Wunpost

"You know what I mean," she said at the gate; "have you forgotten about the cloudburst?"

"Why, no," he returned; "you don"t mean to say----"

"Yes, I do," she replied, "they think your money is accursed. Father says you didn"t come by it honestly."

"Oh, he does, eh?" sulked Wunpost; "and what do you think about it?"

"I think the same," she answered promptly and looked him straight in the eye.

"Well, well," he began with a sardonic smile, and then he thrust out his lip. "All right, kid," he said, "excuse me for living, but I wouldn"t be that good if I could. It takes all the roar out of life. Now here I came back with some money in my pocket, to make you a little present, and the first thing you hand me is this: "My money ain"t come by honestly."

Well, that"s the end of the present."

He shrugged his shoulders and waited, but Billy made no reply.

"I went up into the hills," he went on at last, "and discovered a vein of gold--n.o.body had ever owned it before. And I dug it out and showed the ore to Eells and asked him if he thought it was his. No, he said he couldn"t claim it. Well, I took it to Los Angeles and sold it to a jeweler and here"s the money he paid me for it--don"t you think that money is honest?"

He drew out a sheaf of bills and flicked the ends temptingly, but Billy shook her head.

"No," she said, "because you don"t dare to show the place where you claim you dug up that gold--and you told Mr. Eells you _stole_ it!"

"Heh, heh!" chuckled Wunpost, "you keep right up with me, kid. Don"t reckon I can give you any present. I was just thinking you might like to take a trip to Los Angeles, and see the bright lights and all--taking your mother along, and so forth--but it"s Jail Canyon for you, for life.

If this thousand dollar bill that you earned by saving my life is nothing but tainted money, all I can do is to tender a vote of thanks.

It must be fierce to have a Scotch conscience."

"You mind your own business," answered Billy shortly, and brushed away a furtive tear. A trip to Los Angeles--and new clothes and everything--and she really had earned the money! Yes, she had saved his life and enabled him to come back to dig up some more hidden gold. But it was stolen, and there was an end to it--she turned away abruptly, but he caught her by the hand.

"Say, listen, kid," he said; "I may not be an angel, but I never go back on a friend. Now you tell me what you want and, no matter what it is, I"ll go out and get it for you--honestly. You"re the best friend I"ve got--and you sure look swell, dressed up in them women"s clothes--but I want you to have a good time. I want you to go inside and see the world, and go to the theaters and all, but how"m I going to slip you the money?"

Billy laughed, rather hysterically, and then she turned grave and her eyes looked far away.

"All I want," she said at last, "is a road up Father"s canyon--and I know he won"t accept it from you. So let"s talk about something else.

Are you going back to your mine?"

He sighed, then glanced up at the ridge and nodded his head mysteriously.

"There"s somebody after me," he said at last. "They follow me up now, every place. In town it"s detectives, and out here on the desert it"s Pisen-face Lynch and his gang. But I don"t mind them--I"m looking for that feller that shot me in the leg last month. It wasn"t Lynch--I"ve had him traced--and it wasn"t none of those Shooshonnies; but there"s some feller in these hills that"s out after my scalp and I"ve come back to get him. And when I find him, kid, I"ll light a fire under him that"ll burn "im off the face of the earth. I"m going to kill him, by grab, the same as I would a rattlesnake; I"m going to----"

"Oh, please don"t talk that way!" broke in Wilhelmina impatiently, "it gives people a bad impression. There isn"t a man in Blackwater that isn"t firmly convinced that you"re nothing but a bag of hot air. Well, I don"t care--that"s just what they said!"

"Ahhr!" scoffed Wunpost, "them Blackwater stiffs. They"re jealous, that"s what"s the matter."

"No, but don"t talk that way," she pleaded. "It turns folks against you.

Even Father and Mother have noticed it. You"re always telling of the big things you"re going to do----"

"Well, don"t I _do_ "em?" he demanded. "What did I ever say I"d do that I didn"t make good, in the end? Don"t you think I"m going to get this bad _hombre_--this feller that"s following me through the hills? Well, I"ll tell you what I"ll do. If I don"t bring you his hair inside of a month--you can have my mine and everything. But I"m going to _git_ him, see? I"m going to toll him across the Valley, where he"ll have to come out into the open, and when I ketch him I"m going to scalp him. He"s nothing but a low-down, murdering a.s.sa.s.sin that old Eells or somebody has hired----"

"Oh, _please_!" she protested and his eyes opened big before they closed down in a sudden scowl.

"Well, I"ll show you," he said and packed and rode off in silence.

CHAPTER XX

THE WAR EAGLE

Since a bullet from nowhere had shot him through the leg, Wunpost had learned a new fear of the hills. Before, they had been his stamping-ground, the "high places" he was so boastful of; but now they became imbued with a malign personality, all the more fearful because it was unknown. With painstaking care he had checked up on Pisen-face Lynch, to determine if it was he who had ambushed him; but Lynch had established a perfect alibi--in fact, it was almost too good. He had been right in Blackwater during all the trouble, although now he was out in the hills; and an Indian whom Wunpost had sent on a scout reported that the Shoshones had no knowledge of the shooting. They, too, had become aware of the strange presence in the hills, though none of them had really seen it, and their women were afraid to go out after the pinon-nuts for fear of being caught and stolen.

The prowler was no renegade Shoshone, for his kinsmen would know about him, and yet Wunpost had a feeling it was an Indian. And he had another hunch--that the Indian was employed by Eels and Pisen-face Lynch. For, despite Wilhelmina"s statement, there was one man in Blackwater who did not consider him a bag of hot air. Judson Eells took him seriously, so seriously, in fact, that he was spending thousands of dollars on detectives; and Wunpost knew for a certainty that there was a party in the hills, waiting and watching to trail him to his mine. His departure from Los Angeles had been promptly reported, and Lynch and several others had left town--which was yet another reason why Wunpost quit the hills and went north over the Death Valley Trail.

Life had suddenly become a serious affair to the man who had discovered the Willie Meena, and as he neared that mine he veered off to the right and took the high ground to Wild Rose. Yet he could not but observe that the mine was looking dead, and rumor had it that the paystreak had failed. The low-grade was still there and Eells was still working it; but out on the desert and sixty miles from the railroad it could hardly be expected to pay. No, Judson Eells was desperate, for he saw his treasure slipping as the Wunpost had slipped away before; it was slipping through his fingers and he grasped at any straw which might help him to find the Sockdolager. It was the curse of the Panamints that the veins all pinched out or ran into hungry ore; and for the second time, when he had esteemed himself rich, he had found the bottom of the hole. He had built roads and piped water and set up a mill and settled down to make his pile; and then, with that strange fatality which seemed to pursue him, he had seen his profits fail. The a.s.says had shown that his pay-ore was limited and that soon the Willie Meena must close, and now he was taking the last of his surplus and making a desperate fight for the Sockdolager.

Half the new mine was his, according to law, and since Wunpost had dared him to do his worst he was taking him at his word. And Wunpost at last was getting scared, though not exactly of Eells. For, since he alone knew the location of his mine, and no one could find it if he were dead, it stood to reason that Eells would never kill him, or give orders to his agents to kill. But what those agents were doing while they were out in the field, and how far they would respect his wishes, was something about which Eells knew no more than Wunpost, if, in fact, he knew as much. For Wunpost had a limp in his good right leg which partially conveyed the answer, and it was his private opinion that Lynch had gone bad and was out in the hills to kill him. Hence his avoidance of the peaks, and even the open trail; and the way he rode into water after dark.

There were Indians at Wild Rose, Shooshon Johnny and his family on their way to Furnace Creek for the winter; but though they were friendly Wunpost left in the night and camped far out on the plain. It was the same sandy plain over which he had fled when he had led Lynch to Poison Spring, and as he went on at dawn Wunpost felt the first vague misgivings for his part in that unfortunate affair. It had lost him a lot of friends and steeled his enemies against him--Lynch no longer was working by the day--and sooner or later it was likely to cost him dear, for no man can win all the time. Yet he had thrown down the gauntlet, and if he weakened now and quit his name would be a byword on the desert. And besides he had made his boast to Wilhelmina that he would come back with his a.s.sailant"s back hair.

It was a matter of pride with John C. Calhoun that, for all his wild talk, he never made his brag without trying to live up to his word. He had stated in public that he was going to break Eells, and he fully intended to do so; and his promise to get Lynch and Phillip F. Lapham was never out of his mind; but this a.s.sa.s.sin, this murderer, who had shot him without cause and then crawled off through the boulders like a snake--Wunpost had schemed night and day from the moment he was. .h.i.t to bring the sneaking miscreant to book. He had some steel-traps in his packs which might serve to good purpose if he could once get the man-hunter on his trail; and he still fondly hoped to lure him over into Death Valley, where he would have to come out of the hills.

No man could cross that Valley without leaving his tracks, for there were alkali flats for miles; and when, in turn, Wunpost wished to cover his own trail, there was always the Devil"s Playground. There, whenever the wind blew, the great sandhills were on the move, covering up and at the same time laying bare; and when a sand storm came on he could lose his tracks half an hour after they were made. It was a big country, and wild, no man lived there for sixty miles--they could fight it out, alone.

From Emigrant Spring, where he camped after dark, Wunpost rode out before dawn and was well clear of the hills before it was light enough to shoot. The broad bulwark of Tucki Mountain, rising up on his right, might give a last shelter to his enemy; but now he was in the open with Emigrant Wash straight ahead and Death Valley lying white beyond. And over beyond that, like a wall of layer cake, rose the striated b.u.t.tresses of the Grapevines. Wunpost pa.s.sed down over the road up which the Nevada rush had come when he had made his great strike at Black Point; and as he rollicked along on his fast-walking mule, with the two pack-animals following behind, something rose up within him to tell him the world was good and that a lucky star was leading him on.

He was heading across the Valley to the Grapevine Range, and the hateful imp of evil which had dogged him through the Panamints would have to come down and leave a trail. And once he found his tracks Wunpost would know who he was fighting, and he could govern himself accordingly. If it was an Indian, well and good; if it was Lynch, still well and good; but no man can be brave when he is fighting in the dark or fleeing from an unseen hand. From their lookouts on the heights his enemies could see him traveling and trace him with their gla.s.ses all day; but when night fell they would lose him, and then someone would have to descend and pick up his trail in the sands.

Wunpost camped that evening at Surveyor"s Well, a trench-hole dug down into the Sink, and after his mules had eaten their fill of salt-gra.s.s he packed up again and pushed on to the east. From the stinking alkali flat with its mesquite clumps and sacaton, he pa.s.sed on up an interminable wash; and at daylight he was hidden in the depths of a black canyon which ended abruptly behind him. There was no way to reach him, or even see where he was hid, except by following up the canyon; and before he went to sleep Wunpost got out his two bear-traps and planted them hurriedly in the trail. Then, retiring into a cave, he left Good Luck on guard and slept until late in the day. But nothing stirred down the trail, his watch-dog was silent--he was hidden from all the world.

That evening just at dusk he went back down the trail and set his bear traps again, but not even a prowling fox came along in the night to spring their cruel jaws. The canyon was deserted and the water-hole where he drank was unvisited except by his mules. These he had penned in above him by a fence of brush and ropes and hobbled them to make doubly sure; but in the morning they were there, waiting to receive their bait of grain as if Tank Canyon was their customary home. Another day dragged by and Wunpost began to fidget and to watch the unscalable peaks, but no Indian"s head appeared to draw a slug from his rifle and again the night pa.s.sed uneventfully. He spent the third day in a fury, pacing up and down his cave, and at nightfall he packed up and was gone.

Three days was enough to wait on the man who had shot him down from the heights and, now that he thought of it, he was taking a great deal for granted when he set his big traps in the trail. In the first place, he was a.s.suming that the man was still there, after a lapse of six weeks and more; and in the second place that he was bold enough, or so obsessed by blood-l.u.s.t, that he would follow him across Death Valley; whereas as a matter of fact, he knew nothing whatever about him except that he had shot him in the leg. His aim had been good but a little too low, which is unusual when shooting down hill, and that might argue him a white man; but his hiding had been better, and his absolute patience, and that looked more like an Indian. But whoever he was, it was taking too much for granted to think that he would walk into a trap. What Wunpost wanted to know, and what he was about to find out, was whether his tracks had been followed.

He left Tank Canyon after dark, driving his pack-mules before him to detect any possible ambush; and in his nest on the front pack Good Luck stood up like a sentinel, eager to scent out the lurking foe. For the past day and night Good Luck had been uneasy, snuffing the wind and growling in his throat, but the actions of his master had been cause enough for that, for he responded to Wunpost"s every mood. And Wunpost was as jumpy as a cat that has been chased by a dog, he practised for hours on the draw-and-shoot; and whenever he dismounted he dragged his rifle with him to make sure he would do it in a pinch. He was worried but not frightened and when he came free from the canyon he headed for Surveyor"s Well.

Someone had been there before him, perhaps even that very night, for water had been splashed about the hole; but whoever it was, was gone.

Wunpost studied the unshod horse-track, then he began to cut circles in the snow-white alkali and at last he sat down to await the dawn. There was something eerie about this pursuit, if pursuit it was, for while the horse had been watered from the bucket at the well, its rider had not left a track. Not a heel-mark, not a nail-point, and the last of the water had been dropped craftily on the spot where he had mounted. That was enough--Wunpost knew he had met his match. He watered his mules again, rode west into the mesquite brush and at sun-up he was hid for the day.

Where three giant mesquite trees, their tops reared high in the air and their trunks banked up with sand, sprawled together to make a natural barricade, Wunpost unpacked his mules and tied them there to browse while he climbed to the top of a mound. The desert was quite bare as far as he could see--no horseman came or went, every distant trail was empty, the way to Tank Canyon was untrod. And yet somewhere there must be a man and a horse--a very ordinary horse, such as any man might have, and a man who wiped out his tracks. Wunpost lay there a long time, sweeping the washes with his gla.s.ses, and then a shadow pa.s.sed over him and was gone. He jumped and a glossy raven, his head turned to one side, gave vent to a loud, throaty _quawk_! His mate followed behind him, her wings rustling noisily, her beady eye fixed on his camp, and Wunpost looked up and cursed back at them.

If the ravens on the mountain had made out his hiding-place and come down from their crags to look, what was to prevent this man who smoothed out his tracks from detecting his hidden retreat? Wunpost knew the ravens well, for no man ever crossed Death Valley without hearing the whish of black wings, but he wondered now if this early morning visit did not presage disaster to come. What the ravens really sought for he knew all too well, for he had seen their knotted tracks by dead forms; yet somehow their pa.s.sage conjured up thoughts in his brain which had never disturbed him before. They were birds of death, rapacious and evil-bringing, and they had cast their boding shadows upon him.

The dank coolness of the morning gave place to ardent midday before he crept down and gave up his watch, but as he crouched beneath the trees another shadow pa.s.sed over him and cast a slow circle through the brush.

It was a pair of black eagles, come down from the Panamints to throw a fateful circle above _him_, and in all his wanderings it had never happened before that an eagle had circled his camp. A superst.i.tious chill made Wunpost shudder and draw back, for the Shoshones had told him that the eagles loved men"s battles and came from afar to watch. They had learned in the old days that when one war-party followed another there would later be feasting and blood; and now, when one man followed another across the desert, they came down from their high cliffs to look. Wunpost scrambled to his hillock and watched their effortless flight; and they swung to the north, where they circled again, not far from the spot where he was hid. Here was an omen indeed, a sign without fail, for below where they circled his enemy was hiding--or slipping up through the brush to shoot.

We can all stand so much of superst.i.tious fear and then the best nerves must crack--Wunpost saddled his mules and struck out due south, turning off into the "self-rising ground." Here in bloated bubbles of salt and poisonous niter the ground had boiled up and formed a brittle crust, like dough made of self-rising flour. It was a dangerous place to go, for at uncertain intervals his mules caved through to their hocks, but Wunpost did not stop till he had crossed to the other side and put ten miles of salt-flats behind him. He was haunted by a fear of something he could not name, of a presence which pursued him like a devil; but as he stopped and looked back the hot curses rushed to his lips and he headed boldly for the mouth of Tank Canyon.