The steely light poured down upon the slim back of the fugitive, and left both horse and rider sharply outlined. The distance diminished under the terrific spurt of the police horses, and a confident look began to dawn in the eyes of their riders.
They were gaining so rapidly that it seemed hardly necessary to press their bronchos so hard. The top of the hill was still a quarter of a mile away. The fugitive"s evidently wearying beast could never make that last final incline. The man would be forced to turn and defend himself or yield for very helplessness. The whole thing was too easy.
It was absurdly easy. Nor could there be any sort of a "sc.r.a.p." They were ten to one. It was disappointing. These riders of the plains reveled in a genuine fight.
But Fyles"s contentment suddenly received a disconcerting shock. Peter was stretching out like a greyhound. The pace at which they pursued the hunted hare was terrific. But now, although they were, if anything, traveling faster, they seemed to be no longer gaining. The three hundred yards intervening had, in that first rush, been reduced to nearly one hundred. But, somehow, to his disquiet Fyles now realized that there was no further encroachment.
He shook Peter up and left his companions behind. But it quickly became evident he could make no further impression. If anything, his quarry was gaining. An unpleasant conviction began to make itself felt in the mind of the policeman. The man had been foxing. He had been saving his horse up for that hill, calculating to a fraction the distance he had yet to go.
He called to his men to race for it.
They came up on his heels. The man nearest to him was a corporal.
"We"re not done with him yet, corporal," he said grimly. "I wanted to get him without trouble. Guess we"ll have to bail him up. Once over the top of that hill, he runs into the bush on the outskirts of the village. We daren"t risk it."
The corporal"s eyes lit.
"Shall we open out and give him a round, sir?"
Fyles nodded.
"Let "em fire low. Bring his horse down."
The corporal turned back to his men, and gave the necessary order.
"Open out!" he cried. "It"s just over a hundred yards. Fire low, and get his horse. We"ll be on him before he can pick himself up."
"There"s fifty dollars between you if you can bring him down and keep his skin whole," added Fyles.
Still keeping their pace, the men spread out from the trail, withdrawing the carbines from their leather buckets as they rode. Then came the ominous clicking of the breeches as cartridges were thrust home. Fyles, with Corporal Mooney, kept to the trail.
A moment pa.s.sed. Then the first carbine spat out its vicious pellet.
Fyles, watching, fancied that the fugitive had begun to flog his horse. Now, in swift succession, the other carbines added their chorus. There was no check in the pace of the pursuers. The well-trained horses were used to the work.
The first volley seemed ineffective. The men had not yet got their sights. The fugitive had another fifty yards before he reached the top of the long incline.
The distance to the top of the hill was lessening rapidly. Fyles was becoming anxious. It had become a matter of seconds before the man would clear the ridge.
"Keep low," cried the corporal, warningly, in the excitement of the moment. "A ricochet--anything will do. Get his horse."
The horseman was twenty yards from the crest of the hill. Fifteen. The carbines again rattled out their hurried fire.
Ten yards--in a moment he would be----
A cloud of dust arose suddenly among the feet of the fugitive"s horse.
It cleared. Fyles gave a sigh of relief and raced Peter forward. The man"s horse had crashed to the ground.
Fyles was gazing down upon the body of the fallen man. The horse was lying a few yards away, struggling to rise. A great welter of blood flooded the sandy track all about it.
A trooper walked up to the horse. He placed the muzzle of his carbine close behind the poor creature"s ear. The next moment there was a sharp report. The head dropped heavily to the ground and remained quite still.
The corporal looked up at his superior. He was kneeling beside the body of Charlie Bryant.
"I"m afraid it"s all up with him, sir," he said seriously. "But he wasn"t hit. I can"t find a sign of a hit. I--think his neck"s broken--or--or something. It was the fall. He"s dead, sir--sure."
The officer"s face never changed its stern expression. But the suspicion of a sigh escaped him. He was by no means an unfeeling man, but he had his duty to do. In this case there was more than his duty concerned. Hence the sigh. Hence any lack of appreciation.
"It"s the man I expected," he said. "A foolish fellow, but--a smart man. You"re sure he"s dead? Sure?"
The corporal nodded.
"Yes, sir."
"Poor devil. I"m sorry."
CHAPTER x.x.xVIII
THE FALL OF THE OLD PINE
The gray of dawn was slowly gladdening toward the warmer hue of day.
The eastern skies lit with that pallid yellow which precedes the gold and amber of the rising sun. Somewhere, far below the horizon, the great day G.o.d was marching onward, ever onward, shedding its splendor upon a refreshed and waking world.
The valley of Leaping Creek was stirring.
Whatever the shortcomings of the citizens of Rocky Springs, morning activity was not one of them. But they knew, on this day of days, a fresh era in the history of the village was about to begin. Every man knew this. Every woman. Even every child who had power to understand anything at all.
So, as the golden light spread upward toward the vault of the eastern heavens, the spirals of smoke curled up from among the trees on the breathless air. Every cookstove in the village was lit by the unwillingly busy hands of the men-folk, while the women bedecked themselves and their offspring, as befitted the occasion and their position.
Breakfast ensued. It was not the leisurely breakfast of every day, when men required an ample foundation to sustain their daily routine of laborious indolence, but a meal at which coffee was drunk in scalding gulps, and bread and b.u.t.ter, and some homely preserve, replaced the more substantial fare of chops and steak, or bacon and cereals.
Then came the real business of the day. Doors opened and men looked out. Children, with big bow ties upon their heads and sashes at their waists, scuttled through, about the legs of their parents, and reached the open. Neighborly voices hailed each other with a cheery greeting, and the tone was unusual. It was the tone of those who antic.i.p.ate pleasantly, or are stirred by the excitement of uncertainty.
Minutes later the footpaths and unpaved tracks lost their deserted appearance. Solitary figures and groups lounged along them. Men accompanied by their well-starched womenfolk, women striving vainly to control their legions of offspring. They all began to move abroad, and their ways were convergent. They were all moving upon a common goal, as though drawn thither by the irresistible attraction of a magnet.
From the lower reaches of the village, toward the eastern river, that better cla.s.s residential quarter, where the houses, four in number, of Mrs. John Day, of Billy Unguin, of Allan Dy, and the local blacksmith were located, an extremely decorous cortege emerged. Here there was neither bustle nor levity. These were the chief folk of Rocky Springs, and their position, as examples to their brethren of lesser degree, weighed heavily upon them.
Mrs. John was the light about which all social moths fluttered. The women supporting her formed a bodyguard sufficiently impressive and substantial. The men-folk were allowed no nearer than the fringe of their bristling skirts. It was like the slow and stately progress of a swollen, vastly overfed queen bee, moving on her round of the cells to deposit her eggs. The women were the attendant bees, the men were the guarding drones, whose habits in real life in no way detracted from the a.n.a.logy, while Mrs. John--well, Mrs. John would have made a fine specimen of a queen bee, except, perhaps, for the egg-laying business.
They, too, were being drawn to the magnet point, but, as the distance they had to travel was greater than that of the other villagers, they would certainly be the last to arrive. This had been well calculated by Mrs. John, who was nothing if not important. She had well seen to it that the ceremony, so shortly to take place, was on no account to begin until her august word had been given. To further insure this trifling piece of self-aggrandizement she was defraying the whole of the expenses for the demolishment of the aged landmark of the valley.
The saloonkeeper, O"Brien, coldly cynical, but eager to miss nothing of the doings of his fellow citizens, took up his position at an early hour with two of the most faithful adherents of his business house.
It was his way to observe. It was his way to watch, and read the signs going on about him. This valley, and all that belonged to it, had little enough attraction for him beyond its possibilities of profit to himself. Therefore the signs about him were at all times important.
And the signs of the doings of the forthcoming day more particularly so.