Except for a growing clamour in the street behind there was silence until Breckenridge, who stood near Grant touched him,
"I don"t want to meddle, but aren"t we giving them an opportunity of securing their prisoners or making their defences good?" he said.
"That"s sense, any way," said another man. "It would be "way better to go right in now, while we can."
Grant shook his head. "You have left this thing to me, and I want to put it through without losing a man. Men don"t usually back down when the shooting begins."
Then a voice rose from the building: "You wanted the Sheriff. Here he is."
A shadowy figure appeared at a window, and there was a murmur from Grant"s men.
"He needn"t be bashful," said one of them. "n.o.body"s going to hurt him.
Can"t you bring a light, so we can see him?"
A burst of laughter followed, and Grant held up his hand. "It would be better, Sheriff; and you have my word that we"ll give you notice before we do anything if we can"t come to terms."
It seemed from the delay that the Sheriff was undecided, but at last a light was brought, and the men below saw him standing at the window with an anxious face, and behind him two men with rifles, whose dress proclaimed them stockriders. He could also see the hors.e.m.e.n below, as Grant, who waited until the sight had made its due impression, had intended that he should. There were a good many of them, and the effect of their silence and the twinkling of light on their rifles was greater than that of any uproar would have been.
"Now you can see me, you needn"t keep me waiting," said the Sheriff, with an attempt at jauntiness which betrayed his anxiety. "What do you want?"
"Two of your prisoners," said Grant.
"I"m sorry you can"t have them," said the Sheriff. "Hadn"t you better ride home again before I turn the boys loose on you?"
But his voice was not quite in keeping with his words, and it would have been wiser if he had turned his face aside.
"It"s a little too far to ride back without getting what we came for,"
said Grant quietly. "Now, we have no great use for talking. We want two homesteaders, and we mean to get them; but that will satisfy us."
"You want n.o.body else?"
"No. You can keep your criminals, or let them go, just as it suits you."
There was a laugh from some of the hors.e.m.e.n, which was taken up by the crowd and swelled into a storm of cries. Some expressed approval, others anger, and the Sheriff stepped backwards.
"Then," he said hoa.r.s.ely, "if you want your friends, you must take them."
The next moment the window shut with a bang, and the light died out, leaving the building once more in darkness.
"Get to work," said Grant. "Forward, those who are going to cover the axe-men!"
There was a flash from the verandah, apparently in protest and without intent to hurt, for the next moment a few half-seen objects flung themselves over the bal.u.s.trade as the men with the axes came up, and others with rifles took their places a few paces behind them. Then one of the hors.e.m.e.n shouted a question.
"Let them pa.s.s," said Grant.
The door was solid and braced with iron, but those who a.s.sailed it had swung the axe since they had the strength to lift it, and in the hands of such men it is a very effective implement. The door shook and rattled as the great blades whirled and fell, each one dropping into the notch the other had made; the men panted as they smote; the splinters flew in showers.
"Holding out still!" gasped one of them. "There"s iron here. Get some of the boys to chop that redwood pillar, and we"ll drive it down."
There was an approving murmur, but Grant grasped the man by the shoulder.
"No," he said. "We haven"t come to wreck the town. I"ve another plan if you"re more than two minutes getting in."
The axes whirled faster, and at last a man turned breathlessly. "Get ready, boys," he said. "One more on the bolt head, Jake, and we"re in!"
A brawny man twice whirled the hissing blade about his head, and as he swung forward with both hands on the haft with a dull crash the wedge of tempered steel clove the softer metal. The great door tilted and went down, and Breckenridge sprang past the axe-men through the opening. His voice came back exultantly out of the shadowy building. "It was the old country sent you the first man in!"
The men"s answer was a shout as they followed him, with a great trampling down the corridor, but the rest of the building was very silent, and n.o.body disputed their pa.s.sage until at last a man with grey hair appeared with a lantern behind an iron grille.
"Open that thing," said somebody.
The man smiled drily. "I couldn"t do it if I wanted to. I"ve given my keys away."
One or two of the homesteaders glanced a trifle anxiously behind them. The corridor was filling up, and it dawned upon them that if anything barred their egress they would be helpless.
"Then what are you stopping for?" asked somebody.
"It"s in my contract," said the jailer quietly. "I was raised in Kentucky.
You don"t figure I"m scared of you?"
"No use for talking," said a man. "You can"t argue with him. Go ahead with your axes and beat the blamed thing in."
It cost them twenty minutes" strenuous toil; but the grille went down, and two of the foremost seized the jailer.
"Let him go," said Grant quietly. "Now, we can"t fool time away with you.
Where"s the Sheriff?"
"I don"t quite know," said the jailer, and the contempt in his voice answered the question.
Grant laughed a little. "Well," he said, "I guess he"s sensible. Now, what you have got to do is to bring out the two homesteaders as quick as you can."
"I told you I couldn"t do it," said the other man.
"You listen to me. We are going to take those men out, if we have to pull this place to pieces until we find them. That, it"s quite plain, would let the others go, and you would lose the whole of your prisoners instead of two of them. Tell us where you put them, and you can keep the rest."
"That"s square?"
"Oh, yes," said Grant. "There are quite enough men of their kind loose in this country already."
"Straight on," said the jailer. "First door."
They went on in silence, but there was a shout when somebody answered their questions from behind a door, which a few minutes later tottered and fell beneath the axes. Then, amidst acclamation, they led two men out, and showed them to the jailer.
"You know them?" said Grant. "Well, you can tell your Sheriff there wasn"t a cartridge in the rifles of the men who opened his jail. He"ll come back when the trouble"s over, but it seems to me the cattle-men have wasted a pile of dollars over him."
He laughed when a question met them as they once more trampled into the verandah.
"Yes," he said. "The boys are bringing them!"
Two horses were led forward, and the released men swung themselves into the saddle. There was a hasty mounting, and when the men swung into open fours a shout went up from the surging crowd.