She leaned and gnashed at his hands, but he whirled her about and held her from behind, impotent, raging still.
"A hundred McGurks could never have killed him!"
There was a sharp explosion from the midst of the fire.
"See! He"s fighting against his death!"
"No! No! It"s only the falling of a timber!"
Yet with a panic at his heart he knew that it was the sharp crack of a firearm. "Liar again! Pierre, for G.o.d"s sake, do something for him.
Father! He"s fighting for his life!"
Another and another explosion from the midst of the fire. He understood then.
"The flames have reached his guns. That"s all, Jack. Don"t you see?
We"d be throwing ourselves away to run into those flames."
Realization came to her at last. A heavy weight slumped down suddenly over his arms. He held her easily, lightly. Her head had tilted back, and the red flare of the fire beat across her face and throat. The roar of the flames shut out all other thought of the world and cast a wide inferno of light around them.
Higher and higher rose the fires, and the wind cut off great fragments and hurried them off into the night, blowing them, it seemed, straight up against the piled thunder of the clouds. Then the roof sagged, swayed, and fell crashing, while a vast cloud of sparks and livid fires shot up a hundred feet into the air. It was as if the soul of old Boone had departed in that final flare.
It started the girl into sudden life, surprising Pierre, so that she managed to wrench herself free and ran from him. He sprang after her with a shout, fearing that in her hysteria she might fling herself into the fire, but that was not her purpose. Straight to the black horse she ran, swung into the saddle with the ease of a man, and rode furiously off through the falling of the night.
He watched her with a curious closing of loneliness like a hand about his heart. He had failed, and because of that failure even Jacqueline was leaving him. It was strange, for since the loss of the girl of the yellow hair and those deep blue eyes, he had never dreamed that another thing in life could pain him.
So at length he mounted the mare again and rode slowly down the hill and out toward the distant ranges, trotting mile after mile with downward head, not caring even if McGurk should cross him, for surely this was the final end of the world to Pierre le Rouge.
About midnight he halted at last, for the uneasy sway of the mare showed that she was nearly dead on her feet with weariness. He found a convenient place for a camp, built his fire, and wrapped his blanket about him without thinking of food.
He never knew how long he sat there, for his thoughts circled the world and back again and found all a prospect of desert before him and behind, until a sound, a vague sound out of the night, startled him into alertness. He slipped from beside the fire and into the shadow of a steep rock, watching with eyes that almost pierced the dark on all sides.
And there he saw her creeping up on the outskirts of the firelight, p.r.o.ne on her hands and knees, dragging herself up like a young wildcat hunting prey; it was the glimmer of her eyes that he caught first through the gloom. A cold thought came to him that she had returned with her gun ready.
Inch by inch she came closer, and now he was aware of her restless glances probing on all sides of the camp-fire. Silence--only the crackling of a pitchy stick. And then he heard a m.u.f.fled sound, soft, soft as the beating of a heart in the night, and regularly pulsing. It hurt him infinitely, and he called gently: "Jack, why are you weeping?"
She started up with her fingers twisted at the b.u.t.t of her gun.
"It"s a lie," called a tremulous voice. "Why should I weep?"
And then she ran to him.
"Oh, Pierre, I thought you were gone!"
That silence which came between them was thick with understanding greater than speech. He said at last: "I"ve made my plan. I am going straight for the higher mountains and try to shake McGurk off my trail. There"s one chance in ten I may succeed, and if I do then I"ll wait for my chance and come down on him, for sooner or later we have to fight this out to the end."
"I know a place he could never find," said Jacqueline. "The old cabin in the gulley between the Twin Bears. We"ll start for it tonight."
"Not we," he answered. "Jack, here"s the end of our riding together."
She frowned with puzzled wonder.
He explained: "One man is stronger than a dozen. That"s the strength of McGurk--that he rides alone. He"s finished your father"s men.
There"s only Wilbur left, and Wilbur will go next--then me!"
She stretched her hands to him. She seemed to be pleading for her very life.
"But if he finds us and has to fight us both--I shoot as straight as a man, Pierre!"
"Straighter than most. And you"re a better pal than any I"ve ever ridden with. But I must go alone. It"s only a lone wolf that will ever bring down McGurk. Think how he"s rounded us up like a herd of cattle and brought us down one by one."
"By getting each man alone and killing him from behind."
"From the front, Jack. No, he"s fought square with each one. The wounds of Black Gandil were all in front, and when McGurk and I meet it"s going to be face to face."
Her tone changed, softened: "But what of me, Pierre?"
"You have to leave this life. Go down to the city, Jack. Live like a woman; marry some lucky fellow; be happy."
"Can you leave me so easily?"
"No, it"s hard, devilish hard to part with a pal like you, Jack; but all the rest of my life I"ve got hard things to face, partner."
"Partner!" she repeated with an indescribable emphasis. "Pierre, I can"t leave you."
"Why?"
"I"m afraid to go: Let me stay!"
He said gloomily: "No good will come of it."
"I"ll never trouble you--never!"
"No, the bad luck comes on the people who are with me, but never on me. It"s struck them all down, one by one; your turn is next, Jack. If I could leave the cross behind--"
He covered his face and groaned: "But I don"t dare; I don"t dare! I have to face McGurk. Jack, I hate myself for it, but I can"t help it.
I"m afraid of McGurk, afraid of that d.a.m.ned white face, that lowered, fluttering eyelid, that sneering mouth. Without the cross to bring me luck, how could I meet him? But while I keep the cross there"s ruin and h.e.l.l without end for everyone with me."
She was white and shaking. She said: "I"m not afraid. I"ve one friend left; there"s nothing else to care for."
"So it"s to be this way, Jack?"
"This way, and no other."
"Partner, I"m glad. My G.o.d, Jack, what a man you would have made!"
Their hands met and clung together, and her head had drooped, perhaps in acquiescence.