"It didn"t come off," muttered the other sulkily.
"Just what I expected. Why not?"
Struve broke into a string of furious oaths. "Because I missed him--missed him twice, when he was standing there naked before me. He was coming down to the creek to take a bath, and I waited till he was close. I had a sure bead on him, and he dived just as I fired. I got another chance, when he was running across, farther down, and, by thunder, I missed again."
Jed laughed, and the sound of it was sinister.
"Couldn"t hit the side of a house, could you? You"re nothing but a cheap skate, a tin-horn gambler, run down at the heels. All right. I"m through with you. Lieutenant Fraser, from Texas, can come along and collect whenever he likes. I"ll not protect a false alarm like you any longer."
Struve looked at him, as a cornered wolf might have done. "What will you do?"
"I"ll give you up to him. I"ll tell him to come in and get you. I"ll show him the way in, you white-livered cur!" bullied the cattleman, giving way to one of his rages.
"You"d better not," snarled the convict. "Not if you want to live."
As they stood facing each other in a panting fury the door opened, to let in Siegfried and the ranger.
Jed"s rage against Struve died on the spot. He saw his enemy, the ranger, before him, and leaped to the conclusion that he had come to this hidden retreat to run him down for the Squaw Creek murders.
Instantly, his hand swept to the hilt of his revolver.
That motion sealed his doom. For Struve knew that Siegfried had brought the ranger to capture him, and suspected in the same flash that Briscoe was in on the betrayal. Had not the man as good as told him so, not thirty seconds before? He supposed that Jed was drawing to kill or cover him, and, like a flash of lightning, unscabbarded and fired.
"You infernal Judas, I"ll get you anyhow," he cried.
Jed dropped his weapon, and reeled back against the wall, where he hung for a moment, while the convict pumped a second and a third bullet into his body. Briscoe was dead before Fraser could leap forward and throw his arms round the man who had killed him.
Between them, they flung Struve to the ground, and disarmed him. The convict"s head had struck as he went down, and it was not for some little time that he recovered fully from his daze. When he did his hands were tied behind him.
"I didn"t go for to kill him," he whimpered, now thoroughly frightened at what he had done. "You both saw it, gentlemen. You did, lieutenant.
So did you, Sig. It was self-defense. He drew on me. I didn"t go to do it."
Fraser was examining the dead man"s wounds. He looked up, and said to his friend: "Nothing to do for him, Sig. He"s gone."
"I tell you, I didn"t mean to do it," pleaded Struve. "Why, lieutenant, that man has been trying to get me to ambush you for weeks. I"ll swear it." The convict was in a panic of terror, ready to curry favor with the man whom he held his deadliest enemy. "Yes, lieutenant, ever since you came here. He"s been egging me on to kill you."
"And you tried it three times?"
"No, sir." He pointed vindictively at the dead man, lying face up on the floor. "It was him that ambushed you this morning. I hadn"t a thing to do with it."
"Don"t lie, you coward."
They carried the body to the next room and put it on a bed. Tommie was dispatched on a fast horse for help.
Late in the afternoon he brought back with him Doctor Lee, and half an hour after sunset Yorky and Slim galloped up. They were for settling the matter out of hand by stringing the convict Struve up to the nearest pine, but they found the ranger so very much on the spot that they reconsidered.
"He"s my prisoner, gentlemen. I came in here and took him--that is, with the help of my friend Siegfried. I reckon if you mill it over a spell, you"ll find you don"t want him half as bad as we do," he said mildly.
"What"s the matter with all of us going in on this thing, lieutenant?"
proposed Yorky.
"I never did see such a fellow for necktie parties as you are, Yorky.
Not three weeks ago, you was invitin" me to be chief mourner at one of your little affairs, and your friend Johnson was to be master of ceremonies. Now you"ve got the parts reversed. No, I reckon we"ll have to disappoint you this trip."
"What are you going to do with him?" asked Yorky, with plain dissatisfaction.
"I"m going to take him down to Gimlet b.u.t.te. Arizona and Wyoming and Texas will have to sc.r.a.p it out for him there."
"When, you get him there," Yorky said significantly.
"Yes, when I get him there," answered the Texan blandly, carefully oblivious of the other"s implication.
The moon was beginning to show itself over a hill before the Texan and Siegfried took the road with their captive. Fraser had carelessly let drop a remark to the effect that they would spend the night at the Dillon ranch.
His watch showed eleven o"clock before they reached the ranch, but he pushed on without turning in and did not stop until they came to the Howard place.
They roused Alec from sleep, and he cooked them a post-midnight supper, after which he saddled his cow pony, buckled on his belt, and took down his old rifle from the rack.
"I"ll jog along with you lads and see the fun," he said.
Their prisoner had not eaten. The best he could do was to gulp down some coffee, for he was in a nervous chill of apprehension. Every gust of wind seemed to carry to him the patter of pursuit. The hooting of an owl sent a tremor through him.
"Don"t you reckon we had better hurry?" he had asked with dry lips more than once, while the others were eating.
He asked it again as they were setting off.
Howard looked him over with rising disgust, without answering.
Presently, he remarked, apropos of nothing: "Are all your Texas wolves coyotes, Steve?"
He would have liked to know at least that it was a man whose life he was protecting, even though the fellow was also a villain. But this crumb of satisfaction was denied him.
CHAPTER XVII -- ON THE ROAD TO GIMLET b.u.t.tE
"We"ll go out by the river way," said Howard tentatively. "Eh, what think, Sig? It"s longer, but Yorky will be expecting us to take the short cut over the pa.s.s."
The Norwegian agreed. "It bane von chance, anyhow."
By unfrequented trails they traversed the valley till they reached the canon down which poured Squaw Creek on its way to the outside world.
A road ran alongside this for a mile or two, but disappeared into the stream when the gulch narrowed. The first faint streaks of gray dawn were lightening the sky enough for Fraser to see this. He was riding in advance, and commented upon it to Siegfried, who rode with him.
The Norwegian laughed. "Ay bane t"ink we do some wadin"."
They swung off to the right, and a little later splashed through the water for a few minutes and came out into a spreading valley beyond the sheer walls of the retreat they had left. Taking the road again, they traveled faster than they had been able to do before.
"Who left the valley yesterday for Gimlet b.u.t.te, Sig?" Howard asked, after it was light enough to see. "I notice tracks of two horses."
"Ay bane vondering. Ay t"ink mebbe West over----"