Suddenly she pulled the door open. "Come in here," she called to Alan.
And as he obeyed, leaving the baffled Sanchia without, Helen said swiftly: "See if you can"t talk reason into papa. I"ll keep _her_ out there." And she in turn pa.s.sed out, again closing the door.
"You little vixen!" Sanchia"s cheeks were red with anger as, Helen"s manoeuvre complete, the girl stood regarding her with defiant eyes.
Sanchia"s hands clenched and the resultant impression given forth by her whole demeanour was that upon occasion the little widow might be swept into such pa.s.sionate rage that she was p.r.o.ne to resort to primal, physical violence. Helen, though her own cheeks burned, smiled loftily and made no answer.
From beyond the closed door came Alan"s eager voice. Sanchia bent forward, straining her ears to hear; Helen, the light of battle flaring steadily higher in her eyes, began suddenly to sing, the same little broken s.n.a.t.c.hes of song which not so long ago had irritated her impatient lover and which now confused the words spoken beyond the door and which made Sanchia furious.
"Stand aside," commanded Sanchia. "I am going in."
Helen stood firm. Then she saw that Sanchia meant what she said. And, on the table near the discarded pick, she saw Longstreet"s big revolver. She made a quick step forward, s.n.a.t.c.hed it up in both hands and pointed it directly at Sanchia"s heaving breast. Now the colour went out of Helen"s face and it grew very white, while her eyes darkened.
"If you move a step toward that door," she threatened, "I am going to shoot!"
Sanchia sneered. Then she paused. And finally she laughed contemptuously.
"You little fool," she whispered back, cautious that no syllable might enter the adjoining room. "I don"t need to go rushing in there, after all. And you know it. That stuff," and she glanced briefly at the rock on the table, "got into my blood for a second. I"ll take my time now; and I"ll get what I want."
As they stood in silence, Helen making no answer, they heard what the men were saying.
"--just this if nothing more," came the end of Howard"s entreaty.
"Don"t tell Sanchia."
Promptly came the angry answer:
"Mind your own business, young man! And, until you are asked for advice, hold your tongue!" At the end of the command the door snapped open and Longstreet popped into the room.
Sanchia, her cool poise regained, made no step toward him but contented herself by a slow comprehensive and sympathetic smile. Howard came quickly to Helen, stooped to her and whispered:
"I can"t do a thing with him. But come outside with me a second; I think I know what to do."
She flung down the heavy gun and went with him. Ten paces from the cabin they stopped together.
"Did you glimpse the specimens before I ran out to the spring with them?" he asked sharply. She shook her head, her eyes round.
"Do you have any idea," he hurried on, "just where your father has been prospecting lately?"
"Yes, I went with him for a walk two or three times during the last week. He----"
But he interrupted.
"Has he shown any interest in a flat-topped hill about three miles back? Where there is a lot of red dirt? They call it Red Dirt Hill."
"Yes!" Her tone quickened. "That is why----"
They had no time for complete sentences.
"I saw the red dirt on his pick first; then on the rock. That is why I washed it off, hoping that she had not seen. It"s more than a fair gamble, Helen, that your father"s claim is on Red Hill."
Her hand was on his arm now; she did not know, but through all other considerations to him this fact thrilled pleasurably. He put his own hand over hers.
"If Sanchia saw, too?"
"I don"t think that she did. Nor am I half sure that it would mean anything to her. I know every foot of these hills; she doesn"t. We"ll go in now and see what we can do. If your father does give it away--well, then we"ll play our hunch and try to beat her to it."
But though they had been out so brief a time, already Sanchia met them at the door. Her eyes were on fire; her slight body seemed to dilate with a joy swelling in her heart; she looked the embodiment of all that was triumphant. Behind her, rubbing his two hands together, and looking like a wilful and victorious child, was Longstreet. Sanchia ran by them. In her hands, tight-clutched, was the finest specimen.
"You haven"t told her, papa! Oh, you haven"t told her!"
"And what if I have?" he snapped. "Am I not a man grown that I am not to----"
Again no time for more than a broken sentence.
"Will you tell us?" demanded Howard.
"In due time," came the cool rejoinder. "When I am ready. I should have told you to-night, had you trusted to me. Now I shall not tell you a word about it until to-morrow."
They knew that Sanchia was going for her horse. Here was no time for one to allow his way to be cluttered up with trifles. Howard turned and ran to his own horse. They lost sight of him in the dark; they heard pounding hoofs as he raced after Sanchia and by her; they heard her scream out angrily at him as she was the first to grasp his purpose. And presently at the cabin door was Howard again, calling to Helen. She ran out. He was mounted and led two horses, her own and Sanchia"s white mare.
"Hurry!" he called. "We"ll play my hunch and beat her to it yet."
Helen understood and scrambled wildly into her own saddle. She heard Sanchia calling; she could even hear the woman running back toward them. Then her horse jumped under her, she clutched at the horn of her saddle to save herself from falling, and she and Howard were racing up trail, Sanchia"s mare led after them, Sanchia"s voice screaming behind them.
They skirted the base of the cliffs for half a mile. Then Howard turned Sanchia"s horse loose, driving the animal down into a dark ravine where there would be no finding it in the night-time.
"It"s only a chance," he said, "but then that"s better than just sitting and sucking our thumbs. We take the up-trail here."
They came out upon the tablelands above Bear Valley. There was better light here; the trail was less narrow and steep; they could look down and see the light in the cabin.
Later they were to know just what had been Sanchia Murray"s quick reply to their move. And then they were to know, too, where Jim Courtot"s hang-out had been during these last weeks in which he had seemed to vanish. Sanchia, with a golden labour before her, had promptly turned to her "right hand." On foot, since there was no other way, and running until she was breathless and spent, she hurried across the narrow valley, climbed the low hills at its eastern edge, and plunged down into the ravine which was the head of Dry Gulch. Up the farther side she clambered, again running, panting and sobbing with the exertion she put upon herself, until she came to another broken cliff-ridge. There she had stood calling. And, from a hidden hole in the rocks, giving entrance to a cave, like a wolf from its lair, there had come at her calling Jim Courtot.
Chapter XXVI
When Day Dawned
Upon the flat top of Red Dirt Hill, Howard and Helen drove their stakes. Thereafter they made a little fire in the shelter of a tumble of boulders and camped throughout the night under the blazing desert stars. Were they right? Were they wrong? They did not know. In the darkness they could make out little of the face of the earth about them. Alan thought himself certain of one thing: that only near here could it be likely that Longstreet should have broken off fragments of stone with so plain a marking of red dirt on them. Helen merely knew that her father had more than once climbed up here, though she had laughed at him for seeking gold upon the exalted heights. To know anything beyond this meagre and unsatisfying data, they must await the dawn.
The hours pa.s.sed and Sanchia Murray did not come. Before now, they estimated, she could have hurried here even though she came on foot; before now, had she thought of it and had the patience, she might have found Longstreet"s horse. Yet she did not come. The fact made their uncertainty the greater. They had ample opportunity to ask themselves a hundred times if they had done the foolish thing in racing off here.
Should they have held by Sanchia?
Toward morning it grew chill and they came closer together over their little brush fire. They spoke in lowered voices, and not always of Helen"s father and of his gold. At times they spoke of themselves.
To-morrow Helen might be mistress of a bonanza; to-morrow she might be, as she was to-night, a girl but briefly removed from pennilessness. As the stars waxed and began at last to wane and the sky brightened, as the still thin air grew colder at the first promises of another day, they discussed the matter quietly. And it seemed that this was not the only consideration in the world, nor yet even the chiefest. But----
"I can"t come to you like a beggar-girl," she whispered.
"If I lost everything I had--and I could not lose everything since I would go on loving you--would that make any difference, Helen?"