several minutes, and the night wind stirred her skirt. She brushed back a wisp of hair and went back inside, leaving the door open.
There was a fireplace in view, a homemade chair, a table, and some firewood piled by the fireplace. Suddenly,
she came to the door again singing softly, 'Bold, brave and undaunted ...' 'Rode young Brennan on the moor!' I finished the line for her.
She ceased singing, swept off the door step, and then she spoke softly. 'I shall lower the light and leave the door ajar.' She took a few more brushes with the broom, then stepped back inside and partly closed the door; then she lowered the light.
I hesitated. It might be a trap, but 'Brennan on the Moor,' about an Irish highwayman, was a favorite song of Logan's, and mine, for that matter.
I crossed the open space swiftly, flattened against the wall of the cabin to look and listen; then, silent as a ghost, I slipped inside.
She was waiting for me, her back to the table, her eyes wide. A surprisingly pretty girl with a firm chin and a straight, honest look to her.
'You will be William Tell,' she said.
'I am.' 'He described you to me, and Tyrel and Orrin as well. Even Lando, for we did not know who would come. He promised me that somebody would.
I could not believe it.' 'Three of us came, with some friends.' 'I heard.' There was something ironic in her voice. 'I heard that you did not come alone.' 'There's a girl with us who is looking for her brother, Douglas Molrone.' 'He is here.' 'Here?' 'Of course.' 'And Logan?' 'He's here. He's getting over a broken leg. It should be almost healed by now, but I think he's prolonging it.' 'If you are his nurse, I can understand why.' 'He has no nurse. They permit no one near him.' 'Who,' I asked, 'are 'they'?' 'There's gold here. Quite a lot of it, we believe. Some of us began finding it, first just a little, then more. We built a cabin or two and settled down to work.
'Then those others came. They saw what we were doing, and then they began to go to the store for supplies. At first, they bought a little as we did, then they returned for more. Nobody thought anything of it until my father went in to the store and found they had sold out. Everything was gone.
'John Fentrell, the storekeeper, sent a man out for supplies. He did not return.
'Then Logan Sackett came along. He came down the river in a canoe and tried to buy supplies at the store. Then he tried to buy from us, but we were down to almost nothing.
'He found out what had happened, and he offered to drive in a herd of beef cattle for us. He collected money from us, all we had. We managed to kill a little game, and we waited.
'Apparently, he had known of a small herd that had been driven part way here. Actually, I think the drover was headed for Barkerville and got hung up somewhere inland.
'Logan said he bought the herd from him and started back here. His men deserted him, but he kept on; then his cattle were stampeded, and his leg was broken.' 'We got word somebody wanted to hang him.' 'Some of us did. We thought he had taken our money and tried to get away with it. Some of us did not believe there had ever been any herd. Some of us thought he had lied. He promised us that if he could get a message out, he'd get cattle here before snow fell. There wasn't much else we could do, so we sent his message, and we've waited.' 'Did you believe him?' 'Sort of. We sent a man out for supplies, and he got back, traveling at night with a canoe. He was going again, but his canoe was stolen.
'All the time those other men just loafed around, eating very well and just waiting. They mined very little and cut just enough wood for themselves and waited for us to starve.
'The man they called Cougar taunted us. He said if we were smart, we'd get out while we could, that Logan had lied and there was no herd. He said even if there was, there was no way cattle could reach us.
'They brought in more supplies, but they would sell none of them, and every man we sent out either failed to come back or had his supplies stolen.
'They wanted the gold for themselves, all of it, and they were trying to force us out. We put some fish traps in the river, Indian style, and that helped until they discovered what we were doing. They destroyed our traps as fast as we built them.' 'How many of you are there?' 'Eight. There are four men and three women.' She paused. 'And there's a boy. Danny is about ten.' 'And them?' 'There was just five of them. Now there are at least a dozen. Two of them were gone for quite a while, and when they came back, there were some other men with them. The two who left were George and Perry Stamper.' 'We've met them.' He was listening. Several times he thought he heard faint sounds outside. He glanced at her. How far could he trust her? Was she one of them?
'Can you put names to the others?' he asked.
'Shanty's their leader, or he seems to be.
That's Shanty Gavin. Then there's Doug Molrone--' 'He's one of them?' 'Yes, he is. He was one of the first ones.
He came in with Shanty and the Stampers and that man Cougar. Oh, it's simple enough! If we leave, they will simply take over all the claims and have the gold to themselves! All they want to do is starve us out so we have to leave. Then they can say we abandoned the claims.' 'Mind sitting in the dark?' 'What? Oh? No, not really. If you mean am I afraid of you, I'm not. Not in the least.
I'm not afraid of any man.' 'Put the light out, will you? There'll be the glow from the fireplace.' She glanced at me, then blew out the light.
'Did you hear something?' 'I thought I did.' The fire had died to red coals. I liked the glow of it on her face. Her hair was dark, as were her eyes, and her skin deeply tanned.
'Where is your father?' 'He went away. He went overland to try to find supplies. He has not returned.' 'You know who I am,' I suggested.
She hesitated, then turned her eyes to me.
'I am Laurie Gavin,' she said.
Chapter XXV
'Gavin?' 'Shanty is my stepbrother,' she explained.
'And Kyle?' Surprised, she looked around at me. 'What do you know of Kyle? But how could you know him? He is in Toronto!' 'He is on his way here, I believe.' 'Kyle is my brother. My real brother.' I drew my gun. 'Someone is coming, I think. Are you afraid?' 'Of course. I know them. On the surface, they are very quiet, very smooth, very soft-spoken, but do not trust them, William Tell Sackett, for they lie, and they will kill.' 'Shanty, too?' 'He is the worst of them. Remember this. He is no blood brother of mine. My father married his mother, and he took our name. He preferred it to Stamper.' I returned the gun to its holster. There was a tap on the door. She glanced at me, and I said, 'Answer it.' She went to the door. 'Yes?' she said.
'Open the door, Laurie. You've a man in there we want.' She opened it, and Cougar and another, larger, more powerful man with a shock of blond hair stepped in.
'I am Tell Sackett,' I said. 'Are you looking for me?' Cougar stepped aside. 'Be careful, Shanty. This one's tough.' 'Knowing that,' I said, 'might save us all some trouble.' Shanty had a nice smile. 'But we've got you,' he said. 'There's no way you can get away.' I smiled back at him. 'Then take me,' I said. 'I'm here.' Shanty hesitated. It worried him that I was not afraid, and he was a cautious man. I did not doubt his courage, but there is a time to be brave and a time not to be a damned fool.
'We've got your brother,' he said. 'We can kill him whenever we wish.' 'Logan? He's not my brother, just a sort of distant cousin, but there are a lot of Sacketts, Shanty. If you step on the toes of one, they all come running.' 'You came,' he admitted. 'I never thought you'd make it.' 'There are two more up on the mountain, and by now they're beginning to miss me. They're getting lonely on the mountain, Shanty, and they'll come down.' 'We will handle them.' 'And there are more of us where we came from. Be smart, Shanty. Cash in your chips while you still can. Walk away from here now. Just lay down your hand.' He laughed, and there was real humor in it. 'You know, Sackett, I like you. I'm going to hate to kill you.' 'We've brought the cattle through, Shanty. In spite of all your boys could do, they are here.
There's beef enough to last the winter through, and we might get in some other supplies before the cold sets in.
'As far as that goes, we can let them have what's left of our supplies. You played a strong hand, but when the showdown came, you just didn't have it.' Out on the mountain, I heard a wild, clear yell in the night, and I knew
