your plan, and I didn't know the men had arrived.'
'And you were so fearful he might escape that you put your arms about him?' Paul persisted. Lora did not reply; she had failed. 'Am I to believe that you really desired to trap your lover?' The accusation stirred her. 'He is not that,' she denied. 'If he were, you would not dare to insult me.' Lesurge lost his mask of immobility; his face became fiendish. 'Would I not?' he hissed through clenched teeth. 'You don't know me--but you shall.' He looked at the men. 'You can all go, except Hank.' He waited until they had slouched reluctantly away, and then turned to Lora.
'I warned you once,' he said. 'You are not only of no use but a danger to me; I am going to get rid of you.' He read the quick dread in her staring eyes. 'Oh, not that way.' His laugh was vile. 'Hank here, finds you attractive, I fancy.' It took the rascal a moment to comprehend, and then, with a gloating leer, he said eagerly, 'Shore, she won't have forgot them days in the hills.'
'I make you a present of her,' Paul proceeded calmly.
This outrageous act almost petrified the person it most concerned. Torn between anger and stark fear, she could but gasp, 'You are mad.'
'As you told Green,' he reminded. 'No, I was that when I trusted you; now I am sane again.'
'You dare not do it,' she muttered hoarsely.
'Who is to prevent me?' he asked. 'Here, I am--king.' Mary Ducane, who, with Snowy, had been a silent spectator of this strange scene, stepped forward.
'Paul, you must not do this terrible thing--she is your own blood,' she pleaded.
'That is not the case,' Lesurge said deliberately.
Mary gazed from one to the other, almost doubting her ears. Lora drew herself up defiantly.
'I am no sister of his,' she cried, her tone vibrant with contempt. 'I am only--his wife.'
'You are not even that,' he retorted. 'True, there was a ceremony, but the man who performed it had no right to do so.' The icy, dispassionate statement compelled credence. 'You --devil,' she raged. 'I will have your life for that.' Lesurge's face might have been carved in stone, a revengeful, malignant mask. He motioned to Hank.
'Take her away. She will need discipline; I have been too indulgent.' The brute's grin was bestial. 'I can tame 'em,' he said. 'Had an Injun squaw once ' He saw from Paul's expression that this was not the time for reminiscences, and stepped towards Lora. 'Come along, beauty; you an' me is goin' to git better acquainted.' She had been standing like a statue, eyes fixed on the man who had condemned her, hands clasped to her breast as though to still the beating of her heart. Hank laid an arm about her and like a tiger-cat she twisted in his grasp and struck at him. The fellow's knees sagged, his eyes rolled horribly, and with a gurgling gasp he went down. Bending, the woman watched as life went in a last convulsive contortion, and in a shrill, unnatural voice, cried:
'The dog is dead; it should have been his master, but your turn will come, Paul.' With a wild laugh, she turned and ran, disappearing into the darkness before the paralysed onlookers could guess her intention. Fagan and the others, who had hurried over when they heard Hank's death-cry, stood grouped round the body. One of them turned it over, disclosing the dagger, buried to the haft at the base of the throat. Lesurge frowned when he saw it.
'I forgot about that damned knife she carried,' he said. 'She shore knowed where to put it,' Fagan observed critically. 'What are we to do with the body?'
'Bury it, of course,' Paul snapped.
Tough as they were, the men did not smile at the savage jest, and their sullen faces told him it was ill-timed. He tried to make amends:'His share will be split amongst you.' He got no thanks, a circumstance he was to remember. Lem put a question about Lora.
'She's gone to Green, I expect,' Paul replied. 'We must keep a look-out, in case they try anything. I'll take the first spell.' He went back to the fire. He had seen Mary, with Snowy endeavouring to comfort her, vanish into the tent. The old man, rolled in his blanket, was lying across the entrance. Paul's lips curled disdainfully at the sight.
Chapter XXIII
Sunrise found the camp astir, but Mary did not appear for the morning meal. Snowy made her excuses:
'She ain't feelin' too good, which you can't wonder at; it warn't a pretty sight for a gal.'
'Nevertheless, I must speak with her,' Paul replied. 'In any case, we are leaving, and she must come with us.'
'Leavin'?' Snowy repeated.
'We are going to drive those damned interlopers out and take possession,' Lesurge explained. 'Did you imagine I would let a mad woman upset my plans? Send Mary to me, and mind your step, if you want to go on living.' Presently the girl joined him; her face was pale and weary, but there was a resoluteness in her bearing. Paul's manner had none of the brusqueness he had shown to Snowy.
'I am deeply grieved about last night, Mary, but you must not judge me too severely,' he began. 'The discovery of that woman's treachery angered me beyond measure. Of course, I ' should not have allowed the matter to go further--I only wished to frighten her.'
'If she is not your wife, you deceived her cruelly,' Mary said quietly. 'No woman could forgive such a shameful trick.'
'It was an accident,' Paul said quickly. 'We were married in a small settlement in Missouri, by a man whom everyone called `Judge.' It was only much later that I learned it was but a courtesy title, and that he was a dissolute old rascal who would do anything for a fee. We were travellers, you see, and went on the following day. When I found out, by chance, I dared not tell her--she would have killed me.' The explanation was plausible enough, but Mary Ducane did not find it convincing.
'You should have told her, and made the only possible reparation,' she said. 'By all the laws of morality, she is your wife.'
'It would have been suicide--Lora's temper is that of a fiend; Hank was the second victim of it since we came to Deadwood' His voice acquired a pleading note. 'When you know more of the world, you will understand what a lovely unscrupulous woman can accomplish. I was infatuated, and it was only after I came to Wayside that I began to realize that she was an evil influence in my life. When I saw you ... '
'you deceived me also,' she coldly reminded. 'Had I been aware that Lora was not your sister ... '
'An arrangement made before I met you--at her wish,' he explained eagerly. 'She revelled in her ability to attract men, and insisted on posing as a single woman. Not only a traitor, but unfaithful, in love with that cowpuncher. My dear, don't waste any pity on her; she has gone from our lives like an evil dream. Your wish will be my law now, Mary.' The impassioned appeal fell on deaf ears. 'I have but one--to get away from this accursed country immediately,' she said. 'And leave the mine?' he asked incredulously.
'Yes, I am sorry I ever heard of it,' she cried.
'It brought us together,' he said softly. 'Don't say you regret that.'
'I do,' she replied firmly. 'Mister Lesurge
'Paul,' he corrected.
'Mister Lesurge,' she repeated. 'Until last evening, I fancied I cared for you, but now I know it was no more than the fascination of an inexperienced girl for a man unlike any she had met.'
'Your love for me will revive.'
'No, it never existed.' The finality in her tone told him that this was no whim of an overwrought mind, and it came like a blow in the face. He had been so sure. Her very coldness fed the fire within him.
'I'll teach you to care,' he muttered thickly.
One swift step and she was captive, pressed close to him, his hot lips showering kisses upon her own, frozen, unresponsive. She made no attempt to resist, lying limply in his arms. But for the scorn in her eyes he might have been embracing a corpse. Some realization of this brought her release.
'And now I hate you,' she said.
'School your tongue,' he warned. 'I know how to deal with vixens. You may yet have to choose between myself and--Fagan.' 'Of two evils ' she began contemptuously.
'You would prefer Fagan,' he finished furiously. 'The fellow who knifed your ' He saw the dawning horror in her face, and paused, too late.
