The fire spluttered just beyond the door of the tent. Its cheerful light supported the efforts of the kerosene lamp within. Peigan Charley squatted over its friendly warmth, his lean hands outheld to its flickering blaze in truly Indian fashion. His position had been taken up with a view to observing his wounded chief, whose condition concerned him more than anything else in the world, except it was, perhaps, his delight in driving the men of his own color under him, and his absolute contempt for his own race.
John Kars was lying on his blankets, yielding to the skilful attention of Dr. Bill. His final journey from the gorge to the camp, ten miles distant, had been perhaps the greatest effort of the night. But with Charley"s help, with the dogged resolve of a spirit that did not understand defeat, it had been finally achieved.
His wound was by no means serious. He knew that. Charley believed, in his simple mind, that his boss was practically a dead man. Hence his watchful regard now. Kars" trouble was little more than loss of blood, and though his tremendous physique had helped him, his weakness during the last two miles of the journey had demanded all his resources to overcome.
The dressing was complete. The last st.i.tches had been put in the bandages about the wound. Bill closed his instrument case, and returned the bottles of antiseptic drugs to the miniature chest he carried. He sat down on the blankets which were spread out for his own use, and smiled genially down at his patient.
"That"s that," he said cheerfully. "But it was a lucky get out for you, John. Say, a shade to the left, and that Breed would have handed you a jugular in two parts. Just take it easy. You"ll travel to-morrow, after a night"s sleep. Guess you"ll be all whole against we make Fort Mowbray. You best talk now, an" get rid of it all. Maybe you"ll sleep a deal easier after."
"Thanks, Bill."
Kars" regard of his friend said far more than his simple words. But then the friendship between these two was of a quality which required little enough of verbal expression. It was the friendship of two men who have shared infinite perils together, of two men whose lives are bound up in loyalty to each other.
For some moments the wounded man made no response to the invitation. A pleasant la.s.situde was at work upon him. It seemed a pity to disturb it by the effort of talk. But it was necessary to talk, and he knew that this was so. There were thoughts and questions in his mind that must have the well-balanced consideration of his friend"s calm mind.
At last he broke the silence with an expletive which expressed something of the enthusiasm he really felt.
"Gee, what a strike!" he said, in a voice much weaker than his usual tone. Then he added as an afterthought, "The gorge is chock full of color. Just git a holt on that handkerchief in my pea-jacket and open it. Say, handle it easy."
He watched the other search the pockets of the coat lying at the foot of his blankets. A great light shone in his gray eyes as Bill produced the handkerchief and began to unfold it. Then, with a raging impatience, he waited while the deposit he had collected from the riffles of the sluice-box was examined under the lamplight.
At last Bill raised his eyes, and Kars read there all he wanted to know.
"It"s mostly color. There"s biggish stuff amongst it."
"That"s how I figgered." Kars" tone was full of contentment.
"Well?"
Bill carefully refolded the handkerchief, and laid it beside his medicine chest.
Kars emitted a sound like a chuckle,
"Oh, it was a bully play," he said. Then, after a moment: "Listen, I"ll tell it from the start."
Kars talked, with occasional pauses, for nearly half an hour. He detailed the events of the night in the barest outline, and only dealt closely with the fact of the gold workings. These he explained with the technicalities necessary between experts. He dwelt upon his estimate of the quality of the auriferous deposits as he had been able to make it in the darkness, and from his sense of touch. The final story of his encounter with Louis Creal only seemed to afford him amus.e.m.e.nt in the telling.
"You see, Bill," he added, "that feller must have been sick to death.
I mean finding himself with just the squaws and the fossils left around when we come along. His play was clear as daylight. He tried to scare us like a brace of rabbits to be quit of us. It was our bull-headed luck to hit the place right when we did. I mean finding the neches out on a trail of murder instead of lying around their teepees."
"Yes. But we"re going to get them on our trail anyway."
"Sure we are--when he"s rounded "em up."
Bill produced his timepiece and studied it reflectively.
"It"s an hour past midnight," he said. "We"ll need to be on the move with daylight. We best hand them all the mileage we can make. We"ve got to act bright."
He sat lost in thought for some minutes, his watch still held in the palm of his hand. He was thinking of the immediate rather than of the significance of his friend"s discovery. His cheerful face was grave.
He was calculating chances with all the care of a clear-thinking, experienced brain.
John Kars was thinking too. But the direction which absorbed him was quite different. He was regarding his discovery in connection with Fort Mowbray.
At last he stirred restlessly.
"I can"t get it right!" he exclaimed. "I just can"t."
"How"s that?"
Bill"s plans were complete. For a day or so he knew that his would be the responsibility. Kars would have to take things easy.
"What can"t you get right?" he added.
"Why, the whole darn play of it. That strike has been worked years, I"d say. We"ve trailed this country with eyes and ears mighty wide.
Guess we haven"t run into a thing about Bell River but what"s darn unpleasant. Years that"s been waiting. Shrieking for us to get around and help ourselves. Gee, I want to kick something."
Bill regarded his friend with serious eyes.
"You"re going to b.u.t.t in? You"re going to play a hand in that--game?"
Kars" eyes widened in surprise.
"Sure." Then he added, "So are you." He smiled.
Bill shook his head.
"Not willingly--me," he said.
"Why not?"
Bill stretched himself out on his blankets. He was fully dressed. He intended to pa.s.s the night that way. He clasped his hands behind his neck, and his gaze was on the firelight beyond the door.
"First, because it"s taking a useless chance. You don"t need it," he said deliberately. "Second, because that was Allan Mowbray"s strike.
It was his big secret that he"d worked most of his days for, and, in the end, gave his life for. If we b.u.t.t in there"ll come a rush, and you"ll rob a widow and a young girl who"ve never done you injury. It don"t sound to me your way."
"You think Mrs. Mowbray and Jessie know of it?"
Bill glanced round quickly.
"Mrs. Mowbray--sure."
"Ah--not Jessie?"
"Can"t say. Maybe not. More than likely--not."
"Alec?"
Bill shook his head decidedly.