'I'm with yu,' the puncher said, after a moment's consideration.
The old man was clearly pleased. 'I'll be along 'bout daybreak, have to slide out quiet-like, I'm bein' watched,' he saidimportantly. 'Mind, not a word to anybody. Well, I'll get agoin'.'
'Won't yu wait till Jacob shows up?' Sudden asked. 'He'd admire to meet yu; he's a Forty-niner too.' Snowy's eyes showed a flicker of alarm. 'Got no time now --lot to do,' he muttered, and scurried out with a bare word of farewell.
'Odd number that--he seemed kinda scared,' Gerry remarked. 'Mebbe he never was in California.'
'An' mebbe he was,' Sudden said sardonically.
'Don't like yu goin' alone, Jim; it would be easy to wipe out the pair o' yu.'
'Snowy is safe till Lesurge knows where the mine is.'
'Shore, but why send you?'
'That's what I'm hopin' to find out.'
'It's a risk, Jim.'
'Shucks, the fella who allus plays it safe gets no fun outa life,' Sudden said lightly. 'Yu'll have to explain to Rogers, an' if yu do three times as much work it'll even my bein' away.'
'Half my usual day extra'll be enough for that,' Gerry retaliated. 'If I do more, they'll be damn sorry to see yu back. Don't worry, fella; we won't miss yu, 'cept at meal-times.'
Chapter XI
A faint, cold light above the Eastern horizon was announcing the advent of another day when the expedition set out. Snowy was draped over the saddle of an aged, stone-coloured mare to whom the loss of one ear gave a dilapidated but rather rakish appearance. Sudden eyed the beast with saturnine disfavour.
'She looks a proper Jezebel,' the puncher grinned.
Snowy had climbed down in order to display his acquisition to better advantage.
'Funny, that's the very name the fella gave her,' he said. 'I'm goin' to make it 'Jessie,' for short; he told me she had a nice disposition. Barrin' that chawed-off ear ' He did not finish; a lashing left hoof, which would inevitably have removed Snowy's head had he been a foot higher, gave him something else to think about. 'Just playful, that's what,' he added, from a safe distance.
'Yeah, but if that lick had landed yu'd 'a' been pretty near back in Wayside by now,' the cowboy said dryly. He cut a stout stick from a neighboring bush. 'Thisyer is a magic wand; as long as yu carry it, she won't feel frolicsome.' He proved a true prophet; after one guileful look at the weapon, Jezebel quietly submitted to being mounted.
The prospector led the way westward along the gulch.
Snowy appeared to know his way and rode stolidly on, thumping the ribs of his mount with unspurred heels. Presently they emerged, as from a tunnel, into daylight, and began to climb a rock-strewn slope which slanted upwards to the bare mountains ahead.
Somehow the miner seemed to have lost much of his madness; the vacant, stupid expression so frequently on his face was absent.
Midday brought the end of the arduous ascent and they found themselves among the black crags, great, grim needles of stone without vegetation of any kind to clothe their precipitous sides. The heat was almost intolerable. Lizards sunning themselves on the boulders and a big rattlesnake were the only signs of life save a solitary eagle, sailing serenely in the sky.
'Yo're the lucky guy,' Sudden mused aloud. 'Wings is what a fella needs in these parts.'
'He, he,' Snowy cackled. 'Fancy a cowboy wantin' wings; wish for the moon, boy--you got as good a chance.'
'Dessay yo're right,' Sudden laughed. 'Well, they must be awkward things to get a coat over, anyway.' The descent from the top of the ridge was shorter but more steep, and frequent precipices into which a slip would hurl the traveller made it dangerous in the extreme. Most of it had to be negotiated afoot, and both men breathed a sigh of relief when they reached level ground. This was a small desert of sand and sagebrush, and having crossed that, they encountered a second range of hills, more imposing and wilder than the first. Sudden surveyed them with an expression of whim sical despair.
'If yu'd told me I'd 'a' rode a goat,' he said.
'We ain't gotta climb this one,' Snowy replied. 'We mosey along a piece through the foothills; it ain't fur now.' Despite the air of confidence he affected, Sudden got the impression that his guide was not too sure; several times during the day he had lagged behind, and the puncher had seen him furtively studying a piece of paper, peering about as though in search of landmarks.
Dusk was approaching when Snowy pulled up. 'Pretty close now,' he said, 'but I reckon we'd better camp an' wait for daylight. Oughta be a sort o' cave where we can build a fire what won't be seen.' He pushed on through the brush and then grinned at his companion as a shallow hole in the hill-side came in view.
'Thar she is, shore as cats has kittens,' he cried triumphantly. 'Don't seem as no varmints has took up residence neither.' Sudden dismounted. 'Some `varmint' has built a fire,' he pointed out.
Snowy laughed slyly. 'He's talkin' to you. Leavin' them ashes has lost me a lot o' sleep--oughta buried 'em.' The cowboy asked no questions--he believed in 'letting the other man talk.' They made a small fire--for it would be cold later on--and ate some of the food they had brought. Then the prospector packed and lit a battered pipe, leant back with a sigh of content, and watched the other's deft fingers roll a cigarette.
'I ain't been treatin' yu right,' the puncher said presently. 'I oughta be callin' yu `Ducane'. '
'Forget it,' was the reply. 'I've been `Snowy' so long that half the time I don't reckernize my own name. So yo're athrowin' in with Lesurge, eh, Jim?'
'Looks thataway, don't it?'
'Yeah, but things ain't allus what they look like, an' if I warn't scared you'd blow me to hellangone I'd call you a liar.'
'Now's yore time,' Sudden smiled. '1 ain't liable to ruo yu out till yu've showed me the mine.'
'Who said I was goin' to?'
'Partner, yu can't lose me--I'm aimin' to be yore shadow.'
'I can take you right over the mine an' you wouldn't know it, an' point out some place where it ain't,' Snowy retorted.
The cowboy laughed again. 'Yo're a cunnin' of fox,' he admitted. 'But if yu think I ain't in with Lesurge, why fetch me here?'
'Paul's suggestion, dunno the reason; must be somethin' behind it, for he don't like you.'
'That's mighty sad hearin',' Sudden answered gravely, but his eyes were mirthful. 'I've had a dim suspicion of it my own self; I'll have to earn his better opinion.'
'Shore,' Snowy said, and the one word spoke volumes. 'What I'm wonderin' is why yu hate Lesurge?' Sudden said quietly.
If the puncher had pulled a gun on him the prospector could not have been more amazed.
'Who told--?' he began and stopped. Then, after a moment's hesitation, he shrugged and said, 'I dunno how you got wise, Jim--I thought I'd diddled 'em all, includin' Paul. Damn him, he's playin' me for a sucker an' thinks he can rob me--Mary. Ts young Mason white?'
'He's my friend, Snowy.'
'That's good enough for me. We'll beat that devil, clever as he is, just the three of us. I'm agoin' to turn in, boy; gotta be astir early.' For a while after the old man had rolled himself in his blanket, the cowboy sat smoking and staring into the fire, thinking over what had happened. His chance shot had hit the mark, plumb centre, and yet he could not say why he had made it. Snowy's attitude was easily explained: he suspected Lesurge meant to steal his mine, a deadly offence in the eyes of one to whom gold was a god. Sudden, of the same opinion, was glad to discover that the prospector was not the simple dupe he had appeared to be.
When they set out in the morning, the mare was disposed to be fractious, but the magic wand brought obedience. Snowy had found occasion to make vigorous use of it the previous day and, tough as the animal's hide was, her ribs were still sore.
'Learnin' sense, huh?' her master said, as he hauled himself into the saddle and pulled her remaining ear. The ugly hammer-head came round, upper lip curled, showing the big yellow teeth. 'Like to chaw my leg, eh, you
