"I just happen to be in a hurry," said Packard. "And going your way.
Somebody shot my horse back there for me."
Her eyes grew actually round; Iki shivered audibly. But in the girl"s case the emotion aroused by Packard"s words was short-lived. Why should a man shoot the horse under Steve Packard? Disbelief reshaped her eyes; she cried out at him as her foot went down on the accelerator:
"Think I"m the kind to believe all the yarns you can tell? If you want to know what I think, Steve Packard--you"re a liar!"
He laughed, well content with the moment and the situation, well content with his unwilling companion just as she was.
"And do you know that what I told you this afternoon was true?" he countered cheerfully. "You"re just like my blazing old Grandy!
Instead of being my grandfather he ought to be yours. By golly, Miss Terry Pert," teasing the blood higher into her cheeks with his laughter, "that might be arranged, too! Mightn"t it? You and I----"
"Oh!" cried Terry, and he had no doubts about her meaning what she said. "Oh, I hate you! Yes, worse than I hate old h.e.l.l-Fire: he keeps out of my trail, anyway. And you, you big bully, you woman-fighter, you--you----"
Just in time he guessed her purpose and threw out his hand across her steering-wheel and grasped her right hand. The car swerved dangerously a moment, then came back to its steady course as Steve"s other hand closed over Terry"s left. Slowly, putting his greater strength gently against hers, he took her automatic from her.
"Thirty-eight calibre?" he said coolly. "There"s nothing little about your way of doing things, is there? And you meant to drill a hole through me, I"m bound!"
Terry"s face gleamed white in the pale light; and he knew from the look in her eyes as they seemed fairly to clash with his, that it was the white of sheer rage.
"I"d just as lief blow your head off as shoot a rattlesnake," she announced crisply.
"I believe you," he grunted. "Just the same, if you"d only----"
"Oh, shut up!" she cried, shaking his hand free from hers on the wheel and driving on recklessly.
"I would like to mention," came an uncertain voice from a very pale j.a.panese, "that I must walk on my feet. I am most regretful----"
"Oh, shut up!" cried Terry. "Shut up!"
And for the rest of the ride both Iki and Steve Packard were silent.
CHAPTER XI
THE TEMPTING OF YELLOW BARBEE
"Here"s where I get down," said Steve after a very long silence during which he watched Terry"s pretty, puckered face while Terry, gripping her wheel, recklessly a.s.sumed the responsibilities of their three lives, hurling the car on through the moonlit night.
Iki, breathing every now and then a long quivering sigh and forgetting to breathe betweenwhiles, held on tightly with both hands.
"Here"s where I get down," said Steve again. Here the road followed the line of his north fence; less than a mile to the southward he could see a light like a fallen star, gleaming cheerfully through the trees.
He sensed rather than saw a quick stiffening of Terry"s already tense little body; fancied that the car was steadily taking on greater speed, read Terry"s purpose in a flash. If he forced her to carry him, why then she would take him as far out of his way as possible.
"Terry Temple!" he cried sharply, leaning in a little toward her.
"What"s the matter with you anyway? What if we"re not friends exactly?
I never did you any harm, did I? Why, good Lord, girl, when a man tells you his horse has been shot under him; when he is trying to overhaul the crook at the bottom of the whole mess whom you hate as well as I do-- Oh, I mean Blenham and you know it----"
"Liar!" cried Terry, flashing her eyes at him, and back to the road alternately white with the moon and black with shadows. "Liar on two counts! Didn"t I see your horse this afternoon? Tied in front of Wimble"s whiskey joint? Oh, it"s where I"d expect him! Well--and you needn"t think I looked to see or cared, either--when I came by just now, leaving town, I saw your horse standing there yet. So you needn"t----"
"That couldn"t be," muttered Steve. "And yet-- Anyhow, I"ve got to get off here. Will you stop, please?"
"No, I won"t stop please! n.o.body asked you to ride that I know of.
Get off the same way you got on!"
Packard realized two things very clearly then:
If he jumped with the car going at its present speed he would probably break his neck; if he gave any considerable time to arguing the matter with her he would be carried as far in five minutes as he could walk in an hour.
"I mean business to-night," he told her bluntly. "If you don"t slow down before I count ten I am going to lean out a little--like this--and shoot a hole in your tire. Then, if you keep on, I"ll shoot a hole in the other tire. Understand?"
Terry laughed mockingly.
"You wouldn"t dare!" she told him serenely. "That would be some kind of a crime; they could put you in jail for it. You"d be scared to."
"One, two, three, four, five," he counted briskly.
"I would seek to interrupt to advise, oh, Miss Lady!" chattered Iki.
"His voice has the sound of bloodthirstiness."
"Six, seven, eight, nine--ten," counted Packard.
Terry sniffed. He leaned out, she saw the glint of the moon upon his revolver.
She threw out her clutch and jammed down both brakes, hard. Steve swung out and down to the ground. The car, as though it had gained fresh power from the fact of being freed of his weight, shot forward, stopped again.
"Not exactly friends?" cried Terry, and he marked a new trembling in her voice. "I should say not. You--you darned snake, you!"
And she was gone, spinning along into the night, hidden from him by the first hill around whose base the road curved. He stared after her a moment, shrugged, turned his back, and strode rapidly toward the Ranch Number Ten corrals.
He had planned correctly; he had correctly measured Blenham"s impulses and desires. Further, he had come in time, just in time.
The light was in the ranch-house. Though but little after eleven o"clock it was dark within the bunk-house, the men long ago asleep.
But Barbee was awake, his wits about him; his voice and Blenham"s, both quiet, met Steve"s ears as he slipped about the corner of the house, coming under the window where the light was.
Blenham was talking now. He sat loosely in a chair, his hands one upon the other, idle in his lap. Barbee, his eyes narrowed and watchful, stood at the far side of the room. On the floor, near his feet, was a revolver; from its position Steve guessed that Barbee had just kicked it safely out of Blenham"s reach. Barbee"s own gun was in the boy"s hand.
"You"re a pretty foxy kid, Barbee," Blenham was saying tonelessly.
"You got the drop on me; you"re the firs" man as ever did that little trick. Yes; you"re a pretty foxy kid!"
Barbee shrugged and spat and answered Blenham with a curse and a grunted:
"n.o.body"s askin" your opinion, Blenham."
But Steve saw and Blenham must have seen the gleam of triumph in Barbee"s eye.