He lay down behind the wild currant bush and surveyed the landscape immediately in front of him. At first he saw nothing--then two hundred yards away on his right front a sumac suddenly developed an amazingly thick shadow. He automatically drew a fine sight on that sumac.
The shadow of the sumac became thin. A dark objected flitted from it to another bush. The dark object was a man"s head. It was hatless.
Billy smiled and decided to wait. He understood that he was dealing with a man who could shoot the b.u.t.tons off his shirt, but on the other hand, Billy did not think meanly of himself as a still hunter. He lay motionless behind the currant bush and watched Jack Murray"s advance.
Billy smiled pityingly. It was obvious to him that Jack Murray had never been on a man hunt before. If he had he would have been more careful.
"Good Gawd," Billy said to himself, "it"s like taking candy from a child."
It was destined to be even more like taking candy from a child.
Four times before the bold Jack reached the crest of the hill he offered Billy a target he couldn"t miss. And each time the latter refrained from shooting. Somehow he was finding it difficult to shoot an unconscious mark. If Jack had been shooting at him or had even been aware of his presence, it would have been different. But to shoot him now was too much like cold-blooded murder. There was nothing of the bushwhacker in the Wingo make-up.
Suddenly at the top of the rise, Jack Murray ducked completely out of sight.
"Must have seen the horse," thought Billy, and looked over his shoulder. No, it was not the horse. Billy was on higher ground than was Jack and he could not see even the tips of his mount"s ears.
"It can"t be my hat he sees," Billy told himself.
Evidently it was the hat, for while Billy"s eyes were on the hat, a rifle cracked where Jack Murray lay hidden and the hat jumped and settled.
"Good thing my head ain"t inside," said the wholly delighted Billy, his eyes riveted on the smoke shredding away above the bushes on the right front. "I wonder if he thinks he got me."
It was evident that Jack Murray was wondering too. For the crown of a hat appeared with Jack-in-the-box unexpectedness at the right side of the bush below the smoke. Experience told Billy that a stick was within the crown of the hat which moved so temptingly to and fro.
Three or four minutes later, Jack Murray"s hat disappeared and the rifle again spoke.
"Another hole in my hat," Billy muttered resignedly and cuddled his rifle stock against his cheek. "He"ll wave his hat again, and then he"ll be about ready to go see if the deer is venison."
Even as he foretold, the hat appeared and was moved to and fro, and raised and lowered, in order to draw fire. Then, peace continuing to brood over the countryside, the hat was crammed on the owner"s head and the owner, on hands and knees, headed through the brush toward Billy"s hat.
Billy was of the opinion that Jack Murray"s course would bring him within ten feet. He was right. Jack Murray pa.s.sed so close that Billy could have reached forth his rifle and touched him with the muzzle.
Instead he waited till Jack"s back was fairly toward him before he said, "Hands up!"
Jack Murray possessed all the wisdom of his kind. He dropped his rifle and tossed up his hands.
"Stand up. No need to turn around," resumed Billy, Riley Tyler"s six-shooter trained on the small of Jack"s back. "Lower your left hand slowly and work your belt down. You wear it loose. It"ll drop easy.
And while you"re doing it, if you feel like gamblin" with me, remember that this is Riley"s gun and I ain"t used to it, and I might have to shoot you three or four times instead of only once, y" understand."
Obviously Jack Murray understood. He lowered his left hand and worked his gun-belt loose and down over his hip bone with exemplary slowness.
The shock of his capture had evaporated the last effects of the liquor.
He was cold sober and beginning to perceive the supreme folly he had committed in shooting a woman"s mount from under her.
"One step ahead," directed Billy when the gun-belt was on the ground.
"And up with that left hand."
Jack Murray, thumbs locked together over his head, stepped out of the gun-belt. Billy went to him, rammed the six-shooter muzzle against his spine and patted him from top to toe in search of possible hide-outs.
He found none except a pocket knife which did not cause him apprehension.
"Le"s take up the thread of our discourse," said Billy, "farther down the hill. Walk along, cowboy, walk along."
With Billy carrying both rifles and Jack"s discarded gun-belt, they walked along downhill to where Billy"s pony stood in a three-cornered doze. It was then that Jack Murray caught sight of Hazel Walton lying on her back behind a stone, her arms over her face. She looked extremely limp and lifeless.
"I didn"t shoot her!" cried the startled Jack.
"I know you didn"t," said Billy. "The lady"s restin", that"s all.
We"ll wait till she feels like moving."
Hazel Walton uncovered her face. There was a large and purpling lump in the middle of her forehead, the skin of her pretty nose was scratched, a bruise defaced one cheek bone, and one eye was slightly black.
"Your work, you polecat," Billy declared succinctly. "You"ll be lynched for mauling her like that."
But Hazel Walton was just. She sat up, supporting herself by an arm, and dispelled Billy"s false impression. "He never touched me--and he could have shot me if he"d wanted to."
"So kind of him not to," said Billy with sarcasm. "Who is responsible for hurting you? Your face is bruises all over."
"Is it?" she said, with an indifference born of great weariness. "I suppose it must be. I remember I struck on my face when he shot the mule I was riding. He--he shot both mules."
"He"ll be lynched for that, then," Billy said decisively.
"Who"ll pay for the mules?" Hazel wished to know. "We needed those mules," she added.
Billy nodded. "That"s so. If he"s lynched for this attack on you--your mules--same thing if you know what I mean--you lose out on the mules. Maybe we can fix it up."
"Sure we can," Jack Murray spoke up briskly.
"I"m not talkin" to you," pointed out Billy. "Whatever fixing up there is to do, I"ll do it. You have done about all the fixing you"re gonna do for one while. Yeah. I came out after you, Jack, to make you a better boy, but now that we got you where you"ll stand without hitching, I can"t do it. I ain"t got the heart. Of course, if you were to jump at me or something, or make a dive for your gun I"m holding, I don"t say but I"d change my mind in a hurry. I kind of wish you had seen me back there a-lying under my currant bush. Then we"d have had it out by this time, and I"d be going back to town for a shovel."
"Don"t you be too sure of that," snarled Jack Murray. "Just you gimme my gun back, and I"ll show you something."
"I"ll bet you would," acquiesced Billy, "but I"m keeping your guns, both of "em. I"d feel too lonesome without "em."
"Can"t you do nothing but flap your jaw?" demanded Jack in a huff.
"I"d just as soon be downed outright as talked to death."
"But you haven"t any choice in the deal," Billy told him in mild surprise. "Not a choice. You shut up. I"ll figure out what to do with you. Y"understand, Jack, I"ve got to be fair to Miss Walton too.
If you"re lynched she won"t get paid for her team, and I can"t have her losin" a fine team of mules thisaway and not have a dime to show for it. That would never do. Never. Lessee now. You got any money, Jack?"
"A little."
"How much?"
"Maybe ten or twelve dollars."
"Maybe you"ve got more. You know you never were good at figures.
Lemme look."
He looked. From one of Jack Murray"s hip pockets he withdrew a plump leather poke that gave forth a jingling sound. A search of the inner pocket of the vest produced a thin roll of greenbacks. But the bills were all of large denominations.