value of silence.
Mile after mile they paced on, treading at times a tortuous path through tall timber, in a twilight due to the matted, leafy roof overhead. Frequently they had to turn aside to avoid a prone monarch of the forest, snapped off and thrown down to rot by a greater monarch--King Storm. Only in places where the trees thinned a shaft of sunlight came to tell them it was still day. There was little life in these dim solitudes.
The nearness of night found them on a grassy ledge hemmed in by vegetation, save at the back where a plinth of gaunt, grey stone rose straight up for a hundred feet. Here Sudden called a halt.
'Best camp here, Dan,' he said. 'There's feed for the hosses an' the smoke of a fire won't show against that bluff.' The beasts were picketed, lest a prowling bear or mountain lion should stampede them. Hunch and Yorky soon had the fire blazing, and the music--to hungry men--of sizzling bacon mingled with the odour of boiling coffee.
'Likin' it, son?' Sudden asked, as Yorky passed him with an armful of dead wood for fuel.
'I'll say I am,' was the enthusiastic answer. 'Why, Jim, this beats a dance all ter blazes.'
During the meal, Sudden asked how they were getting on.
'I reckon we're about half-way, but it's on'y a guess,' Dan told him. 'What d'you think, Hunch?' He got the invariable nod for reply, and in a lower tone continued, 'I believe he came up here with Dad, though he wouldn't know for what purpose; that's one o' the reasons why I fetched him along. How you feelin', Phil?'
'Tired, but never better,' Malachi smiled. 'A few weeks of this and I'll give up rolling pills to ride for you.'
'You could do a lot wuss,' Tiny told him. 'Plenty o' fresh air, exercise, an' four squares a day, when yo're to home--which ain't offen. What more does a fella want?'
'A stated number o' dollars per month an' time off to throw 'em away, I find,' the rancher grinned. 'An' let me tell you, when Tiny does miss a meal, he makes up for it at the next. Pleased to have you, Phil, so long as you don't give the boys anythin' to improve their appetites.'
Soon afterwards, one by one, they rolled up in their blankets; it had been a long and strenuous day, and their surroundings held out no hope for a less arduous one on the morrow. Only Sudden remained awake, squatting cross-legged by the fire, his Winchester by his side. Though every sense was alert for any sound he could not explain, his mind was on the curious enterprise to which he found himself committed. He fell to considering the men of the other faction. That Trenton was following he had no doubt; the rancher was an astute and unscrupulous man, aggressive and intolerant of opposition. Bundy he dismissed with a gesture of disdain, a common enough rogue, who would commit any crime for sufficientgain. Garstone he had not yet fathomed; one thing seemed certain--he was not the type to serve as jackal to one of the rancher's calibre. What was the fellow doing so far from the East? He could hit upon no satisfactory answer, and presently, when Tiny--rubbing his eyes--came to relieve him, he sought sleep.
At a camp some fifteen miles away, much the same procedure had taken place, save that there were two fires--one for the rancher, his niece, and Garstone, the other for the men. Bundy had protested against this arrangement, but had been curtly ordered to do as he was told. The fires were sufficiently far apart to prevent conversation being overheard, and near one of them stood the small tent in which the girl was to sleep. Despite the fact of their slow progress, Trenton was in high spirits.
'Well, Beth, how does roughing it in the open appeal to you?' he asked.
'Very much indeed--it's so thrilling,' she replied. 'Do you really think we shall succeed?'
Neither of the men answered until Rattray--who was acting as cook, and serving them--had retired to his own fire, and then Garstone said:
'I told Miss Trenton of our main object in coming here; she is very interested.'
'Indeed I am,' she agreed eagerly. 'But very sorry it should be--necessary.'
'That's all right, my dear,' Trenton said heartily. 'Every man who gets anywhere has to face up to a stiff fight now and then. We'll make the grade.'
'To be sure,' Garstone supplemented. 'That red-headed rascal, Rufe, is going to put us all on the top of the world.'
'Had he red hair?' she queried.
'I really don't know,' the big man prevaricated. 'I presumed it to be the origin of his nickname.'
'He might have got that as a killer,' Trenton suggested, in a voice which had suddenly lost its geniality. A burst of laughter from the region of the other fire seemed to remind him of something. 'Bundy expected to feed with us--he's been gettin' uppity lately. I had to remind him that I'm boss.'
'Quite right,' Garstone concurred. That the foreman and his employer should not be on the best of terms might well further the nebulous schemes beginning to take shape in his brain. 'He appears to have got over his grouch.'
'Just as well. People who work for me have to obey, without question.'
The Easterner did not subscribe to this sentiment quite so entirely, and said nothing; it sounded too much like a hint to himself. And he felt convinced that the foreman had not forgotten.
In this he was right, for even as the rancher spoke, Bundy was inwardly brooding over what he regarded as an insult, and vowing it should be paid for. Nevertheless, having been driven to 'herd with the hands,' as he phrased it, he might as well be comfortable, and so devoted himself first of all to smoothing the ruffled plumage of the newcomer.
'Well, Lake, I'm allus ready to own up when I'm wrong, an' I was 'bout you,' he commenced. 'You shore can read sign; that dodge they tried at the bog would 'a' razzle-dazzled an Injun.'
It gave us a lot o' trouble,' the tracker said modestly.
'Warn't yore fault; you tumbled to the trick; it was pickin' up the trail agin that cost the time.'
The bearded man was not proof against this fulsome flattery. The foreman, he thought, was after all not such a bad chap. So prone are we humans to approve those who approve us.
'Thanks, friend,' he said. 'But there's one puzzle 'bout this trip I can't find the answer to, an' mebbe you--as foreman--can tell me.'
'Give it a name,' Bundy replied, pleased in his turn by the use of his title.
'What are we after?'
'Well, I dunno as there's any need to keep it quiet now,'
the foreman said, but lowered his voice. 'Treasure, that's what. Mebbe you've heard o' Red Rufe's Cache?'
Lake laughed derisively. 'Heard? I've looked for it--like a-many other idjuts. Still, I don't mind wastin' some more time if I'm well paid.'
'You didn't know where to go, seemin'ly.' This from Rat-tray, a spare-built but wiry cowboy, whose features suggestedthat the first syllable of his name could not possibly be accidental.
'yo're damn right, I didn't, or would I be here?' the other retorted. 'But is Trenton any wiser? If he is, why are we moseyin' along on the heels o' them fellas in front?'
He got no answer to his question. Flint and Rattray could not give him one, and Bundy was far too cunning to empty his bag--yet. The appearance of knowing a little more than they would give him a hold over them. So all he said was:
'There's a good reason for that, an' you can gamble on it; Zeb ain't a fool--in some ways.'
'I take it we all git shares,' the new man said, his eyes agleam with greed.
'Seein' as we're four to two--not countin' the gal--we'll be dumb if we don't,' the foreman replied meaningly.
Flint and Rattray nodded their agreement with this view. Lake said, 'Pardner, I like you more'n more.'
Bundy was satisfied; if the rancher did not treat him fairly, he had a card up his sleeve. Also there was Garstone, who had shown himself quite willing to double-cross his employer in the affair of the train robbery; he provided another card, making three in all, counting Trenton.
'An' if you play 'em properly, Bundy, of scout, yo're on velvet,' was the conclusion he came to.
Chapter XVI
Throughout the greater part of the next day, the Circle Dot men pressed steadily on. Though they deemed themselves to be well ahead of possible pursuit, they neglected no opportunity of blinding their trail, and were
