"I don"t reckon I will," he greeted, smiling. "Down in Texas it ain"t counted right good manners to shoot up young ladies."
"And in Wyoming you think it is."
"I judge by appearances, ma"am."
"Then you judge wrong. Those men did not know I was with dad that night.
They thought I was another man. You see, they had just lost their suit for damages against dad and some more for the loss of six hundred sheep in a raid last year. They couldn"t prove who did it." She flamed into a sudden pa.s.sion of resentment. "I don"t defend them any. They are a lot of coyotes, or they wouldn"t have attacked two men, riding alone."
He ventured a rapier thrust. "How about the Squaw Creek raid? Don"t your friends sometimes forget to fight fair, too?"
He had stamped the fire out of her in an instant. She drooped visibly.
"Yes--yes, they do," she faltered. "I don"t defend them, either. Dad had nothing to do with that. He doesn"t shoot in the back."
"I"m glad to hear it," he retorted cheerfully. "And I"m glad to hear that your friends the enemy didn"t know it was a girl they were attacking. Fact is, I thought you were a boy myself when first I happened in and you fanned me with your welcome."
"I didn"t know. I hadn"t time to think. So I let fly. But I was so excited I likely missed you a mile."
He took off his felt hat and examined with interest a bullet hole through the rim. "If it was a mile, I"d hate to have you miss me a hundred yards," he commented, with a little ripple of laughter.
"I didn"t! Did I? As near as that?" She caught her hands together in a sudden anguish for what might have been.
"Don"t you care, ma"am. A miss is as good as a mile. It ain"t the first time I"ve had my hat ventilated. I mentioned it, so you wouldn"t get discouraged at your shooting. It"s plenty good. Good enough to suit me.
I wouldn"t want it any better."
"What about the man I wounded." she asked apprehensively. "Is he--is it all right?"
"Haven"t you heard?"
"Heard what?" He could see the terror in her eyes.
"How it all came out?"
He could not tell why he did it, any more than he could tell why he had attempted no denial to the sheriff of responsibility for the death of Faulkner, but as he looked at this girl he shifted the burden from her shoulders to his. "You got your man in the ankle. I had worse luck after you left. They buried mine."
"Oh!" From her lips a little cry of pain forced itself. "It wasn"t your fault. It was for us you did it. Oh, why did they attack us?"
"I did what I had to do. There is no blame due either you or me for it,"
he said, with quiet conviction.
"I know. But it seems so dreadful. And then they put you in jail--and you broke out! Wasn"t that it?"
"That was the way of it, Miss Arlie. How did you know?"
"Henry Speed"s note to father said you had broken jail. Dad wasn"t at home. You know, the round-up is on now and he has to be there. So I saddled, and came right away."
"That was right good of you."
"Wasn"t it?" There was a softened, almost tender, jeer in her voice.
"Since you only saved our lives!"
"I ain"t claiming all that, Miss Arlie."
"Then I"ll claim it for you. I suppose you gave yourself up to them and explained how it was after we left."
"Not exactly that. I managed to slip away, through the sage. It was mo"ning before I found the road again. Soon as I did, a deputy tagged me, and said, "You"re mine." He spoke for me so prompt and seemed so sure about what he was saying, I didn"t argue the matter with him." He laughed gayly.
"And then?"
"Then he herded me to town, and I was invited to be the county"s guest.
Not liking the accommodations, I took the first chance and flew the coop. They missed a knife in my pocket when they searched me, and I chipped the cement away from the window bars, let myself down by the bed linen, and borrowed a cow-pony I found saddled at the edge of town. So, you see, I"m a hawss thief too, ma"am."
She could not take it so lightly as he did, even though she did not know that he had barely escaped with his life. Something about his debonair, smiling hardihood touched her imagination, as did also the virile competence of the man. If the cool eyes in his weatherbeaten face could be hard as agates, they could also light up with sparkling imps of mischief. Certainly he was no boy, but the close-cut waves of crisp, reddish hair and the ready smile contributed to an impression of youth that came and went.
"Willie Speed is saddling you a horse. The one you came on has been turned loose to go back when it wants to. I"m going to take you home with me," she told him.
"Well, I"m willing to be kidnapped."
"I brought your horse Teddy. If you like, you may ride that, and I"ll take the other."
"Yore a gentleman, ma"am. I sure would."
When Arlie saw with what pleasure the friends met, how Teddy nickered and rubbed his nose up and down his master"s coat and how the Texan put him through his little repertoire of tricks and fed him a lump of sugar from his coat pocket, she was glad she had ridden Teddy instead of her own pony to the meeting.
They took the road without loss of time. Arlie Dillon knew exactly how to cross this difficult region. She knew the Cedar Mountain district as a grade teacher knows her arithmetic. In daylight or in darkness, with or without a trail, she could have traveled almost a bee line to the point she wanted. Her life had been spent largely in the saddle--at least that part of it which had been lived outdoors. Wherefore she was able to lead her guest by secret trails that wound in and out among the pa.s.ses and through unsuspected gorges to hazardous descents possible only to goats and cow ponies. No stranger finding his way in would have stood a chance of getting out again unaided.
Among these peaks lay hidden pockets and caches by hundreds, rock fissures which made the country a very maze to the uninitiated. The ranger, himself one of the best trailers in Texas, doubted whether he could retrace his steps to the Speed place.
After several hours of travel, they emerged from a gulch to a little valley known as Beaver Dam Park. The girl pointed out to her companion a narrow brown ribbon that wound through the park.
"There"s the road again. That"s the last we shall see of it--or it will be when we have crossed it. Once we reach the Twin b.u.t.tes that are the gateway to French Canon you are perfectly safe. You can see the b.u.t.tes from here. No, farther to the right."
"I thought I"d ridden some tough trails in my time, but this country ce"tainly takes the cake," Fraser said admiringly, as his gaze swept the horizon. "It puts it over anything I ever met up with. Ain"t that right, Teddy hawss?"
The girl flushed with pleasure at his praise. She was mountain bred, and she loved the country of the great peaks.
They descended the valley, crossed the road, and in an open gra.s.sy spot just beyond, came plump upon four men who had unsaddled to eat lunch.
The meeting came too abruptly for Arlie to avoid it. One glance told her that they were deputies from Gimlet b.u.t.te. Without the least hesitation she rode forward and gave them the casual greeting of cattleland.
Fraser, riding beside her, nodded coolly, drew to a halt, and lit a cigarette.
"Found him yet, gentlemen?" he asked.
"No, nor we ain"t likely to, if he"s reached this far," one of the men answered.
"It would be some difficult to collect him here," the Texan admitted impartially.
"Among his friends," one of the deputies put in, with a snarl.
Fraser laughed easily. "Oh, well, we ain"t his enemies, though he ain"t very well known in the Cedar Mountain country. What might he be like, pardner?"