"Me, no. What dey do, dem two?"
"They"re crossin" the draw. Now they"re climbin" up. They think we"re still where we was. Hope they come right along."
The two riders galloped toward the boulders. Loudon and Laguerre, flattening their bodies, squeezed close to the rock. When the galloping pair were three quarters of a mile distant they halted.
"They don"t just like the looks o" these rocks," observed Loudon.
"Well, they give us credit o" havin" sense, anyway."
The two hors.e.m.e.n began to circle. Loudon settled himself and squinted along his sights. His finger dragged on the trigger. It was a long shot, and he missed. The two men immediately separated. One rode back over the way they had come. The other galloped out a mile and a half, then turned and rode parallel to the draw. Opposite the rear of the breastwork he halted.
"How they do think of everythin"," remarked Loudon. "But if they guess we can"t get away to-night they can guess again. I dunno what we"ll do with Marvin. Yo"re puttin" us to a heap o" trouble, you are, Mister Range-Boss. Say, while I think of it, have yuh branded anymore Crossed Dumbbell cows?"
Marvin was silent. The mocking voice continued:
"That was sh.o.r.e well thought of, Marvin, but yuh was whirlin" too wide a loop. Instead o" tryin" to make me out a rustler yuh"d ought to "a"
shot me in the back like yuh did the Sheriff o" Sunset."
"I didn"t kill him," grunted the stung Marvin.
"I know yuh didn"t. When I said you I meant yore outfit. Shorty Simms pulled the trigger."
"Nothin" to do with me."
"Maybe not. We"ll see."
"Yuh can"t prove nothin"."
"Keep on a-thinkin" so if it helps yuh any. Yuh"d ought to know, Marvin, that in any gang o" thieves there"s always one squealer, sometimes two. In this case, one"s enough, but we don"t object to another."
"Oh, ----!" grunted Marvin. "Yuh give me a pain."
"I expect. Yuh see, Marvin, a while back yuh accused Rudd o" sellin"
yuh out. Them words have a right innocent sound, ain"t they now?
Sh.o.r.e they have. Why, yuh blind fool, do yuh s"pose we"d be a-freezin"
to yuh this way if we didn"t have yuh dead to rights?"
Marvin lay very still. He almost appeared not to breathe.
"Yuh ain"t got out o" this hole yet," he muttered.
"We will, don"t yuh worry none about that. An" we"ll take yuh with us--wherever we go. Think it all over, Marvin. I may have something"
to say to yuh later."
_Crack_! A rifle spoke on the opposite ridge, and a bullet glanced off Loudon"s boulder with a discordant whistle. _Crack_! _Crack_!
_Crack_! Long 45-90 bullets struck the breast-work with sharp splintering sounds, or ripped overhead, humming shrilly.
"Let"s work the old game on "em," suggested Loudon. "There"s room for two my side."
Laguerre crawled over and lay down beside Loudon. The latter had aligned several large rocks beside his boulder. Between these rocks the two thrust the barrels of their rifles. One would fire. On the heels of the shot an opposing rifle would spit back. Then the other would fire into the gray of the smoke-cloud.
It is an old trick, well known to the Indian fighters. Loudon and Laguerre employed it for half an hour. Then the enemy bethought themselves of it, and Laguerre returned to the other end of the breastwork with a hole in his hat and his vest neatly ripped down the back.
The five deputies kept up a dropping fire. But the two behind the breastwork replied infrequently. Ammunition must be conserved. They antic.i.p.ated brisk work after nightfall. They waited, vigorously chewing pebbles, and becoming thirstier by the minute. The boulders radiated heat like ovens.
The afternoon lengthened. It was nearing five o"clock when Loudon suddenly raised his head.
"Where was that rifle?" he inquired, sharply.
"Ovair yondair--not on de ridge," replied Laguerre.
"That"s what I thought. Maybe--there she goes again. Two of "em."
The rifles on the ridge snarled angrily. But no bullets struck the breastwork. The barking of the deputies" rifles became irregular, drifted southward, then ceased altogether. A few minutes later five hors.e.m.e.n and a led horse crossed the draw a mile to the south.
"Two of "em hit bad," declared Loudon.
"Yuh bet yuh," said Laguerre. "See dat! One of "em tumble off."
"They"re gettin" him aboard again. Takin" our hosses along, the skunks! There goes our friend out yonder."
The man who had been watching the rear of the breast-work galloped to meet his friends. Five minutes later they all disappeared behind one of the western hills.
"Hey, you fellers!" bawled a voice from the shelter of the ridge across the valley. "Where are yuh, anyway?"
"That"s Red Kane," laughed Loudon, and stood up. "Here we are!" he yelled. "C"mon over! We"re all right. Not a scratch!"
Red Kane and Hockling, leading three horses, appeared on the crest of the ridge.
CHAPTER XXIII
THE SMOKE OF CONFLICT
"Found him hid right pretty in a gully," said Hockling, indicating the extra horse.
"Yore hoss, Marvin?" queried Loudon.
Marvin nodded surlily. He had had his share of the water in the rescuers" canteens, but he was no happier.
"It"s sh.o.r.e providential, yore happenin" down this way," said Loudon.
"We"ll do as much for you some day."
"Yo"re welcome, but it ain"t none providential, Tom," denied Hockling.
"Me an" Red was fixin" the corral fence at the camp when up come Kate Saltoun on the jump an" says how yuh was standin" off six men opposite Box Hill. "It"s them deputies!" shouts Red, an" ropes a hoss immediate. Well, we come along, the three of us, an" that"s all. It was long range, but I think I drilled one deputy. Red creased one, too."
"Yuh bet I did!" cried Red Kane. "I seen his arm flop when I fired."