Presently Gordon got up, yawned, and strolled toward the edge of the camp.
"Don"t go and get lost, young fellow," cautioned Dud.
Gordon, on his way back, pa.s.sed behind the guard, who was sitting tailor fashion before a smudge with a muley shotgun across his knees.
"This ain"t no country for chechakoes to be wandering around without a keeper," the cook continued. "Looks like your folks would have better sense than to let their rah-rah boy--"
He got no farther. Elliot dropped to one knee and his strong fingers closed on the gullet of the man so tightly that not even a groan could escape him. His feet thrashed to and fro as he struggled, but he could not shake off the grip that was strangling him. The old miner, waiting with every muscle ready and every nerve under tension, flung aside his blanket and hurled himself at the guard. It took him less time than it takes to tell to wrest the gun from the cook.
He got to his feet just as Big Bill, his eyes and brain still fogged with sleep, sat up and began to take notice of the disturbance.
"Don"t move," warned Holt sharply. "Better throw your hands up. You reach for the stars, too, Holway. No monkey business, do you hear? I"d as lief blow a hole through you as not."
Big Bill turned bitterly upon Elliot. "So you were faking all the time, young fellow. We save your life and you round on us. You"re a pretty slick proposition as a double-crosser."
"And that ain"t all," chirped up Holt blithely. "Let me introduce our friend to you, Mr. Big Bill Macy. This is Gordon Elliot, the land agent appointed to look over the Kamatlah claims. Selfridge gave you lads this penitentiary job so as I wouldn"t meet Elliot when he reached the camp.
If he hadn"t been so darned anxious about it, our young friend would have died here on the divide. But Mr. Selfridge kindly outfitted a party and sent us a hundred miles into the hills to rescue the perishing, as the old sayin" goes. Consequence is, Elliot and me meet up and have that nice confidential talk after all. The ways of Providence is strange, as you might say, Mr. Macy."
"Your trick," conceded Big Bill sullenly. "Now what are you going to do with us?"
"Not a thing--going to leave you right here to prospect Wild-Goose Creek," answered Holt blandly. "Durden says there"s gold up here--heaps of it."
Bill Macy condemned Durden in language profane and energetic. He didn"t stop at Durden. Holt came in for a share of it, also Elliot and Selfridge.
The old miner grinned at him. "You"ll feel better now you"ve got that out of your system. But don"t stop there if you"d like to say a few more well-chosen words. We got time a-plenty."
"Cut it out, Bill. That line o" talk don"t buy you anything," said Holway curtly. "What"s the use of beefing?"
"Now you"re shouting, my friend," agreed old Gideon. "I guess, Elliot, you can loosen up on the chef"s throat awhile. He"s had persuading enough, don"t you reckon? I"ll sit here and sorter keep the boys company while you cut the pack-ropes and bring "em here. But first I"d step in and unload all the hardware they"re packing. If you don"t one of them is likely to get anxious. I"d hate to see any of them commit suicide with none of their friends here to say, "Don"t he look natural?""
Elliot brought back the pack-ropes and cut them into suitable lengths.
Holt"s monologue rambled on. He was garrulous and affable. Not for a long time had he enjoyed himself so much.
"Better begin with Chief Big Bill," he suggested. "No, I wouldn"t make that move if I was you, Mr. Macy. This old gun is liable to go off accidental in your direction and she spatters like h.e.l.l. That"s the idee. Be reasonable. Not that I give a hoot, but a man hadn"t ought to let his impulses run away with his judgment, as the old sayin" is."
Gordon tied the hands of Big Bill behind him, then roped his feet together, after which he did the same for Holway. The old miner superintended the job and was not satisfied till he had added a few extra knots on his own behalf.
"That"ll hold them for awhile, I shouldn"t wonder. Now if you"ll just cover friend chef with this sawed-off gat, Elliot, I"ll throw the diamond hitch over what supplies we"ll need to get back to Kamatlah.
I"ll take one bronch and leave the other to the convicts," said Holt cheerfully.
"Forget that convict stuff," growled Macy. "With Macdonald back of us and the Guttenchilds back of him, you"ll have a hectic time getting anything on us."
"That might be true if these folks were back of you. But are they?
Course I ain"t any Sherlock Holmes, but it don"t look to me like they"d play any such fool system as this."
Big Bill opened his mouth to answer--and said nothing. He had caught a look flashed at him by Holway, a look that warned him he was talking too much.
After Holt had packed one of the animals he turned to Elliot.
"I reckon we"re ready."
Under orders from Elliot, Dud fixed up the smudges and arranged the mosquito netting over the bound men so as to give them all the protection possible.
"We"re going to take Dud with us for a part of the trip. We"ll send him back to you later in the day. You"ll have to fast till he gets back, but outside of that you"ll do very well if you don"t roll around trying to get loose. Do that, and you"ll jar loose the mosquito netting. You know what that means," explained Gordon.
"It ain"t likely any grizzlies will come pokin" their noses into camp.
But you never can tell. Any last words you want sent to relatives?"
asked Gideon Holt.
The last words they heard from Big Bill as they moved down the draw were sulphuric.
"Macy he ain"t wearin" any W. J. Bryan smile this glad mo"nin"," mused old Holt aloud.
It was three o"clock in the morning by the watch when they started.
About nine they threw off for breakfast. By this time they were just across the divide and were ready to take the down trail.
"I think we"ll let Dud go now," Elliot told his partner in the adventure.
"Better hold him till afternoon. Then they can"t possibly reach us till we get to Kamatlah."
"What does it matter if they do? We have both rifles and have left them only one revolver. Besides, I don"t like to leave two bound men alone in so wild a district for any great time. No, we"ll start Dud on the back trail. That grizzly you promised Big Bill might really turn up."
The two men struck the headwaters of Wild-Goose Creek about noon and followed the stream down. They traveled steadily without haste. So long as they kept a good lookout there was nothing to be feared from the men they had left behind. They had both a long start and the advantage of weapons.
If Elliot had advertised for a year he could not have found a man who knew more of Colby Macdonald"s past than Gideon Holt. The old man had mushed on the trail with him in the Klondike days. He had worked a claim on Frenchman Creek with him and had by sharp practice--so at least he had come to believe--been lawed out of his rights by the shrewd Scotchman. For seventeen years he had nursed a grudge against Macdonald, and he was never tired of talking about him. He knew many doubtful things charged to the account of the big man as he had blazed a way to success over the failures of less fortunate people. One story in particular interested Gordon. It came out the second day, as they were getting down into the foothills.
"There was Farrell O"Neill. He was a good fellow, Farrell was, but he had just one weakness. There was times when he liked the bottle too well. He"d let it alone for months and then just lap the stuff up. It was the time of the stampede to Bonanza Creek. Men are just like sheep.
They wear wool on their backs like them and have their habits. You can start "em any fool way for no cause a-tall. Don"t you know it? Well, the news of the strike on Bonanza reached Dawson and we all burnt up the trail to get to the new ground first. O"Neill was one of the first.
He got in about twenty below discovery, if I remember. Mac wasn"t in Dawson, but he got there next mo"nin" and heard the news. He lit out for Bonanza _p.r.o.nto_."
The old miner stopped, took a chew of tobacco, and looked down into the valley far below where Kamatlah could just be seen, a little huddle of huts.
"Well?" asked Elliot. It was occasionally necessary to prompt Holt when he paused for his dramatic effects. He would pretend to forget that he was telling a yarn which might interest his hearer.
"Mac draps in and joins O"Neill at night. They knew each other, y"
understand, so o" course it was natural Mac would put up at his camp.
O"Neill had a partner and they had located together. Fellow named Strong."
"Not Hanford Strong, a little, heavy-set man somewhere around fifty?"
Gordon asked quickly.
"You"ve tagged the right man. Know him?"
"I"ve met him."
"Well, I never heard anything against Han Strong. Anyway, he was off that night packing grub up while Farrell held down the claim. Mac had a jug of booze with him. He got Farrell tanked up. You know Mac--how he can put it across when he"s a mind to. He"s a forceful devil, and he can be a mighty likable one."
Elliot nodded understanding. "He"s always the head of the table no matter where he sits. And there is something wonderfully attractive about him."