"They look like mine," replied the cowboy.
"They are yours."
"I"m not denying that."
"I cut them pieces of mud from beside a water-hole over hyar under Gore Peak. We"d trailed the cattle Belllounds lost, an" then we kept on trailin" them, clear to the road that goes over the ridge to Elgeria.... Now Bridges an" Lindsay hyar bought stock lately from strange cattlemen who didn"t give no clear idee of their range. Jest buyin" an" sellin", they claimed.... I reckon the extra hoss tracks we run across at Gore Peak connects up them buyers an" sellers with whoever drove Belllounds"s cattle up thar.... Have you anythin" more to say?"
"No. Not here," replied Moore, quietly.
"Then I"ll have to arrest you an" take you to Kremmlin" fer trial."
"All right. I"ll go."
The old rancher seemed genuinely shocked. Red tinged his cheek and a flame flared in his eyes.
"Wils, you done me dirt," he said, wrathfully. "An" I always swore by you.... Make a clean breast of the whole d.a.m.n bizness, if you want me to treat you white. You must have been locoed or drunk, to double-cross me thet way. Come on, out with it."
"I"ve nothing to say," replied Moore.
"You act amazin" strange fer a cowboy I"ve knowed to lean toward fightin" at the drop of a hat. I tell you, speak out an" I"ll do right by you.... I ain"t forgettin" thet White Slides gave you a hard knock.
An" I was young once an" had hot blood."
The old rancher"s wrathful pathos stirred the cowboy to a straining-point of his unnatural, almost haughty composure. He seemed about to break into violent utterance. Grief and horror and anger seemed at the back of his trembling lips. The look he gave Belllounds was a.s.suredly a strange one, to come from a cowboy who was supposed to have stolen his former employer"s cattle. Whatever he might have replied was cut off by the sudden appearance of Columbine.
"Dad, I heard you!" she cried, as she swept upon them, fearful and wide-eyed. "What has Wilson Moore done--that you"ll do right by him?"
"Collie, go back in the house," he ordered.
"No. There"s something wrong here," she said, with mounting dread in the swift glance she shot from man to man. "Oh! You"re--Sheriff Burley!"
she gasped.
"I reckon I am, miss, an" if young Moore"s a friend of yours I"m sorry I came," replied Burley.
Wade himself reacted subtly and thrillingly to the presence of the girl.
She was alive, keen, strung, growing white, with darkening eyes of blue fire, beginning to grasp intuitively the meaning here.
"My friend! He _was_ more than that--not long ago.... What has he done?
Why are you here?"
"Miss, I"m arrestin" him."
"Oh!... For what?"
"Rustlin" your father"s cattle."
For a moment Columbine was speechless. Then she burst out, "Oh, there"s a terrible mistake!"
"Miss Columbine, I sh.o.r.e hope so," replied Burley, much embarra.s.sed and distressed. Like most men of his kind, he could not bear to hurt a woman. "But it looks bad fer Moore.... See hyar! There! Look at the tracks of his hoss--left front foot-shoe all crooked. Thet"s his hoss"s.
He acknowledges thet. An", see hyar. Look at the little circles an"
dots.... I found these "way over at Gore Peak, with the tracks of the stolen cattle. An" no _other_ tracks, Miss Columbine!"
"Who put you on that trail?" she asked, piercingly.
"Jack, hyar. He found it fust, an" rode to Kremmlin" fer me."
"Jack! Jack Belllounds!" she cried, bursting into wild and furious laughter. Like a tigress she leaped at Jack as if to tear him to pieces.
"You put the sheriff on that trail! You accuse Wilson Moore of stealing dad"s cattle!"
"Yes, and I proved it," replied Jack, hoa.r.s.ely.
"You! _You_ proved it? So that"s your revenge?... But you"re to reckon with me, Jack Belllounds! You villain! You devil! You--" Suddenly she shrank back with a strong shudder. She gasped. Her face grew ghastly white. "_Oh, my G.o.d!_ ... horrible--unspeakable!"... She covered her face with her hands, and every muscle of her seemed to contract until she was stiff. Then her hands shot out to Moore.
"Wilson Moore, what have _you_ to say--to this sheriff--to Jack Belllounds--to _me?_"
Moore bent upon her a gaze that must have pierced her soul, so like it was to a lightning flash of love and meaning and eloquence.
"Collie, they"ve got the proof. I"ll take my medicine.... Your dad is good. He"ll be easy on me!"
"_You lie!_" she whispered. "And I will tell why you lie!"
Moore did not show the shame and guilt that should have been natural with his confession. But he showed an agony of distress. His hand sought Wade and dragged at him.
It did not need this mute appeal to tell Wade that in another moment Columbine would have flung the shameful truth into the face of Jack Belllounds. She was rising to that. She was terrible and beautiful to see.
"Collie," said Wade, with that voice he knew had strange power over her, with a clasp of her outflung hand, "no more! This is a man"s game. It"s not for a woman to judge. Not here! It"s Wils"s game--an" it"s _mine_.
I"m his friend. Whatever his trouble or guilt, I take it on my shoulders. An" it will be as if it were not!"
Moaning and wringing her hands, Columbine staggered with the burden of the struggle in her.
"I"m quite--quite mad--or dreaming. Oh, Ben!" she cried.
"Brace up, Collie. It"s sure hard. Wils, your friend and playmate so many years--it"s hard to believe! We all understand, Collie. Now you go in, an" don"t listen to any more or look any more."
He led her down the porch to the door of her room, and as he pushed it open he whispered, "I will save you, Collie, an" Wils, an" the old man you call dad!"
Then he returned to the silent group in the yard.
"Jim, if I answer fer Wils Moore bein" in Kremmlin" the day you say, will you leave him with me?"
"Wal, I sh.o.r.e will, Wade," replied Burley, heartily.
"I object to that," interposed Jack Belllounds, stridently. "He confessed. He"s got to go to jail."
"Wal, my hot-tempered young fellar, thar ain"t any jail nearer "n Denver. Did you know that?" returned Burley, with his dry, grim humor.
"Moore"s under arrest. An" he"ll be as well off hyar with Wade as with me in Kremmlin", an" a d.a.m.n sight happier."
The cowboy had mounted, and Wade walked beside him as he started homeward. They had not progressed far when Wade"s keen ears caught the words, "Say, Belllounds, I got it figgered thet you an" your son don"t savvy this fellar Wade."