"He"s a cousin of John Rebstock"s from Williams Cache," continued Sa.s.soon. The yarn would have sounded decently well in the circ.u.mstances for which it was intended, but in the searching gaze of the eyes now confronting and clearly recognizing him, it sounded so grotesque that de Spain would fully as lief have been sitting between his horse"s legs as astride his back.
"That"s not true, Sa.s.soon," said his relentless questioner. Her tone and the expression of her face boded no friendliness for either of the two she had intercepted.
De Spain had recovered his wits. "You"re right," he interposed without an instant"s hesitation. "It isn"t true. But that"s not his fault; he is under arrest, and is telling you what I told him to tell you. I came in here this morning to take Sa.s.soon to Sleepy Cat. He is a prisoner, wanted for cutting up one of our stage-guards."
Nan, coldly sceptical, eyed de Spain. "And do you try to tell me"--she pointed to Sa.s.soon"s unbound hands--"that he is riding out of here, a free man, to go to jail?"
"I do tell you exactly that. He is my prisoner----"
"I don"t believe either of you," declared Nan scornfully. "You are planning something underhand together."
De Spain laughed coolly. "We"ve planned that much together, but not, I a.s.sure you, with his consent."
"I don"t believe your stories at all," she declared firmly.
De Spain flushed. The irritation and the serious danger bore in on him. "If you don"t believe me it"s not my fault," he retorted. "I"ve told you the truth. Ride on, Sa.s.soon."
He spoke angrily, but this in no wise daunted Nan. She wheeled her horse directly in front of them. "Don"t you stir, Sa.s.soon," she commanded, "until I call Uncle Duke."
De Spain spurred straight at her; their horses collided, and his knee touched hers in the saddle. "I"m going to take this man out of here,"
he announced in a tone she never had heard before from a man. "I"ve no time to talk. Go call your uncle if you like. We must pa.s.s."
"You shan"t pa.s.s a step!"
With the quick words of defiance the two glared at each other. De Spain was taken aback. He had expected no more than a war of words--a few screams at the most. Nan"s face turned white, but there was no symptom even of a whimper. He noticed her quick breathing, and felt, instinctively, the restrained gesture of her right hand as it started back to her side. The move steadied him. "One question," he said bluntly, "are you armed?"
She hated even to answer, and met his searching gaze resentfully, but something in his tone and manner wrung a reply. "I can defend myself,"
she exclaimed angrily.
De Spain raised his right hand from his thigh to the pommel of his saddle. The slight gesture was eloquent of his surrender of the issue of force. "I can"t go into a shooting-match with you about this cur.
If you call your uncle there will be bloodshed--unless you drop me off my horse right here and now before he appears. All I ask you is this: Is this kind of a cutthroat worth that? If you shoot me, my whole posse from Sleepy Cat is right below us in the aspens. Some of your own people will be killed in a general fight. If you want to shoot me, shoot--you can have the match all to yourself. If you don"t, let us go by. And if I"ve told you one word that isn"t true, call me back to this spot any time you like, and I"ll come at your call, and answer for it."
His words and his manner confounded her for a moment. She could not at once make an answer, for she could not decide what to say. Then, of a sudden, she was robbed of her chance to answer. From down the trail came a yell like a shot. The clatter of hoofs rang out, and men on horses dashed from the entrance of the Gap toward them. De Spain could not make them out distinctly, but he knew Lefever"s yell, and pointed.
"There they are," he exclaimed hurriedly. "There is the whole posse.
They are coming!" A shot, followed closely by a second, rang out from below. "Go," he cried to Nan. "There"ll be shooting here that I can"t stop!" He slapped Sa.s.soon"s pony viciously with his hand, yelled loud in answer to Lefever, and before the startled girl could collect herself, de Spain, crouching in his saddle, as a fusillade cracked from Lefever"s and Scott"s revolvers, urged Sa.s.soon"s horse around Nan"s, kicked it violently, spurred past her himself, and was away.
White with consternation and anger, she steadied herself and looked after the fleeing pair. Then whirling in her saddle, she ran her pony back to the ranch-house to give the alarm.
Yelling like half a dozen men, Lefever and Scott, as de Spain and his prisoner dashed toward them, separated, let the pair pa.s.s, and spurred in behind to cover the flight and confront any pursuers. None at the moment threatened, but no words were exchanged until the whole party, riding fast, were well past El Capitan and out of the Gap. For some unexpressed reason--so strong is the influence of tradition and reputation--no one of the three coveted a close encounter with the Morgans within its walls.
"It"s the long heels for it now, boys," cried de Spain. His companions closed up again.
"Save your horses," cautioned Scott, between strides. "It"s a good ways home."
"Make for Calabasas," shouted Lefever.
"No," yelled Scott. "They would stand us a siege at Calabasas. While the trail is open make for the railroad."
A great globe of dazzling gold burst into the east above the distant hills. But the glory of the sunrise called forth no admiration from the three men hurrying a fourth urgently along the Sleepy Cat trail.
Between breaths de Spain explained his awkward meeting with Nan, and of the strait he was in when Lefever"s strong lungs enabled him to get away unscratched. But for a gunman a narrow squeak is as good as a wide one, and no one found fault with the situation. They had the advantage--the only question was whether they could hold it. And while they continued to cast anxious glances behind, Scott"s Indian eyes first perceived signs on the horizon that marked their pursuit.
"No matter," declared Lefever. "This is a little fast for a fat man, anyway." He was not averse, either, to the prospect of a long-range exchange with the fighting mountaineers. All drew rein a little.
"Suppose I cover the rear till we see what this is," suggested Lefever, limbering up as the other two looked back. "Push ahead with Sa.s.soon. These fellows won"t follow far."
"Don"t be sure about that," muttered Scott. "Duke and Gale have got the best horses in the mountains, and they"d rather fight than eat.
There they come now."
Dashing across a plain they themselves had just crossed, they could see three hors.e.m.e.n in hot chase. The pursued men rode carefully, and, scanning the ground everywhere ahead and behind, de Spain, Scott, and Lefever awaited the moment when their pursuers should show their hand.
Scott was on the west of the line, and nearest the enemy.
"Who are they, Bob?" yelled Lefever.
Scott scrutinized the pursuers carefully. "One," he called back, "that big fellow on the right, is Deaf Sandusky, sure. Harvey Logan, likely, the middle man. The other I can"t make out. Look!" he exclaimed, pointing to the foot-hills on their distant left. Two men, riding out almost abreast of them, were running their horses for a small canyon through which the trail led two miles ahead. "Some riding," cried Scott, watching the newcomers. "That farther man must be Gale Morgan.
They are trying for the greasewood canyon, to cut us off."
"We can"t stand for that," decided de Spain, surveying the ground around them. "There"s not so much as a sage-brush here for cover."
Lefever pointed to his right; at some distance a dark, weather-beaten cone rose above the yellow desert. "Let"s make a stand in the lava beds," he cried.
De Spain hesitated. "It takes us the wrong way." He pointed ahead.
"Give them a run for that canyon, boys."
Urging their horses, the Sleepy Cat men rode at utmost speed to beat the flanking party to the trail gateway. For a few minutes it looked an even break between pursuers and pursued. The two men in the foot-hills now had a long angle to overcome, but they were doing a better pace than those of the Gap party behind, and half-way to the canyon it looked like a neck-and-neck heat for the narrow entrance.
Lefever complained of the effort of keeping up, and at length reined in his horse. "Drop me here on the alkali, boys," he cried to the others. "I"ll hold this end while you get through the canyon."
"No," declared de Spain, checking his pace. "If one stays, all stay.
This is as good a time as any to find out what these fellows mean."
"But not a very good place," commented Scott, as they slowed, looking for a depression.
"It"s as good for us as it is for them," returned de Spain abruptly.
"We"ll try it right here."
He swung out of his saddle, Lefever and Scott after an instant"s reconnoissance following. Sa.s.soon they dismounted. Scott lashed his wrists together, while de Spain and Lefever unslung their carbines, got their horses down, and, facing the west and south, spread themselves on the ground.
The men behind lost nothing of the defensive movement of the pursued party, and slowed up in turn. For the moment the flankers were out of sight, but they must soon appear on the crest of a rise between them and the canyon. Lefever was first down and first ready with his rifle to cover the men behind. These now spread out and came on, as if for a rush.
Lefever, picking Logan, the foremost, sent a warning shot in front of him. De Spain fired almost at the same moment toward the big man making a detour to the right of the leader. The two bullets puffed in the distant alkali, and the two hors.e.m.e.n, sharply admonished, swerved backward precipitately. After a momentary circling indecision, the three rode closer together for a conference, dismounted, and opened a return fire on the little party lying to.
The strategy of their halt and their firing was not hard to penetrate.
The men from the foot-hills were still riding for the canyon. No views were exchanged among Sa.s.soon"s captors, but all understood that this move must be stopped. Lefever and Scott, without words, merely left the problem to de Spain as the leader. He lay on the right of the line as they faced south, and this brought him nearest to the riders out of the foot-hills. Taking advantage of a lull in the firing, he pulled his horse around between himself and the attacking party, and in such a position that he could command with his rifle the fast-moving riders to the west.
Something of a predicament confronted him. He was loath to take a human life in the effort to get a cutthroat jailed, and hated even to cripple a beast for it, but the two men must be stopped. Nor was it easy to pick up the range offhand, but meaning that the Morgans, if they were Morgans, should understand how a rush would be met, he sent one shot after another, short, beyond, and ahead of the hors.e.m.e.n, to check them, and to feel the way for closer shooting if it should be necessary. The two dashed on undaunted. De Spain perceived that warnings were wasted. He lowered his sights, and, waiting his chance as the leader of the foot-hill pursuers rode into a favorable range, he fired for his horse"s head. The beast jumped convulsively and pitched forward, head down in a half somersault, throwing his rider violently to the ground. Scott and Lefever yelled loudly.
Out of the cloud of dust the man scrambled to his feet, looked coolly around, and brushed the alkali disgustedly from his eyes just as a second bullet from de Spain tore up the earth a few feet to one side of him. He jumped like a rabbit at this summons, and did not even make a further pretense at composure. Grabbing his hat from the ground, he ran like mad toward the hills. Meantime his mounted companion had turned about. De Spain sprang to his feet, jerked up his horse and cried: "Now for the canyon!" Pushing Sa.s.soon into the saddle and profiting by the confusion, the railroad men rode hard for their refuge, and reached it without more molestation than an occasional shot from their distant pursuers on the main trail. De Spain and his scouts now felt a.s.sured of their escape. The foot-hills contingent was left far behind, and, though their remaining pursuers rode in at times with a show of rushing, the chase was a stern one, and could be checked whenever necessary. Halting at times in this way to breathe their horses, or to hold off the rear pursuit, de Spain with his two companions and their prisoner rode into Sleepy Cat, locked Sa.s.soon up, and went to the Mountain House for breakfast.