"Quite so, I am not here to trade. Oh, dear, no! I am just jogging along."
"But whither? I do not want to be rude; but where there are no roads, I should imagine one's route led nowhere."
"The proof that your inquiry is not impertinent is shown in my freely answering you. My course is public property. On the border, everyone knows that my mates and I are going to the gold fields."
"Oh, after gold," repeated the other with well-feigned surprise. "Over the range into California? In that case, if there's any reliance in maps—though when maps are made by geographers at a desk ten thousand miles off, I have not too much faith in maps myself—well, you are askew! Granting you the finding of a pass in the Rockies, you will be three weeks reaching the eastern slope of the Nevada Range, and if you go that way and can climb the Oregonian Heights, you will be three months getting down to Portland. Either way, you will have so heavy and fatiguing a 'jog,' that I wonder very much that you take a delicate young lady with you."
"What you say may be very true, sir; but, to begin with, do not run away with the wrong notion. This young lady would not be in my company—I may better say, one of my company—if it were not absolutely her wish and will."
"Oh, now I curl back into my shell," said the Englishman, with a sardonic smile, "I cannot say I am amazed at the fair young lady's determination. Your American girls have already a name in Europe for daring, devotion, constancy, and—caprices."
"I beg your pardon, sir," broke in the young lady, looking at him fixedly, "for intervening in your conversation unbesought, but you should be fully informed on one point, Mr. Dearborn—I believe you are so named—"
"Ranald Dearborn, at your service."
"Well, Mr. Ranald Dearborn, I do not deserve your eulogy in any measure. Captain Kidd lies, and very well knows that he lies, when he asserts that I wish to accompany him in his journey. I am here, in his company—as he puts it—in spite of myself, against my will, because I have been shamefully torn from all the semblance of home that I had, and dragged thence I know not whither. I am no relative of his, not his ward, but his slave!"
"Señorita!" began the captain violently, on recovering his tongue.
"Do you dare deny it!" she cried, energetically, looking him in the eyes. "It is high time the truth came out! And that everybody knew of what you are capable, and what my position is! I thank Heaven you have at last brought a stranger to my hearing, not your hangdog confederates. Too well, señor, you relied on my scorn and acquiescence when you had the impudence to utter those words. I will not allow my weakness to bring me in as your accomplice, Mr. Dearborn," she continued, turning abruptly to the hunter, "this man has lied; he has cowardly abducted me for reasons unknown, and he intends to leave my dead body so far from civilization that it will never rise in judgment of this world against him."
"Have a care, young lady," said the captain, moodily, "I can't let you run on too far in this style—"
"One moment, captain," broke in Dearborn, sternly, "questions are raised which do not come into my province. But I am obliged to observe that you—or anybody else—has got to behave like a gentleman when a lady is present—"
"But, sir, if—"
"I know no ifs or buts, sir, for none but a coward and a blackguard would threaten a defenceless woman. You brought her here as the ornament to the supper table, so it's your own fault. I warn you once for all that, before me, you will have to treat the young lady with all the respect due to her age and sex, or else we shall have to settle the punctilio of etiquette with pistol or knife! And I doubt if you will be lucky enough to have anyone burst in between you and me as I did between you and the grizzlies."
"Good gracious, sir," the captain hastened to reply, the last turn of the defiant speech making him cease to bite his lips till the blood ran, "I am very sorry this awkward incident occurred—very! Nothing of the kind did ever take place; and I shall take the greatest heed it does not repeat itself," he went on, with a look of evil augury aside at the girl, who was wringing her hands and tapping the ground with her feet. "I allow that I let myself ramble farther than I ought. To show you how much I regret having displeased the young lady, I beg her to overlook the offence, and bear me no grudge."
Rosa tossed her head disdainfully.
"That's more like," said the English hunter, lightly; "since you apologise, I haven't a word to say."
"Yes; I am thoroughly vexed. Let us drop the hot but dying coals of dissention, therefore, and—what were we talking about when they flew out of the fire?"
"I don't know now."
"Oh, señor, you were observing that it looked as if my present route for the goldfields would bring me out in the Sacramento Valley, or at Vancouver's. Are you sure?"
"Well, I am no resident; but, coming down from the North, few signs of gold bearing tracts met my humble vision."
"Did you come through the Yellowstone Basin?" inquired the captain.
"What the Canadians called the 'Infernal Regions,' and the trappers the 'Fireholes?' Well, not what you can call through. I did—as I do when a big band of Indians cross my trail—I skirted it. They say it is the devil's own home on earth; and I have no wish, prematurely, to soak in a sulphur bath!"
"Mr. Dearborn, are you the man to render me still a further service?"
"I want to know, you know," said the Englishman, humorously.
"¡Diablo! You are in no hurry to contract yourself into a bargain, señor;" commented Mr. Kidd, with a bitter grin.
"Being a foreigner—"
"It's prudent. I wish I had always been as slow to plunge at your age! Tell me, where were you going when we met?"
"Southerly: I came to hunt. But the presence of Indians makes me fear that a solitary man would be hunted here."
"If you have no disinclination to remain with a force around you at which no Indian lances will tilt," said Captain Kidd, proudly, "I can offer you something—a way to utilise your recently gained knowledge in skirting the Yellowstone Basin; guide us inside it!"
"Why, what the—"
"Gold! That's the 'the!'"
"Gold there?"
The prairie rover leaned forward, resting both elbows on the board, and fixing his glowing eyes on the Englishman, spoke earnestly as follows.
"I am quite sure," said Kidd, "that the stories told to frighten outsiders from the district, which lies there away, are invented by the reds and by the few whites who have explored it, for the same end—to keep its metallic treasures, perchance those of precious stones; besides, here we shall perish in the storms. That horrid one nearly laid us out stiff; I want to escape them. Within that charmed valley volcanoes maintain the temperature of spring; grass is eternal for cattle; the unfrozen ground can be broken up; the water always runs for gold washing! I say, guide us into that natural garden; and in two weeks, should no gold be found, you can depart. You shall name your terms; and, with the goods and dollars, go your way. If we find gold, you shall have your lot as a member of the band—reduced by losses, so that the shares are not unreasonably many—as guide, and as the leader's partner!"
"You are very frank. You do not understand that an English gentleman does not let money influence him—"
"Bah, bah! An hidalgo, ay, a grandee of old Spain goes gold hunting and never dreams of a reproach to his blue blood, for the royal metal ennobles its seekers. That apart, if you are here for adventure, I foresee that you will have no lack of that—more mustard than beef!"
"Allow me another remark: whatever my taste as regards money, there is one thing I love more—my freedom."
"Great heavens! Then I am putting you in the place to be the freest in the band. What a pilot is at sea, a guide is to a hunters' band. The captain himself has to submit to many things onerous, which the guide escapes. He gives no one an account of his doings when he has been absent; he leaves at any hour and stays as long as he likes—the band must await him or go on to the rendezvous which he arranged. You cry 'halt!' when you are tired, or hungry, or athirst, and we halt under the tree you point out. Freedom? If I were not the captain, I'd rather be the guide, upon my honour!"
"If that is how a guide can act," remarked Dearborn, as if wavering, "I don't mind agreeing. It is fully understood that I accept out of kindness, and because, having saved your life, I wish to complete the work, and not leave you to be overwhelmed by a blizzard on the very threshold of the Enchanted Valley, as you esteem it!"
The captain joined in the laugh.
"More frankness," he proceeded. "My men are rough rogues, not worth the loop that will finish them, and I shall be the happier with a genuine gentleman the more at my side. Whatever your conditions, I gladly will pay them. Is it settled?"
"You shall be shown the Yellowstone Hole as if I were opening a drawing room door, captain."
"When may we start?"
"Tomorrow, sunrise."
"That will be capital, for I expect a little reinforcement to come in."
"Then I shall give the word to start and go when I see you at dawn," observed the hunter, taking up his rifle as he rose.
"Do you mean you are going so untimely?"
"Yes. Look here, I haven't asked a question about the reinforcement you mention, though that interests the guide. So don't you put any to me," returned Dearborn, ironically.
"Quite right. But whilst you may keep back what you please from the chief, he must confide everything in the head scout. I am adding some women and children to the band. They will weaken us, but be a tower of strength by and bye. I can say no more at present."
"You need not have said so much."
"When you see them you will see all the women—that is, except a companion of my dear niece—a Scotch lady, who came to our camp for refuge from the Indians who destroyed her party."
"A regular 'squaw' band," remarked the Englishman, naturally enough contemptuous if he had already imbibed the hunter's sentiments.
The captain approved with a smile, but Doña Rosario seemed to frown, though she appreciated properly the sincerity of the speaker's raillery.
"Good hunting till tomorrow," said the bandit, seeing his friend and partner clear to the outpost, and announcing his status on the way to all comers.
Without waiting for the captain's return, Rosario returned to her nook in the rock.
"Good news, Ulla!" she exclaimed to the other girl, who was in some anxiety. "I have had a perfect outbreak with our tyrant, but I have seen your brave friend. What daring to walk into the camp among so many villains! I declare I am quite proud of him myself, and you may well be jealous till I have some idol of my own. Cheer up! Happiness is beginning to smile on us!"
The leader returned slowly to the tent. On the way he met the Carcajieu, who was walking up and down sulkily as if he disapproved of the new addition to the party, and the quasi-superiority accorded him.
"What's the matter?"
"Nothing new yet!" was the grumbling reply.
"None of the scouts come in?"
"Part have, bringing what is left of Sydney Dick in two pieces. The Injins have been playing high old pranks with him, hide and head! And the rest are probing the snowdrifts for the Frenchman. It will be a windfall for us that blew him into fifty feet of never-melting snows!"
"You don't seem to waste any affection on him!"
"It's a liar who'd say so."
"I love him no better. His treacherous face imported good to no one. But we are in no such luck to be rid of him, too."
In taking "the last squint" around, they saw pitch pine knot torches flashing on the plain.
"What did I say? The boys have found him, you be sure."
Retracing their steps to the pickets, they found the torches coming on as slowly as in a funeral procession.
"One can never tell," observed Joe; "maybe they've had a brush with the Injins."
"Not in the dark, lieutenant. Besides, those red devils must be still stiff with the freezing. It's those confounded bears, wild at having been robbed of me."
It was quite half an hour before the solemnly silent watch brought the torches near enough for their light, falling on the scouts, to reveal that they carried on a handbarrow of pine poles a figure vaguely resembling a man's.
"Have you found the Frenchman?"
"Yes, captain, but in damaged condition!"
"Do you mean to say he is hurt?"
"Have a little patience—or lend a hand, if you are in such a hurry!" cried the men.
They laid their burden down tenderly enough by a watch fire.
"A little more gently, burn your bones!" groaned Lottery Paul, throwing off the buffalo robe coats and blankets kindly laid over him; "Don't you want to leave me one whole bone among 'em."
"What's come to you, friend?" queried the captain.
"A stupid question; better ask who came at me?—I can reply to that, after a fashion."
"Thunder! My poor boy, your accident seems to have soured your usually sweet temper."
"Oh, you call that an accident, do you, old man? Much obliged for an explanation of your notion of an accident. What's your name for the fire of a battery of nine-pounders and a charge of dragoons?"
"Why don't you speak out! Tell us, or go to death your own way—if we can't do any good to you."
"I know you can. Hand over the whisky!"
"You ass! That would be a gulp of 'sudden death' in fact."
"More nonsense! How do you know what state I am in before I tell you? I am dying of thirst, that's just what ails me—so pass along the bottle, or I'll speak nothing."
"Give it him, and let him choke himself," said Kidd, enraged at the obstinacy.
Paul snatched the bottle and drank a long draught, his laugh mingling with the gurgling.
"Whoop!" cried he, dropping the nearly emptied flask with a grin of content. "I feel better already. A poor idea you have of a scout's outfit, to send that cahoot out without a drink in the herd!"
"Will you talk up now, you brute?"
"Orders received for a Fourth of July oration!"
"Well, where are you hurt, to begin with?"
"All over—a bullet through the right arm, another grazed my ribs, the small of my back caught a rap from the butt end of a rifle, and I offer a complete collection of scratches and bruises from a drop into a snow pit, where a fire had melted it twenty feet—"
"My fire," ejaculated the captain.
"Oh, have I to thank you for that trick! My spirit must be pretty tightly boxed up in my body, after all, not to have been bounced out. However, it looks as if I should get round after a bit, and then somebody will ask who exploded a giant cartridge next door to his blanket."
"Who?"
"The man that served me so. Do you fancy I have been taking myself by the throat and levelling the snow with me!"
"If you go on with such a rigmarole, we shall understand very little."
"That's so, captain. To put it short—you sent me out on the scout. That's admitted?—Good. I spread myself to no purpose; not a trace on the snow where even a witch wolf must have left some print. It got to be after sun darkening, and my wolfish gnawing under my belt set me campwards, a little careless I am afraid, for somebody heard me, and I heard a nasty threatening voice challenge me with a 'Who goes there?'"
"'Twas a man," cried Captain Kidd.
"Unless the prairie dogs talk English," rejoined the Parisian, laughing through a grimace of pain. "'It's a friend,' I answered, getting my gun round to have first shot. 'Where from?' Here was a chance to get in some big lie; but I thought a white man would be best bumped off by a boast of our turnout. 'From the Montana Gold hunters! We're two hundred strong, not twenty miles yonder.' 'I am no friend of scoundrels of your kidney,' said this particular fellow. It looks as if he knew all about us. 'Pull up and pull out while your scalp is on!' 'How long since you staked out this territory,' said I, catching a glimpse of the muzzle of his piece. 'I am not going to quit till you show me your papers,' and I pulled the trigger. But the worst of it is, that when I could spy his gun, he saw mine, and we fired together, with the shade of preference to the stranger. That's about while I felt the ball through my arm, and my gun had to drop. I had it up quick in my other hand, and leaped on the shooter. But another bullet came on me in the side, from the flash, and I was stretched on my back instantly. That fellow rushed right up to me, and held me down with his foot till I had received this speech: 'You have your dose. The others will now get theirs; and, if it is a little slow coming, it will be kept hot!'"
"The man said that?" cried Kidd.
"Clearly. That made me suppose, cap'n, that some of your acquaintances are hovering round, and will stir you up yet."
"Go on," muttered the bandit chief, frowning, and becoming thoughtful.
"So did he—go on! I tried to get out my knife to learn how thick his leggins were, when he turned me over and set to kicking me as if he was bound to wear his boots out in the shortest possible time. I was rolled over and over like a log towards the river, and he yelling out the most abusive language. 'Take that, thief! And that, pícaro! And that, voleur de trappes! And that, assassin!' There were enough and to spare for ten apiece to all you rascals in the camp, captain included! Luckily, in his blind fury, he kicked me over the ends of some burnt logs, and down I fell into the pit which that fire of your'n had melted. I thought it was an Injin b'ar trap when I came to my senses, and I climbed out mighty rapid for fear either b'ar or Injin would drop in on me. Somehow I crawled in the proper direction, afeared to raise a woo-oo for Dick; and at last the boys hit upon me. Good boys, though I have swore some at 'em. They deserve their quenchers, and, old man, I'll take the balance in that flask."
He was given more drink; spirits is the panacea of such men.
"So," said Kidd, "you were unable to fulfil my charge, and have brought back no information beyond this attack on you?"
"I saw nobody but that one man. If he who sent the second shot had joined in that 'booting,' the boys would have only picked up a pancake."
"This is painfully strange!"
"Oh, I think it strangely painful!"
"What kind of man was your assailant?"
"That's the puzzle," replied the railing Parisian. "By the voice, a white man. But I did not see him. It was so dark, and he was on me like a tiger! And then he kept me rolling over and over, so that I had not one fair peep at his nose. I shall only know him again by the length of his foot and the tone of his voice."
"If that's all, bah!—We'll take care of him, mates."
After the excitement of his telling the misadventure, French Paul was dull and lifeless; then he raved with pain, for he had not a dollar's breadth of his body without a bruise. Yet he bore the dressing and anointing with crude kerosene oil and snake juice with fortitude. Next begging a drink, and "freezing" to the bottle, he went to sleep drunk. His last words were: "Don't you fret, boys—any of you that I owe money to. I shall come up smiling; for him that's borned to be hanged won't be kicked to death no how."
Meanwhile Captain Kidd strayed into his tent very thoughtfully after having enjoined Corky Joe to exercise the utmost vigilance.
For years upon years this desperado had struggled against society, and sported with all laws and regulations; but now he saw the horizon circle in upon him. He could not drive away the foreboding that the hour of a terrible punishment was approaching. All night long he walked up and down in the tent, revolving the most fantastic projects. A few minutes before sunrise, a man coughed at the tent opening in that warning way customary where men sleep with weapons in the hand, and might, if abruptly awakened, put a bullet mechanically in the innocent arouser. The cloth was lifted and a man appeared, whom Captain Kidd greeted with joy.
It was Dearborn.
At least here was a follower who punctually kept his word.
The Captain went up to the hunter quickly, and briskly extending his hand, bade him welcome. But the other was so busy filling his short meerschaum pipe, that he did not apparently perceive the hand, and simply thanked him.
"When do we make a start, captain?" he inquired.
"Right away," replied Kidd in a feverish voice.
He issued orders forthwith, so that the greatest animation soon stirred the encampment, everybody being delighted to get out of the bad spot. In a couple of hours subsequently the train was on the move, with Dearborn scouting in the van.
A two-mule litter carried Doña Rosario, whilst the other women were "piled in, somehow, anyhow" in the huge wagons covered with a waterproof cloth.
Behind the captain, the men sauntered along, their guns quite ready on their shoulders, keeping one eye on the wagons and the other on the country, so to say.
From seven to midday nothing occurred of any moment. The roads, if they could be called such where none were traced save by wild beasts going to water, were in such a condition that wheeled traffic was bound to be slow. Now and again a gang of men took to axes or spades, as the case might be, and hewed or levelled a path.
In "the nooning," the cattle were breathed and rested. In five hours, not twenty miles had been covered.
The halting place chosen was in a rather broad open land in the thick of a cedar and piney wood, through which brawled a torrent having accessible banks only in one spot.
A little on one side, a tent was hastily run up for Doña Rosario. The other women were strictly, even cruelly severely guarded, and kept from speaking together, still less to the adventurer, as much as possible.
Since the Englishman's introduction into the camp, Miss Maclan had cheered up wonderfully. No nods or rebukes constrained her from displaying her relief, and soon she set to singing. In a brief space she became the licensed songstress of the band, for the rudest Americans have a fondness for music. She was so liked after this, that the men would have rebelled if she had been silenced by the Captain, or Corky Joe, though, to tell the truth, these smiled patronizingly on her efforts.
Ulla had conceived a genuine affection for Rosario, if only because she was so sad and pale. On her part, the Southerner was touched by her delicate attentions, and it was a great consolation for her to meet with a loving soul and tender heart, to say nothing of a vigorous intelligence. Once the ice was broken, they became inseparable.
Kidd marked this connection with pleasure; he favoured it rather than fettered it. He had been vexed by his captive's pining away, and hoped that the different temperament of the Scotch young lady would exert a powerful influence on the Spaniard's mind, and act healthily on her reflections.
The halt had hardly been cried before the scout looked close to his gun.
"In two hours we must be off again," he remarked; "this is no spot to make a prolonged stay in. One good thing is, that the weather is clearing up, and the ground will be good for travelling. We must do our best whilst things are on our side."
"Excellent advice!" coincided the leader; "But how about dinner with us?"
"No, no," returned the other, shaking his head; "your salt horse and boiled beans do not go down with me. I am not tired, and I am not hungry. So I prefer to sweep the country and try to find a bit of game to tickle my palate."
"A good idea again," said the captain, laughing. "You are the first scout I ever came across who had no appetite. Well, good luck!"
"Many thanks," replied the other, with one of those smiles which the Spanish call half sour grapes, half-sweet figs, to which he seemed addicted for Kidd's benefit.
He strode away rapidly, and was speedily lost to view.
"A queer character," observed the adventurer; "but they are all queer the farther up north one gets! However, we must take men as we find them. He seems true and faithful, and that's the main thing. Besides, where's his interest in betraying me? What a fool I am! Is there not always something to be gained by betraying a man like me? Tut, tut I am I going daft like Dave Steelder, or, rather," he went on with a cunning smile, "crazy in the real vein. It has come to this, that lately I am worrying myself into a fever."
At this point up came Corky Joe.
"Oh, here you are, eh? How's that wretch Paul getting on?"
"Paul's as lucky as an Injin doctor!" answered the lieutenant, laughing. "He hardly feels the knocking about. He heals up like a man who never soaked in whisky. When I left him he was packing away cold beef like an Injin warrior after a fast, and drinking like the Great American Desert when the rum cask is staved. He's going to get round it, don't you fret."
"I reckoned he would!"
"I'll be fair to him, besides—he don't want no nursing; he wants to buckle to his work right off."
"No, no, stop that. Compel him to rest a day or two, which will make him more useful and bother us less."
"Oh, I say, cap.! I've put extra sentinels out all round."
"You did quite right; though there's nothing scary, we had better be on our guard. Those Red River Half-breeds are no more to be trusted than the purebred red men; and I wish they were both drowned in the nearest salt pool! But hurry up to dinner; I feel as sharp as a meat saw freshly filed!"
"That's me!" added "Corky Joe," promptly as an echo.
Long before the men were through their meal, voraciously though they ate, the two young ladies, who met in the wilderness from such opposite directions, had finished theirs—of which they had made but a mockery.
"Something unusual is about us, señorita," said Miss Maclan to Rosario, with an arch look. "There is a gay expression on your features, to which they are not habituated. Surely, now, something new is at hand; I hope you are going to tell me?"
"How curious we are!" returned the Southerner, smiling.
"Do not judge me wrongfully, indolent creature! It is not inquisitiveness that moves me, but friendship."
"I am well aware of that, darling; so I shall not make you languish. I am going to tell you everything."
"That is nice; and I do love you in the same frank way. But wait a bit, until I make sure that we have no eavesdroppers. It is a sensible thing to be prudent hereabouts, with persons handy who make no scruples about listening!"
She set up a song to express unconcern, and went out of the tent for a short absence. When she reappeared, she laid her finger on her lips to impress caution, and sat down close beside her, so that they could converse in whispers.
"Do you mean they are watching us?" queried Doña Rosario.
"We are always watched," was the answer; "but this time more sharply than ever!"
"I wonder why?"
"I cannot say."
"But cannot you guess, as the Yankees do?"
"No; nor even suppose. What do you think of this?—There are sentries posted all around the camp!"
"That's not strange, silly! That is done every time they stop."
"I daresay, señorita; but—"
"Why, that's to keep the Indians off—not to keep us in!"
"But why are they put everywhere except just behind this tent?"
"What do you say?"
"You can see for yourself, Rosario!"
"What do you conclude from this arrangement?"
"To my mind, for some hidden reason, they want to fill us with an idea on which we should be gulled into acting. I am certain of this—that Lieutenant Joe placed the men on the watch himself. It is some trick, in spite, of that wretch, who hates you worse than the captain!"
"You are out of your wits, dear!" responded the Mexican, laughing. "Your reasoning is all askew!"
"Much obliged! Does not the Lieutenant plague you all he can?"
The dark girl approached her lips to the other's quick car, and gently breathed—
"Joe is our friend—our only friend!"
"Eh?" exclaimed Miss Maclan, unable to believe she had heard aright, as she fastened a frightened look on the speaker; "The Lieutenant our friend—you are jesting!"
"I repeat that he is our most devoted friend; I more than know it—I hold the proof of it."
"Oh, dear me!" ejaculated Ulla, in almost comic surprise, it was so extreme.
"Yes," went on Rosario, "when I was left by myself, he came to me, profiting by Captain Kidd's absence. He made his true character known to me, and pledged entire devotion. He said that he was in the caravan to guard and save me. After recommending me to be as wise as possible, he left me the most undeniable proof of his good faith, proof that would turn terribly against him if he were to betray me instead of serving me. What do you think of that?"
"Oh, that explains your having been so strange and excited when I came back to you," cried Miss Maclan, clapping her hands incautiously. "I understand now. But why did you not let me know before? This was unkind, as I was so uneasy about you."
"Don't bear me any ill will, for I was distraught with sudden gladness."
"What an amazing thing. That Joe fellow is very ugly," said Miss Maclan, merrily; "but I shall try to love him now!"
"Now it is you who are excited, girl. Calm yourself, lest we be overheard."
"No, no, there is nothing to fear, at least, in the immediate present. Oh, dear Rosario, what a blessing this is for you, and perhaps for me, for I am to keep by you, am I not? What a mercy it will be to flit through the grip of that nasty Captain Kidd, a gallows bird, who never even blinks behind his spectacles."
"Yes, yes, no parting between us, dear Ulla. We will remain friends always. Columbia and Caledonia forever. Hip, hip, hur—"
But she did not conclude her burlesque cheering. The two girls were in one another's arms, weeping tears of hope and joyfulness, when a sharp, yet low hiss pierced the silence, and made Doña Rosario prick up her ears. She came from a climate where abounded reptiles making such a sound.
Presently, a spent revolver cartridge shell was neatly cast so as to roll in under the tent edge, almost to the girls' feet. Miss Maclan picked up the cylinder, being the nearer and the more courageous. A paper was curled up in it, and slightly protruded. She pulled it out with trembling fingers. It opened, and she saw it was addressed to her. She rapidly ran her eyes over it, and then slowly and thankfully read it aloud.
These were the contents:—
"Dear Miss Maclan,—All obstacles are overcome, so that I have been more than happy enough to discover your whereabouts, for I am even close to you. I am on the watch, so hope! I may even succeed in getting speech with you. Much to say. Ranald Dearborn."
There was a postscript, wishing her hope and courage, and bidding her burn the note.
"That must come from a friend, no doubt?" observed Rosario, slyly.
"Oh, indeed," replied the Scotch girl, suppressing a sigh, "a very dear, leal friend, in whose promises I can place complete trust."
"Why, things go better and better. I should not wonder if we were freed before a great while."
"Heaven grant it."
"Don't you forget what was told you."
"What?"
"The burning the paper, goose. It is important, I rather agree."
"Must it be destroyed?"
"Decidedly, my dear; were the captain to find a line of it, you and your friend would be lost. Dearborn is the name of the new guide, who read Mr. Kidd a lesson in behaviour to a lady. He known as our friend, too, and a correspondent, we would be separated."
"Very well, then, I shall not hesitate. It's a painful sacrifice, for, somehow, that message seems written with a consoling angel's feather."
She began to tear the paper with an unsteady hand. But at that same instant a heavy foot was heard at the door. Ulla dropped the writing. But before it was half way to the ground, the Southerner had caught it, and snatching some tobacco, shredded, she began to make a cigarette as she lolled back with a good assumption of ease.
"Can a body come in without disturbing you too much?" inquired Captain Kidd in his well-known and little-liked voice at the door.
"There is no need, captain, for you to feign a politeness you little care for," was Rosario's reply. "Am I not your very slave, and as such obliged to obey you? As you are the master, come in if you like."
In came the chief of the gold grabbers with a little bow.
"Really, young lady," he said, "my presence must be very odious to you if you receive me always so poorly. Still, it does seem to me that I am trying continually to please you in every way, I am not aware of anybody round here failing to treat you properly."
"Moral constraint is a hundred times more irksome than physical, sir. I am not free; that's the whole question; I cannot be contented as long as I an prohibited from leaving your camp forever, and never setting eyes on you or your scoundrelly followers."
"Poor little lady!" he answered, with ironical kindliness, "Whither would she go if I were to present her with the freedom she longs for? My child, you might not go five miles, nay, not three, before down you would go—shot by an Indian, one of these Half-breeds, or into some alkali sink pit, or wild beasts' lair. I should never have done reproaching myself if I let you incur any such fate."
"Oh, it is not today that I have become acquainted with your humanity, sir, and your love for your neighbour. But let us no longer discuss fruitless subjects, which I daresay interest you most feebly. I beg you rather to inform me of the object of your visit. Your time is valuable, and you would not waste it chatting with a young lady."
This speech was made with so strong an accent of scornful fun, that her hearer only overcame his anger by a powerful effort.
"I am still waiting," resumed his tormentor after a minute. "Have you nothing, after all, to say?"
"You must forgive me, señorita," said he, "but your reception was so surprisingly charming, that it made me forget what I came for."
"Perhaps I may smoke whilst it comes again, by your leave, of course?" said the impudent minx, with a sly glance at Miss Maclan, whom Kidd affected to regard as a mere companion, a kind of better class servant. "I am in such a way, lately, of palliating anything disagreeable with a smoke, that I really cannot get along without my cigar while you are by!"
She accepted a match from Ulla and lighted up.
"Now then, master, you can fire away too if you are ready!"
All this was said and done with the free and easy manner of an American girl. The malicious thing thoroughly enjoyed puffing into the very face of their persecutor the smoke of the letter which conveyed a vexation to him. So much satisfaction was in this unsuspected revenge before the only person able to measure it, that Rosario felt even a little less spiteful towards the man who for once was her victim.
As he had not the ghost of a suspicion, the mute conference of the girls had no meaning in his eyes, but he did notice with relief that the American girl looked less angry.
"Señorita," he said, "a serious motive impels me here. I can put it shortly. This morning we started off with the intention of turning our backs on the cheerless wilds and striking for quarters rather more hospitable."
"So far, sir, I do not hear anything much to interest me."
"I am coming to it. I hired a new guide, whom I presented to you—that Mr. Dearborn."
"Well!" she inquired loudly, to keep attention on her and away from Miss Maclan, who could not help colouring at the name. "What's this cold Englishman to me?"
"Of no account to you, very likely, miss! But he's everything to me. The worthy young fellow saved my life, as I told you. Over and above my gratitude, there's any amount of confidence I have in him."
"Go on; go on, sir. If you will bore me with your private business, let me hear all and be done with it. I suppose there's nothing to spur you on; and my time belongs to you if to anyone."
"There you are, joking me again, señorita. Still, I am not talking at random, and I would not go into these particulars if they could be omitted."
"Have your own way, I tell you, captain. You were saying that you entertained great confidence in your new guide, who had saved your precious life. You see I remember what you said."
"So you do. Well, señorita, this guide promises to save us three days' march and to take us in one day into a region almost temperate."
"A very good thing for you! But you will again allow my remark that it does not concern me."
"But you have a vast interest in it! You shall see for yourself too. It was the guide himself who suggested my coming to you."
"This is getting extremely interesting at last!"
"Yes, while we were on the move this morning."
"More and more interesting," she said seriously, whilst Miss Maclan leaned forward eagerly.
"The guide said to me, then," went on the captain, smiling, "'I can, if you like, avoid the long way round and drop you in four-and-twenty hours into mild weather; but I must not hide from you that it is by a breakneck road, so dangerous that the bravest men never go through without an attack of ague. There's only two ways of doing it, on foot or on horseback. Your band is lumbered up with women and children. Reflect how you are going to get them along.' My answer to this was, 'There's no need to fret about the women and girls, as they are frontier bred and know how to rough it. There is only one person whose safety is important to me, and I do not care to endanger her in a risky path. That person is the Spanish doña.' 'If she is enough of a rider to stick to a horse, I warrant we'll get her through,' said he to that. 'Can't you ask her anyway? Then we shall know whether we are in a fix or not.' So I said I would see about it; and here I am, señorita, come to disturb you."
"If one is to go by your story, it was more you than the guide that led to your coming."
"To tell the truth, my head is confused, and I do not carry a clear memory of the exact phrases employed. But this does not matter much one way or the other. The main point is to know, señorita, if you can ride well enough to stay in the saddle in a bad bridle path."
"Either I am very dull, or you have left out part of your argument, señor, though of importance."
"Ah! I know what you are alluding to. You mean, what is to become of the baggage?"
"Yes, señor captain; you may even say 'plunder.' It's a popular word, which well covers your belongings."
Kidd laughed at the jest. Things were coming round nicely, after all.
"The wagons and loads are going to follow on, under safe guard, by the next best road. They will come up three or four days after me in our nook."
"Oh, now I understand the whole matter clearly, and nothing can be simpler."
"Well, what is your answer, young lady?"
"Captain," was the sad reply, "the life you believe so valuable is a very mean thing to me. I attach little weight to it, so any road is the same as another. I will go along with you anyway."
"I beg your pardon, señorita, but either you don't or you won't understand. You are not answering me at all."
"No, captain? I thought I was! You asked me if I would go with you in a new path, and I say yes. That's straight enough."
"Yes. You mean you would trust to your horse?"
She remained silent, finishing the cigarette.
"I pause for a positive reply."
"Well, I will give you the frank reply that you require," she said, with an effort. "I am not only so poor a horsewoman that I should be afraid to trust to a horse, but I am so ignorant as to be afraid to trust myself on one. I never was in the saddle in my life. That was not even among my 'extras' at the boarding school."
"That will do, señorita. I am going."
"What do you decide?"
"To push on in the original course. It's longer, but it's less hazardous."
He made his bow and departed.
"Dear me, Rosa," exclaimed Miss Maclan, the tent being cleared once more, "I thought all you Southern Americans rode horses like centaurs. At least, you know my meaning though the simile is bad."
Rosario gave her a hug.
"Eh, darling!" she whispered; and added with a fine smile. "At present I do not know how to ride."
"But I should have thought—"
"You are not good at the kind of thinking wanted out here, lassie! The guide spoken of by the captain is devoted to us, eh? Yes; well, then, if he got that idiot of a Captain Kidd to put these questions to me, it is because he wanted no for an answer. Do you comprehend now?"
"Better than ever. Oh, you are keen, Rosario! They will not cheat you easily!"
"Alas, dear, it is misfortune's grindstone that sharpens wits. When even girls are constantly surrounded by tricks and stratagems, the senses wear clear and bright. Cunning and dissimulation are the slave's sole weapons. We can only baffle our enemies with skill and finesse."
When the starting time came Captain Kidd's bugle sounded it, and gave orders for the movement. The guide had not come back from his hunt, but as he had left precise directions, the leader showed no tokens of being crossed by that absence, and took the lead himself.
It was a most painful journey.
Out of the snowlined woods issued a black damp frost, which cut to the bone even the thickest wrapped. A few large snowflakes were spun out of treetops and wandered about. The semblance of a road was dreadfully cut up and flanked by deep chasms, which required the utmost heedfulness on the part of the teamster lest the vehicles and pack animals were thrown down and over. They seemed to have nothing but ups and downs, and the worst of the downs was, it being through torrents or pools where the water was excessively chilly.
The caravan proceeded noiselessly on the whole, excepting the groaning and screaming of the wheels and the sonorous oaths of the drivers: men who do not sleep happily unless they have invented a fresh blasphemy every day.
Their disagreeable march, during which but scanty progress was made after all, was kept on till half past four, when darkness came on. The train had reached a natural clearing resembling that of their last halt.
Such a huge fire as served our ancestors to roast oxen whole, and as their present-day descendants now and then use for the same purpose at extraordinary meetings, was blazing in the open space. Right in front stood the guide, leaning on his rifle as easily as if he little cared for the pyre attracting Indians as a lantern does gnats on a summer night.
The party quickened their gait as much as possible, enheartened by the ruddy flame of which the mere reflection seemed to thaw their stiffened limbs.
Soon were the wagons unlimbered and ranged in defensive order, the mules unladen, and the encampment as swiftly installed as could be. As the night was to be spent here, the measures of assurance were unusually well taken. The wagons were chained in two crescents connected by parallel bars, the interstices choked up with stake and thorn bushes, and the tents set up within the enclosure. The sentries were told to keep their eyes skinned. Plenty of watch fires were kindled and provided with fuel.
Only when these precautions were concluded did the gold grabbers get leave to prepare supper. Think what their appetite was with this hard work on top of that excited by the long and arduous journey. They "wolf'd" their meal.
After the captain had strictly inspected the camp, investigated the surrounding scenery, and became convinced all was in order, he strolled over to Ranald. He was at his own fire, smoking a pipe, the guide not being an officer who "chums" with anyone; again a point of resemblance with a sea pilot.
"My friend the hunter," said the captain, in a most amicable tone, "I desire you to pass the night with us, and take supper with our chiefs."
"Many thanks, captain; I do not see any reason why I should go out on the prowl tonight, and nothing bars me from putting my knife into your Washington pie. But a little condition on that, captain."
"Name it, dear boy. If it depends on me, it is granted beforehand," said Kidd, who was becoming accustomed to Dearborn's "little whims."
"I only ask one thing, that there shall be none but men at the board."
"A 'stag party?' But what do you say that for?"
"That's not easy to explain. But the fact is, I haven't come out into the wilderness to hear women squeak, and see them mince about and play all those niminy-piminy lures and graces that city people think are agreeable. I have no wish to say a word contrary to the respect I hold for the young Southern lady in your charge; but, by Jove! I'll confess that I prefer the wolf scaring faggot here to sitting at table over against the fair sex."
"Oh, good," replied the captain, who knew that for every seven young men whom a homicide, debt, loss at gambling, love of wild life, etc., drove into the desert, there were six whose first love affair turned out disastrously; he thought he perceived at last the true cause of the youth's reserved mood and peculiarities. "You'll not be bothered with her, particularly as we are going to talk about her, and could not well do that if she were by, or her Scotch attendant either."
"Attendant?"
"Yes, I've picked out the woman we rescued to be her companion. It cheers her up. She was moping a little."
"Things being so, captain, I am your man."
In five minutes, the captain, Joe, and the Englishman were supping together with hearty appetite. When this was a trifle allayed by the first course, Kidd brought the conversation round upon Doña Rosario, by reason of her having stopped the choice of the short cut.
"Women are always a bother," remarked the young misanthrope with a sneer. "With no intention to offend you, I would not mind betting a trifle that the young lady can ride as well as you or I."
"She says the other thing," returned the host, thoughtful of a sudden.
"Out of the spirit of contradiction, that's all."
"It's very certain," interposed Joe, "if she was educated at New Orleans, that she must be a rare exception to the troops of schoolgirls who go out riding on the Shell Road."
"It's all pure contradiction," resumed Dearborn; "who can say a thing is black to a woman without her saying it is white?"
"Or grey, at least," added the lieutenant, sagely.
"That's why," continued the youngest man, "I have sworn off woman's society. Though the best woman in creation came out here, I should send her back to the nearest railway station! I'll never cumber myself up with the baggage! They're a bad bargain, though they come with a million in the Funds!"
"Whew!" exclaimed Joe, laughing, "Our guide does not strike me as a very passionate adorer of the sex."
"No, no, don't put me down as either hating or liking them," went on the hunter; "write me as indifferent. My father was a man of great good sense; an oracle in his county. He used to say that the modern woman is like the grand piano: it looks useful, but it takes up too much room, and is always in the way. You cannot use the wires for a gridiron, the top is badly shaped for a billiard table, and the legs are so hard, you cannot chop them up in a sudden emergency for heating shaving water. And when she is musical, the neighbours move out and leave the last quarter's rent owing. I agree with my dear old dad."
The others laughed.
"The sad part of it all is, that we must pass three or four days we might have saved in this dreary solitude," remarked the captain.
"Still, you might take the short cut," observed Joe.
"I don't see how."
"Well, my principle is, that the few must give in to the many. Sound democratic maxim. Doña Rosario says she cannot ride. Never mind whether she can or not, truly; but that does not bind us down from taking the cutoff. Not a bit of it."
"I wish you would explain," said Kidd, testily. "What would you do in my place, man full of dodges?"
"One thing—the easiest thing in the world," responded the Carcajieu, playing with his knife on a bone. "I would pick out an old sure-foot mule—we've several rare good ones—I'd put a sidesaddle on, well filled with a bag of leaves, rugs, blankets, and such fixings, so the lady should not get cold, and fasten her in."
"Not a bad notion. What do you think, guide?"
Dearborn laughed in the face of Joe.
"And when the mule slips, your hardbound lady rider would be dashed to sausage meat in the gulf below. They run eight hundred feet deep round here."
"Bah! That's nothing. Apparently, you do not know what a mule is—a cat for clinging to the roughnesses, a fly for walking up a smooth perpendicular."
"Oh, if you think the mule can scramble along—"
"A mule can go where we daren't."
"Then I will share in your lieutenant's suggestions," said Dearborn, exchanging a secret glance of intelligence with Joe.
"That's fine, then! Tomorrow we will strike into the straight line you proposed, guide. Are your horns full? Then, here's to the Yellowstone Valley!"
As it came on nine o'clock, Lieutenant Joe and Dearborn took leave of their superior and of the table.
The former of the pair seemed to be overpowered by sleepiness, for he had been blinking like an owl during the conversation, and, were he not so polite a man, would have fallen forward and slumbered among the dishes, his head on his arms.
The guide had altered his purpose; on second thoughts, he preferred to make the circuit outside the camping ground for the better security of all. So he bade the captain good night after announcing his changed resolve, and promising to be back a bit before sun-peep.
Joe shook himself up, still polite, and volunteered to take the guide round and show him where the lookouts lay, in order he might not get shot by them at the dawn. During this short jaunt the two spoke very little, and what they said were commonplaces. They knew quite well that they were under the eyes of the leader, who came out to the tent mouth ostensibly to finish his cigar.
After bidding one another good night bluffly, hunter and gold seeker parted. The Englishman leaped over the barricade and glided into the shadows. As Joe retraced his steps, he saw the captain disappearing in the tent, where the loose flap fell and hid him.
The second officer had a green bough shelter run up for him against a rock. Thither he proceeded and insinuated himself within; but, despite the cold, he left the wagon tailboard, which might flatteringly be styled the door, on one side. He would not have a fire, and showed no light. He pulled out a horsehair covered trunk, sat on it, folded his arms, and appeared to await being frozen stiff.
Not only, though, had all semblance of drowsiness quitted his features, but, judging by his eyes, he was as wide awake as ever; these were directed on the captain's tent. Its opening and that of his shed faced, so that he could spy into it, protected himself by the complete darkness in which he was lodged.
Kidd kept a lamp burning for quite half an hour. Joe tried his best to see what he was doing, but that was not possible. Nevertheless, he persevered in studying the tent which contained so many mysteries for him. At length, the attraction of curiosity was so strong as to become irresistible. He left his seat, and, stealing forth, scanned the scene without.
Deep stillness reigned over the darkened camp, for a fine, cold rain had lowered the fires. Rolled up in their blankets, the gold grabbers had packed into shelter and slumbered soundly. The watchers themselves, with only their noses and eyes exposed, were shrunk up into the best covering the bushes and palisades afforded against the wet.
But the light still glittered in the captain's tent.
The Carcajieu would hold back no more.
And yet he knew that when the chief retired for the night, he blocked himself in so that it was impossible to get at him without his leave or knowledge. As for peering and prying, no one had tried what would lead to discovery. Besides, what could the curious make of it; the tent was double; there was full three inches space between the outer jacket and inner canvas, a precaution taken along with others for serious reasons, to the end that, when the captain did shut himself up, he could be delivered of daily constraint and be himself unfettered.
Such were the more or less plausible suppositions to which Corky Joe had arrived since he formed part of the expedition. He had often sought without success to discover this puzzling mystery. But his repeated failures, far from calming his curiosity, by proving the uselessness of his abortive attempts, so pricked him on, that he determined at any cost to tear the heart out of the enigma. The present occasion struck him as so favourable, that he made up his mind to try again, whatever the consequences, if he ran into a trap.
Sharp as was Kidd, Joe reckoned himself to be on a par with him. At least, he rarely acted without forethought, sound, though not long, perhaps. He was patient, preparing in advance the means for carrying out his plans. He had never yet been taken in an unguarded moment. Whenever he had failed, he set down the loss to chance, fate, or whatever name it goes by.
Since too long a time had the faithless lieutenant been planning out to learn what went on in the captain's snuggery when he was closeted in for him not to have a better result, because he profited by previous mischances.
Matters stood as follows this time—
Every time the train started the lieutenant took the advance with a dozen picked men. Not only did they scout and roughly clear a road, but they pushed on to the night camping ground. There they chopped bushes and trees, built fires, or even lit them to warm the ground and drive away vermin, as all small game is called, and put up the tents for Doña Rosario, the women, and the leader. These they carried on led mules, the cloth wrapped round their tools and eatables, so that part of the load was exhausted on the way and at the end of the journey. When the main body came up, it moved into position already traced, and completed the entrenchment with the wagons and loads. A few shanties were knocked together, and that was all. If the pickets had much of a start, they did so much work whilst waiting, that the rest often did not have to delay half an hour before meals.
The first act of the chief was to see if his tent was pitched to suit. If not, he would have the site shifted, and overlook this being done in person; this was of rare occurrence, but it had happened. Though, in the beginning, his men had been curious about the tent, two months' fatigue had blunted the feeling. Besides, what interest had tired men, wet and muddy with fording, in puzzling out matters of no value to them?—To say nothing of Kidd, notably "sudden with his pistol," being always on the lookout. Besides, as he had often reflected, he was sure enough of the relatively devoted nature of the principals of his band. If he had to do with mere inquisitiveness his reasoning would have been correct. Even Paul Pry will get fagged out in the end, but it was not such a paltry nature that was pitted against him.
The Carcajieu had potent grounds for persevering in unearthing his secret. Therefore, he would never stop till that secret lay under his feet, or he was stretched dead upon it.
The captain was ignorant of this, and could not even dream of it. He never once thought of doubting Joe, and conjecturing that he was undermining him like a mole. Surrounding circumstances also forced him to bestow on his second as much trust as lay in so wary a character.
On pushing ahead to the camping place, Joe had set his pioneers to use their axes upon the brushwood, whilst he examined the land.
The position was intelligently selected by Dearborn, healthy and easy to defend. It was an opening "park," in the midst of a thick wood climbing the abrupt foothills of the Rockies. On the right, an uncracked block of stone rose up sheer to an incalculable height, and forefended any attack from that quarter.
Like the broken arch of a natural stone bridge, a huge rock, hollowed out by water in ancient days, covered about a third of the clearing, to the height of a score yards. On the left the mountain sides, well wooded, gently sloped down.
The Carcajieu scanned the rocks alluded to. Hurled from the mountain crest in some horrible cataclysm, they had crashed together chaotically, and cheating moss and shrubs seemed to have knit them into a solid mass. In reality, though nothing but a wonder of balancing kept them in their arrangement. There was another discovery made by the lieutenant, that almost forced him to whoop for joy, and did force the whistling of a lively dance tune in an undertone.
When the bush work was formed, he went on usually to have the fires laid and the tents reared.
The captain was set up under the natural arch, in a most advantageous spot. Behind and on both sides the canvas was superfluous, for it was in the hollow of the rock.
Kidd was so delighted with this solid nook for his night's lodging, that he warmly thanked and congratulated his lieutenant, a surprising thing to "the boys," as they knew him to be chary of compliments. Joe bowed himself out of the flowers of speech in a modest way, and went and hid his blushes in his greenwood shanty.
Scarcely had Joe, about to essay his dangerous undertaking, left his ambush before he spied a shadow cross his path.
"Hist?" he demanded, putting his knife in readiness.
"Only me, the Drudge, master, coming to report," was the whispered reply of the youth Leon.
"Oh, that's all right. What have you been about, boy?"
"Carrying out your orders, lieutenant," continued he, approaching. "After lending the Foxface a hand to bandage up Lottery Paul, I pretended to forget the camphorated spirits, as you instructed me."
"Good boy! What next?"
"I laid by to see what they would do. Just as you foresaw, lieutenant, Foxface took up the keg, which was still pretty nigh full, and laughingly showed it to the Frenchman. The next thing was, they swilled at it, turn and turn about, making fun of me."
"How has it ended?"
"The keg is ended, lieutenant, that's a sure fact, and both the scoundrels are dead drunk, not even snoring."
"Good; they are on the shelf. How about the others?"
"All are sleeping. There is nobody afoot but you and me, and the captain, I reckon."
"Are you sure?"
"Quite; the sentinels are sawing gourds in the Land of Nod too."
"Very nice. You know what you are to do?"
"I do, lieutenant."
"Then get about it, my lad, and bear in mind that, in strictly following my instructions, you are working for your good and your freedom."
"I know that, lieutenant, and so you may rely on me doing anything you direct."
"I know that too! Good, good—'tis time. You will see me ere long, Leon."
The Drudge went his way without further observations.
"Now I am left to myself," remarked Joe, sliding his bowie knife in its sheath and feeling that his revolvers were capped. "I shall never get such another chance to shine or be snuffed out. If I do not succeed in finding out some certainty to work upon, why, I'll—No, no, 'it'll never do to gib it up so, Mr. Brown!'" he concluded, humming a nigger minstrel song, which teaches the very American moral of Never Despair.
He took a full "square" look at the eternal lamp in the captain's dwelling, but, instead of crossing the camp towards it, he turned away and skirted the rocks. As soon as he reached a thorny bush rather thick, he parted the twigs at the risk of tearing his hands, and slipped into the very centre, as if, like the fools in the nursery jingle, he meant to scratch out his eyes.
As one sometimes finds among those old natives of the Southwest, who sit up all night at the gambling table, Joe was a true noctambulist: he had the wild beasts' gift to see at night. Otherwise, it were difficult to explain the unerring step with which he progressed through the dusk. Probably he had clearly traced in his mind the line he was following.
After gliding through the thorn brake, Joe lowered himself to the very ground. Fairly creeping, he seemed at a loss, clever as he had shown, himself. But, after thrice scrutinising the ground, he saw something dully gleaming. He crawled up to it. It was a piece of tinfoil, such as is used for enveloping chewing tobacco. It was roughly shaped into the form of a dart, the head pointing in the direction which he immediately took. It led him to another thorny bush, guarding an airhole about a yard square, almost impossible to discover even close by in broad day.
Joe knew that the guide had laid the indicator there, and with joy and confidence he dived into this kind of wild animals' burrow. It was a dry water course, a natural culvert, or drain, six feet wide in the best parts, and sometimes twelve high, ragged with worn rock, but also floored most smoothly with the finest yellow sand. Spite of his haste, he could not help carrying a pinch—spread out artistically on his palm—to his mouth; he tasted it for metallic traces, and grinned as he murmured, "Copper, I guess; silver, dead sure; and some gold. These rocks would pay blasting up some day."
But he was not after gold this time. So far the sand had glowed faintly orange from an unknown light. But soon the tunnel grew perfectly lightless.
"Whew!" muttered the Carcajieu, smiling, "In this place the King of Shades himself would stub his toe!"
As he pushed on he employed the minutest care not to make even the faintest noise that could betray him.
Ten minutes seemed an interminable period thus. Only then, though, did a luminous streaking show that he had actually arrived under the captain's tent.
He stopped, so anxious that he quivered convulsively. He was ashamed at himself for being so unstrung. He breathed long and regularly till he had calmed himself, and being confident, he examined the rocky side of his concealment as far up as possible. There were many fissures, but few went clean through straight. Two or three gave him views of the tent interior, useless to him. One, however, about four or five feet up, offered a capital spy hole. He applied his eye and gazed in. Almost at once he drew himself violently back in surprise, and a grin of delight hard to depict. He turned pale, and large beads of perspiration formed on his brow and slowly trickled down.
"Good heavens!" he thought to himself, "Can it be? I must have seen awry!" But, having another peep, he murmured, "It's the man, and no mistake! Doubt is not allowable. He is not in the grave, then. Hang me!" he went on, clenching his fists mechanically, "But the devil will have to take you, or this time I shall. 'Tis he, the outlaw, the villain who robbed the miners. Oh, you wretch! Are you still in this world? But I have your inmost secret now, and you may well tremble! This is a wide desert, old boy, but on three sides there are railroads now; law officers and courts of justice on all four. You are a goner, this trip, Mr. Harry Brown!"
After having thus given vent to anger and indignation long contained, Corky Joe felt calmness return to his mind. He wiped his forehead dry, smoothed his features, and, this time, it was the serene, steady eye as of an astronomer that he set to the gap.
As far as appearances went, there was nothing to justify the strange wrath which blazed up in the false lieutenant. The tent and cavern formed half a circle, which, if completed, would have spanned over twenty yards from the apex to the base. An iron folding bedstead, on which was a flock mattress, and a quantity of buffalo robes and other furs, was set up at the back, trunks being piled near it. On a folding table in the centre, between a bottle lantern and a candle in a tin dish, a travelling case was opened, more filled with papers than shaving utensils and toilet implements. It was supplied with secret pockets and false bottom, so that, though the captain always carried it on his horse and kept it by him, Joe had never suspected it was a receptacle for documents.
There was no doubt that so much care was only expended on proofs against the villain whose identity with a former and criminal self Joe could hereby establish.
On the table lay writing materials. By means of these a man, seated on a campstool, was "making notes." Not the harmless memos of business, or private details, but with a sureness of hand and dexterity in every finger that proved an experienced forger was here; the writer was imitating notes of hand such as the army officers get discounted by the Indian traders in anticipation of their salary. This man in no wise resembled Captain Kidd save in stature, and even in that point there was a difference, as being slighter—he seemed more tall. It was hard to tell his exact age, as in the case of actors who are clean shaven, he being so, and all white or grey hairs scrupulously extracted. Most beholders would have set him down as thirty, but he might still be ten years older. His face was oval, with a broad forehead, but pressed in at the temples. His hair, of that blueish black suggesting dye, rolled in ample curls down upon his shoulders, enframing handsome lineaments. Under thick brows, large, widely opened eyes were continually in movement, the pupils having that power of deepening or lightening in shade as emotions affected the owner; often they were veiled almost entirely, and then again they shot out lightning glances of unwonted magnetic force. His nose was straight, and yet a little curved at the tip, with tremulous nostrils. The ruddy, sensual mouth was overlarge, with sound teeth. The cheekbones stood out a trifle, and there was the cleft of a wound, or, perhaps, a congenital hare split on the square chin.