as though someone had thrust in a rod or stick. Nothing had been taken, and the foreman grinned as he looked around. Then he went down to the bunk-house.

'Anybody been a-visitin' to-day, Jonah?' he inquired. 'Yessah, dat no 'count punchah, Geevor, come pesterin'roun' dis afternoon,' replied the grinning darky. 'Went up to yo shack an' was an almighty long time findin' I done tole him de trufe when I say yu wasn't to home.'

The foreman went back to his quarters in a thoughtful mood. At first his suspicions had suggested Phil, searching for further evidence of her father, though it was difficult to believe her guilty of so mean an action.

The evening passed without incident, and though Geevor's appearance was discussed and speculated upon, Severn did not tell the others of the man's real object. Bones, who had met an XT rider on the range, brought the news that the doctor gave Rapson one chance in ten to recover. He was too ill to make any statement, and the search for the hold-ups had been abandoned as hopeless.

The foreman did not join in the 'kid's poker', which was the outfit's name for the ten cent limit game they played among themselves. On the step of his shack, his back against the side of the open door and a cigarette between his lips, he squatted, gazing at the diamond-dusted sky.

'Mister `Friend' is the joker in the pack,' he mused. 'If I could locate him it would shore be helpful.'

But though he stayed there for more than an hour thrashing the matter out, he was no nearer a solution at the end of it, and at last gave it up in disgust and turned in.

It must have been near to midnight when a warning growl from the dog aroused him. Slipping from his bed, he crept noiselessly to the window and peered out. The night was dark but the stars provided a little light, and he had an impression of a blurred, shadowy form slinking in the direction of the ranch-house. Hurriedly he got into his clothes, and not waiting to buckle on his belt, seized one of his guns and stepped outside; he did not take the dog. Softly but swiftly he made his way to the house, watching warily for any movement.

The place was in darkness, and there was no sign of a marauder, but Severn was not satisfied; he was almost sure he had seen someone. A careful examination of the front of the house showed nothing suspicious, and the foreman went round to the back. Here he found an open window, and climbing through, realised that he was in the kitchen. The door of this opened upon a large hall, from which a flight of stairs led to the upper floor. At the foot of these Severn paused in doubt. The window could have been overlooked, and his eyes might have deceived him. What would Miss Masters think if he were discovered wandering about the house at midnight? He could vision her scornful disbelief of his story, and was on the point of beating a retreat when a low, harsh voice pulled him up. He could not distinguish the words, but it was a man speaking, and he was upstairs. Noiselessly Severn mounted and halted at the top of the flight, listening to locate the room.

Phil Masters, awakened out of a deep sleep, stared in terrified amazement at the dark, slouch-hatted figure standing by her bedside. Before she could speak the intruder said :

'Keep quiet an' yu won't be hurt.'

'Geevor ! ' she cried, recognising the voice. 'What are you doing here? How dare--'

'Shucks, war-talk won't get yu nowhere,' the man returned easily. 'Tell me where the money is an' I'll go.' Then seeing the look of bewilderment on her face, he added, 'I mean the two thousand bucks Severn got for the XT herd. He drew it out just before the bank was gutted, though how he got wise beats me.'

I know nothing about it,' the girl told him, her courage beginning to assert itself. 'If Severn drew it out I suppose he must have it.'

'It ain't in his shack, for I've searched, an' he wouldn't tote that amount around with him, so it must be here somewheres,' Geevor returned doggedly.

'You cur,' she said. 'I don't know where the money is, and if I did I would not tell you.'

'We'll see about that,' he growled.

A sudden dart of the long arms and his fingers, claw-like, gripped her shoulders, tearing the frail fabric of her night attire, and exposing the white flesh beneath; the man's eyes gleamed bestially at the sight.

Frantically she beat him with her fists, but in that iron grip she was almost helpless, and the leering face with its lustful lips came nearer and nearer as he dragged her towards him. His liquor-laden breath told her he had been drinking heavily.'

'Bartholomew will hang yu for this,' she panted, and with a last despairing effort her nails scored the evil face now so near her own. With an oath of pain and rage he drew back.

'Yu cursed cat ! ' he snarled. 'I'll close yore mouth for good an' The man was mad with passion, beyond all control; his lust was now for blood. His right hand flew to his belt and shot into the air, gripping a knife. The girl's terrified eyes wavered between the gleaming blade and the murderous mask of the ruffian who held it. Another second and it would have been buried in the round white throat, but Severn's gun barked from the doorway, and Geevor, a look of wide surprise on his face, buckled at the knees and fell prone. The girl, half-fainting, gave an inarticulate cry, and sank back upon the bed. Striding into the room, Severn did not pay any attention to her, but seizing the dead man by the ankles, hauled him on to the landing outside. When he returned, Phil had utilised the opportunity he had given her to don a dressing-gown.

'Ain't hurt yu, has he?' he asked, and when she shook her head, 'Yu needn't to worry any more. I reckon he was playin' a lone hand, but I'll have the house watched.'

On the floor lay the knife, winking wickedly in the faint light. Severn picked it up and went out of the room without waiting for any reply. At the top of the stairs he found Dinah, staring aghast at the corpse. She had heard the shot and come up from her room beside the kitchen.

'Foh de deah Lawd's sake--' she began, but the foreman cut her short.

'Yore mistress has had a shock; go an' stay with her,' he said, and slinging the body over his shoulder, carried it out of the house by the way he had come in.

Early on the following morning when he returned from breakfast at the bunkhouse, he found Phil waiting outside his door. She was looking pale and drawn, but her eyes had lost the frostiness hitherto always there when they met.

'I want to thank you for coming to my aid last night,' she began.

The foreman flushed and looked uncomfortable. 'It don't need speakin' of,' he replied, and added something about it being part of his job.

'I cannot understand how you came to be there,' she said.

'I caught sight o' someone sneakin' up to the house, an' followed,' Severn explained, and then as Quirt came trotting up and thrust a cold nose into the girl's hand, he added, 'There's the fella yu gotta thank. If he hadn't roused me--'

'Then I ought to be very glad you--bought him,' she said shyly.

The foreman smiled, and there was a warmth and boyishness utterly foreign to his customary rather stern expression when with her.

'We both got reason to be glad, I reckon,' he returned whimsically. 'This ain't the first good turn he's been guilty of.'

He went on to tell of the rattlesnake incident, and the girl's gaze widened in horror as she listened.

'Hideous,' she cried. 'The man who could conceive such a thing is not fit to live. Did you find out who it was?'

'Yeah,' he said, 'Mister Ignacio played that prank.'

Phil's eyebrows rose, and with a touch of her old manner towards him she said, 'Someone told me just lately that he had left the country.'

'That's true, but an understatement; as I told yu--he's dead,' Severn said.

'But you can't prove it,' she protested.

'No,' he agreed gravely. 'I can't prove it, but it's so.'

For a moment there was an awkward silence. The foreman knew her suspicions were returning, and the little oasis of kinder feeling produced by the events of the previous night was being engulfed by a desert of doubt. Deliberately he changed the subject.

'Yu oughtn't to stay alone in that house,' he remarked.

'I have Dinah,' she said. 'And her husband usually sleeps there, though last night he stayed in his kitchen at the bunkhouse.'

'I'd let yu have Quirt, but I'm afraid he wouldn't stay put,' he smiled.

She was about to reply when she saw his face change; the old Severn was back, the mouth hard and cynical,

Вы читаете Sudden Law o The Lariat (1935)
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