From that hour forth the principle has been grafted into the lives of the men. It is instinct now--self-acting, deep, and unconscious. No tried Trooper deliberately remembers it. It is an integral part of him, like the drawing of his breath.
"I wish I could manage to spare those babies and their mother in what"s to come!" Merryfield pondered as he lurked in the mould-scented dark.
A quarter of an hour went by. Five minutes more. Footsteps nearing the cabin from the direction of the woods. Low voices--very low.
Indistinguishable words. Then the back door opened. Two persons entered, and all that they now uttered was clear.
"It was them that the dog heard," said a man"s voice. "Get me my rifle and all my ammunition. I"ll go to Maryland. I"ll get a job on that stone quarry near Westminster. I"ll send some money as soon as I"m paid."
"But you won"t start _to-night_!" exclaimed the wife.
"Yes, to-night--this minute. Quick! I wouldn"t budge an inch for the County folks. But with the State Troopers after me, that"s another thing. If I stay around here now they"ll get me dead sure--and send me up too. My gun, I say!"
"Oh, daddy, daddy, don"t go away!" "_Don"t_ go away off and leave me, daddy!" "_Don"t go, don"t go!_" came the children"s plaintive wails, hoa.r.s.e with fatigue and fright.
Merryfield stealthily crept from the cellar"s outside door, hugging the wall of the cabin, moving toward the rear. As he reached the corner, and was about to make the turn toward the back, he drew his six-shooter and laid his carbine down in the gra.s.s. For the next step, he knew, would bring him into plain sight. If Drake offered any resistance, the ensuing action would be at short range or hand to hand.
He rounded the corner. Drake was standing just outside the door, a rifle in his left hand, his right hand hidden in the pocket of his overcoat.
In the doorway stood the wife, with the three little children crowding before her. It was the last moment. They were saying good-bye.
Merryfield covered the bandit with his revolver.
"Put up your hands! You are under arrest," he commanded.
"Who the h.e.l.l are you!" Drake flung back. As he spoke he thrust his rifle into the grasp of the woman and s.n.a.t.c.hed his right hand from its concealment. In its grip glistened the barrel of a nickel-plated revolver.
Merryfield could have easily shot him then and there--would have been amply warranted in doing so. But he had heard the children"s voices. Now he saw their innocent, terrified eyes.
"Poor--little--kiddies!" he thought again.
Drake stood six feet two inches high, and weighed some two hundred pounds, all brawn. Furthermore, he was desperate. Merryfield is merely of medium build.
"Nevertheless, I"ll take a chance," he said to himself, returning his six-shooter to its holster. And just as the outlaw threw up his own weapon to fire, the Trooper, in a running jump, plunged into him with all fours, exactly as, when a boy, he had plunged off a springboard into the old mill-dam of a hot July afternoon.
Too amazed even to pull his trigger, Drake gave backward a step into the doorway. Merryfield"s clutch toward his right hand missed the gun, fastening instead on the sleeve of his heavy coat. Swearing wildly while the woman and children screamed behind him, the bandit struggled to break the Trooper"s hold--tore and pulled until the sleeve, where Merryfield held it, worked down over the gun in his own grip. So Merryfield, twisting the sleeve, caught a lock-hold on hand and gun together.
Drake, standing on the doorsill, had now some eight inches advantage of height. The door opened inward, from right to left. With a tremendous effort Drake forced his a.s.sailant to his knees, stepped back into the room, seized the door with his left hand and with the whole weight on his shoulder slammed it to, on the Trooper"s wrist.
The pain was excruciating--but it did not break that lock-hold on the outlaw"s hand and gun. Shooting from his knees like a projectile, Merryfield flung his whole weight at the door. Big as Drake was, he could not hold it. It gave, and once more the two men hung at grips, this time within the room.
Drake"s one purpose was to turn the muzzle of his imprisoned revolver upon Merryfield. Merryfield, with his left still clinching that deadly hand caught in its sleeve, now grabbed the revolver in his own right hand, with a twist dragged it free, and flung it out of the door.
But, as he dropped his right defense, taking both hands to the gun, the outlaw"s powerful left grip closed on Merryfield"s throat with a strangle-hold.
With that great thumb closing his windpipe, with the world turning red and black, "Guess I can"t put it over, after all!" the Trooper said to himself.
Reaching for his own revolver, he shoved the muzzle against the bandit"s breast.
"d.a.m.n you, _shoot_!" cried the other, believing his end was come.
But in that same instant Merryfield once more caught a glimpse of the fear-stricken faces of the babies, huddled together beyond.
"Hallisey and Smith must be here soon," he thought. "I won"t shoot yet."
Again he dropped his revolver back into the holster, seizing the wrist of the outlaw to release that terrible clamp on his throat. As he did so, Drake with a lightning twist, reached around to the Trooper"s belt and possessed himself of the gun. As he fired Merryfield had barely time and s.p.a.ce to throw back his head. The flash blinded him--scorched his face hairless. The bullet grooved his body under the upflung arm still wrenching at the clutch that was shutting off his breath.
Perhaps, with the shot, the outlaw insensibly somewhat relaxed that choking arm. Merryfield tore loose. Half-blinded and gasping though he was, he flung himself again at his adversary and landed a blow in his face. Drake, giving backward, kicked over a row of peach jars, slipped on the slimy stream that poured over the bare floor, and dropped the gun.
Pursuing his advantage, Merryfield delivered blow after blow on the outlaw"s face and body, backing him around the room, while both men slipped and slid, fell and recovered, on the jam-coated floor. The table crashed over, carrying with it the solitary lamp, whose flame died harmlessly, smothered in tepid mush. Now only the moonlight illuminated the scene.
Drake was manoeuvring always to recover the gun. His hand touched the back of a chair. He picked the chair up, swung it high, and was about to smash it down on his adversary"s head when Merryfield seized it in the air.
At this moment the woman, who had been crouching against the wall nursing the rifle that her husband had put into her charge, rushed forward clutching the barrel of the gun, swung it at full arm"s length as she would have swung an axe, and brought the stock down on the Trooper"s right hand.
That vital hand dropped--fractured, done. But in the same second Drake gave a shriek of pain as a shot rang out and his own right arm fell powerless.
In the door stood Hallisey, smoking revolver in hand, smiling grimly in the moonlight at the neatness of his own aim. What is the use of killing a man, when you can wing him as trigly as that?
Private Smith, who had entered by the other door, was taking the rifle out of the woman"s grasp--partly because she had prodded him viciously with the muzzle. He examined the chambers.
"Do you know this thing is loaded?" he asked her in a mild, detached voice.
She returned his gaze with frank despair in her black eyes.
"Drake, do you surrender?" asked Hallisey.
"Oh, I"ll give up. You"ve got me!" groaned the outlaw. Then he turned on his wife with bitter anger. "Didn"t I tell ye?" he snarled. "Didn"t I tell ye they"d get me if you kept me hangin" around here? These ain"t no d.a.m.n deputies. _These is the State Police!_"
"An" yet, if I"d known that gun was loaded," said she, "there"d been some less of "em to-night!"
They dressed Israel"s arm in first-aid fashion. Then they started with their prisoner down the mountain-trail, at last resuming connection with their farmer friend. Not without misgivings, the latter consented to hitch up his "double team" and hurry the party to the nearest town where a doctor could be found.
As the doctor dressed the bandit"s arm, Private Merryfield, whose broken right hand yet awaited care, observed to the groaning patient:--
"Do you know, you can be thankful to your little children that you have your life left."
"To h.e.l.l with you and the children and my life. I"d a hundred times rather you"d killed me than take what"s comin" now."
Then the three Troopers philosophically hunted up a night restaurant and gave their captive a bite of lunch.
"Now," said Hallisey, as he paid the score, "where"s the lock-up?"
The three officers, with Drake in tow, proceeded silently through the sleeping streets. Not a ripple did their pa.s.sing occasion. Not even a dog aroused to take note of them.
Duly they stood at the door of the custodian of the lock-up, ringing the bell--again and again ringing it. Eventually some one upstairs raised a window, looked out for an appreciable moment, quickly lowered the window and locked it. Nothing further occurred. Waiting for a reasonable interval the officers rang once more. No answer. Silence complete.
Then they pounded on the door till the entire block heard.
Here, there, up street and down, bedroom windows gently opened, then closed with finality more gentle yet. Silence. Not a voice. Not a foot on a stair.