'Mebbe not--at once, but she'd come to wishin' he had.' The young man's spade rasped fiercely against the rock floor. 'We're as strong as they are. Why not go an' clean 'em up?'
'He holds the trump card--Miss Ducane. If we could steal her away--but she wouldn't come.'
'Yu tellin' me she's in love with that--skunk?' Gerry demanded hotly.
'Whatever has skunks done to yu?' Sudden asked satirically. 'Mebbe she thinks she is. Yu see, he's got all the points that appeal to a girl, an' he don't run around with outlaws.'
'No, Fagan and company bein' highly respectable members o' the community,' the boy sneered.
'But he on'y employs 'em Gerry, which is some different,' Sudden said with quizzical gravity. 'Now if yu paid me to do yore killin' ... '
'Aw, go to hell,' was the inelegant rejoinder.
The afternoon was waning when they got the first intimation of the enemy's presence, and a sad one it was. Rogers had gone to relieve the sentinel, only to come back on the run, his face drawn with rage and grief.
'Tom's dead,' he cried. 'God damn the murderin' rats.' In horrified silence they followed him. There, just outside the opening, Bowman lay sprawled face downward, his hands full of rubble gripped in a last agony. An ugly red stain below the neck of his shirt betrayed the manner of his passing. Sudden knelt beside the body.
'Stabbed from behind,' he said. 'Never had a chance. What's that?' He pointed to a Ievel space on the cliff- wall, just above the dead man's head. Scratched there in rude print were the words, 'Evens up for Husky.' Sudden stood, his face rigid with grief; he had brought this man to his death. 'That settles it,' he said. 'We'll move the camp here an' have two of us in it allatime; we mustn't be catched again.' The others nodded agreement. Familiar as they all were with violence, the swiftness of the tragedy had stunned them. In grim silence they carried their comrade away, and later laid him to rest in a corner of the basin. As they piled rocks over the grave, Rogers, who had known him long, spoke for them all:
'I'd never ask for a better pardner than Tom.' * * * Determined not to be misled again, Lesurge kept as close as possible to the creek. This involved a circuitous route and the negotiation of many thickets and patches of scrub, lengthening the journey considerably. It was Paul himself who first descried the belt of pines with the conical rock cleaving the sky above them.
On the verge of the pines, near where the stream emerged, Paul decided to camp. Calling Hank aside, he gave him certain directions, and with a nod of comprehension, the fellow took his rifle and vanished, on foot, into the deep shadow of the trees. The others lighted two fires, at a little distance apart, unloaded the packs, and made preparations for spending the night there. It was more than an hour before Hank reappeared striding swiftly.
'Well?' he said, as the messenger came to where he was pacing up and down, alone.
'You were right, boss, they're there, shore enough,' was the reply. 'An' by the way they're pitchin' in the stuff's there too. It's a hole in the rocks--like a big holler tooth, an' I couldn't see but the one way in.'
'How many of them?'
'Seven--leastways, there was seven.'
'What do you mean?'
'Well, one was watchin' an' I sorta subtracted him, just to level up for Husky.' The evil smirk of satisfaction with which he admitted the murder wilted as he read his employer's expression. 'You clumsy clown,' Paul rasped. 'That puts them on their guard and makes it impossible for us to get in.'
'I had to abolish him,' Hank said sullenly. 'Couldn't 'a' seen nothin' no other way; that hole is walled all round.'
'The more reason for leaving the opening available,' Lesurge snarled. 'In the dark, with only one man to deal with, we could have surprised and overpowered them while they slept. Was Green there?'
'Yeah, an' his bunkie, Mason, an' Jacob.'
'Jacob? What's he doing there?'
'I didn't ask,' Hank replied impudently, and got a black look, which disturbed him not at all; he was hitting back to recover his self-respect.
Lesurge dismissed him with a gesture and joined the women, who, with Snowy, were sitting by one of the fires. The old man eyed him furtively as he approached.
'It is as I expected,' he informed them. 'Green, Mason, and five--four others are in possession of your property, Mary, and shifting them is not going to be easy.' The girl looked troubled. 'Would it not be possible to make some arrangement--to share?' she asked. 'If the mine is as rich as we believe, there should be enough for all.'
'No, by God!' Paul exploded. 'These fellows are thieves and I will not'--he paused and finished less violently--'allow you to be robbed.'
'I would rather lose all than have bloodshed,' Mary replied earnestly.
'A very proper sentiment--for a woman,' he told her, and the faint sneer brought the colour to her cheeks. 'I should regard myself as less than a man, however, if I let you do so. Leave it to me my dear; I shall find a way to deal with these claim-jumpers.' He looked hard at Snowy. 'No one is to leave camp; it is not safe.'
'Do you think Green and his friends would shoot women?' Lora asked superciliously.
'Never mind what I think--I'm giving orders,' he said sharply.
Her eyes followed him as he stalked away. 'Charming person, my dear brother,' she commented, 'and so concerned about your interests.'
'You don't seem to have much sisterly affection,' Mary said.
'Sisterly affection?' Lora echoed vehemently. 'Why--I hate him. He's ' She stopped suddenly, lips shut like a vice, got up, and walked to the tent, leaving her companion dumbfounded.
Chapter XXII
Paul Lesurge was taking a walk. Heading straight through the sun-spangled strip of firs, he came to a wellnigh vertical barrier of cliff which only a monkey or a cat could hope to climb. Being a different kind of beast, he did not attempt it, but made his way westwards along the base of the obstacle. Soon, as he had expected, the ground rose, and as the trees became smaller and fewer, he could see above and immediately before him, the great boulder which Philip Ducane had called the Rocking Stone, ponderous, menacing, seeming about to crash down upon him.
He toiled on; climbing was hard work, for there was no break and debris from the hill-top made care necessary. At length he reached the level of the cliff-wall, passed it but a few paces, and turning, beheld--the mine.
The first point which struck him was the aptness of Hank's simile; a big, hollow tooth it was, the jagged ends of the shell fringed with foliage, save where a steep, boulder-strewn slant mounted to the threatening bulk of the Rolling Stone. On the sand and rubble floor of the hollow, only a few hundred feet below, he could see four men at work--the other two were doubtless guarding the entrance. His thin lips curled in a wolfish snarl.
'Make the most of your time,' he muttered. 'Tomorrow, you'll hear from me.'
He studied the place where he stood; it was going to be easier than he had dared to hope. There were stones behind which marksmen might shelter and the hollow was devoid of cover; two or three men with rifles could deal death at their leisure. One only of the enemy he feared--that damned cowpuncher, and concerning him he had a plan.
He had learned all he wished but did not go. The great stone had a fascination and he determined to examine it. A detour enabled him to make the ascent unobserved and presently he stood behind the monster monolith. It was larger than he had supposed, a huge pear-shaped chunk of granite, the curved base resting upon a smooth rock platform. Some fantastic freak of Nature had flung it there, so poised a push seemed sufficient to dislodge it, a task the tempests of untold centuries had failed to achieve. What had Snowy said of the one in California? 'One man could start her rockin' but twenty couldn't tip her over.' For a moment he hesitated and then hurled his weight against the stone. Did it move? He could not say, but made no further trial.
A narrow ledge just below on the other and more precipitous side of the hill caught his eye. It was no more than a track but it seemed to offer an easier means of descent into the maze of savage but majestic country which stretched to the horizon. He clambered down and stood gazing into the abyss. Far below was a black floor of pine- trees moving in the breeze like the surface of a restless sea. Somehow the place oppressed him, the big stone seemed to hover above like a bird of ill omen, the glare of the descending sun was blood-red, there was an air of death.
