cloud of fine dust rose like a smoke into the sunlit air.
A mad laugh of triumph rang out. Fifty yards above the cowboy stood Paul Lesurge; he had been unable to tear himself away without witnessing the fulfilment of his vengeance.
Sudden saw him vanish with his burden and darted in pursuit. He reached the spot on which the madman had been standing and stepped swiftly along the narrow, treacherous way. On one side was the vertical breast of the hill, on the other a sheer drop as though the cliff had been sliced away with a giant axe.
Grim, relentless, the puncher strode the perilous path, intent only on his task--to deliver Mary Ducane and destroy the devil who had brought about the havoc he had just so narrowly escaped himself. He had no pity for the crushed and mangled man ruffians in the mine, but the man who had wrought their ruindeserved to die. In a moment he came upon him; round a bend Lesurge was waiting, revolver levelled, and he laughed when Sudden appeared.
'Stop, cowboy, I've got you covered,' he called sharply.
Completely taken by surprise, for he had not expected to run down his quarry so soon, the puncher had to obey. Lesurge surveyed him with sinister satisfaction.
'Now we can talk in comfort,' he resumed. 'But first, lest you contemplate trickery, I must warn you of another possibility.' He pointed to the still unconscious girl lying at his feet, almost on the brink of the abyss. 'One movement on my part, a stumble or fall, due to my being shot, shall we suppose? and she will wake in Paradise.'
'She'd be far enough from yu there, anyways,' Sudden retaliated. He had at once divined the reason for the girl's precarious position. 'Yu'll wake in hell.'
'I shall send you there first,' Lesurge promised. 'Up to now you have taken all the tricks but I win the game. Fagan and his brood fancied they had finished with me when they took my rifle and left me only--giant powder. Fools! to pit their puny wits against mine. You, cowboy, thought the same, and see, I hold the aces.'
'Havin' destroyed the stakes,' Sudden reminded him dryly.
He was wondering whether the others would arrive in time. He had been far ahead of them, and they could not have seen which way he had gone. If he could keep the maniac talking.
'No, the stakes are in my hands, or rather, at my feet,' Lesurge went on. 'I know you have taken a great deal of gold from the mine, and with the girl in my possession, I can make my own terms.' Sudden was about to reply when a shout of 'Jim' came from somewhere behind and he swore between his clenched teeth; Gerry could not know he Was hastening his partner's end. Lesurge was instantly on the alert.
'You are relying on your friends?' he said. 'Well, they will come too late. I am about to kill you.' The threatened man looked steadily at him. 'Shucks, yu'll miss,' he taunted, hoping to gain time.
'Then I'll try again,' was the retort. 'You can do nothing; a shot person falls forward, and the lovely lady . . .' He laughed hideously. Then his face became rigid. 'Now, you double-crossing dog.' Hate darted from his eyes, his body quivered with the lust to slay, but the pointed pistol might have been held in a vice. Sudden found himself wondering where the bullet would strike him? He saw the finger pressing the trigger. In another second ...
'Paul!' The murderer started. The voice came from behind him, and harsh, unlike as it was, he recognized it. Lora! What cursed freak of Fate had brought her there? She was but a few feet away, and he had wronged and insulted her vilely. If she had come for revenge, he was between two fires. He must persuade her.
Keep away, Lora,' he urged. 'This fellow may hit you.'
'I am coming to you, my husband,' she replied. 'We will die together, Paul; you would wish that, I know.' The full extent of his peril dawned upon him as he listened. Her brain had given way, and in her mad mood, she would drag him over the precipice. And she cared for Green .. .
'There is no question of dying, Lora,' he said. 'I was angry last night, but I did not mean it. We are going to be rich and happy ...'
'You were always a clever liar, Paul.' The hard laugh made him shiver; it proclaimed her purpose; her hot Southern blood would never forgive. He thought frenziedly. Sudden dared not shoot. If ... He stepped back a pace lest the still form at his feet might hamper him, whirled and fired. He saw the woman stagger, pitch sideways, and flash past him into the depths. That was his last sight on earth, for as he swung round, Sudden's bullet crashed into his brain. Headlong he plunged after the woman he had slain, the skirts of his back coat flapping like the wings of a bird of prey.
Smoking gun in hand, Sudden leant against the cliff, a clammy wetness on his brow. Then he saw the unconscious girl move, but ere he could get to her, someone sprang past him and lifted her in his arms. She opened her eyes, and there was no mistaking the message in them.
'Oh, Gerry, thank God it's you,' she murmured, and her head sank contentedly on his shoulder.
They passed the puncher as though he had not been there, and the proud light on the boy's face was something to see. Sudden's own gaze rested on a point farther along the ledge, his harsh expression softened, and with something like a sigh, he holstered his weapon and went to meet his friends.
*** Later, the bodies of Lesurge and his victim were found and buried; the woman had been shot through the heart and the fall had not marred her beauty. Sudden wrapped her in hisown blanket, laid her gently in the grave, and turned away. He had been drilled in a hard school, but he was young and Mary Ducane did not arrive till all was over, Gerry having--at Sudden's suggestion--contrived that they should fall behind. On the way he asked the lover's inevitable question and got the age-old answer.
'From the first day, but I was--dazzled,' the girl confessed shyly. 'I think I really knew that time you bullied me--in the street.' Gerry's grin was graceless. 'I shore declared myself,' he chuckled.
'Did you--mean it?' she asked, almost inaudibly. His reply left her breathless.
It was a quiet but contented company round the camp-fire when the shadows gathered. Rogers was the first to break the silence.
'Place looks kind o' lonesome without the of Rockin' stone. I had a peek at the mine; I figure she's a total loss.'
'Not for us, thanks to Jim,' Snowy said. 'There oughta be a grubstake for each of us, eh, Mary?' The girl looked up; she was sitting next to him, and very close to Gerry. It was evident that her mind had not been on such a mundane matter as money.
'Whatever there is will be equally divided, of course,' she replied.
Protest greeted her decision; she was not being fair to herself, and they would not hear of it. In vain she pleaded that they had done everything, and she nothing. Jacob alone took no part in the discussion, listening with a smiling interest. Presently he said quietly:
'Might I suggest that this is a matter for the owner of the mine to settle?' They stared at him in amaze, all save the prospector, upon whom his eyes were fixed. 'Come, Ducane, don't you think you've played 'possum long enough?' The old man bent forward, his bright little eyes scanning the other closely. 'Never met up with anybody o' yore name,' he muttered.
'But you knew a Jake Holway at the Bluebird diggings in California.' Snowy straightened. 'The Professor,' he said.
Jacob nodded. 'I was almost fresh from college and my manner of speech earned me the title. And you were `Mad Phil'--willin' to take any chance, even in those wild days. I recognized you in Deadwood, but a man usually has a reason for hiding his identity.' Mary slid an arm round the old man's shoulders. 'I'm so glad, Uncle Phil,' she whispered, 'but it doesn't make a bit of difference--really.'
'I s'pose I gotta own up, though I was meanin' to let the cards go as they lay,' Snowy told them. 'You see, back at Wayside--where nobody knowed my real name--I was waitin' for my brother. Lesurge. shows up an' goes nosin' round for Philip Ducane. Me bein' of a suspicious nature, he don't find him. When, later, he puts his proposition to me, a fella don't need more'n hoss-sense to savvy the game. Fagan had got wind o' my letter, tried for it, an' failed, George--who used to be a careless cuss 'bout his own affairs--havin' destroyed it.' He paused and looked at the girl.
'Yes, it was my idea,' she admitted. 'I was afraid of ...'
'So they had to plan different,' Snowy went on hurriedly. 'Fagan tags along with Mary to Wayside, where Lesurge takes charge. Havin' made shore--as he believes--that Philip Ducane ain't around, he hits on the dodge o' puttin' up a dummy, an' he certainly picked the right man.' His eyes twinkled. 'Well, I agreed to pertend to be myself. It warn't easy, 'specially when I found what a sweet--' Gerry lost the hand he had been holding; it went to close the speaker's mouth.
