"My name"s Johnson."
"Not in Arizona, it isn"t. Wolf Struve it is there, wanted for murder and other sundries." He turned swiftly from him to his confederates.
"You fools, you"re putting your heads into a noose. He"s in already, and wants you in, too. Test him. Throw the end of that rope over the limb, and stand back, while he pulls me up alone. He daren"t--not for his life, he daren"t. He knows that whoever pulls on that rope hangs himself as surely as he hangs me."
The men looked at each other, and at Struve. Were they being led into trouble to pay this man"s scores off for him? Suspicion stirred uneasily in them.
"That"s right, too. Let Johnson pull him up," Slim Leroy said sullenly.
"Sure. You"ve got more at stake than we have. It"s up to you, Johnson,"
Yorky agreed.
"That"s right," a third chipped in.
"We"ll all pull together, boys," Struve insinuated. "It"s only a bluff of his. Don"t let him scare you off."
"He ain"t scaring me off any," declared Yorky. "He"s a spy, and he"s getting what is coming to him. But you"re a stranger too, Johnson. I don"t trust you any--not any farther than I can see you, my friend.
I"ll stand for being an aider and abettor, but I reckon if there"s any hanging to be done you"ll have to be the sheriff," replied Yorky stiffly.
Struve turned his sinister face on one and another of them. His lips were drawn back, so that the wolfish teeth gleamed in the moonlight. He felt himself being driven into a trap, from which there was no escape.
He dared not let Fraser go with his life, for he knew that, sooner or later, the ranger would run him to earth, and drag him back to the punishment that was awaiting him in the South. Nor did he want to shoulder the responsibility of murdering this man before five witnesses.
Came the sound of running footsteps.
"What"s that?" asked Slim nervously.
"Where are you, Steve?" called a voice.
"Here," the ranger shouted back.
A moment later d.i.c.k France burst into the group. "What"s doing?" he panted.
The ranger laughed hardily. "Nothing, d.i.c.k. Nothing at all. Some of the boys had notions of a necktie party, but they"re a little shy of sand.
Have you met Mr. Struve, d.i.c.k? I know you"re acquainted with the others, Mr. Struve is from Yuma. An old friend of mine. Fact is, I induced him to locate at Yuma."
d.i.c.k caught at the rope, but Yorky flung him roughly back.
"This ain"t your put in, France," he said. "It"s up to Johnson." And to the latter: "Get busy, if you"re going to."
"He"s a spy on you-all, just the same as he is on me," blurted the convict.
"That"s a lie, Struve," p.r.o.nounced the lieutenant evenly. "I"m going to take you back with me, but I"ve got nothing against these men. I want to announce right now, no matter who tells a different story, that I haven"t lost any Squaw Creek raiders and I"m not hunting any."
"You hear? He came into this valley after me."
"Wrong again, Struve. I didn"t know you were here. But I know now, and I serve notice that I"m going to take you back with me, dead or alive.
That"s what I"m paid for, and that"s what I"m going to do."
It was amazing to hear this man, with a rope round his neck, announce calmly what he was going to do to the man who had only to pull that rope to send him into eternity. The very audacity of it had its effect.
Slim spoke up. "I don"t reckon we better go any farther with this thing, Yorky."
"No, I don"t reckon you had," cut in d.i.c.k sharply. "I"ll not stand for it."
Again the footsteps of a running man reached them. It was Siegfried. He plunged into the group like a wild bull, shook the hair out of his eyes, and planted himself beside Fraser. With one backward buffet of his great arm he sent Johnson heels over head. He caught Yorky by the shoulders, strong man though the latter was, and shook him till his teeth rattled, after which he flung him reeling a dozen yards to the ground. The Norwegian was reaching for d.i.c.k when Fraser stopped him.
"That"s enough of a clean-up right now, Sig. d.i.c.k b.u.t.ted in like you to help me," he explained.
"The durned coyotes!" roared the big Norseman furiously, leaping at Leroy and tossing him over his head as an enraged bull does. He turned upon the other three, shaking his tangled mane, but they were already in flight.
"I"ll show them. I"ll show them," he kept saying as he came back to the man he had rescued.
"You"ve showed them plenty, Sig. Cut out the rough house before you maim some of these gents who didn"t invite you to their party."
The ranger felt the earth sway beneath him as he spoke. His wound had been torn loose in the fight, and was bleeding. Limply he leaned against the tree for support.
It was at this moment he caught sight of Arlie and Briscoe as they ran up. Involuntarily he straightened almost jauntily. The girl looked at him with that deep, eager look of fear he had seen before, and met that unconquerable smile of his.
The rope was still round his neck and the coat was stripped from his back. He was white to the lips, and she could see he could scarce stand, even with the support of the pine trunk. His face was bruised and battered. His hat was gone; and hidden somewhere in his crisp short hair was a cut from which blood dripped to the forehead. The bound arm had been torn from its bandages in the unequal battle he had fought. But for all his desperate plight he still carried the invincible look that nothing less than death can rob some men of.
The fretted moonlight, shifting with the gentle motion of the foliage above, fell full upon him now and showed a wet, red stain against the white shirt. Simultaneously outraged nature collapsed, and he began to sink to the ground.
Arlie gave a little cry and ran forward. Before he reached the ground he had fainted; yet scarcely before she was on her knees beside him with his head in her arms.
"Bring water, d.i.c.k, and tell Doc Lee to come at once. He"ll be in the back room smoking. Hurry!" She looked fiercely round upon the men a.s.sembled. "I think they have killed him. Who did this? Was it you, Yorky? Was it you that murdered him?"
"I bane t"ink it take von hoondred of them to do it," said Siegfried.
"Dat fallar, Johnson, he bane at the bottom of it."
"Then why didn"t you kill him? Aren"t you Steve"s friend? Didn"t he save your life?" she panted, pa.s.sion burning in her beautiful eyes.
Siegfried nodded. "I bane Steve"s friend, yah! And Ay bane kill Johnson eef Steve dies."
Briscoe, furious at this turn of the tide which had swept Arlie"s sympathies back to his enemy, followed Struve as he sneaked deeper into the shadow of the trees. The convict was nursing a sprained wrist when Jed reached him.
"What do you think you"ve been trying to do, you sap-headed idiot?" Jed demanded. "Haven"t you sense enough to choose a better time than one when the whole settlement is gathered to help him? And can"t you ever make a clean job of it, you chuckle-minded son of a greaser?"
Struve turned, snarling, on him. "That"ll be enough from you, Briscoe.
I"ve stood about all I"m going to stand just now."
"You"ll stand for whatever I say," retorted Jed. "You"ve cooked your goose in this valley by to-night"s fool play. I"m the only man that can pull you through. Bite on that fact, Mr. Struve, before you unload your bile on me."
The convict"s heart sank. He felt it to be the truth. The last thing he had heard was Siegfried"s threat to kill him.
Whether Fraser lived or died he was in a precarious position and he knew it.
"I know you"re my friend, Jed," he whined. "I"ll do what you say. Stand by me and I"ll sure work with you."
"Then if you take my advice you"ll sneak down to the corral, get your horse, and light out for the run. Lie there till I see you."