'But I'm telling you, those two men will be back before long ; they're more use to Rogue here.'
'I'll be glad to see 'em,' the cattleman said stoutly, but the seeds of suspicion had been sown. 'Aimin' to travel with us, Jethro?'
'Maybe we can be of some use,' was the reply.
'Pleased to have yu,' the rancher said heartily.
The visitor was silent for a time, and then, with the air of one who has come to a decision, he flung the butt of his cigar into the glowing ashes, and looked across at his host.
'Sam, you know what I do for a living,' he began. 'Well, I'm planning to give myself a fresh deal and drop the cards. With the coin I get when you cash in on your herd I'm starting a ranch--I've got options on land not far from the S E ; with the railways coming west and the northern ranches needing stock, there's going to be money in cattle. But more than that, I want to settle down, with a home of my own--and a wife.'
'Why, that's good hearin', Jethro,' the rancher said. 'Mebbe yo're on the way to fetch the lady, huh?'
The gambler's teeth gleamed as his thick lips parted in a half-smile. 'Not exactly,' he said. 'The lady is travelling north too ; in fact, she's less than fifty yards away at this moment.'
Eden straightened up, his eyes wide. 'yu--mean--Carol?' he cried incredulously.
'Sickness hasn't dulled your wits, Sam,' the other replied with a heavy attempt at jocularity. 'And why not?'
'I never dreamt of it,' the old man evaded.
This was true ; though Baudry had been a frequent visitor at the S E, the possibility that the girl was the attraction had not once occurred to its owner. Now, faced with the fact, he suddenly realized that he knew very little about the man, save his profession. A chance meeting over a card game in San Antonio had been the beginning of their friendship, and later, Baudry helped him in his plan of purchasing land. Still on the right side of forty, suave, well-dressed and apparently wealthy, the gambler did not lack attraction for the other sex, but .. . Sam Eden shook his head, as though in answer to his own query, and Baudry's narrowed, watching eyes grew cold.
'Any objections, Sam?'
'Have yu spoken to her?'
'No, I reckoned the square thing was to ask you first.'
Eden breathed his relief ; it gave him a way out. Sandy's devotion to the girl was patent, and once or twice he had seen her looking at the boy ; women were queer, but he could not conceive that she would prefer the older, sophisticated man for her mate. So he replied with more confidence :
'It's entirely her affair, Jethro. Even if I could claim her as my own child, I wouldn't attempt to influence her. Whatever she says, goes, with me.'
The gambler lit another cigar. 'Fair enough,' he said evenly. 'I'm not asking you to do my courting, Sam. When do you expect to pull out from here?'
'Can't say ; must give them boys a chance to come in.'
'They'll do it--with a fine tale of how they hoodwinked Rogue and got away,' Baudry sneered.
Long after, when he had been lifted back into his bed in the wagon, the words recurred to the rancher. He fought against the fear that they might be the truth but could not completely convince himself ; Baudry's arguments had seemed all too plausible. Moreover, the outlaw's impudent warning that he intended to have the herd was disturbing ; Eden was well aware that his outfit was numerically weak and if two members of it could not be depended upon ...
Chapter XIX
SANDY experienced little difficulty in finding the outlaws' camp again. A bright moon enabled him to recognize the landmarks --a twisted tree, a jutting spire of rock, a wedge of chaparral, which the plainsman instinctively notes when travelling a trail by which he must return. As he rode in, a man with a levelled gun stepped from the shadow of a tree and ordered him to halt. A glance satisfied him.
'So yu come back?' Sligh said, for he it was. 'Damned if I thought yu'd be such a fool.'
'It warn't folly, Sligh, just pure affection--for yu,' was the flippant reply. 'What's the next move?'
'yu pass yore gun to me.'
Sandy pulled out his revolver but instead of handing it over, he pointed the muzzle at Sligh. 'Now yu can blaze away an' we'll go to hell together,' he said pleasantly.
'Rogue's orders,' the man growled.
'Then I'll take 'em from him,' Sandy retorted. 'Where is he?'
The outlaw pointed to a small fire apart from the larger one in the centre of the glade. Sandy grinned.
'Go ahead,' he said. 'I might lose my way.'
'Think yo're smart, huh?' came the sneer.
'Smart's my middle name,' the young man chuckled. 'Do we take root here?'
With a curse the sentinel slouched off. Two men were sitting by the fire and when Sandy reached it, Sligh had already voiced his complaint.
'Pulled his gun on me,' he growled. 'If it hadn't bin for yore orders, I'd 'a' blowed him apart.'
Rogue looked up as the boy slid from his saddle. ''Lo, Sandy, I'm wantin' that weapon,' he said quietly.
Sandy's eyes were on the other figure at the fire. 'What's the word, Jim?' he asked.
'yu got Miss Eden back?' Sudden queried, and when his friend nodded, he drew his own guns, handing them, butts first, to the outlaw leader. 'Ante up, Sandy,' he went on. 'Rogue has kept his part o' the bargain an' we gotta keep our'n.' He smiled sardonically across the flames. 'We're yore prisoners, Rogue, but I'm givin' yu warnin' that we'll light out if we get a chance.'
'Then I'll have to tie yu,' Rogue rapped.
'I don't blame yu,' Sudden smiled, and at a nod from him, Sandy relinquished his revolver.
Later, three shapeless, blanket-covered forms lay round the smaller fire. The only difference between them was that two of them were tied hand and foot and appeared to be fast asleep. The third was wide awake, wrestling with the problem of what to do with his prisoners. The disarming and binding had been merely a bluff, for he did not want them ; they could only be a burden. The girl had been a different proposition--a weapon --but he could not credit the rancher with great solicitude for two of his hands. Their detention would mean two less to defend the herd, but be dismissed this aspect ; his own force was strong enough. A gleam of steel in the flickering firelight caught his eye ; it was a knife, used in the binding and forgotten. It helped him to a decision.
He glanced at the sky, where clouds had now blotted out the moon, flinging a pall of darkness over the camp. Soundlessly he edged over until he was close to Sudden, and able to reach the knife. The cowboy was breathing stertorously. Carefully raising the blanket, Rogue severed the bonds which confined the sleeper's wrists, and dropping the blade, rolled back to his former position. Fora time nothing happened and then he saw Sudden stretch and lie still again. Rogue knew he had discovered that his arms were free.
Presently the dark blotch of the cowboy's blanket stirred as he slowly sat up. He saw the knife, reached for it, and freed his ankles. With a whispered warning, he did the same for his fellow-prisoner. Then, on hands and knees, Sudden crept to the outlaw, whose heavy breathing suggested deep slumber. The confiscated weapons were beside him. Leaving their blankets rolled in some semblance of human forms, the captives crawled away from the fire, and reached the edge of the glade.
'The hosses are on the far side,' Sudden whispered. 'We'll have to pass Sligh. While I deal with him, yu slip around an' get the broncs.'
Skirting the edge of the encampment, they moved swiftly and silently over the floor of matted pine-needles and presently saw the sentinel leaning against a pine, his rifle beside him. Like a shadow Sudden darted from tree to tree, and then. dropping on his belly, wormed his way forward. All that the unsuspecting watcher knew was that out of the murk a figure rose at his very feet and fingers of steel clutched his throat, prisoning any sound he might have uttered. Savagely he fought back, twisting, striking, kicking, but the relentless pressure of that vice-like grip was paralysing ; he could not breathe, his throat throbbed with pain, and the world went black before his bulging eyes. A few moments and the man was a limp and senseless weight. Sudden let him fall and hurried after Sandy. That young man had not been idle ; he had found the horses. and saddles. Soon the outlaw camp was behind them. For a while they rode in silence and then Sandy could restrain his curiosity no longer.
'How in hell did yu manage it, Jim?' he asked.
'I didn't,' Sudden smiled. 'Some kind gent cut my paws loose an' left the knife handy.'
