the end of endurance; further, this night -had been no less a tax upon her than had the other nights. Now, -suddenly, she burst into that inimitable laughter of hers, sounding as -light and gay and mirthful as the laugh of a delighted child.... - -"Behold! The acme of politeness!" she cried merrily. "A perfectly good -bunk and the two travellers going to sleep on the floor!" - -He stared at her unsmilingly for a long time. - -"I haven't thanked you, girl, for what you've done for me to-night. -I am not without gratitude, but I'm no man for pretty speeches, I am -afraid. At any rate here's this: I came hunting a cowardly sneak of a -she-cat and I found a true sport. And I think I'm done with making war -on you!... Unless...." - -"Unless ... _what_?" asked Lynette. - -But he was lying back now, his eyes closed. He did not appear to have -heard. She, too, lay down with a little weary sigh. Her last thoughts -were three; they mingled and grew confused as all thoughts faded. -But before they blurred they were these: Bruce Standing had dropped -his rifle outside and had not gone out for it; Babe Deveril had not -returned for her, but no doubt was still seeking her; and Bruce -Standing was done making war on her, _unless_.... - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII - - -Lynette awoke, shivering. It was pitch-dark; the fire had burned out; -it must be very late, as she was stiff and cold. She had been dreaming -and her shivering was half a shudder of fear. Her nightmare had been -one of herself attacked and pursued hideously by wild animals; lions -which in the fashion of dreams, changed into wolves, then into savages. -She sat up, gathering her blanket about her. She heard Standing -breathing heavily; she could hear, now and then, his mutterings of -uneasy sleep. Perhaps it had been this which had awaked her? She began -listening as one, startled out of slumber, inevitably does to another's -incoherencies. It was hard to catch a word despite the cabin's hushed -silence into which every slightest sound penetrated. The sounds were -like those of a man babbling in fever. Once it seemed to her that he -had hardly more than whispered "Girl!" - -Always must the mind of one who listens thus be held under the spell of -another spirit winging its way among dreams; the moment is uncanny if -only because it brings in such close contact the commonplace of every -day and the inexplicable of dreams. In the night, in the silence, under -this queer spell, her own mind groping, she stirred uneasily. - -It flashed across Lynette that it had not been Timber-Wolf's mumbling -voice that had awakened her. That there had been something else, a new -sound from without. She listened intently, straining her ears. _There -was some one or something outside!_ She started to her feet, though -clinging to the security offered by her corner. - -The door was open; it was a mere degree less dark outside than within. -As she stared into the blackness she made out vaguely the mass of -trees. A black wall in a black night. Some one out there? Then who? -_Babe Deveril?_ - -All along she had held tenaciously to the thought that Babe Deveril -would come for her. Perhaps he had come now; perhaps he lingered -outside, not knowing positively that she was here, not knowing if -Standing were awake or asleep, not knowing if Standing were sick of his -wound or ready with rifle in hand. - -Her thoughts began to fly like stabs of lightning; briefly they made -everything clear only to plunge her whole world of thought back into -even more profound darkness. Babe Deveril? It might be! Or it might be -Mexicali Joe, lurking after his fashion. Or it might, equally well, be -Taggart with Gallup and that other man at his heels. By now she was -certain of only one thing: _There was some one out there._ - -She stood rigid for ten or fifteen minutes; Standing had become quiet -save for his heavy breathing; she strove with all senses upgathered -tensely to read the riddle of the night. Once she was sure of a sound -outside; but the mystery of a night sound is so baffling! A man's -cautious tread? Or a limb stirring gently? Or a bird among leaves, or -a rabbit? It was so easy a matter, with her senses so freshly aroused -from a nightmare of wild animals and savage pursuers, to people the -night with fantastic menaces. - -Bruce Standing was unarmed; his rifle dropped somewhere outside when -he had dashed after her. She, too, was without a weapon. He had given -her the big revolver; she had refused it; she had flung it angrily to -the floor, near the bunk. She remembered seeing it there, almost out of -sight, under the bunk.... - -If it were Babe Deveril, she had nothing to fear. If Mexicali Joe, she -had nothing to fear. If Taggart and Gallup and the other? What had she -to fear from them? Merely arrest, at most, and not so long ago she had -been eager for that! And if some prowling animal? - -"There's nothing to hurt me," she told herself, fighting to throttle -down that trepidation which had leaped upon her when she first awoke -with the wildly beating heart of one threatened in sleep. "If I -only had that revolver now ... if it chanced to be wolf or bear or -mountain-cat, one shot at it would send it scurrying. And, if a man, -there is none for me to be afraid of." - -She began, ever so slowly and guardedly, tiptoeing across the floor. -She came to the bunk; she stooped and groped, and at last her fingers -closed about the fallen revolver. She clinched it tightly and stood up, -again rigid. This time she was sure of the sound which came again; a -man's step, as guarded as her own had been, but betrayed by a little -dry twig snapping. - -Again she waited, without moving, a long time. And not another sound; -only Standing's deep breathing. Once she thought that his breathing -had changed; that he, too, was awake. But after a moment she persuaded -herself that she had imagined that; that he was still sleeping heavily. -But no further sound outside. What a cautious man, or what a cowardly, -was he out there! What did he want? - -Suddenly she thought of Thor. How was it that Thor, a dog, hence -man's superior in as many matters as he was man's inferior, a thing -of keenest senses, had given no sign? Why had not Thor stirred when -she did; why had he not heard what she heard; why was he not already -rushing out, growling, demanding to know what intruder lurked in such -stealth at his master's door? Had there been a ray of light in the -cabin she would have had her answer; for Bruce Standing was sitting up, -his arms were about Thor, one big hand was at Thor's muzzle, commanding -quiet. And when Standing commanded, Thor obeyed. - -Some girls, some men ... perhaps most girls and most men ... would have -remained in the protection of the four walls, resigned to uncertainty, -until daybreak. Of their number was not Lynette Brooke, a girl little -given to fear and greatly moved by a desire to _know_! She waited as -long as she could bear to wait. Then, holding Taggart's revolver well -before her and walking with one silent footfall distanced patiently -from the other, she gained the door and stepped outside. She was -trembling; that she could not help. But she was determined to go on. -And on she did go, cautiously, until she had gone ten steps toward the -sound which she had heard. She paused, turning in all directions, ready -to fire and ready to run.... - -"_Sh! Come here!_" - -A whisper through the dark. And one man's whisper is much like -another's. It could have been Deveril's or Taggart's or even Mexicali -Joe's. - -"Who are you?" her own whisper answered him. - -"Is Standing in there?" - -"Who are you?" she insisted. - -There was a pause, a silence; a long silence. Then: - -"Come with me ... just a few feet. So we won't be overheard." - -She found herself frowning. Was it Babe Deveril? She did not fancy -a man's whispering; she could not imagine a man like Bruce Standing -whispering at a moment like this! More like him, like any man who was -a man, to roar out what he had to say rather than whisper in the dark. -But that curiosity of hers, that inborn desire _to know_, lured her -on. But under guard. She held her weapon so that it menaced the vague -form so close to her and she whispered again, not realizing that she, -too, whispered, but because she was under the spell of the moment. - -"I'll go with you another ten steps ... count them! And I have a -revolver in my hand, aimed at the middle of your body!" - -"You're a game kid! Dead game and I don't mind saying so!" - -They had stopped; the whisper was dropped for a low-toned voice. It was -not Babe Deveril! Not Mexicali Joe. Then Taggart? - -"I want to talk to you. I take it he is in there. Asleep? So much the -better. I'm Taggart." - -"Well? What can I do for you, Mr. Taggart?" - -"That gun of yours," he said. "I don't know how used you are to guns. -Knowing who I am you can point it down!" - -"Knowing who you are," she returned coolly, "I keep it just as it is! I -have asked what I could do for you?" - -"I've seen Babe Deveril. He's told me all about everything." - -"Babe Deveril! When? Where is he?" - -Jim Taggart, had time and opportunity afforded, would have laughed at -her quickened exclamation, being an evil-thoughted individual with -restricted mental horizons. She appeared interested. He had his own -mind of her sex and it was not high, since those of her sex with whom -such as Jim Taggart consorted were not such as to give a man a high -idea of femininity. In the words which, had he spoken his thought -aloud, would have been his, Taggart estimated that "he had this dame's -number, street, and telephone." - -"I'll tell you about Babe Deveril later; and what's more, kid, I'll -give you your show to throw in with him again. Now I'm cutting things -short; you know why. I was after him for hammering me over the head -with a gun; I was on your trail for killing a man. Now, since the -man you killed ain't dead at all and since I've had a good talk with -Deveril, I'm ready to let you both go. And just to take in a man named -Standing." - -Through one of those odd tricks by which chance asserts itself at -times, Lynette made a discovery while Taggart was talking. She had -felt something underfoot--and that something turned out to be Bruce -Standing's rifle. - -... What had this lost rifle to do with matters as they stood? Why -all Jim Taggart's caution, if he were armed? But then Standing had -brought Taggart's revolver back to the cabin with him.... What part -in to-night's game was this fallen rifle to play? Her thoughts had -been withdrawn; so, standing so that for the present Taggart could not -possibly touch with his own foot that which she had stumbled on in the -dark, she made him repeat what he had said. - -Thus she caught a free instant for thought; thus also she grasped all -that he had to say and to insinuate. And at the end she answered him -with a baffling, feminine: - -"Well?" - -"I've got to talk fast!" growled Taggart. "He's in there, I know. Is he -hurt?" - -"You know that he is...." - -"I don't mean that shot at Gallup's ... that you gave him...." - -"I did not shoot him!" she cried out hotly, sick of accusation. - -Taggart sneered at her, muttering threateningly: - -"You did! For I saw you! I was right there, close by...." - - -Within the cabin Bruce Standing, sitting very tense and straight, -nearly choking his big dog into silence, grew tenser and harder. So, -Taggart claimed to have seen her.... Taggart was "_right there, close -by_...." - - -"You say you saw me!" gasped Lynette. "_You!_" - -"I tell you this is no time for palaver," said Taggart impatiently. -"What do you care, so long as I agree to let you go free? And to let -Deveril go free along with you! I guess that means something to you, -don't it? If it don't mean enough, let me show you: I can grab you -right now; me, I'm not afraid of any gun any woman ever waved! And I -can put you across for a good little vacation in jail. But I'm letting -that go by, wanting to get my hooks in one Bruce Standing, good and -deep. And I got just that! Seeing as Deveril told me what happened; -how Standing swooped down on you, how he beat Deveril up, how he put a -chain on you and dragged you away after him! If you'll step into court -and swear to that.... Why, kid, I got him! Got him right! Any jury in -this country will land on him _hard_ for doing to a woman like that. -And you can tell the other things he's done to you by now, you and him -all alone up here, him a brutal devil...." - -Illogically enough it swept over her that it was she herself, Lynette, -whom the man was insulting, and her finger trembled so upon the trigger -that all unknowing Jim Taggart stood for the instant close upon the -verge of the great final blackness. But, steadying herself, she managed -to say: - -"Babe Deveril told you that? That Bruce Standing had put a chain about -me? How did he know? That was after he had gone!" - -"But," muttered Taggart harshly, "he did not go so fast! He went up -over a ridge and he stopped and rested, and in the dark he came back a -bit and he hid and saw! Anyway, it's the truth, ain't it? And I know? -So he must have come back to see!" - -That thought became on the instant the only thought, one to rise up and -obstruct all others. Deveril had seen; he had lingered, hidden in the -forest land; he had watched her humiliation; he had known that Bruce -Standing, though armed, was a man sorely wounded ... and he had not -come to her then! - -"Where is he?" she demanded swiftly. "When did you see him? Where has -he gone?" - -"He came just as Standing, damn him, had jumped us to-night! All -unawares Standing took us ... when we were busy with other things. He -had the drop on us and he made us let the Mexico breed go. Deveril was -watching but he didn't have a gun and he couldn't step up and take a -hand, knowing his cousin for a dead shot and a man who'd rather kill -than not." - -"But now," demanded Lynette. "_Now!_ Where is he?" - -"He's a wised-up kid and I'm with him, tooth and toenail! He came up -then and he said his say ... and I let him go! And he told me to look -out for you and he hit the trail, dog-tired as he was, after Mexicali -Joe! If there's gold to be had, why Babe Deveril means to be in on it. -And me, so do I! And you, if you're on." - -Underfoot, all this time, Lynette felt Bruce Standing's rifle.... - -There are times in life for methodical thought, other times for swift -decisions, bred of impulse and instinctive urge.... - -She lived again through a certain pregnant crisis, saw in mind the -whole scene as though some master artist with sweeping, bold brush had -created the perfect vision anew for her, the struggle which had been -hers and Babe Deveril's and Bruce Standing's, when Standing, with the -sun glowing red over his head, had come rushing down on them by their -camp-fire. She saw his rifle ... the one she now felt underfoot!... go -swirling over a pine top as he hurled from him any such advantage in -fair fight as it spelled; again she watched the fight ... she saw Babe -Deveril go up over the ridge; she saw herself, striking in fury against -Standing's arm, beating the rifle down.... - -"Well?" It was Taggart who spoke the brief word now. "Which is it? Jail -for you ... or a good long spell in the pen for him?" - -... And Babe Deveril had come this close ... she had proof of that in -Taggart's knowledge of the chain! ... and had gone on, following the -golden lure of Mexicali Joe's trail! - -"Well?" said Taggart. - -"Suppose I were fool enough to refuse what you ask?" - -"Then you'd go to jail as sure as hell! It's you or him! And I guess I -know the answer." - -Then Lynette said hurriedly: - -"Step back ... a little farther from the cabin. Let me make sure that -he is asleep! There never was a man like him.... Back a few steps and -wait...." - -"There's no sense in that!" - -"If you don't I'll scream out that you're here! Then you'll never take -him; you know the man he is!" - -Taggart mistrusted, and yet, hard-driven and urged by her voice, obeyed -to the extent of drawing back a few steps. Not far, yet far enough for -Lynette to stoop and grope and find the rifle. She caught it up and -whirled and ran, ran as for her life, back to the cabin door. And she -threw the rifle inside, crying out: - -"Wake up, Bruce Standing! There's your rifle ... and here's Jim Taggart -outside, looking for you!" - - -She came bursting into the cabin and full into Bruce Standing's arms. -For he was up on his feet, both arms, despite a sore side, lifted. - -"By God!" he shouted. - -He let her go and sought the rifle. She was first to find it and put it -into his searching hand. - -"He is a contemptible coward!" she cried. "As if...." - -Standing had the rifle now, and thrust by her and rushed into the -open doorway, Thor snarling at his side; and Standing's voice, lifted -mightily, shouted: - -"Come ahead, Taggart! I'm waiting and ready for you! Come ahead!" - -Later he laughed at himself for that, and thereafter explained his -laughter to Lynette, saying: - -"He hasn't a gun on him! I cleaned him out, all but one pocket gun, and -I fancy he emptied that at me ... in the back. Come--we'll have a fire!" - -Hastily she shut the door, lest Taggart might have one shot left. -Standing set his rifle down against the wall; she heard the thud of -the stock upon the floor. Clearly he had no fear of Taggart's return. -He began gathering up bits of wood, kneeling to get a fire started. -Presently under his hands the blaze leaped up and brought detail -vividly blossoming from the dark of the room; his face, white, with the -most eager, shining eyes she had ever seen; her own face scarcely less -pale; the homely appointments of the place. He was still on his knees -at the fireplace; he threw on the last bit of wood and watched the -quick flames lick at it; he swerved about, and it seemed that his eyes, -no less than the inflammable wood, had caught fire as he cried out in -a voice which startled her and in words which set her wondering: - -"I told you, girl, I'd let you go scot-free ... _unless_! And here -I bogged down like a broken-legged steer in the quicksands! But now -... _Now_! I've got it all figured out. I don't let you go! Neither -to-night ..." and he was on his feet, towering over her--"or ever!" - -And, as quick as thought, he was at the door and had shot a bolt home -and had clicked a padlock, and, swinging about again, stood looking -down at her, his eyes filled with dancing lights. - - - - -CHAPTER XIX - - -There was no more sleep through what was left of the night, and -scarcely more of talk. Standing piled his fire high, and, unmindful -of his discarded rifle, went out for more wood; Lynette dropped down -on the blanket in her corner and named herself a silly fool. He came -back, carefully relocking his door; kept his fire blazing, and made -his coffee and smoked his pipe. And then, in that great golden voice -of his, he began singing. And, through its wild rhythm, she knew the -song for the same as that which she had heard for the first time when -he had hurled himself both into Big Pine and into her life. His voice -rose and swelled and filled the poor cabin to overflowing, and must -have filtered through chinks and cracks and spilled out through the -forest land, and for great distances through the quiet solitudes. And, -at the end, in a sudden upgathering into all that tremendous resounding -volume of sound of which his magnificent voice was capable, came that -unforgettable wolf cry. If she required any reminding, here she had -it, that she was housed in the same cabin with Timber-Wolf! A fierce -outcry, to go resounding and echoing across miles and miles of forest -lands, meant, as she was quick to realize, to carry both defiance and -challenge to his enemies. - -"You have had your choice, girl!" he shouted at her. "You could have -gone free! I gave you your freedom. But you would not go. And that was -because it was in the cards, in the fates, in the stars, if you like, -that you and I are not to part yet! The door is locked; I stand between -you and it. So, you stay here with me!" - -For the first time she was truly and deeply afraid of him. But he went -back to his place by the fire, and sat on the old stump seat, and -filled his pipe again with hard, nervous fingers and glared at the -fire. For a little he seemed to have forgotten that she was there. -And then at last, when she saw that he was going to speak again, she -forestalled him, saying swiftly: - -"I am tired and sleepy. I am going to sleep." - -He checked his speech, saving whatever he had to say to her. She lay -back on her blankets, and, though she had had no such intention, soon -drifted off to sleep. And he, with pipe grown cold, sat and glowered -over his fire, and put to himself many a question, growing fierce over -his inability to answer any one of them. But, at least, in his groping -he forgot the pain of his wounds. - -"You are not asleep," he said after a very long time. "I know that; I -can tell. You are pretending. And you are thinking, thinking hard and -fast! And so am I thinking! As I never did before now. You might as -well save yourself the labor of struggling with your problems, since I -am doing the planning for both of us right now; since everything is in -my hands and I mean to keep it there." - -She heard but gave no sign of hearing; she kept her face averted from -him so that he could not see whether her eyes were open or shut. Open -they were, and the man appeared to know it. - -"Am I wise man or fool?" he cried. "He only is wise who knows what he -knows and steers his craft by the one steady star in his sky!" - -She would not answer him when he spoke; she could not just now. She lay -still, as if asleep. He relapsed into a long silence, his eyes now on -her, now on his fire. - -"This neck o' the woods is getting all cluttered up with folks!" he -muttered abruptly, with such suddenness that he startled her. "I've a -notion to run the whole crowd in for trespassing!... Or better, girl, -you and I move on. Where there's elbow room; room to talk in. We've got -to quarry out our own blocks of stone and build up our own lives, and -we want a bit of the world to ourselves. What's more, we're going to -have it!" - -She knew, as every girl knows when that mighty moment comes ... and -her girl-heart beat hard and fast ... that after his own fashion Bruce -Standing, Timber-Wolf, was making love to her. - -"Dawn!" he said, and she understood that he spoke with himself as much -as with her. "That's all we're waiting for, the first streak of dawn. -Then we move on. Where? I know where, and no other man knows!" - -He began impatiently stalking up and down; he seemed to have forgotten -his wounds, and yet, stealing her swift glances at him, she could see -that his face had lost little of its whiteness and that his whole left -side was stiff. Again, bestowing mentally a strange epithet upon him, -she regarded the man as "inevitable." Could anything stop him or divert -his career into any channel but that of his own choosing? She _was_ -afraid of him. - -"You told me that I might go! Where I pleased, when I pleased!" - -He swung about and turned on her a face of whose expression in that -dim, flickering light she could make nothing. - -"You had your choice! You came back! Now I know something which I did -not know before." - -He began pacing up and down again, making the cabin's smallness further -dwarfed by his great strides. He fascinated her; she watched him, and -her fear, formless and nameless, grew until it seemed that it would -choke her. - -There was a boarded-up window. A thin slit of light showed. - -"We breakfast and go," he told her. - -"And if I refuse to go with you?" - -"I have my chain and my good right arm!" - -Then, as once before, tingling with anger born of foreseen humiliation, -she cried out: - -"I hate you, brute that you are!" - -"Not brute, but man," he told her sternly. "And, ever since the world -was young, men, when they were men, claimed their mates and took and -held them!" - -Again for a long time he was silent. And then, on his feet, his arms -thrown out, he cried in a strange voice: - -"I love you!" - -He made strange mad music in her soul. She tried again to cry out: -"I hate you!" She knew that still she was afraid of him, more afraid -than ever. Yet he strode up and down and looked a young valiant god, -and his golden voice found singing echoes within her soul and his wild -extravagances awoke throbbing extravagances in her.... What can one -know? What misdoubt? We are like babes in the dark. Of what can one be -sure? Of the stars above?... Our hopes are like stars.... - -"I am no poet, though next to a strong fighting man I'd rather be a -true poet than anything else God ever created! Were I a poet I'd build -a song for you, girl! A song to ring through the eternal ages; going -back to the roots of things when You and I were first You and I! It -would be a song like one of the old troubadours', telling of great -deeds and great loves only ... for you and I have never been the ones -for cowardly littlenesses! I'd make a song to hang about the world's -memory of you like a golden chain. And I'd carry on, having the poet's -soul and vision, into ten thousand lives to come; down to the end of -time when eternity is only at its beginnings!... But I am only plain -Bruce Standing, a simple fighting man, and no poet; one who at best -can but mouth the voicings of the true poets. So I can only pour all -my heart and soul, girl, into my brief poem: I love you. I have always -loved you! Always and always I shall love you!... And I'll crack any -man's skull that so much as looks at you!" - -She was not sure of his sanity; not certain that a fever, bred of his -wounds, was not burning into his marrow. _And yet_---- - -"It's dawn, I tell you! We boil our coffee, we pick up a mouthful of -food. And then we move on! And why? Because we're sure to have callers -here in another day or so, and just now I don't want other people; -I want you, girl, and only you and the rest of the world can go to -pot!... And now we go!" - - - - -CHAPTER XX - - -Lynette, in a mood to expect anything of fate, wondered vaguely where -the steep trail of adventure now led. She would not have been surprised -had Standing set his plans for some spot a hundred miles distant. But -she was surprised to arrive so soon, after only two or three hours, at -their destination. He looked at her, exulting. - -"Here is Eden!" he cried out joyously. "Remember the name, girl; -bestowed upon this spot no longer ago than this very minute! Eden! And -as far from the world as that other distant Eden. Here we stop and here -no man finds us!" - -He had led the way, upward along a rocky slope. He had brought her into -a spot which she would have named "The Land of Waterfalls!" A tiny -valley with a sparkling mountain creek cleaving like flowing crystal -through a grassy meadow; tall trees, noble patriarchs bounding it. -Steep canyon walls shutting in the timber growth; a narrow ravine above -with the water leaping, plunging, tumbling translucent green over -jagged rocks, splashing into a series of pools, turned into rainbow -spray here and there in its wild cascadings. The world all about was -murmurous with living waters, with bees, with the eternal whisperings -of the pines. - -And here began an idyl; a strange idyl. A man asserting his power as -captor; a maid made captive; two souls wide awake, questing, swung from -certainty to uncertainty, gathered up in doubt. Life grown a thing of -tremendous import. - -All morning had Standing been wracked with pain. Yet none the less did -he hold unswervingly to his purpose. Now he sat down, his back to a -tree. Thor came and lay at his feet. Lynette stood looking down upon -the two. - -"Rest," he said. "Here is your home for a time. A day? Ten days? Who -knows? Not I, girl! All that I know I have told you; here we rest and -here we take life into our hands and mould it ... as we have always -moulded it! We are at the gates; we enter or we turn to one side! We go -on or we go back. Which? When we know that, we know everything." - -He had brought with him, slung across his back, a great roll from the -hidden cabin. His rifle lay across his knees. He looked up into her -face with eyes which, though haggard, shone wonderfully. She sat down, -ten steps from him; her clasped hands were in her lap; her eyes were -veiled mysteries. - -"Taggart won't look for us here," he said. "He hasn't the brains of a -little gray seed-tick! He'll be sure we've made a big jump, forward or -back, ten times this distance. Besides, he has to go somewhere to get -himself a new set of guns! Imagine him tackling anything with an ounce -of risk in it unless he was heeled like an army corps! I begin to lose -respect for that man." - -Lynette was thinking but one thing: "She was not afraid of this man; -not afraid to be alone with him in pathless solitudes. She might choose -to be elsewhere ... yet she was safe with him. For, above all, he was a -man; and never need a true girl fear a true man." And, when she stole -a swift glance at his face, it lay in her heart to be a bit sorry for -him. Sympathy? It lies close to another eternal human emotion! He -looked like one whom fate had crushed and yet whose spirit refused to -be crushed. He looked a sick man who, scorning all the commands laid -upon the flesh, carried on. - -After a while he turned to look upon her, and for the first time she -saw a new and strange look in his eyes, a look of pleading. - -"Don't misjudge me, girl," he said heavily. "Rather than see your -little finger bruised I'd have a man drive a knife in me! I'm just -blundering along now ... blundering ... trying to see daylight. I won't -hurt you. There's nothing on earth or in Heaven so sure as that. But -don't ask me to let you go!" - -She made him no answer. She began thinking of his wounds; he gave them -such scant attention! He should be caring for them; what he should -do was to hasten to a surgeon. She wondered if still he clung to his -conviction, the natural one after all, that she had shot him? And she -wondered, as she had done so many a time before: "Who had shot him?" -Whose hand that which she had seen reach through her window and snatch -up her revolver and fire the cowardly shot? Taggart, only a few hours -ago, had said: "I saw! I was right there!" ... - -"Was it Jim Taggart who shot you in the back last night?" she demanded -suddenly. - -"Yes," he said. "At least, I think so." - -"Is he that kind of man?" - -Now his eyes were keen and hard upon hers. - -"I begin to think that he is, girl," he said shortly. "Why?" - -She shrugged and again turned away. - -He lumbered to his feet. Thor, knowing where he was going, barked and -leaped ahead. - -"Come, I'll show you where we pitch camp." - -She looked about her. Mere madness to attempt flight now; he would bear -down upon her before she had run twenty steps. And did she want to run -just now? She had her own measure of curiosity.... Was it only that?... -and she had, locked away securely in her breast, her absolute positive -knowledge that she had nothing to fear at his hands. She rose and -followed him. - -Suddenly he swerved about, confronting her, his eyes stern, his voice -hard with the emotion riding him. - -"Madman I may be," he said. "Fool, I am not, praise God! Last night I -heard; you could have chucked that rifle into Taggart's hands and could -have gone free yourself ... and by now I'd be a dead man! But, glory -be, there isn't a streak of yellow in your whole glorious being!" - -The blood ran up into her face; it made her hot throughout her whole -body. Praise, from him, to stir her like that! Her eyes flashed back -angrily, for she was angry with herself. - -"Come," he muttered. "Talk's cheap at any time. And I'm to show you -where we make our first home." - -With her teeth sharply catching up her underlip, she held her silence. -He went on some two-score paces and stopped; with a sudden gesture he -said: - -"Here I've spent, God knows how many nights, when I had to be off by -myself! No roof for us, girl, but who wants a roof with that sky above -us?" - -Here was a natural grotto which at another time would have made her -exclaim in delight: a nook, set apart, thresholded in tender grass shot -through with those tiny delicate blooms of mountain flowers. On one -side a cliff, outjutting, thrusting forward a great overhanging shelf -of rock which looked as though it must fall and yet which, obviously, -had held securely through the centuries. Three big pine-trees, two -of them leaning strangely toward the cliff, as though yearning to -lean against the sturdy rock and rest there upon its iron breast. The -whole ringed about by a dense copse of brush, thick as a wall and -rearing high above her head. Almost a cave made of cliff and growing -things, cosy and warm, with its opening fronting the stream which was -never silent. Thor ran ahead into the dusky seclusion and barked his -invitation to them to follow. A thick, dry mat, under Thor's feet, of -fallen pine-needles. - -Standing tossed his roll inside; he began, with one hand, to work with -the knotted rope. Lynette came forward swiftly, saying: - -"At least I have two hands...." - -Their hands brushed over the labor. Again the hot blood raced through -her, and again sudden anger, anger at herself, flashed through her -being. - -And a tingling, like that which shot through her, was in Bruce -Standing's veins. He caught her hand. - -"Girl!" he said huskily. - -"Don't!" she cried in alarm. - -He dropped her hand and rose swiftly to his feet. - -"You are right," he muttered. "Not yet...." - -How could this man at a touch make her heart beat like mad? She was -afraid ... she knew that she was not afraid of _him_ ... yet she was -afraid. - -"I'm sorry," he said roughly. Actually, marvelling, she saw that the -big man looked embarrassed. "Look here, girl: I've come to know you a -bit and, thinking what I think, I hold that I know you well! I'll take -my chance that you are no petty crook, that you are no coward, that you -are no liar! So...." - -"Then," she cried, jumping to her feet, all eagerness, "do you believe -me when I say that I did not shoot you?" - -His eyes met hers steadily; he answered promptly: - -"You have told me ... and I believe. _I know!_" - -A rush of gladness, an intoxication of gladness, swept over her. Her -eyes were shining, soft and bright and happy like stars. - -"But," she said, "if not I, then who?" - -"Jim Taggart," he said as unhesitatingly as he had spoken before. "Jim -told you that he saw, didn't he? That he was Johnny on the spot? Of -course he was! And we'd had our plain talk. And he figured it out, that -unless that very day I had changed my papers, I still named him in them -my old bunk-mate and friend, and that I'd not forget him with a legacy! -If I had died under that bullet, Jim Taggart would have had it doped -out that he'd stand to win about a hundred thousand dollars! And for a -tenth of that he'd crucify Christ!" - -"But...." - -"There are no buts about it! You did not do it; then Jim Taggart did. -He shot me last night, a second time and the second time in the back! -He was once a man; now he's a Gallup dog, a man gone to seed, a cur -and one for such as you and me to forget about. I hope to high heaven -I never see the man again; for the sake of what has been between Jim -Taggart and me, when both of us were younger, I'd rather let the past -bury its dead. For if he ever comes trailing his filth across my trail -again, I'll smash him into the earth." He made a wide angry gesture, -as though he would wipe an episode and a man out of his life. "But you -interrupt me; I was going to say something. Just this: I'll leave you -alone. For an hour, for a dozen hours! You want rest, you want solitude -and a chance to think. So do I. I can chain you to a tree and be sure -of you! Or I can ask you to give me your word that you'll wait here -until I come back to you ... and I already know you well enough to know -_that_ will hold you tighter than any chain that was ever forged!" - -Lynette, without hesitating, answered: - -"I do want rest and I do want to be alone. Is that to be wondered at? -Until noon I'll wait for you to come back." - -"Until high noon," he said. "And, girl, you pledge me your word on -that?" - -"Yes!" - -"Come, Thor!" He turned and left her, his great dog at his heels, going -up the narrowing canyon. - -"I'll not spy on you!" he called back, when he had gone a hundred -yards. "You'll hear me shouting to you well before I come within -eye-shot." - -And then she lost him, gone among the lesser, denser trees thick about -the creek's margins. - -She turned her back on the grotto of his choosing, and went out into -the full sunlight. She found a spot in the open, ringed about by the -majestic pines, a grassy sward with the cleaving silver line of the -creek cutting across it. For the first time in hours ... how many -endless hours? how many days?... she was alone! No man at her side, -either protecting or dominating. Her lungs filled with a deep sigh. -Alone and secure in her aloneness for a matter of several hours. - -There was a certain singing happiness, electric within her, and it -sprang, bright-winged, from her own characteristic pride. Bruce -Standing had left her to an absolute physical freedom, knowing her -bound by that intangible and unbreakable bond of her promise. He, a man -who did not break his own word knew her for a girl who did not break -hers! And he knew, at last, that it had not been her hand that had -fired that cowardly shot. - -"It was cruel ... to have laughed at him. I did not mean to laugh. -Would to God...." - -But if she had not laughed? Then what? Then how much of her adventure -would have followed? How much of it did she, after all, regret?... She -fell to wondering dreamily on Babe Deveril. Where was he? And would she -see him again? And, if she should see him.... - -A thousand riddles and, as always, no answer to the riddles which -spring from eternity. Only the merry voice of the purling creek to talk -back to her, that and the rustling whisper ebbing and flowing through -the pine tops. The stream, like a companionable human voice, called to -her insistently. She rose and went down to it and stooped to drink; she -bathed her hands and arms and face. How lonely it was here! She cast -a quick glance up-stream; long ago Standing, with his big dog at his -heels, had passed out of sight. And he had given her gage of promise -for promise given ... he would send his shouting voice ahead of him -before he came back.... - -So she bathed fearlessly, watched only by the solitudes, guarded by -their sombre depths; she plunged, with a little shivery gasp, into the -deep, cool pool below the slithering waterfall; the water slipped, -gleaming like a bejewelled film over her pure-white body, making it -rosy when she emerged, like rose petals.... She dressed in furious -haste, all ablush and yet steeped in a confident knowledge that no -eye, save the bright eye of a curious brown bird, had seen. She felt -new-born; refreshed beyond belief. She ran back up the bank and sat -down in the very spot where she had dropped first when Standing had -left her. She began, always hurrying, to comb out her hair with her -fingers. Sitting there in the open she let it sun.... - -She rested. She drank deep, thankfully, of the hour. To be alone, to be -secure in the moment, to have no danger pressing down upon her, above -all to have no mind save her own dictating to her. It was glorious -and life was good and glad and golden, infinitely worth the living. -So passed an hour. It was so quiet here; so unutterably lonely. Only -the voice of the creek and the million-tongued murmuring pines. Her -swift thoughts raced ten thousand ways. They touched upon Big Pine; on -Taggart; Mexicali Joe; a gold-mine still for men to find; Maria, the -Indian girl whom Deveril had kissed; Deveril himself; that one-legged -man who rode horseback and carried forth the word and the law of his -master; Thor, a dog; Bruce Standing. Most of all, Bruce Standing. She -wondered where he was, what doing? Caring for his own wounds? Lying on -his back, his white face turned up, his eyes shut, tight shut? And he -loved her? - -_Bruce Standing loved her, Lynette?_ Was that true? What was love? -Whence came love? For what purpose? What did it do to the hearts and -souls and bodies of men ... and girls? Was love for her? She had never -experienced it, not true, abiding love. Did Babe Deveril.... - -Another hour. Shadows slowly shifting, moving like gigantic hands of -eternal clocks. Time passing, time that answers all questions, man's -and maid's, saint's and sinner's. She stirred uneasily and sat up. She -looked at the pine tops and, beyond them, at the sun. It was almost -noon! - -Come noon.... What then? Come high noon before Bruce Standing, and she -was free! Released from her promise, all bonds snapped! Free! - -She jumped to her feet. Her eyes went questing, questing, everywhere. -To be free again; to be her own self, Lynette, untrammelled.... And she -felt awondering illogically: "Can it be that, after all, he was driving -himself beyond any man's endurance? that he is more badly hurt than -either he or I knew?" - -But he returned a full half-hour before even the most eager could name -it noon. True to his word, he sent his voice, like a glorious herald, -ahead of him. She heard him call, not the wolf cry, but a rollicking -shout. And ten minutes later he himself came, plainly in the highest -of good humors. He was still pale and looked haggard, but his eyes were -flashing and triumphant and untroubled. - -He came to her, splashing across the creek, water flying about his -boot-tops. - -"I've had a bath," he announced from afar. "And I've plastered myself -with the worst that Billy Winch can concoct, and Richard is himself -again!" He came closer, towered above her and said: "You, too, have -bathed! You look it, as fresh from the plunge as any Diana! It's good -to be _clean_, isn't it?" - -She flushed and was ashamed for it. She bit her lip and made no answer. - -"Come," he said. "We'll lunch. And now, and from now on for some -sixty years, my girl, it will be I who waits on you! The slave role -reversed!" and he laughed. - -"I promised to wait for you; I make no more promises!" - -"That's fair enough! I watch you then!" - -"Do you want to make me hate you?" - -"Rather, I want you to come to love me." - -"Could any girl come to love a man who treats her as you have done me?" - -"Could any girl come to love a man," he demanded earnestly, "who -thought so little of her as to let her escape him when once destiny had -brought her and him together?" - - - - -CHAPTER XXI - - -The most perfect of the summer months in this secluded mountain nook, -not inaptly named "Eden" by Standing, was a period of time measuring -itself in soft, fragrant loveliness. The days were balmy, perfect, -halcyon; gentle hours of blue cloudlessness and golden sunshine and -little breezes which scarcely ruffled the clear water in the bigger -pools; night as clear as crystal, with flaring stars like distant -torches above the yellow pine tops; nature in her gentlest mood here -among the ruggedness of the wilderness, expressing herself in the most -delightful of odors wafted through the woods, in the tenderest tiniest -blossoms of wild flowers; a time of infinite hush and infinite solitude -and peace. - -To have chafed and been unhappy here, to a spirit like either Bruce -Standing's or Lynette Brooke's, would have seemed next door to an -impossibility. Even the girl, though restrained, a prisoner of a -man's will when the bright star of her life had ever been one of -splendid independence, found it easier to smile or laugh aloud at the -sober-faced antics of Thor ... when she and Thor were alone with none -to see!... than to sigh. She knew her periods of restiveness and bitter -rebellion; they were due not to her environment, but to the thought -that another than herself was dictating to her. But for one reason or -another these periods were rarer and briefer than her other hours of a -strange sort of peacefulness. - -"It's because I've been worn out and only now am resting," she tried -to tell herself. "Recuperating from a condition of exhausted mind and -body." - -Thus four days and nights passed. There had been, during all that time, -not the slightest opportunity to escape. The first day Standing had -hurled the chain from him, as far as he could send it. But he had not -lost sight of her for more than a few minutes at a time, saving such -times that she gave him her promise that she would wait for him to come -back. He accepted her word as he expected all the world to accept his. -On other occasions, when he allowed her briefer freedoms, he had said -merely: "No chance to run for it, girl! I'd overtake you, you know, in -no time. Even if you hid, here'd be old Thor, nosing you out!" Then he -laughed, adding: "For his own sake, the renegade, as well as for his -master's! He's fallen in love with you, too." He made her bed in the -rock-and-tree grotto; he labored, one-handed, over it for hours. With -his heavy clasp knife he cut the tender tips of resinous branches; he -heaped them high; he covered all with great handfuls of fragrant grass, -thick with the tall red flowers that grew down by the creek, odorous -with the tender white blossoms which shyly lifted their little heads to -dot the grassy slopes.... He made her a bathing-pool: stiff and sore -all up and down his left side, he worked with his right hand, dragging -big boulders up out of their ancient beds, piling them in a ring about -the pool, plastering them over the top with great handfuls of that -carpet-like moss which thrived in these cool places. - -"If you'd let me go!" - -"No; not yet.... What man can read the mind of a girl? How do I know -what you would do? Where you would go? My wounds are healing; until -they heal I am only half a man. You might whisk away from me, I tell -you; and I'd have to follow and seek you, if you led me through hell -on the way to heaven; and I must be whole again. And I've got to get -everything straight...." - -Always when he left her he returned before the end of the time she -had promised to wait for him. And always he sent, as herald of his -approach, his golden voice forward to her. At times in an echoing -shout. More than once in an outburst of singing which thrilled her -strangely. What a voice the man had! And once, when he had elected to -bathe in the starlight, he sent down to her that cry which she had -heard the first time from the door of Babe Deveril's cabin in Big Pine -... the wild, fierce call of the timber-wolf which, despite her naming -herself "fool," sent a shiver into her blood.... Once this happened: -He had left her in the forenoon, accepting her word that she would not -stir until high noon. Usually he came well in advance; this time she -watched the climbing sun and the creeping shade and suddenly her heart -began its wild beating; it was almost noon and he was not here; no -sound of his coming. When he shouted to her and then came rushing into -camp, he found that she had been working frenziedly with a stick and a -stone; driving the sliver of wood like a stake into the ground.... She -started up, her face crimson. - -"Well?" he said, his hands on his hips, staring down at her. "What's -that?" - -She blurted out the explanation and then was angry with herself for -telling him. She had meant to stay until the tip end of the giant -pine's shadow fell where it marked midday; she had meant there to drive -in her stake; for him it would be a marker, an assurance from her that -she had kept her word with him, that she had waited as she had promised -to wait ... that then, scorning him, she had snatched at her rights and -had fled! - -His first impulse was toward laughter. And then, strangely quiet, he -stood looking at her and she saw a gathering mist in his eyes! - -"Girl!" he muttered. "Oh, girl!... God, I love you!" - -"I hate you...." - -... How many times had she cried out in those words! And how much of -that did she mean? In her heart, in her soul ... in the most hidden -recesses of her most hidden being? - -Thus she had hours to herself. And, therefore, had Bruce Standing hours -to himself. For he wanted them. He wanted to be away from her, where he -could not see her, could not hear that low music of her voice, could -not catch that soft lure of her eyes, could not be tempted to have -it happen that his rude hand brushed her hand.... Her hand, though -she had been all these days and nights outdoors, roughing it, seemed -to him a maddening realm of crumpled rose-leaves ... pink-and-white -rose-leaves. He left her, secure in her pledge that she would wait for -him, and threw himself down on his back and stared up through slowly -shifting branches and mused on her. He thought how like a flower she -was, the queen of flowers ... and he could have wept that he was so -big and ungentle. He thought of Babe Deveril, and cursed him for being -so slender and debonair; graceful and light of mood; gentle-voiced, -with the knack of pretty words to pretty ladies. And Babe Deveril -had befriended her; stood champion to her against him! He ground his -teeth. He leaped up and paced back and forth, forgetful of all such -insignificant nothings as trifling wounds of the flesh. He recalled -how, man to man, he had broken Babe Deveril, and he laughed out -loud.... Yet it remained that Babe Deveril had stood her friend and -protector when he had pursued them both, linking them but the closer, -with his wrath. She and Deveril had travelled together, side by side -and hand in hand, miles and other miles of the open solitudes; they -had been drawn close together, driven closer together. He, Bruce -Standing, Timber-Wolf, and Fool, had done that! And what spark had -been struck out of the flint of the adversity which he had hurled at -them?... Had they loved ... had they kissed ... was _she_ now longing -with a sick heart for the return of Babe Deveril? - -"Oh, Lord!" he cried out, his great iron fingers crooking as his arms -were thrown out. "Deliver him into these hands!" - -Lynette had no mirror. Standing began to grow a lusty young beard, as -blond as his hair, shot through with red gleams. She knew the need of -fresh clothing. When he was away she did her washing as best she could, -pounding garments against the rocks in the creek; she dried them and -hid them and donned them without his knowing ... though of course he -knew as she knew that he did his own rude washings. There was a spring -at the side of the canyon, one of the many sources which fed the stream; -a shadowed, tranquil place. Of this she made her pier-glass! She -stooped and looked down into its glassily smooth surface. It gave back -her own image; it reflected the dark green of the pines, the lighter -green of the willows. Even the subdued colors of her worn suit. She -washed her hair and groomed it; no comb, no brush, but agile fingers. -Most of all, when secure through his promise in return for her own, -did she enjoy her plunge in the pool he had made for her. The slender -whiteness of her slipped hastily down under the translucent cover of -the cool, flowing water; she was as swift in her movements as any -slim-bodied trout that darted about her, scurrying into its retreat; -the water shot a thrill through her; she emerged, dripping, charged -with all the electric currents of well-being. - -"If this were only a holiday ... instead of imprisonment!" - -She, too, thought of Babe Deveril, as was inevitable. And in many ways: -One, always recurrent, was: "Could she have been as _sure_ of Babe -Deveril as she was of Bruce Standing? As secure in her utter conviction -of safety?" And here was a question to which she found no ready answer. -Babe Deveril, leaping full-breastedly into the stream which had swept -her off her feet, had been a friend to her from the beginning; from the -beginning Bruce Standing had been a menace. - -... Best of all she loved the waterfall. It was her shower-bath. But, -more than that, it was her friend and confidante, and, beyond aught -else, a living, glimmering, varicolored thing of gossamer beauty. It -talked with her, it was at once handmaiden and musician and troubadour; -it plashed and sang and poured its cadences into quiet harmonies which -sank into her soul. It had leapt and sparkled and poured itself onward -unstintedly, unafraid, for a thousand years; for a thousand years would -it keep up its merry dancings, uncaring if only the tall pines watched -or if men and maids brought hither their loves and hates and hopes and -fears. Unstable it was always, always falling; secure was it in its -diaphanous veilings of its own merry immortality. She loved it for its -abandon, for its recklessness, for its translucent myriad beauties. -It lived; it sang and sparkled; it filled the moment with musical -murmurings and recked not of all those vague threats and shadows of a -vague future.... She sat here, quiet under the spell of its dashings -and splashings and eerie flutings ... musing, her soul drawn forth into -all those vague and troublous musings which beset the heart of youth. - -Youth? Young, too, was Bruce Standing! He hearkened to the cascading -waters; he listened to the harp-tongued whisperings of the pines.... He -had done everything wrong; he told himself that a thousand, thousand -times. Yet he told himself savagely that throughout the insanities, -the veritable madnesses of constricted human life there flowed always, -onward and sweepingly upward, the great, triumphal, eternal forces of -destiny. And, in the end ... in the end ... it all made for good. For -eternal and triumphant good. - -... After all, but the old, old story of man and maid, converging to -the one gleaming, focal point though across distances oceans-wide -removed. - -He had his point of view; Lynette Brooke had her point of view. Yet it -remains that from two widely separated peaks two eager hearts may see -the same sun rise. - -"Tell me," he said once. "What manner of man is this Babe Deveril? I -know him as a man may know a man; you know him otherwise. Tell me; what -have you found him to be?" - -Never would she have been Lynette, had she not been ever quick of -instinct ... instinct leaping, never looking, yet so certain to strike -true! She read the thought under a thought; there came a living, joyous -gloating; she cried warmly, all the while watching him: - -"A true friend and a gentleman! A man unafraid ... one like a loyal -knight of the olden time! Like one of the King Arthur's knights...." - -"Like one," he growled, deep down in his throat, angrily, "who saw -another Lynette across the four fords? That's not true, girl; else he -would not have forsaken you so long! Nor would he have given up so -easily when, in your view, I beat him down and sent him up over the -ridge!" - -"He'll come back!" - -"You think so?" - -"_I know!_" - -Chance remarks of hers ... this one above all others ... rankled. She -seemed so confident that Babe Deveril would come again, that he would -carry in his breast the memory of sweet hours with her, that he would -never rest until he, with her pleading eyes tender upon his, could -rescue her from the bondage which Bruce Standing had set upon her! So -it came about that nightly, and all night long, Bruce Standing dreamed -of Babe Deveril and of battling with him and of beating him finally -into such definite defeat as had not resulted from that other fierce -struggle before her widening eyes. - -Another day went by and another, with Bruce Standing obsessed, knowing -himself for a man who yearned with all his soul for one thing and one -thing only, a mere slip of a gray-eyed girl who made madness in his -pulses. He had his moods of fierceness; on their heels came those -other moods of tenderness. More than once he came toward her, striding -through the woods, his mind made up to set her free, asking only her -happiness. And then he saw her; and in his heated fancies he saw Babe -Deveril; and he named Deveril a man of slight manhood and swore by his -own manhood that never would he show so lax and flabby a hand as to let -this priceless girl, drop into the graceful, careless hand of any Babe -Deveril who ever lived. - -"He'd never know how to love her as I do!" That ancient cry of all true -lovers! - -But all the while there bit into him doubtings, fears, those manifold -darts flung from love's alter ego, jealousy. He stood ready to give -this girl full-handedly everything; from her he craved with that direst -of all cravings, everything.... And when he could no longer hold back -the tumult within him and demanded: "What of this Baby Devil?" putting -a sneer into his voice, always she cried out warmly: "A true friend and -a gentleman!" - - -All unexpected by both of them, the less by him than her, Billy Winch, -Timber-Wolf's one-legged retainer, rode full tilt into camp. They -were lunching; they sat under a tree in the noonday shadow like two at -picnic. He had been saying: "We're running short of rations." Then it -was that Billy Winch, anxiously spurring a big roan saddle-horse, rode -down upon them and, seeing them, began waving his hat high over his -head in sweeping, joyous circles and shouting: - -"So you're still alive! That's something!" - -"You fool! Who told you to come here!" - -Standing leaped to his feet; he was hot with anger. - -"I knew where to find you, Timber!" cried Billy Winch gleefully. -"Unless, a fair bet, the devil had claimed you and taken you down -under, I knew I'd find you here!... How's the sick wing? Been usin' my -salve? Night and morning, keepin' it clean and...." - -Billy Winch, headlong, stopping his horse with a sudden pluck of the -reins when the gaunt roan had come near setting his four flickering -hoofs in their midday fire, chose to ignore the fact that the -Timber-Wolf was not alone. - -But Standing, springing up, strode out to meet him, his mien anything -but friendly. - -"Damn you, Billy Winch," he muttered between his teeth, too low for the -wondering Lynette to hear. She, too, had sprung up and stood leaning -against the valiant pine-tree, wondering swiftly how this latest -happening, the coming of Billy Winch into the wild-wood, was to affect -her. - -Billy Winch, as gay-hearted a rascal as ever stumped on one leg or -rode a wild, half-broken horse in carelessly lopsided fashion, laughed -gleefully. - -"Ho, Timber!" he cried. "If I was a whole man, 'stead of half a one, -I'd just jump down and naturally beat you to death! Bein' what I am, -all carved to thunder, you're too much all gone to proud flesh to jerk -me out of the saddle to stomp on me! So I got the age on you! And I -asks you, Johnny Wolf, man-eater, how's tricks?" - -"By God, Winch!" Standing in upstarting wrath had the roan horse by the -bit, shoving it back with one savage hand so that it fell back on its -haunches. "Just because I've stood a lot off you...." - -"Slow does it, Timber!" cried Winch. "This is business. I've got a man -back there, just out of sight, ready to go clean crazy unless he can -have a word with you. To put a name to him ... well, then, Mexicali -Joe!" - -Now Standing, deep down within him, knew why Billy Winch had come. -Never did more faithful heart beat in human breast than that heart -thrumming away beneath Billy Winch's faded blue shirt. Winch, having -always a shrewd guess where to find his chief, when Standing took it -upon himself to disappear from headquarters, had caught at the first -excuse to come in person and make sure with his own keen eyes that all -went well with a man whom many hated and whom he, above all men, loved. - -"Hang Mexicali Joe to the first stout limb you come to!" - -Lynette, of impulses ungovernable, could have broken into laughter. For -the amazing thing was that what Bruce Standing, impatient almost to -fury, said he meant. He had suffered enough inconvenience at Mexicali -Joe's hands; he wanted nothing of the man nor of his dross of gold. - -Winch did laugh aloud. And then, keen-eyed to see the play of his -employer's expression, he grew sober and said earnestly: - -"On the level, Mr. Standing, how's the hurt comin' along? Been usin' -the salve I told you to?" - -Lynette, though he had ignored her presence or because of this very -attitude of his, could not hold back from exclaiming: - -"He has two wounds now! Another shot in the back! And he gives them -less attention than a sane man would give a cut finger!" - -"The old fool! No more sense than a rabbit! Shot again? Twice in the -back? Plugged a second time? The old fool!" - -Like a flash in his quick movements he was down from the saddle; he -left his horse with dragging reins to wait for him; over the uneven -ground he came forward rapidly, queerly, hopping like an oddly -oversized bird. He caught at Standing's shoulder, crying out: - -"Let me see them hurts! I tell you, I got to see them hurts! Shot twice -from behind? You bloody baby. Let me look at 'em. Blood poison most -likely settin' in!" - -"I could kill you ... you interfering fool...." - -But just then Billy Winch's one foot caught at a root and he came near -falling, and Standing, instead of carrying out a threat, sprang toward -him and steadied him; and Lynette saw a sincere rough affection in the -way the big arms closed about Winch's body. Friends, these two. - -"Who plugged you, Timber? And for the love of Mike, how come you to let -it happen ... _twice_? But tell me: Who plugged you the second time?" - -"Taggart," said Standing; "at least that's my bet. And," he added -hastily, "it was Taggart that shot me the first time, through the -window at Gallup's!" - -Billy Winch looked sharp incredulity; his eyes flickered away to -Lynette as he gave sign of seeing her for the first time. - -"But, man! I thought...." - -"You thought wrong! She did not shoot me. You've got my word for that, -Bill. _She did not shoot me!_" - -Winch looked perplexed. - -"Sure, Timber?" he demanded. "Dead sure?" - -"Yes," said Standing. "Taggart didn't believe I had already changed my -papers, ruling his name out. If he could have dropped me and made it -seem clear that she had done it.... See it, Bill?" - -"Well," said Winch slowly, "I guess you know or you wouldn't say so. -And Jim Taggart was a real man once. But I've seen signs of late; he's -mildewed inside, clean through. As comes of running with such as Young -Gallup." - -Suddenly he whipped off his battered hat and turned a pair of bright -and smiling, and at last warmly admiring eyes upon Lynette. - -"I beg your pardon, Miss," he said genially. - -"Now," said Standing. "About this Mexicali Joe. You go back and tell -him for me...." - -Winch interrupted quickly, saying: - -"No use, Timber. You got to see him. I tell you he's clean crazy to see -you; he'll stick on your trail until he finds you. He wants only ten -minutes; five would do it." - -Lynette was mildly surprised to see Standing so easily persuaded; but -she had no way of knowing the relationship of this man and his chief -henchman nor how Billy Winch never took it upon himself to suggest -unless he knew what he was about. - -"All right," said Standing, though he frowned as he spoke. "Go get your -man." - -Winch jerked his head about and shouted; his long, halloing call -pierced clear through the woodland silences. - -"Hi, Joe! This way, on the run! _Pronto, hombre!_" - -Joe came almost immediately, mounted on a scrawny mulish-looking horse, -breaking an impatient way through the brush. His dark face still -carried a frightened, furtive expression which had not been absent -from it for a matter of days; not since a handful of raw gold had been -spilled from his torn pocket. - -"_Senor!_" he cried ringingly from a distance. "_Senor Caballero!_ -I tell you, they keel me! I got no chances! For sure, they keel me, -robbers!" - -Standing answered roughly: "And what do I care? Serve you right for the -fool you are!" - -"Now, he's here," said Winch. "Look here, Timber: you can take your -time talking to him. Let me look you over. I want to see that second -bullet hole." - -"Winch, you idiot," Standing growled at him; "I got it close to a week -ago. I've tended to it myself; it's all right. I don't look like a -dying man, do I?" - -"_Senor!_" Joe was crying, down on the ground now, tremendously excited. - -"Are you usin' my salve?" demanded Winch. "Plenty of it, night and -morning?" - -"I have been using it...." - -"And you're out of it _now_!" With a triumphant flourish Winch dipped -into a pocket and extracted a small package. "Here you are, Timber! -And this is extra special! I got all the ingredients this time; tried -it out day before yesterday on that new pinto pony you bought from -Ferguson; got cut in the wire fence down by the pasture. Say, it works -like magic...." - -Standing groaned. "Winch, some fine day I'll carve you all up with a -hand-axe, just to give you a chance to use your own filthy mess...." - -"I wouldn't have been shy a leg, would I, if that fool doctor had had a -pint of this?" - -"_Senor!_" Joe was crying. "You got to listen; you got to hear what I -goin' tell you! My gold, my gold that I find, me, myself, all alone...." - -"What do I care for you or your gold!" cried Standing. "I don't need -it, do I? I don't ask you anything about it, do I? I don't want to know -anything about it! Go wallow in your gold and leave me alone!" - -But Joe explained, growing vehement to the point of wildness; as Winch -had put it, "he was clean crazy over the thing." How could Joe wallow -in it, much as he would like to, when always there were men like ugly -hounds on his trail? What chance had he, poor devil that he styled -himself, against such men as Jim Taggart and Young Gallup and Cliff -Shipton and Babe Deveril and Barny McCuin.... He named a score. At the -name of Babe Deveril Standing's eyes flashed and sped to a meeting -with Lynette's; into hers, too, came a quick light. Joe had caught -Standing's interest. - -"What about these men?" he asked. "What about Deveril?" - -"Him? The worst of them all!" wailed Joe. He went on, bursting with all -the things he had to tell. That night when, for a second time, like God -himself, the grand Senor Caballero had burst into the cabin and set -him free, he had run! God, how he had run! But then he had thought of -his savior alone against so many hard, merciless men; he had come to a -sudden stop, saying to himself: "Joe, _mi amigo_, you must not desert -him!" And then, of a sudden, had that young devil Deveril burst from -the bushes upon him ... and Joe had fled again and Deveril had sought -after him. There was no shaking off this man; twice since then in the -forest Joe had barely escaped him.... Lynette had come close, was -listening breathlessly. - -"I tell you where my gold is!" cried Joe. "You take what you like, I -don't care! You give me what you like ... I know you for one fair man. -That way we save it. Any other way, they get me; they burn me with -fire; they break my teeth and my fingers; they make me tell! And they -get it all. Taggart and Gallup and Deveril and...." - -He broke off, half whimpering, cursing them with all the eloquence of -the Latin tongue. - -Clearly Standing hesitated. Then, amazing them all, but with his own -mind clear, he said bluntly: - -"Clear out! It's your game. I don't want to know anything about it." - -"_It's down in Light Ladies' Gulch!_" screamed Joe. "Not two mile from -Big Pine! I lied to them ... a big pine, with crooked roots sticking -out ... a washout.... Last year I make mistake; I think down under the -Red Cliffs. But this time I find ... four miles the other side...." - -"Why, you shrivelled-souled...." - -Then suddenly Standing caught himself up short; there came a new look -into his eyes; he shouted, catching Joe by the shoulder: - -"_Light Ladies' Canyon!_ Just across from Big Pine? Only a mile or two!" - -"As God hears me, Senor!" - -Standing broke into sudden laughter. He clapped Joe upon the shoulder -so that the little man staggered and paled under the jovial blow. - -"With bells on! With bells, Mexico! By high Heaven.... Here, you, -Winch! On the run, back to headquarters. Take Joe with you; mount -guard over him night and day with a rifle. No man to have a word with -him. And wait for me. And, all the while, Bill Winch, _keep your mouth -shut_!" - -Winch, with one arm out as a brace against a pine, stiffened. - -"I guess I know how to take orders, Mr. Standing," he said, and his -tone sounded angry. "You don't need...." - -Him also Standing smote on the shoulder. - -"Why, God bless you, Bill Winch, you're the only man on earth I'd -trust! Those last words weren't necessary.... You're right and I -apologize for them! But now, go! Go, I tell you; I'll do anything you -say; I'll use your poison on me three times a day.... I'll eat it, if -you say so! Only hit the high spots and keep Mexicali under cover until -I come! No matter when or how long; there's your job ... old friend!" - -Billy Winch, galvanized, went hopping to his horse; he flipped after -his own fashion up into the saddle; he loosened the rifle in its -holster strapped conveniently; he called to Joe: - -"Quick does it, Mexico! We're on our way!" - -Bruce Standing watched them ride away among the trees and stood -laughing! He had succeeded in puzzling two men; most of all had he set -Lynette wondering.... - - - - -CHAPTER XXII - - -"I want a good long drink of fresh water," said Standing. "And you, -after this lunch of ours, will be thirsty. Let's go down to the creek; -down there, by the waterfall, after we've drunk, I want to talk with -you." - -He had turned to her, that flash still in his eyes, before Billy Winch -and Mexicali Joe had ridden a dozen yards out of camp. She looked at -him in silence, wondering what lay in his thoughts; what had been the -sudden, compelling, and triumphant motive to actuate him when with his -great shout of laughter he had dismissed the two men. He had Joe's -secret now; she shared it herself: The gold was far from here and very -near Big Pine; in Light Ladies' Canyon! The strange part of it was -that Taggart's first surmise, when he and his companions had trapped -Mexicali Joe at the dugout, was that it was in Light Ladies' Canyon -that he had made his strike!... How many men and at least one girl had -travelled how many wilderness miles from Big Pine, when the gold lay so -snugly close to the starting-point! How Joe had tricked his captors, -leading them so far afield! - -"If I should escape from you now," Lynette could not help crying, "what -is there to prevent me from staking the first claim? And bringing my -_friends_ ... to stake claims!" - -"If you should happen to escape me!" he laughed back at her. - -Then he stepped to the tree where his rifle stood and called to Thor as -he did always when he left the dog in camp: "Watch, Thor! Watch, sir." - -It was not always that he carried his rifle. He explained, while he -looked to her to come with him. - -"We'll talk things over; but in any case it's clear that we're getting -short of food. Maybe, while we talk, we can bring down something in the -way of provisions with a lucky shot." - -Willing enough was she to-day for talk; at least to listen to whatever -he might say. She followed, stopping only to stoop and pat old Thor's -head; already she counted the faithful brute a friend. Thor tried to -lick her hand; for already Thor, like Thor's master, had bestowed an -abiding love to the first true girl who had ever intimately entered the -life of either. Thor wanted to follow; he whined and looked anxious, -ears pricked forward, tail wagging. - -"Down, Thor," commanded Standing, if only because already he had issued -his command. "You watch camp for us; watch, Thor." - -Thor dropped down at the entrance of Lynette's grotto; for one instant -his great head lay between his forepaws; then he jerked it up again so -that he might watch them as they went through the thickets to the creek. - -Standing carried a cup with him. When they came to the waterfall -leaping down a twenty-foot rocky spillway, glassily clear, making a -pigmy thunder in the narrow-walled ravine, he rinsed and filled his -cup and gave it to Lynette. She drank. Thereafter, and with no further -rinsing, he drank. She sat upon a big rock, leaning back against -a leaning tree trunk; he sat down close enough to her to allow of -words carrying above the thunder of the falling waters and filled his -after-lunch pipe. - -"I know as much as you do of the place to find the gold!" she told him -again. "And I, though a girl, have as much interest in a fortune to be -made as any man can have. That's fair warning to you, Bruce Standing!" - -He laughed carelessly. Then he said: - -"It's neither your gold nor mine. By right of discovery, it belongs to -a little shrimp named Mexicali Joe _Alguna-Cosa_. Our hands are off, so -far as our own pockets are concerned." - -"But.... You took quick interest when you learned where it was! You -have some plan ... you commanded your friend Billy Winch to keep Joe -well guarded!" - -His eyes were twinkling; and greed does not light twinkling lights! - -"I've got gold of my own, girl! Gold enough to last me my life and you -your life and both of us together our lives! And to leave a decent -residuum after us.... But let's talk of Mexicali Joe's gold some other -time. To-day.... We have ourselves!" - -"You have yourself!" cried Lynette with sudden bitterness. "I have not -even my own personal liberty!" - -"And what if I let you go, girl? As I have a mind to do to-day? What -then? Where would you go? Where would I find you again? For find you I -must and will though 'it were ten thousand mile.'" - -"Am I to suffer your dictation during the days of actual imprisonment -at your hands, and then, for all time afterward, render you an -accounting of my actions!" - -"Why do you try to hate me so, girl?" - -"Why should I not hate you?" - -"What have I done to you? Have I done anything more than put out a hand -to stop time, to snatch time for you and me, for us to _know_!... Look -you, girl, a man, at least a man of my sort, may go a third of his -life or a fourth or a full half, and know much less than nothing of -what a true girl is! _How can he know?_ Already I have learned that you -have instincts which leap; a man gropes like a blind mole and it takes -him a long time to teach himself to see the stars ... _the star!_ Now -it's a fair bet, and no odds given or taken, that one Bruce Standing -happened to be an unruly devil, a blunt man, a man who has as a part -and parcel of his religion to shoot square and to hit hard, so long as -God lets him. I've done wrong and I've done right, and I'm doing as all -the rest of the great mass, in a state of flux, is doing; growing up -from the mud into something better. If not in this life or the next, -well then, since the mills grind with exceeding patience, in some -other life. At least I'm honest; at least, in plain English, I do my -damnedest! Take it or leave it, there's the truth. If it happens that -I'm a man of few friends.... Almost you can count 'em on Billy Winch's -one leg!... if few men love me and many men hate...." - -"Yes!" cried Lynette, and her own earnestness was caught and compelled -by his own. "Most men, many, many men, hate you!... And yet you have it -within you to make them love you!" - -"Love and hate! What have I to do with the loves and hates of men as I -know them? Shall I step to right or to left for all that? I play out my -part in the eternal game. I live my life!" - -"But you don't live your life! You miss ... everything! If you would -but be kind instead of cruel; open-hearted and generous always ... you -have in you the seeds of all that. Then men might come to know the real -_you_; you could make them love instead of hate...." - -But his eyes stabbed at her like quickened blue flames. - -"So!" he said, and his tone was one of bitter mockery. "If I choose -to pay them for the pretty, empty compliment, they will call me a -good fellow and ... love me! If I kick them they will call me villain -and hate me. And there you have the epitome of that so-called love -and hate of mankind which sickens me. I'll be eternally damned before -I prostitute my immortal soul to pitch pennies out for a peck of -treacherous hearts. For, I tell you, girl ... Only Girl ... the love -that is to be bought is to be spat upon. I'll have none of it. Even -your love, that I'd give my soul to have freely, I'd have none of if it -were to be bought." - -Lynette looked at him strangely, half pityingly. And she answered him -softly: - -"You twist things out of all reason to make, to yourself, your own acts -appear something other than they are." - -"A girl trying to turn logician?" he laughed at her, teasing. - -Little effort on his part was required to set fire to her quick -inflammable temper. - -"It's magnanimous of you to jeer at me," she retorted hotly. "Because -you have the physical strength of a beast and the beast's lack of -understanding...." - -Now his golden outburst of laughter stopped her. He shouted: - -"See! There you go! As if to preach me the final word of love and hate! -You'd hate me now, just because I tease you! If I said, with poets' -roses twining through the saying, that you were most beautiful and -no-end intellectual and beyond that of the heart of an angel, could -you not better tolerate me? And thus we come to the open pathway to -most human loves and hates; two little doors standing side by side. -For, I ask you, going back to your challenge to make men love rather -than despise me, what in the devil's name is that sort of _love_ but -transplanted self-love? A damned-fool sort of selfishness masking -like a hypocrite as something quite different.... If you loved a man -who beat you there would be something worth while in that sort of -loving; something divorced from plain selfishness and the eternal -I-want-to-get-all-I-can-out-of-everything! Now, I love you! I love you -so that my love for you comes near killing me! It gets me by the throat -at night. That's love; and there's less of self in it, I swear to you, -than there is of ... _you!_" - -"You! You talk of love. To me!" - -She broke into her light, taunting laughter. And yet he had set her -heart beating and the ancient fear ... not fear of him ... was upon -her. "You, talking of love, are like a blind man lecturing on the -colors of the rainbow! You...." - -But he had started to his feet; his eyes went suddenly toward the camp, -all sight of which they had lost on coming down into the creek bed. - -"Listen!" he cried. "What was that?" - -She had heard nothing; nothing above the splash and fall of water ... -and the beating of her own heart. - -"Listen!" he said the second time. - -"What is it?" - -He caught up his rifle and leaped across the creek. He began running, -back toward their camp. - -"It's old Thor ... there's some one...." - -And now, Lynette realized clearly, had come her first opportunity -to be free again! While Bruce Standing, because of something he had -heard above the merry-mad music of the waterfall, or had thought he -had heard, was running back to their encampment, she could run in the -opposite direction. She stood balancing, of this mind and that. What -had he heard in camp? What was happening there? As always, because -of that volatile nature of hers which was _en rapport_ with life's -pulsings, she wanted to know! And then there was a certain assurance -in her heart that after all these days the budding intention in Bruce -Standing's heart was bursting into full flower to set her free again! -She hesitated; she saw him running up the steep bank, charging back -toward camp, vanishing among the trees higher up on the slope. - -And, then, she followed him. - -... Before Lynette came, through the trees, within sight of the grotto -which Standing had given over to her, she heard a sound which brought -her, wondering, from swift haste to lingering; she stood, her breathing -stilled, listening, groping a moment blindly for an interpretation of -that sound for its explanation. Harsh it was ... terrible ... never -had she heard anything like it. At first she did not recognize it as a -sound man-made. She paused; she came a step nearer, peering through the -trees.... - -It was an inarticulate, stifled sound coming from the lips of Bruce -Standing! He was kneeling on the ground, bending forward. He had -dropped his rifle. There was something in his arms, upgathered into his -embrace, something held as a baby is held in its mother's arms.... - -Thor.... - -And those sounds from Bruce Standing's lips! There were tears in -them; his voice was shaken. He held Thor to him in a fierce agony of -sorrow.... - -Lynette came closer, tiptoeing. She heard the sounds as they seemed -to choke him, clutching like hands at his throat. And then suddenly, -before she caught her first clear view, she knew when, into that first -emotion there swept the second; when with the shock of deep grief there -mingled white-hot rage. He began to mutter again ... he was lisping ... -lisping as she had heard him do only once before ... lisping because -his one weakness had leaped out and caught him unaware. Lisping -curses.... - -She ran closer. She saw old Thor, Thor who had learned to love her -and whom she had learned to love, lying limp in Standing's arms. Thor -dead? Some one had killed him, then, and Standing, above the booming -of the waterfall, had heard? A sight, perhaps, to stir that wild, -uncontrollable laughter of Lynette! The sight of a big, strong man half -weeping over a dead dog in his arms.... Yet, when she came running -to him and dropped down on her knees and put out her quick hand and -Standing turned his face toward her ... he saw that this time there was -no laughter in her. Instead, her eyes were wet with a sudden dash of -tears. - -"He's not dead ... we won't have it that he's dead! Thor!" she cried -softly. - -She did not realize that she had put her warm, sympathetic hand on -Standing's arm before her other hand found the old dog's head. - -"Thor!... Thor!" - -Thor looked up at her; at Standing. The dog tried to stir; the faithful -tongue strove to overmaster the terrible inertia laid upon it; to -grant in last adulation the last farewell. For a stricken dog, like a -stricken man, knows after the way of all creatures which have the spark -of eternity within them, when the day's end is in doubt.... - -Standing tried to speak ... and grew silent. How she hated herself -then for that other time when he had slipped, through sorrowing rage, -into his one unmanly failing ... and she had laughed! Her tears began -running down. He saw; he jerked his head about, focussing his eyes upon -the eyes of a dog that he loved; a dog that had been faithful to him. - -"Where is he hurt? He can't be shot," cried Lynette. "We would have -heard a shot! If he is poisoned...." - -Standing had mastered himself. He said coldly. - -"Look!" - -"Who did ... _that_?" - -"If I only knew! My God, if I only knew!" - -Thor was not dead; his body jerked and quivered now and again, in -spasms. Yet he seemed to be dying. And it grew clear to Lynette, as, -at a glance, it had been clear to Standing, what had happened. Thor -had been left in charge of camp; but the one word had rung in the -faithful head: "Watch!" And then some one had come; Thor had been true -to his trust; some man had struck him down with club or a rifle barrel; -had struck and struck again. Thor's fore leg was broken; he had been -battered over the head ... bones were broken, the skull seemed crushed -... the dog stiffened; fell back.... - -"Dying," said Standing, still on his knees. He placed old Thor very -gently on the ground, striving after his own rough fashion to make -a dog's last few minutes of breathing no more tormenting than was -inevitable. - -"Thor," said Standing gently. "Good old Thor!" - -The dog tried to rouse. The old faithful head on Standing's knee -stirred ever so little. The old steadfast eyes, red-rimmed but -clear-sighted, were on Standing's. If ever a dog could have spoken.... - -Standing, with sudden thought, jumped to his feet. - -"There's a chance for him yet! There is Billy Winch, the one man on -earth to save a dying dog or horse.... Yes, or man!" - -He cupped his hands at his mouth and sent forth, piercing through the -leafy silences, that wild wolf-call which must bring Winch about in -short order ... if he was not already too far to hear it. - -"He may be too far," cried Lynette. Already she was down upon her -knees, taking his place and gathering Thor's head into her lap. -"Hurry. If you can find your horse and ride after him, surely you can -overtake him." - -"God bless you!" He began running. But before a dozen swift steps were -taken he stopped and came back to her, muttering: "But the man who did -this for Thor? He'll not be far away; I can't leave you...." - -"I am not afraid of a man like him," said Lynette. "A coward, or he -would not have done this.... Leave me your rifle and hurry!" - -"You'll wait for me, no matter what happens?" - -"Of course I'll wait. Now, _hurry_!" - -He placed his rifle at her side and with never a backward look was away -again on a run, breaking through breast-high brush; splashing once -again across the creek, calling to Winch as he ran.... He would be back -with her almost immediately.... - -So he plowed through the thickets; plunged down a slope, sped up a -slope, raced over a ridge. And, now with what breath was left in his -lungs, he began to send out his whistled call. That summons, which his -horse, if still lingering in these upland meadows, would welcome with -quick response. - -Lynette stooped and laid her cheek against the grizzled old face of -Thor. And then, with a sudden access of emotion, she burst into fresh -tears.... Thor tried to wag his tail.... Lynette, like Standing before -her, felt that the dog was dying. - -"Thor!" she whispered. "Can't you hold on? Can't you carry on? He will -bring Billy Winch and Billy Winch will help us...." - -Then there burst upon her a surprise which moved her immeasurably. -There, almost at her side, stood Babe Deveril! A moment ago she was -alone in the wilderness with a dying dog; now Babe Deveril stood close -to her. With Thor's head still held in her lap she looked up into his -face. She saw that it was tense, the muscles drawn, the eyes hard and -bright. - -"Lynette!" he cried softly. "Lynette! I've followed you half around the -world! And now.... Come quick! We go free and the world is ours!" - -She sat, staring up at him, still bewildered. - -"You!" she whispered. "And ... then it was you ... who did this?" - -He caught her meaning; he glanced down at the thick green club in his -hands. - -"I came to do what I could for you. That ugly brute stood up against -me. I had no gun; I knew Standing was armed. I thought that maybe he -had left his rifle in camp." - -"What did Thor do to you that you should have done this to him?" - -"Thor? That dog? He showed teeth and ... Look here, Lynette Brooke; -now's your one chance. I've gone through hell to come to you...." - -"Tell me," she cried. "When did you come?..." - -Deveril was as tense as a finely drawn steel wire. Again she marked -that hard glint in his dark eyes. - -"It is up to you to do the telling!" he shot back at her. "I stood back -there in the trees; I saw that damned henchman of his and Mexicali Joe -come up to you! Joe, I've been following for days! I had no rifle; no -weapon of any kind and both Standing and Winch were armed. But I could -watch! Joe was terribly excited; I saw his waving arms. I heard him -yelling...." - -"Yes," said Lynette. "And then?" - -"And then?" exclaimed Deveril. "What then? You know what we came for, -don't you? You as well as I?" - -"Yes! I know...." - -He caught at her hand. - -"Come! On the run. Before that madman gets back. We'll clean up on the -whole crowd of them!" - -But she jerked her hand away. - -"There are certain things I don't understand.... Did you see the other -night when he took Mexicali Joe out of their hands?" - -"I saw; yes. It happened that I had just overhauled them at that -minute! I could have cried for rage! He had a rifle, damn him, and was -aching to use it! They laid down before him like pups...." - -"_And you?_" - -"What could I do, with a rotten stick in my hands!" - -She looked up at him curiously. - -"And, to-day?" - -"To-day?" His hands hardened in his grip upon his club. "To-day, I tell -you, I followed them into your camp and I saw. Mexicali Joe...." - -"You are after Mexicali Joe's gold, Babe Deveril?" - -"As you are! That brought us both into Big Pine in the beginning and -then into the rest of it." - -"And you were ... afraid to come into camp while Bruce Standing was -still here?" - -He laughed at her, the old light laughter of debonair Babe Deveril. - -"Afraid? Call it that if you like." He shrugged carelessly. "Yet, with -an oak club against a man with a modern rifle...." - -"Do you remember the last time? How he threw his rifle away?" - -Deveril flushed hotly. - -"Some day," he muttered, "when it's an even break...." - -"What do you want with me, Babe Deveril?" - -He stared at her. - -"Want with you? I want you to come, to be free from this Timber-Wolf. -Is he coming back soon?" - -"I think so." - -"Then hurry. Lynette...." - -"Well?" - -"Are you coming?" - -She stooped over Thor. - -"No," she said quietly. - -"_What!_ After all this.... You're not coming?" - -"No!" - -"But.... Then why?" he demanded with a sudden flare of anger. - -"For one thing," she told him without looking up, "because I told him -that I would wait for him. For another...." - -"And that is?..." - -She only shook her head, brown hair tumbling about her hidden face. - -"I'll stay with old Thor," she said. - -She had him cast away among the lost isles of bewilderment. - -"But you'll tell me.... You and I have been friends; we've stood side -by side...." He broke off to demand: "You'll tell me about Mexicali -Joe's gold?" - -"Gold?" she said. "Is gold the greatest thing in life?" - -"But you know?" - -"Yes! I know." - -"Then listen: Taggart and Gallup and Shipton and a thousand other men -are going crazy to find out! You and I can turn the whole trick if luck -is good.... Why, we'll quit millionaires, Lynette!" - -A shudder shot through the tortured body of old Thor. Lynette's long -lashes lifted, wet with her tears. - -"There are things ... beyond millions...." - -"I don't get you to-day!" - -"Why did you kill this dog? What good did it do you? What harm had he -ever done you?" - -"He was in my way. I thought, I told you, that a rifle might have been -left behind. And ... it's Standing's dog, anyway! And, beyond that, no -matter how you look at it, only a dog...." - -"I think," said Lynette, and there was no music in her voice now and -no warmth in the eyes which she lifted briefly to his, "that you had -better go! Had you come, without rifle, upon Bruce Standing, at least -he would have thrown his rifle away to fight with you! You know that. -And ... and I am not going to go with you, having given my promise. And -I'll warn you of this: If he comes back and finds you here and knows -you for the man who killed Thor.... He will kill you!" - -Never in all his daredevil life had Babe Deveril made pretense at -striking the angelic attitude. Now, in a rush of feeling, he grew black -with anger and there came a look into his eyes which put the hottest -flush of all her life into Lynette's cheeks, as he cried out: - -"Tamed you, has he? So Timber-Wolf has taken a mate after the fashion -of wolves! And I, fool that I was, let you slip through my fingers!" - -She did not answer him. Had she answered she could have said: "You -could have returned to fight with him; man to man and him wounded! -Later, when he snatched Mexicali Joe from them, you could have fought -with him. You could have followed him here, seeking me; and you -followed Joe, seeking gold. You could have fought with him to-day; and -instead you held back and spied and killed his dog and waited for him -to go!..." So Lynette, stooping low over Thor's battered head, made no -answer. - -... She knew that Babe Deveril was no coward. She would always remember -how he had hurled that gun into Taggart's face and himself into her -adventures, reckless and unafraid. Yet Babe Deveril was no such man as -Bruce Standing; rather was he like a Jim Taggart, and Taggart was no -coward. But it remained that both these men, Deveril and Taggart, were -afraid to come to grips with that other man, whose fellows named him -Timber-Wolf. And he, the Timber-Wolf, was not afraid of life and all -that it bore; and was not afraid of sombre death, in which he did not -believe; was not afraid of God, in whom he trusted. - -"You've thrown in with him!" Deveril cried it out angrily; his hands -were hard upon his club. "Here, I've given days and days trying to see -you through, and you've kicked in with him against me! He's had his -will with you and he's made you his woman and...." - -"You'd better go!" - -She was trembling. A spasm shook her, not unlike that which convulsed -Thor. - -"You won't come with me then? You'll stick with him? After he put a -chain on you!" - -"At least he did not stand back and see another man put a chain on me!" - -"Is that my answer?" - -"Yes!" she cried in sudden fury. "And now ... _go!_" - -"I'll go, all right," said Deveril. And began to laugh. All that old -light laughter of his, gay and untroubled, which so many a time had -made dancing echoes in the souls of those who heard, bubbled up again. -He looked, as he had done when first she saw him, a slender, darkly -handsome and utterly care-free incarnation of debonair insolence. Still -striking the right note, he shrugged his shoulders and tossed his club -away as he said insolently: - -"What need of all this heavy artillery ... since the Queen of my Heart -says Nay? I'll travel light after this!" - -He turned away. But at the second step he stopped and swung about and -told her: - -"I have a guess where Billy Winch will be taking Mexicali Joe! And I'll -be in on the final settlement. If you, with a rush of blood to the -head, throw in with Standing, I'll play the game out! And what will you -have left to trade to me for the pile I'm going to make out of this?... -For I heard, too, when Mexicali yelled out! And I'm throwing in with -Taggart and Gallup, headed straight for Light Ladies' Gulch!" - -Lynette, unable to see anything in all the wide world clearly, could -only stoop her head over the stricken dog. Her arms tightened about -Thor.... If only Billy Winch would come in time, if only Billy Winch -would save that flickering little fire of life ... then, though she -hated all the rest of the world she'd love Billy Winch.... - - - - -CHAPTER XXIII - - -Bruce Standing running, breaking a straight path through the brush, -came swiftly into the little upper valley. When in answer to his -whistling his horse came trotting up to him, he did not tarry to -saddle; he had picked up his bridle on his way and now mounted and -struck off bareback through the woods with no second's delay. - -"Get into it, Daylight!" he muttered. "We're riding for old Thor -to-day!" - -From a distance Billy Winch, hurrying homeward, heard that long call -he knew so well. He pulled his horse down from a steady canter and -turned, calling to Mexicali Joe to come back with him. Once within -sight Standing waved and shouted again; Winch and Joe sensed urgency -and dipped their spurs, riding back to a meeting with him. Winch stared -and frowned while his employer made his curt explanation; Mexicali Joe -gasped. But neither man had a word to say; Standing laid his brief -command upon them and the three turned back, riding hard, into the -mountains. - -Again Standing called, when near enough to camp to hope that his voice -would carry above the noise of the tumbling waterfalls; this time to -Lynette, to tell her of their coming. He rode ahead; again and again he -shouted to her; he leaned out to right and left from his horse's back, -seeking a glimpse of her through the trees. And yet, when they were -almost in the camp, there still came no answer to his shoutings and he -caught no glimpse of her.... Suddenly, to his fancies, the woods seemed -strangely hushed--and empty. - -"She's gone," said Winch carelessly. - -"No!" said Standing with such brusque emphasis that Winch looked at him -wonderingly. "She said she'd wait for us, Bill." - -But when they drew closer, so close that the various familiar camp -objects were revealed, and still there was no response and no sight of -her, Winch muttered: - -"Just the same, gone or not gone, she ain't here, Timber." - -"I tell you, man," snapped Standing, "she said she would wait. And what -she says she will do, she will do!" - -Now the three dismounted in the heart of the camp and still there was -no sign of Lynette. - -"Anyhow," said Winch, "it's a dog and not a girl we come looking for. -Thor'll be here ... if he's alive yet." - -"He will be right where I left him." Standing led the way among the -big trees, an arm about Billy Winch, hopping at his side the last few -steps; they saw him looking in all directions and understood that while -he led them toward Thor he was seeking the girl. But they found only -the dog lying where he had been struck down; Thor barely able to lift -his bloody head, his sight dim, but his dog's intelligence telling -him that his master had come back to him; Thor whining weakly. Winch -squatted down at the dog's side, become upon the instant an impressive -diagnostician. - -Standing stood a moment over the two, looking down upon them. Then he -turned away, leaving Thor in the skilful hands of Winch and hurrying -down to the creek, seeking Lynette. It was possible, he told himself, -that she had gone down for a drink; that so near the waterfall she had -not heard him calling. So he called again as he went on and looked -everywhere for her. - -But she was not down by the creek and she did not answer him from the -woods. He came back, up into camp, perplexed. Winch was still bending -over Thor; he was snapping out brusque orders to Joe for hot water and -soap; Standing heard Mexicali Joe's mutterings: - -"_Por Dios_, I no understan'. Somebody hurt one dog an' we wait, an' -we look for one girl ... an' all the time I got one meelion dollar -gol'-mine down yonder...." - -"Shut up," Winch grunted at him. And, seeing Standing coming back: -"Say, Timber, we better take this dog home with us right away. We can -make a sling of that canvas of yours, tying either end to our saddle -horns, making a sort of stretcher; some blankets in it and old Thor on -top of 'em. And I'll tell you this: if we get him home alive, and I -think we will, I'll keep the life in him." - -Thor was whining piteously; Winch shook his head; if only he had his -instruments, his antiseptics, and a bottle of chloroform! For here he -foresaw such an operation as did not come his way every day. - -"Diagnosin' off-hand," Winch was telling the uninterested Joe, "I'd -say here's the two important facts: first, old Thor has been beat -unmerciful; his head's been whanged bad, but I don't believe the -skull's fractured; his left fore leg is busted and he may have a -cracked rib. Second and most important, after all that the old devil is -alive." - -Bruce Standing, still seeking Lynette, more than satisfied to have Thor -in Billy Winch's capable hands, turned toward the grotto which he had -set apart for Lynette. And thus upon his first discovery. There was a -piece of paper tied with a bit of string so that it fluttered gently -from a low limb where it was inevitable that it must be seen. He caught -it down eagerly. On the scrap of paper were a few pencilled words, -written in a girlish-looking hand. At one sweeping glance he read: - - - "I have gone back to Babe Deveril. - - LYNETTE." - - -He stood staring incredulously at the thing in his hand. Here was a -shock which for a moment confused him; here was something beyond -credence. Lynette gone ... to Deveril? For that first second his -brain groped blindly rather than functioned normally. Lynette gone to -Babe Deveril ... that cursed Baby Devil! A handsome, graceful, and -altogether irresistible young devil of a fellow to fill any girl's eye, -to stir vague romantic longings in her heart. So she had gone to him? -He had the proof of it in his hand; a word from her, signed with her -name. A cruel, chill, heartless message of seven meagre words.... And -she had broken her word; she had promised to wait for his return and -she had not waited. She had left a dying dog to die alone and had gone -to her lover ... and she carried with her the key to Mexicali Joe's -golden secret ... to turn it over to Deveril! - -"What's eating you, Timber?" shouted Winch. "Gone to sleep or what?" - -Standing tossed the scrap of paper away. And then suddenly he laughed -and both Winch and Joe were startled. Bill Winch had heard that laugh -once before and knew vaguely the sort of emotion which prompted it: -Standing's soul was suddenly steeped in rage ... and anguish.... - -"We'll be on our way pretty quick, Timber," said Winch. "We'll ride -slow and you can pick us up in no time. And ... if you've got anything -on your chest, any of your own private rat-killing to do, why, me and -Mexicali will make out fine as far as headquarters, and once there I'll -see old Thor through." - -Standing only nodded at him curtly and went hurriedly to his horse. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIV - - -Timber-Wolf, his purposes crystallizing, did not attempt to rejoin -Winch and Mexicali Joe. By the time he had ridden to the spot where -his saddle was hidden and had thrown it upon Daylight's back, drawing -his cinch savagely, he had begun to get his proper perspective. He -knew that he could trust Billy Winch in all things; that Winch, with -all of that persevering patience which the occasion demanded and that -veterinary skill and love for animals which marked him, would do all -that any man could to get Thor home and to care for him. And now, for -Bruce Standing, beyond the stricken dog lay other considerations: There -remained Lynette and Babe Deveril! He ground his teeth in savage rage -and from Daylight's first leap under him rode hard. - -Long before the early sun rose he was back at his own headquarters, -a man grim and hard and purposeful. Rough garbed and still booted -he strode through his study and into his larger office; and in this -environment the man's magnificent virility was strikingly accentuated. -Here was his wilderness home, a place of elegance and of palpitant -centres of numerous large activities; not a dozen miles from Big Pine -and yet, in all appearances, set apart from Young Gallup's crude town -as far as the ends of earth. He stood in a great, hard-wooded room of -orderly tables and desks and telephones and electric push-buttons. He -set an impatient thumb upon a button; at the same moment his other hand -caught up a telephone instrument. While the push-button still sent -its urgent message he caught a response from his telephone. Into the -receiver he called sharply: - -"Bristow? In a hurry, Standing speaking: Give me the stables; get Billy -Winch!" - -All the while that insistent thumb of his upon the button! There came -bursting into the big room, half dressed and clutching at his clothes, -a young man whose eyes were still heavy with sleep. - -"You, Graham," Standing commanded him. "Get busy on our long-distance -wire. My lawyers.... Get Ben Brewster! It's the hurry of a lifetime!" - -Young Graham, with suspenders dragging, flew to the switchboard. -Meantime came a response from the inter-phone connecting him with the -stables. - -"Billy Winch?" he called. - -"No, sir, Mr. Standing," said a voice. "This is Dick Ross. Bill, he got -in late and was up all night nearly, working over a bad case that come -in. Shall I...." - -"That case," Standing told him abruptly, "was my dog, Thor. Find out -who was left in charge when Bill went to sleep; call me right away and -give me a report on Thor." With that he rang off. - -All the while his secretary, Graham, had been plugging away -at his switchboard. Standing, pacing up and down, heard his -"Hello--hello--hello." - -Within three minutes the stable telephone rang sharply. Standing caught -it up. It was Dick Ross again, reporting: - -"Bill didn't go off the case until three o'clock this morning. Had to -operate again at about two; taking out a little piece of skull bone. He -left Charley Peters in charge then; Charley's on the job now." - -"Thor's alive then?" - -"Yes, sir." - -"Fine! I'll be out in a few minutes to see him. Bill's got him in the -'hospital'?" - -"Sure, Mr. Standing. Thor couldn't be gettin' better care if he was -King of England." - -Standing rang off and came back to Graham from whose eyes now all -heaviness of sleep had fled, leaving them keen and quick. Hardly more -than a youngster, this Graham, and yet Timber-Wolf's confidential -secretary, trained by Standing himself to Standing's ways. - -"I've got Mr. Brewster's home on the wire," said Graham looking up. -"He's not up yet but they're calling him...." - -Standing took the instrument. - -"I'll hold it for him. Now, Graham, order breakfast served here for you -and me; plenty of extra coffee for the boys I'll be having in.... Get -Al Blake on our wire to Red Creek Mine.... Arrange to have Bill Winch -show up here as soon as he's awake; he's to bring Ross and Peters with -him.... And Mexicali Joe; make sure that Joe didn't see any one to talk -with last night. I want Joe here with Winch.... Hello! Hello! Is this -Ben Brewster?" - -He heard his lawyer's voice over the wire; then, somewhere over the -long line something went wrong; Brewster was gone again. An operator at -the end of Standing's own private part of the line, seventy-five miles -away, was saying: - -"Just a minute, Mr. Standing ... I'll get him for you...." - -"Thanks, Henry," said Standing. And while he waited for the promised -service which was to link him with a man nearly two hundred miles away, -he was working hastily with pencil and pad. Graham was already carrying -out his string of orders, getting dressed with one hand meantime. - -"Brewster?" Standing spoke again into the telephone. "I've got -something big and urgent on. Can you come up right away? Take a car -to Placer Hill. I'll have a man meet you there with a saddle-horse, -and you'll have to ride the last twenty miles in. We're forming a new -mining company; I want to shoot it through one-two-three! Bring what -papers we'll want; that will be all the baggage you need to stop for. -Graham will have all particulars ready for you. Thanks, Ben. So long. - -"Graham!" - -Graham swung about expectantly. - -"Get the stables. A couple of the best horses...." "I've already got -them," said Graham.... It was for such reasons that Graham, though a -youngster, could hold so difficult position as private secretary to -Bruce Standing, Timber-Wolf. - -Al Blake was Standing's mining expert, general superintendent of all -his mining interests and the one source to which he applied for advice -on all mining matters. He was the highest salaried man on the extensive -pay-roll and the shrewdest. In a few minutes Graham announced that he -had the Red Creek Mine on the wire and that Blake was coming. - -"I want you here on the jump, Al," said Standing. "And I need forty of -our best men; scare up as many as you can at your diggings; I can fill -the number down here. Just _good_ men, understand? Men you know; men -who at a pinch will fight like hell; every man with a rifle." - -"Sounds like St. Ives!" grunted Blake, wide awake by now. "All right. -I'm on my way in ten minutes." - -Standing began pacing up and down again, his eyes frowning. He needed -Billy Winch right now; needed him the worst way. For here was work -to be done of the sort which invariably he placed in Winch's capable -hands. But Winch had had a night of it and Standing was not the man to -overlook that fact as long as he could put his hand on another man who -would do.... - -"Have Dick Ross up, on the run," he told Graham. - -Breakfast came, served on big massive trays by the Japanese servant. -Almost at the same moment, and literally on the run, Dick Ross came in. - -"Scare up ten good men for me, Ross. With rifles, all ready to ride. -I'll have breakfast ready for them here." Graham caught the alert eye -of the Japanese who set down his trays hurriedly and with a quick nod -raced off to the kitchen. Standing looked sternly at Ross and said -curtly: "I'm handing you a job that would usually go to Winch, Ross, -but he's asleep...." - -"He was just getting up again, Mr. Standing. Said he wanted to see for -himself how Thor was pulling along...." - -"Then," said Standing, "hop back and tell Winch what I said. He can -tell you the men to pick ... or, if he's busy working with Thor he can -leave it to you. Of course I want you to be of the number; Peters also -if Winch doesn't need him; Winch, too, if he says the word...." - -Standing and Graham ate standing up. Men summoned began coming in. Each -of them was given brief clean-cut orders and allowed brief time to gulp -a hot breakfast. Billy Winch came first, bringing with him Mexicali Joe. - -"He's going to be all right, _I think_," said Winch by way of greeting, -and Standing understood that he was reporting on Thor. "I never saw -man or animal worse shot-all-to-hell, either. I got him in bed now, -strapped down; he's conscious this morning and had a fair night, all -things considered. There's nothing more to be done right away, just be -kept quiet...." - -"I was coming out in a minute...." - -"I can't have folks running in on him, Timber," said Winch, with a slow -shake of the head, mumbling over a mouthful of ham and egg. "But if -you'd just run in on him one second, to sort of let him know you was -with him, you know, and then beat it, it might do him good." - -"Can you leave for two or three hours? To go down with Al Blake and -some of the boys to stake a string of mining claims down in Light -Ladies' Gulch?" - -"That's why the rifles?" said Winch. "Sure, I can go, leaving Charley -Peters with full instructions. But I'll have to be back in, say, four -hours at latest." - -Standing turned to Mexicali Joe. - -"Joe," he said, "how many friends have you got that we can put on the -pay-roll for a few days at twenty-five dollars a day? To stake claims -down in the Gulch?" - -"_Jesus Maria!_" gasped Joe. "Twenty-five dollars a day? For each man? -There would be one meelion men, Senor Caballero...." - -"Take him in tow, Graham! Get a list of names from him, men to be -reached in an hour's ride. As many as you can get, twenty or thirty or -forty. And get them here ... quick." - -Al Blake arrived from the Red Creek Mine. Stringing along after him -came a dozen men of his choosing; big, uncouth, unshaved, rough-looking -customers to the last man of them and yet ... as Standing and Blake -agreed ... _all good men!_ Good to carry out orders; to put up a fight -against odds; to hang on and fight to the last ditch. Graham saw to it -that every man Jack of them was fed and had his cigar from the Chief's -private stock. The men grouped outside and looked at one another, -but for the greater part wasted little breath in speculations and -questionings, each realizing that his fellows knew as little as himself. - -It was a busy morning for Bruce Standing. Yet three times he found the -time ... rather he made it ... to go out to the "hospital" to stand -over old Thor and speak softly to him. Thor lay upon a white-enamelled -bed; his bed was softened for him by many downy pillows; at the bedside -sat Charley Peters, his face as grave, his eye as watchful, as could -have been had it been Timber-Wolf himself who lay there. And when -Standing came in Thor heard his step and tried to move; tried to lift -his poor battered head. But at the master's low voice, "Down, Thor! -Down, sir ... good old dog!" Thor lay back and his tired sigh was like -the sigh of a man. Standing's big hand rested gently upon the old -fellow ... then Standing went out, walking softly and Thor lay still a -very long while, waiting for him to come again.... - -Al Blake left within fifteen minutes of his arrival, a little army of -armed men at his back. With him, on the fastest horse in Standing's -stables, rode a man whose sole responsibility was to race back with -word of conditions. Fully Standing counted on hearing that already at -least two claims had been staked. But he was not ready to see Lynette -again so soon; he was not ready yet to see Babe Deveril. Never for a -single instant since seeing that bit of paper hung to a tree with a -girl's mockery upon it, had he doubted that this girl, whom he had -thought that he loved, had cast in with the Baby Devil, the two racing -side by side to steal Mexicali Joe's gold. He had said to Al Blake: - -"Put them off ... but don't hurt either of them. Leave them to me." - -Attorney Ben Brewster, a man much shaken, arrived in record time. He -could scarcely speak a word until Graham poured out for him a generous -glass of whiskey. Then he glared at Standing as though he would highly -enjoy killing him. - -"You've got a fee to pay this trip," he groaned, "that will make you -sit up and stretch your eyes! Good God, man...." - -"Give him another drink, Graham," said Standing. "He's a lawyer and -there's no danger of such getting drunk!... Curse your fees, Brewster. -What do I care so you make an iron-clad job of it." - -"And the job?" - -Graham saw that he had a cigar. - -"Something crooked!" muttered Brewster. "I'll bet a hat!" - -"Otherwise," jeered Standing, "why send for you!... Now shut up, Ben, -and get that infected brain of yours working. Here's the tale." - -Ben Brewster, a man who knew his business ... and his client ... went -into action. That day he took in businesslike shape all possible steps -toward forming a new corporation, The Mexicali Joe Gold Mining Company. - -"Lord, what a fool name!" he growled. - -"Never mind the name," retorted Standing. - -During the day many other men came in; among them no less than -seventeen swarthy men of Mexicali Joe's breed. Brewster took -signatures, and the men, showing their glistening white teeth, knew -nothing of what was happening save that each man of them was to draw -twenty-five dollars a day for driving a stake and sitting snug over it, -rifle in hand and cigarette in mouth! Brewster got other signatures -going down to Light Ladies' Gulch and among the men there. In all, he -signed names of about sixty men. The Mexicali Joe Gold Mining Company -was born. And the greater part of the stock, and the magnificently -shining title of president was invested in ... Mexicali Joe! Suddenly, -though all day he had been a man as dark-browed as a thunder-storm, -Standing burst out into that golden laughter of his. Not a single share -in his name; all immediate expenses to be paid by him, and they were to -be heavy; and yet he counted himself the man to draw a full ninety-nine -per cent of the dividends of sheer triumph! For it was to be a cold -shut-out to Taggart and Gallup and Shipton and all Big Pine! And, most -of all, for Babe Deveril and that girl! For early had come back the -report from Al Blake: "Neither of them here; no claims staked!" - -Standing could only estimate that the girl had misunderstood; that, -hearing Joe's description of the place, she had not grasped the true -sense of his words. He lingered over the picture of her and Deveril, -hastening, driving their stakes somewhere else! - -When Mexicali Joe came to understand, after much eloquence from Graham, -how matters stood ... how he swaggered! This, a day in a lifetime, was -Mexicali Joe's day. - -"_Me, I'm President!_" - -President of a gold-mining company! Mexicali Joe! And of a real mine; -for Al Blake had sent back the curt word: "He's got it; he's got a mine -that I'd advise you to buy in for a hundred thousand while you can. It -may run to anything. The best thing I've seen up here anywhere!" - -Mexicali Joe on the high-road to become a millionaire ... through the -efforts of Bruce Standing. - -To be sure, Joe, a man very profoundly bewildered, more dumfounded even -than elated, took never a single step and said never a single word -without going first to his friend "Senor Caballero." Before the end of -that glorious day Joe was dead-drunk; didn't know "whether he was afoot -or horseback." But in his crafty Latin way, he kept his mouth shut. - -And then Bruce Standing, with an eye not to further wealth, but toward -the confounding of all hopes of such as Young Gallup and Jim Taggart -and Babe Deveril ... _and a certain girl_ ... sprang his coup. With -Ben Brewster guarding his rear in every advance, he "swallowed whole," -as Brewster put it, every bit of available land above and below and on -every side of Joe's claims. He recked neither of present difficulties -and expenses nor of lawsuits to come. He wanted the land ... and he got -it! And he issued his proclamation: - -"There's a _town_ there, on Light Ladies' Gulch. You don't see it? It's -there!... _Graham, get busy!_ A contractor; lumber; building materials; -carpenters! We build a town as big as Big Pine and we build it faster -than ever a town grew before! A store, blacksmith shop, hotel. Shacks -of all sorts. _Graham!_" - -Graham, like a man with an electric current shot through him, jumped -out of his chair. - -"Send a man on the run to Big Pine with a message for Young Gallup! And -the message is this: '_Bruce Standing promised to pull your damned town -down about your ears ... and the pulling has begun!_'" - -"Yes, Mr. Standing," said Graham. And sent a man on a running horse. - -And then took swift dictation. Standing made a budget of fifty thousand -dollars, as a "starter." Even Graham wondered what impulses were -rioting in his mad heart! - -"We want scrapers and ploughs, a crew of road-makers! We build a new -road ... _on this side of Light Ladies' Gulch_! Got the idea, Graham? -We cut Big Pine out. We go by them, giving a shorter road to the -outside, a better road. We boycott Gallup's dinky town! Keep in mind -we'll double that first fifty thousand any time we need to. Get this -word around: 'Any man who buys a nickel's worth of tobacco in Big -Pine can't buy anything, even if he has his pockets full of clinking -gold, in our town! No man, once seen setting his foot down in Gallup's -town, is going to be tolerated two minutes in our town.' Get the idea, -Graham?" - -"Yes, Mr. Standing!" - -Standing smote him then so mightily upon the shoulder that Graham, a -small man, went pale, shot through with pain. - -"Raise your own salary, Graham. _And earn it now!_" - - - - -CHAPTER XXV - - -What Bruce Standing could not know was that those few words signed -_Lynette_ and saying with such cruel curtness: "I have gone back to -Babe Deveril," had been written not by Lynette, but by Deveril himself. -Nor could he know that Lynette had not gone freely but under the harsh -coercion of four men. - -Deveril, when Lynette refused to go with him, had hurried away -through the woods, his heart burning with jealous rage. Was the hated -Timber-Wolf to win again, not only in the game for gold but in another -game which was coming to be the one greatest consideration in Babe -Deveril's life? - -"Not while I live!" he muttered to himself over and over. And once out -of sight of Lynette who still sat bowed over the dog he had struck -down, he broke into a run. Jim Taggart and Gallup and Cliff Shipton -were not so far away that he could not hope to reach them and to bring -them back before Standing returned. - -Thus, not over fifteen minutes before Bruce Standing came back, -bringing Billy Winch and Mexicali Joe with him, Deveril had appeared -before Lynette a second time. And now she leaped to her feet, seeing -who his companions were and reading at one quick glance what lay -unhidden in their faces. Greed was there and savage gloating and -mercilessness; she knew that at least three of those men would stamp -her into the ground under their heavy boots if thus they might walk -over her body through the golden gates of Mexicali Joe's secret. - -"You're arrested!" cried Taggart. "Come, get a move on. We clear out of -this on the run!" - -"It was you who shot him, not I! And I'll not go with you. In a minute -he'll be back...." - -Taggart was of no mind for delay and talk; he caught her roughly by the -arm. Her eyes went swiftly to Deveril's; of his look she could make -nothing. He shrugged and said only: - -"Taggart's sheriff; he'll take you along, anyway. You might as well go -without a fuss." - -Gallup, his face ugly with the emotions swaying him, was at her other -side. She looked to the hawk-faced man and then away with a shudder. -Then, trying to jerk away, she screamed out: - -"Help! Bruce...." - -Taggart's big hairy hand was over her mouth. - -"Come along," he commanded angrily. "Get a move on." - -Half dragging her the first few steps they led her out of camp, down -into the canyon and across among the trees. She gave over struggling; -they watched her so that she could not call again; Taggart threatened -to stuff his dirty bandana handkerchief into her mouth. Deveril alone -held back for a little; she did not know what he was doing; did not see -him as he wrote in a hand which he strove to give a girlish semblance -those few words to which he signed her name. She scarcely marked his -delay; she was trying now to think fast and logically. - -These men were brutes, all of them; she had had ample evidence of that -already and had that evidence been lacking the information was there -emblazoned in their faces. Even Babe Deveril, in whom once she had -trusted, began to show the brutal lining of his insolent character. And -yet need she be afraid of any of them just now? If she openly thwarted -them, yes. They would show no mercy to a girl. But at the moment their -thoughts were set not upon her undoing, but upon Mexicali Joe's gold. -And she knew where it was and they knew that she knew.... Taggart was -speaking, growling into her ear: - -"We followed Mexicali; we saw him come up here; Deveril followed him -into camp. He told where his gold was. And you heard it all!" - -"Well?" said Lynette, striving with herself for calmness. She was -thinking: "If only I can have a little time. He will come for me.... If -only I can have a little time." - -"What do you mean by that?" demanded Taggart. "The whole earth ain't -Joe's because he picked up a nugget or two. Anybody's got a right to -stake a claim; I got a right and so has the boys ... and so have you." - -"Suppose," offered Lynette as coolly as she could, "that I refused to -tell?" - -There came a look into Taggart's hard eyes which answered her more -eloquently than any words from the man could have done, which put -certain knowledge and icy fear into her. - -Always, when nervous or frightened, Lynette's laughter came easily to -her and now without awaiting any other answer from this man she began -laughing in such a fashion as to perplex him and bring a dragging frown -across his brows. - -"Are you going to tell us?" he asked. - -"If I do," she temporized, "do I have the chance to drive the first -stakes?" - -"By God, yes! And say, little one, you're a peach into the bargain." - -She did not appear to hear; she was thinking over and over: "Bruce -Standing will come after us as soon as he finds I am gone. I must gain -a little time, that is all." - -If only she could make them think that the gold was somewhere near by -so that Standing must readily find them. But now Deveril had rejoined -them and she recalled how he had heard something, though not all, of -Joe's triumphant announcement. For Joe had shouted out at the top of -his voice, to catch and hold Timber-Wolf's attention: "Light Ladies' -Gulch!" Deveril had heard that; and Light Ladies' Gulch was many miles -away, down toward Big Pine.... - -Deveril was looking at her with eyes which were bright and hard and -told no tales of the man's thoughts. - -"This lovely and altogether too charming young woman," Deveril said -lightly, his eyes still upon her, though his words were for the others, -"has a mind of her own. It would be as well to hear what she has to say -and learn what she intends to do." - -"Will you try to lie to us?" demanded Taggart. "Or will you tell us the -truth?" - -She, too, strove for lightness, saying: - -"Think that out for yourself, Mr. Taggart. Bruce Standing knows where -the gold is now; both you and I know the sort of man he is and we can -imagine that if he drives the first stake he will see to it that he -takes the whole thing. Do you really think that after I came into this -country for gold myself I am going to miss my one chance now?" She -puzzled them again with her laughter and said: "Not that it would not -be a simple matter to trick you, were I minded to let my own chances go -for the sake of spoiling yours; Mexicali Joe fooled you so easily." - -"Yet you yelled for Standing just now...." - -"After you came rushing upon me as if you meant to tear me to pieces, -frightening the wits out of me." - -"Well, then, tell us." - -"If I told you now, then what? You'd desert me in a minute; you would -race on ahead; when I caught up with you there would be nothing left." - -Deveril's eyes flashed and he said quickly: - -"And give you the chance to send us to the wrong place, were you so -minded, so that you could slip off alone and be first at the other -spot! Very clever, Miss Lynette, but that won't work. You go with us." - -And all the while she was trying so hard to think; and all the while -listening so eagerly for a certain glorious, golden voice shouting -after her. Deveril had heard part of Joe's exclamation.... - -"It is in Light Ladies' Gulch," she said quietly. - -"Yes!" Here was Young Gallup speaking, his covetous soul aflame. "We -know that; Deveril heard. But Light Ladies' Gulch is forty miles long. -Where abouts in the gulch?" - -She told herself that she would die before she led them aright. And yet -she realized to the full the danger to herself if she tricked them as -Joe had done and they discovered her trickery before Standing came. Yet -most of all was she confident that he would come and swiftly.... Joe's -words still rang in her memory; he had told first of the Red Cliffs, -how he had found color there last year; how he had made prospect -holes; how his real mine lay removed three or four miles. Still she -temporized, saying: - -"Bruce Standing and Billy Winch and Joe have horses. We are on foot. -Tell me how we can hope to come to the spot first?" - -"We'll have horses ourselves in a jiffy," said Taggart. "Stepping -lively, we're not more than a couple of hours from a cattle outfit over -the ridge. We'll get all the horses we want and we'll ride like hell!" - -"You know where the Red Cliffs are? At the foot of the cliffs I'll show -you Joe's prospect holes...." - -The pale-eyed, hawk-faced Cliff Shipton spoke for the first time. - -"Not half a dozen miles out of Big Pine! I told you last year, -Gallup...." - -Deveril, the keenest of them all, the one who knew her best, suspected -her from the beginning. His eyes never once left her face. - -"How do we know," he said quietly, "that there's any gold there? That -Joe's gold is not somewhere else?" - -"You will have to make your own decision," she told him as coolly as -she could. "If you think that I am mistaken or that I am trying to play -with you as Joe did, you are free to go where you please." - -Taggart began cursing; his grip tightened on her arm so that he hurt -her terribly as he shouted at her: - -"I'll give you one word of warning, little one! If you put up a game -on us now, you cut your own throat. In the first place I'll make it my -business that if we get shut out, you get shut out along with us. And -in the second place when I'm through with you no other man in the world -will have any use for you. Got that?" - -She knew what he had done to Mexicali Joe; she could guess what other -unthinkable things he would have done. And she knew that if now she -tricked Jim Taggart and he found her out ... _before Bruce Standing -came_ ... she could only pray to die. - -And yet at this, the supreme test in her life, she held steady to a -swiftly taken purpose. She would not put the game into these men's -hands. And she held steadfastly to her certainty, knowing the man, -that Bruce Standing would come. Therefore, though her face went a -little pale, and her mouth was so dry that she did not dare speak, she -shrugged her shoulders. - -"Come, then," said Taggart. "Enough palaver. We're on our way." - -And of them all, only Babe Deveril was still distrustful. - - -And thus Lynette, accepting her own grave risk with clear-eyed -comprehension and yet with unswerving determination, led these four men -to a spot where she knew that they would not find that gold for which -every man of them had striven so doggedly; thus it was she who made it -possible for Bruce Standing to be before all others and to triumph and -strike the death-blow to Big Pine and to begin that relentless campaign -which was to end in humbling his ancient enemy, Young Gallup. Yet there -was little exultation in Lynette's heart, but a growing fear, when, -after hours of furious haste, she and the four men came at last into -Light Ladies' Gulch and to the base of the towering red cliffs. - -Cliff Shipton knew more of gold-mining than any of the others and -Lynette watched him narrowly as he went up and down under the high -cliffs. And she knew that she in turn was watched; in the first -excitement of coming to the long-sought spot she had hoped that she -might escape. But both Taggart and Deveril followed her at every step -with their eyes. - -Desperately she clung to her assurance that Bruce Standing would come -for her. He had said that he would come "though it were ten thousand -mile." He might have difficulties in finding her; she might have to -wait a little while, an hour or two, or three hours. But it remained -that he was a man to surmount obstacles insurmountable to other men; a -man to pin faith upon. Yet time passed and he did not come. - -They found indications of Mexicali Joe's labors, rock ledges at which -he had chipped and hammered, prospect holes lower on the steep slope. -And Cliff Shipton acknowledged that "the signs were all right." But -they did not find the gold and they did not find anything to show that -Joe or another had worked here recently. - -"All this work," said Shipton, staring and frowning, "was done a year -ago." - -"He'd be crafty enough," muttered Gallup, "to hide his real signs. We -got to look around every clump of brush and in every gully where maybe -he's covered things up.... You're sure," and he whipped about upon -Lynette, "that you got straight all he said?" - -"I'm sure," said Lynette. And she was afraid that the men would hear -the beating of her heart. - -"I am going up to the top of the cliffs again and see what I can see," -she said. - -"If there's gold anywhere it's down here," said Shipton. "There's -nothing on the top." - -"Just the same I'm going!" - -"Where the horses are?" jeered Taggart. "By God, if you have...." - -"If you think I am trying to run away you can follow and watch me. I am -going!" - -She turned. Deveril was watching her with keen, shrewd eyes. Taggart -took a quick stride toward her, his hand lifted to drag her back. -Deveril stepped before him, saying coolly: - -"I'll go up with her, Taggart. And I guess you know how I stand on -this, don't you?" - -"All right," conceded the sheriff. "Only keep your eye peeled. I'm -getting leery." - -It was a long climb to the cliff tops and neither Lynette nor Deveril -at her heels spoke during the climb. They were silent when at last -they stood side by side near the tethered horses. Deveril's eyes were -upon her pale face; her own eyes ran swiftly, eagerly across the deep -canyon to the wooded lands beyond. She prayed with the fervor of growing -despair for the sight of a certain young blond giant of a man racing -headlong to her relief. - -"Well?" said Deveril presently in a tone so strange, so vibrant with -suppressed emotion that he made her start and drew her wondering eyes -swiftly. "What are you looking for now?" - -"Why do you talk like that ... what is the matter?" - -His bitter laughter set her nerves quivering. - -"Is the gold here, Lynette? Or is it some miles away, with Bruce -Standing already sinking his claws into it, Standing style?" - -Again her eyes left him, returning across the gorge to the farther -wooded lands. Over there was a road, the road into which she and Babe -Deveril had turned briefly that night, a thousand years ago, when -they had fled from Big Pine in the dark; a road which led to Bruce -Standing's headquarters. From the top of the cliffs she caught a -glimpse of the road, winding among the trees; her eyes were fixedly -upon it; her lips were moving softly, though the words were not for -Babe Deveril's ears. - -"Lynette," he said in that strangely tense and quiet voice, "if you -have been fool enough to try to put something over on this crowd.... -Can't you guess how you'd fare in Jim Taggart's hands?" - -She was not looking at him; she did not appear to mark his words. He -saw a sudden change in her expression; she started and the blood rushed -back into her cheeks and her eyes brightened. He looked where she was -looking. Far across the canyon, rising up among the trees, was a cloud -of dust. Some one was riding there, riding furiously.... - -Together they watched, waiting for that _some one_ to appear in the one -spot where the winding road could be glimpsed through the trees. And in -a moment they saw not one man only, but a dozen or a score of men, men -stooping in their saddles and riding hard, veiled in the rising dust -puffing up under their horses' flying feet. Now and then came a pale -glint of the sun striking upon the rifles which, to the last man, they -carried. They came into view with a rush, were gone with a rush. The -great cloud of dust rose and thinned and disappeared. - -"That road will bring them down into Light Ladies' Gulch where it makes -the wide loop about three miles from here," said Deveril. "Have you an -idea who they are, Lynette?" - -"No," she said, her lips dry; "I don't understand." - -"I think that I do understand," he told her, with a flash of anger. -"Those are Standing's men and they are riding, armed, like the -mill-tails of hell. Listen to me while you've got the chance! That's -not the first bunch of men who have ridden over there like that to-day. -Two hours ago, when you went down the cliffs with the others and I -stopped up here, I saw the same sort of thing happening. If you're so -innocent," he sneered at her, "I'll read you the riddle. I've told you -those are Standing's men; then why the devil are they riding like that -and in such numbers? They're going straight down into the Gulch where -the gold is while you hold us back, up here. And Standing is paying off -an old grudge and jamming more gold into his bulging pockets.... And -you've got some men to reckon with in ten minutes who'll make you sorry -that you were ever born a girl!" - -"No!" she cried hoarsely. "No. I won't believe it...." - - -He failed to catch just what she was thinking. She refused to believe -that Bruce Standing, instead of coming to her had raced instead to -Mexicali Joe's gold; that instead of scattering his men across fifty -miles of country seeking her, he was massing them at a new gold-mine. -Bruce Standing was not like that! She cried it passionately within her -spirit. She had stood loyally by him; she had, at all costs, kept her -word to him ... she had come to believe in his love for her and to long -for his return.... - -"If you saw men before ... if you thought the thing that you think now -... why didn't you rush on after them? It's not true!" - -"I didn't rush after them," he returned curtly, "because I'd be a fool -for my pains and would only give that wolf-devil another chance to -laugh in my face. For if he's got this lead on us ... why, then, the -game is his." - -"But I won't believe...." - -"If you will watch you will see. I'll bet a thousand dollars he has a -hundred men down there already and that they'll be riding by all day; -they'll be staking claims which he will buy back from them at the price -of a day's work; he'll work a clean shut-out for Gallup and Taggart. -That's what he'd give his right hand to do. You watch a minute." - -They watched. Once Taggart shouted up to them. - -"Down in a minute, Taggart." Deveril called back. - -Before long Lynette saw another cloud of dust; this time three or four -men rode into sight and sped away after the others; before the dust -had cleared another two or three men rode by. And at last Lynette felt -despair in her heart, rising into her throat, choking her. For she -understood that in her hour of direst need Bruce Standing had failed -her. - -"Taggart will be wanting you in a minute," said Deveril. He spoke -casually; he appeared calm and untroubled; he took out tobacco and -papers and began rolling a cigarette. But Lynette saw that the man was -atremble with rage. "Before you go down to him, tell me: did you know -what you were doing when you brought us to the wrong place?" - -"_Yes!_" It was scarcely above a whisper, yet she strove with all -her might to make it defiant. She was afraid and yet she fought with -herself, seeking to hide her fear from him. - -He shrugged elaborately, as though the matter were of no great interest -and no longer concerned him. - -"Then your blood be on your own head," he said carelessly. "I, for one, -will not raise my hand against you; what Taggart does to you concerns -only you and Taggart." - -"Babe Deveril!" - -She called to him with a new voice; she was afraid and no longer strove -to hide her fear. Until now she had carried on, head high, in full -confidence; confidence in a man. And that man, like Babe Deveril before -him, had thought first of gold instead of her. Bruce Standing had -spoken of love and had turned aside for gold; with both hands full of -the yellow stuff he thought only of more to be had, and not of her. - -"Babe Deveril! Listen to me! I have been a fool ... oh, such a fool! I -knew so little of the real world and of men, and I thought that I knew -it all. My mother had me raised in a convent, thinking thus to protect -me against all the hardships she had endured; but she did not take into -consideration that her blood and Dick Brooke's blood was my blood! This -was all a glorious adventure to me; I thought ... I thought I could do -anything; I was not afraid of men, not of you nor of Bruce Standing nor -of any man. Now I am afraid ... of Jim Taggart! You helped me to run -from him once; help me again. Now. Let me have one of the horses ... -let me go...." - -All the while he stood looking at her curiously. Toward the end there -was a look in his eyes which hinted at a sudden spiritual conflagration -within. - -"You're not used to this sort of thing?" And when she shook her head -vehemently, he added sternly: "And you are not Bruce Standing's? And -have never been?" - -"No, no!" she cried wildly, drawing back from him. "You don't think -that...." - -Now he came to her and caught her two hands fiercely. - -"Lynette!" he said eagerly. "Lynette, I love you! To-day you have stood -between me and a fortune, and I tell you ... I love you! Since first -you came to the door of my cabin I have loved you, you girl with the -daring eyes!" - -"Don't!" she pleaded. "Let me go. Can't you see...." - -"Tell me, Lynette," he said sternly, still holding her hands tight in -his, "is there any chance for me? I had never thought to marry; but -now I'd rather have you mine than have all the gold that ever came out -of the earth. Tell me and tell me the truth; we know each other rather -well for so few days, Lynette. So tell me; tell me, Lynette." - -Again she shook her head. - -"Let me go," she pleaded. "Let me have a horse and go. Before they come -up for me...." - -"Then there's no chance, ever, for me?" - -"Neither for you nor for any other man.... I have had enough of all -men.... Let me go, Babe Deveril!" - -Still he held her, his hands hardening on her, as he demanded: - -"And what of Bruce Standing?" - -"I don't know ... I can't understand men ... I thought there never was -another man like him, a hard man who could be tender, a man who ... I -don't know; I want to go." - -"Go?" There came a sudden gleam into his eyes. "And where? Back to -Bruce Standing maybe?" - -"No! Anywhere on earth but back to him. To the stage which will be -leaving Big Pine in a little while; back to a land where trains run, -trains which can take me a thousand miles away. Oh, Babe Deveril...." - -Taggart's voice rose up to them, sounding savage. - -"What in hell's name are you doing up there?" - -Then Deveril released her hands. - -"Go to the horses," he commanded. "Untie all four. I'll ride with you -to the stage ... and we'll take the other horses along!" - -She had scarcely hoped for this; for an instant she stood staring at -him, half afraid that he was jeering at her. Then she ran to the horses -and began wildly untying their ropes. Deveril, smoking his cigarette, -appeared on the edge of the cliff for Taggart to see, and called down -carelessly: - -"What's all the excitement, Taggart?" - -"Keep your eye on that girl. Shipton thinks she's fooled us. I want her -down here." - -Deveril laughed at him and turned away. Once out of Taggart's sight he -ran. Lynette already was in the saddle; he mounted and took from her -the tie ropes of the other horses. - -"On our way," he said crisply. "They'll be after us like bees out of a -jostled hive." - - -They did not ride into Big Pine, but into the road two or three miles -below where the stage would pass. Deveril hailed the stage when it came -and the driver took Lynette on as his solitary passenger. At the last -minute she caught Babe Deveril's hand in both of hers. - -"There is good and bad in you, Babe Deveril, as I suppose there is in -all of us. But you have been good to me! I will never forget how you -have stood my friend twice; I will always remember that you were _a -man_; a man who never did little, mean things. And I shall always thank -God for that memory. And now, good-by, Babe Deveril and good luck go -with you!" - -"And Standing?" he demanded at the end. "You are done with him, too?" - -Suddenly she looked wearier than he had ever seen her even during their -days and nights together in the mountains. She looked a poor little -broken-hearted girl; there was a quick gathering of tears in her eyes, -which she strove to smile away. But despite the smile, the tears ran -down. She waved her hand; the stage driver cracked his long whip.... -Deveril stood in the dusty road, his hat in his hand, staring down a -winding roadway. A clatter of hoofs, a rattle of wheels, a mist of dust -... and Lynette was gone. - - - - -CHAPTER XXVI - - -Deveril went back to his horse, mounting listlessly like a very -tired man. The spring had gone out of his step and something of the -elasticity out of that ever-young spirit which had always been his no -matter from what quarter blew the variable winds of chance. Lynette -was gone and he could not hold back his thoughts from winging back -along the trail he and she had trod together; there had been the time, -and now he knew it, when all things were possible; the time before -Bruce Standing came into her life, when Babe Deveril, had he then -understood both himself and her, might have won a thing more golden -than any man's mere gold. In his blindness he had judged her the light -adventuress which she seemed; now that it was given him to understand -that in Lynette Brooke he had found a pure-hearted girl whose inherited -adventuresome blood had led her into tangled paths, he understood that -in her there had come that one girl who comes once to all men ... and -that she had passed on and out of his life. - -He caught up the reins of the horse she had left behind. His face grew -grim; he still had Jim Taggart to deal with and, therefore, it was as -well to take this horse and the others back to Big Pine and leave them -there for Taggart. For the first thing which would suggest itself to -the enraged sheriff would be to press a charge against him of horse -stealing, and in this country horse thieves were treated with no gentle -consideration. - -"I'll leave the horses there ... and go." - -Where? It did not matter. There was nothing left for him in these -mountains; Bruce Standing had the gold and the girl was on the stage. - -But in his bleak broodings there remained one gleam of gloating -satisfaction: he had tricked Standing out of the girl! That Lynette -already loved his kinsman or at the least stood upon the very brink -of giving her heart unreservedly into his keeping, Deveril's keen -eyes, the eyes of jealous love, had been quick to read. It did not -once suggest itself to him that Standing could by any possibility have -failed to love Lynette. The two had been for days together, alone in -the mountains; why should Standing have kept her and have been gentle -with her, as he must have been, save for the one reason that he loved -her? Further, what man could have lived so long with Lynette of the -daring eyes and not love her? And he, Babe Deveril, had stolen her away -from Bruce Standing, had tricked him with a pencil scrawl, had lost -Lynette to him for all time. The stage carrying her away now was as -inevitable an instrument in the hand of fate as death itself. - -He turned back for the other horses which he had tethered by the -roadside and led them on toward Big Pine. - -"What the devil is love, anyway?" he muttered once. - -It was not for a man such as Babe Deveril to know clearly; for love is -winged with unselfishness and self-sacrifice. And yet, after his own -fashion, he loved her and would love her always, though other pretty -faces came and went and he laughed into other eyes. She was lost to -him; there was the one great certainty like a rock wall across his -path. And she had said at the parting ... her last words to him were to -ring in his memory for many a long day ... that there was both good and -bad in him; and she chose to remember the good! He tried to laugh at -that; what did he care for good and bad? He, a man who went his way and -made reckoning to none? - -And she had said that she knew him for _a man_; one who, whatever else -he might have done, had never stooped to a mean, contemptible act; she -thought of him and would always think of him as a man who, though he -struck unrighteous blows, dealt them in the open, man-style.... And yet -... the one deed of a significance so profound that it had directed the -currents of three lives, that writing of seven words, that signing of -her name under them.... - -"I am glad that I did that!" he triumphed. And gladdest of all, in his -heart, was he that Lynette did not know ... would never know. - -Thus Babe Deveril, riding with drooping head, found certain living -fires among the ashes of dead hopes: A row to come with Taggart? He -could look forward to it with fierce eagerness. Standing and Lynette -separated; vindictive satisfaction there. He'd got his knife in -Standing's heart at last! He'd like to wait a year or a dozen until -some time Lynette forgot and another man came despite her sweeping -avowal and she married; he would like then to come back to Bruce -Standing and tell him the fool he had been and how it had been none -other than Baby Devil who had knifed him. - -... And yet, all the while, Lynette's farewell words were in his mind. -And he saw before him, wherever he looked, her face as he had seen it -last, her eyes blurred with her tears. And he fought stubbornly with -himself against the insistent admission: It was Babe Deveril and none -other who, saying that he loved her, had put those tears there. Good -and bad? What the devil had he to do with sticking those labelling tags -upon what he or others did? - - -Bruce Standing was still in his office. He was a man who had won -another victory and yet one who had the taste of despair in his mouth. -Gallup's town was doomed; it was one of those little mountain towns -which had already outlived its period of usefulness and now with a man -like Timber-Wolf waging merciless war against it, Big Pine had its back -broken almost at the first savage blow struck. But Standing strode up -and down restlessly like a man broken by defeat rather than one whose -standards went flying on triumphantly; he knew that a new rival town, -his own town, was springing into being in a few hours; he had the brief -satisfaction of knowing that he was keeping an ancient promise and -striking a body blow from which there would be no recovery, making Big -Pine take the count and drop out of all men's consideration; he knew, -from having seen it many times, that pitiful spectacle which a dead and -deserted town presents; so, briefly, just as his kinsman was doing at -the same moment, he extracted what satisfaction he could from the hour. -He even had word sent to Gallup: "I am killing your town very much as -a man may kill an ugly snake. I shall see to it that goods are sold -cheaper here than at your store; there will be a better hotel here, -with a better shorter road leading to it. And I will build cabins as -fast as they are called for, to house deserters from your dying town. -And I will see to it that men from my town never set foot in your town. -This from me, Young Gallup: 'For the last time I have set foot upon -your dung heap. I'm through with you and the world is through with you. -You're dead and buried.'" - -During the day, word came to him that several men and one girl had been -seen hastily occupied at the foot of the Red Cliffs; the girl Lynette; -one of the men, Deveril. And it seemed very clear to Standing that -Lynette had led Deveril and the others in hot haste to the Red Cliffs -only because she had misunderstood Mexicali Joe's directions, confused -by his mention of these cliffs where he had prospected last year. - -"I'll go get them." Standing told himself a score of times. "Just as -soon as I know how to handle them. When I know how I can hurt him most -and her...." - -Mexicali Joe swelled about the landscape all day like a bursting -balloon, a man swept up in a moment from a condition of less than -mediocrity to one, as Mexicali regarded it, of monumental magnificence -and the highest degree of earthly joy. Graham could not keep him out -of Standing's office; the second time he came in Timber-Wolf lifted -him upon his boot hurling him out through the door and promising him -seven kinds of ugly death if he ever came back. Whereupon Mexicali Joe, -shaking his head, went away without grumbling; for in the sky of his -adoration stood just two: God and Bruce Standing. - -Graham was still laughing, when another man rode up to the door, and -Graham on the instant became alert and concerned. He hastened to -Standing, saying quickly: - -"Mr. Deveril to see you. He has ridden his horse nearly to death. And I -don't like the look on his face." - -"Show him in!" shouted Standing. "You fool ... don't you know he's the -one man in the world...." - -Graham hurried out. Deveril, his face pale and hard, his eyes burning -as though the man were fever-ridden, came into the room. The door -closed after him. - -"Well?" snapped Standing. - -"Not so well, thanks," retorted Deveril with an attempt at his -characteristic inconsequential insolence. "Here's hoping the same to -you ... damn you!" - -"If you've got anything to say, get it done with," commanded Standing -angrily. - -"I'll say it," Deveril muttered. "But first I'll say this, though I -fancy it goes without saying: there is no man on earth I hate as I hate -you. As far as you and I are concerned I'd rather see you dead than -any other sight I'll ever see. And now, in spite of all that, I've come -to do you a good turn." - -Standing scoffed at him, crying out: "I want none of your good turns; I -am satisfied to have your hate." - -Deveril, with eyes which puzzled Timber-Wolf, was staring at him -curiously. - -"Tell me, Bruce Standing," he demanded, "do you love her?" - -"Love her?" cried Standing. "Rather I hate the ground she walks on! -She is your kind, Baby Devil; not mine." And he laughed his scorn of -her. But now there was no chiming of golden bells in that great volume -of laughter but rather a sinister ring like the angry clash of iron. -All the while Babe Deveril looked him straight in the eye ... and -understood! - -"For once _you lie_! You love her and what is more ... and worse!... -she loves you! And that is why...." - -"_Loves me?_ Are you drunk, man, or crazy? Loves me and leaves me for -you; leads you and your crowd to the Gulch, trying to stake on Joe's -claim, trying to...." - -"She did not leave you for me! I took Taggart and Gallup to her, and -Taggart put her under arrest ... for shooting you! And she did not lead -us to the spot where she knew Joe's claim was; she made fools of us and -led us to the Red Cliffs, miles away!" - -Standing's face was suddenly as tense as Deveril's, almost as white. - -"She left a note; saying that she was going back to you...." - -Deveril strode by him to a table on which lay some letter paper and -wrote slowly and with great care, laboring over each letter: - - - I am going back to Babe Deveril. - - LYNETTE. - - -And then he threw the pencil down and stood looking at Standing. And he -saw an expression of bewilderment, and then one of amazement wiping it -out, and then a great light leaping into Standing's eyes. - -"You made her go! You dragged her away! And you wrote that!" - -Deveril turned toward the door. - -"I have told you that she loves you. So it is for her happiness, -much as I hate you, that I have told you.... She, thinking that you -preferred gold to her, has just gone out on the down stage...." - -"By the Lord, man," and now Standing's voice rang out joyously, clear -and golden once more, "you've done a wonderful thing to-day! I wonder -if I could have done what you are doing? By thunder, Babe Deveril, you -should be killed for the thing you did ... but you've wiped it out. -After this ... need there be hatred between us?" - -He put out his hand. Deveril drew back and went out through the door. -His horse, wet with sweat and flecked with foam, was waiting for him. -As he set foot into the stirrup he called back in a voice which rang -queerly in Standing's ears: - -"She doesn't know I wrote that. Unless it's necessary ... You see, I'd -like her to think as well...." He didn't finish, but rode away. And as -long as he was in sight he sat very erect in the saddle and sent back -for any listening ears a light and lively whistled tune. - - -The stage, carrying its one passenger came rocking and clattering about -the last bend in the grade where the road crosses that other road which -comes down from the mountains farther to the east, from the region -of Bruce Standing's holdings. The girl's figure drooped listlessly; -her eyes were dry and tired and blank with utter hopelessness. Long -ago the garrulous driver had given over trying to talk with her. Now -she was stooping forward, so that she saw nothing in all the dreary -world but the dusty dashboard before her ... and in her fancy, moving -across this like pictures on a screen, the images of faces ... Bruce -Standing's face when he had chained her; when he had cried out that he -loved her.... - -The driver slammed on his brakes, muttering; the wheels dragged; the -stage came to an abrupt halt. She looked up, without interest. And -there in the road, so close to the wheel that she could have put out a -hand and touched him, was Bruce Standing. - -"Lynette!" he called to her. - -She saw that he had a rifle in his hand; that a buckboard with a -restive span of colts was at the side of the road. The driver was -cursing; he understood that Standing, taking no chances, had meant to -stop him in any case. - -"What's this?" he demanded. "Hold up?" - -Standing ignored him. His arms were out; there was the gladdest look in -his eyes Lynette had ever seen in any man's; when he called to her he -sent a thrill like a shiver through her. He had come for her; he wanted -her.... - -"No!" she cried, remembering. "No! Drive on!" - -"You bet your sweet life I'll drive on!" the driver burst out. And to -Standing: "Stand aside." - -Then Standing put his hands out suddenly, dropping his rifle in the -road, and caught Lynette to him, lifting her out of her seat despite -her efforts to cling to the stage, and took up his rifle again, saying -sternly to the stage-driver: - -"Now drive on!" - -"No!" screamed Lynette, struggling against the one hand restraining -her ... and against herself! "He can't do this ... don't let him...." - -But in the end she knew how it would be. The stage-driver was no man to -stand out against Bruce Standing ... she wondered if anywhere on earth -there lived a man to gainsay him when that light was in his eyes and -that tone vibrated in his voice. - -"He's got the drop on me ... he'd drop me dead soon as not.... I'll go, -Miss; but I'll send back word...." And Lynette and Bruce Standing, in -the gathering dusk, were alone again in the quiet lands at the bases of -the mountains. - -"Girl ... I did not know how I loved you until to-day!" - -She whipped away from him, her eyes scornful. - -"Love! You talk of love! And you leave me in the hands of those men -while you go looking for gold!" - -"No," he said, "it wasn't that. I thought that you had no further use -for me; that you loved Deveril; that you had gone back to him; that you -were trying to lead him and the rest to Joe's gold; that...." - -There was now no sign of weariness in a pair of gray eyes which flashed -in hot anger. - -"What right had you to think that of me?" she challenged him. "That I -was a liar, breaking a promise I had made; and worse than a liar, to -betray a confidence? What right have you to think a thing like that, -Bruce Standing ... and talk to me of love!" - -He could have told her; he could have quoted to her that message which -had been left behind, signed with her name. But, after all, in the end -he had Babe Deveril to think of, a man who had shown himself a man, who -had done his part for love of her, whose one reward if Bruce Standing -himself were a man, must lie in the meagre consolation that Lynette -held him above so petty an act as that one which he had committed. So -for a moment Standing was silent; and then he could only say earnestly: - -"I am sorry, Lynette. I wronged you and I was a fool and worse. But -there were reasons why I thought that.... And after all we have -misunderstood each other; that is all. Joe's gold is still Joe's gold; -I have made it safe for him and not one cent of it is mine or will ever -be mine...." - -"Nor do I believe that!" she cried. "Nor any other thing you may ever -tell me!" - -"That, at least, I can make you believe." He was very stern-faced now -and began wondering if Deveril had been mad when he had told him that -Lynette loved him. How could Deveril know that? There was little enough -of the light of love in her eyes now. And yet.... - -"Are you willing to come back to headquarters with me?" he asked -gently. "There, at least, you can learn that I have told you the truth -about Mexicali Joe's gold. No matter how things go, girl, I don't want -you to think of me that I did a trick like that ... forgetting you to -go money-grabbing...." - -"You can make me come," she said bitterly. "You have put a chain on me -before now. But you can never make me love you, Bruce Standing." - -Now she saw in his face a look which stirred her to the depths; a look -of profound sadness. - -"No," he said, "I'll never put chain on you again, girl; I'll never -lift my hand to make you do anything on earth; I would rather die than -force you to anything. But I shall go on loving you always. And now," -and for the first time she heard him pleading! "is it so great a thing -that I ask? If you will not love me, at least I want you to think as -well of me as you can. That is only justice, girl; and you are very -just. If you will only come with me and learn from Mexicali Joe himself -that I have touched and shall touch no single ounce of his gold." - -She knew that he was speaking truth; and yet she could not admit it -to him ... since she would not admit it to herself! And she wanted to -believe, and yet told herself that she would never believe. She was -glad that he was not dragging her back with him as she had been so -certain that he would ... and she did not know that she was not sorry. - -"Will you do that one thing? I shall not try to hold you...." - -"Yes," she said stiffly. And then she laughed nervously, saying in a -hard, suppressed voice: "What choice have I, after all? The stage has -gone and I have to go somewhere and find a stage again or a horse...." - -"No. That is not necessary. If you will not come with me freely, I will -take you now where you wish; to overtake the stage." - -And thus, when already it was hard enough for her, he unwittingly made -it harder. She wanted to go ... she did not want to go ... most of all -she did not want him to know what she wanted or did not want. She cried -out quickly: - -"Let us go then! I don't believe you! And, if you dare let me talk -alone with Mexicali Joe, I shall know you for what you are!" - - -Lynette was in Bruce Standing's study. He had gone for Mexicali Joe. -She looked about her, seeing on all hands as she had seen during their -racing drive, an expression of the man himself. Here was a vital centre -of enormous activities; Standing was its very heart. The biggest man -she had ever known or dreamed of knowing; one who did big things; -one who was himself untrammelled by the dictates and conventions of -others. And in her heart she did believe every word that he spoke; and -thus she knew that he, this man among men, loved her!... And she loved -him! She knew that; she had known it ... how long? Perhaps with clear -definiteness for the first time while she spoke of him with Deveril, -yearning for his coming; certainly when she had started at the sight of -him at the stage wheel. So she held at last that it was for no selfish -mercenary gain that he had been so long coming to her, but rather -because he had lost faith in her, thinking ill of her. That was what -hurt; that was what held her back from his arms, since she would not -admit that he could love her truly and misdoubt her at the same time. -For certainly where one loved as she herself could love, one gave all, -even unto the last dregs of loyal, confident faith. How confident all -day she had been that he would come to her! - -Lynette, restless, walked up and down, back and forth through the big -rooms, waiting. Her wandering eyes were everywhere ... upon only one -of the shining table tops was a scrap of paper. In her abstraction she -glanced at it. Her own name! Written as though signed to a note. - -In a flash her quickened fancies pictured much of all that had -happened: Deveril to-day had told Standing she was going out on the -stage; Deveril had told Standing all that had happened ... because -Deveril, too, loved her and knew that she loved his kinsman. She -recalled now how Deveril had stopped a little while in camp after -Taggart had dragged her away. So Deveril had left this note behind? And -Standing knew now; he had said there were reasons why he had been so -sure she had gone to Deveril. She understood how now it would be with -him; Deveril had told him everything and he, accepting a rich, free -gift from the hand of a man he hated was not the man in turn to speak -ill of one who had striven to make restitution, though by speaking -the truth he might gain everything! These were men, these two; and to -be loved by two such men was like having the tribute of kings.... She -heard Standing at the door, bringing Mexicali Joe. There was a little -fire in the fireplace; she ran to it and dropped the paper into the -flames behind the big log. The door opened to Standing's hand. At his -heels she saw Mexicali Joe. - -"No!" she cried, and he saw and marvelled at the new, shining look in -her eyes; a look which made him stop, his heart leaping as he cried out -wonderingly: - -"Girl! oh, girl ... at last?" - -"Don't bring Joe in! I don't want to talk with him; I want your word, -just yours alone, on everything!" - -Now it was Mexicali Joe who was set wondering. For Standing, with a -sudden vigorous sweep of his arm, slammed the door in Joe's perplexed -face and came with swift eager strides to Lynette. - -"It is I who have been of little faith and disloyal," she said softly. -"I was ungrateful enough to forget how you were big enough to take my -unproven word that it was not I who shot you, a thing I could never -prove! And yet I asked proof of you! I should have known all the time -that ... 'though it were ten thousand mile....'" - -She was smiling now and yet her eyes were wet. She lifted them to his -that he might look down into them, through them into her heart. - -"Let me say this ... first ..." she ran on hastily. "Babe Deveril saved -me the second time to-day from Taggart. And he told you where to find -me. I think that he has made amends." - -"He wiped his slate clean," said Standing heartily. "Henceforth I am -no enemy of his. But it is not of Deveril now that we must talk. 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