"Who"s he?" queried Neale, blankly.
"He"s one of Durade"s gang."
"No!" exclaimed Neale. He drew Allie aside. "You"re scared."
"I"d never forget Fresno," she replied, positively. "He was one of the four ruffians who burned Slingerland"s cabin and made off with me."
Then Neale shook with a violent start. He grasped Allie tight.
"I saw him, too. Just before I came in. I saw one of the men that visited us at Slingerland"s.... Big, hulking fellow--red, ugly face--bad look."
"That"s Fresno. He and the gang must have been camped with those graders you brought here. Oh, I"m more afraid of Fresno"s gang than of the Indians."
"But Allie--they don"t know you"re here. You"re safe. The troops will be back soon, and drive these Indians away."
Allie clung to Neale, and again he felt something of the terror these ruffians had inspired in her. He rea.s.sured her, a.s.suming a confidence he was far from feeling, and cautioned her to stay in that protected corner. Then he went in the other room to his station. It angered Neale, and alarmed him, that another peril perhaps menaced Allie. And he prayed for the return of the troops.
The day pa.s.sed swiftly, in intense watchfulness on the part of the defenders, and in a waiting game on the part of the besiegers. They kept up a desultory firing all afternoon. Now and then a reckless grader running from post to post drew a volley from the Sioux; and likewise something that looked like an Indian would call forth shots from the defenses. But there was no real fighting.
It developed that the Sioux were waiting for night. A fiery arrow, speeding from a bow in the twilight, left a curve of sparks in the air, like a falling rocket. It appeared to be a signal for demoniacal yells on all sides. Rifle-shots ceased to come from the slopes. As darkness fell gleams of little fires shot up from all around. The Sioux were preparing to shoot volleys of burning arrows down into the camp.
Anderson hurried in to consult with Baxter. "We"re surrounded," he said, tersely. "The redskins are goin" to try burnin" us out. We"re in a mighty tight place."
"What"s to be done?" asked Baxter.
Anderson shook his head.
On the instant there was a dull spat of an object striking the roof over their heads. This sound was followed by a long, shrill yell.
"That was a burnin" arrow," declared Anderson.
The men, as of one accord, ran out through the engineers" quarters to the open. It was now dark. Little fires dotted the hillsides. A dull red speck, like an ember, showed over the roof, darkened, and disappeared.
Then a streak of fire shot out from the black slope and sped on clear over the camp.
"Sooner or later they"ll make a go of that," muttered Anderson.
Neale heard the scout"s horse, that had been left there in the inclosure.
"Anderson, suppose I jump your horse. It"s dark as pitch. I could run through--reach the troops. I"ll take a chance."
"I had that idee myself," replied Anderson. "But it seems to me if them troopers wasn"t havin" h.e.l.l they"d been here long ago. I"m lookin" for them every minnit. They"ll come. An" we"ve got to fight fire now till they get here."
"But there"s no fire yet," said Baxter.
"There will be," replied Anderson. "But mebbe we can put it out as fast as they start it. Plenty of water here. An" it"s dark. What I"m afraid of is they"ll fire the tents out there, an" then it "ll be light as day.
We can"t risk climbin" over the roofs."
"Neale, go inside--call the boys out," said Baxter.
Neale had to feel his way through the rooms. He called to his comrades, and then to the women to keep up their courage--that surely the troops would soon return.
When he went out again the air appeared full of fiery streaks. Shouts of the graders defiantly answered the yells of the savages. Showers of sparks were dropping upon the camp. The Sioux had ceased shooting their rifles for the present, and, judging from their yells, they had crawled down closer under the cover of night.
Presently a bright light flared up outside of the inclosure. One of the tents had caught fire. The Indians yelled triumphantly. Neale and his companions crouched back in the shadow. The burning tent set fire to the tent adjoining. They blazed up like paper, lighting the camp and slopes.
But not an Indian was visible. They stopped yelling. Then Neale heard the thudding of arrows. Almost at once the roof of the engineers"
quarters, which was merely strips of canvas over a wooden frame, burst into flames. In a single moment the roof of the cabin was blazing. More tents ignited, flared up, and the scene became almost as light as day.
Rifles again began to crack. The crafty Indians poured a hail of bullets into the inclosure and the walls of the buildings. Still not an Indian was visible for the defenders to shoot at.
Anderson, Neale, and Baxter were in grim consultation. They agreed on the scout"s dictum: "Reckon the game"s up. Hustle the women out."
Neale crawled along the inclosure to the opening. On that side of the buildings there was dark shadow. But it was lifting. He ran along the wall, and he heard the whistle of bullets. Back of the cabin the Indians appeared to have gathered in force. Neale got to the corner and peered round. The blazing tents lighted up this end. He saw the graders break and run, some on his side of the cabin. He clambered in. A door of this room was open, and through it Neale saw the roof of the engineers"
quarters blazing. He heard the women screaming. Evidently they too were running out to the in-closure. Neale hurried into the room where he had left Allie. He called. There was no answer, but a growing roar outside apparently drowned his voice. It was dark in this room. He felt along the wall, the fireplace, the corner. Allie was not there. The room was empty. His hands groping low along the floor came in contact with the bag he had left in Allie"s charge. It contained the papers he had taken the precaution to save. Probably in her flight to escape from the burning cabin she had dropped it. But that was not like Allie: she would have clung to the bag while strength and sense were hers. Perhaps she had not gotten out of the cabin. Neale searched again, growing more and more aware of the strife outside. He heard the crackling of wood over his head. Evidently the cabin was burning like tinder. There were men in the back room, fighting, yelling, crowding. Neale could see only dim, burly forms and the flashes of guns. Smoke floated thickly there. Some one, on the inside or outside, was beating out the door with an axe.
He decided quickly that whatever Allie might have done she would not have gone into that room. He retraced his steps, groping, feeling everywhere in the dark.
Suddenly the crackling, the shots, the yells ceased, or were drowned in a volume of greater sound. Neale ran to the window. The flare from the burning tents was dying down. But into the edge of the circle of light he saw loom a line of hors.e.m.e.n.
"Troopers!" he cried, joyfully. A great black pressing weight seemed lifted off his mind. The troops would soon rout that band of sneaking Sioux.
Neale ran to the back room, where, above the din outside, he made himself heard. But for all he could see or hear his tidings of rescue did not at once affect the men there. Then he forgot them and the fight outside in his search for Allie. The cabin was on fire, and he did not mean to leave it until he was absolutely sure she was not hidden or lying in a faint in some corner. And he had not made sure of that until the burning roof began to fall in. Then he leaped out the window and ran back to the inclosure.
The blaze here was no longer bright, but Neale could see distinctly.
Some of the piles of ties were burning. The heat had begun to drive the men out. Troopers were everywhere. And it appeared the rattle of rifles was receding up the valley. The Sioux had retreated.
Here Neale continued his search for Allie. He found Mrs. Dillon and her companions, but Allie was not with them. All he could learn from the frightened women was that Allie had been in their company when they started to run from the cabin. They had not seen her since.
Still Neale did not despair, though his heart sank. Allie was hiding somewhere. Frantically he searched the inclosure, questioned every man he met, rushed back to the burning cabin, where the fire drove him out.
But there was no trace of Allie.
Then the conviction of calamity settled upon him. While the cabin burned, and the troopers and graders watched, Neale now searched for the face of the man he had recognized--the ruffian Allie called Fresno. This search was likewise fruitless.
The following hours were a hideous, slow nightmare for Neale. He had left one hope--that daylight would disclose Allie somewhere.
Day eventually dawned. It disclosed many facts. The Sioux had departed, and if they had suffered any loss there was no evidence of it. The engineers" quarters, cabin, and tents had burned to the ground.
Utensils, bedding, food, grain, tools, and instruments--everything of value except the papers Neale had saved--had gone up in smoke. The troopers who had rescued the work-train must now depend upon that train for new supplies. Many of the graders had been wounded, some seriously, but none fatally. Nine of them were missing, as was Allie Lee.
The blow was terrible for Neale. Yet he did not sink under it. He did not consider the opinion of his sympathetic friends that Allie had wildly run out of the burning cabin to fall into the hands of the Sioux.
He returned with the graders to their camp; and it was no surprise to him to find the wagon-train, that had tarried near, gone in the night.
He trailed that wagon-train to the next camp, where on the busy road he lost the wheel-tracks. Next day he rode horseback all the way in to Benton. But all his hunting and questioning availed nothing. Gloom, heartsickness, and despair surged in upon him, but he did not think of giving up. He remembered all Allie had told him. Those fiends had gotten her again. He believed now all that she had said; and there was something of hope in the thought that if Durade had found her again she would at least not be at the mercy of ruffians like Fresno. But this was a forlorn hope. Still, it upheld Neale and determined him to seek her during the time in which his work did not occupy him.
And thus it came about that Neale plodded through his work along the line during the day, and late in the afternoon rode back with the laborers to Benton. If Allie Lee lived she must be in Benton.
20
Neale took up lodgings with his friend Larry. He did not at first tell the cowboy about his recovery of Allie Lee and then her loss for the second time; and when finally he could not delay the revelation any longer he regretted that he had been compelled to tell.