The eyes remained closed and there was no movement. Sudden seized one of the ice-cold hands; a faint flutter of the pulse informed him that the flame of life still flickered. A quantity of stores, flour, bacon, coffee, caught his eye, and the packages seemed familiar. With them, guns and six-shooters, thrown in an untidy pile on the ground. He picked up one of the rifles; it was Yorky's prized Winchester, and he understood; this was the loot from the cavern. What had become of his friends? Only in one way could he find the answer, and, granite-faced, he set out, carrying his own rifle--which he had found among the rest, and the boy's. Exhausted and hungry as he was, his magnificent muscles did not fail him. Moving with the effortless swinging stride of an Indian on the trail, he crossed the basin, and entered the gorge. Apprehension grimmed his mouth as he approached the cave.
'Hello, the house,' he hailed.
'It's Jim,' he heard Yorky yell. 'Didn't I tell yer he'd make it?'
The boy was the first to reach him, closely followed by Dan and Malachi. Judged by the standards of the East, their welcome was little more than casual, but Sudden was a Westerner himself, and he understood.
'Jim, I'm powerful glad to see you,' was what the rancher said, but the clasp of his hand told a great deal more. And so with the others, but they all wanted to know what had befallen him.
'Well, we got away--' Sudden began.
'We?' Dan cried. 'Then Beth--Miss Trenton--is alive?'
'Shorely,' the narrator smiled. 'Tryin' to find a way back here, we ran into Garstone--'
It was the doctor who cut him short this time. 'See here, Jim, we like you a lot, but you'll be as unpopular as a drunk at a temperance meeting if you don't tell a complete story.'
'Shucks, I'm doin' just that,' the puncher protested. 'I caught the girl in time--there was a bit of a crack in the floor o' the tunnel. Flint an' Rattray started shootin' an' I had to get her outa there.'
'How did you cross that bit of a crack?' Malachi demanded. 'I was looking at it a while ago; it nearly froze my blood.'
'Jumped it, o' course; think we growed wings on the spot?' Sudden replied, and divining the coming question, added, 'Well, she warn't so heavy.'
'My sainted aunt,' Malachi breathed. 'How many lives have you, Jim?'
'I started level with a cat, but mebbe I've used up a few,' the puncher grinned.
'All right,' the doctor smiled. 'Get on with your--bragging.'
'Like I said, we got clear an' bumped into the other crowd. Garstone told Miss Trenton that he had her uncle safe an' she decided to stay with 'em. He tried to persuade me, but I warn't willin'. Then Flint objected to my goin' an' I had to argue with him; his arm was hurt.'
'Bruised, no doubt,' Malachi commented ironically. 'Mebbe,' the puncher agreed. 'He jumped aside when I charged, an' Bundy shot him in the head.'
'Why'n hell--' Dover began.
'He'd claim to be aimin' at me, though I was six feet from Flint; it was either mighty good, or mighty bad, shootin'. Now I'm comin' to the important part; I wanted to tell you right off, but Doc would have his dime novel.' He grinned at Malachi. 'I'm headin' for here, as near as I can guess, when I stumble on tracks. I back-trail an' they lead me to the Wagon-wheel camp. There, inside a tent, is Zeb Trenton.'
'Alive?' This from the doctor.
'On'y just, I'd say.'
'They left him alone. Why, it's plain murder.'
'Yu said it--'specially the way things was fixed,' Sudden agreed, and told of the deer-meat.
Dover's face grew dark. 'We can trump that trick, anyway,by fetchin' him here,' he said. 'You were goin' to suggest that, Jim?'
'yeah, the more so as they seem to 'a' got our stores an' weapons there. I didn't see no hosses.'
'They never got 'em,' Dan said, and explained.
'Well, yu can't have everythin' in this world o' sin an' sorrow; we'll have to hoof it.' He looked at the big cowboy, who, squatting near, was energetically cursing his crippled limb. 'If I leave yu my rifle, Tiny, can yu deal with any visitors?'
'Betcha life, an' I hope it's that dawg's-dinner of a Wagon-wheel foreman.'
'Don't let yore prejudice blind yu to the merits o' Garstone an' Lake,' was Sudden's sardonic advice. 'What is it, Yorky?'
'Is my gun among them at th' camp, Jim?'
The puncher shook his head, but th' boy's crestfallen expression was too much for him, and he pointed to the weapon, lying with his own, where he had laid them when he came in 'Guessed yu'd be losin' sleep over it,' he smiled.
Yorky secured the gun, examined it anxiously, and then appealed to the others. 'Ain't he th' ring-tailed wonder o' th' world?'
'Yu wanta hang a weight on that tongue--it moves too easy,' Sudden said, and closed him up like a clam.
On their way across the basin, the rancher--by what he regarded as artful questions--dragged a few more details from his companion.
'So she ain't believin' Zeb was got by one o' his own gang?'
'Well, she didn't exactly call me a liar, but it amounted to that,' the puncher admitted.
'A Trenton never listens to reason,' Dan said, but the accent of bitterness was less marked. 'It musta been a tough experience for one with her raisin'.'
'She's got plenty pluck--an' didn't complain, not once, but she don't like rattlers.'
'You shore do surprise me,' Dan grinned.
They dropped into a silence. Behind them they could hear Yorky chattering excitedly, and the doctor's amused and sometimes caustic replies.
'That boy's havin' the best time of his life,' the rancher remarked presently. 'I'm havin' my worst. I'm right sorry I dragged you into this, Jim.'
'Forget it. Did yu promise me a picnic?'
'No, but I'm finished; this was my ace in the hole. The Circle Dot--'
'Ain't changed han's yet. I don't know what Garstone's game is, but he's clearly reckonin' Trenton out of it. If we can take him back alive, it'll put a kink in his plans that'll need straightenin'.'
'By the Lord, yo're right,' Dan cried, and with a grim smile, 'I never dreamed a day'd come when I'd wanta keep Zeb outa hell, but it shore has. Hope we ain't too late.'
To Sudden the camp appeared just as he had left it, except that he could not remember having olosed the flap of the tent. He went across, raised it, and looked inside, only to start back in astonishment. The rancher was still there, rolled in his blankets, but a few feet away, lying with arms flung wide and sightless eyes staring, was the bearded man, Lake. A revolver lay near Trenton's right hand, which was slung across his body.
'They came back then,' Dover said.
This explanation did not satisfy Sudden. The doctor, after one glance at the dead man, turned his attention to the rancher.
'He's alive, and certainly no worse; in fact, his pulse is stronger,' he pronounced. 'He must have the constitution of a horse.'
Sudden's eyes were busy. 'Lake wasn't shot here; see the marks of his spurs as he was dragged in and put in position to make it appear Trenton killed him? Raw work, but whoever did it reckoned on some wild beast comin' to muss things up. I'd say Bundy an' this hombre came back--mebbe the girl insisted--an' she's waitin' with Garstone.'
With a scowling brow Dover allowed this to be a possible solution of the mystery. 'If that bloody-minded foreman is around, the sooner we get Zeb to our camp the better,' he said. 'Do we have to bury this carrion?'
The puncher lifted his shoulders. 'I'm allowin' it's rough on the buzzards, but there's a spade handy.'
So Lake got his grave. Stout saplings, with cross pieces, and a blanket provided a litter for the sick man. Sudden and Dover acted as bearers, the other two following with weapons and provisions, including a haunch of the deer-meat. Theyleft the tent standing, an object to spur the imagination of some future visitors.
They reached the cave without incident, and having announced their arrival loudly--Tiny had an impulsive and suspicious nature--marched in. The crippled one welcomed them with an eagerness not entirely free from personal
