'Good night--Jim,' she said.
Chapter XIII
Sudden's disappearance caused consternation in the cabin of the gold-dealer, and Gerry's first job in the morning was to interview Bizet. The proprietor of the Paris could only tell him that the puncher had left early, sober and alone.
'I warn him to be careful,' he said. 'He have made enemy, you understan'?' One or two men remembered meeting him in the street, heading for home, and that was all he could learn. On the way back from his futile quest, his plainsman's eye noted the signs of a scuffle near the big bush, turf torn up, stones dislodged, and, in one place, a splash of blood. The ground behind was trodden flat and littered with cigarette stubs. A little way off, horses had waited. Gerry swore.
'Damnation! They laid for him,' he growled. 'I oughtn't to 'a' let him go alone.' He tried to follow the hoof- prints, but soon had to give it up as hopeless. He returned to Jacob and told him what he feared.
'He ain't gone willin'--the marks show that,' he concluded. 'An' he'd never leave Nigger behind.'
'We can only wait,' the old man said. 'I've great faith in your friend; if he's in trouble, he'll get out of it.' But two days passed and there was no news of the missing man, and then Gerry got a shock. He was in the Paris, talking to Bizet and Hickok, when a half-drunken miner lurched up and said sneeringly:
'Still mournin' that pardner o' your'n? Well, you needn't to worry 'bout him. He's holed up somewheres handy an' he's the swine who's killin' an' robbin' we'uns of our dust, one at a lick. But mebbe I ain't bringin' you news?' For a moment the cowboy did not comprehend; then the full import of the accusation came to him, and he acted. His left fist swung out, caught the speaker full in the mouth and sent him sprawling on the sanded floor. When, spitting out curses and blood from badly gashed lips, he started to rise, he found Gerry's gun slanted on him.
'Own yo're a liar,' the boy gritted, his face pale with fury. The blow and the threat sobered the miner. 'Mebbe, but I'm on'y tellin' you the common talk,' he said sullenly.
Hickok put a hand on Gerry's arm. 'Let him get up an' we'll hear what he has to say,' he suggested.
The man climbed to his feet. 'There was a digger shot an' cleaned out two days back an' a fella wearin' leggin's, a 'two-gallon' hat, ridin' a black hoss, was seen around just before,' he said. 'This arternoon another is clubbed, an' dies, but not before he's able to say one word, 'Sudden.' Them's fac's, mister,' he concluded triumphantly.
'My partner is not the killer,' Gerry retorted angrily. 'I know Jim.'
'You may, but there's a-plenty in this city as don't, an' if he's catched he'll take the high jump, I'm tellin' you. He wears the duds an' rides a black.'
'Which has been in Jacob's corral the whole time,' the boy pointed out.
'Havin' bin left as a blind,' suggested a bystander, and earned a look from the gunman which sent him sidling towards the door.
'I too know Green,' Hickok said loudly. 'He is not the kind to commit cowardly crimes.' This pronouncement finished the discussion so far as the Paris was concerned, but in the other saloons the matter was being fiercely commented on and the puncher was already adjudged guilty and condemned. The only other topic which vied with it in importance was the disappearance of Miss Lesurge. At first Paul had accepted her absence with a quiet confident smile.
'Lora can take care of herself,' he said.
But when the second day passed and he learned that Green was also missing, he became uneasy, and sent out searchers to comb the district; they returned without news.
'Mebbe they've run away to git hitched,' Snowy suggested. Paul's eyes flashed, but he smiled. 'Forty dollars a month wouldn't keep Lora in shoe-leather,' he said. 'But of course, he knows where your mine is.' The old man looked alarmed for a moment, and then replied stoutly, 'Jim wouldn't do a thing like that--he's white.'
'According to what they're saying in town he's as black as Satan's soul,' Lesurge contradicted.
Though he had scoffed at it, Snowy's guess returned to him when he was alone, and brought a heavy frown to his brow. Pacing up and down the room, he weighed the pros and cons, and knowing Lora's tempestuous nature, had to admit that it was possible.
'She wouldn't dare,' he muttered, and knew he lied.
Meanwhile, in the kidnappers' camp, the prisoners were playing for time. In the morning, their leader paid Sudden another visit, bringing the lady with him. The night's rest, a wash in a nearby spring, a few deft touches to hair and dress, had transformed her into a different person, and the puncher saw admiration in their gaoler's eyes when she greeted her companion in captivity with a gay smile. But the fellow's voice was gruff when he asked:
'Any new ideas this mornin'?'
'Nary a one,' Sudden told him. 'Yo're what a friend o' mine calls `stale-mated.' Murderin' me won't get yu what yo're after, an' lettin' me live won't neither.'
'I ain't so shore. There's means to make a man open his mouth--if it's on'y to squeal.'
'Go right ahead.'
'I'm aimin' to. When I've done with you--'
'Yu'll be wise as before--still dumb.' With an oath the man turned away, but Lora drew him aside.
'Have you no sense at all?' she asked sharply. 'Can't you see the type you are dealing with? He's as obstinate as a mule and torture won't move him.'
'He's a tough hombre, all right, as some of us has reason to know,' the man growled, 'but s'pos'n the-- persuasion--is applied to you?' The woman's cheeks became a shade paler at this diabolic suggestion but she answered steadily: 'It would make no difference--he's not my lover, and these gunmen have no feelings. Besides'--and her glance was soft, caressing--'you wouldn't do anything to hurt me--Hank.'
'Who gave you my name?' he asked suspiciously.
'I heard one of the others call you,' she explained. 'You don't mind my knowing, do you?' He muttered a curse and through the slits in the mask his greedy gaze roamed over her, from the slender feet in their trim riding- boots to the felt hat set jauntily on the wealth of glossy black hair. She endured the scrutiny with a reliant smile.
'Well?' she asked.
'Yo're a good-looker, for shore,' he admitted. 'What's yore plan?'
'Leave our friend to me,' she replied. 'I can make him see reason, but it will take time, and we must be together.'
'How much time?'
'Several days probably--he's not easy.'
'An' while I'm waitin', Ducane gits the mine,' he objected.
'Sudden's his friend--he won't start without him,' she urged, and then smiled. 'Are you so eager to part with me?' A muffled laugh came from behind the mask. 'When we go after the gold yo're comin' along, my beauty. Well, I'm givin' you two days; if you ain't turned the trick by then, it'll be for me to try.' With the ominous threat ringing in her ears Lora went back-to the puncher, who had watched the conversation with some impatience. He could not hear what was said but he guessed the woman was pleading for him, and did not like the idea
'We have two days,' she said, as she sat down. 'Two little days to bewitch you with my poor charms and, like a modern Delilah, betray you to your enemies.' She spoke jestingly, but ended on a bitter note. 'And the fool believes that I will try.'
'I'm obliged to yu, ma'am, but ' Sudden began.
'Don't be stupid,' she said sharply. 'I was merely thinking of myself. With you crippled by torture, what chance have I of escaping from these wretches?' And then her manner changed. 'Sorry, Jim, I didn't mean to be snappy,' she finished.
'What we gotta think about is hoodwinkin' these smarties an' slidin' outa here,' he said.
That day passed and the next, without any opening presenting itself. Always watched, they could not tamper with their bonds in daylight, and at nightfall the woman was conducted back to the shelter. Dusk found them sitting in the old spot, glum, dispirited.
'We must do something,' Lora said desperately. 'Hank will want his answer to-night. The beast is beginning to think he owns me. Isn't it possible to free ourselves?'
'Tied up like this, undoin' them knots needs a lot o' time an' we ain't got it. If we on'y had a knife.'
