"I don"t believe five minutes" delay will matter very much," returned Miss Thorne, with a touch of that unexpected decision Stratton had noticed once or twice before. "I sha"n"t be any longer."
She moved away from the corral and Buck, walking beside her, was conscious of a curious tension in the air. For a moment he thought McCabe meant to persist and force his presence on them. But evidently the stocky cow-puncher found the situation too difficult for him to cope with, for he remained standing beside his horse, though his glance followed them intently, and throughout the brief interview his eyes searched their faces, as if he strove to read from their expression or the movement of their lips some inkling of what it was all about.
"I won"t keep you but a moment," the girl began, her color slightly heightened. "I only thought that perhaps I might persuade you to--to change your mind, and--and stay. If the work"s too hard, we might be able to--"
She paused. Buck stared at her in astonishment. "I don"t understand," he said briefly.
Her flush deepened. "I meant about your going. I understood you weren"t satisfied, and wanted to--to leave."
"Who told you that?"
"Why--Tex. Isn"t it--"
Buck frowned, and then, conscious of the watching McCabe, his face cleared and he laughed.
"He must have got me wrong, Miss Ma--er--Thorne," he returned lightly.
"Perhaps he"s heard me grumbling a bit; cow-men do that from force of habit sometimes, you know. But I"ve nothing to complain of about the work, and certainly I had no idea of quitting."
Her face cleared amazingly. "I"m so glad," she said in a relieved tone. "I suppose I seem fussy, but now and then the problem of help gets to be a regular nightmare. Once or twice lately I"ve been afraid I was making a terrible mess of things, and might, after all, have to accept one of the offers I"ve had for the ranch. I should hate dreadfully to leave here, but if I can"t make it pay--"
She finished with a shrug. Stratton regarded her thoughtfully. "You"ve had several offers?" he asked hesitatingly, wondering whether she would think the question an impertinence.
Apparently she didn"t. "Two; really most awfully good ones. Indeed, Tex strongly advised me to sell out and buy another outfit if I still wanted to ranch. But I don"t want another one. It"s the Shoe-Bar I"m so keen about because of-- But I really mustn"t keep you. Thank you so much for relieving my mind. When Tex comes in I"ll tell him he was mistaken."
Buck hesitated for an instant. "It might be better not to say anything about it," he suggested. "Some foremen don"t like the least bit of interference, you know. Suppose we just let it go, and if he brings up the subject to me, I"ll tell him he got me wrong."
"Very well. It doesn"t make any difference so long as you"re staying.
Good-by."
With a little gesture of farewell, she walked away toward the ranch-house, leaving Stratton to return to where McCabe fidgeted beside the horses.
There was no time for deliberate reasoning or planning. Buck only felt sure that Lynch was up to something underhand, and when Slim, with almost too great a casualness, inquired what it was all about, he obeyed a strong impulse and lied.
"Oh, it"s Bemis," he shrugged, as they rode off together. "He"s fretting to get away. Lost his nerve, I reckon, and wants to pull out. She wanted to know how long I thought it would be before he could back a horse. I s"pose he might chance it in about a week, but I"m hanged if I can see why he"s in such a rush. He"s sure got it soft enough here."
While he talked he was busy rolling a cigarette, but this did not prevent him from being aware of Slim"s intent, sidelong scrutiny. He could not be quite certain whether or not he succeeded in deceiving the fellow, but from the character of McCabe"s comments, he rather thought he had.
Certainly he hoped so. Slim was sure to tell Lynch about the incident, but if he himself believed it harmless, the foreman was likely to take the same point of view, and continue to carry out the scheme he had in mind.
Whatever this was, Stratton, in his present frame of mind, preferred that it should be brought to a head rather than continue any longer in suspense.
Throughout the day he could get no hint of what was going on. Once the thought occurred to him that it might be a variation of the trick Lynch had tried to play on Bud. By preparing Miss Thorne beforehand for the departure of the new hand, he could discharge Stratton and then represent to the girl that he had quit of his own accord. But somehow this didn"t altogether fit. It a.s.sumed that Buck would take his dismissal quietly without attempting a personal appeal to the ranch-owner; also it took no account of Bud Jessup. By this time Tex must realize that there had been more or less intimate communication between the two, and Bud was not the sort to stand by quietly and see his friend turned out without stirring vehemently in his behalf.
Considering all this, Buck could not see that there was much to fear in Lynch"s present manoeuvering; and it was something of a shock to find Bud absent from the supper-table.
"Gone to Paloma to fetch those wagon-bolts," explained Tex, who had come in about an hour ahead of the others, in answer to Peters" query. "They"d ought to of come in by mail yesterday or the day before, an" we need "em bad. He"ll get supper in town an" be back before dark."
Somewhat thoughtful, Buck accompanied the others to the bunk-house, where he was cordially invited to join the evening game of draw, but declined on the plea of having a couple of letters to write. It was a subterfuge, of course; he had n.o.body to write to. But in his mind had risen a strong preference for being in a position where he could overlook the whole group, rather than be seated in their very midst.
There had come to him a sudden, vivid conviction that he had underestimated the foreman"s resources and his own possible danger. As he sat there mechanically scribbling random sentences, it was brought home to him for the first time how unpleasantly alone he was. Save for a helpless girl and an even more helpless old woman, there wasn"t a soul within a dozen miles on whom he could count for help in an emergency. Of course when Bud returned--
But Bud didn"t return. Nine o"clock brought no sign of him. Another hour pa.s.sed and still he failed to show up. It began to look very much as if the youngster had met with some accident or was being purposely kept out of the way.
When the men finished their game and began to turn in, Stratton reluctantly followed their example. As long as there was any light he felt perfectly able to take care of himself. It was the darkness he feared--that inky, suffocating darkness which masks everything like a pall. He dreaded, too, the increased chances bed would bring of yielding for a single fatal instant to treacherous sleep; but he couldn"t well sit up all night, so he undressed leisurely with the rest and stretched his long length between the blankets.
When the lamp was out, he cautiously flung aside his coverings, drew himself into a reclining position, and with gun in one hand and some matches close beside the other, began his vigil.
For a long time--it must have been an hour at least--there was no need to fight off sleep. His mind was far too active. But his thoughts were not altogether cheering, for he began to see clearly how Lynch might hope to accomplish the impossible.
So far there had been rea.s.surance in the feeling that the foreman would not dare proceed to open violence because of the almost certain consequences to himself. Buck realized now that, under the conditions of the moment, those consequences might become almost negligible. Suppose, for instance, that by next morning Stratton had disappeared. Lynch and his confederates would tell a plausible story of his having demanded his time the night before and ridden off early in the morning. It was a story Tex had carefully prepared Miss Thorne to hear, and whether or not, after Buck"s talk with her during the morning, she might be suspicious, that would make no difference in the foreman"s actions now. He would see that a horse was gone, and attend to all the other necessary details. He had the better part of the night and miles of desert waste in which to dispose of every trace of Stratton and his belongings. Bud would be suspicious, but between suspicion and proof there is a great gulf fixed. And though Lynch might not know it, one of his strongest cards was the fact that if Stratton should vanish off the earth, there was not a soul who would ever come around asking awkward questions.
"But I"m not going to be b.u.mped off just now, thank you," Buck said to himself with a grim straightening of the lips. "They won"t dare fire a gun, and they don"t know I"m ready for them and waiting."
Another hour pa.s.sed, a tortured, harrowing hour in which he fought sleep desperately with all the limited resources at his command. In spite of his determination to keep his eyes open at any cost, his lids drooped and lifted, drooped and lifted, drooped and were dragged open by sheer will-power. Each time it was more difficult. Just as the water laps inexorably at length over the face of an exhausted swimmer, so these waves of sleep, smothering, clutching, dulled his senses and strove to wrap him in their soft, treacherous embrace.
There came at last a complete wiping out of consciousness, how long or short he never knew, from which he was jarred into sudden wakefulness by a sound. He had no idea what it was nor whence it came. He merely found himself abruptly in full possession of his senses, nerves tingling, moisture dewing his forehead, his whole being concentrated in the one act of--listening!
For what seemed an eternity he could hear nothing save the heavy breathing of sleeping men. Then it came again, a slow, faint, dragging sound that ceased almost as soon as it began.
Some one was creeping stealthily toward him across the cabin floor!
CHAPTER XII
THWARTED
Instantly a sense of elation, tingling as an electric shock, surged over Stratton, and his grip on the Colt tightened. At last he was face to face with something definite and concrete, and in a moment all the little doubts and nagging nervous qualms which had a.s.sailed him from time to time during his long vigil were swept away. Cautiously drawing his gun into position, he felt for a match with the other hand and prepared to scratch it against the side of the bunk.
Slowly, stealthily, with many a cautious pause, the crawling body drew steadily nearer. Though the intense darkness prevented him from seeing anything, Buck felt at last that he had correctly gaged the position of the unknown plotter. Trying to continue that easy, steady breathing, which had been no easy matter, he slightly raised his weapon and then, with a sudden, lightning movement, he drew the match firmly across the rough board.
To his anger and chagrin the head broke off. Before he could s.n.a.t.c.h up another and strike it viciously, there came from close at hand a sudden rustle, a creak, the clatter of something on the floor, followed by dead silence. When the light flared up, illumining dimly almost the whole length of the room, there was nothing in the least suspicious to be seen.
Nevertheless, with inward cursing, Stratton sprang up and lit the lamp he had used early in the evening and which he had purposely left within reach. With this added illumination he made a discovery that brought his lips together in a grim line.
Someone lay stretched out in the bunk next to his own--Jessup"s bunk, which had been empty when he went to bed.
For a fleeting instant Buck wondered whether Bud could possibly have returned and crawled in there unheard. Then, as the wick flared up, he not only realized that this couldn"t have happened, but recognized lying on the youngster"s rolled-up blankets the stout figure and round, unshaven face of--Slim McCabe.
As he stood staring at the fellow, there was a stir from further down the room and a sleepy voice growled:
"What"s the matter? It ain"t time to get up yet, is it?"
Buck, who had just caught a glint of steel on the floor at the edge of the bunk, pulled himself together.
"No; I--I must have had a--nightmare," he returned in a realistically dazed tone. "I was dreaming about--rustlers, and thought I heard somebody walking around."
Still watching McCabe surrept.i.tiously, he saw the fellow"s lids lift sleepily.