"Where"s yore hawss?"
"It--it got away from me."
"When?"
"Last night." It seemed to him that he could keep just one jump ahead of this dominant man"s menacing questions.
"Howcome that?"
"I shot a prairie-hen, and when I got down to get it--I don"t know--my horse got frightened and jerked away. I tried to catch it. The brute wouldn"t let me. Then night came."
"What were you doin" so far from town?" cut in one of the two who were covering him. He was a short, heavy-set man.
"That"s right, Dave. Looks funny to me." Gurley seemed fairly to ooze malice. "Just happened to drift here to this herd, I reckon. It sure was yore unlucky day."
Arthur looked from one to another despairingly. He found no hope anywhere, not even in the expressionless face of Homer Dinsmore, who as yet had not spoken a word. There came over the boy what he afterward described as a "gone" feeling. It was the sensation, intensified many times, felt when an elevator drops from under one in swift descent.
"I--don"t know what you mean," he faltered.
"You will," said Gurley brutally.
"Been across the valley to the herd yet?" asked Overstreet, elaborately careless.
Here was one question Ridley could answer with the truth. He spoke swiftly, eagerly. "No."
His questioner exchanged looks with Homer Dinsmore and laughed. The Ranger had betrayed himself. He had been so quick to deny that he had been near the herd that his anxiety gave him away. They knew he suspected them of having rustled the stock grazing on the slope. Very likely he had already verified his doubts as to burnt brands.
Homer Dinsmore spoke for the first time. His voice was harsh. "Why don"t you tell the truth? You came to get evidence against us."
"Evidence?" repeated Arthur dully.
"To prove we"re rustlin" stock. You know d.a.m.n well."
"Why, I--I--"
"And you didn"t come alone. Ellison never sent a tenderfoot like you out except with others. Where are the rest of yore party? Come through."
"I"m alone." Arthur stuck to that doggedly.
"If he"s got a bunch of Rangers back of him we better burn the wind outa here," suggested Gurley, looking around uneasily.
Overstreet looked at him with scorn and chewed tobacco imperturbably.
"Keep yore shirt on, Steve. Time enough to holler when you"re hurt."
"I haven"t got a bunch of Rangers with me," cried Ridley desperately, beads of sweat on his brow. It had come to him that if he persuaded these men he had no companions with him he would be sealing his doom.
They could murder him with impunity. But he could not betray Jack. He must set his teeth to meet the worst before he did that. "I tell you I"m alone. I don"t know what you mean about the cattle. I haven"t been across the valley. I came here, and I hadn"t slept all night. So I was all worn out. And somehow I fell asleep."
"All alone, eh?" Pete Dinsmore murmured it suavely. His crafty mind was weighing the difference this made in the problem before the outlaws--the question as to what to do with this man. They could not let him go back with his evidence. It would not be safe to kill him if he had merely strayed from a band of Rangers. But a.s.suming he told the truth, that he had no companions, then there was a very easy and simple way out for the rustlers. The Ranger could not tell what he knew--however much or little that might be--_if he never returned to town_.
"I keep telling you that I"m alone, that I got lost," Arthur insisted.
"What would I be doing here without a horse if I had friends?"
"Tha"s right," agreed Gurley. "I reckon he got lost like he said."
He, too, by the same process of reasoning as Pete Dinsmore, had come to a similar conclusion. He reflected craftily that Ridley was probably telling the truth. Why should he persist in the claim that he was alone if he had friends in the neighborhood, since to persuade his captors of this was to put himself wholly in their power?
"You"re easily fooled, Steve," sneered Homer. "I"ve camped with this bird, an" I tell you he"s got a pa.s.sel of Rangers with him somewheres.
We"re standin" here jawin" waitin" for them to round us up, I reckon."
Overstreet looked at Homer. His eyebrows lifted in a slight surprise. He and the younger Dinsmore had been side partners for years. Homer was a cool customer. It wasn"t like him to scare. There was something in this he did not understand. Anyhow, he would back his pal"s play till he found out.
"I expect you"re right. We can easy enough prove it. Let"s light out for the cap-rock an" hole up for a coupla days. Then one of us will slip out an" see if the herd"s still here an" no Rangers in sight. We"ll keep this gent a prisoner till we know where we"re at? How"s that?"
"You talk like we was the United States Army, Dave," growled Pete Dinsmore. "We got no way to take care o" prisoners. I"m for settlin"
this thing right here."
The outlaws drew closer together and farther from Ridley. He was unarmed and wholly in their power. If he tried to run he could not get twenty yards. The voices of the men fell.
Arthur began to tremble. His face grew gray, his lips bloodless. On the issue of that conference his life hung. The easiest thing to do would be to make an end of him now. Would they choose that way out of the difficulty? He could see that Gurley had, for the moment at least, joined forces with Homer and Dave Overstreet against Pete, but he could hear none of the arguments.
"You"re wrong, Pete. We"re playin" safe. That"s all. My notion is this guy"s tellin" the truth. There"s only one thing to do. I don"t reckon any of us want him to go back to town. But if we do anything with him here, the Rangers are liable to find his body. Oncet up in the cap-rock we can dry-gulch him."
The older Dinsmore gave way with an oath. "All right. Have yore own way, boys. Majority rules. We"ll postpone this discussion till later."
Gurley brought the horses. Arthur was mounted behind him, his feet tied beneath the belly of the horse. The rustlers rode in pairs, Homer Dinsmore and Overstreet in the rear.
"What makes you think this fellow has friends near, Homer?" asked his companion.
"He doesn"t know enough to ride alone. But I don"t care whether he"s alone or not. I"m not goin" to have the boy killed. He stood by me on the island to a finish. Of course that wouldn"t go with Steve an" Pete, so I put it on the other ground."
"Want to turn him loose, do you?"
"I"d swear him first to padlock his mouth. He"d do it, too, if he said so."
"Some risk that, old-timer."
"I got to do it, Dave. Can"t throw him down, can I?"
"Don"t see as you can. Well, make yore play when you get ready. I"ll shove my chips in beside yours. I never yet killed a man except in a fight an" I"ve got no fancy for beginnin" now."
"Much obliged, Dave."
"How far do you "low to go? If Pete gets ugly like he sometimes does, he"ll be onreasonable."
"I"ll manage him. If he does get set there"ll be a pair of us. Mebbe I"m just about as stubborn as he is."
"I believe you. Well, I"ll be with you at every jump of the road,"
Overstreet promised.