"You threw him into the water?"
"Yes."
"Good."
He closed his silver watch with a snap.
"It"s nearly four o"clock. We have no more time for work to-night. Back to camp."
The men turned to repeat his orders.
"Wait!"
His order rang like vibrant metal.
The men stopped.
"We"ll mount the horses we have taken, and march single file. I"ll ride the horse taken here. Bring him to the door."
With quick springing step Brown entered the house where the husband and wife and the two lodgers were still shivering under the eye of the guard with drawn sword.
The leader"s voice rang with a note of triumph.
"You people whose lives have been spared will stay in this house until sunrise. And the less you say about what"s happened to-night the longer you"ll live."
He turned to his guard.
"Come on."
Brown had just mounted his horse to lead the procession back to the camp in the ravine, when the first peal of thunder in a spring shower crashed overhead.
He glanced up and saw that the sky was being rapidly overcast by swiftly moving clouds. A few stars still glimmered directly above.
The storm without was an incident of slight importance. The rain would give him a chance to test the men inside. He ordered his followers to take refuge in the long shed under which Harris stabled the horses and vehicles of travelers.
He stationed a sentinel at the door of the house.
His orders were clear.
"Cut down in his tracks without a word, the man who dares to come out."
The swordsman threw a saddle blanket around his shoulders and took his place at the doorway.
The storm broke in fury. In five minutes the heavens were a sea of flame. The thunder rolled over the ravine, the hills, the plains in deafening peals. Flash after flash, roar after roar, an endless throb of earth and air from the t.i.tanic bombardment from the skies. The flaming sky was sublime--a changing, flashing, trembling splendor.
Townsley was the only coward in the group of stolid figures standing under the shed. He watched by the lightning the expression of Brown"s face with awe. There was something terrible in the joy that flamed in his eyes. Never had he seen such a look on human face. He forgot the storm and forgot his fears of cyclones and lightning strokes in the fascination with which he watched the seamed, weather-beaten features of the man who had just committed the foulest deed in the annals of American frontier life. There was in his shifting eyes no shadow of doubt, of fear, of uncertainty. There was only the look of satisfaction, of supreme triumph. The coward caught the spark of red that flashed from his soul.
For a moment he regretted that he had not joined the b.l.o.o.d.y work with his own hand. He was ashamed of his pity for the stark ma.s.ses of flesh that still lay on the deluged earth. In spite of the contagion of Brown"s mind which he felt pulling him with resistless power, his own weaker intellect kept playing pranks with his memory.
He recalled the position of the bodies which they had left in the darkness. He had seen them by the light of the lantern which Brown had flashed each time before leaving. He remembered with a shiver that the two Doyle boys had died with their big soft blue eyes wide open, staring upward at the starlit skies. He wondered if the rain had beaten their eyelids down.
A blinding flash filled the sky and lighted every nook and corner of the woods and fields. He shook at its glare and put his hand over his eyes.
For a moment he could see nothing but the wide staring gaze upward of those stalwart young bodies. He shivered and turned away from the leader.
The next moment found him again watching the look of victory on the terrible face.
As the lightning played about Brown"s form he wondered at the impression of age he gave with his face turned away and his figure motionless. He was barely fifty-seven and yet he looked seventy-five, until he moved.
The moment his wiry body moved there was something uncanny in the impression he gave of a wild animal caught in human form.
Brown had tired waiting for the shower to pa.s.s and had begun to pace back and forth with his swinging, springy step. When he pa.s.sed, Townsley instinctively drew aside. He knew that he was a coward and yet he couldn"t feel the consciousness of cowardice in giving this man room. It was common sense.
The storm pa.s.sed as swiftly as it came.
Without a word the leader gave the signal. His men mounted the stolen horses. With Townsley"s grays and Weiner"s pony the huntsmen returned to the camp in the ravine, a procession of cavalry.
The eastern sky was whitening with the first touch of the coming sun when they dismounted.
The leader ordered the fire built and a hearty breakfast cooked for each man. As was his custom he wandered from the camp alone, his arms gripped behind his stooped back. He climbed the hill, stood on its crest and watched the prairie.
The storm had pa.s.sed from west to east. On the eastern horizon a low fringe of clouds was still slowly moving. They lay in long ribbons of dazzling light. The sun"s rays flashed through them every color of the rainbow. Now they were a deep purple, growing brighter with each moment, until every flower in the waving fields was touched with its glory. The purple melted into orange; the waving fields were set with dazzling b.u.t.tercups; the b.u.t.tercups became poppies. And then the mounting sun kissed the clouds again. They blushed scarlet, and the fields were red.
The grim face gave no sign that he saw the glory and beauty of a wonderful Sabbath morning. His figure was rigid. His eyes set. A sweet odor seemed to come from the scarlet rays of the sun. The man lifted his head in surprise to find the direction from which the perfume came.
He looked at the ground and saw that he was standing in a bed of ripening wild strawberries.
He turned from the sunrise, stooped and ate the fruit. He was ravenously hungry. His hunger satisfied, he walked deliberately back to camp as the white light of day flooded the clean fields and woods.
He called his men about the fire and searched for marks of the night"s work. As the full rim of the sun crept over the eastern hills and its first rays quivered on the surface of the water, the huntsmen knelt by the bank of the Pottawattomie and washed the stains from their swords, hands and clothes.
Breakfast finished, the leader divided among his headsmen the goods stolen from his victims and called his men to Sunday prayers.
With folded hands and head erect in the att.i.tude of victory he read from memory a pa.s.sage from the old Hebrew prophet, singing in triumph over the enemies of the Lord. From the scripture recitation, given in tones so cold and impersonal that they made Townsley shiver, his voice drifted into prayer:
"We thank thee, oh, Lord, G.o.d of Hosts, for the glorious victory Thou hast given us this night over Thy enemies. We have heard Thy voice. We have obeyed Thy commands. The wicked have been laid low. And Thy glory shines throughout the world on this beautiful Sabbath morning. Make strong, oh, G.o.d, the arms of Thy children for the work that is yet before them. Thou art a jealous G.o.d. Thou dost rejoice always in blood offerings on Thy altars. We have this night brought to Thee and laid before Thy face the five offerings which the sins of man have demanded.
May this blood seem good in Thy sight, oh, G.o.d, as it is glorious in the eyes of Thy servant whom Thou hast anointed to do Thy will. May it be as seed sown in good ground. May it bring forth a harvest whose red glory shall cover the earth, even as the rays of the sun have baptized our skies this morning. We wait the coming of Thy Kingdom, oh, Lord, G.o.d of Hosts. Speed the day we humbly pray. Amen."
Townsley"s eyes had gradually opened at the tones of weird, religious ecstasy with which the last sentences of the prayer were spoken. He was staring at Brown"s face. It was radiant with a strange joy. He had not smiled; but he was happy for a moment. His happiness was so unusual, so sharply in contrast with his habitual mood, the sight of it chilled Townsley"s soul.
CHAPTER XX
Stuart succeeded in securing from Colonel Sumner a leave of absence of two weeks to visit Fort Riley. The Colonel suspected the truth and teased the gallant youngster until he confessed.
He handed Stuart the order with a hearty laugh.