The old man, his thin hair flying and his blood-shot eyes bulging, reined up before Laramie with his arm out, to speak. But the ride and the excitement had been too much. His features worked convulsively but he could not utter a word.
"For G.o.d"s sake, Bill," cried Lefever, catching his arm and jerking him. "What"s up?"
Bradley, his eyes glued on Laramie, got back his voice: "It"s Barb, Jim!" he shouted wildly. "Tom Stone shot him this morning!"
Kate"s sharp cry rang in Laramie"s ears. He caught her in his arm.
Belle ran out, only adding to the confusion with her scream. Lefever, joined now by Sawdy and McAlpin, who had hurried over, got Bradley off his horse, into a chair on the porch, refreshed him with water and steadied his whisky-wrecked nerves with whisky.
Stone and Van Horn came over from Van Horn"s early, Bradley told his hearers brokenly. They asked for Barb and he was down at the creek.
Barb had sent Bradley about a mile below the house to repair a small break in the irrigation ditch and had ridden down to show him what he wanted done. After giving instructions, he had started back for the house. Before he got far, Stone and Van Horn met him. Bradley heard voices up the creek but paid no special attention to them, and busied himself with his job. Some minutes later he heard the voices again, loud and angry. As they were close by, Bradley, shovel in hand, walked along the ditch bank to where he could see what was up.
"They"d all got off their horses," continued Bradley, "and was standin"
not fur apart. I was close to the willows along the ditch. "Fore you could say Jack Robinson, Stone and Van Horn snapped out their guns and begun to shoot. The old man was game, boys, but he didn"t have no show. He managed to get his gun out, both men a-shootin" at him."
"Both!" echoed Laramie, bitterly. Sawdy swore a withering oath.
"Is my father dead?" cried Kate in agony.
"Not yet," replied Bradley disconcertingly.
"We must get Carpy up there quick. Hunt him up, will you, John?" said Laramie to Lefever.
"Hold on," interposed Bradley. "Carpy"s there afore this. I met him drivin" north and he put right out for the ranch."
"Couldn"t you do something while they were trying to murder Father?"
sobbed Kate, wringing her hands as she appealed to Bradley.
"Why, what could _I_ do?" stared Bradley. "_I_ didn"t have no gun.
Kelly and me got the wagon down and picked Barb up "n" got him to the house. He told me to put out for town and get you and Jim Laramie; he"s out of his head, you see."
"Did they see you, Bradley?" interrupted Laramie.
"Never seen me, Jim."
"Did Barb hit either of them?" asked Laramie.
""Tain"t likely. He only got in one shot. When they seen him wrigglin" on the ground, all doubled up--you know, Jim--they jumped their horses and put across the creek."
For a moment Kate"s suppressed sobs broke the silence. Laramie held her in his arm. He promised her he would get her right out to her father as soon as he could take measures for pursuit. When the other men questioned Bradley, Laramie listened. He urged Kate to go inside with Belle, but she begged to stay: "I won"t cry, Jim," she pleaded in a whisper. "I must stay. Let me stay."
He placed her in a chair. Belle, schooled in silence during such moments, stood beside her. Laramie placing himself near Kate, half sat on the edge of the porch floor, one foot resting on the ground and the other curled under. Lefever facing him, sat on the end of the porch steps while Sawdy stood with the horses. McAlpin had hurried over to the barn to get Kitchen and telephone Tenison to come down.
"There"s two ways they can get out," said Laramie, casting up the situation with his companions. "One is across the Falling Wall and over the Reservation. If they"ve gone that way they"ve got a start; but they"re easy to trail. The other way would be to strike east or west for the railroad. That"s the big gamble--it"s the easiest to play and the worst if they lose. They may separate."
"My G.o.dfrey, Jim, don"t let "em get away," exclaimed Belle, fearfully.
"And there"s one more angle," remarked Laramie. "They may show up right here and try to bluff it out."
Sawdy shook his head against that idea. Lefever supported him.
Laramie did not urge the view. "Van Horn plays cards different from everybody else," was all he said.
Kitchen drove up and Tenison was in the buggy with him.
What help might be had from the sheriff"s office was put in Tenison"s hands to manage. The railroad men were warned across the division.
Outgoing train crews were notified and the enginemen told what to do, if stopped. Sawdy and Lefever were directed to strike for the Falling Wall and watch the Reservation trails, while Laramie, with Kate, was to ride straight to the ranch and pick up the trail across the creek.
The news of the shooting of Barb Doubleday filled the corners of Main Street with little knots of men eager to hear all that was known and to be first to catch what might come. Women sometimes stopped to listen and men making ready to ride the northern trails supplied clattering in the streets for every moment and added to the tense scene. The chances for the escape of Van Horn and Stone were canva.s.sed among critics and listeners, and with almost as much insight as they had been cast up in the war council at Belle"s. The men that might be expected to give battle if they encountered the fugitives were watched for and every time they rode past, the maneuvering and fighting abilities of each were speculated on with surprising accuracy; records were recalled and inferences drawn as to the possibilities now ahead.
The picture of the busy street, constantly renewed and dissolved, changed fast. Lefever and Sawdy, together, were the first to clear for their long ride. Kitchen, strapping on, for the first time in years, a well cared-for Colt"s revolver, got fresh ammunition, and throwing himself on a good horse, rode for where he had sworn he would never appear again, the Doubleday ranch--to get the cowboys started at poking out the hiding places along the creek.
McAlpin, with much ado, enlisted every man with any sort of a claim to being a tracker--and this included pretty much every loafer interested in a drink or a fight. He a.s.sembled a noisy crew at the barn and despatched them singly with orders to scatter and watch the trail points outlying the town. But birds of this feather were hard to keep scattered. Urged both by prudential and social reasons, they tended continuously to flock together. They kept the barn boss busy by riding back furiously in bunches to report n.o.body seen, to ask for further orders and to get a drink before reestablishing a patrol.
Knowing the value of every moment in a long chase, and working with all possible haste, Laramie had to throw out his dragnet carefully before he could get away himself. He had told Kate to prepare at Belle"s for a hard ride and he would get her to the ranch.
With every minute lingering like an hour, both women, nervously expectant, waited, talked, and watched for Laramie"s return.
CHAPTER XLI
THE FLIGHT OF THE SWALLOWS
Divide lands north of Sleepy Cat lie high and over their broad spread, trails open fan-like, north, northeast and northwest. Each of the trails penetrates at a negotiable point the broken country running up to the mountains that battle with the northern sky.
The first highways of the country followed the easiest travel lines.
Without fences or boundaries, their travelers, to escape washouts or dust, were free to broaden them as they fancied. In this way older ruts were gradually abandoned and new ones formed. And with heavy travel these trails grew into sprawling avenues.
As settlers took up lands and fenced their claims, such pioneer roads were blocked at intervals. To meet this difficulty new trails were made around the gradually increasing obstacles and in the end roads along section lines were laid out, with grading and bridging. But the wagon and cattle trails of the early days, rut-cut, storm-washed, and polished by sun and wind and sand to a shining smoothness, still stretch across country, truncate and deserted. Under their weather-beaten silence lies the story of other days and other men and women.
Along one of the earliest and broadest of these trails running into the north country, Laramie, an hour after Bradley"s arrival, was galloping with Kate Doubleday.
But for the shadow of her father"s condition there was everything in the ride to make for Kate"s happiness. The sweep of the matchless sky, the glory of the sunshine, the wine of the morning air, the eager feet and spreading nostrils of the horses, and at her side--her lover! The trust a woman gives to a man, the security of his protection, the daily growth of her confidence in her choice and her surrender--these could temper, if they could not extinguish, her confused grief.
For Laramie the shadow meant less; sympathy drew him closer to Kate; there was even happiness in knowing that she turned in her distress to him for consolation and guidance.
Timidly, she tried to tell him, as they rode, of some of the better traits of her father, traits that might extenuate his cold, hard brutality--as if to build him up a little in the eyes of one she wished not to think of him too harshly.
"Don"t worry over what I"m going to think about him," said Laramie.
"If I worried over what a lot of people think about me, where should I be? There"s some good in most every man; but it doesn"t always get a chance to work."
Kate"s anxiety was reflected in her manner. "If only," she exclaimed, "they haven"t killed him today."
The two had crossed the first divide. Below them lay the Crazy Woman, spanned by the Double-draw bridge.
"His friends were his worst enemies," continued Laramie. "But they"ve got to get out of this country now. And the worst men are out of the Falling Wall. Still if you don"t like it there, we won"t live there,"
he added, sitting half sidewise toward Kate in his saddle to feast his eyes on her freshness and youth.
"I shall like it anywhere you are, Jim," she said, looking at him simply.